Little Gods – Chapter 11

Ever since he had descended to the mortal realm, Su Qiong had never had a hot bath. 

Su Qiong could no longer remember how it felt to bathe in the Jasper Lake of the heavenly realm. He knew it must have been wonderful, but he felt that it was probably no more comfortable than he was now. 

The warm water enveloped his body, the bath salts dying the water a blueish green. A fresh fragrance dispersed through the misty washroom. And Lin Fu, who was crouched beside him, one corner of his mouth hooked upward in a handsome smile, was gazing at him with an indecent look in his eye…

“It’s really comfy.” Su Qiong peered at Lin Fu attentively, giving an earnest nod. 

So comfy that he would not exchange it for a hundred Jasper Lakes. 

The hot water was dyed by the bath salts. Director Lin, disappointed upon discovering that he would not see anything today, left the washroom. 

Su Qiong did not get out of the bath until the water had turned cold. After he got out, he drained the water from the bathtub and wiped himself down with impressive speed. He put on his new pajamas. 

The gray, checkerboard pajamas were simple and plain, making Su Qiong’s face look even more adorable. 

Seeing Su Qiong exit the bathroom, Lin Fu, who had sweated from working earlier, went inside for a simple shower. Afterward, he came out wearing the matching couples’ pajamas with Su Qiong. 

Su Qiong’s back was to Lin Fu as he stood by the window. He glanced at him out of the corner of his eye, then embarrassedly turned his head back around. 

Matching pajamas…

Wait, pajamas?

The little God of Poverty’s hands trembled, shaking the bag in his hands. A little cascade of white rice came tumbling out. 

Lin Fu walked over to help Su Qiong clean the rice off the windowsill and floor. He teased: “Nervous?”

“No.” Su Qiong, in attempting to disguise his feelings, made them all the more apparent. He shook his head vigorously, rushing about as he poured rice into some homemade bowls. With ten in total, these ‘bowls’ were actually the bottoms of used water bottles, which were snipped off and could be placed on the edging of Su Qiong’s window. 

Since the beginning of winter, Su Qiong would put these rice-filled bowls out on the sill each night, bringing them back inside the following morning. Even if Su Qiong had nothing to fill his own bowl with, he had never stopped putting rice out. 

Lin Fu had always believed that Su Qiong was feeding the nearby birds. He had never seen a bird eating the rice, and he doubted whether the birds nearby were capable of eating so much rice, but every day, the bowls brought back inside would all be empty. 

This little thing is really compassionate, Lin Fu thought to himself. Smiling lightly, he helped Su Qiong place small bowls of rice on the windowsill. 

…

Su Qiong stood beside the window, gazing warmly at the little guests that had flown over to peck at the food. 

A new-born Lanfu had already had its blue feathers grow in. A Tonghe, haloed by the sunset, trod gracefully on the windowsill. A Zhaofeng, which had only just broken out of its shell, was unsettling the rice as it flapped its wings after eating its fill. A dazzling Baiming at once called like an oriole and then hooted like an owl. A single-legged little Bifang and a three-legged Jinwu, out of mutual dislike, scuffled noisily like two children as they ate…^[1]These are birds from mythology. Lanfu 蓝凫, Tonghe 彤鹤, Zhaofeng 招风, and Baiming 百鸣 come from 凤育九雏. Bifang 毕方 is a one-legged bird and Jinwu 金乌 is sometimes called the … Continue reading

They were all spirit beasts^[2]妖兽 yaoshou that lived in the forests outside the city. Most of them were younglings. In their eyes, winter was a difficult time. Fortunately, there was a kind-hearted little god that lived here who always gave them a bite to eat. 

Lin Fu was unable to see them…

He could only see Su Qiong calmly gazing out at the empty darkness outside the window, smiling lightly in good spirits, his clear eyes alight with joy, as if imagining that some sparrows had come to eat some rice. 

Heat flooded Lin Fu’s chest. Before he even knew what he was doing, his body had already acted, and Su Qiong was in his arms. 

…

“Be with me.” Lin Fu pulled Su Qiong’s slightly stiff body closer. He stooped over and placed his forehead against Su Qiong’s, their breaths melding together, “Okay?”

Su Qiong struggled lightly, hesitating. His lips pressed into a line. 

“If you promise me, I can live with you like this. I don’t care about these small things,” Lin Fu said sincerely, “Don’t you see how happy I have been these days?”

Su Qiong’s eyelashes quivered, his voice shaking: “But…”

“Promise me.” Lin Fu pushed Su Qiong back a couple of steps, and the two of them fell onto the bed together. Lin Fu grasped Su Qiong’s jaw with a gentle irresistibility and, brooking no argument, kissed him on the lips. Their lips pressed and rubbed together, with Lin Fu’s voice resonating in Su Qiong’s ear intermittently in the chaotic scene, “Promise me, promise me. I like you, I know you like me too…”

Su Qiong was nervous, excited, and breathless. His instinctive refusal was changed into a dissatisfied, even more passionate kiss from Lin Fu. The two of them tangled together. The bed released a thunderous creak and collapsed…

The two of them rolled tragically onto the debris-laden wooden floor…

…

At first the room was quiet, then Lin Fu started to roar with laughter. Su Qiong, infected by the merry atmosphere, started to laugh as well, his face flushing. 

Dust flew up all around them, and the two of them were stuck in such an awkward happening, but they were both full of comedic joy. 

“Hahaha, I must’ve forgotten to change the bed,” Lin Fu rubbed his face, “I miscalculated.”

Su Qiong stood up first, then stretched out a hand, thinking to help Lin Fu up. 

“Right, you haven’t said if you’ll promise me or not?” Lin Fu sat on the floor, acting shameless. He pulled his legs into a leisurely sitting posture, as if he was planning to sit there until the end of time, “I won’t get up until you promise me. I’ll sit here til the sun comes up.”

Su Qiong was teased by him again. Just as he went to speak, Lin Fu groped around near his legs and pulled out a child’s toy. 

It was a little plastic soldier wearing a blue uniform, a rifle resting on its shoulder. 

Lin Fu’s eyes widened. Without waiting for Su Qiong to stop him, he turned his hand over and saw that on the back of the little soldier was the character ‘Fu’ engraved with crooked handwriting. 

…

Lin Fu was stunned for a moment, then whispered: “…This is a toy I had as a kid.”

Su Qiong stood beside him, his head drooping as he wrung his hands. 

“When I was a kid, I liked to carve my name on my toys…” Lin Fu turned the toy over in his hands in disbelief. Then, he leapt up like a bat out of hell and swept aside the bits of wooden board and bedding on the floor. 

“Wait…” Su Qiong’s hand froze in mid-air, as if he wanted to stop him. 

“This one’s my toy, and this one too. These were all thrown away when I moved…” One by one, Lin Fu picked up those toys and, in the end, opened the cookie tin and pulled out a button and a photo. 

The button was very special. It was from the custom-made uniform Lin Fu wore while attending his aristocratic high school. Because the school’s mascot was emblazoned on its front, it was easily recognizable. And the photo was cut out of last year’s issue of a finance magazine…

“You’ve known me for a long time.” Lin Fu shook the photo in his hand. His gaze suddenly grew a few degrees colder, “Why did you pretend that you didn’t?”

“I…” Su Qiong hastily opened his mouth, but the words were caught in his throat. He broke out in a cold sweat, “I’m…”

Should he admit to it now…

I am, in fact, a God of Poverty descended from the heavens, and I knew you then because…

Su Qiong clenched his fists. Just as he was going to open up and tell him everything, he became frightened. 

Lin Fu gave a stiff laugh and said in a half-joking tone of voice: “Have you been secretly in love with me since you were little? You actually lived in my neighborhood as a kid, but I never noticed you, and after you grew up, your appearance changed. So, I didn’t recognize you, and you didn’t tell me because you didn’t want to give me a shock.”

Su Qiong slowly shook his head: “It’s not like that…”

Lin Fu said bitterly: “I’ve helped you think of something. Just agree with me.”

The overbearing CEO was making up stories out of love!

When Su Qiong heard this, he did not know whether to laugh or cry. 

“…I’m going.” After holding the photo for an indeterminate amount of time, Lin Fu’s hand started to ache. He sighed, let the photo fall to the floor, and, grabbing his coat and phone, stood up to leave. He said hoarsely, “Take your time to think.”

Thus spoken, the pajama-wearing, overbearing CEO rushed out the door, fleeing in grief and anger. 

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The author has something to say:

They’ll be able to clear it up in the next chapter… _(:з」∠)_

Someone who was as harmless as a dove…

The name was changed to “Little Gods” because it tells the stories of all sorts of little gods falling in love~ So, the name of the first story is Little God of Poverty!

Brilliant!