Zhang Su’an’s temper flared instantly.
“What are you looking for Yuan Mian for?”
Fu Tianle chuckled ingratiatingly. “Yuan Mian is my boyfriend. Isn’t it natural for me to look for him? I admit I was stubborn and only came now. It wasn’t a big issue to begin with, I dragged it out until it became one. People lose their tempers sometimes…”
Suddenly, Zhang Su’an sensed something was off and cut him off.
“Wait. You said Yuan Mian is your boyfriend?”
“You still think Yuan Mian is your boyfriend?”
Fu Tianle knew Zhang Su’an had always stood on Yuan Mian’s side, so he didn’t think too deeply about it. He only asked, “Can we meet?” His posture was still very humble.
Before, it would have been impossible.
Now, however, it was different.
Zhang Su’an sharply caught the key point. His fingers tapped lightly against the steering wheel before he readily agreed. “Sure.”
He hung up and sent over a location.
More than half an hour later, the two met by the roadside.
Fu Tianle was wrapped in a trench coat, having originally planned to pick Zhang Su’an up but Zhang Su’an casually pulled open the car door, eyes forward.
“I booked a private room,” Fu Tianle said.
“Get in.”
Fu Tianle needed a favor and when it came to Zhang Su’an, his cousin, he really had no leverage.
They’d been close as kids, always able to talk but ever since Fu Tianle got together with Yuan Mian, they’d drifted apart.
With no choice, he got in.
The car was warm but Fu Tianle had no energy to notice.
The moment he sat down, he felt Zhang Su’an’s gaze settle on him. He wasn’t sure if it was his imagination but that gaze, once always cold and hard, now carried a faint, unreadable smile.
Zhang Su’an said, “Go on. What’s the situation?”
“….”
Whoever made the first move was at a disadvantage. Fu Tianle had come looking on his own; losing face was something he had to swallow.
After a brief pause, he selectively glossed over the line about “why don’t you go keep him company,” and laid everything else out.
“It’s like this.”
What was “this”?
For Fu Tianle, the situation wasn’t actually that complicated.
That day, during the dinner gathering, Yuan Mian suddenly left. Fu Tianle went to Yuan Mian’s place to look for him but Yuan Mian wasn’t home. That was the beginning.
The next afternoon, Yuan Mian returned home. They met again and once more parted on bad terms. That marked the end.
Fu Tianle had waited at Yuan Mian’s home for nearly an entire day, sending countless messages and making countless calls, all unanswered. He had scheduled commitments of his own and no matter how apologetic he’d initially felt, the long wait soured everything.
When Yuan Mian finally returned, Fu Tianle kept asking why he hadn’t replied, where he’d gone the night before.
Yuan Mian didn’t argue but his response was colder than any argument.
In front of Fu Tianle, he changed the door lock code, packed all of Fu Tianle’s belongings into garbage bags and told him to take them, then shut the door in his face, saying he was not to come again and that he would never reply to his messages anymore.
Fu Tianle knew Yuan Mian was angry. At first, he felt at fault too but being denied dignity again and again,
After calming down at the door and trying to talk properly, Yuan Mian actually called security.
Left with no choice, Fu Tianle departed, inevitably irritated.
After they separated, he still felt he was the one who’d misspoken first and planned to send Yuan Mian a gift.
But before doing so, his attempts to contact him again sank without a trace.
Only after his assistant pointed it out did Fu Tianle realize that Yuan Mian had blocked him.
That was when his temper flared too. After all, so what if he’d misspoken while drunk? Was it really that serious?
They hadn’t been together for just a day or two.
Five years of dating, a stable relationship, wasn’t this just a small matter? Couldn’t they quarrel a little, have a minor spat and be done with it? Why did it have to be blown up into something so huge?
In the past, when they’d pointed fingers at each other and fought fiercely, they’d never once blocked each other.
And then more than a month passed.
The two of them remained locked in a standoff, with no contact whatsoever.
Until two days ago, when Fu Tianle tried once more to reach Yuan Mian and realized he still hadn’t been unblocked. At last, he could no longer endure it. After several rounds of inner struggle, his resolve finally collapsed and he came to Zhang Su’an.
When his words ended, Fu Tianle had actually already braced himself to be scolded by Zhang Su’an,
The moment he realized he was still completely cut off from Yuan Mian, panic and fear had already crept in. That was precisely why he swallowed his pride, fully aware that he would be mocked and still came knocking on his own initiative.
With anyone else, a cold war meant the end. He only coaxed those who pouted or sulked; he didn’t chase after those who had truly fallen out. His patience was limited and he couldn’t bring himself to lower his head.
But Yuan Mian was different.
Others were just for fun. Yuan Mian was his boyfriend.
Yet when Fu Tianle looked up, Zhang Su’an was staring at him with a complicated, wordless expression, an unmistakable look of disbelief, as though he were looking at an idiot.
On the way here, Zhang Su’an hadn’t failed to wonder how such a strange gap in information could exist between Yuan Mian and Fu Tianle.
But he had never imagined it would be like this.
More than a month.
How long was a month? How many things could happen in that span of time? How many changes could occur? Fu Tianle seemed never to have thought about it at all.
He was arrogant, recklessly arrogant, so arrogant that he had become numb even to what he had lost, turning himself into a ridiculous joke.
Zhang Su’an frowned as he looked at Fu Tianle, the refined, charming Fu Tianle who still hoped he could play matchmaker and help smooth things over.
The man wore a dark shirt casually beneath his coat, the top two buttons undone as usual, revealing part of his broad, firm chest. His appearance was effortlessly dashing, even the stray lock of hair sticking up carrying a hint of smug charm.
A man gilded on the outside.
And yet not rotten within, either. If he were truly rotten to the core, a powerful family like the Fu family would never have passed over other heirs just to throw the family empire onto his shoulders.
Back when this man loved Yuan Mian like the apple of his eye, not only Yuan Mian had believed in him, Zhang Su’an had once believed as well.
But only five years had passed.
In that time, he had casually overturned the vow of mutual cherishing, turning into what he was now, not more mature with time but more naive instead. Even the good parts he once had were gone.
Did he still love Yuan Mian?
Probably. He probably always had.
But his love was flimsy, polluted with endlessly proliferating impurities. His love was worthless.
As Zhang Su’an thought this, his initial speechlessness turned into anger.
Anger for Yuan Mian.
Anger at Fu Tianle’s stupidity and arrogance, arrogance he himself still hadn’t realized.
What towering arrogance.
The playful mockery he’d initially felt transformed into something solid and malicious.
Once again, he asked the same question.
“What are you looking for Yuan Mian for?”
But this time, he wasn’t seeking an answer. Zhang Su’an quickly cut off Fu Tianle’s attempt to respond, his disdain unmistakable.
“I mean, he’s already dating someone else. Can you not be so clueless?”
“What?”
Fu Tianle froze. He turned the words over in his mind, still unable to understand.
Zhang Su’an, ever patient, deliberately repeated it clearly for him. “Yuan Mian is already seeing someone else.”
“Impossible.” Fu Tianle blurted out reflexively.
“How is it impossible?”
Fu Tianle shot back, “How is it possible?”
Still stunned. Still blank.
Zhang Su’an spread his hands. “But he is dating someone else.”
“Didn’t you ask whether I’ve seen Yuan Mian? I’ll tell you, I just saw him. A few hours ago, I had dinner with him and his new boyfriend.”
“A real boyfriend. The kind who can kiss him.”
The two locked eyes.
Zhang Su’an’s expression was serious, without the slightest hint of deceit.
Fu Tianle’s gaze wavered. At last, a reaction broke through, his whole body jolted as if scorched by fire.
As though struck by lightning, he shouted, “I never broke up with Mianmian!”
“What era are we living in? You think a cold war automatically ends the relationship? You didn’t contact him for a whole month, who were you waiting to notify you?”
“Such a simple truth and someone has to spell it out for you? Aren’t you always bragging about being the perfect boyfriend, the best at relationships?”
Zhang Su’an smiled. “Have those fox friends of yours praised you so much your brain rusted? Do you really think the world revolves around you? What makes you think you’re so irresistible? You can’t even control yourself, you have no virtue, no character, what exactly do you have that’s worth someone clinging to?”
Fu Tianle seemed unable to hear the scolding at all. He just kept repeating stubbornly, “Impossible.”
The car was growing warmer and warmer yet Fu Tianle looked colder by the second. His lips turned pale and the handsome face he’d once taken pride in stiffened with panic.
“I’ve been with Mianmian for so many years. Our relationship was so good… he loved me so much!”
“Who is he dating?!”
Zhang Su’an had been waiting for that question.
He stared straight at Fu Tianle, refusing to miss even the slightest fracture in his expression.
Enunciating each word with brutal clarity, he said, “The white moonlight he secretly loved for years before he ever fell for you.”
“What, you didn’t know? It’s Hu Guangtong. They’re getting married soon.”
You’re the one who sent hin to serve Hu Guangtong, so why being shocked now?
✦ ✧ ✦
Fleurveil
[Translator]
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ChaptersChapter 1 · Why don’t you go and keep him company?Chapter 2 · He opened the door and left without looking backChapter 3 · Why Hu Guangtong of all people?Chapter 4 · Have you broken up with Fu Tianle?Chapter 5 · Hello, I am Yuan Mian’s fiancé.Chapter 6 · You liked Hu Guangtong from the beginningChapter 7 · I want to spend the rest of my life with you.Chapter 8 · Have you seen Yuan Mian recently?Chapter 9 · Yuan Mian has already started talking to someone elseChapter 10 · He wasn’t Yuan Mian’s first love?Chapter 11 · Are you comparable to Hu Guangtong?Chapter 12 · Yuan Mian would certainly love Hu GuangtongChapter 13 · They’re going home together for dinnerChapter 14 · Extra 1Chapter 15 · Extra 2Chapter 16 · Extra 3