Chapter 42.2
At night, in the small dining room on w.a.n.g Shroud Shop’s second floor.
Gu Liang sat at the dining table. There was a gold coin on the table, which he had received in the previous scenario.
He held the coin up against the light to study it. It was unknown what he was thinking but his lips curved up.
Yang Ye placed a plate that was br.i.m.m.i.n.g with breaded pork cutlets in front of Gu Liang with an audible thud. “What are you thinking about?”
Gu Liang pressed the gold coin on the table suface and pushed it towards Yang Ye. “I forgot about the fact that I had another gold coin on my person in the discussion room today. For you.”
“For me? Then you’ll become utterly poor with zero coins.”
Yang Ye sat down and clipped up a breaded pork cutlet for him. “That’s about enough, keep it. You don’t have to mind it too much. We should be mutually helping each other in this game. Perhaps you’ll be the one helping me next time. “
Under Yang Ye’s strong reinforcement, Gu Liang kept his gold coin and settled down to eat.
Naturally, the pork cutlets in front of him had attracted his attention as he was keeping the gold coin.
The pork cutlets were wrapped with finely grinded, sweet potato starch and flour, and the steamed flour created a distinct, plump and evenly distributed layer.
The aroma of the meat, fragrant sweet potato starch and rice flour were mixed together, allowing Gu Liang to become more energised upon smelling it.
Once they were done with their meal, Gu Liang kept to his usual principles, and proceeded to clean up the table and wash the dishes.
By the time he was done with the dish was.h.i.+ng and walked out of the kitchen, Yang Ye had already placed the alcohol on the table.
While he had prepared some red wine for Gu Liang to maintain his good heath, he had poured some beer for himself.
“Where did the red wine come from?” Gu Liang asked him.
Yang Ye said: “Princ.i.p.al Zha was a rich person, he had a lot of good things in his house. The pork cutlets were taken from his refrigerator as well.”
“Right. I saw it during the search for evidence. I almost forgot about it.” Gu Liang seated himself opposite of Yang Ye and raised the red wine to take a sip, “Mn, although it’s not as good as the wine in Boss Bai’s home, it’s still decent quality.”
Yang Ye slanted his head. Noting that his hands were still damp, Yang Ye retrieved some tissues and handed it to him. “Why do you like was.h.i.+ng the dishes so much?”
“I can’t just eat and not work.” Gu Liang said, “But it’s also true that I do like was.h.i.+ng the dishes. There’s an inexplicable sense of satisfaction when the layer of grease is removed to reveal the original porcelain whites of the plates.”
Gu Liang, who usually had the tendency of drinking slowly, was drinking slightly faster for some unknown reason tonight.
Having finished his small gla.s.s of red wine very quickly, he told Yang Ye: “I want to give the beer a try.”
“Can you handle it? You don’t usually drink it though?” Yang Ye asked.
Gu Liang said: “It’s fine. I feel like drinking some tonight.”
“Sure. I’ll drink with you then.” Yang Ye helped him open a bottle beer before he knocked their bottles together and raised his head to chug it.
Gu Liang observed Yang Ye for a moment.
His collar was opened wide. Seated on the chair in an indolent and scattered manner, his robust arm had been lifted up as he poured some beer into his mouth, and his throat knot was sliding up and down.
The beer that he did not manage to swallow in time slid out from where the bottle opening met his lips, rolling down his throat and slipping further into his collar. The lapels in front of his chest became damp, contouring his sculpted and powerful muscles in vivid lines.
His entire person was essentially bursting with male hormones.
Compared to Yang Ye’s bold and unrestrained drinking posture, Gu Liang felt that he was way too reserved.
All of a sudden, Yang Ye put down his beer bottle and happened to meet Gu Liang’s gaze as he looked towards him. “Are you looking at me?”
Gu Liang refuted him with another question calmly. “Why would I look at you?”
Yang Ye: “Because I look handsome.”
Gu Liang: “……”
Gu Liang did not know why but his lips quirked up into a smile. Then, he s.h.i.+fted his gaze away and focused on raising his head to drink instead.
Yang Ye gave him a sidelong glance, giving him a word of reminder: “Drink slower. You’ll get drunk easily if you drink too fast.”
Gu Liang gave a hum in response, and drank the beer slowly, mouthful by mouthful.
But no matter how slowly Gu Liang drank, he was still drunk by the end of the night.
When Yang Ye had downed three bottles, Gu Liang only drank one bottle.
After finis.h.i.+ng the beer, Yang Ye went to take a shower.
By the time he got out of the shower, Gu Liang had already fallen asleep on the sofa, and he was sleeping soundly from the looks of it.
Walking forward, Yang Ye asked him softly, “Gu Liang? Do you want to get up and shower before you sleep again?”
Gu Liang did not move. His cheeks were slightly red and he was already in deep sleep.
Bending over, Yang Ye stared at the corners of his eyes and the tips of his brows which were flushed red. Despite his best attempts, he could not resist stretching a hand out to touch his brows, his nose bridge, and lastly his cheek.
Yang Ye let out a gentle sigh before he carried Gu Liang and brought him to the bedroom.
“I’ll bring into the room to sleep. You can have your shower tomorrow morning. It’s just that you have a slight obsession with cleanliness, which makes me wonder if you’ll blow your top when you wake up tomorrow.
“You’re not even responding to that? It looks like you’re really asleep.”
Yang Ye placed Gu Liang on the bed, helped him take off his shoes and wiped his feet before he used another cloth to wipe his face.
After doing everything, Yang Ye switched on one of the bedside lamps and stared at Gu Liang for a long time.
The starlight seeped into the screen window, sheeting over Gu Liang’s entire body.
His pale face was slightly red due to the effects of alcohol. And now that he was sleeping soundly, his brows had finally smoothed out, making it apparent that he was resting peacefully.
It was as though… After trekking thousands upon thousands of miles, he had finally let down all his guards in front of Yang Ye.
At this moment, Yang Ye suddenly recalled the question that Xun Feng had asked him back in the interrogation room.
“Towards Gu Liang, are you casually leading him along, or are you genuinely interested in him? “
That was the first time someone had asked Yang Ye that type of question.
It was also the first time where he seriously examined the feelings he had for Gu Liang.
Instead of answering Xun Feng’s question immediately, Yang Ye had sunk into deep rumination instead.
There were numerous images that emerged in Yang Ye’s mind.
The very first one was on a certain morning, where Gu Liang had been punished because he had refused to kill someone, and he was walking over step by step.
He was draped in sovereign red clouds on the long street, and in that moment, he was like a hero stepping on a seven-coloured magical cloud.
When Yang Ye marched up to him to support him, there was an intense sensation that travelled from the tips of his fingers and reached the apex of his heart before it spread to all his limbs and bones.
Then later, the time flowed towards the instance where Yang Ye, Li Xiao Yu and Gu Liang had finished eating lunch together.
Gu Liang had read through the plot alone, refusing to divulge the details to Yang Ye to lighten his own load. Afterwards, he had returned to his coffin shop on his lonesome, not allowing Yang Ye to follow.
Back then, there was defensiveness and estrangement in his eyes, which gave Yang Ye the first inkling that he might be the murderer.
If he was the murderer, what should he do?
After Gu Liang departed, Yang Ye had sat at the dining table by himself. He lifted his hand to touch the table , as if the surface had retained the lingering warmth of Gu Liang’s fingers.
He gazed into the kitchen. Just now, Gu Liang had been wearing an ap.r.o.n around his waist and was.h.i.+ng the dishes. A series of clatters could be heard from the kitchen, lively and vivid.
Once Gu Liang left, the kitchen had become utterly empty, lifeless and stagnant.
The unexplained war between nature and humanity that had been waging in his heart stopped instantaneously. It was as if Yang Ye had already made his decision at that moment.
Countless of images continued to flash past Yang Ye’s mind without a pause.
During their first encounter, Gu Liang had been sitting on the sofa in that room styled after the mid-century as he raised his eyes to give him a careless look.
Later, he was the one who sat down on the sofa and raised the poker deck as he asked in all seriousness: “Play poker cards? Comparing big and small?”
Even later, he had eaten the bowl of noodles that Yang Ye had casually cooked up with relish. He was full of exuberance then; it was as though he was eating all the delicacies from the land and sea instead of regular noodles.
Next was the incident after the previous scenario had ended. Upon seeing Yang Ye tumble into the water, Gu Liang had followed suit and jumped in, but his tea-coloured eyes revealed a deeply seated anxiety and fear. Even as Yang Ye recalled it now, he still felt some guilt.
And even further down the road, in this scenario, the scene where Gu Liang led Yang Ye into the cellar came unbidden to his mind. At that time, as he was delivering the crucial evidence to Yang Ye directly, his chilly countenance and facial features had been softened up by the glow of the dim yellow cellar lights.
Lastly, the recollection halted on the night where Yang Ye had just arrived in this scenario.
— He had dug out Gu Liang’s corpse with his own hands from the soil in his backyard.
Gu Liang was laying in the pit quietly; his ashened and withered visage was dirtied by the soil, his thin lips were bruised with faint blues and purples, and there was a terrifying ligature around his soft and tender neck.
He was quiet and shut eyed. He could not glare at him, could not be riled, could not open his mouth to spite him, could not smile and allow the warmth to seep into his eyes, would never again roll up his sleeves, wear a waist ap.r.o.n and wash the dishes…
Yang Ye could not describe how he felt when he saw Gu Liang’s corpse.
He only knew that he did not wish for Gu Liang – once living and breathing – to disappear from this world.
Thus placing a person’s life and death before his own.
Whenever he saw him, he could feel adoration welling in his heart.
He wanted to make delicious food for him, wanted to put all the best things he could offer in front of him…
— Is this what ‘like’ feels like?
Was this considered as genuine interest?
Yang Ye knew the amount of experiences he had. However, it had to be this one instance where he bore an unexpected resemblance to a youth experiencing their first awakening in love; who did not care for anything, did not dare to examine the inner workings of his heart, and did not dare to immediately confirm this mysterious and heavy feeling.
In that interrogation room, Xun Feng stared at the deeply contemplative Yang Ye, and eventually spoke after a long time: “As an individual, you give the impression that you’re sloven and you don’t care for the fours and sixes, but you’re actually quite dependable. Rather than answering offhandedly, you mulled over it for a long time, and it seems like your heart is genuinely moved. This isn’t strange. Gu Liang always had that draw to him. It’s just that he is unaware of it.”
Xun Feng had even given him a word of advice then: “Therefore, do not confess carelessly. He honestly thinks that he’s not worthy of being liked. He will a.s.sume that there’s an issue with your mentality or that you’ve made an error in your judgement, which led to you liking him.”
* * *
At the present moment, Yang Ye gazed at the obediently slumbering Gu Liang and said in a low voice: “If you knew how I felt for you, would you still dare to drink yourself into a stupor in my house and home? Your audacity is truly great…”
Yang Ye could no longer hold himself back. He leaned forward and pressed a light kiss on his forehead.
In that instant, as if time had stilled, the sky and the earth quietened down.
All his eyes could see was Gu Liang’s sleeping visage; all his ears could near was the sound of his even and deep breathing.
Yang Ye’s heart immediately melted into a puddle, and the warmth travelled from his lips to the deepest crevices of his heart.
But in actuality, the kiss was incredibly short; just as the warmth was printed on, Yang Ye’s lips had left.
However, Yang Ye felt that he had attained immense satisfaction.
Perhaps he was residing in purgatory, but the fact that he met Gu Liang here, gave rise to immeasurable warmth in his heart, which was accompanied by a bramble and sharp shawl of courage.
At the very end, Yang Ye helped Gu Liang turn off the lights. Then, hugging a blanket, he departed on light feet to sleep on the sofa outside.
* * *
After Gu Liang woke up in the morning, he only sat up after being a short daze.
He discovered that while he was still wearing the clothes from yesterday, his feet were completely bare.
Sitting up, he noticed the slippers by the bed and he did not hesitate to step into them before walking into the living room.
This was the second floor of w.a.n.g Shroud Shop; the living room was not s.p.a.cious and it was linked to the dining room.
Upon walking into the living room, Gu Liang smelled the fragrance of breakfast.
It seems like Yang Ye already had breakfast prepared?
Gu Liang stiffened momentarily. The door on the left clicked open, and following closely, Yang Ye walked out from the bathroom.
After seeing Gu Liang, Yang Ye grinned and patted on his shoulder while he was pa.s.sing by. “Woke up? Go and take shower, breakfast has already been prepared. You can eat it once you’re done was.h.i.+ng up.”
Gu Liang did not utter a single word as he gave Yang Ye a one-over.
Yang Ye was not wearing clothes.
He probably made breakfast first before he took a shower. Presently, he had just exited the bathroom so his upper half was naked, and there was only a towel wrapped around his waist loosely.
Gu Liang could clearly see the water droplets running down the sides of his temples, following along the lines of his neck to drip on his chest. Then, it continued to roll past his eight abdominal muscles before it was absorbed by the towel.
Yang Ye’s skin tone was not dark, but compared to Gu Liang, it was a lot deeper, edging on a healthy, wheat hue.
And on the wheat-coloured, firm and powerful chest were several scars. It was unknown if he had gained those injuries during his time in the military.
But those same scars exuded a manly taste; in fact, the entirety of Yang Yang was currently oozing thick and intense male hormones.
Gu Liang suddenly felt that he was standing too close and he took a subconscious step back.
When he raised his head again, Gu Liang saw Yang Ye smirking at him like a ruffian.
Yang Ye asked him: “Looking at me again?”
“Oh.” Gu Liang’s reply this time around was quite generous. With utmost sincerity, he said: “You have great abs. I only have four.”
Yang Ye took a step forward to close the distance between them again. “Envious?”
Gu Liang: “I guess so. You can consider it that way.”
Yang Ye’s voice deepened. “Oh, do you want to touch it then?”
Gu Liang shot him a strange look before he pushed him aside and strode towards the bathroom. “I have them as well, why do I have to touch yours.”
“Do you have eight abs?”
“Four abs can be felt too.”
“The feeling under your hands is different.”
“……”
As he watched Gu Liang walk into the bathroom without even sparing a glance for what was behind him, Yang Ye’s heart moved.
— With the train of thought of a straight man that Gu Liang Liang had, there was no doubt that he would have touched it, had it been the past.
When it came to exchanging their knowledge on how to keep fit or mutually touching each other’s muscles briefly, it did not count for much especially when it was between men.
What was he hiding away for? Did he finally realise… the difference between men?