Chapter 51: You Are Something Else
Silence stretched out.
Pei Zhouye gritted his teeth, his eye sockets stinging.
After a long while, he turned his head away, refusing to look at Wen Yan, and let out a low laugh of anger.
“Wen Yan, you really are something else.”
He simply had no way to deal with Wen Yan.
His phone suddenly vibrated. The group chat, silent for days, popped up a message.
Wu Qingqing, who was eating, put down her chopsticks and hurriedly clicked to look.
“It’s Brother Yan!”
Sitting across from her, Duan Mingtao also took out his phone and glanced at it.
[Wen Yan: Sorry for making everyone worry. I was in my hometown visiting my parents these past few days.]
He glossed over the days of radio silence with a single stroke.
Wu Qingqing picked up her phone and replied quickly: [Glad you’re okay.]
Being unable to contact Wen Yan for days, the counselor had said Wen Yan took leave to visit his parents, and since it was the National Day holiday afterward, it made sense.
[Wu Qingqing: We got the application for the ‘Morning Star’ 3.0 spots approved. We’ll go into the lab together when you get back.]
Some things were better not said in the group, so Duan Mingtao opened a private chat with Wen Yan.
[Do you need help with that moment you posted on your feed before?]
That didn’t look like Gu Yulan’s hand. Coupled with the fact that he used to constantly see Pei Zhouye and Wen Yan interacting, he could more or less guess a little.
Wen Yan sat on the sofa, Pei Zhouye’s face suddenly flashing through his mind.
He clicked on his WeChat Moments and saw that “Relationship Status” and the photo of their held hands.
He thought again of the journey just now, how Pei Zhouye had kept a cold face and said nothing. He looked genuinely angry.
Are they really in a relationship? Wen Yan wondered, head bowed.
He was even getting used to Pei Zhouye kissing him and sleeping in his arms. The other party seemed to let him do whatever he wanted, rarely got angry with him, restricted him but didn’t force him.
Wen Yan was afraid of this morbid, deformed reliance, trust, and habit.
His phone suddenly popped up another message.
[Duan Mingtao: Qingqing is worried you went abroad with Gu Yulan.]
Gu Yulan’s name was like a thorn, piercing fiercely into his nerves.
Wen Yan’s heart suddenly raced, and a chill washed over him.
Countless images from the past surfaced before his eyes. Gu Yulan talking about taking care of a fellow junior, taking care of his uncle and aunt, saying he only wanted a title, then turning into repeated neglect and deception, that bowl of cold wontons, the phrase “nothing more than a canary,” the pounding on the door in the middle of the night, and the schemes against his father.
Wen Yan snapped back to reality and found tears had already fallen onto the hand holding the phone.
[Wen Yan: I broke up with him. I’m with someone else now.]
Typing… persisted for a long time.
[Duan Mingtao: Sorry.]
[Duan Mingtao: Don’t be too sad. We’re your friends; we just hope you’re happy.]
Wen Yan stared at it for a while.
Duan Mingtao saying something like that meant it was sincere. That was his character—aloof but direct. Wen Yan knew the other meant no harm.
[Wen Yan: It’s okay.]
He might have to check into the psychiatric department again after returning to A City to see if he had Stockholm Syndrome.
It could only be a sugar baby relationship; how could he believe a man’s spur-of-the-moment sweet talk and think it was a romantic relationship?
Feeling an inexplicable emptiness in his heart, Wen Yan forcefully ignored it.
Study
Pei Zhouye stared at the empty chair across the desk.
That was Wen Yan’s seat. He would sit there wearing headphones watching online classes, head bowed solving problems and drawing diagrams.
There was nothing to blame Wen Yan for.
He was the one who bound Wen Yan to his side; he was the one who used schemes and interests to forcibly keep Wen Yan. It was nothing if Wen Yan openly calculated against him a little.
He only resented that Wen Yan didn’t love him, hated that Wen Yan was clear and magnanimous, and hated his own darkness and despicableness.
It had been like this from the start.
He had fled from his father, escaping to the city where his mother once lived, wanting to try finding a meaning to continue living here.
Then he met Wen Yan—Wen Yan, who was his complete opposite.
A happy family, a fulfilling life, gentle, kind, and pure, presenting a good side to everyone.
Falling in love with Wen Yan was the simplest thing in the world.
Wen Yan finished his shower and went downstairs in his bathrobe to pour a few glasses of red wine.
He wasn’t a lightweight who would collapse after one cup, but his tolerance wasn’t that good either.
After a few glasses, his vision was already a bit dizzy, and a flush quickly crept up his cheeks and neck.
His heart pounded wildly; nervousness and fear of the unknown lingered.
After returning, showering, and changing, Pei Zhouye had been in the study. Given Pei Zhouye’s personality, Wen Yan suspected he would stay in the study all night.
But he had to seize this opportunity today.
His plan had originally been to visit his parents after giving Pei Zhouye the sleeping pills, then come back and fulfill the promise he made to Pei Zhouye tonight.
This was his plan all along.
The study door was knocked.
Pei Zhouye frowned, feeling an inexplicable sense of unease.
There were only the two of them in the house. There was no rule about knocking before entering; Wen Yan had come in so many times before.
He stood up to open the door.
Outside the door
Alcohol surged in Wen Yan’s system; his fingertips trembled as he raised his hand to knock.
After waiting a moment with no movement, he reached out to push. Suddenly, the door opened from the inside.
His hand met empty air. A sense of weightlessness hit him, and combined with his alcohol-induced lack of coordination, Wen Yan stumbled forward a few steps, falling into a familiar embrace.
He looked up, squinting, and saw Pei Zhouye’s face. The words he had just organized stuck in his throat.
A beauty carrying the faint scent of body wash and wine, throwing himself into his arms in a bathrobe, face flushed crimson, lips moist. From his angle, Pei Zhouye could see Wen Yan’s exposed fair skin and delicate collarbone.
Pei Zhouye’s Adam’s apple bobbed, his eyes darkening instantly. His voice was so low and hoarse it bordered on dangerous:
“Wife, what do you mean by this?”
He was no saint. Wen Yan should know better than anyone that if given even a sliver of a chance, he would never let go. Even if Wen Yan regretted it the next second, he couldn’t possibly stop.
“I… won’t…”
The air stagnated for a second.
The next second, he was swept up violently by the waist. Pei Zhouye’s breath burned past his ear as the study door was slammed shut, the impact shaking the picture frames on the wall.
Wen Yan instinctively wrapped his arms around the other’s neck, fingers unconsciously clutching his collar tightly, eyes squeezed shut.
Dizzy from the kiss, Wen Yan thought hazily: We have to reach this step sooner or later anyway. Might as well let Pei Zhouye get what he wants early. Maybe once he gets bored, I can be free…
The thought shattered as soon as it surfaced.
Pei Zhouye’s palm branded itself onto his waist, the scorching heat almost scalding his skin. Between their intertwined breaths, Wen Yan’s last bit of reason was scattered into pieces, unable to form a complete thought ever again.
……
Coming out of the bathroom, Pei Zhouye gently placed Wen Yan on the bed and kissed the corner of his mouth lightly.
His sweet dream had come true.
The countless dreams he had woven for Wen Yan had also appeared in his own dreams countless times.
“Goodnight, sweet dreams.” Pei Zhouye’s voice was very soft.
“Wen Yan, I love you.”
Recommended Reads
