Chapter 14: I Miss You
Upon returning home, Wen Yan started a video call with his parents as usual to chat about their daily lives.
Father Wen smiled until the wrinkles at the corners of his eyes crinkled together. “I went to the hospital for a check-up today. They said I can go back to work next month. Your mom stewed a fish tonight and insisted I drink the soup.”
He should have been happy, but the heaviness in Wen Yan’s heart didn’t diminish. Still, he tried his best to hide his unhappiness.
“Where is Mom?”
Father Wen switched to the rear camera and walked in a certain direction. “She’s tidying up your room. The weather was nice today, so she changed your sheets and quilt cover and took them out to air.”
The camera shook, accompanied by some static noise, as he walked toward Wen Yan’s room.
Mother Wen was organizing the desk. “Eh? Old Wen, what are you doing coming over here? Go sit down properly!”
Father Wen laughed in response. “Yan-yan is looking for you.”
Hearing the teasing and laughter from the other end, Wen Yan couldn’t help but purse his lips into a smile.
Mother Wen took the phone. Before she could switch back to the front camera, the lens happened to point directly at a stack of letters on the desk.
Seeing clearly what they were, Wen Yan’s heart gave a dull throb of pain.
Mother Wen steadied the phone. The image stopped shaking, but it remained focused on the letters.
“Yan-yan, I found these in your drawer today. The ones you received back in high school. I haven’t opened or read them, don’t misunderstand Mom.”
“I know, Mom.” Wen Yan’s voice softened, and he switched to their dialect.
The dialect of Nan City, aside from different intonations, always added some modal particles at the end of sentences. Wen Yan heard the happiness in his mother’s voice, so he went along and responded in dialect.
Mother Wen continued, “I saw you had filled two drawers. This was the bottom one. I thought I’d clear some space for your childhood things, so I took these out first. Do you still want to keep these separate? After all, you and Yulan are together now…”
In high school, Wen Yan was already very famous in Nan City. He had received many love letters. He would refuse those given in person, but many were secretly placed in his desk or delivered by his classmates.
These couldn’t be easily returned, and Wen Yan didn’t want to throw others’ sincerity into the trash, so he had kept them all safe.
However, someone who sent a love letter without receiving a reply would usually only send a few. Yet, there was one person who persisted for a year, sending ninety-nine letters. The content mostly observed Wen Yan’s life from a certain perspective, saying his clothes looked good today, or noting that he ranked first again, as expected.
The content was mostly admiration and well-wishes, not offensive, but the sheer frequency was still chilling. Wen Yan didn’t know what he was thinking back then, but he had separated the letters sent by that person from the others and read each one several times.
Toward that person, Wen Yan had felt a bit of heart-fluttering, fear, and a lot of curiosity.
After the summer break between his second and third year of high school, he never received another one. Calculating the time, it coincided exactly with Gu Yulan graduating from high school and going to A University in Jiang City.
“Keep them separate,” Wen Yan said, his distress deepening. “Those were sent by Yulan-ge.”
Mother Wen was somewhat surprised.
The topic was quickly skipped over, and the family call ended after twenty minutes.
Wen Yan had already showered. He sat on the bed in his pajamas for a while, then got out of bed and turned off the light.
The curtains weren’t drawn, allowing a view of the moon outside the window. Beside his ear was the subtle hum of the air conditioner.
Wen Yan closed his eyes, and many memories between him and Gu Yulan flooded his mind.
After his speech as the freshman representative, Gu Yulan had come to interview him as a senior from the school news club, mentioning they were both from Nan City.
When he knew about his father’s illness and was anxious but couldn’t buy a train ticket, Gu Yulan had driven twelve hours to take him home and helped contact the private hospital in Jiang City.
On the day of the confession, a sunny day after his father’s condition had improved, Gu Yulan said he had liked him for a very, very long time and hoped Wen Yan would give him a title.
Wen Yan turned on his side.
He tried hard to repay Gu Yulan’s affection and kindness, tried hard not to overthink, not to argue with him, and to cherish every day they could be together.
But after getting together, Gu Yulan ignored many of his concerns and disrespected his friends. And Gu Yulan’s friends seemed to look down on him as well.
It felt like a heavy weight pressing on his heart.
Suffering from rare insomnia, Wen Yan sat up again, picked up his phone, and sent a message.
[I miss you.]
The bar was noisy, with multicolored lights reflecting off glass tumblers.
Today, the distinguished Pei Zhouye and Lin Seran, who couldn’t be seen by the public, were present. A group of people drank and chatted in the private booth.
“How could the big star bear to come out? We called you so many times and couldn’t get you out.” Someone laughed and teased Lin Seran.
“Isn’t it because Pei Shao is back? You guys don’t have that much face.”
Pei Zhouye sat on the side sofa, not crowding with them. His long legs were crossed, staring at his phone without lifting his head, looking like he was in a bad mood.
No one dared to go up and talk to him.
Lin Seran rolled his eyes. “I said filming, filming, filming. If you missed me so much, how come I didn’t see you visiting the set?”
The group roared with laughter.
Gu Yulan had drunk quite a bit of wine, and his head was a little dizzy.
Seeing his phone light up, he unlocked it to see who the message was from. His expression froze for a moment, his fingers moved, and he typed a few words.
“Yulan, isn’t your family negotiating that project in the east of the city recently? How about I pull some strings for you, and you give me a cut?” In the heat of drinking, they started talking business.
Gu Yulan placed his phone on the sofa, smiled, and stood up to clink glasses. “Don’t joke with me.”
The other party didn’t lack that commission. Opening his mouth was just to sell a favor because he saw Gu Yulan here with Pei Zhouye and Lin Seran, hoping Gu Yulan would put in a good word for him in front of Pei Zhouye.
Gu Yulan smiled and agreed casually, then drank another glass.
He wasn’t that close with Pei Zhouye. Gu Yulan understood a principle: don’t speak too clearly. Sometimes, it was precisely because of these ambiguous words that benefits would eventually fall into his lap.
His father placed great importance on this project, and Gu Yuqing had been negotiating it for a long time.
Gu Yulan smiled and accompanied them, drinking glass after glass.
On the single sofa, Pei Zhouye stared at his phone screen.
On it were two messages he had sent out tonight.
Wen Yan had blacklisted his phone number.
Pei Zhouye ground his back teeth and downed a glass of wine.
Wen Yan blocked him, yet sent “I miss you” to Gu Yulan.
Pei Zhouye’s face was gloomy as he stared at the words “I miss you too” that Gu Yulan had typed out. Then, he deleted everything and personally re-entered a reply.
[I am also thinking of you.]
The phone in the distance, Gu Yulan’s phone, lit up and sat carelessly on the sofa.
Pei Zhouye saw the blurry profile picture from afar and immediately knew whose chat interface it was.
He got up and went out.
“Pei-ge, why are you leaving?” someone shouted from behind.
“Too stuffy.” Pei Zhouye didn’t look back. “I’m leaving first.”
The group behind him bid him farewell until next time.
In the underground parking garage, Pei Zhouye sat in his car, a tablet displaying the high-definition surveillance feed from the private booth he had just left.
When the footage reached a certain point, Pei Zhouye paused it, zoomed in, saw the numbers Gu Yulan’s fingers tapped, and guessed Gu Yulan’s passcode.
It was Wen Yan’s birthday.
Pei Zhouye sneered.
As if he deserves it.
Someone knocked lightly on the car window a few times. Pei Zhouye lowered the window.
The person outside respectfully handed over a phone wrapped in a silk handkerchief.
“Pei Shao, I brought it.”
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