52 – Do You Like Fang Mo?
Translator: tamago
Editor: Yin
Zou Shun said that he not only went to He Chengyi’s house but also went to his store.
The store door was closed, and a notice was posted on the door, saying that it was temporarily closed for some reason, and that the return date was uncertain. There was no one at home either, and there was no sound when he rang the doorbell. Zou Shun waited at the door for a long time, and only ended up seeing He Chengyi’s neighbor. The neighbor told him that he hadn’t seen He Chengyi in several days.
“The notice at the door of the store was even handwritten by him,” said Zou Shun.
Fang Mo was puzzled: “Does this mean something important?”
Zou Shun’s tone sounded very sad, but what he said was completely irrelevant: “His handwriting looked so good.”
Fang Mo didn’t know how to answer and didn’t know whether to laugh or cry.
“What do I do?” Zou Shun asked.
“Why don’t you… leave a note?” Fang Mo said, “He’ll be able to see it when he comes back.”
“I tried,” Zou Shun said, “but the security of his house is too tight, so I can’t put it inside. I can only buy a notepad and stick it on the door, but that’ll easily fall off.”
“Let’s first stick something on. You can always go back again in two days. You can’t stay there forever. Come back today.”
Zou Shun was quiet for a while after listening and sighed.
~
Just as Fang Mo hung up the phone, he turned around to find Xu Xiran sitting on his chair. He sat backwards with his legs spread apart, lying forward on the back of the chair with a pensive look on his face.
“It’s over,” this guy frowned and said in a heavy tone, “He couldn’t bear the blow of losing him, so he left home.”
Fang Mo was surprised, then went over and lightly slapped him: “Stop talking nonsense.”
“Think about it, from a young age, he was originally a straight man, so being played by a boy who is more than ten years younger than him would be such a huge blow,” Xu Xiran forced an analysis, “He must have felt like he wasted his time and wanted to get out of this sad place to start over.”
“You are no longer reasoning,” Fang Mo complained, “You might as well be a screenwriter.”
“Do I not sound reasonable?” Xu Xiran looked up at him.
To be honest, it really did seem like that.
Although he originally felt sour when he mistakenly thought that everything was going well for Zou Shun, Fang Mo still didn’t want his good friend to be sad. If Xu Xiran’s analysis was true, it would be a pity if the two clearly liked each other but missed the chance because of a misunderstanding.
Seeing Fang Mo’s worried face, Xu Xiran also overturned what he said before: “It’s also possible that he just went out for a trip to relax.”
Fang Mo nodded: “That’s right, that possibility is much higher.”
The two were quiet for a while, then Xu Xiran suddenly said, “Do you have someone you like?”
The topic changed too fast. Fang Mo was stunned, and soon blushed and panicked.
“Why are you asking this all of a sudden?”
Xu Xiran raised his eyes and stared at him: “You said so last night.”
“I did?”
“Yes,” Xu Xiran said, “You said that it’s a very happy thing to have someone you like, and you seemed like you really understood how that felt.”
Fang Mo pursed his lips tightly and did not dare to speak.
He was getting more and more unable to control his telltale signs, and his ambiguous emotions swelled up too fast that they were getting out of control and were almost impossible to hide.
He was afraid of being found out by Xu Xiran.
But at the same time, he was also secretly looking forward to it. What would Xu Xiran do if he found out? Would it be possible that this would change the relationship between them?
Would Xu Xiran part ways with him, like how he did to that friend in high school? Would it be possible that Xu Xiran was willing to re-examine and define the relationship between the two of them?
“Who is it?” Xu Xiran asked.
“What? Who what?” Fang Mo turned his head, “Don’t try and guess, do you really think you are a great detective?”
After he said this, Xu Xiran didn’t answer. The space became quiet, and the atmosphere became a little weird.
Fang Mo felt apprehensive, and carefully glanced back. He saw that Xu Xiran lowered his eyes, and his expression looked extremely disappointed.
“Let me tell you, the heart of a sick person is very fragile,” he muttered softly.
“…Ah?” Fang Mo was puzzled for a moment.
“You even want to hide it from me,” Xu Xiran said, “You must have told Zou Shun.”
“……”
“Forget it,” Xu Xiran stood up, “It’s fine if you don’t want to tell me. I’m heading back.”
~
Xu Xiran felt like his condition had worsened.
He lay in bed on his side, and held his beloved body pillow in his arms, feeling dizzy with a heavy heart.
Fang Mo was not enough of a friend to him.
Xu Xiran was not happy. He felt depressed for a while and was a little dejected. Why am I suddenly acting like a little girl? Getting all angry because my good brother has someone he trusts more?
He had never had this kind of experience in his life before. It was too strange and he couldn’t get used to it, and couldn’t help but despise himself.
He subconsciously guessed who Fang Mo liked.
After thinking about it, he felt that it was probably someone he didn’t know at all. During this period of time, they met almost every day, and he didn’t notice anyone that Fang Mo cared too much about.
It was certainly not Zou Shun. Fang Mo’s hope for Zou Shun’s love life to go smoothly was all over his face, and it was too real to pretend.
Perhaps, Fang Mo already liked this person before he met him, and Zou Shun also knew that person, so he only shared it with Zou Shun and didn’t tell himself.
This was reasonable, and it would mean that he didn’t value Zou Shun more than himself.
Xu Xiran built a story for Fang Mo in his heart and advised himself not to be so narrow-minded.
Then he began to think again, what kind of girl would be remembered by Fang Mo in his heart, and make him happy when he thought of her?
Fang Mo was so popular. He was handsome, had a good personality, and was very comfortable to be with. He had an awkward gentleness to him and had many cute little temperaments. He was so likable. He even had beautiful ankles, and his fingers were long and white. Not only did they look good, but they were also particularly dexterous in peeling eggshells.
It was strange, Fang Mo had no reason to have an unrequited love.
This girl who he liked but didn’t like him back, who could possibly be this sacred?
As he thought and thought, he began to feel sleepy. Just as he was about to fall asleep, he heard a knock on the bedroom door. Xu Xiran felt unwell physically and mentally from the inside out and felt annoyed, and didn’t want to answer, so he pulled his blanket over to cover his head.
Then, he heard the voice of the person he was just thinking about from outside the door.
“Xu Xiran, are you asleep?” Fang Mo was probably afraid of waking him up, so he kept his voice low, “I’ve brought you something to eat.”
Xu Xiran immediately pulled back his blanket: “Coming!”
~
As the saying goes, recovery is as slow as reeling silk.
His fever had completely subsided after another day, but the discomfort in his body lasted for a week. He couldn’t keep his spirits up, his back was sore, and he always felt fatigued.
He really didn’t have any energy to do anything other than class, so he simply called in sick for all his club activities.
When he finally attended again, he found that at the rehearsal, the club was already in good shape.
As the competition was approaching closer, the performers wore their character costumes during rehearsals to adapt in advance. Zou Shun was very trustworthy, and had a positive and earnest attitude at the rehearsal. His movements and expressions were quite in place, and he looked like he was enjoying it.
Fang Mo had class today, so he didn’t come to join in on the action. After losing this bridge, Xu Xiran and Zou Shun didn’t have much friendship between each other and didn’t have much to say to one another.
Compared to Xu Xiran, Zou Shun got along much better with the girls in the club.
When he first came here, being surrounded by a group of girls made him feel stiff and at a complete loss. But after seeing each other so many times, he soon became a part of their group.
When asked if he had a girlfriend, he straightforwardly told them that he only liked men, and was taken aback by the girls’ reactions.
Now, they’ve all become like sisters to him.
Xu Xiran only greeted him in the beginning and had no communication with him after that.
He actually really wanted to chat and ask about his current situation. Fang Mo had mentioned a few days ago that Zou Shun went to look for that man again, but still to no avail. He didn’t know if there had been any progress since.
But as a straight man, although he was curious, he didn’t want to gossip too much. On top of that, if there were any updates, Fang Mo would definitely be unable to resist reporting back to him, so there was no need to find this out for himself.
Unexpectedly, as the rehearsal was coming to an end, Zou Shun took the initiative to come to him.
“Are you free?” He grinned at Xu Xiran, “I’ll treat you to dinner.”
Xu Xiran was very surprised.
~
Very soon, he learned the reason why.
“Fang Mo told me you said this,” Zou Shun looked a little embarrassed, “I don’t have many straight guy friends… except for Fang Mo. But Fang Mo and I are very close, and his views are too subjective, so it’s useless to ask him about certain things.”
Xu Xiran thought to himself, Fang Mo is really a talkative person, thanks to the “Mo”1 character in his name, he is too good at talking.
“…What I said may not be of much value.” Xu Xiran was very modest in front of him, “It’s all without a solid basis, and I still had a fever when I said this, so it might not necessarily make sense.”
Zou Shun clearly didn’t like this answer very much. He looked disappointed, with a pained smile: “Oh, I see.”
“But it can still be counted as having some basis.” Seeing him sad, Xu Xiran couldn’t help but comfort him, “He must definitely care about you.”
Zou Shun nodded, and then asked a question that Fang Mo had asked before: “If you suddenly couldn’t contact Fang Mo, would you go look for him?”
Xu Xiran hesitated for a moment, then nodded: “Yeah, I would.”
Fang Mo was such a worrying guy. Xu Xiran felt that if they lost contact for more than 24 hours, it would make him feel restless.
Zou Shun, who looked a little sad at first, suddenly laughed for some reason.
He meaningfully nodded slowly, then propped his head on the table with one hand and smiled at Xu Xiran.
“I’ve suspected you for a while,” he said, “Be honest with me, do you like our Momo?”
Xu Xiran’s brain went on strike for five seconds, then he finally came to his senses: “Hah? What are you talking about?”
“You like Momo, don’t you?” Zou Shun said, “You think that He Chengyi came to find me because he likes me, and you also think that you would go and find Momo, doesn’t that mean you like him?”
He was secretly substituting concepts, and Xu Xiran wanted to refute, but for a while, he couldn’t find a suitable sentence to say because his mind was in disarray.
While he was still in a daze with his mouth open, Zou Shun spoke again: “And… if I’m not mistaken… you were quite hostile to me before, right?”
“No, I was…”
I thought you liked Fang Mo and wanted to stand in for Fang Mo. This would be too embarrassing to say out loud.
Xu Xiran continued to unwillingly suffer and felt restless.
“Honestly speaking, are you actually straight?” Zou Shun asked.
“I am,” Xu Xiran said, feeling great injustice, “He and I are good brothers, okay? Forget it, it’s not weird that you can’t understand the friendship between us straight men.”
He wanted to end this topic quickly, but Zou Shun refused to let go.
“Our Momo is a straight man killer,” he raised an eyebrow, as if it was true, “There have been more than one or two who have claimed to be straight men at first, but then ended up chasing him later on.”
Xu Xiran was shocked.
Without any reason, he felt that Zou Shun’s words were very credible.
“In your conscience, do you have any intentions for him?” Zou Shun looked at him in a serious manner.
Xu Xiran quickly shook his head: “I really don’t!”
“Why are you so nervous?” Zou Shun clicked his tongue, and then smiled at him, “I think you look quite reliable. If you like Momo, I can help you. He’s very close with me and trusts me a lot, you know that right?”
Xu Xiran opened his mouth, struggled for a moment, then looked away: “Stop messing around, I really don’t.”
Zou Shun pursed his lips, looked at him without saying a word, and finally sighed.
“Alright,” he said, “it’s fine if you don’t admit it.”
