MNL Chapter 48
by VolareXu Jing never expected that person would ask him out on the first day of the new year.
Most importantly, he agreed without even thinking.
With the sun high in the sky, Xu Jing, after changing three outfits in front of the mirror, finally settled on his first choice—a loose white hooded sweatshirt and light blue casual pants.
Only the jacket didn’t seem to match well, and since Shen Yan had already called to say he was waiting downstairs, Xu Jing quickly threw on a thermal undershirt and hurried out.
“Over here.”
Xu Jing looked over and saw Shen Yan standing under a tree, waving at him.
Having barely slept a wink last night, Xu Jing was surprisingly awake, especially when he saw Shen Yan. He felt his heart racing uncontrollably.
“What do you want for lunch?”
“Anything is fine.”
“Then let’s go to the hotel I booked.”
Xu Jing stopped in his tracks. “What?”
“Sorry, slip of the tongue.” Shen Yan smiled and said, “I meant restaurant.”
The already somewhat strange atmosphere became even more delicate. They had eaten together before, but the last two words Shen Yan said last night implied something more.
This made Xu Jing think of two other words.
Date.
The restaurant Shen Yan booked was well-known locally. It wasn’t big, but it looked very refined in terms of both decoration and service. Besides that, the prices weren’t cheap either. They only ordered four dishes and it cost nearly a thousand.
Xu Jing had heard Shen Yan say that his mother had left him some money, but judging from Shen Yan’s daily attire and the things he used, the amount of money was definitely not small.
Xu Jing felt almost mentally deranged during this meal. Not only did they not argue, but Shen Yan was like a different person, serving food and pouring water, being meticulous in every way, almost to the point of sitting next to him and waiting on him.
Looking at the small mountain piled up in his bowl, Xu Jing raised his eyes and said, “Are you okay?”
Shen Yan hummed in question and said, “What’s wrong?”
His innocent tone made Xu Jing wonder if he was the one with the problem.
After finishing the meal with his mind wandering, Xu Jing started to worry about what to do next. He had only gone out with Yan Zhe and the others before, and at most, they would eat and play games. There were no other entertainment options. Could it be that he would just go straight home later, or ask Shen Yan to play games?
“Um, do you want to go to an internet cafe?”
“Or see a movie?”
“…”
They both looked at each other with unexpected expressions.
“You want to play games?”
Xu Jing was a little embarrassed and said, “Not really.”
It wasn’t like he hadn’t searched Baidu last night, but all the results were about what couples should do on a date. He and Shen Yan were in an ambiguous relationship, but they weren’t exactly that kind of relationship either. Xu Jing had read through a pile of dazzling strategies more carefully than he would for an exam, but the suggestions written on them were all fancy but useless.
“Then come with me to see a movie. I’ve already booked the entire theater.”
“…”
Xu Jing fell into deep thought once again.
The movie didn’t start until 5 p.m. They walked from one end of the street to the other, braving the cold wind for a full half hour, and had no choice but to go into an internet cafe.
Both Shen Yan and Xu Jing were playing LOL to pass the time, and they weren’t as obsessed with it as Yan Zhe and Lin Jiayu were, so this was the first time they had played games so close together.
But playing with Shen Yan had a downside, which was that there wasn’t much of a game experience. Because in less than ten minutes, this guy was already going crazy in the jungle. The chat box was full of people dissing the Master Yi player, and provocative words were constantly spamming the screen. Shen Yan ignored them all until the Rengar, who had already died four times, sent a message:
[Sea of Memories (Rengar)]: Did the enemy jungler lose his virginity? Is that why he’s so insane?
Xu Jing, who was playing ADC and farming, noticed this message and realized that Shen Yan had almost completely emptied the enemy’s jungle.
“You really are insane.”
Master Yi walked towards the bot lane. Xu Jing didn’t care. Even without these few jungle monsters, he could still farm.
When Blue Buff had only a few bars of health left, Shen Yan suddenly called out to him, “Come get Blue.”
Xu Jing was a little flattered and went over to take the remaining health of the jungle monster. When he looked again, he found that a sentence had been added to the chat box.
[SY (Tryndamere)]: You got it backwards.
[Sea of Memories (Rengar)]:?
Xu Jing didn’t understand the meaning of this sentence for a while, but no matter how much the Rengar verbally attacked him, Shen Yan ignored him until the end.
The two of them left on time, and it was exactly 5 p.m. when they arrived at the movie theater. As soon as they entered the private room, the surroundings instantly darkened, and Xu Jing realized a very serious problem.
He couldn’t watch movies at all.
Xu Jing subconsciously wanted to leave, but a gentle voice came from his ear, “Don’t be afraid.”
At the same time, the lights above their heads slowly began to brighten.
So that’s why he booked the entire theater.
Xu Jing turned to look at Shen Yan, a surreal feeling of being in a dream surfacing in his heart. It wasn’t just because of the other person’s thoughtfulness and gentleness, but more importantly, booking a restaurant and booking the entire theater, how could he be so skilled in these methods?
“Um, you—”
“Shh.” Shen Yan seemed to know what Xu Jing wanted to say and gently interrupted him, “Let’s watch this movie first.”
Shen Yan’s attitude was firm, so Xu Jing swallowed the rest of his words.
The movie was about a story of redemption. During wartime, the male lead had both of his legs blown off by ammunition while trying to save his friend. After that, he could only barely maintain his life with a wheelchair. He was originally a highly ambitious general with great aspirations, but now he had become a cripple who couldn’t even walk. Falling from heaven to hell, the man felt deeply despairing and prepared to commit suicide in his daily decadence. But on that night, he saw a beautiful woman with long hair by the sea. The woman had a tall and graceful figure and a voice like heavenly music, as if a god had broken into the man’s vision. The woman was also attracted by the man’s determined eyes and special appearance. The two eventually came to know and love each other, spending a life that was both long and short.
This movie had a lot of pre-release publicity, almost filling the hot search lists on various platforms. The only thing Shen Yan hesitated about was that it was a foreign film in pure English.
“What do you think?”
“It’s pretty good.”
“Don’t want to sleep?”
“I’m okay.”
This was the dialogue half an hour after the movie started. After hearing the answer, Shen Yan felt incredible. Xu Jing was actually willing to watch a two-hour English movie with him here.
And as the movie was about to end, the big screen showed a close-up of the female lead pushing the male lead’s wheelchair as they watched the sea together. Shen Yan’s palms were slightly sweaty.
A lyrical and tear-jerking ending song rang out in the empty movie theater. Shen Yan stared blankly at the rolling credits on the screen, his heart already turned upside down.
“Um, I have something I want to tell you.”
At the moment the ending song ended, in the silence of everything around him, Shen Yan suddenly closed his eyes and, as if summoning his courage, said the words that had been swirling in his heart.
“Xu Jing, I like you.”
His heart was pounding like a drum, and many scenes flashed through Shen Yan’s mind, one after another, like a movie. Even he himself didn’t realize that he could remember every event he had experienced since he met Xu Jing so clearly.
But after a strange silence, he didn’t get any response.
Shen Yan turned his head and found that the person sitting next to him had his head tilted slightly, breathing evenly, and long, butterfly-like eyelashes casting two beautiful shadows.
Shen Yan: “…”
The first confession of his life, and the other person fell asleep.
Shen Yan stared at Xu Jing’s face in silence for a long time, as if he wanted to completely engrave this face into his mind, from his handsome eyebrows and eyes to his straight nose, and finally stopping at those rosy lips.
Shen Yan’s eyes darkened, and he suddenly leaned forward.
His hand was tightly gripping the top of the armrest, but he was careful not to move forward at all, afraid of waking the other person. He had never been so impulsive as he was now. This feeling almost devoured all reason.
Just a little bit more, and he could completely touch this person.
But when there were only a few centimeters left, the person who should have known nothing suddenly opened his eyes.
Shen Yan saw himself in Xu Jing’s clear eyes.
His brain felt like a hole had been drilled into it. Besides shock, there was also a voice constantly clamoring, and Shen Yan showed signs of backing away.
But the next second, he felt himself being forcibly pulled over by a brute force, and a cool and soft sensation immediately followed on his lips. Both of them shuddered.
They kissed.
This thought exploded in both of their heads like fireworks, as if their souls were trembling violently.
The warm breath, carrying the unique scent of both of them, intertwined together, but neither of them moved forward even half an inch, and the kiss ended quickly, like a dragonfly skimming the surface of the water.
Shen Yan’s hand was sore from being pressed against the armrest too suddenly, but compared to the situation in front of him, these were nothing.
After a long time, the passive person couldn’t help but speak first.
“You were awake the whole time?”
“No.” Xu Jing turned his head and said softly, “I woke up when you said you liked me.”
But it was clearly Shen Yan who said he liked him first, and he was clearly the one who was being confessed to. At this moment, he felt that the other person was the high and mighty victor.
Xu Jing suddenly remembered a sentence he had seen in a book:
So love is a silent emotional game. In countless duels, you lose every time, but you are still willing to let the other person be the invincible winner.
When he read it at the time, he thought that the person who wrote this sentence had a problem with their brain.
But at this moment, he was willing to be that idiot.
His gaze moved down to the red hand in his palm.
Xu Jing’s eyes were burning, and he slowly covered his hand with his own.
Shen Yan didn’t hesitate at all and gripped Xu Jing’s hand in return, anxiously as if he was afraid he would run away.
But he still asked knowingly, in a low voice, “So what do you think?”
They had already kissed and held hands, and he was still asking this kind of question.
Xu Jing’s voice was muffled, “I gave you my first kiss, what else do you think I can think?”
Shen Yan pursed his lips as if he was savoring the feeling of that fleeting touch, and then laughed softly.
Xu Jing also curled up the corners of his mouth.
Their eyes met in the air. They should have seen the answer that didn’t need to be spoken through each other’s eyes long ago.
Fortunately, this answer didn’t come too late.
·
So that’s what that “you got it backwards” meant.
Xu Jing finally understood now, so that on the way back he couldn’t help but sympathize with the Rengar who was chased by Shen Yan to the point of directly quitting the game.
Since the two of them left the movie theater, their clasped hands had never been separated. On this cold winter night, their tightly pressed palms were sweating a lot.
Along the way, the two of them only spoke when Shen Yan explained about Jiang Pei’s matter. The rest of the time, they were silent.
They slowly walked to the last street. When he could already see the top floor of his villa, Xu Jing suddenly stopped and said seriously, “Without the filter of childhood, just the me you see now, Shen Yan, I’ll ask you again, do you like me?”
Shen Yan’s footsteps paused. He didn’t answer, but he tightly held Xu Jing’s hand, and his gaze swept over the crowded street. The next second, the latter felt himself being pulled forward, with a force that he couldn’t refuse.
After realizing that he had been dragged into an alley, Shen Yan forcefully pressed Xu Jing against the wall, using one hand to carefully protect his head and the other to playfully lift his chin. His peach blossom eyes were deep and fiery, and his breath was as hot as if it could burn people.
“Shen—um!”
The rest of his words were blocked by a kiss that was completely different from the one just now. It was a chaotic kiss, like sucking and biting. The tingling sensation from his tongue went all the way to the back of his neck, a passionate arousal like molten magma, forcing Xu Jing to almost lose his footing.
His backward movements were forcibly interrupted several times. Xu Jing couldn’t bear it anymore and heavily pushed the other person’s shoulder.
His panting was almost collapsing. Shen Yan reluctantly ended the kiss. Xu Jing licked his aching lips and was about to scold him when he saw that the other person’s eyes were slightly drunk and his voice was low and hoarse:
“Fuck, I’m hard.”