LRAPTC Chapter 23

Chapter 23: Birthday (6)

“It’s not like that,” Ji Yuxin had just started to retort when Ji Yuanan walked in from the end of the corridor, his face not looking good. Ji Yuxin had rarely seen her brother with such a terrible expression, and she was instinctively stunned in place, forgetting what she wanted to say.

“Shen Jue.” Ji Yuanan’s expression returned to normal.

Shen Jue gave Ji Yuxin a slightly apologetic smile. Ji Yuanan came to his side, staring intently at his hand wrapped in gauze. Shen Jue noticed and raised his hand, holding it in front of Ji Yuanan’s eyes, “The doctor said it’s nothing serious.”

His tone was light, Shen Jue didn’t want Ji Yuanan to feel unnecessary guilt because of him. Because even if Ji Yuxin had been the one in danger, Shen Jue would still have chosen to step forward, he wouldn’t have stood by.

Despite saying this, the truth was that Ji Yuanan’s mood had not improved. He didn’t want to see anyone he cared about get hurt in front of him.

The moment he witnessed the accident, Ji Yuanan felt like his heart had almost stopped beating. As a result, this Shen Jue refused everyone after the accident, not willing to let anyone accompany him.

He could even smile. Ji Yuanan thought angrily at the time.

And now, Shen Jue seemed to finally find a trace of conscience, revealing his only vulnerability to Ji Yuanan, leaning lightly on Ji Yuanan’s shoulder. The fragrance surrounding Ji Yuanan was faint, but Shen Jue coveted everything about Ji Yuanan. He closed his eyes and said softly, “I’m a little tired, can we go back now?”

Ji Yuanan surrendered instantly.

Although his hand was a little injured, Shen Jue felt that his life hadn’t been greatly affected, except for occasional inconveniences. After Zhao Youming found out, he rarely expressed any opinions, just looking at his friend with some worry. Zhao Youming wasn’t really sure to what extent Shen Jue’s affection for Ji Yuanan had reached.

As it approached dinner time, Shen Jue had to go back. Since returning from the party that day, Shen Jue had been forbidden from entering the kitchen, and all three meals a day were contracted to the housekeeper. The thoughtfulness went far beyond that, and Shen Jue certainly knew that all of this stemmed from Ji Yuanan’s guilt, even if Shen Jue emphasized that he was really fine. So Shen Jue obediently accepted all of Ji Yuanan’s kindness.

Shen Jue obediently finished the chicken soup stewed by the housekeeper, and went to the sofa to sit down with a pillow on his own. Every night at 6:30, he would turn on the TV on time to watch documentaries broadcast by the TV station.

The light projected in the room was close to dim yellow. Shen Jue leaned back on the sofa listening to the commentator introduce the Pacific Ocean, the largest sea area on Earth, which contained too many unknown marine creatures. When the camera lens focused on the great white shark in the sea, Ji Yuanan walked over and sat next to him.

Shen Jue felt the sofa next to him sink a little. After Ji Yuanan sat down, he didn’t say anything, just quietly watching the documentary with Shen Jue.

A few days later, the gauze was removed from Shen Jue’s hand, and the wound eventually left a shallow scar, becoming part of his body.

At that time, they encountered a rare and beautiful sunset, which the internet called the sunset of the century, which sounded like a very rare scene. Shen Jue didn’t feel anything about this kind of title, he just thought that day’s sunset was indeed very beautiful. Except for Yu Zhuo’s paintings, he had never seen such intense colors before.

Song Jing, who had initially clamored to see the sunset of the century, accidentally met an old friend and left them to catch up, disappearing first. A large group of people gathered on the seawall to take pictures. Shen Jue, who always recorded the scenery with his eyes, didn’t plan to join in the fun.

Ji Yuanan didn’t go either. He sat next to Shen Jue, looking at the sky that was burned red, and thought of his student days.

At that time, it was popular to rotate seats every week, so every three weeks, Ji Yuanan would sit by the window again. Once, close to the end of school, he inadvertently looked up at the outside of the window, and a large area of pink and purple sunset was framed by the square window. Ji Yuanan really couldn’t describe the feeling at that moment.

Later, Ji Yuanan had seen countless sunsets, and he was no longer surprised by this kind of beauty, but he thought he probably couldn’t forget today’s sunset.

Perhaps bewitched by the beautiful scenery, Ji Yuanan rarely revealed his inner thoughts to Shen Jue. He talked about a spectacular sunset he had seen and later regretted not seeing it with someone important.

“Then did you realize it later?” Shen Jue asked him pretending to be relaxed, “Did you watch the sunset with that person?”

“Yes. I realized it.”

Shen Jue listened to Ji Yuanan’s unusually gentle reply, trying to show a decent smile, but he failed, and in the end he could only barely raise the corners of his mouth, saying, “That’s good.”

Then he couldn’t say anything nice anymore, nor could he say jokes between friends such as “What a pity, but you can only watch it with me today.”

Ji Yuanan must be very disappointed, Shen Jue thought at the time, so he made up his mind to shut up and not speak, and didn’t turn his head to look at his expression, thus missing Ji Yuanan’s hesitation.

The sudden sound of music completely blocked the words Ji Yuanan hadn’t said, and then he completely lost this opportunity. Shen Jue looked in the direction of the sound. Not far from him, someone was holding a microphone, looking like they were going to hold a seaside concert, and people had already begun to gather around.

The sky gradually darkened, and lights lit up around. That person started to sing, and people joined in one after another. Shen Jue and Ji Yuanan didn’t move.

They quietly listened to this song, and then heard that person slowly say: “This song ‘Special Person’ is dedicated to everyone, I hope everyone can find their own special person. If you have already found them, then kiss them now.”

They turned to look at each other at the same time.

Shen Jue suddenly thought of the lyrics: We are each other’s special person. Ji Yuanan is his special person.

He saw Ji Yuanan blink his eyes very lightly. What to do, Shen Jue thought, suddenly wanting to kiss him a little.

He thought so and did so, as if possessed. The next second, Shen Jue leaned forward and kissed Ji Yuanan’s lips.

In an instant, all the noise disappeared from his ears. The people around were busy, busy with their own affairs, and wouldn’t notice them, wouldn’t care whether they were truly in love. Even if someone accidentally saw this scene, they would only think that they were an ordinary couple, no different from the thousands of couples in this world. Shen Jue suddenly felt relieved.

At least Ji Yuanan didn’t push him away. For a moment, Ji Yuanan seemed to really love him.

After the kiss, Shen Jue raised his hand to hold Ji Yuanan’s slightly open mouth, his hand, which had only recently had the gauze removed, wasn’t very used to making large movements, but Shen Jue insisted, resolutely not letting Ji Yuanan say a word, then he lowered his eyes.

Ji Yuanan was wearing a basic polo shirt today, with one button casually unbuttoned. His hand was half bent, supporting himself on the grass, and he hadn’t had time to take off the watch on his wrist. Shen Jue had no doubt that Ji Yuanan could easily blend into a nearby university wearing this outfit.

Time was infinitely prolonged in the silence. Shen Jue didn’t know how long had passed. Song Jing, who had been missing for a long time, finally came back, but a little inappropriately. He trotted over in small steps, stopped next to them, and said in surprise, “I didn’t expect you two to still be here.” He broke the silence between the two. Hearing this, Shen Jue quickly put down his hand.

A few seconds later, Song Jing realized the strange atmosphere between the two, and even their postures were slightly strange. He asked in confusion, “What are you two doing? Why are you sitting in this position? It feels weird… Are you okay? Did you quarrel…”

“It’s okay.” Ji Yuanan spoke first, his tone steady, his expression calm, as if nothing had just happened.

It didn’t look like nothing at all, Song Jing didn’t believe it, his eyes swept back and forth between the two. Seeing that neither of them was willing to say anything, he finally wisely didn’t ask anything more.

On the way back, to avoid embarrassment, Shen Jue closed his eyes and pretended to be asleep as soon as he got in the car, not giving Ji Yuanan any possibility to communicate with him. Ji Yuanan turned his head to look at him several times along the way, but he was always in a sleeping posture.

In the end, Shen Jue actually fell asleep. Ji Yuanan leaned over and called his name several times.

Shen Jue woke up in a daze. Ji Yuanan said, “We’re here, you can get out of the car now.” After he finished speaking, he pulled away from each other, leaving the narrow car space.

Shen Jue also got out of the car, slowly following behind Ji Yuanan. He had already thought it over, if Ji Yuanan asked about what just happened, he would admit it generously. He would accept if Ji Yuanan wanted to continue being friends with him, and it would also be okay to get a divorce. The decision was up to Ji Yuanan, and he wouldn’t refuse. But Ji Yuanan was natural throughout the whole process, and didn’t ask anything.

That night, Shen Jue lay in bed, rarely not sleeping well because of this matter. He had a bunch of messy dreams during the period. When he woke up the next day, several hours had passed since Ji Yuanan left.

After Shen Jue washed up, he went to the kitchen to get his breakfast as usual, eating while recalling the absurd dream before waking up.

He dreamed of Ji Yuanan during his student days again. At first, the plot development was still normal. They had meals together, discussed homework together after class, and were no different from ordinary good friends. Until the end, everything went wrong.

After the evening self-study, the students quickly left. The last student didn’t notice that Shen Jue and Ji Yuanan were still in the classroom, and turned off all the lights in the classroom at once.

The sound of the door closing also quickly disappeared. The classroom was dark, and nothing could be seen clearly. Ji Yuanan turned on the flashlight on his phone. Shen Jue put down the pen in his hand and turned to look at Ji Yuanan.

Ji Yuanan looked at him seriously with his deep eyes. Bewitched by something, they shared a long kiss in the dim light.

Then Shen Jue woke up in a dream, and the memory ended here.

Shen Jue had eaten half of his breakfast when Ji Yuanan sent him a message:

[Can you help bring a document? It should be in the study.]

[S: Now?]

Shen Jue watched the top bar change to “The other party is typing…”, and after a while, Ji Yuanan sent:

[Yes. Just send it directly to my company. Is that okay?]

Of course, Shen Jue replied in his heart, exited the chat interface, and went to the study to find the document for Ji Yuanan.

Shen Jue had only been in Ji Yuanan’s study a few times in total. He pushed open the door and walked to the desk. After saying “sorry” softly, he began to search for the document Ji Yuanan needed.

During the search, a book on the edge of the table accidentally fell, revealing a corner of a photo inside. Shen Jue bent down to pick it up, and the photo slid out, falling to the ground. He put the book on the table and prepared to pick up the photo again.

The front of the photo was facing Shen Jue, so in the moment of bending down, he easily saw the protagonist in the photo. The protagonist in the photo had a face that was eight parts similar to Shen Jue’s.

[Author’s words]

A little earlier today.