They ate the meal.
But he didn’t leave.
Li Yang invited Ran Fan to take a walk by the sea, giving the reason that since they were already here, it would be a pity not to go and have a look.
Ran Fan couldn’t think of any way to resist it. So they went together, just the two of them, without even bringing along the big raccoon cat that had just been rescued from the pet hospital.
Before heading out, considering that many of the furnishings in the house were made of expensive leather, Ran Fan had wanted to shut the cat in a room. Li Yang refused. “Furniture is meant to be used, to be worn down. Let it run around. Even if it scratches a bit, it won’t really ruin anything.”
“You’re a bit indulgent toward cats” Ran Fan said.
“Am I?” Li Yang replied. “I’ve never kept pets before.”
“You don’t like cats or dogs?”
“I like them. I’m just bad at raising them. Even the flowers and plants I keep always end up dying.”
“Maybe it’s just that you don’t know enough about it yet or that the preparation wasn’t thorough enough. As long as you put a little more care into it, it’s not that hard.”
Li Yang smiled as they walked, opening the garden’s white-painted wooden gate for Ran Fan. “Then can you teach me?”
As they spoke, the view suddenly opened up. A garden path paved by wealth itself led straight to the sea by the shortest route.
It had rained the day before and today there was still no sun. The sky was a pale blue-green, with layers of light clouds piled up shallowly. The waves rolled in one after another. The damp, beige sand stretched like a ribbon of silk, sliding all the way to the edge of vision.
Whoosh!
A gust of sea breeze blew past.
As if it scattered all the troubles in the world.
The air, tinged with the scent of seawater, was neither cold nor hot, the most comfortable temperature imaginable.
Ran Fan saw people coming and going: some strolling leisurely, some with families and children collecting shells and piling sand. Dozens of meters away, there was a volleyball net bleached by the sun, with a few teenagers on each side shouting noisily as they played beach volleyball. Others rode jet skis, cheering loudly.
As his gaze shifted further, he saw several people busy with lighting and filming equipment. In the middle, a newlywed couple was surrounded, taking wedding photos.
Amid the photographer’s joking laughter, the two leaned in and kissed.
As he was watching, a voice came from beside him.
“Do you want to fish?”
“What?” Ran Fan was momentarily dazed.
Li Yang repeated, “Do you want to fish?”
Then he added, “Staring at the sea gets boring after a while. Since we’re already here.”
Ran Fan hesitated. “Wouldn’t that be troublesome?”
“It won’t be.”
And indeed, it wasn’t troublesome at all.
Li Yang had fishing gear at home. One phone call was all it took for someone to deliver it.
There was no exaggerated moment of conjuring a yacht out of thin air. Instead, he simply took Ran Fan and joined a nearby recreational group that organized offshore fishing trips for tourists.
Neither of them was particularly noisy or talkative. As it turned out, sea fishing, quietly waiting for fish to bite, was just like taking a walk together, perfectly suited to the two of them at this moment.
The tourists beside them, however, were quite talkative.
Two energetic college students stared nervously and expectantly at their fishing rods while vividly recounting a story about encountering a food delivery thief on campus and, in a fit of anger, deciding to catch the criminal themselves.
Without realizing it, Ran Fan listened intently. Just as the story was about to reach its critical point, where the protagonist confronted the thief alongside the police but the thief refused to admit guilt, a fish bit the bait next door.
The two college students instantly abandoned the story and threw themselves into battling the fish. From that point on, one struggle followed another without pause.
When the two-hour sea fishing session ended, Ran Fan had a decent catch but his mood was a little complicated. He silently reflected:
Was he being too nosy?
He tilted his head to distract himself and looked at Li Yang beside him, only to see that Li Yang had also tilted his head, asking the two young men nearby, “And then?”
The two college students froze. Ran Fan froze too.
After disembarking, Ran Fan stood there blankly, carrying the bucket of fish. All of a sudden, he laughed.
Why was he laughing? He wasn’t quite sure.
When he laughed, Li Yang took his fish bucket and carried it together with him, commenting, “There are so many bad people.”
Ran Fan felt another urge to laugh and said, “Yes. There are so many bad people.”
By evening, Ran Fan really did go home this time.
Li Yang drove him there. When the car reached its destination, Li Yang turned on the interior light and quietly looked at Ran Fan under its glow.
Ran Fan’s eyelashes trembled slightly. He had a feeling in his heart. “Do you have something you want to say to me?”
There was something but it was different from every possibility Ran Fan could think of. Very suddenly, Li Yang asked, “Ran Fan, you’re not homosexual, are you?”
“Mm.”
Ran Fan froze in place, his mind going blank for a moment, as he heard Li Yang continue, “There were many women passing by on the beach today. When they were wearing slightly revealing clothes, you would subconsciously avert your gaze. I was thinking, could it be that you actually like girls?”
There was a sharp thud in his heart.
He had been seen through.
Before meeting Jiang Minyu, his orientation had always been normal.
It should be said that even now, Ran Fan’s orientation was still normal.
In their relationship, every step had been initiated by Jiang Minyu. During a university vacation, on a scorching summer night, Jiang Minyu suddenly pulled him into an embrace, turned his face and kissed him.
Ran Fan was so startled that he nearly jumped. He asked Jiang Minyu why and Jiang Minyu, stubborn as stone, blocked his way and bluntly declared that he liked him.
“Am I not good enough? Why are you always hanging around with other people?”
“What are you dodging for? You’re scared just because you know I’m gay? I’m still going to make you be with me.”
At that time, Jiang Minyu was still in high school yet his height and build already surpassed Ran Fan’s. His personality was sharp, his presence overwhelming, so much so that Ran Fan, the actual adult between them, was almost too intimidated to speak.
He spent a night in turmoil and avoided Jiang Minyu for several days afterward but Jiang Minyu was like fire incarnate. Since he wasn’t joking, his actions naturally followed through with relentless pursuit.
It didn’t take long before Ran Fan gave in completely to Jiang Minyu’s wishes.
No one could remain unmoved when pursued so fervently by Jiang Minyu. Once Ran Fan allowed even the slightest opening and fell in love with him, it became an easy and inevitable thing.
He was a stretch of empty soil and Jiang Minyu was a blazing, vivid rose.
Ran Fan came back to himself and wanted to lower his head but in that brief instant he first saw Li Yang’s eyes.
Li Yang looked at him with a gaze that was both heavy and gentle and it made Ran Fan think of the words Li Yang had spoken to him at the hospital.
To pity someone was to cherish them; to cherish someone was to ache for them.
If no one looked at him with that kind of gaze, he wouldn’t immediately feel such a surge of bitterness. Like a child who had fallen down, if no one was around, he could grit his teeth and get back up on his own but once someone felt sorry for him, the first instinct was no longer to stand up but to cry.
Without realizing it, Ran Fan saw Li Yang appear at the place where he himself had fallen.
He asked Li Yang, “Don’t you think I’m ordinary?”
Li Yang said, “Do you think I’m old?”
Then he added, “Before meeting you, I didn’t think I was old. Now my thinking has changed.”
Ran Fan said, “…………You really aren’t old.” He faintly sensed that Li Yang genuinely cared about this topic.
Li Yang smiled faintly. “I think I am old.”
Ran Fan was at a loss, unable to come up with anything to say and could only stammer softly, “You… You shouldn’t think like that.”
“By the same logic,” Li Yang said, “you shouldn’t think that way either.”
“You’re not ordinary. You’re very precious.”
From the back seat came the meowing of the big, fat raccoon cat. Ran Fan turned, opened the car door and got out.
“Go home and rest well. Good night.”
As Li Yang handed him the cat, he also passed him the fish. Ran Fan took them, hurried away and when he reached the entrance of the residential complex and looked back, Li Yang was still there, waving at him.
Ran Fan’s steps paused slightly. His lips moved but in the end he continued forward, disappearing into the night.
✦ ✧ ✦
Fleurveil
[Translator]
☕ A LITTLE SOMETHING FOR THE TRANSLATOR
The translator has survived another chapter. Please reward them with coffee. ☕
☕ BUY THEM A COFFEE →
✧ (づ｡•ㅅ•｡)づ ☕ ✧
✦ thank you for reading ✦
← PreviousNext →
ChaptersChapter 1 · Let’s break upChapter 2 · A hand landed on Ran Fan’s backChapter 3 · Jiang Wenyu’s biological fatherChapter 4 · Li Yang kissed him againChapter 5 · Could you come to the hospital?Chapter 6 · I hope you can give birthChapter 7 · Are you bothered by the fact that I am Jiang Wenyu’s biological father?Chapter 8 · Don’t you think I’m ordinary?Chapter 9 · Don’t consider it me going back on my wordChapter 10 · You are a truly remarkable personChapter 11 · Would you say you’re cold-hearted towards Ran Fan?Chapter 12 · Dr. Ran resigned several months ago.Chapter 13 · Can we meet up?Chapter 14 · You also know the child’s fatherChapter 15 · You are the most important to meChapter 16 · Extra 1Chapter 17 · Extra 2Chapter 18 · Extra 3