How To Deal With A Tsundere Gong

Chapter 45 - Love the Most

Before they could even finish their meal, both of them were overcome with fever. Xu Bai Chuan’s condition was slightly better. Over the years, he hadn’t broken the habit of going on morning runs so there was a clear improvement in his health after getting an infusion. On the contrary, Tang Jin didn’t have it that easy. As his fever reached 40°C, he lay down on the bed in a daze while calling out Xu Bai Chuan’s name.

Xu Bai Chuan kept a close eye on him. He felt that time returned to three years ago. Tang Jin was still that Tang Jin, but it seemed like something changed.

During her visit, Tang Jin’s mother Yin Sulan knitted her brows once she saw Xu Bai Chuan. Unexpectedly, she didn’t say anything when she heard Tang Jin’s murmuring. She nodded towards Xu Bai Chuan as she left and stiffly said, “I’ll leave Yuan Yuan in your hands.”

The words spoken that year echoed by his ears. Yin Sulan had said that after leaving the Tang household doors, it won’t be that easy to enter again. But now she was saying these words which were a slap to her face. In her life, this was already a rare compromise.

Cheng Xu visited once. He only sat for a while and after looking at two people with their arms coiled together, he jokingly said he was redundant. Before he took off, Cheng Xu told Xu Bai Chuan that Tang Jin stubbornly went against his parents after he left and left the company to start up his own small company, his business thriving. Word was that he invested in some drama recently.

Xu Bai Chuan keenly asked for the name of the drama. As it turned out, it was the book he sold the copyright for some time ago.

Later on, Xu Yuanshan came to give a tearful apology and brought up the events of that day. It turned out that when Tang Jin realized that the weather was amiss, he called Xu Bai Chuan several times but couldn’t get a hold of him. Seeing the weather worsen, he immediately drove towards Wuling Mountain where it was already sleeting the moment he arrived. Following the path up, it wasn’t long before he came across Xu Yuanshan who was holding a stick, crying as he walked down. He came to know about Xu Bai Chuan sliding down the mountain and immediately returned to his car to get mountain ropes. Then he told Xu Yuanshan to call the police and get people up there before coming to the rescue.

Xu Bai Chuan sat by the bed, looking at Tang Jin who was sleeping restlessly. He murmured, “Are you an idiot?”

Late into the night, Xu Bai Chuan awoke from a nightmare, realizing that he somehow ended up lying in bed with his injured arm exposed. The moment he slightly turned his head, he saw Tang Jin’s sleeping face.

Slowly sticking their foreheads together, Xu Bai Chuan felt that Tang Jin’s forehead was no longer burning. The moment he was about the retreat, he found that Tang Jin had already opened his eyes.

Both widened eyes and small eyes stared fixedly at each other for a long time. Tang Jin moved closer very carefully, and since Xu Bai Chuan didn’t avoid it, their two lips stuck together. In the tranquil hospital room, the kiss shared between the two miserable men became deeper and deeper.

Both of them were slightly gasping after the kiss. Tang Jin insisted on sticking to Xu Bai Chuan. After a long time, he asked, “8012. Mr. Xu, can you give me a chance to pursue you?”

***

Both of them left the hospital after their fevers were gone. After three and a half years of separation, Xu Bai Chuan set foot in the house he lived in with Tang Jin once again. Everything was arranged as before, as if time never passed through here. He returned to his room and found that there was nothing different about his belongings before he left, even the paper which had fallen on the ground was untouched. Someone had carefully avoided all the traces he had left and preserved this room very well.

He closed the door, walked around the villa, and finally ended up at Tang Jin’s study. Once he saw that comical kitten, the memory of breaking the kitten leaped before his eyes. Drawing near, Xu Bai Chuan stared at the kitten and his mind suddenly cleared. He pressed down on the kitten’s tail and a bamboo stick slowly rose from the kitten’s head. Xu Bai Chuan couldn’t help chuckling.

That bamboo stick which originally had Xu Bai Chuan’s handwriting was completely blotted out by black ink so there was no mark, and the printed text was also crossed out. The corner space of the bamboo stick was replaced by somebody else’s handwriting and a different name:

—Love the most

—Xu Bai Chuan

Tang Jin didn’t see Xu Bai Chuan for a short while. Thinking that he had left, he thudded upstairs and flusteredly shouted, “Xu Bai Chuan!”

Xu Bai Chuan answered him from inside the room. An odd feeling arose in his heart as he lightly stroked the small bamboo stick, lamenting that ten years have already gone by.

There is love that is smooth sailing. Yet there is also love like his and Tang Jin’s. A love of mutually tormenting one another until both are covered in bruises. Meeting again after all these years, his heart still beats.

It may be absurd, and also ridiculous. Since life is bound to have some regrets, then there is no difference between holding onto regrets alone or wrongly giving his heart away. Rather, one should just live in the moment.

Tang Jin quickly walked into the room. Looking at that kitten, he felt somewhat uneasy as he said, “The old one was placed there for so long that I had forgotten what was inside…After you switched it, I changed the words. Although I wanted to show you, I felt too embarrassed to say anything. I never thought that you’ll only see it now.”

Xu Bai Chuan let go and the bamboo stick slowly lowered to its original position. Turning around to face Tang Jin, he smiled. “That’s okay, it’s not too late.”