Chapter 54: Deep Brotherly Love?
Let's rewind 17 minutes.
A group of people were chatting and laughing as they passed the corner when Li Yuan suddenly stopped and started groping himself with his hands crossed.
Ge Guang: "I know you want to get a back scrub, but there's no need to do it so early, is there? We haven't even arrived at the hot spring yet."
“Who the hell got a scrub?” Li Yuan almost rolled his eyes. “My wallet is gone! My ID card, driver’s license, student ID, everything is in there.”
Upon hearing this, the group of people all stopped in their tracks.
Losing all these documents would cause a huge hassle.
"Why are you carrying a cardholder when you're just singing? Are you sure you brought it?" Duan Qiwei quickly came over to help him rummage through his pockets. "Last time, that bastard Lao Yang went out to eat and said he lost his keys. We helped him look for them for half an hour, and finally found them in the dorm. He didn't bring them at all."
Fortunately, Zhou Tian testified for Li Yuan.
"He really did bring it. He has a Rhine River membership card, and he even used it when paying the bill..." Zhou Tian suddenly remembered, "Did you leave it at the front desk? Didn't you take your wallet with you then?"
Tian Zixuan: "What color is the card holder?"
Li Yuan: "Black."
Tian Zixuan acted faster than anyone else, already taking out her phone and opening a review website: "I'll call the front desk. If they don't have it, they might have fallen on the road. I'll go back and look for it."
As she spoke, Tian Zixuan found the Rhine River's contact information on the page and dialed it.
"Hello, is this the Rhine River?"
"I'm a customer in room 666. My friend seems to have left his wallet at the front desk when we were paying the bill. Have you seen it? It's black, yes, his surname is Li... Is it over there? Okay, please keep it safe for us, we'll be right there."
Tian Zixuan hung up the phone. Without saying a word, the group of people looked at Li Yuan in silence.
Li Yuan saluted his brothers and sisters: "Sorry, sorry, it's my fault."
The group had no choice but to turn back.
Because we had just turned the corner, the return trip only took three or four minutes before we were back on the main road where the Rhine River flows.
There weren't many pedestrians on the long street late at night. Cui Mingying glanced into the distance and asked, "Have Lin-ge and Tongtong gone back yet?"
Zhou Tian: "They should have gone back by now, it's been about ten minutes."
Ge Guang: "They must have gone back. Look, there are just a few girls waiting for the bus over there."
With their height and their contrasting black and white outfits, Lin Ge and Tong Tong are eye-catching no matter where they are.
The card holder was safely placed at the front desk, and no one was bothered by it. They treated it as a minor incident and continued walking towards the Rhine River, chatting and laughing.
Tian Zixuan and several other girls walked at the front.
"Yiran just messaged me saying there's a screening of award-winning documentaries from the Floating World Film Festival at Hechi Park tomorrow, and asked if we wanted to... wait a minute!"
The girl at the front stopped abruptly, as if a pause button had been pressed.
"how……"
"Don't speak!" Her voice was barely audible, but her expression was one of utter despair, her eyes wide like copper bells, fixed on a certain spot.
The large group behind her was completely bewildered. They stopped and followed her gaze in that direction.
It's an alleyway along the Rhine River.
Two people were standing a few steps inside the alley.
One person, wearing a black polar cape and a thin, long down jacket, leaned against the wall with a relaxed, slightly hunched back. Another person, wearing a beige, light diamond-patterned double-breasted loose cotton coat, was half-pressed against the person in the black down jacket.
The two were very close together.
Li Yuan recognized them immediately: "Hey? Why haven't Lin-ge and Tongtong left yet?"
Even Ge Guang and the other boys noticed that the distance was a bit too far, but Li Yuan didn't seem to notice anything amiss. He raised his hand and waved towards the alley, about to call out, but before he could even utter the word "Lin," Tian Zixuan suddenly grabbed him, and Nie Hongchang covered his mouth tightly.
Tian Zixuan: "What are you shouting for??"
Li Yuan: "?"
Ge Guang scratched his head: "Um, is Brother Lin's hand on Tongtong's waist?"
Duan Qiwei: "...It seems so."
“How about we go to the Rhine first?” a boy suddenly looked away and spun around inexplicably. “I feel like something’s… off.”
Nie Hongchang held on tightly, only loosening his grip a split second before Li Yuan felt he was about to suffocate.
"Why are you covering me?" Li Yuan gasped for breath.
"Don't you think the two of you are standing too close?" Tian Zixuan said in a very low voice.
"It's alright," said Zhou Tian. "They're probably talking about something."
Tian Zixuan: "??"
Why do you have to hide in an alley and whisper against a wall in the middle of the night?
Tian Zixuan really wanted to open Zhou Tian and the others' brains to see how they differed from ordinary people.
She usually seems quite clever, so why is she so cunning when it comes to Gu Lin and Ji Tong?
"This is 'not bad,' the two are just one step away from kissing—"
Before Tian Zixuan could finish speaking, Nie Hongchang suddenly tightened his grip on her hand, his expression one of shock as if he had seen a ghost.
Tian Zixuan instinctively felt something had happened on the other side of the alley, and she abruptly turned her head—
The last bit of distance between the two disappeared in the alley.
One lowered their head slightly, the other tilted their head slightly... and they kissed?
"Haha, I must be drunk," Ge Guang said, his mouth and hands trembling as he closed his eyes in pain. "I actually saw Brother Lin and Tongtong kissing."
"They must have mistaken you for someone else. They're just dressed similarly. Let's go."
"Yes, those two people in the alley just happened to be wearing the same Risveglio down jackets as Lin Ge Tongtong, the latest seasonal style, priced at 29,812."
"…………"
Everyone's voices and thoughts were buried in the loud thud of Li Yuan being thrown out.
The last bit of "luck" was completely worn away.
It's possible for them to admit their mistakes, but it's impossible for Li Yuan and Cui Mingying to admit their mistakes.
The two people kissing in the alley seemed to have heard the loud noise as well. The person in the white cotton coat tilted their head back and turned around.
Their eyes met.
silence.
A deathly silence.
No one said another word or moved an inch. Li Yuan remained frozen on the quiet, long street in the depths of winter.
Ji Tong was also frozen in place along with him.
Didn't we go to the hot springs?
Why did you suddenly come back?
Where did they come from?
Ji Tong's neck was numb.
Of the entire scene, only Gu Lin remained calm.
From the moment Ji Tong turned around, Tian Zixuan's gaze was fixed on the two of them and never looked away. She clearly saw that when Gu Lin realized what had happened, he was not panicked, not stiff, and not even a little guilty about being caught. He simply released his hand from Ji Tong's waist, patted her very lightly and reassuringly, and then raised it to wipe away the water stains from the corner of Ji Tong's lips.
Tian Zixuan: "..."
Apart from Gu Lin, everyone else seemed to have had their souls ripped out, even forgetting to breathe, until another unfamiliar girl passed by.
She was startled by the group of people who were as stiff as frozen sculptures, but still mustered up the courage to walk towards the boy sitting on the ground.
"Hey classmate, are you alright? Can you get up?"
Li Yuan was like an empty shell, his mind was in disarray, and he opened his mouth blankly: "It's nothing."
Are you alright?
Am I really okay?
Li Yuan shakily took out his phone.
Seeing his trembling hands, the kind-hearted girl initially thought he needed emergency medical assistance and was about to offer to help when she glanced down and saw Li Yuan typing a line of text into the search bar—
Will you see your brothers kissing if you have acute alcohol poisoning?
girl:"????"
120!!!
The search app didn't provide an answer; it only recommended authoritative experts.
Li Yuan's hands and feet felt as heavy as lead. He braced himself on the ground, kicked once, but couldn't get up, so he kicked again.
Tian Zixuan finally tugged at Nie Hongchang, and just a second before the kind-hearted girl was about to dial 120, she stepped forward to stop her and helped Li Yuan up.
Ji Tong's vision went black, but then she heard Gu Lin's voice.
"Perfect."
"What's just right?"
“Isn’t it strange to ‘say it specifically’?” Gu Lin hooked his finger back. “Now it’s not necessary.”
Ji Tong's vision went black again.
Is that how it's calculated?
Li Yuan had already been helped up. Ji Tong was thinking about the loud noise just now and wondered if Li Yuan had fallen.
"Go...go out," Ji Tong said dryly.
Gu Lin lowered his eyes and glanced at him, as if asking, "Dare to go out?"
If possible, Ji Tong would also like to be buried in a crack in the ground forever.
But that won't work.
“We have to get out eventually,” he said with difficulty, “we can’t just run away.”
Gu Lin chuckled softly, took his hand, and turned to walk out, but Ji Tong pulled his hand away, took a small step, and stood behind Gu Lin.
"You go first."
The two finally emerged from the alley.
Li Yuan, Cui Mingying, Zhou Tian, and several high school classmates remain in a coma.
Ji Tong couldn't bear the suffocating silence and was about to speak when he first heard Tian Zixuan's voice—
"Tongtong, you're not going to say now, 'What's wrong with good brothers kissing?'"
Ji Tong: "…………"
-
Half an hour later, the Rhine River 666 VIP box reopened.
"It's been a while? You've been together for a while? Ji Tong, I was with you before Lin Ge even came to No. 1 High School, which is several months longer than Lin Ge was with you. And this is how you treat me."
"No wonder, no wonder when I said I was betting my mahjong career, you suddenly told me that playing mahjong was bad for my lumbar spine, legs, energy and spirit, and told me to stop playing. You even gave me the Bluetooth speaker and roses."
"I thought I was more important to you than Ah Tian, that I had an extra gift, and I was quite pleased with myself. But look what happened... Do you remember who said 'brothers are bound by righteousness and deep affection'? Do you want me to show it to you? Look, isn't it you... Damn! You even deleted that!!"
"I know, I know," Ji Tong couldn't listen anymore and pinched Li Yuan's mouth again. "Do you want megaphone for you to shout?"
"Take it! If you dare take it, I'll shout, I'll shout 'Help! There's a gay couple here!'"
"..."
"...Do you still want the Bluetooth speaker?"
"Now that things have been exposed, you don't even want to give us the sound system anymore, huh?"
“…”
"Then be quiet, we'll go back together later..."
"Go to your and Lin's love nest to get it, right? I know."
“……………”
After a few cans of beer, the group finally came to their senses after the shock.
“Tongtong’s silence must have its reasons,” Cui Mingying patted Li Yuan’s shoulder and calculated the time. “So, was it because of this that your uncle suddenly took you back to your dorm last time?”
Ji Tong, flustered by the noise, also took a sip of wine: "Mm."
As soon as Cui Mingying spoke, the private room fell silent again.
It was only then that Li Yuan and the others remembered the family background of these two people.
It's not easy for two guys to be together, let alone in this situation.
Even Li Yuan remained silent.
“…It’s only right to be careful,” Tian Zixuan said.
The girls looked at each other and said, "Tongtong, don't worry, we won't go around saying anything."
Ji Tong: "?"
He didn't forbid me from talking about it.
I had originally planned to tell them the truth after I came back from winter break.
He had no intention of having a secret relationship with Gu Lin.
Ji Tong asked in confusion, "It's nothing, I—"
“We’re not the kind of people who don’t know our limits,” Ge Guang said, clearly sensing the seriousness of the situation from the girls’ expressions. “Don’t worry.”
Ji Tong didn't know what she should be relieved about; all she knew was that things had suddenly become quiet, and even Li Yuan had stopped making noise.
The ears are freed.
After a day of exams and all that commotion, Ji Tong was too exhausted to ask any more questions. She also had no idea where Li Yuan and the others got so much energy to leave the karaoke bar for the second time and then go to the hot springs for a massage.
Only Ji Tong and Gu Lin remained sitting in the private room.
As soon as the door closed, Ji Tong leaned back and rested in Gu Lin's arms.
"Tired?" Gu Lin brushed the stray hairs from his forehead.
Ji Tong did not answer.
A minute or two later.
“Don’t kiss in public anymore,” Ji Tong said. “It’s traumatizing.”
I always feel like there's a bunch of people right when I turn my head.
His expressions were always very vivid when he threw a tantrum. Gu Lin watched and chuckled softly.
"It can be cured."
"Huh?" Ji Tong didn't understand. "How do you treat it?"
Gu Lin didn't speak, but moved his large hand down to support Ji Tong's nape, tilting his head to lower it—
"Tongtong, my card wallet—"
The door to the private room was suddenly pulled open by Li Yuan.
silence.
Another deathly silence.
That was the first time Li Yuan had ever seen Lin Ge look at him like that.
It is clearly written inside—
They're going to kill people.
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