“Jiang Zhaoyan!” 

Before Qi Cong could speak, Shen Jia exploded. He turned his cap backwards and rushed toward Jiang Zhaoyan. “How dare you TM, I–” 

“Jia Jia!” Qi Cong hurriedly reached out his hand to stop him.

Unwilling to stop, Shen Jia looked sideways at Qi Cong and said, “Brother!” 

Seeing this, Jiang Zhaoyan relaxed his taut body and frowned at Qi Cong.

“You’ve met with this person again. Didn’t you say you won’t get in touch with him anymore?” 

When Shen Jia heard his words he tried to rush forward again, his chest heaved up and down hard. He was obviously furious.

Qi Cong directly stood in front of Shen Jia this time. Shen Jia was so anxious that he felt hot as he shouted, “Brother Cong! Wake up and stop protecting him. He’s not worth it! “

“I know.” Qi Cong raised his hand and helped Shen Jia turn his hat forward again. “There is surveillance here and you’re a public figure. You can’t do it, I’ll do it.”

Shen Jia suddenly became quiet. 

Jiang Zhaoyan stood far away, so he didn’t hear their conversation as he strode to them with an impatient look on his face. When he got closer, he reached out and grabbed Qi Cong’s arm. “Why are you so close to him?  Qi Cong, come here and clear things up with me. What was with your previous phone call — “

Qi Cong turned around, following Jiang Zhaoyan’s movements. He looked into Jiang Zhaoyan’s eyes before punching him in the abdomen without holding back his strength.

Jiang Zhaoyan hummed, eyes wide as he hunched to cover his abdomen and backed away. He looked at Qi Cong in disbelief. “You…”

“Finished?” Qi Cong took a tissue from Shen Jia and wiped the arm Jiang Zhaoyan touched previously. “If I want to change the lock code of my own apartment, I’ll change it. It’s not any of your business.”

Jiang Zhaoyan looked at Qi Cong with a wronged expression, his tone was unsteady from pain. “You…you are possessed!”

“Yes, I am.” Qi Cong grabbed Jiang Zhaoyan’s tie and pulled hard, tightening his already loose tie. Qi Cong’s voice was low and cold, “As long as I think about the reason why my parents were living in that shabby house, in such hot weather was because I blindly fell in love with you, I want to kill myself…and you. “

Jiang Zhaoyan had never seen such a cold and sharp Qi Cong before. For a moment, he forgot to react and just stared at Qi Cong in a daze.

Qi Cong, who had once looked at him with the most gentle and harmless eyes before, now gazed at him with a brewing storm that was diametrically different from usual. 

“Jiang Zhaoyan.” Qi Cong tightened his grip on his tie further. His voice was low, without any ups or downs, but his tone was dangerous. “Get out of here, and don’t be disobedient. I don’t have time to deal with you now. If you show up in front of me again, it will be more than just one punch.” He loosened his grip on Jiang Zhaoyan’s tie, pushed him hard against the wall and walked past him to his apartment.

Shen Jia raised his fist threatening as he passed Jiang Zhaoyan. “Did you hear? Stay away from Brother Cong,” he shouted cheerfully and followed after Qi Cong.

After the sound of the opening and of closing of Cong’s apartment door, the corridor became completely quiet.

Jiang Zhaoyan finally regained his senses and realized he had been holding his breath this whole time. His heart even ached slightly because of the lack of oxygen. He quickly took a deep breath, untightened the tie around his throat and turned to look in the direction of Qi Cong’s apartment. 

Just now…was that Qi Cong?

 

…

 

The check-out process was smooth. After seeing the landlord off, Qi Cong and Shen Jia began to pack.

When they came here the last time he was in a hurry, so Qi Cong had no time to take a closer look at the things in the apartment. After taking a closer look at it this time, his sense of disobedience became stronger.

The Qi family was a typical Southern family. The whole family’s food tastes were light and sweet, and they weren’t fond of too much spice. However, Qi Cong saw all kinds of spicy sauces in the kitchen of his apartment. There was even an unfinished portion of spicy spring onion oil noodles in the fridge. 

Qi Cong usually liked to use bath products without lotions or oils because he didn’t like slippery feelings left on his body, but the bath gel in the apartment was very greasy at first glance.

Qi Cong doesn’t like to wear flip flops and always felt uncomfortable wearing them, but there were several pairs of flip flops in this apartment, one of which was probably worn for so long that the sole of it was broken.

There were also many other unusual things. For example, the way pillows were placed, the choice of soft or hard bristles for toothbrushes, the texture of bath towels. Many living habits were revealed by these objects, and all of them were different from Qi Cong’s preferences.

It was weird, too weird.

Qi Cong stood in the middle of his bedroom, looking at the clothes in the wardrobe that he thought were too rustic. All of this made him feel uncomfortable, like he was breaking into someone else’s house by mistake.

“Brother Cong, do you want to take the books from this shelf?”

Qi Cong returned to his senses and looked around the bedroom again before going to the bookshelf in the living room. He saw the pile of dark horror novels and he frowned. “No, contact the apartment property and donate them.”

After working for more than two hours, they finally finished packing.

Before going out, Shen Jia opened the door and looked out. When he was sure that Jiang Zhaoyan was no longer there, he opened the door completely and turned back to Qi Cong. “Brother Cong, let’s go.”

Qi Cong looked back at the apartment, which only brought a strong sense of strangeness to him. He agreed in a low voice and picked up the large suitcase beside his feet. 

After entering the elevator, Qi Cong looked at the poster on the wall again. Unfortunately, someone had torn out the piece with the person printed on it.

Shen Jia leaned over to take a look and asked him, “Brother Cong, are you interested in this movie? Then let’s go to see it when it comes out. This movie has just won a prize abroad and is of high quality. By the way, it’s a bit of a coincidence that the actor of this movie and the man you asked me to inquire about before happen to have the same name. If I hadn’t known that the actor of this movie was a rich second generation who grew up abroad, I would’ve almost thought that he was the one you were looking for. “

Qi Cong turned his head and asked, “The same name? The man on this poster is Gu Xun?” 

Shen Jia was surprised by Qi Cong’s reaction and shrank his head. “Yes. What is wrong Brother Cong?”

Qi Cong’s palm was a little sweaty, but he managed to hold back and asked, “The star of this movie grew up abroad? Are you sure? “

“I am sure that Gu Xun’s grandmother is from the West and he grew up with her. As soon as Gu Xun became popular, all this information was discovered by the media.”

Grandma from the West? Wouldn’t that mean he is a mixed race?

Qi Cong’s quickly beating heart calmed down and then sank.

No.

This man wasn’t Gu Xun, the poor country boy he knew.

Also, how could a silly guy like Gu Xun, who couldn’t hide his emotions and couldn’t speak when he’s nervous, act? It was impossible.

He looked at the poster in the elevator again.

The curve of his chin…maybe it was because good-looking people looked similar.

When the two of them returned to his new neighborhood, Shen Jia parked the car and followed Qi Cong into the elevator. He suddenly jumped out before the elevator closed and waved to Qi Cong. “Have a good talk with Uncle and Auntie tonight. I’ll pick you up tomorrow morning. Have a good night’s sleep!”

Qi Cong was stunned, but before he could react the elevator door closed.

The elevator began to go up.

Qi Cong regained his senses and laughingly shaked his head. His depressed mood became slightly better because of the poster.

Lin Hui and Qi Yin hadn’t gone to sleep at home yet and were waiting for him in the living room. Qi Cong didn’t talk to his parents as Shen Jia suggested, but urged Lin Hui and Qi Yin to rest as soon as he entered the door.

Lin Hui was not happy. “It’s still early.”

“It’s getting late” Qi Cong deliberately raised his hand and rubbed his eyes. “I’m so sleepy.”

Sure enough, Lin Hui stopped arguing and urged Qi Cong to go to bed early just like in the past.

After taking care of his parents, Qi Cong took a shower, changed into a new set of pajamas Qi Yin bought for him and went to sleep in his new bed.

It was already very late and his body felt tired, but Qi Cong was reluctant to sleep. Ever since he woke up in the hospital, he has been bombarded with all kinds of information and events. Only now, he finally had a little leisure time alone.

He went over what happened these past few days in his head, then turned over and picked up his cell phone from the bedside table.

He moved his finger, input a string of numbers that he remembered by heart, and clicked to connect.

‘Sorry, the number you dialed is unavailable.’

Qi Cong hung up the phone. A few seconds later, he slowly clicked on wechat. He ignored the huge amount of information inside and switched to the account interface. After choosing to switch accounts, he entered the wechat account and password he used three years ago, and then clicked log in.

A scarlet letter prompt appeared: The account you logged in does not exist. 

Shen Jia had informed him that three years ago, after he lost his memory from a high fever, he had deleted all his old social accounts and applied for a new set because he felt they were inconvenient and was unaccustomed to the old ones.

Although he knew this already…. Qi Cong put the mobile phone on the bedside table, pulled up the thin cover to his face and beat the mattress with some restraint.

Why did he have to delete them and not just abandon them? Now where could he go to find someone who disappeared three years ago? 

 

…

 

The next day, before going to work, Lin Hui hugged Qi Cong for a long time. Finally he reached out to rub Qi Cong’s head and walked out of the house with a happy face.

Qi Yin closed the door and said to Qi Cong, “Follow me.”

Qi Cong also happened to have something to say to his mother, so he obediently followed Qi Yin into the master bedroom.

“This is for you.” Qi Yin took out a bank card from the nightstand and put it in Qi Cong’s hand. “The password is your birthday. There is not much money, only 20,000, but it should be enough for you to make the transition. “

Twenty thousand, this might be all the money his parents had.

Qi Cong’s throat moved. He reached out and gave the card back. Then he took a card out of his pocket and put it in Qi Yin’s hand. “Mom, there is 40,000 on this card. You and dad can use it to pay for living expenses. I’ve paid the rent for this house for a year. After a year, I will definitely buy a better house for you.” 

Qi Yin froze, and then slowly clasped Qi Cong’s hand over the card.

“Have you really paid off the money you owe? “

Qi Cong had been prepared for this question, so he replied naturally. “I have paid it off. Jia Jia helped me with part of it and I raised a part by myself, and paid it all off. “

Mother and son stared at each other, before Qi Yin finally gave up first. She bowed her head and stroked Qi Cong’s thin fingers before squeezing out a smile. “Mom believes you. I’ll take the money. Don’t worry about your family, just go ahead. “

Qi Cong felt relieved in his heart and reached out to hug Qi Yin. “Mom, I will try my best to earn money.” 

It wasn’t long before Shen Jia drove from the hotel to pick up Qi Cong, and they prepared to return to Beishi.

All the luggage was put in the trunk and then Shen Jia and Qi Cong got in the car. Qi Yin stood beside the passenger seat and bent over to tell Shen Jia to drive carefully. Then she looked at Qi Cong.

“Eat more.”

“All right.”

Qi Yin reached out to touch Qi Cong’s face and then stepped back. Qi Cong waved to Qi Yin and then raised the car window.

Shen Jia glanced at Qi Cong and didn’t move. 

Qi Cong fastened his seat belt and said calmly, “Let’s go.”

When the car moved forward slowly, the figure of Qi Yin in the rearview mirror became smaller and smaller before it completely disappeared.

Qi Cong looked at Shen Jia and said, “Jia Jia, I want to go to two more places before we leave.”

More than ten minutes later, Qi Cong appeared at the place where Lin Hui worked. He changed his clothes and wore Shen Jia’s hat to mingle with the parents who sent their children over. Through the window, he looked at Lin Hui, who was holding a pamphlet and talking to a teacher in the classroom. 

“Is that the new assistant teacher?”

“It seems so. Why would he be an assistant teacher at such an old age, is his pension not enough?”  

“The assistant teacher has to help manage several classes, which is very hard. It’s usually done by young people. Can the new teacher bear it?”

While some parents were talking about it, Qi Cong pressed down harder on his hat and turned away.

Back in the car, Qi Cong took off hat and said to Shen Jia, “Go to the Wenhua district.”

Shen Jia started the car, hesitated for a moment before he asked tentatively, “Brother Cong, do you want to find that Gu Xun?”

“No.” Qi Cong put his hat on his leg. “I just want to have a last look.” He didn’t know exactly what he wanted to see. He only knew that after this trip to Beishi, it would probably be a long time before he would have the energy to care about his love affairs.

Half an hour later, the car was parked opposite a fried chicken restaurant on Xinhuaibei Road in the Wenhua District.

Qi Cong looked at the shop, but he didn’t get out of the car.

Shen Jia inexplicably felt that Qi Cong, who was sitting all quiet and silent, was particularly vulnerable. He asked carefully, “Brother Cong, do you want to go and have a look?”

“This used to be a coffee shop.” Qi Cong withdrew his eyes and smiled at Shen Jia. “I often came here to drink coffee after my classes were done for the day. Let’s go. It will take us several hours to drive back to Beishi. If we don’t leave early, we may be held up by the evening rush hour on the way. “

“Brother Cong…”

“Let’s go. I can’t wait to see what you look like when you get on the stage.” 

The orange sports car started and slowly drove away from the bustling new Huaibei road.

Next to the fried chicken shop, a slender figure holding a cup of coffee walked out of a small coffee shop which was mostly blocked by a garbage truck. He was wearing a hat, sunglasses and low-key clothes. He walked down the street to a black car, checking his mobile phone on the way. 

Suddenly, he stopped and clicked on a picture.

It was a picture that was obviously taken secretly. In the middle of the picture, a man in an irregular cut black T-shirt and a cap leaned against an orange sports car and was talking to a thin man with long hair and a white T shirt, showing only a vague profile.

There was a sensational title under this picture: ‘Shen Jia’s love affair exposed! He was wearing street clothes on a date with his girlfriend!’

After a while, he moved. Locking his cell phone, he strode to his car. Opening his car door, he took a seat and shut the door with an unpleasant whisper.

“Girlfriend? Blind paparazzi.” 

 

 

TM (Chinese slang for – motherf*cker)

Edited by : Antiope1

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