Chapter 16: Life is but a “hello” and a “goodbye”
Chen Xiao stared at the man outside the door. There was a momentary sense of absence. It was impossible to say he felt nothing, but there was no love or hate, it was just a kind of trance like after old friends met.
“You….need something?”
“Chen Xiao, we could -”
“Chen Xiao, who is it?”
The voice coming from the kitchen made them both freeze for a moment. He JinFei’s face twisted and he stared stunned at Chen Xiao, whose expression was too complex to read.
Chen Xiao looked him in the eye and said calmly, “My boyfriend.” Perhaps it was due to a thinking of the man’s foolishness, but his originally-stiff face showed a hint of softness.
He JinFei stared for a while before sighing and nodding in an absent-minded way. He habitually wanted to reach out to rub Chen Xiao’s hair, but the other man dodged so he quickly reclaimed his hand.
“Chen Xiao? This is -?”
Gu MengYang was wearing an apron when he came out, holding a spatula in his hand, shooting a puzzled looked towards the man at the door.
“Ah, a former…..friend, He JinFei.”
Gu MengYang nodded with a smile, thinking the name was a little familiar. He thought again, Fuck! Isn’t this the ex-boyfriend Chen Xiao mentioned one time?!
How could he calm down now? The spatula in his hand was almost tossed aside and his face went dark. He put his arms around Chen Xiao’s waist, pulling him into his embrace, and asked in a menacing tone: “Need something?!”
But this He JinFei wasn’t easy to provoke. He glanced at him with his brow furrowed and then looked back at Chen Xiao: “Can we talk alone? Just for a minute.”
Gu MengYang was angry, very angry, very, very angry! He glared hard at the man, growling in his heart about this nuisance! Chen Xiao is a family man so just chit-chat here! You’re behaving like a mistress! A mistress! Also don’t you dare seduce him in front of his family! Shameless mistress!
Chen Xiao looked at He JinFei and then looked at the angry puffed-up cheeks of Gu MengYang, and he sighed in his heart. “Gu MengYang, I’ll take him downstairs. I’ll come back up when I’m done.”
“Chen Xiao?!” Gu MengYang stared at him in disbelief. His chest felt too stuffy to breathe and his gaze showed some disappointment.
“Be good. I’ll be back in 10 minutes. Wait for me here at home, eh?”
Chen Xiao and He JinFei walked along the path downstairs for a moment, neither of them speaking. Only the sound of leaves rustling in the wind could be heard, along with the chirping of cicadas.
“Chen Xiao, I came here and wanted to say I’m sorry. At that time…..I didn’t know what love was and I hurt you like that.”
Chen Xiao was stunned. Then he smiled and shook his head: “So what, do you understand now?”
“Maybe. I understand a little.” It’s just, there’s no possibility of a chance, right? He JinFei bitterly put on a smile. “Chen Xiao, are we really……”
Chen Xiao cut him off, “‘I’m sorry’ and so on, there’s no use saying it now, yeah? But if it wasn’t for your cruelty, I wouldn’t have met the one who is better for me now. So putting it this way, we’re even.” There was no room for negotiation in his gaze.
He JinFei looked at the man who had once smiled softly in his arms and felt a little ache in his heart. He closed his eyes and in the end, he didn’t say what he was going to say before. He slowly nodded and finished: “Yes….I hope you’re doing well.”
With some things, once you let them go, they probably leave the trajectory of your own life, right?
“You too…… Now that you’ve realized, don’t lose it again.”
Chen Xiao watched as He JinFei’s car disappeared around the corner and finally breathed out a long sigh. It was a lot easier than he expected. Perhaps some things weren’t as bad or complicated as he thought, but just a matter of “hello” and “goodbye”.
He stood for a while in the dark and then coughed and said: “Hey, the person’s gone. Aren’t you coming out yet?”
With an expression of resentment on his face, Gu MengYang came out from behind a tree. He twisted his face and didn’t look at Chen Xiao.
“Hey, I told you I was just seeing him off. Still mad?”
“…….”
“Gu MengYang?”
“…….”
“Little slag man!”
“…..you said it would be 10 minutes!”
“…..ah?” Chen Xiao was stunned and tried to figure out what Gu MengYang meant. He smiled with a “pfft” and rubbed the other’s short, soft hair hard. “Did you listen just now? I just wanted to make it all clear to him.”
“So you couldn’t say that in front of me?!” Gu MengYang glanced at him then turned his head away with a huff.
“Isn’t it that I was afraid you’d see him and respond……”
“Then the thought of you two together is more difficult for me! Whenever I think about how this man once had you and hurt you, I just want to beat him to death! Why couldn’t we have met each other sooner…..”
Chen Xiao was stunned. Feeling a little ache in his nose like he was about to cry, he quirked his lips, smiling so strongly that his eyes bent into crescent shapes, and went over to kiss Gu MengYang on the lips: “You know who I’m in love with.”
The man from across the way said angrily with a red face: “I didn’t ask you that!”
Before his words were finished, his mouth was kissed again.
“I love you.”
So his face went even more red and he hugged Chen Xiao with puffed-out cheeks: “Say it again!”
“Nice words shouldn’t be spoken twice.” (idiom, or else the second time, they will feel fake)
“You!”
Chen Xiao smiled back and hugged him, listening to the other’s fierce heartbeat, and then whispered: “Hey, Gu MengYang….”
“Ah?”
“Move across and live with me……?”
“……”
The other man stared at him in shock, unable to speak. Chen Xiao’s heart “rumbled” a bit, suddenly feeling a little tight.
“No….that, if you don’t want to, then nevermi-” Before he finished his words, he was hugged and kissed by the man. That wet tongue dived impatiently into his mouth and swirled, entangling with his tongue and sucking vigorously, as if he were being swallowed down entirely. After kissing, the two almost couldn’t control themselves.
“I……I’m happy…… I’ve been waiting for you to say that…..” Pressing their foreheads together, Gu MengYang panted out his words. The smug expression on his face couldn’t be disguised.
“……..why didn’t you bring it up?!” Chen Xiao wanted to give the tip of his nose a hateful bite, but his heart was too sweet inside.
“But I wanted to hear you say it……”
Ah, ah, wanting to hear what you need from the other person’s mouth. Sure enough, our thoughts were the same.
The wind on this late summer night was slightly cool, making Chen Xiao, who was wearing short sleeves, shiver. He immediately felt an arm wrap around his shoulders and the very warm body heat of the other man was passed to him as they pressed closely together.
“Then I’m going to move your stuff over tonight, quickly!”
“Ah, huh? But the lease won’t expire until next month……”
“I know the landlord, it’ll be fine to talk it out!”
“Oh, okay……so, Chen Xiao, can some of your furniture be changed?”
“What?”
“Change the bed out for a bigger one! That one in your place is so small……ouch!”