WC ⋆ Chapter 57

Jiang Yishen held on and refused to let go. Qi Lin tried to reach out and grab the shopping cart but failed, so he could only pat Jiang Yishen on the back: “Alright, alright, we can hug when we get back.”

His heart and mind were fixed on those few snacks in the cart. If they had all toppled over it would have been fine, but one carton of yogurt stood stubbornly upright, and the sight of it made him feel like ants were crawling all over his body.

Jiang Yishen obediently stood all the chocolates back up.

Qi Lin’s OCD always showed up in the most useless places. He could tolerate his own desk becoming messy, but he could not stand opening a cabinet and seeing a few bags of instant noodles piled haphazardly next to a neat row of condiment bottles.

After coming back from the supermarket and taking everything out of the shopping bags one by one, once things were finally tidied up, Jiang Yishen opened WeChat again and suspected he had somehow logged into a top-tier celebrity’s Weibo. Messages came in one after another without stopping, all of them private chats and group chats from a few friends.

Everyone was thoughtfully telling him about the good things Yu Jiaming had done, and each person seemed to think they were the only one who knew. Jiang Yishen scrolled through them all and roughly figured out the main battleground where Yu Jiaming had been spreading the rumors.

Most of them had some connection to the student council, either through a roommate who worked in it or because they themselves had been in it at some point.

The one that surprised Jiang Yishen the most was that the top-ranked girl in the major had also sent him a message, asking whether it was necessary to report Yu Jiaming’s rumor-spreading to the department.

Jiang Yishen had saved the girl under the contact name Captain Jie. They had once participated in the department’s mock Internet+ competition together. He scratched his head and replied: Actually, this is also the truth.

The other side took at least twenty minutes to respond, with a single “Huh?” that could contain countless emotions.

Her confusion left Jiang Yishen equally baffled. He reread his own wording, found no ambiguity, and asked: What’s wrong?

Captain Jie: Never mind, it’s nothing.

Jiang Yishen didn’t think much of it. He finished checking out and walked out of the supermarket, and only then did she send another message: Really?

Absolutely bizarre. Jiang Yishen said: Really, what’s the big deal?

Another silence of nearly twenty minutes followed. It was clear the girl had tried her hardest to suppress her curiosity, but ultimately could not hold it back, and asked: Don’t you have a partner already?

Seven short characters carrying an enormous amount of information. Jiang Yishen’s eyes nearly fell out of his head as he realized the two of them had been talking completely past each other.

Jiang Yishen: ?? What rumor are you talking about?

Captain Jie: The one saying you’re being kept by someone older outside, getting free food and free lodging off them.

Jiang Yishen felt as though a mouthful of blood had tunneled up from his lungs and nearly sprayed everywhere.

Jiang Yishen: …Actually, this one is also the truth.

He glanced over at Qi Lin, who was crouching in front of the refrigerator stuffing meat into the freezer compartment, and nearly burst out laughing from sheer exasperation.

Jiang Yishen: Where did this rumor come from?

Captain Jie: My roommate heard it from Yu Jiaming. Don’t worry, none of us believed it.

For the first time, Jiang Yishen had the feeling of a toad latching onto his foot. Not lethal, but disgusting, and impossible to shake off.

Jiang Yishen: You can believe it a little. This person is my partner.

Captain Jie: Huh? Isn’t your partner that aloof senior from the department next door?

What aloof senior? Was this a new rumor?

Jiang Yishen looked up again. Qi Lin was trying to wedge a box of shrimp paste into a gap in the packed freezer compartment. After several failed attempts, he flew into a rage.

“Baby, someone is bullying me,” Jiang Yishen said.

Qi Lin was buried in his struggle, taking out a few boxes of meat and a ready-made pizza and stuffing them back in from a different angle. He said offhandedly: “Beat him up.”

“…Someone is spreading rumors about me.”

“Get Lu Fan and the others to beat him up together.”

Jiang Yishen got anxious, leaned in close, and said right into his ear: “They’re saying I’m being kept by someone older outside, getting free food and free lodging!”

The shrimp paste in Qi Lin’s hand finally slid perfectly into the little gap he had squeezed out. He let out a long breath, brushed the ice chips off his hands: “I know. Yu Jiaming did it.”

“You knew?”

“Yeah, Xu Baili just told me. Said Wen Jie wants to buy bottle rockets and stuff them up Yu Jiaming’s ass.” Qi Lin closed the refrigerator door in a perfectly good mood.

Jiang Yishen was stunned by such crude language. Wen Jie was the glasses guy who had been sitting next to them at Xu Baili’s birthday a couple of days ago. He had looked so gentle and refined, yet it turned out he struck with lethal force.

At this point in the conversation, Jiang Yishen realized he wasn’t actually that angry.

In the past, with his hot temper, he would absolutely have posted eighteen furious moments on his WeChat timeline, made two hundred phone calls, dug three feet into the ground to track down Yu Jiaming in person, beaten him until he was crawling around looking for his teeth, and then run to the department office to find the instructor and the department head one by one.

But right now he only found it funny. The emotion of anger had only flickered up a few thin wisps, and what he felt more was disgust and absurdity.

He didn’t know if it was because he had experienced a mysterious adventure that transcended dimensions, but there was a kind of self-assured indifference in his mindset now that made him see things from a much more open-minded angle.

What could it do to him, really? People who knew him would naturally know the truth, and people who didn’t know him well couldn’t affect him in any way. And a rumor this weak in destructive power lacked credibility precisely because it was too bizarre. It simply wouldn’t spread very far, and it wouldn’t cause him any real reputational damage.

“But your class actually still had people who didn’t know you were in a relationship,” Qi Lin said, shifting the subject. “You’ve been running your hand through your hair every second while wearing that ring, and there are still classmates in your own class who only found out you have a boyfriend because of this.”

Jiang Yishen could tolerate Yu Jiaming spreading stories, but he couldn’t stand hearing this: “How are there still people who slipped through the net?”

“Alright, stop getting worked up over them.” Qi Lin finished washing his hands, wiped them casually with a towel a couple of times, his fingertips slightly cool, then came over and cupped Jiang Yishen’s face and gave him two kisses.

Jiang Yishen immediately wanted to chase after more, but Qi Lin pushed him away without mercy: “No kissing during the day. What if it triggers the loop? We’ll talk about it tonight.”

This proposal opened the door to a whole new world. Jiang Yishen suddenly thought of a once-and-for-all solution: “I could loop back to the morning and go straight to silence Yu Jiaming.”

“You’d be better off stealing some bottle rockets from your dad and giving them to Wen Jie,” Qi Lin said.

At the mention of Jiang Changpeng, Jiang Yishen wilted again. He sprawled out lifelessly on the sofa and stared at the ceiling with a sigh: “Can the two of us even spend New Year’s together this time?”

“It doesn’t matter if we can’t. It’s not like spending it alone is the end of the world.” Qi Lin also sat down on the sofa, tore open the egg roll crisps, and held them out in front of Jiang Yishen.

Still the same brand as before. Jiang Yishen flipped over onto his stomach, picked up a piece and took a bite, holding his other hand underneath to catch the falling crumbs. The milky fragrance was rich and full, yet it always felt like it wasn’t as delicious as it had been back then.

“I saw it in the loop. Your old diary, from when we were long-distance.” Qi Lin bit into an egg roll crisp, crunching away. “There were a lot of crying faces drawn in it.”

Jiang Yishen’s chewing paused for a moment. Very slowly he registered what Qi Lin was talking about, and he lowered his eyes without saying a word.

“Can I read that diary?” Qi Lin said.