Chapter 54

Chapter 54

Around 5 o’clock, it started snowing outside, the first snow of the year.

Ling Sheng stood on the balcony, recalling that winter when, also during the first snow, Xiang Yang agreed to be with him. That day, he was so excited that he couldn’t sleep all night, and he stood on the dormitory balcony, blowing in the wind for half the night, like a lunatic.

He ended up catching a cold the next day.

Young love is always headstrong, reckless. He asked Xiang Yang to teach him basketball, brought him breakfast, learned to cook, gave him fancy gifts for every holiday, memorized his class schedule, paid attention to his whereabouts, and reserved a seat for him in the library in advance. He would try his best to fulfill his every request.

His whole world revolved around Xiang Yang. Because he was so invested, all his joys and sorrows were dictated by Xiang Yang. That deep feeling couldn’t be erased.

Looking back, the reason they got together was probably because Xiang Yang couldn’t resist his kindness. Sometimes habit and love can blur the boundaries.

After they got together, their relationship didn’t seem to change much. He still revolved around Xiang Yang, but when he wanted to hug or kiss, Xiang Yang no longer resisted. But anything more than that, Xiang Yang would always refuse. Being blinded by love, he automatically rationalized all unreasonable behavior until the day he wanted to take things further, Xiang Yang pushed him away.

Then came the alienation and breakup.

Four years of love, ended in four months.

The ending was hasty and painful.

It took him a long time to get over it. The wound healed, but his body remembered the feeling of pain.

As the New Year approached, everyone’s enthusiasm for work waned. Even Ling Sheng himself was a little distracted because of personal matters. Jiang Chen’s question that day kept lingering in his mind. Ling Sheng often stared at Jiang Chen’s WeChat on his phone, but he didn’t send a single message.

Jiang Chen said he could read minds, but he couldn’t even understand what he himself was thinking.

This situation lasted for almost a week. Neither of them took the initiative to send a message. Ling Sheng was afraid that after contacting Jiang Chen, he would be questioned again. Jiang Chen, on the other hand, regretted it afterward, afraid that if he opened his mouth, Ling Sheng would say something like, “Then let’s end it.”

That day, He Xiaoyun unexpectedly came to Eternity. He knocked on the door of Ling Sheng’s office, “Director Ling, your coffee.”

The person inside was silent for a moment before saying, “I’m afraid I can’t afford Director He’s coffee.”

He Xiaoyun pushed the door open with the coffee. Ling Sheng didn’t seem to have changed on the surface, but he felt colder. He put the coffee on the guest table and greeted Ling Sheng, “Director Ling, what a big shot, you won’t even give me face?”

Ling Sheng ignored him.

He wasn’t in the mood.

He Xiaoyun didn’t rush him either, just took out a red invitation card from the coffee bag and put it on the table.

Ling Sheng’s attention was drawn to the invitation card. He looked at it carefully. No matter how he looked at it, it looked like a wedding invitation.

“My engagement banquet invitation.” He Xiaoyun was a little disgusted, “My mom had it designed. I don’t really like such bright colors.”

Engagement banquet?

Ling Sheng put down what he was doing and walked over to pick up the invitation. After opening it, the positions of the host and hostess inside were printed with: He Xiaoyun, Xia Wan.

The date was February 14th, Valentine’s Day.

“You’re getting engaged?” Ling Sheng looked at him in surprise, “Does the woman know?”

“Of course, she knows.” He Xiaoyun drank his coffee, nonchalantly, “Marriage in a year, three-year marriage, no interference with each other. If there is a need in the middle, we can divorce at any time. The prenuptial agreements of both parties are already being drafted.”

This was indeed shocking news to Ling Sheng.

After all, He Xiaoyun was a complete hedonist. He disdained marriage, and as the sole heir of the He family, no one could restrain him from doing anything with his current status in the family, so he had always been unrestrained and free.

But thinking about it, it actually made sense. For He Xiaoyun, this was just a business deal. He used this marriage contract that he didn’t care about in exchange for greater benefits. Both parties could benefit, so why not?

“It’s a pity, your name was almost printed on it.” He Xiaoyun looked at him, “I heard you broke up with your little puppy, why not just come with me? I’m not very satisfied with this version anyway, I’ll have them make another one.”

Ling Sheng ignored his words, put the invitation back on the table, and leaned on the back of the sofa, looking tired.

“Did you really break up?” He Xiaoyun raised his eyebrows.

“Didn’t break up.” Ling Sheng looked out the window. It had been snowing intermittently for a week, and the sky was always gloomy. He hadn’t seen the sun for a week. At this time, there was still a layer of snow covering the green belts on the streets outside, there were very few cars on the road, and the whole city was cold.

“Then hurry up and break up.” He Xiaoyun clicked his tongue twice, “When a relationship brings you more trouble than happiness, it should end. I thought you had mastered it, how come you haven’t improved at all in three years.”

Ling Sheng’s eyes turned back, looking at He Xiaoyun, “Won’t break up.”

He Xiaoyun smiled instead, “Oh, just a cold war, no breakup. I heard that Jiang Chen hasn’t been home for a week.”

Not home?

Ling Sheng asked him, “Why did you go out of your way to inquire about him?”

He Xiaoyun said lightly, “Of course, it’s to see if I still have a chance.”

If he really wanted a chance, he wouldn’t have come to give him an engagement invitation today. After all, the marriage of two groups is not like a quarrel between young lovers, that can be broken up and reconciled at will.

Ling Sheng ignored his joke. He just hadn’t figured out how to talk to Jiang Chen, but he hadn’t thought about breaking up.

He Xiaoyun looked at him, the joke in his eyes subsided a bit, and said, “Ling Sheng, sometimes I’m actually quite curious, you keep saying you like him, but you keep pushing him away. Are you deliberately playing hard to get, or are you just playing around? If you’re really playing hard to get, then you’ve really surpassed your teacher.”

Ling Sheng frowned, “I don’t have the hobby of playing with feelings.”

“Is that so?” He Xiaoyun had a playful smile on his lips, “Then you’re just deliberately playing hard to get.”

“I’m not.” Ling Sheng was getting a little annoyed by what he said, thought for a long time and only said, “You don’t understand.”

“I don’t understand.” He Xiaoyun leaned on the sofa, a little disgusted, “If feelings have to be so troublesome, I’m very grateful for my wisdom, that I didn’t touch them. In my opinion, anyway, you haven’t made it public yet, and he hasn’t come out of the closet yet, there are many ways out. In my opinion, you might as well break up, so as not to be tangled here.”

Ling Sheng, however, heard his words, and his eyebrows moved slightly, as if he felt something.

Ways out.

He suddenly remembered the words Jiang Chen left when he left that day.

Was he really leaving a way out for Jiang Chen?

Yes, every time he mentioned coming out, he always told himself that.

But people are always best at deceiving themselves.

He was not only leaving a way out for Jiang Chen, but more importantly, he was also giving himself a warning. He was afraid of being too invested, too obsessed, too fond of, that one day he would repeat the same pain, so he liked him, but also retreated. He longed for Jiang Chen to love him, but was afraid of loving him too much.

In this relationship, it seemed that he had always been tolerating Jiang Chen, but wasn’t Jiang Chen also tolerating his selfishness?

Thinking of this, Ling Sheng suddenly felt a little restless. He asked He Xiaoyun, “Where is Jiang Chen?”

He Xiaoyun saw that his condition had suddenly changed, and didn’t ask why, just smiled sarcastically, “You’re asking me about your boyfriend?”

Ling Sheng ignored his sarcasm. Director He was able to condescend to enlighten him today, which had already lowered his status in his code of conduct. It didn’t matter if he was ridiculed. He felt much more open-minded and said very sincerely, “Thank you.”

“Thank me for what?” He Xiaoyun didn’t want to admit it, “Thank me for persuading you to break up?”

Ling Sheng automatically ignored the literal meaning, stood up and said, “Director He, I may need to deal with some personal matters. Can I take a day off tomorrow?”

When Ling Sheng’s call went through, the person who answered the phone was not Jiang Chen, but another young, gentle male voice.

“Hello.”

Ling Sheng paused slightly and said, “I’m Jiang Chen’s friend, is he with you now? Please have him answer the phone.”

The person on the other end paused slightly and said, “He’s with me, he’s drunk and still sleeping. I’ll go wake him up now.”

Drunk?

Jiang Chen rarely drank alcohol, and even advised him not to drink from time to time, saying it was bad for his stomach, how could he be drunk?

But he quickly figured out the reason, and he sighed softly.

The person on the other end heard his sigh and hurriedly said, “Director Ling, don’t misunderstand, we’re just friends.”

The male friend who Jiang Chen trusted enough to get drunk and sleep at his house, Ling Sheng quickly screened out: “Are you Fang Xing?”

Fang Xing was a little surprised, but quickly realized that Jiang Chen must have told Ling Sheng, he said, “Yes, Director Ling, do you want to come and pick him up now? I’ll go wake him up.”

“Let him sleep a little longer, I’ll call him when I get there.”

When Ling Sheng arrived at Fang Xing’s place, it was only 6:30. The snow outside had stopped, and the moonlight was surprisingly good. Fang Xing led him to the second bedroom. As soon as he opened the door, he smelled a strong smell of alcohol.

Ling Sheng didn’t turn on the light. With the light from the living room shining in when the door was opened, the room was very clean. All the smell of alcohol came from the person sleeping on the bed.

Jiang Chen was lying in the middle of the bed, covered with a quilt, half of his face buried in the pillow, only half of his sleeping face was exposed, but even asleep, his brows were still furrowed, as if he was having a nightmare, or as if he was already sleeping restlessly.

Fang Xing silently walked out and returned to the master bedroom. He didn’t close the door, so that the light from the living room could shine in a little.

Ling Sheng sat down on the edge of the bed and pressed down on the soft pillow, so that his nose, which was half covered by the pillow, could breathe better.

But as his finger approached Jiang Chen’s nose, Jiang Chen suddenly twitched his nose and moved closer to his fingertip in his sleep, like a puppy smelling meat.

Even in his sleep, he was following the scent.

Ling Sheng unconsciously showed a little smile and stretched out his finger to scratch his nose.

Jiang Chen was already sleeping badly, and he had to rely on alcohol to fall asleep these days. Half-dreaming and half-awake, he felt like he smelled Ling Sheng’s scent, and felt someone touching his nose, so he reached out and pressed down on that thing.

But as soon as he pressed down, he felt like it wasn’t a mosquito or a quilt.

It felt like a hand.

A hand with Ling Sheng’s scent on it.

This dream was pretty good.

Jiang Chen suddenly felt a soreness in his nose, pulled the hand to the side of his face and rubbed it, and tears actually flowed from the corners of his eyes.

“Xiao Chen.”

He could still hear voices.

What a good dream.

Jiang Chen closed his eyes and sniffled, thinking, it would be nice to dream of a person.

The hand he was holding suddenly struggled, and Jiang Chen hurriedly grabbed it tightly, for fear that if he let go, the hand and the person would be gone, and he wouldn’t even be able to dream of them.

With such a struggle, he woke up completely. As soon as he opened his eyes, he saw that he was really holding a fair and slender hand in his hand. Because he was too forceful, the entire hand, including the wrist, was already red. He looked up along the wrist and saw a face of heartache mixed with helplessness.

“Awake?”