Chapter 13: Agony
Tang Yue’s first reaction was to refuse, but before he could speak, Yao Lixin asked, “Then where will Xiao Mie sleep? Will the three of us sleep together?”
There were two rooms, each with a large bed. Yao Lixin had prepared to take care of his child before arriving.
He smiled easily, yet pretended to be reluctant: “Alright, let’s consider this advance practice for being a father.”
His nephew was merciless: “Uncle, if you become a father, you’ll definitely be scolded by your aunt for not knowing how to take care of the kids.”
The person in question smiled brightly: “That’s her way of showing her love.”
This blatant affection could almost pierce the screen; Tang Yue found it hard not to be affected.
He curiously asked Yao Lixin, “Is Second Brother’s girlfriend the older sister who came to watch our training back then?”
[Tang Yue, you’ve been sidetracked again.]
[He’s like that… a silly person who’s easy to coax and deceive hahaha.]
[Really? Did she come to watch the training back then?]
[Could they have been dating back then?]
Yao Lixin nodded: “That’s right, but she had a boyfriend at the time.”
Even after eight years of being in this book, Tang Yue was still essentially out of place.
Perhaps he was too rule-abiding, feeling the need to respect the original work, but he forgot that he was in the story and was no longer an ordinary character who could be controlled.
He hadn’t realized that he also had something he desperately wanted; this thing couldn’t be suppressed, and the longer it lasted, the more violently it would erupt.
Jiang Shulu sat to the side calmly eating the radish Tang Mian didn’t want, not reminding Tang Yue that he had been sidetracked, but instead carefully observing Tang Yue’s expression.
Yao Lixin already liked showing off his love, and in this situation, he couldn’t help but show it off, already starting to tell Tang Yue how he defeated his wife’s ex-boyfriend and won her heart.
Tang Yue was very supportive, making exclamations like “Wow,” “Amazing,” “Second Brother, you’re amazing,” and so on.
He really hadn’t changed at all.
Jiang Shulu didn’t even realize that in front of the camera, he seemed to be finding Tang Yue appetizing, his gaze full of an unconcerned stare, his smile turning into a doting one; a single close-up would be enough to make his former fans fall for him again.
[Captain, stop looking! I’ll think you’ve had a long unrequited love for Tang Yue!!]
[Jiang Shulu’s eyes are really beautiful, but it’s not the kind of feeling that makes him look affectionate towards everyone.]
[Kill me! I still think that this kid will look even more like Jiang Shulu when he grows up!!!]
[Woo woo woo, is it just me, or is Xiao Yue feeling envious? Is he missing his deceased child’s mother?]
[Can Tang Yue tell us! I’m so curious.]
Yao Lixin: “Anyway, that’s how May-December romances are; it’s not easy, she had a lot of concerns, and I understand that.”
The man with semi-long hair leaned against his hand and looked at Tang Yue: “But I like older women, I didn’t expect you to be the same, kid, I thought you were just saying it casually.”
Tang Yue listens very attentively when others speak, even if the other person says a bunch of nonsense, it seems to be an important speech in his eyes.
When the topic turns to him, he becomes flustered: “Ah… I… I at that time…”
The off-camera staff directly handed over the equipment, which clearly showed a group interview, the one where they were asked about their ideal type.
Yao Lixin: “Did you really find it?”
His tone was somewhat nostalgic; in the video, he had his hair cut for that album, and he felt heartbroken.
As a result, Jiang Shulu was forced to get extensions, and now that hairstyle is often shared by netizens.
It’s not to mock him, it’s purely an appreciation of his beauty.
The program team also synced this video in the live broadcast.
[That’s it!! That interview! Jiang Shulu is unbelievably handsome!]
[My sister went crazy to buy that album back then.]
[Unexpectedly, the captain looked so beautiful with platinum blonde long hair.]
[Jiang Shulu’s long hair looks completely different from Yao Lixin. Yao Lixin is wild, but Jiang Shulu truly is unattainable! Back then, who said that they felt blessed just to be looked at by him.]
[This album remains my top 1 for Away]
[Then the interview asked about their ideal type, it’s hilarious, Liu Xichao is really good at playing jokes, he directly said it was Jiang Shulu.]
Compared to the three adults present, the child was more curious.
Tang Yue glanced at it; how could he not remember?
Jiang Shulu’s hairstyle was really handsome.
When Tang Yue read the book, he thought the author’s description was overly exaggerated, but when he saw the person in real life…
He felt that the description was too vulgar, enough to make Tang Yue’s heart beat when he saw the other person.
After knowing the other person’s name, he hurriedly suppressed his heartbeat.
The video happened to reach the part where the reporter asked Liu Xichao about his ideal type.
This guy didn’t answer first, giving a clearly teasing look at the captain sitting next to him with waist-length hair, half hanging over his chest, half tucked behind his ear.
When he spoke into the microphone, he almost broke his voice: “Of course it’s the captain.”
Taking advantage of Jiang Shulu looking over, he quickly added, “But I like older women, the captain is still a bit lacking.”
At the time, many people thought there was a real couple in the group because of Liu Xichao’s performance. Combining the current situation, Liu Xichao didn’t seem to be lying.
He did like older women; Jiang Shulu and Jiang He had a ten-year age gap, which didn’t meet his ideal type standard.
Many fans misunderstood at the time, and Tang Yue also misunderstood.
He was a person who transmigrated into the book after all, and his preconceived notion was the urban love story between Jiang Shulu and Liu Xichao.
In that situation, he clearly shipped them, and suffered greatly from it, because he also had ulterior motives for Jiang Shulu.
Now that the misunderstanding was cleared, Tang Yue didn’t dare to watch the video anymore, a slight bitterness spreading. He subconsciously looked out the window, but Yao Lixin mistook him for evading.
“Don’t play dead, tell us about the charming older sister you like?”
[I knew it, he’s setting a trap!]
[This variety show would be boring if it was only Tang Yue and Jiang Shulu!!]
[No wonder they say they’re not familiar, they really don’t seem familiar!]
[I’m already looking forward to the segment where they sleep together…]
Tang Yue subconsciously glanced at Jiang Shulu. Yao Lixin: “Are you going to throw a smokescreen like Liu Xichao?”
“Like the captain’s type? He’s not an older sister.”
Jiang Shulu took the opportunity to ask, “How much older is she than you? Where is she from?”
After asking, Jiang Shulu pursed his lips slightly, apologetically adding, “Can I ask?”
It was a bit too obvious, so obvious that Yao Lixin thought to himself: It’s too deliberate.
But Yao Lixin didn’t interrupt.
With Yao Lixin’s and Liu Xichao’s friendship, they knew there was something else to this story.
The complicated family background of the Jiang family was one reason, and there was also Tang Yue’s “I have a secret” during his time in the group.
[Captain!! Why don’t you know anything like the rest of us!!]
[That was his persona before! Tang Yue could get close to many people but not him. At the award ceremony, there were many boy groups, and Tang Yue could be taken away by the UL captain next door, only to be brought back by Jiang Shulu with a dark face midway!!]
[Tang Yue is so easily deceived!! I still remember the UL captain told him he had a dog in his arms!! Tang Yue actually believed it!]
Tang Yue began to reflect on whether he had been too much.
He nodded: “Yes, she… is three years older than me, and she’s from S City.”
You’re four years older than me, and you’re from S City.
Jiang Shulu: “How did you two meet?”
His voice was clear and gentle, making it easy for people to tell him anything.
Tang Yue: “Because I had an accident, and I saw him at first glance.”
The child eating at the side added: “It was love at first sight! My dad said Mom is incredibly beautiful!”
[Three years… woo woo woo, Jiang Shulu is also three years older than Tang Yue!]
[In my mind, I have a single father, Tang Yue, telling his son love stories from childhood to adulthood. But with Tang Yue’s eloquence, it probably wouldn’t be very smooth.]
Tang Yue’s face turned red, he stammered: “It’s not… not… not like that.”
Tang Mian really didn’t give his father any face: “Dad, how can you lie! You said Mom is so good to you! She carried you to see the stars, she’s so gentle!”
This child spoke a whole bunch of words without taking a breath, making even Yao Lixin a bit bewildered.
The barrage was like it had been bombed—
[Carried? Did I hear wrong!! A woman carrying a man!]
[Although it’s not impossible, that image feels a bit…]
[Wait, I feel like I’ve seen this plot somewhere before.]
[Wasn’t Tang Yue carried up the mountain by Jiang Shulu in the island MV for Away’s Lose album?]
[Is there a script! Too many coincidences! Tang Yue, if you follow Jiang Shulu’s description of his wife, I will get the wrong idea!]
[I’m a moral person; unless it’s really something, I won’t ship them. The problem is, you don’t even dare to look at Jiang Shulu, Tang Yue, how can I…]
Tang Yue indeed didn’t dare to look at Jiang Shulu. This meal was excruciating for him.
He could even predict that the next half month would be agonizing.
You thought your crush got married, but he didn’t.
You thought he wasn’t lacking people around him, but he seemed to be alone back then.
You thought he would be cold to you, but he wasn’t.
Jiang Shulu was still the same Jiang Shulu. After five years, at this meal, he still remembered all of Tang Yue’s dietary restrictions, making Yao Lixin exclaim that he was biased.
Tang Yue felt mixed emotions. After dinner, he watched Tang Mian hold Yao Xuan Yu’s hand and hop along the stone road.
Tang Yue originally wanted to stand next to Yao Lixin, but Yao Lixin remembered that he was a babysitter this time, and walked ahead to look after the children.
At this time, Jiang Shulu walked to Tang Yue’s side.
The lights on the opposite bank were all lit, and the punts on the creek were all lit with lanterns.
The night wind was cool, and the scenery was beautiful, but Jiang Shulu had no heart to appreciate it. He looked at Tang Yue, his gaze falling on the childish plastic watch on the other’s wrist.
Jiang Shulu said to Tang Yue, “Reach out your hand.”
Tang Yue: “What?”
He was really slow to warm up; before, he was criticized for having no sense of variety.
And this variety show was a slow-life variety show after all, behind them were the lights of the small building, and local children were chasing and playing.
Jiang Shulu didn’t seek Tang Yue’s consent anymore; he took Tang Yue’s hand, “Let’s go.”
The road wasn’t quiet, nor was it easy to walk, because the shops were all at the foot of the mountain.
But there were still lively shops here.
There were people dancing at the entrance of a winery, the music was very ethnic, carried by the night wind, enough to obscure the sound of the guests’ conversation.
Jiang Shulu got closer to Tang Yue, and in a voice only Tang Yue could hear, he asked, “Do you love Xiao Mie’s mother very much?”
He tried to make his voice gentle, but he didn’t realize that once something was broken, it would be so overwhelming.
Based on Jiang Shulu’s understanding of Tang Yue, the other party might seem silent, but he was actually very stubborn.
No one could force Tang Yue to do things he didn’t want to do, such as acting or pairing up.
Then, would Tang Mian’s existence be proof of Tang Yue’s love for the other party?
Jiang Shulu actually already had the answer, but he underestimated his own unwillingness, not realizing that his voice was no longer clear and gentle.
Tang Yue, whose brows still bore a youthful innocence, hummed.
He looked at Jiang Shulu, as if looking into his sleepless recollection of “Jiang Shulu’s goodness”.
It was the other party’s extremely secure shoulders and back, the palm of his hand that he was holding tightly and couldn’t shake off.
No one knew that Tang Yue actually liked being assertive; that night’s Jiang Shulu completely tamed Tang Yue.
At this moment, Tang Yue smiled at Jiang Shulu: “I should love… it’s just that he doesn’t know.”
Jiang Shulu: “Why?”
Tang Yue: “I have reasons he can’t know.”
He thought: If the captain knew that the child was mine, would he think I’m a monster?
Like the fantasy movies we watched before where the male lead’s wife was a monster, the male lead fainted directly.
At that time Yao Lixin said: Who wouldn’t be afraid, it’s a monster!
Liu Xichao: A rabbit spirit even gave him a child, this male lead scumbag actually turned around and told the demon slayer!
What was the captain’s reaction at the time?
He said: The child shouldn’t have been born.
If I speak rashly, it would become a burden for him.
Author’s Note:
[Movie Watching Moment]
One day on a break, everyone watched a movie in the basement of their detached dormitory.
After getting addicted to Journey to the West, Tang Yue got addicted to Liaozhai, but he was afraid of ghosts, so this time he decided to watch something without ghosts.
Liu Xichao recommended him a recently popular fantasy male-male romance movie (uncut DVD version).
A love story between a cold immortal and a rabbit spirit.
Content: The rabbit spirit voluntarily became a certain life of the cold immortal’s reincarnation to repay a favor.
Style: Dog blood stew plus flying kisses.
Yao Lixin joined halfway through watching.
After watching for twenty minutes, he asked when the female lead would appear.
After watching for thirty minutes, he understood that it was a male demon pretending to be a woman, so he called Jiang Shulu down, saying it was a team-building activity.
After forty-five minutes, the protagonists were in the bedroom, with surround sound.
Tang Yue was a little embarrassed.
Jiang Shulu wasn’t interested, and looked down at his unfinished schoolwork.
When the female-form recipient was about to give birth, she revealed her true form, the male and female forms transformed, but her stomach remained unchanged.
Yao Lixin: F**k, men giving birth? Even if it’s a furry, I don’t want a male furry!
Liu Xichao: This male lead is such a scumbag.
Tang Yue: Anxious, nervous, restless.
Jiang Shulu: Are you uncomfortable?
Tang Yue shook his head, unaware that he was grabbing Jiang Shulu’s clothes.
After it ended, Liu Xichao was very angry: What the f**k! Would it kill you to change husbands?
Then he asked Jiang Shulu: Do you think this man without a mouth looks familiar?
At that time, Jiang Shulu already knew that Liu Xichao and Jiang He’s relationship was a little subtle, so he didn’t answer.
Tang Yue thought Liu Xichao was insinuating Jiang Shulu, so he whispered: Captain, please share your thoughts.
Jiang Shulu was thinking of his mother.
He was silent for a while: The child shouldn’t have been born, it’s… an unavoidable burden.
Tang Yue thought: The captain hates children so much, it’s a good thing the third brother can’t have children.
Unexpectedly, he ended up having a child.