Chapter 9 – Family Members

家属
（一）Make the same movement as if signing 房子
（二）Put all five fingers of one hand up in the air
（三）Close your hand to a fist

Sunday evening marked the last day of the Chinese year which was celebrated with a family reunion dinner. Mrs. Zhang had already gone crazy the night before and everyone, including her husband, had had to give her a hand for the dishes she’d be serving. Yifan wasn’t much of a help, because everything he could do was putting some pop tarts in a toaster, so he had been in charge of cleaning the utensils afterwards, while Yixing, Zhenzhen and their father had been damned to chop up the ingredients. Yixing had already set up the two guestrooms in the morning for those relatives who didn’t live in Changsha and would be coming from the very South of Hunan and couldn’t possibly take a trip back on the same evening. The house would be packed with people and Yifan wasn’t so sure if the whole matter would go smoothly.

Yixing had told Yifan that his family was rather big, because his mother had three other siblings, but Yifan had never imagined how big the Zhang clan actually was. Yixing’s aunts and uncle all had a family themselves with a kid that they brought over, plus Yixing’s father had to pick up his mother from the nursing home she was living in over the year. In the end, there were about fifteen people in the house that were especially eager to meet Yifan, the notorious boyfriend from PKU who was taking care of Yixing – at least that’s how Yixing’s uncle had called him. The cousins were between the ages of five and fourteen, but even though the oldest was around Zhenzhen’s age, they didn’t seem to get along. Zhenzhen barely acknowledged him when they had entered, but the boy who went by the name Jinhai didn’t seem to mind either. Most of the time he sat in front of his smartphone and played weird games, not engaging in any conversation. The two kids seemed to be more excited to visit the house of their uncle and aunt, since there was so much more space than in the apartments of their parents in Changsha. Yixing’s family seemed to consist of really nice and open minded people, except for his grandmother who was bound to a wheel chair and looked especially disappointed and angry at the same time when Yixing had greeted her. She didn’t seem to be too happy about her grandson’s ‘choice’ to be gay, but on the other hand, she also didn’t seem to be happy about her own son, or her daughter-in-law or any other person around her. Yifan decided to not take it too seriously when she shot him a cold look or when she started to mutter something in the dialect she used to talk in her old village. Nobody understood what she said anyway, not even her son – or he wouldn’t even bother to try. Yifan guessed it was the latter, because when she started to nag once again about something that had caught her attention, he just rolled his eyes and proceeded to ignore her.

A lot of traditions and important things had to be minded during Chinese New Year – haircuts for example had to be done before New Year’s, cutting one’s hair on that day was considered bad luck. People used to clean their houses thoroughly and decorated them before the turn of the year so good luck could enter the household. The most important day was the family reunion dinner and CCTV 1 would hold a big gala starting at eight o’clock (Mr. Zhang, of course, didn’t really pay a lot of attention, since people from CCTV 1 were considered his ‘enemies’, more in a joking way, of course). The other most important thing were the red envelopes that were given out to the family members, especially the kids. They were filled with money and the tighter the family relation the more money was in it. Yixing for example would get much more money from his parents than from his aunt et cetera.
“Let’s get this over with,” Mr. Zhang mumbled as he pulled out a big pile of the envelopes out of a drawer, “The kids won’t shut up about it during dinner, I know them.”
The little kids were the first to receive their money, and suddenly a lot of red paper changed its owners – Yixing seemed to get special treatment, because when he glimpsed into the envelope his uncle had given him, he started to protest, but he just said:
“Take it, you’re the only one in our family to study at PKU and we’re proud of you.”
Yifan had stood a little awkward offside, since he wasn’t a family member and therefore not obliged to receive anything. So when Mr. Zhang held the last remaining envelope in his hands and handed it over to him, Yifan’s first reaction was:
“No, I can’t possibly accept this!”
“Take it, Yifan.”
“Seriously, Mr. Zhang, I’m not related to you, you don’t need to give me anything.”
“Do we really have to go through this three times, Yifan? Just drop the formalities and take it.”
“But…”
Mr. Zhang shoved the envelope into his hand and Yifan stammered a ‘Thank You’ before Zhenzhen leaned into him and chirped:
“Welcome to the family, Yifan. It’s too late to back out now.”
“This is awkward…” he mumbled.
“It’s not, it’s just a little thank you from us, don’t worry about it, dear!” Mrs. Zhang threw in and ran to the stove to check on the last dish that was getting ready.
After she had tasted it one last time, she nodded and announced:
“Dinner’s ready!”
When everyone had gathered around the table and Mrs. Zhang brought the dishes, the room was incredibly loud and Yifan once again envied Yixing for not being able to hear all this screaming and yelling. He was also thankful for the topic change since he wasn’t really sure what to do with his envelope – he had given it to Yixing in the end so he could take care of it. He was sure, judging from the weight and the thickness of the envelope, Yixing’s parents hadn’t just thrown a hundred Yuan bill in it.
“Soooo, Yifan. How did you meet our Yixing? Sorry, we’re all just very curious, my sister hasn’t told us anything,” an aunt asked while giving her little daughter some of her beef.
Yixing groaned, but did nothing to stop his family members to investigate Yifan so he figured he was allowed to answer the question:
“There’s this buddy program at our university and I happened to know CSL. I got assigned to Yixing. That’s basically how we met. I fixed his student ID when we met the first time.”
The people around him laughed and somebody wanted to know where they went for their first date.
“He took me to the Forbidden City,” Yixing threw in.
Yifan looked up from his bowl in surprise.
“You consider this our first date?”
Yixing shrugged his shoulders and touched Yifan’s knee with his under the table. Yifan grinned.
“Okay, well, yeah. Forbidden City.”
“Aah, that sounds nice. You know, Anhao here tried to take me out on his scooter for our first date,” Yixing’s aunt said and her husband turned red immediately, “But he crashed it into a ditch. I got out without a scratch, but he had to go to the hospital because he broke his palate. I spent my first date in a hospital holding his hand because he’s also afraid of needles and all this kind of stuff.”
“Hey, a broken palate hurts like hell!” Anhao tried to defend himself and earned a round of laughs.
“Yixing, how’s Beijing?”
“Very dirty,” was the first thing he said.
“Obviously. And what else?”
Yixing rolled his eyes, but explained further and told them about the things he had seen in Beijing. He even mentioned Luhan, Tao and the Koreans and the rest of the family was overjoyed about the fact that he seemed to get along so well. Yifan found himself thinking that this was way better than his New Year’s last year, even though Luhan’s family had been nice hosts too. The mood couldn’t have been any more amazing – until Mrs. Zhang served the fish and the family was talking about plans for the coming year.
“I’d really like to see my son getting an implant,” the host said and looked directly at her son who stopped in the motion of getting him and Yifan a piece of the fish.
“Ma, do we really have to start with this now?” Zhenzhen whined, but her mother wouldn’t listen.
“I mean, if you put it in perspective – the ability to hear is just so much more important than looking good, since that seems to be your only concern.”
A few relatives started to throw some sentences in, some were taking sides for Yixing, some didn’t.
“Did you know there’s another implant besides the Cochlear one?” Yifan heard himself say, while Yixing hadn’t said a word and just glared at his mother.
He drew the family’s attention.
“No, we didn’t!” Mrs. Zhang answered and leaned forward in anticipation.
“It’s called ‘Esteem Implant’ and it’s completely internal,” Yifan explained, gesturing to show roughly where the device would be implanted, “It’s pretty cool I think.”
Mrs. Zhang’s eyes lit up in excitement and she turned to her son:
“Isn’t that something, Yixing? Why haven’t you told me about this?”
Yixing’s mouth dropped open and anger flashed across his face. Two seconds later, he threw his chopsticks on the table, got up and left the room without a word. Zhenzhen sighed and said:
“Great, mother! Couldn’t you have waited with that?!”
Mrs. Zhang didn’t seem to understand why her son was upset and an awkward moment of silence followed at the table. Yifan put his chopsticks down and said:
“I’ll go check on him.”
When Yifan went upstairs, an argument emerged between daughter and mother but he didn’t bother to listen very carefully. Yixing had a habit of leaving doors to bedrooms open, something his mother had hammered into him when he was a kid, even though it didn’t make any difference – he wouldn’t hear her calls anyway. Yifan found Yixing standing at the window staring into the night. He noticed Yifan entering the room because of his reflection but he didn’t even turn to look at him. If not, he shifted his weight so his back was completely turned to him. The taller one placed one hand on the other’s shoulder to get his attention.
“Are you okay?” he asked, aware of the fact that the question didn’t even get through to him.
Yixing grunted and fled to the bed, out of Yifan’s reach.
“Leave me alone,” he said then, sitting down on the mattress.
It took Yifan a moment to realize the death glares Yixing was sending were meant for him.
“Okay, hold on a second. Are you mad at me?”
Yixing scoffed.
“Are you that stupid or are you just acting like this?!”
“Drop the attitude, Zhang Yixing! Why are you mad at me?”
“Well, maybe because you were supposed to back me up, not take her side!”
“… I did not take her side?”
Yifan had a hard time understanding what Yixing gestured – usually, his hand movements were very delicate, but right now his movements were sharp and fast. The other one almost couldn’t follow.
“You did! You threw in some other implant that she can annoy me with now! Why do you know about this anyway?!”
“I just found that on the internet, I didn’t mean to…”
“Nobody asked you to do research! This doesn’t have anything to do with you! It’s none of your business!”
Yixing was so angry that he teared up and tried hard to hold the tears back. Yifan on the other hand was so shocked that he just stood in the room for a few moments before he even managed to stammer:
“I… what… none of…?”
Yifan felt his stomach turn while he processed what Yixing just had said. At first his instinct was to become angry and leave the room, but he reconsidered – an argument on New Year’s Eve surely wasn’t the best way to bid the year goodbye. So he sat down on the edge of the bed and turned to Yixing who was watching him from the corners of his eyes.
“Umm, what you said kind of hurts me,” he started, trying to choose his words carefully, “Because… I am your boyfriend, Yixing. And, well… no matter what is going on in your life, I want to be informed on that. Because I care about you.”
Yixing pressed his lips together and crossed his arms in front of his body. Yifan proceeded:
“So, I thought it might be good to get informed on that implant stuff. What I said downstairs… I didn’t really think you’d thought I’d take sides with your mom. I didn’t mean to. It’s your decision, not mine or your mother’s. I’m sorry if it came out that way.”
When he finished, Yixing seemed to think about what he had told him. He managed to crack a smile and grabbed his hand.
“I’m sorry for acting like this.”
“So we’re good again?”
Yixing nodded and Yifan kissed the back of his hand.
“Good. You being mad at me felt really weird.”
“I’m still mad at my mom though.”
“Because she brings it up all the time?”
Yixing sighed.
“She just doesn’t understand… I mean, she’s right that I hate how the implant looks, but there’s more than that. I’ve looked all the needed steps up more than once in my life. I know what would happen to me and the thought of getting something inserted into my skull just… scares me. There’s too much that could happen during the operation or afterwards.”
 Yifan placed one of his hands above Yixing’s knee and squeezed it to encourage him to go on.
“Plus, this world is full of so many sounds and noises, I don’t even know if I can cope with all this. I’ve been fine with how it’s been so far. I’m good with not hearing stuff. I got over it.”
They remained silent for a moment before Yifan ruffled his hair and said:
“I’ll like you either way. With or without any hearing.”
Yixing mouthed a ‘Thank You’ and tried to control the grin that started to appear on his face.
“Oh, by the way,” Yifan threw in, “You consider our trip to the Forbidden City our ‘first date’? That was the second time we saw each other…”
Yixing whimpered and blushed. Then he confessed:
“Okay, I sort of had a crush on you the moment I saw you.”
The statement made Yifan squeal and he was glad Yixing couldn’t hear that because it was a rather high pitched and weird sound that had escaped his throat.
“Love at first sight, how cute!”
The answer was Yixing hitting his arm.
“I said CRUSH not LOVE!”
“It’s okay, baby. Don’t deny it, it’s too late.”
“You’re frustrating, I didn’t---“
Yifan silenced his boyfriend with a soft kiss and Yixing sighed as he gave in and pulled him closer. When they parted, Yifan asked:
“Do you want to stay here a little more?”
Yixing nodded, so Yifan threw his arms around him and the smaller one snuggled into his chest. They spent about thirty minutes like that, sharing a few words once in a while, until Zhenzhen appeared with a plate full of desserts.
“I figured you may want some, too,” she said and closed the door with her left foot.
“And I figure you wanted to escape that awkward dinner downstairs?” Yifan said.
Yixing’s sister made a grimace and then admitted:
“Yeaaaah, that was maybe the main reason.”
The guys laughed and moved a little to give Zhenzhen and her plate more space. She had brought a big variety of things – starting from Kumquats to rice cakes and sesame balls.
“I mean, it’s not like they miss me anyway. Nobody ever really talks to me. Adults are so weird. I mean… I’m considered to be mature and all this kind of stuff but I’m still too young to engage in their conversations…”
“And that is never going to change, trust me,” Yifan said while popping a Kumquat into his mouth.
“Great!” Zhenzhen scoffed and handed her brother a rice cake since she knew these were his favorite dessert on Chinese New Year.
They spent a good amount of time munching on the desserts that were really delicious and then proceeded to play some cards, but Yifan had a hard time catching up. The game was a very local one that only seemed to be played in this region and the siblings seemed to have grown up with it. The first time they had played it, Zhenzhen and Yixing always had to wait for Yifan to understand what was actually happening. And when he finally had gotten the hang of it, Mrs. Zhang opened the door, but remained in the doorframe.
“It’s time to get outside, guys.”
“Aiya, right when I was starting to understand this!” Yifan whined and tossed the cards onto the mattress, while Zhenzhen giggled.
“We’re going to continue afterwards,” she suggested and got up and exited.
Yixing and Yifan got up too but when they were about to leave the room, Mrs. Zhang held her son back.
“I’m sorry about earlier Yixing.”
It was the first time she had used any sign language when talking to him and the way Yixing looked at her made Yifan think that this might be a big gesture from her side. Her son nodded and said:
“It’s okay, Ma.”
She smiled and pulled him close to give him a kiss in his forehead.
“Be sure to wear warm jackets, you don’t want to catch a cold, guys,” she said while turning for the stairs.

Around midnight, the whole neighborhood was out on the streets with their fireworks and firecrackers to celebrate the new year. Yifan had never been a huge fan of these things – while he enjoyed the patterns fireworks used to paint in the sky, he never really understood what people found amazing about the firecrackers. They just made noise and that was about it. They didn’t look pretty, they just let your eardrums explode and caused a lot of smoke and waste. But they were an indispensable item of the New Year celebrations, so he bore with it. The thing to count down the last ten seconds to the next year seemed like an unilateral rule, no matter where in the world, and as soon as the clock struck midnight, people started to cheer as if their favorite soccer team had just won an important game, fireworks shot up into the sky and everybody wished each other a Happy New Year. Yifan felt Yixing grabbing his hand and intertwining their fingers.
“Happy New Year,” he said, while firecrackers exploded and kids cheered with joy as soon as they went off.
The smell of black powder lingered in the air and tickled Yifan’s nose as he squeezed Yixing’s hand a little tighter and leaned over to demand their first kiss in the New Year. The moment was rather short, because Zhenzhen came up to them and screamed against the noise:
“Happy New Year, guys!”
“Zhenzhen, I somehow have the feeling that one day you’re going to walk in on us while we’re having ,” Yifan groaned.
She tilted her head and blinked like a deer before she seemed to understand and went:
“Oh! I’m sorry! Should I come back in a few?”
“No, you ruined the mood anyway.”
The girl shrugged her shoulders, then pulled out three firecrackers and a lighter out of the pockets of her coat.
“Time to make your New Year’s wishes!”
Yixing seemed to understand what she meant and grabbed one immediately. When she turned to Yifan, he just asked:
“What kind of tradition is this? Is this a Hunan thing?”
“No, it’s an Yixing-Zhenzhen thing,” the sister explained and put one of the red explosive cylinders into Yifan’s hand, “You light it up, make a wish for the coming year and throw it away. And then it comes true!”
“And you really believe that?”
“Don’t be such a buzzkill!” Yixing nudged him and took the lighter out of Zhenzhen’s hands.
He didn’t even have to think very long, he just lit the firecracker, closed his eyes for one second and then tossed it away. Five seconds later it exploded with a loud crack and Yixing seemed to be oddly content with it. Next was Zhenzhen. She didn’t seem to have given the whole matter a thought in advance and stood there for a while, lighter and firecracker held up in front of her. When she finally had decided on what to wish for, she did the same as her brother and smiled when her firecracker had exploded just like the other one. Then she handed the lighter over to Yifan.
“Your turn, brother-in-law,” she joked.
“Aaah, I really don’t know what to wish for…”
“Come on, there must be something!”
He thought hard, but nothing really crossed his mind. Zhenzhen and Yixing seemed a little disappointed, but then the youngest of the three said:
“Okay, I know something. I’m going to make the wish, but you have to light the thing. It won’t work otherwise.”
“What kind of rule is this, Zhenzhen??”
“Trust me Yifan, do it!”
Yifan sighed and Yixing gave him a little push into Zhenzhen’s direction who took the firecracker from Yifan and held it away from their bodies.
“Light it up!” She ordered and Yifan did as he was told.
When it exploded, the young man asked:
“What did you wish for?”
“I’m not going to tell you now, otherwise it won’t come true! Ask me again next year!”
She hopped off to get some more firecrackers and Yifan could only manage to shake his head and went back to Yixing who grinned from one ear to the other.
“Your sister’s quite a handful,” Yifan told him.
“I know. But I like this about her.”
The other one returned the grin and offered his arm. Yixing gladly took it and said:
“I’m happy you’re here.”
“So am I.”
Yixing placed his head on Yifan’s shoulder as they watched Zhenzhen and, surprisingly, Jinhai setting up the next firework and lighting it together. That really was way better than spending the night with a pack of instant noodles alone in his dorm room.

A/N: Sorry, I'm kind of in a hurry. I've read your comments and I'll reply to them tomorrow! But right now, I actually just my laptop to post this chapter - my real life is stressing me out today ahahahahahahhahaahhaaaaa.
Take care guys! Thanks for (still) reading this (srsly I'm very very thankful)! ♥