CTS 6

Shen Mo hadn’t expected Zhou Yang to order seafood for their meal.

Facing the table full of dishes, he didn’t know where to start. Zhou Yang didn’t pick up his chopsticks either, instead asking,
“Are you really allergic to seafood?”

“After I eat it, I get rashes, but it’s not too serious.”

“Why didn’t you say anything before?”

Shen Mo smiled faintly.

Back then, he had kept quiet to avoid ruining Zhou Yang’s mood. People in love were like that, enduring pain for their lover and still finding sweetness in it.

Zhou Yang took the menu and re-ordered the dishes, saying with self-mockery,
“Even Ji Mingxuan knows more about you than I do.”

Shen Mo thought to himself, that’s to be expected. Before Ji Mingxuan even started interacting with him, he’d already had people investigate Shen Mo’s background thoroughly. He was a typical perfectionist, even when it came to pretending , he wanted everything to be in order.

The new dishes hadn’t arrived yet, so Zhou Yang poured a cup of tea for Shen Mo. “How have you been these past few years?”

Three full years, countless days and nights.
Shen Mo summed it up in two words:
“Not bad.”

“I thought you’d be doing something related to painting.”

“This is better. The job is easy, and the pay is good.”

“What about Ji Mingxuan? I heard he’s not picky, getting involved in rumors with all those little stars.”

Shen Mo tugged at the corner of his mouth.
“With someone like Mingxuan, it’s inevitable he’ll be surrounded by gossip. But rumors are just rumors. You saw for yourself how he treated me yesterday.”

At the mention of yesterday’s events, Zhou Yang’s expression darkened.

Shen Mo pretended not to notice. He took a sip of tea and asked, “And you? Coming back from abroad, but it looks like you’ve lost weight?”

Zhou Yang sighed, “The food can’t compare to here. There was one time I got sick, and with family and friends so far away, it felt like no one could hear my cries for help.
Luckily, An’an took care of me…”

Shen Mo sincerely said, “You and Miss Ji really are made for each other.”

Zhou Yang didn’t respond. After a moment, he suddenly took Shen Mo’s hand.
“Shen Mo, aren’t you still owed me an explanation?”

“What do you mean?”

“Why did you break up with me?”

“Why?”

Shen Mo repeated the word, thinking for a moment before saying, “I can’t remember exactly, maybe it was just because our personalities didn’t match.”

“We’ve been together since high school. After all these years, how could our personalities not match?”

“Personality includes many things, like… as the only son of the Zhou family, do you really think your parents would have accepted us being together?”

Those words hit a nerve with Zhou Yang.

His expression stiffened slightly. “My parents are old-fashioned. They certainly wouldn’t accept me being in a relationship with a man. But I told you, I would find a way to convince them.”

Shen Mo slowly pulled his hand away from Zhou Yang’s grip. “Your so-called ‘way’… is to go abroad with Miss Ji?”

“So that’s what it was.” Zhou Yang sighed.
“Yes, back then, to put my parents’ minds at ease, I accepted their arrangement and went abroad. But at the time, I had no relationship with An’an. The moment I landed, I immediately bought a ticket back to find you. And what happened? You avoided me. It wasn’t until over half a month later that you called and broke up with me.”

“I thought you were angry because I went abroad, but now that I think about it…”
Zhou Yang sneered, “You couldn’t have already been in Ji Mingxuan’s bed by then, could you?”

Shen Mo was stunned for a moment.

It felt as though the ground had suddenly shaken, the world around him tilting and roaring with noise. But in the blink of an eye, everything returned to normal. He was still sitting in the restaurant, surrounded by delicious food, wine, and the sounds of birds and flowers.

But he had already been severely wounded.

His organs felt like they had shifted inside him, and his chest and lungs ached.

Shen Mo opened his mouth, but he didn’t have the strength to speak.

So he didn’t say that when Zhou Yang came to find him, he was lying in the ICU.
Just like he didn’t say that three years ago, he had feared and desperately dialed Zhou Yang’s number countless times, while Zhou Yang was sitting on a plane, thousands of meters high, with An’an.