Around the corner, Wen Xia rubbed his forehead, feeling a headache coming on. He wasn’t sure if he should step out now. He was genuinely worried that if he did, Lin Fengqi might just faint on the spot.
Fang Huai, still fuming, was about to launch into another tirade when the person in front of him suddenly said, “I’m sorry.”
Fang Huai was taken aback, feeling even more confused. “So, you rough me up for no reason, and then think a casual apology is enough?”
“Whatever compensation you need, just let me know,” Lin Fengqi added sincerely.
Fang Huai found himself unable to respond. Lin Fengqi’s expression was so earnest, his tone so genuinely remorseful, that it made Fang Huai feel like he was being unreasonable.
“You…” Fang Huai felt stifled but couldn’t muster the anger to continue. “Forget it. I don’t care what’s going on between you and Wen Xia, just stay away from me in the future.”
After saying this, he stormed off, only to nearly trip over Wen Xia’s outstretched leg as he rounded the corner.
“Seriously, Wen Xia? Do you ever quit?” Fang Huai cursed.
“Oh, sorry,” Wen Xia said, retracting his leg. “Can’t help it, they’re just long.”
Fang Huai couldn’t believe his luck today, scowling as he walked away in large strides.
“I’ll treat you to dinner sometime!” Wen Xia called after him.
“Go to hell!”
With Fang Huai gone, Wen Xia emerged from around the corner to find Lin Fengqi still standing there, his back to him. Despite his usual upright posture, there was something about him that seemed small and uncertain, like a quail, ready to bolt at any moment.
Even when Wen Xia’s footsteps approached, Lin Fengqi didn’t turn around. It was as if he believed that by not facing it, he could avoid dealing with anything.
Wen Xia cleared his throat.
Lin Fengqi flinched, his shoulders tensing.
Wen Xia cleared his throat again and asked, “What are you doing, standing there in time-out?”
Lin Fengqi was silent for a moment before mumbling, “Yeah.”
“Then tell me, what are you reflecting on?”
Lin Fengqi didn’t answer.
Wen Xia took a step closer. “Lin Fengqi.”
Finally, Lin Fengqi turned around, but as Wen Xia moved closer, he instinctively took a step back. His cheeks were flushed, and he couldn’t meet Wen Xia’s gaze, his eyes darting around as if searching for an escape. He looked completely flustered, just like that night under the trees in their neighborhood.
Wen Xia stepped closer again.
Lin Fengqi stepped back again.
His retreat was faster than Wen Xia’s advance, and within just a couple of steps, he found himself cornered, his back against the wall, just like he had cornered Fang Huai earlier.
“Why is your face so red?” Wen Xia asked, feigning ignorance. “Are you running a fever?”
He reached out to touch Lin Fengqi’s forehead.
But before he could, his wrist was caught. Lin Fengqi jerked away, hesitated, and then hurriedly let go of Wen Xia’s wrist.
But before Wen Xia could pull his hand back, Lin Fengqi grabbed it again.
“I’m not…” Lin Fengqi stammered, “I’m not running a fever.”
“Yeah, I can see that,” Wen Xia said. “You seem pretty alert.”
“…”
The grip on his wrist tightened slightly, and Lin Fengqi asked, “Did you hear… everything just now?”
“Hear what?”
Lin Fengqi had just started to relax when Wen Xia said, “Are you referring to when you told Fang Huai he wasn’t worthy of saying my name, or when Fang Huai went on a rant about me?”
His nerves, which had just begun to unwind, immediately tightened again.
“So… you heard.”
“It was hard not to.”
“…”
Lin Fengqi shut down.
He turned his head away, his face growing even redder, to the point where Wen Xia could feel the heat from his hand radiating through the contact on his wrist.
It wasn’t a fever, but it sure felt like one. Lin Fengqi was practically cooking.
Wen Xia tried to pull his wrist free, and Lin Fengqi, snapping back to reality, quickly let go.
Seeing him like this, Wen Xia suddenly didn’t want to let him off so easily. “I’ve been wondering for a while now. You seem to have a lot of hostility toward Fang Huai. I was going to ask if you had some kind of business rivalry, but as far as I know, you don’t have any dealings with him yet… so what’s the reason?”
Lin Fengqi didn’t respond.
Wen Xia pressed on, “Why did you get so angry outside the private room?”
“And why did you keep blocking me from talking to Fang Huai at the racetrack?”
“Why were you so fixated on beating Fang Huai?”
“Why did you come here today but not tell me?”
“Why,” Wen Xia leaned in, almost close enough for their noses to touch, his proximity bringing with it the faint scent of alcohol from the midday lunch, “did you wear clothes the same color as mine?”
Lin Fengqi was still reeling from the realization that he had once again created an imaginary rival for himself. The barrage of questions Wen Xia threw at him only made his already sluggish brain freeze.
The truth was, all of these “whys” pointed to one single answer.
At such close range, Wen Xia quietly gazed at him, his own heartbeat quickening and his face feeling warm.
Time ticked by, or perhaps not much time had passed at all, before Lin Fengqi’s gaze wavered slightly. He slowly brought his eyes back to Wen Xia’s face, meeting his gaze. The flush on his face had mostly faded, leaving only a faint blush, while his ears remained as red as ever.
In the depth of Lin Fengqi’s eyes, Wen Xia saw his own reflection.
Finally, Lin Fengqi’s lips moved.
“Because…”
Just as he began to speak, footsteps approached. Two young women, chatting and laughing, were heading to the restroom but fell silent when they saw the two men in the corner. They exchanged amused glances and quickly rushed into the ladies’ room.
The atmosphere suddenly became awkward, and Lin Fengqi, who had just opened his mouth, closed it again.
At that moment, Wen Xia’s phone rang, further disrupting the mood.
Any semblance of the moment was gone.
Wen Xia felt a bit frustrated as he stepped back and pulled out his phone. It was a call from his father, Wen Shan Hai: “Son, where are you? I saw you push the door open, but then you left again. Even if you were just going to the restroom, you’ve been gone way too long. Your Uncle Liao and Xingchen are waiting for you.”
There was no noise in the background, suggesting he was outside the private room.
Wen Xia replied, “What are you waiting for? Just go ahead and sing.”
Wen Shan Hai retorted, “What kind of talk is that? Are you trying to sneak off? You seemed to be getting along well with Xingchen this morning, don’t be difficult. Hurry back.”
He hung up before Wen Xia could respond.
Wen Xia sighed and looked at Lin Fengqi.
Lin Fengqi was also looking at him, his mouth opening slightly as if he wanted to continue the conversation but wasn’t sure how.
“I have to get back,” Wen Xia said, turning to leave. After taking a couple of steps, he paused and turned back. “Oh, there’s one more thing.”
Lin Fengqi instinctively asked, “What?”
“Why—did you decide to marry me?”
—
When Wen Xia returned to the private room, Wen Shan Hai and Uncle Liao were happily singing their hearts out to “Friends for Life,” bottles of alcohol on the table, with two of them nearly empty.
Looking at the two of them, Wen Xia could tell they hadn’t drunk too much, but enough to be a little tipsy, with neither of them hitting the right notes.
Liao Xingshen sat nearby, dutifully applauding whenever the two old men needed encouragement. When he saw Wen Xia, he sighed in relief, “You’re finally back.”
“Thanks for holding the fort,” Wen Xia replied.
As the song ended, Wen Shan Hai started egging him on, “You’re back, son? Come on, pick a song and sing a duet with Xiao Liao. You young guys are the real singers, much better than us old logs.”
Wen Xia replied, “I’ve still got a cold. My throat isn’t fully recovered yet, remember?”
Wen Shan Hai dismissed this, “Oh, please. You didn’t hold back when you were digging into that spicy fish at lunch. How convenient that you forget about your cold when you’re eating and drinking.”
Wen Xia shrugged, “I forgot.”
Uncle Liao chuckled, “Alright, Wen, don’t push the kid. We’re here to have a good time, no need to force it if Xiao Xia is under the weather—Xingshen, you sing. You were in a band in college, right? The lead singer, no less. Show your Uncle Wen and your little brother Xia what you’ve got!”
Liao Xingshen was reluctantly dragged into performing and ended up singing two songs.
There was a small window in the KTV room door that allowed a view of the hallway. Wen Shan Hai and Uncle Liao were too engrossed in their singing to notice, but Wen Xia caught a glimpse of Fang Lianshu and his group passing by outside, with Lin Fengqi naturally among them. They were leaving earlier, probably heading to the next event.
Wen Shan Hai and Uncle Liao didn’t put down the microphones until it was nearly dark. Even then, they seemed a bit reluctant to stop.
As night fell, the resort lit up, the evening festivities just beginning.
For dinner, they had roast lamb. This time, they didn’t run into Fang Lianshu’s group again. Wen Shan Hai had already had some drinks during their afternoon singing session, and now, in his good mood, he drank even more. Uncle Liao, who had a surgery scheduled for the next afternoon, refrained from drinking and stuck to tea instead.
The two older men chatted about everything under the sun. Wen Shan Hai, seasoned from years in the business world, could hold his liquor remarkably well. After they finished at the restaurant, he and Uncle Liao herded Wen Xia and Liao Xingshen toward the night market.
The night market at the resort opened every evening at eight, with stalls lined up in two rows. They sold all sorts of things, but food was the main attraction.
Just like in the morning, the two older men quickly disappeared into the crowd, leaving Wen Xia and Liao Xingshen to exchange helpless looks.
Since they were already there, the two of them decided to stroll through the market from one end to the other.
Halfway through, Wen Xia’s phone rang, displaying Lin Fengqi’s name. Liao Xingshen noticed the screen and smiled knowingly, stepping over to a nearby stall to browse, giving Wen Xia some privacy.
Wen Xia turned away and answered the call. “Hello?”
There was no immediate response from the other end, just a quiet background contrasting sharply with the bustling noise of the market.
It felt just like the times from eight years ago when they were teenagers.
Wen Xia called out again, “Hello? Lin Fengqi?”
Finally, the other side responded, “Wen Xia.” His voice was low, slightly husky.
He then called Wen Xia’s name again and added, “I drank… quite a bit. I’m sorry.”
Wen Xia replied, “No need to apologize just for drinking.”
Lin Fengqi explained, “Because I did something you don’t like.”
Wen Xia paused, then asked, “How much did you drink?” He was beginning to suspect that Lin Fengqi might be a bit tipsy.
“…Not sure,” Lin Fengqi admitted. “They kept urging me to drink, so I did.”
“Where are you now?” Wen Xia asked.
“Um, I don’t know.”
“…You don’t know?”
The other end fell silent.
Wen Xia had never seen Lin Fengqi drunk before. He was always so disciplined, never losing control. The only time he’d heard of Lin Fengqi getting truly drunk was back in college, according to Zhou Yixian.
After a moment of thought, Wen Xia asked, “You’re not still at the table, are you?”
A quiet “Mm” came from the other end.
Wen Xia asked again, “Then where are you? I’ll come find you.”
“No.”
“?”
Lin Fengqi said, “I don’t want you to come find me.”
Wen Xia asked, “Then why did you call me?”
The word “why” seemed to trigger something in Lin Fengqi. He shivered slightly, his voice muffled as he answered, “Because… I can’t find you. This place is so big.”
Wen Xia’s heartbeat quickened as he asked, “You don’t even know where you are, do you?”
Another quiet “Mm” followed.
Wen Xia sighed softly. “Look around and see if there are any signs or stores nearby. Tell me what you see.”
When Wen Xia found Lin Fengqi, he was sitting on a bench along a path leading to the resort’s lodging area. It was a quiet road, with few tourists passing by since most were still out enjoying the evening.
Flowerbeds lined the sides of the path, and in the early winter, the trees cast sparse shadows. Under the dim streetlights, Lin Fengqi’s slumped figure looked lonely and pitiful, like a large dog waiting for its owner to take it home.
Hearing footsteps, he slowly lifted his head. His eyes, bright and slightly hazy from the alcohol, reflected the light. His expression was dazed, as if he couldn’t believe Wen Xia had actually come to find him.
“Wen Xia,” he called out.
“Mm,” Wen Xia responded.
“You really came to find me,” Lin Fengqi murmured.
“Yeah, I came to find you.”
Lin Fengqi lowered his head, muttering, “It should have been me coming to find you.”
“But you couldn’t find me,” Wen Xia replied.
“Mm… I couldn’t find you.”
A drunk Lin Fengqi didn’t seem too sharp.
Wen Xia asked him, “Why were you looking for me?”
Why.
There it was again, that “why.”
Wen Xia had thrown a lot of “whys” at him today.
Wen Xia really was curious, wasn’t he?
Lin Fengqi’s sluggish brain struggled as he thought, “You also asked me a lot of ‘whys’ this afternoon.”
“Mm,” Wen Xia acknowledged.
After a brief pause, Wen Xia said, “So you were looking for me to answer my questions?”
His brows furrowed in thought, but then he relaxed as if confirming to himself, “That’s why I was looking for you.”
The light breeze rustled the sparse leaves, creating a faint rustling sound.
Lin Fengqi’s hair was lifted by the wind, making him look, for a fleeting moment, just like the boy who had stolen hearts in high school.
Wen Xia’s hand twitched at his side, his heartbeat irregular under the influence of the wind.
“I was angry, I didn’t want you talking to Fang Huai, I cared about winning, I came here, I wore clothes that matched yours…” Lin Fengqi paused, his alcohol-clouded brain struggling to process. “And… I married you.”
“All of this is because… I like you.”
Lin Fengqi lifted his face to look at Wen Xia, his expression softer than Wen Xia had ever seen.
“I like you, Wen Xia,” he said. “I want to pursue you.”
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