Shen Fan’s name had once caused Gu Yanting to suffer internal injuries. This time when he came back, he also paid attention to the senior management of Tang Yi’s company. After discovering that there was no Shen Fan there, he felt relieved, but this relief didn’t last long, because later he heard another name.

“Shen Fan?” Gu Yanting opened his mouth and clutched his clothes, petrified, and suddenly asked, “Then who is Zhou Hao?”

Tang Yi was looking for pants Gu Yanting could wear. The wardrobe in the apartment was not big, taking just one wall. After the break-up Tang Yi had packed Gu Yanting’s clothes several times to throw them away, but repeatedly delayed doing it because of this and that. In the end, he simply put all these clothes into a compression bag and stuffed them in one corner, letting them occupy a small part of the wardrobe.

Now the weather had turned cold, so he managed to find a pair of warm ones, and saw Gu Yanting looking at him from the door. Tang Yi paused for a moment and replied calmly, “Boyfriend.”

Gu Yanting took the pants in a daze, and then looked at the shirt, “What about Shen Fan?” 

“……” Tang Yi became a little impatient, “Ex-boyfriend.”

Gu Yanting: “……”

“You are already an ex-ex-boyfriend,” Tang Yi looked at him before closing the bedroom door, saying, “Congratulations on your upgrade, you are welcome.” 

The heads of Huayuan Group were due to go back in the afternoon, along with Mr. Chen and his party, and Gu Yanting was among them. When the phone call came, Gu Yanting had just changed his clothes. He had a lot of questions he wanted to ask, but Tang Yi’s attitude wasn’t very patient, and while he hesitated, Mr. Chen urged him.

“Mr. Gu, don’t forget about our afternoon flight. Mr. Gu is also the one who takes the credit for the smooth signing of the contract this time!”

What Mr. Chen said was a bit difficult to understand. ER should be the one happy about signing the contract, but the excitement in Mr. Chen’s tone was hard to hide. Gu Yanting really didn’t know him well, so he frowned and could only vaguely respond, “I know.”

When he knocked on Tang Yi’s bedroom door, the latter was taking his coat and preparing to go out. Tang Yi hadn’t taken a shower since he came back. At this moment, he changed into dry clothes, but his hair was still a little wet. Gu Yanting’s gaze fell on his hair; he paused and said, “Don’t forget to take a hot bath to get rid of the cold. ”

He vaguely regretted it, thinking that he should have let Tang Yi go in first.

With the things he had to buy on his mind, Tang Yi gave a curt “en” and headed out, giving a bag to Gu Yanting in the process.

“Put your clothes in here. Don’t send back the ones you’re wearing now. I won’t be at home tomorrow or the day after tomorrow. ”

“En, I see.” Gu Yanting took the bag, paused and simply walked a few steps, then took a dry towel and threw it on Tang Yi’s head.

Tang Yi subconsciously took it and wiped his hair twice, and then heard Gu Yanting cough and say, “I’m going back to G City this afternoon. This time I’m mainly accompanying Mr. Chen here.”

The two of them had been facing each other day and night for so long, and the implication of their words had already been recorded in the back of their minds. Tang Yi’s brain automatically expanded the meaning of this sentence to the derivation that Gu Yanting wanted to express — that he was accompanying Mr. Chen this time meant to show that he had not come back to beg to get back together. It was just a beautiful accident that they met. Tang Yi had an ex-boyfriend and now a boyfriend, and Gu Yanting would not interfere. That he was going back in the afternoon was the response to Tang Yi’s remark about sending back the clothes. Gu Yanting would not come to return the clothes, let alone stalk, he was going back, well, he was also very busy and might not come again in the future.

Tang Yi’s hand holding the towel slowly clenched, and he quietly raised his eyes to Gu Yanting.

At this moment, he realised that he had not grown up as mature as Gu Yanting. He was still inexplicably a little angry, just as he had been when Gu Yanting returned without warning. Tang Yi suddenly felt the irrational desire to get hysterical and find trouble.

But reason prevailed. Tang Yi removed the towel and smiled faintly.

“Oh? Mr. Chen? The guy who thinks with his dick? Okay, have a safe trip. ”

Tang Yi was very superstitious in some places. For example, he never said inauspicious things during the New Year and the holidays. Not only did he not say it himself, but Gu Yanting was not allowed either. In those days, he couldn’t even say the word “death”, including “I’m starving to death”, “I’m happy to death” and “I miss you to death”. Similarly, when flying, Tang Yi would only say “Have a safe trip”. After all, planes were afraid of tailwinds and it was unlucky to have a tailwind all the way. He was very serious on this point⁽¹⁾.

Gu Yanting sighed and pressed his fingers against his forehead helplessly, looking at Tang Yi.

Tang Yi was very handsome when he smiled. His open-hearted laugh and the way he sometimes couldn’t suppress his laughter were Gu Yanting’s favourites. Gu Yanting used to somewhat admire Tang Yi, but when Tang Yi showed him that slightly boyish smile, he would instantly become soft-hearted, feeling that he was the one who was worshipped instead.

But this didn’t include the current light smile with compressed lips and clear, cold brows and eyes, because it meant that Tang Yi was in a bad mood, or even annoyed.

Yet at the moment he really had nothing to say. The work schedule was indeed such that the two of them were not meeting again on purpose either. Gu Yanting did want to take a step closer to Tang Yi, but there was already someone beside him. If he approached Tang Yi and Tang Yi didn’t get tangled up, he would be sad. But if Tang Yi really got tangled up, he would be heartbroken.

Gu Yanting was silent for a while, nodded and said “Thank you.”

The two began to pack their own things. Gu Yanting put his replaced clothes in the bag, while Tang Yi went back to the bedroom to get the list, and then went back to the living room to get the money. Neither of them spoke anymore. When they changed their shoes at the door, Tang Yi lowered his eyes and stared down quietly, not even darting a glance at Gu Yanting.

While waiting for the elevator, Gu Yanting wanted to say something to break this awkwardness, but he didn’t think of what to say until the elevator came down. In fact, he himself was not fully prepared. Before meeting Tang Yi, he didn’t dare to hope that the two of them would meet again one day. After meeting him, his whole mind was on Tang Yi and he didn’t have any free brain cells to think about how to get back together.

When the elevator door opened, Gu Yanting summed up his words, but as soon as he was about to open his mouth, he saw four pairs of eyes staring at him from the elevator.

“Going out?” It was a combination of two men and two women, and one of the girls obviously recognised Tang Yi and greeted him with a smile, “It’s still raining outside, don’t you have an umbrella?”

“No,” Tang Yi smiled at her, “just going to the supermarket at the entrance to buy something.”

“Oh,” the girl smiled knowingly and jabbed the man next to her, “Na, look, he’s the one who helped me carry my computer last time, heh, I would’ve died of exhaustion counting on you.”

The man squeezed out a rather ugly smile and looked at Tang Yi with a not very kind gaze. Gu Yanting frowned and simply stepped in front of the girl, completely blocking Tang Yi.

When the four of them left the elevator, walking fast, the man could be heard vaguely muttering: “Who’s the guy, the elevator can’t hold him! Crowding like that on people!” Whatever else he was going to say was slapped back by the girl.

Gu Yanting coughed and, after walking out of the elevator with Tang Yi, looked around to see if there was anyone there; then he couldn’t help but pull him.

“Tang Yi,” Gu Yanting grabbed Tang Yi’s arm, “I have something to say.”

Tang Yi stood still and didn’t move, just turned his face sideways and looked at him coldly.

“I don’t know how you are living now, and I don’t know if that Zhou Hao is a good man, but I believe in your choice, and if you really like him, then I… wish you a happy life.” What Gu Yanting said was very difficult. In fact, what he thought in his heart was exactly the opposite. Therefore, when he said this slowly, the expression on his face was very gloomy and ugly.

Tang Yi narrowed his eyes and hooked the corners of his mouth waiting for his next words.

Gu Yanting gritted his teeth. What he said next went a lot smoother, “But no matter what, I still hope we can have a basic contact. If you don’t like the relationship between friends, you can treat me as a classmate or whatever. At least let me know your news, how you are doing.”

“Then what? Tang Yi pulled back his arm and sneered, “If good, so what? If bad, so what?”

“If it’s not good…” Gu Yanting paused. “In the past two years, I have always been alone.”

—

Gu Yanting only had time to contact Fat Sod on the way home. Fat Sod was not surprised when he heard that Gu Yanting was going back. But he was surprised that Gu Yanting asked him to pick up the spare key, “Can’t you just put the spare key in the flower pot by yourself?” 

“It’s not safe there.  I have to catch a plane later and have to leave first. There are still some dishes in the kitchen, and there is also a bag of rice. You can take it and eat it. I left the phone number of the housekeeping company on the table. Please take a look for me and clean it once a week.”

“Okay okay, you have learned to be polite too.” Fat Sod tsked, “Why do you need to clean so hard? It’s not like you have anyone living there.”

Gu Yanting had already packed up his things and called for a taxi. He reported the address to the driver before saying, “Not necessarily. The money is in the drawer under the TV cabinet. By the way, I put the things for your daughter on the coffee table, ah, remember to take them yourself.”

When Gu Yanting came back and met Fat Sod, he didn’t know that he already had a child. Later, when he knew it, he went to the mall to buy a longevity lock (traditional gift for a baby) and a translucent jade Buddha. It turned out that this kind of human relationship used to be all arranged by Tang Yi. Gu Yanting had never worried about which friend he would give gifts and how much money he would pay for them. He always felt that there was nothing special about it. In the past two years he needed to come by himself and only then did he know that the most difficult thing was a “degree”.

Fat Sod agreed and said to him, “Boss, you’ve come back, we haven’t seen each other twice and you’re leaving? Hey, I thought you came back this time for Brother Tang, so you won’t leave. If I had known that you would just come and go! Why did you go and tease Brother Tang then?”

His words poured salt on Gu Yanting’s wound and his back teeth hurt a little, “I went to get a beating.”

—

When Tang Yi was carrying his things home, the back of his hand was faintly painful. The punch he gave Gu Yanting was a bit harsh, and he couldn’t stop his momentum in time and scraped the back of his hand against the wall, breaking a piece of skin. It looked a bit hideous at the moment.

When it came to fighting, Gu Yanting was not Tang Yi’s opponent at all. Tang Yi had more than ten years of one-to-many fighting experience. When he was young, he was weak, skinny and small, and was mostly beaten up. Later, when he was older, he began to fight hard, and he was quite desperate when he swung his fists. At the university, his physical development was the most obvious, and his hormone secretion was also vigorous. He was constantly angry for no reason and wanted to find someone to beat up when he had nothing to do. But when he and Gu Yanting  got together, once the two of them argued over something and got into a fight, it was always Tang Yi who would submit.

After working for a few years, Tang Yi had slacked off and went to the gym at best to build up his physique, but rarely did he train for strength. On the contrary, Gu Yanting was the opposite. Two years ago, Gu Yanting’s muscles were good enough to show off, but they had been far less toned and powerful than they were now. In the morning at campus, Gu Yanting didn’t use all his strength for that push, but Tang Yi couldn’t move him at all. However, no matter what the situation was, Tang Yi still had the upper hand with his actions.

Well, it wasn’t that he had the upper hand, it was that Gu Yanting let him hit him without even fighting back.

Tang Yi moved a bunch of pet supplies he bought into the house, and finally pulled out a bottle of Yunnan Baiyao (traditional Chinese medicine for wounds) from the drawer. After he applied the medicine, the place where the skin was abraded quickly became scabbed. When the mobile phone showed that Zhou Hao was calling, Tang Yi was frowning and considering whether to find a band-aid or something to cover the wound.

“Uncle Tang!” It turned out to be Zhou Weiwei on the other end of the phone. Tang Yi replied and heard Weiwei ask him excitedly, “Shall we go to the amusement park tomorrow? Dad is buying me a small school bag!”

Zhou Hao’s voice was faintly heard on the other end of the phone, seemingly discussing something in a low voice with Zhou Weiwei. After the two muttered a few words, Zhou Weiwei decisively replied with a ”no”. Tang Yi listened quietly. After waiting for a while, he heard Zhou Weiwei complain to him in a low voice, “Hey, I really don’t know what adults think. I don’t want a pink bag for girls.”

Tang Yi liked to listen to the child’s milky speech. At this time, Zhou Weiwei was already talking with a serious tone, but because of the loss of a front tooth, he began to lisp again.

“Then what colour do you like?” Tang Yi asked him with a smile, “Uncle Tang will give you one too.”

“Male colour,” Zhou Weiwei paused and corrected himself, “Blue, blue.”

Tang Yi couldn’t help being amused, and Zhou Weiwei also found it funny. After laughing, he whispered, “Don’t buy it, Uncle Tang, I have my own money!”

1. Basically, “have a nice trip” is 一路顺风, with 顺风 meaning “tailwind”. Tang Yi uses 一路平安, without any tailwind, 平安 meaning “safe and sound”

Previous / ToC / Next