Chapter 69 "That wasn't an illusion, it was me."
Half an hour later, two bowls of steaming noodles appeared in front of Jiang Yao.
The extremely thin noodles are paired with a dozen side dishes such as green and red peppers, chicken thighs, etc. that are also cut into thin strips. The appearance is tempting and filled with a unique aroma of sweet and salty.
Jiang Yao's stomach suddenly growled even louder.
Duan Zhuxian had asked someone to prepare the ingredients in the kitchen in advance.
Although they came in a hurry, Duan Zhuxian still made arrangements in advance within the limited time.
Sitting down face to face, Jiang Yao glanced at Duan Zhuxian's bowl, then at his own, and said puzzledly, "I always feel like my noodles are missing something compared to yours."
Duan Zhuxian said, "You don't like shredded carrots and celery, so I didn't put them in. Yuan City cuisine tends to be salty, so your bowl is a modified version with a little more sweet sauce."
Jiang Yao was stunned and said "Oh" a little late.
Not far away, the door was still open. The sunset gathered in the vermilion courtyard gradually became just a shadow. The pale yellow light from the ceiling replaced the daylight, illuminating the seemingly indifferent face opposite, and also making Jiang Yao's heart warm.
After finishing the noodles, the two of them took a walk along the alley at the door to digest the food, and soon returned to the house, planning to have a good sleep tonight to relieve the fatigue of the journey.
Although this old house has two floors, it is not large and has a very compact layout. There is a large bathtub in the bathroom on the second floor. After two adult men squeezed in, the entire space was filled.
Sitting in the bathtub, Jiang Yao let Duan Zhuxian give him a bath.
Ever since the first time they took a bath together, Duan Zhuxian had this inexplicable habit. He would put shower gel in his palm and run it over and over on his skin, as if he couldn't touch him enough.
He felt a little strange at first and was not happy that Duan Zhuxian treated him as a person who could not take care of himself. After being coaxed into washing a few times, he found that Duan Zhuxian's massage technique was really good, so he never refused again.
The shower gel that had just been squeezed out of the bottle was a little cold, but when it was applied to his body, it had turned into gentle foam that was warmed by the palms of his hands.
Wandering in the sweet fragrance of orange blossoms, Jiang Yao lay on the edge of the bathtub with his eyes closed, enjoying it. When the water washed away most of the foam, he realized that the smell of this shower gel was exactly the same as the one he usually used.
He opened his eyes and saw the same product on the shelf. At the same time, he also saw the same shampoo, facial cleanser, shaving cream, and aftershave, all of which were brand new and unopened.
Jiang Yao was surprised: "You even asked people to prepare these in advance?"
Duan Zhuxian said "hmm".
Jiang Yao was suspicious: "You didn't stay up late last night, did you?"
Duan Zhuxian said calmly, "It won't take long to arrange these, or have we been living together for so long that you don't even know what kind of shower gel I usually use?"
Jiang Yao snorted twice when he heard this.
This person started showing off his good memory again.
However, Duan Zhuxian was born with a good memory and remembered all his insignificant life habits. This was one thing, but being willing to pay attention to everything in life and do everything according to his wishes was another.
Duan Zhuxian was always so considerate, so much so that when the two of them lived under the same roof for a long time, he often took Duan Zhuxian's meticulousness for granted, enjoying it without realizing the other person's goodness.
Jiang Yao's eyes flickered a few times, and the sweet feeling in his heart almost spread to the corners of his lips. He didn't want to be discovered by Duan Zhuxian, so he could only hide it with unconvinced: "Who said I don't know? I know a lot about you!"
Duan Zhuxian chuckled and said, "Tell me about it."
Seeing Duan Zhuxian's interested but clearly disbelieving expression, Jiang Yao became even more unconvinced. He sat up straight from the water and said seriously, "Listen carefully."
He cleared his throat.
"You don't like spicy food, can't eat peanuts, honeydew melon, and watermelon, have little interest in desserts, prefer milk in your coffee, and eat your steak medium-rare."
"You like to wear black, white and grey. Although you usually wear suits, you actually prefer sportswear such as jackets."
"My watch is different every week, and my tie is usually a twill with a half-Windsor knot."
"The average time it takes to fall asleep is fifteen minutes. Drink a glass of warm water when you wake up, and keep things on your left hand side."
Jiang Yao counted them one by one on his fingers, and finally held up two fingers: "Also, every time you squeeze the toothpaste, start from the end and squeeze out two small particles at a time."
After saying this, he raised his face with great pride, a drop of water rolling down the tip of his chin: "How is it? Did you win big?"
Now, it was Duan Zhuxian's turn to be stunned.
After a while, Duan Zhuxian laughed dumbly: "Well, you win."
Jiang Yao leaned back into the water with a smug look on his face.
Of course he knew that Duan Zhuxian was coaxing him.
Because in terms of consideration, he will probably never be able to compare with Duan Zhuxian.
He was not a patient and meticulous person, and he was actually surprised that he could discover and remember so many little things about Duan Zhuxian in such a short time.
At this time, the mobile phone placed aside vibrated a few times. Jiang Yao took it over to take a look and replied to a few New Year greetings messages.
Duan Zhuxian looked at Jiang Yao's phone screen: "Sun Mengyao?"
Jiang Yao typed and said casually, "You know her too?"
"I don't know her." Duan Zhuxian said, "But I know she's in your class. She once sat at the table in front of you and confessed her love to you."
Jiang Yao paused typing, his hippocampus slumping in a turmoil. He couldn't recall the scene where the other party confessed to him. He and Sun Mengyao had only just become friends at the school anniversary dinner a while ago.
Jiang Yao turned his head and looked at Duan Zhuxian's expressionless face. He said quietly, "Brother, I don't even remember her confessing to me. Besides, she's a girl, so it's impossible from the root. Can you find someone else to be jealous of?"
As soon as he finished speaking, another message popped up on his phone, wishing him a happy Chinese New Year and inviting him to have dinner together when he was free.
Sender: Wei Zhihan.
Duan Zhuxian's eyebrows slowly raised.
Jiang Yao felt inexplicably empty in his heart, thinking that Wei Zhihan had not sent him a message since he had firmly rejected her, and this time, Duan Zhuxian happened to see it.
But he loved to see Duan Zhuxian, a rational yet mean person, being irrationally jealous of others even when he knew that no one else could take advantage of him.
So, Jiang Yao took advantage of the situation and acted cute: "I am just so popular. If you keep drinking jealously like this, you will die of jealousy sooner or later."
He said it calmly, but he couldn't help but complain in his heart.
Duan Zhuxian still had the nerve to talk about him, making it seem as if the people chasing Duan Zhuxian didn't even line up in the moat.
He even saw someone at a cocktail party trying to flirt with Duan Zhuxian while he was drunk.
It was because he had a good attitude that he felt comfortable letting a man like Duan Zhuxian, who was a disaster, out to meet people.
However, Duan Zhuxian is a shrewd businessman after all. No matter whether he is right or not, he will never miss any opportunity to ask for something.
He took advantage of the situation to hook Jiang Yao's waist and pressed him into his arms: "So I need to neutralize it."
After saying that, he lowered his head and bit Jiang Yao's steaming hot collarbone, leaving a light red mark on it.
Taking a bath for a long time can easily lead to sleepiness, and after being bullied by someone out of jealousy, Jiang Yao felt tired. He leaned in Duan Zhuxian's arms, and his eyelids couldn't help but start to twitch.
A corner of the milky white curtains was lifted up by the warm wind. Through the one-way visual glass in the gap, you can vaguely see the night sky and the neon lights of the city rising into the sky in the distance. The sounds of fireworks and firecrackers can be heard intermittently, and occasionally there are the sounds of running and noisy footsteps.
The bathroom I was in seemed to be immersed in this noise, but it was also extremely quiet and peaceful, like an aimless dream.
Half asleep and half awake, Jiang Yao saw the face of the goddess of beauty from the hazy halo. The goddess of beauty had heroic facial contours, perfect lips and nose that could not be faulted, and a pair of deep eyes that inherited part of European blood. She was like a unique work of art, which made people's heart beat faster and unable to take their eyes away.
Such a charming, great face...
He looked at her with some nostalgia, then rubbed his eyes and came to his senses.
It turns out that the goddess of beauty is Duan Zhuxian.
The other person was gently wiping his body.
*
A few minutes later, Jiang Yao lay in bed, but couldn't fall asleep.
Jiang Yao looked around the bedroom and felt that the style was very familiar, so he asked Duan Zhuxian: "Is this your room?"
Duan Zhuxian, who was wearing glasses and leaning against the side, browsing emails, nodded when he heard this: "Well, when I was a student, I would come here and stay for a while during every vacation."
Jiang Yao suddenly realized: "No wonder I couldn't find you during the entire summer vacation of my second year of high school. It turns out you ran away here to have some free time."
Duan Zhuxian was stunned: "Have you looked for me?"
Jiang Yao: "Yeah, didn't I lose to you in the basketball game? So I wanted to continue sparring with you, but you refused to reply. I finally found out where you lived, but it turned out to be Chen Tang who opened the door. He said you were out."
Upon hearing this, Duan Zhuxian's typing fingers curled up slightly.
That summer in his second year of high school, he had just learned that Jiang Yao had a crush on Chen Tang, and his heart was in extreme turmoil.
It happened that Chen Tang was visiting his home with his father. He didn't want to see Jiang Yao taking Chen Tang away under his nose, so he came to Yuan City like he did in previous holidays and cut off all contact with the outside world.
It would be more accurate to say that he was avoiding Jiang Yao rather than avoiding his own inappropriate emotions.
Unexpectedly, Jiang Yao really went there that summer, but the person he was looking for was him.
No wonder when he turned on his phone and opened WeChat, Jiang Yao sent him several emoticons. He thought it was just Jiang Yao's boring behavior.
The old-fashioned wall clock inadvertently passed midnight with a soft muffled sound, and fireworks lit up in the night outside the window.
Jiang Yao was able to notice Duan Zhuxian's unusual behavior and asked, "What are you thinking about?"
Duan Zhuxian glanced at him, then looked out the window: "Did you make a wish during the midnight fireworks last night?"
Jiang Yao frowned slightly, feeling that Duan Zhuxian was trying to cover up something, but he still said, "No, I don't believe it."
Duan Zhuxian asked: "Why?"
Jiang Yao raised his eyebrows: "Because on my eighteenth birthday, I made a wish to heaven that I would never reconcile with you in this life."
Duan Zhuxian couldn't help but chuckle, "You're wasting your precious eighteenth birthday wish on me?"
Jiang Yao curled his lips and said, "It doesn't work anyway, so it's not a waste. And this also proves that God doesn't have time to care about the wishes of us mortals."
That year, his birthday coincided with the end of the college entrance examination, and he learned that Duan Zhuxian had changed his choice of major.
As usual, he was surrounded by a bunch of friends, both familiar and unfamiliar, and held a birthday party in a private room of a hotel. It was quite lively, but he could not remember most of the details.
I just remember that a large group of people came, and he sat there alone amid the laughter and chatter, drinking a lot of wine.
He didn't eat a single bite of the three-layer ice cream cake.
Finally, he rushed into the bathroom and vomited all over the place.
Half sitting up and looking at the fireworks outside the window, Jiang Yao suddenly remembered something.
"Speaking of that birthday, maybe I had too much resentment towards you. When I came out of the private room, I actually saw someone who looked very much like you walking out of the room next door. Chen Yiqi said that I was hallucinating because I was drunk." After he said that, he curled the corners of his lips in a rare self-deprecating manner.
Duan Zhuxian looked at Jiang Yao's profile, which was dyed red by the fireworks: "Back then, what you saw was not resentment, nor was it an illusion, but me."
Jiang Yao turned his head and met Duan Zhuxian's gaze: "Were you also having dinner at that restaurant with your friends that day?"
Duan Zhuxian said: "No, I'm alone."
He was sitting in the private room next door, quietly listening to everyone singing birthday songs for Jiang Yao.
Jiang Yao didn't understand what was going on and said hesitantly, "You're dining in a private room by yourself..."
"It's not a meal, it's your birthday." Duan Zhuxian looked at Jiang Yao's eyes filled with surprise. "On your seventeenth birthday, I happened to be in Australia visiting my mother and couldn't make it back for your birthday party. Later, I promised you that I would definitely celebrate your eighteenth birthday."
Jiang Yao opened his mouth, but his throat suddenly tightened, and he was a little speechless. After a while, he said, "Did you have something to say to me that day?"
He remembered that the figure who looked like Duan Zhuxian had been looking at him. He was about to walk out of the restaurant, but when he turned around, the other person was still standing there, his eyes fixed on him from afar.
Duan Zhuxian nodded: "Well, I want to wish you a happy birthday."
"Duan Zhuxian..."
"Um?"
"Oh, never mind. It's nothing."
Jiang Yao suddenly turned his back, huddled into the quilt, buried his face in the pillow, and hid his slightly sour nose.
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