Zhao Mengke’s heart-wrenching cry of “Wei-ge” was truly too tragic. Even Wen Fan couldn’t help but close the ‘Bilibili’ TV he was watching, and he leaned against his phone screen, gazing at Zhao Mengke outside.
Lou Wei continued to observe Zhao Mengke, signaling for him to continue.
Then, he heard Zhao Mengke continue, “Wei-ge, I think… I might also like men.”
Lou Wei: “…”
—
Zhao Mengke really hadn’t expected this. He had initially been happy because his game pod had succeeded. He had gone out for a barbecue with Lin Xiao and had a couple of drinks. But the next day, he woke up to find himself and Lin Xiao in the same bed.
His long-time partner, with whom he had worked for so many years, was lying beside him, covered in marks and looking exhausted. This startled Zhao Mengke, leaving him unsure of what to do.
When he explained the situation to Lou Wei, he had his elbows on his knees, holding his head. Even his voice was muffled, but he didn’t stutter again.
Wen Fan was shocked by what he heard on his phone.
He had always thought Zhao Mengke and Lin Xiao were partners and good friends. He never expected their relationship to develop into this.
Mainly because… while there was a connection between gays, Zhao Mengke was truly emitting a strong heterosexual vibe.
Wen Fan had never considered the possibility that Zhao Mengke might be gay too.
Lou Wei, on the other hand, remained relatively calm. After carefully listening to Zhao Mengke’s words, he spoke softly, “What happened next? Did you just leave?”
Zhao Mengke hesitated for a moment before nodding.
Lou Wei: “…”
He hadn’t expected his naive little brother to pull off something like this, leaving after a one-night stand.
After a moment of contemplation, he calmly continued, “We’re both men, so let’s not make excuses. Can you really react properly when you’re drunk?”
Wen Fan, who was still peering at the screen, was momentarily speechless.
He hastily pushed the group of app animal babies to the next page of his wallpaper, fearing that this adult conversation might corrupt the innocent minds of the little babies.
Then, they heard Zhao Mengke hesitantly speak, stuttering, “I-I-I, actually, I have feelings for him.”
Zhao Mengke lifted his head briefly before burying it again.
He wasn’t completely drunk last night, and he didn’t even understand himself. Why did he, under the influence of alcohol, confess to Lin Xiao? He was supposed to like girls with big b*obs! As Zhao Mengke thought about the pagnon female virtual avatar on his phone and the female celebrities he admired, he was even more shocked at how he developed feelings for his best friend last night.
And he realized that Lin Xiao hadn’t rejected him…
Zhao Mengke was utterly confused about what to do now.
He couldn’t accept that his once pure friendship had transformed overnight. He couldn’t fathom that he had ended up with his best friend. What was even harder to accept was how he should face Lin Xiao after this?! And the fact that this friend, in his sober state, hadn’t rejected his advances!
The more Zhao Mengke thought, the more tangled he felt. The restlessness inside him made him want to turn his hair into a bird’s nest.
Lou Wei listened to everything Zhao Mengke said and slowly nodded, “Did you wake up in a hotel today?”
When Zhao Mengke answered this question, he didn’t show the same distress as before. Instead, he looked somewhat guilty as he glanced at Lou Wei, saying, “At… Lin Xiao Xiao, cough cough, at Lin Xiao’s house.”
Lou Wei suddenly felt something amiss, “Did you leave before he woke up?”
Zhao Mengke shook his head, “… When I woke up, he was awake too.” He swallowed nervously, “And then I said, I like girls.”
Wen Fan: “…” I slept with you but then I am into women. What kind of rubbish logic is this?
Even the usually patient Wen Fan found this situation a bit hard to handle, and Lou Wei next to him was also momentarily speechless.
Zhao Mengke said, “Wei-ge, did I, did I do something wrong?”
He covered his head again, his whole face creased in distress, “I really don’t know what to do. I genuinely don’t like guys.” To be honest, he had seen gay films before, and he almost threw up his dinner while watching them. So when he woke up this morning and realized what happened last night, he felt like he wanted to kill himself.
Is he really Gay? Zhao Mengke wondered, and it’s the kind that would only be hard-on with Lin Xiao.
Lou Wei raised his hand and pinched his brow, unable to think of anything to say for a moment. Most importantly, Zhao Mengke’s behavior of turning hostile after getting into bed with someone was hardly worth comforting.
But just then, Lou Wei’s phone rang.
Wen Fan felt a slight vibration on the wallpaper and pulled out the new file from under his butt, unfolding it on Lou Wei’s phone screen. Together with Lou Wei, they looked at the contents.
It turned out to be Lin Xiao’s resignation letter.
Lin Xiao was one of the oldest employees in the company. Back when LouV Technology wasn’t as big, his contract was different from the others. If Zhao Mengke could be considered Lou Wei’s partner, then Lin Xiao was a major shareholder in LouV Technology. His agreement, distinct from later shareholders’, allowed him to receive dividends even if he didn’t participate in company meetings and affairs.
So, when he’s resigning, it basically means: he won’t be coming to the company anymore.
The meaning of this statement is self-evident.
Lou Wei and Wen Fan both turned their gazes toward Zhao Mengke. From the angle Zhao Mengke was sitting, he couldn’t see Wen Fan, but he could see Lou Wei’s gaze. This made him feel a bit uneasy: Wei-ge… what’s going on?
Lou Wei whispered, “Lin Xiao said he wants to resign.”
Zhao Mengke’s emotional intelligence might not have been high, but he wasn’t foolish. He understood instantly after a moment of thought: He wants to resign? Because of me??
He stood up abruptly, pushing the chair behind him a couple of meters away. Muttering to himself, he said, “No, I can’t let him go!”
Lou Wei watched his old friend’s anxious actions, resembling ants on a hot pan, and calmly said, “If you don’t like him, don’t go after him. It’s good to calm down.”
He picked up his phone, assuming the posture of typing a message.
Zhao Mengke truly panicked: “Wei-ge, what are you doing?”
Lou Wei didn’t respond.
Zhao Mengke: “Are you texting Lin Xiao? You’re not really going to make him leave, are you?”
Lou Wei didn’t look at him and continued to look at the screen. His hand movements appeared to be typing, but he was actually rubbing Wen Fan’s head on the screen: “The two of you are not in the right state now, taking some time apart to cool off isn’t a bad idea.”
Upon hearing this, Zhao Mengke became genuinely anxious.
He lifted his leg and was about to rush over to grab Lou Wei’s phone, but of course, Lou Wei wouldn’t let him have it. Just as he was putting his phone away, he heard Zhao Mengke shout loudly, “I like him, I like him! Don’t let him go.”
By the time he finished speaking, his voice had soared to the heavens. With his blond hair, his handsome face seemed utterly silly. Out of nowhere, Wen Fan was reminded of a brown-colored Siberian Husky, feeling that the husky and Zhao Mengke were uncannily alike.
Lou Wei also chuckled, “Are you serious?”
Zhao Mengke squatted down with a pained expression, his face turning red: “I, I… but Lin Xiao doesn’t like me.” As he thought about Lin Xiao’s pale face when he woke up this morning, his heart felt heavy, and he clutched his chest with a sense of grievance, “Lin Xiao was in a bad mood this morning.”
More than just being unhappy, he looked as if he was so gloomy he could kill. When Zhao Mengke saw him wake up, he had originally wanted to say something, but he was scared away by Lin Xiao’s appearance. He forgot everything he had wanted to say, quickly put on his clothes, and rushed out in a hurry. His mind was now a complete mess, not knowing what to do.
Thinking like this, Zhao Mengke mumbled to himself, “Actually, when I woke up today and saw him without clothes, I got aroused.”
…Lou Wei cleared his throat twice, and raised his hand to cover the mouthpiece of his phone, preventing Wen Fan from hearing: “And then?”
Zhao Mengke shrank his neck, “…and then, when I saw Lin Xiao’s expression, I didn’t dare to speak. I told him I liked girls, and he told me to leave, so I ran away.”
Probably because his inner concerns had been spoken out, Zhao Mengke no longer felt nervous. His words began flowing out rapidly, one after another.
“Actually, Lin Xiao has long legs, a nice waist, and attractive hands—everything about him is attractive. It’s just that he looked so awful today, he probably doesn’t like me. No, that’s not right, maybe I was too aggressive, and since it was my first time, I made him uncomfortable, which is why he had such a bad expression this morning.”
The more Zhao Mengke spoke, the more he opened up, and he couldn’t stop himself anymore. He seemed to gradually realize his true feelings, his face filled with regret: “I’m done, Wei-gei. Should I have not left when he told me to leave? Emotional bloggers on Weibo say women often speak ambiguously in bed, so do men do the same after getting out of bed? Lin Xiao must have felt really bad this morning… I’ve ruined everything, I’m… I’m done for.”
When Zhao Mengke first started speaking, Lou Wei was still thinking about how to give advice.
However, before he could speak, the office door was pushed open from the outside. When he saw who it was, Lou Wei immediately closed his mouth.
The person entered the room quietly, closed the door behind them, and waited for Zhao Mengke to finish speaking. With a cold expression, they walked up, placed the resignation letter they held onto Lou Wei’s desk, and then turned to leave.
While Zhao Mengke was immersed in self-reflection, he saw the person he had been longing for, walk right past him, leaving him wide-eyed and stunned in place.
Unfortunately, Lin Xiao didn’t even spare him a glance, placing the resignation letter down and walking away.
His complexion was still somewhat pale, and he looked tired. A sense of vulnerability emerged from his usually handsome and exquisite face. His fair skin even had a slightly unhealthy flush, and even his usually light footsteps seemed a bit sluggish.
Yet, his walking posture remained attractive.
A pair of long legs stepped onto the tiles of Lou Wei’s office, as if treading on Zhao Mengke’s heart. In an instant, Zhao Mengke felt his heart, which had been quiet all morning, start to thump rapidly. An excited shiver ran through him, shooting up to his head.
The words he had been about to say just now came to a halt as he shouted aloud, “Lin Xiao?”
Lin Xiao ignored him and walked straight towards the door.
Zhao Mengke, undeterred, followed after and called out again, “Xiao Xiao?”
This time, Lin Xiao had already opened the office door. With Zhao Mengke’s shout, even the people in the secretary department outside could hear. Finally, Lin Xiao reacted. He turned back, cast a cold glance at Zhao Mengke, and with slightly parted lips, uttered, “Get lost.”
His voice had a hoarse quality to it.
It didn’t sound pleasant.
However, both Lou Wei and Wen Fan saw the corners of Zhao Mengke’s mouth lift into an uncontrollable smile, tinged with excitement. He seemed to completely disregard being told to leave.
No matter how you looked at it… he seemed rather… insistent.
He even had no time to pay attention to Lou Wei. He lifted his leg and rushed towards Lin Xiao, who was about to close the door. If he had a tail, it would probably be wagging vigorously behind him.
“Xiao Xiao, Xiao Xiao~ Xiao Xiao~~”
Even as both of them left the office, Lou Wei could still hear Zhao Mengke’s calls.
He let go of the hand covering his phone’s speaker and looked down at Wen Fan, who had a contented look of someone enjoying the show. Having listened to the entire story of Zhao Mengke and Lin Xiao, Wen Fan finally had time to discuss it with Lou Wei. “I really didn’t expect them to get together.”
After considering their past interactions, Lou Wei admitted, “There were some signs, actually. But Zhao Mengke gives off an… innocent vibe. I didn’t think of it either.”
Thus, Lou Wei nodded in agreement with Wen Fan’s observation.
With Zhao Mengke’s issue resolved for now, Lou Wei stood up and prepared to take Wen Fan to the hospital for his check-up, and then discuss the matter of using the gaming cabin with the doctor.
However, just as he stepped out of the office door, he saw the head of the design department approaching nervously. Glancing at the secretary department person nearby, the department head lowered their voice and said, “Mr. Lou, someone wants to see you.”
Some wording might be a little different from the previous translator, but I’ll try my best to not make it so distant…
