SABA Chapter 58

Chu Yanhao sat back down, poured himself half a glass of wine, and drank it slowly. After a long time, he said, “I don’t know either.”

Jiang Tiao pursed his lips, not believing him. “You’re the most experienced in relationships in our entire group. You’re telling me you don’t know what it’s like to like someone?”

Chu Yanhao: “That’s not relationship experience. They wanted money, I wanted sex. It was a clean transaction, each getting what they needed.”

Jiang Tiao: “Then what about Luo Xingwen?”

Chu Yanhao was silent, for an even longer time this time.

“Back then, I thought I liked him too. But looking back years later, I feel my ‘liking’ might not have been liking.”

If it was real liking, how could they have ended up in that situation later?

Jiang Tiao: “I don’t understand.”

Chu Yanhao: “It’s fine if you don’t understand. Isn’t it better not to understand? My brother said that people like us can live happily if we don’t go looking for trouble by liking someone.”

This statement sounded quite reasonable at first.

Seeing Jiang Tiao’s dejected look, Chu Yanhao asked, “Did you and Huo Shen Ge quarrel?”

Upon hearing Huo Shen’s name, Jiang Tiao’s thick eyelashes trembled slightly like butterfly wings. After a long while, he asked, “Why do you ask that?”

Chu Yanhao: “If you hadn’t had a falling out with Huo Shen Ge, you would definitely have gone to him with these confusing thoughts. Why else would you come to me?”

Jiang Tiao was struck to the heart of the matter and remained silent.

“This is rare,” Chu Yanhao said with interest. “You and Huo Shen Ge are always so inseparable, acting more affectionate than a married couple. And you still have conflicts?”

Jiang Tiao frowned slightly, his eyelids half-lowered, his sharp gaze carrying a hint of seriousness and warning: “Don’t joke around.”

Chu Yanhao shrugged, not daring to provoke Jiang Tiao further.

Those who knew Jiang Tiao well knew that he had a good personality and temper. No matter how you teased him, he wouldn’t truly get angry or fall out with you. However, this was under the condition that Huo Shen was not involved, and their relationship was not joked about.

Chu Yanhao: “Actually, I’ve always wanted to ask, when you were young, you didn’t mind people joking about you and Huo Shen Ge. Why did you start getting angry when this topic came up later?”

It was normal for close guy friends to joke around like this occasionally. Jiang Tiao wasn’t someone who cared much about what others said, but he was particularly sensitive about this matter.

“I remember it was after you had that fight with Huo Ruicheng in junior high, right?”

Huo Ruicheng was the son of Huo Shen’s uncle, two years older than Jiang Tiao. Jiang Tiao disliked him the most when he was a child. Later, after Huo Shen’s parents were murdered, Huo Ruicheng’s parents were also involved. Jiang Tiao had even less reason to feel good about him.

“You don’t hit a person in the face. You almost beat him into a pig’s head that time.”

Jiang Tiao had learned self-defense and knew where the most painful spots were. When he fought, he usually didn’t hit people in the face or leave obvious external injuries. It was the first time Jiang Tiao had fought and beaten someone to this extent. However, both sides were tight-lipped about why they fought. Even Chu Yanhao, who was present during the brawl, was clueless. He had gone to the restroom, and when he came back, the two had started fighting. By the time he intercepted Huo Ruicheng’s lackeys who were about to help, Jiang Tiao was already going all out.

The vulgarities of student days flooded Jiang Tiao’s mind. It was like opening a wooden chest that had been left in the basement for a long time, filled with the disgusting smell of decay and dampness.

Jiang Tiao had thought he had long since reduced them to ashes and buried them. But memory was like that; forgetting wasn’t a matter of willpower. It always stayed hidden in the depths of your mind, influencing and dictating your actions.

‘I heard his uncles and aunts tried several times to bring him home, but the Jiang family refused to let him go. Were they trying to annex the Huo family’s business or were they after the person?’

‘A phoenix with fallen feathers is no better than a chicken. With Huo Shen’s face and physique, I heard that in some shady markets, people have already bid millions for him.’

‘Isn’t he a man? What do you call that then? A plaything?’

‘Jiang Mingyan is just a second-generation heir who isn’t picky about gender. Who knows what the Jiang family’s intentions are for keeping him, but Jiang Tiao watches him like his own eyeballs.’

‘You only think the Jiang family took him by force? Look at how subservient Huo Shen is to Jiang Tiao. Who would believe he was forced?’

‘Huo Shen isn’t stupid. Perhaps he willingly submitted. By securing the Jiang family’s youngest son, he can naturally use him to regain control of the company.’

‘So disgusting.’

‘He was cold to me the last time I spoke to him. I didn’t expect him to be so calculating and so filthy inside.’

‘He’s cold to you because you’re useless to him. If you had Jiang Tiao’s family background, he would probably fawn over you and let you use him.’

‘Makes me want to puke, so dirty.’

……

“What? You’ve taken a liking to my cousin? That’s understandable, with a face like his, it’s normal to be attracted. Do you usually top or bottom? When you get tired of him, just let me know. I and my friends want to try too.”

……

Chu Yanhao saw a shadow clouding Jiang Tiao’s eyes, a thick layer of dark clouds that seemed to press down, announcing an impending storm that roared like thunder, threatening to violently sweep everything away.

“Are you alright?” Chu Yanhao frowned and waved his hand in front of him. “What are you thinking about? What exactly is the reason?”

“It’s nothing,” Jiang Tiao lowered his eyes, pressing his thumb over the knuckles of his other four fingers. “Just some vulgar words.”

Chu Yanhao took a moment to process, then understood. He and Jiang Tiao attended the same school, so he had also heard those filthy rumors. Huo Shen had been an envied prodigy since childhood. Once his family was destroyed, everyone wanted to step on him and watch the show. Boys in their teens were no longer innocent but not yet mature. When they encountered new things, they thought they knew everything. Often, they were so malicious in their words that they didn’t even realize it themselves.

“I didn’t know you cared about these things. I thought Huo Shen Ge himself didn’t care. Besides, aren’t your Huo family uncles and aunts also behind spreading these nasty rumors?”

Before Huo’s mother died, she made her will and notarized it. The best way for Huo Shen’s uncles and aunts to gain complete control of the company was to control Huo Shen before he came of age. Spreading such vicious rumors was merely to force Huo Shen to leave the Jiang family.

Jiang Tiao naturally knew these reasons. He thought he could ignore them, but those words were like iron filings mixed with sewage, burning his skin when they hit him. He thought applying ointment would heal him, but the hidden parts beneath his skin were already festering and aching due to bacterial infection.

He couldn’t even stand someone saying a harsh word to Huo Shen in front of him. How could he tolerate Huo Shen enduring so much criticism because of him? While Huo Shen’s uncles deserved to die ten thousand times over, if he had been more restrained in his daily behavior, less intimate, less casual, maintained a distance, and adhered to the boundary of friendship, and controlled the people around him, how could he have brought so much trouble to Huo Shen?

Seeing the gloom on Jiang Tiao’s face, Chu Yanhao sighed. He could understand it, really. Everyone had someone or something they cared aboutabnormal. Just like him, he wouldn’t necessarily care if people insulted him, but if someone insulted his brother in front of him, he would definitely throw a punch.

Jiang Tiao: “Besides, I don’t think Huo Shen is as completely indifferent as you say.”

Those years, Huo Shen compressed almost all his entertainment and most of his sleep time to study various subjects, all to gain control of the company as soon as possible. Jiang Tiao believed that besides his parents’ influence, these rumors also played a part.

“However, what he cares about is definitely different from what I care about. He must blame himself for bringing so much controversy and trouble to the Jiang family. Otherwise, during the time his uncles pressured him the most, he wouldn’t have agreed to go back with his uncle. Fortunately, I clung to him and followed!”

Chu Yanhao found it amusing to see Jiang Tiao grinding his teeth. He had also heard about the chaos Jiang Tiao caused for the Huo family. He remembered that in the end, it was Huo Shen’s uncle who personally escorted Jiang Tiao and Huo Shen back to the Jiang family.

“Back then, you didn’t want Huo Shen Ge to be criticized. What is your reason for persisting now? With Huo Shen Ge’s current status, let alone those ignorant rich second-generation heirs, even those in power in the business world would not dare to offend him lightly.”

Jiang Tiao’s gloomy expression paused. Chu Yanhao’s words were like a crack in his established way of thinking. Yes, the Huo Shen of today was no longer the teenager who was surrounded by wolves and had to exert all his effort to carve out a path for himself. He was no longer the one who had just taken over the company, was constantly constrained, was always overwhelmed with work, needed support, and was called an immature and inexperienced young master by those who relied on their seniority.

Chu Yanhao: “Is it because you lost four years of memory, so your impression of many people and things is always stuck in four years ago? I beg you to take a good look. The current Huo Shen Ge only needs to frown to cause the stock prices of countless companies to fluctuate. He is no longer that pitiable child who needed you to worry about these things for him. Not only will no one bring up those words now, but if anyone does, they will only be laughed at, considered either mentally disabled or utter fools.”

Jiang Tiao was silent. He had to admit that Chu Yanhao was right. Waking up after a four-year gap, it was always difficult to change some ingrained ways of thinking.

“You’re the pitiable one, he was never pitiable.”

“……” Chu Yanhao, “Brother, after all these years, your focus is still incredibly frustrating.”

No one thought Huo Shen was pitiable. It was just that Jiang Tiao had always cherished Huo Shen like his own heart since he was young, holding him in his mouth for fear he would melt, holding him in his palm for fear he would fall, wishing he could transform into a titanium alloy shield to protect Huo Shen from any possible harm.

Jiang Tiao: “Then what about Huo Ruicheng? What happened to him now? I don’t seem to have heard any news about him.”

Chu Yanhao: “The first thing Huo Shen Ge did after taking control was send that bunch of uncles to prison. There’s no news about Huo Ruicheng, though. But a couple of years ago, I heard he owed usurious loans and had a leg broken.”

In any case, he was living quite miserably.

Jiang Tiao recalled the way Huo Ruicheng looked at Huo Shen. He drank half a glass of brandy before swallowing the churning nausea. “Serves him right.”

Yet, after cursing him, he felt he was no different from Huo Ruicheng. Huo Ruicheng’s words back then were like iron drills, spinning back and piercing him. “Look at how you look at him. Do you dare say you have no thoughts about him?” “If you’re disgusted, aren’t I disgusted too? I don’t believe you’ve never dreamt about it.”

When Jiang Tiao beat him, he had repeatedly told himself that he only treated Huo Shen as his best friend, and he had no thoughts about Huo Shen other than as a friend.

But now, those punches that landed on Huo Ruicheng’s face seemed to have traveled through time and landed on his own face.

Seeing Jiang Tiao’s face shift from anger to shame, then to annoyance, then guilt, then rage, and then a desire to slap himself, Chu Yanhao worried that Jiang Tiao would drive himself crazy. He decided to change the subject.

“Did you watch Huo Shen Ge’s interview a while ago? I’m quite curious. Do you know who the person he likes actually is?”

Jiang Tiao’s confused heart felt frozen, hard as ice. He silently poured himself another half glass of wine. Yes, what was the point of his anger and guilt? He didn’t even know who Huo Shen liked!

Chu Yanhao: “To be honest, although you always said that you and Huo Shen Ge weren’t like that, I always thought Huo Shen Ge liked you. I didn’t expect that he didn’t.”

Jiang Tiao gave Chu Yanhao a sinister glare, wanting to splash the wine in his glass onto Chu Yanhao’s face. However, he reconsidered and did not act. After all, Chu Yanhao was stating a fact.

Seeing Jiang Tiao miserably pour the wine he was about to splash on his face into his own mouth, Chu Yanhao took out his phone and added a point for himself in a new group called [Support Team for Watching the Fun].

……