Su Tang pursed his lips, instantly regretting that he had agreed to go along with him just now.
This question was standard enough, but for Su Tang, it was somewhat difficult to speak about openly.
The fact that he liked Lin Yiming could not be known by anyone. It was fundamentally impossible for him to tell the truth.
If he wanted to make Shi Song lower his guard, he only needed to casually throw out a random surname.
Yet, in front of the person he liked, Su Tang truly could not bring himself to utter such a lie.
Su Tang felt both stifled and miserable in his heart.
“I…”
He bit his lip. “Let’s change it. I choose Truth or Dare I’ll take Dare.”
Shi Song looked at Su Tang noncommitally, his eyes carrying a few hints of clear understanding.
This attitude alone proved that something was fishy here.
Lin Yiming let out a sudden laugh and said to them, “Got it. This person must be someone I know.”
“A dare…”
Jiang Feng took over the conversation, rubbing his chin with his hand. “Then how about casually picking someone present and staring into their eyes for ten seconds?”
This time, it was Lin Yiming’s turn to bail him out.
“Tsk, that won’t work either. Su Tang has a bit of social anxiety, and he isn’t very familiar with the people here. You can’t possibly make him do it with me, right?”
Lin Yiming said with a grin, “I’m a man with a family, after all.”
“Tsk,” Jiang Feng glanced at the two of them, “True.”
“Well, since that’s the case, let’s do something simple just pinch your nose and spin around three times.”
As a minor lifestyle and beauty blogger, Su Tang actually cared a lot about his public image.
However, since things had already reached this point, he couldn’t bear to spoil the fun either. He could only pretend not to care and smiled weakly. “This is easy.”
The group of people hurriedly cleared a space for him.
Su Tang spun around clumsily and unsteadily. After finishing his turns, he lost his sense of direction and almost crashed straight onto the dining table.
It was Lin Yiming who burst out laughing and extended a hand to support him. “Hahaha, it’s just three turns. What’s wrong with you?”
“Hiss—”
Su Tang’s waist collided heavily against the edge of the table. The pain made his entire face contort.
But under the watchful eyes of everyone, he could only casually crack a joke to brush past his previous embarrassment. “If you think it’s so easy, you try it.”
“I’m not doing that.”
Lin Yiming glanced at him and casually jabbed, “Embarrassing.”
Su Tang: “…”
He didn’t want to talk anymore.
They played a few more rounds of cards. Although they clamored to make the birthday boy lose at least once, Shi Song’s luck today was exceptionally good, narrowly escaping the penalty several times.
After a while, Lin Yiming felt like he needed to use the restroom.
“Excuse me, guys. I’ll be out for a moment.”
When he stood up, Lin Yiming swayed slightly. He was clearly showing signs of intoxication.
Beside him, Su Tang cast a somewhat worried look toward Shi Song, only to find that Shi Song was currently whispering something to Jiang Feng.
No one here was paying attention to him.
After hesitating for a brief moment, Su Tang also stood up and chased after him.
Watching their retreating figures, Shi Song narrowed his eyes.
He recalled the plotline of the original book at this exact juncture.
It was precisely like this: a group of people celebrating his birthday in a restaurant. He had been worried because Lin Yiming went out to the restroom and hadn’t returned for a long time, fearing that he might lose his way after getting drunk. Unable to contain himself, he went out to look for him.
As a result, he stumbled upon a scene that left him utterly incredulous.
Su Tang and Lin Yiming were embracing each other. Although their figures were blurred and indistinct, preventing Shi Song from seeing clearly, the posture looked distinctly like they were kissing.
After being caught red-handed, Su Tang very calmly claimed that Lin Yiming had simply mistaken his identity.
Shi Song’s mind had been a chaotic mess. On one hand, he couldn’t believe his boyfriend would betray him; on the other hand, Su Tang spoke with such absolute earnestness, and he also knew that Lin Yiming and Su Tang had been friends for many years.
If there were any sparks between them, it should have happened long ago, right?
Although he comforted himself this way, Shi Song’s mood still plummeted to rock bottom. In the end, he left early without even speaking to Lin Yiming.
On his way home alone, he almost got into a car accident. He fell to the ground, scraping a layer of skin off his knee, and was unreasonably cursed out by an electric scooter rider who ran a red light. The whole ordeal left him feeling wretched and pathetic.
At that time, he felt the entire world was dark and gloomy. He didn’t even bother to argue with the scooter owner before walking away, locked in a state of utter despondency.
The moment he arrived home, his tears flowed instantly.
In his dream, he had curled up, hugging his knees, and cried bitterly for an entire night.
Afterward, he originally intended to have a serious talk with Lin Yiming, but unfortunately, Lin Yiming had absolutely no recollection of the event.
Hearing Shi Song mention it, he was profoundly shocked. “Ah? Xiaosong, did you see wrong?”
“Me kissing Su Tang? How is that possible? Stop disgusting me. Just hearing those words makes me want to go rinse my mouth.”
“Heaven and earth be my witness, my feelings for you can be seen by the sun and the moon.”
Seeing that the expression on Shi Song’s face was extremely awful, Lin Yiming hurriedly raised three fingers to the sky to swear an oath. “If I really have anything going on with Su Tang, may Heaven strike me down with five bolts of thunder! Xiaosong, it’s not like you don’t know me. How could I ever be that much of a scumbag?”
Although it did hurt, his past self in the dream had actually been easily mollified by Lin Yiming’s exaggerated actions.
Shi Song even comforted himself, thinking that Lin Yiming had merely mistaken someone else’s identity after getting drunk, and that it wasn’t a big deal.
Everyone makes mistakes, don’t they?
But from then on, Lin Yiming and Su Tang became more and more out of line.
Yet, Su Tang always acted under the guise of being “brothers,” leaving Shi Song with nothing he could openly object to.
Until one day, Lin Yiming suddenly proposed that he and Su Tang should get engaged on the surface.
“Xiaosong, some problems have risen within the Lin Corporation. We need this engagement to pull through this difficult crisis. Afterward, we will naturally separate.”
“Rest assured, there is really nothing between Su Tang and me. It’s just friends helping each other out. Su Tang knows this too.”
When he recalled this part, Shi Song was thoroughly sickened by it for a long time.
How could these two people have absolutely no lower boundaries? And they called themselves brothers; it had to be said that these two were truly a perfect match.
However, as long as he could catch evidence of the two interacting too intimately, he could completely break free from the influence of this relationship and prevent them from turning around to bite him back in the future.
Watching their retreating backs, Shi Song knew his opportunity had arrived.
He pursed his lips.
This time, he would absolutely not repeat the same mistake.
After another few minutes, estimating that the time was about right, Shi Song stood up and said unhurriedly, “Lin Yiming isn’t back yet. I’ll go check on him.”
“No way, Shi Song. Are you really that good to Lin Yiming?”
Li Yan spoke up, feeling a bit of injustice on his behalf. “Could it be that he actually managed to get lost?”
“Probably not,” Shi Song smiled very good-naturedly, his features looking quite gentle and sweet under the lights. “But I’m a bit worried. After all, he drank quite a lot of alcohol.”
“It’s fine. You guys keep playing. I’ll come back as soon as I find him.”
“Whew, so uncomfortable.”
Originally, Lin Yiming wasn’t even that drunk, but the moment he was hit by the wind outside, he instantly felt a splitting headache, and the scene before his eyes began to double.
In his daze, he saw a slender, clear silhouette following him over.
“Brother Lin, how are you feeling?”
The other person’s voice was gentle and soft, filled to the brim with concern.
“Not… not too good.”
Lin Yiming’s body swayed slightly, but he was immediately caught and supported by the other man.
The other person’s warm breath accidentally brushed against his neck, bringing a wave of numbness.
The lights in the restaurant corridor were very dim, and the scene instantly became ambiguous.
Lin Yiming felt very hot. He straightened his body and involuntarily tugged open his collar to loosen it.
A strange restlessness occupied his entire emotions. The tip of his tongue pressed against his upper palate, and his voice sounded muffled as he narrowed his eyes, trying hard to discern the delicate, clean figure in front of him. “Xiaosong?”
Xiaosong really was very worried about him.
The moment he saw him get drunk, he had chased out out of concern.
Su Tang bit his lip with a bit of grievance, just about to explain, “I’m not…”
He had originally intended to confess his true identity.
But when Lin Yiming’s warm and focused gaze swept down upon him, his heart skipped a beat, and the speed of his speech stuttered for a moment.
This was the person he had liked for ten whole years.
It was at this exact moment of hesitation that his entire body was pulled into a tight embrace by Lin Yiming.
Lin Yiming’s voice carried a satisfied smile, his nose rubbing back and forth against Su Tang’s neck. “Xiaosong, happy birthday. I didn’t even get a chance to talk to you properly tonight.”
“I like you so much. I really, really like you.”
“You smell so good.”
A muffled chuckle vibrated from where Lin Yiming’s face was buried in Su Tang’s neck.
Su Tang’s hands resting against Lin Yiming’s chest pushed slightly, but because this was the person he had loved for so many years, he found himself utterly devoid of any strength right now.
A fierce bitterness welled up from the bottom of his heart; resentment and grievance occupied his entire mind.
Even at a time like this, the name Lin Yiming kept calling out was still Shi Song.
On what basis?
Clearly… he was the one who had stayed by Lin Yiming’s side for much longer.
He even cared about Lin Yiming more than Shi Song did. Upon seeing Lin Yiming feeling unwell, he was the first one to chase after him.
Meanwhile, Shi Song had clearly remained sitting inside the room all along, entirely indifferent.
“Xiaosong, you seem a bit different today compared to before.”
Lin Yiming pecked and kissed Su Tang’s neck over and over again. “Very sweet to kiss.”
“Mm, Brother Lin, you…”
Su Tang finally snapped back to reality, hurriedly trying to push him away.
“This won’t do!”
Su Tang’s heart was currently hammering like a drum.
He knew that this was absolutely not the right time to get intimate with Lin Yiming.
He could not let Shi Song discover all of this. Lin Yiming hadn’t fallen in love with him yet. If Shi Song truly threw a tantrum and broke up with him over this, their relationship would only become extremely strained. Under these circumstances, it was far too dangerous.
Yet, he simply could not bring himself to ruthlessly break away. That tiny bit of strength and his voice were so weak they could practically be ignored.
When Shi Song walked out, this was exactly the scene he stumbled upon.
To prevent them from denying it tomorrow, Shi Song directly raised his phone and snapped a photograph.
Inexplicably, Su Tang’s heart skipped a beat, and following his intuition, he lifted his eyes.
Then, his eyes slowly widened to their full extent.
Under the dim lighting of the restaurant corridor, he locked eyes with a pair of cold, beautiful eyes.
Su Tang felt as though a bucket of ice water had been poured over him from head to toe; in an instant, his blood turned completely cold.
His heart thudded violently. Due to the excessive shock, he couldn’t even make a sound for a moment.
How… how was this possible?
Why did Shi Song come out as well?
Then, did he find out?
Shi Song gripped his phone tightly and slowly directed a smile toward Su Tang.
He tilted his chin up, his eyes curving slightly. It was an exquisitely beautiful smile, one that was almost dazzling.
Except, the corners of his eyes and brows were entirely laced with a pressing, piercing chill.