Chapter 35 Today...No
Ning Yan sat down opposite Yu Chengbai.
Yu Chengbai sat cross-legged on a soft cushion similar to a futon, his back straight, his posture elegant and steady, like a pine or bamboo.
But Ning Yan seemed to have no bones, with one leg stretched out towards Yu Chengbai and the other leg bent.
With her elbows on the table, supporting her cheeks, and her eyelids drooping, she tilted her head to watch him copying the scriptures.
Strange, didn't you say you were injured? Why doesn't it seem like a big deal?
Can I still copy scriptures?
Yu Chengbai didn't look at him, but seemed to have guessed his state. He couldn't help but laugh and said, "If you feel sleepy, go lie down on the bed. I'm here and won't leave."
Ning Yan tried to open his eyes wide and said stubbornly, "I'm not sleepy, not at all. You haven't answered my question yet. Are you going to become a monk?"
"I've become a monk, what will you do?"
"Remarry." Ning Yan lowered her eyes to look at his face, carefully observing his expression, and said slowly: "I will remarry Cheng Zhengze."
Yu Chengbai, however, showed no sign of abnormality. He didn't even stop copying the sutras. He imitated his tone and said slowly, "Cheng Zhengze, the man you're going to marry, is already married. So if you want to marry him, you have to get a divorce first. Besides, they have a son who's already ten years old."
Are you really married?
Ning Yan was surprised. Could it be that he had married a lady from the Cecil family so that his son could become the heir?
But the Cecil family is not without sons, so why would they choose a grandson as the heir?
"I heard that Cheng Zhengze's son is an heir to a noble family?" Ning Yan asked casually.
"Hmm." Yu Chengbai's tone wasn't really one of gossip, but rather of storytelling. He spoke slowly and steadily, "He married a young lady from the Cecil family, a lady of relatively low status. The old aristocracy looked down on those involved in business, so naturally, they didn't take their children seriously. However, in the past two years, many of the Cecil family's uncles have mysteriously passed away, leaving only this one."
Upon hearing about the mysterious death, Ning Yan instinctively felt that it was related to Lan Ze. The child still refused to tell him why he killed Cheng Zhengze's son.
“You’re in business, too.”
"Yeah." Yu Chengbai seemed oblivious to his deliberate provocation and said with a smile, "So they don't think much of me either."
"Aya said that Tan Zhui would invite you to dinner every once in a while, and he also wanted to marry his youngest daughter to you. Why didn't you succeed?" Ning Yan asked, and then turned the topic to Yu Chengbai. He looked at him without blinking, but his expression was so relaxed as if he was really chatting casually.
Yu Chengbai explained, "Tan Zhui and I had some friendship in the early years, but something happened later, so I unilaterally severed the friendship. I guess we are on different paths and cannot work together."
"Because of what?"
"His private life is not very good." Yu Chengbai said hesitantly.
"He likes you?" Ning Yan leaned closer, her beautiful eyes curved, like the excited and amused look she had when she heard her deskmate was liked by a notorious classmate in school, who also happened to be an excellent student. "Is that so?"
When the wife heard that a man of bad reputation might have liked her husband, he showed not anger but interest.
If there is a third person here, they will show a shocked expression.
Yu Chengbai seemed to have gotten used to his various anomalies during this period of time. He smiled calmly and said, "It's not me. It's a friend of mine who I've played with since childhood."
"Oh." He sounded a little disappointed, paused, and then suddenly jumped for joy. "Growing up together? So that counts as childhood sweethearts? Did your friend give in? Did you go to the rescue?"
"When my friend was young, he had a bad temper."
"Wow, since you can say the words 'bad temper', I guess you must have a very bad temper." Ning Yan felt like Yu Cheng's freelance translator. No matter how he polished it, he could still understand the original meaning.
Yu Chengbai probably also sensed this, and he smiled lightly and didn't continue speaking.
Perhaps he felt that such violent and bloody scenes were not suitable to be depicted in front of Ning Yan.
He obviously forgot how stunning his young wife looked on the cruise ship.
Ning Yan suddenly had an idea and asked him, "Since you are childhood sweethearts, why don't your parents allow you to get married? I heard that rich people like to get married."
"He's a man."
"..." Ning Yan was about to say that men can't marry, but then he changed his mind and realized that he had never heard of this before. "Yes, you all don't like men."
Yu Chengbai paused his pen for a moment, looking as if he was contemplating his words. He said thoughtfully, "He didn't seem to like it when he was young."
"When you were young, you didn't like men? Then you got older, became more open-minded, and started liking them again?"
"When I was young, I didn't seem to like it very much..." Yu Chengbai paused, as if he didn't know which word to use to describe it. He felt that any word seemed strange, and he hesitated and said, "I don't like people very much. I'm not interested in men or women."
"I understand, asexuality." Ning Yan was very sure.
"It seems not. He got married a few years ago to a boy." Yu Chengbai, a straight man, accepted this very well, so well that Ning Yan suspected that even if his friend married a non-human, he could gently and calmly replace "boy" with something else.
Yu Chengbai's ability to accept is still too strong.
Such people will succeed in everything they do.
"What if you like men in the future?"
Ning Yan seemed to be tired of supporting his face with his left hand, so he switched sides and wanted to continue supporting his face with his right hand.
Before she could put her face on him, Yu Chengbai gently held her right hand.
He looked down and remembered that his right hand was cut.
Yu Chengbai's holding of his hand didn't count. After shaking his hand, he put it under the table and then touched his face. That couldn't be considered touching either. At least Ning Yan's touching of the face was definitely not like his, without any ambiguity or suggestion.
Yu Chengbai rested his elbows on the table, his palm supporting his face. His other hand remained unmoved as he continued to write. He said gently, "That's all. Can you continue?"
Ning Yan: “…”
Don't you think our posture is very strange?
After a pause, Ning Yan suddenly said, "Touch me."
Yu Chengbai looked up: "?"
Ning Yan suddenly sat up, or rather knelt up, with his knees on the ground and his back straight.
Yu Chengbai's hand slid down from his face.
He raised his head slightly, and watched him stand up with some confusion and doubt.
Ning Yan ignored all the expressions on his face, and placed his hands on the table, pressing on the scriptures he had copied, leaving marks.
He moved his upper body over the low table and in the blink of an eye, he was in front of Yu Chengbai.
She tilted her head and was about to kiss him on the lips.
Yu Chengbai was stunned for a moment, then turned his face away after coming back to his senses, and their lips almost brushed against each other.
Ning Yan didn't expect him to hide. He raised his eyebrows slightly, lowered his eyes to look at him, and asked softly but bluntly: "When you put your thing against my waist at night and asked me to help you, why didn't you hide?"
Yu Chengbai: "..."
Not sure if it was this sentence that worked, or if Ning Yan's behavior itself was shameful, Yu Chengbai's ears turned red, and he hesitated to speak: "Today... not."
"Why?"
"Avoid alcohol and meat for the next two days." He paused, "abstinence."
Ning Yan couldn't help but frown and asked doubtfully, "Yu Chengbai, you're not really going to become a monk, are you?"
Yu Chengbai laughed, seeming somewhat helpless. "No, just two or three days."
"I just wanted to kiss you."
"If you kiss, it will become more than just a kiss in the end."
"Am I that kind of person?" Ning Yan said seriously, "If I say kiss, I really will kiss you."
"I mean me."
“…”
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