CH 4

There was another pause on the other end of the call, this time longer than the previous one.

“Where are you?”

The man’s voice was magnetic and cold, which was different from Li Siyuan’s. Song Yunshen vaguely recognized the difference. He squinted at the unfamiliar number on the mobile phone screen. His eyes were out of focus, so he was unable to see it clearly even after staring for a long time.

“… Who are you?” Song Yunshen asked. 

“Lin… Li Siyuan.”

The dead-drunk Song Yunshen was tricked easily, but he was still skeptical.

“Baby? How did your voice become like this…”

The person on the other end of the call gently coughed. When he spoke again, his voice suddenly rose a degree, and his tone became soft and delicate. “It’s me. Where are you?”

When he heard the familiar tone of voice, tears fell down his face on the spot. Song Yunshen cradled his phone in his arms, as if it were a rare treasure. The person on the other side of the phone said something again. He couldn’t hear it clearly, but he didn’t care. The phone was buried in his arms, so the voice of the other person reached his ears as only a muffled sound. Such a sound made him feel as if someone was still in his arms, lying on his chest, talking sweet nothings. He hugged the phone in a tight embrace, lowered his head, and twitched slightly.

“I don’t understand… Baby, I don’t understand… We were obviously all set to get married… How could it turn out like this? What exactly did I do wrong? Tell me… I’ll change. It’s not like I can’t change! You know me so well…”

He spoke incoherently for a long time. The other side never made a sound, but the phone was getting hotter and hotter. In the end, Song Yunshen didn’t remember what he said nor when the call disconnected, but he did remember that the floor seemed to rotate round and round.

Lin Wanghe pushed open the door, and this was what he saw: 

There were wine bottles all over the place; some were already empty, while others were still dripping wine. A man was lying down among them, his face flushed, and his eyebrows slightly furrowed. Tears were still glistening in the corners of his eyes.

The strange smell of cigarette smoke, wine, and noodles mixed together hit his face, but he didn’t feel uncomfortable. He only stood dazedly at the door, staring at Song Yunshen’s face without moving his gaze.

A moment later, he took out his phone and adjusted the angle to take a picture of the scene.

Song Yunshen let out a soft hum. Lin Wanghe came back to his senses and walked over to Song Yunshen, squatted down, and patted his face. 

“Vbcu Tecrtfc, kjxf eq.”

Vbcu Tecrtfc kjr vfjv jriffq jcv vlv cba gfrqbcv ja jii.

Llr ojmf kjr cba kjrtfv, tlr affat kfgf cba ygertfv, jcv tlr tjlg kjr blis. Obulmjiis rqfjxlcu, j qfgrbc ktb tjv ubaafc tlwrfio ab atlr qblca rtbeiv yf jnblvfv ilxf atf qijuef. Dea ojmlcu Vbcu Tecrtfc, Olc Qjcutf ofia atja tlr abifgjcmf ilwla mbeiv yf tlutfg. Coafg j wbwfca bo rlifcmf, tf ifjcfv bnfg jcv ufcais xlrrfv Vbcu Tecrtfc’r ilqr.

Song Yunshen’s lips were as warm and soft as he had imagined. His heart almost melted the moment their lips touched. His breathing suddenly became rapid, and he couldn’t help but reach under the man’s shirt. 

After touching it for a while, he wrinkled his eyebrows doubtfully and added some force to his fingertips.

All his improper thoughts disappeared without a trace. He rubbed the greasy grime on his fingers with a sullen face, glared at Song Yunshen, who was sleeping like a pig, and called the driver.

Song Yunshen slept until he woke up naturally. When he opened his eyes, what he saw was a soft light and spotless ceiling. He subconsciously wanted to look at his cell phone to check the time. He fumbled here and there but could not find it. That got him jolted awake all of a sudden.

He had a splitting headache, like he’d been whacked with a brick, but his whole body felt fresh, lazy, and limp. 

His brain slowly turned, then he suddenly opened his eyes wide and quickly sat up.

He was completely unfamiliar with this room. It was spacious and bright, with very high-class decor. The wall opposite the bed was covered with artistic landscape photos, and there were several trophies of various shapes placed in the glass cabinet next to it.

He looked around in confusion. When he caught sight of a man from the corner of his eyes, he almost screamed on the spot.

The man was sleeping heavily beside him, wearing a smoky gray nightwear, with his back facing him. He could not tell who it was, but it was definitely not Li Siyuan, whose silhouette was too familiar to him. 

Song Yunshen froze, and his mind went blank.

He was already such a fucking mess, and he still had money to spend willy-nilly on whoring?

No, no, no. This room’s decor was so distinctively personal that it didn’t look like a hotel at all. Could he have had drunken sex and been brought home by someone? But he clearly remembered drinking in his hotel room… How could he have a one-night stand when he drank till he blacked out?

At once, a myriad of possibilities rushed into his brain, but he overruled them one by one. He cautiously got up and walked over to the other side of the bed to unearth what was going on. He wouldn’t know if he didn’t look at the other person. 

He was totally blitzed out when he saw the face of the man. Even with his eyes closed, he could visualize what his face looked like. In fact, he had become gradually familiar with this face because of the recent hatred he had been holding.

He felt a surge of emotions attack him all at once. He couldn’t help but subconsciously utter two words: “Holy shit.”

By the time he reacted, it was too late. Lin Wanghe frowned and slowly opened his eyes.

“What’s the noise… What time is it?” 

Song Yunshen’s scalp felt numb, and he asked with difficulty, “Where, where is the watch?”

Lin Wanghe stared at him for a few seconds, then suddenly loosened his frown and raised his finger to point at the wall behind Song Yunshen. Song Yunshen looked over in the direction he pointed and saw the inconspicuous dial.

“It’s 2:50… Why didn’t you go to work?”

Lin Wanghe rubbed his temples, sat up, and said in a hoarse voice, “You tossed so much last night, how can I go to work?” 

“…”

It’s over.

These two words were the only thing left in Song Yunshen’s head.

He pointed incredulously at himself and then at Lin Wanghe: “I… you… no… u-us?” 

Lin Wanghe raised his eyebrows.

Song Yunshen asked stiffly, “I put you to bed?!”

Lin Wanghe’s gaze suddenly turned puzzling and unfathomable.

When he didn’t answer, Song Yunshen suddenly felt a ray of hope. He was about to say something when he heard Lin Wanghe let out a faint “Hmm.” 

“…”

“You also kept calling me baby.” Lin Wanghe twisted the knife into the wound.

Song Yunshen felt dead inside.

Lin Wanghe watched his reaction with interest. 

“Aren’t you going to take the responsibility for me?”

“…”

The corners of Song Yunshen’s mouth twitched, and he probed, “Is it your… first time as the bottom?”

Lin Wanghe nodded and said, “I’d originally called you to tell you that I’ve made arrangements such that as long as you want, you can come back to work at any time. I can pretend that the previous things never happened. You then asked for a face-to-face meeting. I had no choice but to go to the hotel to look for you. There, I found you drunk near to the point of immobility—you couldn’t even get off the ground. So, I had to bring you to my house. To my surprise, you said—” 

He took a deep look at Song Yunshen before continuing, “You said you’d only come back to work if I let you do it once, or you won’t be relieved. I thought it was absurd, but you pressed me directly. Your strength was so great that I couldn’t break free. When I thought about it, I felt that I’d really wronged you, so I let you do it.”

Those words really seemed to be something that could come out of his mouth. Song Yunshen swallowed in guilt.

But the problem was, he had never had such a thought, seriously! Could it be that he had actually subconsciously wanted to do this?

“It’s fine if the skill was rough, but you still called me baby. Do you think I’m Li Siyuan?” 

Lin Wanghe glanced over indifferently. Song Yunshen’s throat tightened. He couldn’t believe that he could do such a bastardly thing.

Before meeting Li Siyuan, he had always been a straight man and had a few girlfriends, but he had only stayed in the kissing stage. Li Siyuan had been the first boy to confess to him. At first, he had felt sick and uncomfortable and had tried his best to avoid him, but no matter where he went, there was always a pair of shy and admiring eyes quietly watching him. He had irritably told the other party not to follow him all the time. When the other party had heard this, his eyes had turned red, and he had felt so wronged that he turned to run away. Feeling very bad, he had awkwardly stopped the sad boy and said, “That, isn’t it just that your confession was rejected? It’s not a big deal. Why are you still crying?”

Li Siyuan had just kept crying without saying anything, and the crying had only intensified with each passing second. Song Yunshen simply hadn’t been able to figure out why although they were both boys, this person’s tears kept falling profusely like a waterfall. He had hurriedly coaxed the other person for fear of being perceived as a bully. Finally, Li Siyuan had asked, “Will you let me follow you?” He hadn’t dared to say no and had been forced to agree. Li Siyuan had smiled through his tears. His eyes were as bright as twinkling stars, shining with tears. They were like the clear warm sunshine after the rain. Looking at those eyes, he had frozen in place and had immediately averted his gaze, but his ears had turned red uncontrollably.

The young Song Yunshen had never thought that one day he would fall in love with someone of the same sex. After being with Li Siyuan, he had never thought that he would be attracted to a second person of the same sex. It was not that he hadn’t had doubts, but after a few tests, he had found that he really just liked Li Siyuan. What he liked about him was him as a person, not his gender. In his eyes, other men were still the same as before, and he didn’t have any strange thoughts about them. 

So it had never occurred to him that he would get drunk and have sex with a person of the same sex other than Li Siyuan.

Did he really become gay through and through?

He could hardly imagine.

Lin Wanghe was not annoyed when he could not get an answer. He said, “Since I have already given you what you asked for, shouldn’t you also come back to work?” 

“…” Song Yunshen hesitated for a moment and asked the question that he had never been able to figure out: “Why do you want me to go back to work so badly? Just to humiliate me?”

Lin Wanghe smiled angrily.

“To humiliate you? Do I need to? I’m neither short of money nor status. Do I need to humiliate you to get a sense of achievement? I had said last time that I really didn’t know about you and Li Siyuan, and I really didn’t know that you worked in Lantes. I’ve met Li Siyuan twice, the first time in a bar, and he was the one to make a move on me. I had specifically asked him if he was single, and he had said yes. The second time we met was at your house. He had said that the person he was living with was a close childhood friend. Is everything clear now?”

Song Yunshen said nothing. 

“As far as I am concerned, Li Siyuan was just the object of my one-night stand. Do I need to pay special attention to the life of such a person? Song Yunshen, according to Manager Wei, you have always been a very hard-working employee and have made a lot of contributions to the company, and your departure will be a loss to our company. This is the first reason. The second reason I want you to return is for your own sake. You have been working at Lantes for seven years already. You are very familiar with all the work. It would be an unwise decision for you to leave now. It’s true that what happened between me and Li Siyuan was a mistake, but there is absolutely no need for you to punish yourself with the mistakes of others. I assure you that I will not target you at work because of personal grudges. I also hope that you can think this through as soon as possible, so as to not cause more damage because of your momentary moodiness.”

Happy New Year everyone!