Chapter 45: Coffee
After deleting his alternate account that day, Luo Jing spent the entire day in fear.
He truly understood himself. From the moment he left the airport gate and sat in the taxi, he started searching for tutorials on how to recover a deleted WeChat account.
How… how could he have been so reckless and deleted it directly?
The recovery process was a bit complicated. Luo Jing hesitantly followed the steps halfway, then stopped.
Even if he recovered it, he couldn’t retract the message.
Then wouldn’t he be even more at a loss?
He struggled with this all the way home. Finally, Luo Jing decided to continue being a coward and buried himself in his quilt, falling asleep.
When he woke up, there was about an hour left until Huai Dan’s plane landed.
Luo Jing sat up abruptly. His nervousness and guilt intensified as the estimated arrival time approached, reaching its peak when he saw the notification “Plane landed” on the flight information.
He started imagining Huai Dan’s current situation.
Perhaps he was getting off the plane, perhaps he was waiting for his luggage, perhaps his phone wasn’t turned on yet…
About half an hour later, Huai Dan finally sent him the first message.
Brother: [Arrived.]
Brother: [Take care.]
Luo Jing trembled and hesitantly replied with an “okay,” then waited for the next message.
But to his surprise, Huai Dan didn’t ask anything.
He didn’t say anything in the following days either.
While relieved, he also felt a subtle sense of disappointment.
Sometimes, he really felt like a walking contradiction.
After that winter, Luo Jing entered his final semester.
The coursework, exams, and graduation thesis all put him under immense pressure, leaving him with very little personal time.
Plus… his deliberate avoidance of Huai Dan due to guilt.
So the frequency of their communication reached a historical low.
Luo Jing didn’t know if Huai Dan had noticed his unnatural behavior. He felt that he should have, as even he himself wasn’t quite used to it.
He would often pick up his phone, instinctively wanting to message Huai Dan, but would stop himself just before sending it.
Perhaps Huai Dan also knew he was busy and tactfully didn’t disturb him.
Luo Jing lived each day with the thought of graduating and returning home soon. The cafe near his school, the one he and Huai Dan had visited before, became his regular haunt. Every day, he would wake up and rush to work on his thesis, assignments, presentations, and group discussions, feeling like he was turning into a study robot.
Occasionally, friends from back home would ask him if studying abroad was blissful and relaxing, and Luo Jing would feel the urge to lash out.
Where was the bliss and relaxation? Was it the mountain of papers and assignments, or the deadlines that haunted even his dreams?
The moment he attended the graduation ceremony and received his diploma, Luo Jing felt the world brighten, and he quickly posted an update on his WeChat Moments.
To his surprise, the first person to like his post was Huai Dan.
Based on the time difference, it should be 1 or 2 a.m. in China, when most people were asleep.
Luo Jing’s excitement hadn’t completely subsided. He stood by a large pillar in the auditorium, wearing his graduation gown, pursed his lips, hesitated for a moment, then opened Huai Dan’s chat window.
This was the deadline he had set for himself, but now that the moment had arrived, he felt that familiar feeling of timidity again.
He opened the chat window, his finger hovering over the keyboard, but he still couldn’t bring himself to type anything.
He didn’t know what to say.
Initially, he had thought that after these few months, everything would go back to normal, but now that the time had come, he suddenly realized it might be difficult.
Things didn’t always go as planned.
Like now, he suddenly didn’t know how to interact with Huai Dan anymore.
Luo Jing’s fingers curled slightly, and he sighed softly, the joy of graduation slightly diminished.
Brother: [Happy graduation.]
Huai Dan suddenly sent a message.
Luo Jing froze, his heart clenching slightly, then the happiness returned.
AAA.Thesis Wholesaler Xiao Luo: [Thank you, brother.]
AAA.Thesis Wholesaler Xiao Luo: [Plastic Bag rejoices.jpg]
Brother: [When are you planning to come back?]
Luo Jing’s smile faltered.
After pausing for half a minute, he typed hesitantly: [In a while.]
He still couldn’t bring himself to face him.
A certain memory, almost forgotten, resurfaced with these words. Luo Jing looked at Huai Dan’s “Okay” and continued to struggle, from the auditorium to the evening party, and then back home.
After washing up, he lay in bed, intending to put an end to his day of inner turmoil.
Luo Jing opened the flight booking app and booked a ticket back to China for two days later.
Company lobby.
“I wasn’t avoiding you, I was just… busy recently,” Luo Jing said, trying to remain calm, lowering his eyes and not daring to look at the man sitting opposite him, his voice becoming increasingly softer, sounding incredibly guilty.
Although it was half true.
“Really?” Huai Dan asked, his tone calm, making it difficult to discern his emotions. “I thought I had upset you somehow.”
Was he… angry?
So Luo Jing carefully glanced at him.
Unlike his evasive gaze, Huai Dan looked at him directly and even raised an eyebrow slightly after meeting his eyes.
Luo Jing: “…”
He silently took a sip of his coffee.
Luo Jing felt his brain short-circuiting.
What was going on? It had only been a few months, but it felt like his brother had changed.
He couldn’t pinpoint what was different, but he suddenly seemed… difficult to handle.
“Why didn’t you tell me you were back?” Huai Dan asked after patiently waiting for him to finish his coffee.
It was the same tone as before, but it inexplicably carried a sense of pressure, making one feel uneasy.
“But… you still found out,” Luo Jing retorted after a moment of silence.
Huai Dan chuckled: “Is that the same?”
“You didn’t tell me you were coming here either,” he added after a pause.
“Because I was coming on someone else’s behalf. I didn’t expect it to be here, so I didn’t want to disturb your work…” Luo Jing said, making excuses.
“Then should I thank you for your consideration?” Huai Dan chuckled after a moment of silence.
“If I hadn’t come to find you, how long were you planning to keep me in the dark?”
He had been waiting for Luo Jing for over a week, and his patience was wearing thin.
“…” Luo Jing took another sip of coffee, his gaze wandering.
Did Huai Dan really not know that his second sister was him? Otherwise, why would he ask such a question…
As he was thinking, the person in front of him spoke: “So, where’s your second sister?”
Luo Jing: “!”
He wanted to take another sip of coffee—but realized he had already finished it.
Luo Jing: “…”
Huai Dan noticed this, a faint smile in his eyes, and thoughtfully gestured for the receptionist to bring him another cup.
Luo Jing used this time to frantically brainstorm.
He probably didn’t know… right?
If he really didn’t know, and he said something else, wouldn’t he expose himself?
But if he did know, then Huai Dan, so smart, wouldn’t ask such an embarrassing question…
Then he probably didn’t know.
Luo Jing took a sip of the freshly brewed coffee and quickly came up with an excuse.
His lying skills were getting better and better, Luo Jing sighed inwardly.
“It’s like this, brother…” Luo Jing swallowed the coffee, still not daring to look at him, and said sincerely and guiltily, “My second sister broke up with you for a reason. She didn’t tell you the truth because she was afraid you would be sad. Actually, she has cancer, and our family has already cremated her… and scattered her ashes at sea.”
So there’s no grave, don’t even think about visiting.
Luo Jing’s ears turned increasingly red. The more he spoke, the more he felt his story was full of holes, not even a three-year-old would believe it.
But his words had already been spoken, so he could only continue.
He now wanted to go back to that night when he was fifteen and tie himself up before he sent that message to Huai Dan, then throw himself into the sea to feed the sharks.
“You should forget about her. Her last wish was for the world to forget her.” Luo Jing now wanted to scatter his own ashes at sea.
In the Arctic Ocean, preferably, so he could pet polar bears.
A short gasp suddenly came from the other side.
Very soft, almost negligible, but Luo Jing still heard it.
Luo Jing: “…”
He kept a straight face.
“Then…” Huai Dan paused, then continued, “Your second sister.”
“She said she had someone she liked, so she broke up with me. Is that true?”
Luo Jing: “?”
He had anticipated many things Huai Dan might say next, but this was completely unexpected.
That was just a random excuse he had made up.
The enemy’s move was too unexpected, and Luo Jing’s brain short-circuited.
“Uh… no?” he replied, a bit dazed.
“So she never liked anyone else?”
“…Mm.”
?
Huai Dan suddenly laughed.
Luo Jing’s mind became even more confused from his laughter.
“I understand,” Huai Dan replied, his voice low and tinged with amusement. “And don’t say such things again in the future, it’s not auspicious.”
Luo Jing: “!”
His brain finally caught up, and he looked up at Huai Dan, his ears red, his tone slightly annoyed: “So you… you knew all along, and you still asked.”
“What do I know?” Huai Dan asked in return.
Luo Jing: “…”
He changed his mind. He was going to send Huai Dan to the Arctic Ocean.
Was there something in the air in China? Why had his brother become like this?
