Luo Ying’s pupils suddenly dilated, his breath hitched, and his mind went completely blank.
“You… what did you call me?”
How could Lu Rang know his original name?
Did he overhear it when Zhou Daiyu called him that day?
Lu Rang sighed, sounding helpless. “Don’t you understand yet? You’re the only one I’ve ever been with. You’re my ex-boyfriend.”
Oh no.
Lu Rang was taking this role far too seriously.
Luo Ying stared blankly. “When did I ever date you?”
Lu Rang replied, “The day before you went abroad.”
“What nonsense are you talking about?” Luo Ying pushed him lightly. “You’re too deep into this role, Lu Rang. Your memory must be messed up. You didn’t even come to see me off the night before I left—even Pei Mingyang knew about that.”
Lu Rang gripped Luo Ying’s shoulders, his voice low. “Is that what he told you?”
Luo Ying tilted his head in confusion. “Well, yeah? You really didn’t come.”
“Luo Ying, you were drunk that day, we…”
Lu Rang seemed unsure where to begin, gesturing with one hand. “That day, when I rushed back from Jiangdu, you were already asleep on the sofa in the private room. You were half-conscious, clinging to me, saying you needed to use the bathroom. Then in the bathroom… you kissed me. Don’t you remember? Later, we even went to a hotel…”
Luo Ying’s face instantly flushed with heat.
This was almost exactly like the erotic dream he’d had.
Lu Rang continued, “The next day, you said it hurt, so I went downstairs to buy ointment. But by the time I got back, your father had already taken you away. How could you forget? I told you I’d wait for you to come back, and you agreed. But then you suddenly broke up with me—ignoring my messages, not answering my calls. I tried to find you a few times, but your friends at school said you didn’t want to see me.”
“No, that wasn’t me. Lu Rang, you’ve really got it wrong.”
Luo Ying pressed himself against the corner of the wall, with nowhere left to retreat. Lu Rang was too close, and Luo Ying felt his temples throbbing intensely.
Luo Ying desperately tried to explain, “I really did black out that day, but the things you mentioned afterward definitely didn’t happen between us. Lu Rang, snap out of it.”
“Luo Ying!”
Lu Rang leaned in again, silencing Luo Ying with his lips. Their mouths tangled, breaths growing rapid. Luo Ying tried to push Lu Rang away, but his body betrayed him, going weak.
As Lu Rang’s soft tongue teased his lips, Luo Ying gritted his teeth and bit down.
Lu Rang paused, grunted softly, and released him.
Luo Ying clutched his chest, panting heavily. “I… I really have to go back now.”
“Xi Xi, don’t go…”
Lu Rang’s voice was hoarse, tears glistening in his eyes. He wrapped his arms around Luo Ying’s waist from behind, nuzzling his neck intimately and affectionately, like a kitten trying to please.
Luo Ying placed his hands over Lu Rang’s. This was already the third time he’d seen Lu Rang cry. The warm tears dampened his neck, soaking into his pounding heart.
“You really shouldn’t call me that…”
“Luo Ying, I don’t know why you don’t remember any of this, but our photo together doesn’t lie.”
Lu Rang handed his phone to Luo Ying. The lock screen wallpaper Luo Ying had never had the chance to see now shimmered before his eyes.
In the photo, Luo Ying and Lu Rang were shirtless. Luo Ying had his arms wrapped around Lu Rang’s neck, his gaze hazy and seductive, his lips slightly pursed as they brushed against Lu Rang’s cheek. Lu Rang, meanwhile, was tilting his head slightly, kissing and sucking on Luo Ying’s neck.
Such an intimate gesture, and with him shirtless—it’s really hard to believe they aren’t a couple.
The face on that wallpaper photo was unmistakably Luo Ying’s. If what Lu Rang said was true—that they had once been together—how could he have no memory of it at all?
Wait, wait!
So that means Luo Ying had been treating himself as an imaginary rival all this time, getting jealous over himself?!
What on earth is going on? This isn’t how he imagined things would be.
Facing the undeniable image on the screen, Luo Ying still couldn’t quite believe it. “You photoshopped this, didn’t you?”
Lu Rang: “…”
“I’ll take you to see the proof.”
Without another word, Lu Rang took his hand and led him out the door, heading upstairs to the study.
The study’s display cabinet held many photos and trophies.
Luo Ying had never been inside Lu Rang’s study before. Now, seeing it for the first time, he realized many of the photos on the display cabinet were familiar to him.
A group photo of the fourth graduating class of Haidu Royal Kindergarten.
Over two hundred children, with Luo Ying seated in the front row and Lu Rang standing in the very back.
A group photo of the seventh graduating class of Haidu Experimental Primary School.
Nearly four hundred people, with Luo Ying in the second row and Lu Rang in the last row.
A group photo of the thirteenth graduating class of Haidu Jingyao Junior High School.
Over seven hundred people, with Luo Ying in the third row and Lu Rang in the last row.
A group photo of the twentieth graduating class of Haidu No. 1 Senior High School.
Nine hundred and seventy-two people, with Luo Ying in the fifth row and Lu Rang standing right behind him.
After looking through the four photos, Luo Ying numbly picked up their high school graduation photo.
So, he and Lu Rang had attended the same schools since childhood.
“I transferred to your school in second grade. On the day I reported, I saw you being punished by standing in the hallway. I thought you were a very pretty and cute boy back then, though I didn’t yet know what liking someone meant.”
“Later, when my mom dug out the kindergarten graduation photo, I realized you and I had actually known each other much earlier. During the kindergarten fun sports day, you seemed to be sitting in front of me, and you even handed out candy to everyone around you.”
Luo Ying covered his mouth. “How can you remember all this so clearly?”
“I’ve never forgotten anything related to you.”
“No wonder you knew my name was Luo Xiyu.”
Lu Rang’s eyes were still slightly damp, a faint smile on his lips. “It’s a beautiful name. Why did you change it suddenly?”
Luo Ying shot him a glance. “What’s wrong? Isn’t ‘Luo Ying’ a good name too?”
Lu Rang replied earnestly, “It is.”
Luo Ying lowered his head. “People in my class used to say my name sounded like a girl’s. They would bully me over it, so my dad changed it for me.”
“My dad said it means ‘one call, a hundred answers.'”
Lu Rang moved closer and hugged him. “Whether it’s Luo Xiyu or Luo Ying, I like it.”
Luo Ying wasn’t buying it. “Hmph! Weren’t you supposed to prove we were in a relationship? Where’s the evidence? You can’t even remember my birthday!”
“Huh?” Lu Rang looked puzzled. “Isn’t it today?”
“Of course not!” Luo Ying raised his voice. “My birthday is November 12th, and it’s already passed!”
Lu Rang fell silent for a moment. “Luo Ying…”
“What?”
“It’s the lunar calendar November 12th. Today.”
Now it was Luo Ying’s turn to fall silent.
Before he went abroad, his birthdays were always arranged by Luo Xiaohe, who invited his business associates. Because of that, Luo Ying had never paid much attention to birthdays.
Later, after going abroad, it was Xie Yunyu who reminded him about his birthday. He clearly remembered asking Luo Xiaohe before, and the date was November 12th—how could there be a distinction between the lunar and solar calendars?!
“How can you be so sure it’s today?”
Lu Rang said, “Your father mentioned it when we were signing the contract for the sea reclamation and island project.”
Luo Ying felt a bit embarrassed: “He must have remembered it wrong.”
He thought of something else and added, “The initials on those gifts—were they the abbreviation of my original name?”
“Yes.”
“Why did you keep them all and never gave them to me?”
Lu Rang explained, “You never invited me to your birthday parties, so I didn’t know if I should give them to you.”
Luo Ying said, “Oh… I never invited friends to my birthdays. It was always a bunch of uncles and aunts talking about work.”
Lu Rang gave him a look that said, “Well, then you can’t blame me.”
“Even after all this, it still doesn’t prove we were ever together, does it?”
Lu Rang hugged him, swaying gently, and coaxed softly, “But I’ve already proven that the only person I’ve ever liked, from beginning to end, is you, haven’t I?”
“If you don’t remember the past, we can always start over.”
“Luo Ying, do you like me?”
“I want to be in a relationship with you. Will you be my boyfriend?”
Lu Rang’s words, one by one, seeped into Luo Ying’s ears, riding the surge of warm blood into his heart, gradually taking root in that wildly beating territory.
Before, when Luo Ying was with Lu Rang, he had always treated it as a purely physical, transactional relationship.
But, deep down, was his feelings for Lu Rang really just about maintaining a friends-with-benefits arrangement?
It seemed there was a little bit of genuine affection too.
This feeling had actually existed since high school.
If his feelings for Lu Rang in high school were vague and tentative, then now, this emotion had gradually taken shape, subtly and unconsciously.
It started with that bowl of noodles after they reunited, with their first kiss, with their first time making love, with watching fireworks over the river, with the first time Lu Rang shed tears.
In each encounter, while pretending to be the “replacement” he had imagined himself to be, he had genuinely fallen for Lu Rang.
It wasn’t just about enjoying being intimate with him—he also cherished the romantic moments they shared.
But this affection wasn’t strong enough, not yet to the point of wanting to marry him or spend the rest of their lives together.
After careful consideration, Luo Ying said, “We can be in a relationship, but I can’t accept your proposal yet. I’m not that deeply in love.”
Lu Rang knew when to advance and when to retreat; he didn’t want to pressure Luo Ying too much.
“That’s okay. I’ll work hard to make you fall in love with me slowly.”
Luo Ying glanced sideways at him: “You’re quite confident in yourself.”
Lu Rang nodded, planting a kiss on Luo Ying’s cheek: “Of course.”
Luo Ying hummed softly. His fingers brushed over the graduation photo, and suddenly, something flashed through his mind.
Lu Rang said he had come looking for him before, had met his classmates, and had even said that Luo Ying refused to see him?
During his college years, he had mostly relied on Pei Mingyang and Xie Yunyu to help him get through classes. Back then, he was still a playboy in the overseas circle—how many classmates at school were actually close to him?
If Lu Rang had run into Xie Yunyu when he came looking for him, the two of them wouldn’t have only just met recently.
And if Lu Rang had encountered Pei Mingyang, given Pei Mingyang’s personality, he would have been cursing and complaining about it in front of Luo Ying long ago.
Lu Rang even claimed he had forgotten that the two of them had been in a relationship. Could it be that the car accident from back then had caused him to lose some of his memories?
But Pei Mingyang had already explained the whole story of what happened before and after the incident to him in detail, and there didn’t seem to be any gaps in his memory.
Something was definitely off.
It was clear that he probably wouldn’t get any answers from Lu Rang.
He would have to go find Pei Mingyang during the day and ask him what was really going on.