Part 2
Tang Yue hummed in agreement. “Usually the grand finale is a wedding. Even though they’re all pretty much the same, it’s just very happy.”
In the distance, there was a circle of tents. Jiang Shulu and Tang Yue stood by the long table with food, and from behind, they looked like a couple whispering sweet nothings to each other.
Unlike the videos from their past events where they always had someone standing between them, it was as if they had crossed a man-made obstacle, and the wall in their hearts had crumbled.
Jiang Shulu didn’t speak. He didn’t look at Yao Lixin dancing on stage, nor did he look at the fireworks that suddenly exploded by the sea.
It was as if the exclamations of the audience and staff couldn’t disturb him.
His eyes were only on Tang Yue.
The camera zoomed in, and it was as if everyone was following Jiang Shulu’s gaze to Tang Yue.
They watched as the fair-skinned young man’s ears turned red.
How many seconds had passed?
Whose heart was pounding along with the fireworks?
They had kissed, hugged, and had even more intimate contact, so why was it still so hard to resist that kind of gaze?
Finally, Tang Yue couldn’t take it anymore. He quickly turned around and precisely covered Jiang Shulu’s eyes.
His movements were so fast that Jiang Shulu was caught off guard and even took a few steps back.
Behind him was a pile of boxes with the production team’s equipment. Luckily, his back was against a tree, so he didn’t fall to the ground.
But it looked like Tang Yue was forcing himself on Jiang Shulu.
Covering his eyes, as if he was about to lean in for a kiss.
[What is this! How many times do I have to say, am I allowed to watch this?] [He’s angry from embarrassment (sips tea)] [Anyone would feel that way if they were looked at like that.] [Jiang Shulu’s eyes look like he’s already done it.] [Give me back my pure and desireless ice prince captain ahhh! How did things turn out like this!]
With his eyes covered, Jiang Shulu smiled and asked, “Xiao Yue, what do you want to do to me?”
Tang Yue: “Nothing!”
He seemed to have acted on instinct, but he could feel Jiang Shulu’s eyes through his palm, which gave him the feeling that he was about to be burned again.
Jiang Shulu: “Then why did you cover my eyes?”
Fortunately, the lighting today was very bright. The island music festival was a lively event.
The people present and the audience in the livestream were easily infected by this atmosphere. The cheering was so loud that it was as if they were about to blow up the live comments.
It was a free livestream, and the only thing the audience had to pay for was the colorful IDs they wanted to buy, which almost blinded everyone else.
The faces of the two people standing close to each other were very eye-catching under the lights.
The distant and aloof air around Jiang Shulu had dissipated, and his voice had a hint of intimacy.
Tang Yue thought: Although it’s a bit cringey, the Captain really looks like a seductive demon.
He could have easily shaken my hand off.
He’s so strong.
Tang Yue didn’t react for a long time. Jiang Shulu couldn’t see, but the audience felt that Tang Yue’s eyes looked a little wronged at this moment.
As if Jiang Shulu had bullied him.
[Even idol dramas don’t have scenes like this, right?] [Why isn’t it awkward when they do it?]
Tang Yue let go of his hand and turned to look for Tang Mian.
Jiang Shulu followed him in a good mood. Tang Yue said, “Don’t follow me.”
Jiang Shulu: “I’m afraid you’ll run away again.”
Tang Yue: “There are so many people here, how can I run?”
Jiang Shulu: “There were a lot of people back then too, and you left just like that.”
Jiang Shulu had hidden this sentence for many years. He still remembered the last meal he had with Tang Yue, when the other person said he was going back to his hometown.
The villa that served as their dormitory had been cleared out. Liu Xichao was moving to a new apartment, and Yao Lixin was flying abroad.
Jiang Shulu was leaving that night; his flight was already booked.
Tang Yue said he was going back to his hometown for a trip.
No one asked, after all, Tang Yue’s background was complicated. He was an unrecognized illegitimate son.
Jiang Shulu had asked him then if he would come back.
The information showed that Tang Yue’s mother was a foreigner, and the “hometown” he mentioned was just the home of the old man who had taken him in for a while.
The old man had also passed away, leaving Tang Yue a small house.
Tang Yue said he would stay for a few days.
Yao Lixin said they should keep in touch often.
Liu Xichao said he could come and live with him when he came back.
Tang Yue said okay.
And then he left without a word, and Jiang Shulu couldn’t find him, as if he had completely vanished from the face of the earth.
Five years later, Jiang Shulu asked this question with a smile, and Tang Yue sensed his uneasiness.
He felt it was new, and also a little heartbreaking.
He turned around and gave Jiang Shulu a hug, a bit like hugging a child, even patting his shoulder.
“I won’t now.”
Jiang Shulu asked again, “Why?”
He almost never leaned on anyone’s shoulder. Tang Yue’s shoulders were very thin, but his hugs had always left a deep impression on Jiang Shulu.
Because they had only hugged a handful of times before.
Tang Yue always used lily of the valley-scented laundry detergent and perfume. This scent was like a mark, completely imprinted in Jiang Shulu’s memory.
That’s why he had a pot of lily of the valley in his home, with a dedicated person to take care of it.
Compared to the gatherings of his peers, Jiang Shulu never engaged in deep conversations.
Even when people came to his house to discuss work, they would feel that the lily of the valley was completely out of place with Jiang Shulu.
Jiang Shulu should be like the Jiang family’s motto, like a slender bamboo in a secluded grove, silent and composed, with his own character.
Lily of the valley was not noble enough, neither its fragrance nor its cultivation methods were elegant.
But deep down, Jiang Shulu was still the Zhou Chou who had grown up in the city, the “chou” in his name literally meaning sorrow, the sorrow of his mother’s regret and white hair at a young age.
Lily of the valley was the only green plant on his small bed since he could remember.
Although it was poisonous, it could be kept at home.
It was also his mother’s girlhood dream, the beginning of a lifetime of sorrow.
It had become Jiang Shulu’s miasma, and he was afraid that the current journey of the livestream variety show was just a long dream.
He would wake up to find the boy not by his side, and just as unreasonably as he had kept his distance, he had left just as naturally.
At this moment, Jiang Shulu’s voice carried a sob that he himself didn’t notice.
Hidden in the rumbling of fireworks and music, the plea was the gurgling loneliness at the bottom of a spring that was about to become stagnant water.
Tang Yue seemed to hear a cry for help.
Different from the loneliness of smoking on the balcony back then, the person leaning on him seemed very, very tired.
Tang Yue’s hand moved from patting Jiang Shulu’s shoulder to his head, with a gentleness similar to how he treated Tang Mian, a special kind of intimacy.
Then Tang Yue hugged him back tightly. “You know.”
Another set of fireworks exploded, and the accompaniment to Yao Lixin’s dance on stage was also very passionate.
The microphone had lost its function. Tang Yue turned his head, his lips close to Jiang Shulu’s ear. “I’ve already decided.”
Tang Yue’s breath fanned across Jiang Shulu’s ear, but his voice was like a vibrating hum—
“I want to be by your side forever.”
He wouldn’t care when the next asteroid would hit.
He wouldn’t care about his image or idol baggage.
There was no proverb on Planet 9787 about cherishing the people in front of you, and Tang Yue had never received a bouquet of copper flowers like the one his father had given his mother on Planet 9787.
But Jiang Shulu had given it to him.
Not just flowers, but also the reliance and being relied on that Tang Yue had always wanted.
Even if tomorrow was the end of the world, he only wanted to be with Jiang Shulu.
A variety show that had been on the hot search list several times, so lively that it felt like a century-long team-building event, even leading to a scene of cheering for a marriage.
The hashtags were all filled with fans’ emotions.
#AwaySingsClassicSongsAgain# #TangYueAcapella# #YaoLixinHasntRegressed# #YouTwoOverThereStopHugging#
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