Sun Zhuoyu couldn’t process the situation even after sitting down in the cafeteria. He looked dazed. Lu Ze placed the braised beef rice in front of him and instructed, “Eat.”
Sun Zhuoyu ate a couple of bites, then looked up at Lu Ze. Lu Ze looked back at him. Sun Zhuoyu ate two more bites, then looked up at Lu Ze again.
Lu Ze was amused by his silly behavior and asked, “What do you want to ask?”
Sun Zhuoyu finally blurted out the question he had been holding back, “Why?”
“There’s no why,” Lu Ze said.
“You’re not just acting out because you were provoked?” Sun Zhuoyu asked.
Lu Ze cleared his throat, “…No.”
“You really like guys?” Sun Zhuoyu continued asking, “Didn’t you always like girls before? Can this thing change just like that?”
Lu Ze felt a bit guilty being questioned like this. Just as he was thinking about telling the truth, Sun Zhuoyu suddenly slapped the table and exclaimed in shock, “Holy shit, Lu Ze, you…”
Lu Ze was startled, “I what?”
Sun Zhuoyu looked around, leaned in, and said in a low voice, “Don’t tell me I turned you gay?”
After a brief moment of shock, Lu Ze raised his leg and kicked him under the table, “Sun Zhuoyu, what the hell are you thinking! How could you possibly turn me gay?”
“Why couldn’t I?” Sun Zhuoyu protested, “When I’m not standing next to you, I’m not bad-looking, right? I have a good body, good personality, and I treat you well. How could I not…”
As he kept going on, Lu Ze kicked him again, “Just based on the first point, you’re out. If I were to find someone, I’d find someone who looks better than me when standing next to me.”
“Damn…” Sun Zhuoyu pulled his legs back.
Lu Ze looked at him, exasperated, “Even if I really liked you, how could I still help you pursue the senior girl? Am I an idiot?”
Sun Zhuoyu said quietly, “Well, I didn’t succeed in pursuing her anyway…”
Lu Ze glared at him for a while, feeling exhausted, and just lowered his head to eat.
Sun Zhuoyu moved his plate next to Lu Ze for easier conversation. He leaned close to Lu Ze’s ear and whispered, “If it’s not because of me, is it Maomao? Do you like him?”
Damn, Lu Ze couldn’t even bear to imagine it. He said with a straight face, “Even a rabbit doesn’t eat grass by its own nest.”
“Then who do you like?” Sun Zhuoyu asked, “You couldn’t have just turned gay for no reason, right?”
Lu Ze searched through his handsome friends in his mind and found that none of them worked. They were too familiar. In the end, only Liang Xiao’s face remained.
He sighed and said, “You don’t need to know.”
—
A few days after Lu Ze came out publicly, Mao Xin finally became aware of the discussions about Lu Ze. That night, he rushed into the dorm, panting, “Ze, Ze-ge, I saw them saying…”
Lu Ze sprang up from the bed like a carp and quickly said, “I’m going to the bathroom. Dayu, explain for your master.”
With a “bang,” Lu Ze closed the bathroom door, sat on the toilet lid, took out his phone, and sent a message to Liang Xiao: [Xiao-ge, are you done with work?]
Liang Xiao: [Mm]
Lu Ze stared at this “Mm,” not knowing what to say next. He instinctively felt that he needed to ask Liang Xiao for help in this situation, but he didn’t know exactly what kind of help he needed.
As he was typing and deleting, Liang Xiao took the initiative to ask: [Need to chat?]
Lu Ze gritted his teeth: [Mm]
Lu Ze: [I want to post something on my Moments to show off, can you send me a few nice things to say?]
Lu Ze had never paid attention to how same-sex couples interact, so he didn’t know what “nice things” meant in this context. Liang Xiao didn’t have any male clients, so he might not know either.
Just as he was about to force himself to explain further, several messages came from the other side.
Liang Xiao: [Have you gone to sleep, baby?]
Liang Xiao: [It’s going to rain and get colder tomorrow, dress warmly and remember to bring an umbrella. I’ll pick you up after class.]
Liang Xiao: [Good night]
Lu Ze stared at these messages. For the first minute, it was as if he had suddenly forgotten how to read. He looked at them over and over again without understanding what sentences these characters formed.
When he finally reacted, he almost dropped his phone.
Holy shit!!!
He looked down at his phone, which had fallen face-down on the tile floor. He couldn’t move, didn’t want to pick it up.
This is so damn mushy!
If he had sent this to his girlfriend, Lu Ze could have made it even mushier, but this was Liang Xiao sending it to him! That cool guy! Liang Xiao! Sending this to him!
He knew Liang Xiao, had seen his face, heard his voice, so when reading these sentences, he automatically imagined it, and it was no different from Liang Xiao saying it to his face!
Damn!
Lu Ze sat on the toilet lid for a few minutes before bending down to pick up his phone. The screen protector was shattered, but the screen wasn’t.
He peeled off the screen protector and, without daring to look up, unnecessarily explained: [Okay, my phone just fell]
Lu Ze: [I thought you didn’t have any male clients, so I figured you’d have to think about what to send me]
Liang Xiao: [It’s the same for men and women]
Lu Ze slowly let out a breath. Right, it’s all the same, nothing to make a fuss about. He glanced at the time, only ten minutes had passed, so he said to Liang Xiao: [Why don’t we chat for half an hour so it’s worth the money?]
Liang Xiao: [No need]
Liang Xiao: [I won’t charge you]
Sun Zhuoyu knocked on the door outside, “Master, I’ve explained everything. Are you going to hide until tomorrow morning?”
Lu Ze clicked his tongue and said loudly, “Coming.”
He scrolled through the emojis but couldn’t find a suitable one. After thinking for a moment, he simply opened WeChat’s camera function and recorded a video of himself snapping his fingers, then sent it over.
He pushed open the door and walked out. Mao Xin immediately looked over and gave him a thumbs up, “Ze-ge, you’re so cool. You actually came out in public. I thought it was fake.”
Lu Ze raised his chin, “Eat more fruit while it’s still fresh.”
Mao Xin peeled a banana and followed behind him, asking, “Ze-ge, is Han Jing really into girls too? And who do you actually like? Tell us, we promise not to spread it around.”
Lu Ze frowned, “What does this have to do with Han Jing?”
“I saw people criticizing you, saying you’re gay but still pursued Han Jing, deceiving her feelings. Han Jing explained that you two broke up because she likes girls.”
Lu Ze sighed. Han Jing’s character was indeed good, but unfortunately… it wasn’t meant to be.
Sun Zhuoyu also gave him a thumbs up, “I just heard about this from Maomao. You two are really something else. It’s the first time I’ve seen a breakup where both people’s sexual orientations changed. People might think you two got some kind of trauma from dating.”
Lu Ze chuckled and climbed back into bed. Mao Xin continued to hang on the edge of his bed, eating a banana, “Ze-ge, don’t dodge the question. I’m so curious, who could make you turn gay just like that?”
Lu Ze looked at him numbly, thinking, “If I say there’s no one, would you believe me? I just made it up on the spot.”
Unfortunately, Mao Xin couldn’t receive his brain waves. Lu Ze pushed his forehead, “Even eating can’t shut you up. Just keep being curious then, Maomao.”
Lu Ze had given up on posting on Moments. He couldn’t even look at those messages again, let alone post them – it would kill him. He opened his phone, thinking about how to explain to Liang Xiao why he didn’t post on Moments, when he realized Liang Xiao had actually replied to him earlier.
Lu Ze raised his eyebrows in surprise. It was a very short voice message.
He played it, and Liang Xiao didn’t speak, he just snapped his fingers in response.
How childish.
Lu Ze smiled. Liang Xiao doing things like this always amused him. It seemed a bit at odds with his cool guy image, but somehow it wasn’t wrong either.
Mao Xin was right there, and Lu Ze tried to hold it in, but he couldn’t. After a few seconds, he burst out laughing.
Mao Xin asked very directly, “Who are you chatting with that makes you laugh so happily? Is it your boyfriend?”
Lu Ze suddenly choked on his saliva, his laughter turning into earth-shattering coughs. His fingertip accidentally tapped on the voice message, sending his string of coughs to Liang Xiao.
By the time he realized it, it was too late. The time to recall the message had passed.
Lu Ze fell back on his pillow, his face full of despair, wondering if Liang Xiao would think he was crazy.
He pointed a finger at Mao Xin, “You, spit out the banana you ate from me.”
T/N : I’ll be translating this novel from now on~
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