Chapter 42: Making Up

Chapter 42: Making Up

With an hour left until the end of the workday, Xu Moxing finally finished his tasks. After thinking it over, he sent Su Lichen a message.

During work hours, they'd text each other now and then.

They’d talk about what they had for breakfast, lunch, and dinner, and plan cheap little hangouts or dates for the weekend.

Sometimes, if a colleague shared some gossip or there was a rumor at the office, Xu Moxing would also tell Su Lichen about it.

But ever since their little cold war yesterday, they hadn't texted at all.

"A Li, what do you want for dinner tonight?"

Xu Moxing thought for a sec and sent a meme.

Twenty minutes later, Su Lichen replied, "I've got a business dinner tonight, so you'll have to eat on your own."

"Okay."

Xu Moxing was a little disappointed. After work, he squeezed onto two subway trains to get home. Even though it wasn't physical labor, the moment he stepped out of the subway station, his brain only registered one thing: exhaustion.

Dragging his tired body, he stopped at a small diner near home.

The fast-food joint was packed with office workers off the clock, everyone scrolling on their phones while eating.

Xu Moxing got in line, got his meal, found a seat, and started eating.

In the fast-food restaurant, everyone was doing the same thing: one hand holding a phone, the other holding chopsticks, heads down, eating.

After eating, Xu Moxing came home reeking of the fast-food place.

It was too hot, so as soon as he got inside, he took a shower. After showering, he sat on the sofa playing on his phone.

He realized that back when he was unemployed, he still felt like reading books and enjoying literature.

But ever since he started working, as soon as he got off work, all he wanted to do was scroll through short videos and have some mindless fun.

Using his brain at work was already tiring enough; coming home to use it again for reading—he just didn't have the mental energy for it.

As he played on his phone, he suddenly remembered Xiao Ke bitching about her boyfriend during lunch. This wasn't the first time—she'd gone on about it a lot.

Xu Moxing was getting bored and kind of annoyed; he didn't want to listen anymore.

But because she was a coworker, he couldn't say it outright, so he just pretended to go along with it.

Since saying anything would feel like he was dismissing her, and since they were colleagues, if he didn't like listening, he'd just give a vague reply.

Su Lichen's business dinner wrapped up around 8:30. Xu Moxing was in the living room the whole time, and when he heard the sound of the door opening, he rushed to greet him.

"A Li, you're back!"

"Mm. Have you showered?"

"Yeah. Did you drink too much?"

Xu Moxing smelled alcohol on him and asked with concern.

"No, I didn't drink much."

"Do you want to shower first?"

Xu Moxing was a little too eager, probably worried that Su Lichen would keep ignoring him because of yesterday.

"Mm, I'll go shower first."

When Su Lichen came out of the shower, Xu Moxing, who had been on his phone, immediately looked over.

Su Lichen sat down next to him. Xu Moxing tentatively reached for Su Lichen's hand, and when he wasn't shaken off, he interlocked their fingers.

"A Li."

"What?"

"You wanna talk?"

"Can we do it later? I'm kinda tired."

"Okay."

Xu Moxing leaned into him. Since Su Lichen didn't pull away, he rested his head on his shoulder, and they sat in silence for a bit.

Aside from being busy at work, Su Lichen had also been doing some reflection. What he said yesterday had indeed hurt Xu Moxing.

They handled emotions differently. Xu Moxing was a chatterbox—happy, unhappy, he wanted to share everything. Similarly, Xu Moxing liked hearing Su Lichen share things too.

Xu Moxing believed that sharing everything was proof of their relationship, but Su Lichen preferred to solve problems on his own, mostly processing his emotions alone, and only occasionally sharing with Xu Moxing.

But what he said yesterday could easily be misunderstood, making Xu Moxing think, "Telling you is useless—might as well keep my mouth shut," which is not something you say in a close relationship.

Without realizing it, Su Lichen had gone back to the way he was before Xu Moxing had amnesia.

Just as he hoped Xu Moxing wouldn't be so negative, he knew change didn't happen overnight. The same applied to himself.

But just because he slipped up once didn't mean he should give up and think he'd reverted to his old self.

If he truly cherished their relationship, he had to make a change—even if he stumbled along the way, he just needed to start over. Once he gave up, they'd inevitably end up in the same place—broken.

After sorting through his thoughts, Su Lichen spoke quietly.

"Mo."

"Mm?"

"I owe you an apology. I didn't mean it that way yesterday. I wasn't shutting you out. It's just that some stuff is tricky, and I was wiped out. Yesterday I really didn't want to talk; I was too tired."

Xu Moxing shook his head. "I was a little hurt yesterday, but I thought about it today. I shouldn't have pressured you. I'm talkative and share everything with you, but I shouldn't force my expectations on you."

After all, he loved Su Lichen for how calm and steady he was, for not being easily swayed by others. Yet yesterday, he pushed Su Lichen to act out of character—not calm, not steady—pushing him to speak when he was tired and didn't want to.

Su Lichen turned his head to look at Xu Moxing. Xu Moxing lifted his head from Su Lichen's shoulder, and they met each other's eyes and saw the apology in them.

Their hands were still intertwined, their upper bodies leaning together. The air conditioner was blowing cool air, so being close didn't feel hot.

Su Lichen turned his head back, and Xu Moxing rested his head on his shoulder again.

"The reason I've been having business dinners is that there's a payment we haven't collected yet. The factory is hounding us for the final payment, so I have to go explain the situation to them, and also urge the client to settle their final payment with us. This kind of thing happens often, and most of the time we can delay it a bit. But this time the amount is bigger, and also..."

Xu Moxing didn't say anything, just listened quietly.

Su Lichen paused before continuing.

"Also, the boss has a relative who is also a salesperson. That person has an Indian client who already received two batches of goods but only paid a 30% deposit for the first batch. The rest of the money hasn't been paid at all. Previously, both the finance and procurement departments had argued with him about it, but later the boss approved the shipment, so now it's very likely a huge bad debt."

Su Lichen was really angry at this point, though he tried to control his emotions.

"That client was originally mine, but due to some matters, I took some time off. That salesperson took over the client under the pretext of helping out, essentially stealing the client.

I didn't really trust this client anyway, so I let him have it. Now that the payment can't be recovered, the boss is asking me to help follow up, saying that since I'd been dealing with this client for so long, it's only right."

Xu Moxing understood: A Li was being made to clean up the mess left by the boss's relative. If it hadn't gone bad, the client would have belonged to the relative. Now that it's bad debt, they push it onto A Li.

No wonder A Li had been going out to dinners and drinking so much and in a bad mood the past couple of days. It's not even his own money, and he has to clean up someone else's mess—who would be in a good mood?

"Sorry, you were already in a bad mood and I made it worse."

Xu Moxing apologized again.

"It's okay, I'm not mad at you. I didn't tell you about it, so how could you have known I was upset?"

Su Lichen kissed the forehead of the person leaning on his shoulder.