Chapter 20: Hidden Pain

Chapter 20 Hidden Pain

When Xie Yu landed, it was already dark.

Xie Yuanshan had said he wouldn’t bother with him, and he truly didn’t. He only gave him a business card for the company’s branch office in City C, leaving everything up to him.

Xie Yu casually tossed the business card into the trash and turned to contact Xu Qingshan: “Uncle, I’ve landed.”

Xu Qingshan replied immediately: “Hmm, I’ve already asked a classmate to pick you up.”

Back then, Xie Yuanshan had shipped Xie Yu off to this unfamiliar place, hoping he’d come crawling back, preferably in tears, so he could generously forgive his young and ignorant son, acting out a touching father-son moment.

But coincidentally, City C was where Xu Qingshan had studied for his Ph.D., and many of his classmates had stayed there. Xu Qingshan was quite attentive to his little nephew and had arranged everything in advance. Right as Xie Yu stepped out of the airport, he spotted his uncle’s classmate.

The person guided him through the formalities and introduced him to a rental agency. Xie Yu picked a small apartment by the sea, a five-minute walk to the beach. He swiftly paid the rent and moved in.

After everything was done, he hesitated, phone in hand.

In the original story, Young Master Xie had been forced abroad by Xie Yuanshan and, feeling humiliated, had blocked Shen Ci’s number after calling him.

This was the final plot point.

Xie Yu paused, grabbed a scrap of paper, and carefully jotted down the number.

He then clicked to block the number, his finger lingering over the screen before finally pressing down. He then saved the number in his memo.

When it came to the note field, he was a bit stumped. The original owner had saved it as “Shen Ci,” but according to the plot, that name shouldn’t be in his phone. Xie Yu typed out: “Porcelain.”

He paused, then changed it to: “Mr. Porcelain.”

Back then, when they’d chosen the safe word, it was a coincidence. Xie Yu had just seen porcelain in a shop window, but it felt more and more appropriate over time.

Shen Ci seemed gentle and fragile, but he had a tough core. If you broke him, the shards would surely cut deep. But if you handled him with care, you could feel his smooth, porcelain-like texture.

After doing all this, Xie Yu quickly put away his phone and checked the next semester’s schedule.

Xie Yuanshan had somehow gotten him into the economics department of a top university in City C, declaring that if he didn’t graduate, he shouldn’t bother coming back.

The university was world-renowned, while the original owner was a true slacker who never studied. The coursework was intense and stressful, and despite his efforts, he still didn’t graduate in five years.

The system popped up, curiously glancing at the screen: “Why are you looking at the schedule? Are you really going to study?”

Xie Yu: “Since I’m here.”

The system: “…Just to be clear, I won’t help you cheat by connecting to the internet during exams.”

Xie Yu: “I don’t need your help.”

Though he’d barely studied in high school due to depression, now that he had the chance, he figured he might as well give it a shot.

It was already winter, and the entire City C was bleak and desolate. A heavy snow fell at night, and the strong wind knocked over a few pine trees on the street. Xie Yu's life became a routine of going to school and then returning home to sleep. When he had holidays, he would pack up and travel.

Having lived as a rich second-generation for half a year, he had forgotten his previous cooking skills. Now, in a foreign country, he couldn’t get used to the local flavors and had no choice but to pick it up again. He started by experimenting with chicken rice in his apartment, making it quite decently, and later unlocked recipes like cola chicken wings and braised chicken breast.

As the Spring Festival approached, Xie Yu invited a few classmates over for dinner. He cooked a big pot of ingredients with hotpot base. Since it was hard to find vermicelli here, he threw pasta into the pot, eating it messily but happily.

Since he didn’t put on airs and his spending level was average, his classmates didn’t realize he was a rich second-generation, thinking he was genuinely here to study. They had a good time together, quite fulfilling.

After a few rounds of drinks, the classmates dispersed. Two couples went to the square to watch the fireworks, and a few others hurried home to call their families. Xie Yu stayed alone in the living room, cleaning up the mess of cups and plates.

He wasn’t sure who to call.

He loaded the pot and bowls into the dishwasher, wiped down the table, then opened a can of beer and sat on the single sofa, staring out the window.

Xie Yu didn't turn on the lights, leaving the room pitch dark. Someone was setting off fireworks in the square not far away, with red, gold, silver, and blue flames exploding in the sky one after another, their light dancing in his eyes.

Back in Jiangcheng, even though the original character was a pain, there were frequent plot points—kicking back with He Zhiyuan and Zhou Yang, occasionally pulling Shen Ci close to mess with him. Despite the annoyances, Xie Yu wasn’t bored.

But now, even that group of buddies had gone quiet.

They were just pals for drinks, and now that they couldn’t get together, so, no one talked.

Today, Zhou Yang popped up in the group, dropping a “Happy holidays,” then vanishing again.

The system poked him, “You know you’re acting like a lonely old man, right?”

“Like in those spy dramas, where the retired agent settles into a quiet life, marries, has kids, but then his wife and child fall seriously ill and die one after another, and he goes back to the agency to save the day.”

Xie Yu said dryly, “Cut back on the TV.”

Now that there’s no plot to follow, Xie Yu attended classes during the day, and the system had nothing to do, stockpiling tons of shows.

“You know what’s supposed to happen next, right? You’ll bump into some stunning girl who’ll sweep you off your feet. She’ll inevitably have an extraordinary identity, pulling you into some mess, but you won’t have time to care—you’ll hug, kiss…”

Xie Yu found it slightly amusing and interrupted, “You know who I’ve hugged the most?”

The system hesitated, “Your family?”

Xie Yu shook his head, “Actually, it’s Shen Ci… You might not believe it, but besides him, I’m not big on hugging.”

Because of his family, he wasn’t close to many people, and the number of times he had hugged someone could be counted on one hand. Later, when he went to school, he was a problem child, and classmates usually avoided him.

Xie Yu drank his beer, “Do you remember the night I first arrived? I couldn’t sleep all night.”

That day, due to the plot, he and Shen Ci lay on the same bed, less than twenty centimeters apart, their breathing clearly audible. He wasn’t used to such closeness, like a solitary animal suddenly having its territory invaded, making his whole body tense.

At that time, he and Shen Ci had different thoughts but both pretended to sleep, spending the night peacefully.

The system murmured, “What about all those times after that?”

All those days and nights—were they all pretending to sleep?

Xie Yu replied, “No, later, due to the plot requirements, I got used to hugging.”

Just like Shen Ci had gotten used to Xie Yu’s scent, rolling into his arms after falling asleep, snuggling close to him, Xie Yu had also gotten used to Shen Ci’s scent, able to reach out at any time and pull him over like a pillow, holding him close.

The forced arrangements of the plot had led to one of the few close embraces in Xie Yu’s life.

He slightly rubbed his fingers, feeling a bit nostalgic for that warmth.

The system muttered, “…This is tricky. When you return to the country, your positions will be reversed, and you’ll be waiting to hug him in a mental hospital.”

After saying that, it watched the fireworks with Xie Yu, colorful balls of fire whooshed into the sky, only to fall silent within seconds, the next one rising, repeating the cycle until the last one was set off, and the sky fell completely silent.

In the distance, the sound of a bell rang out; it was already the early hours of the morning.

The beer was empty, Xie Yu got up to wash up. The system mysteriously loaded a bunch of data, then suddenly asked, “Host, do you want to see what Shen Ci is doing?”

Xie Yu spat out toothpaste foam, “Don’t invade his privacy.”

The system said, "No, it's all public data from school forums and similar sources."

Xie Yu stayed quiet for a while, then tossed the aluminum can into the trash bin with a sharp *dong*. "Let me see."

"Yeah, their team just wrapped up a big project, and their advisor got promoted to a distinguished young scholar, so he moved to a new office building. If you ever go looking for him again, you can’t just head straight to the lab building."

"I wasn’t planning to go looking for him anyway. What else?"

"His grandmother’s condition took a turn recently, but luckily, the Qingshan Fund stepped in, and she’s stable now."

Xie Yu paused. "Anything else?"

"You guessed it. He Zhiyuan wanted to stir up trouble, but every time he got to Jiangcheng, Zhou Yang dragged him away."

The system hesitated. "That’s all I could dig up."

"Mm," Xie Yu commented. "That’s good."

*

Ten thousand kilometers away, Shen Ci wasn’t doing so hot.

He’d been pulling all-nighters for months, splitting his time between the hospital and the lab, as if trying to fill every free moment.

Han Yunyun was ready to leave. She should’ve been gone by now, but she stayed to pack since the office was moving tomorrow.

She stuffed the trinkets on her desk into her suitcase and glanced at her senior across the room. "Senior Shen, you’re not leaving yet?"

Shen Ci replied flatly, tapping his phone screen with a finger. "Not yet, I’ve still got work to do."

"But Senior, you’ve got bags under your eyes…" Han Yunyun muttered.

Shen Ci was kind of a big deal at University A. Forget his academic achievements—his cool, aloof vibe alone drew plenty of admirers. When Han Yunyun was worn out from experiments, she’d also catch herself staring at him—not for any reason, just because it was nice to look at.

But over the past six months, Shen Ci had clearly gone downhill. His eyelids were always a little heavy, hiding tired eyes, and his face had gotten paler. Han Yunyun looked at him cautiously. "Senior, you really need to go home and get some sleep."

Wasting a face like that on all-nighters is a crime!

Shen Ci replied flatly, tapping his phone screen with a finger. His eyes landed on a name in the chat, marked by a glaring red exclamation point.

Getting the expected result, he turned off the screen.

Shen Ci had started checking his phone during experiment breaks—a new habit. Before meeting Xie Yu, Shen Ci often didn’t bring his phone into the office, leaving it in the storage cabinet by the entrance. He used an old-fashioned phone, and all the apps on it were sluggish. His usage frequency was also like that of an old-fashioned person—he rarely opened it more than a few times a day. For him, the phone was just a pure communication tool.

But after they parted that day, he tried sending a message to Xie Yu. Xie Yu didn’t reply. Shen Ci checked his phone hundreds of times that night before realizing Xie Yu was on a plane. He timed the landing and received a bright red exclamation mark.

Later, it became a habit.

Every time he opened his wardrobe and saw the neatly folded clothes, every time he swiped his campus card and saw the balance on the screen, even every time he walked into the lab building and passed the ginkgo-lined avenue… he would open his phone. The red exclamation mark on the screen burned into him, filling the emptiness in his chest with a sharp, hidden pain.