CH 47

Professor Yan dropped his gaze, silently looking at the corpse of the cup, “…”

Lawyer Gu also dropped his gaze, wordlessly looking at the corpse of the cup, “…” 

Like teacher, like student; the two men were expressionless as they held a funeral procession for the glass shards strewn across the floor.

The atmosphere was suffocating. It was hard to tell who was more awkward than the other, and who more needed to take a draught of living death to calm down.

But the heavens never followed the will of the people, arranging an unrelenting blockhead to give a hard knock to their souls. “Gu? Gu, are you listening? Eh? Is the connection bad?” The other party mumbled, fiddling around with something or other, persistently asking again two seconds later, “Huh, I don’t have a problem with the signal on my end. Gu? Can you hear me?”

Gu Yan was finally forced to give up the funeral. 

He clicked his tongue, darting a look at the silly face the other had set on the hologram of his device. Silently closing his eyes, he said, “I can hear you. I’m a little busy with something at the moment, I’ll call you back later.”

“Ah?” The other side didn’t catch the hint. “No, it’s nothing serious, I don’t need you to call back. I only want to ask how’s the program you tried, did the interference work?”

Gu Yan, “…”

His handsome face was completely frozen over. He stayed mute for two seconds before slowly replying, “The result was quite stimulating. Thank you.”

The other, “???”

However, Gu Yan didn’t say anything else and directly cut the line.

After the call was cut off, silence descended upon the room.

And with this, the atmosphere became even more suffocating. 

Professor Yan, who had been playing dead this whole while, could no longer keep up the pretence. He gently exhaled. The sigh was slight, like in acceptance of the milk that had been spilled, and he raised his gaze to meet Gu Yan’s eyes.

They stared at each other. After a long while, Gu Yan angled his head away first, perhaps in vexation or simply wishing to wash his hands off this entire episode.

“It seems that there is no longer any need for what I initially wanted to discuss with you,” Yan Suizhi said lightly, and after a short pause, he continued. “But now I’ve another question I want to ask.”

Gu Yan still didn’t look at him, only moving his lips to spit out one word. “Speak.” 

“I’m the one whose identity got exposed, so why is it that you look more awkward than me?”

“…”

Gu Yan almost broke out laughing from rage.

“You’ve stolen all my share, now it’d be weird for me to get awkward too.” The esteemed Professor Yan even said this with a smile, making his words sound all the more dismissive. 

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For a moment, it was like a scene was replayed.

If there was a dean’s desk between them and an office chair behind Yan Suizhi, it would be a true-to-life replica of the scene that used to occur in the dean’s office many years ago. Based on the original script, Gu Yan should, in the next second, get so furious that he’d slam the door behind him, storming off with a glacial look on his face.

Once he left, Yan Suizhi would have even less reason to feel awkward. 

A perfect scenario that made everyone happy.

However, Gu Yan merely pinched the bridge of his nose, frostily pointing to the chair on the balcony. “Go over and stay there. I’ll clean up the glass on the ground first.”

“Why don’t you slam the door anymore?”

And a certain someone actually sounded quite regretful. 

Gu Yan, “…”

He stared at Yan Suizhi with his face paralysed for a moment, then coolly said, “If I’m not mistaken, this is my room, so why would I slam the door?”

Student Gu had graduated many years ago. He was young and talented and had already left the nest. He had long ceased to be the cold-faced student who stormed off the moment he got pissed, and now even had the audacity to boss his teacher around.

He pointedly raised his chin towards the balcony once more for Yan Suizhi to scamper over and stay there, instead of occupying space, riling him up here. 

During this, someone knocked thrice on the door. A service staff of the villa asked politely, “Mr Gu? I heard something break just now. Do you need help cleaning it up?”

Gu Yan glanced at Yan Suizhi, then turned to open the door to the room. He nodded at the service staff outside, speaking mildly, “I broke a cup, sorry for the trouble.”

The service staff was professional. After all, those who entered this villa compound would be powerful and famous dignitaries, those who didn’t like being made into fodder for gossip regardless of what happened. The service staff quickly came in with two others, going straight for the broken glass without deviating from their purpose, quickly cleaning up the glass shards and water stains. Another carpet was laid over the area to prevent any shards they missed from inadvertently cutting anyone.

They blocked the entrance while bustling about, inconveniencing Yan Suizhi from taking his leave. In any case, he did still have some things he wished to further verify with Gu Yan, so he simply resigned himself to sitting on the rattan chair on the balcony. 

When the last service staff left the room, Gu Yan quietly requested for something; that staff nodded, hurriedly going downstairs and soon coming back up to hand Gu Yan a small white box.

“Thank you.”

“My pleasure.”

Once they withdrew, Gu Yan shut the door again. 

Unhurriedly, he walked to the balcony, dropping the small white box in his hand onto the round table.

Yan Suizhi glanced down at that box but was unable to make heads or tails of it. He wanted to ask something at first, but Gu Yan, standing near him, was too tall—he’d have to tilt his head up to speak to him. Yan Suizhi instantly said, peeved, “Sit down first.”

Gu Yan gazed down at him with hooded eyes for a moment, then bent down and opened the box, drawing a cotton swab from it.

When he bent down, the oppressive pressure let up. Watching the movements of his hands, Yan Suizhi asked airily, “When did you realise?” 

Gu Yan’s fingers paused. He didn’t lift his eyes, only picking out a bottle of antiseptic from the box and unscrewing it, pouring a little into the cap. A faint minty scent gently dispersed. “Do you want to listen to the truth, or the lie?”

They were in close proximity to each other, and the timbre of his voice when he spoke was low; because he was bending down, it gave off a particular illusion of intimacy.

Yan Suizhi switched to a more relaxed posture, leaning back into the chair. “Why would I want to listen to lies?”

Gu Yan’s gaze hung down as he carefully dipped the end of the cotton swab into the cap containing the antiseptic. He offhandedly replied, “Who knows. Maybe you’d want to hear lies to reassure yourself of your good acting skills.” 

“…Tell me the truth.”

“The truth?” Gu Yan finally lifted his eyes to sweep a gaze on him. “If you’re asking when I first suspected anything, it would be from the first day you came to the law firm. And every single day after, you were able to pull off some antic or other to further deepen my suspicion. But I was only sure when we were in Wine City.”

Upon hearing this, Yan Suizhi didn’t show any expression of utter shock. He only tsk’ed, as if slightly dissatisfied. “I thought that I could hold out for a month, at least.”

“…” 

And exactly where, may he ask, did this confidence come from?

Gu Yan didn’t give him any face at all, saying coldly, “With all due respect, I don’t see the slightest sign of ‘holding out’ in your behaviour. You might have hid it too deeply.”

Ah, the familiar poison, the familiar taste.

The esteemed Professor Yan, who had just been mocked, smothered his temper before saying, “But how long has it been? A week? Time in Wine City passes faster than in De Carma too. All things considered, it’s about six or seven days thereabout.” 

Lawyer Gu tepidly said, “Really? I thought it’s been six or seven years.”

Yan Suizhi, “…”

Mocking that each day felt a year long in this roundabout way; how had he the misfortune of taking in such a cursed student back then.

“Although I didn’t really put my heart into acting, it’s still passable, no?” Professor Yan began to toss out examples. “Look at Laura, Elena, and Jason. All of them weren’t able to recognise me. Actually, people wouldn’t normally react so quickly; after all, I’m already dead. Once this type of general cognition is formed, it’s difficult to be swayed, let alone think that the other person had modified their genes purely based on a very slight similarity in appearance…” 

He was never one to be skittish around taboo subjects. It was only after he finished speaking and lifted his gaze, that he found that Gu Yan’s brows had drawn together marginally.

All of a sudden, Yan Suizhi thought back to the way Gu Yan had pulled the black beddings away from him, the way Gu Yan had refused to hold the white flowers at the grave, and other, even smaller details. Things that he hadn’t taken much note of previously, when he recalled them now, were abruptly cast in a subtly different light.

It was rather difficult to describe, but it made a certain corner of Professor Yan’s heart soften imperceptibly.

Perhaps it was a gradual process of opening his eyes to the good only after having seen the bad. In any case, somehow, this felt more poignant than him unexpectedly running into Laura and the others leaving him flowers at the grave. 

Yan Suizhi paused for a moment, and very deliberately changed his words. “What I mean is, to their knowledge, I’m already dead.”

Gu Yan possibly never expected that Yan Suizhi, who was used to freely speaking his mind, would suddenly change his words. He gave a slight start.

Hundreds upon thousands of fluorescence glowed from the lamp pine forest beyond the balcony, reflected like a crystal-clear lake brimming with moonlight in Yan Suizhi’s bright eyes.

“Student Gu, I’ve already changed my words. So stop frowning, alright?” A smile danced in his eyes. 

And for a fleeting moment, Gu Yan’s brows unconsciously drew slightly tighter, but he swiftly caught himself, immediately loosening the tension between them. He lowered his gaze without answering, instead lifting his chin towards Yan Suizhi’s leg. “Raise your right foot a little.”

“Hm?”

“It should have been a cut from the glass earlier. Didn’t you notice you’re bleeding?”

Hearing this, Yan Suizhi looked down, then found a wound on his right foot from the glass that had flown earlier. The wound wasn’t big, but blood had seeped out in a thin line, especially striking against his fair skin. 

“Huh, I really hadn’t noticed it. It’s just a small scratch; can such a little bit of broken skin count for anything? Just leave it be.” Professor Yan originally had his legs crossed in a relaxed and elegant posture, but now that Gu Yan had pointed this out, not only did he not raise his right foot, he even reflexively wanted to put his right foot down.

However, Gu Yan had already bent down, heedlessly catching hold of his ankle.

Yan Suizhi, “…”

“I’ll do it myself.” He jolted, caught off guard. The muscles of his foot had all tensed up. 

Gu Yan spoke evenly, “I was the one who broke the glass. Naturally, since the glass has caused injury, I should deal with it.” With this, he frowned, saying, “Don’t move.”

Yan Suizhi, “…”

The long-prepared cotton swab brushed over the wound. The mint-scented antiseptic was slightly cool against his foot. This was the mildest amongst the various types of antiseptics and didn’t hurt when blotted over the wound.

Gu Yan’s gaze was cast down, and his expression never-changing when he coolly remarked, “Fizz really hit the nail on its head when she said that you get a leg injury every time you step out the door.” 

And as he said this, he accidentally pressed the cotton swab a little harder. A drop of antiseptic ran along the slender upper surface of Yan Suizhi’s foot, wiped away by Gu Yan’s thumb before it could slide down.

…If I don’t watch out, this foot will probably end up lame.

When Gu Yan kept the box and left the balcony, Professor Yan stared at the small wound on his foot, dimly thinking this to himself.