12: And they were housemates

Beta'd by SnowyEgrett

The couple and Lin FenXiang parted ways when the flight landed in London, but not before exchanging contact information and getting a bewildered look from Bai XiNian.

In the face of the art curator's incredulous eyes, Lin FenXiang calmly greeted him with a smile.

"So?" He picked an eyebrow. "Let's go?"

Bai XiNian nodded suspiciously at him.

"I didn't know that your social skills have improved so much."

Lin FenXiang gave him a sidelong glance before opening lazily. "To live is to communicate. Miscommunication is disastrous."

Bai XiNian nodded sagely. "Like you communicate with my sister."

"What?" Lin FenXiang paused, between his strides.

Bai XiNian shrugged, acting as if he did not see Lin FenXiang stop.

"She gushed about it to me."

Lin FenXiang stood rooted to where he was. Rubbing his temple with his fingers, he sighed. "Look XiNian, I don't want to give LiuYao false hope or mixed signals."

Bai XiNian smiled, placing a hand on his shoulder, the man said. "FenXiang, I'm the last person who needs this explanation. I know better then you how she behaves around you. And I also know that you aren't interested in her."

"Not even a wee-bit," Lin FenXiang added blandly.

"Not even a wee-bit," Bai XiNian nodded calmly. "And I swear she's starting to understand that you just see her as a friend."

"The sooner she gets it, the better," Lin FenXiang muttered as he walked ahead.

"She's got the energy. She'll get there soon."

"I hope," Lin FenXiang commented dryly as he got into the car Bai XiNian had rented.

"Hm, now let's go to the hotel I book your room in."

The drive to the hotel was a quiet one. No one spoke, not even the driver.

After dropping them at the hotel and collecting his fair, the man drove off and Lin FenXiang silently followed his best friend to his room, dragging his luggage with him.

As soon as they entered the room and the door locked, Bai XiNian whirled around to face him and spoke.

"So, how did you manage to befriend the Tristan Fletcher and Charles Anderson?" He asked, voice laced in disbelief.

Lin FenXiang suppressed the urge to raise an eyebrow and echoed, "The?"

"Yes," Bai XiNian threw his hands in the air, clearly exasperated at the clueless friend of his. "The powerhouse couple of Britain. Their families have, well let's just say, a long history. Their fathers have been a part of the House of Lords for years and the two families have been friends for just as long!"

"And so?"

"So, it was no surprise when the two — Tristan Fletcher and Charles Anderson — were found to be in a relationship. But…"

"But?" Lin FenXiang prompted cooperatively.

"But," Bai XiNian breathed in. "That was until Tristan Fletcher — who was a female back then — came out as transgender. Almost the entire Britain thought they were going to end things. But no!" He broke into a happy smile.

"Contrary to expectations, Charles did not break up. He was really supportive of them and here they are now. On their own roads to success. Tristan Fletcher is now an LGBTQ activist and Charles Anderson is already a member of the ruling party and most political experts say that he is going to be the Secretary of State for Business and Trade. And that's not even the end of it, their grandfathers even donated—"

"—Bai XiNian," Lin FenXiang interrupted with a sigh as he chucked his luggage on the bed. "Your inner fanboy is showing."

"Right," Bai XiNian coughed, pink dusting his cheeks as he cleared his throat. "Sorry, I just got excited. The exhibition is going to be tomorrow, so you just familiarise yourself with Oxford or have some rest. I'll have to go since I'm in charge of this exhibition and I don't want someone to mess up everything and create more problems. Bye for now."

With that, Bai XiNian strode out of the room, leaving Lin FenXiang to his own devices and perhaps it wasn't the best idea to do that.

Because unlike someone who had crossed over from ancient times, Lin FenXiang had very much caught the habit of this era's people, which was — using phones. By the time he realised that he had caught this bad habit, he was already neck deep in this technology and to be honest, it was really hard to get rid of.

So, having nothing better to do, Lin FenXiang sighed and started scrolling through Twitter on his phone.

He'd just registered an account there with the same name as his Weibo account. This way it was easier to keep track of what was going on around the world.

Although he'd found a few really interesting things on there as well.

Such as digital art.

It was stunning, the artist and their art was almost criminally underappreciated in the industry.

When he asked Lin QingLan about it, she had told him that digital art was mostly done through tablets or other digital devices.

So although Lin FenXiang was dying to try his hand in digital art, he could only put the plan on hold for now.

Lin FenXiang sighed, and clicked on the trending hashtags on twitter —

— Only to find his own name there.

Damn it.

1: #Drystan Meyer a timeless maestro

2: #And they were housemates

3: Oh my God they were housemates

Lin FenXiang resolutely ignored his own name and focused on the other two. He frowned in confusion.

How were these two hashtags related to the first one?

Morbidly curious and almost already regretful. He clicked on the first hashtag.

— And he was completely utterly right in regretting it because he saw his own name entangled with Adrastus' in the tweets.

Stunned and bewildered, he read on the top tweet which had two images attached to it. Upon closer inspection, he realised that they were the letters he and Adrastus exchanged during the earlier days of their friendship-cum-enemity.

Oh boy, did he regret reading the tweet?

[Gays of history: And do I smell enemies to lovers, 50k words and not so slowburn here?

[/Image] [/image] ]

Frighteningly enough, both the letter and the response were perfectly captured and somehow still intact.

Lin FenXiang's eyebrows knitted together at the thought, in the later part of their relationship, when the two of them had resorted to living together, Adrastus had been the one to keep the collection of these letters and then Drystan never found them again.

So Drystan neither questioned their whereabouts nor did he have the habit of going through his partner's things in their house.

Hence, it was entirely possible that Adrastus had been the one to keep them stashed away.

Lin FenXiang almost wanted to dig a hole in the ground, jump in it and never come out after he realised which letters they were.

Back then, he was a terrible, terrible flirt who did it just to annoy the Duke of Yorkshire.

Fuck.

As if that wasn't enough, the picture quality was terribly clear, clear enough for anyone interested to read them.

Lin FenXiang felt a shiver crawl down his back as he read the letters.

The first letter was in elegant cursive, regal and steady penmanship, and the second was in equally beautiful, calm and smooth handwriting.

The first one which — mind you — he was the one to write, said:

"My beloved nemesis,

Greetings to the Duke of Yorkshire. I am aware you must be wondering why a man like myself would write to you. I must admit since the day I've met you, you have been ever present in a corner of my mind.

Whenever I find myself unoccupied, my thoughts seem to drift to you, my dearly detested. Hence, I find myself compelled to have you know your accountability towards my distracted behaviour. Would you, my dear, not take the responsibility of my loss?

Oh, that reminds me, my Duke, that I have wandered my way to Germany in search of inspiration for my work, for my art. Might I add, the roads are quite rocky.

I hope this letter of mine finds you in the most exquisite agony in the limits of humanity.

Yours truly,

Drystan Meyer"

Lin FenXiang groaned at the almost too pretentious and purposefully annoying letter he had written to Adrastus.

He had written this letter solely to make the Duke feel exasperated at him.

Braving through the first letter, he forced himself to read the reply to his letter that was written by Adrastus.

Oh Lord, this is disastrous, he decided somewhat horrified.

The second letter wrote:

"To

My significant bother,"

Adrastus wrote back, clearly amused.

"My Marquess Meyer, I do find myself thinking of your reason to write to me. But since the letter has already reached my hands, there's nothing better to be done, is there? To think that I would have the honour of occupying a corner in the extremely brilliant mind of yours, I wouldn't dare to imagine.

My loathed love, why would you think of me? Do you perhaps find my sharp edges likeable?"

A slight sneer adorned his handsome face as the Duke wrote the letter.

"Since the fault lies in me, as a man of honour, I might have to deny this responsibility, I'm afraid.

German landscapes sure are breathtaking, Marquess dear, having seen them for myself I cannot deny. Though I do sincerely hope and pray that you stumble on those rocky roads and fall into a ditch with that big head of yours.

Worst regards,

Adrastus Esmeray"

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Author has something to say:

Xiao Xiang & Adrastus: Snarky ass bishes.

Author: Thank you to you, reader who sent me my first gift <3