“A little more to the right, a bit higher.” Wang Dian stood in the courtyard, looking up and directing Liang Ye as he hung the two festive red lanterns.

Liang Ye, standing on the ladder, hung the lanterns and turned on the power, exclaiming excitedly, “Wang Dian they’re lit!”

“You could pause between saying ‘Wang Dian’ and ‘they’re lit.'” Wang Dian reached out his hand to him, “Come down.”

Without hesitation, Liang Ye jumped down towards him. Wang Dian quickly opened his arms and caught him in a full embrace, stumbling back several steps. He nearly threw up the sushi he had just eaten.

Liang Ye put his arms around him and turned around, looking with satisfaction at the couplets on the door and the two glowing red lanterns. He took out his phone and wrapped his arm around Wang Dian’s neck, “Come on, let’s take a family photo.”

Wang Dian was stunned for a moment, then showed a standard smile for the camera.

“Smile more happily!” Liang Ye commanded imperiously. “One, two, three, eat Wang Dian!”

Wang Dian turned his head to look at him with a mixture of amusement and exasperation. Liang Ye turned his head and caught his lips in a kiss.

Click.

The image was captured on the phone—the two of them with bright red lanterns and couplets in the background, as if the festive atmosphere had made the people themselves more cheerful and lively.

Though the kitchen at home was spacious enough, the island counter and refrigerator were occupied with ingredients. Wang Dian and Liang Ye each wore an apron as they prepared to cook, each apron featuring a dinosaur. Wang Dian held a knife and directed Liang Ye to wash the vegetables, “Since it’s just the two of us eating, let’s make less.”

“No,” Liang Ye firmly refused. “The New Year’s Eve dinner must be especially abundant to justify Zhen traveling thousands of miles to find you.”

Wang Dian chopped down with his knife on the meat on the cutting board. “Did you come all this way just for this meal?”

“Of course,” Liang Ye nodded with certainty.

“I think we should have dumplings with Liang Ye filling!” Wang Dian raised his knife menacingly, as cheerful, boisterous advertisements played on the television in the living room.

Liang Ye dodged nimbly, accidentally splashing water from the vegetables all over Wang Dian’s face. Seeing the situation deteriorate, he quickly ran away, “I’ll go kill that fish!”

“The fish is already cleaned!” Wang Dian wiped the water from his face. “Get back here!”

Liang Ye ran back to the kitchen from the dining room, still holding the dripping vegetables. Ignoring the knife in Wang Dian’s hand, he leaned in and kissed his face. “Zhen wants fried fish.”

“Make it yourself,” Wang Dian responded coldly.

“Zhen doesn’t know how,” Liang Ye pulled out the pitiful fish from among the ingredients and patted its belly in reassurance.

“I don’t know how either,” Wang Dian couldn’t help but also pat the fish’s belly.

The two exchanged a glance simultaneously. “Let’s not stew it.”

Then, with perfect synchronization, they took out their phones and began searching for recipes.

The New Year’s Eve dinner preparation took from two o’clock until dark. After a heroic effort by both of them, they finally prepared six dishes. Wang Dian watched as Liang Ye wielded the rolling pin like a sword. “Hurry up and roll the dumpling wrappers.”

Liang Ye performed a fancy sword flourish, then showed Wang Dian his reddened palms. “They’re all red and itchy from rolling.”

“…I’ll do it, you can wrap the dumplings.” Wang Dian took the rolling pin and casually touched Liang Ye’s face.

Liang Ye raised an eyebrow and leaned in to rub all the flour from his face onto Wang Dian’s collar. Wang Dian immediately kicked at him, but Liang Ye nimbly dodged, nearly knocking over the bowl of filling. As he quickly reached to steady it, Wang Dian couldn’t stop his momentum and kicked him squarely on the buttocks. Liang Ye turned around, looking shocked and angry, “You dare kick Zhen?!”

Wang Dian guiltily looked at the footprint on Liang Ye’s backside but declared arrogantly, “I kicked you on purpose. What about it?”

Liang Ye turned around looking for a weapon to retaliate.

“We need that ladle for the stir-fry! Put it down!”

“That spoon has oil on it!”

“Don’t touch the plates!”

“The mop just cleaned up the spilled soup! Put it down!”

“Don’t pick up the garbage can!”

The kitchen was filled with their noisy bickering. Outside the window came the sounds of firecrackers and continuous fireworks, their colorful lights making the windows glow with vibrant colors. Liang Ye tossed the folded dumpling onto the cutting board and looked up at the window, suddenly falling into a daze.

“What’s wrong?” Wang Dian asked him.

“Is Northern Liang celebrating the New Year too?” Liang Ye turned to ask him.

The TV emitted the energetic New Year greetings of the hosts, followed by joyful opening songs and dances. Wang Dian tossed the last dumpling into the pot.

When Wang Dian recalled this predetermined time travel with his now fully restored memories, stripping away the layer of absurdity and chaos, he realized that in his previous two lives he had met the same group of people, yet ultimately had completely different fates because of him and Liang Ye. In the end, he unexpectedly gained Liang Ye, and all his regretful, resentful, and angry memories were ultimately covered by Liang Ye—a blessing in disguise.

[No cure, no one in this world can save you.]

[I will save myself.]

This conversation from long ago suddenly appeared in his mind. Wang Dian had long forgotten when and where and with whom he had this exchange, but he still remembered the anger and resentment he felt at the time.

Years of resentment remained undiminished. He had never cared for worldly matters, but with Liang Ye, he was willing to plunge back into this bustling mortal realm.

“Probably. It must be very lively there too,” Wang Dian covered the pot and dusted the flour from his hands, looking at Liang Ye. “Do you miss Chong Heng?”

“He wanted to come along, but Zhen didn’t let him,” Liang Ye didn’t deny it. “Zhen didn’t know if we would live or die.”

Having gambled with death to see him, he naturally wouldn’t let Chong Heng take the same risk.

“He must have grown up by now,” Wang Dian thought of his own Chong Heng who had died in Kangning Palace, and tugged at the corner of his mouth. “The empire is vast—let him go out and see it properly.”

“Zhen has already let him go play,” Liang Ye said with disdain. “Such a grown man still following me around every day—quite annoying.”

Wang Dian couldn’t help but laugh, “Indeed annoying.”

The two of them finished cooking the dumplings and began their New Year’s Eve dinner with the lively TV sounds in the background. This was their first New Year’s Eve together, so it deserved some ceremony.

“Let’s have some wine,” Wang Dian opened a bottle. “So you won’t sneak out at night to drink in secret.”

“Zhen was mainly doing that to make friends,” Liang Ye raised his glass, indicating he wanted more.

“You don’t need friends.” Wang Dian poured him half a glass, then poured some for himself and smiled. “Shall we make a toast?”

Liang Ye languidly clinked glasses with him. “Happy New Year’s Eve.”

“Happy New Year’s Eve,” Wang Dian drank his wine. “Your Majesty.”

Although it took the two of them several hours to prepare a proper meal, the taste was quite ordinary. However, Liang Ye always had a good appetite, and Wang Dian rarely had stomach problems. Since their tastes were almost identical, they ate very happily.

“Let’s go outside and set off fireworks!” Liang Ye, who hadn’t drunk much wine and had also prevented Wang Dian from drinking too much, grabbed the plastic bag of fireworks and pulled him toward the courtyard.

“Wait, let me put on a coat,” Wang Dian held him back.

Liang Ye sighed, picked up a coat and helped him put it on, then wrapped a scarf around his neck, cupped his face and gave him a firm kiss. “So delicate.”

Wang Dian immediately tried to step on Liang Ye’s new sneakers. Liang Ye nimbly dodged and went to step on his leather shoes. After fooling around for a while, they finally went outside to set off fireworks in the courtyard.

“The moon looks nice tonight,” Liang Ye looked up.

“Very bright,” Wang Dian said concisely.

Liang Ye looked at him, trying to hold back his laughter. “You have no culture.”

Taking advantage of Liang Ye’s laughter, Wang Dian took a lighter from his pocket and lit the firework that Liang Ye had set up and was about to light. Then he grabbed Liang Ye and ran forward, “Quick, quick! Get away!”

“Wang Dian!!!” Liang Ye was shocked as he was dragged under the eaves, exclaiming in disbelief, “That was my firework!!!”

BOOM!!

The brilliant fireworks bloomed in the night sky beneath the bright moon, reflected in Wang Dian’s smiling eyes. He cupped Liang Ye’s face, deliberately preventing him from turning around to look. “Be good, what’s yours is mine.”

Liang Ye stared at the fireworks blooming in Wang Dian’s eyes and angrily kissed him.

Wang Dian was pushed against the floor-to-ceiling window and laughed as he wrapped his arms around Liang Ye’s waist, responding to the kiss with passion and tenderness. After the kiss, Liang Ye still felt unsatisfied and grabbed his shoulders, shaking him hard. “You just promised to let Zhen set them all off!”

“Hahaha!” Wang Dian laughed with malicious joy. “You shouldn’t believe what a man says at the dinner table.”

“Full of schemes,” Liang Ye continued shaking him hard.

Feeling like his brain was about to be thoroughly shaken, Wang Dian said between laughs: “I saved you… haha… one… stop shaking me!”

Liang Ye turned to look for the remaining firework in the courtyard. Wang Dian suddenly broke free and ran forward, attempting the same trick again. Liang Ye simply used his lightness kung fu to overtake him and lit the last firework.

BOOM!

Liang Ye watched the firework explode in the night sky and turned to Wang Dian with smug satisfaction. Wang Dian pointed at him with the lighter, “That’s cheating. Is it impressive to have good martial arts?”

“You cheated first,” Liang Ye looked at him arrogantly.

Wang Dian stared at him sinisterly, and after a moment, they both ran back simultaneously, each trying to lock the other outside. Wang Dian watched as Liang Ye flew inside and cursed with laughter, “Have you no shame!”

“None!” Liang Ye’s voice came along with the sound of the closing door.

“Childish,” Wang Dian leaned against the door and knocked hard. “Open up, it’s freezing out here.”

Liang Ye’s arrogant, infuriating voice came from inside the door, “Are you willing to marry Liang Ye?”

“Yes, yes,” Wang Dian responded perfunctorily as he knocked. “I’m warning you—”

The door was suddenly opened from inside.

Liang Ye stood before him wearing a fire-red wedding robe, his hands behind his back, smiling brilliantly. “Then rather than choose another day, let’s seize the moment and get married tonight.”

Wang Dian was surprised for only an instant before raising an eyebrow and smiling, “Fine, if you dare to marry me, I dare to wed you.”

Liang Ye took out the wedding attire he had prepared in advance and handed it to him.

It was a wedding garment similar in style to what Liang Ye had prepared for his wedding before, except now there were two identical sets of men’s clothing. Even the dragon patterns embroidered inside were exactly the same, though the floral pattern on the collar had been changed to begonia.

Although Wang Dian didn’t care much about such things, he was still curious. “Did you have these made?”

“Of course,” Liang Ye led him upstairs.

“Just this style alone would take at least ten days or half a month to make,” Wang Dian said suspiciously. “When did you—”

His voice suddenly stopped.

Liang Ye had many phones. Sometimes Liang Ye would sneak out at night without telling him. Liang Ye had gotten to know many people…

“You didn’t sneak out just to have wedding clothes made, did you?” Wang Dian asked with some suspicion.

“Something like that,” Liang Ye turned to smile at him. “They say keeping secrets from your lover is more romantic.”

Wang Dian walked with him to the furthest room on the third floor—a wedding chamber decorated in bright red. Roses and begonia flowers were arranged together in an unorthodox mix, along with red candles, double happiness characters, and a red-curtained marriage bed. For a moment, he felt as if he had returned to Northern Liang.

By the window were two prayer mats and a bundle of red silk tied with floral decorations. Liang Ye handed one end of the red silk to him, saying with some pride, “Zhen arranged all this personally.”

Wang Dian gripped the red silk and after a moment of silence said, “Yesterday, you deliberately—”

“It’s getting late,” Liang Ye cleverly interrupted him and said seriously, “We should perform the ceremony now.”

Although neither the date nor the time corresponded to traditional customs, the fact that they could be together was already extraordinary enough. Besides, neither of them cared about such things. They each held one end of the red silk bundle and opened the balcony doors.

Wang Dian and Liang Ye stood shoulder to shoulder.

Liang Ye nervously bumped his shoulder against Wang Dian’s. “Do we call it out ourselves?”

“Call what?” Wang Dian couldn’t help but reach out to pinch the fluffy red flower decoration.

“First bow to Heaven and Earth, that sort of thing,” Liang Ye cleared his throat.

“Yes, let’s call it ourselves. There’s no one else here anyway,” Wang Dian said, trying to suppress his smile.

“Let’s say it together,” Liang Ye also pinched his own red flower decoration.

“First bow to Heaven and Earth.”

With remarkably consistent movements, they lifted their robes and knelt on the prayer mats, bowing to the night sky and bright moon outside.

“Second bow to the parents.”

They bowed once more in perfect sync, then turned to face each other.

Wang Dian gripped the red silk tightly, looking at the equally nervous Liang Ye opposite him.

“Husband and wife bow to each other.”

After saying this, they both couldn’t help but smile, then suppressed their laughter and bowed to each other.

“Enter the bridal chamber.”

Suddenly, countless fireworks bloomed in the night sky, and the sound of firecrackers rose from all directions, as if celebrating the final completion of the ceremony.

“Did you set those off?” Wang Dian asked.

“No,” Liang Ye pulled him to his feet. “It’s midnight.”

“Happy New Year,” Wang Dian tugged at the red silk, and Liang Ye followed his lead inside, saying cheerfully, “Happy wedding.”

On New Year’s Eve, families reunited with lights brightly lit throughout the house. Inside the room, candles flickered and red curtains filled the view. Outside, the sound of firecrackers created a lively atmosphere. The glass door closed, and the red gauze curtain suddenly fell, concealing the spring scene throughout the room.

The bright moon hung high in the sky, finally fulfilling their wish.