Chapter 20 Hidden Pain
When Xie Yu landed, it was already dark.
Xie Yuanshan said he would not care about him, and he really didn't care. He only gave him a business card of the company's office in City C and told him to handle everything on his own.
Xie Yu casually threw the business card into the trash can, then turned to contact Xu Qingshan: "Uncle, I've landed."
Xu Qingshan replied immediately: "Yes, I have asked my classmates to pick you up."
At that time, Xie Yuanshan sent Xie Yu to this unfamiliar place in the hope that he would turn around and admit his mistake, preferably crying bitterly and feeling like dying, and then he would show mercy and spare his young and ignorant son, playing out the scene of a loving father and a smiling son.
As luck would have it, City C was where Xu Qingshan was studying for his doctorate, and many of his classmates stayed there. Xu Qingshan was quite caring towards his nephew and had made contact early on. As soon as Xie Yu left the airport, he saw his uncle's classmates.
The other party led him to complete the formalities and introduced a rental agency. Xie Yu chose a small apartment by the sea, which was a five-minute walk to the beach. He quickly paid the money and settled down.
After everything was done, he held the phone, a little hesitant.
According to the original text, Master Xie was forced by Xie Yuanshan to go abroad, and he couldn’t hold his face, so after calling Shen Ci, he blocked his contact information.
This is the last little plot point.
Xie Yu paused, took out a piece of scratch paper, and wrote down the number stroke by stroke.
He then clicked to block the number, and his fingertips paused on the screen for a long time before he pressed it, and then saved the number in his memo.
In the note column, he was a little confused. The original owner's note was "Chen Ci", but according to the plot, the name Chen Ci should not appear in his phone. Xie Yu raised his hand and typed: "Porcelain."
He paused, then changed it to: "Mr. Porcelain."
It was a coincidence that the safe word was chosen at that time, as Xie Yu happened to see the porcelain in the window, but later he felt it was more and more appropriate.
Shen Ci looked soft and fragile, but his bones were very hard. If he was really broken, the fragments would definitely cut the visitor severely, leaving deep blood marks, just like the original owner of the novel. But if you hold it well and wipe it carefully, you can feel the moist touch of the white glaze.
After finishing all this, Xie Yu put away his phone in an obvious way and checked the class schedule for the next semester.
Xie Yuanshan used some unknown means to get him into the Economics Department of a famous university in City C, and threatened that if he failed to graduate, he would never be allowed to come back.
The school is ranked high internationally and has a great reputation, but the original owner was a real playboy with no education. The school had tight tasks and high pressure, and although he tried every possible means, he still didn't graduate in five years.
The system popped up and glanced at the screen curiously: "Why are you looking at the class schedule? Do you really want to study?"
Xie Yu: “I’m already here.”
System: "... Let me make it clear in advance that I will not help you cheat online during the exam."
Xie Yu: "I don't need your help."
Although he didn't study much in high school, that was because of depression. Now that he has the opportunity, it wouldn't hurt to learn a little.
It was already winter, and the whole city of C was bleak and desolate. A heavy snow fell at night, and the strong wind blew down several pine trees on the street. Xie Yu's life was repetitive. He went to school, then went home to sleep. When he had a day off, he would pack his luggage and travel.
He had been a second-generation rich man for half a year and had forgotten all his previous cooking skills. Now he was in a foreign country and couldn't get used to the local food, so he had to pick it up again. He started by tinkering with braised chicken rice in his apartment, and he did it quite well. Later, he gradually unlocked recipes such as cola chicken wings and braised chicken breast.
When the Spring Festival was approaching, Xie Yu invited several classmates to his home for dinner. He cooked a big pot of ingredients with hot pot base. Vermicelli was hard to buy here, so he just threw pasta into the pot and ate it all up. He was quite happy with the meal.
Since he was not arrogant and his consumption level was average, his classmates didn't realize he was a rich second-generation. They just thought he was a serious student. They all laughed and joked and felt quite fulfilled.
After three rounds of drinks, the classmates dispersed. Two couples went to the square to watch the fireworks, and a few others rushed home to call their families. Xie Yu stayed alone in the living room, cleaning up the mess on the floor.
He didn't know who to call.
He put the pots and bowls into the dishwasher, wiped the table with a rag, then opened a can of beer, sat on the armchair, and looked out the window into the distance.
Xie Yu did not turn on the lights, and the room was dark. Someone was setting off fireworks in the square not far away. The red, gold, silver and blue flames exploded in the sky one after another, and were reflected in his pupils.
Before in Jiangcheng, although the original protagonist's character was a screwup, he would change the plot every now and then, make appointments with He Zhiyuan and Zhou Yang to have fun, and tease Xia Chen Ci from time to time, pressing him in his arms and teasing him. Although Xie Yu was annoyed, he really didn't feel bored.
And now, even that group of bad friends has not been heard for a long time.
These few people are drinking buddies, and now that they can't get together, naturally no one talks.
Today, Zhou Yang rarely showed up in the group and sent a message: "Happy holidays." Then he fell silent again.
The system poked him and said, "Hey, Xie Yu, do you know that you really look like a lonely old man?"
"It's one of those American spy TV shows where the agent retires and lives in seclusion, gets married and has children, but his wife and children die of serious illnesses one after another, and then he returns to the organization and makes a difference."
Xie Yu was speechless: "Watch less TV dramas."
There is no plot to follow now. Xie Yu is in class during the day, and the system has nothing to do. There are countless TV series stored on the disk.
"Do you know what the next plot is going to be like? You will meet a beautiful girl who makes your heart beat fast. She must have an extraordinary identity and will drag you into trouble, but you will have no time to care about it. You will hug and kiss..."
Xie Yu was slightly amused and interrupted, "Do you know who I have hugged the most so far?"
The system is stuck: "Your family?"
Xie Yu shook his head: “Actually it’s Shen Ci… You may not believe it, but other than him, I’m not used to hugging people.”
Due to family reasons, he was not very close to others and had only been hugged a few times. Later, when he went to school, he was still a problem teenager and his classmates usually avoided him when they saw him.
Xie Yu drank beer: "Do you remember the night I first came? I didn't sleep all night."
Due to the plot setting that day, he and Shen Ci were lying on the same bed. They were less than twenty centimeters apart and their breathing was clearly audible. He was not used to such a distance. He felt like a lone animal whose territory was suddenly invaded, so he was tense all over.
At that time, he and Shen Ci had different thoughts, but they both pretended to be asleep tacitly, and the whole night passed peacefully.
The system hesitated: "What about the many times after that?"
Have you been pretending to sleep for so many days and nights?
Xie Yu: "No, but later on, due to the plot requirements, I got used to it after holding it for a while."
Just like Chen Ci had gotten used to Xie Yu's scent and would roll into his arms and snuggle up to him after falling asleep, Xie Yu had also gotten used to Chen Ci's scent and could stretch out his arms anytime and anywhere, pull him over like a pillow, and hold him by his side.
The forced arrangement of the plot led to one of the few close relationships in Xie Yu's life.
He rubbed his fingers slightly, feeling the warmth and feeling a little attached to it.
System: "...This is difficult to deal with. When you return to China, your status will be reversed. You can just wait to go to the mental hospital to hug him."
After it finished speaking, it followed Xie Yu to watch the fireworks. The colorful balls of flower soared into the sky, then fell silent within a few seconds. The next one continued to rise, repeating the cycle until the last one was set off and the sky became completely quiet.
Bells rang in the distance, it was already late at night.
The beer was already empty, Xie Yu got up to wash up, the system mysteriously loaded a bunch of data, and suddenly asked: "Host, do you want to see what Shen Ci is doing?"
Xie Yu spat out the toothpaste foam: "Don't invade other people's privacy."
System: "No, it's all public data from school forums."
Xie Yu didn't speak for a long time. He threw the aluminum can on the table into the trash can with a crisp sound: "Take a look."
"Well, their team has completed a big project, and the instructor has been promoted to Young Elite Scholar. His office has moved to a new building. Next time you go to see him, you can't go directly to the laboratory building."
Xie Yu: "I wouldn't have gone to look for him anyway, what else?"
"His grandmother's condition relapsed some time ago, but fortunately, with the timely financial support from Qingshan Foundation, she is now out of danger."
Xie Yu paused: "Anything else?"
"You guessed right. He Zhiyuan wanted to cause trouble for him, but every time he arrived in Jiangcheng, he was pulled away by Zhou Yang."
The system paused: "I can't find more details."
"Yeah." Xie Yu commented: "It's pretty good."
*
Ten thousand kilometers away, Shen Ci was in a bad state.
He has been staying up all night for several months in a row. Apart from going to the hospital, he has been staying in the laboratory, wishing he could fill up his free time.
Han Yunyun was ready to leave. She should have left earlier, but she had to move her office tomorrow, so she stayed to pack her things.
She stuffed the ornaments on the table into the suitcase and stole a glance at the senior brother opposite her: "Senior Brother Shen, aren't you leaving yet?"
Shen Ci rubbed his brows: “Don’t leave yet, there are still things to do.”
"But brother, you have dark circles under your eyes..." Han Yunyun muttered.
Chen Ci was also considered a well-known figure in University A. Putting aside his thesis GPA and other things, there were many girls who liked his noble and stern face. When Han Yunyun was tired from doing experiments, she also liked to stare at him. There was no other meaning, she just thought he was pleasing to the eye.
But in the past six months, Shen Ci has become visibly haggard. His eyelids are always slightly drooped, his eyebrows are tired, and his skin is much paler. Han Yunyun looked at him cautiously: "Brother, you should go back to bed early."
It's a waste of time to stay up late to do experiments with such a face!
Shen Ci responded neither lightly nor heavily, tapped the screen of his mobile phone with his fingers, and glanced at a name on the chat interface. The bright red exclamation mark was extremely glaring.
After getting the expected result, he turned off the screen.
Checking the phone during the lab break is a new habit of Shen Ci. Before meeting Xie Yu, Shen Ci often did not bring his phone into the office, but only put it in the storage cabinet at the door. He used an old phone, and all the apps on the market were stuck. He used it like a conservative old man, and only opened it a few times a day. For him, the phone was just a pure communication tool.
But after they separated that day, he tried to send a message to Xie Yu, but Xie Yu didn't reply. Shen Ci looked at his phone hundreds of times overnight, and vaguely realized that Xie Yu was on the plane. He calculated the landing time and got a bright red exclamation mark.
Later, it became a habit.
Every time he opened the closet and saw the folded clothes, every time he swiped his campus card and saw the balance on the screen, and even every time he walked into the laboratory building and passed by Ginkgo Avenue... he would turn on his mobile phone. The exclamation mark on the screen was shockingly red, filling his empty chest with uncontrollable pain.
The author has something to say:
I'm sorry that the word count has been a bit short these two days. I apologize. It is expected that on Thursday, there will be an update of 10,000 words. You can wait for two days to read it~ Xiao Xie will be back by then. I have a dessert brain that they can't bully,
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