Chapter 72 Lost
The dinner ended with a chaotic clinking of glasses.
The drunk boys were sent back to school by their teachers. Li Zimai drove the car, but he was drunker than anyone else. Teacher Zuo was about to call a designated driver for him when Bei Yiqing said, "Teacher, let me go. I know where his home is."
He supported Li Zimai, glanced at Cheng Che again, and said deliberately: "I will stay with him tonight, don't worry, teacher."
Teacher Zuo said with a smile: "Xiao Li is handsome and popular, and so many classmates care about him. Fine, I'll leave it to you tonight. Send a message in the group when you get home."
Bei Yiqing helped Li Zimai into the car. After the temperature in the car rose, he reached out to unbutton the other's coat. Li Zimai woke up for a few seconds and seemed to recognize him. He grabbed Bei Yiqing's hand to prevent him from moving and said something.
Bei Yiqing moved closer and heard him calling "Cheche" indistinctly. Bei Yiqing glanced out the car window and saw Cheng Che standing there in the snow, looking at them with complicated and cold eyes.
"...Your Cheche doesn't want you anymore. He thought we were kissing, but he didn't do anything. He doesn't want you anymore."
Perhaps it was the alcohol that amplified all his emotions. Li Zimai's long-suppressed sadness was like a sudden burst of snowstorm, hitting him hard and deep. The frost was about to take away the moisture in every cell of his body. He was almost exhausted from the pain.
Bei Yiqing turned off the lights. The back seat of the SUV was spacious enough for Li Zimai to half-recline on it. He touched the moisture in the corners of Li Zimai's eyes and sighed, "If only you could love me this much."
He looked out the window, trying to see the emotion in Cheng Che's eyes, but he was too far away to see anything clearly. Bei Yiqing muttered to himself, "I'll wait for you for ten minutes. If he doesn't come, he'll be giving you to me."
When the pointer broke through the ten-second countdown, the figure still stood there stiffly. Bei Yiqing smiled and said softly, "He won't come over. He gave you to me."
He leaned over to look at Li Zimai's drunken face, and saw the small mole on the tip of his nose as he wished. He reached out and touched the wing of his nose, and the temperature there seemed to boil the narrow carriage.
Bei Yiqing leaned forward to kiss him, but even though Li Zimai was drunk, he could still recognize people and recognize that it was not Cheche who was leaning forward. Bei Yiqing laughed angrily, "Are you born in the Year of the Dog? Only Cheche from your family can touch you."
The designated driver arrived quickly. Looking out the window, the place was empty. Bei Yiqing sighed, "What good luck he has! He got your love but doesn't cherish it."
Yang Mingxi had been waiting for Cheng Che to come back. Li Zimai had instructed him to make sure Cheng Che went to bed before 11 o'clock and not get up too early in the morning. Perhaps Cheng Che also knew that there was something wrong with his body, and he had been doing a good job of this for the past two months.
But it was almost twelve o'clock today and Cheng Che had not returned yet. Yang Mingxi was about to go out to look for him. As soon as he opened the door, he saw Cheng Che standing in the corridor with his hair full of weathered hair. He looked like he had been drinking, with the smell of snow and alcohol mixed on his body, his face was red and white, and his eyes were moist.
Yang Mingxi asked him cautiously: "What's wrong? Have you been drinking? Let me pour you some hot water."
When Yang Mingxi handed the hot water to Cheng Che, he found that Cheng Che's hands were shaking violently. He covered his chest and breathed heavily without saying a word. Yang Mingxi said anxiously: "Brother Che, Brother Che! What's wrong with you... Can you hear me?!"
Yang Mingxi was afraid that he would faint, so she didn't dare to leave. She kept asking Cheng Che what he wanted and where he felt uncomfortable. After a long time, Cheng Che finally spoke and asked what time it was. Yang Mingxi said it was half past twelve and asked him to go to bed early.
Who knew that when the word "sleep" came out, Cheng Che suddenly burst into tears, and big drops fell on Yang Mingxi's hands. Yang Mingxi's nose was sore and he asked in a trembling voice: "What's wrong with you? Tell me, say something."
Cheng Che seemed unaware that he was crying, he just felt his face was wet. He wiped his eyes with his hand, looked at the tear on his knuckles, and was stunned. When he spoke again, it was all in an unbearable breath. He called Li Zimai's name and asked where Li Zimai was.
Yang Mingxi's eyes turned red, and he frantically fumbled for his phone. "...Don't worry, don't worry, I'll call him right away... and find Li Zimai for you..."
He had never seen Cheng Che like this before. He couldn't even call him "Brother Che". What kind of brother was Cheng Che? He was obviously younger than all of them, but he had to suppress all his emotions and live harder than anyone else every day.
When Yang Mingxi was playing games, he was always in front of the computer, either working or studying. It seemed that life only taught him how to "be born" but not how to "live". He was less than 20 years old but had to bear the burden of life and lived such a hard life.
Why couldn't Yang Mingxi get through to Li Zimai? He sent him many messages, asking where Li Zimai was and asking him to come quickly to find his Cheche. But Yang Mingxi, who always only cared about Cheche, broke his promise at this moment. He broke his promise when Cheng Che needed him so much.
"Come on, I'll take you out to find him. Let's go out to find him."
This was the first time Yang Mingxi pulled Cheng Che so forcefully, but Cheng Che broke free and said grimly, "I was just in a bad mood. I won't go. I won't bother him."
His trembling body clearly showed the words "I need Lizimai", but the rational Cheng Che told Yang Mingxi that he would not go and would not look for Lizimai anymore because he was drunk.
Yang Mingxi finally couldn't help but pour out the grievances she had been holding for months. "Why did you do this? You obviously like him, why did you break up with him? Do you know that you're calling his name every night? Can you be braver and not do this to yourself or to Li Zimai? He would do anything for you, but you won't take the initiative to take a step forward?"
At the end of his words, Yang Mingxi himself choked up. He had never known that a person could love another person like this, not caring about gender, not caring about return, just wanting the person to live a good life, just wanting him not to suffer.
"...But he, he's with someone else..."
The sadness and grief that had been suppressed for three months finally broke out.
Cheng Che finally lost Li Zimai.
His Li Zimai held hands with others, stood with others, and walked with others. He was no longer Cheng Che's Li Zimai.
Yang Mingxi put a hat and scarf on him and said, "Let's go find him. You must have misunderstood. He only likes you."
How could he be with someone else?
It was snowing heavily in Beijing after one in the morning. Yang Mingxi pulled Cheng Che out of the school. He didn't care whether Cheng Che had calmed down or not, but he didn't allow Cheng Che to regret it. He wanted to take him to talk things over with Li Zimai. But he really didn't know where to find Li Zimai. The apartment was empty for a long time. He could only call Li Zimai while walking, using Cheng Che's phone.
He knew that Li Zimai would definitely answer Cheng Che's call, but what he didn't expect was that when the call was connected, the voice on the other end was not Li Zimai's.
"Isn't it too late to call now? I thought you had given him to me."
Yang Mingxi asked: "Who are you?"
The person on the other end seemed stunned for a moment and asked, "Who are you? Let Cheng Che answer the phone."
Yang Mingxi felt something was wrong and was about to hang up when Cheng Che snatched the phone away and asked in a trembling voice, "Where is Li Zimai..."
Bei Yiqing glanced at the tightly closed door, and with a malicious thought in mind, he said smugly, "On my bed. We were doing it in the car for so long just now and you didn't respond. What's the point of calling me now?"
Seeing his face turn transparently pale, Yang Mingxi felt as if a huge stone was hanging in his heart. He directly picked up Cheng Che's phone and pressed the hands-free button. He only heard the boy on the other end say with a smile: "Thank you for letting me have Li Zimai. I like him very much. If you need anything else, I'll have him call you tomorrow."
Yang Mingxi screamed and cursed Li Zimai a hundred and eight thousand times. No matter what his reason was, he shouldn't let anyone touch his phone in the early morning, let alone answer the call.
"There must be some misunderstanding. Li Shen is not that kind of person, you know."
Yang Mingxi didn't dare to look at his face again. It was really pitiful to see Cheng Che like this. It was as if he had taken off all his tough disguises, revealing his softest part to surrender, but he was stabbed again, a heavy and deep knife.
He sent many messages to Li Zimai, scolding him for what he deserved and for not being able to pursue Cheng Che. Yang Mingxi was very upset. Why did he have to be caught between the two of them and take care of these trivial matters?
When they were about to reach the dormitory, Cheng Che said, "You go back first, I want to go out for a walk."
Yang Mingxi definitely couldn't let him go out alone in the middle of winter, so he coaxed him into the dormitory. When he entered, he was scolded by the dormitory manager. The manager only scolded Yang Mingxi because Cheng Che was handsome but "not in good health."
Cheng Che seemed to have calmed down completely when he returned to the dormitory. Yang Mingxi finally understood how he usually pretended. He was just forcing himself to hold it in, and sooner or later he would hurt himself internally.
Yang Mingxi was exhausted from tossing and turning, so he fell asleep on the bed. He vaguely heard Cheng Che receiving a phone call. He thought it was Li Zimai calling, so he half-lifted his ears in bed to listen, but couldn't hear clearly. He fell asleep again in a daze, and when he woke up it was five in the morning. Cheng Che's bed was empty, the stool next to the table fell to the ground, and the drawer was half-open, as if he had been looking for something.
Yang Mingxi vaguely sensed something was wrong, so he quickly got up and asked the dorm manager if she had seen Cheng Che. The manager said no, which made Yang Mingxi even more panicked. He called Li Zimai again, and this time he picked up. It was the same shameless guy, and Yang Mingxi exploded, "Hurry up and get Li Zimai to answer the phone and tell him Cheng Che is missing!"
Later, Yang Mingxi learned that the call Cheng Che received that day was not from Li Zimai, but from his home. The caller said that Cheng Che's grandmother had passed away.
Yang Mingxi will never understand how desperate Cheng Che was when he was on the road for five hours that day. On that day, he lost all the people who loved him.
His Li Zimai and his beloved grandma.
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