Chapter 119 It's you, baby!
That evening, the instructors had a dinner party, and Xie Xingchen, as he had said, sat diagonally across from them.
Lin Yao had Duan Zheng sitting to his left and He Li to his right. Looking at the heavy gazes from across the room, he felt that all the sweetness he had just given was for nothing. He had just managed to appease the young master, but now he was angry again.
"These are the twins, Xiao Yi and Xiao Jiu, from the Ordnance Department. And these three are Guo Pei, Zhang Yang, and Li Yishan..." He Li had just gotten to know everyone and, with his excellent memory, he stood up and introduced them one by one.
He moved to the side, his tone suddenly becoming proud: "This is my brother Yao, from the Comprehensive Warfare Department, the strongest sniper in the Ninth Galaxy, unmatched by anyone."
"I've heard so much about you." The short-haired guy, Zhang Yang, smiled and said, "Our armory is pretty boring, all I've heard about is Dark Star and Sun Madman breaking their records."
Xie Xingchen said lazily, "No, Lin Yao is better than me. I was just lucky."
"This level of modesty isn't like you," Xiao Jiu teased. "When you two were fighting this afternoon, you were really going at it like the plague. My brother and I almost had to pull you two apart."
"Yeah, it took a lot of effort." Xiao Yi's eyes scanned the long table curiously. "You two, I heard you have a bad relationship, is that true?"
Lin Yao and Xie Xingchen exchanged a glance for a second, carefully considering their words.
If I say it too harshly, someone will be unhappy; if I say it too mildly, it will easily arouse suspicion.
He chose a very neutral term: "The relationship is so-so."
Okay, young master's face fell.
Duan Zheng added from the side, "The two of them were classmates for a few years before and their relationship wasn't very good. After they transferred schools, it wasn't a matter of whether they were close or not, but they didn't have any contact at all."
Okay, it's completely collapsed into ruins.
Lin Yao stretched out his leg without making a sound, the tip of his shoe lightly bumping against the other person's shoe, a silent reassurance.
Xie Xingchen glanced at him for a moment, then looked to the side and said sarcastically, "Of course, it's not as good as you being around him every day to understand him."
"Of course," Duan Zheng said frankly. "After all, we're on the same team, and we're familiar with each other since we spend so much time together."
Xie Xingchen's tone sounded casual, but every word seemed to hide a needle: "How well do you know him? What does he like to eat? What does he like to do in his free time? What are his catchphrases? What is he afraid of? You know all of that?"
Duan Zheng: "............."
Everyone at the table sensed the subtle tension. Zhang Yang muttered to Xiao Jiu next to him, "The people from Dark Star and Sun Star dislike each other from top to bottom. The atmosphere is so tense."
Duan Zheng tried hard to recall and finally came up with one: "He likes to eat candy, orange flavored, especially when he is in a bad mood, he always carries a handful of candy in his pocket."
Xie Xingchen, who was initially in a rather annoyed mood, suddenly smiled and his expression relaxed.
"Guess why it's orange flavored?"
Lin Yao nudged him again with the tip of his shoe, reminding him that loose lips sink ships. They didn't know who at the table was Xie Hengzhi's spy, and it would be bad if he said something wrong and it was misinterpreted.
Duan Zheng turned his head to look at Lin Yao: "Yeah, why? Do you like sour things?"
“No way, Yao-ge didn’t like sweets before, it seems like it started from…” He Li stopped abruptly halfway through his sentence.
Wait, it seems to have started from when Xie Xingchen left.
That day, he went to the hospital to visit Lin Yao. The man lay on the hospital bed without saying a word, holding a large jar of candy in his hand, stuffing it into his mouth one piece at a time, like a machine with a pre-programmed schedule.
He Li thought he looked terrible and wanted to move the candy jar away, but Lin Yao held on tightly and wouldn't let her.
He had no choice but to give up and asked, "Are you feeling unwell? What's wrong?"
Lin Yao simply shook his head: "No, my mouth tastes bitter, I want to eat something sweet, but it's too sour."
Who gave you the candy?
He Li was unaware that Xie Xingchen had already left. He only heard from Cheng Boyan that Xie Xingchen's condition was fluctuating and that he needed to be hospitalized for a while. He assumed that the snowball fight had made him catch a cold.
Lin Yao remained silent for a long time, so long that it seemed he couldn't answer the question, before finally saying, "A very important person."
But it didn't say who it was.
Four years later, He Li re-examined this point in time and began to feel its subtlety.
Xie Xingchen left, but the candy left by the important person is something to eat when you're feeling down. Orange, Chenzi, is it because you miss him?
He Li gasped.
My God, he's discovered some incredible, earth-shattering secret.
Huh? Huh? Huh?
No, it's going to explode, I need to find someone to share it with.
The conversation had already veered off course, with someone asking Xie Xingchen, "Who exactly is that AA baby you have a crush on? We're really curious about any Alpha you've set your sights on. Is she from Dark Star?"
Lin Yao stopped drinking water and looked across at the other side.
Xie Xingchen replied deftly, "It's just the Alpha I have a crush on, but of course I can't reveal his name."
"Why is it called AA? Does it mean you're in a 'double A' relationship?" Duan Zheng asked.
"No." Xie Xingchen smiled, his gaze seemingly drifting over the face across from him that was eagerly awaiting an answer. "There's another reason; it's a term of endearment."
Lin Yao frowned and searched through his initials, student ID, and military region code again, but there was no letter A among them.
Pet name? Ha, it's called a pet name even if it has nothing to do with me?
Ha, you bastard, you're dead.
He Li, standing next to him, recalled his incredibly cheesy posts.
He quickly grabbed a knife and fork and poked Cheng Boyan's plate, making a clattering sound: "Come out, I have something to tell you."
Cheng Boyan glanced at him suspiciously, stood up, and focused his gaze on the triangular battleground.
He paused for a moment, then strode out. As soon as he closed the door, He Li leaned in and whispered in his ear, "I've discovered a big secret!"
"What?" Cheng Boyan looked down at him. Because they were whispering, he was very close, almost like he was throwing himself into his arms.
He Li lowered his voice, afraid of being overheard, and said, "I suspect that Yao Ge, that blockhead, has finally blossomed. He and Xie Gou used to have a mutual crush on each other."
Cheng Boyan was stunned for several seconds. Well, there's nothing wrong with that.
He found it amusing: "How did you figure that out?"
He Li presented the series of deductions derived from that piece of candy, and said with heartache, "He likes Xie Gou, right? He must think it's too shameful to like his mortal enemy, that's why he didn't tell me. It's so hateful that he actually kept it from me. But if I put myself in his shoes, I would also feel ashamed to like someone who insults me every day."
Cheng Boyan smiled.
Seeing his heartbroken expression, she said, "His taste is indeed terrible, but he's definitely at the age where he should be dating. All I can do is wish him well. He kept it all bottled up, but he was too proud to confess. In the end, he was tired of being a simp and got no response. He'd rather run away and suffer in secret than stay in her arms. Sigh, Yao-ge is such a blockhead."
Cheng Boyan:
They've been together for four years, even though it's an intergalactic relationship.
"Why aren't you surprised at all?" He Li looked at him suspiciously.
Since Cheng Boyan couldn't directly reveal the answer on behalf of the person involved, he could only avoid the main point and say, "That's what I guessed too. I thought it was such a coincidence that we were thinking the same thing."
"Right? I can't believe I thought of the same thing as you, with such a clever mind. I was right after all."
He Li sighed, "Although I look down on Xie Gou and really hope that Yao Ge is the only one who is happy, he really wasn't very happy in the past few years. Oh well, as long as Yao Ge is happy."
"You've become sensible," Cheng Boyan praised.
He Li changed the subject: "Let me see if I can think of a way to help him win back the heartbroken Xie Gou."
Knowing that the praise would only last two seconds, Cheng Boyan's brow twitched, and he quickly stopped her: "No, she has her own rhythm, don't cause trouble."
“Yeah, so are we just going to watch them like this?” He Li wrinkled his nose. “They didn’t talk much during their meeting this time, they seemed so cold to each other.”
Cheng Boyan:
He didn't speak, but flirted with me using my phone.
He lowered his eyes, looked at the person who was approaching, patted the top of his head with his palm, and said with a smile, "Don't worry about others, the more you worry, the shorter you'll grow."
“I’m 1.78 meters tall, which isn’t exactly a drag on the Alphas, is it?” He Li straightened his back. “It’s the other few of you who are all over 1.8 meters tall, especially Xie Gou, who’s so tall he’s practically filling in the black hole.”
Just as Cheng Boyan was about to say something, he saw Lin Yao and Xie Xingchen enter the adjacent restroom one after the other, and they pulled He Li back as he was about to turn around, covering his eyes with their hands.
"What are you doing?" He Li was suddenly met with darkness and was very dissatisfied. "You want to compare heights? I can't beat you, it's annoying."
Cheng Boyan glanced at the two of them as they went inside and closed the door. After confirming that no one was watching, he moved his palm from his eyes to the top of his head.
He said slowly and deliberately, "No, I gestured and I'm not that short. I'll grow taller if I drink more milk."
“Okay, then I’ll remember to drink it every day,” He Li said. “That’s enough gossip, let’s go inside.”
"Stand a little longer, I'll have a smoke." Cheng Boyan stood in the wind, providing cover for them.
It's better for four people to disappear than for two people to suddenly leave in an ambiguous situation.
In the restroom, Lin Yao finished relieving himself and came out to wash his hands. Suddenly, the door next to him opened, and he looked up sharply, meeting the gaze of the person in the mirror.
"You... just came like this?" He turned off the tap, water dripping from his palm.
“Well, Boyan and the others aren’t here either, so no one will notice.” Xie Xingchen tore off a piece of paper, walked behind him, and reached out to slowly wipe the water droplets from his hands.
It had been so long since they had been this close, almost like he was being held in his arms, that Lin Yao's whole body stiffened.
"With four out of ten people gone, won't anyone notice?"
"We can't just shut out the toilets, that would be inhumane. We've run into each other in the toilet before when we didn't get along," Xie Xingchen said.
Lin Yao hummed in agreement, quietly listening to each other's rapid heartbeats.
Xie Xingchen lowered his eyes, his fingers intertwined with Xie Xingchen's, sensing his reaction: "Are you nervous?"
"No." Lin Yao looked at him in the mirror. The light was dim, and his handsome features were shrouded in shadow. He watched as Xie Xingchen lowered his head, his nose touching the back of Lin Yao's neck. "Xie Xingchen..."
He tried to turn around, but was held down and unable to move, forced to stand against the sink.
"Why do you hide from me as soon as you see me? Don't you have anything to say?" Xie Xingchen turned his head, lightly sniffed that area, and lightly brushed his lips against it.
Lin Yao felt his breath brush against her, a sensation that was both tingling and numb: "No, it's time to go back."
"No, at least ask me one question, or I won't let you go." Xie Xingchen's tone was forceful. "Are you sure you don't have anything to ask?"
He knew that Lin Yao had paused when he heard the address, which meant he was concerned.
Lin Yao's mind flashed back to the name he had been agonizing over all day, and he felt that getting hung up on such a code name was really pretentious.
But I really wanted to know, so after hesitating for a while, I finally asked, "That AA you wrote about... baby, it doesn't seem to have anything to do with me, it's not me, right?"
Xie Xingchen smiled, as if praising his honesty: "Good boy."
“Fine, I won’t say anything then.” Lin Yao said in a low voice, then turned to leave.
Xie Xingchen pressed him down in front of the sink, pinching his chin with his left hand and forcing him to look at himself in the mirror.
With his right hand, he slowly wrote the letters AA on the top of his head, one on the left and one on the right, leaving a little distance between them, like drawing two pointed ears.
"Did you understand?"
Lin Yao stared at the traces of his fingers moving, then suddenly realized what he meant, feeling both embarrassed and annoyed: "You're so boring, I'm leaving."
Xie Xingchen rested his chin on his shoulder, his lips brushing against his bright red earlobe: "It has nothing to do with you? It's you, baby."
“AA are two little cat ears that Yao Yao hid, so cute that only I can see them.”
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