Part 5
He didn’t know when Jiang Shulu lit the cigarette. Up close, the smell of tobacco mixed with Jiang Shulu’s usual scent, making Tang Yue feel dizzy. He didn’t even realize his phone had been taken away.
Liu Xicháo on the other end of the phone was actually arguing with Jiang He, causing Jiang Shulu to frown.
He hung up the phone directly and asked Tang Yue: “What did you two talk about?”
Tang Yue leaned against the railing, the night wind messing up his bangs. Tang Yue awkwardly smoothed them down, shook his head: “I said I saw you and Third Brother kissing in the company stairwell before.”
Jiang Shulu frowned, but Tang Yue smiled: “Third Brother said it was your uncle he kissed, then he asked Mr. Jiang if it was true, and the two of them started arguing.”
Jiang Shulu leaned closer to Tang Yue: “They’re arguing, why are you blushing?”
Tang Yue “uh”ed, his gaze dodging, after a few seconds he said: “I didn’t expect Third Brother to be so…so fierce.”
The word was funny coming out of his mouth, Jiang Shulu couldn’t help but curl his lips.
He stared at the burning cigarette in his fingertips and said: “Not as much as you.”
Tang Yue suddenly understood, referring to that day.
Tang Yue: “Are you unhappy again?”
Jiang Shulu: “Why do you ask that?”
Tang Yue: “Before, every time you were unhappy you would smoke on the balcony, it looked…”
His features had matured, but to call him mature wouldn’t be quite right. Those words seem hard to associate with Tang Yue.
Even if the world turned upside down, he would still be this way.
Tang Yue: “Pathetic.”
Jiang Shulu hadn’t heard that word in years.
Before the age of seven, that word was his label, associated with misfortune by his neighbors.
It was simply a young woman who thought she had found love, only to end up raising her child in a cramped apartment in the old city.
This was Jiang Shulu’s secret, the Jiang family’s secret, and Madam Jiang Zhu Qiong’s heartache, yet she had to pretend nothing was wrong.
But Zhu Qiong couldn’t help it. Jiang Kaicheng had naturally weak sperm, and with his declining health, he was almost unable to have children again.
Therefore, after the death of his eldest son, this child, called “Xiao Chou,” was brought back to inherit everything from his half-brother, Jiang Shu.
Including his studies, manners, and everything the Jiang family expected him to learn, as well as material possessions, such as a room far larger than that cramped apartment.
Only the mother who used to hug Jiang Shulu was gone.
Zhou Maiyin met Jiang Kaicheng at eighteen and gave birth to Jiang Shulu at nineteen. The woman’s prime rapidly faded; at Tang Yue’s age, it had already withered.
By the time Jiang Shulu was brought back to the Jiang family, the seriously ill woman had passed away in the ICU.
Jiang Shulu inherited all the glory and the pain beneath it.
No one knew that his childhood had nothing to do with glamour.
Seeing Jiang Shulu silent for a long time, staring blankly at the burning cigarette, his brow clouded with his familiar sorrow, Tang Yue reached out and took the cigarette.
He asked: “Can I smoke?”
Jiang Shulu turned his head: “Don’t you not smoke?”
The boy band members all had pressure, except Tang Yue.
Tang Yue lacked desire, so he didn’t have such pressure.
The other three gathered to smoke. One sighed about the annoying training, one thought about how much money he needed to buy luxury goods, and one remained silent.
Tang Yue played the erhu in the garden, possibly containing his unrequited love for Jiang Shulu, becoming more and more engrossed, making the three smokers feel even more desolate.
Tang Yue: “I want to try.”
9787 Star only had e-cigarettes, Tang Yue had tried them, and they were just so-so.
Yao Lixin had wanted to let him try a real cigarette when Tang Yue turned adult, but Jiang Shulu had stopped her.
Tang Yue wasn’t eager either.
At this moment, his eyes were bright, full of curiosity, like a clear spring, washing away all of Jiang Shulu’s agitation.
Jiang Shulu: “Do you know how?”
Tang Yue: “If you don’t give it to me, then forget it.”
Jiang Shulu handed it to him. Seeing Tang Yue take a bite, finding it boring, then putting it back.
Jiang Shulu took a puff from the cigarette, using Tang Yue’s dampened mouth piece.
Tang Yue just looked at him. He felt that Jiang Shulu had many sides, very different from the character in the book.
It made Tang Yue stare intently, making Jiang Shulu restless, wanting to…
Wanting to…
The cigarette fell to the ground, Jiang Shulu kissed Tang Yue’s lips.
Tang Yue was startled, just about to speak when he was invaded again.
A forceful kiss, long overdue, directly awakened the mark that the other had left on his soul, making Tang Yue completely unable to resist, and could only collapse into Jiang Shulu’s arms.
Yao Lixin pulled the child who was peeking through the crack in the door.
Tang Mian giggled and called out, “Uncle Yao.”
Yao Lixin: “What are you sneaking around for?”
The child sighed in a milky voice: “The sky is going to rain, the mother is going to marry, I have to leave some face for Little Yue.”
But he still couldn’t help but look over there.
Tang Yue loved cuddling, how could he not hug Jiang Shulu back, how could he not respond.
It was a kiss that left them breathless, even when they broke apart they wanted more, but Jiang Shulu cupped his face.
Jiang Shulu’s breath was heavy: “So, what is our relationship now, that we can kiss like this?”
The coolness hidden beneath his gentle exterior was disrupted by the kiss, the flames rising, igniting the wild grass in their hearts, even in the cold autumn wind, it was incredibly hot.
Tang Yue: “Just kissing, isn’t that enough?”
Jiang Shulu: “No, I want a title.”
Tang Yue was anxious, he had been celibate for many years, he didn’t expect the taste of a deep kiss with Jiang Shulu when he was sober to be so good, his mind was filled with the desire to do it again.
But Jiang Shulu wouldn’t let him have his way. His gaze was firm, demanding an answer from Tang Yue.
Tang Yue: “Friends?”
Jiang Shulu pinched him.
Tang Yue hissed: “Brothers?”
Jiang Shulu gritted his teeth: “Brothers who have slept together?”
Tang Yue: “F-friends with benefits…?”
Jiang Shulu closed his eyes, just about to speak when Tang Yue jumped up and hugged him, his legs wrapped around him, causing Jiang Shulu to instinctively support his bottom.
Tang Yue: “I’ve never been in a relationship, I don’t know how.”
Jiang Shulu: “Neither have I.”
Tang Yue said firmly: “You’ll have a fiancée later.”
He was carried back to the room, Jiang Shulu saying as they walked: “Fiancée, can’t it be you?”
He asked again: “Tang Mian’s mother?”
Tang Yue, at this moment, no longer felt the panic of having his ability to have children exposed. He pursed his lips, looking at Jiang Shulu with a hint of sadness and expectation, almost whispering: “Can I really date you?”
The supporting characters in novels rarely have good endings, but Tang Yue felt an itch, a physical itch, all over his body, he wanted to cling to Jiang Shulu, unaware that his eyes were red, as if he was about to cry.
Jiang Shulu kissed the corner of his eyes again and asked: “Do you have any other options?”
Tang Yue shook his head.
Jiang Shulu: “Little Yue, don’t be afraid, I’ll always be by your side.”
Tang Yue: “Even if I am…”
Jiang Shulu: “What?”
Tang Yue shook his head, hugging Jiang Shulu tightly, calling him “ge” (brother), then softly adding “boyfriend,” and asking: “Can we kiss again? The open-mouth kind.”
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