Xie Sui unhurriedly lit a cigarette and took a deep drag, letting out a thick, white cloud of smoke that drifted and scattered.
With a light vibration of his phone, Xie Sui received a message from Lin Yan, who asked if he was free lately, mentioning it had been a long time since they last met.
If it weren’t for this message, Xie Sui would have almost forgotten that this person even existed.
During this recent period, he had been so deeply immersed in playing this game of ambiguity with Jin Huaiqian that he actually found all other matters rather dull and uninteresting.
S: 【Sorry, I’ve been too busy lately.】
Lin Yan: 【Alright then, Brother, you go ahead with your work.】
Lin Yan’s tone was filled with desolation, which Xie Sui behaved as if he didn’t notice.
He opened Jin Huaiqian’s chat window and began to harass him.
S: 【What are you doing?】
S: 【Reply to me, hurry up.】
It was only six o’clock in the afternoon, and the sky was still bright.
Xie Sui walked to his car, opened the door, sat in the driver’s seat, and casually pondered where his next destination should be.
Leaning back against the seat, his gaze fell toward the diverse crowd of people outside the window.
Not far away, a little girl clenched her small fists, bounded forward with all her might, and cleared a white line on the ground that was roughly one meter long. The moment she landed, she spun around immediately, her small face overflowing with joy. She hopped up and down happily, raising her chin to show off to her parents beside her. Smiling, her parents rubbed the top of her head, showering her with praise. Her father even bent down, hoisted her onto his shoulders in one swift motion, and bounced her gently with his large hands, making the little girl giggle uncontrollably.
On the other side, a little boy was playing with a newly bought mecha toy in his hands, looking incomparably happy.
Every single face outside the window was adorned with a smile, as if everyone was exceptionally happy.
Xie Sui watched them with an expressionless face.
Children truly are children, satisfied by the smallest of trinkets.
Perhaps due to drinking cold alcohol earlier, Xie Sui’s stomach began to throb with a faint ache once again.
All that laughter and joy felt like a catalyst, making him feel a bit nauseous.
He aimlessly scrolled through his WeChat contacts; apart from work colleagues, the rest were former bed partners with whom he used to get along.
The only person he could contact at this moment completely without any burden turned out to be Jin Huaiqian.
Xie Sui let out a self-deprecating laugh, never expecting that he could fall to such a state.
Jin Huaiqian still hadn’t replied.
Xie Sui dialed his number directly. The phone rang for a few seconds before being hung up.
Xie Sui called again, and it was hung up once more.
As the saying goes, a misdeed can be tolerated twice but not thrice. Xie Sui immediately dragged Jin Huaiqian straight into his blocklist.
Enduring his stomach ache, he went to a nearby clinic to pick up some medicine.
Upon returning home, he took a shower, brushed his teeth, swallowed the medicine, and buried his head under the covers to sleep.
Left on the table, the phone screen lit up and dimmed, flashing repeatedly, yet no one paid it any mind.
Xie Sui had a dream.
In the dream, he seemed very small, his arms chubby. He pointed at a multicolored windmill, babbling and crying out. Following that, he was picked up by a pair of large hands, and his field of vision suddenly became higher. He was finally no longer looking upward. The windmill didn’t seem quite so titanic either, though it was still much larger than him. The windmill spun round and round, and a woman of gentle temperament coaxed him with a smile, softly teaching him to blow air toward the windmill to make it spin faster.
The man holding him suggested asking a passerby to take a photo of them. The woman happily handed the camera to the passerby. Clutching his windmill, he was happy, extraordinarily happy. He stared at that dark, circular lens, grinning widely.
Then, the windmill suddenly broke, thrown onto the ground and torn to shreds ruthlessly by someone.
Someone was weeping and shouting.
“Don’t leave.”
“Can you please not leave?”
“I don’t want to be alone.”
“Xie Sui, Xie Sui.”
Xie Sui snapped his eyes open. His gaze fell blankly upon an empty space, his vision blurry and devoid of focus.
“Xie Sui!”
Someone was calling him?
Xie Sui turned his head slowly, and what came into view was a deep, handsome face.
It was Jin Huaiqian.
Xie Sui’s eyes cleared instantly. He turned around to wrap his arms around Jin Huaiqian’s waist, burying his head against the man’s chest.
This dependent movement from Xie Sui caught Jin Huaiqian by surprise.
He reached out his hand to smooth Xie Sui’s hair, asking softly, “Why are you crying? Had a nightmare?”
Xie Sui asked in a muffled voice, “Did I cry?”
Jin Huaiqian: “Why don’t you feel for yourself?”
Xie Sui raised his hand to touch his eyes, touching a hand full of moisture.
“It seems I didn’t.”
Jin Huaiqian said softly, “Alright.”
Xie Sui was already fully awake, but he didn’t want to get up. He craved the warmth and sensation of this exact moment.
Just for a little while, he told himself.
Let him feel an embrace that carried warmth, a feeling he hadn’t experienced in a very long time.
Possible that this warmth was merely based on the physical compatibility between the two of them; possible that Jin Huaiqian’s tenderness at this moment was only because he was still someone fairly fresh; possible that this momentary warmth was just a facade that could be torn apart at any time. He thought that perhaps even the dependency suddenly surging within his heart right now was merely the lingering aftereffect left by that dream just now.
He understood the relationship between the two of them very clearly.
He believed Jin Huaiqian did too.
Jin Huaiqian asked, “What did you dream about?”
“Dreamed that my windmill was broken by someone.”
Jin Huaiqian chuckled, the sound vibrating clearly from his chest.
“I’ll buy you a new one.”
“When?”
“Right now.”
After saying that, Jin Huaiqian reached for his phone and made a call to Zhou Zheng.
“Zhou Zheng, please help buy a windmill and deliver it to Xie Sui’s house. Thank you for your hard work, I’ll transfer two thousand yuan to you for the trip.”
Xie Sui exposed a single eye, peering up at him from below.
Jin Huaiqian said with a smile, “Is this enough to buy your happiness?”
Xie Sui was stunned for a moment. “How did you know I was in a bad mood?”
Jin Huaiqian pinched his perky nose. “Didn’t you say your windmill was broken?”
Xie Sui knew the reason definitely wasn’t that, but he didn’t press further.
He tilted his chin up slightly. “Jin Huaiqian, kiss me right now.”
Jin Huaiqian lowered his head and kissed him. Xie Sui gripped the back of his neck, deepening the kiss.
Only a single bedside lamp remained lit in the room, its warm yellow light casting an exceptionally tender and affectionate glow over them.
As the kiss ended, Xie Sui grew even more sluggish. He didn’t even want to lift his eyelashes, let alone get out of bed.
Jin Huaiqian simply wrapped his arm around his shoulder and lay down on the bed with him.
He pulled out his phone, opened the chat window, and let Xie Sui see the red exclamation mark on the screen. “Why did you block me?”
A mischievous smile played on the corners of Xie Sui’s lips. “Who told you not to reply to my messages and even hang up my calls?”
Jin Huaiqian teased, “I actually didn’t know Mr. Xie had such a grand temper, capable of blocking someone just because they didn’t reply to a message.”
Xie Sui said, “I don’t know about others, but this is your treatment anyway.”
Jin Huaiqian asked, displeased, “Why?”
“This is your exclusive treatment, which no one else gets. You should feel honored.”
Furious to the point of laughing, Jin Huaiqian actually couldn’t find any words to refute him.
“Then when are you going to unblock me?”
“I’ll release you in a little while.”
Jin Huaiqian said, “Then should I say thank you?”
Xie Sui said with a laugh, “You’re welcome.”