KC | Chapter 49

Chapter 59 He Heard It

The location of the Pisheng summer camp was Hui Ling Mountain in Yucheng. It was a 40-minute drive from Lihua Building via the elevated road, and if you took the third ring road and drove for 10 minutes, you would get there. If you did not drive, you had to take the subway and then transfer to a bus, then walk 1KM after getting off. It would take at least 1.5 hours.

This summer camp was only for Pisheng’s second-year middle school and second-year high school students. In reality, it was just a necessary means for Pisheng to tie down old customers. Many students, when they reached the third year of middle school or the third year of high school and did not study well, or even dropped out, would consider going to a vocational high school. Shen Yuesheng’s ugly thoughts of hoping people would fail so he could profit were plain to see.

Shen Yuesheng and Lin Yiran both had an extremely strong sense of purpose when doing things, and would stop at nothing to achieve their goals. From this point alone, they were very alike.

Chen Xi did not need to worry about park tickets or the event process. Lanhai only needed to handle the performance setup, and Chen Xi had come today to scout the site in advance for the marketing department.

After Shen Yuesheng parked the car, he was rarely kind enough to say, “I’ll drop you off at the subway entrance on the way back later.”

All the way, Chen Xi had been thinking about Lin Yiran, his head full of pink bubbles, and with his round little rabbit eyes shining, he said, “Awesome!”

Shen Yuesheng: …I was worried it would be hard for you to get a ride in this remote wilderness on the way back, so I offered to give you a lift. Fine if you refuse me, but why are you dumping that idiot’s dog food all over my face?

To Shen Yuesheng, Chen Xi was like leftover scraps, something he could eat or not eat, but seeing an idiot fight him for the bowl stirred up the bossy CEO’s desire to win.

Under Shen Yuesheng’s cold and stern face, his thoughts turned over and over, and he suddenly threw out, “There are really so many scammers these days.”

Hearing this, Chen Xi froze, then frowned and said, “You just saw Lanhai’s environment and service capability too. Cooperation is a transaction that both sides are willing to make. I didn’t scam you.” Did you already want to go back on it just after signing the contract and paying?

Shen Yuesheng’s voice was icy. “You didn’t scam me?”

Chen Xi was baffled. “I’ve been in sales for so many years, and I’ve never lied to anyone.” What did I scam you out of?

“You did lie,” Shen Yuesheng said. “Think carefully. What did you lie to me about? I don’t like sweet talk. This concerns whether we can continue cooperating.”

“Ah…” Chen Xi looked completely confused.

Shen Yuesheng deliberately left Chen Xi hanging, and said lightly, “What are you standing there stupidly for? Get out and work. Lanhai’s service efficiency is too low.”

Under the setting sun, Chen Xi was out there taking location shots. He carefully recalled the conversations he had had with Shen Yuesheng these past few days, looking for any slip-ups. The more he thought about it, the more he felt that Shen Yuesheng was not human. As the party in the position of the second party, he had already been very generous. From the perspective of both sides’ cooperation, there was nothing wrong with his assessment.

Shen Yuesheng played Dou Dizhu again under the shade of the trees, looking at the little bitter gourd getting roasted until his head was covered in sweat, and the corner of his lips rose slightly.

After Chen Xi had taken almost all the photos, he said sincerely, “The execution quote for the Lanhai event is not the lowest, but I really did my best. This deal has no gross profit. What I said was true, I really didn’t lie to you.”

Shen Yuesheng pointed out, “You lied to me, twice.”

“Huh?” Chen Xi’s eyes were as wide as copper bells, and he really could not figure out where things had gone wrong.

“You said you weren’t gay, but you are.”

Before, I had already denied my sexual orientation twice. The first time I said it was Xiao Fang’s misunderstanding, and the second time I said I was clean with Lin Yiran. I never expected you to wrestle over my character with me over this. It’s really too boring.

Chen Xi wanted to explain a few things, but then felt there was no need. What was there to explain to the client side? If he said I was, then I was. Gay it was, then. I didn’t gay you.

Shen Yuesheng pressed on relentlessly, “I don’t like the second party being dishonest.”

Chen Xi: …This even came with forced interrogation?

Shen Yuesheng stopped while he was ahead, and secretly felt very pleased.

Look at me puncturing your pink bubbles, stabbing hard at your backbone, and making you feed me dog food!

On an early autumn night, the air was not as hot and dry as in summer. Lin Yiran had just finished socializing with a client and sat in the car, rolled down the window, and a gentle breeze scattered the faint scent of tobacco.

The shorter the unit of time a person used, the more efficient their work was. High-intensity work forced Lin Yiran to break time down more finely.

Most salespeople saw 2 clients a day, 1 in the morning and 1 in the afternoon. Lin Yiran’s time unit for talking to clients was 3 hours, from 9 in the morning to 9 at night, and he could see 4 people in a day. He did not count his meal times or lunch break in the plan, and often socialized with clients until late at night. A 12-hour workday counted as short for him.

He was used to timing himself by smoking. Once the cigarette burned out, the break ended.

Originally, Lin Yiran’s life only had work, but today he had added a little something else.

He thought, after this cigarette was finished, he would go pick up Chen Xi.

Before the cigarette was even burnt out, WeChat rang.

“Morning Glow: Brother Lin, I’m done. Shen Yuesheng said he’d take me to the subway entrance. Awesome.jpg”

“Dog Lin: Okay, send me a message when you get home.”

As long as it was not taking him home, Lin Yiran let out a sigh of relief.

Chen Xi repeatedly checked his chat history with Lin Yiran to make sure he had not seen wrong.

His rapid heartbeat synchronized with the cicadas outside the car window, and the joy deep in his heart spread to the corners of his lips. The chase of many years had gained attention, and perhaps the hidden expectation could really come true.

Hee hee hee, Lin Yiran told me to message him when I got home!

He was caring about me.

Chen Xi could not suppress the trembling in his heart. If the subway had not been crowded and he had not needed to keep holding onto the handrail, he would have messaged Lin Yiran right now.

After getting off the subway, Chen Xi casually found a restaurant. After ordering, he could not wait to take out his phone.

“Morning Glow: I’m home.”

The reply from the other side was not as fast as last time. Chen Xi wanted to call Lin Yiran, but then he thought that he should be busy.

The phone carried his anticipation and anxiety, and until after he finished eating, it still had not rung.

Before, Chen Xi did not dare to think about it. Now that the restraints of morality were gone, he could think about it. But he had not expected that once he had something to think about, time would pass so slowly.

After he got home, Chen Xi carried his phone with him even when going to the bathroom and washing up. He wanted to see Lin Yiran’s message as soon as possible.

Lin Yiran’s hot-and-cold attitude caused very big emotional fluctuations in him, and for a patient with schizophrenia, it was deadly.

He sent me so many messages during the day, why is there no movement again now?

He wanted to ask Lin Yiran what he was doing. After typing it out, he deleted it again. His mind was in a complete mess. He could not read Positioning, so he lay on the bed and scrolled on his phone.

Lin Yiran called, and Chen Xi answered instantly.

There were too many coincidences between them. If Lin Yiran had not stolen Chen Xi’s order, Chen Xi would not have come to KA; if Zhang Yuanji had not had diarrhea, they would not have come into such deep contact; if Chen Xi had not kept scrolling on his phone and had not answered the voice call so quickly, perhaps the ending with Lin Yiran would have been completely different.

This was a voice call that would make him remember it for life.

The bright moon was clear, and silver light fell on Lin Yiran’s sharply defined face. The designated driver had just gotten out of the car, and the Cadillac was parked in the community parking lot.

It was now 19:30, 1.5 hours earlier than expected, because today Lin Yiran had originally wanted to go pick up Chen Xi and had not gone into deep conversation with the client side.

Negotiation experts were used to reviewing the day’s work in the evening, but today he was not in the mood to review work at all.

He had smoked a bit too much during the day, and there was only one cigarette left in the pack. Lin Yiran was getting a nicotine craving and had originally wanted to wait a little later to smoke, but now he suddenly changed his mind.

Annoyed, he pulled out his Zippo and lit it, loosened his tie and the first two buttons of his shirt, took off his IWC and tossed it aside, adjusted the seat, and lay half-reclined in the passenger seat.

Only after shedding all restraints and relaxing his tightly strung nerves could he analyze things more rationally.

Rational my ass!

What he did today was no different from an idiot’s, and he had completely lost Lanhai’s face!

Lin Yiran opened the chat interface with Chen Xi again. Along the way, he had opened it several times already, but there had still been no reply.

If he replied with just “Okay,” then the conversation would end.

He did not want the conversation to end so quickly. He wanted to find something to talk about and say more to Chen Xi, but he did not know what else he could say besides work.

Lin Yiran exhaled a circle of smoke and irritably threw the phone aside.

The phone screen happened to smack into the IWC, and the ringtone sounded. The other side picked up instantly.

The boy’s clear voice passed through the silent night, as if he were right beside him: “Brother Lin, what’s wrong?”

Lin Yiran did not know what was wrong either. He had not intended to voice call Chen Xi, but when he came back to his senses, the voice call had already gone through.

Chen Xi had definitely been staring at the chat interface the whole time, which was why he had answered the voice call so quickly.

In this awkward situation, even a smooth-talker was momentarily speechless and did not know what to say.

Chen Xi did not hang up, he just listened. He listened for a long time before asking, “Brother Lin, did you dial the wrong one?”

Lin Yiran still did not speak. This meaningless voice call would be brushed past later, and they would tacitly assume, just like that night, that the call had been dialed wrong.

“So it really was the wrong call, huh. Looks like even business phones can make this kind of low-level mistake,” Chen Xi said to himself.

“I, the talk I had today went pretty smoothly. After Pisheng finishes execution, we should be able to receive the remaining balance by the end of the month…”

After Chen Xi said two sentences and still heard no one speaking on the other side, he assumed no one was listening.

But even if this voice call was dialed wrong, this was the first time Lin Yiran had called him by voice outside of work. He could not bear to hang up.

Chen Xi talked about Pisheng and did not mention Gulin, because Pisheng had signed, while Gulin had not. He wanted to share some happiness with Lin Yiran.

Lin Yiran pressed the car window shut, leaving only his voice for himself. Cigarette ash fell onto the phone screen, and he did not wipe it away, afraid that he would accidentally touch something and interrupt the already not-very-long call.

Chen Xi spoke for half a minute, then suddenly stopped.

Lin Yiran looked at the call duration on the phone screen: 6 minutes 9 seconds. When a call with a client lasted over 5 minutes, he would start to feel annoyed, but now he felt that this call was too short.

The voice on the other end was very soft, muffled, and sounded a little disappointed: “Brother Lin, I just thought that you had called me on voice.”

“I was so happy.”

“I… I really wanted to talk to you.”

Lin Yiran looked up at the bright moon hanging high in the sky, and thought of Chen Xi under the moonlight, quiet, beautiful, and pure, while he himself was filthy, ugly, and deceitful.

He did not know what capital he had to make Chen Xi like him.

Pisheng was just one of Chen Xi’s key clients. In the future, he would still come into contact with more key clients, see a broader world, and meet better people.

The highly logical negotiation expert first made a rational analysis, of the many mismatches caused by the two people’s unequal identities, different values, and differences in age and experience. Then he started looking for solutions to these “mismatches.”

KA’s inherent understanding was to “sign clients.” The moment Lin Yiran categorized Chen Xi as a “key client,” he was already preparing to “sign” him.

Among countless competing media salespeople, there would always be someone more suitable than him. The reason Lin Yiran could stand out among so many competitors was because he had the determination that he must sign the contract. Driven by firm goals and desire, all obstacles encountered in the process of signing key clients could be overcome.

At this moment, Lin Yiran suddenly came to a realization. All the impulses he had toward Chen Xi before had come from his true heart, from his most genuine desire.

He wanted to sign key clients, and he also wanted to “sign” Chen Xi.

He could not be someone else’s, because he would never meet a better person.

I would put on the skin he wants, satisfy all his needs, kill all competitors, and use every method possible to tie him to my side.

Chen Xi could only be mine.

Moonlight was like water, winding and flowing, breaking through the shackles of ethics and dispersing the confusion in his mind.

Reason could not analyze emotion. After repeated confirmed actions, it pointed to the only answer.

Lin Yiran took in the last mouthful of his cigarette and said, “I’m listening.”

He had just said too much to himself, and Chen Xi felt uneasy.

Before this, the two of them had tacitly interacted as superior and subordinate, and what he had just said tonight had crossed the line.

Chen Xi had never thought that he would express emotions in this way, saying something similar to a confession.

There was no sound at all from the other end of the receiver.

Chen Xi must have muted it.

Why mute it?

Because he was afraid I would find out that he was crying.

He was very sad because I had lied to him, all while listening to him speak.

He was thinking because I broke the silence by speaking, and he felt a bit at a loss.

I made him sad so many times, and he could still be happy because of the voice call I made on a whim. Even when he was sad, he could not bear to hang up.

He still liked me.

Something seemed to crash into his chest. Lin Yiran often had this feeling when facing Chen Xi, and at this moment he finally understood, because he cared, he would feel sorrow.

Chen Xi was always trying very hard to hide it, carefully not making any sound, just like the moonlight outside the window, always silent.

At this moment, the feelings buried underground saw the light.

The pale moonlight shone his silence into the depths of Lin Yiran’s heart, smoothing away years of pain, dispersing the heavy suppression of longing without obtaining, and the huge oppression filled his heart and lungs, with his chest bursting open without a sound.

Lin Yiran covered both ears. He had tinnitus.

Two years ago, in the snowy night, tears fell without a sound. At this moment, he heard it.

Author’s note:

Baby, Happy Year of the Dragon. Let us start the new year with something sweet (?)