Chapter 122 Extra Five
When the fireplace is burning, it will give people an extra festive winter atmosphere.
It snowed heavily in Boston overnight, so the school was closed for a day, and Ye Kai was happy to have a day off. He lay on the sofa, his head resting on Chen Youhan's arms, holding a handout in his hand, biting a pen in his mouth, reading it for a while, underlining the key points, and writing comments next to them.
Her legs were too long to fit on the sofa, so she hung them down on the armrests. Her bare feet lazily crossed at her slender ankles.
Chen Youhan put one hand in his soft hair and combed it subconsciously, and used the other hand to look at the densely packed items awaiting approval in the OA. Occasionally, she lowered her head to look at him, and her slightly frowned brows relaxed, and her eyes softened unconsciously.
“Are you working too hard?”
Ye Kai said "hmm", raised his eyes to look at him, and jokingly said: "What can I do? You don't want me to delay graduation, do you?"
Chen Youhan put down the phone and held his cheeks with both hands: "I'm afraid the professor will be reluctant to let you go."
Ye Kai laughed: "I'm not an academic genius."
He is a person who is used to working hard. All his achievements are the result of hard work, so he never thinks that he is too smart.
Chen Youhan lowered his eyes and stared at him, then bent down and kissed his lips.
Ye Kai didn't know if it was an illusion, but he felt that Chen Youhan looked at him differently than before. But before he could investigate, he suddenly felt a sudden pain in his heart, and whispered, "Brother Youhan, keep kissing me."
As they kissed, the handout slipped from his hands and rolled up under his body along with the blanket covering his legs. Ye Kai climbed up his neck with both hands, and his calves and toes that were stepping on the handrails were unconsciously tensed because of the kiss.
Chen Youhan kissed him hard, more aggressively than when they made love last night. Ye Kai couldn't breathe. His brain, which had just been able to process huge amounts of data at a glance, was now dizzy. He could only vaguely think that Chen Youhan must be hiding something from him. They had been together for so many years, with flowers, rings, and blessings, but Chen Youhan's eyes suddenly showed that indescribable pain. Although he suppressed it, it still surged deeply from the bottom of his eyes as he looked at Ye Kai.
"Brother Youhan, what happened?"
Chen Youhan hugged him and answered the question irrelevantly: "Did it hurt a lot during the time you were sick?"
Ye Kai was confused: "Which time?" He thought it was when he broke his bone while skiing.
“The time when I was speechless.”
How many years have passed? Ye Kai didn't know why he suddenly thought of asking this, but he thought about it carefully and said, "It doesn't hurt."
Chen Youhan lowered his eyes to look at him, and saw Ye Kai's palm-sized thin face raised. His eyes were still like obsidian washed by water, clear, clean, and innocent, as if they would not change no matter how many years had passed or how much hurt he had suffered.
Her fingertips gently brushed across his eyes. Chen Youhan paused and finally said, "I had a dream."
·
"When you get married, I will bring my boyfriend to see you. If he asks me who you are, I will just say that you are my sister's classmate. You are nobody and you have left no trace in my life. I will accept the bouquet from your new wife and I also wish you a happy marriage. I——"
The voice with a crying tone was violent and aggressive.
"It's all right." A more mature male voice interrupted him.
Under the bright lights, the air blown by the central air-conditioning all day long has a cold temperature and a high-end but boring fragrance.
It’s in Fanning.
"He" was standing at the door, Ye Kai was holding onto the corner of his clothes tightly, as if he didn't know how to let go, while Ye Jin was standing not far away, her slender body tense and stiff.
"Xiao Kai, I wish you happiness, forever." Chen Youhan saw himself finally raise his hand, very gently brushed Ye Kai's sweaty hair, and said with a smile: "Ye Kai's Kai means happy Kai."
A deep pain pierced his heart like a thunderbolt.
How could he dream of this place?
Ye Kai's face was covered in sweat, and the strands of hair on his forehead stuck to his pale skin. He just stared at him with his eyes wide open, blinking and shaking his head instinctively.
"Xiao Kai——" Chen Youhan called his name loudly.
But there was no sound.
Only Chen Youhan obeyed the reality and said: "No one forced me, and no one deceived you, you are fine."
The elevator door slowly closed, and as the world fell rapidly, Ye Kai finally burst into tears.
In the clear and embarrassing picture reflected in the mirror, there was no figure of Chen Youhan. He stood beside Ye Kai, reaching out his hand to wipe away the tears that seemed to be flowing endlessly from his eyes, just like he had done in the past ten years.
Almost touching, as if she could already feel the softness of his cheek and the heat of his tears, but Ye Kai was still crying. Ye Jin tightly grasped his shoulders, gritting her teeth as her brother nearly suffocated and collapsed.
·
The lights were turned off and the door was gently closed. Because of the full moon, the entire bedroom was plunged into a gentle darkness.
Before Qu Jia left, she kissed Ye Kai and called him "baby" but said nothing. When she left, Ye Kai opened his eyes and stared at the ceiling in silence. After a few minutes, his eyes, which were lifeless, moved slowly, as if he remembered something.
He threw back the quilt, got out of bed, and sat down on the carpet by the window.
The moon is so big and so round, and the moonlight is so beautiful, which reminds people of the story of Natsume Soseki.
"The moonlight is beautiful tonight."
"Natsume Soseki said..."
"I know."
"What do you know?"
"The moon is beautiful tonight. I love you."
Ye Kai sat with his knees hugged, and slowly put his face on his arms. The moonlight illuminated half of his face. He lowered his eyes and looked like he was just asleep.
No matter how beautiful the moon is, it will eventually set.
Even though the moon rises every day, there are still new moons, crescents, and quarter moons. It is not perfect all the time. One or two in thirty days. One fifteenth of perfection has to wait for fourteen fifteenths of regret. How long have he and Brother Youhan been together? 457 days, every day is perfect, and they have spent fifteen months perfectly. What is fifteen times fourteen?
He figured out such a simple mental arithmetic in the blink of an eye. He would have to wait 210 months for the next perfect result.
Ye Kai thought childishly, it was 17.5 years.
Chen Youhan, only an idiot would wait for you for so long. You will be so old by then, how can I still like you?
Chen Youhan couldn't help but smile, but the fingers hanging by his side curled up in pain.
"Don't be so cute," he wanted to say.
When I raised my hand, I wanted to push his hair away. He had a beautiful forehead, and every time he played tennis, the wind from running would blow his hair, which would always attract people's attention.
But Ye Kai stood up without warning.
After sitting for a long time, the air conditioner made his body stiff and he couldn't control his shaking. He opened the collection cabinet in the cloakroom and saw a sapphire lying on the black velvet surface, shining brightly in the night. Ye Kai returned to the bed holding the sapphire. The more his body shook, the tighter he held the sapphire in his palm.
Sapphires are not valuable, and he has given them to many people.
How could he think that sapphires and sports cars were different? Why did he think that sapphires and sports cars were different?
Sapphires are no different than sports cars.
He and they are the same.
When Qu Jia came in to see him, he found him curled up on the bed.
"Baby? Baby?" Qu Jia shook him hard and stroked his sweaty hair.
Ye Kai's lips were pale, his brows were deeply furrowed, and his clenched hand was pressed tightly against his heart.
When Qu Jia ran out, his home shoes slipped on the floor.
·
"If it's convenient for Xiaokai, can you let him answer the phone for a while?"
"It's inconvenient for him."
"Just a few words," Gu Xiu paused, and the vague words "Xiao Kai" passed by in the background. He whispered, "Youhan has been looking for him all night."
Ye Jin took two puffs of his cigarette and said coldly, "They broke up. He doesn't want to see Chen Youhan."
Gu Xiu was probably angry. He choked for a few seconds and said angrily: "Just like that——"
A short beep.
Ye Jin hung up the phone.
When she walked in, Ye Kai just woke up from his coma, and the glance he gave her was no different from the saline medicine box with flowers and plants he had seen in the ward for so many days.
"Does it still hurt?" Ye Jin sat down on the edge of the bed, and when she realized that she might smell of cigarettes, she sat a little further away.
Ye Kai didn't open his mouth, but just lowered his eyes.
Ye Jin looked at him quietly: "Chen Youhan..."
Seeing Ye Kai's eyes light up, he suddenly raised his face to look at her, waiting for her next words.
Seeing that Ye Jin didn't say anything, he unconsciously grabbed the quilt with both hands, and looked over her shoulder into the distance, as if trying to confirm if someone was coming to the door.
The doorway against the light was empty, with no one there.
Ye Jin watched all this and finally changed her mind, saying only: "Chen Youhan is not worthy of you doing this."
Then she saw the light in Ye Kai's eyes quickly die out.
He woke up because he dreamed of Chen Youhan and thought he came to see him. His bones and muscles hurt, and every breath hurt. Why didn't anyone tell Chen Youhan that he was sick? If they had told him, why didn't he come? He was so seriously ill, never so seriously since he was a child, sometimes he even thought he was going to die. Why didn't Chen Youhan come to see him?
He just doesn't know.
If he knew, he would come to see me, holding flowers, standing at the door against the light, and then striding in, just like he did in Vancouver back then.
Ye Kai lay down slowly, pulling up the quilt to block out all the light. He curled up and thought to himself, why haven't you told Brother Youhan about my illness yet?
When will you tell?
Three days, five days, one week, two weeks.
Ye Kai slowly began to understand that it was not that Chen Youhan didn’t know, but that he really wouldn’t come.
Just like the day when he finished the college entrance examination, Chen Youhan was not there.
Chen Youhan has participated in all the important moments of his life so far. The championship of the tennis season, the loss of a baseball game, many birthdays in many years, the first time he went to Disney, the first time he rode a roller coaster, the first person he added on WeChat, and the first voice message he sent. It turned out that he did not lose Chen Youhan in the heavy rain that day. Chen Youhan decided not to want him since the day of the college entrance examination.
I thought they were no longer lovers, but at least they were still my brother and my friend, right? It turned out that when he said "I'm tired of him" that day, he didn't mean that he was tired of dating Ye Kai, but that he was tired of Ye Kai from beginning to end. So no matter if he was a brother, a friend, an ex-boyfriend, or just a familiar kid from the neighbor's house, Chen Youhan was tired of Ye Kai's existence.
Strangely, when he thought of this, a breeze suddenly rushed in through the window. It was very gentle, but it refreshed him. The TV was showing news about the Lou Village project. Chen Youhan appeared on the screen, still as handsome as ever, with a smile on his face, as if nothing major had ever happened in his life. Ye Kai watched it quietly, happy for Chen Youhan, and relieved.
He found the answer.
Brother Youhan, it turns out that I’m really not that important to you.
There are so many big things in the adult world. He suffers for love because he is still young. If he is like Brother Youhan, he will not be sad for such a small thing. If he is a little sad, he will get better soon.
"Goodbye, Brother Youhan." He opened his mouth and made a soft sound in his heart.
No one heard the goodbye, and even Chen Youhan in his dream was doubting whether it was real. But the sudden pain was so vivid and intense that he almost couldn't stand in his dream.
When Qu Jia came in, the news was coming to an end. She turned off the TV, and Ye Kai typed the first line of words in so many days on her phone: It's okay, Mom.
·
The skis he took out of the cloakroom were still brand new. Last winter, Lan Man had a minor illness, so he took the skis with him and brought them back intact. Ye Kai felt sorry that such a beautiful ski had never even touched the snow.
When he sat on the floor, from Qu Jia's perspective, he looked thinner than before, almost emaciated, with no gentle curve left on the side of his jaw, just as sharp and hard as his silence for so many days.
Matte texture, colorful graffiti, Ye Kai's fingertips gently brushed over it for the last time.
It was as dreamy as my seventeenth birthday.
He asked Aunt Jia to find a huge cardboard box that was big enough to hold it. He then took out the sapphire gift box again. On the night of the sudden illness, Qu Jia had to use a lot of force to dig it out.
"If you like it, you can stay." Qu Jia finally couldn't help but speak out.
Ye Kai raised his eyes and looked at her from bottom to top, pursed his lips and smiled, then put the box into the paper box.
No, it’s okay, one day you won’t like it anymore.
Uncle Lu went to deliver it in person. He took the access card given to him by the young master and went straight to the 26th floor from the underground garage. The cardboard box was gently placed at the door, making a slight sound, like the sound of dust settling.
·
"You dreamed?" Ye Kai repeated.
"Yeah," Chen Youhan looked at him and added, "A little bit."
Ye Kai was sitting in his arms, looking a little surprised: "What did you dream about?"
Chen Youhan rarely talked about these things with him.
"I dreamed that you were speechless and you put a figurine on the bed and cursed me."
Ye Kai burst out laughing: "What?"
"I also dreamed that you swore to Qu Jia that you would find a girlfriend as soon as school started." Chen Youhan hooked his fingers and coaxed him: "You used a female classmate as a substitute without authorization. Did you ask her opinion?"
Ye Kai was speechless: "I didn't look for you!" Then he realized, "Did you suddenly come to me because you dreamed about this?"
When I woke up from the dream in pain, I couldn't even tell where I was.
He returned the sapphire, but kept the Breguet.
He said goodbye to Brother Youhan, but on August 7th he wished him a happy birthday on his Moments.
He told himself that one day he would dislike her, but when he was in Vancouver, even Lan Man could easily see through his disguise.
When we met again two years later, he said, "Brother Youhan, I'm already trying to like someone else."
He's still saying "trying".
Chen Youhan finally realized that the past two years with Ye Kai was a long farewell to him.
A farewell filled with effort, a lingering hope, alone, in silence and determination.
He could no longer tell whether it was Ye Kai's pain that hurt him or Ye Kai's determination that hurt him.
Perhaps it was because the pain was so deep that the determination seemed so irreversible.
It took him only five minutes to buy the plane ticket. He checked the earliest arriving flight and rushed from the flower-filled city of Ning to the snowy Boston.
He missed the winter of Ye Kai's life forever, just as the him in his dream could not wipe away even a tear for him.
At the very least, please let him land gently for him in this winter.
Chen Youhan kissed the corner of his lips and said in a low voice: "You are looking for a girlfriend in your dreams, so of course I have to come and see."
The sky cleared up after the snow outside the window. A tall scaffolding was erected outside the beautiful window, and a red Christmas wreath was lightly decorated on it.
——Boston winter fin——
Continue read on readnovelmtl.com
