Chapter 49 – Hot Potato

This couple were neighbors living nearby. Due to the bad weather and their laziness to buy groceries and cook, they came to the Tree House to make do with a simple meal.

They didn’t order any troublesome dishes, just two cups of milk tea and a few plates of fried snacks. As the heir to the coffee shop, Zhou Dongze was well-versed in the process and quickly served the food.

Perhaps due to hunger, the two of them devoured their food like a storm sweeping away clouds, leaving nothing behind. After the guests left and Zhou Dongze was clearing the table, he apologized, “I promised to treat you to a meal, but in the end, you had to watch me serve customers.”

Li Tang placed the prepared dishes on the table. “We can eat now, good food is worth waiting for.”

During the meal, they chatted about how many students from Xucheng No.1 High School lived nearby. Li Tang picked up a chopstickful of stir-fried vegetables and asked, “Including those two customers just now?”

Zhou Dongze replied, “Yes, they’re in the same grade as us but in different classes. Although both of them are a year younger than me.”

“No wonder they looked familiar to me; perhaps I bumped into them during morning exercises.” Li Tang said, “I just heard them mention expulsion, who got expelled?”

Zhou Dongze paused with his chopsticks in hand before finally saying, “It’s Jiang Lou.”

Li Tang lowered his eyes to look at the dish in his bowl and casually asked, “Did something happen?”

“That period, I was busy studying and even missed morning exercises a few times, so I really didn’t pay attention to these matters.” Zhou Dongze said, “It was probably something like fighting and brawling, the school has always been strict with such rule-breaking behavior.”

It sounded reasonable, but Li Tang felt that something was off. Jiang Lou cherished the opportunity to study, when he encountered hooligans outside the school, he would avoid them if possible, trying to avoid direct confrontation. How serious could the fight have been for the school to expel a student ranked in the top three of his grade?

Could it be because of Chen Zhengyang…

Suddenly remembering this long-forgotten name, Li Tang involuntarily shivered.

He asked, “Was it because of fighting with Chen Zhengyang?”

Seemingly surprised that Li Tang still remembered the incident, Zhou Dongze hesitated for a moment. “Yes, Chen Zhengyang was severely injured that day, and Jiang Lou was summoned to the administration office right after.”

Li Tang nodded. It must have been like that. Brawling within the school was naturally more serious than outside, even if superficially it seemed that Chen Zhengyang was at fault for playing the audio first, and Jiang Lou was merely ‘enforcing justice on behalf of heaven’.

Li Tang had already roughly figured out the events of that year – it was nothing more than Jiang Lou recording the audio and handing it over to the radio station staff to play on his behalf. Later, perhaps he intended to re-record it, or maybe he wanted to change the timing, in any case, he wanted to retrieve the audio, but Chen Zhengyang found it first. Out of a desire for revenge, Chen Zhengyang bypassed Jiang Lou and directly played the audio to the entire school.

How could a person as independent-minded as Jiang Lou tolerate having control taken away by someone else? How could he tolerate things not going according to his plan?

Reviewing the entire process, Li Tang discovered that once he stepped back and examined the whole thing as an observer, it wasn’t complicated. Although his emotions were still turbulent, at least he no longer trembled, vomited, or even experienced hallucinations when hearing related terms, passing out.

This might be what the psychologist meant by the clarity of an outsider. Once he returned to the capital, he should visit the clinic again, especially since he was almost out of medication.

With this thought, Li Tang raised his eyes and found that Zhou Dongze had already put down his bowl and chopsticks and was staring fixedly at him.

“Why aren’t you eating?” Li Tang asked, “Are you already full so soon?”

Zhou Dongze smiled and shook his head. “I’m just wondering if I really have no presence. Your attention never seems to spare a bit for me.”

Li Tang was taken aback.

Although both times, focusing on that person was purely a subconscious reaction.

But repeatedly ignoring the person in front of him and mentioning another person was certainly not respectful. And Zhou Dongze had protected him so fiercely back then, chasing him to the radio room to stand up for him.

“I was wrong.” Li Tang hurriedly filled his beer glass. “Finish this cup, and tell me, okay?”

Zhou Dongze laughed and tried to snatch his cup. “Absolutely not, it makes me seem like I’m begging you to listen, how pathetic.”

Of course, he ended up telling the story anyway.

Zhou Dongze said that it was actually because he discovered his sexual orientation back then, and his parents sent him to one of those schools that claimed to cure internet addiction for a few months.

Initially, Li Tang didn’t catch on, only realizing upon Zhou Dongze’s reminder, “How could… I saw news reports about those schools being shut down when I was very young.”

“My parents have traditional thinking, and I’m their only child. They couldn’t accept it for a while, and when they heard that kind of school could ‘correct’ sexual orientation, making me into a normal boy who likes girls, they sent me there.”

Speaking of the past, Zhou Dongze wasn’t angry, rather, he was surprisingly calm. “Later, my mother couldn’t bear it and came to see me. Seeing me tormented to the point of being unrecognizable, she softened and took me back home. I rested at home for more than half a year before returning to school and repeating my third year of junior high.”

Never did Li Tang expect that someone as gentle as Zhou Dongze had experienced such a cruel period in his life, even though he recounted it lightly. Li Tang sighed with admiration. “You’re so strong and brave. If it were me, even if I managed to survive coming out of that place alive, I’d probably be left with a lifelong shadow.”

“So, in fact, we’re the same.” Zhou Dongze said.

Li Tang was puzzled. “Huh?”

“We both fell into despair at a young age before we fully matured.” Zhou Dongze said, “I understand your fear and know how difficult it is to get back up and face a world that doesn’t accept us.”

Li Tang was stunned once again.

A world that doesn’t accept us – yes, back then, didn’t he feel superfluous, believing that his existence would cause others pain, which was why he wanted to erase himself from the world?

“So, I know how much it hurts, and I’ll never hurt you.” Zhou Dongze looked at Li Tang and continued, “Moreover, my parents have accepted my sexual orientation and respect my choices. Being with me, you’ll only receive blessings, no one can use mundane morals or social norms to tear us apart.”

Li Tang knew that this was a confession.

But he was somewhat lost. Too many things had happened today, tangled messily in his mind, leaving him unsure where to start: “But I’m not yet—”

Zhou Dongze had anticipated that Li Tang would reject him and didn’t force him for an immediate answer. “Don’t rush to refuse. I’m truly afraid that hesitation will slow me down again, so I made my intentions clear. You can take your time to consider, I can wait.”

At the same time, he admitted that over the years, his thoughts weren’t solely focused on Li Tang. After all, he had been in two relationships. But hearing that Li Tang had returned home stirred up past memories. Now that they were both grown up and mature, and both in a period of singleness, starting a relationship couldn’t be more suitable.

Li Tang naturally breathed a sigh of relief. “Can we still be friends?”

“Of course.” Zhou Dongze said with a smile. “Even if the final result is still a refusal, we’ll still be friends.”

On the way back, Li Tang politely declined Zhou Dongze’s offer to drive him and hailed a taxi for himself.

Just before getting into the car, he realized he had left something behind and was about to turn back to retrieve it when Zhou Dongze walked out carrying a paper bag printed with ROJA.

Taking the paper bag, Zhou Dongze read the words on the bag. “Is this his company?”

Li Tang nodded.

Zhou Dongze said, “It may sound petty, but sometimes, I do envy him, envy his good fortune, envy how he always manages to bounce back from self-destructive situations and receive everyone’s help, even forgiveness.”

Upon hearing the word “forgiveness,” Li Tang was slightly startled.

He recalled the apology Jiang Lou had uttered hours ago.

It was hard not to find it absurd. Apology? What have you done to me to apologize for?

Only to those who were unaware, was Jiang Lou the bad guy who “ruined his own future” and “committed countless evils.”

However, fortunately, although he transferred to the county high school, the outcome was positive. Jiang Lou attended a top university, and the company he started was thriving.

Li Tang exhaled and smiled. “I’m a fair person, I would never give anyone special treatment.”

“And, as for me, I don’t know about others, but he doesn’t need forgiveness.”

Back at the hotel, the tightly strung nerves in his head relaxed abruptly. Li Tang retrieved the pill bottle, took a pill with mineral water, then kicked off his shoes and fell onto the bed on his back.

The day had been so long, as if an entire century had passed. Li Tang closed his eyes and breathed slowly, removing the invisible mask and detaching himself from the social environment.

But perhaps because the prolonged void was suddenly filled, the memory he deliberately buried was repeatedly excavated today. In the short term, it was difficult to return to a state of normalcy.

He decided to let go and think freely, no longer suppressing himself, treating it as exposure therapy.

Recalling the “envy” mentioned by Zhou Dongze, Li Tang curled the corners of his mouth.

Who didn’t envy him? He initially noticed Jiang Lou because he envied his popularity, whereas whatever he wanted, Li Tang had to pay a price for.

So, did he still hate him? Li Tang thought, it should be him hating me, I caused his family to fall apart, I made him grow up without a mother.

I deserve the punishment, why should I hate you?

Li Tang furrowed his brows, troubled by this unsolvable riddle.

His left wrist had been throbbing on and off since the daytime, the joints feeling as if they had been crushed under heavy objects. It was possibly due to the damp, rainy weather in Xucheng.

Or perhaps it was because he saw him today.

He hadn’t changed much, still the absolute focus in a crowd, but his face no longer often wore a smile, his innate solemnity making even the gloomy wind and rain outside seem gentle.

He barely resisted the urge to touch the wound on his wrist, suddenly remembering that he hadn’t put the bead string back on. Li Tang turned over on the bed, felt for the paper bag placed on the bedside table, took out the box, and lifted the lid open.

Then he widened his eyes in surprise.

Besides his black bead string lying intact inside, in the center of the box, there was also a lifelike red rose.

The next morning, Jiang Lou didn’t accompany Pei Hao to the airport to see him off. Instead, he stayed in the company’s research department, tinkering with the medical robot program.

The lack of sleep had left him feeling heavy-headed and light-footed today. He took a sip of water, leaned back to close his eyes and rest, then stretched his hand to open the drawer. Familiarly, he felt around inside for the jewelry box, but the weight felt off. Opening it, he found that the necklace inside was gone.

First, he ruled out the possibility of a thief. There were only a dozen people in the entire company, all of whom he knew well, besides, the necklace was still safely inside when he checked it the day before yesterday.

That left only one possibility.

Calculating the time, Li Tang’s group should already be on the plane by now. Jiang Lou dialed Pei Hao’s number, and without wasting time when the call connected, he directly asked, “Where did you hide my necklace?”

Pei Hao was on his way back. “I’ll be at the company in a minute…”

Jiang Lou interrupted. “Tell me, where’s the necklace?”

Pei Hao clicked his tongue. “Why are you so stubborn? You just have to ask? I saw you acting like a blockhead, not even mentioning your hand being smashed for protecting him, it’s driving me crazy… Why would I want your old necklace that you’ve hidden for seven or eight years, obviously, I helped you send it to him.”

No wonder Pei Hao had been so proactive yesterday, finding packing bags for him and boxes for the bracelet, even suggesting, “Maybe he deliberately left it behind, waiting for you to personally deliver it to him.”

Jiang Lou closed his eyes in slight regret.

Then he took a deep breath and tentatively asked without hope, “Then, did he return it?”

Pei Hao played coy. “Guess.”

Seeing that Jiang Lou was about to hang up, Pei Hao, knowing his temperament, hurriedly shouted, “Hey, don’t hang up, don’t hang up, he didn’t return it, he didn’t. That bracelet is already on his wrist, meaning he opened that box, I put the necklace together with the bracelet.”

Since they were placed together, he must have seen the necklace.

Seeing it, but not asking Pei Hao to bring it back, meant that he had accepted it.

These words were like a calming pill or a strong heart stimulant.

A heart that had been silent for many years rarely gave birth to emotions akin to joy. Jiang Lou stood up from his seat, pacing back and forth aimlessly for a few steps before sitting down again.

Still, it was hard to believe.

He called Pei Hao again and asked him, “What about the financing, what’s the story?”

Pei Hao was walking, his voice slightly breathless. “I’m already at the entrance, getting out of the car, can’t you wait until I arrive to ask… Hey, whose is this instant delivery?”

Just as he reached the entrance, he met a courier and brought the package inside, walking while checking the recipient’s name. “Jiang… Lou…”

Jiang Lou had already come out. At the sight of the square-shaped express box and the address of dispatch – the familiar name of the hotel, he immediately had a bad feeling.

Grabbing a paper cutter at the front desk, he opened the package, and as expected, it was the box Pei Hao had found for him yesterday, still neatly wrapped in the paper bag.

Pei Hao scratched his head, unsure of how to react for a moment. “Maybe he just returned the packaging box…”

As Jiang Lou opened the lid of the box – the black bead string had returned to its rightful owner, and in the middle of the velvet base, was precisely the rose necklace that hadn’t been delivered.

Li Tang loved roses, especially red roses, to the point of storing pictures full of them on his phone, to the extent of painstakingly preserving the first bouquet of red roses he received as dried flowers that would never wither, placing them in the spot closest to his bed.

Now, however, he ignored the red rose presented to him, sending it back like a hot potato.

In the brief span of five minutes, Jiang Lou’s heart soared and then plummeted, as if falling from heaven into hell.

Thus, he recognized once again that the person he had personally elevated to the clouds and then ruthlessly pushed down bore a thousand-fold, ten-thousand-fold, or even more pain than he did.

How dare he approach, how dare he harbor hopes?

He should have died in the boxing ring, or on the county high school’s playground, or even earlier, in the rain of punches, that flower pot should have shattered his skull, preventing him from ever opening his eyes again.

Better than living until now, standing here in vain, watching the originally flawless person, covered in wounds he inflicted with his own hands.