The Sus hailed a cab outside of the airport and Mister Su and Nie Chang helped the driver to put the luggage into the trunk before everybody filed into the seats. Su Yan was almost glued to the window of the car as soon as his father gave the driver the location and they set off once more.

Nie Chang smiled at his darling and then closed his eyes, leaning back to at least rest for a few minutes even if he couldn’t sleep. It wasn’t too far into town from the airport and Su Yan probably would’ve stuff to point out even before they arrived so this was already the best he could hope for.

Nie Chang was indeed right. It didn’t even take five minutes for Su Yan to excitedly slap his boyfriend’s arm, pointing outside. "Ah Chang, look at these palm trees! Don’t you think they’re looking weird?"

Nie Chang cracked his eyes open and glanced out of the window, trying to see the palm trees Su Yan was talking about. There were indeed some of them lining the road every now and then but he couldn’t see anything special about them. Could it be that he was too tired? He couldn’t figure out what his darling meant at all. He rubbed his brow and then leaned closer, glancing at Su Yan’s face. "What’s so strange about them?"

Su Yan’s head swiveled around to him, his brows also furrowed. "What do you mean? Obviously, they have a really strange shape! There! Look!" He pointed at another cluster but Nie Chang could still only give him a blank look. Yeah, there were several palm trees next to each other. But what was so funny about that?

Madam Su who was sitting on his other side also leaned over, furrowing her brows at the scene on that side of the window. "You mean because one is thick at the top and one at the bottom?"

Su Yan’s eyes lit up and he nodded eagerly. As expected, his mother still understood him best! He really wondered how his boyfriend hadn’t been able to see something that simple though. He couldn’t help but shoot him a disappointed look and pouted his lips. "You probably haven’t been looking at all. Mom just glanced outside and knew immediately what I meant. You can’t have paid attention."

Nie Chang just gave a wry smile. He had already thought very hard about what was wrong with them, even considering whether the shape of the leaves was any different from the ones at home but he hadn’t been able to come up with anything. Who could have known it was something like this?

Madam Su reached past her future son-in-law and patted Su Yan’s head. "Don’t be angry, Xiao Yan. Obviously, Nie Chang is just very tired. You should cut him some slack."

Nie Chang already wanted to nod but he didn’t dare to set his darling off again. It was much better to let his mother-in-law handle this.

It was probably better that he did because Su Yan was still pouting. "Why would he be tired? We were on the plane for so long. Couldn’t he have slept there?"

Madam Su chuckled and then lowered her voice as if she would be able to tell him a secret without Nie Chang knowing even though the person in question was sitting between them. "It’s all because he’s way too excited about getting married to my little darling son! How could he sleep like that? I guess when we’re in the hotel, you’ll have to let him catch up on a bit of sleep or he won’t be able to go through with the wedding and collapse from fatigue in front of the altar. We wouldn’t want that, would we?"

Su Yan looked at his husband-to-be and his lips curled into a smile, obviously very much satisfied with his boyfriend’s behavior. So it turned out to have been like this all the time! He should’ve known. Naturally, his boyfriend couldn’t be so dumb. He had a much better taste than that. Thus he very happily promised his mother to let Nie Chang rest a bit before he went back to looking at the landscape rushing past the window.

Su Yan managed to stay quiet for a while but soon, he couldn’t help but tug at his boyfriend’s sleeve once again. "Do you see the houses over there?" He couldn’t help but point at them to make sure. After all, his fiance was too tired to think normally. He shouldn’t expect too much from him.

Nie Chang cracked his eyes open once again and looked over, nodding his head. They were directly next to the road so there was no way not to see them, was there?

"Don’t you think they’re really small? Our house is way bigger than that. Do you think all houses in America are like that?"

Nie Chang shook his head. "I don’t think so. Wait until we’re further inside. I’m pretty sure there’ll be different types of houses by then. Anyway, America’s big. There are bound to be different types of houses in different parts."

"Oh." Su Yan nodded and then went back to pressing his face against the window, observing everything going on outside.

Just a few hundred meters further, Madam Su reached over and patted Su Yan’s leg, motioning to the other side of the road. "Look over there, Xiao Yan. The houses there are bigger."

Su Yan leaned over his boyfriend, his eyes going wide. True! The houses there really were bigger. They weren’t as nice as the house where he and Nie Chang lived though. Mn, as expected, their own house was still the best.

Su Yan couldn’t help but compare their own place with everything he saw for the rest of the way and exclaim whenever he saw something interesting, startling his boyfriend awake as soon as he drifted off into sleep. When they finally arrived in front of a big, Mediterranean-looking building that resembled an old palace, Nie Chang could hardly keep his eyes open and swayed on the spot when he got off the car.

Ah, please tell him checking in would be fast! He really, really needed to lie down for a few hours!