Chapter 19

Chapter 19

Jiang Chen was visiting Ling Sheng’s office for the first time, led in by Tonio.

Reaching the door, Tonio knocked, and Ling Sheng’s cool voice came from inside, “Come in.”

Tonio opened the door, letting him in, and gave him a knowing wink before leaving.

Ling Sheng’s office was also simple. A large desk held a desktop computer, with his laptop beside it. Next to the window was a small meeting table and two small sofas. Seeing it was him, Ling Sheng gestured for him to sit down, his fingers still tapping on the computer.

Jiang Chen was a bit sulky. He silently sat down on the sofa, looking out the window, waiting for Ling Sheng to finish.

He waited for about ten minutes, but Ling Sheng ignored him. Jiang Chen couldn’t help but look at him.

This was the first time he’d seen Ling Sheng at work. Usually gentle and smiling, seemingly easy to talk to, but at this moment, his brow was furrowed with a touch of cold sternness. The rimless glasses reflected a cold light under the cool lighting, as he looked at the computer screen calmly and distantly, not giving him even a glance.

The blood in Jiang Chen, which had been boiling with anger, slowly cooled down a bit.

Another fifteen minutes passed before Ling Sheng seemed to finish his work. He stood up, walked to the small sofa, and looked down at Jiang Chen.

Jiang Chen sat on the sofa, looking up at him.

Ling Sheng didn’t have the familiar gentleness. His voice was calm and cold: “Are you calm now?”

Jiang Chen didn’t speak, moving his gaze away in a huff.

Ling Sheng stood for a few seconds before saying, “Move over a bit.”

The small sofa could only fit two people comfortably. They sat side by side, their shoulders lightly touching. Jiang Chen, holding back his anger, said with a stiff voice, “Wang Mingan is saying outside that you sexually harassed him.”

Turning the tables and crying wolf! Just thinking about how Wang Mingan was fantasizing about Ling Sheng behind his back, Jiang Chen wanted to pour out the contents of his head to see if they were yellowed and rotten.

“I know.”

Jiang Chen couldn’t hold back anymore: “You know? You knew and still let him say whatever he wanted.”

Ling Sheng didn’t dwell too much on what Wang Mingan was saying, but asked him instead, “You went to Wang Mingan. What were you planning to do? Sew his mouth shut?”

The most terrible thing about rumors is that people don’t care about the truth. As long as the story is exciting enough, it will be spread and remembered. No matter how much you try to clear things up, you can never completely clean it.

Jiang Chen knew all this, but he couldn’t swallow his anger: “I want him to clarify.”

“And if he doesn’t clarify?”

“Then I’ll tell him, tell everyone, that you’re my boyfriend, not someone he can fantasize about!”

“What if I don’t agree?”

Ling Sheng’s voice had been calm from beginning to end, so when he said this, Jiang Chen was choked.

He doesn’t agree?

He doesn’t want to make their relationship public?

Jiang Chen felt even more aggrieved. He’d never felt so stifled in his life. This was his first relationship, but his boyfriend wasn’t even willing to make it public.

Was he that embarrassing?

Ling Sheng saw that his eyes were red and his heart softened. He reached out and touched his hair, but Jiang Chen dodged, not letting him touch it, and turned his face away, looking out the window, not looking at him.

His back view looked like a husky that had been scolded by its owner.

Ling Sheng laughed.

“Turn around, let me kiss you.”

Jiang Chen’s shoulders twitched slightly, but he resisted turning around.

“Okay, if you don’t want a kiss, go back.” Ling Sheng pretended to stand up, but his hand was grabbed.

Jiang Chen slowly turned around, lowered his eyes, not looking at him, and leaned over to touch his lips.

They hadn’t had such a pure kiss in a long time.

But just this simple kiss calmed Jiang Chen’s emotions a lot. When Ling Sheng reached out to touch his hair again, he didn’t dodge.

Ling Sheng’s fingers gently rubbed through his hair, and his voice softened: “Don’t get entangled in bad people and bad things. He’s not worth your time and energy.”

But Wang Mingan’s matter was no longer Jiang Chen’s biggest concern. He lowered his head and asked in a muffled voice, “Why don’t you want to go public?”

He could tolerate Wang Mingan saying such outrageous things, but why didn’t he want to make their relationship public?

“Isn’t it good the way it is now?” Ling Sheng asked gently.

Jiang Chen reached out and hugged his waist, burying his head in his chest: “I want everyone to know that you’re my boyfriend, so no one will covet you anymore.”

He had always been an upright person. From the first day he was with Ling Sheng, he never thought of hiding it, and felt that it was unfair to the other person. He had only been holding back out of consideration for Ling Sheng’s feelings.

“Why don’t you want to go public?” Jiang Chen raised his head and looked directly at him: “What are you worried about?”

Ling Sheng didn’t explain anything, only saying, “I hope everything goes naturally.”

Jiang Chen was not satisfied with this answer. He stubbornly looked at Ling Sheng: “It is natural now.”

Ling Sheng’s expression became serious. He looked directly at Jiang Chen, almost looking into his eyes: “Where are you planning to go public? At school? To your classmates? You should know that you’re different from others. Going public at school is equivalent to coming out to your family. Have you thought about how to face your parents?”

Jiang Chen was stunned.

He was too impulsive today. He wasn’t like this before, but when he met Ling Sheng, when he encountered things related to him, his rationality was easily influenced by his emotions.

Ling Sheng was right. His family were all old Jiang City residents. It took generations of accumulation to get to where they were today. The things that happened in Jiang City could hardly be hidden from his family. The things between him and Xu Peiya at school, as long as his family wanted to know, they could know everything clearly. It was just that he usually didn’t have anything to hide from his family, and his family didn’t have the habit of constantly monitoring him, so they didn’t take it seriously.

If his family found out that he was in a relationship with a man, his parents definitely wouldn’t be able to accept it and would definitely find Ling Sheng.

He hadn’t considered it thoroughly.

“I understand.” Jiang Chen’s expression changed, and his tone was no longer as excited and stubborn as before.

Ling Sheng looked at his expression and knew what he was thinking. His voice was light, but warned, “Don’t think about coming out to your family.”

Jiang Chen was seen through, and couldn’t help but say, “Can you read minds?”

“Yes, I can read minds.” Ling Sheng’s expression was still serious: “This matter is different from other things. You can correct wrong answers, you have a chance to retake a failed exam. As long as the result is good, not many people will care about the process. But once you come out, no matter what you do in the future, the label of ‘homosexual’ will follow you for the rest of your life.”

“I don’t care.” Jiang Chen looked at him, equally serious, the young man persistent and firm: “I like you, being in a relationship with you, it’s not something shameful.”

Ling Sheng’s heart trembled violently. He turned his eyes away, avoiding his gaze, and looked at him again after a few seconds: “Do you understand me?”

Jiang Chen wanted to answer that he did. They had clearly chatted so many times before, said so many things, and kissed intimately countless times, but under Ling Sheng’s calm and almost serious gaze, he didn’t dare to answer.

Ling Sheng didn’t continue this topic, but said, “Xiao Chen, never make a decision that will have a major impact on your life in a short period of time.”

Jiang Chen didn’t speak. Ling Sheng didn’t agree, and it was impossible for him to really disregard his thoughts and make a public announcement on his own, but the more Ling Sheng was like this, the more he wanted to go public.

Just then, Ling Sheng’s phone suddenly vibrated. He went to his desk, picked up the phone, and answered it, but quickly took the phone away from his ear and checked WeChat.

He looked at it for a while, and actually raised his eyes to look at Jiang Chen.

Jiang Chen didn’t know why he was suddenly looking at him. The emotions from just now hadn’t faded completely, and he sat there looking at him blankly.

“Are you in the company’s model group?”

The company’s freelance models had a group, but it was a chaotic place, with constant messages. Jiang Chen found it annoying, so he directly muted and folded it, never looking at it.

Hearing Ling Sheng say this, he took out his phone and found the group. It was already boiling over. Jiang Chen scrolled up for a long time before seeing what had happened.

Someone had posted photos in the group, screenshots of chat logs, filled with scandalous words. From flirting to later falling out, the general idea was Wang Mingan’s love-hate entanglement with another model. The two tacitly had a relationship in the name of “love,” but Wang Mingan didn’t fulfill his “love” afterward, so it went from voluntary to an unfair transaction.

And it clearly stated that Wang Mingan was looking for a male model.

Following was a long string of comments from the gossiping crowd. Jiang Chen was dumbfounded, never expecting things to unfold like this. He suddenly remembered Ling Sheng telling him not to interfere before, that he would solve Wang Mingan’s matter. He couldn’t help but look up at Ling Sheng.

Ling Sheng had already put down his phone, seemingly not caring about this matter.

Seeing him look at him, Ling Sheng leaned against the desk, arms crossed, and smiled at him: “Feeling relieved?”

His smile brought back some of the gentle and indulgent Ling Sheng from before. The suspicion in Jiang Chen’s heart dissipated: “He got what he deserved.”

“Don’t you think my methods are too despicable?”

Jiang Chen turned off his phone, not wanting to look at the chaotic messages in the group anymore: “It wasn’t you who did it.”

There were all sorts of people in this model group, from society, from schools, male and female. Once this was exposed, nearby schools would soon be eating melons. For someone like Wang Mingan, who cared so much about face, it was social death.

Although he and Ling Sheng had only known each other for barely two months, Ling Sheng wasn’t the kind of person who would push someone into a corner.

Ling Sheng didn’t speak, just leaned there watching him.

Jiang Chen knew that look. When he smiled like that, his eyes would curve into a beautiful arc, especially captivating.

He walked over, took off his glasses, leaned over to kiss him, and then received the familiar, gentle, and indulgent response. The kiss didn’t last too long, after all, they were in the office, during work hours.

Jiang Chen hugged him, resting his head on his shoulder, a little aggrieved but obediently saying, “I’ll listen to you, but I don’t want to be a secret lover forever.”