CH 18

Xie Lin did not give up.

– So heartless?

– Messaging you and hailing a taxi aren’t the same.

Wu Zhi’s curiosity was completely peaked, unable to stop himself from continuously peeking at his Lin-ge’s phone screen.

The stubborn and boring person replied: Not the same.

– A taxi would take you home, but I would let you stay on the streets overnight.

Wu Zhi: “……”

How inhumane.

He’d followed his Lin-ge for so many years; despite the fact that he had never been seductive himself, he had helped him succeed with ideas from afar many times, yet there was also a day he failed.

Wu Zhi whispered internally, realizing that his Lin-ge was surprisingly not angry, continuing to send messages to the other person at the side of the bar, seemingly happy.

However before the series of messages could be typed and sent, the other side acted quicker. Upon seeing the “typing” displayed on the top, he didn’t bother and directly sent two messages.

– Hurry up and scram to find a good spot on the streets.

– Send another message to get blocked.

Wu Zhi was in awe.

Ji Mingrui comforted: “It’s okay, being unable to ask this uncle surnamed Chi out is normal. Unless it rains suddenly, making his mood tonight better, then we can talk about it.”

On the other side, the uncle surnamed Chi placed his phone aside after sending the message, ready to lie down and sleep.

But his eyes hadn’t closed for more than ten minutes, right when he was about to fall asleep, his phone started vibrating again.

After he warned about “sending another message to get blocked,” Xie Lin really didn’t send any messages, directly sending him a voice call.

[Your good friend ‘Xie Lin’ invites you to a voice chat.]

Chi Qing: “……” How endless.

Chi Qing picked up the call: “You better……” You better have something.

A “bang” came from the other side of the phone, followed by the sound of Xie Lin’s voice speeding up, also sounding rather helpless: “Those few words before were to tease you, this time there really is something.”

Sometimes life is just this rapidly changing.

But in just ten minutes, an accident occurred in the bar, the originally orderly environment becoming a mess within seconds. The “bang” just now was the sound of a beer bottle breaking.

The bartender was just mixing drinks. A woman rushed in without regard for the security guards. She looked around twice, then put her bag down, picked up a bottle on the bar, and smashed it on the bartender’s head: “You scumbag!”

The smash caused the music in the bar to stop.

Some people looked over at them: “What’s going on?”

As a policeman for the people, Ji Mingrui’s body reacted faster than his brain, striding across the seats and rushing over right before the woman was about to hit him a second time: “What are you doing! Put the bottle down!”

In the end the bottle was put down, but the beer was also spilled all over Ji Mingrui.

After Xie Lin finished summarizing the situation, he added: “He wants you to help buy some clothes for him to wear.”

Wu Zhi: “Didn’t he say bringing some clothes over is enough? Why even buy it?”

Xie Lin glanced at him, motioning for him to shut up: “The address was sent to you, it’s not far. It’s quite easy to get here, I wouldn’t have called you if it were far away.”

The person that Chi Qing wanted to kill changed to Ji Mingrui.

After a while, he raised a hand to pinch the bridge of his nose and said: “Let him wait.”

The bar was indeed not far away, the only place that was busier at night was in the old town. Without Xie Lin even saying it, Chi Qing would not have given the clothes that he’s worn to Ji Mingrui. For those with mysophobia, no one is allowed to touch their clothes, not even their best friend.

By the time Chi Qing entered the bar wearing black gloves and carrying a bag, the farce was over.

The small group of newcomers’ team building plan had failed completely, they were currently surrounding a woman at the bar while mediating: “We’re police, don’t worry, you can tell us if there’s anything, don’t get into fights. We’re a civilized society, we have to be civilized.”

The woman was very young, in her early twenties, stylish and pretty.

Wearing a very delicate bracelet on her wrist, the star-shaped pendant swinging nonstop as she spoke, showing how she was still trying to suppress her emotions: “For him, I gave up my job in my hometown, specially coming all the way here from Xiacheng…… but him, he had been with my best friend behind my back.”

The bartender averted his eyes.

After the woman got extremely worked up, she calmed down, loosening her tightly clenched fists: “It’s also me who is stupid. I should have figured it out earlier. He refused to let me live with him before I came, saying some stuff like even if two people are dating, they need their own space. I think they just wanted me to give them room to fool around.”

Ji Mingrui and the others proficiently did their mediation.

Su Xiaolan, as a woman, had the most to say: “It’s not hard to find a man with two legs, there are a lot of men with two legs.”1

Woman: “But I really liked him.”

Su Xiaolan: “I understand you, it’s okay, miss, your life is still very long, so just treat this relationship as a short-lived scenic spot, just remembering the beauty of your love in the beginning is enough. Perhaps when you get out of the car, you guys aren’t very happy, but you can’t let the ending affect the process.”

Su Xiaolan knew that his words should not be too harsh at this time, slowing her voice down as she spoke: “When he loved you in the beginning, it must have been real, but the him now is not the same as the him before.”

The woman couldn’t stop the tears from falling from her eyes.

Xie Lin didn’t say much; he listened quietly, handing the woman a tissue at the right time: “Don’t cry.” His knuckles were bent slightly, a hint of unintentional tenderness shown when he handed the tissues, “You’re such a pretty woman, tears don’t suit you, neither does that person.”

Xie Lin’s consolation was very effective, but it was easy to make people overthink, always feeling as if there should be this additional sentence due to the subtext: “He doesn’t suit you, what do you think of me, why don’t you come home with me.”

But he withdrew his hand after speaking, retreating to a safe distance, then raised his eyes to see a certain no nonsense person.

Chi Qing held the bag containing the clothes: “Your clothes, next time you just run naked.”

Ji Mingrui’s body was sticky, having been waiting for his clothes for a long time, so he was ready to go to the bathroom as soon as he took the bag: “Thank you brother, you’ve worked hard to come here, I’ll go change clothes, you can sit for a while? Help comfort this woman in the meantime.”

Chi Qing: “Why should I help.”

Ji Mingrui: “……You’re already here.”

Chi Qing didn’t pay even the littlest bit of attention to the crying woman, unable to empathize with her at the moment.

After Ji Mingrui left, Xie Lin took advantage of the situation and sat beside Chi Qing: “You’re here, what do you want to drink?”

Chi Qing: “Water.”

Chi Qing then added another sentence: “Mineral water or lemonade are fine.”

Xie Lin: “You come to a bar to only drink water?”

Chi Qing was too lazy to explain why he doesn’t drink, just saying: “Allergic to alcohol.”

“Mysophobic, allergic to people, also allergic to alcohol,” Xie Lin asked the waiter to prepare a glass of lemonade for him, “You’re quite difficult to serve.”

Wu Zhi tapped Xie Lin’s shoulder, asking quietly: “Is this the stubborn one from just now?”

Wu Zhi had been on the sidelines for a long time amidst the crowd of onlookers, finally seeing the actual person.

He had seen it ever since Chi Qing walked it. Black gloves, beautiful but rather worn, still rather eye-catching even in the dark crowd of people in the bar.

The woman cried and cried, her eyes eventually also drifting toward Chi Qing.

Chi Qing endured it for a bit, his conscience deciding to help his friend once.

He took the glass of water handed over by the waiter, black gloves covering up the glass, and coldly said one word: “Congratulations.”

Woman: “?”

“Breaking now isn’t necessarily a bad thing. If you broke up after getting married,” Chi Qing paused, then said, “Then everyone will be troubled.”

“……”

Although the words were the truth, they’re cold and harsh but reasonable.

But few women wanted to hear those words when breaking up, they wanted to be comforted more.

Chi Qing didn’t understand at all: “Why is she crying again.”

Su Xiaolan didn’t know what to say; she wanted to ask, how did you manage to make the person I painstakingly managed to coax cry again within seconds.

Xie Lin pressed a hand to his forehead: “……Although what you said was very logical, she can’t digest it at the moment, forget it, you should just drink water.”

Chi Qing also didn’t care; in essence, this woman was heartbroken and had nothing to do with him. Plus he didn’t understand why people would be heartbroken, or what kind of feeling it was.

So he lowered his head and took a sip of water.

Xie Lin watched him: “When you said you were going to block me if I sent another message, were you serious.”

Chi Qing also glanced at him: “If you can’t wait, now is a good time.”

“……”

After making such a mess, the bartender immediately left work; he didn’t dare to confront the woman at all, so he went to the bathroom, hurriedly slipping away through the back door.

Chi Qing’s lemonade was drunk halfway, the glass placed casually on the bar; Ji Mingrui coincidentally just changed his clothes and came back, dumbfounded: “How come she’s crying even more?”

Chi Qing: “Don’t know.”

“……”

“I’ll leave first if there’s nothing.”

Ji Mingrui hurriedly said: “Wait a bit, we’re almost done too, let’s go together.” He then said, “Xiao Lan, you should send the woman back.”

Chi Qing reached for his original glass of water as he waited. Xie Lin also coincidentally reached out to take a glass. With this one move, he almost touched Xie Lin’s hands— even with gloves on, Chi Qing was extremely cautious. He quickly reacted, stopping in his movements.

“So careful even when wearing gloves,” Xie Lin said, “……Don’t worry, I won’t touch you.”

Xie Lin spoke while holding a glass.

However, as soon as he placed the glass in front of his lips, he paused.

Before that one sip could be swallowed completely, the liquid in the glass staining his lips, he tasted a bit of lemonade. Very light. It was almost like pure water, carrying a faint lemon flavor.

The glasses in the bar all looked pretty similar. Depending on the drink, they would be poured in different glasses.

His and Chi Qing’s glasses were both the same; both were rectangular straight cups.

Xie Lin’s glass of alcohol was colorless, and for decoration, there were also a few slices of lemon in the glass.

Xie Lin noticed the cloth in the bartender’s hand, realizing that when the bartender wiped the bartop just now, he might have shifted the position of the cups.

Right as he wanted to say something, he realized that Chi Qing had already taken a sip.

1 A sexual innuendo of sorts; usually it’s said that men have three legs, implying that their third leg is a certain organ between their actual legs, and by saying that men have two legs, the implication is that their third leg is useless– tldr: SXL is trying to comfort the woman by saying he’s useless in bed