Chapter 65: 第 65 章

"Hello." Heart racing, Wen Ran pushed at his mask to cover his panic. "What can I get you?"

"Gin and tonic."

"Okay, okay, just a sec."

Seeing how tense Wen Ran was, Lucien figured he didn't know how to make it and leaned over. "Want me to take it? I'm free right now."

"No need."

Wen Ran grabbed the gin and the tonic water, but instead of working at the bar top, he turned his back to Gu Yunchi and went over to the sink. He mixed it a few times, never satisfied with the ratio, and quietly poured each attempt down the drain to start over.

On the fourth pour-out, a half-drunk Zhou Zhuo appeared and grabbed him by the back of his collar. "Li Shu, I've been watching you for a while now. If you can't make it, don't make it. Are you playing around pouring it out? Do you know how expensive my liquor is?"

"Can you keep your voice down?" Wen Ran kept pouring, unfazed. "It's an S-Class customer. What's wrong with being careful?"

That actually made sense. Zhou Zhuo let go and raised a hand toward Gu Yunchi in greeting. "Sorry about that. My employee's only flaw is being too serious. Just a bit longer, please."

Gu Yunchi shifted his gaze from Wen Ran's back to Zhou Zhuo's face, glanced at him, and said nothing.

That attitude made Zhou Zhuo even more supportive of Wen Ran's caution. The S-Class Alpha might look like just some college kid, but he was definitely a picky one underneath. Being careful couldn't hurt.

Finally got the gin and tonic water mixed in exactly the right ratio. Poured it into a highball glass packed with ice, gave it a few stirs with the bar spoon, squeezed in some lime juice, and finished with a fresh lemon wedge. Wen Ran picked up the glass and set it in front of Gu Yunchi, still a little guilty. "Your gin and tonic."

Gu Yunchi took the drink and handed him a card at the same time.

A pink card—a raffle number for customers. Wen Ran said, "This is for you customers."

"Afraid of winning first prize."

Fair enough. Wen Ran took the card. Seeing Gu Yunchi hadn't gone back to his booth yet, he gradually grew uncomfortable again. But as long as Gu Yunchi didn't use force to pin him down, they could at least keep up the appearance of a normal conversation. So Wen Ran hesitated, then asked, "Are—are you going to be sent for support?"

"Quite the interest in military news." Gu Yunchi took a sip. "Maybe."

His index finger scratched at the smooth counter. Wen Ran tried to keep his tone ordinary, wishing. "Hope you stay safe, then."

Gu Yunchi looked up at him. "I thought you wanted me dead on the battlefield."

His first reaction wasn't to accuse Gu Yunchi of slandering him—it was that this was incredibly unlucky to say. Wen Ran went serious at once. "How can you say that?"

"You look like you do." Gu Yunchi slowly turned the glass, but there wasn't a trace of displeasure on his face to match the idea.

Or maybe it was just hard to tell because of the mask.

Either way, it left Wen Ran with this feeling of being misunderstood, unable to explain himself. He'd grown up reading people's expressions, tiptoeing around them. Over the past year-plus of working he'd picked up some skin-deep understanding of how people worked. He thought he could read most subtext and intent by now. But with Gu Yunchi, it always went like this: he'd fill in the answer full of confidence, only for the other guy to slash a giant red X through it.

Gu Yunchi actually thought he was hoping he'd die.

The dance floor lights shifted to deep blue, the silhouettes swimming like fish in the sea. Wen Ran quietly wiped down the bar for a while, still not figuring it out, still not knowing how to explain that he hadn't cursed him. So he started thinking about escape again. "I'm gonna take a break."

Gu Yunchi stood up. "If I don't see you back for the second half, I'll report to the manager that you snuck out on a date."

"…What date?" Wen Ran was completely lost.

Gu Yunchi didn't answer. His back disappeared into the deep blue.

He'd almost worn a hole in the bar. Wen Ran finally stopped, slipped his hand into his pocket to feel the raffle card, and turned toward the hallway to the staff room.

Everyone was dancing. The hallway was empty and quiet. The mask had been bothering him for a while, so Wen Ran took it off. A few steps later, he bumped into an Alpha who'd just finished a call at the corner.

"Sorry." Wen Ran ducked his head slightly and kept walking.

As they passed each other, the Alpha suddenly stopped and turned around. "Wait."

Wen Ran immediately went on guard and looked back, but realized the guy seemed to be a friend who'd come with Gu Yunchi.

"Holy—" Wei Xing pulled off his mask and stared at Wen Ran's face in shock. "You—"

He pointed at his own empty back for a while, then finally asked, "Do you know Gu Yunchi?"

Guessing he'd probably seen Gu Yunchi talking to him at the bar, Wen Ran thought for a moment and answered, "No."

"Don't lie! I was wondering why he suddenly went over to the bar—it's because of you. Wait, no. He only agreed to come to this bar tonight because of you, right!"

Sounded like he knew him, but Wen Ran was sure he had no memory of this Alpha. "What do you mean?"

"I'm Wei Xing, Yunchi's old teammate." Wei Xing gave a pretty simple self-intro, then went on, "I've seen you. In a photo."

Caught off guard, Wen Ran froze for a second. "What photo?"

"A picture of you two. High school, right? Out in the countryside, some farm-stay kind of place, a little Courtyard, holding hands." Wei Xing said, "A few years back he got hurt and I was helping him sort his documents. I found it tucked into his Officer's ID."

It got even quieter. The music faded into a blur. Memory traced backward from the hallway beneath his feet, carried by waves, back to that hot summer, the quiet Little Fishing Village, Gu Yunchi who refused to talk to anyone, and Wen Ran who'd felt discouraged at being disliked again. At Qiuqiu's invitation, they'd stood side by side and taken their first and only photo together.

They weren't really holding hands. Wen Ran had just held onto Gu Yunchi's finger.

"Don't take this the wrong way." Wei Xing smiled. "I always thought you were gone. Otherwise I really can't imagine Yunchi being so emotionally defeated that he'd carry a photo of you two around. But he's been stuck on the battlefield all these years, only just gotten a break recently."

Wen Ran hadn't really caught the words after that. He stood gripping his mask, motionless for a long while, before finally making a sound. "I didn't know."

"Huh? Didn't know what?" Wei Xing didn't really get it, but he patted Wen Ran on the shoulder anyway. "It's fine. There's plenty of time ahead. People with a connection can't be pulled apart."

After Wei Xing left, Wen Ran stood alone in the hallway for a long time, until Ding Mengge came looking for him, urging him back to the bar. The raffle was about to start and the place was buzzing.

Wen Ran got pulled back to the main room by her. Zhou Zhuo was already smashed, hosting the raffle, his face about to split from laughing under the customers' teasing and heckling. Meanwhile a group of coworkers had gathered at the darkened bar, sneaking a drink behind the boss's and customers' backs, stealing a moment of peace from the noise.

A glass got shoved into his hand. Wen Ran drank it in a daze, then another. The disco ball spun, light swirling. His gaze passed through all the raised glasses, through the drops of liquor splashing when people clinked, toward Gu Yunchi's booth—but all he could see was a sea of heads and confetti flying.

"First, let's witness the birth of our fourth prize—!" Zhou Zhuo stretched out the last word and grabbed the mic. "Three, two, one!"

The numbers spinning fast on the big screen slammed to a stop.

"Number nineteen!" Zhou Zhuo pointed his index finger at the ceiling. "Who! Is! Number! Nineteen!"

Wen Ran's mouth moved. He pulled the pink card from his pocket—brightly printed with the number 19.

Amid his coworkers' shrieking about "how do you have a customer's number card," he swayed and held it up. "Me—me!"

"I want the Blue Glass 500-yuan top-up card!" he yelled at Zhou Zhuo, very loudly.

The raffle ended with Cheng Duó winning first prize and sprinting around the hall like crazy to dodge the manager's kisses, plus the second-prize winner giving up their prize entirely because they couldn't find the college kid in a black hoodie and jeans they wanted to dance with.

Closing time was past one in the morning. The coworkers were still buzzing and made plans for late-night food. Wen Ran shook his head and said no, he was going home to sleep.

He'd been pushed to drink a lot in the second half. He was exhausted and dizzy, just wanting to lie down.

"You can't leave! Don't even think about running, I'm telling you. We all saw that S-Class Alpha come up to you for a drink. What did you two say? You have to give us a proper explanation…" Ding Mengge mumbled drunkenly while rummaging through drawers for a rope, ready to tie Wen Ran up and drag him off.

Wen Ran packed up fast, took advantage of everyone not looking, and bolted out the back door, running blind through the Little Alley.

Near the alley's exit, he finally saw that tall black figure. Wen Ran stopped, gasping for air.

A spark in the dark—a cigarette. The autumn wind grabbed a fistful of smoke and blew it over, the faint acrid smell of burning nicotine.

"I thought you'd already left." Wen Ran's breathing gradually slowed. He spoke slowly.

Gu Yunchi put out the cigarette and tossed the butt into a trash can at the corner. "No more Subway."

His thinking was sluggish from the alcohol, but Wen Ran still got it. "I can ride a shared bike back."

"In this state you'd just ride into a planter strip." Gu Yunchi said, "Come here."

Couldn't see his face. Wen Ran took two steps forward, then somehow, half out of his mind, ended up following Gu Yunchi to the curb, where a military vehicle was parked. The driver opened the back door.

Capital Road was empty and cold, the golden streetlights making it look like dusk. Wen Ran stared blankly out the window. The wind came in and messed up his hair, the little fuzz balls on his sweater trembling nonstop.

Gu Yunchi's hand reached across him and rolled the window up. Wen Ran turned to look at him, then slowly looked away.

The bar wasn't far from the complex, and the roads were clear—they arrived in under half an hour. Wen Ran pushed the door open and got out, about to say goodbye to Gu Yunchi, then turned and found he'd gotten out too. Wen Ran could only thank the driver.

They walked side by side into the Little Alley. Only the rustle of leaves in the wind and footsteps. After a dozen steps, Gu Yunchi suddenly spoke. "Your heat's coming up soon. Be careful lately."

Wen Ran heard it, frowned slightly, and started trying to do the math in his head. Over the past two years his heat had stabilized at roughly every forty-five days. If Gu Yunchi was right, this one was coming way earlier… wait.

"How can you be sure it's coming?" he asked.

"High-compatibility pairs who've been marked can sense each other." Gu Yunchi glanced at him. "I thought last time you were just talking angry. Turns out you really haven't learned any biology."

Wen Ran didn't argue. He didn't look very happy, like something was on his mind.

They came out of the alley. The shops in the complex were all closed, only bugs circling the streetlight tirelessly. At the entrance to the stairwell, Gu Yunchi stopped and didn't go further. Wen Ran ducked his head and started up the stairs.

The motion-sensor light came on. Wen Ran climbed half a floor, almost to the turn, then stopped. After a moment of silence, he turned around, his right hand on the railing, his lashes lowered as he looked down at Gu Yunchi below the dozen-or-so steps.

"Gu Yunchi." He called out suddenly.

Gu Yunchi watched him calmly, but didn't answer. A few seconds later the motion-sensor light went out, leaving only a square of dim light from the stairwell entrance. Gu Yunchi's figure became just an outline in the dark.

Wen Ran called again. "Gu Yunchi."

"Yeah."

"Why did you keep that photo." Wen Ran said. "The one Qiuqiu took for us in the Little Fishing Village."

He'd always assumed Gu Yunchi wouldn't bother remembering their time in the Little Fishing Village, would think it was boring and pointless, that he was the only one looking back on it. But why had Gu Yunchi kept that photo, and carried it with him all this time?

"Look at it." Gu Yunchi's tone was calm, like there was nothing hard to answer, and he didn't ask how Wen Ran knew. He said, "What else would it be for."

"Oh." After a long moment, Wen Ran nodded. "I get it now."

Then: "I'm going back up."

The motion-sensor light came on again. Wen Ran had already turned and was heading upstairs.

The key turned twice and the door opened. Wen Ran walked in, hit the switch—but this time he forgot to close his eyes. The bright light flashed him at once and he instinctively raised a hand to cover them.

After adjusting a bit, he lowered his hand and, out of habit, looked at the most beautiful Fighter Jet Model in the entire League.

But no matter what, he couldn't see it clearly. So blurry—Wen Ran wiped at his eyes with his hand, and a cool wetness landed on his skin. Clear liquid slid down the back of his hand and dropped to the floor. He hung his head, stunned.