WHI – Chapter 30

Chapter 30

Despite Lin Ting’s repeated assurances that he was fine, Wen Lan insisted on canceling the rest of their itinerary. Drivers picked up the others one by one, leaving only Lin Ting and Wen Lan to board the high-speed train back.

“You… going home?” Wen Lan’s tone was hesitant.

Lin Ting smiled, his gaze unfocused. “It’s fine. He wouldn’t dare do anything at home. I didn’t expect…”

As he spoke, Lin Ting suddenly recalled Gu Jiang knocking on his door multiple times. He had thought it was out of concern back then.

After all, Su Li and Gu Yi were at home… If not for this chance encounter, he might never have known that the seemingly respectable ‘successful man’ was actually a beast in human clothing.

His mother, however, was still in the dark.

“Alright,” Wen Lan breathed a long sigh of relief. “If anything happens, just tell me.”

The high-speed train ride back felt slow and long. Lin Ting dozed off several times, reliving entire lifetimes in his dreams. When he woke, he found himself still trapped in this one.

It was as if some karmic debt remained unpaid, and he had been sent back here to settle it.

Wen Lan’s home was close to the Gu family’s. Lin Ting had said, “You should go back first,” twice, but Wen Lan stubbornly insisted on escorting him to the Gu family doorstep.

Lin Ting no longer resisted.

“We’re here. You can go back now,” Lin Ting said, standing at the entrance of the Gu house.

Wen Lan glanced behind him. “Okay. Contact me anytime if you need anything.”

“How many times have you said that on the way?” Lin Ting nodded and turned to go inside.

Once he reached the second floor, he returned to his room and opened the window. From his angle, he could just catch a glimpse of the Gu family entrance.

Wen Lan’s figure had shrunk to a small dot, slowly receding along the road, growing smaller and smaller, and further and further away.

Such a good Wen Lan, who was so good to everyone.

He, who selfishly desired to possess Wen Lan, was like someone attempting to stain a white cloth of friendship with ink.

Lin Ting’s strength drained away, and he curled up on the bed, falling asleep.

This sleep, however, did not last until the next day as Lin Ting had hoped.

Perhaps only a few hours had passed – Lin Ting judged this from the deep blue sky outside the window.

Su Li knocked on his door.

“Lin Ting.” Su Li’s voice was colder than usual. Even though her volume was low, Lin Ting jolted awake from his dream as if he had never been asleep.

Lin Ting opened the door. His mother’s gaze swept over his neck, face, and arms.

“You disgust me.”

Disgust? How many times had Lin Ting heard that word today?

But this was the first time he had been told he was the one who disgusted someone.

So this was retribution, something that had to be paid.

“What’s wrong with me?” Lin Ting’s voice turned cold. He didn’t even have the energy to lift his head to look at her.

“Gu Jiang is in the hospital. You hit him, and you also…” Su Li’s voice faltered, as if the words that followed were too difficult to utter.

“You believe him?” Lin Ting’s eyes suddenly welled up, unable to control himself.

Even a moment ago, he hadn’t expected to be so weak.

Perhaps it was from listening to too many nursery rhymes and fairy tales as a child.

The lie that he would always be a child in his mother’s eyes had been heard too many times.

“Gu Jiang, did he say he has a photo?” Lin Ting slowly regulated his breathing, tears uncontrollably sliding down to the corner of his mouth.

The wound on his lip stung.

Su Li raised a corner of her mouth and smiled. “So, everything he said is true, isn’t it? Just because he wanted to talk to you, to get you back on the right track, you beat him up? I never interfered with you because I knew what kind of person you were. Your Uncle Gu doesn’t understand you. He meant well, and this is how you treat him?”

“What… what kind of person am I? Su Li! Don’t you know?” Lin Ting’s voice trembled, growing louder and louder. The air in his throat was filled with gasps, then turned into a plea. “Mom, Mom, I’m your biological son. I’m not a bad person. I never wanted to fight. Gu Jiang, what he said is all lies. I’m telling the truth, Mom, please believe me just once.”

Lin Ting’s face was streaming with tears, looking nothing like an 18-year-old boy.

For a moment, Su Li thought the person in front of her was still the child who held her hand and begged to go to the circus. “You tell me.”

A faint, almost imperceptible smile touched Lin Ting’s lips. “Gu Jiang, he’s gay.”

Su Li’s eyes instantly sharpened. Just as she was about to say something, Lin Ting made a shushing gesture.

“I went with a classmate… for a birthday. Because I didn’t know my own birthday, I just celebrated it casually. Then I ran into Gu Jiang. He first showed me a photo and asked me. I explained it was just a joke between classmates, but he insisted I was… that’s not the point. The point is he wanted… me… he grabbed me and wouldn’t let me go. I had no choice but to kick him. He made the first move, Mom, not me.”

Lin Ting poured out the most coherent explanation he could manage at that moment, but he felt there was still insufficient ‘evidence.’ He added, “Mom, think about it. The person who was abandoned by his own biological mother back then, why would Gu Jiang, someone unrelated to me, whom I’d never met, generously bring me from Yuzhou to S City?”

Lin Ting’s pupils trembled slightly. He waited silently for his sentence.

The ensuing silence was so long it almost suffocated Lin Ting.

“Lin Ting.” Su Li finally spoke.

“It’s not that I don’t want to believe you… Look at what you’re saying yourself,” Su Li’s face was filled with disdain and mockery. “You’re 18 now, you should grow up. I still hope you can be more normal.”

“Normal?” Lin Ting frowned. Yet, he smiled and raised his hand to wipe away his tears. “What is normal? Is it normal for men to like women? Or is it normal for a man who clearly likes men to ‘normally’ find a woman to marry and have children, pretending to be ‘normal’? When a stepfather tries to molest his stepson, is he the one who’s not normal, or am I?”

Even as he tried desperately to control his emotions, the questioning voice from his throat, mixed with sobs, grew louder and louder.

As soon as he finished speaking, Su Li’s palm slapped directly onto Lin Ting’s face – all the noise came to an abrupt halt.

It hurt so much.

In the past, when he fought with others, even when those burly men punched him in the face, it hadn’t hurt this much.

“You’re truly insane,” Su Li said.

“Mom… no, Su Li.” Lin Ting’s face, which had been slapped to the side, turned back. He spoke, “I’m wrong from the root, so naturally, everything I do is wrong. I’m tired. I don’t want your belief anymore. Gu Jiang… if you want to believe him, then believe him. Just be more careful and protect yourself. After all, your judgment in men has always been poor.”

Lin Ting no longer looked at Su Li’s expression. He returned to his room, packed a few simple belongings, and left with his bag.

Winter was truly coming.

The sky had completely darkened. Lin Ting walked step by step, following the dim, yellowish circles of light from the streetlamps.

There were few pedestrians on this road, only a few withered yellow leaves to see him off.

The wind picked up, and he unconsciously pulled his jacket tighter.

Lin Ting hadn’t planned where to go, but he found himself drawn by the scent of sandalwood, unconsciously arriving at Wen Lan’s doorstep.

He turned to leave, but Wen Lan, who was on the second floor, seemed to have been watching the window and quickly spotted him. “Lin Ting! Wait!”

It was like a small boat adrift at sea, suddenly being pulled.

Lin Ting’s feet felt like anchors. Even though his mind was telling him to leave, he couldn’t move an inch.

Wen Lan quickly came downstairs. “Lin Ting, you…”

The moisture in Lin Ting’s eyes and on his eyelashes was undeniable, and he couldn’t be bothered to hide it.

“I don’t have a home anymore,” Lin Ting said, then shook his head. “I never had a home to begin with…”

“Let’s go.” Wen Lan pulled him and they got onto a bicycle parked nearby.

The bicycle wobbled as it weaved through the bustling streets, carrying the little person to find his place.

They rode the bicycle for nearly an hour. Lin Ting held onto the person in front, not saying a word.

Wen Lan also remained silent.

All they could hear was the laughter of pedestrians as evening descended, the sharp honks of car horns, and the various songs from the cheap speakers of roadside shops.

Everyone seemed to be filled with laughter, as if extending out like a spiderweb, connecting to all sorts of liveliness.

Only he was a single dot.

Unable to connect, unable to be connected.

The bicycle stopped at the entrance of Wanye Club. Lin Ting followed Wen Lan off the bike.

“My room, I’ll lend it to you,” Wen Lan smiled at him.

Lin Ting knew which room he was referring to.

As the elevator slowly ascended, the scene from before repeated itself.

“Got a cigarette?” Lin Ting paused, then added, “This time I’m really going to smoke.”

Wen Lan took out a cigarette pack from his pocket, tapped one out, and handed it over. “Smoke less. I’ll give you a light when we get to the room.”

“Mmm.” Lin Ting held the cigarette between his fingers, playing with it.

After they entered the room, Wen Lan watched Lin Ting light it, then turned to leave. “The password is my birthday. You can also add your fingerprint.”

“You rode for so long to bring me here, and now you’re going back?” Lin Ting asked from behind him.

As soon as he said it, Lin Ting felt a bit awkward.

Lately, he’d been like this, subconsciously wanting to spend more time with Wen Lan, yet clearly aware that he shouldn’t.

“What I mean is,” Lin Ting leaned against the wall by the entrance, holding the cigarette between two fingers, exhaling a puff of white smoke.

“How about I tutor you again? You haven’t studied at all this week.”

Wen Lan clicked his tongue, turned around, and leaned against the doorframe, lowering his head to light a cigarette. “Study what? Study smoking?”

Lin Ting shook his head and smiled. “I might have to stay here for a while. I’ll move out once I find a place.”

Wen Lan frowned. “Why do you have to move?”

“I can’t go back, to the Gu family.”

“That’s not what I meant,” Wen Lan lowered his hand. “You’re staying here, why do you have to move?”

Lin Ting: “Until next September, when I start university, I have nowhere to go. If I stay here, then you and your dad fighting…”

Lin Ting bit his tongue hard.

Wen Lan had mentioned before that he had argued with his family, but he didn’t know the specifics, or if ‘family’ meant his father. It felt too presumptuous to say such things based on mere speculation.

He raised his eyebrows and looked at Wen Lan.

Wen Lan’s gaze pierced through Lin Ting. “I don’t fight with him every day. Besides… if we really fight, is it really that unbearable to share a room with me for a few days?”