Chapter 119: I Want to Tell You Something Romantic.
They set off for the school to attend the dance.
When they arrived, it was still early, and the sky remained bright. Huo Niansheng accompanied Chen Wengang for a stroll around the school. The campus was lush with vegetation, and even in winter, there were still many evergreen plants providing splashes of green. Chen Wengang had taken him on a tour during the summer, and this time, they passed by the art school’s exhibition hall again and went inside to take a look; the student works had been replaced with a new batch.
It felt like history repeating itself. When they left, they bumped into Mu Qing at the same old spot. The students intending to attend the dance that night were all wearing formal suits and bow ties, making them easy to identify. Chen Wengang asked, “Are you going to dance, too?”
Mu Qing glanced at him indifferently. “Why? Am I not allowed to?”
Chen Wengang smiled. “Of course. See you tonight.”
Mu Qing was still followed by that attentive, wealthy suitor, who looked at Chen Wengang with a hesitant expression. Then, the suitor glanced at Huo Niansheng—perhaps out of a guilty conscience, Chen Wengang wasn’t sure—fearing that Chen Wengang would complain to Huo Niansheng?
The Academic Committee’s investigation into Chen Wengang was still ongoing, but his steadfast Professor Kong had fought off all critics single-handedly. With Professor Kong involved, Chen Wengang wasn’t worried about being framed. In fact, if it hadn’t been for this encounter, he would have almost forgotten about it.
After they walked past, Huo Niansheng asked, “What was that about?”
Chen Wengang thought for a moment and told him about being reported. Huo Niansheng realized what happened, turned his head to look back, his eyes cold. “Why didn’t you tell me sooner?”
Chen Wengang was calm as he looked back on it. “You were missing and your life was uncertain at the time. I almost wanted to just follow you; I didn’t care about anything else.”
He smiled again. “But the professor has already stood up for me. There’s really nothing to worry about. Don’t go making a big scene; making a mountain out of a molehill wouldn’t do me any good. Be careful not to make it backfire and make it look like I really am just a ‘connected’ student. I’m afraid the old gentleman will chase me out the door to beat me.”
Huo Niansheng kissed him. “Then we’ll wait and see. Just know that I’m your backup.”
When night fell, the school auditorium was decorated in shades of gold and red. Chen Wengang appeared with Huo Niansheng. They met classmates who greeted them, many curiously eyeing the impeccably dressed Huo Niansheng—there were students from freshman to senior year present, and he looked remarkably refined and handsome amidst their fresh, naive faces. Huo Niansheng was watching them too; despite everyone being elaborately dressed, looking around, some were still wearing sneakers under their suit trousers.
Not everyone attending knew how to dance; some had come two hours early for a crash course organized by the Student Union. He stood with his hands in his pockets, watching them learn from the edge of the dance floor.
At 7:00 PM, the melodious, soothing music began. Chen Wengang walked over, and Huo Niansheng led him onto the floor. Their feet slid across the floor, chasing, retreating, advancing—like a game that didn’t care about the past. Chen Wengang rested his hands on Huo Niansheng’s back, and Huo Niansheng laughed, asking, “I thought you didn’t like showing off your relationship at school?”
Chen Wengang laughed too, clarifying, “I just don’t like being intimate in places where people are supposed to be studying. But today is an exception. It’s a happy day, and everyone who has a partner brought them. It doesn’t look too conspicuous for us to blend in.”
Huo Niansheng said, “I heard someone say that a man who doesn’t want to admit he’s taken is either up to no good or has a backup plan.”
Chen Wengang winked at him. “Do you think that’s my situation?”
Huo Niansheng leaned in close. “If one day, you really liked someone else—” Chen Wengang stared at him. He paused. “I should be generous and say I’d let you go, but thinking about it carefully, playing the ‘good guy’ isn’t in my nature. I would have to…”
Whatever he would “have to” do was drowned out by the music. Meeting his gaze in the crowd, Chen Wengang smiled at him, his eyes shining like stars.
The dance lasted for over two hours. Toward the end, someone mischievous sped up the tempo, and the music turned into a high-energy dance track. Some students who couldn’t keep up began to move wildly, laughing at each other; the atmosphere reached a fever pitch, and for a while, the dance floor was filled with a joyous, chaotic flurry of motion.
Chen Wengang sat on the sidelines to rest and saw a message on his phone from Chen Xiangling, saying she planned to go back to her tutoring classes. Chen Wengang lowered his head to reply. Huo Niansheng was beside him, chatting with a student who had come over to strike up a conversation. The student was curious about him—knowing he was Chen Wengang’s partner and that he was wealthy beyond imagination. This kind of wealthy elite usually only lived in the media; this was their first time seeing one in reality. Huo Niansheng was the type who could chat with anyone as long as he felt like it.
Chen Wengang looked back and tapped him. Outside the window, obscured by curtains, red and blue lights were flashing brilliantly.
A few others noticed it, too, and whispered, “What’s going on out there?”
Several nearby students crowded over, looking out in confusion. It seemed like an ambulance had arrived. Someone said they didn’t know which student had collapsed—the academic pressure at elite schools was high, and just in the first half of the year, a doctoral student had suddenly fainted from overwork. Most of the others were immersed in the music and didn’t notice the minor disturbance outside.
Huo Niansheng also looked up, saying he would go take a look, but Chen Wengang held him back. “Forget it.”
Since the medical staff had arrived, it meant someone was already being helped. Soon, the ambulance drove away with its lights flashing.
The next day, Chen Wengang heard from his classmates that an outsider had broken into the area outside the auditorium during the New Year’s dance and injured someone. Huo Niansheng’s expression didn’t change when he heard the news; he simply acknowledged it and went out to tend to his rose bushes.
The following day, Lawyer Zhu came to Jiangchao Street with new information—the person injured was Mu Qing, and the person who hired the assailant was He Wanxin.
Chen Wengang served him tea and sat on the sofa. “Determined that quickly?”
Lawyer Zhu had already been to the police station. “The person who committed the assault was just a street punk looking to hide out of town. He really underestimated the current police system; he was arrested the moment he arrived at the train station. According to his confession, it was this Miss He who gave him the target’s photograph.”
Chen Wengang gripped his cup, unable to fathom what grudge existed between them. “Could he have mistaken the target?”
“That’s the prevailing theory. After all, Mr. Mu and you look quite similar, and it was dark. How could he have known there was someone who looked so much like you?”
“She was aiming for me from the beginning.”
“That’s possible. Either way, combined with the previous evidence, we will definitely file a public prosecution against her this time.”
“Then he… I mean Mu Qing,” Chen Wengang frowned. “How is he now?”
“A slash right here, quite deep.” Lawyer Zhu gestured to his face. “Her request to the suspect was to disfigure him.”
The living room went cold for a moment. Huo Niansheng walked over, sat on the arm of the sofa next to Chen Wengang, and stroked his soft hair. “Alright, don’t think about it. I was with you the whole time yesterday; there was no opportunity for anyone to actually get to you.”
“Yeah,” Chen Wengang held his hand. “I know.”
Lawyer Zhu wanted to say something else, but noticing Huo Niansheng’s signal, he closed his mouth. The two stood up and went outside to talk.
Mu Qing was hospitalized for his injuries. The news spread within their social circle, and Zheng Bingyi, as his uncle, went to the hospital to visit his nephew. That day, Aunt Lin and Zheng Baoqiu also went, bringing supplements and a fruit basket, with Chen Wengang following behind.
Reasonably speaking, he should make this trip, as the other party had suffered an unmerited disaster because of him. But Chen Wengang hadn’t intended to go in; he figured Mu Qing wouldn’t want to see him. It wasn’t until a nurse stuck her head out to say that the patient had seen him and asked him to come in.
By then, Zheng Bingyi and the others had already left; the two of them were the only ones left in the room. Mu Qing’s face was covered in dressings and bandages, revealing only a pair of eyes filled with resentment.
He mocked Chen Wengang: “You are truly lucky. You’re always so lucky.”
Chen Wengang poured a glass of water and set it down, not knowing how to answer. Instead, Mu Qing moved first, pointing at his own face. “The muscle tissue was damaged; there will be permanent scarring. The doctor says the scar removal can only lighten it a little; recovering to how it was before is impossible.”
He slapped the bed hard. “You must be feeling smug! I heard! I took that knife for you!”
Chen Wengang listened to him vent until he finished before leaving the ward, offering no rebuttal. In this situation, anything he said would be inappropriate and only seem like kicking someone while they were down. Besides, he didn’t want to argue with an emotionally distressed injured person; it was pointless.
When he walked out of the ward, Chen Wengang ran into the wealthy suitor walking in with a bouquet of flowers. However, according to Zheng Baoqiu, by the time they went to help Mu Qing with his discharge, the suitor had stopped showing up; they must have broken up.
In the blink of an eye, the various cases moved forward simultaneously for two months. The Wang family was a lost cause; without the shelter of the uncles, Wang Qiming was now as miserable as he had once been arrogant. At the same time, both He siblings were facing criminal charges. For the media, this was naturally a huge spectacle. Whether the headlines wrote about the He family’s failure to discipline their children or lamented the power of genetics, it was up to the journalists and editors to show their skills.
Huo Niansheng rarely mentioned these things at home. He was like someone completely uninvolved, only discussing them with Chen Wengang when he happened to see them on the news. But sometimes, Chen Wengang would see him in the study on the phone, his feet kicked up on the desk, his chair tilted back, before he would return to bed as if nothing happened. Chen Wengang gave him his trust; aside from the people and things he cared about himself, he didn’t ask much about the rest.
Then there was the matter of Second Uncle Huo. He was almost certainly going to prison. After the various storms, the foundation naturally had to undergo some restructuring. All the accounts had to be audited and verified, and amidst this movement, Huo Zhenfei conveyed his father’s intention to take the opportunity to “clean out” the staff. Personnel came and went, and Huo Lingchong finally submitted a resignation application.
Conversely, Chen Wengang remained there, working. He even received a promotion, taking over the appointment as Secretary-General of the Foundation from Huo Lingchong. The foundation adjusted its strategic direction, and to salvage the corporate image, they launched a new public welfare project—a school for the blind and a guide dog training base. Chen Wengang had actually been hesitant at first, but hearing about the guide dog base touched his heart. He couldn’t resist his love for dogs, so he agreed.
Behind the scenes, Huo Niansheng actually still had his reservations, laughing, “And what about me? The foundation named after me? Are we not doing that anymore?”
Chen Wengang laughed, cupping his face. “I have to focus on my studies for the next few years. There’s a long road ahead; we’ll talk about it after I graduate.”
He kissed Huo Niansheng on the cheek, and Huo Niansheng let him do as he pleased.
Most of the time, they now lived on Jiangchao Street, occasionally staying at the apartment in the city center. Every day they went to work, came home, traveled back and forth to school, cooked together—if they made too much, they sent it to the neighbors, and then returned with bowls of home-cooked food from other people’s homes.
Compared to his former life, Huo Niansheng’s lifestyle had become visibly more low-key. He was like someone who had distanced himself from the media lens and public eye overnight. He rarely spent extravagantly at auctions, no longer frequented nightclubs or bars, and only occasionally took his luxury cars out—and every time he did, he and Chen Wengang were together.
In their spare time, they spent more of it walking the streets. Chen Wengang loved weaving through the nooks and crannies. They wouldn’t even drive; they just walked, sometimes for an entire day. Huo Niansheng discovered that he had a special fondness for drilling into the most obscure corners—overhead were power lines and water pipes, mottled blue bricks, uneven steps, narrow alleys winding back and forth; the more complex the terrain, the more he favored it. Once, they even had to pass through a family’s living room. The family, four generations living under one roof, actually agreed after some persuasion and even gave Chen Wengang a piece of fruit.
Chen Wengang chatted with the old people and children in the house, took a photo of the whole family, and promised to mail it back to them.
This was a new hobby of his—Chen Wengang had bought a second-hand Leica film camera and carried it with him. He bought many rolls of film and photographed the places he walked. Not just scenes; his photos always included people. He observed all sorts of people and captured them in his lens: an elderly woman selling fish in the market with grey hair, children chasing each other in mud pits after school with their bags thrown aside, two burly men arguing over trifles on the side of the road, hands with dried orange peels, and all kinds of expressions of laughter and anger.
Recently, there was finally a photo of Huo Niansheng, taken by a paparazzo who had caught them holding hands and dating in the pier area. The old pier area was dilapidated, filled with desolate, abandoned houses. It had been raining coldly that day, and Chen Wengang and Huo Niansheng were taking shelter under the eaves, inevitably leaving their hair and clothes half-wet and looking disheveled and miserable. The paparazzo posted it on his personal account with great enthusiasm—not as formal news, but just poking fun at whether the once-dashing Young Master Huo was going bankrupt, saying “a couple in poverty faces nothing but misery.” Of course, this paparazzi was specifically for “The Onion”-style fake news, and most viewers just smiled.
In reality, Chen Wengang had taken Huo Niansheng to find the place he had rented in his previous life. He did find it; it was occupied by another scavenger. Chen Wengang raised his camera outside and took a picture of the wall and window.
Winter was more than half over, and the Spring Festival was approaching. The nanny came over to help, giving the old Chen house a thorough cleaning from top to bottom. Huo Niansheng looked quite the part, processing New Year’s goods in the kitchen, while Chen Wengang stayed in the study, listening to the sound of splashing water in the courtyard outside.
After that photo of the pier area was developed, he pressed it under the glass on his desk. He spread out the paper again, unscrewed his fountain pen, and the nib paused on the paper. Huo Niansheng had noticed that he had been writing and drawing on paper a lot lately, but Chen Wengang had never shown him.
In his previous life, the only thing Huo Niansheng had left behind was his suicide note. Chen Wengang, letting go of past grievances, intended to write a love letter to Huo Niansheng. But after much painting, erasing, and weighing, it was always unsatisfactory. He crumpled the paper into a ball; no matter what, he was too embarrassed to take it out.
Huo Niansheng called out from outside; he had cooked beef in soy sauce and was asking Chen Wengang to come out and taste it. Chen Wengang responded and simply closed his fountain pen. As he stood up, he knocked over a book resting on the edge of the desk. He bent down to pick it up, and the spine hit the floor, opening the pages: “I hope you know that you have always been the last dream in the depths of my soul.”
Chen Wengang walked out with a smile. He hugged Huo Niansheng around the waist from behind. “Don’t move. I want to tell you something romantic.”
🥺🥺🥺🥺🥺😢😢😢😢🥹🥹🥹🥹🥹☹️Ahhh, if only life was this peaceful and romantic:(