DLRAS Chapter 25

Chapter 25: Who has such an honor?

It was that one sentence that brought out more tears afterward.

In the adult world, getting hurt does not always make you cry. Often, the dam bursts only in the moment you receive a little bit of care.

To Huo Niansheng, there was no sense of these fine distinctions.

He only understood that the kid had some grievances of his own—after all, Chen Wengang was seven years younger than he was. They were separated by more than two generational gaps at three years per gap. When Huo Niansheng had gone abroad for university, Chen Wengang had probably still been in primary school. Every time he thought of it like that, it did not feel wrong at all to see him as a kid. With Chen Wengang leaning on his shoulder and his shoulders shaking, Huo Niansheng thought: what sort of sadness could he have?

Was it being forced to break up? Was it self-pity over his background? Or being harshly criticized by someone?

Or some other reason, he had been unhappy?

The shirt over his chest became damp, warm at first, then cold. Huo Niansheng patted his back.

The suddenness and injustice of this grief were such that even Huo Niansheng could not help but feel a bit soft-hearted.

In his mind, an image rose of Chen Wengang walking alone down a bleak street, carrying medicine from the hospital.

Beneath that mild, calm mask, there was always a hidden tautness, secrets, and burdens he was unwilling to show to others.

Curious glances came from passing students, so Huo Niansheng led him out of the exhibition hall.

They found a stone bench behind the building and sat down.

The sunlight shone warm on them, gentle and friendly.

In the soft breeze, Chen Wengang forced his emotions back under control.

Huo Niansheng handed him a handkerchief to wipe his tears. By now his head had cleared, and he held the handkerchief in his fingers, thinking apologetically about what he should do with it. Last time, on that rainy day, he had gotten Huo Niansheng’s jacket dirty and even vomited the moment he got out of the car.

Ironically, he thought, if Huo Niansheng suffered from obsessive cleanliness, then this life’s fate between them would probably truly be over.

It seemed that every time he met this man, something unexpected happened.

Or, more often, it was just him losing control on his own. Even Chen Wengang himself had gotten used to it.

He tried his best to show a flawless side of himself in front of everyone, but heaven refused to arrange things that way. Perhaps it thought he was too tired.

Yet deep down, he also understood that Huo Niansheng was different. This was someone who would not despise him, someone tolerant and gentle, safe, and capable of accepting him.

At least so far, Huo Niansheng had not shown the slightest sign of being a germaphobe. He simply took the handkerchief back. “Give it to me.”

Meekly, quietly, Chen Wengang sat beside him. With his shoulders drooping and his hands resting on the bench, he looked rather lonely.

Everything about his aura gave people a sense of fragile stillness—like a will-o’-the-wisp in the night, drifting and flickering, faint and distant.

Huo Niansheng had no defense against this. He was, quite simply, weak to it.

He took out a cigarette case, paused, and asked first, “Is this okay?”

Chen Wengang nodded.

“Want one?”

Chen Wengang shook his head.

Huo Niansheng laughed lightly and suddenly remembered. “Of course. A good student like you wouldn’t have a smoking habit.”

“I do.” Unexpectedly, Chen Wengang’s lips curved. “But there was a time when someone forced me to quit, and after that I didn’t want to anymore.”

“So obedient, huh?” Huo Niansheng bent his head to light the cigarette. “Who has that much face?”

But this time, Chen Wengang refused to answer.

He played at being mysterious, and for the moment, even Huo Niansheng could not guess.

A student who wanted to smoke could not be policed even by ten heads of discipline put together. As for someone who could play the emotional card with him?

The first person who came to mind for Huo Niansheng was Zheng Yucheng.

But Zheng Yucheng smoked himself. They had all gone through their teenage years like that. They all knew very well how things worked.

Huo Niansheng could even imagine that it had probably been Zheng Yucheng who first taught Chen Wengang how to puff. In some alley behind the school, or in a villa attic somewhere, the two boys had secretly shared that forbidden little point of fire.

Chen Wengang’s gaze drifted off into the distance. A bird flew across the sky above.

Watching him in profile, the sunlight turned his eyes the color of light amber, with a world all his own hidden inside.

For the moment, all Huo Niansheng could do was stand at the edge of that world, with no way in. Yet he neither sulked nor felt impatient.

Casually, he slowly exhaled a ring of smoke. He could feel the body beside him relax a little. Chen Wengang’s eyes shifted to the hand holding the cigarette. Catching that look, Huo Niansheng suddenly smiled.

He brought that hand closer in silent invitation.

And, as if guided by some unseen impulse, Chen Wengang took a drag from it.

Their relationship had not really progressed to that level yet, but somehow it did not feel out of place.

It was as natural as a young couple sharing the same bowl of green bean soup in a dessert shop.

Retracting his arm, Huo Niansheng took another puff himself. “Doesn’t this mean I’ve led you astray again?”

Softly, slowly, with a tone that sounded almost as if he were negotiating, Chen Wengang said, “It’s alright if it’s only once in a while, isn’t it?”

But there was no knowing who he was negotiating with—Huo Niansheng, or himself.

As the coal burned down the cigarette a little further, Huo Niansheng flicked the ash with practiced ease, careful not to let any fall onto the expensive fabric of his trousers.

Up to now, there had always been some delicate game between the two of them. Sometimes, to Huo Niansheng, it felt as if Chen Wengang were some small animal hiding beneath a car. He would place the bait in his open palm, and the other would inch forward slowly, testing. Half wary, half afraid, yet filled with a baseless sense of trust in him. The contradiction defied common sense, but did not feel at all unpleasant.

Not to mention the strangely familiar aura he carried.

Quietly, Huo Niansheng laughed to himself. Maybe they really had been fated in a previous life.

As for Chen Wengang, he felt that he did genuinely like him.

And not only in a purely flirtatious way. There was also the kind of liking that made him want to do something to make the other person happy.

Yet he was no saint. His so-called “liking” was still for the sake of pleasure, never accompanied by thoughts of any future.

During the previous month, when he had not gone looking for him, there had indeed been occasional moments when he thought: maybe I should let him go. Someone like Chen Wengang was clearly the type to fall in and never be able to climb out. He took things too seriously. That was nothing but trouble.

Even Yu Shanding had reminded him that the medication he took could be habit-forming and that people with emotional issues were often difficult to handle. What if things escalated into threats of life and death?

To deliberately attract someone like that was, to some degree, a little cruel.

So, passing by today, on a whim, Huo Niansheng had thought to just settle the matter. Give him the watch and treat it as buying his happiness.

He could meet him with a harmless face, chat, walk around the campus, and even take the book away as a memento. And that would be that.

But when those tears on his chest cooled, with his arms still wrapped around the man in front of him, how could he possibly let go then?

Or rather, the moment that “Niansheng” came through the phone earlier, drawn out so softly, he had already decided to go back on his own decision.

“Do all art types fixate on these love and romance things?” he said, bringing the conversation back around to the piece from earlier.

“Hmm?” asked Chen Wengang. “What about art types?”

“I thought that kid was pretty interesting. Sculpt a head, stick it in a jar of blood, call it love and happiness. Is that what they call avant-garde?”

“Or maybe they’re just very young,” said Chen Wengang. “So they have the nerve to say people only become truly in love once they’re dead.”

“Hey, now. He’s a year ahead of you. Aren’t you just as young?” Huo Niansheng teased him.

“If I could choose, I’d rather be the one who goes first,” said Chen Wengang, answering something else entirely as he carried on in his own line of thought. He even placed a hand lightly on the side of his neck, as if weighing the weight of his skull. “Otherwise… the one who lives has to carry it for a lifetime.”

His tone was light, but his face held some expression that was hard to define—nothing like mawkishness or feigned melancholy.

He even felt jealous that the young artist could so casually toss around words about death.

How could one speak so lightly?

Had he been through it?

Did he know how many painful years the living had to struggle through?

Did he really understand what it meant to hold his beloved’s head in his arms?

He did not. That was why he dared.

Truly, a newborn calf is afraid of no tigers.

His heart was full of all these tangled thoughts, and for no clear reason, the look on his face stirred something in Huo Niansheng.

Suddenly, with the hand that was free of the cigarette, he covered Chen Wengang’s eyes.

Something inside him—a voice that sounded like his own but was not—spoke in that same flippant tone. “Don’t overthink it. Art is art. It’s just for fun. Love, whatever kind, is all empty anyway. No matter who disappears, you still have to live well for yourself.”

Even he did not know where those words had come from. It was not like him at all.

There really was something off with the energy in this exhibition hall.

Pulling his hand down, instead it was Chen Wengang who smiled. “You took it seriously? Don’t. I was only talking.”

Then Huo Niansheng stood up and glanced around. Spotting a black trash bin in the distance, he stubbed out the cigarette and walked over to throw it away. When he came back, he reached a hand out toward Chen Wengang.

Understanding, Chen Wengang took his hand and let himself be pulled up off the bench.

Huo Niansheng did not have that much idle time to waste. Checking his watch, he felt a touch of regret. “We can only get this far today. I have to go.”

He might act as if life were only a game, but he was not purely an idle rich boy. He was busy enough that even finding time for this unscheduled visit had been a whim. He could not linger here forever. Chen Wengang understood. “I’ll walk you back to the parking lot.”

There was longing in his eyes.

Huo Niansheng paused, then patted his back like one would a child. “You’re only this stressed because you insist on keeping yourself so busy. You need to balance work and rest.” Then, with rare gentleness, he added, “When I come back, I’ll take you out to have some fun. We can call a few friends along too.”

“Where are you going?”

“Zhangcheng. The new CEO of the company there just took over, so I have to go check on things.”

Suddenly, Chen Wengang opened his arms and hugged him. “Have a safe trip.”

Through the fabric, he quietly yearned for the warmth of that embrace.

And Huo Niansheng did not push him away.

After a long moment, he laughed. “Reluctant to let me go? Then how did you stay so calm and never contact me for a whole month?”

Breathing in the scent of him, mixed with faint tobacco and cologne, Chen Wengang felt at peace.

They circled around from the back of the exhibition hall to the front entrance, but had barely taken a few steps when they unexpectedly ran into a familiar face.

Under a tree, Mu Qing was talking with a few classmates. When he looked up, he saw the two of them.

Pretending not to see them at all would be weird, so he said goodbye to his friends and walked over. He and Chen Wengang exchanged a nod.

But with Huo Niansheng, his attitude was far more wary, and he called out obediently, “Brother Huo.”

For this familiar acquaintance who somewhat resembled Chen Wengang, one could not say that Huo Niansheng felt any particular fondness. The little, childish attempt at imitation was all but see-through in his eyes. When children tried to play mind games with adults, adults could only be amused.

Hands in his pockets, he looked Mu Qing over, a habitual hint of mockery curling at the corners of his mouth.

Mu Qing’s gaze slid back and forth between him and Chen Wengang. “And what are you two…?”

The way he looked at them was sticky, carrying an unmistakably unkind curiosity.

He probably thought he had hidden it well. But Huo Niansheng was not inclined to give him that face.

Suddenly, a large hand appeared in front of his eyes. With a sharp snap, it cracked its fingers, making him flinch and jerk back in shock, his neck shrinking in a way that made him look comical.

At the same time, he heard Huo Niansheng’s mocking laughter. “Seen enough? Want to take a photo while you’re at it?”

Mu Qing’s expression twisted with embarrassment. The flush on his face came and went until at last he dropped his eyes, frowning as if he were the injured one. “I wasn’t…”

“Your graduation show’s pretty good. We just went in to have a look,” Huo Niansheng said, pointing at the entrance. “If you want to look, you should do it inside.”

Then, pointedly, he added, “They have photography too.”

On that level, any air of coolness Mu Qing tried to maintain was shattered to pieces.

Watching them walk away, he looked down and fiddled with his phone, quietly deleting the photos he had taken in secret.

Only once they were some distance away did Chen Wengang speak. “No need to stoop to his level.”

Smiling, Huo Niansheng said, “My dear, if you want to be a gentleman, you still have to let someone else be the scoundrel. Aren’t you happy someone stood up for you?”

Staring straight ahead, eyes dark and calm, Chen Wengang walked for a while. Then he said softly, “Thank you.”

With an arm around him, Huo Niansheng added, “If you need anything, go to Lawyer Zhu, alright?”

It did not surprise Chen Wengang that he had guessed—he did not even ask how—and simply answered, “Alright.”

“Standing up for someone” was not really a phrase that existed in Chen Wengang’s vocabulary.

Earlier, when Huo Niansheng and Mu Qing had been face-to-face, there had been a moment when he feared that Huo Niansheng would do something excessive again.

And he did say “again,” because this was not just paranoia. In his past life, he had once caught Huo Niansheng bullying Mu Qing—

Looking back on it now, it was hard not to laugh and cry at the same time. Mu Qing had been floating in a swimming pool—not the deep end, but the shallow one—while bodyguards stood all around on the edge. Each of them held water guns and U-shaped poles, and no matter which direction Mu Qing tried to swim in, they herded him back like ducks.

Standing at the edge, Huo Niansheng watched like it was a show. When he had seen enough, he asked his bodyguards, “Has he decided to apologize yet?”

Mu Qing’s skin was wrinkled white from soaking, and he suddenly let out a sharp, piercing scream. “I won’t apologize! Why should I apologize?!”

Squatting at the edge, Huo Niansheng said, “Still haven’t thought it through? That’s fine. Take your time. Stay in the water a little longer and clear your head.”

Mu Qing slapped the water hysterically, sending it splashing toward the shore. “I just don’t understand! He has the same background as me, so what exactly makes Chen Wengang so much better? Why does everyone like him?! Pity him?! I’m not convinced! I hate him! I hate him!”

That little farce had ended the moment Huo Niansheng noticed that Chen Wengang was nearby.

He pushed him back inside and asked why he had come.

“Is this your way of standing up for me?” Chen Wengang asked.

Pressing him against the wall, Huo Niansheng openly sought credit. “What, you’re not happy about it?”

At a loss for words, Chen Wengang could not answer. But Huo Niansheng was determined to keep going. “You’ve really never wanted to get back at the people you hate?”

Before Chen Wengang could respond, his hand slid up to the side of his face, where the skin burned by strong acid had left a vicious scar. Looking up at him, Chen Wengang froze. Though Huo Niansheng’s lips still wore a smile, his eyes held something dark and vicious.

In contrast, his thumb moved with softness.

Then, laughing at himself, Huo Niansheng added, “I know, you’re only suited for ‘do good deeds and ask no questions of the future.’ Let other people play the villain.” He pointed to his own chest. “People like me, for example. Lawless, and petty to the core.”

Chen Wengang stared at him steadily.

Wrapping his arms around him, Huo Niansheng said, “That’s why we’re a match made in heaven.”

After parting with Huo Niansheng, there was nothing urgent left for Chen Wengang to do on campus, so before long, he drove back to the Zheng residence as well.

Whether by coincidence or by his boss’s instructions, that evening Lawyer Zhu suddenly called and told him:

“Mr. Chen, have you looked at the forum recently? Quite a few of the posts defaming you have disappeared.”

“I didn’t know. What happened?”

“Don’t worry. Even if posts are deleted, the server keeps backups. Fortunately, we already made notarized records in advance to preserve the evidence,” said Lawyer Zhu. “As for the reason—the forum at your school is undergoing a sudden clean-up. Those posts all violated the rules in the first place, so it’s normal for them to be removed.”

“Sudden clean-up?” Chen Wengang was puzzled. “Something proactive, or reactive?”

“Oh, so you didn’t know either? I thought maybe you’d found someone else to help you.”

“That’s not the case. As I said before, I want solid evidence—to solve this once and for all—so I’m not in a rush to take quick action. And if I ever plan to do anything extra, I’d never do it without telling you first.”

Following his lawyer’s instructions, Chen Wengang opened the forum. At the top, a new rules notice had been pinned in bright red text.

Clicking into it, he saw that the school’s network technology and security section was reiterating that everyone posting on the platform had to obey the law: no casual disclosure of personal privacy, no groundless attacks on others’ reputations, no online bullying or doxxing. Those who broke the rules would have their posts deleted or their accounts banned.

After a round of moderator patrols, the forum front page looked calm and peaceful.

The accounts that had often flung mud at him showed no new movement.

When Chen Wengang had first gone to see Lawyer Zhu—probably because he was a client recommended by someone like Huo Niansheng—the capable lawyer had not been negligent in the slightest. Through certain channels, he had obtained the real identities behind some of those accounts.

Even though the forum was supposedly tied to real names, there were always ways to buy unused accounts from others.

That was not something that could be used as formal evidence in court, but it was enough to figure out reality: it looked like Mu Qing had purchased quite a number of accounts.

Whether driven by jealousy or some other dark emotion, this had become a channel of release for him. It seemed that by turning the more popular Chen Wengang into an imagined enemy and tearing him off his pedestal, he could somehow live a little more easily.

Even Lawyer Zhu had sighed that such a pathological mentality was worth studying.

But no matter what psychologists might think, the moment he heard about Chen Wengang’s situation, he understood that using a lawsuit to force a direct price from the other side would be hard—not for legal reasons, but because of the Zheng family.

His client’s relationship with the Zhengs made it very difficult to bring such a case out into the open.

Yet not every dispute had to be solved in court.

What Chen Wengang wanted was evidence. Put another way, he wanted leverage. Whether he used it to threaten or to negotiate, that was his own business, and not something Lawyer Zhu would pry into.

“For now, this looks like your school’s network department simply doing normal management,” said Lawyer Zhu. “After all, the forum already had rules at the start. They just hadn’t been strictly enforced. So there’s nothing out of the ordinary. I’ll have my assistant keep an eye on it.”

After thanking him, Chen Wengang and his lawyer briefly discussed a few more matters and ended the call.

Of course, the regulars on the forum had also noticed the cleanup.

That included Mu Qing.

The moderators had cleared many past posts and comments that might have violated the rules, including those he had written to smear Chen Wengang.

When he tried to hint that this meant someone was backing Chen Wengang and forcing things shut down, he discovered that two or three of his usual accounts had been banned too.

Abruptly irritated, he logged out and then in again across several accounts. On one of them, a private message notification suddenly popped up.

There were three or four messages in the inbox.

When he opened the chat window, the first thing he saw was: “Who are you?”

Shocked and suspicious, he clicked into the sender’s profile.

That account had hardly been used at all, with only a few posts on record, and listed as female with no other clues to follow.

His fingers twitched, but in the end he did not dare act rashly. Instead, he backed out and read the rest of the messages.

Their tone was clearly reproachful. But if it was not Chen Wengang himself pretending, he could not imagine who else it might be.

“I really am curious. Why are you so fixated on digging up other people’s privacy?”

“Do you have some grudge? Aren’t you afraid that what you’re doing will come to light someday?”

“Stop chasing along behind someone else and scheming like this. It’s really quite pointless. You know exactly how many lies you’ve told.”

“Forget it. I’m just idle myself. Now that the forum’s being cleaned up, hopefully the atmosphere will improve. That’s all I’ll say. Think about it for yourself.”

Nothing showed on Mu Qing’s face, but inside he slammed the laptop shut in a panic.

Looking around, he suddenly stood and yanked the curtains closed.

Author’s note:

Hahaha, I meant to preview this, but in a daze I hit publish instead. Everyone just read it as is.

Old Huo isn’t dirty or anything. In fact, he’s a bit fussy. But when it comes to Wengang, he’s an exception.

The moment he sees Wengang, he completely forgets he ever had any neat-freak tendencies.

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