ATAVID CH116 [Extra]

The sky outside had actually dimmed quite a bit, its dusk-yellow light filtering diagonally through the floor-to-ceiling windows to spill across the table.

No one knew just how complicated Jiang Qunyu’s feelings were at this moment. His mind had gone entirely blank, tumbling over a single, solitary thought.

Fuck! How does that handsome guy up front know my name?!

Right on the heels of that, the words Tao Mingxiao had spoken when they were stepping out this afternoon surged back into his mind as well.

—What if it’s a guy on the other side…

—What if it’s a guy on the other side…

The final thread of sanity in Jiang Qunyu’s brain snapped completely.

Was Tao Mingxiao fucking jinxed?! It really was a guy!

The woman turned her head back to glance at the man behind her. Right at that moment, her phone chimed; it seemed someone had sent her a message.

Left with no choice, a trace of regret flashed across her face as she picked up her bag and stood up, offering a polite smile. “Perhaps you’ve approached the wrong person. It should be that gentleman over there.”

With those words, she hurriedly departed the restaurant.

In the corner, only Jiang Qunyu and the man were left staring at each other.

The man knit his brows slightly, seemingly a little impatient, and stood up from his seat. He was extremely tall, standing at least one hundred and ninety centimeters.

When his leather shoes struck the floor, they made a faint tapping sound. With every step he took, Jiang Qunyu’s heart skipped a beat.

Right until he walked up to Jiang Qunyu and wrapped his long, slender fingers around a chair.

Screeech—

He pulled it out and sat down.

Jiang Qunyu’s whole body went rigid; he didn’t dare to look at him at all. He was practically praying in his head for Tao Mingxiao to call him, or that he could pretend he needed to use the bathroom and set an alarm.

At just the right moment, after waiting for the alarm to ring, he could make a quick exit. That way, he wouldn’t have to hear anything he didn’t want to hear from the man’s mouth.

Unfortunately, before he could open his own mouth, the man curled his lips into a cold, faint sneer and said listlessly, “I am Wei Xun.”

Jiang Qunyu: “…”

He let out a dry, awkward smile. “I’m Jiang Qunyu.”

“I know,” Wei Xun said. “I recognized you the moment you walked in.”

Jiang Qunyu: “…Oh.”

After saying that, he couldn’t find anything else to say. Wei Xun continued, “You didn’t recognize me.”

Jiang Qunyu fell silent for a moment. He thought silently to himself: It’d be a miracle if I could recognize you, okay?! Previously, she… no, he had never told him that he was a man!

Then back when he was calling him ‘Jiejie’ with every breath, why hadn’t Wei Xun denied it?

Not only had he kept quiet about it, but he had also accepted his confession and even agreed to meet up in person!

This guy did it completely on purpose! He was probably laughing behind his back the whole time, thinking he was a total clown.

The more Jiang Qunyu thought about it, the angrier he became. Tensing his face, he said viciously, “You never told me you were a man!”

Wei Xun pressed his lips together, staring at Jiang Qunyu’s rapidly fluttering long eyelashes. “I thought you knew.”

“How could I possibly know?!” Jiang Qunyu gritted his teeth. Feeling that he was in the right now, he spoke with considerable confidence. “I was calling you Jiejie! Why didn’t you deny it?”

Fortunately, there really weren’t many people in this corner, or else Jiang Qunyu would have lost all the face he had accumulated in his seventeen years of life.

Falling in love for the first time in seventeen years, and he got tricked by a man!

Wei Xun had a strange expression on his face. “I didn’t expect you were actually calling me Jiejie. Everyone has their own preferences. I thought your kinks were just slightly unique, so I went along with you.”

Jiang Qunyu choked, completely rendered speechless.

He stayed quiet for a long while, his hand still tightly clutching his gift box, and gave up on himself entirely. “No, wait. I got your WeChat from my manager! He said you were a psychologist, that you were very attentive, and that you were an older sister figure I could confide in!”

Wei Xun raised an eyebrow slightly.

In truth, he had guessed as much later on, though Jiang Qunyu had never realized he had added the wrong person.

At first, Wei Xun hadn’t wanted to pay him any mind at all. He had even wanted to delete him, thinking the boy was exceedingly noisy.

Until one day a year ago, when Wei Xun finished settling the inheritance left behind by his father, who had died in a car accident.

The sky in Beicheng was always a dreary gray. It seemed to be winter, the night wind laced with the biting chill of severe cold. Wei Xun had let his assistant off work early, while he drove out to the suburbs on a whim, parking by the roadside and leaning against his car to gaze at the hazy city lights in the distance.

Jiang Qunyu had sent him messages again.

That was the first time he clicked on Jiang Qunyu’s voice messages. The boy was complaining to him about dreaming of that childhood fire again, sending a whole string of voice messages cursing his deadbeat father, before finally mentioning how much he missed his mom—though he had never even met her.

Perhaps it was their similar family backgrounds, or perhaps it was because in those voice notes, the boy’s voice sounded so small. He was probably only fifteen or sixteen back then.

Too young, pathetic, and pitiful, like a little stray pup.

Wei Xun let out a sigh, lowered his eyes, and replied to Jiang Qunyu.

To this day, he still remembered the unhideable curiosity and excitement in the boy’s voice message upon receiving his reply: “Doctor Jiejie, so you’re actually a real person? I thought you wouldn’t reply to my messages.”

Wei Xun hadn’t corrected his form of address. To him, whatever identity he held in front of Jiang Qunyu made no difference. They wouldn’t have any other kind of relationship anyway.

This very decision caused Wei Xun to feel regret for a long time afterward. Had he known, he would have been better off admitting it sooner.

As for when their relationship began to change, Wei Xun couldn’t pinpoint it himself either. It was just that later on, he grew accustomed to chatting with Jiang Qunyu in his spare time every day, and he would pop into his livestreaming room when the boy went live to watch him play games.

He told Jiang Qunyu his name, his life, and his hobbies.

Likewise, he came to know what Jiang Qunyu liked to eat, what he liked to drink, his most hated color, and his most hated food.

As they grew increasingly familiar with one another, the affection and ambiguity between their lines naturally followed as a matter of course.

He enticed Jiang Qunyu into confessing to him, watching as the boy tried to cover up his real age by lying that his age online was just something his manager had randomly filled in, claiming he was actually twenty already—a sight he found utterly adorable.

Since they were going to be together eventually anyway, wait until Jiang Qunyu turned eighteen before getting together?

That was too slow; he didn’t want to wait.

And so, Wei Xun accepted him.

The only thing that couldn’t be delayed for too long was his identity. They were already together now, no longer just simple online friends.

After driving the company of Jiang Qunyu’s biological father into bankruptcy, Wei Xun proposed meeting up.

“So, how do you want to handle this now?” The corners of Wei Xun’s lips curled up slightly, his voice dropping very low.

Jiang Qunyu deliberated for a moment, before finally biting the bullet and saying, “Sorry, I didn’t know you were a guy.”

He pressed his lips together, continuing amidst the increasingly suffocating pressure emanating from Wei Xun, “Why don’t we… call it off?”

Truth be told, Jiang Qunyu was feeling very conflicted as well.

He had known Wei Xun for a year and a half, and they had been online dating for two months. To suddenly talk about breaking up left him feeling somewhat heartbroken too.

On the other hand, Jiang Qunyu’s worldview had currently shattered into pieces all over the floor.

Besides, a few months ago when Tao Mingxiao was hospitalized, he had mocked Tao Mingxiao for a long time.

Sure enough, living in this world, one really ought to speak more kind words and do more good deeds.

He had merely mocked Tao Mingxiao a little, and now his retribution had come. The ‘Jiejie’ he believed in was actually a ‘Gege’.

The air abruptly came to a standstill following his words, growing so quiet that a falling pin could be heard.

After a long while, he heard a trace of mockery in Wei Xun’s tone. “You want to break up with me?”

Jiang Qunyu’s Adam’s apple bobbed. Ignoring the sour ache in his heart, he steeled himself and said, “Yes.”

He wasn’t going to go gay for a guy!

Even if he was a handsome guy, it still wouldn’t do. Besides, Wei Xun had lied to him for so long.

“Well done,” Wei Xun praised him, though it was impossible to tell if he was being sincere or sarcastic.

Jiang Qunyu felt he was truly cheap. The sour ache in his chest was on the verge of spreading to his four limbs. He instinctively took a deep breath, opening his eyes slightly wider to suppress the tears that were almost spilling over, and said dryly, “Whatever, let’s just leave it at that.”

He no longer felt like gifting the guitar pick he had spent days making either. Just as he made a move to stand up and leave, he saw Wei Xun stand up as well. After the chair scraped against the restaurant floor with a loud screeech, Wei Xun stepped forward and grabbed his wrist.

The size difference between a 191 cm man and a 178 cm youth was fully manifested at this moment. Jiang Qunyu’s field of vision was completely blocked as a shadow loomed over him.

“In your dreams,” Wei Xun’s ice-cold voice fell. Immediately after, he forcefully slid his fingers between Jiang Qunyu’s, interlocking them.

With their fingers tightly intertwined, Wei Xun looked at Jiang Qunyu, who was standing frozen in place. His mood finally brightened a little. Leading Jiang Qunyu forward by the hand, he said, “You were the one who confessed to me first, Jiang Qunyu. You claimed you were straight, but I was straight at first too. You made me fall in love with you—what gives you the right to just leave whenever you want now?”

The break-up emotions that Jiang Qunyu had barely managed to build up were completely shattered by Wei Xun’s sudden actions.

Dumbfoundedly following Wei Xun outside, he tried to pull his hand back, but failed to break free.

Jiang Qunyu: “…”

Wei Xun turned his head back to look at him and asked, “Is there a supermarket nearby?”

Jiang Qunyu suppressed the strangeness in his heart. “There is.”

What does he want to do?

Seeming to discern his confusion, Wei Xun curled his lips. “We’re going grocery shopping.”

“Grocery shopping?” Jiang Qunyu tried to pull away again, but the force on his hand grew even stronger, leaving him no choice but to temporarily give up. “Why are we buying groceries?”

The smile on Wei Xun’s face sank bit by bit as he knit his brows. “Aren’t you hungry?”

“I am!” Jiang Qunyu couldn’t resist stabbing back at him. “We were originally supposed to eat at the restaurant. If you were really a Jiejie, we would already be eating right now.”

“If I were a Jiejie?” Wei Xun let out a light, mocking laugh that sounded neither like a smile nor a sneer. “You sure dream big. There’s no Jiejie, but there is a Gege. If you want to call me that, go ahead; I don’t mind.”

Jiang Qunyu was on the verge of dying from anger. Had he known, he wouldn’t have agreed to meet up with Wei Xun. Now, not only did he have to accept that his ‘girl’friend was a boyfriend, but he also had to listen to the tone in Wei Xun’s words that made him desperately want to beat him up.

When the two of them chatted previously, most of the time it was just Jiang Qunyu sending voice messages while Wei Xun replied with text. Therefore, he simply couldn’t connect the Wei Xun in front of his eyes with the Wei Xun inside his phone.

As a result, meeting offline now, Jiang Qunyu constantly felt that Wei Xun’s way of speaking was provoking him.

“I’ll call you ‘Dad’.” Jiang Qunyu refused to walk any further, staring at Wei Xun. “What do you actually want to do?”

“Cook for you.” When Wei Xun watched Jiang Qunyu’s livestreams before, he had thought about shifting his company’s focus to Wuchen in the future so he could cook all sorts of dishes for Jiang Qunyu. The boy was far too thin; he really needed to be fattened up a bit.

Hearing his serious tone, Jiang Qunyu was slightly startled, before asking in shock, “Are you coming back with me?”

Otherwise, where else is he going to cook?!

Wei Xun couldn’t understand why Jiang Qunyu had such a huge reaction. “Where else?”

Lowering his eyes, he lied without blushing or beating his heart, telling Jiang Qunyu, “Did I tell you about my family situation before? My mother passed away when I was young, and my father died in a car accident last year. The family had some inheritance, and my father’s brothers and sisters wanted to take it away from me. Unfortunately, I couldn’t beat them in the struggle, so I could only come to Wuchen to find you.”

Jiang Qunyu’s brow twitched. “Then why are you dressed so smartly? I thought you were very rich.”

Only the first half of what Wei Xun said was true; the second half was entirely made up by him. However, for the sake of living together with Jiang Qunyu, he didn’t mind twisting the truth a bit. “All my money was used to buy the plane ticket. As for these clothes, I bought them in the past.”

Jiang Qunyu had a bad premonition. He asked tentatively, “Then what are your plans now?”

Wei Xun had already searched for the nearest shop on the navigation map. Pressing his palm against Jiang Qunyu’s, he led him forward by the hand. “Naturally, to live together with you.”

Jiang Qunyu: “…”

“Aren’t you my boyfriend? Is that not allowed?” Wei Xun asked, knitting his brows.

Jiang Qunyu really wanted to remind him that they had already broken up just now, but he cared more about the fact that Wei Xun was actually a gigolo—and even needed him to keep him as a toy boy.

Besides, was Wei Xun really a psychologist? Why did he feel like Wei Xun’s own mental state wasn’t quite normal either?

He was frantically calculating in his head what the probability was of finding out your online partner was a guy upon meeting in person, and then cohabitating on the very same day. More importantly, Wei Xun seemed like a lunatic.

Although he hadn’t dated in real life before, even if he hadn’t eaten pork, he had seen a pig run! What kind of decent person starts living together on the very first day of dating?

Furthermore, Wei Xun possessed an inexplicable sense of paranoia about him.

Jiang Qunyu trusted his instincts very much. He didn’t even have time to be sad about his dead-on-arrival online romance that had ended in disaster; what he should be doing right now was running as far away as possible!

Biting the bullet, he first nodded to smooth his feathers. “I guess it’s fine.”

Wei Xun quickly cheered up. He intimately held Jiang Qunyu’s hand, squeezing it from time to time, and even said in a very shocked tone, “Jiang Qunyu, why are your hands so soft?”

Jiang Qunyu spouted complete nonsense. “Boneless chicken feet.”

Hearing this, Wei Xun let out a soft laugh, asking politely, “Then can I take a bite?”

“…” Jiang Qunyu glanced at him, catching the eager, itching-to-try look in those dark, deep eyes of Wei Xun’s. He stayed silent for a moment, and upon confirming that Wei Xun wasn’t joking, he couldn’t help cursing, “Fuck.”

If he had only suspected it earlier, he was completely certain now: Wei Xun was definitely a psychopath.

Sure enough, what a person was truly like could only be known after meeting them in person.

“No, you can’t!” Jiang Qunyu couldn’t help raising his voice.

They had already walked into the supermarket, and the people around them turned their heads to look over one after another.

Jiang Qunyu went rigid, awkwardly pulling Wei Xun to hurry forward.

Only when they had walked far away did he let out a sigh of relief.

Looking at their intertwined hands, the corners of Wei Xun’s eyes and brows were tinged with satisfaction. He kindly reminded, “We forgot to push a shopping cart.”

Left with no choice, Jiang Qunyu had to follow him back toward the entrance, pushing a shopping cart toward the produce section.

Wei Xun: “Do you eat beef?”

Jiang Qunyu said with a cold face, “No.”

“Oh,” after hearing that, Wei Xun casually placed the beef into the shopping cart.

Wei Xun: “Do you eat shrimp?”

Jiang Qunyu didn’t even think. “No.”

“Oh,” Wei Xun continued to put it in.

Jiang Qunyu: “…”

When Wei Xun intended to open his mouth to ask him next time, Jiang Qunyu really couldn’t hold it back anymore. “Will you listen to me?”

Wei Xun: “No.”

Jiang Qunyu: “Then why the hell are you asking me?”

“I want to talk to you.” Wei Xun turned his head. “You don’t want to talk to me?”

He thought for a moment, adding without a shred of mercy, “When we were online, you would tell me everything.”

Jiang Qunyu was momentarily left without a comeback.

The two walked and paused inside the supermarket for nearly an hour before finally reaching Wei Xun’s ‘standard’. Jiang Qunyu let out a huge sigh of relief. While waiting to check out, he stood off to the side without moving, watching to see whether Wei Xun truly had no money or was just pretending.

Wei Xun almost instinctively pulled out his phone, but after realizing what he was doing, he slowly pulled his phone back and tilted his head to look at Jiang Qunyu.

Jiang Qunyu ignored his eerie, heavy gaze, looking east and west, looking everywhere except at Wei Xun.

Wei Xun’s pitch-black pupils shifted slightly, before he said resentfully, “Didn’t you say you were going to support me? Jiang Qunyu, are you a heartless man?”

The moment he said those words, the people paying next to them all turned their heads to look at them.

Jiang Qunyu almost failed to catch his breath.

Fortunately, it was self-service payment, and there were plenty of empty checkout machines around with no queue behind them, which significantly alleviated Jiang Qunyu’s second-hand embarrassment.

With a fake smile on his face, he stepped forward to shove Wei Xun aside, pulled out his phone to scan the code, and gritted his teeth as he whispered, “When the hell did I say I was going to support you?!”

Wei Xun obediently picked up the plastic bags, his long eyelashes drooping slightly as his thin lips parted and closed, repeating the message Jiang Qunyu had sent him previously: “Jiejie, I’m very rich. In the future…”

Jiang Qunyu stumbled, a soft blush spreading over his earlobes and neck. He hurriedly raised his hand to cover Wei Xun’s mouth. “Shut up.”

Wei Xun blinked his eyes lightly, opening his mouth without the slightest hesitation to bite Jiang Qunyu’s hand.

Jiang Qunyu was caught completely unprepared by the bite and was left entirely stunned. He stared blankly at Wei Xun for a good while before blurting out a few words: “…I think you’ve really gone mad.”

Doesn’t he think it’s dirty?!

He was completely different from the Wei Xun he had imagined!

Fine, so the gender had changed, but at the very least he should still be cold and distant like he had imagined!

Looking at the hand he had rapidly pulled back, a trace of regret flashed in the depths of Wei Xun’s eyes before he said listlessly, “Aren’t you hungry? Are we still not going home?”

Go back to his granddaddy’s home!

Was the home his to go back to?!

How could Wei Xun say those words so naturally?!

Jiang Qunyu had no intention of bringing Wei Xun home. He didn’t believe Wei Xun didn’t have a single yuan on him.

Though he didn’t know what scheme the man was hatching.

“We’re not going back yet,” Jiang Qunyu lied to him. “Wait for me here. I want to go to the bathroom.”

Wei Xun’s movements paused. He lowered his eyes, concealing the fleeting gloom in their depths, and agreed, “Okay, I’ll wait for you here.”

Fortunately he agreed. Jiang Qunyu breathed a slight sigh of relief and pressed his lips together. “Then I’m leaving first.”

The corners of Wei Xun’s lips curled up as he said softly, “Jiang Qunyu, you have to come back.”

“Yeah, yeah.” After saying that, Jiang Qunyu turned around and walked toward the mall’s restroom.

The white lights of the mall shone onto the white tile floor, reflecting a pale, stark glow.

Jiang Qunyu looked back. Wei Xun was standing right behind him, his whole body shrouded in gloom while holding the plastic bags in his hands, looking just like a water ghost crawling out of the river.

An inexplicable thud sounded in his heart, but he still steeled his nerves and walked away.

With this attitude of his, Wei Xun would surely understand his meaning, right?

Jiang Qunyu felt uneasy and apprehensive. On one hand, he wondered if his behavior was too scum-like; on the other hand, he thought about how it was Wei Xun who had lied to him first. If Wei Xun had told him from the start that he was a guy, the two of them wouldn’t have ended up in this state today.

By the time he walked downstairs, the sky had completely darkened, and a fine, thread-like drizzle had even begun to drift in the air.

Jiang Qunyu had specifically checked the weather forecast before heading out this afternoon, and it had clearly said it wouldn’t rain today. He hadn’t brought an umbrella, and it seemed Wei Xun hadn’t brought one either.

The more he thought about it, the more flustered he felt inside. Forcing himself to stop thinking about it, he was just about to pull out his phone to hail a ride when his hand touched something inside his jacket pocket.

Something small—the guitar pick he had crafted.

And…

Jiang Qunyu paused, then expressionlessly pulled the phone out of his pocket.

After a two-second silence, he ultimately couldn’t hold back a curse after all.

Was Wei Xun fucking crazy?!

Why was his phone in his pocket?!

Sometimes Jiang Qunyu really didn’t want to empathize with a lunatic, because doing so would make it seem like he was a lunatic too.

Yet he happened to know exactly what Wei Xun meant.

Although he didn’t know when Wei Xun had slipped his phone into Jiang Qunyu’s pocket, this was a glaringly obvious trap.

A trap specifically set to ensnare him.

It was as if Wei Xun was telling him: Look, I’ve placed everything I have on you. So, Jiang Qunyu, will you come back to find me?

Naturally, Jiang Qunyu wouldn’t.

Since he had thrown his phone over to his side himself, what did that have to do with him?

It wasn’t like he had taken it; Wei Xun had abandoned it himself.

Suppressing the anger in his heart, Jiang Qunyu pulled out his own phone from the other pocket and opened the AutoNavi app to call a ride.

Because it was nighttime and raining, hailing a car wasn’t easy. Jiang Qunyu doubled the fare compared to usual before barely managing to get a ride.

The information on his phone indicated that the driver was five minutes away. Jiang Qunyu stood outside the mall with a scowl, his hands stuffed into his pockets, growing increasingly annoyed the more he thought about it.

He had asked Wei Xun about his family situation before, but Wei Xun had only brushed over it briefly, so Jiang Qunyu had assumed his family background was probably decent. But only today did he find out that Wei Xun was just as pitiable as him—neither of them had parents.

In that case, could Wei Xun really be homeless now? Was that why he thought of coming to Wuchen to find him, considering how far Beicheng was from Wuchen?

Besides, he was unfamiliar with the place and the people here, and now he didn’t even have a phone on him.

Could it be that he really didn’t have any money on him?

It was raining outside, too. Did he have money to buy an umbrella?

Fortunately, at this moment, the BYD in the distance finally pulled up in front of Jiang Qunyu, swaying through the wind and rain. Jiang Qunyu was forced to interrupt his thoughts.

He glanced at the license plate, and after confirming it was the car he had called, he quickly stepped forward, opened the door, and sat inside. After reporting the last digits of his phone number, he urged the driver to drive faster.

The driver spoke with a thick local Wuchen accent: “Looks like the rain tonight is going to get heavier and heavier, ah.”

Jiang Qunyu: “…”

The windshield wipers clacked back and forth, gathering the raindrops hitting the windshield into streams of water that snaked down the glass.

In the fine drizzle, the scenery outside the window blurred past rapidly, like an old-fashioned video player changing frame by frame.

Finally, amid the driver’s muttered complaints, the BYD pulled over to the curb and stopped. Jiang Qunyu jumped out of the car and ran back with a face full of resentment.

Had he owed Wei Xun in his past life?!

Thankfully the rain hadn’t grown heavy, nor had the car driven very far. Only the ends of his hair were slightly damp, while the clothes on his body remained dry.

Jiang Qunyu had run in a hurry, his chest heaving violently. He panted heavily, bending over slightly with his hands resting on his knees to calm his breathing.

Wei Xun truly hadn’t left yet.

He was sitting on the sofa in the center of the mall, staring down at the white floor tiles, oblivious to whatever thoughts were passing through his mind.

Jiang Qunyu felt furious inside. He was certain Wei Xun had done it on purpose, yet he still couldn’t stop his heart from softening, still couldn’t stop himself from coming back.

While cursing himself, he was simultaneously incapable of controlling his own actions.

In the end, he came to a stop right in front of Wei Xun.

Throughout it all, Wei Xun kept his eyes lowered, his long eyelashes casting a faint shadow. His fingertips unconsciously picked at his palm repeatedly, his aimless thoughts sinking heavily downward.

When his peripheral vision suddenly caught sight of that familiar figure, his tense fingertips abruptly stilled.

He snapped his head up, bumping right into Jiang Qunyu’s beautiful eyes. The gloom in the depths of his eyes instantly dispersed, and a faint smile involuntarily rose at the corners of his lips.

Jiang Qunyu’s somewhat self-abandoning voice fell into his ears as he said, “Let’s go.”

He sounded fierce, but Wei Xun was immensely happy.

Reaching out his arm, he wrapped it around Jiang Qunyu’s waist, pulling the boy toward himself before unceremoniously burying his face into Jiang Qunyu’s chest. The fresh scent of soap invaded his nostrils, clean and familiar, finally allowing his long-strained nerves to relax.

“You came back,” Wei Xun smiled with curved eyes, his tone brimming with joy.

See?

Jiang Qunyu really did love him.