Guiying looked at him.
"Don't you have work?" he said.
Liuxian said nothing.
"Go away," Guiying said. "You have been bothering me since yesterday. I need peace." He leaned back as far as the lap situation allowed. "And I am not kissing your smelly morning mouth."
Liuxian looked at him.
A pause.
"I am hurt," he said, with complete composure. "Fine. I will go to work."
He lifted Guiying off his lap and set him on the bed beside him, stood up, and walked toward the bathroom without looking back.
Guiying sat on the bed and stared at the wall.
"He said he was hurt," he said out loud.
He replayed it. The composure, the pause, the fine. The way he had set him down and walked away without looking back.
"It was a joke," he said. "He was joking."
He sat with that for a moment.
"Was he joking?"
He pressed his lips together.
