Want
Taw’s Note: Based on the original text, Su Zesui addresses Gu Yilan as “顾先生” (Gù xiānshēng), the same way the butler does. I initially translated it directly as “Young Master Gu,” but after giving it more thought, I decided to change it to “Mr. Gu” for Su Zesui’s way of addressing him.
It felt like stepping into an entirely unfamiliar world. Su Zesui was completely in the dark, fumbling his way through. He couldn’t understand a lot of the slang he came across—but with his excellent memory, he still managed to memorize it all.
Eventually, he drifted off to sleep, his mind filled with the influence of phrases like: burning desire, wild nights, eight times in one night, and straight to the stomach.
Maybe because the future seemed so vivid, he even had a dream.
In it, he and Mr. Gu were lying on a bed, hand in hand. Mr. Gu’s deep and pleasant voice sounded in his ear: “Suisui, do you know? A couple days ago, I met an old man at a crosswalk…”
Su Zesui smiled in his sleep, lost in the dream. The next morning, he almost overslept.
The following day, he slowly opened his eyes, rolled over with a sleepy grunt, and glanced at his phone through his groggy haze—
Mr. Gu had messaged him on WeChat five minutes ago, telling him to come downstairs for breakfast.
Upon seeing the message, Su Zesui immediately got up, changed clothes, washed up, and rushed downstairs.
Just as he rounded the curved staircase, he saw the butler standing respectfully at the base of the stairs, giving him a small bow.
“Little Master, I forgot to make breakfast today. Could you help me make two servings?”
Su Zesui’s first instinct was to say that Mr. Gu didn’t allow him in the kitchen, but faced with the kind-hearted butler who had always treated him well, he replied softly, “O-okay.”
The butler continued, “I’m thinking of going out for a walk today. Could you help me monitor the security cameras for the afternoon?”
Su Zesui thought of the pile of homework he still had to do and said, “Okay.”
Then the butler added, “Little Master, could you divorce Young Master Gu? Just for my sake?”
Hearing such a bizarre request, Su Zesui was stunned for a few seconds. He lowered his head and started fiddling with his fingers.
At that moment, Gu Yilan—who had just woken up—stepped around the stairwell corner, descending while glancing down at his phone, replying to messages.
He had stayed up late last night dealing with work, so he hadn’t checked his phone—and missed the message from Su Mingyu.
[S: Has Suisui asked you—or any of the staff—about anything he shouldn’t be asking about?]
Gu Yilan looked down and saw the boy at the bottom of the stairs, poking his fingers together anxiously without saying a word. He typed with one hand:
[11th Dimension: No.]
Su Mingyu clearly cared a lot about the matter and replied almost instantly:
[S: Are you sure he hasn’t done anything behind your back?]
[11th Dimension: If he wants to talk, he’ll only say it to me.]
[S: ……]
Su Mingyu wanted to probe what his “playing-dead-on-WeChat” little brother was really up to, but he was also afraid of alerting the enemy—what if Gu Yilan, who might not have known anything to begin with, suddenly caught on and got bad ideas…
He hesitated, typing and deleting as he tried to find the right words.
Gu Yilan didn’t have the patience to wait for him to finish composing a message. He shoved his phone into his pocket, lifted his eyes, and looked downstairs.
“Brother…” Su Zesui’s eyes lit up the moment he saw him, as if he’d seen a savior.
“Why aren’t you saying anything?” Gu Yilan asked.
Su Zesui opened his soft lips but ended up lowering his head again.
The man’s tone was calm, without a hint of reproach—but Su Zesui still felt embarrassed, like he had made Mr. Gu lose face.
“If there’s something you don’t want to do, try saying ‘no,’” Gu Yilan said, looking at him.
Su Zesui softly murmured, “Mm.”
Gu Yilan gently guided him, “You really want to give up your homework time just to help someone cook and watch the monitors?”
Su Zesui thought for a moment and replied, “I-I can.”
Gu Yilan: …
Gu Yilan said, “Repeat after me—‘I still have homework. I can’t help you cook or do chores. That’s your responsibility.’”
Su Zesui slowly turned to the butler and mouthed the words several times before whispering like a mosquito, “Have homework. Can’t… can’t help you.”
Su Zesui could feel Gu Yilan’s gaze lightly falling on him.
He froze for a long time, holding his breath before finally managing to say the last few words: “Your business.”
Right after speaking, he found it hard to breathe, like someone was choking him—his face even flushed red from the effort.
Gu Yilan jerked his chin toward the butler.
The butler immediately bowed slightly toward Su Zesui and said clearly, “Understood, Little Master. Sorry for disturbing you.”
He used to just act invisible, but now he had to serve as a clueless NPC for the two “masters”!
But when it came to Young Master Gu’s orders, he had no choice.
Su Zesui found it a little unbelievable, but after hearing the butler’s words, the tightness in his chest eased a lot.
Still, he was confused by the unfamiliar exchange. His mind went blank, and he instinctively said, “Sorry, I—”
“Hm?” Gu Yilan raised an eyebrow slightly, the sound of his breath cutting him off.
Su Zesui quickly covered his mouth with his hand.
He remembered clearly— Mr. Gu had told him before: Don’t say “sorry.”
“Let’s go. Time to eat,” Gu Yilan said, turning toward the dining room.
Su Zesui didn’t know what to say. He simply pressed his palms together in a little bow toward the butler, then hurried after Gu Yilan.
The breakfast table was already set with two beautifully prepared meals—not at all like the butler had said earlier, pretending he “forgot to make breakfast.”
Su Zesui noticed there was also a cup of hot milk—his favorite—on his side of the table.
He happily sat down and immediately wrapped both hands around the big warm glass, drinking the milk in big gulps.
“If there’s something you want or don’t want, just tell me directly,” Gu Yilan said. “If Su Mingyu hadn’t told me, you might never have gotten the chance to drink milk.”
Su Zesui put down the glass, licked the milk off his lips, and looked at him in confusion.
Gu Yilan took a sip of cold water. His voice was cool but uncharacteristically patient: “You can try asking for things.”
Su Zesui looked up at him and saw Gu Yilan lift his brow slightly, as if signaling for him to give it a try.
Not wanting to disappoint Mr. Gu, he thought for a long, long time before softly saying: “Don’t… want… to watch the news.”
“Okay,” Gu Yilan responded without hesitation. “You’re excused from the nightly news routine from now on.”
Su Zesui’s eyes lit up.
He hadn’t expected that something that had troubled him for so long could be solved with just a sentence.
So he added, “I want to eat ice cream.”
“After breakfast,” Gu Yilan replied.
Su Zesui frowned slightly, deep in thought. He was so focused he couldn’t even eat.
He had never done anything like this before.
In the past, whenever he spoke, people around him would just say, “Su Zesui, are you brain-damaged? You can’t even speak properly. Your brother should stop spending money on cancer treatment and take you to the psych ward instead—before it’s too late. Haha.”
Those painful experiences had left his mind with almost no “neurons” for this kind of interaction. So after a long while, all he could think of was: I want ice cream. I want ice cream. I want ice cream.
Before long, Gu Yilan finished his breakfast and waved his phone at Su Zesui: “I won’t be going out today. Message me if you need anything.”
Su Zesui nodded firmly and waved at him, then returned to deep thought.
He kept thinking as he left the dining room, walked up the stairs, and entered the side room. He even forgot to eat the ice cream.
After more than two hours of thinking, he suddenly slapped his forehead—he had remembered something important.
Afraid he’d forget it again, Su Zesui quickly grabbed his <Advanced Olympiad> workbook and dashed upstairs to the study.
He knocked on the door first, then pressed his fingerprint and gently pushed it open.
Not far inside, Gu Yilan sat behind his desk, wearing headphones, his eyes slightly lowered, looking at the laptop in front of him with a blank expression—clearly focused on work.
Su Zesui paused, considering whether he should wait until Mr. Gu was free. But just then, Gu Yilan looked up and gave him a small nod.
Only then did Su Zesui breathe a sigh of relief and happily run over with the textbook in his arms.
Gu Yilan lowered the volume of his video call and muted his microphone. Then he turned to the boy standing beside him and asked, “What is it?”
Su Zesui placed the book on the desk, but his eyes were suddenly drawn to a small object nearby—
It was the bookmark he had given Mr. Gu before!
Gu Yilan didn’t lack money. Any document on this desk might be worth millions. And amidst such a high-end setting, that little handmade bookmark with clumsy handwriting looked utterly silly and out of place.
Su Zesui was a little touched. He looked at it and softly said, “The bookmark.”
Gu Yilan followed his gaze. “Yeah. It works well.”
“I-I want…” A new thought popped into Su Zesui’s mind, and he said,
“I want to… stay with you.”
But as soon as the words left his mouth, he remembered that Grandpa Gu had told him yesterday—Mr. Gu was extremely busy. So busy he barely had time to sleep or eat.
And he had already thrown a tantrum and made Mr. Gu spend the whole day tutoring him in physics.
——Would it be too much to ask this now?
Feeling a little unsure, Su Zesui added, “Is… that okay?”
“It’s okay,” Gu Yilan said, pulling the <Advanced Olympiad> workbook over. “Whatever you want is fine.”
Su Zesui blinked in surprise and sincerely said, “You’re so nice.”
Gu Yilan raised an eyebrow. “Go get your chair.”
The desk in the study was especially wide to hold all kinds of paperwork—spacious enough to seat two or three people without crowding.
As he watched the boy eagerly drag over a chair, Gu Yilan asked, “You’ll be working here from now on?”
“Yes!” Su Zesui sat beside him, his voice soft but his heart blooming with joy.
His pale legs swung back and forth as he kept sneaking looks at the man beside him.
“Brother,” Su Zesui only spoke again after neatly laying out his <Advanced Olympiad> workbook in front of him. He finally voiced the original reason he had come.
“I want… to register our marriage.”
He had read popular science posts on Ahoo and learned that, aside from what his big brother Su Mingyu had told him, once they registered their marriage, Mr. Gu would legally become his and his alone. He’d have the right to make all kinds of requests—like being coaxed to sleep, being allowed to touch his abs, or experiencing joys he had never known before.
Su Zesui vaguely remembered that in novels, once a couple registered their marriage and said their vows, they were bound together for life. From that moment on, they were never to be apart again.
Although Mr. Gu was already very good to him—always fulfilling his little requests—Su Zesui wanted something more. He wanted to never be separated from him.
Gu Yilan turned to look at him. “When do you want to do it?”
“Soon,” Su Zesui replied.
It wasn’t until that very morning that he realized Mr. Gu had never actually promised they would get married once their cohabitation ended. All his previous assumptions, if turned into a test question, would count as logically flawed reasoning based on insufficient conditions.
Points off. Points off.
Gu Yilan glanced at the time and said, “I’m free tomorrow afternoon.”
Su Zesui immediately responded, “Okay.”
“The Civil Affairs Bureau closes late,” Gu Yilan added. “Come with me to meet someone first tomorrow afternoon.”
Su Zesui’s voice wavered. “…Okay.”
“Aren’t you going to ask who it is?” Gu Yilan asked with a trace of amusement.
Su Zesui timidly echoed his question, “Who is it?”
“You’ve seen them. The person we ran into outside the coffee shop yesterday,” Gu Yilan said.
“…O-okay.”
Su Zesui didn’t understand why Mr. Gu wanted him to meet someone else, but he would listen to him anyway.
Seeing that the boy looked like he was about to spiral into another anxious episode, Gu Yilan changed the subject. “Bring your book here. Is there a problem you can’t solve?”
Su Zesui snapped back to attention and nodded.
These past couple of days had been an emotional rollercoaster. Whether he was feeling upset or excited, he’d always turn to his competition prep questions. Focusing on physics helped him detach from those overwhelming feelings.
As a result, he had accumulated quite a few tough problems.
He carefully flipped through the book, found the hardest, most complex problem, and handed the book to the man beside him.
After Mr. Gu took it, Su Zesui leaned over just like always, wanting to watch him work through the solution on scratch paper.
Gu Yilan’s laptop had a privacy screen filter, so when Su Zesui sat beside him, the display was completely black from his angle.
But now that he leaned in closer, the shift in angle allowed him to catch a glimpse of what was on the screen.
It turned out Mr. Gu was in the middle of a video conference. The five participants didn’t look very old—probably students from A University’s lab.
That part wasn’t strange. What was strange was—
None of the five people on the screen were talking. They were all frozen, wide-eyed, staring straight in his direction, as if they were witnessing something completely unbelievable.
It took Su Zesui a few seconds to realize—
In the minimized window of the video call, he had been caught on camera. His blank, pale little face was clearly visible, taking up nearly half the screen.
Meanwhile, Gu Yilan was looking down at the workbook, explaining the problem to him, not even glancing at the camera.
The situation felt like… like he was making eye contact through the screen with all five of them at once.
Su Zesui jolted in panic and instinctively grabbed Mr. Gu’s shirt: !!!