Bringing the Nation's Husband Home

Xu Jiamu raised his head and looked at Lu Jinnian. His hands suddenly shivered for a moment holding pint of beer. Then he nodded at the boss.

The lady boss grabbed the menu and asked, ”Mr. Lu and Mr. Xu, this time, are we ordering the same dishes as before?”

”En. responded Xu Jiamu. He pointed at the beer on the table. ”Bring a few more bottles.”

-

Besides touching glasses every now and then, Xu Jiamu and Lu Jinnian practically didn’t have any interaction with one another throughout dinner.

Business at this privately-owned restaurant was extremely terrible. So much so that there were a total of only three occupied tables at the restaurant up until they paid for their meal.

A woman sitting at a table not too far from Lu Jinnian and Xu Jiamu recognized them. She started taking photos of the two of them with her phone, turning her head from time to time to say a few words excitedly to the person beside her. The moment Lu Jinnian got up to leave, that woman brought her man and ran over to Lu Jinnian, begging him for an autograph.

-

Outside the privately-owned restaurant, there was a narrow alley.

Lu Jinnian and Xu Jiamu walked out, neither one of them pulling out their car keys. Lu Jinnian grabbed his sunglasses and put them on his face, then said, ”Basketball?”

”Alright.” Xu Jiamu had no objections.

From the restaurant, they had to walk no more than two hundred meters through the alley and past the back gates to the stadium. It was already nightfall, and there were practically no one in the alley. After a long while, there was a lamp post that shone dimly. The two of them didn’t really interact with one another as they walked side by side for about ten minutes. When they reached the entrance to the stadium and walked in, Xu Jiamu pulled out some money and bought a couple of bottles of water.

Besides the two of them, there was no one else in the empty stadium.

Xu Jiamu took off his winter jacket and grabbed the basketball with one hand. He started to effortlessly dribble the ball for a while, then made a shot. As he caught the ball, he continued to dribble and looked over at Lu Jinnian. ”Let’s play a game?”

Lu Jinnian didn’t say a word, but removed his jacket and walked over.

Without a referee and audience, it was just the two of them sweating freely. Besides the sound of shoes brushing against the wooden floors and the dong-dong-dong sound of the ball hitting the ground, the empty stadium was silent.

Neither of them knew how long they played with the ball. The two of them used up all their strength until they eventually sat down next to each other on the ground.

Xu Jiamu picked up a bottle of water and threw it at Lu Jinnian. Then he grabbed another and gulped down some water. He raised his hand to wipe a couple droplets from the corner of his mouth and said, ”Since you left, I didn’t have such a good time playing ball.”

Lu Jinnian stopped drinking for a moment, then took another gulp. He put the bottle of mineral water away and said, ”I haven’t played basketball for a long time either.”

Xu Jiamu turned his head, glanced over at his brother, then lay flat onto the wooden floorboards and stared up at the glass ceiling of the stadium.

Lu Jinnian put the lid back onto the bottle and laid down as well.

The two of them were heaving from the intense exercise.

The stadium fell silent the moment they stopped playing ball

Xu Jiamu stared up at the ceiling for who knows how long... He blinked, and without looking at Lu Jinnian, and gently said, ”Bro, I’m sorry.