It always rains in June in Ningshi.
Three days into the college entrance exam, heavy rain caught the traffic police, parents, and candidates off guard. Amid the muffled thunder and heavy rain in early summer, Ye Kai finished his last test paper. He packed up his pencil case and test papers and walked through the corridor that was lined with rain. Even after the rain, some people still tore up and threw books. On the waterlogged cement floor, the torn white test papers were soaked by water and floated down the drain along with the water and fallen leaves.
Wu Sijiu is a name that has been forgotten, but Ye Kai suddenly thought of him on this day, thinking of the sweet orange sunset when he graduated, thinking of Chen Youhan waiting in the parking lot, and thinking of his back as he ran towards Chen Youhan. He never had any feelings for Wu Sijiu, but on this short walk towards the school gate with an umbrella, he suddenly felt a subtle jealousy.
If Chen Youhan's Lamborghini, Aston Martin, or even Panamera appeared in the rain, he would run over regardless of everything.
But in the bustling parking lot, among the crowds of people under umbrellas, and among the anxious faces in the rain, there was no Chen Youhan. Instead, it was Qu Jia standing in the rain in her expensive sheepskin high heels, with Uncle Lu holding an umbrella for her.
Ye Kai perked up and ran towards Qu Jia with bright eyes, the splashing rain splashing onto his school uniform trouser legs.
After getting in the car, Uncle Lu turned on the air conditioner and Ye Kai smoothed his slightly wet hair.
"How about it?"
Ye Kai felt good about himself: "Is it okay to keep Fudan University and strive for Tsinghua University?"
Qu Jia hugged him and smiled: "Sure, anything is fine."
Ye Kai has offers from twenty of the top fifty universities in the world. As long as he does not perform too poorly in the college entrance examination, it will not damage Tianyi's reputation.
Ye Kai responded with two perfunctory words, and the inexplicable loss he had just felt disappeared. He took out his cell phone and sent a WeChat message to Chen Youhan.
: I finished the exam!
:congratulations.
: Congratulations to me? Who are you? Lao Chen from next door?
Q: Did you do well in the exam?
: It’s okay, you can basically be an outstanding graduate.
: How humble.
"Chatting with Chen Youhan again?" Qu Jia glanced at him.
Ye Kai quickly exited the interface and opened the class group chat: "No, I... chat with everyone!"
"I'll go back to collect my luggage tonight and fly to the United States the day after tomorrow."
Ye Kai raised his head in shock: "Huh?"
"FSA International Economic Simulation Competition. You have nothing to do anyway, so go and take a look."
Ye Kai participated in this competition before, and the Tianyi team won the silver medal. But he has graduated now, why would he go to see it? With a complicated expression on his face, Qu Jia took the initiative to explain: "One of the team leaders withdrew due to some matters, and you just happened to have time and experience. An exchange meeting was arranged after the game, and you will attend on behalf of Tianyi officials."
"Do you really have to go?"
"Do you have plans?"
“…No.”
The heavy rain washed the windshield into a thick white mist. Qu Jia patted Ye Kai's hand and said, "I didn't want you to go, but my sister said that I wanted you to go and gain some experience. I think that makes sense."
Ye Kai was caught off guard, but he really couldn't find a reason to refuse.
When he got home, Qu Jia immediately ordered someone to pack his luggage. The competition was long, taking half a month, plus the exchange meeting and the round trip, it was almost twenty days. The class group has been lively since the exam, and everyone wants to go out and have fun. Some are going to bars, some are going to nightclubs, and some are playing games in Internet cafes all night. Yang Zhuoning tagged him: Deskmate, what do you say?
Ye Kai said expressionlessly: Going to the United States the day after tomorrow.
Yang Zhuoning sent an expression of respect: Awesome, he is worthy of being a rich and noble young man, he plays in a high-class way.
Everyone lined up to refresh the screen.
Ye Kai forwarded a FSA economic simulation schedule: Do you want this advanced one?
Yang Zhuoning immediately changed his tone: Awesome, you are worthy of being a rich and noble young man, you are dedicated to your work and busy with all kinds of affairs.
The screen was flooded again.
Ye Kaixin was upset and sent a "hehe" message, withdrawing from the carnival in which he was the only one included.
Clicking into Chen Youhan's interface, he was still stuck on the two sentences he said when he left the examination room two hours ago. He thought and thought again, typed a line and deleted it, repeated several times, but couldn't find anything to say. The phone was thrown aside, he put his hands behind his head, staring at the snow-white ceiling in a trance. His eyes gradually became sore, he closed his eyes, and thought of the kiss in the office four days ago.
After dinner, the luggage was packed and the rain stopped for a while. Ye Kaicun wanted to sneak out, but he was caught by Ye Jin in the front hall. Ye Jin seemed to know that he was going to find Chen Youhan, and hinted: "I just came out of Feiyu Building and met Chen Youhan there."
Feiyulou is a famous Chinese restaurant in Ning City, the first choice for business receptions and banquets. Ye Kai really stopped and asked suspiciously: "Are you sure?"
Ye Jin smiled faintly: "It's hard to mistake him for someone like him."
Ye Kai felt that he was praising his boyfriend, and he pursed his lips, looking proud. He couldn't hold back his smile, and he bit his lips, but the corners of his lips still couldn't stop curling up. Ye Jin turned around stiffly: "There's a very good-looking young man beside him."
Ye Kai was slightly startled, then relieved: "I know, it's Gu Xiu."
Ye Jin shrugged slightly, "There are so many people coming and going around him, how can I recognize them all?"
There was something behind her words. Ye Kai was not a fool. He glared at her angrily: "What do you want to say?"
"I heard that there were two young handsome guys in the circle who wanted to climb into his bed but failed." Ye Jin glanced at him, "Celebrities are celebrities after all."
Ye Kai's face darkened, and his tone returned to being cold: "He is not that kind of person."
Although he was very firm in his response, he couldn't fall asleep even after taking a shower and lying on the bed. He was sure that this was due to excessive excitement after completing a major event in his life. He closed his eyes and worked hard for half an hour, but in his mind, Chen Youhan's abnormal indifference and perfunctory attitude for nearly half a month kept coming to his mind. In the past, he comforted himself that it was because Chen Youhan was afraid of interfering with his preparation for the exam, but now it has been six hours since the exam ended, and apart from those few lines of conversation, Chen Youhan has not contacted him again.
The phone screen shone on his sleepy cheeks. After a while, his eyes were stinging and began to tear up. He finally reacted and turned on the light. The chats with Chen Youhan were fragmented and brief. He was the one who took the initiative and Chen Youhan responded coldly and slowly. When did it start? Ye Kaixin's heart suddenly twitched. He couldn't control himself and impulsively called Chen Youhan on video. There was no response for a long time. He hung up, called again, and repeated the process again a minute later.
After five times, Chen Youhan picked up the phone.
He was on the balcony, the light dimming, a cigarette between his fingers.
"What's wrong?" Chen Youhan's tone was casual.
"I've finished my exam."
"I know. You said so."
Ye Kai panicked and suddenly didn't know what to say. He held the phone and started a random conversation: "I'm going to the United States the day after tomorrow. FAS International Economic Challenge, do you know? It's -"
"Go to bed early." Chen Youhan interrupted him and raised the corner of his lips very lightly, almost without any hint.
Ye Kai was silent for two seconds: "I miss you, Brother Youhan, do you miss me?"
"I was very busy and forgot to think about it." Chen Youhan's answer was ruthless, but retained the utmost tenderness.
"I have time tomorrow," he said, hugging his knees, his face pressed against his knees, looking very well behaved, and speaking a little embarrassedly, "I can say it's a class reunion."
"I'm going to Hong Kong on a business trip tomorrow."
Ye Kai lowered his eyes. Since he knew that Chen Youhan liked him on August 7, the year before last, he had learned to hold his phone very properly so that the front camera could take a straight and normal picture of his face. He never cared about his appearance, but he was worried that Chen Youhan would see his ugly side in the video. But now, his hands were powerless, and his arms drooped limply. After a long time, Ye Kai slowly said "Oh".
"Anything else?" Chen Youhan dusted off his cigarette ash. "I still have to work overtime."
"Brother Youhan."
"Um."
"Why don't you call me baby recently? Can you call me that?"
Chen Youhan was silent for a while, then said perfunctorily: "Don't you dislike it?"
"I like it!" He felt ashamed of his overly direct request. He pursed his lips, bit the inside of his lips with his teeth, lowered his head and whispered, "I like it."
Chen Youhan took a deep breath and glanced away from the camera. The night sky was bustling with activity. He said indifferently, "Xiao Kai, I'm very tired today."
Ye Kai blinked blankly, and suddenly realized that he was being unreasonable. He apologized helplessly: "I'm sorry, I'm so excited after the exam that I can't sleep. You go and do your work, Brother Youhan, and get some rest."
Chen Youhan nodded, leaned over and put out the cigarette in the full ashtray.
Ye Kai pinched the cigarette and said gently and quickly: "Smoke less."
Chen Youhan paused, and said in a low but clear voice: "Okay."
Only this "OK" came from Chen Youhan, whom Ye Kai was familiar with.
Gentle, gentlemanly, with a nice voice and love overflowing from the heart.
Every other word is not him.
Every character is not Ye Kai's Chen Youhan.
He held the phone, his finger unconsciously clicking into the WeChat favorites. He was very skilled at it. A voice rang out from the receiver, the sound quality was husky: "I, Chen Youhan, miss Ye Kai very much at this moment, I can't help missing him, I miss him so much that I want to die, I want to see him now." Lazy, casual, playful, close your eyes, you can think of the face saying these words at the back door of Tianyi under the street light.
One year and three months. Amazing, even the fraction is longer than his previous times.
Ye Kai opened the dialog box again and typed in word by word:
One year and three months, that’s not too long, right?
But Chen Youhan didn't reply to him.
After a long flight, the plane landed in Los Angeles. The organizers had arranged accommodation for the participating teams from various countries, and Hilton was almost occupied by high school students of all skin colors. As the assistant teacher, Ye Kai wore a shirt tucked into his trousers, with a narrow waist and long legs, a work badge hanging on his chest, black hair and white skin, and looked too young. The younger students were all very close to him, calling him "senior" in a crisp voice. Sometimes they asked him if he had any experience in relieving tension, sometimes they asked him to simulate the opponent in the debate, and sometimes they asked him for more advanced written expressions for a debate speech.
The chattering left him no time to think about anything else.
The competition system is a round-by-round draw, with points accumulated and the rankings determined after the game.
This kind of competition has a natural advantage for schools whose first language is English. In the away game, Tianyi did not perform well in the first game. Several players were dejected after leaving the court, and one girl cried directly. Ye Kai remembered her. She was admitted from another school. She had excellent grades and received a full scholarship from Tianyi.
After several months of training and competition, the students had developed a deep bond with each other and surrounded her in the room to comfort her.
Ye Kai walked in, his footsteps making no sound on the thick carpet, and heard two team members whispering against the door: "I heard that her father was laid off last month. If she can't win the game, she won't be able to get a full scholarship with her practical and competition experience."
"Doesn't that mean you can't go abroad?"
"Yes, the annual salary in the United States is at least $200,000. How can her family afford it?"
Ye Kai coughed lightly and glanced at the girl who was being comforted by everyone in the room: "What's wrong?"
The two team members immediately stood up straight: "Senior."
"It's just that we didn't perform well in the first game. There's no need to be so depressed." Ye Kai walked into the room and comforted people in a very direct way. "In our last competition, we didn't perform very well in the first three games, but in the end we tied for second place and won the silver medal, didn't we? It doesn't matter."
"Senior, your English is so good, how come you performed so poorly?"
Ye Kai smiled, with a slightly mischievous smile in his eyes: "Did I say it was me?"
Everyone burst into laughter immediately, even the crying girl couldn't help but burst into laughter.
Ye Kai restrained his smile and said gently but seriously: "Don't deny all your past efforts and achievements because of one failure. I have watched your season, and you have performed very well all the way in the domestic competition. Believe me, you are better than the seniors in the previous session, and there is nothing you can't do."
The girl wiped away her tears: "I just suddenly thought of my father losing his job..." The corners of her mouth drooped, and she couldn't hold back her tears: "I really don't dare to let him down."
Unemployment is the nightmare of every middle-aged man. As they age, they cannot compete with young people for the same position and salary. They are demoted and ordered around by young people, which makes them feel depressed. However, they still have to shoulder the burden of supporting their family. If one person loses his job, the whole family will fall into the abyss.
Ye Kai was in no position to comfort her.
Other team members took the opportunity to chat: "GC is such a big company, they can lay off employees just like that. Qiqi's father is the department director, and it seems he only received two months of minimum living allowance."
"It seems something happened to the Chen family, and the Loucun project has also been stopped."
“But their building is really nice, and the property is very good.”
Ye Kairu was like an ice cellar. He seemed to not understand, and his gentle smile froze at the corner of his mouth, "What are you talking about?"
The chatter stopped, and the team members looked at him abruptly and puzzledly: "Senior, don't you know?"
Ye Kai opened his mouth and focused his eyes on one of the team members: "What's wrong with GC?"
The team member he was looking at suddenly felt nervous all over. He stumbled while making gestures: "GC, GC seemed to have almost gone bankrupt before."
"It was always in the news, but you should have been preparing for the college entrance examination at that time," others echoed.
Everyone knew more about the situation than he did, and they all added: "All the overseas assets were sold off at a low price.", "Several high-quality domestic projects to be developed were also sold.", "Because there were so many layoffs, it even made the social news.", "Lou Village is now in a state of half-development and half-stop, probably because they have no money to develop it."
"Really? But it's really strange. GC, the leading real estate company in Ning City, just said no and it's not possible."
"Maybe the company boss lacks strategic vision. If a highly indebted company like theirs fails in one link, the rest will collapse in tandem."
They talked a lot in a buzzing voice, not noticing Ye Kai's silence from beginning to end.
After a long while, he took a step back and said, "Impossible." He held the corner of the table tightly with his hands, his lips pale and his eyes blank. He said with difficulty and determination, "Nothing can happen to GC in Chen Youhan's hands."
Everyone present was an academic genius, and they immediately deduced that this Chen Youhan must be the boss of GC.
A girl asked in confusion: "Senior, what's wrong with you? You look..." Before she could finish her words, someone next to her pinched her hard. She immediately shut her mouth tightly as if facing a great enemy, and stared at the carpet out of guilt.
Yes, the Ye family and the Chen family are both famous wealthy families in Ning City, so they must know each other.
The room filled with students was silent for a moment. Ye Kai's eyes were hard to focus, and he glanced at each team member's face in confusion: "Anything else?"
“No, no more…”
It was not known who answered the question, because everyone lowered their eyes and did not dare to look at him.
Ye Kai swallowed hard, the light in his eyes cleared and then faded. After a long time, he slowly said, "I know." He walked out of the room step by step. His back was straight, and his steps were his usual calm pace. But his hands hanging by his side kept shaking, and everyone felt nervous and unconsciously wanted to keep up with him. Ye Kai clenched his fists and said hoarsely, "Rest well and prepare well for the competition."
Repeated overseas calls made mechanically went unanswered.
...What is he doing? What is he doing? Ye Kai walked along the corridor without any sense of direction, and kept walking, without knowing the end. Such a big thing happened in Chen Youhan's family, but he never knew about it and never cared about it. He could clearly see that he was overly tired for several months in a row, but he only asked casually symbolically, and stopped as long as he said "busy at work". Does he love others like this? Does he love Chen Youhan like this? What has he given to Chen Youhan? Acting like a spoiled child, asking for things, and causing trouble, has he ever really cared about Chen Youhan? Didn't she cry during sex? He didn't even ask about that time. Why would Youhan's brother cry? What could make him cry?
His steps became more and more disordered, and his vision became more and more confused. The shadows of the lights were heavy in front of his eyes. The corners of Ye Kai's mouth kept trembling, and his nerves were out of control, almost spasming. Tears kept falling, and he raised his hand to wipe them away, line by line. He pursed his trembling lips, and sobs overflowed from his chest——
"Sir? Sir?"
"Hey, everything is ok?"
“Do you need any help?”
Ye Kai pushed away the waiter and the passers-by who were trying to help him, stumbled along the way among the crowds of people, and finally opened the emergency passage. He collapsed on the balcony railing, sobbing and trembling with breath.
The plane landed at Xianliu Airport in the rain, and Ye Kai was awakened from a deep nightmare. The first-class cabin was spacious and quiet. The old man sitting next to him glanced at him, put down the newspaper, and gentlemanly handed him a pack of wet wipes from his suit pocket.
Ye Kai was slow to react.
"Wipe it off," the old man said gently, "you were crying in your dream."
Ye Kai then touched his face. It was dry, sticky, and there was still moisture in the corners of his eyes.
"Thank you." He took it.
It just can't be torn apart no matter what.
Can't even tear a wet tissue.
The old man held his hand and said soothingly: "I'll do it, I'll do it, leave it to me."
I tore open a corner easily, and the scent of jasmine came out.
Ye Kai took it dumbly, his head dizzy. After three seconds, he finally said belatedly: "...Thank you."
The old man raised the newspaper again, paused, and said gently: "It's no big deal. You are still so young."
It was pouring rain, and he sent a WeChat message to Chen Youhan as soon as he got off the plane. Because of a sudden high fever, he was unable to fulfill his duties as an assistant teacher. On the third day of his illness, as soon as the fever subsided, he bought a ticket back home regardless of everything. ... He always seemed to rush back from the United States. Once, twice, every time he and Chen Youhan were separated by the Pacific Ocean, he would feel uneasy.
: Brother Youhan, please understand me: I know what happened, I was wrong
: It's my fault, I was selfish, I didn't care about you
:Brother Youhan, can you please pay attention to me?
: Chen Youhan, please pay attention to me
He took the subway to Fanning Empty Villa, but he forgot to bring his access card, so no one came down to pick him up. He called Chen Youhan, over and over again. At first, the call was automatically disconnected due to timeout, and then it was cut off. On the tenth call, Chen Youhan picked up.
"Brother Youhan, I..." He answered so suddenly that Ye Kai didn't even think about what to say, "I'm--"
"Let's break up, Xiaokai."
"What?" The cell phone was pressed tightly against his ear. Ye Kai froze, his eyes wide open with emptiness, as if he was a person who stepped on empty air.
"Break up, Xiaokai, and live a better life. I'm not worthy." Chen Youhan's voice was calm, steady, and hoarse, as if he had wanted to say this for a long time.
Ye Kai nervously clutched the strap of his schoolbag. He swallowed hard, his eyes blank with fear.
“No!” He reacted and collapsed and shouted to stop her, “No, Brother Youhan…” He gradually became incoherent: “Don’t break up, Chen Youhan, don’t—”
There was a dead tone in the microphone.
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