“It’s too much trouble. I"d have to come back again,” Qi Le thought for a moment. “I"m going to the library to study. I have an exam coming up anyway.”
“What a coincidence, I was also planning to go to the library. Let’s go together then,” Wan Lei said. “Let’s go to the canteen first. Do you remember where the canteen is?”
“No thank you, I have company for lunch,” Qi Le looked at him, a little surprised, “The term has just started but you"re already going to the library to study. Did you also fail the exam? “
“No, I"m just getting ready for the term. Who"s accompanying you…” Wan Lei said, looking over there, “You"re going together? Where are you going to eat? Can I join you?”
Qi Le couldn’t help turning around and found that Ning Xiao had arrived G.o.d knows when. He turned back to Wan Lei and said, “Not with him.”
Ning Xiao hadn"t thought of answering them. He just happened to see the two together and intentionally or perhaps subconsciously walked this way. He overheard what their conversation about, then glanced at Qi Le, not speaking.
Wan Lei was surprised. “Who are you eating with then?” They had already reached the first floor by this time. Qi Le was about to answer Wan Lei when his cellphone rang. He took it out, looked at it and found that it was Gu Bai so he picked up. “h.e.l.lo, where are you?”
“The main building, where are you?”
“I"m also in the main building… I see you. I"m hanging up.” Qi Le put away his cellphone and waved to the other side. The person beside him looked over and saw a car parked. A man was standing beside the car. He came over, smiling and pulled Qi Le into his arms while he rubbed his head.
Wan Lei suddenly froze while Ning Xiao"s gaze turned cold; the man still silent.
Gu Bai glanced at them and took Xiao Le’s hand. “Let’s go.”
Qi Le nodded, waved goodbye to Wan Lei and left soon after. The latter stood and watched them get into the car. From the corner of his eye, he saw that Ning Xiao was about to walk away and quickly asked, “What happened to you guys during summer vacation?”
“As you saw.” Ning Xiao broke away from him and looked over as well. Since the two had successfully gotten together, he didn’t care to do that sort of stupid thing. But now he was still unhappy about their interaction. He glanced at the one beside him, “Although you hid yourself pretty well, I know you"re the same as us.”
Wan Lei froze slightly and heard him say, “I know that you like him, but he has changed a lot now. It"s better for you to figure out first if you still like him. If not, I advise you not to get involved.”
Wan Lei stood there, watching him walk away in silence.
Gu Bai was concentrating on the road as he casually asked, “How do you feel today? Who was that earlier?”
“He"s my cla.s.smate, a new acquaintance,” Qi Le said. He suddenly remembering something and turned to look at him, his eyes shining, “Erquan, I"m very popular with girls now!”
Gu Baiwei paused slightly and raised his eyebrows. “What did they all talk about?”
“A lot of stuff.” Qi Le said simply, “They even shared some gossip… Oh yes, Yi Hang!” He reached for his cellphone to dial, waited, and soon heard a certain idiot"s voice. He laughed at once. “I want to ask you something.”
Yi Hang replied, “Go ahead.”
“Did you get hit by a car while receiving a delivery package?”
“How do you know?” Yi Hang was surprised. “Did the school hold a memorial service?”
Qi Le’s face was covered in black lines. “No, you"re thinking too much, thank you. Because express delivery is more special, so everyone knows about it. Did you really buy that? Are you thirsty to that extent? “
“You"re thirsty, your whole family is thirsty,” Yi Hang retorted. “It was a G.o.ddess from a game. I found a website to order it. I bought it as part of a collection. I saved money for a whole semester to buy it.”
Qi Le"s lips twitched. “Who will believe that you bought that stuff to collect it?”
“Ai, don"t believe me if you want to. What do you know? It looks more real than anything else. In order to buy it, I only ate two meals a day before I finally saved up enough,” Yi Hang said sadly. “As a result, I was too excited to see the car across the street that day, so I was. .h.i.t… I didn’t even have the chance to look at my G.o.ddess.” He paused slightly before becoming excited, “Yes, I can buy it again! Anyway, I have money now. I"m hanging up!”
“h.e.l.lo? h.e.l.lo ” Qi Le stared at his cellphone and thought to himself that Yi Hang really was an idiot. If Lu Yanbin saw him buying an inflatable doll, he would definitely die! He blinked, remembering that he had sold out that idiot in the past anyway. So he put away his cellphone without any mental burden and didn"t prepare himself to give Yi Hang any warning. He turned to Gu Bai and went back to the topic earlier. He said happily, “Many girls like me!”
Gu Bai’s lips curved in a smile as he reminded, “Think of Zheng Xiaoyuan’s ident.i.ty. They think of him as a "girlfriend".”
Qi Le, “……”
Looking back on the conversation in the morning, Qi Le suddenly felt sad. “Why is it "girlfriend"? If I told them I"m straight, would they believe me?”
Gu Bai looked at the road, parked his car in front of a hotel, turned to look at him, his eyes deep with implicit meaning. Qi Le suddenly remembered their current relationship and looked at him in silence. His face looked innocent, “I"m just kidding …”
Gu Bai rubbed his head and gently encouraged him: “It’s okay. Tell me why you want to tell them that you"re straight.”
“…I"m just kidding.” Qi Le slowly retreated. What"s up with the guilt he was feeling?
Gu Bai looked at him and smiled. He opened the door and got down. “Let’s go and have lunch.”
Qi Le followed him silently, looking at him in secret. His expression was innocent and pitiful. He made it so hard for Gu Bai to control himself from pouncing on him. They found a place to sit down for lunch and ended up driving around after their meal. Gu Bai had cla.s.s and was unable to accompany him so he sent him back to school. “Where will you go?”
“I"m going to the library. Wan Lei sent a text message saying that he had gotten a seat. Oh, Wan Lei"s the boy from earlier. I think he"s quite nice.”
Gu Bai recalled his gaze at the time and rubbed a certain someone’s head. He thought to himself that maybe it was better to "eat" Xiao Le first and spare himself all the worry. Qi Le looked at him and asked, “What"s wrong?”
Gu Bai saw that there was no one around so he pulled Qi Le close and kissed him. “Nothing.”
Qi Le said goodbye to him, opened the door and got off. After he watched him drive off, he called Wan Lei to ask where he was. Then, he continued with his revision. When he went to cla.s.s again, he had lost this morning"s enthusiasm for those girls probably because of Gu Bai"s reminder earlier. So he calmly spent the afternoon and in the evening, he went to the bar. He was starting work again this week. He had cla.s.ses on two nights but he felt occasionally skipping two cla.s.ses should be okay.
Gu Bai"s schedule for this semester was pretty full and he had cla.s.ses at night so he didn’t go to pick up Qi Le from university. Qi Le finished his dinner and arrived at the bar at 6:30. He stretched his fingers and went up to play the piano. By the time Wan Lei entered the bar, Qi Le had already finished playing two songs. Seeing that there was no one singing on stage, Wan Lei was surprised and sat down at the bar. He didn’t like it here. He only came to listen to the music on rare occasions, look at him from a distance and leave early. Therefore, he didn’t really know anyone and only talked to the bartender occasionally.
The bartender saw him come in and greeted him with a smile. Wan Lei smiled back, ordered a gla.s.s of wine and looked around. The bartender often mingled with the patrons of the bar and could tell that he was interested in Zheng Xiaoyuan so he pointed to a corner of the stage and said, “There, the one playing the piano.”
Wan Lei looked over and was immediately shocked. When did he learn to play the piano?
The bartender wiped his gla.s.s. “You live in another province, don"t you. You weren"t here during summer vacation. I originally wanted to tell you that he had lost his memory and ask you to seize the opportunity.”
“I already know.”
“You"re a little late,” said the bartender regretfully. “He’s already with Gu Bai.”
"I also know…” Wan Lei suddenly froze. “Gu Bai?”
“Yes, him.”