Chapter 113: Have You Been Lying to Me All Along

Chapter 113: Have You Been Lying to Me All Along?

Lin Haoda dodged the question and simply replied, "There might be a bug in your company's lottery system."

"Is that so?" Guan Junshan bought it, responding seriously, "When I get back, I'll have to keep an eye on the tech department."

Lin Haoda guiltily bit his lip and switched topics, "The double honeymoon cruise was prepared for a specific person, wasn't it?"

Suddenly, a voice call request popped up on the chat screen. He pressed the answer button, and Guan Junshan chuckled on the other end, saying, "Not really."

He still insisted it was because of Lin Haoda's good luck.

"Come on," Lin Haoda said deliberately, "Tianyi saw I won the double cruise trip and was super jealous. She just messaged me asking if I'd be willing to give it to her..."

Guan Junshan had to cut him off and emphasize, "But wasn't it me who won the prize?"

"Anyway, you'd definitely choose work." Lin Haoda listed off the excuses he’d already prepared, shooting back, "Besides, do you have anyone to take the trip with?"

Guan Junshan was silent for a few seconds before sighing, defeated, grudgingly admitted, "Fine, you're right."

"I originally planned to give it to them," he honestly told Lin Haoda, "as a wedding gift."

Lin Haoda listened and said in an "I told you so" tone, proudly let out an "Oh."

Guan Junshan held the phone, curving his lips and barely suppressing a laugh: "But now I've changed my mind."

"Come on, really?" Lin Haoda accused him with a sense of justice: "You’re gonna go back on your word?"

Guan Junshan was quiet for a moment, then said to him, "Now I have someone I want to invite on a trip together."

Lin Haoda paused, standing by the bed in his robe, gripping his phone a bit tighter. The exposed skin felt a bit cold, but it quickly grew hot from the heater above.

Luckily, Guan Junshan let it drop. After a short pause, he asked about something else: "Did you have fun tonight?"

Lin Haoda calmed down, cleared his throat, and replied, "It was okay."

Worried that the answer was too brief, he added a bit more: "I’ve never been to a company party like this before."

"A game company might be a bit more wild than other industries." Guan Junshan patiently explained, "Everyone in the company is young, full of bright ideas. They said they wanted a masquerade ball, and Tang Chen had no problem with it."

Lin Haoda found it both confusing and funny, hesitating, "I didn’t even say anything. Why’d you launch into that whole explanation?"

Guan Junshan paused and let out a sigh of relief, and said to him, "I was worried you wouldn't like it."

That answer was even weirder than the explanation itself. Lin Haoda corrected him, "This is your company and your people."

Guan Junshan was inevitably disappointed: "So next year... you’re not coming?"

Lin Haoda didn't answer for a long time, and Guan Junshan asked even more hesitantly, "Didn’t you just say it was 'okay'?"

Afraid if he kept guessing, it’d just cause more confusion, Lin Haoda was silent for a moment, then countered, "I haven’t said anything yet, Guan. Or are you the one who doesn’t want to invite me next year?"

"No way." Guan Junshan immediately said, lowering his voice, also seeming relieved, "Besides, there's Yang Yue and Tianyi as well."

Lin Haoda thought of the two guys who’d gotten completely wasted that night and grinned to himself. After another moment, he finally worked up the courage to ask, "And you, President Guan? How come you weren’t there today?"

Guan Junshan said "Hm," was quiet for a few seconds, thinking, then said, "...Just some personal stuff."

Lin Haoda picked up on the change in his tone. He hesitantly went "Oh," and didn’t push further: "Alright then."

Since it was a personal matter, he assumed Guan Junshan wouldn't want to share it with just anyone.

So he was silent for a moment before he took the lead and asked, "Are you abroad now?"

"I'm in Switzerland," Guan Junshan told him. "It’s six hours behind you."

"So what are you doing now?" Lin Haoda was a bit worried about his work habits and asked, "Did you eat dinner yet?"

"Yeah, I did." Guan Junshan honestly replied, "But it wasn’t very good."

"If it’s that bad, while it’s still not fully dark, you could take a walk around the hotel and look for a Chinese restaurant," Lin Haoda sincerely suggested, but quickly dampened the hope by adding, "Though I remember the food there is usually adjusted for local tastes—either too sweet or too oily."

Hearing this, Guan Junshan let out a bitter laugh on the phone: "I was actually about to head out before you brought it up."

Lin Haoda pouted and could only reply, "Sorry."

The two chatted casually for a while longer. Guan Junshan talked about the scammer he encountered during his airport transfer, while Lin Haoda acted as if they had never argued, casually mentioning how the flower pot Guan Junshan had given him had survived a near-death dehydration. Until his phone vibrated twice in his hand. Lin Haoda glanced down and saw it was an alarm reminding him to go to bed. He also noticed the time—it had passed midnight, well into the late night.

The water in the bathroom had been heating for a long time, and even the body that had felt cold when he first put on his bathrobe was now thoroughly warmed by the heater. Lin Haoda resolved several times to hang up the call and take a shower, but whenever Guan Junshan casually mentioned something on the phone, he found it hard not to continue the conversation.

Finally, Guan Junshan noticed how long the call had been going. Even the sky in Switzerland had probably grown dark, and the evening had completely ended.

Guan Junshan called his name over the phone, strict like a life coach: "It's too late. You should get some rest."

Lin Haoda told him he had drunk a few glasses of champagne at the banquet and had greedily gone to the poolside to enjoy the breeze, and now his head was starting to ache, making it hard to sleep.

Guan Junshan was very helpless and regretted it: "I should have known better than to keep you up this late."

Lin Haoda agreed to go to bed right away, said "Goodnight," and both ends were silent for a moment. Even he couldn't figure out why, but suddenly he spoke again, adding one more question: "How come you didn’t bring Yang Yue on this trip? You holding up okay alone over there?"

"Yeah." Guan Junshan said with a smile, "Goodnight."

Lin Haoda moved the phone away from his cheek and was about to set it down when a very soft "Haoda" came through in the lonely night.

He paused for half a second and raised his arm again. After waiting a moment, he replied, "I'm still here."

Guan Junshan's breathing on the phone rose and fell steadily, like the tide rhythmically crashing on the shore in the moonlight. He was silent for a long time—so long that Lin Haoda's hand holding the phone began to ache, and a kind of unease he had never felt before gradually filled his heart.

"My mother might never wake up." Then he heard Guan Junshan's very low voice, gently vibrating in his eardrum. "I'm sorry."

Lin Haoda was quiet for a few seconds, his eyes lowered, looking at the dark patterned carpet under his feet—circles within circles, like twisted, meaningless totems.

He thought for a moment and finally asked, "You're still in the hospital right now, aren't you?"

Guan Junshan "Hm"-ed and told him, "I'm outside her room. She just had surgery this afternoon."

Lin Haoda closed his eyes and awkwardly steered the topic away, asking, "Is there a window in the hallway? Can you see outside?"

"Yes. I can."

"Do you want to try walking over to the window? There should be a garden below, right? Are there people sitting there chatting?"

Guan Junshan answered yes, and after a few seconds, he said from his angle, he could see two people in light-colored hospital gowns chatting.

Lin Haoda continued to guide him, asking about other scenery, the shape of the surrounding buildings, the design of the fountain, etc. But on the phone, Guan Junshan suddenly fell silent, no longer responding or engaging with him.

"Jun Shan," Lin Haoda called his name. "If I were there, I would go chat with you in the garden too."

Guan Junshan asked him, "Like this?"

"Yeah, just like this."

Lin Haoda paused, then added, "Or if you'd rather stay outside the ward, I'll stay with you too."

Guan Junshan sighed, his voice low as he thanked him, saying, "I just... suddenly really want to hear your voice again."

Lin Haoda told him, "It's okay, I'm always here."

"No," Guan Junshan interrupted him. "Hao Da, you need to rest. It's already late."

"Haven't you eaten anything at all?" But Lin Haoda ignored that and immediately backtracked and seized on the key question: "Guan Junshan, have you been lying to me this whole time?"