Chapter 65: The "new boyfriend" was so big that he almost ran away.
It was past one in the morning when Zhou Ai arrived home. The winter night's chill was kept out, and the house was well heated. However, the high excitement ignited by his relationship with Chu Yi remained undimmed, like a warm, boiling flame that dispelled all fatigue.
He didn't even bother to change his shoes. He leaned against the cold door and the first thing he did was to take out his cell phone and impatiently open the pinned dialog box.
His fingertips tapped rapidly on the screen, and the corners of his mouth couldn't suppress a smile:
[Go to bed early, I'm home. No need to reply, sleep well. Good night.]
Sent successfully. He looked at the short message, imagining that Chu Yi might have already fallen asleep, or was wrapped in a blanket and daydreaming on the sofa, and his heart softened.
Putting down the phone, Zhou Ai kicked off his shoes, walked barefoot to the sofa in the living room and sat down, but he didn't feel sleepy at all.
The excitement needed an outlet, and he somehow opened his phone again, entered Weibo, and skillfully found the only account he followed, with the ID "π".
This account is a silent witness to the starting point of his acting career.
When you click on the homepage, the timeline seems to be pulled back to many years ago.
At that time, he was young and green, with a spirit of not giving up, but his popularity was far less than it is now. The scale of his activities was small, and there were very few fans who came to pick him up at the airport.
But this "π" has almost never been absent from any of his public appearances.
Zhou Ai scrolled through the posts one by one. The owner of the account was clearly extremely attentive, with each post clearly annotated with the time, location, and event name.
The accompanying pictures are his early photos, some of which are even a bit blurry, but the composition and shooting angles reveal a unique aesthetic, and the filter style is also his preferred cold texture, which can accurately capture his state and emotions at the time.
Looking at those carefully recorded moments that he was about to forget, Zhou Ai grinned foolishly at first, thinking that Chu Yi was cute and clumsy in doing these things secretly.
But gradually, as he looked through the photos more deeply, his smile froze when he saw those photos taken in the cold winter or the hot summer, with the backgrounds often empty and lonely, and his eyes began to heat up and feel sour uncontrollably.
He seemed to see the young Chu Yi - the second young master of the Cheng family who grew up under strict discipline and should have followed the established elite path.
How he carefully concealed his identity, put on a mask and a hat, blended in with the scattered crowds, or stayed alone in a remote corner, just to use the camera to record another young man who was still struggling in the mud.
What was Chu Yi's mood at that time as he rushed to his events again and again?
What kind of secret expectations and joy, and how much unknown tension and caution does it carry?
How did a person like him who was aloof and used to keeping a distance from others overcome all kinds of discomfort just to be a little closer to him, even if it was just as a stranger "standing brother"?
He did all this willingly, and even tried his best to hide it, not wanting him to find out at all.
If it weren't for the accident tonight, this secret might have been sealed in that piano by Chu Yi forever.
When Zhou Ai thought of the hardships that Chu Yi might have silently endured, the unknown contributions and the silent watch that lasted for years, his heart felt like it was being tightly grasped by an invisible hand, feeling sore and painful, and regret surged into his heart like a tide.
He regretted why he had not discovered it earlier, regretted that he realized it too late, and let his "pi" wait alone for so long.
A drop of warm liquid slid down without warning and hit the phone screen, blurring the photo of him singing on a simple stage many years ago.
Zhou Ai snapped back to his senses, awkwardly reaching out to wipe the moisture from the corners of his eyes with the back of his hand. He cursed himself softly, "How shameful... I've never cried for anyone in my life, but because of Chu Yi, I cried twice in a row..."
He took a deep breath, trying to calm his surging emotions. Just then, a new message popped up on the top of his phone screen.
It is the storage of intention.
Even though he had told her not to reply, the person who looked cold and distant still replied to him obediently and seriously:
[Okay, have a good rest. Good evening.]
These few simple words were like a warm current, instantly soothing all the sour emotions in Zhou Ai's heart.
He looked at the message, imagining Chu Yi's possible expression when he typed these words, and his heart was filled with mixed emotions.
"Tell me... what should I do with you, Chu Yi?" Zhou Ai stared at the screen of his mobile phone motionlessly, his thumb unconsciously stroking Chu Yi's WeChat avatar over and over again.
Swallowing all the sobs and complex emotions in his throat, Zhou Ai took a deep breath, clicked on Chu Yi's WeChat profile editing page, looked at the note "meteorite", solemnly deleted the two words, and then carefully entered the note he wanted.
【Good boy】
This was his exclusive nickname stolen from his childhood name. Looking at the new note "Good Boy", Zhou Ai's heart finally settled down slowly, surrounded by a huge sense of relief and satisfaction of regaining what he had lost.
He looked out the window at the dark night, a gentle yet determined smile appearing on his lips again.
But fortunately, he thought, it’s not too late to find out now.
His "pi", the witness of his long secret love, his clumsy yet affectionate Dr. Chu, from now on, no longer has to hide behind the camera, no longer has to hide his feelings, and can openly be Zhou Ai's "good boy".
———
There was a slight sound of a door closing at the entrance, and finally silence fell, foreshadowing Zhou Ai's departure.
Chu Yi still remained curled up on the sofa, wrapped in a thick wool blanket, like a frozen sculpture.
Zhou Ai's presence seemed to still linger in the room, and the air was filled with an unprecedented, unnerving tension.
Chu Yi's mind was still blank, as if all his thinking abilities and senses had been consumed by the sudden "storm" just now.
He instinctively huddled himself into the fragile fortress of blankets, trying to process everything that had happened tonight.
From the piano secret being discovered, to Zhou Ai's strong yet gentle questioning, to the kiss that almost suffocated him, and finally to Zhou Ai's scorching tears and the choked words "This is killing me"...
Every scene played repeatedly in his mind like a slow motion, impacting his inherent, orderly world.
Since Zhou Ai left, Chu Yi has been sitting motionless in a corner of the sofa wrapped in a blanket.
It wasn't until the screen of the mobile phone on the coffee table lit up and emitted a familiar prompt tone that he was suddenly pulled back to reality from his trance.
It was a WeChat message from Zhou Ai.
[Go to bed early, I'm home. No need to reply, sleep well. Good night.]
Chu Yi looked at the words, his fingertips trembling slightly, and his heartbeat began to accelerate uncontrollably. He hesitated for a moment, but ultimately disobeyed Zhou Ai's advice not to reply. He stretched out his somewhat stiff fingers and carefully typed out the reply:
[Okay, have a good rest. Good evening.]
After sending the message successfully, he breathed a sigh of relief as if he had accomplished a major task. He finally had the courage to look around.
Everything in the house had been carefully tidied up by Zhou Ai before he left - the scattered albums were neatly stacked on the piano, the crooked pillows were straightened, and even the remaining glass of water he had drunk was considerately refilled with warm water.
Everything seemed to be back to normal, neat, cold, and orderly, no different from every night when he lived alone.
But Chu Yi clearly felt that everything was different.
In this space, every corner seemed to be branded with Zhou Ai's traces: the scent in the air, the wrinkles left on the sofa, and even the warmth and strength of Zhou Ai's grip that his fingertips seemed to still remember...
Everything is silently proclaiming that some things have changed completely and cannot be reversed.
Chu Yi tried to close his eyes, trying to calm himself down, but the moment his eyelids closed, Zhou Ai's face, his smiling peach blossom eyes, his warm breath when he got close, and the clear and soft touch on his lips when he kissed him... all played uncontrollably in his mind like a short movie, so clear that it could not be shaken off.
Whenever these images emerged, an inexplicable heat would rise from the bottom of his heart and quickly spread throughout his body, making his cheeks hot and his heartbeat irregular.
He knew clearly that it was just dopamine running wild, the most direct physical reaction after emotions overwhelmed reason, but it was still difficult to calm down and control it.
Chu Yi even subconsciously wanted to bury his face in the blanket again, seeking some shelter and a sense of security.
However, when he did this, he could smell more clearly the unique scent of Zhou Ai in the fibers of the blanket.
The smell seemed to carry an electric current, making him even more flustered, and he had to raise his head embarrassedly again.
At two in the morning, Chu Yi fled the living room and walked into the bedroom. He washed, changed into pajamas, and lay down in the cold bed. Each movement was a dazed, mechanical one.
He lay flat on the bed, staring at the ceiling with his eyes wide open, trying to hypnotize himself using the most primitive method of counting sheep. However, his consciousness was unusually clear.
It was in this silence where he tried to force himself to sleep that a clearer, more irresistible feeling slowly overwhelmed him like a tide.
He found that from the moment Zhou Ai left home, every minute and every second, his thoughts were drifting uncontrollably towards that person.
This strange and surging feeling of longing came so quickly and so unreasonably that it made him feel helpless, yet... willing.
Chu Yi finally realized that Zhou Ai not only broke into his home and uncovered his secrets, but also completely occupied his heart in a domineering yet gentle way.
In that moment, all the love that had been hidden for many years collapsed.
———
Zhou Ai didn't even know when she fell asleep on the sofa. When she woke up, it was already bright outside the window, and the sunlight filtered through the gaps in the curtains, casting a narrow strip of light on the floor.
He found himself still in the same collapsed position he had been in after returning home last night, with stiffness and soreness in his neck and back.
"Hiss..." He sat up with some difficulty, rubbed his aching neck and waist, and his other hand habitually reached for his phone. The screen lit up, showing 11:00 AM.
He couldn't wait to open WeChat, but the pinned dialog box was still quietly stuck on the "good night" he sent last night and Chu Yi's brief reply, with no new messages.
"How heartless." Zhou Ai looked at the empty dialog box. Instead of getting angry, he chuckled indulgently and muttered.
He gently tapped Chu Yi's WeChat avatar, which he had renamed "Guaiguai", with his fingertips, as if he could touch the other person by doing so. Then he stood up and planned to take a shower.
As he was about to take off his wrinkled coat, an exquisite little gift box slipped out of his pocket with a "click" and fell to the ground.
Zhou Ai was stunned for a moment, then bent down to pick it up. Then he suddenly remembered—this was the tie clip gift he had carefully selected for Chu Yi last night! He had been so preoccupied with "challenging the culprit" that he had completely forgotten about it. Holding the small box, the corners of his mouth couldn't help but curl up again.
After taking a shower, Zhou Ai's body was covered with warm steam. He wiped his wet hair with a towel, picked up his mobile phone and decided to call Chu Yi.
He wanted to hear his voice and ask him why he didn't send any message.
However, when the call was made, a long and regular "beep, beep..." busy tone came from the receiver.
Once, no one answered.
Zhou Ai frowned, hung up, and dialed again.
Still busy tone.
He called for the third time out of disbelief, but was still turned away.
After three consecutive busy tones, Zhou Ai held up the phone and began to doubt her life.
A sense of unease quietly emerged - it's just the first day of the relationship, and he's already disappearing?
On the other hand, Chu Yi was indeed "wronged".
He also suffered from severe insomnia last night. He fell into a deep sleep without knowing when, amidst the inner struggle and blushing heartbeat.
As a result, at seven o'clock in the morning, he was woken up by an urgent call from a colleague in the hospital, reminding him that today was the deadline for submitting the thesis materials for promotion.
He had no choice but to force himself to get up despite his exhausted body, rummaging through boxes and drawers to sort out the documents, and then hurried to the hospital.
When Zhou Ai called him, he was busy handing over a thick stack of documents in the personnel department. His phone had long been set to Do Not Disturb mode, so he naturally missed all the calls perfectly.
Zhou Ai was confused. Seeing the unanswered call, the uneasiness in his heart quickly grew. He didn't care that his hair hadn't been completely dried yet. He threw the towel aside, hurriedly put on his clothes, grabbed the car keys, and rushed out the door, heading straight for Chu Yi's house.
All along the way, various thoughts flashed through his mind. When he arrived at Chu Yi's house, he pressed the doorbell anxiously and knocked on the door hard, but there was dead silence inside, no response.
The feeling of dread that followed his realization instantly gripped him – Chu Yi's personality, calm on the surface but stubborn and easily shy, could it be… could it be that he regretted it, felt unable to face it, and simply packed up and ran away in the middle of the night?!
This thought made Zhou Ai's heart sink. He forced himself to calm down and quickly thought about where Chu Yi might have gone.
After thinking about it, he made a phone call - to Cheng Yingzhi.
"Hello? Cheng Yingzhi, do you know where Chu Yi is?"
Cheng Yingzhi was stunned by this nonsensical question: "How should I know? How could he be lost? Why are you looking for him?"
After Zhou Ai went around in circles with him for a long time and confirmed that Cheng Yingzhi was really unaware of the situation, his original anxiety suddenly turned into a thought of playing a prank.
He smirked twice, and his tone became mean: "By the way, cousin, I have something to tell you."
He even paused deliberately before speaking clearly and quickly: "Your brother, Chu Yi, and I are in love."
After saying that, Zhou Ai decisively hung up the phone without giving Cheng Yingzhi any time to react or roar.
He could imagine Cheng Yingzhi's stunned expression and the shock to his worldview on the other end of the phone. This made him feel a little better about not being able to find Chu Yi, and it was considered a win-win situation.
But after hanging up the phone, the real problem still lies before us.
Where did Chu Yi go?
Zhou Ai stood at the closed door of Chu Yi's house, like an abandoned large dog, confused and frustrated for nearly half an hour, but still couldn't figure out what was going on.
Just when he was about to give up and was considering whether to resort to extreme measures, his phone dinged and received a WeChat message. It was from Cheng Yingzhi.
The message content is very simple, with only one address.
This was followed by a concise and somewhat annoyed addition: [Maybe here.]
Zhou Ai clicked on the address and saw that it was the address of the apartment registered under Cheng Yingzhi's name where Chu Yi would occasionally go to rest after finishing his night shift.
A sudden turn of events!
Zhou Ai almost cheered out loud, and he immediately replied: "Thank you, my dear cousin. I'll treat you to dinner some other day."
Then he turned around without hesitation, rushed into the elevator again, started the car, and rushed towards the address.
This time, he must catch his "good boy" red-handed!
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