When the two of them reached a peak of confusion and anger, they got on the phone. It turned out this wasn’t a good idea; because when the peaks of the waves met, they formed a tsunami.
As soon as the beeping ended, both sides spoke at the same time. They spoke too quickly, and their voices overlapped and it was impossible to hear what the other was saying. After two seconds, they both shouted at the same time: “What did you say?”
Bian Cheng took a deep breath. “You go first.”
“What on earth were you thinking?” Wen Di said angrily. “Why didn’t you tell me about such a big issue earlier?” When emotions ran high, past memories surged like tides. Wen Di looked at scenes from the past and suddenly grasped a clear clue: “When you first saw me, you took the USB drive and turned around and left! You were planning to hide it from me from the beginning!”
“You seem to not remember me,” Bian Cheng said. “I couldn’t figure out what’s going on. I didn’t know if you were angry because I didn’t come back to find you, didn’t want to mention the past, or if you truly forgot and haven’t figured out what to do.”
“And what about next? You knew I had alcohol-induced amnesia, so why didn’t you say anything?”
“In your eyes, am I just someone you’ve only met a few times? If I suddenly told you we were married, would you believe such an absurd thing?”
Wen Di sighed, slowly sat down, and propped his empty hand against his forehead. “Most people might not believe it, but I liked you! If I knew that the person I liked had such wonderful memories with me, I would have been very happy.”
There was a moment of silence on the other end, and suddenly asked in a surprised tone: “You like me?”
Wen Di suddenly felt the blood boiling in his body wanting to scream like the famous groundhog in that viral GIF—”Ah???!”
What??! He had been like a capercaillie, jumping around in a mating dance for three months, practically writing ‘infatuated’ on his face, and the other party didn’t know???
“I didn’t like you? Did I chase you for three months just because I had nothing better to do?!” Wen Di shouted.
This time, the silence lasted even longer, and when he spoke again, the tone sounded even more shocked than before: “You were chasing me?”
Wen Di looked at the ceiling. In his imagination, he had already put a rope around his neck, hanging under the lamppost, dangling from side to side.
“I wasn’t chasing you, why did I invite you to dinner, take you to a concert, and go to a hotel with you??!” Wen Di yelled. “I’m not idle. I have to write my thesis, do odd jobs, and deal with a bunch of assistant-related nonsense. If I didn’t like you, why would I rush to send you WeChat day and night, chat with you, and ask you out?!”
“I see,” Bian Cheng sounded a bit excited. “I understand now.”
“You know now?!” Wen Di wanted to grab his neck and shake his brain out to see if there was anything else in it besides mathematical symbols. “Then what do you think I was doing in the past three months?!”
“Oh,” Bian Cheng said, “I thought you were just trying to get back at your ex-boyfriend.”
Instantly, both ends of the phone fell silent. In the living room of 301, Song Yuchi, who was standing across from Bian Cheng, opened his eyes wide and his phone fell to the ground with a snap.
What was this guy doing??!
Two seconds later, Wen Di’s brain exploded with a buzzing sound, and his anger was like gushing magma, burning his whole body: “What did you say?!”
At this moment, anyone who understood social cues would have kept quiet, but Bian Cheng continued, “Don’t you hate him very much? I thought you wanted to find someone to take revenge on him, and you just chose me.”
Wen Di froze, the blood rushing straight to his head, the veins in his temples throbbing, “How could you think that?!”
Song Yuchi on the other end desperately gestured for Bian Cheng to stop, but it did nothing to prevent him from digging his own grave, “You see, around the same time he returned to the country, you started frequently inviting me to dinner. When we ran into him at the hotel, you deliberately made him misunderstand that we were together. You even made me pretend to be your boyfriend at the class reunion.”
“I…” Wen Di was so angry that his tongue couldn’t straighten, “Do you think I had nothing better to do than to go through so much trouble to get close to you just to anger my ex-boyfriend?!”
Bian Cheng reminded him: “Five years ago, you married me just to piss off your ex-boyfriend.”
Song Yuchi began to wonder if he needed to knock out his old friend to save this marriage—he was more than willing to do so.
Wen Di on the opposite side had already entered a white-hot stage, his whole body like a main-sequence star burning fiercely.
“What’s wrong with you?” Wen Di shouted at the speaker. “I had my eye on you since the beginning of the semester! I bought the complex geometry textbook, secretly went to the Third Teaching Building to listen to your lectures, and even bothered my friend to explain topology to me, just to find a way to talk to you! When I forced myself to listen to those math textbooks, He Wenxuan was still enjoying himself in some foreign country. What does this have to do with him?!”
After saying this, he realized that he had just exposed all his infatuated behavior without needing anyone else to spill the beans, and he instantly felt a desire to enter hibernation and never wake up.
Bian Cheng was probably also shocked by his history of infatuation, and after a while, he finally said, “Alright, I understand.”
This plain irritated Wen Di again. “My ass!” Wen Di shouted. “In your eyes, am I really that kind of person? Would I drag an innocent person into this just to save face? You’re not only doubting my feelings for you, but you’re also doubting my character!”
At this point, anyone would know to deny it, but Bian Cheng responded with, “Sorry.”
Song Yuchi repeatedly knocked his head on the table. It was hopeless. This person was beyond saving.
Wen Di took deep breaths and rubbed his chest—his heart was so angry that it had started beating irregularly. “I went through all that effort to pursue you, and you’re so damn blind that you couldn’t see it? I’ve poured out my heart and soul just to drag you off to skate around in front of that fucker? Who the hell is he to deserve me going through all this trouble for him?”
Bian Cheng wasn’t really used to all the intense swearing, but this part felt strangely comforting. “Sorry,” he said.
“Is that all you can say?” Wen Di ground his teeth, “Don’t you have anything else to say?”
“…I really am sorry.”
Is this guy a broken record?! “You’ve said that so many times already! Aren’t you usually better at talking? Do you only know that one word now?”
Then, Bian Cheng actually did change the word—Wen Di’s least favorite line—“Calm down; we need to look at this rationally.”
Song Yuchi started going through his contacts; he felt it was time to find a lawyer to draft the divorce agreement.
“Who wants to be rational?!” Wen Di yelled. “I’m arguing with you; arguing is all about venting emotions!”
“You see, from my perspective, it’s easy to misunderstand,” Bian Cheng said. “You married me because of him…”
Song Yuchi felt that the civil case might escalate into a criminal case.
Wen Di couldn’t believe it. “You think this is my fault?!”
“You still have the love letters he wrote you…”
“Well, that’s because…” Halfway through, Wen Di suddenly realized something was off. “Wait, how do you know I kept the love letters?”
The scene fell into dead silence again.
“Explain it to me!” Wen Di was getting more and more panicked. “How do you know about the love letters?”
Bian Cheng paused and said, “The balcony.”
“What…”
“I was on the balcony that night, too.”
“What night…”
“Qanik,” Bian Cheng said.
Wen Di was silent for a moment, then abruptly turned his head to look out the window. Outside was the pitch-black night sky, and through the glass, he could occasionally saw a few gray flakes falling.
Snow was falling from the sky.
Wen Di frowned and then widened his eyes. The bits and pieces from the past few months were strung together into a line. It was too obvious—obvious enough to make him hate his own stupidity. He rushed past Yu Jingyi, who had been quietly watching the scene. The other party asked in surprise, “What’s wrong?” He did not answer and instead opened the door in front of him.
Bian Cheng stood in front of him with a cell phone in his hand. Behind him, the door of room 301 was open. Song Yuchi folded his arms and leaned against the door frame.
Countless messages flashed through Wen Di’s mind—insults, noise, white smoke, the camera…It was this person who almost tortured him to the point of having a nervous breakdown in the past few months!
He put down his phone and hung up. “That WeChat account is your second account?”
“Yes.”
“You have a boy in your family who is less than 1.7 meters tall?”
“My brother.”
“When did you know I lived next door?”
Bian Cheng was silent for a moment before answering, “A month ago.”
Here we go again! Just like with the marriage thing! Wen Di was about to break down—why was he always the last one to know the truth?
There were still many accounts to settle.
“You!” Wen Di pointed at him and said, “You’re the one who plays the violin in broad daylight and says I lack public morality?!”
Bian Cheng stayed quiet for a while and said, “Yes.”
“Burned the kitchen, poisoned my food, and said my handwriting is ugly, that was also you?”
“…Yes.”
“Calling Shakespeare a third-rate writer and saying I like him means I have no taste,” Wen Di one by one. “I think highly of myself and look down on other people’s efforts. I speak without logic, have no common sense, and my brain is like a paramecium..”[footnote]Basically it’s a slang, it implies that someone is lazy, stupid, and think about things through simple feelings instead of using their brains.[/footnote]
Bian Cheng opened his mouth, and Song Yuchi thought he would kneel down and apologize. Instead, he said, “I didn’t know that was you back then…”
Song Yuchi felt hopeless. It was beyond saving; just bury it.
Wen Di looked at him in disbelief. “Are you saying all of that is true?!”
“After I found out it was you next door,,” Bian Cheng replied, “I never said those things again.”
Wen Di stared at him, his finger shaking as he pointed. He took a couple of steps back and slammed the door shut with a fierce bang, accompanied by a shout:
Get lost!
The author has something to say:
Happy New Year!!
The new year still has the annoying professor!
T/N: Title is from Two Gentlemen of Verona Act 1, Scene 2
