His Little Bread

Zhou Yichu’s rules for life: never eat Chinese yam cakes, never drink milk brought by anyone else, and never date anyone but Xie Min.

Xie Min had been by Zhou Yichu’s side for as long as he could remember.

At five, Zhou Yichu always threw tantrums at nap time. The only person who could soothe him was Xie Min from the next class, holding him in his arms.

The teacher marveled, “How does this little terror become so well-behaved around you?”

Xie Min smiled brightly. “He promised he’d marry me someday. I said I’d take care of him for the rest of my life, and then he stopped fussing.”

Zhou Yichu hated the Chinese yam cakes served every afternoon at kindergarten. Each time, he would secretly stuff them into Xie Min’s pocket. Xie Min always gobbled them down, foolishly saving all the sweet milk for Zhou Yichu. Everything Zhou Yichu didn’t like eating ended up in Xie Min’s bowl.

Zhou Yichu liked Xie Min. Xie Min always smelled warm and sweet, like fresh bread.

At sixteen, Xie Min once rushed out and forgot to bring milk for his little prince. Zhou Yichu immediately turned down an invitation from a boy in his class to play basketball. “I’m not playing. No one brought me milk today, so I’m going to stop growing.”

“I’ll die of thirst,” Zhou Yichu would say if Xie Min ignored him after he forgot his water bottle.

After the college entrance exam results came out, they filled in their applications. Xie Min had made Zhou Yichu angry yet again, and Zhou Yichu clutched the computer tightly. “In your dreams! There’s no way I’m applying to the same school as an annoying pest like you!”

In middle school, Xie Min’s family bakery got busy, so Xie Min had to live at school. Zhou Yichu pouted, packed his things that very night, and insisted on going too.

In Zhou Yichu’s mind, Xie Min was gentle, even-tempered, and patient.

He had probably forgotten long ago what Xie Min was really like.

It wasn’t until the past came to light that he suddenly remembered: Xie Min’s gentleness was for him, his calmness was for him, and his patience was for him. Xie Min had only ever confided those things to him. Beyond that, he had nothing.

He never talked about himself, made no other friends, and never thought about what he wanted to do in the future.

Everything in his life revolved around Zhou Yichu. He had revolved around him for so many years that Zhou Yichu had come to take it for granted.

“…Are you crazy?”

Zhou Yichu leaned against the wall, almost unable to stand.

“I love you.”

The person before him lowered his eyes and smiled, looking completely resigned.

On the night Xie Min turned eighteen, Zhou Yichu held hands with his tone-deaf boyfriend by the sea. “If it’s really not working, you don’t have to force it.”

Theme: Love means having all the time in the world and never minding the trouble