Chapter 44: The Coin
The next morning, Luo Jing instinctively checked his phone upon waking up, but there weren’t any new messages.
He wasn’t fully awake yet, and a subtle disappointment welled up in his heart.
Feeling a bit thirsty after waking up, Luo Jing got out of bed, shuffled to the living room in his slippers to pour himself a glass of water, and sent Huai Dan a good morning message.
Then, as soon as he stepped out of his room, he saw the other person sitting on the sofa in the living room, looking at his phone.
Luo Jing wondered if he was still dreaming.
Seeing him come out, Huai Dan chuckled: “Awake?”
“I’m right here, why send a message?”
Luo Jing froze, his brain slowly rebooting. After a moment, he finally remembered.
Oh, Huai Dan had come to see him yesterday.
Before going abroad, Luo Jing had been full of ambition, believing he could transform from a kitchen novice to a master chef capable of preparing a Manchu Han Imperial Feast upon returning home. But reality proved otherwise.
“It seems I need to get you a nanny,” Huai Dan commented, standing aside after witnessing Luo Jing’s entire noodle-cooking process.
Luo Jing stepped aside, saying with a straight face, “You be the nanny.”
Huai Dan chuckled and took the chopsticks from him: “I will. Go wait outside.”
Luo Jing hadn’t expected him to actually agree, so their fingers briefly brushed against each other, and he instinctively retracted his hand.
But the warmth seemed to linger on his fingertips.
Seeing Luo Jing staring at his fingers, Huai Dan frowned and reached out: “Did you burn yourself?”
“No.” Luo Jing quickly withdrew his hand before Huai Dan could touch him, looked away, and left with flushed ears.
Actually, it did feel a bit like a burn.
After returning to the living room, he sat on the sofa, hugging a pillow, lost in thought. As Luo Jing peeked at the kitchen for the fifth time, his phone vibrated, indicating a new message.
He instinctively looked at it.
Brother: [Good morning.]
Brother: [Come eat.]
Luo Jing blinked and rubbed his face against the pillow.
Huai Dan stayed for about a week, longer than Luo Jing had expected.
It was during the Christmas holidays, and Luo Jing didn’t have classes, so they went skiing together, visited some famous local restaurants, and toured several famous attractions.
When they didn’t have any plans, they would stay at home watching movies, or do their own things in the living room.
Although they didn’t talk much, the atmosphere was pleasant, as if a long-empty space had suddenly been filled.
Even though he knew it was only temporary, and Huai Dan didn’t feel the same way, it was enough to comfort him for a long time.
The night before Huai Dan left, Luo Jing stuffed a bunch of things into his suitcase—mostly souvenirs they had bought from local shops, asking him to take them back to China.
“This is for Plastic Bag, this is for my sister, these two are for my parents, and this is for Wu Li… Brother, you can just pack them and send them to my house.”
“Mm.” Huai Dan looked at the half-full suitcase, pondered for a moment, then looked at Luo Jing: “Then what about mine?”
Luo Jing, who was putting a small, brown paper-wrapped fridge magnet into the corner of the suitcase, paused.
Then he guiltily withdrew his hand.
Huai Dan chuckled: “Just kidding.”
“Thank you for spending so much time with me.”
Luo Jing put the fridge magnet in and replied after a while, “You’re welcome.”
Actually, he should be the one thanking him.
The next day, at the airport.
There was still some time before the flight. After checking in their luggage, Luo Jing handed Huai Dan a coin.
“Here,” he said, then added, remembering something, “Don’t spend it.”
Huai Dan took it and looked at it, recognizing it as the one Luo Jing had dropped on the ground that day.
“What did you wish for when you tossed the coin?” he asked casually, examining the coin.
“…I didn’t make a wish,” Luo Jing hadn’t expected him to recognize it, and felt embarrassed at having his secret exposed.
After a pause, he lowered his eyes and said, “My wish has already come true, so I’m giving it to you now.”
“I hope all your wishes come true, brother.”
This coin should have ended up in the fountain.
But it wasn’t God or some deity who fulfilled his wish, but Huai Dan.
So with this thought in mind, Luo Jing gave it to him.
It should have belonged to him in the first place.
Huai Dan looked at it, paused, then smiled and accepted it: “I hope so. Thank you, Luo Luo.”
Then he ruffled his hair: “Study hard… and come back soon.”
Wu Li was woken up by the ringing of his phone.
He drowsily opened his eyes and glanced at the caller ID, then closed his eyes in despair.
“I rarely don’t have an 8 a.m. class and was planning to sleep in,” he said resentfully. “It’s only 6:30.”
“Just sent my brother off,” Luo Jing said, completely disregarding his friend’s plight. “I’m feeling a bit down now.”
To prevent his friend from exploding, he added, “I brought you a gift.”
So Wu Li’s anger subsided by half.
“He stayed quite a while…” Wu Li woke up a bit more, sat up, and started his familiar and somewhat pitiful comforting process. “So what are you planning to do now?”
Luo Jing said with a straight face, “Honestly? I’m planning to buy a ticket on the same flight as him and go back.”
Wu Li: “…”
Sitting in a cafe at the airport, Luo Jing looked at the heart-shaped latte art and sighed: “I want to pursue him.”
Wu Li: “How do you plan to do that?”
Luo Jing: “I’m planning to break up with him.”
Wu Li: “…”
Wu Li: “???”
“I don’t understand you,” Wu Li said, his expression complicated. “I don’t understand you.”
“Because I think… he might have figured out I’m the second sister.”
Luo Jing finally voiced his vague and somewhat terrifying premonition.
After seeing Huai Dan that day, and experiencing the initial surprise and dizziness, he had belatedly realized this while lying in bed.
But perhaps out of a reflexive self-preservation instinct, he hadn’t dared to dwell on this thought and had quickly fallen asleep.
And in the past few days, Huai Dan had acted too normally, effectively deceiving Luo Jing and making him lose the opportunity to consider this possibility—he had also consciously tried not to think about it, just happily living in the moment.
Otherwise, he felt like he would be doomed.
Until this moment, after Huai Dan had truly left, this thought returned, with ten, a hundred times the impact, quickly occupying his mind.
Luo Jing now felt a bit desperate.
So desperate that he didn’t know how to face Huai Dan anymore.
Wu Li was speechless: “Hasn’t he always acted normally? He probably doesn’t know.”
“There was one time,” Luo Jing said dejectedly. “I was drunk that day and said I wanted to see him.”
“Using my alternate account.”
And Huai Dan had actually come to see him.
Could this be a coincidence?
After listening, Wu Li paused and said, “That’s not necessarily true. Maybe he was just tired from work and wanted to travel somewhere, then suddenly remembered you were abroad and came to visit.”
“You have a point, but…”
Luo Jing fell silent.
Although he didn’t speak, his despair was evident in his eyes.
He knew he couldn’t deceive himself with these clumsy excuses anymore.
He had to face reality.
Because he was already 60 to 70 percent sure about this suspicion.
“Let’s end the ‘second sister’ thing quickly. I can’t keep acting anymore,” Luo Jing said. “I don’t know how to face him anymore.”
“And I can’t keep lying forever. It’s better to end it early.”
Although the identity of “being in a relationship with Huai Dan” gave his secret feelings a place to belong.
But the implicit fact that “Huai Dan knew he was the second sister and was playing along” was too damaging.
Just thinking about it made him so embarrassed he wanted to find a hole to hide in and never see the light of day again.
“I think both he and I need to… cool down,” Luo Jing said with difficulty, word by word.
After they had both tacitly forgotten about the “second sister” incident, or at least no longer remembered it so vividly, he could pursue him again.
And even if Huai Dan didn’t know, his “second sister” should break up with him.
Creating this fake identity was just an absurd way to stay in contact when he was little, and now it had become an obstacle.
He shouldn’t indulge himself in this fake relationship any longer.
Anyway, he shouldn’t contact him for a while.
Wasn’t time the best medicine?… It should be able to dilute everything, right?
“…Fine, whatever you say,” Wu Li said after listening to Luo Jing’s rambling, feeling like he should change his name to “Speechless.”
Luo Jing nodded, as if gaining a bit of shaky courage from Wu Li’s perfunctory words.
Then, to prevent himself from regretting it, he opened WeChat before even hanging up the phone, switched to his alternate account, and opened Huai Dan’s chat window.
L: [Sorry, I’ve thought about it for a long time, let’s break up.]
His actions were swift and decisive. Luo Jing bravely became a coward.
After thinking for a moment, he added another sentence to make his breakup seem less abrupt.
L: [It’s like this, I’ve met someone I like more in real life. I feel like I shouldn’t indulge myself in this online relationship any longer. Let’s end it here. I’m really sorry.]
After sending it, Luo Jing was about to delete Huai Dan as a friend, but his finger paused. Ultimately, he couldn’t bring himself to do it.
So he switched to the settings and decisively logged out of his alternate account.
This way, he wouldn’t have to worry about regretting it, and Huai Dan wouldn’t be able to find “her” anymore.
Let his second sister disappear from the world.
Thinking this, to complete the act, he opened Luo Feng’s chat window: [Sister, if brother asks you anything about second sister, just say you don’t know.]
Then he anxiously waited for her reply.
He expected Luo Feng to be confused, asking where he got a second sister from, and then he would tell her everything.
Even if it meant being laughed at by Luo Feng, he… he would endure it.
He was prepared to be ridiculed, but after a while, Luo Feng replied.
She first sent a surprised emoji.
Then she sent an “okay.”
Her understanding was unbelievable.
Luo Jing suddenly wondered if he had bought too few gifts for his sister.
