7pm, private club corridor.
"Have they arrived?" Song Yecheng asked.
"We're here," the foreman, a spirited young man, said, nodding as he led the way. His eyes flicked to Jiang Que beside him, then he turned back to Song Yecheng with a smirking, "I get it" look on his face. "Well, Brother Cheng, congratulations?"
This club was opened by Song Yecheng himself. He had no intention of making a profit when he first opened it. He just wanted to make it convenient for occasional gatherings with friends. Later, because of its good environment and strong privacy, and the fact that the employees were carefully screened and had high quality, it gradually became a good choice for gatherings by many friends in the circle.
Song Yecheng was quite familiar with the employees here, and he had even interviewed some of them personally. The foreman in front of him was not the first person to say "congratulations" to him tonight - because of the live broadcast in the afternoon, he and Jiang Que had received countless congratulations since they stepped into the club.
Hearing this again, Song Yecheng couldn't help but want to laugh, because this situation of being "congratulated" by everyone he met made him feel inexplicably like he was not making his relationship public, but more like a groom who came here to hold a wedding banquet.
Not only him, Jiang Que felt the same at the moment, embarrassed but also a little bit amused, as if he didn't know what expression to use.
In a short while, the foreman had led them to the reserved box.
As soon as I pushed open the door, I heard He Jingsheng inside shouting, "Hey! Are you two finally here?"
He was really pent up this afternoon -
He was obviously the person who knew Jiang Que best in the entire live broadcast room, but he was shocked by the news like all the other outsiders. Unfortunately, he couldn't ask too many questions in front of thousands of viewers at that time. He waited until the end of the live broadcast before calling Jiang Que, but he only got a reply of "Let's talk about it when we meet."
"Brother, what's wrong with you?!"
Jiang Bei had already come forward, looking at Jiang Que and then at Song Yecheng, his face full of dissatisfaction at being kept in the dark: "You didn't tell me that we met at the wrap-up party last time? And you're pretending nothing happened?"
Before Jiang Que could speak, Song Yecheng said with a smile, "Your brother wasn't with me at that time. What could I tell you?"
Jiang Bei was taken aback by the question, but Tang Yao, sitting at a table not far behind him, was quite calm. She raised her hand and greeted him leisurely, "Teacher Bai, nice to see you again?"
The reason why she was not surprised was that when Song Yecheng had sent her a message asking her to help look after Jiang Que in the company, she had already vaguely sensed some clues with her woman's intuition. Now that she saw that the clues had come true, she felt that it was just as expected.
Besides the three of them, there was another person in the box, sitting next to He Jingsheng. He leaned on the back of his chair like a brother, with the same "betrayed" expression on his face. He shook his head and said in a serious tone, "Alas - it's really just a fake brotherhood! My best buddy is dating, and I'm the last one in the world to know."
It’s Zuo Jianqing.
He just came back from out of town at noon today, and as soon as he landed, he asked Song Yecheng to get together in the evening. As a result, Song Yecheng agreed readily, but he didn't mention anything about the relationship on the phone. So when he heard about the hot search in the afternoon, his first reaction was to think it was fake news. It was not until he came to the club and met He Jingsheng and others, and chatted with them, that he realized that he was not the only friend who was kept in the dark. He immediately felt a sense of solidarity with them.
"That's enough, stop acting like this."
Song Yecheng smiled angrily, pinched Jiang Bei's neck, led him to the table, and pushed him into a chair to sit down. Then he continued, "Even if you don't want to have a party today, I will. It's more sincere to explain this kind of thing in person, right?"
Zuo Jianqing and He Jingsheng had obviously not met each other before today, but now they both pouted when they heard what was said, and they understood each other so well that it was as if they were soul mates.
However, curiosity eventually outweighed the annoyance of not knowing in advance. After Song Yecheng and Jiang Que sat down, they immediately started asking questions and inquiring about the details.
Upon learning that they had actually met each other more than ten years ago, Zuo Jianqing's eyes suddenly widened in astonishment: "So he is that... younger brother?!"
He and Song Yecheng were childhood friends. Before college, their homes lived less than a hundred meters apart and they spent almost all day together, so this past event was still fresh in his memory.
He still remembers that at the end of the summer vacation, Song Yecheng told him mysteriously, "I will have a younger brother soon," and claimed, "My brother is your brother, and we can take him out to play together in the future." This made Zuo Jianqing unable to help but look forward to it for a long time.
Who would have thought that when the filming was finished the following year, Song Yecheng returned from that remote town. When Zuo Jianqing asked about his "brother", Song Yecheng said dejectedly: "No, my brother ran away with someone else."
Zuo Jianqing once thought that the story had become a forgotten past with no beginning or end, a fragment of their youth that they would occasionally recall when they were old. However, he did not expect that the missing protagonist in the story would now appear before his eyes so vividly, which made him feel a sense of unreality as if "a paper man walked out of the book".
Besides that, he suddenly thought of another thing: "Don't your parents know him too?"
"I know," Song Yecheng said as a matter of course, "They met two days ago."
Before Zuo Jianqing could respond, He Jingsheng next to him suddenly asked nervously, "What did your parents say?"
Song Yecheng didn't understand where his nervousness came from, and said inexplicably: "What else can I say? Of course, I didn't expect it to be such a coincidence."
"Then they... have no objection?" He Jingsheng asked worriedly.
Song Yecheng found it even more funny: "We both agreed to this, what can they have any objection to?"
"Oh—that's good, that's good."
He Jingsheng blinked, a look of relief on his face. He then turned to Jiang Que, raised an eyebrow and said teasingly, "I was worried that he'd have a hard time getting past his parents. So you've already gotten past them, huh?"
Unexpectedly, Jiang Que didn't react at all after hearing this, but Jiang Bei next to him was unhappy: "My brother is so popular, what's wrong with that?"
As he spoke, he raised his chin towards Song Yecheng: "You might as well worry about him instead of my brother. He hasn't even passed the test of my brother's parents yet!"
He said this unintentionally, because Jiang Que had never told him much about his family, so he had never known the relationship between Jiang Que and his adoptive parents. Now he thought he was helping Jiang Que "find trouble."
However, he didn't know that Song Yecheng and He Jingsheng both knew it, so when they heard this, their expressions paused for a moment and they subconsciously looked at Jiang Que.
At this moment, there were two knocks on the door of the private room, and the waiter brought up the dishes they ordered with a food cart.
"Huh? My roast duck is here!" Jiang Bei's attention was immediately successfully diverted.
"Yes, yes, eat, eat!"
He Jingsheng quickly changed the subject: "I didn't eat enough at noon, and now I'm almost starving. Hey - do you want some wine?"
Half an hour later.
In the bathroom at the end of the corridor.
In front of the mirror, Song Yecheng rubbed the hand soap, turned on the faucet casually, and was rinsing when he suddenly heard the bathroom door behind him being pushed open with a "creak".
Song Yecheng looked up in the mirror and saw that it was Zuo Jianqing. He jokingly said, "Oh, your bladder can't hold on anymore?"
Just now, under He Jingsheng's instigation, except for Song Yecheng who didn't drink at all because he had to drive, everyone else drank a little.
Although Song Yecheng didn't drink any alcohol, he didn't gain anything good either. They urged him to toast with "congratulations" and he was fed a bellyful of tea instead of alcohol. In less than an hour, he was the first to rush to the bathroom.
Zuo Jianqing did not answer, but did not go into the inner room either. Instead, he walked straight to the sink, turned his back, and leaned against the edge with his chest crossed.
Song Yecheng was puzzled: "...What?"
Zuo Jianqing turned around and went straight to the point: "Is there something you haven't said?"
Song Yecheng was stunned for a moment, not sure whether he was simply asking a question or hinting at something: "What do you mean?"
Zuo Jianqing asked, "Why are you so anxious to make it public?"
Song Yecheng finally understood his point. He lowered his head and continued to rinse the last bit of foam on his hands. He said nonchalantly, "There's no rush. I promised my fans a long time ago that I would make it public as soon as I found a partner. Isn't that what I said?"
"Come on, stop trying to fool me with your fan tactics," Zuo Jianqing said. "You know full well that what you meant back then was that we'd go public 'once the relationship is stable,' not that we'd rush to announce it to the world 'as soon as the relationship is confirmed.'"
He was worthy of being the one who grew up with Song Yecheng. His understanding of Song Yecheng was far beyond that of others. He had revealed the truth in just a few words, leaving no room for Song Yecheng to evade.
Song Yecheng did not avoid it.
He turned off the faucet, put his hands on the edge of the counter, turned around and asked in a tone of attentive listening: "Then why do you think it is?"
Zuo Jianqing still folded his arms. He looked him up and down and said, "If you don't tell me the specific reason, I really can't guess, but there is only one psychological explanation for this behavior - that is, subconscious insecurity."
Song Yecheng seemed to have heard the funniest joke: "I don't feel safe?"
"I didn't say it must be you," Zuo Jianqing said calmly, "but it must be one of you two."
At this moment, he displayed extraordinary professionalism, saying in an orderly manner, "Either you have no confidence in this relationship and are eager to hypnotize yourself through external 'witnesses'; or he has no confidence in your future, and you want to give him a sense of security this way."
Song Yecheng listened silently, and for a moment he couldn't find any words to refute, because in a sense, Zuo Jianqing's analysis did hit the nail on the head -
Song Yecheng knew that Jiang Que held a pessimistic attitude towards everything he had, including their relationship, because of the existence of the "countdown", believing that "everything will be lost eventually", and he urgently wanted to weaken Jiang Que's pessimism through various means and build up his confidence in the future.
However, he could not tell Zuo Jianqing these things, even though he was his best brother.
Because if there are people in this world who absolutely do not believe in the existence of "rebirth", Zuo Jianqing must be the most determined one among them. Song Yecheng does not think he can change his opinion, nor does he intend to make any futile attempts.
Thinking about it, Song Yecheng chuckled lightly, and brushed Zuo Jianqing's shoulder with the back of his wet hand. He responded with the same words he had just said, "Don't treat me like a fan." He said, "Don't treat me like a patient. I won't pay you for the consultation."
As he spoke, he walked around Zuo Jianqing and headed towards the entrance, summarizing the situation by saying, "You're overthinking it, brother—"
When Song Yecheng returned to the private room, the topic of discussion in the room had changed.
"So what was the last question you asked?" He Jingsheng stared at Jiang Que eagerly.
During the level design session in the live broadcast room in the afternoon, the "question types" voted by the audience were randomly distributed to four guests. They were all of the "code" type, but the specific format was not announced.
"Are you planning to make a combination lock yourself again?" He Jingsheng asked suspiciously.
Hearing this, Song Yecheng, who had just returned, couldn't help but be curious. He pulled out a chair and sat down while asking, "What combination lock?"
He Jingsheng's face was full of complaints, and he explained as if he was looking back at the past, "When I was in college, I signed up for a design competition held by the electromechanical club to collect credits. The competition wasn't very professional, so I thought I'd just make a little gadget to pass the preliminary round and get enough points, so that would be enough."
"Then I made a small mechanical lock and showed it to him. He said the structure was too simple and the technical score might be low, so I asked him to help me improve it. He actually did it overnight. When he finished, I saw that—wow! He actually made me an electronic combination lock. Isn't that too advanced?"
"The next day, I took the lock to the competition. It wowed everyone the moment I took it out. But because it was so impressive, a bunch of judges surrounded me and asked about 'design ideas' and 'circuit composition'. I couldn't even come up with an answer, just hmm, aah, and hey. In the end, I just walked off the stage in disgrace, not even making it past the preliminary round!"
As soon as he finished speaking, the people around him burst into merciless laughter. Song Yecheng seemed to have opened the door to a new world and looked at Jiang Que curiously: "I remember you were a liberal arts student?"
Jiang Que was sipping his soup. Hearing this, he nodded and said, "It's the liberal arts."
"Then why do you know all these things?" Song Yecheng found it even more incredible.
Jiang Que chuckled and said calmly, "I learned a little from my dad when I was a kid, and then I participated in related competitions in high school, so I never gave it up."
Song Yecheng blinked at him, and couldn't help but think with emotion and amusement: What kind of wonderful treasure have I unearthed? How come I can always find new surprises anytime and anywhere?
"Hey, hey, hey, don't interrupt," He Jingsheng beside him forced the topic back and looked at Jiang Que with curiosity, "What exactly is the password you designed this time?"
Jiang Que put down the spoon and glanced at him: "You want to cheat?"
"Hey? Look at what you're saying. How can this be considered cheating?" He Jingsheng complained righteously. "We're calling this an alliance! If our two groups communicate ahead of time, won't we be able to crush them directly when the time comes?"
Jiang Que stared at him expressionlessly, his eyes clearly saying, "Isn't that cheating?"
He Jingsheng felt a little guilty, but he didn't give up. He kept pestering her, "Tsk, I think you value women over friends!"
He raised his chin towards Song Yecheng: "I don't believe you didn't even tell him?"
Jiang Que didn't rush to answer, but instead gestured towards Tang Yao: "Did you tell her?"
He Jingsheng choked at first, then, as if suddenly enlightened, he turned and looked at Tang Yao with great interest: "Do you want to know?"
Tang Yao bit the straw of her drink and said with a forced smile: "I don't want to, honey."
"..." He Jingsheng blinked in frustration, then turned to Song Yecheng without giving up, saying, "You don't want to know either?"
Song Yecheng glanced at Jiang Que and said calmly, "I think with the tacit understanding between him and me, we won't be unable to solve his problem."
He Jingsheng was suddenly fed a mouthful of dog food, choking with it and baring his teeth. Finally, he angrily said, "Tsk, you guys are just being so hypocritical! Who knows, Lin Yan and Jin Fuhan might have already formed an alliance by now. Then, they'll be showing off their intelligence and logic on the show, and you guys will just be showing off your affection!"
Hearing this, Song Yecheng stared at him thoughtfully for two seconds, then raised his eyebrows and looked at Tang Yao with interest: "Are you with him?"
Tang Yao was puzzled: "...No?"
Song Yecheng then turned back to He Jingsheng confidently, curling his lips into a gentlemanly smile: "I'm sorry, you don't even have the affection to show."
“……?!”
He Jingsheng felt like he was being hit by a ton of explosive force. He stared at him in disbelief, his breath stuck in his throat. After blinking twice with great difficulty, he suddenly turned his head and looked at Jiang Que in frustration: "Hey! Your husband is bullying me! Can you please stop it?"
Jiang Que originally found it funny to see the two of them starting their elementary school-like battle again, but he was suddenly hit by the three words "your husband". Although he managed to keep a normal expression, his ears turned slightly red.
He glanced at Song Yecheng, only to see that Song Yecheng not only had no intention of refutation, but also raised his eyebrows and looked at him expectantly with a smile, as if to say: Come and take care of it.
Jiang Que couldn't help but laugh secretly, and glanced at He Jingsheng who was still waiting for him to "manage people", and nodded helplessly: "Manage, manage, manage."
As he spoke, he reached out and took a piece of dough from the table, then used chopsticks to pick up two pieces of roast duck, rolled them up and handed them to Song Yecheng's mouth, pretending to be majestic and "disciplining" him: "Open your mouth."
Continue read on readnovelmtl.com