Chapter 89

Chapter 89

Yuanting lay on the sofa to calm himself before finally pushing the person still sprawled over him off, then used all his strength to drag them to the bedroom and dump them on the bed.

He should have taken him straight to the bedroom when they first entered.

Lack of experience this time; he'd know better next time.

Yuanting, breathing heavily, felt all his earlier emotions dissipate after the ordeal.

He gulped down a glass of water and then took a shower, changing into his pajamas.

After coming out of the bathroom, Yuanting saw his phone light up. It was a message from Mo Yikai, asking if he had found out anything.

A thought flashed through Yuanting's mind, sensing something was off.

He had made a drink, the one supposed to get drunk didn’t, while the one who shouldn’t have gotten drunk was out cold…

And Mo Yikai had been so sure Cheng Nanyi would get drunk...

Yuanting thought back on the evening's events. If there was an error, it was in the drink Mo Yikai handed him, which he didn’t drink, but Cheng Nanyi did.

"Damn it," Yuanting cursed through gritted teeth. Mo Yikai was getting clever, daring to switch his drink.

Yuanting replied to Mo Yikai's message: Found out, he does have a girlfriend.

Mo Yikai’s voice call came through immediately, which Yuanting quickly disconnected.

Mo Yikai: ??? Who is his girlfriend?

Yuan Ting scoffed coldly, typing furiously: Do you want to know?

Mo Yikai: Nonsense.

Yuan Ting: I'm not telling you!!!

After saying this, he immediately put his phone on silent and ignored further messages.

Yuan Ting returned to the bedroom, where only the night light was on. He didn't get into bed but instead sat cross-legged on the floor next to Cheng Nanyi.

Resting his chin on his hands, he gazed at the sleeping figure and sighed softly.

"Why don’t you choose the easy way? Girls are nice, but you don’t like them. Instead, you prefer boys."

Yuan Ting reached out to gently touch Cheng Nanyi's furrowed brow in his sleep, whispering, "The future successor of the Cheng family... After all your efforts since childhood, to be judged for your sexual orientation... Grandfather would be furious."

"What were you thinking?"

If Cheng Nanyi had never spoken up, Yuan Ting could have pretended not to know, but what now?

Yuan Ting was deeply troubled, almost to the point of despair.

His heart felt torn between ice and fire – one side freezing cold, the other burning hot.

"Yuan Ting," Cheng Nanyi mumbled in his sleep, turning over and reaching out to find someone.

Yuan Ting leaned in, and Cheng Nanyi found him, pinching his earlobe and then draping his hand over his neck before falling back asleep.

Cheng Nanyi's face was so close. Yuan Ting leaned in and gently kissed his lips.

He couldn’t help but smile warmly.

In the past, he used to lie beside Cheng Nanyi, their hands linked, so close yet worlds apart, daring to do nothing but dream of turning over to kiss him. But in those dreams, they would always end with Cheng Nanyi opening his eyes and glaring at him with a killer gaze.

Every time, he would wake up startled, breaking into a cold sweat.

Yuan Ting leaned in and kissed him again.

Regardless of whether Cheng Nanyi would remember it upon waking, as long as the night hadn't ended, each stolen kiss counted.

Yuan Ting kissed him again, pleased.

*

When Cheng Nanyi awoke, the room was dark due to the drawn curtains, making it difficult to discern the time.

His head ached slightly, and his mind was foggy.

Cheng Nanyi first looked beside him; no one was there, and even the bedsheet was neatly arranged.

Frowning, Cheng Nanyi reached for his phone and saw it was already 10:30 in the morning.

"Yuan Ting..." Cheng Nanyi called out, his voice somewhat hoarse.

There was no response.

Cheng Nanyi massaged his temples, memories of the previous night gradually returning.

At the bar, Yuan Ting had specifically prepared a drink for Mo Yikai, which was later switched to Yuan Ting.

He had drunk it himself, replacing Yuan Ting, to prevent any further commotion between them.

The kid and Mo Yikai were too familiar with each other, often causing a ruckus without restraint, almost as if they were about to embrace each other.

He knew he shouldn't feel this way, but something inside him was uncomfortably stirred.

Later, he returned home and then felt dizzy…

Cheng Nanyi abruptly sat up in bed, realizing he had kissed Yuan Ting.

It wasn’t a dream; it was real.

Cheng Nanyi threw off the covers, got out of bed, and hurriedly opened the room door to step out.

"Yuan Ting?"

The house wasn’t big; he could see everything at a glance, but no one was there.

Yuan Ting was just a freshman and usually lived on campus, coming over only on Saturdays and Sundays. He didn’t have many belongings, often using Cheng Nanyi’s things, so there were hardly any of Yuan Ting's possessions in the rental house.

Cheng Nanyi stood in the living room, which seemed suddenly empty despite nothing missing, enveloped in overwhelming panic.

He had told himself to take it slow, not to scare Yuan Ting, but one drink might have undone everything.

Cheng Nanyi picked up his phone to call Yuan Ting.

"I'm sorry, the number you have dialed is switched off..."

Yuan Ting, seemingly carefree, was actually meticulous in some aspects, like never letting his phone run out of battery and even checking Cheng Nanyi’s phone battery before leaving to charge it if needed. His phone couldn’t possibly be dead.

Cheng Nanyi opened the door and walked outside.

Yuan Ting must have been scared off by him and was now avoiding him.

Cheng Nanyi went downstairs to the school dormitory to look for him.

The person who opened the door, just woken up with messy hair, was Yuan Ting's roommate, who had met Cheng Nanyi during meals. He looked surprised, "Yuan Ting's brother?"

"Has Yuan Ting come back?" Cheng Nanyi asked with a hoarse voice.

"No, he didn't come back all night. Wasn't he with you? He mentioned you rented a place outside..."

"Thanks." Before his roommate could finish, Cheng Nanyi had already turned and walked away.

Feeling a burning sensation in his stomach, Cheng Nanyi sat down on a bench by the road, clutching his abdomen.

Where could Yuan Ting have gone?

Today is Saturday, no classes. He might not be on campus.

In fact, he didn’t need to analyze where Yuan Ting might be, because if Yuan Ting really wanted to avoid him, it would be too easy to do so.

He had thought countless times about how Yuan Ting would react upon finding out, and about Yuan Ting avoiding him, but he never expected this day to come so soon.

What if Yuan Ting now loathed him? What should he do then?

As a child, Yuan Ting could leave so decisively; now, he might be even more resolute.

He had thought that Yuan Ting might have some other feelings for him, but he didn't expect him to be so decisive, even turning off his phone.

Perhaps all that had happened before was just an illusion.

Cheng Nanyi dialed Yuenting's cell phone again, only to find it still switched off.

In the mid-October sun, which was still quite strong, Cheng Nanyi sat on a bench, calling Yuenting every fifteen minutes.

Off, off, off — endlessly off.

……

"It's all your fault, all your fault. I'm so done with you. Are you a walking disaster or what?"

A familiar voice; Cheng Nanyi slowly turned his head to see two people walking towards him from the end of the road.

Yuenting, tilting his head and pointing at Mo Yikai beside him, said, "Let's not see each other for at least three months from now, otherwise, I'll want to hit you every time I see you."

"How is this my fault?" Mo Yikai, touching the bruise on his cheekbone, complained, "A girl asked me for my WeChat, how is that my problem?"

"Pfft, with that face of yours, someone asked for your WeChat? That girl must have forgotten her contact lenses this morning."

"You little brat, that's personal attack, you know. You've crossed the line; I'm gonna have to beat you up."

"Come at me, then." Yuenting kept his head tilted. "If it wasn't for me, you'd have been beaten to death today. You owe me a new phone."

"Fine, fine, I'll pay, I'll pay... Hey, Cheng Nanyi, what are you doing here?"

Hearing this, Yuenting struggled to turn his twisted head, and upon seeing Cheng Nanyi, he lunged over, wailing, "Bro, I've had such a tough time, please get rid of this idiot, I'm so done with him."

"...Where did you go?" Cheng Nanyi, feeling Yuenting's warmth, was still trying to process everything.

The person who had left had come back on their own?

"Where did I go?" Yuenting sat down next to him, pointing at Mo Yikai and gritting his teeth, "I ran into this idiot first thing in the morning."

The idiot, his face bruised and swollen, stood to one side, coughing lightly, not daring to retort.

Yuenting began to recount his tragic experiences of the day to Cheng Nanyi.

Yuenting had spent the previous night drooling over a beauty from his bedside and woke up early in the morning with a painful crick in his neck.

Cheng Nanyi was still asleep, so Yuenting thought of buying breakfast for him first, knowing he’d need something to eat after sobering up.

Just as Yuenting stepped out with his neck crooked, he received a call from Mo Yikai, inviting him to have breakfast together.

Why not? Since Cheng Nanyi was still asleep, and Mo Yikai’s hotel was just on the next street, they decided to meet at a breakfast place near the school.

With his head tilted, Yuenting arrived to see a pretty girl asking Mo Yikai for his WeChat.

It seemed simple enough to just add her on WeChat. But before they could, three guys appeared, one claiming the girl was his girlfriend and that he was there to catch her cheating.

Mo Yikai, confusedly accused of infidelity, lost his temper. What could have been a calm discussion turned into a heated argument and then a brawl.

Could Yuenting just stand by and watch Mo Yikai fight three-on-one?

Of course not, so he had no choice but to join in.

Have you ever seen someone fight with a crooked neck?

Yuenting hadn’t, because he was the one being watched.

In the end, the group was taken to the police station by the officers, and Yuenting’s phone got trampled and broken. After much ado, they were only just released.

Yuenting, resting his crooked head on Cheng Nanyi’s shoulder, huffed, “I'm telling you, you almost didn’t get to see me again. My neck was nearly snapped.”

"So..." Cheng Nanyi tilted his head to look at him, his voice unusually hoarse, "you didn't leave, and you didn't deliberately turn off your phone?"

"Where would I go? Why would I turn off my phone on purpose? Am I crazy?" Yuenting took out his smashed phone from his pocket and waved it at Mo Yikai. "When will you ever change that temper of yours? Just explain things clearly. You weren’t really cheating. Why get so worked up with him?"

"Hey, you little brat." Mo Yikai, having been scolded all the way, couldn't hold back anymore. "You think you’re any better? When someone mocked your crooked neck, you lashed out in an instant. If it weren't for your fueling the fire, we wouldn’t have ended up at the police station. Look at this…" Mo Yikai pointed at his face. "I got this defending you, or else your neck really would have been broken."

"Oh come on, you dare blame me?" Yuenting, neck still askew, was about to leap up in anger but was pulled back into Cheng Nanyi's embrace.

Yuenting didn't resist Cheng Nanyi's touch, and leaning over, he pushed Cheng Nanyi, "You should hit him for me. I was going to buy you breakfast this morning. If it weren’t for him, you would have had hot soy milk and dough fritters when you woke up."

"Hey…" Mo Yikai squinted. "Don’t try to make alliances against me. This isn’t my fault."

Cheng Nanyi rubbed his face, finally feeling a return to reality.

The kid did have a point. If not for Mo Yikai, he wouldn't have been sunbathing for four hours, imagining various schemes to bring Yuenting back and tie him up.

Cheng Nanyi stood up, staring at Mo Yikai.

Mo Yikai, feeling the danger in Cheng Nanyi’s eyes, involuntarily stepped back, "We’ve grown up together, you two can’t start ganging up on me..."

Cheng Nanyi took two steps forward, then suddenly clutched his stomach, doubling over.

"What's wrong?" Yuenting hurried to support him, only then noticing Cheng Nanyi's pale face.

Yuenting with his tilted head and Cheng Nanyi bending over with pain in his stomach strangely faced each other.

Cheng Nanyi, looking at Yuenting with a raspy voice said, "I couldn’t reach you on the phone, thought you had left."

Yuenting, reminded of the previous night’s events, couldn’t bear to look at him, coughing dryly, "Where would I go... Let’s not talk about that. What’s wrong with you, where does it hurt?"

"Haven't eaten since morning, my stomach hurts a lot," Cheng Nanyi said.

"Why didn't you eat?" Yuenting glared angrily at Mo Yikai. "It's all your fault."

"Blame me, blame me," sighed Mo Yikai. "Let's head to the hospital first. I'll get my face treated, the little guy can get his neck checked, and Cheng Nanyi needs his stomach looked at. What a mess this is..."

Author's Note:

Thanks to all the angels who voted for me or nourished me with nutrient solutions from 2023-10-03 20:09:05 to 2023-10-04 17:33:49~

Special thanks to the angels who sent landmines: Xiyen 1;

Thanks to the angels for the nutrient solutions: Xiyen 20 bottles; Shan You Fusu, Ji You Hehua 10 bottles; Mr. Mi, One Stick Fruit 3 bottles; Lin Wu Yu Today Full?, Qiao Gongzi, ⌒．Yi Nian Qingxin Jing゛, Ran Momomo 1 bottle;

Thank you all so much for your support. I will continue to work hard!