Part 2
Lin Zheng didn’t speak, just held up one finger.
To avoid being recognized by Gu Lin, he was not only wearing sunglasses and a hat, but he had also bought a new set of clothes that Gu Lin had never seen before. And throughout the whole time, he didn’t plan on speaking.
Lin Zheng was confident Gu Lin wouldn’t recognize him.
…If Gu Lin could still recognize him like this, then there was only one word to describe him—amazing!
After pointing to a coffee on the menu, Lin Zheng changed his walking posture and sat down at a table diagonally behind Gu Lin.
This way, he could not only hear what Gu Lin was saying, but he could also see the woman opposite him. And because he was wearing sunglasses, he didn’t have to worry about her noticing his gaze. In other words, he could watch their interaction to his heart’s content.
“Sir, here’s your coffee.”
The waiter brought the coffee Lin Zheng had ordered to the table. Lin Zheng nodded, and then he saw a small pastry next to his coffee.
Lin Zheng: “?”
He hadn’t ordered any dessert. Did this coffee shop give out free pastries with coffee?
Just as he was thinking, he heard the waiter beside him say, “Sir, this is a complimentary pastry for you. I don’t know if you can hear me, but I hope you have a wonderful life.”
After speaking, the waiter left, holding the tray to his chest.
Lin Zheng: “…” He thinks I’m deaf and mute.
This was something Lin Zheng hadn’t expected.
He just didn’t plan on speaking; it wasn’t that he couldn’t speak.
Gu Lin’s voice came from diagonally in front of him. “I didn’t expect you to ask me to meet today.”
Lin Zheng couldn’t care less about being deaf or mute right now. His ears immediately perked up.
Gu Lin seemed to chuckle. “You look even more beautiful today.”
Lin Zheng: “…!!”
That’s a pretty direct compliment, isn’t it?!
If these two had no relationship whatsoever, Lin Zheng would die before he believed it.
The woman: “You’re always so sweet.”
Gu Lin: “I learned it from you.”
Lin Zheng: “!!”
Listen to that, just listen to that! What an ambiguous and player-like thing to say!
I learned it from you, hehe, I learned it from you… So these two must have known each other for a long time.
The woman looked out the window and sighed. “Every time it snows, I always feel so happy. Because the first time I saw you, it was snowing then too. Even though it was winter, my heart felt so warm.”
Lin Zheng: “…” So the first time they met was on a snowy day.
Gu Lin: “Although I don’t remember how I felt the first time I saw you, I think it was probably similar to yours.”
Lin Zheng: “…” What’s going on? She remembers how she felt the first time she saw you, but you, a grown man, forgot such an important thing? Are you a scumbag or what?!
And Gu Lin kept using the formal “you.” Lin Zheng understood now. This was a relationship between an older woman and a younger man.
The woman reached out, her long, slender fingers covering Gu Lin’s hand on the table.
Seeing their hands clasped together, the pastry Lin Zheng had just picked up crumbled in his hand.
The woman: “You’ll never know how I felt the first time I saw you. That was the most important moment of my life so far. No other moment can replace it. You are my most precious little sweetheart.”
Lin Zheng was numb.
What a deeply affectionate confession. It sounded like they had known each other for a long time, and their relationship was definitely very deep.
Lin Zheng was certain now. Gu Lin had someone else in his heart.
Besides him, Gu Lin’s heart also held a mature, charming older woman. This woman was deeply in love with Gu Lin, and Gu Lin…
Lin Zheng looked at their hands, still clasped together.
Lin Zheng knew that Gu Lin didn’t seem to be rejecting her advances either.
Forget it.
Lin Zheng put down his coffee.
In that case, there was no point in continuing to be entangled with Gu Lin.
This person was someone Gu Lin had known for a long time, perhaps even someone who had been a part of an important stage in Gu Lin’s life.
Without a doubt, Gu Lin wasn’t rejecting her.
If they were going by time, he was the one who had interfered.
Alright, since everything was clear now, then… there was no need for him to stay any longer.
He would go back now, pack his things, and move out.
Lin Zheng took a deep breath, then put down the book in his hand and stood up.
Gu Lin: “Mom, I’ve told you many times, stop using words you’d use for a child to describe me.”
Lin Zheng’s foot, which was just about to take a step, almost tripped on the chair. “Mom?!!”
The word slipped out of Lin Zheng’s mouth. The sound was so shocking that everyone in the coffee shop turned to look at him, including the waiter who had first served him coffee. The waiter looked at him in disbelief, his hands covering his mouth, as if he couldn’t believe Lin Zheng could actually speak.
After shouting, Lin Zheng realized what a foolish thing he had done. A second before Gu Lin turned his head, he pulled out his phone at lightning speed, put it to his ear, and said in a strange, made-up dialect, “Hello? Mom?! Oh my, I was wondering who it was. It’s my mom!!”
While talking on the phone, he also turned his body away from Gu Lin’s line of sight.
Then he pressed a hand to his forehead, looking annoyed.
Lin Zheng: “Mom, I can’t talk right now. I’m having coffee. I’ll come see you next time I’m home. Bye-bye.”
After saying that, Lin Zheng put away his phone and sat back down, then raised the book in his hand to cover his face, also blocking Gu Lin’s view of him.
So embarrassing!!!
No, that wasn’t the problem he should be worried about right now. It was Gu Lin’s mom.
What the hell?! Why did Gu Lin have such a young mother? No matter how you looked at her, she looked like she was in her early thirties at most. My God, so all that talk about the first time they met wasn’t the kind of ‘first time’ I was thinking of?
He was speechless. What a mess.
It turned out to be Gu Lin’s mother all along.
He had thought Gu Lin was in a relationship with an older woman.
Lin Zheng slapped himself on the head.
He didn’t know how much time had passed. Lin Zheng’s neck was sore from resting his head on the table. He hadn’t heard a single word of what Gu Lin and his mother had said after that.
Just as he was sighing, a hand suddenly came from above and gently tapped him on the head.
Lin Zheng: “Huh?”
Lin Zheng reflexively looked up and saw Gu Lin’s smiling face.
Lin Zheng became alert. Then, relying on the fact that he was still in disguise and assuming Gu Lin wouldn’t recognize him, he said in the same strange dialect as before, “Who are you?”
Gu Lin raised an eyebrow and asked back, “Then who do you think I should be?”
Lin Zheng continued to pretend he didn’t know him. “I don’t know you, young man.”
“How could that be? Did I get the wrong person?” Gu Lin asked seriously.
Lin Zheng, without batting an eye, said, “You got the wrong person.”
“Oh, I see,” Gu Lin said, nodding. “Then I’ll be going.”
Lin Zheng said in his dialect, “Okay, bye-bye.”
After watching Gu Lin leave the coffee shop, Lin Zheng finally breathed a sigh of relief.
To hell with it. If Gu Lin knew he was here, he would have been so embarrassed.
Assuming Gu Lin was already far away, Lin Zheng stood up, took a final sip of his coffee, and walked towards the door.
He pushed open the door of the coffee shop. Just as he stepped out and before he could steady himself, a strong arm pulled him to the side.
He stumbled into the person’s chest.
Smelling a familiar scent, Lin Zheng recognized the person as Gu Lin.
Lin Zheng was held tightly in Gu Lin’s arms, unable to move.
Lin Zheng stuttered, “Sir, what… what are you doing to me?”
Gu Lin looked down at the person in his arms. “Still want to act? It seems my little rabbit not only likes to run, but also likes to role-play?”
Lin Zheng: “!!!”
Well, well, well. He recognized me!
Gu Lin nuzzled the top of Lin Zheng’s head with his chin. “Since you like it so much, I’ll play with you slowly in the future.”
Who likes to role-play!
Lin Zheng knew that the role-playing Gu Lin was talking about was definitely not the same as the role-playing he was thinking of.
Since he had already been recognized, there was no point in continuing to hide.
“Yes, yes, it’s me,” Lin Zheng said.
Lin Zheng remembered that this was where his colleagues had seen Gu Lin pick up a beautiful woman. Worried that his colleagues might see him being held by Gu Lin, Lin Zheng struggled and said, “Let me go first, or someone might see.”
Gu Lin knew Lin Zheng was thin-skinned and worried about being seen, so he slowly let him go.
But then, he took Lin Zheng’s cold fingers and put them in his pocket.
Even so, Lin Zheng was still worried. Besides, it wasn’t appropriate for him and Gu Lin to be like this right now. He tried to pull his hand out, but Gu Lin didn’t let him, instead holding his hand even tighter. “What are you afraid of? Aren’t you in disguise? No one will recognize you except me.”
That was true, but when did Gu Lin recognize him? Was it when he shouted “Mom”? That made sense. After all, he had made a sound then. Although he had tried to cover it up with a strange dialect, that one word “Mom” had probably given him away.
“When you came in,” Gu Lin said calmly.
But Lin Zheng couldn’t stay calm. “What?! You recognized me as soon as I came in?!”
He had tried so hard to disguise himself, and he had been so sure Gu Lin wouldn’t recognize him. Was it all for nothing?
Gu Lin turned to look at Lin Zheng, caressing his fingers. “How could I not recognize you?” he said softly.
He had only changed his clothes. The way Lin Zheng carried himself, the way he liked to walk with his hands behind his back, sometimes fidgeting with his fingers—these were things he couldn’t hide no matter how much he tried.
And there were many, many more habits that Lin Zheng himself might not have noticed, but Gu Lin knew them all.
So he could easily recognize Lin Zheng.
Even if you put a hundred identical Lin Zhengs in front of him, he could quickly find the real one. Because that was the person he loved.
Lin Zheng felt guilty and a little shy. “You should have said so earlier. I wouldn’t have had to act so hard.”
Gu Lin looked him up and down and asked, “So, why are you dressed like this, and why are you here?”
Lin Zheng coughed into his fist, still trying to come up with an excuse. But when he met Gu Lin’s gaze, he gave up and confessed everything.
He said that he had joined the company gossip group under Yan Yang’s name for fun, and then he heard that a colleague had seen him driving a woman home, and so on and so forth.
After hearing this, Gu Lin seemed a little surprised. “So, you came to find me? To see what my relationship with that woman was?”
Lin Zheng neither nodded nor shook his head.
But Gu Lin already knew the answer. He started to laugh.
Lin Zheng said, embarrassed, “What are you laughing at? What’s so funny?”
Gu Lin replied, “Because I’m happy.”
He was happy that Lin Zheng was jealous, and even happier that Lin Zheng cared about him.
If Lin Zheng had no feelings for him at all, he wouldn’t have cared about these things. He might have just dismissed it as something unimportant.
So he was very happy.
Gu Lin led him to the car parked not far from the coffee shop.
As soon as they got in, Lin Zheng sneezed.
Gu Lin turned up the heat in the car, then took out the medicine he had prepared for Lin Zheng from the glove compartment. He took out one tablet and two capsules, and handed them to Lin Zheng along with his own water bottle.
From the looks of it, Lin Zheng hadn’t taken his medicine.
Lin Zheng’s nose was completely blocked. He felt that his cold had definitely gotten worse, probably because he had been standing in the snow for so long.
The reason he had gotten sick in the first place was because Yan Yang kept taking him out in the cold wind and snow, which had led to a high fever.
Lin Zheng took the pills from Gu Lin, but he swallowed them without water.
When he took medicine, as long as there weren’t too many pills, he could do it without water.
He sighed and looked at the date on his phone. He realized that the day after tomorrow was Saturday.
It was also Gu Lin’s birthday.
Lin Zheng sighed. He probably didn’t have the energy to paint now. But with such limited time, what else could he prepare for Gu Lin?
Saturday, Saturday was almost here.
Just as Lin Zheng was thinking, Gu Lin, who was next to him, suddenly said, “My mother wants to meet you.”
Lin Zheng had just come back from his thoughts and didn’t hear what Gu Lin had just said. He asked, “Huh?”
Gu Lin turned to face him. “I told my mother about you. She said she wants to meet you.”
Gu Lin reached out and smoothed down a stray lock of hair on Lin Zheng’s head. With a smile on his face, he said, “How about this Saturday? That day is a good day.”
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