Chapter 109 Baby, Don't Cry
Xie Xingchen looked at Lin Yao in the camera lens, and then at him outside the camera lens.
Lin Yao, who used to say one thing but meant another, has now become someone who can openly tell himself, "I like you more today than yesterday." His eyes welled up with tears.
Xie Xingchen raised his hand to cover his face. Some snowflakes landed on his eyelashes, then melted and slid down, like tears.
"I like this, I'll use it every day." He carefully clicked save.
Lin Yao touched his face through his gloves: "There's so much snow, your face is all wet, and your nose is red from the cold. Are you cold?"
"A little bit, I wear less to look cool," Xie Xingchen said.
"Childish." Lin Yao glanced at him for a moment, then took off the scarf around his neck and wrapped it tightly around him.
When he zipped up his coat again, Xie Xingchen saw the chain hanging around his neck, with a ring threaded through it, just like his own.
It turns out he always carried it with him.
Xie Xingchen stared intently at him: "Why have you been so nice to me lately?"
"I'll give you one more chance to put your words into words. Haven't I treated you well before?" Lin Yao slapped his face hard.
"That's really nice. Come here and give me a kiss." Xie Xingchen reached out and pulled him back into his arms, then lowered his head to kiss him.
In the distance came He Li's voice: "Brother Yao, the truce is over, come out and continue the fight!"
I could feel footsteps rushing towards us.
Lin Yao was terrified; his heart was pounding so hard it felt like it would jump out of his chest. His hands and feet were cold, but his lips were burning hot.
"He Li will see this soon," he whispered a reminder.
"Lin Yao," Xie Xingchen whispered his name, "If we were to get soaked in the snow someday..."
"Why are you suddenly showing off your Chinese skills?" Lin Yao raised his head, looking down at him with disdain, and continued the sentence, "We'll grow old together in this life, who wouldn't be able to recite that?"
Xie Xingchen hummed in agreement, stared intently at him, and smiled.
He Li came running over with a large snowball in his hand and smashed it into the back of Lin Yao's head, yelling, "Are you two cosplaying as ice sculptures here?"
"I tripped and fell." Lin Yao nimbly rolled over and got up, picking up his snowball gun and assuming a defensive stance. "Again? Wasn't the outcome already decided?"
He Li puffed out his chest and said defiantly, "Best of three, best of five, best of seven... we'll keep going until we win."
"Let them win this time." Cheng Boyan glanced at the two of them for a moment, then turned his head and wiped his face.
The meaning of snowfall is self-evident.
That's fucking cruel.
He Li turned to stare at him, puzzled: "Why? Why let them win?"
Cheng Boyan hooked his neck and pushed the man into the snow: "Those two patients just got discharged from the hospital, can't you give way? You're so competitive."
Lin Yao's expression was cold: "It doesn't matter, no matter how many times we do it, you'll still lose."
The snowballs exploded in the open space, like white flowers, a brief moment of brilliance before vanishing.
It was nearly midnight, and Jiang Qiran was completely exhausted. He requested that the match end, and Xie Xingchen and Lin Yao were the winners.
Six people lay in a row in the white snow, looking up at the sky.
"It's so beautiful, the first snow in the Ninth Star System. I'll send you photos when I get back to Kuku." He Li raised his hand, wiped the fine snow off his nose, and didn't forget to take two pictures.
Jiang Qiran smiled and said with emotion, "Today is truly the happiest day in the past month."
"Aren't you happy about getting engaged to me?" Xie Yunhuai turned his head.
"No, don't you know?" Jiang Qiran said coldly.
Xie Yunhuai: "........."
Lin Yao couldn't help but laugh. He quietly took off his gloves, touched the warm hand next to him, and slowly intertwined his fingers with his.
Actually, of all these people, only He Li doesn't know, but there's still a thrill of having an affair, like the heart-fluttering feeling of touching palms while sitting at the back of the classroom during school days when the teacher turns around to write on the blackboard.
Xie Xingchen turned to look at him, at his beautiful eyes and the mole on the tip of his nose: "If only time could stop."
“It snows every year,” Lin Yao said softly. “This year it’s not just this one snowfall either. We’ll come again next time we have time.”
He Li, standing next door, said with great enthusiasm, "Alright, next time, I will definitely avenge myself!"
Xie Xingchen called out to him remotely, bypassing several people: "Go back and send me a copy of today's videos and photos."
He Li was shocked: "You still want to keep this kind of thing?"
"Yes, you can admire my heroic figure anytime."
Xie Xingchen lowered his eyes, his gaze sweeping over their intertwined fingers. His fingertips brushed against the back of his hand, again and again, tenderly and lingeringly.
It was close to midnight when everyone went home. Lin Yao boarded the aircraft, his expression still showing excitement.
Xie Xingchen, however, remained unusually silent.
The report on his phone was like a time bomb, ticking away a countdown, and he was about to personally deliver it to Lin Yao.
What if it's delayed another day?
It's just a matter of popping the illusory soap bubble a little later.
During this period, he flipped through that report again and again every day, and almost every word was imprinted in his mind, causing him excruciating pain like an electric drill.
He considered taking this to question the old man, but given Xie Hengzhi and Yun Qing's sophistry, they would definitely say, "Back then, we were just desperate and sought help from a private laboratory. We don't know the specifics of how it was operated or who the boss was. It was just a black market transaction."
There's no evidence, so we can't alert them.
But the more this happened, the more Xie Xingchen felt a tightness in his chest, and he didn't know who to vent his frustrations on.
"Why aren't you saying anything?" Lin Yao turned to look at him, only to find that the spacecraft had activated its autopilot and they were traversing the endless galaxy.
"I want to be alone with you for a while." Xie Xingchen reached out and pulled him into her arms. "Yaoyao, tell me about your time in the lab. Was it painful every day?"
Lin Yao was taken aback when he suddenly brought this up. He paused for several seconds before truthfully replying, "It hurts, but I'm used to it. It's just that they draw blood every day and do some injections and electric shocks."
Xie Xingchen's fingers traced his arm, and across time and space, he felt how the young boy had endured such torture while crying.
"I'm sorry," he whispered. "I'm so sorry for making you suffer so much, tormented, and living in hell."
"It has nothing to do with you," Lin Yao said calmly. "Why are you apologizing?"
These words were like an ice pick piercing my heart.
Xie Xingchen lowered his head, his lips touching Xie Xingchen's soft hair.
Lin Yao used to say that he hated it when people touched his hair, but now he has become the exception.
It took him three years to finally reconcile with Lin Yao. If it took another three years, would Lin Yao be able to forgive himself?
“Some time ago, I received a report.” Xie Xingchen didn’t dare to look him in the eye, his gaze fixed on the cabin window, reflecting their faces. His voice became very hoarse, and each word was squeezed out with great difficulty.
"It's about you and me."
Lin Yao was stunned: "What do you mean? Post-infection sequelae?"
Xie Xingchen's Adam's apple bobbed heavily, and he said in a low voice, "The scene I told you before wasn't a dream, it was real. We really saw it when we were kids."
Lin Yao frowned: "Are you also a test subject? How could that be?"
Xie Xingchen felt a sharp pang in his heart and tried several times to say, "You have been my one-on-one experimental subject since you were five years old."
He pulled his phone out of his coat pocket, opened the report, and held it in front of him, his hands trembling.
"See for yourself," he said, his voice hoarse.
Lin Yao lowered his eyes, his gaze fixed on the report's summary: Xie Xingchen's Lesion Experiment Report, Experiment Subject: CG01...
What does this mean, and what does it have to do with Xie Xingchen?
What does that stupid experiment have to do with Xie Xingchen?
“The lab records are gone. This is Director Cheng’s medical notes, but it’s enough to prove…” Xie Xingchen said with difficulty, “enough to prove that your suffering for at least five years was related to me.”
"What nonsense are you spouting? If your brain was damaged by the snow, go and get medical treatment." Lin Yao's voice trembled slightly as he stared at the report, but dared not turn the page any further.
Xie Xingchen lowered his head, filled with immense remorse: "Yaoyao, I'm sorry, I didn't take you away."
"It's because of me that I left you there."
"It's because of me that you're experiencing pain."
"It's because I made you experience the pain of secondary differentiation. I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I'm sorry."
Lin Yao's vision blurred as he looked at the report, and he felt as if he were nailed to the spot, unable to move.
Xie Xingchen felt his stiffness. Suddenly, a water droplet landed on the back of his hand, like snowflakes that had just fallen and melted.
"Baby, don't cry."
Xie Xingchen reached out and gently brushed his hand across the corner of Xie Xingchen's eye, his palm damp.
Lin Yao trembled uncontrollably. The report in front of him instantly dragged him back to a hell of pain, and only the embrace behind him felt real.
"Xie Xingchen, I don't want to watch this. I don't understand it. I don't want to watch it."
Continue read on readnovelmtl.com