With the earring on, Xie Lin’s outfit looked even more flamboyant. He already possessed a face that looked “trouble-making,” and with him being so attentive—constantly plugging a piece of fruit on a toothpick and handing it over—Chi Qing began to get the illusion that he should be paying for this service.
If he weren’t a consultant, with a face like that, he could probably collect plenty of transfers just by strolling around outside.
…And the most striking earring on his person was one that he himself had put on for him.
Chi Qing felt the temperature in the private room rising higher and higher. Finally, he refused a piece of fruit Xie Lin was offering on a toothpick: “I’m going to the restroom.”
After Chi Qing left, Wu Zhi reached out from the side: “Brother Xie Lin, I want to eat fruit, too.”
Xie Lin popped the fruit into his own mouth and tossed a toothpick at him: “Don’t you have hands?”
Wu Zhi looked like he was about to cry: “You’ve changed. You weren’t like this before… You used to care about whether I was cold, hungry, or in a bad mood.”
Wu Zhi wasn’t lying.
Xie Lin’s emotional intelligence used to be like a free-for-all giveaway. Sometimes, when faced with those “affectionate” eyes, Wu Zhi would wonder for a second about the nature of his relationship with this brother.
Xie Lin was adept at creating illusions, and he didn’t discriminate by gender. When they had just met, Wu Zhi didn’t know this was his personality. After hanging out for a few days, he held onto his belt and said to Xie Lin with a serious face: “Uh, there’s something I need to clarify beforehand: I’m straight.”
It wasn’t until he heard that sentence that the flawless, perfectly-measured smile on Xie Lin’s face finally cracked: “Are you sick in the head?”
It was the first time Wu Zhi had encountered such a thing, and he fidgeted: “I was just reminding you.”
Xie Lin chuckled, but the words that came out of his mouth weren’t as warm as his face looked: “Pay for your own meal, go pick up that woman yourself, and then give me three minutes to disappear from my sight.”
Wu Zhi: “…”
The microphone returned to Ji Mingrui’s hands.
The high-decibel music intro drowned out what Xie Lin said next.
“The past is the past. Now, I have someone I care about,” Xie Lin said in a volume only he could hear. “…Who has the energy to worry about you?”
By the time Chi Qing returned from washing his hands, the group had switched to a different form of entertainment.
The microphone was tossed aside, and the five of them were huddled in a circle.
Xie Lin had rolled up his sleeves, holding a deck of cards and shuffling them with fluid, practiced movements: “Truth or Dare—give me some face and join in?”
Ji Mingrui wanted to tell him to just let him sit on the sidelines; he never participated in these kinds of games. However, Xie Lin finished shuffling, spread the cards face down on the table, and threw out a “You wouldn’t be afraid to play, would you?”—successfully achieving his goal.
Chi Qing: “Who said I’m afraid?”
Perhaps it was just Ji Mingrui’s imagination, but he felt that Chi Qing’s personality was much more “outgoing” than before.
Chi Qing rarely participated in such team-building activities and didn’t know how the game worked. He drew a few cards at random, and after comparing the numbers, Chi Qing had the lowest score.
Everyone’s gaze turned to him.
“Which one do you pick?” Xie Lin asked.
Chi Qing released the cards in his hand, compared the risk levels of the two options, and said: “Truth.”
“Alright.”
Xie Lin handed over Ji Mingrui’s phone, which had a related app that could randomly generate truth questions.
The text on the screen scrolled through several options before slowly stopping, revealing a line: Tell us a secret of yours.
The atmosphere-setter Wu Zhi began cheering from the sidelines: “Come on, come on!”
A secret.
Anything that could be spoken aloud wasn’t really a secret.
If the secrets Chi Qing carried were spoken aloud, he would probably be labeled a lunatic and sent to a psychiatric hospital the next second. Moreover, he had been hiding them for so long that even if he had the chance to say them, he wouldn’t know where to start.
Chi Qing glanced at the party organizer who was cheering him on: “You’re having a pretty happy ‘First Heartbreak Anniversary,’ aren’t you?”
Wu Zhi choked: “Actually, I’m just forcing a smile and pretending to be strong. We’re all adults; an adult’s true emotions are rarely written on their face.”
A bet is a bet.
Chi Qing asked about the game rules: “What happens if I don’t tell?”
Wu Zhi pushed the glasses of beer on the table over, enjoying the chaos and smiling wickedly: “If you don’t say it, you have to be punished with a drink.”
He had completely forgotten that when they first met, Chi Qing had said in a bar that he couldn’t drink.
Chi Qing stared at the glass of beer and thought to himself: I really shouldn’t have played any games with them.
It was a stalemate; neither option was viable.
Just as he was about to say “I can’t drink, let’s change the penalty,” Xie Lin’s hand, adorned with several rings, reached out from his side and picked up the glass in front of Chi Qing. The man’s distinct knuckles gripped the mist-chilled glass.
When Xie Lin had only worn one ring before, he didn’t look like a “non-single” person at all. Now that he was wearing several, he looked even less like one.
Wu Zhi’s eyes widened: “No cheating like that!”
Before he could finish his sentence, the glass in Xie Lin’s hand was already empty.
Xie Lin placed the empty glass back on the table, face unreddened and breathing steady after finishing the drink: “If he loses, it counts as mine. I’ll drink for him.”
Wu Zhi: “That’s no fun…”
Wu Zhi changed his tune as he said this, holding up two fingers: “If you drink for him, you have to drink two.”
Xie Lin didn’t usually drink with them; he was extremely self-disciplined. He would always just take a sip and then sit on the side playing with his phone; it was rare to catch an opportunity to force him to drink.
But tonight, it was as if Chi Qing hadn’t checked his horoscope before leaving the house—his luck was worse with every round.
Of the pile of drinks on the table, Xie Lin drank half the row.
Chi Qing always avoided alcohol, and it was the first time someone had blocked drinks for him like this. After two rounds, he wanted to quit the game: “Forget it.”
Xie Lin: “It’s fine, you don’t have to drink.”
Chi Qing’s tone carried a hint of worry he hadn’t noticed himself: “You’ve drunk a whole bottle.”
Xie Lin shook the remaining alcohol in his glass: “I can drink a few more bottles. Don’t worry, people like us—playboys who only know how to eat, drink, and play—can drink alcohol like water. Unlike you, a one-shot lightweight.”
“If you really feel bad, that’s fine too,” Xie Lin’s Adam’s apple bobbed as he downed the rest of the drink, then hooked his finger at Chi Qing. “Come here.”
Xie Lin’s cool palm landed on the top of Chi Qing’s head, rubbing his hair gently.
Chi Qing: “…?”
Xie Lin: “I’ll punish you, and that’ll make us even.”
The second round of the game had a different method.
It was changed to guessing whether the opponent’s cards were higher or lower than the ones in your hand. Guessing correctly meant winning.
While Xie Lin went to the restroom, Chi Qing hesitated for a long time, then quietly took off his gloves.
Wu Zhi had spent too much time in entertainment venues; he played every game with ease. His cards were clearly low, but he could fool Ji Mingrui into a stupor: “Let me tell you, I advise you to be cautious. Don’t blame your brother for not warning you.”
Wu Zhi was really getting into it. He felt a great sense of achievement for having forced Xie Lin to drink so much.
His hand hung down at his side; he didn’t notice the subtle touch, like a feather landing lightly.
[You must think I’m holding high cards right now, hahahaha! I’ve never lost at this kind of game!]
Chi Qing lowered his eyes, not even sure what he was doing himself.
He clearly hated touching others, nor did he like reading others, but there was still a thought in the depths of his heart—a thought that said he didn’t want to lose, didn’t want Xie Lin to drink any more.
He withdrew his hand, and while Ji Mingrui was still hesitating, he bet “Low.”
Wu Zhi went silent: “Do you want to reconsider?”
Chi Qing: “No need.”
Wu Zhi gripped the cards in his hand tightly: “My cards are really high.”
Chi Qing: “Oh.”
Wu Zhi: “…”
When Xie Lin returned, Wu Zhi had been forced to drink five or six glasses: “This guy is a bug, did he hack the game? How does he guess right every time—” The retaliated-upon Wu Zhi wailed, “This isn’t scientific! By probability, I should have won once! Does he have mind-reading powers?!”
Xie Lin supported Wu Zhi’s shoulder and pushed him away. When he heard the words “mind-reading powers,” he paused. Then, his gaze swept over Chi Qing’s ungloved hand, and he changed the subject: “What are you talking about? How many glasses have you had?”
Wu Zhi gestured a number.
It was exactly the same number of glasses he had forced Xie Lin to drink earlier—not one more, not one less.
It was a coincidence that made him have to think too much.
At the same time, he worried if he was overthinking.
So, liking someone makes a person braver than ever before, and also turns them into a coward in an instant.
Since Xie Lin had been drinking and Chi Qing didn’t drive, the two of them had to find a designated driver to take Xie Lin’s car back.
The two remained silent the entire way.
But within this silence, a secret that was hard to conceal seemed to be hidden.
The car slowly entered the garage. After arriving at the destination, the designated driver returned the keys to Xie Lin.
After the driver left, the air in the car became increasingly thin. Chi Qing caught a hint of the smell of alcohol and tobacco on Xie Lin, mixed with some lingering perfume—these scents blended into a decadent, ambiguous atmosphere.
Chi Qing’s bangs obscured his eyes. Resting at home for a while had made him look even paler. At this hour, the underground garage had no lights on, and he sat in the darkness, looking like a walking vampire.
Chi Qing opened his mouth, thanking him in a unique way: “Although you insisted on blocking those drinks for me on your own terms today… I still want to thank you. In the future, you don’t need to block anything for me; I can handle it myself. I don’t want to owe anyone favors—don’t let it happen again.”
Xie Lin’s mind was occupied by only six words.
…
Damn.
Kind of cute.
Chi Qing was often teased for having strange tastes, but little did people know that Xie Lin’s own taste wasn’t exactly “normal” in a certain sense either.
Chi Qing didn’t want to stay in the car any longer; he just wanted to go back and think carefully about where he had gone wrong recently. After touching Wu Zhi earlier, he had washed his hands six times in the restroom.
He wasn’t a normal person to begin with, and now he could distinguish even less whether he was “normal” or “more abnormal.”
However, just as his hand touched the door handle, the person beside him suddenly moved.
Xie Lin was jumping back and forth between “warrior” and “coward,” his heart tossing and turning—a demeanor that didn’t match his flamboyant outfit today at all. Finally, without even thinking, the moment Chi Qing prepared to open the door, he grabbed Chi Qing’s hand.
In the narrow confines of the car, Chi Qing heard the man say, like a surrender:
[Don’t leave yet.]
The man’s voice trailed off low.
[I know you can hear me.]
