Chapter 151

Chapter 151

◎ A Belated Explanation ◎

Meng Qi’s words left Ren Suiyi even more bewildered.

He furrowed his brows, crossed his arms, and tapped his right index finger absently on his left arm, as if struggling to untangle the logic behind Meng Qi’s statement.

But he failed.

After a moment’s thought, he chose to directly ask Meng Qi for an answer. “When did I ever say I liked Jiang Baixi? I don’t remember that.”

Tch, not only is he cheating, but he’s lying too.

Meng Qi curled his lips, grabbed a long, thin, tough blade of grass, then picked up the still-flopping big white silver carp. He threaded the grass through the gills, pulled it out from the mouth, tied a slipknot, and dangled it in front of Ren Suiyi. “You don’t gotta say it—you can show it. Anyone with eyes can tell how much you care about him.”

“Oh~ anyone with eyes can see that~” Ren Suiyi drawled, echoing Meng Qi. Then he raised an eyebrow and threw an unexpected question back at Meng Qi. “So I don’t care about you?”

That question stumped Meng Qi, since he had no clue if Ren Suiyi cared about book-Meng Qi. If he did, was it more or less than how much he cared about Jiang Baixi? But judging from the fate of book-Meng Qi, it was probably less, or maybe not at all.

But these were all just wild guesses on Meng Qi’s part. Saying them might strike a nerve, so he had to think carefully about how to answer without arousing Ren Suiyi’s suspicion.

School taught him to read, write, and know his stars and maps, but they hadn’t taught him how to read someone’s mind or handle emotional issues. “You never know what you’re missing till you need it”—right now, his brain felt totally empty, like if he shook it, he’d hear water sloshing around.

After much deliberation, he decided to take a gamble. “—No!” he said, trying to sound firm.

Whether someone cares or not is totally subjective. Even if it were book-Meng Qi, if he didn’t feel Ren Suiyi’s care, he could answer with “no.” There was nothing wrong with that—it made perfect sense.

Yes! No problem! It makes sense! Meng Qi silently psyched himself up, then nervously pursed his lips, waiting for Ren Suiyi’s reaction.

Ren Suiyi stared at Meng Qi for several long moments, like time itself froze under his stare.

Just as Meng Qi was wondering what curveball Ren Suiyi would throw next, Ren Suiyi suddenly reached out, took the still-flopping big white silver carp from Meng Qi’s hand, hung it on a nearby tree branch, and then grabbed Meng Qi’s hands—the ones that had touched the grass and the fish gills—and wiped them on the hem of his shirt. He wiped the right, then the left, carefully, like he was polishing a priceless vase.

Only after he had finished wiping both hands did he say to Meng Qi, “Give me an example.”

Meng Qi held his breath till he almost passed out. By the time Ren Suiyi finally let go of his hands, he felt as if a layer of skin had been rubbed off… hot, burning, numb, tingly… a whole mess of feelings. He quietly slipped his hands into his jacket pockets, pretending to be nonchalant as he gazed at the distant mountains, and said to Ren Suiyi in the cool breeze, “Plenty. Let me think.”

Think about what? How to think? He couldn’t think of a single one! And “plenty”—what a load of crap! He seriously wanted to sew his own mouth shut… He had no memories from before, so where was he supposed to find examples? Meng Qi was so done with himself.

In that book, book-Meng Qi was at best a short-lived minor cannon fodder with a better starting point than most. The text describing “him” was sparse, and every line seemed to belittle “him.” It wasn’t just unhelpful—it was totally useless.

Time ticked by, second after second. Under Ren Suiyi’s unguarded scrutiny, Meng Qi realized for the first time how long a single second could be: the fish in the river leaped out of the water several times, the insects and birds in the distance chirped several times, the dead leaves on the tree fell several times, and the corners of Ren Suiyi’s mouth twitched several times…

Damn it, is he just watching me make a fool of myself? Meng Qi thought silently.

“That many? Do you need this long to think?” Ren Suiyi also looked toward the distant mountains.

Meng Qi kept a straight face and didn’t respond, thinking to himself, Is this reverse psychology? Hmph, well, it worked. You successfully provoked me. I just had a fleeting thought, and your words scared it away. Are you going to compensate me for that?

Of course, Ren Suiyi wasn’t going to compensate him. Meng Qi had no choice but to continue racking his brains, thinking and thinking. And lo and behold, he actually came up with an example!

It was something that happened right after he first arrived in this world.

He had stumbled into book-Meng Qi’s secret base and found a video recording there: On the day Ren Suiyi took his graduation photo, book-Meng Qi brought a bouquet of roses to Ren Suiyi’s school to celebrate his graduation. But Ren Suiyi barely glanced at it before showing an impatient expression, as if book-Meng Qi wasn’t holding Damascus roses air-freighted overnight from another country, but a stinking pile of garbage…

Not only that, but Ren Suiyi didn’t even bother to explain. He just left book-Meng Qi behind and rushed over to Jiang Baixi, who was not far away, completely ignoring how upset book-Meng Qi was.

Perhaps it was empathy at work. When recalling the video, Meng Qi felt a sharp pain in his heart. He took a deep breath, sucking back the tears that stung the corners of his eyes, and said in a low voice to Ren Suiyi, “Do you remember the bouquet of roses ‘I’ gave you? The air-freighted Damascus roses. You didn’t even bother to look at them. But the flowers Jiang Baixi gave you, you treasured like gems.”

"Roses from graduation photo day?" Ren Suiyi first looked at Meng Qi with surprise, then broke into an expression half amused, half exasperated.

Angry laughter? Or grinning to hide guilt?

Meng Qi nodded in confusion. "Yes, that day."

"No wonder by the time I finished saving Baixi and came back to find you, you were already gone." Ren Suiyi suddenly understood, nodding in rhythm with Meng Qi, and continued, "You've got me wrong. It wasn't what you think."

"Mis... misunderstood what?"

Actually, the moment Ren Suiyi said the word 'save,' Meng Qi felt that the 'Rose Incident' might be a huge misunderstanding. Just as Ren Suiyi said, the truth wasn't what 'Meng Qi' in the book had recorded, at least there were before-and-after details he'd missed.

Without realizing it, was he starting to take Ren Suiyi's side? Meng Qi sighed uncomfortably, a strange feeling of betraying the book's 'Meng Qi' slowly growing inside him.

Ren Suiyi pressed his thumbs to Meng Qi's brows and gently smoothed them outward. "I'm sorry. I didn't know that incident troubled you for so long. If I had, I'd have explained it that same day."

"It's... it's..." Meng Qi wanted to say 'It's unnecessary,' but a few simple words stuck in his throat like thick lotus seed congee, refusing to come out.

He had no right to accept this late apology from Ren Suiyi on behalf of the book's 'Meng Qi,' because through countless nights before he came here, the book's 'Meng Qi' had shed who knows how many tears over that video, suffered countless heartaches, gone crazy so many times, lost so much sleep—he didn't know, couldn't know—but he could sense that the book's 'Meng Qi' must have fallen into despair, and when that despair swelled to its peak, 'he' simply left this world.

Meng Qi lowered his head, watching his tears fall one by one onto the grass blades at his feet, bending the withered yellow leaves and snapping their stems.

No, his own tears shouldn't be so heavy. Only tears packed with too much emotion make a sound when they hit the ground.

This might be the book's 'Meng Qi' borrowing his body to cry, so not only were the tears heavy, but he could feel the suffocating sadness along with them.

"Brother Yiyi, explain now. It's not too late." Before his tears ran dry, Meng Qi finally found his voice.

Ren Suiyi pulled Meng Qi forcefully into his chest, one big hand on the back of his head, the other on his back, repeating 'I'm sorry' several times.

Until Meng Qi couldn't hold back and replied, "It's okay."

"I've always been allergic to roses. But I was too cocky as a kid, too wild as a teen. I always felt that letting others know about this allergy would make me look weak and embarrass me, so to this day, apart from my family, no one knows about it." Ren Suiyi led Meng Qi a few steps toward the river, bent down, picked up two smooth pebbles, handed one to Meng Qi, and kept one for himself.

Meng Qi weighed the pebble in his hand, roughly the weight of an egg. The chances of him hitting a fish with something so light were basically zero.

As he thought this, Ren Suiyi had already chucked his pebble with force. Meng Qi immediately held his breath and looked at the river, but this time, no fish floated up belly-side.

Even the main character isn't a perfect shot every time.

Suddenly, a string of bubbles rose from the water not far from the shore. The fish that Ren Suiyi had missed came back to the scene of the crime, trying to taunt him. Meng Qi quickly shoved his own pebble into Ren Suiyi's hand, pointing at the bubbles on the water, and shouted excitedly, "Bro, get it!"

The next second, the pebble traced a perfect arc through the air and landed in the river with a splash, a grass carp floated up belly-up—pretty big, almost two pounds.

"So cool!" Meng Qi happily gave Ren Suiyi a thumbs-up.

Ren Suiyi returned a bright smile, then used a branch to fish out the two-pound grass carp. As he fished, he continued explaining the 'Rose Incident' to Meng Qi in a lighter tone. "I had to get away from you quickly that day, or I'd have trouble breathing, and maybe even a rash on my face. Just then, Baixi showed up, so I took the chance to rush over to meet him. While greeting Baixi, I saw a mountain bike speeding out of a side road. If Baixi hadn't dodged in time, he would have been knocked flying."

Meng Qi replayed the video in his mind based on Ren Suiyi's explanation. Indeed, the speed at which Ren Suiyi had left the book's 'Meng Qi' was gradually increasing, not fast at the start. The reason for the acceleration was likely the sudden appearance of the mountain bike. But because the road was flanked by greenery, the book's 'Meng Qi' couldn't see the side road, and the video didn't capture it.

It seemed that seeing wasn't always believing. He wondered what else was true.

"Author's Note"

Happy Mid-Autumn Festival [heart emoji] Happy reunion [heart emoji]