Learn from the pain

Jiang Liu was really angry.

Yu Ran was staring at WeChat with dark circles under his eyes. The chat history could not be refreshed, and his boss was taking a long time to order food.

Not only did they not arrange any work, but they also didn't mention whether this was considered a holiday or an adjusted leave. They felt good about acting on impulse, but Yu Ran was left in a dilemma.

Yu Ran turned over and lay back on the bed, but his arms were not strong enough to support him, and he was thinking about what to do tomorrow.

If a subordinate is not proactive at work, does not understand the leader's thoughts, and does not know how to share the pressure, his boss Jiang Liu will not only make a fuss about it, but he may also think that the subordinate is stupid in his heart.

Perhaps the best way to improve interpersonal relationships is to be sincere and genuine. Yu Ran finally figured it out and began planning tomorrow's lunch: stir-fried mushrooms with seasonal vegetables and a taro, lily, and gorgon fruit soup.

Fresh mushrooms and water chestnuts are seasonal delicacies and you can’t go wrong with them.

Jiang Liu may be a picky eater, but he's not one to waste money. As long as he doesn't make mistakes, he'll finish his meal. Two dishes are enough for a large appetite, but out of consideration for the thoughtfulness, they seem stingy.

The last dish was a ham, honey and cheese tart. Yu Ran had already planned the plating. He wanted to use herbs such as chamomile, ice plant, and mint to form a wreath.

That night was dreamless, and the dawn came exceptionally quickly. Yu Ran went to buy groceries as usual. He couldn't enter Jiang Liu's kitchen, so he had to cook at home and bring them over.

He was truly thankful that today was a weekday, leaving no one home, giving him the freedom to unleash his talents. Yes, he hadn't yet told his family about his time working for Jiang Liu. While the job was stable and the salary was respectable, being able to show it and being able to speak about it were two different things.

After leaving the supermarket, he realized halfway that he had taken the wrong road. Today's destination was the opposite of his usual destination. He stamped his foot, having acted presumptuously.

Yu Ran rushed into the kitchen.

He enjoyed cooking so much that he automatically blocked out all the noise, including the emotionless WeChat message from Jiang Liu:

"Don't come these days."

It was too late for Yu Ran to see that the three dishes were already in the thermal box.

"Don't come? In the next few days?!" Yu Ran had always respected Jiang Liu, not feared him. Even the good-tempered Jiang finally raged. Did this Jiang really think work was like a romantic relationship, throwing tantrums at will? He relied on his power to dictate decisions, disregarding the consequences.

If I ask myself honestly, since I started working under Jiang Liu, I have both made contributions and worked hard.

His contributions are obvious. He worries about the combination of meat and vegetables, nutritional balance, and even has to remember his all-encompassing dietary restrictions! Once, Yu Ran was pushed to the limit and wrote in the "Book of Life and Death": "When a person doesn't know what to eat, he can refer to Jiang Liu's dietary restrictions. (cross out the front), when a school doesn't know what to eat..."

From small things like which dishes to put on which plates, and the order of eating cold dishes, hot dishes, and desserts, to big things like maintaining kitchen hygiene, checking for missing seasonings, and placing utensils...

Not to mention that I acted as his porter, deliveryman, and handyman from time to time!

Now, he was more confident to go to Jiang Liu's house to argue. If Jiang Liu softened his attitude, they would have a "reunion dinner", and if he refused to give in, he would have his own reasons and evidence!

I've arrived. I raised my hand to ring the bell, but I heard a verbal battle going on inside the door. It was Jiang Liu arguing with someone!

Don't listen to anything indecent, but the quarrel inside is more dangerous than cold weapons or hot weapons! Yu Ran steadied his position and quietly slid the key into the keyhole. He could rush in at the fastest speed to protect Jiang Liu at any time!

Personal safety always comes first.

As the battle inside escalated, Yu Ran admitted that he was a little scared. He controlled his wrist and twisted it slowly to avoid alerting the enemy, but he couldn't twist it! Someone had locked it from the inside!

What danger did Jiang Liu encounter!

Yu Ran tried to unlock the key with one hand and reached for his phone with the other hand to call the police, but the key was stubborn and finally committed suicide by slitting his throat, and was completely stuck in the keyhole!

"Click!" Even though he had let go, the door lock twisted back with a strange noise. The compressed air was filled with the irony smell of sweat from his hands. Yu Ran also got goosebumps on his back. It was bad!

"Swish, swish! Click--" Someone came over with quick and heavy footsteps to open the door!

The moment the door opened, the bright light was dazzling, which did not bring Yu Ran the salvation of forgiveness, but foreshadowed that he would be dragged into a bloodless dispute.

"It's really you!" The person who spoke was a young man, with a fierce look on his face and a red neck. Unexpectedly, the tone of his voice became vague due to the surprise, which prevented his talent for quarreling from being displayed at the first time.

Yu Ran looked down upon the man with disdain. His narrow, tapering face was adorned with a pair of overly large eyes, burning red and emitting a gurgling heat. Two tufts of burnt-gold earring dye had clung to his chin from his vigorous movements.

"You dare to come here?!" the child said again.

Yu Ran sneered. To put it nicely, this kid is a young and fearless person, but to put it bluntly, he is a reckless and conceited idiot.

"Why should we be afraid of walking upright or sitting upright?"

This conversation immediately determined the winner.

The yelling brat rubbed his back teeth, uttered an English curse word, and then said in a sharp voice: "You dare to say that you have always had a clear conscience? Then you..."

As the words were about to come out of his mouth, a loud slap came!

Jiang Liu rushed over and slapped the child.

"Jiang Yu, I can't control you anymore!" Jiang Liu stared at the identical face, or rather, at his other stubborn and mischievous side.

Then, Jiang Liu held his red palm, stared at Yu Ran's feet and said:

"I'm sorry, I apologize on behalf of my brother."

Without further ado, he turned his head and stepped back, slowly closing the door.

Inside the door, Jiang Yu shouted, "Brother, you just don't learn your lesson!"

"If you dare to meddle in other people's business again, I will hate you even more than my parents did!"

"I'd be happy to do it. Come on!" Jiang Yu deliberately turned the side of his face that had just been slapped towards him.

Jiang Liu rubbed the red mark with his fingertips, wanting it to be as red as his eye sockets.

"It doesn't seem to hurt."

"It won't hurt if I can let you vent your anger!" Jiang Yu said angrily, "But I don't think you'll dare to hit that guy outside..."

Jiang Liu lingered on his face with two fingers and pinched the cheek flesh.

"Well - seriously, brother, it doesn't hurt. You look so handsome when you hit people!" Jiang Yu tilted his face, greedy for a hint of coolness on the skin that was as hot as summer - that was the knuckle ring on his brother's left ring finger.

Jiang Liu pushed him away, wondering what kind of nonsense this little brat had learned abroad.

Outside the door, Yu Ran looked at his feet. He had completely become a tree that had been moved.

To be honest, he didn't care about his brothers' quarrels, but the content of their quarrels behind closed doors must be related to him.

Yu Ran thought his past was irretrievable. But in reality, everyone in the world knew his past well, kept it a secret, and was extremely wary of him.

For example, if God wants a person to redeem his sins in the previous life, that poor person will forget his past and has no idea what sins he committed in the previous life. He will just numbly accept the retribution he deserves in this life.

This is exactly the situation that Yu Ran is in.

The walking dead was afraid of daylight, so late at night he knocked on Yu Lei's door.

Yu Lei pretended to be surprised, then held the mask steady, half-lidded eyes, and said sourly:

"I thought you were not at home, so how could you bear to come back today?"

"Sister." Yu Ran stammered, and couldn't help but think of the conversation between the two Jiang brothers that he had overheard. He shrank back, and he couldn't do anything to the woman in front of him.

"Haven't you been complaining about me not being home? Today I'm going to tell you what I've been doing these days."

Yu Lei didn't raise her eyes, indicating that the topic was irrelevant.

"I have been with Jiang Liu for more than a month." Yu Ran lightly brought Jiang Liu over.

Yu Lei suddenly took off her mask, and covered her face with a princess cut. She had the air of a ghost, but not as deep as others: "Who are you talking about?!"

This reaction... Yu Ran understood.

"Sister, tell me, what is the grudge between Jiang Liu and me in the past?"

Yu Lei suddenly found the conversation boring and the questions thorny. She brainstormed and weighed the pros and cons.

She had asked Jiang Liu a long time ago why he refused to tell Yu Ran the truth, and Jiang Liu's answer at that time was unclear. Since then, she had given up the idea of ​​intervening and waited and watched.

Besides...besides, Yu Lei wasn't quite sure of the real reason why the couple broke up.

"I'm an outsider, and I only have a partial understanding of some things. The so-called truth I restore is bound to be biased. Do you understand?"

She held her breath and listened to her brother's suppressed sobs in the air.

The heartbroken brother dealt a heartbreaking blow to his sister! The supreme blood relationship broke through Yu Lei's rational defenses. Maybe she just needed to tell her brother that he and Jiang Liu were lovers?

No. Yu Ran's only access to memories now comes through the fragments of others' words. That is, good or bad, true or false, as long as the narrator has been in Yu Ran's life, they can easily gain his trust. Yu Ran has no way to resist, no way to counterattack, no way to verify, and can only painfully and passively accept everything.

Could she really tell her brother that he had been gay?

Yu Ran was once a homosexual. Once this sentence is exposed to the air, it will ignite a series of wrongdoings. Who can bear it?

Yu Lei is afraid of that dark past.

Thinking of this, she said softly and sadly:

"You ask, and I answer yes or no, okay?"

Yu Ran nodded and asked, "Did Jiang Liu and I have a good relationship before?"

"yes."

"What happened that led to the breakup?"

"Yes." Yu Lei broke into a sweat. He had really asked the right question. She was not sure what information Yu Ran had.

"Owing money? Backstabbing? Betting against someone? Unequal distribution of benefits? Stealing his girlfriend?"

"No——" Yu Lei stretched out the tone and denied these five points in a row.

Yu Ran was completely clueless now.

Yu Lei stood up and put on another facial mask in front of the dressing mirror to cover her sad face.

"Did I betray him first?"

Yu Lei shook her head, her thick hair swaying on her back. She turned away, afraid that Yu Ran would be so stubborn as to think things were black and white. She said, "It's not that he betrayed you. I don't know, but I'm sure of it."

She stepped forward and used the tip of her index finger to brush away his bangs from his eyes. She touched his eyebrows with her fingertips, not lingering too long on the white scar, gently sweeping them to the end. The clouds and mist dissipated, revealing a piercing, warm orange light in Yu Ran's eyes.

"Don't look back, keep moving forward. Your future is bright enough, there's no need to dwell on the past."

Yu Ran bit his lip and swore that this was the last time he would care about that person: "Is it wrong for me to still be in contact with Jiang Liu?"

"How can it be wrong for two good kids to play together?"

Yu Ran closed his eyes, slashing his eyelashes, forcing out the remaining tears that had accumulated in his eyes. Two lines of tear marks temporarily appeared in the world and then disappeared. The process was highly consistent with his feelings for Jiang Liu...