Chapter 51 – Fantasy
The first time Shen Muan saw Zhuang Yiran was in their freshman year in college. He got stuck in a tree because of being chased by a group of cats and dogs and couldn’t get down.
The little guys were too enthusiastic, no matter how Shen Muan called out to them and tried to drive them away, it was useless. In the end, he could only help Zhuang Yiran down so he could drive the little guys away.
Because of this incident, the two somehow became friends. They later discovered that they were in the same class, which made the relationship between the two become better and better.
Shen Muan’s personality was completely different from Zhuang Yiran. Even with the strangest person in the class, he could easily get along well with them. However, Zhuang Yiran had always been in a state of coldness, wanting to always be thousands of miles away from others. Except for Shen Muan, he showed no face to anyone else.
Shen Muan thought that Zhuang Yiran was this kind of character at first, but later he discovered that his friend wasn’t how he thought at all.
In Shen Muan’s heart, Zhuang Yiran was only cold outside and hot inside, he was very caring.
But one night, Shen Muan took a detour to return to his bedroom. He watched Zhuang Yiran feeding a puppy. Shen Muan thought that it was just as usual, but when he wanted to step forward to say hello, he saw the dog foaming at the mouth. It fell down and died in front of Zhuang Yiran.
Shen Muan looked at Zhuang Yiran who had a smile on his face, he grabbed one of the dog’s feet, and casually threw it into the trash can, he looked very happy.
Zhuang Yiran’s smile made Shen Muan feel like he fell into an ice cellar. He never thought that his friend would do such a thing.
Shen Muan remembered the posts about stray animals being poisoned in the school forum that he had seen before. Now that he saw this scene, he couldn’t help but suspect that Zhuang Yiran had been the one doing this from the beginning.
Zhuang Yiran would usually feed stray animals with him. He thought that Zhuang Yiran, like himself, liked small animals very much. He didn’t expect that the person who fed stray animals with him during the day would poison them at night, he even used the trust of the little guys in him.
Zhuang Yiran’s image instantly collapsed in Shen Muan’s heart. Since that night, Shen Muan observed that Zhuang Yiran was only pretending when getting along with him.
Shen Muan didn’t understand, wasn’t this tiring?
Living with a mask on…
What was the meaning in doing this?
Poisoning stray animals would only be morally condemned and it was not subjected to any actual punishment. Moreover, Shen Muan did not have any evidence to prove that Zhuang Yiran did poison all those stray animals.
Zhuang Yiran could make up an excuse that he just picked the food up and fed it to the dog when he saw that there was food next to it.
Without substantial evidence, Shen Muan couldn’t say anything.
But his intuition told him that Zhuang Yiran had done this alot.
In order to find evidence, Shen Muan secretly followed Zhuang Yiran for a while, but he found nothing. After two consecutive days, Shen Muan knew that not only did he see Zhuang Yiran that day. Zhuang Yiran should’ve also seen him.
That’s why during the day, the other’s attitude toward him was so strange.
However, the poisoning of animals did not end there, instead, it became more and more intense.
After a while, the school had no choice but to simply ask someone to take all the stray animals in the school aways and take them to the stray animal shelter.
Just when Shen Muan thought this could finally end, he accidentally glanced at Zhuang Yiran. The other party had a bright smile on his face, as if what happened had nothing to do with him.
Shen Muan couldn’t hold back and confronted Zhuang Yiran, but the other party believed he didn’t do anything wrong. Instead he actually confessed his feelings to him.
Being liked by such a person, Shen Muan’s first feeling was nausea, not because of his gender, but because of his disgust with him.
Shen Muan did not hesitate to refuse Zhuang Yiran’s pursuit, but the other party did not give up.
Zhuang Yiran couldn’t understand why Shen Muan would hate him. Wasn’t it just a few animals? Why make such a fuss?
It was Zhuang Yiran’s attitude that made Shen Muan feel even more disgust with him.
His brother was a criminal policeman and had seen many, many murderers, some of them started from killing cats and dogs, and finally they would end up targeting people.
They thought they were strong, but in fact they were extremely weak. Because they only dared to start with the weak, when facing the powerful, they couldn’t do anything except harbor resentment in their hearts, they couldn’t dare to do it.
This is why the victim rate of women, children, and the elderly was high.
Not everyone could fight back.
After a complete confrontation with Zhuang Yiran, Shen Muan was still unable to make the other party’s true face public because there was no evidence.
The news of the two falling out was quickly known to everyone, but no one knew the specific reason. Finally, the news broke out that Zhuang Yiran liked Shen Muan, and everyone thought it was the reason.
After everyone heard this news, Zhuang Yiran’s personality changed from a cold one to a blatant one.
He built himself to have an affectionate personality, occasionally going to a bar to get drunk, and then happily having a one-night stand.
The next day, he continued to play his affectionate persona.
Shen Muan realized that the other party didn’t really like him, but after setting himself up like this, he couldn’t just come out and change it.
He once very sincerely suggested that Zhuang Yiran go see a psychiatrist, but Zhuang Yiran disagreed and continued with his own setting.
Since then, Shen Muan never paid any more attention to Zhuang Yiran, he even deleted all his contact details.
It wasn’t until last month’s reunion. He didn’t know what Zhuang Yiran said, but the monitor persuaded him for a long time to add Zhuang Yiran’s contact information back.
Shen Muan originally thought about deleting it when he got home, but because of some things, he forgot about it.
If it hadn’t been for Chu Siyuan dialing it by accident, Shen Muan would not have remembered this person.
But that phone call made Zhuang Yiran feel enriched, so he started his performance again.
And Chu Yi’s words were like a stimulus.
Zhuang Yiran hung up the phone. Looking at the group photo of himself and Shen Muan on the table, he fell into his thoughts.
He couldn’t tell whether he really liked Shen Muan, or it was just because of the setting he gave himself. He had maintained this affectionate setting for a long time.
After all this time, he always felt distressed when he thought of that young man.
But who was the man next to him now?
Zhuang Yiran recalled the man’s voice. He slammed the sofa hard, and accidentally touched the TV switch.
The TV turned on, and a picture of Chu Yi’s interview played, it was the same voice. Zhuang Yiran remembered this person in his mind.
Even if Shen Muan hated him, he couldn’t tolerate this. There were other people standing by Shen Muan’s side…
So… As long as he got rid of each of them, wasn’t that okay?
As long as he got rid of the opponent, he would be the only one left standing next to Shen Muan.
Zhuang Yiran had a smile on his face. He held the group photo of him and Shen Muan, and lay on the sofa with his expression filled with happiness.
Yes that’s it… There was nothing wrong with this, he had been in love with Shen Muan since the beginning…
Chu Yi didn’t know that what he said had caused a big trouble to come their way. Making the other party hang up the phone directly made him feel that this method he used was useful.
But Shen Muan was a little uneasy, that person… Would he really give up so easily?
The person he was worried about was immersed in his own fantasy at this time…