Chapter 26: Unhappy
The banquet hall was bustling with people. When Huai Dan returned with Luo Jing, they happened to see the two people involved in the earlier incident sitting in a booth in the corner, looking distressed.
Worried about further trouble, he glanced at them, memorized their faces, then looked away.
Ye Lin came over at this moment.
“Where did you two go? You disappeared in the blink of an eye,” he said, his tone laced with the displeasure of being left behind.
Luo Jing had shared his heroic deeds with Huai Dan on their way back and had already gotten over his embarrassment. Seeing Ye Lin, he excitedly shared, “I just went to uphold justice. Brother, do you remember the group that was on stage earlier…”
Huai Dan, standing beside him, blinked slightly upon hearing this.
Ye Lin, hearing the word “brother,” suddenly felt a chill down his spine and almost instinctively glanced at his friend.
…Sure enough, his friend’s slightly thawed expression froze again.
He gave the excitedly chattering child a complex look.
“So, brother…”
“Wait!”
“…What’s wrong?” Luo Jing was suddenly interrupted by Ye Lin, whose tone was exaggerated, so he looked at him in confusion, not understanding what he had said wrong.
“Let’s not use ‘brother’ anymore. Just call me Brother Ye, or Brother Lin, haha, I’m not used to that term…” Ye Lin chuckled dryly.
“Oh, Brother Lin,” Luo Jing didn’t understand but complied.
Although Huai Dan’s expression didn’t change much, the freezing aura around him finally disappeared.
Ye Lin breathed a sigh of relief.
This little brother was cute, but how much did this guy crave a younger sibling? His possessiveness was so strong.
He hadn’t expected his friend to have a hidden brother complex.
If they were actually brothers, how unruly would this child be? Ye Lin didn’t even dare to imagine.
But it seemed not far off now.
As he was thinking, a woman in a smart suit suddenly came to Huai Dan’s side, gestured in a certain direction, and said that their boss wanted to talk to him.
Looking in that direction, he saw a white-haired, highly respected entrepreneur sitting there.
Seeing them look over, the entrepreneur smiled and nodded.
Luo Jing looked away, then looked up at Huai Dan expectantly.
His eyes pleaded, “Brother, are you leaving just after arriving?”
Huai Dan lowered his eyes, as if hesitating for a moment, then went to the long table behind him, cut a piece of cake, and handed it to Luo Jing.
It happened to be Luo Jing’s favorite flavor.
Luo Jing took it, puzzled.
“I’ll be back after I’m done, it won’t take long. I have a gift for you later,” Huai Dan said.
He lowered his eyes, seemingly hesitating for a moment, then lightly touched the child’s carefully styled hair.
“Oh.” Luo Jing held the plate and obediently lowered his head after being touched.
Ye Lin was almost speechless.
Why hadn’t he noticed Huai Dan was so good at coaxing children before?
But remembering that this person had even helped this child with his homework before, he felt a strange sense of calm, as if all of this was perfectly normal.
Thinking this, he looked at Luo Jing again, a strange respect in his eyes.
Luo Jing, receiving this look, was puzzled: “?”
After Huai Dan left, Ye Lin took the dazed Luo Jing, still holding the cake, to a booth and sat down.
A few seconds later, Luo Jing turned on his phone and took a bite of the cake.
He looked very well-behaved.
“Hey,” Ye Lin, watching him, felt his gossipy nature surface. He pointed in Huai Dan’s direction. “Someone just tried to set him up on a date, but he said he has a girlfriend… Do you know who it is?”
Perhaps Ye Lin’s actions were too obvious, as Huai Dan seemed to notice them and glanced over during his conversation.
Luo Jing froze: “…Huh?”
“You don’t know either? He didn’t tell me a thing.” Ye Lin, seeing his expression, understood and turned back, a hint of disappointment on his face at his unsatisfied curiosity.
Luo Jing, however, reacted, swallowed a mouthful of cake, looked at Ye Lin, and asked urgently, “Really? Did he really say that?”
Ye Lin didn’t quite understand why the child was suddenly so agitated, but he still replied truthfully, “Yeah, just a while ago.”
Luo Jing suddenly lost his appetite for the cake.
…Brother had a girlfriend?
Who was it?
How come he didn’t know?
Luo Jing instinctively thought it was his “second sister.”
But then again, they hadn’t actually confirmed their relationship.
And Huai Dan had always been cold towards his “second sister.”
Thinking again, perhaps this was the reason why Huai Dan was so cold towards “her.”
His lingering worries finally had an explanation.
Because he had a girlfriend, he needed to keep his distance from other girls.
But because it was “her” who initiated contact, he could only politely add her as a friend.
Then how troubled must Huai Dan have been dealing with him these past few days? No wonder he kept telling him to study.
Thinking of this, Luo Jing felt terrible.
What had he been doing all this time!
But more than regret, he felt an inexplicable sense of loss and dejection.
This feeling was similar to when his parents brought home a puppy when he was little. He had happily played with it for several days, only to be told that the puppy wasn’t his, but belonged to someone else who had temporarily left it with them.
Later, that person, knowing how much Luo Jing liked the puppy, offered to give it to him.
But Luo Jing refused.
He wouldn’t accept something that wasn’t meant to be his.
“What’s wrong, little brother?” Ye Lin asked, seeing Luo Jing’s sudden change in mood.
“Nothing,” Luo Jing replied sullenly, unconvincingly.
This child’s emotions were too easy to read, all written on his face.
Ye Lin suddenly understood why Huai Dan liked him so much.
He was indeed cute.
Luo Jing didn’t notice his brother’s strange look. He was currently immersed in his inexplicable emotions, poking at the cake with his fork, but no longer had any desire to eat it.
He lowered his eyes, suddenly at a loss for what to do.
Should he have his “second sister” delete Huai Dan?
What reason should he use?
But he didn’t really want to.
Why didn’t his brother tell him he had a girlfriend?
Was it because he wasn’t important?
The “good morning” message he had sent on his alternate account this morning was still hanging in the chat window, unanswered. Huai Dan was his only contact on that account, making it even more conspicuous.
The more he thought about it, the sadder he felt. Luo Jing could even foresee their chat frequency decreasing, eventually becoming strangers who only had each other’s contact information.
Ye Lin, seeing Luo Jing’s continued dejection, sent a message to Huai Dan, adding fuel to the fire: [How did you offend the kid? He’s currently very unhappy.]
The person sitting opposite him was engrossed in conversation. His phone lit up on the table, and Huai Dan glanced at the message.
H: [?]
He looked over, but because of the distance, the two figures seemed a bit blurry.
H: [What’s wrong?]
Ye Lin: [I don’t know.]
Ye Lin: [Anyway, you’re busy, why don’t I try to cheer him up for you?]
“…”
Huai Dan didn’t reply.
He was currently discussing a collaboration project, which was nearing its end. Huai Dan signaled to the other person that they would continue the discussion over the phone later and ended the meeting.
When he returned to his seat, he noticed that Luo Jing indeed looked unhappy.
Luo Jing was sitting there, wallowing in his melancholy and struggling with his inner turmoil.
The cake was of good quality, still the same flavor, but it didn’t taste as good this time.
It seemed a bit sour.
“Don’t like it?” The voice that had been echoing in his mind just now sounded beside him. Luo Jing froze, looked up, and met Huai Dan’s gaze.
Ye Lin muttered softly, “You came back quickly.”
Most of the cake was still left on the plate, with some crumbs scattered around, indicating the owner wasn’t very satisfied with it.
Or perhaps he was dissatisfied with something else.
Luo Jing looked at him, then at the cake, lowered his eyelashes, and said softly, “Mm, I don’t like it.”
He actually liked it, but now he could only dislike it.
Ye Lin, seeing the strange atmosphere between them, watched with curiosity as Huai Dan seemed a bit at a loss facing the child, then tactfully excused himself.
After he left, only the two of them were left in the booth.
“If you don’t like it, don’t eat it.” Huai Dan took the plate from Luo Jing and put it aside, then sat down next to him. “Did I take too long?”
“No,” Luo Jing replied sullenly.
Without the cake plate, Luo Jing had nowhere to fix his gaze, so his unhappiness became even more apparent.
“Are you in a bad mood?” After a moment of silence, Huai Dan asked.
“No,” Luo Jing said.
He was clearly sulking.
But Huai Dan thought for a moment and couldn’t think of anything he had done to upset the child.
“Are you angry because I didn’t tell you I was coming here today?” he asked after some consideration.
“No,” Luo Jing still said the same thing.
“Then what’s wrong? Who made you unhappy? Ye Lin?”
“No.”
“No.”
They spoke simultaneously. Luo Jing froze and looked at Huai Dan accusingly.
Huai Dan chuckled: “What’s wrong? Tell me.”
“You,” Luo Jing paused, feeling sad and frustrated, and said emphatically.
“I made you unhappy?”
“Yes.”
“Because I didn’t tell you I was coming here today?”
“No.”
Huai Dan chuckled: “Are you a little robot, only saying one word at a time?”
Luo Jing was still angry, and it seemed to be intensifying: “No.”
“Then should I leave?” Huai Dan asked after thinking for a moment.
“No.” Luo Jing immediately looked up.
“I won’t leave.” Huai Dan’s eyes carried a hint of amusement. “If you don’t tell me, how will I know what I did wrong?”
“Figure it out yourself,” Luo Jing said angrily.
