Chapter 77
Su Bin called Shen Junfeng, and luckily, he hadn’t changed his phone number. Instead of directly asking on the phone, Su Bin arranged to meet him near the Provincial Sports University and took a taxi there.
“Hey, Biscuit! Long time no see!” As soon as they met, Shen Junfeng gave Su Bin a big hug, his strong arms patting Su Bin’s slightly slender frame. If Su Bin’s coat wasn’t quite thick, he might have been patted into a fit of coughing up blood!
However, at this moment, what Su Bin needed was this straightforward embrace. This kind of action made him feel a hint of reality, proving that the first twenty years of his life hadn’t been a facade.
After they entered college, Su Bin and Shen Junfeng hadn’t met much. This sports-loving, robust guy wasn’t much into social media, so he wasn’t influenced by public opinion. That’s why Su Bin sought him out.
“Let’s go, I’ll treat you to barbecue!” This blunt and straightforward twenty-year-old guy didn’t have the refined habit of drinking coffee or tea. He simply took Su Bin to a roadside barbecue stall.
“Boss! Twenty skewers of lamb and twenty of beef! Ten skewers of chicken hearts and ten of beef tripe, two skewers of grilled bread, two skewers of grilled eggplant… Biscuit, do you want it spicy?… Oh! Boss! Half spicy and half mildly spicy, and two glasses of draft beer!” Shen Junfeng said all of that in one breath, then looked at Su Bin who was sitting next to him and said, “Su Bin, you seem a bit different.”
Su Bin was taken aback. This was the second familiar face he had seen since returning to the country, and this person was also saying he had changed.
“What’s changed?” Su Bin reached out and took the glass of beer the boss handed him, took a sip, and smiled, “Have I become more mature?”
Shen Junfeng extended his palm to give Su Bin another smack, cursing, “Stop acting so deep!”
“Haha…” Su Bin’s beer nearly sprayed out of his mouth.
“What’s wrong with you? Did something happen? Ever since Chen Xiaotian said she was breaking up with you, I haven’t seen you with such a gloomy face. Could it be… you got dumped again?” Shen Junfeng widened his eyes.
Su Bin took a deep breath. The moist winter air of Hangzhou mixed with the faint smell of grilled meat entered his chest. “Damn, is it really that obvious?”
Shen Junfeng fell silent for a moment, then lightly patted Su Bin’s back, his hand resting on his shoulder, as he softly said, “Well, I always say, impulsive emotions don’t last long.”
Su Bin retorted, “When did you say that?”
Shen Junfeng coughed, “Well, I thought it, I didn’t say it.”
Su Bin huffed, “Damn it, let go of me. I’m not playing with you anymore!”
…Well, his idealized first love turned out to be seen like this in others’ eyes. Shen Junfeng was straightforward enough to say such things. But what about others? Maybe when they saw him with Chen Xiaotian, they congratulated on the surface but secretly wished that they would break up soon?
Shen Junfeng was amused by Su Bin’s words, “Not playing with me anymore? Are you an elementary school student? Why did you come to me if you’re not playing? Come on, spill the beans. Do you want to discuss life or do you want me to keep you company in bed? I’m up for either, buddy.”
Su Bin pushed his arm away that was draped over him and said with disdain, “Who wants you to keep me company in bed? You smell like body odor!”
Shen Junfeng laughed, using his arm to rub against Su Bin’s head and making the pungent scent even stronger.
Su Bin struggled to free himself, giving up in the end, “I came to ask you… about Dahuang.”
Shen Junfeng was taken aback, letting go of his arm. “Dahuang? What happened to him?”
Su Bin turned to look into Shen Junfeng’s eyes, hesitated for a moment, and said, “Junfeng, could you tell me about the prank we played and the bet we made about confessing to Chen Xiaotian? Dahuang and Chen Xiaotian…”
Su Bin couldn’t continue because he saw Shen Junfeng’s expression change.
“You already know?” Shen Junfeng took in a deep breath, looking a bit panicked.
Su Bin’s heart sank. As expected, everyone knew except for himself…
Shen Junfeng took a sip of his drink and said, “Actually, it wasn’t a prank. It was a play that we arranged… It was Chestnut who first realized that Dahuang was in love, with that girl from… the other class, Chen Xiaotian, right? Oh well, it’s been so long, I can’t remember exactly. Let’s focus on the key points. The bet to confess to Chen Xiaotian in front of the whole school during a broadcast wasn’t spontaneous; it was premeditated. We arranged it all. We played that game to make Dahuang lose, to make him confess…”
Su Bin furrowed his brows. “But why didn’t anyone tell me about this?” He had been inseparable from Huang Zhengming in high school. Logically speaking, if they were helping Huang Zhengming, they shouldn’t have kept it from him!
Shen Junfeng glanced at him. “Exactly because you’re close with Dahuang! Everyone knows he treats you like a little brother and spoils you. You’re even… telling him every time you go to the bathroom. Did we dare tell you? Besides, knowing Dahuang’s personality, if he found out it was our deliberate arrangement, would he go through with it? Definitely not! Actually, the game wasn’t perfectly designed, and it had an element of playfulness in it. We didn’t expect things to turn out like this. Dahuang won, and you lost… But at that time, we thought, even if Dahuang genuinely liked Chen Xiaotian, he would definitely stop you from confessing on the broadcast. So we didn’t stop it, we kept encouraging him, wanting to see if he was really sincere or not. But we didn’t expect him to say nothing! Damn, I felt like we went too far back then… But we thought that you had a good personality, even if you misunderstood after confessing, you wouldn’t get angry… Besides, Chen Xiaotian is such a cold girl, she must have been indifferent… But who could have known that she would actually come to you later!”
Shen Junfeng picked up the skewers on the plate and continued, “To be honest, we didn’t really see you and Chen Xiaotian working out back then. You were so young, who would take those feelings seriously? People thought you two were just playing house. By the time you graduated, it was almost certain, so when Chen Xiaotian brought up the breakup at the KTV, I wasn’t surprised…”
Seeing Su Bin’s lack of response, Shen Junfeng asked again, “How did you find out about this? Who spilled the beans?”
Su Bin moved his lips, whispering, “Chen Xiaotian broke up with me last month. She’s with Huang Zhengming now.”
Shen Junfeng fell silent for a moment, then cursed, “Damn…”
“Damn… How many years has it been for you guys? Oh shit! You’ve been through so much together… Huang Zhengming, he can’t be serious!”
Su Bin smiled bitterly, “I heard it from Zhang Qi.” Zhang Qi was Su Bin’s senior at the Provincial Sports University and was also his senior from high school. They didn’t have much interaction during high school, but they got to know each other after college through a gathering. Su Bin shared with Zhang Qi the sensational event from his high school days, which led him to meet Huang Zhengming and others.
Shen Junfeng was speechless. He pushed the plate away and exclaimed, “Dahuang was really out of line with this. You liked Chen Xiaotian so much, and yet he let it happen. Besides, I never saw any flirtatious behavior between him and Chen Xiaotian in private. What’s going on now? And Chen Xiaotian too! What kind of game are they playing?”
It seemed that Shen Junfeng didn’t know what happened after that. Su Bin used a bamboo skewer to poke at the meat and said with a sense of grievance, “I liked him to let it happen!”
“Hey, Biscuit, try to look at it differently…” Shen Junfeng consoled, patting Su Bin’s shoulder.
Su Bin took a sip of his drink and took out a small bag from his backpack, tossing it to Shen Junfeng.
Shen Junfeng grabbed it and looked, asking, “What’s this?”
Su Bin said, “Dabei’s signed jersey.”
Shen Junfeng was shocked, “Is it real?”
“Of course it’s real!” Su Bin rolled his eyes at him and explained how he had obtained the jersey while working part-time. He originally intended to give it to Huang Zhengming, but after learning about this situation, he couldn’t bring himself to do it. “If you don’t mind, you can keep it.”
Shen Junfeng laughed heartily, holding the jersey to his chest like a treasure. After a while, he returned to his senses and asked, “So, you were dumped while you were abroad, and then they got together behind your back?”
“Yeah…” Su Bin told Shen Junfeng about the purpose of his sudden return and said, “Don’t confront them, and you don’t have to stand up for me. I’m actually afraid of meeting them now.”
Shen Junfeng sympathized, “You’re not in the wrong, so why be afraid of them?”
Su Bin replied, “It’s just painful to see them together. I feel like cutting someone.”
Shen Junfeng chuckled, handing Su Bin two skewers of chicken hearts, “Here, mend your broken heart.”
Su Bin took them silently, but the taste was like chewing wax.
Shen Junfeng comforted him, “Actually, I didn’t think they would last…”
Su Bin smiled helplessly, “Regardless of whether we thought they would last or not, the fact is they’re together.”
In a thousand words, all that remained was a long sigh. Shen Junfeng raised his glass and clinked it with Su Bin’s, saying, “Who hasn’t encountered a few scumbags on their journey of growth? Just don’t bother with them!”
Su Bin smiled, finishing the rest of his beer.
Before leaving, Shen Junfeng suggested that Su Bin talk to Guo Li: “It seems like Chestnut gets along well with them. If you want to figure this out, you might as well talk to him.”
Su Bin nodded, “I know.”
Back at the hotel, Su Bin checked his phone and saw several messages, mostly advertisements, with two from Jin Fei. He replied casually to one of them. Among them was a message from Shen Junfeng: “Biscuit, if you have any grievances, don’t hold them in. Talk to your bros more. Bros might not have much money, but we can still afford to treat you to barbecue. Oh, and thank you for the jersey, mua~!”
Su Bin: “…”
Returning to the phone’s interface, Su Bin opened Skype and saw that Allen’s profile showed he was offline.
The last message in their conversation was his own promise: “I will.”…
Tomorrow was Christmas Eve. Allen should have gone home by now, right?
Ah, what could he do to make Allen happy? Should he buy a plane ticket to go back to B-country sooner?
Well, it’s not necessarily that Allen would be happy just by seeing him, right? … Having such thoughts made him feel a bit shameless (=_=)!
How about buying Allen a small gift with Chinese characteristics? But he had already given gifts, like the prizes they won from the club. Those seemed to have little effect, and besides, Allen didn’t seem to be that fond of China…
Su Bin suddenly realized that apart from occasionally cooking dishes that Allen didn’t hate, he didn’t really have a way to make Allen particularly happy.
This left him a bit disheartened. Su Bin tried to recall moments when Allen was pleased—
The first time he saw Allen unable to suppress a laugh, it seemed to be… when he pinned him against the wall and nibbled his neck?
The second time was after the prank at the masquerade party, when he kissed him? He remembered that Allen had been very happy then…
The third time, after the stolen kiss, when he pinned the blame on himself and said he wanted to be kissed? Allen also seemed quite delighted by how dejected he looked…
…
The nth time, after thoroughly defeating him in a game and hearing his happy “hehe”…
Damn, why did it seem like Allen was happy only when he was being bullied or played with! QAQ
