Chapter 32

Chapter 32

It was 10:30 PM. When Ling Sheng answered, he must have just finished showering. Jiang Chen looked at the background, which was still his own guest room, and his mood instantly improved a lot: “Is Wu Xia alright?”

Ling Sheng’s hair was still a little wet. He had only dried half of his hair when he saw Jiang Chen’s video call and answered it immediately.

“He’s fine, he’s gone back.”

Wang Zhiqi was detained and couldn’t harass him anymore, so he wanted to go back to his own apartment, saying he didn’t want to trouble Ling Sheng anymore. Ling Sheng was worried about his condition, but Wu Xia insisted on going back, saying he would be fine and would contact him if anything happened.

Ling Sheng didn’t force him. He originally could have gone back to his own place today, but after thinking about it, he returned to Jiang Chen’s place instead.

Jiang Chen told Ling Sheng about going home today and sighed: “I might not be able to see you much lately.”

Ling Sheng listened to him with his eyes lowered, seemingly not surprised, and gave a faint “Mm,” but didn’t say much else.

Jiang Chen was very dissatisfied with his nonchalant attitude: “Don’t you have anything else to say to me?”

Ling Sheng looked at the face so close in the phone, which was filled with expectation. His fingers landed on the screen where Jiang Chen’s cheek was, touching it many times in a way Jiang Chen couldn’t feel, then he turned over and got out of bed.

“Where are you going?” Jiang Chen looked at his movements, puzzled.

Ling Sheng opened the guest room door and walked into the master bedroom. The master bedroom bed was neatly made, just as Jiang Chen had tidied it up when he left in the morning.

He didn’t turn on the main light, only the bedside lamp, then sat on the bed, held up the video, and leaned back, lying directly on Jiang Chen’s bed.

On the dark blue quilt, he wore a beige pajama set, looking like a delicate little cake on blue velvet.

“Why are you sleeping on my bed?” Jiang Chen was a little excited, wishing he were there at this moment.

Ling Sheng didn’t say anything, smiled, then lifted the quilt and lay down, only revealing his clean, fair face, before softly saying: “The quilt still has your scent.”

Jiang Chen’s breathing quickened a little, and he was already considering the possibility of sneaking out while his parents were asleep.

Ling Sheng watched him unconsciously move closer and closer to the camera, reached out with his other hand, and unbuttoned another button of his pajama top.

“What are you doing?” Jiang Chen saw his fingertip parting the collar of his shirt, revealing a patch of fair collarbone, the shadows in the hollow of his collarbone were warm-toned under the warm light of the bedside lamp.

Ling Sheng raised his chin, making his jawline even more defined. He moved the phone down a little, with a slight smile: “When I was showering just now, I noticed that the marks have faded.”

Ever since Ling Sheng allowed him to leave hickeys, he had become increasingly opportunistic and often wanted to do so. Every time they kissed passionately, he would leave some marks, Ling Sheng didn’t allow him to leave marks on his neck, so the area around his collarbone became his most frequent “target,” the deeper ones could last four or five days, the shallower ones would take two or three days to fade.

Recently, he had been busy with Wu Xia’s affairs, plus he had just recovered from a cold these past few days, so they rarely got intimate, and the previous marks must have faded.

But, he was lying on his bed, unbuttoning his shirt to give him this kind of view.

Jiang Chen gritted his teeth: “You’re doing this on purpose.”

Ling Sheng chuckled softly, the camera returned to his face, he looked at Jiang Chen, his eyes filled with tenderness: “Be good at home, I’ll miss you.”

All Jiang Chen wanted to hear was this sentence, and all the strength in his body seemed to drain away. Lying on the bed, looking at the person in the phone, he had never felt this way before, just a single “I miss you” was enough to make his bones feel weak. Earlier downstairs, he felt that just one week wasn’t too long and he could endure it, but now he felt like he couldn’t bear it for even a moment.

“Does the company have any shooting gigs recently? Get me one.” Jiang Chen brought the phone a little closer, as if that would bring him closer to Ling Sheng: “I’ll go to work.”

Ling Sheng laughed: “Do you remember that you have final exams coming up soon?”

Jiang Chen rolled over on the bed: “There’s still more than a month, I’ll arrange my time well.”

Ling Sheng still didn’t agree: “Behave yourself.”

The two chatted until after 12:00 AM, Jiang Chen still didn’t want to hang up, but Ling Sheng had to go to work tomorrow, so they reluctantly ended the call.

The next day, Ling Sheng returned to his own place. Jiang Chen wasn’t happy about this, but Ling Sheng just smiled and said: “Your family is focusing on you right now, if they see a man living in your apartment, how will you explain it?”

Jiang Chen really wanted to say that he would tell the truth, but he didn’t dare.

Ling Sheng usually went along with him on many things, but on the matter of coming out of the closet, he had never relented.

Jiang Chen stayed at home for a whole week. His brother helped him settle the rumors, and the news and videos from that day quickly became unsearchable online. This also made Wu Xia feel much better. His senior was following up on Wang Zhiqi’s matter and also found out that he had dragged others into illegal gambling, which could give him at least five years in prison, but Wu Xia’s money probably wouldn’t be recovered, after all, Wang Zhiqi had nothing of value left and had sold everything, and was still in debt.

Wu Xia only cared that Wang Zhiqi wouldn’t harass him anymore and had negotiated a second installment plan for his credit card and online loans, which he could repay slowly.

Jiang Chen endured for more than a week, Jiang’s father must have investigated everything and didn’t make things difficult for him anymore, but he still made him stay at home and wouldn’t let him go to his own apartment.

Jiang Chen couldn’t take it anymore, so he asked Tonio to get him a gig, planning to go to the company to find Ling Sheng.

But before going, he told Xu Peiya, because he felt that his brother hadn’t let him off the hook yet, and if he really investigated the company, at least Xu Peiya could find him an excuse.

“Tell me honestly, are you going to Eternity to find Ling Sheng?”

Jiang Chen had expected Xu Peiya to ask. Although his brother was quick, some news would always leak out, and he must have asked Xu Peiya about him.

If he had a clear conscience, why would he need her to cover for him?

Jiang Chen simply admitted it: “Yes.”

Xu Peiya was silent for a while: “Are you two together?”

“Yes.”

“Uncle and Aunt won’t agree.”

“So it’s time for you to make your entrance, Cupid sis.”

Xu Peiya couldn’t help but laugh: “I can help, but you have to give me a live broadcast of your entire process of meeting, falling in love, including inside and outside the bedroom, I want all the details.”

That was a yes.

Jiang Chen briefly told her the process, of course, skipping over some of the more colorful parts.

“You got together on the day I confessed!!!” Xu Peiya’s scream almost shattered Jiang Chen’s eardrums through the phone: “Do you have a conscience, Jiang Xiaohua!”

Jiang Chen took the phone away from his ear, glad that he was at school and not at home when he made the call, otherwise her shout would have outed him to his parents on the spot.

Fortunately, for Xu Peiya, Ling Sheng had been a thing of the past since the day her confession was rejected, but thinking that Jiang Chen was also gay, she still felt a bit of emotion: “I really didn’t expect you to have a gay day too.”

Having taken care of Xu Peiya, everything would be much easier later. Jiang Chen arrived at Eternity at 3:00 PM in the afternoon. As soon as the elevator opened, he saw Director Chen and a few people holding a cardboard box, standing in the elevator hall waiting for the elevator.

At the moment their eyes met, Jiang Chen clearly saw the deep resentment and unwillingness in Director Chen’s eyes.

He roughly knew what was going on. Ling Sheng had briefly mentioned it to him, and he had learned some more from Xu Peiya. Director Chen had actually been qualified enough four years ago and wanted to be promoted to the position of city manager, but it wasn’t just about qualifications, the company needed someone with the ability to sit in that position, so he hadn’t been chosen for the two previous openings. Ling Sheng’s predecessor was fired because the plagiarism issue hadn’t been resolved. After Ling Sheng came, he was younger than him and was parachuted in, and he had always been unconvinced. This time, he had also participated in the leakage of the design drafts, probably to target Ling Sheng.

Ling Sheng didn’t tell him any more specifics, saying that he didn’t need to know too much about the company’s internal affairs.

Whether it was work or feelings, he was always fair and clear, knew how to advance and retreat, and was composed.

In the beginning, Jiang Chen liked this maturity of his, but now he was more likely to feel uneasy about it.

The more he liked him, the more he couldn’t help but add more weights to the scale, but the heavier the weights on his side, the lighter the other end of the scale always felt, and this imbalance would occasionally bring more insecurity.

Therefore, he couldn’t wait to hold his hand and walk into the sunlight, wishing he could hold him in his arms whenever and wherever he wanted, wishing he could put him in his pocket and take him out and kiss him whenever he wanted, and then tell everyone, look, this person is mine, all mine, no one can covet him.

But Ling Sheng seemed to be controlling all the steps at a leisurely pace, calculating how much to advance with each step, and if he felt it was too much, he could retreat at any time.

While he was in a daze, Tonio saw him through the glass door and opened the door for him: “Why didn’t you come in?”

When Jiang Chen entered the studio, Ling Sheng was also there, standing in front of the computer looking at the newly taken photos. Having not seen him for a week, the first thing Jiang Chen wanted to do when he saw him was to rush over and hug him, especially with the empty feeling he had felt in the elevator hall just now.

But there were too many people inside, the lights were too bright, and the surveillance was too clear, he couldn’t do anything, he could only call out: “Director Ling.”

Ling Sheng nodded to him, then turned around and went to talk to Tonio, looking no different than usual.

He went to the dressing room to change his clothes, and the makeup artist trimmed his eyebrows and gave him a simple touch-up before letting him go to shoot. Ling Sheng stood there watching the whole time.

After shooting two sets, Jiang Chen said he needed to go to the restroom and paused. He made a point of looking at Ling Sheng before going out.

He came in and stood in front of the sink, and there happened to be no one else in the restroom at this time.

Before long, Ling Sheng came in. Jiang Chen was shooting a cashmere coat, the company had the heating on high, so it was very warm, and when he came out he was worried about getting the clothes dirty, so he took it off and left it in the studio. At this time, he was wearing a black turtleneck sweater, dark gray suit pants, and black leather shoes. His face looked more angular and his features more defined after being touched up, and his whole body looked particularly luxurious and mature.

When Jiang Chen saw him, he wanted to hug him, but Ling Sheng walked into one of the stalls instead. Jiang Chen’s hand, which was already slightly raised, dropped down again, with a hint of disappointment in his eyes, but he still followed him in.

Eternity’s restroom was very large, and the stalls were large enough, and the cleaning lady cleaned it frequently, and there was even aromatherapy inside. After Jiang Chen went in and closed the door, Ling Sheng’s body pressed against him.

Jiang Chen’s heart, which had just felt disappointed, softened all at once, and no emotion could compare to Ling Sheng’s initiative to come over and kiss him.

He could always easily see through and soothe his emotions.