Chapter 24: Cold War and Sneaking off to the Bar — “Ah Yan, don’t stop talking…” part 1
Both of them were stunned at the same time.
“Jiang Yan…”
“Ah Yan?”
Jiang Yunian was a bit surprised to see the newcomer, then immediately realized he was wearing a dress, but the words had already left his mouth. The look he gave Jiang Yan revealed his guilt and unease, like a lamb awaiting judgment.
Jiang Yan walked over from the corner, his gaze sweeping over Xiao Lin holding his brother’s hand, his face freezing over. Almost simultaneously, he grabbed Jiang Yunian’s hand, forcibly separating the two, his movements revealing a naked possessiveness.
“What’s going on?”
Jiang Yunian was pulled behind him. Meeting that dark face, he shook his head uneasily, indicating he didn’t know her.
Jiang Yan didn’t speak, staring at his open collar where his beautiful collarbones were clearly visible.
Who knows how many people have seen him like this.
Suppressing the jealousy at the bottom of his heart, he briskly took off his own jacket and draped it over him.
“I brought a jacket…” Jiang Yunian wanted to refuse; the wind was strong today, and it was easy to catch a cold without a jacket.
“Don’t move.”
Jiang Yan’s tone wasn’t gentle like usual; it was even somewhat cold and hard.
Jiang Yunian’s heart sank; sure enough, he was angry. Was he afraid he would be cold, or did he think him wearing women’s clothes at school was weird, so he wanted to cover it with a jacket?
Fang Xiaolin stood blankly to the side, close at hand yet so far away. She watched Jiang Yan’s extremely natural movements, her heart twisting together. She was also dressed very thinly and felt cold, but his eyes only held that person.
The wind in the corridor seemed to drop eight degrees instantly, becoming bone-chilling, but no amount of cold could compare to the chill in her heart.
“Jiang Yan…” Fang Xiaolin’s eyes reddened as she spoke, “You’ve been deceived by him. He’s a man.”
Jiang Yan zipped up the jacket for his brother, his expression focused as if only the two of them existed in the world. He pulled the zipper all the way to the top, covering that dazzling skin, wrapping him up tightly without leaving a single gap.
Even though she was long used to his indifference, at this moment she felt incredibly unwilling. She agitatedly grabbed his sleeve. “His name is Jiang Yunian, the volunteer from the lecture. He isn’t a wom—”
“I know.” Jiang Yan indifferently brushed her hand away.
Fang Xiaolin couldn’t believe it. “You know?”
“You know, and yet…”
She suddenly couldn’t continue. That peeping from the dark downstairs just now… was actually directed at a man!
For more than a month, how had she not realized Jiang Yan was gay?
“How could it be…” In Fang Xiaolin’s hurt eyes, there was a mix of unwillingness from misplaced affection as she pointed at Jiang Yunian. “Then do you know he… does he have a girlfriend?”
This sentence struck like a thunderclap on flat ground.
“Girlfriend?” Jiang Yan frowned.
Jiang Yunian was even more confused. “How come I don’t know?”
This was really getting a bit baffling. Could she be suspecting he had some shameful relationship with Jiang Yan? Although he was dressed like this, his sexual orientation was absolutely normal! However, he could tell this girl liked Jiang Yan.
“You admitted it yourself,” Fang Xiaolin said. “That time I picked up your breast patch, you forgot?”
“Breast… patch?” Jiang Yan enunciated the words with a dark face, his scrutinizing gaze seemingly about to burn through the person. “You let her pick up a breast patch?”
“No…” Jiang Yunian finally remembered this detail, his scalp tingling. “It was my own.”
Fang Xiaolin could no longer distinguish which of his words were true. “You wear breast patches even in men’s clothes?”
Jiang Yunian couldn’t defend himself; in front of an outsider, he was ashamed to speak. He couldn’t possibly tell her he wore it that day because he was rubbed swollen by Jiang Yan, right? That would really make him a pervert.
He had no intention of arguing with anyone. To prevent the situation from spiraling out of control again, he pulled Jiang Yan and whispered, “Let’s talk about it when we get back, okay? Here…”
“Jiang Yan…” Fang Xiaolin stubbornly blocked their way, her throat trembling. “Believe me, okay? Everything I said is true! He is just a per…”
“What does it have to do with you?” Jiang Yan’s face went completely cold, showing the impatience of being pestered. “Move.”
Fang Xiaolin’s face turned pale, tears welling in her eyes, looking pitiful but failing to evoke a shred of pity from the other party.
Facing Jiang Yan’s indifference, her obvious crush ended without a start. She took a deep breath and said with a trembling voice, “I’m sorry, I was being presumptuous.”
Jiang Yunian couldn’t bear to see a girl cry and felt a bit unbearable, so he quietly tugged at Jiang Yan’s sleeve.
Jiang Yan stood rigidly without moving, so he tugged harder.
“Sorry,” Jiang Yan uttered faintly.
Fang Xiaolin shook her head, pulled a smile like dead ashes, covered her mouth, turned, and ran away, her purple figure disappearing at the end of the corridor.
Jiang Yunian looked at the empty corridor with mixed feelings. He turned his head to look at Jiang Yan, whose face still held that indifference of having nothing to do with himself. It seemed that except for himself, Jiang Yan treated everyone and everything with this detached attitude; his unusual calmness was no wonder a kind of coldness.
“She’s that deskmate of yours, right?”
So the girl in purple Jiang Yan mentioned on the phone was her? Or himself?
But now, there seemed to be no need to struggle with that.
Jiang Yan didn’t speak, his tight jawline revealing that he wasn’t as calm as he appeared on the surface.
Silence meant acquiescence. Jiang Yunian wanted to say something to ease the atmosphere, saying that the girl had some misunderstandings about him, and she couldn’t be blamed. But she seems to like you very much; do you want to go explain to her again? Didn’t you walk together before?
“…”
Silence spread between the two, carrying a hidden and heavy sense of oppression that made him somewhat at a loss and afraid to look him in the eye. Jiang Yunian stopped talking. The wind in the corridor seemed colder, blowing his hands and feet cold. He just wanted to change out of these clothes quickly, so he forgot there were things left unexplained.
Like the girlfriend, like why someone picked up a breast patch, and like, why dress like this?
Perhaps not forgotten, but evaded.
Jiang Yan’s silence was too scary.
“Why aren’t you walking?”
Jiang Yunian walked very slowly in high heels and could easily be caught up with, but Jiang Yan didn’t move.
He moved back step by step, leaning against the wall to relieve the soreness in his ankles.
“Ah Yan, don’t stop talking.” Jiang Yunian called him softly, his eyelashes trembling slightly. “I can explain…”
He didn’t know how to express his mood at this moment and felt a bit wronged. He was clearly twenty years old, yet he still had to be judged by someone younger who called him Ge.
“What’s going on?” Jiang Yan finally spoke, his voice very deep.
So he began to explain dryly, from the inexplicable encounter to the unwarranted “girlfriend.” Mentioning the breast patch, Jiang Yunian glared at him resentfully. Wasn’t it because you insisted on massaging me that night and made it swollen, so I pasted it because the clothes rubbed painfully? If they really argued about it, Jiang Yan had to take half the responsibility!
“I left in a hurry that morning and accidentally bumped into her… She thought it belonged to a girlfriend.”
Jiang Yan’s heart was clear, but the gravity on his face didn’t decrease a bit. He leaned over slightly, his broad shoulders completely enveloping Jiang Yunian in shadow, pointing at his dress. “And what about this?”
Sure enough, he hadn’t heard the confession on the phone, but instead caught him red-handed.
“I said, I don’t like Ge dressing like this in front of outsiders.” Jiang Yan’s voice carried a harsh chill. “If Ge dresses like this, what are girls supposed to wear?”
He had restrained himself very much to turn a blind eye to this matter and learn to respect him. But seeing it with his own eyes, that bit of restraint instantly collapsed. The thought of how many people had seen him like this made him go mad with jealousy.
Why?
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