CH 87

Chapter 87: Accidental Exchange of Partners

Yue Zhishi regretted opening his mouth.

After hearing that introduction, he knew what was coming.

Song Jin continued saying, “Professor Zhang said his daughter’s studying geology in Florida, and she’s now coming back to research military remote sensing. Your studies are fairly related, and plus the two of you are also similar in age — you two should have a lot of common topics to talk about. Since your professor’s already asked, you may as well help him with this. You can also take Ms Zhang around Wuhan U and help her get familiar with her new environment.”

Song Yu was focused on eating his food rather obstinately, and he waited until his father finished speaking before he abruptly said, “I’m a student, not a professional chauffeur.”

“Xiao Yu.” Lin Rong reached out and pressed a hand down on his arm. She gave him a look, and then turned her head to Song Jin, her entire heart worried about her son. “I don’t think it’s a good idea. How awkward would it be — they don’t know each other, and now he suddenly has to go pick up the girl from the airport? Plus Xiao Yu doesn’t like talking. What would we do if the entire trip turns out uncomfortable? Why don’t have our own driver go.”

“His professor’s already asked for Song Yu. How would it look if we pushed the job to our driver? Song Yu still needs to follow the ways of the world.” Song Jin put down his chopsticks. “I thought this entire thing was improper too, but since his professor’s already opened his mouth and asked, I couldn’t really refuse him. He is our child’s professor, after all. We wouldn’t be giving him any face.”

And then, he looked towards Song Yu again. “While we’re on that topic, Song Yu, you should make more friends. You come and go by yourself everyday — you may still be a student right now, but one day, you’ll have to leave school and enter society. The way you are now, dad’s always worrying about whether you’ll be disadvantaged in the future.

“Gege has a lot of friends.” Yue Zhishi couldn’t help but retort for Song Yu. “Everyone in the basketball team really good friends with gege, as well as the people in the debate team. The people in his research lab all really like gege too, I’ve gone and met them before. They’re all really nice people. My law school classmates also really adore gege. Uncle, gege’s really good.”

Song Jin sighed. “And you, protecting your brother every day. You can’t carry him like this your entire life.”

Yue Zhishi silently thought, of course I can, carrying him my entire life is exactly what I want to do.

“No, everything I said is true.” There was an earnest look on Yue Zhishi’s face. “Gege really does have a lot of friends. We always need to book a large private room every time we go out to eat.”

“How about this.” Seeing how Song Yu was refusing to communicate, Lin Rong attempted a compromise. “Le Le and Song Yu can go together. That way, we won’t have to worry about dead silence with Le Le can be there to help ease the atmosphere. The entire matter’s settled once she’s picked up anyway.”

“I’m not going.” Song Yu was adamant, and he even looked like he was ready to leave the table. Yue Zhishi’s heart felt uncomfortable — it was his birthday. He didn’t want Song Yu to be unhappy.

“I’ll pick her up,” Yue Zhishi suggested. “I’ll say gege’s sick. I should be able to take his place since I’m a Wuhan U student too. I can take older sister around.”

Song Yu’s face hadn’t fluctuated much over the entire conversation, but now he immediately frowned and turned his head to stare at Yue Zhishi. Yue Zhishi didn’t understand what he was trying to say, simply thinking he could help Song Yu solve something troublesome. He thought what he’d done was very much worth being praised, so he winked at Song Yu.

Song Yu sighed, the sound nearly undetectable.

“I’ll go together with Yue Zhishi.”

“But there’s only going to be this one time. I won’t interact further with this Ms Zhang afterwards.”

Song Yu didn’t each much of his birthday cake. He sat in the courtyard filled with fallen leaves, drinking tea and staring into space. Later, Song Jin also went over with a cup of tea, and he sat next to Song Yu. There was a small maple tree in the yard, its red leaves very beautiful.

“Xiao Yu, how have you been?”

“Quite well. I’m really happy every single day,” Song Yu honestly replied, gazing at those maple leaves.

Song Jin stilled and then gently said to him, “It was my fault earlier. It’s your birthday today, I shouldn’t have been such a killjoy.”

“No.” Song Yu looked at his father. “I know you were doing it for my sake.”

Song Jin smiled, the curve of his lips both mature and relaxed. “Honestly, you’ve known what you wanted to do since you were young. You liked making your own choices, but sometimes, you’d deliberately leak some hints to me. You’d let me know what you were doing, but you wouldn’t say it clearly. At those times I would think: this child’s so awkward, why can’t he just openly discuss things with me?”

“But now that you’re turning into more and more of an adult, I’ve realised that you almost never look for me anymore.” Song Jin’s eyes lowered, and he turned to look at that maple tree. “To children themselves, being independent is definitely a good thing. But to a father, I still find myself a bit sad. I keep wondering if there’s anything I can still do for you.”

Song Yu completely understood his father’s heart — at hearing these words, he even felt a slight sense of loss. Ever since his one-sided love had started during puberty, Song Yu had learned how to hide himself away and not let anyone see him; it had slowly, gradually become a habit, until he almost had no way of revealing his true self to other people.

“Dad, you’ve already been an extremely good father. I also hope you consider me a good son.”

There was a tinge of melancholy in Song Yu’s voice, and Song Jin couldn’t help but laugh. “Of course you are. For your mother and me, in this lifetime, you are our greatest pride and joy.”

Song Yu’s head lowered. He felt like he should smile — but he couldn’t.

Having thought of something, Song Jin asked, “Did you want to change the direction of your research because Professor Zhang wanted to introduce his daughter to you?”

Professor Zhang truly had kept hinting about it to Song Yu, both covertly and openly; he’d even given Song Yu a look at his daughter’s photo, as though he was sure Song Yu would be interested after seeing her and then change his mind, docilely becoming his son-in-law.

But Song Yu didn’t say any of those things to his father. “No, I already knew what I wanted to research when I first decided to study geological mapping. I only followed him for my graduation project. The professor in the area I want to research doesn’t take undergraduate students.”

Song Jin leaned back into the rocking chair, staring at the sky. “That’s fine then. It’s simply because Professor Zhang thinks you’re an outstanding student, or else why would he introduce his precious daughter to you? When it comes to something like this, I think we should still have our basic manners as men. If there’s no fate between the two of you, you can still be friends. You might bump into each other in the future for work.”

“But dad’s really super curious. Can you divulge to me what you want to research?”

Father and son chatted while Lin Rong and Yue Zhishi sat in front of the glass windows, drinking milk. There was a carton of milk in each person’s hand, and slurping noises came from the straws.

“Le Le, do you think your brother likes someone?”

Lin Rong’s sudden question made Yue Zhishi choke on his drink, and he started violently coughing.

“Aiyah, what’s wrong with you, why are you always choking? You need to slow down when drinking things…” Lin Rong stroked his back, returning back to her topic. “I hear so much gossip everyday in the restaurant. Guys with worse credentials than your brother have already changed girlfriends multiple times, and yet there hasn’t been any news from your brother. His supervisor likes him enough to want him as his son-in-law, but this guy doesn’t even want to go see her. There’s definitely a problem.”

Yue Zhishi tentatively asked, “Then what if gege really does like someone. What would you do?”

“What do you mean, what would I do?” Lin Rong put down her empty milk carton onto the table. “It’ll be great if he has someone he likes. I’d only worry if the other person doesn’t like him back.”

Lin Rong somewhat sorrowfully imagined scenes from an idol drama. “Someone like your brother, if placed in a television drama, would be the second male lead who belongs to the audience. So many people would have their hearts hurting for him.”

“Then…” Yue Zhishi once again tentatively probed, “what if that person likes gege too?”

“They should get married.” Lin Rong said, “I already have a recipe for the wedding cake!”

At first, Yue Zhishi laughed — and then his heart started to hurt, for no reason at all.

“Aunt Rong, what if you’re not satisfied with the person gege likes?”

“I think I’d be satisfied though?” Lin Rong propped up her face with her two hands, gazing out towards her husband and son outside in the courtyard. A smile brimming with happiness was on her face. “Someone who can make your brother like them must be a very, very good person.”

Yue Zhishi looked towards the yard, thinking autumn was also about to end.

He didn’t know if he was good enough, but he knew he was a choice that didn’t fit expectations.

The temperature was quite cold the day they needed to go to the airport. Yue Zhishi had originally worn a cashmere coat, but he was cold the moment he came downstairs. Song Yu ordered him to head back up and change into white, thick cotton-padded clothes.

“We’ll be late.” Yue Zhishi didn’t want to change.

“We won’t go if we’re late,” Song Yu said, completely not caring.

Having switched out his clothes, Yue Zhishi felt like he was sinking directly into a fluffy piece of cotton candy as soon as he sat down in the car. Song Yu turned on the radio, and he peacefully listened to the broadcast the entire drive. He lifted up Yue Zhishi’s hand when there was a red light, pulled it to his mouth and gave it a kiss; he then wrapped his hand around Yue Zhishi’s pale and slender fingertips, using the pads of his fingers to slowly massage them. He looked as though he was very much cherishing those fingers.

Yue Zhishi stared at Song Yu’s fingers. For some reason, he started to imagine — he imagined a wedding ring on his finger. It should look very beautiful.

“I still haven’t bought your birthday present yet,” Yue Zhishi suddenly said. “I’ve changed my mind.”

Song Yu knew very well how indecisive he was. “The shirt’s already really nice. You should save your money.”

Even though he’d just been considered poor, Yue Zhishi continued to insist, “No way, I’ve already thought of what to buy.”

Song Yu turned the steering wheel, heading onto the airport expressway. He mildly said, “Then you should settle the payments for the last few times.”

Yue Zhishi looked at Song Yu in confusion. But Song Yu said, poker-faced, “2000 each time. Did you forget?”

“……”

Sometimes, Yue Zhishi truly found Song Yu very weird. Extremely weird.

He took in a deep breath, telling himself to endure and be patient. “I haven’t forgotten. Wait until I earn…”

“Then let’s wait until you earn money before we go again,” Song Yu interrupted. He even let out a slight smile that was free of any emotion.

Yue Zhishi drew his eyebrows together, a disbelieving look in his puppy dog eyes. “Song Yu, do you not have enough money these days?”

Song Yu sighed without any expression on his face. “There’s nothing I can do about it, it’s not easy earning money for milk powder. I only agreed to be a chauffeur this time because of you. According to my usual fees and how much you’ve used me this time, I’ll give you a 90 percent discount. I’ll record 200 in my books.”

“What?” Yue Zhishi was initially speechless, but then he later realised there was a problem with Song Yu’s logic. “Wait, who uses money from the baby’s mother to raise their own kid? You’re too good at exploiting people!”

“Oh.” Song Yu gave him a glance, his final words coming out incomparably calm. “You finally admit you’re carrying my baby.”

Yue Zhishi’s face flushed red, Song Yu’s teasing making him stop talking completely.

He silently used some very weak words to sneakily reproach Song Yu: you might have a delusional disorder, you need to get your brain checked.

The airport was filled with people, and Yue Zhishi’s annoyance pretty much couldn’t last for even one minute. He forgot all about how he’d been teased as soon as he got off the car and obediently followed behind gege — he also docilely stood next to Song Yu as they waited in the pick-up area, holding up an A4 piece of paper just like in television dramas. Ms Zhang’s name, Zhang Siyun, was printed on it.

He’d printed it last night, worried they wouldn’t be able to find her.

After standing there for a while, Yue Zhishi started to get sleepy again; he leaned against Song Yu. Maybe it was because he was dressed in soft and white clothing, and was so very docile, that Song Yu thought he was very similar to a young Cotton Candy — he reached out and touched Yue Zhishi’s face, lightly pinching it.

“Your hand’s so cold,” Yue Zhishi may have said, but he squished Song Yu’s hand in between his face and neck, a sweet smile on his face. “I’ll warm it up for you.”

Just as the two of them were in this strange position, Ms Zhang headed towards them, pushing her luggage.

“Hello, may I ask if you’re Song Yu?”

Hearing a very pleasant-sounding female voice, Yue Zhishi immediately took half a step back and also released Song Yu’s hand. He realised someone was studying the paper in his hand before looking at him again, and so he shook his head at once. “I’m not.”

Ms Zhang was even prettier than he’d imagined. Her looks weren’t quite the same as Nan Jia’s: she was a classic Chinese-American beauty, different from her traditional scholarly name, and had a friendly, stunning face. She had lightly tan skin, her hair long, black and curly, and the lilac highlight on her cheekbones sparkled and glistened.

“I guessed you weren’t, you’re too cute. You’re mixed, right?” She spoke tactfully, and she occasionally mixed in a few English words without realising. She praised him very sincerely, saying, “You’re the best looking Eurasian I’ve seen. I’m really happy to meet you.”

Yue Zhishi modestly shook his head, saying similar things after introducing himself.

Zhang Siyun turned towards Song Yu. “So you must be Song Yu.”

She stretched out a hand, saying to him in an easy and relaxed manner, “Hi. You can call me Monica.”

Meeting her gaze, Song Yu didn’t reach a hand out in return. “Hello, Ms Zhang. Is this all your luggage?”

Zhang Siyun pulled back her hand without batting an eyelid and smiled. “Yes, I’m a minimalist.”

Song Yu nodded. “Then we can head off.”

Zhang Siyun was quite talkative, expressing her gratitude to them once again before lightly grumbling about her overly doting father. She didn’t let Song Yu take her luggage, pushing it the entire way herself, and she was even prepared to lift it into the trunk herself once Song Yu released the lock. But Song Yu still ended up moving it for her — even though he never interacted with girls he didn’t know while at school, he didn’t want to look so obviously ungentlemanly.

Besides, he thought — if he’d just stood there and hadn’t done anything, it was very likely Yue Zhishi would’ve reached out and moved it himself.

Yue Zhishi pulled open the passenger seat door without thinking when they arrived at the car, but he abruptly paused and looked at Zhang Siyun. He hesitated for a while before he said, “Would you like to sit in the front or in the back?”

Brushing her hair away, Zhang Siyun smiled. “Would it look too much like I’m taking you guys as my chauffeurs if I sat in the back? I wouldn’t want it to look like that.”

Yue Zhishi felt like he understood what she was trying to say. Faltering, he prepared to retreat to the back — but only he had sat in Song Yu’s passenger seat before. He started to feel somewhat uncomfortable for no reason at all, and thought he was perhaps being overly petty.

“Yue Zhishi.” Song Yu looked at him as he stood outside the doors. “Sit upfront.” He then said to Zhang Siyun, “It’s fine, I’m originally here as a chauffeur anyway.”

“Then, thanks.” Ms Zhang gracefully went to sit in the backseat.

Somewhat distracted, Yue Zhishi forgot to put on his seatbelt. Song Yu leaned across, his hand reaching over very naturally to pull over and fasten his seatbelt for him.

There was a bit of traffic on the way back, and Zhang Siyun actively started to talk, even frankly bringing up her fairly old-fashioned and bothersome father.

“As you’d know, an established academic like him has a lot of say when it comes to professional matters. He also likes being able to control everything in his private life — so no matter how much much he loves me, he still wants to hurry and find a good family for me to marry into and start having kids.” She twitched her lips without conscious thought and shrugged. “Perhaps this is a typical example of patriarchy.”

Yue Zhishi unexpectedly found her a bit pitiful, and as he imagined some scenarios with her father rushing her to get married, he couldn’t help but ask, “Has Professor Zhang forced you to go on matchmaking dates?”

“No. After all, I was still out of the country.” Zhang Siyun chuckled. “But he’d sometimes bring up guys he thought were pretty good, either consciously or not, and the guy who came up the most often was Song Yu.”

Despite being named, Song Yu acted as though he hadn’t heard, focused entirely on driving. He didn’t say a single word. It was as though with Yue Zhishi there to converse, he didn’t have to care about a single thing and could be the free-floating, stubborn and unfeeling ice mountain as he used to be.

“Really…” Yue Zhishi quietly said. “He really does think highly of Song Yu — Song Yu is still doing his graduation project, and yet he’s already been pulled into the research lab.”

“That’s right. But my dad’s description of Song Yu was very…” Zhang Siyun paused, “…deficient. He only compliments Song Yu’s academics and never stops going on about them. To the point where my brain only thought of this future academic star as an extreme nerd.”

She started to smile again as she spoke, looking at Song Yu’s strong reflection in the rearview mirror. “Today’s meeting really has been a pleasant surprise. After all, no one dislikes a handsome face. If my dad had given me a photo of you, we might’ve met earlier.”

She displayed her interest towards Song Yu very straightforwardly, and it made Yue Zhishi feel like he was in a particularly awkward position — he felt like an unnecessary waiter bringing up dishes during a matchmaking session or dinner date, gingerly clutching the small tip given to him so he could go away.

Yue Zhishi felt like he’d overestimated his own abilities to think he could ease the atmosphere. This was just the beginning, and yet he already didn’t want to talk anymore.

As Song Yu listened to Ms Zhang’s words, he thought of all the various kinds of hints and coercion Professor Zhang had given him and started to feel a bit irritated — he also didn’t know how he should respond to her ‘handsome’ and ‘might’ve met earlier’. Noticing Yue Zhishi’s silence, he asked him, “Are you cold? Do you want to turn on the aircon?”

Yue Zhishi lifted his head in bewilderment; he shook his head at first, but then he felt like he might have answered too hastily. Turning his face around, he asked Zhang Siyun, “What about you?”

Zhang Siyun shook her head as she smiled. “My clothes are quite thick, thank you. But the weather here is a bit drier than I expected. My impression of Jiang City was of a low-pressure area with never-ending rain. I didn’t really like it.”

In his heart, Yue Zhishi silently disagreed. He really liked rain, because he’d known from a young age — whenever it rained, he could get closer to Song Yu. It would be even better if it thundered.

“But Wuhan U should be really beautiful right now with the gingko and maple trees. I remember I used to visit there a lot when I was still in junior high, but after staying overseas for so long, I don’t know what kind of new buildings there are now.” Zhang Siyun extended an invitation especially naturally, but her eyes were looking at Song Yu’s face in the rearview mirror. “Would you guys happen to have the time to take me around? I can also pull out my dusty DSLR to take some scenery photos and not waste the effort.”

Song Yu didn’t speak, so Yue Zhishi said, “If you need someone to go with you, I can…”

“Wuhan U’s scenery is actually better suited to be appreciated alone.”

Song Yu interrupted Yue Zhishi’s sentence, coolly yet politely advising her, “If you follow the roads up Luojia Mountain, you can see whatever you want to see. A lot of photography enthusiasts go there as well, so you might be able to meet people with the same hobby as you.”

Yue Zhishi looked at Zhang Siyun and glanced at Song Yu. He then said to her, a smile on his face, “Mn, I really like walking by myself on roads covered with fallen leaves. I’m in a great mood after just a short walk.”

Even though she’d been rejected, Zhang Siyun gave them a slight smile very magnanimously. “I really like fallen leaves too. Climbing up a mountain by myself isn’t a bad idea.”

The drive was too unsteady from all the traffic, and so Yue Zhishi started to feel carsick. He cracked open a window for some air, but the wind was too strong, rapidly irritating his throat; he started to cough again.

Zhang Siyun leaned over politely to ask if he was okay, but Song Yu had reacted faster: he handed to Yue Zhishi a thermos with its lid already open and even closed his window.

“Drink some water. We’ll go home very soon.”

His voice was pitched low and softly, the words most likely spoken only for Yue Zhishi to hear, but Zhang Siyun still heard them.

She reclined back into her seat, gaze studying the side of Song Yu’s face. It had turned tender, and a slightly indescribable feeling rose in her heart.

It was as though the person who had just suggested to her to climb the mountain alone was someone else entirely.

After drinking enough water, Yue Zhishi curved his head onto the window, sniffling. “Will I feel better if I slept a bit?”

Song Yu nodded and turned off the music playing in the car. “Cover yourself with the blanket.”

Yue Zhishi remembered slightly awkwardly — the little blanket he always used seemed to be in the backseat.

“This one?” Zhang Siyun proactively grabbed it and gave to Yue Zhishi. Her fingers were long and slender, nails painted a rose colour, and a pretty rose gold ring was on her index finger.

Yue Zhishi wanted to say thank you, but he had been a bit distracted — and so Zhang Siyun opened her mouth faster than he did.

“That’s right, I keep forgetting to ask.” Her smile was sweet and charming. “What’s the relationship between the two of you?”

The author has something to say:

Conveniently mentioning that Ms Zhang isn’t a evil female side character (spoiler)

She could be considered as an assist for them to come out

(/spoiler) PS she’s not wlw either, she’s just a super straightforward person, the kind who’d immediately express her like for you if she likes you

Song Yu has always treated people differently depending on who it is, he’s only ever treated Yue Zhishi warmly, from beginning to now. Even to the very familiar Nan Jia, as long as he doesn’t want to do it, he’ll reject her — let alone this time it’s his professor stubbornly forcing a strange Ms Zhang on him. He really is only here to fulfil chauffeur duties.

Nan Jia once again here to complain: the first time I saw Song Yu at the basketball court, this guy immediately threw down his ball and left. He didn’t even give me a single look, such a cold guy (pulling up the past)