The two of them stood in front of the supermarket in silence for several minutes, staring at each other.
Just as Ye Zhou was about to charge towards the uncles and aunties again, Jiang Tingyuan decisively grabbed the back of his collar. As their eyes met, Jiang Tingyuan said, “Let’s just buy one.”
“Looking down on me?!” Ye Zhou seemed greatly insulted as he struggled vigorously. Was this something that could be solved with money?! This was a matter of dignity – a proud man like Ye Xiao Zhou would never bow to the setting sun forces of the elderly!
Jiang Tingyuan: “…”
Neither of them was willing to give in. In the stalemate, suddenly, there was a sound of wheels rolling on the ground behind them.
Ye Zhou and Jiang Tingyuan turned around to see two uniformed security guards emerge from the lift, one behind the other, pushing a line of shopping carts.
Jiang Tingyuan finally let go, and without restraint, Ye Zhou immediately dashed and successfully grabbed the first cart before anyone could react.
In any case, the pitiful pair finally had a shopping cart.
Before coming to the supermarket, Ye Zhou had originally planned to leisurely shop around, sneakily buying some snacks and junk food to secretly bring home mixed in with the fruits and vegetables. However, all of that was ruined when Boss Jiang tagged along upstairs.
Knowing that there was no hope of buying snacks, Ye Xiao Zhou decisively bypassed the snack section and headed straight for the fresh produce at the innermost part of the market. As revenge for being unable to buy snacks, after wandering the produce section for two rounds, Ye Zhou stopped in front of the shelf full of celery.
“What should we buy? Jiang-ge, do you have any vegetables you’d like to eat? We can buy them and cook at home.” Ye Zhou asked nominally for the boss’s opinion but just kept circling the celery shelf, aggressively hinting.
Jiang Tingyuan: “…No celery.”
Upon hearing this, Ye Zhou exaggeratedly sighed, reluctantly leaving the celery shelf while looking back every three steps.
Boss Jiang did not let down his guard. His intuition honed from years of business told him things were not so simple.
Sure enough, Ye Zhou had barely taken two steps before stopping at another shelf. Boss Jiang looked up to see it was broccoli this time.
Jiang Tingyuan considered himself not particularly picky about food, otherwise he wouldn’t have been content with just nutritional meals for so many years. Celery and broccoli were the only two vegetables he disliked, yet in just a couple of minutes, Ye Zhou had picked them both out.
Jiang Tingyuan stared at Ye Zhou and started giving him the death glare.
Receiving the death glare, Ye Zhou shuddered as his hand that was halfway to grabbing the broccoli quickly withdrew. “Ah, this broccoli is too ugly. Let’s eat something else instead.” Ye Zhou abruptly switched what he was about to say.
This Ye Zhou may seem impressive, but he’s actually just a paper tiger1“纸老虎” (zhǐ lǎohǔ) refers to something or someone that appears threatening or powerful on the surface, but is actually weak, ineffective, or empty on the inside. It comes from the idea that a tiger made of paper would look fierce but could be easily destroyed. who crumples with the slightest poke. With just one sweep from Boss Jiang’s death stare, Ye Zhou immediately became tame and didn’t dare cause any more trouble.
After browsing around, Ye Zhou noticed the potatoes here looked quite good, so he went to grab a bag to put some in. But he found a hand already in front of him, holding open a bag. Ye Zhou glanced at Boss Jiang and, from the corner of his eye, swept over the empty cart, instantly delighted.
He saw that the empty cart already had several plastic bags with their openings rolled down, ready to grab and use without having to worry about static electricity baldness2“静电头秃” (jìngdiàn tóutū) refers to the phenomenon of getting “static electricity baldness” or frizzy, standing hair from static electricity buildup. When hair rubs against materials like plastic bags, it can build up static charge and cause the strands to repel each other, making the hair float and stand up in a frizzy mess. But I think Ye Zhou meant that static electricity can caused baldness..
While Boss Jiang didn’t know how to pick vegetables, that didn’t stop him from observing others. After noticing this supermarket required customers to use their own bags for the produce before weighing…
Jiang Tingyuan had quietly torn off a line of plastic bags. As Ye Zhou was selecting, he separated the stacked bags and thoughtfully opened the mouth of the plastic bag to make it easier for Ye Zhou to use.
Once Ye Zhou finished bagging everything, Boss Jiang would go line up at the checkout to weigh the ingredients picked. Seeing Boss Jiang standing stoically amongst the crowd of uncles and aunties, for some reason, Ye Zhou realized he didn’t actually dislike grocery shopping with the boss at all. In fact, he felt a little happy!
It was like a father bringing his precious son shopping – the obedient son would proactively help his dad (not!). Ye Zhou looked at Boss Jiang with a face full of indulgence.
If Jiang Tingyuan knew what Ye Zhou was thinking right now, he would surely put him on a week-long, three-meals-a-day regime of vegetable juice that must be finished every time without fail.
With this attitude, the more Ye Zhou looked at Boss Jiang, the more agreeable he found him. He would ask for his opinion before picking anything up now.
Boss Jiang was also very considerate. Although he didn’t talk much, he would answer whenever Ye Zhou asked.
It was not until their cart could not fit anything more that Ye Zhou suddenly realized they had practically browsed the entire supermarket. Looking at the small mountain piled in the cart, Ye Zhou was a bit dazed and turned to ask the boss behind him: “Did we buy this much stuff?”
Jiang Tingyuan frowned, glanced at the contents of the cart, and asked back: “A lot?”
Ye Zhou: “…Not a lot.”
When preparing to line up and check out, Ye Zhou suddenly recalled something. He handed the cart to Jiang Tingyuan and said, “I forgot to grab something3If this was my mother, I would have cried, Jiang-ge, wait in line first, I’ll be right back.”
Ye Zhou ran off swiftly, quickly disappearing amongst the crowds. After making sure Jiang Tingyuan could not see him, Ye Zhou immediately made his way towards the snack section from memory.
Compared to the produce section, there were significantly fewer people in the snack aisle.
Ye Zhou was eagerly looking at the shelves of snacks, wondering which one to buy, when he suddenly heard the clear sound of a slap coming from behind the shelves.
Then, a male voice that was very familiar to Ye Zhou rang out as well. “Don’t be so f*cking shameless!” The man’s voice seemed to contain endless anger. Although he was restraining himself to keep his voice low, it was still very loud.
It only took Ye Zhou two seconds to recognize the voice’s owner. How could this voice and tone be so similar to… the protagonist gong, Jiang Yu.
Before Ye Zhou could confirm, another voice sounded from behind the shelf:
“I’m shameless? Jiang Yu, do you even have a conscience? We’ve been together so long, I can say I’ve never done anything to wrong you, but how have you treated me?!”
Cheng Ran looked at the enraged man before him, suddenly feeling extremely unfamiliar with him, as if they had just met.
Seeing Cheng Ran’s face slapped to the side, a flash of regret and heartache went through Jiang Yu’s heart, regretting that he shouldn’t have hit him.
But this regret and unease only lasted less than a few seconds before it disappeared like smoke in the wind, replaced by even more surging anger.
He stared steadily at Cheng Ran for a while. Just as Cheng Ran thought he would apologize, he was startled to see Jiang Yu curl his lips in an amused smile instead.
Cheng Ran was taken aback and then felt like a rock was pressed on his heart, sinking unceasingly.
Jiang Yu looked at him for a bit, his eyes full of unconcealed ridicule. “Cheng Ran, do you still remember what our relationship is?”
Cheng Ran’s eyes suddenly widened as he reflexively said, “Jiang Yu, don’t, don’t say it…”
But it was already too late. Jiang Yu had lost his calm in his anger, and hurtful words spilled out without even going through his brain.
After being together so long, just as Cheng Ran understood Jiang Yu, so did Jiang Yu understand Cheng Ran. Naturally, they knew where to cut the deepest to inflict the most pain.
“You forgot? It’s fine, let me remind you.” Jiang Yu unrelentingly crowded Cheng Ran, his fingers cruelly grinding over Cheng Ran’s bloodied lips as he softly said next to his ear, “I am just sponsoring you4I’m not giving the original phrase justice TT, but I don’t really want to use the term ‘sugar daddy’. 包养关系 (bāoyǎng guānxì) literally means “to provide for a relationship”. It refers to a specific type of relationship where one person financially supports or sponsors the living and lifestyle of another person, typically in exchange for companionship or intimacy. There is often an implication that the “sponsored” person is younger and attractive while the sponsor is older and wealthy..”
“We signed an agreement.”
The destructive power of these words seemed even more despairing than the previous slap.
It was as if all strength had been drained from his body. Cheng Ran only felt his vision darkening as his legs weakened, nearly causing him to fall over.
Yet the enraged Jiang Yu still refused to let him go. His hand locked onto Cheng Ran’s left arm like shackles, gripping him so that he couldn’t move at all.
“How does someone like you, who spreads your legs for money5He actually said ‘who throw yourself into someone else’s arms just for money’, but I think it’s not enraged enough haha, have the gall to compare yourself to him?”
Jiang Yu enunciated each word. Every word was like a knife stabbed into Cheng Ran’s heart. By the time he finished speaking, his heart was already riddled with holes.
All the love, joy, romance, and happiness collapsed like fragile bubbles that would shatter with the slightest breeze.
Before meeting Jiang Yu, Cheng Ran’s life had been very difficult.
After they got together, Cheng Ran believed that all the hardship he suffered before was just to accumulate enough luck to meet Jiang Yu, who would then let him taste all the sweetness in the world.
But Cheng Ran never expected that the so-called sweetness was only because he was the shadow of another person.
He closed his eyes, and those bittersweet memories he once treasured began reappearing constantly, but now they no longer brought happiness and satisfaction, only disgust.
It was too disgusting.
Jiang Yu’s mouth was still moving, saying something, but Cheng Ran could no longer hear clearly.
The nausea kept surging up until he finally couldn’t hold it in anymore. Bending over, he vomited.
Before losing consciousness, the last thing that entered his eyes was Jiang Yu’s panicked face.
Ye Zhou watched the entire abusive romance scene between the main couple through the gaps on the shelf. It wasn’t until Jiang Yu carried the now unconscious Cheng Ran away that Ye Zhou reluctantly withdrew his gaze, still not having had his fill.
This was really too exciting! No wonder readers nowadays love watching over-the-top abusive stories – this feeling…was simply too bittersweet.
However, what confused Ye Zhou was that if he remembered correctly, according to the plot, the protagonist couple should still be in their honeymoon phase. Why were they abusing each other already?
Before Ye Zhou could think further, his phone vibrated, snapping him out of his thoughts. Checking it, he saw it was a call from the boss, who was probably tired of waiting.
Preoccupied with eating melon just now, Ye Zhou had forgotten to pick any snacks. While answering the boss’s call, he quickly scanned the shelves and grabbed a small package to stuff in his sleeve before rushing to the checkout.
As Ye Zhou expected, when he arrived, Boss Jiang had already paid and was waiting by the exit. Seeing the four or five large and small bags piled at his feet, Ye Zhou instantly felt guilty.
While the boss wasn’t looking, Ye Zhou quickly checked out the small bag of chips he stashed to clear his conscience. After re-hiding it, he breezily walked over to Jiang Tingyuan.
Due to spending quite some time at the supermarket, it was past 8 pm when they returned home. Considering Boss Jiang’s poor health, Ye Zhou didn’t dare to delay and quickly cooked up some millet porridge and a few simple, light side dishes for their dinner.
The remaining ingredients were thrown in the fridge to cook another day when they had more time.
After dinner, Ye Zhou took a shower and was about to go straight to bed when for some reason, as soon as he closed his eyes, images of the protagonist couple automatically reappeared.
He could almost still hear their argument from earlier echoing by his ears.
Sponsoring, money, you’re unworthy… These few words seemed to be on a loop, ceaselessly echoing in Ye Zhou’s mind, successfully making the normally sound sleeper restless.
Sitting up in bed, Ye Zhou looked outside to see the entire city swallowed by the thick night. The waning moon hung at the edge of the sky, giving off faint light.
Opening the window, the cool night breeze finally blew some of the agitated thoughts away. Ye Zhou sat by the window for over half an hour before his turbulent emotions finally calmed down.
Lying back down, Ye Zhou thought this would disappear from his mind after a night’s sleep. But unexpectedly, for someone who rarely dreamed, tonight he had a dream.
The dream took place in the supermarket they went to tonight, right in the snack section. Everything happened in the same order as it did that night.
Ye Zhou was back at that shelf. In his dream, he was self-debating whether to get potato chips or onion rings when he suddenly heard arguing from the other side. He stopped to listen, but instead of the voices of the protagonist couple, what he heard were voices unique to Boss Jiang.
His tone wasn’t angry like Jiang Yu’s but unprecedentedly calm and detached, completely devoid of warmth. Ye Zhou heard him say…
“Let’s end this relationship here.”
Ye Zhou felt like something was stuck in his throat. He reflexively wanted to ask, what’s ending here? Why are you ending it?
But before the words came out, what stunned Ye Zhou even more was that he heard his own voice.
Ye Zhou clearly heard himself say, “On what basis? Breaking up requires both sides’ agreement. I’m telling you right now, I don’t agree! Did you hear me? I said I don’t agree!”
After a brief silence, the Jiang Tingyuan in the dream finally spoke again, his voice flat as if discussing someone else’s matters: “I’m not asking for your opinion, just informing you.”
Through the gaps on the shelf, Ye Zhou saw Jiang Tingyuan across from him take out a thin document from behind, densely filled with words.
“The agreement has expired. Our relationship is over.” After forcefully putting the document in ‘Ye Zhou’s’ hands, Jiang Tingyuan suddenly turned his head and looked at Ye Zhou on the other end of the shelf.
Their eyes met, and Ye Zhou jolted awake from the dream.
The dream had felt so real that when Ye Zhou collected himself, he realized his pajamas were already soaked in cold sweat at some point.
After washing his face with cold water in the bathroom, gripping the edges of the sink, Ye Zhou quietly looked at his reflection in the mirror. For a moment, it felt somewhat unfamiliar and absurd.
He lowered his head only to find his hands pressing on the sink edges were faintly trembling.
Something as mystical as transmigration had happened to him. So…did that mean the things in the dream could also become reality one day?
Thinking of Jiang Tingyuan’s icy gaze in the dream, Ye Zhou’s breath hitched.
After a long while, Ye Zhou let out a bitter laugh. He was still ridiculing the protagonist couple today, but really, how different was his and Jiang Tingyuan’s relationship?
Having been in the entertainment industry for so long in his past life, Ye Zhou was well aware that catching feelings for a benefactor was akin to digging one’s own grave. This was, from the start, an extremely unequal and twisted relationship.
Thinking of how devastated ‘he’ was in the dream, Ye Zhou deeply sighed.
He could lower his head to one investor after another for money, for his movie dreams, and spew all kinds of rainbow shit.
But Ye Zhou would never allow himself to grovel in the dirt, never.
So, falling for someone was impossible, not in this life.
Turning on the faucet again, Ye Zhou closed his eyes and dunked his entire head under the running water, letting the cold wash over his skin and flow down his cheeks.
The cold water quickly cooled his temperature and cleared his muddled mind somewhat.
Exiting the bathroom, Ye Zhou searched through his original’s wardrobe from memory and found two packs of cigarettes and a lighter like he wanted.
Opening the door, he quietly tiptoed up to the small open-air terrace on the top floor.
Ye Zhou leaned his weight on the railing, took out a cigarette from the pack, and lit it. The flame illuminated his face, adding some warmth. But this warmth was soon obscured by the rising smoke. The thin tendrils wreathed his face, making him look slightly blurred.
Ye Zhou didn’t actually like smoking or have much of a nicotine addiction. On the contrary, he rather hated the smell of cigarettes. Apart from when he was very agitated, Ye Zhou rarely smoked. The last time was probably many years ago.
The tip of the cigarette flickered as he smoked it down to ash. Just as Ye Zhou was about to leave, he saw a figure suddenly standing at the patio entrance, body slightly tilted and leaning against the door as he quietly watched.
Ye Zhou froze. Recognizing who it was, he reflexively wanted to smile but had only quirked the corners of his lips when he was interrupted.
“If you don’t want to smile, then don’t force it.”
Jiang Tingyuan straightened and walked over from the darkness to stand beside Ye Zhou.
“I’ve never specified what kind of person Ye Zhou must be.”
“Just do what you want to do, and become who you want to become.”
Jiang Tingyuan’s voice wasn’t loud, but in the quiet rooftop with only the wind, it passed clearly into Ye Zhou’s ears.
Ye Zhou’s Adam’s apple bobbed. He wanted to say he was fine, but the words wouldn’t come out in the end.
Jiang Tingyuan put his coat over him and held out a hand. “It’s cold, let’s go back down.”
He didn’t ask what was wrong or scold Ye Zhou for being up here alone late at night.
Ye Zhou also didn’t know what strange thought overcame him to make him suddenly ask as he placed his hand in Jiang Tingyuan’s, “Jiang-ge, in essence, I’m the same as Cheng Ran, right?”
Jiang Tingyuan didn’t speak, only gripped his hand tightly and led him back to the room.
Under Boss Jiang’s gaze, Ye Zhou obediently got into bed and politely bid him goodnight.
The lights were switched off, and in the darkness, Ye Zhou pressed his lips together. He figured the question he asked on the rooftop probably wouldn’t get an answer now.
But unexpectedly, after the sounds of footsteps, Ye Zhou suddenly felt a hot kiss drop on his forehead. Then Jiang Tingyuan’s voice sounded in his ear.
“Different.”
“I think you are special.”
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