Chapter 49#

Chapter 49 Side Story — Twenty-Four

This month was the rainy season in City X. It rained heavily last night, and the roads were wet today, with water accumulated in low-lying areas. When Mo Xi went out to buy groceries in the morning, his trouser legs were covered in mud. He only brought two pairs of trousers this time. The other pair was kicked to the ground by Pockmark in the hospital yesterday and was still lying in the washing machine.

Mo Xi was a little depressed. Today he could only make do with wearing this pair of mud-stained trousers to the hospital.

Pei Hao knew he had a slight obsession with cleanliness. Before going out, Pei Hao dived into the wardrobe, rummaged for a while, and then threw a pair of trousers to Mo Xi.

Simple washed jeans. Mo Xi felt a little familiar. Picking them up, weren’t these his old trousers? He looked for them for a while but couldn’t find them, and couldn’t remember where he lost them. Unexpectedly, they were with Pei Hao.

“You forgot to pack them when you moved out last time.” Before he could ask, Pei Hao explained first.

When he moved out last time? Wasn’t that more than two years ago, and in the rented house in City Y?

He didn’t throw them away when moving?

This was the first thought that flashed through Mo Xi’s mind, but soon the sentence “I miss you so much” that Pei Hao said affectionately in the hospital corridor that night echoed in his ears again, lingering like a single song on repeat, unable to dissipate.

If it weren’t for the fact that Pei Hao had never contacted him in the past year, Mo Xi would almost believe that Pei Hao really missed him all the time.

Xiao Jun felt a lingering fear when thinking about the trouble caused by the bald guy and his gang yesterday. The next day, he applied for a ward change for Mo Zi, but the hospital beds were too tight to change immediately. Fortunately, Pei Hao helped them contact another hospital, and they could move in on the same day. The medical conditions were no worse than Ren’ai, and the privacy of the ward was better than now.

After weighing the pros and cons, Xiao Jun decided to let Mo Zi change hospitals, so today they came to help Mo Zi with the procedures.

Pei Hao unprecedentedly didn’t accompany Mo Xi, because their company had some problems recently. Fu Bing said before that Wu Lin might poach their company’s customers. Just a few days later, Pei Hao received news that Wu Lin had already started to act.

Moreover, there was suddenly a rumor in the industry recently that the quality of Qimao’s finished products was poor. Pei Hao naturally knew who was behind it, but Mr. Wang also became suspicious and insisted that Pei Hao prove the quality of the finished products first before signing the follow-up contract, otherwise they would rather pay the penalty to terminate the transaction.

Originally, Pei Hao had asked for a week’s leave, but at the most critical moment of the company, it was not good to go against Fu Bing’s wishes. So these two days he plunged into the factory to test the product performance repeatedly with the product manager, and could only meet Mo Xi when he went home at night. Thinking about it, this could be considered the most stressful period since he joined the company, but as long as he thought that Xiao Xi was still at home, he felt inexplicably at ease.

It seemed that the work was not so heavy, and the customers were not so difficult. Suddenly, he became fearless and forged ahead, and even those trivial and tedious things became meaningful.

Regardless of whether the outside world was full of dangers and bullets, he had a warmth in his heart that could withstand the bloody storm.

Mo Xi was going back to the US on Saturday. Pei Hao had a meeting with Mr. Wang’s company on Friday afternoon. In the morning, he took Mo Xi to a temple. Mo Xi said he wanted to pray for a safety amulet for his sister.

The sky was azure, and the air was fresh. This temple was over a hundred years old, and some eaves had lost their paint, but there was an endless stream of people coming and going, and the incense was constant. Not far away, the distant bell rang, and several abbots in cassocks knocked on wooden fish in the main temple, chanting words. Pei Hao never believed in gods, Buddhas, or ghosts, but when he stared at Mo Xi’s devout look, he also became interested, so he bought a wishing plaque, quickly wrote a line of words on it, and hung it up.

If there really were gods, they might as well take some of his lifespan in exchange for this peace of mind.

When Mo Xi came back from praying for the safety amulet, he glimpsed Pei Hao hanging a wishing plaque on the wall and was curious: “You made a wish?”

A gust of wind blew, and the wishing plaques on the wall rustled. Pei Hao nodded solemnly.

Mo Xi felt that he had really encountered evil today. Pei Hao actually hung a wishing plaque in front of him. Didn’t he say before that only little girls who didn’t know the world would do such things?

As soon as noon arrived, Pei Hao sent Mo Xi back to the hospital and returned to the company to prepare.

The meeting went smoothly. Mr. Wang raised many tricky questions, and Pei Hao’s team gave satisfactory answers. At the end of the talk, Mr. Wang slapped the table and signed the follow-up contract.

Fu Bing was happy and booked a luxury private room, inviting Mr. Wang and the team to have dinner together, which was also a small celebration banquet. Mr. Wang was in high spirits and wanted to chat more with them about the future development of the industry, so he agreed immediately.

Only Pei Hao looked troubled. He clasped his knuckles and looked at Fu Bing with some difficulty: “Sister Fu, I have something to do tonight.”

Mo Xi was leaving tomorrow, and Pei Hao wanted to have dinner with him.

Before Fu Bing could reply, Mr. Wang walked over and patted Pei Hao on the shoulder, his tone strong: “You can’t leave. I still have some questions to ‘ask for advice’ from you.”

Pei Hao frowned slightly, and unhappiness surged in his heart. First, he didn’t like physical contact with others, and second, he hated others forcing him to do things.

“Not at all, Mr. Wang!” Fu Bing noticed the change in Pei Hao’s mood, walked two steps to him and exchanged pleasantries with Mr. Wang, “We should ask you for more advice.”

“The waves behind the Yangtze River drive on those before, I’m already old,” Mr. Wang waved his hand and spoke polite words, “It depends on you juniors in the future.”

“You must be joking, Mr. Wang.” Fu Bing was polite with Mr. Wang, but she was thinking about Pei Hao’s matter. She always felt that Pei Hao had excellent abilities in all aspects. The only shortcoming was that he was not mature enough. For example, not controlling his expression well in front of a big customer just now was slightly childish. But thinking again, when she was in her twenties, she was much more arrogant than him. Who hasn’t been young and impetuous?

Taking advantage of the gap when Mr. Wang went to the bathroom, Fu Bing pulled Pei Hao aside, explained the importance of tonight’s dinner earnestly, and promised to find a way to let him leave as soon as possible.

Pei Hao was helpless, so he had to send a text message to Mo Xi, saying that he had to accompany the customer tonight and let him eat by himself if he was hungry.

Mo Xi was teasing Xiao… in the hospital. He was stunned when he saw Pei Hao’s text message. Recently, Pei Hao always took the initiative to send text messages to explain his whereabouts, as if they were still a couple.

Mo Xi wanted to reply that there was really no need for this, you can eat with whoever you want, no need to report to me, but every time he edited the text message halfway, he deleted it. He couldn’t say why. Thinking about it, probably he didn’t want to see Pei Hao disappointed.

So in the end, only a “Okay” was sent.

Xiao Jun told him early today that the whole family would have dinner together in the evening, so Mo Xi never thought about doing anything alone with Pei Hao.

“Oh, I’m going to have dinner with my sister and the others today.”

Pei Hao looked at the line of words on the phone and couldn’t help showing a slightly disappointed smile. How could he forget that his ranking in Mo Xi’s heart had long fallen into a deep ditch? How could it be his turn for the last meal before going abroad?

He declined and was reluctant at the company, but it turned out to be wishful thinking.

Xiao… giggled in Mo Zi’s arms, teased by Mo Xi. Mo Xi shook a toy in front of her with one hand, but held the phone with the other hand, a little distracted. He remembered that every time Pei Hao came back from accompanying customers, he smelled of alcohol, so he sent a text message to remind him, roughly meaning not to drink, the doctor said drinking is not good for wound recovery.

Pei Hao simply replied with “Mm”, and the tone couldn’t be heard.

But whether to drink or not was not up to him. It depended on the customer, otherwise how could it be called accompanying the customer.

There are thousands of people in the world, each with their own hobbies. Mr. Wang belonged to the type who loved drinking parties. Not only did he have to drink, but others also had to accompany him to drink enough. Among the juniors, he admired Pei Hao’s type the most. He didn’t talk much and didn’t play the flattery game, but he could hit the nail on the head at important moments and handle things cleanly. When discussing cooperation, he liked to deliberately ask some acerbic questions, and this young man could answer fluently.

The private room booked by Fu Bing was in a high-end Japanese restaurant. The room was decorated in an antique style, and the plating of each dish was as exquisite as a landscape painting. As soon as Mr. Wang entered the door, he ordered a few pots of sake and pulled Fu Bing and Pei Hao to sit down. Usually, Fu Bing would bring one or two people who could drink, but today it was very unfortunate that both of them had something to do and couldn’t come. Fu Bing couldn’t drink much, so Pei Hao had to step up.

The alcohol content of sake is not too high, the taste is sweet and smooth, but the aftereffect is strong. At first, after a few pots of wine, everyone didn’t feel much, so they drank more and more. When the aftereffect came up, Pei Hao couldn’t remember how many pots he had drunk, only felt burning in his stomach and dizziness.

Seeing that he had drunk almost enough, Fu Bing found an excuse with Mr. Wang and asked Chen Xu to send him home. Pei Hao was dizzy from drunkenness, but his mind was still clear. He could say his home address when Chen Xu asked.

It rained again this evening. Several children were splashing water on the opposite street. Chen Xu supported Pei Hao to wait for a car by the road. From time to time, a few drops of water fell from the tree beside them onto their heads.

The wind was a bit strong at night, blowing Chen Xu’s hair straight up. After some effort, he finally pulled Pei Hao into the car. There were few cars on the way back, and the taxi drove very fast. Pei Hao leaned back on the chair and fell asleep. The colorful lights and shadows outside the car window flashed across his face quickly.

Chen Xu stared at his side profile in a daze. The face that was usually cold and severe didn’t relax at this time. His brows were locked tight, wondering if he had something on his mind. This was probably the closest he had ever been to Pei Hao. Without hesitation, Chen Xu extended his right index finger and gently pressed on Pei Hao’s brow center, then drew a beautiful arc along his handsome nose bridge, wanting to touch further down. Unfortunately, Pei Hao turned his head extremely uncomfortably, leaving only the back of his head to him. Chen Xu’s extended hand stopped awkwardly in mid-air, and he withdrew it resentfully after a while.

Getting out of the taxi, Pei Hao intermittently popped out a few words. Chen Xu reacted for a moment and heard that Pei Hao wanted him to go home first. But seeing the person in front of him couldn’t even stand steadily, how could he go back first?

He managed to support Pei Hao to the door of his house, fumbled in Pei Hao’s trouser pocket for a few times, finally found the key and brought the person into the house. The lights in the house were off, and it seemed there was no one else. Chen Xu breathed a sigh of relief. Just now in the elevator, he was thinking what if he met his girlfriend, then his secret crush would be hidden in his heart forever and never see the light of day.

Fortunately, there was no one else in Pei Hao’s house.

Chen Xu put him on the sofa, turned on the light, went to the kitchen to get materials on the spot, made a cup of sobering water and fed Pei Hao a few mouthfuls. There was a quilt on the sofa, so he covered Pei Hao with it by the way. Originally, Chen Xu was ready to go home after feeding, but when his feet reached the door, he walked back as if possessed. After all, it was a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity, and he wanted to look at the appearance of his beloved carefully again.

Chen Xu squatted halfway in front of the sofa, gazing at Pei Hao’s sharp and exceptionally handsome profile. The distance between their faces was too close, and his heart beat uncontrollably fast. There was a place under Pei Hao’s nose peak that he didn’t touch in the car just now. Chen Xu seemed to be bewitched, bent down, and his lips touched it.

Mo Xi returned to Pei Hao’s house early after dinner today, simply packed his luggage, watched TV for a while, and Pei Hao hadn’t come back yet. He didn’t wait any longer and went directly to the bedroom to sleep.

Not long after sleeping, he heard rustling sounds outside, as if Pei Hao had come back. He scratched his head and climbed out of bed, thinking that since he was leaving tomorrow, it would be better to say hello to Pei Hao, and also thank him for his care these days.

Only the floor lamp was on in the living room, and the light was dim. Pei Hao was lying on the sofa, and a somewhat familiar figure stood beside him. That person bent down, wondering if he was talking to Pei Hao.

Mo Xi walked forward a few steps and was completely stunned. That person’s lips were covering Pei Hao’s lips, sucking slowly.

His heart sank suddenly, and his feet seemed to have taken root, unable to move another half step forward. Mo Xi involuntarily clenched his fists, his knuckles turning white and painful from the pressure. The liquid that was still flowing warmly in his blood vessels froze instantly, and a familiar pain hit him like a mountain torrent.

Yes, admit it, he still loved Pei Hao, but this person Pei Hao, always only disappointed him.