Chapter 53#

Chapter 53 Extra — Twenty-Eight

Pei Hao breathed a sigh of relief after signing the last contract of the year with a client in the company conference room. The clients that needed to be talked to had been talked to, and the contracts that needed to be signed had been signed. Things at the company could finally quiet down for a while.

Fu Bing asked him if he wanted to take a vacation. She still remembered that last time Pei Hao took a week off, she had called him back to work for a few days. Pei Hao thought for a moment, then sent a WeChat message to Mo Xi, asking him what his plans were for Christmas.

That morning, Mo Xi woke up late. When the alarm rang, he had unconsciously turned it off and slept soundly for another half hour. When he woke up, he glanced at his phone, then hurriedly ran to school to take an exam. At noon, he hastily bought some bread and ran to the company for work, forgetting to reply.

Pei Hao didn’t mind too much. He knew that Mo Xi was sometimes very busy during the day and couldn’t attend to replying to him.

The next morning, Pei Hao went to the company for a meeting. Fu Bing summarized the company’s performance for the year in detail. Although she kept a serious expression, the occasional smile at the corner of her mouth showed that she was quite satisfied with this year’s results. The meeting lasted until noon. Fu Bing raised her hand to check her watch and smiled slightly: “That’s it for today. The whole company has the afternoon off. Everyone has worked hard recently.”

A burst of cheers erupted in the conference room, a bit like the scene when a teacher announced the cancellation of evening self-study during school days. After praising Fu Bing profusely, everyone happily returned to their desks to pack up and go home.

Pei Hao returned to his office, took out his phone, and looked at it again. Mo Xi still hadn’t replied to him. It had been almost 20 hours. Even if he was busy during the day, surely he could spare a minute or two to reply after returning home at night. Pei Hao’s face fell, feeling a bit depressed.

He was just about to send another message to Mo Xi when there was a knock on the door from outside.

“Come in,” Pei Hao said, still staring at his phone with a sour face.

“Brother Hao, Sister Fu asked me to bring these documents to you.” Chen Xu walked in holding a file folder, glanced at Pei Hao, and then lowered his head.

Since that incident at Pei Hao’s house last time, he didn’t dare to look Pei Hao in the eye. Every time he entered his office, he was cautious. If he could finish saying something in one sentence, he would never say a second one. Pei Hao had never mentioned that incident either. There was still the necessary interaction at work, but his attitude towards him was colder than before.

“Okay,” Pei Hao took the documents without even looking up at him, “Thanks.”

Concise and to the point, with all the necessary politeness, but the attitude was one that kept people a thousand miles away.

This was how Pei Hao dealt with ordinary colleagues.

Probably in Pei Hao’s eyes, Chen Xu was no different from the other various passerby colleagues in the company. But no matter what, he genuinely liked Pei Hao! Whenever he thought of this, Chen Xu felt unwilling to give up.

He was also very curious about what kind of feelings Pei Hao had for that boy at the hospital last time.

Pei Hao took out the documents and quickly browsed through them. When he was putting them back into the bag, he found Chen Xu still standing at the door looking at him, motionless.

Pei Hao raised his head to look at him and asked, “Is there anything else?”

“Brother Hao, I…” Chen Xu tugged at the hem of his clothes, paused, and stammered, “I… like you.”

Pei Hao was stunned. He thought they could tacitly forget about this matter. After all, he had gotten angry at Chen Xu last time. He didn’t expect the guy to still not give up.

He put the file folder back on the table, straightened his body, looked at Chen Xu, and said seriously, “I already have someone I like.”

Chen Xu’s eyes dimmed: “Is it that person who was at your house last time?”

“Yes.” Pei Hao answered firmly, without any hesitation.

The noon sunlight shone in. Chen Xu lowered his head, his bangs casting a heavy shadow over his eyes: “So do I have absolutely no hope?”

“No, don’t waste your time on me.” It wasn’t the first time Pei Hao had been confessed to. Rejecting people was something he could do with ease.

The sky outside the window was gray and a bit cold. Chen Xu sighed and asked, “Why must it be that person?”

“Why?” Pei Hao actually thought about it seriously. A breeze blew in, bringing a faint smile to the corner of his mouth, “Because he is the best person.”

The smile that Pei Hao couldn’t stop when mentioning that person was like a thorn piercing Chen Xu’s heart. At this point, he understood that he really had no chance. He didn’t ask any more questions and left dejectedly, opening the door.

Pei Hao felt relieved. He picked up his phone to check the time, opened the chat with Mo Xi, typed a paragraph, and then deleted it. After thinking for a while, he took out another phone from his pocket and opened the ‘Naughty Child’ account.

Naughty Child: Are you asleep?

Mo Xi replied quite quickly: Not yet, doing homework (Sleepy.jpg)

Naughty Child: Do you have to hand it in tomorrow? Still writing so late…

It was almost 1 AM.

Mo Xi: Hand in next Monday, but I might not have time to write in the next few days.

Naughty Child: So busy? No time even on the weekend?

Mo Xi: I have to attend a school forum during the day on the weekend, and I have a dinner appointment in the evening.

Naughty Child: Oh~ You have a dinner appointment too.

Pei Hao now knew Mo Xi’s schedule inside out. Honestly, Xiao Xi was either busy studying or working all day. It was rare to hear that he had a dinner appointment with someone.

More importantly, he had time to have dinner with someone else, but no time to reply to his WeChat message.

Pei Hao pursed his lips, feeling somewhat aggrieved in his heart.

Mo Xi didn’t notice the awkwardness in Naughty Child’s tone. He sent the message without thinking: A friend wants to introduce me to a potential partner, so I’m going to meet them (Laughing and crying.jpg)

Pei Hao stared at the line of text that popped up on the phone screen, nailed to his seat as if struck by a bolt from the blue. A chill rushed from the soles of his feet straight to the top of his head, so cold that he couldn’t help but grip his phone tightly.

So Mo Xi wasn’t really busy. He had time to meet other people, but was unwilling to spare a minute to text him.

He was waiting eagerly here, checking his phone every now and then, thinking he still had hope, while Mo Xi was over there planning to meet a future partner.

Pei Hao felt his heart shrivel into a ball. Every rise and fall of his chest felt like it was pulling at his muscles and bones, hurting rawly.

He sat in the office for a long time until a colleague knocked on the door to ask when he was leaving, only then did he come back to his senses. Pei Hao turned off his phone with a gloomy face, stood up, walked past the colleague, and left straight away.

Leaving the colleague standing there with a bewildered look, watching Chen Xu next to him trembling: “Holy crap, what’s wrong with Brother Hao today? His face is so dark? Scared me to death!”

Chen Xu was also a bit confused and whispered doubtfully: “Maybe I provoked him just now?”

The night was particularly dark. Mo Xi closed his computer and looked outside; there wasn’t a single star. It was 1:30 AM. He finally finished his homework, but there was still no reply from Naughty Child on his phone.

Having chatted with Naughty Child for so long, Mo Xi already considered him an important friend. He had intended to take this opportunity to talk about meeting Pei Hao when he went back and ask for Naughty Child’s opinion.

But there was suddenly no sound from the other side.

Mo Xi didn’t know if something had happened to Naughty Child. Waves of drowsiness hit him. After washing up, he went to bed.

When Mo Xi woke up the next day, his phone was as quiet as a chicken. For the first time, Pei Hao hadn’t sent him messages in the middle of the night, and Naughty Child hadn’t replied to him either. The world suddenly became much quieter.

He opened the chat with Pei Hao with some surprise. The latest message was still the one Pei Hao sent yesterday: “What are your plans for Christmas?”

Huh? Did he forget to reply yesterday?

Mo Xi scratched the back of his head. He clearly remembered that he had replied…

He wouldn’t be angry because of this, right?

Mo Xi rubbed his thumb back and forth against the corner of his mouth a few times, thinking he was probably overthinking it.

So he opened the chat box and replied simply: Don’t know, depends on the company’s holiday schedule.

“Ding~”

The phone on the floor beeped. In the pitch-black room, only the piercing light from the phone screen shone, perfectly illuminating Pei Hao’s decadent face.

He was slumped on the floor in a corner of his home. Frowning, he glanced at the phone, took a heavy drag on his cigarette, and impatiently pressed the lock button.

There were more than ten cigarette butts on the floor. The room was sealed tight, filled with a strong smell of smoke. If someone turned on the light now, they might think the room was on fire.

A sudden wave of acidity rushed up in Pei Hao’s stomach, as if a blender was churning inside, getting more and more painful. He didn’t know if it was because he hadn’t eaten since noon or if his acute gastroenteritis was acting up again.

Whatever the reason, he needed this pain to suppress the empty sense of loss in his heart.

By midnight, the pain all over his body mixed together. He couldn’t tell if it was coming from his stomach or his heart; it just felt like thousands of ants were gnawing at his internal organs. Pei Hao curled up into a ball, fine beads of sweat appearing on his forehead, and soon his clothes were half soaked.

He had thought countless times about what he would do if Mo Xi ended up with someone else. He didn’t expect to be defeated before that moment even arrived.

And defeated so thoroughly.

Every part of the house still held traces of Mo Xi. They ate together, watched TV together, slept together. Closing his eyes, he could still recall his scent.

Those were the most peaceful and grounded days he had lived in the past two years or so.

It really was a self-righteous dream.

He thought that after spending these two weeks together, Mo Xi’s attitude towards him would change slightly. He didn’t expect the guy to turn around and go on a date.

This feeling of being dealt a blow to the head left him at a loss.

It seemed that no matter what he did, it was futile. Even if Mo Xi didn’t hit it off with that person this time, there would be thousands of others to meet in the future. Would he have to suffer like this thousands of times?

But he had absolutely no right to criticize Mo Xi’s choices. Wasn’t it he himself who drove the person away in the first place?

Breathing—pain

Respiration—pain

He didn’t know how many times he went through this cycle. The piercing pain in his body finally began to numb. The horizon gradually brightened, and a ray of white light shone in through the curtains. His clothes had soaked through and dried again.

Weakly, he picked up his phone and saw the text message clearly. He gave a bitter laugh and closed his eyes helplessly.