Chapter 75

**Chapter 75**

“What a rip-off. Even a mutt wouldn’t overcharge like this.”

“I’ll give you a few days to think about it,” Jiang Tiyan said, flashing a smirk. He downed the white wine in one gulp, then stood to pay the bill.

Qi Yanyu almost retorted that he wouldn’t need a day—or even a second.

But Jiang Tiyan had already walked off. Qi Yanyu dropped his eyes, wondering if his childhood friend was just messing with him.

As soon as Qi Yanyu got back to campus, Gu Jinglan called and waited for him at the gate.

It was five when they met. Gu Jinglan drove him straight to Kanbei East Station, bought him a ticket, and whisked him off to the beach town next door.

“No matches lined up?” Qi Yanyu asked.

“Aren’t you here for your boyfriend?” Gu Jinglan replied.

They boarded the high-speed train. The last-minute booking meant few seats were left, but Gu Jinglan managed to snag two side-by-side second-class seats.

Qi Yanyu covered his face with a book he’d brought, leaned back, and started zoning out.

Gu Jinglan kept replying to his WeChat group while taking him out. Noticing Qi Yanyu spacing out, Gu Jinglan lifted the book slightly, leaned in, and kissed him on the lips.

Qi Yanyu quickly sat up, pulled the book down, and glanced around. Nobody batted an eye.

“You’re out, aren’t you? Who cares if people see?”

Qi Yanyu had too many skeletons—worried some Jiang Tiyan fan might spot them and run to Qi Muyao with gossip.

“Let’s not make a scene,” Qi Yanyu mumbled, unable to explain clearly.

“So we’re affair-ing now, babe?” Gu Jinglan said half-jokingly, but his chest tightened like free-falling into the void—even though he knew Qi Yanyu might still have a “real” boyfriend out there.

“We *are* sneaking around, huh?” Gu Jinglan sat by the aisle, Qi Yanyu by the window.

His voice wasn’t loud, but the quiet cabin made every word carry—like dropping a bomb.

“…” Qi Yanyu lowered his voice to a whisper. If Gu Jinglan wanted to play, he’d play along. “Cut it out. Don’t act so shady.”

“Babe, what if your boyfriend finds out? Gonna get mad at me?” Gu Jinglan teased like it was real.

Qi Yanyu wondered—who was the third person here? Probably just another ghost from Gu Jinglan’s headcanon. His voice dropped even lower. He should’ve made Gu Jinglan bring a hat to hide his face completely. “Nope. My *so-called* ‘boyfriend’ is a total pushover.”

“Oh? Brother Yu’s playing the saint now? Lucky guy. Must be honored to join our little family.” Gu Jinglan watched Qi Yanyu hide behind the book again, paranoid someone might peek. Smirking, he reached to pull it away. Qi Yanyu covered his face with both hands, trying to disguise his voice: “You got me all wrong. I’m not a good guy.”

“Wanna rail me tonight, babe?” Gu Jinglan whispered against his ear, his gaze fixed on Qi Yanyu’s flushed cheeks peeking through the book. He leaned closer. “I wanna suck your…”

Qi Yanyu clawed at his own palm until it hurt. He knocked the book aside, sat up, and scanned the car like a fugitive checking for cops. Seeing passengers nearby, he turned back and glared at Gu Jinglan.

“Babe, no need to bite my head off,” Gu Jinglan pouted, nailing the victim tone.

Qi Yanyu didn’t answer. He grabbed Gu Jinglan’s hand before it could touch his face again, stopping him from kissing him and dropping more filth.

“Be serious. I’m taking you out to have fun, not to get laid.” Qi Yanyu tried to cool his burning face, mock-scolding in a faux-stern “babe” voice.

But Gu Jinglan’s hand slid down to his thigh, gripping it while eyeing his frame. “Babe, those legs are too slim. You’d tap out after round one in a place like that.”

"...Hmph." Qi Yanyu set the book down and unfolded the small table in front of the seat ahead, hoping to lose himself in the pages.

If they were alone, he would have let Gu Jinglan talk endlessly. But on this train, there were passengers in every direction—front, back, and to the side.

He pretended to read, hoping Gu Jinglan wouldn’t bother him.

But Gu Jinglan deliberately teased him again, murmuring in his ear, "Honey, why are you reading on a trip? Am I not more attractive than that book?"

"In books are golden houses and jade-like beauties… You wouldn't understand." Qi Yanyu adopted a patronizing tone, but as he turned the pages, Gu Jinglan took his hand, admiring his delicate, pale fingers. “Will you use these hands to touch me tonight, honey?”

Qi Yanyu sat up rigidly. “No.” Yet the flush on his face refused to subside.

At that moment, a high-speed rail attendant came by selling Tibetan yak milk candy—three packs for one hundred yuan. Seeing Qi Yanyu listening so intently, Gu Jinglan thought he must be curious about how good it tasted, especially when Qi Yanyu even stretched out his hand to get a sample from the attendant offering tastings.

Gu Jinglan figured Qi Yanyu probably didn’t ride high-speed rails often and wasn’t familiar with how such sales had become a trend on trains in recent years.

"Give me three packs," Gu Jinglan said. After watching Qi Yanyu actually chew the sample candy, he paid and then asked, "Good?"

Qi Yanyu rarely ate this kind of train-sold candy that felt like a pyramid scheme product. When Gu Jinglan asked him, he only nodded faintly. He couldn’t really tell if it was good or bad—he’d never tried anything like it before.

The three packs of different-flavored candies lay on Qi Yanyu’s tray table, each opened separately so he could taste them all.

Gu Jinglan lowered the armrest between their seats, making it easier to cuddle Qi Yanyu.

While Qi Yanyu sampled the candy, Gu Jinglan held him and checked his phone, opening it to reply to some messages.

This semester alone, he had participated in seven or eight competitions, so most of the WeChat notifications buzzing constantly or private messages were related to competitions or club activities.

Qi Yanyu watched him respond to others’ messages—Gu Jinglan typed a few words, terse and directive.

Qi Yanyu thought, if he weren’t Gu Jinglan’s boyfriend, he’d probably be met with the same aloofness. “Want to check my phone?” Gu Jinglan asked. Qi Yanyu didn’t answer, but Gu Jinglan still handed over his phone.

“…” Just like that? Qi Yanyu struggled to suppress a smile at the corner of his mouth, taking Gu Jinglan’s phone and looking through the first few chat records on WeChat. If the message was from a girl, he clicked into it, checking what they talked about.

After checking five or six female contacts, all conversations were purely about competitions or studies.

Sometimes people messaged him on WeChat and Gu Jinglan didn’t reply. “Why don’t you reply? So cold,” Qi Yanyu remarked, seeing many unanswered messages.

“Do I have that much time?” Most messages were either trivial matters, from strangers, or people seeking free help—Gu Jinglan couldn’t spare the time to deal with them. “I’d rather spend that time getting a room with my honey.”

“…” Of course, everything comes back to that. Qi Yanyu typed the name “Xia Yiyi” into the search bar.

Gu Jinglan watched him go through his WeChat messages. When Xia Yiyi’s profile appeared, Qi Yanyu mentally prepared himself before opening the conversation. He thought—if he saw something inappropriate, he’d check the timing. If it was before Gu Jinglan confessed to him, he’d let it go.

Even if it left him uneasy, it was better than fighting with Gu Jinglan.

Qi Yanyu held his breath and opened the chat history with Xia Yiyi, only to find it blank. He asked, “Why did you delete your chat records?”

He assumed they might have blocked each other or deleted contact, but when he clicked into Xia Yiyi’s Moments, her updates were still visible. That meant they were still friends.

Affecting nonchalance, Qi Yanyu said, “You two still have each other’s contacts?” but his eyes remained fixed on Xia Yiyi’s Moments, scanning anxiously for any posts visible only to Gu Jinglan. All he found were recent photos of herself and scenery.

“She has a boyfriend now, and so do I,” Gu Jinglan said, watching Qi Yanyu’s expression and giving him a small kiss. “She’s the student council secretary. It’s normal for us to stay connected on WeChat.”

“Normal…” Qi Yanyu echoed, though in his mind, it didn’t feel right.

He couldn’t help wondering—had Gu Jinglan taken him as second best after failing to win Xia Yiyi?

“Didn’t Xia Yiyi used to date a rich guy? Why isn’t she showing that off on her Moments anymore?” Qi Yanyu pored over every update, thinking that if Xia Yiyi were single now, Gu Jinglan would probably chase after her again.

"I'll ask her for you," Gu Jinglan said, grabbing Qi Yanyu's hand holding the phone like he was really going to text Xia Yiyi.

Qi Yanyu panicked and yelped, "Don't!"

He scrolled through Gu Jinglan's mobile games to see if he had any in-game couple tags, but found none. Next, Qi Yanyu eyed his shopping apps. "Can I look at your shopping apps?"

"Knock yourself out."

Qi Yanyu had always wondered: when Gu Jinglan bought Xia Yiyi that imported perfume, was he trying to woo her?

Opening the shopping app, he saw recent purchases were lab-grade adhesive sleeves, medical supplies, and a bunny-fox cop cosplay set. He checked the order date and saw it was placed after Gu Jinglan had confessed to him.

"You bought this..."

Gu Jinglan needled him, "A friend asked me to get it. He doesn’t have a shopping account."

But Qi Yanyu bought it hook, line, and sinker. "Oh... really?" He scrolled further down the purchase history but couldn’t find the perfume Gu Jinglan had bought for Xia Yiyi.

Maybe it was a WeChat gray-market buy. Qi Yanyu went back to WeChat to search resellers.

Gu Jinglan thought, *Why isn’t he asking more about the cosplay outfit?* This guy was such a trust-fund baby—how could he skip over such crucial details while checking up on him?

Qi Yanyu searched but only found a few resellers in Gu Jinglan’s contacts. However, there were no purchase records in their chat histories.

"What are you looking for?" Gu Jinglan lowered his voice, watching Qi Yanyu’s persistent search. "Are you checking if I bought condoms?"

"..." Qi Yanyu’s face turned lobster-red. He dodged, stammering, "Uh-huh, yeah, sure, right."

"If you want to know, you can just ask me," Gu Jinglan teased. "That kind of thing isn’t bought online—any corner store’s got ’em." He assumed Qi Yanyu was wondering if he’d prepared for their trip.

"Can I see your photo album?" Qi Yanyu asked again.

"One kiss, and it’s yours."

Despite saying that, Gu Jinglan leaned in and kissed Qi Yanyu’s cheek, watching as he opened the phone’s gallery.

Qi Yanyu actually wanted to check if Gu Jinglan had any photos with Xia Yiyi, but the album was ruthlessly curated. Recent photos were all related to experiments, classroom slides, and competitions.

Digging deeper, he found very few selfies. Then he spotted an old photo. Opening it, he was shocked—it was a picture of himself. "You took a photo of me without me knowing?"

Gu Jinglan looked—it was a shot of Qi Yanyu sleeping in class. He grinned, dead serious, "I was going to send it to the professor."

Qi Yanyu actually believed him. "Seriously? Did I offend you back then?"

With mock seriousness, Gu Jinglan replied, "Big time." He watched as Qi Yanyu’s face twisted in surprise and what he assumed was anger. "I was planning to post all your skipped classes and morning dorm naps on the confession wall—let the court of public opinion roast you."

"You... you’re all talk." Qi Yanyu took Gu Jinglan’s words at face value, genuinely thinking Gu Jinglan had disliked him before.

Though he said that, Qi Yanyu secretly felt pleased. Who would’ve thought that Gu Jinglan, who once seemed to despise him, was now sitting with him on a high-speed train to Haishi?

Gu Jinglan doubled down. "I should gather all your past absences, skipped classes, early departures, and sneaking out to smoke—"

"What would you do with that?"

Gu Jinglan replied leisurely, "Slap it on the confessions page. Title it: *No Cap, I’ve Been Thirsting Over My Rich Roommate Forever—Can I Use This to Blackmail Him into Sleeping With Me?*"

"…" Now Qi Yanyu understood—it clicked. Gu Jinglan had been yanking his chain this entire time. He even forgot to check when the photo was taken.

He tossed the phone back. Gu Jinglan asked, "Done already? We’ve got over an hour left on the train—plenty of time."

Qi Yanyu drew a blank on what else to snoop through. He had never been in a relationship before and didn’t know what else to investigate—Alipay’s Couple Sapling, flower deliveries on food apps, whether Gu Jinglan had ordered meals for other girls, rides/flights with girls, or private chats that might shock him.

"Next time," Qi Yanyu muttered.

Good—this time, he found nothing out of line. Nothing to nail him with.