This seemingly casual request caught Ling Ke off guard and he stiffened – He was already friends with Qi Feng in WeChat!
What should he do?
Of course, he couldn’t tell Qi Feng! What if he gets suspicious? How would he be able to explain why he already had his WeChat ID?
Should he…create another account?
That won’t do…He already had numerous friends in his WeChat account, including his parents and his ex-cla.s.smates. To create a new WeChat ID just to chat with Qi Feng… that means that whenever he had to message someone, he would have to switch accounts…it was simply too troublesome.
…should he just delete Qi Feng from his friend list and add him again?
That was a feasible option but there was still the system notification three years ago to worry about. If Qi Feng had not changed his handphone number for these three years, or if his new handphone still had that old message saying “You can start chatting with your new friend”, how would he be able to explain that?
Qi Feng had never tried deleting someone and re-adding them before, so he dared not risk it.
In the heat of the moment, Ling Ke blurted out. “No.”
…What!? This time it was Qi Feng who was left stunned.
He had already taken out his handphone and was preparing to add Ling Ke’s WeChat ID, but he did not expect Ling Ke to reject him so brazenly.
…Why!!
…Tell me why!? (T/N: this line was in English)
The damage dealt by that one single word was too overwhelming such that Qi Feng was unable to recover his composure immediately.
Fortunately, Ling Ke quickly took out his handphone and said, “Let’s exchange phone numbers…it will be more convenient if anything crops up.”
Qi Feng was unwilling to concede defeat. Maybe Ling Ke had rejected him because he did not have a WeChat account. Undeterred, he tried again, “How about your QQ number?”
The features in QQ were similar to that of WeChat, with both having the feature to post stuff as well as to exchange messages and pictures, hence adding someone on whichever platform was essentially the same.
However, most people used WeChat nowadays so Qi Feng rarely asked to add people’s QQ number.
Furthermore, his QQ account was shared with his brother and many of his friends in his friend list consisted of his brother’s acquaintances. As the pair of siblings grew older, they started to desire their own privacy and hence had switched to their own individual WeChat account. Afterwards, Qi Feng had rarely used his QQ account.
And thus it was after much inner struggle that Qi Feng decided to ask for his QQ number.
However, Ling Ke continued to sport a troubled expression as his eyebrows scrunched up…
Qi Feng: “…”
It’s alright, he did not need to reply; he already knew the answer.
Qi Feng opened the contact list in his phone. “Give me your phone number then. I will call you.”
Facing such a harsh and frank rejection, Qi Feng’s heart had already sunk to the pit bottom. Even his voice was a few octaves lower.
…
…
After Qi Feng had left, Ling Ke headed back to his room. He sunk wearily into his chair as he recollected their conversation. That one conversation had exhausted all his energy.
Recalling his husky voice and the alluring scent of sweat emanating from Qi Feng mixed with a pleasant wisp of perfume smell…
Sigh, it had taken him all his endurance to be able to maintain an indifferent facade.
Despite such a testing and onerous ordeal, he could not help feeling both blessed and elated after he had calmed down.
Yes, that’s right. After all, it was a blessing to be with someone whom you liked. It was like an irresistible and tantalizing fragrance capable of making one feel intoxicated; addicted.
Once a person has gotten a whiff of it, he would never be able to derive pleasure from anything else.
…For example, the photographs in Qi Feng’s WeChat account.
Ling Ke laughed as he shook his head. Now that he had a taste of the real Qi Feng, why would he try to avoid him?
The only problem was that the current him was unable to get used to the fact that he was having a conversation with the actual Qi Feng and thus Qi Feng’s presence had too much of destabilizing effect on him.
In order to mitigate this effect, Ling Ke could only try to widen the distance between them. Or else, if he was careless, he might reveal his hidden desires and feelings towards Qi Feng.
Ling Ke did not dare to take a gamble on their relationship, well it was more accurate to say the thought of dating Qi Feng had never occurred to him. Just being roommates and cla.s.smates was good enough for him.
However, such innocent friendship could only be built between two heteros.e.xuals.
Even though society was already quite open, there were still many people who were unreceptive to gay people – this was a sad reality.
Ling Ke sighed in frustration. Looks like, in order to prevent Qi Feng from hating him, he could only play the part of the adamantly straight guy.
Luckily, he had good control over his emotions and expressions. Since he realized he was gay five years ago, he had never once shown any slight indication of his s.e.xual orientation.
After organizing his thoughts, Ling Ke left to shop for his necessities.
The campus was still filled with much hustle and bustle. Just like an online game that has recently opened its server, the new students upon receiving their “mission” in their “new city” were scuttling about, eager to explore the new area.
There were even people who had set up stalls just in front of the hostel, selling necessities that ranged from thermal flasks to blankets and bedsheets. There was a sign saying “70 yuan” beside the blanket.
Ling Ke listened in to the conversation of a few students pa.s.sing by the stall.
“Seventy yuan for one set of blanket?”
The person setting up the stall was a young man. His face was slightly obscured by the cap on his head and his skin was tanned. Grasping the chance to attract potential customers, he gushed enthusiastically. “Yes, it is cheaper by ten yuan than the one the school sells. The quality is also definitely better! I guarantee you, you won’t regret it if you buy from me!”
The few students that had crowded around the stall continued to ask a barrage of questions, probably afraid that they were buying inferior goods. In the end, the young seller took out his own student ID and declared impatiently. “Guys, please stop being so suspicious, I am also a fellow student of this school. You see my ID, Gao Jun Yang, business faculty Year Four. Remember this name, if there is anything wrong with the goods, you can come and find me!”
The students, upon hearing that he was their senior, immediately let down their guard.
Ling Ke was tempted too. He had not bought his thermal flask. The thermal flask was slightly bulky and he still had to buy one for Qi Feng. If he were to buy it from somewhere far, it would be pretty inconvenient.
After much careful perusal, he chose two bars of soap and a soap box. The total was not more than fifty yuan.
As he was paying for his goods, Ling Ke shot a glance at the young seller’s face. The young man smiled at Ling Ke, flashing two white rows of teeth. He was also quite handsome.
As he was returning to his room, Ling Ke, out of caution, decided to send a message to the senior whom he had added in his WeChat. “Senior, can I ask you something? The person selling stuff outside our hostel says he is our school’s senior. Is he trustworthy?”
This senior had a really poetic name: Qi Qiu Fen
“Which senior? If the person isn’t from the student a.s.sociation group, then it is against school rules to sell stuff in the campus.”
Ling Ke stiffened. He did not have the chance to reply, before she continued explaining, “It is probably someone who made a fake student pa.s.s to sell stuff inside our school. Even if a student wants to sell something to other students, they would usually transact in private. There would be a penalty on one’s student record if one was to set up a stall in school, so don’t easily believe them.”
Ling Ke’s lips twitched as he stared at the soap and the thermal flasks he had just bought.
Even if these goods were of an inferior quality, it probably wouldn’t be that much of a problem, right?
After filling up the two thermal flasks with warm water and checking that they did not leak, Ling Ke felt more consoled.
Since he had already bought them, he might as well used them.
After a while, the senior sent him another message informing him of a place to buy cheap necessities. He thanked her before proceeding out of his room. He was someone who preferred to avoid unnecessary trouble and hence even though he knew that the stall owner downstairs may have cheated him, he did not bother to confront him and instead just went straight to the store outside school.
Upon reaching the store she had recommended, his eyes were greeted by a wide variety of goods. The entrance was lined with thermal flasks of a plethora of colors. Ling Ke went to look at the prices of the thermal flasks and was relieved to find that they were approximately the same price as the ones he had bought from the stall in front of his hostel.
Afterwards, he chose two towels, some hangars, two small fans, two desk lamps and some other necessities.
The towels had different thickness. Ling Ke carefully felt for the material of the different towels as he tried to grasp the quality of the different material so that he could find something suitable for Qi Feng. Because of that, he stood in front of the towel section for a long time, struggling to make a choice.
In the end, Ling Ke was annoyed with himself as he realized he was acting like a girl being so hesitant and choosy. In his vexation, he grabbed a few towels.
Whatever, if he doesn’t like it, then too bad!
After he had chosen his stuff, the sum totaled up to almost 300 yuan.
“Young man, are you buying stuff for two person?” The store owner asked after seeing his purchases. He took out two flowery ceramic bowls and handed them to Ling Ke. “I will give you two of these bowls. You can use it to cook cup noodles or whatever.”
Ling Ke had totally forgotten about that and hence he gladly accepted the bowls. Seeing the four big bags of necessities in front of him, he could not help feeling a bit regretful that he had not asked Qi Feng to pay him for all the trouble.
Ling Ke’s hand was almost broken from carrying all these bags back.
Noticing that the sky had darkened, Ling Ke rested for a while, before starting to pack his stuff. He did not like to procrastinate.
However, as he was packing his stuff, Ling Ke suddenly came to an odd realization.
Just now, when he was busy purchasing the stuff, he had not noticed anything out of the ordinary but now that he was placing the various equipment in their respective places, it suddenly dawned onto him that he and Qi Feng were using the exact same type of desk lamp, same type of towel, same type of cup…
And this odd sensation heightened as he held up the two bowls,
It was a pair of couple bowl.
At the store, the bowls were stacked on top of each other. He could only see the bit of white from the top bowl peeking out from the bottom bowl and had thus presumed that both bowls had the same design. However, now that he had separated the bowls, he saw that while one of the bowl had a design of a blue cat at the bottom, the other had a design of a pink cat. A small heart shape was situated right beside the cat’s mouth on each of the bowls.
Ling Ke was speechless. He suddenly had the urge to fling the bowls onto the hard floor.
His gaze once again swept through the identical desk lamps, identical towels and identical cups… before returning to the pair of couple bowls.
…this felt too ambiguous!
Just then, he heard the door opening.
Qi Feng had already returned with two luggage before Ling Ke had the chance to “destroy the evidence”.
“You,” Ling Ke stuttered, and he could not help feeling a tinge of guilt. “Why are you so fast?”
He thought that Qi Feng would not be returning to the hostel today. After all, lessons only officially start the day after tomorrow. Since he was returning home to get his luggage, he might as well enjoy his time at home. There was no reason for him to return to this dilapidated room to torment himself.
Qi Feng had lugged his luggage up four stories and was feeling a little breathless. “Because I wanted to eat dinner with you~” There was a slight jest in his tone. Qi Feng fumbled for the air-conditioner controller. “The weather is so hot, how can you stand not switching on the air-conditioner?”
Ling Ke was still recovering from Qi Feng’s bold declaration and was unable to regain his composure.
On the other hand, Qi Feng had already found the air-conditioner controller and switched it on. He sighed, “This morning I went to collect the controller, next time…lets just place the controller on my desk. If you want to switch it on, just take the controller from my desk.” As he said this, he scanned the room briefly. Seeing that Ling Ke had already bought and arranged most of the required necessities, he was pleasantly surprised. “So you have already bought everything? Thanks for the trouble!”
Ling Ke noticed the direction of Qi Feng’s vision…
But it was too late.
In the next second, Qi Feng’s gaze fell to the bowls on Ling Ke’s hands. He asked puzzeldly, “Oh, why did you buy these bowls?”
“…the store owner gave it to me for free.”
“Wow, that’s nice, they even give bowls.” Qi Feng said happily.
Ling Ke swallowed his feelings of guilt and pushed the bowl with the pink cat design into Qi Feng’s hands. “This is yours.”
Extra:
Ling Ke: “No, I don’t want to add you, scram.”
*Qi Feng kneels on the ground as the tune of > plays in the background and he sings in anguish*“Tell me why! Why you didn’t wait for me to eat lunch!”
“Tell me why! Why you didn’t bring a tissue paper!”
“Tell me why! Why you didn’t want to add me on WeChat!”
“Tell me why! Why you didn’t want to add me on QQ too!”
“Tell me why! Why did you give me a pink bowl!”
“Just tell me why! Why! Why! …”
Author’s note: Hahahahaha, those who are interested, can go and listen to the song > by Declan Galbraith*please do not make comments related to this novel on the video*