Chapter 33#
Playboy (3)#
Li Tang backed down under the gazes of these three people. If he were to stubbornly clash with them, it was uncertain who would win or lose. The problem was that he was still holding things in his arms, and the enemy had numerical superiority. So he could only cast a disdainful glance at the few of them and said, “I don’t want this junk anymore. I’ll just give it to the cleaning lady! Consider it charity for the poor.”
Even if it meant wasting it, he couldn’t lose face. Having said that, he threw the things to the ground, stomped on them a few times, and swaggered off with his head held high.
He looked just like a victorious rooster that had won a fight.
Lu Yi’s three roommates stood dumbfounded.
After a long silence, roommate Qin Lu muttered, “He spent sixty thousand to buy these things from Lu Yi, and then just threw them on the ground? What’s going on in his head?”
Roommate Zhang Zhihong pushed his own jaw back into place with his hand. “He probably wanted to show that he’s rich and doesn’t care about Lu Yi’s stuff.”
The last one, Wang Wang, asked, “But if that’s the case, why did he have to put on a show in front of us? Lu Yi can’t even see it. And if he really doesn’t care, why did he spend the money to buy them in the first place?”
Wang Wang’s question made so much sense that they were left speechless. The three exchanged bewildered glances and then said in unison, “He must be crazy!”
While badmouthing Li Tang, they opened the door and immediately saw Lu Yi tidying up the table.
Wang Wang had the best relationship with Lu Yi among them. Seeing him, he rushed over and gave him a big hug. “Xiao Lu, you’re back!”
In the dorm, there were two “deer” (Lu in Chinese sounds like deer)—Qin Lu, the older one, was called Old Deer, and Lu Yi, the youngest, was Little Deer.
Suddenly being embraced around the waist, Lu Yi felt a bit awkward. Knowing that his roommate meant well, he could only remind him tactfully, “Wang Zai, even though I’m not interested in you, I do like men. It’s better we keep a proper distance.”
Wang Wang’s grip was so strong it almost choked him.
Wang Wang, who had been bear-hugging Lu Yi, quickly let go in embarrassment. He vividly described the scene they had just witnessed and concluded, “That guy is just a blind, scumbag with a messed-up brain. The only good thing about him is his looks. Don’t like him anymore.”
Actually, they hadn’t been too optimistic about Lu Yi and Li Tang’s relationship from the start. Lu Yi had a simple, honest personality and was easy to bully, while Li Tang was full of tricks and could charm anyone with his honeyed words whenever he wanted.
But there was no helping it—before this, Lu Yi had been dead set on liking him, even distancing himself from his roommates because of him.
It was hard to say they didn’t harbor some resentment. But when Lu Yi had been so upset that he drank pesticide that day, they were truly terrified.
Apart from advising Lu Yi to take things lightly and joining him in berating the scumbag, there wasn’t much else they could do as his buddies.
Lu Yi had left campus for several years and had almost forgotten what college life was like. Now, having become this Lu Yi, he was quite moved by this brotherly bond.
He smiled and said, “Thank you, but I already broke up with him before. There’s definitely no getting back together.”
Zhang Zhihong said, “I’m glad you’ve come to your senses. What about the stuff outside?”
“Since he said he wanted to give it to the dorm matron, let it stay outside. We’ve already settled our accounts—the transaction is done, so it has nothing to do with me anymore.”
Qin Lu chimed in, “He said earlier that he spent sixty thousand on those things. Is that true or not?”
Lu Yi shook his phone. “It’s true. The transfer record is right here.”
Wang Wang still found it hard to believe. “Have you really moved on?”
Lu Yi said, “I really have. I walked the line between life and death, and there’s nothing I can’t move on from. I’ve come to see things clearly. If I died, those who don’t like me would probably be laughing in a corner. Only those who care about me would be sad. There’s no need for me to die for people who hate me. If I live well, they’ll be the unhappy ones.”
Wang Wang patted him firmly on the shoulder. “Well said. That time you drank pesticide really scared us half to death. To celebrate you moving on, I’m treating you to a big meal tonight. Old Deer, you go book a table later.”
Lu Yi smiled and said, “Let me treat instead. I just got a windfall of sixty thousand. Today’s on me—consider it an apology for scaring you all.”
After some insistence, Lu Yi ended up paying.
As the old saying goes, “Better to demolish ten temples than to break up one marriage.” On internet forums, out of ten replies to a random post, nine advise breaking up. But in reality, with all sorts of considerations, the advice to reconcile always outweighs the advice to separate.
For Lu Yi’s roommates, even though they found Li Tang utterly distasteful, they had basically dared not say much bad about his boyfriend in front of Lu Yi, for fear of upsetting him.
Now that they were sure he had truly moved on, a few of them had some drinks, and they finally spoke freely about things they usually wouldn’t mention to Lu Yi.
After downing a bottle of beer, Wang Wang started blabbing, “Not to badmouth you, bro, but it’s a good thing you’ve moved on. You don’t like women—that’s fine too. There are plenty of good men out there. Why hang yourself on that one rotten tree?”
“Before, you didn’t want to hear us talk bad about him, so we kept a lot to ourselves. About him—he started dating early in middle school, got into fights in high school over jealousies. Before you, he had several others.”
Zhang Zhihong also said, “Yeah, yeah. I heard that Li Tang’s record was dating six people at once. And you were just one of them.”
That really stung. Qin Lu shot a glance at his roommates, signaling them to watch their mouths.
Lu Yi, however, remained calm. After all, the one truly hurt by Li Tang wasn’t him. In fact, he wanted to hear more. Only by knowing your enemy can you win every battle.
In the original owner’s memories, almost everything about Li Tang was beautiful, except for the dark, gloomy scenes where Li Tang had hurt him.
What he wanted to know, besides Li Tang’s likes and dislikes, was more information about other things.
“It’s fine. Hearing you all talk like this makes me happy. At least I’ve finally made the right decision. Go ahead.”
“Yeah, Little Deer is right. Old Deer, you know things too, speak up. Didn’t you mention last time that you saw a man with Li Tang, and Li Tang was acting like a grandson in front of him?”
Lu Yi’s eyes brightened slightly. He raised his glass, took a sip of wine to cover it up, and said, “Li Tang, acting like someone’s grandson? I bet he saw someone upright and proper, so he put on a false front to mess with them.”
“Exactly!” Zhang Zhihong, a bit tipsy, tossed two fried peanuts into his mouth. “Old Deer, do you know who that person is? If you recognize him, go warn him, to avoid another tragedy.”
Fortunately, Lu Yi hadn’t died. If he had, that would have been a life lost.
Qin Lu also took a sip of wine. “I don’t know him either. I just saw him at the school gate last time. That man was quite good-looking—probably Li Tang’s favorite type. The atmosphere between them was nice, they seemed pretty close.”
“Yeah, yeah, I was there too. I remember that guy—he was ridiculously handsome. Definitely better looking than that bastard Li Tang!” Wang Wang was so drunk his tongue was tied, and his head was spinning, but he could vaguely recall the scene from that day.
Lu Yi picked up a couple of dishes with his chopsticks and casually asked, “How good-looking?”
Qin Lu sensed something and didn’t say much, but Wang Wang, drunk, didn’t notice Qin Lu’s signaling and replied, “Super good-looking. I, Old Wang, am straighter than a steel rod, but after a few glances at that man, I felt like I was almost bending.”
It wasn’t that exaggerated, but the man in question was indeed outstanding in appearance, no less than the fresh-faced idols on TV.
After they had eaten and drunk their fill, Lu Yi called two taxis to send the two drunkards back.
Qin Lu and Lu Yi were in decent shape, so they split up, each taking care of one.
Lu Yi sat in the passenger seat and rolled down the window when his phone chimed.
He opened the screen and saw it was a text from Qin Lu: “Do you still have feelings for that Li Tang?”
Qin Lu was the most thoughtful of the group. He observed more and thought more.
Lu Yi thought for a few seconds, then replied, “It’s definitely not love anymore. But after caring so much, it’s hard to completely let go.”
After a major upheaval, especially heartbreak, a simple and honest person might become even more withdrawn, or they might abandon themselves to despair. The best outcome is to truly see through it all.
But seeing through it doesn’t mean being completely indifferent. Lu Yi indeed had no feelings for Li Tang, but he couldn’t say that to outsiders.
Receiving the reply, Qin Lu felt a weight lift off his heart. He didn’t believe Lu Yi could be entirely unaffected. If he had seemed too calm, Qin Lu would have worried that he was bottling everything up and might do something abnormal.
This text now seemed like Lu Yi’s genuine thoughts.
He thought for a moment and replied, “The man who was with Li Tang before—his surname is Rong, full name Rong Huan. I know he works as a part-time teacher at a music shop. I don’t know anything else.”
Lu Yi looked at the reply, let out a long sigh, and didn’t forget to respond, “Got it. Thanks, Old Deer.”
Hearing this man’s name, his intuition told him that this was likely Li Tang’s white moonlight, the one he could never forget.