Chapter 13

Chapter 13

As soon as the hand on his shoulder loosened, Su Tinghe immediately backed away further and muttered defensively, "I told you not to shake me, but you insisted on doing it."

Shang Yizhi clenched his fists, his eyes burning with anger, and shouted, enunciating each syllable, "Su! Ting! He!"

Su Tinghe, feeling unfairly blamed, whispered, "It really isn't my fault."

The two were in a blind spot around a corner, with no one else around, but Shang Yizhi's shout was so loud that footsteps soon echoed nearby.

Shang Yizhi restrained the impulse to strangle Su Tinghe and, taking advantage of the fact that no one had arrived yet, wanted to flee the scene quickly.

However, the person coming happened to be from the opposite direction, and the two nearly collided. Shang Yizhi realized it was the teacher and classmates from the Konghou class they had just attended.

Everyone stood frozen, their eyes wide with shock, and an awkward silence hung in the air.

Shang Yizhi was burning with shame and fury, his face turning red, then green, then white, before he finally covered his face and ran away.

Everyone felt extremely awkward, offered a few words of concern to Su Tinghe, and then left separately.

Su Tinghe headed to a nearby restroom to rinse his mouth. Upon entering, he found Shang Yizhi was also there.

Although Shang Yizhi had already washed off the mess with water, he still looked quite disheveled. When Su Tinghe entered, Shang Yizhi was angrily scrubbing at the stains with tissues.

Seeing Su Tinghe come in, Shang Yizhi immediately shot him a look as if it were obvious and shouted, "Get out!"

Su Tinghe felt unfairly blamed and whispered, "It was you who insisted on shaking me..."

"You..." Shang Yizhi's anger surged as he glared at Su Tinghe and pointed at him, "Go buy me a set of clothes."

"Me?" Su Tinghe pointed at himself, unsure.

Still, Shang Yizhi's messy state was his doing. Su Tinghe thought for a moment and said, "Alright, wait a moment."

Turning around and exiting the restroom, Su Tinghe paced around the academy, at a loss—where should he go to buy clothes?

Recognizing a familiar face, Su Tinghe decided to ask him for help. It was the calligraphy teacher from the morning. After hearing the story, the calligraphy teacher told Su Tinghe that the mall was quite a distance away, but he happened to have an extra jacket that could be used as an emergency solution.

Embarrassed, Su Tinghe followed the calligraphy teacher to retrieve the jacket. Along the way, they chatted a bit, and Su Tinghe learned that the calligraphy teacher's name was Bai Hua.

Su Tinghe guessed, "It seems your father must have really liked birch trees."

"No," Bai Hua's face showed a hint of sadness, "My adoptive father found me under a birch tree. Coincidentally, he also had the surname Bai, and felt it was fate, so he gave me this name."

"I'm sorry," Su Tinghe immediately apologized, not realizing he had touched a sore spot.

"It's okay, it's all in the past," Bai Hua smiled, the sadness fading from his face.

When they reached Bai Hua's office, Bai Hua gave Su Tinghe the jacket. Su Tinghe insisted on adding Bai Hua on WeChat to pay him back.

Bai Hua refused the payment but agreed to add Su Tinghe as a friend.

As soon as they became friends, Bai Hua couldn't help but laugh when he saw Su Tinghe's profile picture, "That's Shang Huoyong next to you, isn't it? You two look like a perfect match."

"Yes," Su Tinghe zoomed in on the profile picture and proudly showed it to Bai Hua, "This is a photo from our wedding certificate."

Bai Hua leaned in for a closer look at the photo and sighed, "That's really nice." Then he reminded Su Tinghe, "You better hurry and bring the clothes to Shang Yizhi. He's probably getting antsy."

It was only then that Su Tinghe remembered Shang Yizhi was still waiting for him. After saying goodbye to Bai Hua, he went back to find Shang Yizhi.

Su Tinghe went back to the restroom and gave the jacket to Shang Yizhi, who frowned, thinking Su Tinghe was messing with him on purpose. But when Su Tinghe explained it was Bai Hua's jacket, Shang Yizhi took it with a smile.

When Shang Yizhi started taking off his dirty clothes, Su Tinghe suddenly went "Ah!" and turned away, closing his eyes.

Shang Yizhi was confused, checking himself in the mirror but not seeing anything weird.

Su Tinghe, though, was super embarrassed, nervously playing with his fingers. This world had a lot going for it, but it was way too open for his taste. He couldn't handle seeing another guy's bare chest, except for Shang Huoyong's.

Su Tinghe turned his back and said, "I gotta get back to class. Take your time changing."

After Su Tinghe left, Shang Yizhi gave himself a good sniff but didn't smell anything bad. That jerk Su Tinghe had the nerve to look down on him, even though Su Tinghe was the one who puked on him. At that thought, Shang Yizhi's face turned sour.

Back in the konghou music room, the teacher saw only Su Tinghe and asked where the other guy was.

Su Tinghe paused and then said, "He probably won't be back for a while."

Turns out, Su Tinghe was right. Shang Yizhi didn't come back all afternoon.

After class, Su Tinghe headed to the parking lot to go home. He expected the driver, but when he opened the car door, he was surprised to see Shang Huoyong in the back.

Su Tinghe lit up, leaning in and saying, "You're done with work already?"

Shang Huoyong, leaning back with his hand on his forehead, said flatly, "Is that a good thing or bad?"

"Of course it's good!" Su Tinghe said right away. "It'd be even better if you could pick me up every day."

Shang Huoyong sat up and said, "I'm too busy. Don't count on it."

Su Tinghe wasn't too bothered. "I get it, making money's tough."

Su Tinghe thought back to his previous life, when his father had been away on business for over half a year at one point.

People often said, "Merchants value profit over separation," but that wasn't entirely true. Still, his mother had never wanted him to marry a merchant, fearing he would suffer the pain of separation.

The thought of being apart from Shang Huoyong made Su Tinghe sad, and he asked, "Will you have to work far away and not come home for a while?"

Although Shang Huoyong didn't expect Su Tinghe to truly care for him, the fact that Su Tinghe had just seen Shang Yizhi and was now hoping he wouldn't come home reminded Shang Huoyong of the betrayal he had suffered from Su Tinghe in their past life.

Shang Huoyong's tone got sharp. "Relax, I'm not going anywhere for work soon."

"Great!" Su Tinghe's mood lifted, and he asked, "Maybe next time... could I come with you on your work trips?"

Shang Huoyong said coolly, "We'll see."

Su Tinghe pouted, not at all pleased with Shang Huoyong's answer.

The car stopped at a red light, and outside the window was a bakery that looked delicious.

"I'm so hungry," Su Tinghe said, rubbing his empty stomach.

Shang Huoyong overheard Su Tinghe's muttering and, recalling that Su Tinghe had eaten lunch with Shang Yizhi, couldn't help but ask stiffly, "Didn't you eat enough at lunch?"

Su Tinghe squirmed. "I did, but I threw up afterward."

"Threw up?" The surveillance team hadn't informed Shang Huoyong about this.

"It really wasn't my fault," Su Tinghe licked his lips, explained guiltily, "I bumped into your brother Shang Yizhi at the academy today, and he treated me to a meal. We had sashimi, and it didn't sit well with me, so I accidentally vomited all over him."

Since Shang Yizhi was Shang Huoyong's cousin, Su Tinghe, mindful of etiquette, asked, "Should I send him something to apologize?"

Thinking of the amusing scene of Shang Yizhi getting vomited on by Su Tinghe, Shang Huoyong's mouth twitched involuntarily, "What do you want to send?"

Su Tinghe was troubled and wanted Shang Huoyong to make the decision, "I don't know what to send, can you help me think of something?"

Shang Huoyong looked at Su Tinghe in shock, thinking that Su Tinghe had quite the nerve to ask him for advice on what to send to the man who had cuckolded him in a past life.

Shang Huoyong gritted his teeth, "I have no ideas, send whatever you like."

"Ah... forget it, let's talk about it later." This matter wasn't that important, and there were more pressing issues at hand. Su Tinghe was really hungry.

The red light had been on for a long time, and they hadn't passed the intersection yet. Su Tinghe pointed to the bakery outside the car window and said, "I want to get some of that."

Considering that Su Tinghe had vomited all over Shang Yizhi today, making him look bad, Shang Huoyong graciously told the driver to find a place to park and go buy bread for Su Tinghe, but Su Tinghe wanted to go down and buy it himself.

When he returned to the car, along with Su Tinghe came not just the aroma of butter and milk but also a strong smell of seasoning.

Shang Huoyong looked up and saw that Su Tinghe was holding two starch sausages in his hand, his brow furrowed.

Su Tinghe handed one of the starch sausages to Shang Huoyong, who frowned even more deeply, asking, "What's this?"

Su Tinghe thought Shang Huoyong didn't recognize what he was holding and enthusiastically promoted, "The seller said this is a starch sausage, it smells great, want to give it a try?"

"No," Shang Huoyong said, "I don't eat junk food."

Su Tinghe took a bite, "But it's really tasty."

Shang Huoyong: "So you bought two."

Su Tinghe, with his mouth full, mumbled indistinctly, "No," after swallowing, he said, "Because one costs six yuan, two cost ten yuan, buying two is a better deal."

"You're quite clever," Shang Huoyong opened the car window to air out the smell, "Next time, don't eat such strong-flavored things in the car."

Su Tinghe quickly used his other hand to catch any falling seasoning crumbs from the starch sausage.

The corner of Shang Huoyong's eye caught sight of Su Tinghe, and the corner of his mouth twitched, both amused and annoyed.

After finishing the starch sausage, Su Tinghe tidied up the mess, turned his face to the window, and opened his mouth to exhale outside.

Seeing this, Shang Huoyong immediately reached out and pulled Su Tinghe back, scolding angrily, "Don't you know you're not supposed to stick your head out of the car window?"

Shang Huoyong's reaction was so intense that Su Tinghe got a bit scared, blinking his frightened eyes at Shang Huoyong.

Shang Huoyong sighed, "Forget it, if you want to eat, go ahead and eat in the car."

Shang Huoyong didn't want to look at Su Tinghe anymore, turned his face to the driver in front and said, "Old Ding, make sure to give the car a thorough cleaning tomorrow."

Su Tinghe, noticing Shang Huoyong's expression, was quite puzzled, pulled out his phone and searched "why you can't stick your head out of the car window."

After a while, Shang Huoyong felt his clothes being tugged, Su Tinghe whispered, "I didn't stick my head out, I just wanted to breathe outside, don't be mad."

Shang Huoyong's face was tense, "I'm not angry." What he was angry about was his subconscious worry for Su Tinghe's actions.

Su Tinghe's hand slid from Shang Huoyong's clothes to his thigh, writing with his fingers on Shang Huoyong's leg, "I'm sorry, I messed up."

Shang Huoyong felt a tickle on his leg, and after Su Tinghe finished writing, he held Su Tinghe's hand, his tense face relaxing considerably, "I'm not angry."

Su Tinghe held the bread up to Shang Huoyong, tilting his head to look at him, "So, do you want some bread?"

Shang Huoyong took a bite, and Su Tinghe also took a bite from where Shang Huoyong had bitten, commenting, "It's pretty good."

Shang Huoyong looked at the missing bite on the bread, coughed uncomfortably, and his Adam's apple bobbed.