Chapter 72: Stop Dawdling
Cheng Ge jerked back, vigorously rubbing his ears.
It was too muchānumb and itchy. Cheng Ge felt like his hair was about to stand on end. “How can you just suddenly touch my ears?”
“Theyāre so red.”
“So you touch them because they’re red?” Cheng Ge was about to blow a fuse.
“I can’t?”
Cheng Ge said righteously, “Of course you can’t.”
He added, “I’m ticklish. You can’t do that next time.”
“Okay then. I won’t do it next time.”
Wen Ling thought Cheng Ge was truly strange. He really liked it when Cheng Ge pinched his ears; it felt like floating on clouds, his whole body turning soft. Why didn’t Cheng Ge like it when he pinched his?
“Have you chosen? Which one do you want to buy?” Cheng Ge diverted the topic.
Wen Ling asked back, “Which one do you like more?”
“What does it matter which one I like? I’m asking which one you want to buy.”
“I like what you like.”
Cheng Ge was amused. “Then if I like all three, you’re buying all three?”
“Mm,” he hummed with the fourth tone, looking proud. “I have money.”
What a spendthrift brat.
Cheng Ge thought for a bit and said, “Buy the first one.”
“Okay.”
Once the style was chosen, a staff member immediately came forward to negotiate. The price was 1,200 yuan.
Cheng Geās principle for shopping was that he could buy expensive things, but he couldn’t get ripped off. The water in the optical business ran very deep; even cutting the price in half was often still a loss. The guides online said this shop was good for bargaining.
“800,” Cheng Ge said.
“Handsome, youāre cutting too much. Weāre just a small business. 1,000. Can’t go any lower.”
“800,” Cheng Ge insisted.
“Oh, little brother. 900. Truly can’t go lower. Thatās the cost price.”
“800. Weāre still students.”
“That won’t work… Sigh… 900. Truly the cost price.”
“800. Boss, I know how it works. Don’t lie to me.”
Actually, Cheng Ge didn’t know anything. He had no confidence either; heād just read it online and didn’t know if it was accurate.
And don’t look at how Cheng Ge was insisting on 800 right now as if he were brimming with confidenceāthat was only because he didn’t know what else to say.
In truth, Cheng Ge wasn’t very good at bargaining. He used to live under someone else’s roof, was poor, and lived roughly. He didn’t have money to buy anything that required bargaining. Later, when he had some money, his desire to buy things wasn’t high. So the opportunities for him to bargain were few and far between.
But he certainly couldn’t let Wen Ling get ripped off right now, so he could only stiffen his upper lip and keep pushing.
I just love worrying over nothing, Cheng Ge complained to himself.
Wen Ling didn’t think that way. He kept staring at Cheng Ge chatting with the staff. Seeing Cheng Ge smiling at the person, his little mouth tightened more and more.
They were standing so close, talking for so long, talking until he was forgotten.
“600,” Wen Ling said. He knew Cheng Ge was bargaining, but how could bargaining take this long? How could they be so intimate?
Wen Ling couldn’t accept it.
“Haāhahaha. Little kid, what kind of joke are you playing…”
“600,” Wen Ling interrupted. “Hurry up and sell it. Cheng Ge and I are going to a movie.”
The glasses salesman was stunned. Having sold glasses for over ten years, this was the first time he had encountered someone like this. For a moment, he didn’t know how to handle it. He even turned a pleading look toward the customer from just now, only to find that person had hidden behind the “little kid.”
Cheng Ge wasn’t hiding; he just couldn’t stop laughing. His forehead was against Wen Lingās shoulder, his head lowered, his shoulders shaking from laughter.
Wen Ling had been so domineering just now. He looked so capable.
“600. Stop dawdling.”
“600, 600,” Cheng Ge, still buried against Wen Lingās shoulder, raised his hand like an elementary student behind Wen Ling. “I listen to him. Heās in charge.”
Seconds ticked by. It was quiet for nearly ten seconds.
“700 then.” The glasses salesman had a smile on his face, looking like he wanted to negotiate.
Wen Ling was truly annoyed. No wonder Cheng Ge had to talk to this person for so long. How could selling something be like this?
“Cheng Ge, I’m not buying it. Let’s go to the movie.” Saying this, Wen Ling was about to drag Cheng Ge away.
It was already 700; how could Cheng Ge not buy it? Just as he was about to speak, he was called back by the staff. “600! 600 it is! Selling at a loss…”
Cheng Ge was delighted. He pulled and hugged the Wen Ling who was genuinely about to leave back. “Deal.”
Wen Ling looked at Cheng Ge with some dissatisfaction, but didn’t say anything. He pulled out his phone with a stiff face to scan the code, preparing to pay.
As the receipt was being finalized, the salesman joked, “Your younger brother? Quite the temper.”
Cheng Ge was about to say yes, but Wen Lingās temper was actually okay, when he heard Wen Ling say seriously, “No.”
“He’s my boyfriend.”
Cheng Geās brain went buzz. He didn’t recover for a moment.
The salesman even more so. Although he wasn’t young, he was quite trendy and understood a fair bit. But understanding was one thing; whether he could accept it was another.
Seeing the other partyās gaze toward them becoming increasingly strange, Cheng Ge frowned. He hated such gazes, and hated it even more when such gazes landed on Wen Ling.
He draped his arm over Wen Lingās shoulder and turned around, looking back to ask, “Pick it up next weekend, right?”
“Uh, y-yes.”
“Mm.” After saying that, they left the shop.
Regarding Wen Lingās words, Cheng Ge didn’t say much. Wen Ling had thought that way for a long time; heād just let him be, otherwise heād be unhappy again.
Because Wen Ling didn’t like crowded places, Cheng Ge chose a private screening room to watch the movie. The decoration was very artistic, with carpets and small sofasāit looked like a small bedroom for sleeping.
The movie genre chosen was a horror film. It wasn’t chosen by Cheng Ge, but by Wen Ling. When asked why, Wen Ling said he just picked it randomly, so Cheng Ge went along with it.
The movie was over two hours long. Fearing Wen Ling might get hungry, Cheng Ge bought many snacks: classic popcorn, dried fruit, chocolate, potato chips, and gummy bears.
Wen Ling sat on the sofa trying to adjust the projector. Cheng Ge went to close the curtains and turn off the lights. Once settled, he returned to the sofa and sat next to Wen Ling.
“Can you figure it out?”
“I can.”
Cheng Ge leaned back on the sofa, watching Wen Ling work “laboriously”āhe chose the word himself; Wen Ling was actually very composed.
“Done.”
Wen Ling also leaned back on the sofa, then leaned against Cheng Ge. He had no interest in the movie, but watching a movie with Cheng Ge was different.
The movie opened with a sudden close-up of a man with strange eyes and a ghost-like voice that gave people goosebumps.
Cheng Ge wasn’t afraid, but he was worried Wen Ling might be.
Cheng Ge opened a tub of popcorn and stuffed it into Wen Lingās hand. “Have some.”
Wen Ling liked sweets, but didn’t like them too cloying. After eating a dozen or so, he didn’t want any more. He stopped eating, but wanted to feed Cheng Ge.
Cheng Ge didn’t particularly like sweets. He had said he wouldn’t eat them at the start. When Wen Ling first fed him, he could reluctantly eat a few, but later he really didn’t want to. He pressed his lips together, refusing to open them.
“You eat.”
“I’m not eating.”
“You eat,” Wen Ling was very persistent, his voice drawn out.
The voice that reached Cheng Geās ears was soft and sweet, like popcorn.
And like he was acting spoiled.
Cheng Geās Adam’s apple bobbed. “Last one.”
But this “last one” was never truly the last one. Wen Ling always had a way to make him eat, to the point where neither of them had their minds on the movie.
One wasn’t interested to begin with, and the other couldn’t focusāhe was constantly being influenced by this clingy spirit.
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