CH 3

Tang Yi had this kind of ability. Obviously what you wanted was A, but he could pick out a B from the euphemistic excuses of “It’s really not good” or “I’m afraid”, and then wait for you to kowtow and thank him.

Gu Yanting’s teeth ached with anger. Lin Rui was right opposite him at the moment. As the words “scram where he came from” clearly sounded from the microphone, the smile on Lin Rui’s face froze.

Gu Yanting was worried about some things these days, and when he called, he forgot that he was having a cold war with Tang Yi. At this time, Tang Yi, who had been touted by him all morning as “gentle and genuine”, slapped his face on the spot, and Gu Yanting’s face turned black immediately.

“Tang Yi!”

“Beep—” The other side had already hung up the phone.

Lin Rui was a little embarrassed. Seeing Gu Yanting’s face livid and his muscles stiff, he reached out and pulled Gu Yanting’s arm.

“Yanting, don’t have another conflict between you two over me.” Lin Rui looked understanding and conscious, waving his hand and smiling, “It’s okay, it’s not a big deal. I’ll just get up earlier and experience domestic life.”

Gu Yanting could only nod, “I’m really sorry about this, Tang Yi, he is… not in a good mood lately.”

“Oh? Did you have a fight?” Lin Rui was surprised, “Then it must be your fault. Tang Yi is such a good man. You don’t know how to cherish him, ah, be careful of him being abducted!”

Gu Yanting frowned and didn’t continue the topic, asking instead, “What kind of work do you come back for? Why are you in such a hurry to go to work?”

“At ER, I can’t help it, they’re pushing quite hard.”

Lin Rui lowered his head, exposing a large area of snow-white skin under the wide-collar T-shirt. “Now my mother is also getting older, I have to earn money to support the family…”

“Your family is not…” Gu Yanting felt that the name of the company was somewhat familiar but was still distracted by the second half of the sentence. Lack of money was not a problem Lin Rui’s family should have, ah! But when he thought about Lin Rui’s asshole father, he couldn’t continue to ask.

Lin Rui’s mother was the mistress that married the boss of an entertainment company. It was not a big company but it still had created several small stars and had its own place in the industry. However, the rumours were that the boss’s original wife was ruthless and when she divorced him, she was so meticulous in her calculations that she almost left him without his pants. The boss had since become suspicious, and as far as Lin Rui’s mother was concerned, apart from giving her cards for shopping and cash, all other properties were guarded against her and her son like against thieves.

Gu Yanting grew up with a loving father and a loving mother. Back then, when he saw Lin Rui crying pitifully in his arms, his body covered with the old man’s finger marks, he almost picked up a knife and went to fight the beast boss desperately.

Lin Rui was pure and weak and it was obvious at a glance that he needed to be protected.

What’s more, he saved Gu Yanting’s life.

Lin Rui knew what he was going to say and smiled self-deprecatingly.

Gu Yanting averted his eyes and walked with Lin Rui in silence for a while before saying, “Don’t work too hard. If you encounter any problems, call me anytime.”

Lin Rui’s finely sculpted little face was lifted slightly as he said, “Then don’t mind me being annoying.”

“No.” Gu Yanting looked at him and didn’t make any more promises but pointed to a Japanese restaurant not far away and said, “Let’s go, I’ll treat you to dinner.”

Lin Rui nodded, “Sure, it’s been a while since I’ve eaten in one. I miss it.”

He followed closely and suddenly said, “Yanting, you are much more mature than before and… more handsome.”

Gu Yanting’s handsome looks were recognized by the whole school. His IQ and emotional intelligence were average, but his height and face value were top notch. He was 1.85 metres tall, with long legs, a figure of inverted triangle and European-style double eyelids. In the words of Fat Sod, a deep fold of his double eyelids could kill a fly with a roll of an eye.

Advertisements

Tang Yi once lamented that a person with Gu Yanting’s face would be ruthless and cold-blooded unless he became enlightened.

Gu Yanting asked him how to develop that skill and Tang Yi said with a smile, who knows, maybe you need to wait for someone to touch your heart and soul. You’ll be really desperate and learn to sublimate when you’re angry.

Gu Yanting bristled, unimpressed.

Tang Yi was the most scheming, mature and stable, the most decisive and the most unreasonable person of his age he had ever seen. Even if Gu Yanting were fully enlightened, he wouldn’t be able to keep up with Tang Yi.

The two of them quarrelled at least nine times out of ten because Gu Yanting simply couldn’t say anything to Tang Yi at home. In the end, he would get desperate and they would come to blows, and then Tang Yi would declare a cold war on him.

Why did they quarrel this time?

Gu Yanting was in a daze for a moment; he forgot.

He remembered that at the end he punched Tang Yi in the stomach and the latter was so angry that he lay down on the sofa and did not get up. When Gu Yanting remembered to coax him in the middle of the night, the man was already gone.

He didn’t take his clothes, didn’t take his mobile phone, in such a hurry.

“Yanting? Yanting?” Lin Rui couldn’t help grabbing Gu Yanting’s wrist, “Yanting, are you alright?”

“No, I probably haven’t slept well lately.” Gu Yanting raised his hand and pinched his brow, “Let’s talk about you, how have you been these past two years?”

Gu Yanting invited Lin Rui to dinner and then drove him to the mall to buy some clothes for work. By the time he got home, it was already past seven o’clock in the evening.

The dim light was coming through the window on the fourth floor, and Gu Yanting couldn’t help but breathe a sigh of relief when he saw it from a distance. 

He was not a fool; Tang Yi did not even hide his unwelcome to Lin Rui. Last night at the KTV, Tang Yi didn’t have a fit because he was saving him some face.

Everyone knew the face was important to Gu Yanting. He and Tang Yi had been in a relationship for three years, and no matter how fiercely they fought at home, they never gave each other a hard time when they went out to meet their friends.

It was just that the friends only saw them once or twice a week and considered him and Tang Yi an old married couple. But as long as they wanted to live this life, they had to get past Lin Rui’s hurdle.

Gu Yanting parked the car, looked up at his window and stood for a while before walking upstairs.

Gu Yanting was a city person. His father and mother were both ordinary workers and lived in the staff dormitory in a tube-shaped apartment building. He grew up following the bear kids in the dormitory area who stole chickens and jumped around.

Such carefree days lasted until high school. When Gu Yanting was in military training, he began to dream about his instructor at night. He was tall and rarely saw the instructor’s face behind him when he stood in formation; but the aura of a mature man made him, a teenager, start to have various impulses.

It was at that time that he met Lin Rui.

It happened during Gu Yanting’s winter break in his first year of high school when the road near the apartment building was renovated and half of the road was blocked. Gu Yanting went home for the holiday and just got off the bus when he was hit by a car that went in the opposite direction.

It was a cold day and there were few people on the road at that time. A few of the people who saw him screamed louder than he did. The hit-and-run vehicle fled, and there was no surveillance near the rundown suburban area. So if Lin Rui hadn’t passed by there, 80% Gu Yanting would have been dead.

Lin Rui called the police and an ambulance, and crouched next to Gu Yanting in his pure white clothes, constantly encouraging him and calling out to him. In his dizzy, half-awake state, that beautiful face was engraved into Gu Yanting’s mind.

Later, when he went to university, Gu Yanting was so happy to see Lin Rui, who was in his class, at the freshman orientation that he almost flew out of the dormitory.

It was a pity that the two of them were not destined for each other. Gu Yanting didn’t hesitate to confess his love when he found out that Lin Rui was the same kind as him, but he was rejected. Lin Rui said it was because they were too familiar with each other, but in fact, in hindsight, it was because Gu Yanting was too poor.

Even though his father later opened a small hotel and could afford to pay for Gu Yanting’s food, drinks and designer brands, compared with the friends Lin Rui dated, the gap between them was still enough to put them in two different social classes.

Gu Yanting knew this in his heart, but Lin Rui was like a white moonlight in his heart. Since his second year of high school, all his thoughts and dreams had been scorched by this white light. He had been thinking about Lin Rui day and night, and his love for Lin Rui was deeply rooted.

Therefore, he consciously stepped back, not a spare tire but better than a spare tire, a hard-working assistant at Lin Rui’s beck and call. The relationship between the two was defined as being friends, the best friends.

Of the dozen or so boyfriends Gu Yanting had dated during his college years, all of them knew of Lin Rui’s existence, but all of them showed kindness and understanding.

The ones who didn’t were kicked away by Gu Yanting a long time ago.

But now, Gu Yanting did not dare to kick Tang Yi; although he did not know why he had agreed to Tang Yi’s request to “give it a try” back then and although he even stubbornly believed that the relationship between him and Tang Yi was only a kinship that had grown over time, just like the kind of dependency one had when raising a dog or a cat, far from love.

He still did not dare to anger Tang Yi easily.

The door to the room was closed. When Gu Yanting pushed the door in, he saw Tang Yi sitting on the sofa watching TV, his light blue shirt with two buttons open and rarely wrinkled.

On TV was the classic cat and mouse cartoon. The old cat was chasing the mouse in a fury, with a lot of tossing and turning all the way, and finally caught the mouse but didn’t slap it to death with one paw. Instead, he laughed triumphantly.

The mouse took advantage of it and scurried away.

Tang Yi smiled lightly and spat out his opinion, “Idiot.”

Tang Yi was a trendsetter in school and a leader at work. Today, he said the word “idiot” in a serious manner, quick and smooth like a mantra. Gu Yanting was stunned and stood still.

Tang Yi had already turned to look at him, one hand gently propping up the frame of his glasses, “You’re back?”

The two of them had been in a cold war for several days; Tang Yi was polite, so Gu Yanting didn’t want to screw up either. He nodded, “Yes, I’m back. Have you eaten?”

He changed his shoes, carried a small translucent bag and put it on the coffee table, “Bought it for you.”

The small, square box contained a ring.

Tang Yi gently pinched it and looked at it in his hand for a long time. It was from a jewellery store frequented by trendy men.

Just because he didn’t mix in the circle didn’t mean he really wasn’t familiar with these things. In fact, Tang Yi knew almost everything about what people in the circle usually liked and what they would buy.

There was only one possibility why someone like Gu Yanting, who never went shopping, would buy something from this store.

Tang Yi squeezed the ring and nestled it on the sofa, the fingers of his right hand tapping lightly on his knee.

“The hipster shop on the first floor of Xinhai? This is… about 288?”

Gu Yanting’s walk towards the bedroom stalled, and he turned to look over in surprise.

Tang Yi’s mind was deep; to put it bluntly, he was too shrewd. It was just that usually when the two of them got along, Tang Yi was like a big warm cat, occasionally showing his sharp claws and never scratching Gu Yanting.

Today the sharp claws were exposed a little and Gu Yanting already sensed that something was wrong, “En.”

“That’s good, ten rings is exactly enough for a meal.”

“You followed me?” Gu Yanting’s brow furrowed and he instantly wanted to be annoyed. The Japanese food he had eaten with Lin Rui at noon had cost him a total of 2900. Gu Yanting’s face sank, and he suddenly felt foolish for trying to reconcile.

And explain?

And negotiate?

Who is Tang Yi? You don’t need to say anything! 

Who knew that Tang Yi would raise his hand to shield his eyes and smile slowly, “You really think highly of me, Gu Yanting.”

“Lin Rui loves Japanese food, so if you’re inviting him to dinner today, would it be possible to go to a Sichuan restaurant? In the entire T City, there are only three Japanese restaurants that can catch Lin Rui’s eye. Kong is too far from his home, and Hongshi was recently renovated, which means that it is suitable in all aspects. What’s more, the couple’s seat there is quite famous, with a minimum spending of 2600. You, Gu Yanting, with your face, how can you do without adding a bit more?”

Tang Yi turned his face sideways and said indifferently, “About 2900?”

“……” Gu Yanting was shocked in his heart.

At this distance, he could only see Tang Yi’s profile; under the black-rimmed glasses, his eyebrows were smooth and his eyes quiet, seemingly unruffled. However, the wave of coldness began to spread from the soles of Gu Yanting’s feet, all the way up to his temples, causing him to break into sweat and the hair to rise all over his body.

Sure enough, it didn’t take much effort at all for Tang Yi to find out what he wanted to know.

“So what?” Gu Yanting paused for a moment and sneered, “It was 2900, what’s wrong? Spending too much? If you’re worried about me spending money, you can say so. I earn a penny and spend a penny. If it’s a big deal, I’ll keep accounts for all the food and drinks I ate and drank before and will pay you later, one by one, okay?”

Since the two of them got together, it was always Tang Yi who earned more money. With it being Gu Yanting’s heart knot, Tang Yi rarely mentioned money. Today, something was wrong with Tang Yi, and Gu Yanting exploded a bit suddenly.

Advertisements

Tang Yi’s body stiffened, and his hand on the back of the sofa instantly showed blue veins as he grabbed the sofa cover in a fierce grip.

Gu Yanting gritted his teeth and waited for Tang Yi to grit his teeth too and come over to fight. Who knew that the iron claw-like grip would clench fiercely and then slowly let go.

Tang Yi didn’t move; instead he let out a soft sigh, “Yanting, are you really resisting me like this?”

Gu Yanting frowned and didn’t say anything.

“I’m autocratic, dictatorial, and your original fox friends, oh no, they should be called brothers… I tore your brothers apart. Almost no one befriends you anymore, eating meat and drinking without you. You feel very lonely, don’t you?”

Gu Yanting froze.

“Occasionally,” Gu Yanting said. “What’s the point of talking about that?”

“Okay, so let’s not talk about that.” Tang Yi paused for a moment and said half-heartedly, “So do you feel that I make more money than you and that makes you feel pressured? Especially when I ask you how much money you spend, do you feel very humiliated?”

This time Gu Yanting didn’t hesitate, “A little.”

“Well,” Tang Yi asked again, “You don’t like me asking you about your affairs?”

Gu Yanting suddenly remembered that the last time the two of them had had a big fight, it had been about this.

He had a cousin who had come over to invite him to dinner, and Tang Yi had waited until he returned in the middle of the night and questioned him for half an hour.

Gu Yanting had lived his life as he pleased for the past twenty years and had never given in to any lover. When someone as good as Tang Yi was with him, he felt honoured and unconsciously made concessions, and in the end it was a case of giving in again and again up to the present situation.

So sometimes, when his undying rebellious heart surged up, countless grievances and sorrows gushed out.

In the past, when Gu Yanting had raised objections to these points, Tang Yi would sometimes listen to him in surprise and nod and take note of those that made sense, while at other times he would simply go rogue and suddenly come over and give Gu Yanting a kiss.

The end result would be a ladies’ fight and a night of sex.

When Gu Yanting thought of the sweet scenes between the two of them before, that pent up anger went down quietly again.

“Tang Yi, all this can be discussed. I…” Gu Yanting didn’t know what to say for a moment. Tang Yi sat there in a clear and cold manner, not looking like he was upset and angry, but not looking like he wanted to make up either.

Gu Yanting scratched his head and opened his mouth a few times, but he didn’t know where to start.

“It’s about Lin Rui, isn’t it?” The two were silent for more than ten minutes before Tang Yi sighed and spoke first, “What do you want to say?”

Gu Yanting finally found his goal, hurriedly walked to the sofa and sat down, “Lin Rui’s home is too far away from Jianghuai Road, and I’m afraid his leg won’t be able to bear it if there’s no seat on the road. Today he said he wanted to borrow a room, but I didn’t agree when I saw you weren’t too happy. However, can we discuss this matter?”

Lin Rui’s leg was injured when he helped Gu Yanting. It was said that while he was watching Gu Yanting waiting for the ambulance, a car came from behind and scraped him.

Gu Yanting had seen it, a scar twisting on Lin Rui’s straight, delicate calf.

The 1×2 metre sofa was half occupied by Tang Yi with his spread arms, and once Gu Yanting sat down, he was blocked in the far side.

Tang Yi finally raised his gaze, his phoenix eyes slightly austere as he looked over, “Can’t.”

“Why can’t we?” Gu Yanting frowned, his tone a little desperate, “It’s not like there’s anything between me and him, we’re just ordinary classmates, besides, his leg was injured because of me, I can’t just not care about it, right?”

“You want to care,” Tang Yi said. “Can you tell me how long you plan to care? You’ll care once? For a year? Or for the rest of your life?”

Gu Yanting froze, “Of course… I’ll help if I can.”

This meant that as long as Lin Rui had a problem in this life, he would take care of it as long as he could take care of it.

Tang Yi stopped talking.

The lighting in the living room was warm yellow. When Tang Yi went to buy lamps, he deliberately changed it, saying that this was warmer and had the atmosphere of home. However, at this moment, the warm yellow light shone on his handsome face but it still vaguely looked miserably white.

There was an awkward silence in the room for a long time.

Gu Yanting felt that something was wrong and tried to speak again, but it was already too late.

Because he heard it, the light but firm sigh coming from Tang Yi, “Gu Yanting, let’s break up.”