CH 67

One might ask: what should the mood be like after the brothers “buried the hatchet”?

Was it joyously reminiscing on the past or was it exuberantly looking forward to the future?

No! Neither!

When Ye Zhou’s heart was at its weakest, Ye Heng suddenly said what he was most concerned about, making him unable to reflect on it at all!

Ye Zhou took a sip of coffee and pretended to ask carelessly, “What about Shang Jin?”

“While on the road, everyone we met asked you about Shang Jin. You two aren’t ordinary friends, right?”

Ye Zhou’s eyelid twitched. He’d specifically not let Shang Jin come over because he was afraid that their relationship would be exposed. But now, his brother hadn’t seen Shang Jin, so how did he begin to suspect? This was unscientific!

He carefully organized his words, “Our relationship…is pretty good.”

Ye Heng looked at his expression and probed, “So good that you can live together?”

Ye Zhou was so scared that he couldn’t hold his spoon and accidentally dropped it in the coffee cup. He hadn’t drank much coffee and a few drops splashed on his hand.

Originally, Ye Heng was just bluffing him and wasn’t expecting Ye Zhou to have such a big reaction. Understanding clearly in his mind, he took out a napkin and cleaned the coffee on Ye Zhou’s hand, rebuking him, “You’re so careless when drinking coffee.”

Ye Zhou with a deathly pale face didn’t understand where he’d been exposed.

Ye Heng sighed and said, “I understand that there’s extremely good friends in the university who become like Siamese twins. But what’s so taboo about it?”

Ye Zhou vainly wanted to make a final struggle, “We…we’re just…”

“If you and Shang Jin are ordinary good brothers, your roommates wouldn’t have to help you to cover up once they heard that I was your brother,” Ye Heng interrupted him, laying down his conjecture point by point, “In the entire dorm room, there’s minimal differences between your desk and the one across from it, which are in sharp contrast with the brimming tables on the side. And when you went back to the dorm today, there was a chair next to me, but you took two more steps and very familiarly pulled out the chair across from you, subconsciously going to the thing that you’re close to. If I’m not mistaken, the opposite desk should be Shang Jin’s, right?”

Ye Zhou in thousands, or tens of thousands of calculation, wouldn’t have been able to figure out that Ye Heng would have been able to see through the secret he wanted to conceal from these small details.

Ye Zhou took a quick look at Ye Heng and felt like his heart was in a mess. He wasn’t sure what Ye Heng’s purpose was in saying this, and what he would do next.

“Why do you look like the world’s about to be destroyed?” Ye Heng chuckled lightly, “Do I look like such an unreasonable person?”

Ye Zhou looked at him in uncertainty, not daring to speak. He hadn’t spoken two sentences before he’d exposed himself thoroughly. Now, he didn’t dare to say anymore and acted like a mute.

“You’re not going to explain to me?”

Ye Zhou lowered his head and looked at the tranquil surface of the coffee. Resigning himself, he said, “There’s nothing to explain.”

“Zhou Zhou, were you born so, or was itー”

“It’s my own issue,” Ye Zhou hurriedly said, “I knew from early on that I was different from others.”

Ye Heng sighed in relief, looked fondly at Ye Zhou and said, “For so many years, it’s been hard on you.”

Ye Zhou shook his head and replied, “At first, I thought this road was very difficult,  but now, it’s not so. I have someone I like and friends who understand me…” Ye Zhou held Ye Heng’ gaze and said, “And my brother. I’m very fortunate.”

Hearing Ye Zhou added him at the end, Ye Heng’s originally suppressed breath loosened. But for Ye Zhou to say that he liked someone, Ye Heng still couldn’t let it go. He looked at the time and said, “Running around for a day, I’m a bit tired.”

Ye Zhou breathed a silent sigh of relief and said, “I booked a hotel. I’ll take brother there to rest first.”

“When did you book it?”

Ye Zhou wanted to increase the favorable impression for Shang Jin in advance, so he gave him credit for it. “On the way here, I casually mentioned it to Shang Jin and he booked a good hotel. It’s not far from the school.”

Ye Heng stopped his steps. What to do? He suddenly didn’t want to go.

“Brother?”

Ye Heng glanced at his adorable younger brother, and lest he be disappointed, forced a laugh and went with him to the hotel.

Although he didn’t like Shang Jin whom he’d not met yet, but arriving at the hotel the other had booked, he had to praise that the other really knew how to choose the place.

Both comfortable and with convenient transportation, he could also enjoy the city’s night view from the French windows of the high-rise hotel.

It was just this double bed that made him irritated. If he had a suite, he would be able to get his younger brother to stay with him for the night.

Ye Zhou accompanied him to dinner and they strolled around the neighborhood. At nine o’clock, he proposed to leave.

“Brother, what are your plans for tomorrow?” Ye Zhou hadn’t forgotten that Ye Heng said he came here for work.

“I’ll be a bit busy at the branch office tomorrow. But even so, I must meet Shang Jin before I leave.” Ye Heng’s tone would brook no refusal. “You guys decide the time and place.”

Ye Zhou said in a low voice, “Then I’ll talk to him tonight…”

How could he agree without getting Shang Jin’s consent! Although he wanted to refuse such a thing, but he also couldn’t refuse.

On the way back, Ye Zhou kept sighing. This day’s experience was almost like a rollercoaster. He felt his mood go up one moment and down the next. Whenever he thought it was safe, his brother would let loose a bomb and blow his brain blank. And Shang Jin…how could he persuade Shang Jin to meet his brother in a moment? Obviously if he’d spoken well, then there wouldn’t have been the need to come of the closet, but the result turned out to the contrary.

Ye Zhou called Shang Jin and learned that Shang Jin had already arrived at school. He carefully and apologetically told him to come back home.

This day hadn’t only tormented him, but it’d also tossed Shang Jin around not lightly.

Shang Jin didn’t pay any mind. Ye Zhou told him to go back, and he agreed without any objections.

“Then…” Ye Zhou slowly leaned against Shang Jin and kissed him. “Can we discuss a matter?”

Shang Jin asked, “Is it keeping a distance from you tomorrow?”

“It’d be good if it were that,” Ye Zhou said sullenly, “It’s more serious.”

Shang Jin thought for a moment and said, “Your brother discovered our matter?”

Ye Zhou said in astonishment, “How did you know?”

“Guessed.”

Ye Zhou furiously said, “You guys, one and the other, how can you guess so accurately!”

“How did your brother find out?”

Ye Zhou reluctantly repeated Ye Heng’s remarks to Shang Jin. “You say, how can he guess so accurately?”

Shang Jin flicked Ye Zhou’s forehead and said, “How can this be called accurate guessing? Obviously, you’re too easy to see through. It’s written on your face that you and I have a hidden relationship.”

Ye Zhou smacked Shang Jin’s head, “Is now the time to blame me? My brother wants to see you tomorrow. What do we do!”

“Then just meet. It’s sooner or later. If we meet sooner, I can also build up a good relationship with him in advance.”

Ye Zhou failed to understand.

Shang Jin mysteriously smiled, “At home, your brother has great influence, right?”

Ye Zhou blinked and said, “Yeah, my parents really care about my brother’s opinion.”

“Coming out of the closet, you need to find an ally.” Shang Jin seized Ye Zhou’s shoulders and said, “Isn’t this a ready-made one?”

Ye Zhou suddenly felt that he couldn’t surpass Shang Jin in his entire life. When he was nervous and overwhelmed, Shang Jin actually had already considered it so far ahead.

The next afternoon after school, Shang Jin and Ye Zhou met in the hotel restaurant downstairs from where Ye Heng was staying.

“Zhou Zhou,” Ye Heng waved to them.

“Brother.” Ye Zhou was going to sit opposite to Ye Heng with Shang Jin, but who knew that he hadn’t sat down yet when Shang Jin gave him a push to sit by Ye Heng’s side.

Shang Jin sat across from them alone and faced Ye Heng, neither haughty nor servile. He said politely and amiably, “Big Brother Ye, we’ve finally met.”

Ye Heng evaluated Shang Jin in a glance. He didn’t expect that Shang Jin would push Ye Zhou toward him. His dissatisfaction with him had gradually lessened to seventy percent.

Shang Jin swept Ye Heng with his peripheral vision and confirmed his guess.

The time was limited and Ye Heng didn’t feel like exchanging pleasantries. He directly asked what he wanted to ask, “Shang Jin, where are you from?”

“I’m a local.” Shang Jin picked up the herbal tea on the table and helped fill their cups. The movement was elegant and smooth and it looked like he was used to doing such things. “My family is a reorganized family. I followed my father and I have two younger siblings.”

Ye Heng first frowned, and when he heard the last word, his eyebrows smoothed out again. “Then you and Ye Zhou…”

“When I just got together with him, I told my biological mother, who told my father and basically, everyone in the family knows.”

“I heard that you have outstanding results and your future is limitless. Your family would let you stray on the wrong path?”

“How is it the wrong path?” Shang Jin asked a question in response, “Big Brother Ye, do you think that Ye Zhou is now walking on the wrong path?”

Ye Heng looked at Ye Zhou and hastily explained, “Of course not. Zhou Zhou, this…was my negligence.”

Shang Jin raised the cup and took a sip of tea. “My family is somewhat special. Perhaps because of this unusual nature, I don’t have much sense of belonging with my family. With Ye Zhou, I saw something like me.”

Shang Jin didn’t say exactly what it was, but Ye Heng understood that it was the longing for a family.

His younger brother clearly had a home, but he didn’t feel the warmth of a home, similar to Shang Jin’s reorganized family. Ye Heng looked tenderly at Ye Zhou who’d been fidgeting since he’d come in. His attitude toward Shang Jin became a bit better and his brows were no longer tightly knitted, lest he gave Ye Zhou the feeling of “breaking apart the pair of Mandarin ducks”.

“But Ye Zhou is more fortunate than I am,” Shang Jin said sincerely, “because he has Big Brother Ye. Big Brother Ye really cares about him without reservation and wholeheartedly considers for Ye Zhou.”

Ye Heng touched Ye Zhou’s head and said, “Who let him be my younger brother? If I don’t care for him, who will?”

Shang Jin sighed with feeling, “With Big Brother here, presumably Ye Zhou also won’t be bullied.”

“Of course.”

It could be considered a harmonious meal, and even if Ye Heng wanted to make trouble for Shang Jin, he couldn’t find a specific pretext.

After dinner, Shang Jin tactfully took his leave, “Big Brother, I still have a matter tonight, so I won’t send you off.”

This was exactly what Ye Heng wanted. He happened to have something to say to Ye Zhou.

“Brother, when you go back, take good care of yourself. The next time you come, call me directly and I’ll pick you up.”

“Yeah.” Ye Heng was concerned about his brother’s straightforwardness and didn’t feel good at all. The little bit of goodwill he had towards Shang Jin fell down again. “You have to take good care of yourself, and you must tell big brother if you get bullied.” Especially Shang Jin, this kind of shrewd person who, the moment he came, brought up what he was most concerned about, and then used his family to insinuate that Ye Zhou had been treated unfairly at home for so many years. In the end, it was up to him to protect Ye Zhou again and again. His family’s little brother definitely couldn’t match the other’s play. Thinking of this, Ye Heng felt bitter tears in his heart. If he didn’t see that the other wholeheartedly cared for Ye Zhou, he wouldn’t easily let the other go.

“Don’t worry, I won’t be bullied.”

Ye Heng shook his head and said in his heart: Even if you were bullied, you may not find out.