Chapter 42

“It hurts a lot, but a kiss would make it stop.”

Xu Heng looked at this message on the screen. For a moment, several different emotions clashed in his heart. Eventually, an inexplicable irritation pushed away both his concern and his awkwardness.

Chen Ang’s casual teasing seemed to pull the atmosphere back to when they first met, casting aside all the sadness, the pain, and the deep feelings, leaving only the carefree, lighthearted mood. Xu Heng cleared his mind of the image of Chen Ang’s wound, wrapped in bandages, and decisively locked his phone. He stuffed it into his pocket and sat by the window, lost in thought.

After a while, his phone vibrated. Xu Heng took it out and saw it was a WeChat voice message invitation from Chen Ang.

Xu Heng suddenly felt at a loss. He placed the vibrating phone beside him and stared at it as if it were an enemy, refusing to pick up. But Chen Ang didn’t give up. The phone vibrated again and again. In the end, Xu Heng still picked up the phone.

The phone was pressed to his ear, and for a long time, neither of them spoke. All they could hear was each other’s breathing.

After a while, Chen Ang’s voice finally came through.

“Hello…”

Xu Heng’s emotions, which had just been so conflicted, were swept away by that one word. His mind went blank. This was the first time in two months that he had heard Chen Ang’s voice, and it felt like the time gap was far longer than it really was.

Xu Heng answered quietly, “Mm.”

Chen Ang: “I was joking. It doesn’t hurt that much. Don’t worry.”

Xu Heng thought he was probably the most emotionally inconsistent person in the world. At this moment, a bit of anger flared up again. He replied stubbornly, “I’m not worried.”

Chen Ang chuckled softly, the sound rustling like it was about to crawl into his ear through the phone.

“Mm.”

Xu Heng: “What’s with the ‘mm’?”

Chen Ang: “I want to hear you say more.”

Xu Heng’s face flushed, but he said nothing. Suddenly, Chen Ang spoke again. “I resigned.”

The news came so suddenly that Xu Heng didn’t immediately grasp what “resigned” meant. He could only ask, “Why…?”

While holding the phone, Chen Ang walked toward his new place. Even though the wound on his forehead still hurt intermittently, at that moment, his mood was incredibly good, as if when he opened the door, he would see Xu Heng waiting for him at home, just like the countless nights before.

“No reason. I resigned because I wanted to.”

“I…” Xu Heng was stunned, struggling to find the right words. After a while, he said, “Did you read what I wrote to you?”

Chen Ang: “I did. But time passed so slowly, I only just got to the third month.”

“You resigned, so what’s next?”

“I have a friend, named Li Wei, who’s running a gallery. It’s losing money fast, so I’m going to help him.”

He said it lightly, but it was clear that when a business was “losing money fast,” it wasn’t easy to turn it around. The effort required was beyond what anyone could predict. Xu Heng might not know the full details, but he could guess enough.

He said, “Well… you need to work hard. And when you’re tired…”

Chen Ang quickly interrupted, “Can I call you when I’m tired?”

Xu Heng couldn’t come up with a way to refuse. He replied, “…You can.”

The sound of Chen Ang opening the door and then tossing his keys into the glass bowl by the entrance came through the phone. As he rustled to take off his jacket, he said, “The door to your little balcony has always been broken. I mentioned it to the landlord, and they sent someone to fix it. Why didn’t you ever fix it yourself?”

Xu Heng jumped up from the sofa and quickly asked, “Why are you at my place? I’ve already moved out!” Chen Ang cheerfully replied, “I renewed the lease. Your place is comfortable, and the rent isn’t too expensive. The sheets and duvet are still fine, luckily you didn’t take them. I’ll just use them.”

Xu Heng froze for a moment, then sat back down on the sofa. He couldn’t help but start imagining what it would be like for Chen Ang to live in his apartment.

The other side of the phone was silent for a long time, and then he heard Chen Ang’s soft voice, almost like a whisper: “From your room, the moonlight looks beautiful.”

Xu Heng was, of course, familiar with the reference to “The moonlight tonight is beautiful.” He looked out of the nearby window, where the same bright moon hung in the sky, thousands of miles away, yet the moonlight was just as beautiful. In this foreign winter, he felt a comforting warmth, like drinking a bowl of hot soup, the heat radiating from his chest all the way to his face.

Xu Heng murmured, “Yeah, the moonlight is really beautiful.”

Since childhood, Chen Ang hasn’t really experienced hardship. He had never worried about food or clothing. Even when he had to pay off the mortgage on his own after starting work, money was never tight. But since selling his car and house, and investing all his liquid assets into Li Wei’s gallery, he started feeling a bit stretched.

When Li Wei first started the gallery, he had big dreams and spent a lot of money to buy a bunch of paintings that Chen Ang couldn’t understand. It was highbrow and niche, and one painting, which was just pure blue paint, called “Blue,” was priced at 300,000 RMB. Chen Ang felt a headache just looking at it.

He quickly took down these unsold paintings and contacted He An, who was living freely in France. He An had connections with many young artists, whose works were more grounded and affordable. The sizes were generally smaller, which made them more marketable in China. He An acted as the middleman, bringing in a batch of paintings. Chen Ang didn’t have much of an eye for art, but he was business-minded and had dealt with many companies. He knew how to market and package things. He decided to put together a theme that would attract urban professionals, intending to hold a salon and sell the paintings to fill the gap in Li Wei’s losses.

Li Wei might have been naive, but he had good taste. Otherwise, he wouldn’t have thought about opening a gallery. Chen Ang had him watch the new batch of paintings every day in the gallery, figuring out how to display them and how to write up descriptions that would sell. Meanwhile, Chen Ang was out running errands. He had never been a curator, nor did he have the funds to hire a professional, so he had to learn through trial and error, handling everything from decorations to the wine selection for the salon.

Chen Ang relied on public transport, unwilling to spend on taxis. During peak hours, the subways and buses were packed like sardine cans. Every time he squeezed through the crowd, he was left in a disheveled state, but he never felt frustrated.

He felt comforted thinking about how Xu Heng was also working so hard, despite being far away in Japan.

He An and Chen Ang’s family had been close for years. Although the Chen family had kept Chen Ang’s situation a secret, He An could tell from a few words what was going on.

When He An called Chen Ang, he was on the subway during the evening rush. Being tall, he held onto the overhead handrail, standing steady while listening to He An’s teasing voice through his headphones.

“You’re walking a tightrope for love, huh…”

Chen Ang almost laughed as he checked the time. He quickly ended the call and squeezed out of the subway, opening Xu Heng’s livestream just in time.

As April arrived, the air began to feel moist with the coming of spring. The bauhinia trees were in full bloom, densely packed with flowers. There had been rain the night before, and purple-red petals were scattered on the sidewalk. When the wind blew, several petals landed gently on pedestrians’ shoulders, tender and gentle, like freshly written love letters.