“Ge, what are you looking at?”
“Nothing. Just focus on driving.”
Sheng Min withdrew his gaze. In the rearview mirror just now, a black sedan had flashed past. It looked a lot like Li Xuan’s car, but it was moving too fast to catch the license plate.
It was now seven in the morning. From here to the software park would take almost an hour. If Li Xuan made a round trip, he probably wouldn’t need to rest at all. Sheng Min couldn’t help but glance at the rearview mirror again. The street behind was empty except for a few pedestrians passing by. As expected, he’d mistaken what he saw.
He let out a quiet sigh, not exactly disappointed but finding himself missing him a little. He took out his phone, intending to send a message, but then thought Li Xuan might still be asleep. He wasn’t sure if Li Xuan had set his phone to silent. Better to wait, Sheng Min decided, eventually putting the phone away.
“Ge!” Yang Xu called him again.
“What is it?”
“I’ve called you several times.”
“I heard you.” The sun was slowly rising, its rays streaming through the windshield, glaringly bright. Sheng Min pulled down the sun visor. “By the way, didn’t I tell you to go home and stay with Auntie? Just meet me at the airport this afternoon. Liu Jia can handle the morning’s schedule.”
“You’re trying to get rid of me.” Yang Xu immediately grumbled. “I’m not falling for that! I really don’t know what that male fox spirit has fed you…”
“Yang Xu!” Sheng Min raised his voice slightly. Before he could say more, Yang Xu’s eyes reddened, and he dragged out his voice, “Gee…”
“What are you doing? Stop that. Didn’t you say the director was short an actor last time? I’ll recommend you for the role, how about that?” Sheng Min thought about Yang Xu’s words calling Li Xuan a male fox spirit and found it amusing. He pulled out a few tissues and handed them over. “What’s with the crying? Are you a child?”
Yang Xu stubbornly sniffled. “I’m not crying! You’re the one acting like a child, following him just because he gives you candy!”
Sheng Min stayed silent for a moment. Yang Xu, worried he had gone too far and upset Sheng Min, wiped his eyes and stole a glance at his expression.
“Focus on driving,” Sheng Min said without any sign of anger, simply reminding him, “If you’re going to talk, don’t fiddle with the steering wheel.”
Yang Xu sulkily stared at the traffic light in the distance. For some reason, although it was green, the cars were still stuck. “I just don’t understand what you like about him…”
“He’s good-looking.” Sheng Min smiled slightly.
“You’re good-looking yourself. You could just look in the mirror a few more times instead of being smitten by his looks!” Yang Xu exclaimed, as if admitting that Li Xuan was good-looking or had any other good qualities was difficult for him.
“I don’t know either,” Sheng Min tilted his head, thinking for a moment before smiling softly again. “But what can I do? I really want to savor this candy he gave me for a while longer.”
His tone was so gentle and his expression so serene that even someone as talkative as Yang Xu was left speechless. After a long silence, Yang Xu reluctantly said, “Ge, if he dumped you once, he could do it again…”
“He never dumped me, whether you believe it or not. From the moment we met until now, there’s nothing he’s done to wrong me.”
Yang Xu wouldn’t listen, still looking distressed. “I’m just worried you’ll be taken advantage of. I’m afraid he’s deceiving you.”
Sheng Min recalled the self-deprecating look on Li Xuan’s face when he mentioned Yang Xu thinking he was a liar. “He won’t… Even if he did deceive me, I’d still feel like I got the better end of the deal. What’s wrong with that?”
“What’s so good about that?! Are you just going to let him keep fooling forever?”
“How long do you think ‘forever’ is?” Sheng Min asked calmly. Yang Xu was taken aback and stammered, unable to respond.
“I’m happy right now, happier than I’ve ever been.” The traffic ahead began moving slowly. Sheng Min took a sip from his water bottle and added, seemingly out of nowhere, “But I’ve stopped thinking about how long it needs to last. I used to think ‘forever’ meant a lifetime. All those scripts I’ve acted in wrote it that way… But during the time I haven’t seen him, I realized that’s unnecessary. Even one day is good. Every day can be the last day for me. He has the right to end it whenever he wants.”
“I don’t get it,” Yang Xu said bluntly after a long pause.
“That’s okay.” Sheng Min smiled. “I don’t fully understand it either.”
They reached the parking lot below the program studio, and Yang Xu hadn’t said another word. Along the way, he gave Sheng Min a few aggrieved and angry looks, and when he braked sharply while parking, the ornaments on the dashboard shook.
Sheng Min didn’t comment, instead opening the car door. As he was about to head to the elevator, Yang Xu caught up to him, looking torn between frustration and resignation.
“Forget it,” he sighed heavily, standing beside Sheng Min. “Ge, as long as you’re happy… I’ll follow your lead. But you’d better figure out how to deal with President Zhang.”
….
After getting his hair and makeup done, Sheng Min sent a message to Li Xuan around ten in the morning.
Aside from Li Xuan’s “goodnight” from the previous evening when he said he’d arrived back at the office, scrolling up, their conversation seemed to stop over a month ago, when Li Xuan had been out of town and had messaged asking him which cake he wanted.
At the time he had gotten so engrossed in reading the script at home that he forgot to reply. So, Li Xuan bought five different flavors, put them in the fridge, and still hadn’t finished them after three days.
Before that, there were also some very mundane conversations.
What to have for dinner, the shampoo ran out, package pickup codes…
In fact, it wasn’t much, and it was quickly flipped through, since during most of that time, they were together all day.
Every single message, even the punctuation, was so clear in Sheng Min’s mind. The only thing he couldn’t recall was how many times he had looked at these brief exchanges during the sleepless nights they spent apart.
After reading through them again, he scrolled to the end, and Li Xuan still hadn’t replied. Even after the recording ended and he got his phone back from Yang Xu, there was still nothing.
Sheng Min lightly furrowed his brows, hesitated for a moment, then sent another message.
“Have you gotten up? Is it a good time to call?”
As soon as it showed that the message had been sent, his phone rang.
“Hello.” Sheng Min picked up without thinking, smiling, but it wasn’t Li Xuan’s voice on the other end.
