Chapter 25: Pushing Away Ninety-Nine Percent of the World
Xie Kang didn't walk far. He found a bench in a nearby small square and sat down. He took out his cell phone and called Li Xiuyu.
Li Xiuyu quickly picked up the phone, said "Hello," and asked Xie Kang, "Who are you?"
"Thank you, Kang."
"Did you buy a cell phone?"
"Well, my dad brought it back from a business trip to Hong Kong. Where are you?"
"I'm at the music store. What's going on?"
"I'm here in Lychee Park, can you come over?"
Li Xiuyu said impatiently: "Is there anything that can't be said on the phone?"
"It's hard to explain over the phone." Xie Kang heard no sound from the other end of the line and added, "It's very important."
"You can only ask me about this?"
Xie Kang held the phone tightly: "Yes, I can only ask you."
At this moment, he no longer cared about the dissatisfaction of being suppressed by Li Xiuyu since he was a child. Li Xiuyu was now the only person in the world who could help him.
But Xie Kang didn't expect Li Xiuyu to say it directly: "Is it related to Zhuang Yongyuan?"
He had clearly seen Zhuang Yongyuan more than ten minutes ago, but when he heard these three words coming from the phone, he was still flustered. He had never thought that the combination of these three simple words could have such a strong effect like a spell.
Amidst the thumping of his heartbeat, Xie Kang answered truthfully, "Yes, don't tell him."
Li Xiuyu arrived quite quickly and sat down next to Xie Kang ten minutes later.
He patted Xie Kang on the shoulder and said, "Go ahead."
"Zhuang Yongyuan..." Xie Kang was speechless after saying these three words. He didn't know what to say.
Li Xiuyu then lit a cigarette, took a few puffs, and handed one to Xie Kang. Xie Kang took it, stared at the cigarette, and said, "What if your parents find out you're smoking?"
Li Xiuyu narrowed his eyes and said, "These cigarettes were stolen from my dad. If they know, they can't stand smoking. If they knew about the other things I did, wouldn't they jump off the building?"
As he spoke, he handed the lighter to Xie Kang, who awkwardly used his index finger and thumb to light the cigarette.
He held the cigarette over the fire for a long time. Li Xiuyu couldn't bear to watch it any longer. Just as he finished his cigarette, he took out a new one and showed it to Xie Kang: "When you light a cigarette, just take a puff. You don't need to light it for so long."
Xie Kang stared at the cigarette in front of him, milky white smoke curling up. When the cigarette was halfway burned, he finally put his mouthpiece between his teeth and took a puff. Surprisingly, it went smoothly and he didn't choke.
He took a puff, then held the cigarette away in fear and said, "You've led me astray."
"Don't blame me. You're just trying to smoke. I've tried it with Zhuang Yongyuan, but he wasn't interested."
"Zhuang Yongyuan..." Xie Kang read out the name again, "Zhuang Yongyuan is really..."
"Yes, a 100% pure homosexual, just like me, there's no cure even if you want to."
"Can this be cured?"
Li Xiuyu glared at him. Xie Kang fell silent and took another cigarette from the pack that Li Xiuyu had placed on the chair. After finishing it, he asked, "Then how did you know?"
"What do you know?" Although it was a question, there was not much doubt in Li Xiuyu's tone.
Xie Kang knew he was forcing himself to say that word. He let out a long breath and fulfilled Li Xiuyu's wish: "How do you know if you're gay?"
"Would you ask someone how to know if you are a boy or a girl?"
"That's different."
"What's the difference?" Li Xiuyu's tone was filled with contempt. Xie Kang really couldn't like this man. He always acted so superior. He didn't understand how Zhuang Yongyuan could be friends with him.
But he had one advantage: Xie Kang could tell the truth in front of him.
Seeing Xie Kang hesitating for a long time and unable to answer, he said, "If you can't think of it, don't think about it. You will forget it after a while."
He stood up to leave, but Xie Kang quickly stopped him: "Wait a minute!"
"What else?"
Xie Kang clutched the phone in his pocket tightly and said nonchalantly, "I didn't forget. Zhuang Yongyuan ignored me, and I felt very uncomfortable."
"I don't know why, but I feel so miserable. I can't eat or sleep well, and everything feels so boring."
"When I see him at school, I feel a little happier, but he's very cold to me. When I say hello to him, he pretends not to hear me. When I try to walk with him after school, he shakes his head, which makes me feel even worse."
"I don't know, I don't know what's wrong with me, I don't know what to do."
Li Xiuyu didn't leave, narrowing his eyes to look closely at Xie Kang. In his impression, Xie Kang had always been stubborn and aggressive. Before coming here, he guessed that Xie Kang would tell him about Zhuang Yongyuan, but he hadn't expected Xie Kang to be so blunt.
Xie Kang threw in the towel and said, "You've known Zhuang Yongyuan since junior high school, right? Tell me about Zhuang Yongyuan. Tell me about him. I want to hear about him."
His cell phone suddenly rang. Xie Kang looked at the caller ID and hesitated. Li Xiuyu asked, "Your parents?"
As soon as he finished speaking, Xie Kang hung up the phone.
"If you want to know about him, just ask him yourself."
Xie Kang said, "He's ignoring me. I don't know what to do." He raised his head and asked Li Xiuyu as if he was clinging to a lifeline, "You definitely know what to do."
"This isn't a competition exam. I can't help you." Li Xiuyu's tone became sterner, and he warned, "But I won't let what happened to Yan Xu happen again."
Xie Kang's face was very bad, and he murmured: "I don't know, I don't know."
Li Xiuyu frowned and asked him, "What are you afraid of?"
From this moment on, Xie Kang was convinced by Li Xiuyu. Li Xiuyu's words sounded like the key to solving a problem, or the arrows in the game's strategy guide. When Xie Kang heard this, he suddenly understood.
It turned out that for so long, he had been afraid. It turned out that for so long, Zhuang Yongyuan hated not himself, but his own fear.
He was afraid of being a stranger, afraid of not being accepted, and afraid of disappointing his family.
He liked Zhuang Yongyuan, liked his name, liked his voice, liked the serious expression on his face when he played the piano, liked the sparkling look in his eyes when he looked at him, liked that he could be sharp and sarcastic sometimes, liked that he smiled when he ate sweets, like a conditioned reflex.
The fog that had trapped him lifted, and he knew he wasn't so scared when he knew he was scared.
Li Xiuyu saw Xie Kang, stunned, and wanted to offer a warning. But Xie Kang's eyes and expression were so familiar to him, so familiar that he felt a little envious. He found it terrifying to completely follow another person's heartbeats. But even if he wanted to, he'd never experienced it. He often saw this expression on other people's faces. He wanted it so easily, but he might never have it.
"If you dare mess around, Du Jiahao is a very good fighter." Li Xiuyu, fulfilling his friend's duty, said, "Zhuang Yongyuan is not some Cinderella."
Xie Kang didn't hear clearly, and he couldn't remember anything else that happened that night. He even forgot whether he was scolded when he went home. The whole night was a mess. He only remembered that he had been thinking about how to tell Zhuang Yongyuan. He finally thought of a good idea when he was sitting in the taxi on the way home. At this time, the radio in the taxi said that there was a possibility of snow in Pingnan on New Year's Day.
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