Chapter 20: How Do You Know You Like Guys?
Passing a supermarket on the way back, Xie Jingchu stopped the car temporarily and turned sideways: “I’m going down to buy something.”
“I’ll go with you, digest some food.” Shen Guanchao unbuckled his seatbelt.
“Mn, let’s go.”
Pushing the door open and getting out, the two walked into the mall side by side. Arriving at the snack section, Xie Jingchu pushed a shopping cart. His other hand was free, and Shen Guanchao, who was stuffed from eating, leaned on it. Clearly said he wanted to digest food, but in the end turned into a “sloth,” refusing to walk unless leaning on someone else.
Xie Jingchu carefully picked many types and flavors of candy. Among them, he took the most throat lozenges. pinching the package, he said seriously: “I just checked online. This kind of candy seems good for the throat of people who smoke.”
Shen Guanchao gave a lazy “Mn.” Walking all the way down to the fresh vegetable section, he suddenly got interested, picking a bit here and choosing a bit there.
“The base auntie went back to her hometown for the New Year these days. We’ve been living on takeout. I’m about to vomit from eating those same few things back and forth.” Shen Guanchao complained while choosing, “I’ll buy some things back for Pei Zhi to stir-fry. Look, isn’t this Chinese cabbage beautiful?”
Xie Jingchu nodded. After choosing ingredients, he was pulled to the bakery section.
In the fragrant and sweet atmosphere, Shen Guanchao’s eyes sparkled when he saw the bread. He held the bag open, while Xie Jingchu used tongs to put bread in for him to weigh.
When the sweet and greasy bread fell into the bag, a sentence he didn’t know where he heard popped into Xie Jingchu’s mind— “Shopping in the supermarket with the person you like is the most romantic thing, beautiful just like lovers who have already confirmed their relationship.”
They strolled around every product section. When paying at the end, Xie Jingchu’s phone suddenly rang. He answered the call while paying with palm print: “Hello?”
Mu Xinyue was paralyzed on the sofa in his home, his voice sounding like his chest was sticking to his back from hunger: “Hey brother…”
“It’s almost eleven, aren’t you coming back yet?”
“Although what time you usually come back is none of my business, and I also hope you date all night and don’t come back, sleeping directly at Flesh’s home, but… I’m about to starve to death. Ordered takeout for over an hour and it hasn’t arrived, and I even got scolded by the delivery guy. Your fridge is as empty as my wallet. I really… begging for a tutorial on getting full…”
This desperate tone made Xie Jingchu want to laugh inexplicably. He comforted: “Don’t die yet, I’m on the way home.”
“Hanging up.”
After finishing the purchase, he carried big and small bags back to the car, only letting Shen Guanchao carry that lighter bag of candy.
Holding a bag of candy, the man tilted his head and asked him with a beaming smile: “You like eating candy? Should I taste if it’s good for you first?”
“I don’t really like eating sweets. You eat it.” Xie Jingchu chuckled lightly. “Not tasting for me; this was bought for you originally. You can eat a couple when you want to smoke.”
“Okay.” Shen Guanchao got in the car, tore open a package, and tasted one.
The candy was very sweet, so sweet that he recalled it many times after that night.
When he returned to the club carrying a bag of candy and ingredients, the villa was still brightly lit.
On the small terrace on the second floor, Lu Wuxu stared at the vehicle leaving outside the yard, his gaze dark. He suddenly pulled the prayer beads in his hand hard, breaking the string. Red beads fell all over the ground.
He pulled his coat tighter and walked downstairs.
When he saw Shen Guanchao, he lowered his eyes to glance at his watch and said gently: “Back? It’s past eleven-forty. Go shower first; I’ll put the things away.”
“Thanks. Put the candy on my computer station, take the ingredients to the kitchen.” Shen Guanchao handed the things in his hand to him and asked: “Where are the others?”
Lu Wuxu: “Playing Happy Landlord in my room. Want to come?”
“I’ll go over after showering.”
“Sure.”
Shen Guanchao walked back to his room.
On the other side, when Xie Jingchu drove back to his apartment, it was already approaching twelve. Pushing the door open, he saw the glutton on the sofa. He put the food on the coffee table and found a charger by the TV to charge his phone.
While “pouncing like a hungry tiger for food,” Mu Xinyue asked him: “How was the date? Any progress? Did you confess?”
“Didn’t confess. Count as some progress.” Xie Jingchu took off his coat and leaned on the sofa, asking back: “What about you? Why are you starving like this in the middle of the night?”
“It’s a long story.” Mu Xinyue shook his finger and lifted his head from the rice: “I met a handsome guy in a clear bar this month. Can drink super well. Later found out he’s actually a flower seller, a florist owner. So I added his WeChat thinking it would be convenient to buy flowers for girls I like in the future…”
“Then, uh, he often taught me what flowers can please girls the most, what flower language is the most flirtatious. Back and forth, we got familiar.”
“Today I went to send flowers to confess to a junior sister as he taught me, and then got rejected… He happened to be discussing an order nearby. Seeing me crying explosively in the coffee shop, he, uh, well, pulled me outside to comfort me, and then while comforting, we kissed…”
“I declare first, he kissed me first!!!”
“Just because of this, I forgot to eat and starved until you came back.” Mu Xinyue’s voice was still a bit hoarse when speaking. He hesitated and asked Xie Jingchu: “I ask, um, just, you gay guys, do you also kiss when comforting others usually… I’m not discriminating, I’m just curious. His kiss felt damn good too, even bit my neck.”
“Is there something wrong with your brain?” Xie Jingchu asked back without hesitation upon hearing this.
Mu Xinyue pursed his lips: “Don’t curse at people. I’ll change the question… How did you know you like guys?”
Xie Jingchu: “Maybe it was a very natural and long process.”
On that huge LED screen, seeing that arrogant yet warm glory again, his infatuation with Shen Guanchao began to grow wildly like weeds.
At first, he didn’t understand, thinking it was just pure idol worship, looking up to a superior. Later, meeting again, the desire that broke through the soil grew into a towering tree, and only then did he suddenly realize his feelings.
He wanted more than just obscurity under the stage; he wanted to mate and be entangled with that person on the stage.
His love was unwilling to just act out a monologue.
Liking sometimes only takes a few looks to sprout. Feelings between people arise simply, then complexly form bonds. In the long river of time, they exist forever.
These likes can occur between men and women, or between the same sex. These have nothing to do with gender; as long as you want to be close to that person, it is liking.
“Then have you kissed your idol?” Mu Xinyue asked again. “What did it feel like? Fragrant? Soft? Uh… I’m not a pervert.”
Xie Jingchu interrupted his antics: “Why so many questions? Why didn’t that flower seller kiss you to death?”
“Quiet, eat. If not eating, scram home.”
Shen Guanchao finished his shower and came out. When he walked to Lu Wuxu’s room, Zoe had just lost a round of Landlord. He wiped his hair while sneering: “Brothers of one heart, giving gold every round?”
“Old Lu’s hand is wrapped like a Zongzi (sticky rice dumpling), and you two still can’t beat him.”
Lu Wuxu’s wrist was wrapped weirdly with gauze. Shen Guanchao walked closer, reached out to wipe away the bit of herbal medicine that overflowed for him, then asked: “What did the doctor say?”
Lu Wuxu’s right hand always had an injury. After dinner tonight, NAVA’s team doctor came to apply some conditioning herbs for him and check on him while at it.
NAVA wasn’t like those purely commercial gaming clubs where players were sold off or kicked down to watch the water cooler as soon as problems arose. They wouldn’t give up on any player in the club. If there was an ailment, they’d find the best doctor; if there was a problem, they’d solve the problem, not the person.
“He told me to relax, won’t die.” Lu Wuxu smiled. “With my condition, I can still play for another year or two, enough to accompany you guys to win a few more championships.”
Shen Guanchao didn’t worry overly much about him either.
Zoe hooked his arms around Fox and Lu Wuxu’s shoulders, tattling to the captain: “Brother! They cheated to pit me!”
“Fox even peeked at my cards and told Brother Lu!”
“If you’re bad, train more.” Shen Guanchao threw away the towel, mocking, “With your card skills, how much did you lose to them?”
Zoe stubbornly reported a number: “Eighty-nine point two eight…”
“Round it up for you, one hundred.” Fox extended a finger generously.
Zoe: “You!!!”
Shen Guanchao found a hundred-yuan bill from his pocket, handed it to the two creditors, and patted Zoe’s head pityingly: “Ziran ah, this bowl of rice called Landlord isn’t meant for you to eat. Let Brother do it; Brother guarantees to win back your capital.”
Zoe immediately vacated the seat and even performed a standard usher bow.
“Big Brother, please.”
Shen Guanchao: “…”
After Fox dealt the cards, Lu Wuxu suddenly said: “Did you drink outside? I prepared honey water in the kitchen. If you feel unwell, go drink some?”
“What little scheme are you playing?” Shen Guanchao held the cards coolly with one hand, covering his face and laughing: “Only telling me there’s honey water after dealing cards. Do you want to peek at my cards while I go downstairs? Let me tell you, I didn’t drink today; you can’t pit me…”
Seeing him pretending to have victory in his grasp, eyes curved into crescents, Lu Wuxu laughed involuntarily: “…”
When people are speechless, they really laugh inexplicably.
“Alright, I really didn’t want to pit you.”
Shen Guanchao: “Even dogs wouldn’t believe it.”
Lu Wuxu: “…”
In the room, Zoe waved the flag and shouted all night. In the end, his Captain Big Brother gloriously lost a whole one hundred thirty-five point six yuan to the opposite side.
Shen Guanchao tearfully took out two more hundred-yuan bills from his pocket, hummed a song, and lazily lay on the bed in Lu Wuxu’s room in a salted fish posture (slacking off), sighing: “Tired and sleepy. Too lazy to go back to my room. I’ll sleep here; treat that two hundred as whoring fees.”
“Anyway, Ziran sleeps with Fox every day too.”
Lu Wuxu corrected him: “Speak properly. What whoring fees.”
“Does Zoe act as sloppily as you when sleeping with Fox? Taking up a whole bed by yourself.”
Teammates staying overnight in another teammate’s room was a common occurrence. When Pei Zhi came up to look for people usually, he would even tease them a couple of sentences.
Lu Wuxu patted the spot beside him: “Come here, I’ll blow-dry your hair.”
“Your long hair won’t dry without blowing. Leave it too long and you’ll get headaches.”
Shen Guanchao: “Sure, Hair Master.”
No one spoke during the blow-drying process. Lu Wuxu stood by the bed, his technique skilled. The dusty purple hair fluttered in his uninjured palm.
“Sleep early when hair is dry. Your dark circles are a bit deep these days.”
“Got it, Daddy Lu.”
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