Chapter 59
Hearing the knock, Song Shuci was a little surprised.
He had just finished showering and, without thinking too much, opened the door, still in his bathrobe. Seeing Jian Wu standing outside, holding KFC, he was taken aback: “Why are you here?”
Jian Wu glanced at his open collar, looked away, and walked in casually: “I can’t come?”
He opened the bag, took out the boxes one by one, placed them on the table, and said to Song Shuci: “Let’s eat together, I can’t finish it all by myself.”
Song Shuci leaned against the bathroom door with his arms crossed, looked him up and down in his cartoon pajamas, and nodded: “Okay, I’ll change.”
He tossed the plain silk pajamas he had prepared back into his suitcase, took out an identical set to Jian Wu’s, went into the bathroom to change, then came out, took two wine glasses and milk from the table, and sat down opposite Jian Wu.
He put down the glasses, opened the milk carton, poured them each a glass, then raised his glass slightly towards him, “Cheers?”
Jian Wu picked up his glass and clinked it against his.
The clear glasses made a crisp sound, the white liquid swirling inside, blurring the glass.
The aroma of fried chicken quickly filled the air, mixing with the rich scent of milk, making it very appetizing.
“Good?” Song Shuci, seeing him drink the milk, looked at his lips and asked.
“Not bad.”
“I was going to bring it to you after showering, but you came yourself,” Song Shuci said, “You can take the rest with you when you leave.”
Jian Wu lowered his eyes and looked at the glass of milk. There was also cola in the bag, and drinking cola at night could cause insomnia, but Song Shuci hadn’t offered him cola, nor had he told him not to drink it, just poured him a glass of milk, giving him another option.
Realizing this, Jian Wu felt a subtle, indescribable emotion in his heart.
So he also teased: “Going to bed already?”
“Why?”
“Just sat down and you’re already talking about me leaving.”
Song Shuci chuckled, stared at Jian Wu for a moment, leaned forward, and said, “Then I’ll let you sleep here, will you stay?”
Jian Wu slightly turned his head away, using the milk as a shield, “What’s the plan for tomorrow?”
“What time do you want to wake up?” Song Shuci asked.
“Noon?”
“Then you can sleep in,” Song Shuci said, “I’ll come find you for lunch, and we’ll watch a movie in the afternoon, how about that?”
“Are there any good movies recently?”
“I booked a private screening, you can choose the movie. I was thinking… we could watch all the movies we didn’t finish watching together before.”
Jian Wu, who was eating a piece of fried chicken, suddenly choked. He took two sips of milk to clear his throat, subtly hiding the fact that he had choked, but his heart still ached slightly.
He actually quite liked watching movies, and they often went to the cinema on dates.
But he didn’t know when it started, Song Shuci could rarely finish a movie with him, either standing him up at the last minute or getting up to answer a phone call midway through, making it impossible for him to discuss the plot with him after the movie.
“Okay,” Jian Wu tossed the bone into the trash bag, “Then let’s watch a movie.”
He cleaned up the empty boxes, picked up the remaining half bottle of milk, and stood up, “I’ll take out the trash.” He glanced at Song Shuci’s pajamas and said pointedly: “You can change back into your favorite pajamas now.”
“I’ll just wear this,” Song Shuci walked him to the door and opened it for him: “Really not staying?”
Jian Wu said casually “No” and walked out.
He slept until the sun was high in the sky, a long-awaited, comfortable sleep. The hotel’s blackout curtains were very effective, and he was still asleep when Song Shuci knocked on his door. Perhaps thanks to the milk, he had slept soundly, without dreaming. Now awake, he felt refreshed.
He got out of bed, rubbed his eyes, and opened the door for Song Shuci. Seeing him dressed formally, Jian Wu asked: “What did you do this morning?”
“Met with a few former classmates, discussed some collaborations,” Song Shuci said.
“Who’s the person you said you would take me to meet yesterday?” Jian Wu asked while washing his face.
“You’ll find out tonight.”
The evening traffic in City A was heavy and congested. Fortunately, they left early and arrived at their destination on time.
Jian Wu saw a familiar figure as soon as he got out of the car. The handsome young man stood in the middle of the crowd, his elegant demeanor making him stand out. Seeing them, he waved and walked towards them.
“Senior Jiang?”
Jian Wu immediately recognized the person. He was stunned for a moment and instinctively looked at Song Shuci.
The person who came to pick them up was Jiang Xu, Jian Wu’s high school senior, two years older than him. He and Song Shuci went to the same university and stayed in City A after graduation.
Jiang Xu’s father and his father were both teachers, so they had known each other since they were young. Since his father had been Jiang Xu’s homeroom teacher, and they both went to university in City A, they kept in touch.
Among the countless people Song Shuci had been jealous of, this Senior Jiang was probably the biggest victim.
Back in No. 6 Middle School, the top students from all three grades attended the same math competition classes. When he was a freshman, Jiang Xu was a senior, and because of his good grades and senior status, he was naturally the class leader. Knowing about his father’s passing, Jiang Xu had always taken care of him in the competition class, helping him whenever he could.
During the time he was avoiding Song Shuci’s pursuit, he would always sit next to Jiang Xu in the competition class.
Because of the senior-junior dynamic, Song Shuci couldn’t say anything, but the aftereffect was that after they got together, Song Shuci would always be sarcastic whenever he mentioned Jiang Xu.
So he hadn’t expected Song Shuci to take the initiative to bring him to see Jiang Xu.
Song Shuci, seeing his expression, said, his tone still slightly sour, but his hand gently pushed him forward: “Why are you staring blankly at me? Isn’t this your favorite Senior Jiang?”
As they spoke, the young man had already reached them. Jian Wu, putting aside his thoughts, took two steps forward and hugged Jiang Xu excitedly, “Senior, long time no see!”
Jiang Xu hugged him back and glanced at Song Shuci: “Have you grown up?” He actually wasn’t jealous.
Song Shuci silently looked away.
He knew Jiang Xu didn’t have any other intentions towards Jian Wu, and he also knew that neither of them liked his jealous behavior, but some instincts were beyond his control. Like this hug, normally he would be unhappy, but this time, he looked at Jian Wu and forced himself to endure it.
“Senior, what did you say?” Jian Wu didn’t hear him clearly.
“Nothing,” Jiang Xu smiled faintly, “Long time no see, let’s go inside.”
They chatted for a while, then the dishes started arriving. There were only three of them, but they had ordered quite a lot of food.
Jian Wu asked: “Can we finish all this?”
“It’s okay, it’s my treat,” Jiang Xu said, “I’ll take the leftovers home.”
“How can I let you treat us?”
“Shuci treated me to lunch, it’s my turn to treat you now.” Jiang Xu turned a few delicious dishes towards him, “Just eat.”
Jian Wu and Jiang Xu hadn’t seen each other for over four years either. The last time they met was after he failed his postgraduate entrance interview. He went to the university to see Song Shuci and ran into Jiang Xu. Jiang Xu said he looked unwell and took him to the hospital for a checkup. After getting the results, Jiang Xu even called him to tell him to relax and asked if he wanted help getting an appointment with a psychiatrist.
Appointments at A Medical University’s affiliated hospital were hard to get. Jian Wu was truly grateful to his senior for going to such lengths for him, all because of his father’s teacher-student relationship with him.
Seeing Jiang Xu wasn’t eating much and was wearing two layers of clothing despite the summer heat, he poured him some wine and asked with concern: “Senior, how have you been lately? You can have some wine to warm up if you’re cold.”
As if remembering something, Jiang Xu’s expression became slightly complicated.
He first pushed the wine away, explaining briefly, “I can’t drink recently,” then said: “I wasn’t doing very well a while ago… but I’m better now.”
“What happened?”
“It’s nothing,” he didn’t seem to want to talk about it. He had some soup and changed the subject, “What about you? How have you been?”
“I’ve always been good…”
Not talking about himself, Jiang Xu seemed much more relaxed and even joked: “Always been good, blocking us all?”
“I…”
“Alright, I understand,” Jiang Xu took out his phone, scanned his WeChat QR code, glanced at Song Shuci, then looked at him again, and teased deliberately, “Don’t torture yourself next time you’re feeling down, you can come find me, Song Shuci isn’t reliable, I am.”
“Senior—” Song Shuci finally couldn’t hold back, “Can you say something nice about me?”
“Only if you deserve it.”
“…” Song Shuci stood up, “I’ll go check on the dish, why isn’t it here yet?”
Seeing him leave, Jiang Xu put down his spoon, wiped his mouth with a tissue, leaned back, and said to Jian Wu: “You two…”
Jian Wu silently ate his food, not saying a word.
Jiang Xu sighed and rested his chin on his hand, “Shuci asked me to put in a good word for him. I need to understand the situation first, so, how about it, willing to tell me?”
Jian Wu said: “We… broke up before.”
“I know.”
“I’m back in City B now. A while ago… in March or April, we ran into each other by chance.”
Jiang Xu raised an eyebrow: “By chance?”
“Ah?”
“I just think, he doesn’t seem like the type to have ‘chances’,” Jiang Xu said, then added, “Continue.”
“Then…” Jian Wu poked at the meat in his bowl, “He wants to get back together.”
“What about you?”
Jian Wu remained silent.
“I understand,” Jiang Xu rubbed his temples, “Let me think.”
After thinking for a while, he said: “I want to ask you another question.”
“Go ahead.”
“Back then, you not only didn’t contact Shuci, but you also decisively cut off contact with all of us, not letting us know your whereabouts. Was it entirely because… you didn’t want Song Shuci to find you?”
Jiang Xu looked into his eyes, “Or… was it partly because you were afraid that even though he could find you, he wouldn’t, so you cut off contact with all of us, so you wouldn’t have to face the fact that he might not be looking for you?”
“You doubted his feelings for you.”
Jian Wu’s chopsticks trembled, almost knocking over his bowl.
Jiang Xu’s words triggered a sentence in his mind, the last words Song Shuci said to him before they broke up—”If you dare to get on that plane, I swear I’ll never come looking for you again in this lifetime.”
