CH 13

The eleventh study trip ended quietly. Tang Yi and Ning Zeyu took the same flight and left Sanya early in the morning the next day. Before going, Tang Yi left a piece of paper on the table in the living room, thanking Zhou Hao sincerely for his care over the past few days. The tone was gentle and respectful, completely businesslike, with an attitude and wording so standard that it could be used as an administrative sample text.

There was no one in the small apartment. Assistant Yang called when Tang Yi landed, indicating that the key had been left in a storage box in the apartment’s foyer. During the eleventh, Xiao Yang went to visit his girlfriend. Her parents had already prepared a house for the newlyweds in downtown T City and he was going there to discuss the wedding.

Tang Yi sent his blessings, knowing that the small apartment would have even fewer visitors from now on.

With the new director coming, new projects came as well. The current situation in the T City branch was unknown. At this time, how could anyone work overnight for a project like they did initially?

Tang Yi stayed in his apartment for five days, and only when he was about to go to work did he make a phone call to Fat Sod.

He and Gu Yanting didn’t distinguish between yours and mine when they were together. That day at the hospital, he was determined to make a clean break, but when he returned to his apartment, he remembered that most of Gu Yanting’s bank cards were in his hands.

This is why the longer the relationship between the two, the more difficult it is to break up. Even if their feelings were exhausted, there were so many interactions in their daily lives that they unknowingly became entangled in each other. It was too much trouble to get rid of it, as difficult as separating blood relations.

Tang Yi took out a card holder that he hadn’t used in a long time and stuffed Gu Yanting’s bank cards into it, one by one, before informing Fat Sod to come and collect them.

Who knew that Fat Sod would simply agree, but it would be Gu Yanting himself who would come.

When Tang Yi opened the door, he was stunned, and Gu Yanting used this moment to squeeze in awkwardly. His eye sockets were a little sunken and there were dark shadows under his eyes, but his body was still clean and tidy, and his beard seemed to have just been shaven.

“Didn’t you ask me to come and get my cards?” Gu Yanting lowered his head, making it impossible to see his expression clearly. He put the wallet in his hand on the coffee table, “Here’re your cards.”

Tang Yi originally called Fat Sod exactly because he didn’t want to meet up with Gu Yanting. Although Gu Yanting was by no means the type to stalk, embarrassment would be unavoidable. Now that the man had come over, Tang Yi could only try to treat him as naturally and coldly as possible.

So he put the card holder on the coffee table as well and pushed it forward indifferently, “Well, this is yours.”

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He didn’t ask Gu Yanting if he wanted something to drink, let alone inviting him to sit down.

Gu Yanting looked up at him and suddenly smiled strangely, “Are you kicking me out?”

Tang Yi didn’t say anything.

Gu Yanting gritted his teeth, picked up his card holder and left. When he was near the door, he suddenly stopped again, turned his head to stare at Tang Yi and asked, “Tang Yi, have you always looked down on me and wanted to part with me for a long time?”

“……”

There were two questions in one sentence, the answer to one was “no” and to the other “yes”. If you are a human being, your strengths and weaknesses coexist. Tang Yi was deeply in love but quite realistic. After being dissatisfied with Gu Yanting, he set out to transform him. Looking down on him was never considered, but from the bottom of his heart, he had the idea of breaking up not for the first time.

But there was nothing to explain.

Tang Yi turned away, avoiding Gu Yanting’s eyes.

“…… ” Gu Yanting looked at him for a while before nodding fiercely, “I see. Don’t worry, I won’t come to harass you.”

He gritted his teeth and turned to take a step out of the door of the apartment, but after one step, he stopped again.

This time Gu Yanting’s voice was much softer.

He said, “Actually, from the first day we were together, I was afraid of this day coming.”

Tang Yi froze for a moment, and when he raised his head to look, there was no one at the door.

There was no one in the corridor either, and the numbers on the two elevators stood still on different floors without a sign of changing, so obviously Gu Yanting had taken the stairs.

Tang Yi frowned, wondering if Gu Yanting was sick, not taking the elevator and running down the stairs from the 25th floor. He sighed again; no matter whether Gu Yanting was sick or not, he himself had just walked out to the corridor without knowing why, which made him seriously sick.

Gu Yanting did run down the stairs.

When he reached the outside of the apartment building, the sunlight suddenly flashed black in front of his eyes. He stood terrified for a long time before gradually regaining his vision and at the same time heard the shout of Fat Sod.

“Boss, hey, what’s the matter?” Fat Sod ran out of the car at some point and stood in front of him with a surprised look on his face, yelling, “Why did you come down? Are you done yet?”

The initial intentions of Fat Sod were good. Once a couple is always a couple; Gu Yanting and Tang Yi had spent these three years facing each other, living their lives with tea, rice, oil and salt. It looked no different from the married life of ordinary people. If they could produce a child, it would probably be running all over the place at this moment.

It’s common for couples to have a falling out. Whose little wife hasn’t smashed pots and pans on the floor? Regardless of who was right or wrong, as long as Gu Yanting gave in, apologised and spent a little thought to coax, it would pass.

Although Fat Sod was not like those in Gu Yanting’s circle of friends, he still couldn’t quite understand how two men could be together. But Gu Yanting and Tang Yi were so natural and sweet together that he once thought they were a model couple who couldn’t get along with anyone but each other.

But this time the trouble seemed to be a bit too big.

Fat Sod scratched his head and could only find something else to talk about when he saw that Gu Yanting’s face was extremely bad and his lips compressed in a straight line.

Gu Yanting opened his mouth one step ahead of him.

“Let’s go,” Gu Yanting said with a sullen look on his face, “go and have a drink with me.”

There was a small bar just a short walk away from Tang Yi’s apartment, and while Fat Sod went to get his car, Gu Yanting was already walking along the road to the bar. By the time Fat Sod had parked his car and pushed open the bar door, three bottles were already empty on Gu Yanting’s table, and the fourth bottle was half drunk.

“Boss,” Fat Sod snatched the bottle away and said sympathetically, “Drinking doesn’t help! Tell me what the hell is wrong with you two!”

Gu Yanting’s handsome features were crumpled, his face gloomy, and he obviously had no intention of talking.

Fat Sod could only push a few bottles of beer on the table aside and ask him, “Shen Fan is back, do you know?”

Shen Fan was also a student of the provincial university. When Gu Yanting, Fat Sod and Tang Yi were in their freshman year, Shen Fan, as the senior and the president of the school’s student union, delivered a speech at the freshman orientation party. The handsome boy in a white shirt and black trousers almost blinded the golden… dog eyes of all the students and teachers in the school.

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There were two major camps in the provincial university. The main camp had countless handsome and beautiful men and women, pretty and charming, or cold iceberg type, and all sorts of talented men and women. Shen Fan was standing out not because of his facial features and body, but because he looked particularly decent.

His decency was a bit extreme. For example, he was extremely uncomfortable with homosexuality.

Lin Rui was keen to participate in various club activities when he was a freshman. He was beautiful and sweet, exceptionally good-looking. Apart from a very few boys who were disgusted with him, most of the senior brothers and sisters took care of him eagerly, feeling that this student was very young and innocent, a flower that could not withstand the rain.

The more Lin Rui got mixed up, the more he got involved, and in his second semester he was granted a job as a junior officer in the student union’s club section. At that time, Gu Yanting was participating in the school’s basketball tournament and he noticed that when Shen Fan would occasionally come over, Lin Rui would be particularly enthusiastic and good-mannered.

Shen Fan’s attitude was not conspicuous and he seemed to be used to such things. Gu Yanting was not good at reading people’s words and expressions. He only knew that Lin Rui liked Shen Fan very much, while Shen Fan liked him because of his outstanding performance in the basketball game. So, he immediately pretended to be smart and tipped Lin Rui off whenever he saw the opportunity.

Until one time later, Lin Rui said something, and when he leaned forward, he was kicked in the stomach by Shen Fan and fell two metres away. Gu Yanting came late that day and was shocked to see Lin Rui lying on the ground with a shocked face.

Shen Fan coldly said one word to them – “disgusting”.

Shen Fan graduated and left school when they were in their sophomore year. Later, Lin Rui and a handsome blond guy from the campus hugged each other every day, finally putting the whole school into an uproar and blatantly coming out of the closet. As the closest person to Lin Rui, Gu Yanting was inevitably affected by the fallout. Many students gave them sideways looks, but Shen Fan, who occasionally returned to school, seemed to have let go of his grudges and would nod when he met them.

When their class graduated, Shen Fan even joined having a casual dinner with them.

When Lin Rui returned to China this time, Shen Fan also came to the welcome-back party. At that time, Gu Yanting was only surprised but didn’t think much of it. After all, it’s been more than three years since they graduated, so whatever grudges and grievances they might have had had long since passed.

Now when Fat Sod solemnly said that Shen Fan was back, Gu Yanting looked at him suspiciously and said, “Didn’t we see him when Lin Rui came back a while ago?”

“Yes, I did see him,” Fat Sod said hesitantly, seemingly having something difficult to say, “but that day, hey, just that day when you went on a business trip and asked me to keep an eye on Sister-in-law, I saw him too.”

“What?!!!” Gu Yanting snapped, his eyes instantly rounded.

“Hey, hey, you take it easy, maybe, maybe it’s just a coincidence.” Fat Sod gulped, obviously not quite believing it himself, “Wasn’t Sister-in-law carrying a child and leaving with a man that day? Oh, not leaving, just getting in the car… anyway, you know what I mean.” Fat Sod cleared his throat and added. “I took a look at the car and couldn’t catch up with it, so I came back. When I got to your house, guess who I saw? Shen Fan! Damn, Boss! He was standing downstairs in front of your house, not moving a muscle, looking at your window!”

Gu Yanting was also stunned.

Fat Sod: “Didn’t you say that he didn’t like seeing you guys being like that? That day in KTV we all shouted ‘Sister-in-law’, why did he still…”

“How long did he stand there?”

“A little over half an hour,” Fat Sod glanced at him carefully, “Boss, what’s going on here?”

Seeing Gu Yanting wrinkle his brows and not say anything, he couldn’t help but swallow and ask hesitantly. “Is Sister-in-law…”

The Hummer man and Shen Fan, if you picked out one at random to compare, Gu Yanting really had no advantage, except for his looks. No, his looks were no advantage either, the Hummer man was quite similar to him, and was also mature and charming!

Fat Sod looked at Gu Yanting with sympathy, feeling hopeless for him.

“No way,” Gu Yanting cut off the conversation with a decisive wave of his hand. The two of them stared at each other in silence for a moment before Gu Yanting’s hand slowly clenched into a fist and slowly unclenched again.

His fingers that used to draw design drafts were long and strong, and the shape of his hands was as beautiful as a hand model’s, but now the backs of his hands were lined with blue veins, and his ten fingers repeatedly clenched and unclenched in a somewhat nervous motion.

It took Gu Yanting a long time to find his voice and speak very slowly and firmly, “Fat Sod, Tang Yi is by no means that kind of person! He wouldn’t set foot in two boats. It’s not like no one pursued him when he was with me. He didn’t even look at them. If a customer wanted to develop a relationship with him, he would just put the end to it.”

Gu Yanting paused, as if to give himself a boost, “He hates unrelated sticky people the most. He won’t.”

“But,” Fat Sod opened his mouth, full of shock, “But, you broke up!”

He held back and couldn’t help adding another sentence, “And, what the hell, aren’t you unrelated and sticky?…”