CH 3

As a matter of fact, Xin Qianyu didn’t deliberately lie to Su Zhong at the start.

What Xin Qianyu felt towards Su Zhong was “love at first sight”, or possibly “lust at first sight”. 

Since Su Zhong looked like he did, he was very attractive to others. They met in the association of foreign students from the same town, and they came from the same place. Su Zhong was like nectar, thick and beautiful. A drop of it at the venue provoked the craziness of lascivious men.

But Su Zhong was always indifferent as if he did not care about anyone who gave him love.

It was the kind of extremely aloof, moon-like beauty that was captivating.

Xin Qianyu was not someone who had never seen the world. After all, his mother was a rich woman who liked toy boys. Zhu Pu also always said, “The top male prostitute of XX club is only worthy of being a foot-washing worker in your mother’s harem.” Having such exposure since young, what kind of handsome guy has Xin Qianyu not seen? ——As it happened, he had never seen anyone like Su Zhong before! 

He finally understood that those in his mother’s harem were all stars. The stars were very bright, but there were many and not rare. Su Zhong was like the moon. There was only one in the sky or the earth, and it hung in the highest place. Even Li Bai couldn’t get it down.

His hands itched with the desire of ascending to the clear sky to embrace the bright moon. He was not afraid of being lonely at the top and falling by himself.

Su Zhong had excellent qualities in all aspects, but he had never fallen in love. There had to be a reason.

Zhu Pu said, “Let’s just talk about this situation. He has either X amount of incompetence or X amount of coldness.”

Xin Qianyu nodded in agreement. “I think so too. I think I’ll have to research it personally from a scientific perspective.”

After the association’s meeting was over, Xin Qianyu rushed over to Su Zhong as quickly as possible, saying that he didn’t have a car, so he wanted to get a lift back to school with Su Zhong. Su Zhong gave him a ride, and finally asked Xin Qianyu, “Where is your school?”

Xin Qianyu said, “Eh…New York…”

And Su Zhong’s school was in Boston. 

There were more than two hundred kilometers between them, and Xin Qianyu actually said that it was “considered to be on the way”?

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In order to pluck the mountain flower that was Su Zhong, Xin Qianyu traveled from New York to Boston whenever he was free. 

Every time he was here, Xin Qianyu could give a reason, saying that his professor had found him a job teaching English in Boston. After he finished his part-time job, he would stop by to see Su Zhong.

Su Zhong was very busy with his studies, and he was not willing to spend time with Xin Qianyu, an idler who had nothing to do with him. Xin Qianyu had to desperately move close to Su Zhong.

Su Zhong was indifferent to him – it was not as bad as saying that he ignored him completely, but there was no enthusiasm. Xin Qianyu worked hard for most of the semester, and finally found an opportunity to leave the school with Su Zhong. He took the opportunity to ask Su Zhong, “Where do you live?”

Su Zhong said, “I live in a place rented from outside.” 

Xin Qianyu asked, “Is it convenient for me to see where you live?”

Su Zhong said, “No.”

“…” Xin Qianyu was shut down for a while and then continued, “Is it because you live with someone else?”

Su Zhong said, “No, I live alone.” 

Xin Qianyu eventually understood that Su Zhong was the kind of person with a strong sense of boundary, and he did not like others entering his house. Therefore, he neither co-rented with others nor welcomed visitors.

Xin Qianyu worked hard for two semesters, but he did not get a “visitor permit” and was continuously denied entry by Su Zhong. This was until once, Xin Qianyu rushed to Boston in the wind and rain. His body was drenched with rainwater and trembling pitifully. His skin was so cold that it was like frozen shrimp, so white that it seemed gray.

Su Zhong looked at his appearance, and his usual cold expression slackened slightly as if he had a sense of compassion. This was how Su Zhong brought Xin Qianyu to his house and even made Xin Qianyu a cup of hot coffee.

Xin Qianyu was trembling with cold. When he held the hot coffee, his palms suddenly warmed up, and the heat rising from the surface of the coffee steamed his pale face and gradually rejuvenated it. He gave a faint thanks. 

Su Zhong heard the quaver in his voice and asked, “Are you still cold?”

Xin Qianyu was apparently able to sense the caring emotions in Su Zhong’s tone, and his heartstrings fluttered. It turned out that Su Zhong was into this!

So Xin Qianyu frowned immediately and acted weaker. “Yeah…”

Su Zhong took out a blanket and handed it to Xin Qianyu. 

Xin Qianyu was overjoyed and hurriedly wrapped the blanket around his body.

——There was nothing rare about this blanket, only that it smelled of Su Zhong, so Xin Qianyu cherished it dearly.

Xin Qianyu pushed hard to get close to Su Zhong this way and quickly attracted the attention of Su Zhong’s classmate. Su Zhong’s classmate even told Su Zhong, “That boy called Xin Qianyu likes you, right?”

Su Zhong was taken aback. “Really?” 

“Of course! Otherwise, who would come over from New York to look for you every few days?” The classmate’s expression was serious. “He’s pursuing you!”

Su Zhong did not have so many twists and turns in his mind, and he would not spend time and energy pondering such trivial things. He asked Xin Qianyu directly, “Are you pursuing me?”

Xin Qianyu nodded shyly.

Su Zhong said: “Study hard. If you have the energy, delve deeper into more specialized knowledge. Don’t waste time on me.” 

Hearing Su Zhong’s words, Xin Qianyu was both sad and angry for a while, and couldn’t speak for some time. But within a few days, he appeared in front of Su Zhong again.

Xin Qianyu stood against the cold wind and knocked on Su Zhong’s door.

Xin Qianyu’s skill of appearing pitiful was already in-depth. His face was white, his lips were even paler, and he said in a hoarse voice, “I’m so cold Zhong Ge.”

Su Zhong’s lips twitched, and he was silent for three seconds before he said, “Come in.” 

Then, Su Zhong gave Xin Qianyu a cup of hot coffee and a warm blanket as before.

It was in this way that Xin Qianyu discovered Su Zhong’s “weakness”: Su Zhong was cold on the outside but warm on the inside.

It was difficult for Su Zhong to be emotional toward a person. Moreover, he had a strong sense of boundaries and did not like others to be too close to him. Every time Xin Qianyu approached him, he could feel his rejection. However, in this case, “pretending to be pitiful” could solve everything. At first, when he looked for Su Zhong, he was shut out. As long as he pretended to be pitiful, he was allowed to pass. When his “Sima Zhao's intention” to pursue Su Zhong was revealed and he was rejected by Su Zhong, he pretended to be pitiful and got a chance to get close again.

Therefore, Xin Qianyu started down the path of no return with this “weak and pitiful” image. 

He was just like a child who painstakingly tries to get the attention of his parents by pretending to be sick. He always made himself look miserable so Su Zhong’s flat and almost emotionless face showed a little concern.

Additionally, this faked weakness to sell the image of misery was like a snowball, getting bigger and bigger, rolling into a ball of lies that was so huge that it could fatally crush a person, pressing down firmly on Xin Qianyu’s head. This resulted in Xin Qianyu becoming an “actor” in life.

Zhu Pu couldn’t help but say, “Until when are you going to put up this act? I thought you were craving some fresh blood to play with, so it didn’t matter if you lied. But you were actually serious, and even plan to live with him for the rest of your life. So are you going to act for the rest of your life? Then you must be the greatest performing artist of this century. The Oscars owe you a trophy.”

Xin Qianyu also had quite a headache. He didn’t know how it had developed into this situation that was so difficult to get out of. 

Seeing Xin Qianyu so distressed, Zhu Pu stopped teasing him, and comforted him kindly, “It’s okay. Who doesn’t pretend during the early stages of dating? When the feelings are stable, you will naturally be yourself again.”

This also made sense, and they were comforting words, but Xin Qianyu was even more upset to hear it.

Because Xin Qianyu knew that it might be difficult for his and Su Zhong’s feelings to stabilize.

Xin Qianyu loved Su Zhong very much, but what about Su Zhong? 

Xin Qianyu guessed that Su Zhong might not love him at all. Su Zhong had probably been latched onto by Xin Qianyu and did not hate him, so he made do. But once this illusion was torn apart, Su Zhong would probably feel that he could not get past it.