Chapter 29
Li Ruiyuan stared at his phone screen. His sister's text message was like a fine needle, gently piercing his heart. The air conditioner was still humming, but he suddenly felt stuffy.
"Are you really okay?" Wu Ye propped himself up and looked at him sleepily.
Li Ruiyuan stuffed his phone into the crack of the sofa, stood up and walked to the kitchen: "What's the matter? I'm thirsty, let me cook some noodles."
The kitchen was too narrow to move around, and the stove was piled high with unwashed pots from the morning. He turned on the gas valve, and the blue flames shot up, casting a flickering shadow on his face. The water in the pot gurgled and bubbled, just like his current mood.
Wu Ye followed him and leaned against the door frame to watch him. A young man's intuition was sharp; he could sense the low pressure surrounding Li Ruiyuan.
"Is it Auntie..."
"I told you it's okay," Li Ruiyuan interrupted him and threw the noodles into the pot. "Go get two bowls."
Wu Ye turned silently, but paused beside the coffee table. Li Ruiyuan's phone was still lit, and Li Xuan's text message was clearly visible. His fingers trembled slightly as he recalled the impulsive kiss in the alley, the swaying bougainvillea on the wall, and the roar of the passing motorcycle.
Could it be...
The noodles were cooked. Li Ruiyuan came out with the pot. Seeing Wu Ye's pale face, he understood about half of what was going on. He put the pot on the coffee table, and a few drops of soup splashed out.
"See?" He said in a terrifyingly calm tone.
Wu Ye opened his mouth, his voice dry: "Could it be...someone else saw it?"
"I saw it, so I saw it." Li Ruiyuan scooped up the noodles, his movements still lazy, but his eyes were sharp as a knife, "It's only a matter of time."
Despite this, the two of them ate in remarkable silence. The noodles tasted like wax in their mouths, and the cold air from the air conditioner blew against their skin, stirring a chill.
Meanwhile, Aunt Chen was restless at home.
Li's mother hadn't called back, which made her even more anxious. She repeatedly clicked on the video, which showed two young people kissing passionately, their passionate feelings so intense that she could feel them even through the screen.
She thought of her own son, who was about Wu Ye's age, and had a girlfriend in college, posting photos of them together on WeChat Moments every day. Such a normal, legitimate youth.
But this scene in the alley...
The phone suddenly rang, and she almost threw it away. It was Li's mother calling back.
"Chen Mei, what's the matter?" Mother Li's cheerful voice came from the other end of the phone, with the background sound of customers' noise in the supermarket.
Aunt Chen gripped her phone tightly, her palms sweaty. "Sister Li, are you...can you talk now?"
"You talk, I'm listening."
"It's about...Yuanzi." Aunt Chen struggled to organize her words. "Today...I saw him and Wu Ye..."
She was stuck, not knowing how to describe the scene.
Mother Li laughed on the other end of the phone: "Are they in trouble again? Yuanzai has that temper. Xiaoye must have suffered a lot following him, right?"
"No..." Aunt Chen closed her eyes and made up her mind, "I saw them... kissing... in the alley."
The other end of the line suddenly went quiet, even the background noise vanished, as if Mother Li had covered the receiver. After a long silence, Mother Li's dry voice rang out, "Sister Chen, don't joke like that."
"I took a video..." Aunt Chen's voice was filled with tears. "Sister Li, I don't want to get involved, but if these two kids are like this... how can we live with ourselves if it gets out?"
The call was hung up, and the busy tone beeped. Aunt Chen slumped on the sofa, her whole body limp.
In the supermarket, Mama Li clutched her phone, her knuckles white. She seemed oblivious to the urging of customers at the checkout counter.
"Boss, check out!"
She suddenly came to her senses and mechanically scanned the code to pay, but Aunt Chen's words kept echoing in her mind.
Kiss? Her son and Wu Ye? The child she loved like a half-son?
Impossible, I must have seen it wrong. Yuanzi may be a jerk, but he wouldn't be so absurd. Wu Ye is a sensible child, how could he...
She thought back to all the unusual things that had happened recently. The way Wu Ye looked at Yuanzi, Yuanzi's extraordinary patience with Wu Ye, the atmosphere between the two young people that didn't allow for a third person...
My heart sank little by little.
"Mom, I'm here to take over." Li Xuan ran in with her schoolbag on her back. Seeing her mother's face, she was shocked. "Mom, what's wrong with you? You look so bad."
Mother Li suddenly grabbed her daughter's hand and said, "Xuanxuan, has your brother...been acting strange lately?"
Li Xuan blinked. "No, I just hang out with Brother Ye all the time..." She suddenly remembered something. "Oh, by the way, Mom, just now you called and asked if Brother was in a relationship. I thought it was weird. How could someone like Brother be in a relationship? He's never nice to girls."
Mother Li loosened her grip and stumbled a step. It was over. This was all real.
"Mom!" Li Xuan quickly supported her.
"Look after the store." Mother Li took off her apron. "I'll go back."
In the rental house, the bowl of noodles was still on the coffee table, and a layer of oil had already condensed on the noodle soup.
Li Ruiyuan stood by the window, smoking, his profile blurred by the smoke. Wu Ye sat on the sofa, his hands clenched so tightly that his nails dug into his palms.
"If it's Aunt Chen..." Wu Ye said softly, "Will she have already told Aunt Chen?"
Li Ruiyuan blew out a puff of smoke: "She is the one who can't keep her word."
As soon as he finished speaking, he heard hurried footsteps downstairs and the crisp sound of a key chain shaking. The two looked at each other and saw the answer in each other's eyes.
The door was flung open, and Mother Li stood there, her face pale and her chest heaving violently. Her eyes swept across the room, finally settling on her son.
"Mom?" Li Ruiyuan put out his cigarette. "Why are you here?"
Mother Li walked in step by step without saying a word. Her eyes fell on the two bowls of noodles placed side by side on the coffee table, on the two pillows placed close together on the sofa, and finally on the inconspicuous red mark on the side of Wu Ye's neck.
Everything is self-explanatory.
She raised her hand and slapped Li Ruiyuan hard.
"You beast!" Her voice trembled. "He's your brother!"
Wu Ye stood up suddenly: "Auntie, no..."
"Shut up!" Mother Li turned and glared at him, her eyes filled with pain and anger. "Xiaoye, isn't Auntie good to you? How could you...how could you do such a disgusting thing with him?"
The word "disgusting" was like a knife, stabbing into Wu Ye's heart. He turned pale and was speechless.
Li Ruiyuan touched his hot cheeks and said in a dry voice: "Mom, please be careful with your words."
"Pay attention? How should I pay attention?" Mother Li was so angry that she was shaking all over. "You two men...is this even acceptable? If this gets out, will our Li family still be able to maintain our dignity? How will your sister get married in the future?"
"What does it have to do with her?" Li Ruiyuan frowned and his eyes turned cold. "I will take responsibility for my own affairs."
"Can you afford it?" Mother Li grabbed the bag and threw it at him. "Do you know what you're doing? You're perverts! Homosexuals!"
The bag hit Li Ruiyuan, but he didn't move at all.
Wu Ye watched this scene, his heart gripped tightly by an invisible hand. He remembered Li Ruiyuan reaching out to him on that rainy night a year ago; he remembered his mother staying up all night to care for him when he had a fever; he remembered Li Xuan sweetly calling him "Brother Ye"...
He was the one who ruined it all.
"Auntie," he said softly, "It's all my fault, don't blame Brother Yuan."
Mother Li looked at him with red eyes: "Xiaoye, you are a good boy. Did Yuanzi force you to do that? Tell the truth to your aunt..."
"No." Wu Ye raised his head, his eyes firm, "I was the one who liked him first."
There was dead silence in the room.
Li Ruiyuan looked at Wu Ye in surprise. This young man who was always self-deprecating and timid, now straightened his back like a poplar standing against the wind.
Mother Li looked at them blankly, and suddenly squatted on the ground and burst into tears.
"What a sin... What sin have I committed..."
Li Ruiyuan walked over to help her, but she pushed him away: "Don't touch me! You...you separate immediately! From today on, you are not allowed to see each other again!"
Wu Ye trembled all over and looked at Li Ruiyuan.
Li Ruiyuan stood there, his face calm: "Mom, this is impossible."
"You're going to drive me to death!" Mother Li screamed hysterically, "If you don't separate, I'll pretend I never gave birth to you!"
The words were so strong that even Li Ruiyuan was shaken. He pursed his lips and knitted his thick eyebrows.
Wu Ye looked at the confronting mother and son, then suddenly turned around and walked out.
"Stop!" Li Ruiyuan shouted.
Wu Ye stopped at the door, his back as thin as a piece of paper.
"Where are you going?" Li Ruiyuan asked.
Wu Ye didn't turn around, his voice was so soft that it was almost inaudible: "I... I'll buy a plane ticket back to school later..."
He knew that as long as he left, Mother Li would forgive her son and everything would return to normal. He was the superfluous person who should not exist.
Li Ruiyuan strode over and grabbed his wrist: "Who allowed you to leave?"
"Yuanzi!" Mother Li screamed.
Li Ruiyuan looked back at his mother with a complicated look in his eyes: "Mom, when Wu Ye was nineteen years old, you asked me to bring him home. You said that this child had suffered too much and we should treat him better."
Mother Li was stunned.
"You're going to kick him out now?" Li Ruiyuan said in a low voice, "Where should he go? Back to his aunt's house who kicked him out? Or live on the streets?"
"That's not possible..." Mother Li choked, "We can't do this..."
Wu Ye's wrist was painfully gripped by Li Ruiyuan's grip, but he didn't struggle. He could feel the scorching heat of Li Ruiyuan's palm, so firm, so unquestionable.
"Mom," Li Ruiyuan said word by word, "Wu Ye is my lover, and will be for the rest of my life. Whether you accept it or not, we will never separate."
Mother Li stared at her son, as if truly knowing him for the first time. Her usually lazy and casual son now had eyes as sharp as an eagle, filled with a resolute determination that brooked no argument.
She suddenly realized that there was no turning back.
"Okay... okay..." She stood up tremblingly, her eyes empty, "You are so nice..."
She staggered out of the door, her back hunched, as if she had aged ten years in an instant.
The door closed, and only two people were left in the room.
Wu Ye finally turned around, his eyes red: "You shouldn't talk to Auntie like that..."
Li Ruiyuan let go of his hand and scratched his hair irritably: "What do you want me to say? Agree to break up with her?"
"I..." Wu Ye was speechless.
Li Ruiyuan walked to the window and watched his mother stumbling away. His heart ached. But he didn't show it and just lit a cigarette.
"Wu Ye," he exhaled a puff of smoke, "Listen to me, they will know about this sooner or later. We can't hide it."
Wu Ye looked at his tall and straight back, tears finally falling. He knew that from this moment on, they were on a path of no return.
He was not afraid of rumors, he was afraid that Li Ruiyuan could not bear it.
That kiss in the alley was like a butterfly gently flapping its wings, but it caused a storm in their lives.
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