OVTTGTBE Chapter 23

Heartache

Heartache

After Bai Yao quietly hung up the voice call, he kept waiting for messages from friends on either the game or WeChat.

With his speed, the moment he received the message notification, he instantly pressed the shortcut key to open the friend message and saw the content Liu Yucheng sent him before logging off.

He asked in the game, then asked again on WeChat. Bai Yao was quite satisfied with his reaction – Liu Yucheng was anxious!

Whether he was panicking because his true identity was about to be exposed, or he was angry because he hadn’t discussed it with him before announcing the meet-up on the live stream in the game, Bai Yao didn’t plan to let him off the hook.

Bai Yao: Mm.

Bai Yao: I’m already looking at plane tickets. You should be in City X right now, right? According to your phone number’s location. I’ll come find you and spend the New Year with you, how about it?

Bed Exclusive Shizun: Don’t be so hasty.

Bed Exclusive Shizun: It’s the New Year now, plane tickets are so expensive, maybe we should wait a bit…

Bai Yao: What’s wrong?

Bai Yao: Aren’t you happy that I’m flying over to spend the New Year with you? [Pouting]

Bai Yao: Or are you saying that you don’t actually want to see me at all, and everything you said about missing me before was a lie?

Bed Exclusive Shizun: Those words weren’t a lie.

Bai Yao: Then I’ll book a plane ticket? This little bit of money is nothing to me. What date do you think is best for me to come find you?

Liu Yucheng held his phone, looking at the message on WeChat, pacing back and forth in his room, racking his brains but unable to figure out how to reply.

What to do?

If Bai Yao were to fly over to see him during the holidays, that would be more wonderful than a dream come true.

But the premise is that the person Bai Yao is willing to spend huge sums of money on plane tickets to see is “Liu Yucheng,” not the “Peach Milk” who he has never met and lives only in Bai Yao’s imagination.

Bai Yao had said before that when he falls into a relationship, he wants to announce it grandly. His momentum is like he wants to declare to the world, telling everyone that this person is my boyfriend.

Since Bai Yao can grandly announce in the game that he’s going to live stream a meet-up, Bai Yao must really like Peach Milk, maybe he sees Peach Milk as a substitute for his ex-boyfriend… This kind of plot is not uncommon in novels.

Thinking of this, Liu Yucheng would feel a strong urge to avoid reality.

Putting aside the fact that the city information Bai Yao has is inaccurate, if Bai Yao finds out that he is Peach Milk, when school starts, Liu Yucheng isn’t sure if he’ll have the courage to go back to school and see Bai Yao.

Getting beaten up would be a small matter; but having an online relationship with Bai Yao under a different identity, Bai Yao would probably resent him for life…

On the other side, after sending the message, Bai Yao closed the WeChat interface, opened a single-player game on his computer that he hadn’t played in a long time, loaded the progress he had left off on, and continued to immerse himself in playing.

Booking a plane ticket was impossible. It’s the New Year, how could he find a cheap plane ticket?

He knew very well that Liu Yucheng wasn’t actually in that city, and he never expected Liu Yucheng to reply to his last message at all.

When this person is faced with a relatively tricky situation for him, he’ll probably ponder it for a long time. Then as he ponders, maybe the matter will just fizzle out, it was always like this before.

That night before bed, the two of them didn’t have a voice call either.

Bai Yao considerately sent him a message before going to sleep: My mom’s back, she’s in the room next door. I’m afraid of disturbing her, let’s not have a voice call tonight, okay?

Bed Exclusive Shizun: Mm.

Bai Yao: I’m going to sleep now, I’ll look at plane tickets again tomorrow.

Of course, he couldn’t let Liu Yucheng sleep peacefully like this.

Even if Liu Yucheng firmly refused to meet up, Bai Yao would accept it; but if Liu Yucheng kept skipping that message without replying, or adopted a vague attitude, then Bai Yao planned to bring it up every day, three times a day, to annoy him to death.

Bed Exclusive Shizun: Sleep well, good night.

Bed Exclusive Shizun: If you have a nightmare, just call me directly.

…

On New Year’s Eve, although Aunt Yang had already cleaned the house spotless, Bai Junyi still dragged Bai Yao to do a thorough cleaning, and Bai Yao was assigned to wipe the handrails of the stairs. For the first time, he felt that the patterns on the handrails were so superfluous, because his mother required him to meticulously wipe every hole in the handrails, and it wouldn’t be considered finished until they were spotless.

In the evening, Bai Junyi, who never cooked, took out all the food that Aunt Yang had stored in the refrigerator and heated it up, barely managing to put together a New Year’s Eve dinner, and then took pictures of the food with Bai Yao for a long time with their phones, and posted them on their Moments.

“Mom, Happy New Year.”

Bai Yao raised a glass of fresh juice, “After the New Year, I’ll be nineteen. I’ll definitely study hard and earn more money in the future, and take good care of you…”

Bai Junyi couldn’t help but roll her eyes, “Don’t learn from others and make empty promises. The new project I bid on will start next year, and the branch will be opened in City X at that time. After graduation, you’ll go to the branch in City X, work honestly and steadily, and after ten or eight years of experience, you’ll inherit my company. I’ll be satisfied if you don’t cause any trouble.”

After speaking, she took a big gulp of red wine, as if she were socializing at a banquet.

Bai Yao: “…”

Seeing his mother pick up her chopsticks, Bai Yao picked up his chopsticks and picked up a glutinous rice ball. Before he could put it in his mouth, Bai Junyi’s phone on the table rang, and the screen lit up.

Bai Yao inadvertently glanced at the message content, and his heart jumped to his throat.

It was a message from Assistant Zhou: President Bai, I have already found out about the person you asked me to investigate. His surname is Liu, he is DuDu’s classmate, and he is in the same department as DuDu.

Bai Junyi knew that Bai Yao had seen it, but she didn’t say anything, she just silently picked up her phone and typed a message back.

Bai Yao didn’t see the content of her reply, and suddenly became anxious, and couldn’t help but ask: “Mom, why are you investigating my classmates?”

“Adult matters, children shouldn’t ask too much.” She said.

“What adult matters! He’s about the same age as me!”

Bai Yao became even more anxious, and blurted out: “President Bai, just ask me directly if you want to know anything. You’re investigating him… what are you planning to do??”

Could she have already guessed his relationship with Liu Yucheng?

If she continues to investigate like this, she might even find out the number of times they’ve booked rooms and how many boxes of condoms they’ve bought!

Although he had long wanted to come out of the closet at home, at this moment, Bai Yao felt guilty as hell.

Bai Junyi looked at him calmly, tapped the table lightly with her finger twice, and asked: “When did I allow you to call me President Bai? Say it again.”

“Mom! Mom, I was wrong, I’m sorry!”

Bai Yao put down his chopsticks and sat upright looking at Bai Junyi.

He had been cleaning for a day, and although he was very hungry, he had no appetite now.

“Mom… why are you investigating him? Just ask me if you want to know. I also… understand him.”

When he said this, Bai Yao also felt a little guilty. Just now, for a moment, the image of Liu Yucheng wrapped in a bath towel coming out of the bathroom flashed in his mind, as well as the dirty talk he had whispered in his ear, and nothing else of useful information.

“Okay, then tell me, what do the parents of your classmate surnamed Liu do?”

Bai Junyi asked directly.

“I don’t know, we usually don’t talk about these things.” Bai Yao was stunned, he didn’t expect her to ask this.

“Then let me ask you another one.”

Bai Junyi asked again, “Is he an only child, or does he actually have siblings, but he never mentioned it, so you don’t know?”

Bai Yao: “…”

He really didn’t know if Liu Yucheng was an only child. Liu Yucheng never took the initiative to mention his family. He only knew that Liu Yucheng had a blood-sucking cousin, and he only knew this because the cousin took the initiative to jump out.

Bai Junyi: “Then let me ask you a simple question – are you and him particularly close?”

Bai Yao lowered his eyes.

Only this question, he had several answers. But at this moment, he didn’t know which answer to use to answer Bai Junyi.

In the eyes of uninformed people at school, for example, from the counselor’s perspective, the two were enemies who would never interact with each other, and would even fight when they met; in the eyes of Bai Yao’s roommates, they were a couple who had broken up and didn’t interact.

But in Bai Yao’s heart, he still liked Liu Yucheng, really liked him, and had never been able to let go. Now he was still pretending that he didn’t know anything, having voice calls with Liu Yucheng every night, and having an online relationship and getting married with Liu Yucheng in the game.

“Why aren’t you saying anything?”

Bai Junyi observed his reaction and shook her head helplessly, “Eat. Adult matters, you don’t have to worry about them.”

After the New Year’s Eve dinner, Bai Junyi returned to the study, not forgetting to tell Bai Yao before locking the door, not to play games or listen to music too loudly, she had a lot of work to do; Bai Yao nodded in agreement and returned to his room.

Peach Milk had said before that he wouldn’t be going home for the New Year this year, so he was probably spending the New Year alone.

The New Year is the most important traditional festival, and Bai Yao had experienced what it was like to spend the New Year alone.

Bai Yao went online to the game and took a look, Peach Milk was not online. He opened WeChat and took the initiative to send Liu Yucheng a message.

Bai Yao: What did you eat tonight?

He replied instantly: Frozen dumplings. Do you eat Tangyuan (sweet glutinous rice balls) over there?

Bai Yao: Yes. My family’s Tangyuan are made by the aunt, but the Tangyuan I ate were not very delicious…

Bed Exclusive Shizun: How so?

Bai Yao: Although I can eat sesame filling, the aunt at home was afraid that I would be allergic, so she specially made fruit filling… It’s especially sour after cooking.

Bai Yao: It’s as sour as my mood.

Bed Exclusive Shizun:…

Bai Yao: Aren’t you going to ask me why?

After a long time, Liu Yucheng sent an apology. These three words made Bai Yao’s heart sink – because the content was only these three words, with no explanation, nor did he say why he was “sorry.”

Bai Yao: I waited for you all day, checked my phone messages 800 times, and you didn’t pay attention to me all day. You didn’t reply to the meet-up, and you didn’t say Happy New Year to me.

Bed Exclusive Shizun: Sorry, I couldn’t figure out how to tell you… Knowing that you might be unhappy, I can’t bring myself to wish you a Happy New Year at this time. Happy New Year, I’ll send you a 520 red envelope.

Bed Exclusive Shizun: [Red Envelope]

Bai Yao: Heh.

I don’t care.

Bed Exclusive Shizun: Let me say it again… I’m sorry.

Bed Exclusive Shizun: Because… I lied, I’ve been lying to you all along.