TSIBAMS Chapter 88

Chapter 89

Once a person becomes preoccupied, they can’t help but keep themselves busy.

For example, right now, Brother Xu had changed his habit of ordering people around, personally bustling about to set up tables and chairs. He even moved the disorderly parked non-motorized vehicles away from the entrance, clearing a space in front of the already cramped store.

When he finally returned with several large bags of barbecue from the neighboring stall, everyone was already sitting in a row.

The empty seats were also very obvious: Bai Shu was on the left, and Qi Guang was on the right.

“Sorry to keep you all waiting.” He put the late-night snack on the table, and as he sat down, he casually put a cigarette in his mouth.

“Thanks, Brother Xu!” Ye Xing stepped forward to unpack the plastic bags, glancing at Li Ke, “I’m so hungry I’ve forgotten that I didn’t have dinner.”

“Whose fault is that? There was food at the rest stop. You rushed back and made me starve with you!” Li Ke laughed, unconsciously looking at Bai Shu.

Bai Shu remained silent, reaching out to unpack the late-night snack with everyone.

Brother Xu, who was usually at ease at various dinner tables, was feeling a little flustered for the first time. He was distracted for a moment before realizing he had a cigarette in his mouth. It was like a lifeline he grasped, a reason to “not participate with everyone.”

He breathed a sigh of relief and touched his pocket.

He felt nothing.

He simply turned his pockets inside out.

Crap, he forgot his lighter in the booth.

Brother Xu was a bit discouraged, and a gust of wind suddenly caused him to get goosebumps. He didn’t know why he suddenly had goosebumps, maybe it was embarrassment, or maybe he was a little disheartened.

Fortunately, everyone seemed to be focused on the late-night snack, and no one noticed him.

“Brother Bai, can you send me the link to the dried flower store later?” Qi Guang said, “Several people asked me for the link today.”

“Okay,” Bai Shu said, lowering his head, touching his pocket thoughtfully.

Qi Guang glanced at him, “There’s no rush.”

Bai Shu paused, then smiled and put his phone on the table.

“The bar has been relying on you alone during this period, you’ve lost weight, eat more!” Qi Guang said, passing him several skewers of meat.

“You and Xiaoyun have been busy too.” Bai Shu took the skewers. “By the way, didn’t you call Xiaoyun over?”

“Forget about her, I just saw Lu Yueyang coming.” Qi Guang shrugged.

“Lu…” Ye Xing raised his head in shock, his mouth stumbling, unable to speak for a long while, before changing his words, “Are you talking about our class teacher?”

Qi Guang looked calm, “Yeah, she occasionally comes to see my sister’s performance. Usually, if she’s there, my sister basically ignores us.”

“What the hell?” Li Ke, on the side, couldn’t help himself, “For a moment, I don’t know whether to be surprised that you’re hanging out with your class teacher or that your class teacher is so young! You know, the high school teachers at our school are all boring old men and women, the kind that look like they could retire at any moment!”

“Heh,” Qi Guang curled the corner of his lips, “Maybe you should feel sorry for me that I have a sister who has a good relationship with our class teacher.”

“Please! The least deserving of sympathy here are you and Ye Xing!” Li Ke laughed, “Good lord, it’s like I’m eating dog food every day!”

Ye Xing laughed as well, grabbing Qi Guang’s hand under the table and rubbing it.

“So, you chose to come back today, is it for the festival?” Brother Xu, who had been silent for a while, suddenly slapped the table, “No wonder Qi Guang kept emphasizing that today is Qixi, he’s more enthusiastic than for the New Year.”

“Pah!” Qi Guang looked at him, “I didn’t even know he was coming back today until I saw him.”

Then, he pulled his hand out and patted Ye Xing’s hand twice, “I’ll deal with you later for skipping class!”

The atmosphere at the table was jovial. Bai Shu, after listening to them chat for a few moments, couldn’t really focus anymore. He silently took out a lighter and put it on the table, then stood up and walked into the store, “I’ll get some wine.”

“I’ll help you.” Li Ke immediately stood up.

When they came out with the wine, Qi Guang and Ye Xing were chatting happily, as if the rest of the world didn’t exist. Brother Xu was off to the side, smoking alone, looking thoughtful, the two groups giving off completely different auras.

Looking at the cigarette butts at his feet, which were no longer glowing, it must have been his second cigarette.

Li Ke put the wine on the table and couldn’t help but take a few more glances at him. He didn’t manage to look away until Brother Xu’s gaze met his.

“Hmm?” Brother Xu thought he wanted a cigarette, so he picked up the pack on the table, opened it with his index finger, and offered it to him.

Li Ke then realized what was happening and waved his hand awkwardly, “Give it to Brother Bai!”

He wasn’t addicted to cigarettes, but he didn’t mind them either. Usually, when others offered him one, he would accept, but this time, he had almost instinctively refused.

It must be because he was too embarrassed.

“He doesn’t smoke.” Brother Xu put the cigarettes back on the table.

Li Ke was stunned.

Bai Shu didn’t smoke?

He looked again at the lighter on the table; this thing seemed to have some kind of magic that held his gaze captive.

He thought that since Bai Shu and Brother Xu hadn’t spoken the entire time, and even avoided each other’s eyes, that they didn’t have a good relationship. But now it seemed that there was something he didn’t know.

And if he wasn’t mistaken, he should know what that something was.

Indeed, Brother Xu and Bai Shu seemed separated by a galaxy. Even though the table was so crowded, neither of them had touched each other.

Brother Xu faced Qi Guang’s direction, drinking and smoking, treating himself like garbage, and finally decided that beer was too filling and grabbed a few bottles of baijiu to drink with Qi Guang.

Ye Xing, as usual, drank Coke all night, successfully becoming the only person who remained sober from beginning to end.

It turned out that being sober today was necessary. Bai Shu, who had never gotten drunk, was either being pushed by Li Ke or drinking a lot by himself. At some point he had passed out on the table.

Li Ke was also slumped over next to him.

To be honest, Ye Xing had always seen him as a “nightclub prince,” so him passing out so early was illogical. He suspected that Li Ke wasn’t drunk but just tired from driving during the day.

Looking at the situation, Ye Xing knew that no one at this table would be able to go home on their own two feet tonight.

The first Valentine’s Day that he had planned so well with Qi Guang, all the romantic scenes of a long-awaited reunion, had all died in this late-night street meal with everyone harboring their own thoughts.

He sighed, wondering if there were any drivers available. But even if there were, Li Ke’s car didn’t seem to be able to carry so many people.

Forget it, they’d take a taxi. With that thought, he raised his head with some doubt to check if taxis even existed on this street, when he noticed a row of tricycles waiting for customers at the entrance.

Ah, well, that’ll do.

The people in the store gradually left. After saying goodbye to the bartender and asking them to close the store, Ye Xing returned to the entrance to see two women standing with their arms crossed, glaring at the group of drunkards.

It was Qi Guang’s dear sister and his respected class teacher.

Two living people showing up at this time was a surprise.

It’s just that one of them was his class teacher, so he didn’t know if he should still be happy…

“Need help?” Lu Yueyang said.

Ye Xing was stunned. He had thought that as his class teacher, she would at least ask him a few questions or make a show of lecturing him, but he never expected her to skip the formalities, her tone so calm that it was like they had just eaten together yesterday.

Seeing that he didn’t respond, Lu Yueyang spoke again, “I drove, I can take two or three people home.”

“Oh, okay,” Ye Xing finally reacted. He looked around at the people at the table and tapped Brother Xu and Bai Shu on the head, “You take these two, and I’ll take care of the rest.”

Fortunately, Shuai Xiaoyun knew Brother Xu and Bai Shu’s addresses, and letting Lu Yueyang take them home saved Ye Xing a lot of trouble. As for the remaining Qi Guang and Li Ke…

It was mainly this Li Ke.

The original plan was for Li Ke to stay at his house, and for him to stay at Qi Guang’s. Who knew that because he was in a hurry to come to the bar to see his boyfriend, that guy wouldn’t worry about where to sleep and would drink himself silly.

Now, his luggage was in the car, and the man was drunk in the store.

It seemed that other than temporarily putting this burden on the sofa in Qi Guang’s house, there wasn’t a better option.

Fortunately, Qi Guang wasn’t that drunk. Even though he was completely out of it and couldn’t even speak properly, he could still walk independently, going up the stairs like he was sleepwalking. As for Li Ke, he was probably asleep even in his dreams. When Ye Xing was helping him walk, he had the illusion that he was processing a crime scene.

After returning to Qi Guang’s house, Ye Xing placed Li Ke on the sofa, letting out a sigh of relief like he’d completed a major task, and then told Qi Guang to go shower.

He was feeling for the first time how valuable it was for someone to have good drinking habits. Even though this guy was confused, he didn’t cry or make a fuss and was very obedient, like an emotionless puppet. He would go shower when told to, take his clothes off, and turn on the shower, not even needing any help.

Although he really did want to help.

After showering, he obediently laid down on the bed, and without saying anything, immediately closed his eyes. He must have been extremely tired.

Ye Xing watched him, as docile as a rabbit, and leaned in to kiss the tip of his nose.

Qi Guang’s thick eyelashes trembled slightly, his brows furrowing slightly.

Was he not sleeping well?

Ye Xing couldn’t help but frown as well.

Well, he did drink so much beer and baijiu, his stomach probably wasn’t comfortable.

“I’ll go get you some milk.” Ye Xing gently patted his face.

Qi Guang immediately grabbed his hand, mumbling with his eyes closed, “Don’t go.”

“I’m not going, I’m going to get you something…” Ye Xing was afraid that his mind was too confused to understand, so he changed his words, “Something to help you sleep, I can see that you’re a little uncomfortable now.”

Qi Guang suddenly reached out to block the bedside table, “I don’t need it.”

“What?” Ye Xing pushed his hand aside, but it quickly came back to block again.

“Don’t need it.” Qi Guang repeated, still with his eyes closed, looking like he was talking in his sleep.

“Okay, okay, then you sleep.” Ye Xing reassured him.

As if there was some big secret in the bedside table, Qi Guang was holding onto the edge of the table tightly, not moving.

Although Ye Xing had stayed here before, his boyfriend was a clean freak, so he had barely moved or touched Qi Guang’s things. Even the bedside table that was within reach, he had never opened it.

But today, Qi Guang’s condition seemed a bit unusual.

But he wasn’t angry or overthinking it, after all, he never thought that Qi Guang would hide anything from him.

Maybe it was just some 18+ things that he didn’t have time to put away, Ye Xing thought, as he went to the balcony to get Qi Guang’s clothes and shorts, and then headed to the bathroom.

The time on his phone had passed midnight.

Ye Xing sighed. He had been excited ever since he got into Li Ke’s car. When he finally met Qi Guang, before he could engage in the reunion he had imagined, he was pulled to the bathroom to accompany him to pee. Then it was everyone having a late-night meal and drinking. Now, even though the Qixi festival had already passed, they still hadn’t had a good chance to get intimate.

Annoying.

The more he thought about it, the angrier he got. He took a quick shower and put on Qi Guang’s clothes.

Qi Guang had already pulled his arm back and was lying back on the bed, his breathing much more stable than before. He seemed to be sleeping soundly. If he did something naughty to wake him up now, it would seem a little unethical.

Since that was the case, if his boyfriend wasn’t going to play with him, then it was also justifiable for him to observe his boyfriend’s little treasures!

His mind raced through all the items he could imagine. When he reached for the drawer, he felt excited and nervous, even a little bit of sweat on his palms.

When the things in the drawer came into view, Ye Xing was slightly shocked.

They weren’t any scandalous little treasures.

The disorder of this drawer was out of sync with the rest of Qi Guang’s room. A bunch of probably abandoned electronic product charging cables were tangled together, some film negatives, and even a few USB drives and portable hard drives…

Just some things that didn’t seem like they should be in a bedside table, nothing fun.

He was about to close the drawer, but he couldn’t resist flipping through it again. Suddenly, he felt a box at the bottom.

To be precise, there were several boxes that looked like medicine. He took out the one on top, and it was indeed medicine. The name of the medicine was in Chinese, but the combination of the characters didn’t make any sense.

Agomelatine tablets.

Ye Xing read it once, then flipped the box over to look at the words on the back, which were also in Chinese, but more understandable than the front.

Indications: Adult depression.

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