Chapter 62: Su Jian Realized That An Yize Does Not Seem To Care About Him Anymore
An Yize didn’t speak for a long time.
The mountain breeze whistled by, bringing the cool air from the rain. The two of them looked at each other silently. Suddenly, other than the sound of the wind, there was only silence.
An Yize lowered his eyes. His face was the same as usual, devoid of expression. However, Su Jian was familiar with him and could tell that it wasn’t the usual facial paralysis. Instead, he looked… really sad.
Until to now, he had seen An Yize’s speechlessness and his smile. He had seen An Yize’s anger and his gentleness. However, he had never seen An Yize look so quiet and lonely.
Su Jian didn’t think that he was an empathetic person. Nevertheless, he wasn’t sure why he felt uncomfortable when he saw An Yize like this.
In his life, he had never been truly liked by a girl. Meanwhile, this man who he had always treated as a love rival had numerous girls in love with him. However, he was rejected twice by the people he liked. Between the two of them, Su Jian didn’t know whose love life was more tragic.
In this atmosphere, Su Jian didn’t know what to say. He could only call out awkwardly, “Let’s go.” Then, he took the lead and walked away first.
After they came down from Xifeng, the two of them did not go anywhere else and went straight back to Jin Suo Guan. They walked down the road they used on the first day and returned to Canglong Ridge. Then, they turned towards the “Zhi Qu Hua Shan Dao” and headed down the mountain.
Su Jian specifically chose this road to climb down the mountain, trying his best to avoid using the same as the road they took up the mountain. He had wanted to show off to An Yize. However, looking at the situation the two of them were in right now, he could only shut his mouth in embarrassment and lead the way.
Initially, the road was relatively flat. However, Su Jian’s leg was turning sore because he had climbed the mountain for all of yesterday. The pain was very obvious when he climbed down the mountain. Thus, even though it was a relatively flat road, it was still torturous to walk. However, looking at An Yize’s silence, Su Jian could only deal with it and kept quiet.
Nevertheless, the further they walked, the steeper the road and the greater the danger became. Additionally, the rocks were all slippery from the rain. There were many times where Su Jian had to turn around and climb down backwards while holding on to the metal railings. As for An Yize, he had been descending while facing forward the entire time so it was inevitable that Su Jian would face him. Su Jian peeked at him only to see An Yize with his usual calm face, without any expression. However, just as Su Jian looked over, the other person happened to look at him as well.
Su Jian said flatly, “The road is slippery, haha.”
An Yize nodded his head silently, not saying anything as usual.
Su Jian felt that this atmosphere was too awkward. Therefore, he tried his best to pick up his pace, walking to the front in one breath and distancing himself from An Yize. Turning around a corner, he looked behind secretly and realised that An Yize could no longer be seen. He relaxed his shoulders and spat out a huge breath.
To be honest, he was the one who had achieved victory. It should have been the time for him to feel proud, so why did he feel more pathetic right now? Su Jian looked towards the distant mountain and gave a long sigh: I’m feeling guilty even though I’m dealing with my love rival. Indeed, I am born pure and kind!
Su Jian continued walking forward with his head drooped. However, when he went down the stone stairs, he slipped and fell hard because the stairs was slippery with pools of rainwater. Fortunately, the stone stairs only had three steps. He didn’t fall too far, but his butt still hit the floor hard and the hand he stuck out in a panic was cut by a sharp rock beside the path. After a moment, blood slowly trickled out.
Su Jian sighed miserably. He scrunched up his face and didn’t get up even after a long time.
“Are you hurt?” Su Jian was rubbing his aching butt when An Yize’s voice suddenly sounded behind him.
Su Jian looked up blankly and saw An Yize coming over in a few steps, not hiding the concern in his eyes.
“Ah, no, it’s nothing.” Su Jian replied flatly and hurriedly used his hands as support to stand up.
An Yize grabbed his hand and saw Su Jian’s hand was oozing with blood. With tensely knitted brows, he asked, “You’re injured?”
“It’s nothing. It’s just a small cut, it doesn’t hurt…” Su Jian wanted to take back his hand. However, he did not expect An Yize to have already taken out a band-aid. After cleaning up the area around the wound, he stuck the bandage on.
Su Jian swallowed his saliva and said softly, “Thank you.”
An Yize gave him a glance before pulling him up by his hand. “The road is slippery. Be more careful and watch your footing.”
“Oh, okay.” Su Jian was never so obedient before. While An Yize was not paying attention, Su Jian secretly gave him a few glances.
Who would have thought that An Yize caught his secret glances head on. He took out a bottle of water from his bag and passed it over to Su Jian. “Thirsty?”
Su Jian received the water. With a laugh, he said, “Oh. Yes, I’m thirsty.” In order to lessen the awkwardness, after uncapping the water bottle and drinking a few mouthfuls of water, Su Jian passed the bottle back. “Are you thirsty? Do you want some as well?”
An Yize stared at him. He took the bottle and drank some silently.
Is this a symbol of our reconcilement? Su Jian relaxed slightly when he saw that An Yize’s expression wasn’t as upset as before. Although he was shocked, frightened and distressed by An Yize’s confession, they still had a contract for a fake marriage. The two of them still had to live together. Therefore, he didn’t want the two of them to be so awkward around each other because it would i be very uncomfortable for him.
The two of them still didn’t speak much for the rest of the journey. But at the very least they didn’t have to avoid each other. After the two of them got to the base of the mountain, they didn’t feel like going anywhere else to play, so they went back home straight.
……
When they got home, Su Jian realised that An Yize didn’t not seem to care about him anymore.
An Yize was neither angry nor harsh to him. However, Yize didn’t talk to him anymore. Although An Yize had been rather silent in the past, he spoke more when he was with Su Jian because Su Jian was talkative. But now, the two of them couldn’t speak more than two sentence to each other for the whole day. Even though they were still living together, they seemed to be more distant than when they first met.
Su Jian felt uncomfortable but helpless in this situation. He knew that this wasn’t An Yize’s fault. No matter who it was, someone whose confession was rejected wouldn’t be able to face his crush with a smile immediately. Although Su Jian understood this, he couldn’t help but feel depressed and, for some reason, fidgety.
On the first day they got back home, Su Jian stood in front of the bed they had shared countless times, feeling quite hesitant. It was still okay when he didn’t know An Yize’s thoughts in the past. Now that he knew An Yize held romantic feelings for him, he couldn’t just share the same bed with An Yize anymore. Usually at this time, he would be playing with his laptop or handphone while lying on the sofa but he could only think about avoiding Yize right now. Carrying his laptop, he slipped away to An Yize’s study room.
Before he went to bed, An Yize saw that Su Jian was inside the study room. He went to the study room and gently reminded Su Jian, “Time to sleep.”
Su Jian tried his best to make his expression and tone appear natural. “I still want to play a little longer. You can go to sleep first. If I get tired later, I might just sleep here. You don’t need to mind me. Goodnight!”
An Yize looked at him silently and didn’t move.
Ultimately, An Yize insisted on making Su Jian sleep on the bed while he occupied the study room.
An Yize’s bed was really big so there was never a problem when the two of them slept together. Now that Su Jian was alone, it was wider and he didn’t have to feel awkward around the expressionless boulder. Su Jian should be feeling super relaxed. However, for some reason, while Su Jian was lying spread-eagle on the bed, he found it hard to fall asleep.
He usually slept soundly, but he tossed and turned around the bed for the whole night. When he woke up the next morning, he had a pair of dark circles under his eyes.
However, An Yize didn’t see them. When Su Jian woke up, An Yize had already gone to work. And at night, Su Jian received a short call from An Yize saying that he would be working overtime would return late.
This continued for a few days. Even mother An paid Su Jian a special visit and nagged him fiercely, “Xiao Ze has been going out early in the morning and returning home late at night recently. Working is very tiring, so you should treat him better and show him more concern. Do you understand?”
Su Jian could only nod his head in reply. However, he knew that the reason An Yize left early and returned late was probably not due to work, but to avoid him.
Although he felt that it would currently be awkward for the two of them to face each other, Su Jian couldn’t get used to the fact that An Yize had stopped caring about him and purposely avoiding him for a few days.
When he was lying on the bed at night, Su Jian thought angrily: They were both rejections, but why was the treatment he received so different from that of Queen Ji’s! Queen Ji rejected An Yize’s proposal, but he still treated Queen Ji politely and warmly. But now I’ve only said that I don’t like him and this fellow gave him the cold shoulder, refusing to even see his face! It seems that this fellow didn’t truly love him at all!
The more Su Jian thought, the more confused he felt. After tossing and turning about the bed a couple times, he realised that he couldn’t fall sleep again. He simply got off the bed and switched on his laptop.
“Lou Zhu[1] is a man. Recently, I was suddenly confessed to by a brother. What should Lou Zhu do? It’s urgent, I’m waiting for replies!”
Even though it was midnight, there were still many people browsing the web. Thus, the moment Su Jian made the post, replies quickly came flooding in.
“Is he tall? Rich? Handsome?”
Su Jian replied, “A bonafide tall, rich and handsome man.”
After replying, Su Jian played a little game. Then, he browsed through Weibo[2], before returning to see the replies.
However, he didn’t expect that in such a short period of time, his post had received more than ten replies.
“Two words: Do it!”
“Be decisive and do him!”
“Get him!”
“Lou Zhu, do you like this brother of yours? If you do, then agree to it. If you don’t, it’s better to reject him.”
“To this cruel world where a man is confessed to by a man but this woman was never once confessed to by a man, goodbye!”
“Lou Zhu, if you don’t want him, can you give him to me?”
“yooooooooooo!”
“Lou Zhu, just clean yourself up and lie down!”
“Damn, give us woman a place to survive!”
“Agree to it! The two of you can go and be gays, all the women are mine!”
“I’m praying for Lou Zhu.”
“Disgusting! I hate gays the most!”
“Men and women love each other to have the next generation. Two men loving each other is true love!”
“Lou Zhu, this is the background music I chose painstakingly for you. Please be satisfied: Chrysanthemum[3] destroyed, full of bruises…”
“Lou Zhu, why don’t you say this to your brother: Which part of me do you like, can I change it?”
“Lou Shang[4], what if that brother likes the fact that Lou Zhu is a guy? Wouldn’t the Lou Zhu have to change his gender at this rate?”
“Together! Together! Together!”
“Tu Lu[5], how dare you snatch the priest from Pin Ni[6]!”
Footnotes:
[1]Lou Zhu – An internet slang in China, it means the person who made the post.
[2]Weibo – Chinese microblogging site.
[3]Chrysanthemum – The hole in your butt.
[4]Lou Shang – The person who made the post above.
[5]Tu Lu – A word used to scold monks.
[6]Pin Ni – Nuns use this to address themselves.
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