"On a dark and windy night, I was walking alone through the Yan Family's cocktail party! I accidentally wandered into a forbidden area. Guess where it was?"
Oh-ho, there was even an interactive segment?
Before anyone could think or answer, Xia Shule continued passionately, "The back garden!"
"!" Everyone gasped along with his suspenseful delivery.
They were like a storyteller and his audience. Had they actually gotten hooked? Every one of them looked so serious.
A bunch of thirty-year-old men were playing along with a twenty-year-old kid.
"..." The enthusiastic fabrication continued...
"I originally thought he was a gardener. After we spent some time together, sparks started flying, and there was no stopping us!"
"Poor little Lele got drugged by a bad guy. He was so heartbroken that he took me to the hospital and stayed by my side the whole time. He even taught the bad guy a lesson for me. After thinking it over and over, we realized we both wanted to get married, so we decided to do it right away!"
Lai Jiangtian was engrossed in this thrilling love story, his face full of sympathy and emotion. Some parts did seem awfully familiar, as though plenty of novels had been written that way, but he didn't give it much thought.
"Oh my god, that's awful. You poor thing~"
"Mm~ Boohoo..." Xia Shule put on an aggrieved act.
Lu Mingwen didn't believe it. He zoned out beside them. Ten years had passed, and things were just as they had been back then, yet somehow different.
Back then, he had actually liked Wen Yuzhi, but Wen Yuzhi had liked Yan Zhiyi. Now, he wasn't sure whether Xia Shule liked Yan Zhiyi, but the two were married. Did he still have a chance?
Xia Shule and Lai Jiangtian were like a dung beetle and dung, drawn together by the same stink, each finding someone he could talk to. They chattered nonstop, equally melodramatic and naive.
Beside them, Yin Xian automatically shut off his left ear, tuning out Lai Jiangtian's wild flights of fancy.
Yan Zhiyi fed Xia Shule a bite of shrimp. With his mouth occupied, Xia Shule finally quieted down for a moment. While he was eating, Lai Jiangtian said something else, and Xia Shule gave him an emphatic thumbs-up.
His limbs flew everywhere. When he got excited, he liked to gesture as he spoke. "Right! That's what I think too!"
While he was flailing around, Lu Mingwen noticed a rectangular, flesh-colored patch on Xia Shule's wrist. He caught Xia Shule's waving hand and asked him a question.
"Did you get a tattoo, you little brat?"
Xia Shule looked at the flesh-colored patch. It was a scar-reduction patch Yan Zhiyi had spent a fortune buying for him, waterproof, sweatproof, and good for reducing scars. It was just a little pricey. Yan Zhiyi had bought him a whole big box at once, with hundreds, maybe a thousand patches inside. It felt like enough to last until he died.
Xia Shule pulled his wrist free. "It's a scar-reduction patch. I got hurt. You weren't listening properly earlier, were you? Drugged by a bad guy, stayed conscious, taken to the hospital. Remember those key points."
Lu Mingwen laughed in exasperation. The little brat was telling him to remember the key points? Which one of them was the teacher?
But then he realized that the scar was real, which meant the story might be real too...
Xia Shule examined the scar-reduction patch on his wrist and discovered that one corner was peeling up. No matter how he pressed it, it wouldn't stick back down, and he unconsciously began applying more force.
Apparently, he hurt himself. He hissed and didn't dare touch it again, turning to Yan Zhiyi beside him. "The edge is peeling up~"
Without saying anything, Yan Zhiyi naturally took a fresh scar-reduction patch, scar gel, and disinfectant out of his bag.
He took Xia Shule's hand and gently peeled off the old patch, wiped the area clean, and carefully disinfected it bit by bit. Then he squeezed out some scar gel, spread it over the skin, and applied a fresh patch.
His movements were practiced throughout, and the whole process took less than ten minutes.
Their friends' limits had been challenged over and over all evening. By now, seeing this no longer shocked them the way it had at the beginning.
Lai Jiangtian was having fun with Xia Shule when he suddenly received a message from Wen Yuzhi.
Wen Yuzhi: Do you have time to come out for a meal? I'm really bored all by myself. I don't know anyone here apart from you guys.
He nudged Yin Xian, then Song Jing'an, and both leaned over to look.
Song Jing'an said, "You don't have time. You're already having dinner."
Lai Jiangtian said, "I know, but what should I say? I don't know how to turn him down."
Yin Xian simply took Lai Jiangtian's phone and tapped at it a couple of times. By the time Lai Jiangtian got his phone back, the reply had already been sent.
Lai Jiangtian: No time. If you're bored, you can go share a table with someone.
Lai Jiangtian: "?"
Wen Yuzhi: All right... Sorry for bothering you.
Caught off guard, Lai Jiangtian asked, "Why are you so mean?"
Yin Xian chewed the last bite of ribs in his mouth before looking at Lai Jiangtian as though he were an idiot. "Why does he have to turn up everywhere? Doesn't he have a life of his own? He keeps coming to you because you're easy to talk into things. I said before that I had my suspicions. No need to suspect anything anymore. I'm sure now."
"He still likes Yan?"
"Guaranteed."
Xia Shule had sharp ears. He and Lai Jiangtian had been having fun when Lai Jiangtian started looking at his phone, so Xia Shule had kept watching him. Now that all three of them looked troubled, he was even more curious and pricked up his ears to listen.
He heard, "He still likes Yan?"
Did he have a romantic past? His eyes darted toward Yan Zhiyi, scrutinizing him. Yan Zhiyi had no idea why he was being looked at.
Tsk. I don't like this. I want to make a fuss. I want to throw a tantrum.
Xia Shule suddenly remembered something he had seen earlier about Yuzhi returning to the country. Could they be talking about him? Was this something from Yan Zhiyi's high school days?
Lai Jiangtian asked, "Yuzhi wasn't invited to the wedding, was he?"
Yin Xian said, "Of course not."
Just then, another message arrived.
Wen Yuzhi: Is Zhiyi getting married?
"Holy shit! How does he know?"
Lai Jiangtian: Who told you?
Wen Yuzhi: A friend I know told me.
Yin Xian couldn't help snarking, "First he says he doesn't know anyone else here, then he says a friend he knows told him."
Wen Yuzhi: Who's he marrying? How come I haven't heard anything?
Wen Yuzhi: Didn't you say he wasn't seeing anyone? What the hell, Jiang Tian? You were lying to me?
Wen Yuzhi: Come on, I already told you I stopped caring ages ago, and you're still lying to me?
Wen Yuzhi: Can you take me along? I want to wish him well too, and apologize while I'm there. I really did cause him trouble back then. I should go and clear things up.
Wen Yuzhi was certain that the person marrying Yan Zhiyi had to be that little seductress he had seen in the bamboo grove that day. He just didn't know what kind of deal the two had made to end up getting married.
Lai Jiangtian thought he sounded pretty sincere.
His face was full of indecision.
He looked to Yin Xian for help. "What should I do?"
Yin Xian flicked his gaze toward Yan Zhiyi, signaling for him to ask the person concerned.
Xia Shule: I'm listening, I'm listening, I'm listening, listening, listening.
"Yan..."
"Mm?"
One glance from Yan Zhiyi, and Lai Jiangtian lost the nerve to speak.
Lai Jiangtian didn't dare say it, but Yin Xian did. He simply felt that Yan Zhiyi might not mind what had happened back then, because Wen Yuzhi might as well not exist in his eyes. Whatever fuss he made wouldn't matter.
If Lai Jiangtian brought him along without saying anything first, though, that would be deeply disrespectful to the person concerned.
Yin Xian said, "Wen Yuzhi knows you're getting married. He said he wants to attend, and he wants to apologize to you too."
As he spoke, Yin Xian handed over Lai Jiangtian's phone.
Xia Shule's nosy little head immediately popped over to take a look.