KC | Chapter 73

In the early morning of September, sunlight spilled through the clouds onto the car. Lin Yiran sat inside, wearing dark blue striped suit pants with a white suit jacket. Chen Xi pulled open the car door and sat in the passenger seat. The British-style dark blue shirt with black suit pants looked like couple’s matching clothes with the ones on Lin Yiran.

“I rarely saw Brother Lin wear other colors before, I even thought you only had black and white suits.” Chen Xi, who loved handsome guys, kept his eyes glued to the driver after getting in.

Lin Yiran looked straight ahead, pretending not to see his scorching gaze, and asked with a smile, “Does it look good?”

This suit had been bought five years ago, and he had only worn it twice, because the waistline was too narrow, and it was easy to feel tight after drinking too much. He had looked for this suit last night for two reasons. First, he was driving today and would not drink. Second, he had thought of Chen Xi’s British style and wanted to wear a similar color scheme with him. Why was he so sure Chen Xi would wear this set? Because Chen Xi only had two sets that were worth anything, and the flashy little Chanel-style one could not be worn, so only this set was left.

“Looks good!” Chen Xi leaned over and said softly, “Brother Lin looks good in whatever he wears, and looks even better without wearing anything.”

Lin Yiran did not answer. The corners of his lips still carried a smile, except when the car turned, it ran over the lane line. Luckily, Chen Xi did not see it.

“Come to my place tonight.” What Lin Yiran said was both a question and a statement.

“Mm.” Chen Xi’s face was a little red. A little coward like him could only flirt, but once it got serious, he went all clumsy.

Most of the time when the two of them talked, it was almost always because of work, but they could not talk seriously for more than a few sentences before it definitely went off track. Work and sex were the glue between them. Other than that, the two of them were worlds apart.

Before meeting Lin Yiran, Chen Xi had once made plans for love. Back then, he only had one vague concept in his head, to start as friends with the other person first, get to know each other deeply before dating, then when it was marriage age, meet both families, and once everything was settled and there was no issue, once he decided this person would be the one for the rest of his life, only then would he have sex with her. He felt that love was responsibility. If they could not walk into the hall of marriage, then he should not hand everything over too early, so that he would not be resented when they broke up. There was also another point, people without a sense of security were used to leaving room in what they did. Chen Xi felt that someone he could deeply date would definitely be a rather good friend. If it really was not suitable, he also did not want them to become the kind of people who would never contact each other again after breaking up.

When he met Lin Yiran, the vague concept of love instantly became concrete, and with one glance he was sure it was him.

Even though he knew Lin Yiran had a family, knew the generation gap between them was very deep, knew the industry status gap between the two sides was rather large, Chen Xi still could not stop liking him, and that had once made him very painful.

Their relationship did not start from being friends, nor did they deeply understand each other, and they had never met the parents. Lin Yiran completely did not fit Chen Xi’s plan for love, but Chen Xi still fell into it uncontrollably. In a crowd, he could always lock onto Lin Yiran at once. Every close contact made his heart race. He liked his touch and wanted everything from him…

Chen Xi was wise and decisive when facing key clients, but with Lin Yiran, he was always not rational enough, and sometimes even got dumbed down. He was dazzled by the joy of his secret crush becoming real, and did not think about the responsibility both sides should bear in this relationship. He subjectively believed they would be together forever.

He could not imagine what it would look like after the two of them broke up. He did not dare to think about it.

At work, Lin Yiran was the guide standing on the mountain peak, letting him dare to face the uncertainty of the future. But in life, Lin Yiran was his uncertainty.

A mentally split patient who lacked a sense of security always wanted a promise. Chen Xi had several times gotten the words to his lips and swallowed them back down. He was afraid Lin Yiran would think he was being overly sentimental. Being mentally split was a minus for him, and he could not confess it. Chen Xi wanted to show the best side to the person he liked.

「I will spare no effort to turn your uncertainty into certainty.」

The scenery outside the window flashed by quickly. Lin Yiran’s face was calm and unmoving. He had walked too many roads wearing a mask, and had seen many people, all of them were passersby.

He had paid attention to Chen Xi because of an immoral snatching of an order, but he had not expected Chen Xi to enter the industry because of him.

After that chaotic night, their relationship had made substantial progress, or more accurately, he had unilaterally and forcefully made the relationship between the two of them continue to develop.

Lin Yiran had tasted the sweetness and wanted to play around a bit more, but he had not expected Chen Xi’s feelings for him to be real.

If Chen Xi had pursued him in a grand and public way, or used that night as a reason to force him to accept, he would absolutely have stayed eight meters away from people. When Chen Xi silently covered up his real feelings and stayed eight meters away from him, Lin Yiran went shamelessly chasing after him again.

People, really were cheap. The ones who came eagerly were not wanted, and they had to chase the ones who wanted to run.

Chen Xi was too beautiful for him. He did not know what he had that was worth Chen Xi liking.

All their contact was because of work, and when he worked, he always wore a skin.

「What you like is only my skin. Since that is the case, I will keep wearing this skin.」

–

Lin Yiran’s gaze focused on the road ahead, while the corner of his eye kept sweeping toward Chen Xi.

“There’s breakfast in the back seat.”

Chen Xi turned sideways to the back, hugged the KFC paper bag, and asked, “Brother Lin isn’t eating?”

“No.” Yesterday, near the end of work, a referral came in, and he drank with the client until midnight. Today in the morning, he could only drink black coffee.

Chen Xi chewed on the chicken panini and frowned. “Do you always skip breakfast?”

“Mm.”

“Just to keep your figure, even if you’re starving and your heart’s pounding, you still won’t eat?”

“I’m used to it.”

“If you’re hungry and don’t eat, and your heart isn’t good but you still drink coffee, aren’t you just purely looking for suffering?” Chen Xi often saw Lin Yiran drink coffee. He did not know what was so good about coffee, and it was insanely expensive too. It was not even as good as roujiamo. He also could not understand Lin Yiran’s almost self-abusive way of managing his figure. He had seen people adjust their diet structure to lose weight, but the only one starving himself like this was Lin Yiran.

“The average lifespan of Chinese men is 75 years. Life is limited, and there are too many things I want to do. If I want everything, in the end I can only end up with nothing. If I want a figure that’s just a little better than people my age, then I have to pay the corresponding price.” Lin Yiran did not care about other people’s opinions, and did not expect everyone to understand his nonconformity. Those who matched his frequency were all friends, there was no need to explain. Those who did not match his frequency were not in the same circle, and talking to them was completely a waste of time, so there was even less need to explain.

Chen Xi and he were completely two different worlds, but whether yesterday or now, he would explain to Chen Xi. He cared about Chen Xi’s view, and hoped Chen Xi could understand.

“Fine, whatever kind of life you choose, as long as you’re happy.” Chen Xi repeated word for word the line Lin Yiran had said at the morning meeting yesterday, and even deliberately smacked his lips as he ate very loudly. “Yo, there’s even a fried egg in the panini, tsk tsk, smells so good.”

Lin Yiran was helpless.

When waiting at a red light, Chen Xi picked out the fried egg, thoughtfully ate the yolk, and brought the egg white to Lin Yiran’s lips. “Get some protein before getting on the highway, don’t starve yourself until you black out and miss your shots, and then I end up committing suicide with you.”

Before, Lin Yiran had fought Chen Xi for shrimp just to make him eat. This time, Chen Xi said something sarcastic just to make him eat something.

Lin Yiran was helpless, and ate the egg white, thinking: sure enough, whoever teaches someone becomes like them, one quilt cannot sleep out two kinds of people.

Zao Wang City was located in the northern part of Yu City. The ancient city had gone through a thousand years without anyone paying attention to it, and because a batch of precious animal fossils had been unearthed last year, it was listed as a key 2023 cultural and tourism project. The city walls carried the mottled marks of time, and the stream wound below the walls, reflecting the ancient city’s shadow. Chen Xi looked up at the majestic painting before him and walked into the picture together with Lin Yiran.

The two of them walked along the bustling main street to the quiet corridor. Lin Yiran’s deep face, like the ancient city itself, had gone through the baptism of time and left behind the marks of years, becoming even more charming under the mottled light and shadow.

Chen Xi held his hand. Lin Yiran turned back, and sunlight poured down over the whole city, a kiss that was ancient, simple, and solemn.

“Why do you keep kissing me?” Fast-talking Lin Yiran snatched Chen Xi’s words first.

“Kiss me at home, kiss me in the meeting room, then you still want to kiss me outside. Do you have the disease where you get emo if you don’t kiss?”

Chen Xi: …

Lin Yiran blinked, then bent down again. “Since you’re sick, I’ll make do and cooperate with you, and kiss you a few more times.”

The rows upon rows of tiled houses were filled with curling smoke, and a bell sounded from far away, colliding with teeth, while the lingering kiss intertwined together.

During the course of the two of them dating, aside from the first time when Lin Yiran was relatively rough, the rest of the time he was very gentle, so gentle that Chen Xi longed for him to be fiercer, more violent, with a faster pace, wishing he could immediately switch the time to night and roll straight onto the bed.

The many faces of the world rarely went as one wished. All the hardships and bitterness from the past, compared with the fleeting happiness of this moment, were not worth mentioning.

Dopamine temporarily numbed each other. They did not want the future, only the present.

“Don’t always bite me. I’ll let you bite something else at night.” Lin Yiran smiled very meaningfully.

Chen Xi, red-faced, punched him.

“Look at you, if you can’t win the argument, you hit people. No martial ethics.”

The two of them walked side by side along the tree-lined road. Lin Yiran’s cheap mouth got him hit a few more times, and Chen Xi’s face grew redder and redder.

Chen Xi had once hoped that one day he could stand shoulder to shoulder with Lin Yiran, and now he had done it.

–

Little did he know, the temporary standing shoulder to shoulder was because he had taken a shortcut.

Just like what Lin Yiran said, if he wanted to achieve a certain goal, he had to pay the corresponding price. Chen Xi signing with Shining and Pisheng had paid corresponding prices, and “a secret crush becoming real” completely did not match the principle of “equivalent exchange.”

Lin Yiran deliberately concealed his past and only took from Chen Xi. Happiness was within easy reach, coming too easily. A rake of a playboy could flirt, a marketing expert could coax people with pretty words, a top boss could provide Chen Xi with help… Lin Yiran embodied all kinds of “capable boyfriend” labels, and easily controlled Chen Xi. But these labels were not the real Lin Yiran, only his skin.

They both wanted the other person’s liking, and the more they cared, the less they could be honest.

The two of them passed through the corridor. To avoid prying eyes, they let go of each other’s hands.

The narrow street was under renovation, some of the shops by the road had already moved in, and the city’s construction had already taken shape. Chen Xi could imagine that by next spring, this place would definitely be thriving.

There were staff members handing out masks on the street. On the masks was a painted ferocious Year Beast with bared teeth, and the printed words read: Come to Zao Wang City for New Year’s Day 2024, ring in the new year together in the city that never sleeps!

Chen Xi went forward and asked for two masks, thinking: visitors coming here at this time are mostly partner companies, and the spread across circles will be very fast. Making a mask costs little money, the marketing methods are really powerful.

The ancient city used marketing to create fake prosperity.

They wore masks in the city.