Chapter 48
Cheng Yanjin ran across the pedestrian crossing from one side of the street to the other, and in one breath, he reached Lin Langyi.
His breathing was somewhat disordered, and the short-term burst of physical function brought about by extreme sports was also reflected at this moment, even the rush of blood and the pounding of the heart were exactly the same.
How long has it been since Qiao Wan's closest relatives came to watch his game after his death?
Even in such an insignificant preliminary round, the result was predictable: unexciting, without any reversals, and utterly unremarkable.
He immersed himself in his own world, using extreme sports to stimulate his nerves, using annoying words to push his already insincere family members further away, and using frequent gatherings to bring together all kinds of friends to fill the days he feared being alone.
He thought he didn't need someone standing in the audience cheering him on.
Or perhaps, he had been waiting for someone to appear.
"Lin Langyi." He called out to her loudly in the rain from two steps away. Rainwater poured into his wide, unrestrained smile. He swallowed it, but still felt his whole body burning up.
"Are you out of your mind?" Lin Langyi raised her umbrella and handed over the spare, scolding, "Didn't I tell you to wait there? Looking like a drowned rat, what driver would want to get in their car now—"
Before she could finish speaking, he suddenly stepped forward and forcefully entered under her umbrella. Lin Langyi's hand holding the umbrella was violently struck, and the umbrella suddenly tilted backward.
He opened his arms and hugged her tightly, leaning forward and burying his head deep in her ear, causing her to jerk on her tiptoes.
"Lin Langyi." His heart pounded, and he continued to call out her name loudly.
Lin Langyi's ears were ringing from his maniacal shouts. As she frantically tried to grab the umbrella, he hooked the handle with one finger so that they could both be under the umbrella, remembering to tilt the umbrella more towards her.
But what's the use of that?
Lin Langyi angrily shoved him: "You're soaking wet, you idiot! My clothes!"
He kept his head down, pressing his face tightly against her hair, her ear, and her cheek, his arms wrapped around her like steel bars, refusing to let go.
He shook his head shamelessly, her long hair sticking to his face.
"Let go! You idiot—"
"Stupid dog?" he replied, not angry at all. His light brown eyes shone brightly, and he even pulled her hand to his head. Every word he spoke revealed joy. "Then let me pat your little dog's head."
His hair was wet to the touch, but if you touched it carefully, you would find that it was actually very soft. After being soaked by the rain, it obediently clung to his skin, looking limp and soft.
Lin Langyi stopped herself from cursing and shoved the spare umbrella under his arm, separating him from him: "Take it."
He obediently took it, and with his free arm, he still clung to her. He refused the umbrella, insisting on squeezing such a big person under her umbrella to share the shelter.
The taxi pulled up beside them and honked. Lin Langyi opened the door and apologized to the driver. Cheng Yanjin followed behind, eagerly sticking his head in and excitedly saying with his round eyes, "Uncle, if you take us, I'll pay you for the money you put in the back seat later."
After getting on the bus, Lin Langyi tugged at her clothes, which had been soaked in front of her, and launched into a tirade against him in a mix of Mandarin and dialect. He sat upright with his hands on his knees, sitting next to her, intently watching her rant.
The warm yellow light from the streetlights gently streamed into the carriage, illuminating her profile in intermittent flashes. He saw her long, curled eyelashes, like a butterfly about to flutter its wings.
She turned her face away and glared at him fiercely.
The dim light, like a crown of the setting sun, cast a golden glow on her black hair, and his heart skipped a beat at that glance.
He felt as if the sleeping butterfly in his heart had also taken flight.
"Why, why did you suddenly come to see me?" Cheng Yanjin licked his dry lips, his hands resting on his lap unconsciously clenching into fists, showing a hint of nervousness.
“I’ve always been a person of my word; this is the first rule of business.” Lin Langyi took out a pack of tissues from her bag, but seeing his soaked appearance, she bent her hand and pulled it back, not intending to give it to him.
A drowned rat is soaked to the bone; two or three tissues are hardly enough. It's better to let her use them herself—that's the most cost-effective option.
Seeing this, Cheng Yanjin had no objection and reached out to help her. He gathered her slightly damp hair in his palm, wrapped it with a tissue, and pressed his palm to absorb the water.
"Then how did you know I was eating here?"
“I saw a contestant post a video of their post-competition dinner, and you were in it, so I just used that location to come here.”
He did a quick mental calculation and figured it would take about forty minutes to drive from Ying Shan Lake to here. She had been in a meeting from about 6:30 to 9:30 and then came to find him immediately.
He figured out the schedule, and even though he felt like he was being filled with soda and his heart was pounding like a little carp, he still had to put on a brave face: "But you didn't keep your promise either. You didn't see any of my amazing performance tonight."
He said that, but that's not what he really thought.
He thought to himself that his performance today was neither flashy nor overly showy. Luckily, Lin Xiaozhu didn't see it, otherwise he would have thought that was all he was capable of.
Especially since his score today wasn't even as high as Guo Yan's, that won't do. Look at how that brat stared at Lin Langyi with wide eyes just now. If he can't outrun her on the skateboard later, what face will Cheng Yanjin have left in front of his wife?
Cheng Yanjin grumbled and swept today's "failure" aside, pretending to be serious and saying, "Let's not do it again. Anyway, I can always bring out my heroic record and still win."
Lin Langyi turned her face away and paused for two seconds: "Why don't you take a look at the chat history I sent you?"
"What?" His entire attention had been focused on her since he saw her; he hadn't even glanced at his phone. Only then did he remember that she had sent him a message. He looked down and opened it to check—
It was a video. He clicked on it out of curiosity for a few seconds, but his expression changed drastically in an instant. He quickly clicked a few times and exited.
It was a recording of his match, and the footage was exceptionally clear, suggesting it was shot with professional equipment. Even the slightly raised, arrogant face of his as he turned in the air was meticulously zoomed in for a close-up shot, reminiscent of the level of a dedicated fan site admin who specializes in shooting live stage footage.
Lin Langyi was still standing to the side, turning her head to wait for his review.
Thinking of his boastful words just now, Cheng Yanjin wished he could lie under the car right now... He had never been so embarrassed. Why did he have to do something so wrong in front of her?!
He stared straight ahead, his face stiff: "Haha...where did you get this video?"
"Oh, I just randomly searched for today's matches and found quite a few people doing outdoor live streams, and then I came across a nickname that was..." Lin Langyi took out her phone to check, and then, with a clear and forceful voice, said, "Jin Ye escaped—"
"Stop talking! Stop talking!!" He suddenly lunged at her and covered her mouth, pleading, "The fans were just playing around, I had no idea."
Lin Langyi pushed his hand away: "Then I saw that her column had a lot of edited videos and offline live recordings, so I watched tonight's game highlights online on the way here in a taxi."
It was like being struck by lightning.
She actually watched it all!!!
His terrible performance!!!
A bland and uninspired performance, neither handsome nor pretentious!
He stammered incoherently, struggling, "You, you read it all?"
Lin Langyi nodded: "Yes, the competition was short, and I watched the performances of several contestants. Oh, and the one who came in first place tonight, the one who posted the dinner party photos with the location, what was his name again, Guo..."
Cheng Yanjin suddenly became agitated and interrupted her vehemently: "He's not strong at all! His moves are low-difficulty and clumsy, there's nothing to watch! Don't watch his competition videos!"
Lin Langyi blinked in confusion.
Cheng Yanjin now finally understands the long-standing hatred Guo Yan felt for him after switching allegiance to a certain internet celebrity fan. If Lin Langyi dares to say that Guo Yan is better than him, he will go back right now, grab that kid by the collar, drag him to the sink, and fight him until dawn.
"And, do you know that he actually..."
It's not ethical to slander your opponent behind their back, and he would never stoop to such underhanded tactics that only losers would engage in outside of competition. But for some reason, he could say those things so smoothly in front of her.
He's no good, don't become his fan.
Look at me, look at me.
Please.
Lin Langyi was speechless, speechless, after being shut up by his incessant chatter: "You lost to him, so saying these things has no credibility at all."
"No, I, I really..." He was sweating profusely, wanting to say that he was in a bad mood today and that's why he didn't go all out in the competition, but he felt that saying that would make him sound like a man who is impotent in bed but still insists that he's not in good condition today, which was ridiculous. He was so anxious and angry that he grabbed his hair and made it fall over.
Lin Langyi smiled and then praised, "But it's alright. I'm not an expert and can't see anything professional. But from a layman's point of view, your work is really pleasing to the eye."
He abruptly stopped talking, quickly turned his face to look at her, his eyes gradually brightening, and his ears perking up.
He tried his best to suppress the urge to smile, and asked in a short, curt voice, "Huh?"
"This outfit actually suits you quite well. Your movements are clean and crisp, and your smug, impatient look, like the whole world owes you eight million, is quite appealing to young girls." Lin Langyi's gaze lingered on his muscular physique for a moment. The tight-fitting training clothes perfectly outlined the creases of his muscles. After admiring him for a while, she moved her gaze back to his handsome face with its sharp eyebrows and bright eyes, and nodded affirmatively again.
"That's why beauty is a scarce resource. Your fans have taken great photos of you. I scrolled through them, but in the end, the clips of you still left the deepest impression."
Cheng Yanjin didn't speak, as if he had suddenly become mute.
He leaned back against the seat, turned his head away from her and looked out the car window. Lin Langyi saw his jaw move slightly, his Adam's apple bob, and finally he reached out and scratched his ear. The bluish-green veins behind his earlobe became visible, and soon his whole ear turned red.
The two of them strangely stopped talking. He sat with his back to her, and when she wasn't looking, he put on one earphone and kept swiping his fingers on his phone, sneakily watching all the clips of the match that the fans had filmed.
"Gurgle~"
His ears were as sharp as a monkey's; he turned around in a flash and saw Lin Langyi touching her stomach.
Cheng Yanjin exited the video call and asked, "Didn't you eat anything else tonight?"
"Hmm, no time, and I've already eaten two servings of vegetarian eel."
He immediately leaned forward to communicate with the driver and changed the destination. After speaking, he leaned back and said firmly, "That's vegetarian eel, not real eel. It's just some bean products and it won't fill you up at all. You'll definitely be hungry... Come on, I'll take you to eat something delicious. I haven't eaten enough either."
Lin Langyi looked at him with a puzzled expression: "...Didn't you just come from a street food stall?"
“Yes!” he exclaimed, his bright eyes wide. “But I didn’t eat much tonight.”
He took her to a small, local restaurant.
"This place is delicious, trust me. The owner is an excellent cook and the prices are reasonable. They haven't raised prices much over the years."
As Lin Langyi got out of the car, she kept looking around, and he grabbed her arm and pulled her inside.
He turned his head to look at her, his training clothes almost dried by his hot body: "What are you looking around for?"
"This place is far from your home. You've even eaten at a small shop like this before?"
Cheng Yanjin said smugly, "What delicious food haven't I tried?"
He led the people into the store, and as soon as he opened the door, he greeted them loudly: "Sister Zheng, are you out of dishes now? Only barbecue left?"
A slender middle-aged woman wiped her hands with a towel and smiled when she saw the visitor: "Little Jin is here? There's nothing wrong, but if you want to eat, I'll show you the ingredients and cook them."
She had a kind face. When she came out to greet Lin Langyi, she glanced at her face and covered her mouth in surprise: "What a pretty girl! Xiao Jin, you can't bring a girl to my restaurant. You're so silly. You should go to a nice hotel to eat."
Cheng Yanjin gripped Lin Langyi's hand tightly and led her to a table inside, as if he were strolling through his own living room: "Sister Zheng is a good cook, so I brought her here to enjoy her food and also to see you."
Sister Zheng smiled reassuringly: "You come less often, and Xiao Yu comes less often too. You're both busy, very busy people."
Cheng Yanjin immediately took out his phone: "Wait, I'll call Brother Yu right now. He can walk over in about ten minutes."
Suddenly, a hand cut in front of him, stopping him from making a phone call. Cheng Yanjin was startled and looked up to see Lin Langyi with her brows furrowed.
She asked, "Why do you still call him Yuan Chuyu?"
Cheng Yanjin patiently explained the whole story: "He lives close by. When I was a kid, Yu-ge and I used to eat here. He was the one who brought me here the first time."
“When Feng Congning first married into the family, I ran away from home several times. My father blocked my credit cards, so I ran to Brother Yu’s place. He would help me out, give me money, and take me out to eat.”
Sister Zheng worked quickly and efficiently, bringing up several plates of hot dishes. Cheng Yanjin's appetite returned, and he explained to Lin Langyi while holding his chopsticks, "So Yu-ge and I have eaten here at Sister Zheng's place countless times, we've been eating together since we were kids."
"You two were both still in school back then, right? I remember, some older girls even asked you for your contact information. They were all so good at pretending, acting like they didn't understand anything," Sister Zheng recalled with a smile. "My husband even said that when you two get girlfriends in the future, you should bring them to meet us."
She turned her head and looked at Lin Langyi kindly, saying with emotion, "You've already brought it, now we'll wait for Xiaoyu to bring it to us next time."
“He’s still a long way off.” Cheng Yanjin texted someone while holding chopsticks between two fingers. “But it’s no problem to have him come over.”
Lin Langyi watched helplessly as he sent the message out.
Three minutes later, the phone screen lit up. Cheng Yanjin glanced at it briefly and smiled, "It's here."
*
When Yuan Chuyu came in, all the dishes had already been served. He said on the phone that there was no need to wait for anyone, so Cheng Yanjin kept placing the specialty dishes in front of Lin Langyi so that she could eat first without worrying about anything else.
As the chair was dragged in front of her, Lin Langyi lowered her head and drank her soup, only able to see the man sitting down opposite her out of the corner of her eye.
She didn't greet him in time, seemingly too hungry to do anything but eat. Cheng Yanjin, with his arm around his brother's shoulder, laughed for a while and then called out to Sister Zheng, "Sister, I've brought the person to you."
Lin Langyi finished half a bowl of soup and was about to go get the ribs. The soup was served last and placed far away. Just as she reached out, a hand grabbed the handle of the soup spoon and carefully turned it toward her.
She glanced at him quickly. Yuan Chuyu had only pushed the spoon handle over before letting go. He had been talking to Cheng Yanjin with his head turned to the side and hadn't looked in her direction.
Lin Langyi quietly scooped up several pieces of pork ribs, and when she put down the spoon, the stainless steel handle hit the bowl with a crisp sound.
Sister Zheng came over to greet him, and Yuan Chuyu greeted her in return while politely picking up his bowl and ladling himself a bowl of pork rib soup.
After finishing, he took two tissues to wipe his hands, and then naturally placed the tissue box closer to her.
Lin Langyi paused, her hand, which had already reached out to grab a tissue, stiffened for a moment. She wanted to give up, but she had already used all the tissues in her bag to dry her clothes. In the end, she put on a straight face and pretended to be nonchalant as she grabbed two tissues.
The two of them tacitly avoided speaking or exchanging glances.
Sister Zheng leaned against the edge of the table, her eyes crinkling with laughter: "I was just telling Xiao Jin that the girl you brought is pretty, when are you going to bring one for me to see?"
Yuan Chuyu glanced at Lin Langyi, who was holding a spoon, and gave a faint smile: "Yes, it is very beautiful."
He stirred the ribs in the bowl with a spoon, scooped up a spoonful of soup and slowly drank it. His eyelids drooped, and he said slowly, "As for mine... you will see me too."
Sister Zheng laughed heartily and patted him on the shoulder: "Okay, I'll be waiting."
The ceramic soup spoon lightly touched the bottom of the bowl. Yuan Chuyu looked at the pork rib soup in front of him without saying a word.
The one talking the most at the table was Cheng Yanjin. He probably hadn't eaten much that night, and now that he was enjoying his meal, he even got up to get some chilled beer from the refrigerator.
As soon as he left the table, Lin Langyi didn't even lift her eyelids, concentrating on peeling shrimp.
She could feel the gaze directed at her from across the table. The sound of the spoon hitting the bottom of the bowl disappeared, and he held the spoon handle, staring at her intently.
Apart from that small bowl of soup, I didn't see him touch his chopsticks.
Lin Langyi was multitasking when, while peeling shrimp, her elbow accidentally bumped into the chopsticks, causing them to roll onto the ground.
She put down the half-peeled shrimp, wiped her hands with a tissue, bent down, and found that the chopstick had rolled to his feet.
Subconsciously, she didn't want him to help her, so she moved her chair back a little. Just as she leaned half her body under the table, the black leather shoe next to the chopsticks moved slightly. The next second, a hand with distinct knuckles appeared in front of her. He bent down and picked up the chopsticks first.
Lin Langyi's outstretched hand hovered in the air. Under the table, he raised his eyelids and looked at her without any attempt to hide his gaze.
A gaze can travel ten thousand miles.
Like the tides of a summer night, silent yet powerful at sunset, contracting, changing, engulfing, and surging, it obscurely smooths away all traces on the beach, and then at dawn the sunlight dries the traces of its arrival, as if nothing had ever happened.
She found it hard to escape from his dark and unfathomable eyes; she felt as if she were a stranded fish, trapped in a small, misty pool of water.
Although they didn't exchange a single word during their meeting tonight, it was as if he was silently pouring his heart out to her.
"Lin Langyi, would you like a drink?" Cheng Yanjin asked from a short distance away.
She snapped back to reality and hurriedly straightened up, only to bump her head on the table with a "thud." She immediately covered her head in annoyance and hissed.
"Do you want Lin Langyi?"
"No!" she said angrily.
Yuan Chuyu got up and fetched a new pair of chopsticks, then walked over to her and handed them to her.
She stubbornly refused to take it, and he waited a while before gently placing it aside and saying in a low voice, "I just picked up a chopstick for you."
The sentence was spoken softly and slowly, like an apple that had lost its moisture, limp and lifeless before it rotted.
Lin Langyi remained silent.
Cheng Yanjin brought over a few bottles of wine and held up two bottles in front of Yuan Chuyu: "Want some?"
Yuan Chuyu shook his head: "I'll drive you back later."
He was a man of his word. Seeing that Cheng Yanjin, who was almost finished eating, was about to stop, he paid the bill in advance and went back to get his car.
Cheng Yanjin let Lin Langyi sit alone in the back seat, while he opened the passenger door and sat in the front to chat with Yuan Chuyu, who had specially driven the two of them back.
Given that it was on the same route, they should have passed through Laoshan first. Yuan Chuyu asked, "Shall I take you there first?"
"Take me first," Lin Langyi replied from the back seat.
He glanced at her in the rearview mirror, then looked away and responded in a low voice.
"You take her first," Cheng Yanjin replied. "Lin Langyi, may I stay the night? I'll go back to Laoshan Temple by myself tomorrow morning."
Yuan Chuyu calmly replied, "I can take you directly back on the way back."
Lin Langyi, who was about to refuse, stopped herself from saying it and said crisply, "Okay."
He then fell silent.
Cheng Yanjin was clearly pleased. He switched to Bluetooth on the car's central control screen, connected his phone, and started playing a very catchy jazz track.
The vehicle drove smoothly to Yingshan Lake, and Yuan Chuyu escorted the two of them all the way to the company entrance.
The wind was strong by the river at night. Lin Langyi got out of the car, her long, loose hair flying in the wind.
She cupped her hands around it, moved it aside, and finally glanced at the driver's seat.
Yuan Chuyu lowered the window completely, rested his left elbow on the window frame, and silently watched her with his head tilted to the side.
A strand of long hair slipped out from between her fingers, was carried by the wind and blew in front of her, brushing against her eyelashes.
She blinked lightly, almost unconsciously.
He continued to gaze at her with his long, deep eyes. In the vast darkness, a gust of wind brushed across his face, and she saw his eyelashes flutter gently. His pale face was no longer the translucent white of jade, but seemed to have turned into a white that had bled dry, a white that was trapped in the snow-covered mountains of winter, never to emerge into spring again.
"Luckily my clothes are dry, it's so windy." Cheng Yanjin got out of the car, put an arm around her, and pulled her into his arms. "Your clothes are dry too, right? It really is a bit cold in the countryside."
“You’re the one from the countryside.” Lin Langyi looked away, hesitated for a moment, and then reached out to take his hand.
"Thanks, Brother Yu," Cheng Yanjin said, taking her hand and waving goodbye. "I'll treat you to a meal next time."
The car window rolled up, and through the glass, Lin Langyi couldn't see the man's expression inside the car. She only heard a short honking of the horn as an answer.
The car turned around ahead, and the two went upstairs.
Yuan Chuyu turned the car around and returned to the company entrance, but instead of leaving immediately, he turned the key, turned off the engine, and parked the car where he was.
He took a deep breath, leaned back, and sat quietly in his seat for a long time as if he had lost all his strength. He then turned his head and looked through the car window at the lights on the buildings lighting up one by one.
It was a voice-activated light. He silently imagined her walking slowly through the distance, until she finally stopped in front of her office.
Five or six seconds later, all the office lights came on, and the corridor lights went out one by one after a long silence. The light reflected in his pupils was also extinguished little by little, plunging him into complete, ethereal darkness.
He remained silent in the car.
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