42 Shopping in The Snowy Streets

During their days of living together, they learned many things about each other that other people may never know.

This new knowledge also brought new.... cohabitation problems.

One, they both can't cook. And since everyone was dismissed, including the personal chef, they had to order food delivery every day. It's not just boxes of pizza and bags of chips though (but they do have some while playing games sometimes).

Hu Chuntian is mindful of their health for the upcoming New Year Shengxiao competition so he always buys healthy, homecooked meals with many vegetables and protein.

Two, Hu Chuntian sleeps naked.

Three, Mo Aini never dries his hair properly when going on the shower and lets the water drip down everywhere.

Four, Hu Chuntian had no sense of privacy and enters without knocking.

Five, Mo Aini is very forgetful when it comes to his things and always puts them in the least appropriate places.

So though they are great pals because of their history in fighting and beating up things, they still get their banters from time to time. For example.....

Knock, knock! "Hey, Hu Chuntian, can I come in?"

"Yawns.... Sure, Da Ge."

Opens door. " Hey, did you take my orange cat pajamas after the last laundry—What the fuck, man!? Where're your clothes?"

"Oh. I'm used to sleeping naked, Da Ge." Hu Chuntian stretched and scratched his bare six-pack abs. "About the shirt—"

"Wear some pants!" Runs and slams the door.

1 hour later.

"Da Ge, I found your orange cat pajamas in the umbrella rack."

"Bro, learn to knock! I just took a shower here!"

Hu Chuntian scratches his head and approaches him lazily. "Why is it always a big deal for Da Ge when we see each other naked? We're both men, aren't we—"

Hu Chuntian slips from the puddle on the floor because of Mo Aini's dripping hair. This causes him to kick Mo Aini on the knee, and fall down too.

Both had to put ice over the huge bumps in their forehead. This is what an average day in their winter break together was like.

A not-so-average day would be when they go outside the house after the strong blizzard subsides. They go to the mall to buy fruits and other things they don't have to cook. They also look for good cameras but none of them are better than those online, so they ended up window shopping most of the time or just strolling on the snowy streets.

Mo Aini was wearing all black: black jacket, black scarf, black beanie, like an emo. Only his mufflers were white.

Thanks to Hu Chuntian, he can now wear clothes besides his VERY limited wardrobe of 3 outfits. Hu Chuntian is wearing a much thicker and fancier version of his tiger jacket, and an orange-black striped scarf.

Hu Chuntian's eyes were caught by a book on display in a bookstore called 'Lord Baphie's Monthly Reading'.

He pulled Mo Aini by the sleeve and pointed, "Hey, Da Ge! Doesn't this look like us?"

The book cover on display does look similar to them. It had a blond boy piggyback riding behind a black-haired boy. The blond was smiling happily while the brunette looked annoyed.

Hu Chuntian copied the cover and jumped on Mo Aini's back. "See? See?"

"Yes, yes! We don't need to replicate it, we'll look weird!" Mo Aini pushed him off his back.

Still, he was also intrigued by the book. "It looks like a BL. Aries_Monx. Hmm.... Never heard of that guy. His work must be pretty famous, all his books are on display here."

"What's a BL?"

"Ah, you know how girls like to read romance?"

Hu Chuntian frowned. "I like reading romance too, but I'm not a girl."

"Sorry, used to the stereotype. Anyway, BL is a romance between two boys."

"Ohhhhhh!!!" Hu Chuntian's baby blue eyes widened like he had reached enlightenment. "Those exist?"

"Yeah, have you been living under a rock?"

"I never go outside the house besides brawling and school when I feel like it. Until you came."

(Poor kid.) Mo Aini thought. "What's the title anyway? QT.... That means quick transmigration where the main character moves from different worlds or stories. QT.... No to bad...."

The window was so foggy so he had to wipe it to read clearly. When he finally managed to do so, somebody picked up the book and left faster than they could blink!

"Dammit, I just wanted to know the title!"

Hu Chuntian went to the door. "Why don't we go inside and look for it?"

"Are you serious? Two dudes checking out BL?" Mo Aini laughed nervously. "People might think we're gay or something, bro."

"So what?"

"Huh?"

"It's not like it's true anyway." Hu Chuntian opened the door where the logo of a goat with spectacles reading books waited patiently for them. "So why should we be affected by what people think?"

Mo Aini scratched the back of his head. "Still it's...."

Why is he so scared anyway? There's nothing wrong with gay people it's just....

He doesn't want to be seen as gay.

He has seen many of his openly gay friends and classmates suffer a lot back in school. Luckily, he likes girls..... But some guys also catch his eyes.

But he never tells this to anyone because he doesn't want to face the same disgusted looks and mockery that he has seen others show to people who were just different. He sometimes even get into fights for his feminine gay friends because people were picking on them even though they did nothing wrong...

But when he got back home, what really made him force himself to always prove he was straight was his family.

"You only leech off to this family anyway, but we never complained. But being associated with those disgrace to society!? Have some shame, Mo Aini!"

His father brought down his heavy hand across his face, and he never got into fights since then.

But now..... He's far away from that world. Hu Chuntian doesn't judge him, and these people most likely wouldn't if he asked the system for it.

He took Hu Chuntian's hand and nodded. "Okay."

--------------------

"In the end, we couldn't find the book." Mo Aini sat down on a bench. "But why do you have to buy seventeen of Aries_Monx's books!?"

Hu Chuntian brought the large plastic bag down on the snowy pavement and sat beside him. "I don't know.... They all seem interesting. And for research, I guess."

"Research for what?????"

Hu Chuntian just turned away and picked a book from his plastic bag. "Look, this one is about a prince who turned into a vampire after his prince friend betrayed him. He gets revenge by destroying the traitor prince's kingdom, but the traitor prince has a childhood friend who is a leader of the vampire hunters. There's also dragons and some lore about gods and reincarnation and stuff. Isn't that cool, Da Ge?"

(Bro, why are you changing the subject!?) Mo Aini complained, but reluctantly nodded and examined the book. "Yeah. Medieval fantasy with vampires, huh? The title is kinda cringe though. 'Your Blood is Mine: Vampire's Revenge'?"

Mo Aini examined the books cover critically, and Hu Chuntian suddenly asked:

"Hmm..... Da Ge, what would you choose? Date a vampire or be a vampire who dates a human?"

"Why are you asking all of a sudden?" Mo Aini internally criticized the graphic design of the book. (The font is off..... And the color choice is ugly....)

"Because I want to get to know Da Ge's personality more. I'll answer these questions too." Hu Chuntian said. "If you want, I'll go first. I want to date a vampire so that I could see if I could manage to defeat them in a fight even with their super strength. What about you?"

"Let's just be both vampires, man. That way we could be immortal."

Hu Chuntian's face lit up. "We?"

"Yes, we." Mo Aini was still mentally giving a harsh critique to the cover that's why he's not thinking about the implications of what he said.

He then realized. "Oh, I mean me and my hypothetical girlfriend."

"Oh." Hu Chuntian looked disappointed. "Have you ever.... dated someone, Da Ge?"

(Well, we were rumored to be lovers back on the first route, kissed, shared the same bed, ate a couple of times together.... But that doesn't count!)

"No, not really. I'm ugly as fuck, how would anyone want to date me?"

"That's not true at all, Da Ge!" Hu Chuntian shook his head. "I think..... You're quite handsome."

There's a kind of reddish tint on his face when he said that.....

(Maybe because of the cold.) Mo Aini reasoned to himself.

"Thanks, man. I mean, coming from a perfect hot guy like you, that means quite a lot." Mo Aini said.

Hu Chuntian grinned. "Da Ge thinks I'm hot?"

"Anyway...." It was Mo Aini's turn to change the subject. "Reincarnation of a Tyrant. Must be a xianxia* or wuxia*. What's it about?"

"It's about a tyrant emperor obsessed with a male concubine to the point that he had mentally traumatized him to death. He made a ritual to go back to 10 years, but the medicine scholar who the male concubine likes interrupted it. So when they go back to 10 years before, the medicine scholar was now in the body of the emperor, the emperor is in the body of the male concubine, and the male concubine is in the body of the medicine scholar."

"Ah, I see. This author really likes revenge, huh?"

"I think he is more obsessed with enemies or rivals becoming lovers or a taboo kind of relationship." Hu Chuntian said.

"He also has a lot of books labeled as those quick transmigration things you told me, like 'Scum Gong System', 'Reluctant Hero System', and 'Two Omegas Destroy the Worlds of Alphas'. And some reincarnation and average transmigration ones too, like 'Loveless Immortal: Countless Lives Without You', 'Demon Cultivator and His Charlatan Exorcist' and 'Delicious Cultivation: I Cultivate Through Eating!?'."

"Those are some weird-ass titles. But they do sound intriguing." Mo Aini said. "Based on the covers, his pairings seem to have variety too. But I guess he just likes reincarnation and having multiple lives so much."

"If you would be reincarnated, Da Ge, what do you want to be in the next life?" Hu Chuntian asked.

"Rich."

Hu Chuntian chuckled. "Really?"

"Yeah, so I could buy anything I want and pay back my parents so I wouldn't be a burden to them anymore." Mo Aini's tone became slightly more serious. "If you're rich, you can buy all sorts of happiness in life. You can even buy someone's life for your own entertainment."

(I'm looking at you, Shuaige Corporation.)

The system made a wise decision and kept its inexistent mouth shut.

"I don't think you can get happiness just from being rich, Da Ge. Because to buy all the things that make you happy..... You have to know what they are, right? You need to have a purpose."

Hu Chuntian had a faraway look on his face. "And because you buy all those material things and fake favors from others..... It gets boring. It stops being fun once you know you can lose it all when you lose your money."

Mo Aini nodded and patted his head. "You do have a point. That's pretty profound, I didn't know my little Di Di is keeping those kinds of thoughts deep inside."

"I'm just saying what I experienced, Da Ge. Everybody wants to be rich, but for me, it's just tiresome and boring and based on the movies I've watched.... Even when you can go to clubs and parties and be surrounded by a lot of people, you'll still feel alone."

"If I got reincarnated, I'd rather live in a house in the fields near the woods where there's only me and the person who makes me happy."

"You need to learn how to cook and farm then." Mo Aini said. "Maybe raise livestock like goats and chickens and cows. Are you ready for that kind of life?'

Hu Chuntian gave a smile, standing up from the bench. "If it's with Da Ge, why not?"

Before Mo Aini could respond, someone threw a can of soda onto Hu Chuntian's head!

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