Chapter 15: A Brief Separation During the Spring Festival
# Chapter 15: A brief separation during the Spring Festival
New Year's Day was coming in two days. Thinking that Liang Yu was alone in City B, Qiao Shuyan invited him to celebrate the holiday with his family. Because Ms. Sun had arranged everything at home, Qiao's father did not look sour anymore. Instead, he took the initiative to invite Liang Yu to drink with him. They drank the 15-year-old Moutai that Liang Yu brought as a gift to Qiao's father. Qiao Shuyan felt that his father's improved attitude towards Liang Yu this time seemed to have a lot to do with these two bottles of Moutai.
When leaving Qiao's house, Qiao Shuyan drove a Tesla Model X for the first time and was very excited, but she didn't dare to drive fast for fear of being hit by Liang Yu.
The day after New Year's Day was like fast-forwarding. The two picked less busy weekends to go hiking twice. When Qiao Shuyan had time, he would ask Liang Yu to teach him how to swim. Although he didn't learn quickly, at least he learned the breaststroke before the Spring Festival.
As the Spring Festival approaches, everyone is a little restless and has no intention of working. The female employees in the department hurriedly bought a lot of things before the express delivery stopped during the Spring Festival. Some were for themselves, some for their children, and some for their family members. Especially the younger ones, it seemed that all the online stores would be closed down after the Spring Festival, and it seemed that they couldn't celebrate the New Year without buying some things... In short, the department was filled with the atmosphere of "buy, buy, buy" before the festival.
This year, New Year's Eve was the first day of the holiday, but Liang Yu returned to his hometown on the 27th of February. Qiao Shuyan specially asked the hospital for half a day off that day to see Liang Yu off at the airport. For some reason, he felt some inexplicable emotions in his heart, not positive emotions, but he couldn't tell what the feeling was.
Qiao Shuyan accompanied Liang Yu all the way to the security check before saying goodbye to him, as if missing a step would be disrespectful to Liang Yu. After all, Liang Yu's kindness to him was real.
Only after Liang Yu went through security and he could no longer be seen did Qiao Shuyan quietly leave the airport.
He felt that something was strange about himself, but he didn't understand why.
After driving back to Liang Yu's apartment, Qiao Shuyan checked the time and saw that it was already time for dinner, so he quietly went to cook a meal. When the meal was ready and served on the table, he habitually set out tableware for two people, served two bowls of rice, and called out, "Liang Yu, it's time to eat."
After he finished speaking, no one responded, and he realized that Liang Yu had already returned home.
Qiao Shuyan suddenly felt that the Gong Bao Chicken in front of him was bland.
It turned out that this one month was enough time for him to develop various habits of living with Liang Yu.
I am already so emo, and I still catch up with Qiao Shuyan's duty on the 28th of February. I would like to thank the section chiefs, led by the dear section chief. This is Qiao Shuyan's first night shift since he started working in the hospital.
Although these new people on duty had received on-duty training at the end of the year, the training was better than nothing. Most of the training was for writing handover reports. If anything really happened, they still had to be on duty and respond accordingly.
That night, Qiao Shuyan nervously followed the logistics staff and head nurse on duty that day to conduct a full-building inspection of the hospital. It was called an inspection, but in reality it was just a stroll through the various departments of the hospital, greeting and chatting with the staff on duty in each department - this was what Qiao Shuyan was least good at, and then they all returned to the duty room to play games on their phones.
Despite this, Qiao Shuyan was still very nervous lying on the bed on duty, holding his phone in his hand, afraid that he would miss his period, and he was so nervous that he didn't sleep well all night. Fortunately, nothing happened that day, and when it was time to hand over the shift the next morning, Qiao Shuyan's handover content was those formatted templates, which he read once and passed.
In this way, Qiao Shuyan endured a day in Liang Yu's apartment and a night in the hospital, and finally made it to the New Year's Eve holiday. He didn't wait until New Year's Eve, and ran home after get off work on the night of the 29th. It was the first time that Qiao Shuyan found that he couldn't stand living alone. Before that, he even dreamed of renting a house by himself, which was really beyond his ability.
When she got home, Qiao Shiyan's family had already arrived. Before she got married, she and Song Hao had agreed that after marriage, they would take turns to spend the Spring Festival at each other's homes, and this year it was Qiao's turn to spend the Spring Festival.
When little Candy saw Qiao Shuyan, she rushed towards him, shouting as she ran: "Uncle! Happy New Year!"
Qiao Shuyan picked up the child who ran towards him like a cannonball, lifted him up high, and said with a smile: "Candy, Happy New Year!"
Little Candy kissed Qiao Shuyan on the face and asked with a smile: "Uncle, where is Uncle Liang Yu?"
"..." They had only met once before, but the kid remembered him so clearly, and asked where he was in the second sentence. This made Qiao Shuyan, his uncle, speechless. "He went home."
"Candy misses Uncle Liang Yu too. Uncle, can we have a video call with Uncle Liang Yu?" Candy stared at Qiao Shuyan with her big watery eyes and a little pleading, and a babyish request came out of her little mouth.
Qiao Shuyan felt a shock in his heart, but the idea of video chatting with Liang Yu at this time made him a little overwhelmed. After all, do good friends need to video chat? In his cognition, a phone call is enough. However, he felt a little moved by this proposal. This inexplicable move made him feel uncomfortable. Why did he want to video chat with Liang Yu?
Qiao Shuyan thought for a moment and said to Candy, "I don't know if Uncle Liang Yu is available right now. How about we call him later?"
Candy started to act coquettishly in his arms after hearing that: "No, no! Uncle, just send a message to Uncle Liang Yu to ask!"
“……”Qiao Shuyan felt that he was convinced in an instant, so he put Candy down, took out his cell phone and sent a message to Liang Yu: Liang Yu, what are you doing?
Liang Yu replied almost immediately: I'm free.
"..." Seeing this answer, Qiao Shuyan was stunned for a second. After all, thinking is one thing, doing is another.
Qiao Shuyan looked at the two words silently, not knowing how to reply. But soon, Liang Yu's message came again: What happened?
Qiao Shuyan finally decided to use Candy as a shield...but why is it a "shield"? It was clearly Candy who made the request in the first place.
But the simple-minded Qiao Shuyan didn't realize this. He replied: Candy said she missed you and wanted to video chat with you. Is it convenient for you?
Liang Yu's reply was a video accepting the request.
At that moment, Qiao Shuyan's heart trembled slightly. He was inexplicably nervous. He did not expect that the other party would directly send a video request to him.
Candy shook his legs while he was in a daze and asked, "Uncle, is this Uncle Liang Yu's video?"
Qiao Shuyan hurriedly clicked the answer button, and before he could adjust his expression, he saw Liang Yuchong on the phone greeting him: "Hi, Shuyan, Happy New Year!"
Qiao Shuyan put away his slightly flustered expression, revealed a slightly wolfish smile, and replied: "Liang Yu, Happy New Year, I'm sorry to bother you."
The person on the phone frowned and said jokingly, "How come you and I are so alienated after just two days of not seeing each other?"
"..." Qiao Shuyan choked, he didn't know why he said that, and he felt inexplicably flustered at this moment, so he changed the subject and said, "Candy misses you, wait a moment, I'll give her the phone." As he said that, without waiting for the other party to respond, he handed the phone to Candy and put himself away from the phone to prevent Liang Yu from seeing his mischief.
When Candy saw Liang Yu, her eyes lit up and she smiled widely. She greeted Liang Yu like a little sun: "Uncle Liang Yu, Happy New Year! Why didn't you come to my house? Candy missed you!"
Liang Yu also smiled and replied to Candy: "Hello, little Candy, uncle misses you too."
"Uncle, you are lying. Why doesn't he come to my house if he misses me?" Candy said with a pout.
"Candy wants to spend the New Year with her mother, and uncle also wants to go home to spend the New Year with her mother!" Liang Yu said.
Qiao Shuyan listened absentmindedly to the conversation between the older and younger, wondering what was wrong with him. Just as the other party said, he hadn't seen the other party for only two or three days, so why was he in such a strange mood? The feeling of wanting to be with the other party at the same time made him feel very tormented.
He wanted to be alone and quiet, so he went to the bedroom.
However, just as he took a step forward, Candy called him: "Uncle, Uncle Liang Yu is looking for you!"
Hearing this, Qiao Shuyan paused and was forced to take the phone that Candy handed back to him. Once again, before he could adjust his expression, he saw Liang Yu's half-smiley face enter his sight.
"...What's the matter?" Qiao Shuyan asked bravely, then took the phone away from him and walked quickly towards his bedroom.
He almost held his breath, entered the house, and closed the door. He finally breathed a sigh of relief and held the phone in front of him again. Liang Yu still had that half-smile on his face: "Why do you seem so nervous?"
It's not just like that, it's really very nervous!
Qiao Shuyan roared silently, but at this moment he was like a rabbit who wanted to go out to eat grass but suddenly smelled the scent of a big bad wolf. He could only question himself silently in his heart, what was there to be afraid of the big bad wolf!
Oh, no, Liang Yu is not the Big Bad Wolf!
Qiao Xiaotu, no, it was Qiao Shuyan who was so embarrassed that he said calmly, "No, why should I be nervous about video chatting with you?" Then he sat down at the desk and asked, "What are you doing?"
"I just finished an online meeting and was about to help my mom cook." Liang Yu said, "You just got home?"
"Hmm..." Qiao Shuyan said, "Your company is quite inhumane to hold a work meeting on the 29th of February."
"Haha," Liang Yu smiled, "Capitalists naturally want to squeeze out the remaining value."
Qiao Shuyan also smiled, and inexplicably relaxed, and asked, "How are you spending the New Year?"
"Same as in previous years, making dumplings and watching the Spring Festival Gala." Liang Yu said, "There are no children at my house, so it's not as lively as yours."
"You're welcome to spend the New Year at my house next year," Qiao Shuyan joked.
"Then I'd better obey you respectfully."
Qiao Shuyan didn't answer, but just quietly looked at Liang Yu on his phone. The video seemed to be beautified, making Liang Yu look whiter and more delicate than in real life. He remembered that there seemed to be only one selfie of the two of them holding the injured fox on his phone, and the photo was a little blurry. So, for some reason, Qiao Shuyan pressed the screenshot button and saved the slightly smiling face of Liang Yu on the screen.
Neither of them spoke, but the atmosphere was not uncomfortable. It was just that the arms holding the phones felt a little sore.
Just as she was about to say something, there was a knock on the bedroom door, and then the door opened. Sun Xumin shouted, "Xiao Qiao, come out and help!"
Qiao Shuyan responded and said to Liang Yu, "I'll hang up first."
Liang Yu nodded, Qiao Shuyan hung up the video, and the handsome face disappeared from the phone.
Qiao Shuyan suddenly realized something, opened the photo album on his phone, and took a look at the screenshot. His heart suddenly tensed up. He felt like he was sick, why did he take a screenshot of this picture? He was about to delete it, but when his finger was on the small trash can that represented the delete button, he couldn't click it.
While hesitating, Qiao's mother urged him again. Qiao Shuyan then closed the photo album, turned off the screen of his mobile phone, and went out to help.
Because of Qiao Shiyan's family, this year was much more lively. On New Year's Eve, the family gathered together, watching the Spring Festival Gala while making dumplings. However, there were too many people making dumplings and there was not enough space, so Qiao Shuyan took the initiative to leave and sat aside to chat with his father.
Although it was said to be a chat, in fact, Qiao's father was a taciturn person, and Qiao Shuyan could not be expected to talk much, so in the end Qiao Shuyan took out her cell phone and sent a message to Liang Yu to complain about the Spring Festival Gala.
After the video chat with Liang Yu yesterday, Qiao Shuyan played with Candy while wondering if there was something wrong with him. Qiao Shiyan was cooking with Sun Xumin. She glanced at Qiao Shuyan who was jumping up and down with Candy and turned around to ask, "Is he and Liang Yu together?"
Sun Xumin said: "I haven't heard of it."
"Didn't you ask Aunt Yao?"
"Your Aunt Yao is still pointing at me and asking."
Qiao Shiyan shook her head, "Tsk tsk, after all, Liang Yu's personality is much more mature than Xiao Qiao's."
"Of course not. It's your Aunt Yao who is really capable. She has raised such an outstanding son."
"Hey! My brother is also very good, why do you just look at other people's children as good?" Qiao Shiyan stood up for her brother and then asked, "Honestly, Mom, what do you think of them?"
Sun Xumin asked, "What do you think?"
Qiao Shiyan: "I want to ask, about Xiao Qiao bending... can you really accept this?"
"Why is this unacceptable?" Sun Xumin said, "There are many such things in society nowadays. Although I feel a little uncomfortable when it comes to my own son, it is not unacceptable." She glanced at Qiao Shiyan and said, "Have you forgotten that I am still a fan of 'Ji Guang Pian Yu'?"
"Pfft——" Qiao Shiyan said, "Speaking of the two of them, did you know that they recently appeared on a variety show together?" As she spoke, she took out her cell phone and began to look for the variety show cuts of the two of them.
In retrospect, Qiao Shuyan pondered for a long time but still couldn't figure out what was wrong with him. After all, as a senior straight man for 26 years, it was hard for him to think that he had "really become a straight man." This was an inertial thinking, just like people who have lived in northern China for many years since they were born, and subconsciously think that winter should be a combination of heavy snow and down jackets, and it is difficult to realize that winter can also be a combination of flip-flops and shorts.
Therefore, he finally came to the conclusion that, apart from his mom, sister and dad, he didn't seem to have video chatted with anyone, so it seemed reasonable that he was a little nervous when video chatting with Liang Yu.
So after letting go of his grudge, Qiao Shuyan became talkative. If Candy made a strange-shaped dumpling, he would take a photo and share it with Liang Yu. If netizens complained about the Spring Festival Gala, he would take a screenshot and share it with Liang Yu. If someone in his family found a coin in a dumpling, he would also share it with Liang Yu... He felt that there was nothing wrong with doing it this way.
As for Liang Yu...
Liang Yu was very conflicted. On the one hand, he knew that Qiao Shuyan was a straight man, and he even wanted to stay away from him. However, on the other hand, Qiao Shuyan's various behaviors in the past few days made him wonder if the identity of this "straight man" was a little exaggerated.
It’s not that Liang Yu is narcissistic, it’s just that Qiao Shuyan has been a little abnormal in the past few days.
Even so, gay Liang Yu was not confident that he could turn a straight man of many years into a straight man in such a short period of time, so he did not say anything. He just chatted with Qiao Shuyan casually, just to kill time.
At around twelve o'clock, Qiao Shuyan's family went downstairs to set off fireworks in the community. This year, in order to please his granddaughter Candy, Qiao’s father specially bought a lot of fireworks.
When they got downstairs, they lit a sparkler for Candy to play with, and then the task of setting off the fireworks was given to Qiao Shuyan and his brother-in-law Song Hao.
When the colorful fireworks exploded in the inky black sky, Qiao Shuyan deeply felt that his father's money was well spent this time.
The fireworks were huge and extremely gorgeous, almost occupying the entire sky as far as the eye could see. Qiao Shuyan hadn't seen such beautiful fireworks for a long time, and couldn't help but take out his mobile phone to take photos and videos. Unfortunately, although the resolution of the mobile phone was high, it was far less real and shocking than what the human eye saw.
Qiao Shuyan and Song Hao lit countless fireworks, and the whole family stood downstairs for more than ten minutes before the fireworks were finally finished.
Little Candy was originally drowsy, but after being awakened by the sound of fireworks, she was now full of energy, staring at Qiao Shuyan with a pair of beautiful big eyes: "Uncle, I want to watch more!"
Qiao Shuyan looked at the almost empty trunk of the car and said, "Let's try something different." There were only some handheld fireworks left in the trunk.
The child was very reasonable. She reached out to Qiao Shuyan from her father's arms. Qiao Shuyan took her and carried her to the car to pick out small fireworks.
Song Hao did not stay out of it either. He followed the children to the car and asked them to light fireworks.
After a while, Candy started playing with her dad again.
Qiao Shuyan was bored, so he picked out a few videos he had just taken and sent them to Liang Yu.
Liang Yu had just washed his face and was not asleep yet. He received the video and clicked on it, praising her sincerely: "She is so beautiful."
The two chatted for a while, and Qiao Shuyan said: Alas, when I think about having to visit again tomorrow, I feel so depressed.
As a super-i person, visiting relatives and friends during the Chinese New Year is a disaster. After all, those relatives and friends are best at gossiping about the parents and making all kinds of comparisons. As the oldest unmarried young person in the family, Qiao Shuyan has always been the main target of gossip.
Moreover, this year is different from previous years. In previous years, although he had no partner, he was still "straight" after all. This year, the news that he was "bent" seemed to have spread widely among his relatives and friends. After all, this happened about two months ago and it was not news anymore.
In addition to being single this year, he may be more concerned about his sexual orientation. In the face of such gossip, the fact that he was promoted to deputy director of the finance department of a tertiary hospital at a young age seems so insignificant.
As Qiao Shuyan expected, although he repeatedly asked Ms. Sun to withdraw from this year's "visiting relatives and friends team" and sat on the bench, he was still forced by Ms. Sun to go to his grandfather's house. The reason was that his grandmother was at his grandfather's house this year, and as a grandson, it was natural for him to visit his grandmother during the New Year.
As luck would have it, when they arrived at their grandfather's house, their aunt and uncle's families were also there.
As soon as Qiao Shuyan entered the room, he saw his aunt and turned around to leave, but Sun Xumin quickly grabbed his arm and pulled him back.
Qiao Shuyan almost collapsed and pulled the corners of his mouth to greet the elders. The one he feared most in the whole family was his aunt, who was the biggest gossip collector in the family. No matter whether there were good or bad things in the family, they could not escape her burning gossip spirit. When he needed her, Qiao Shuyan called her "lark", and when he didn't need her - like now - Qiao Shuyan would call her "gossip woman". Of course, only he and his sister knew this name.
The key point is that his aunt is a gossiper regardless of the occasion and does not consider the atmosphere when speaking. As the only daughter of his grandmother, she is doted on by her grandmother and has a very arrogant temper. Therefore, his uncle divorced her a few years ago, but this did not prevent his aunt from continuing to do her own thing.
They had just finished greeting their relatives in the house and found a place to sit down - thanks to the large space in the eldest grandfather's house, the little aunt launched a general attack on him: "Shuyan, you are one year older this year, do you have a partner?"
"..." He was so rough right from the start! Qiao Shuyan wanted to die. But he had made up his mind that he would not get used to his aunt this year. After all, he was out and about, and his identity was given by himself. Since his aunt was so curious, he might as well stop being a human being. "Thank you for your concern, aunt. I have a partner."
His aunt seemed to have expected this and said with a smile, "Congratulations, by the way... is your partner a boy or a girl?"
Qiao Shuyan looked back with a fake smile, thinking, I'm not going to be a human this year, and then replied: "Both men and women."
As soon as the words fell, the huge living room suddenly fell silent, and everyone looked at Qiao Shuyan in horror, including his aunt. Oh, except Qiao Shiyan, because she was in great pain trying not to laugh after hearing it.
Qiao Shuyansi didn't notice it at all. She looked at her aunt with a smile and continued to ask, "Aunt, do you still want to ask about my work situation?"
After saying that, without waiting for anyone to react, Qiao Shuyan continued: "Thanks to my aunt, I was promoted to the second-in-command of the department this year, with an annual salary of less than one million. I also have a car, the Tesla Model Y, and I have a house, just across from our hospital, a large flat, and I don't have to pay back the mortgage." Anyway, he doesn't even pay the rent.
After hearing this, Qiao Shiyan was filled with respect for her younger brother. She had thought that she would inevitably have a "life-and-death fight" with her aunt today, but she had not expected that her younger brother would be so successful today.
Not long after these shocking words were uttered, Qiao's father, mother and sister dragged Qiao Shuyan away from the battlefield, leaving behind a group of relatives who looked at each other in amazement.
On the way back, Qiao Shuyan sent a message to Liang Yu: Thank you, my friend, it was a really great day today.
Looking up the chat history, there were dozens of teaching videos on how to argue with people during the Chinese New Year that Liang Yu shared with Qiao Shuyan overnight.
Qiao Shuyan was just applying what he learned, but he was really happy. Qiao Shiyan and Sun Xumin were happy to see this happen, but Qiao's father felt ashamed. Unfortunately, like Qiao Shuyan, Qiao's father had no say in the family.