Chapter 48: “How are you doing?”
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Blood dripped from the brow bone, and the other injuries on his body were not severe. Guan Shu wiped away the bloodstains on his face with the back of his hand, revealing his sharp eyebrows and eyes clearly.
Guan Shu felt angry when people say he was useless. But overshadowing this emotion was a sense of helplessness.
He even felt that Shen Yao’s words made some sense. Xu Yibai had countless opportunities to complain to Guan Yan, but he chose now of all times. He knew very well that Xu Yibai had inappropriate intentions towards Shen Yao, but he wasn’t well prepared to handle Xu Yibai.
If he had come earlier… If he had arrived on time, he could have taken Shen Yao away from here. He should have rushed over that very day.
Due to a twist of fate, a slight difference, he was not just one step late.
Guan Shu clenched his fist tightly. He shouldn’t have gotten angry at Shen Yao; he should have hit Xu Yibai a bit harder when he had the chance.
He completely blocked Shen Yao’s view, not allowing him to catch even a glimpse of Xu Yibai’s clothes. He turned around himself, unable to bear the piercing screams coming from Xu Yibai any longer.
“I won’t leave! Why should I leave?!”
Xu Yibai was pressed down on the shoulder and fell to the ground, only able to watch Guan Shu and Shen Yao standing together. He, as the supposed boyfriend, seemed more like a third party.
As if completely drained of strength, he laid on the ground quietly, giving up resistance.
But in the next second, the force pressing on his shoulder loosened slightly, and Xu Yibai burst out with energy. Without warning, he pushed an alpha standing beside him and pounced forward.
In the blink of an eye with blood still flowing from his palm, he impulsively wanted to reach for the broken glass on the ground again.
“Xu Yibai!! Don’t you need your hand?!”
Fortunately, Gu Yunyun quickly kicked it away, sending the sharp fragment flying. She rarely got scared like this, calming her heartbeat and commanding, “Give him a sedative.”
“I don’t want it! Gu Yunyun!” Xu Yibai’s cheeks were flushed with bulging blood vessels. He started calling out her name, his eyes about to burst as he struggled, “I want to take Shen Yao with me!”
Gu Yunyun averted her gaze and didn’t continue watching. The needle pierced through flesh and almost slipped out as Xu Yibai fought against it. The cold liquid flowed through his veins, as if a bucket of ice was crashing into him.
His eyelids began to feel heavy as the boiling blood was forcibly cooled down. His willpower was unable to resist. Right before losing consciousness, Xu Yibai stared intently at Shen Yao and said, “Shen Yao, you will return to me once again.”
Guan Shu let out a cold sigh from his nostrils. He watched Xu Yibai being taken away by others, and the chaotic scene resembled fragments from the depths of his memory.
It was the same in the past. He was subdued by several alphas, abandoning all his dignity and begging Shen Yao on his knees not to leave.
Shen Yao stood there indifferently, without hesitation, and turned away. He didn’t look back, didn’t shed a tear, and simply dropped the ring Guan Shu had given him.
In the end, Xu Yibai and he were no different. Both of them were disposable beings that could be discarded at will.
The difference was that he had long seen through Shen Yao’s true nature. He wouldn’t feel sorry for Shen Yao anymore, wouldn’t need Shen Yao’s affection, and wouldn’t shed a single tear for Shen Yao.
“Guan Shu.”
The room fell silent after the farce ended, and Guan Shu heard Shen Yao softly calling his name. Shen Yao asked, “Xu Yibai has gone, and it’s just the two of us now. Are you happy?”
Guan Shu frowned, “Why should I be…”
“Shh.”
Shen Yao placed his index finger against his lips, interrupting Guan Shu’s words. “Why were you so angry when you saw me kissing Xu Yibai downstairs? Didn’t you clearly see Xu Yibai and me together in the past?”
As he spoke, the scene before Guan Shu’s eyes began to blur. His lips moved, and he instinctively asked, “What are you saying…”
“Freshman year, you came to find me, right?” Shen Yao looked at him and said with indifference, “You stood at the corner of the dance building and saw me with Xu Yibai… ss…”
Before he could finish his sentence, Shen Yao made a gasping sound. He was forcefully pushed by Guan Shu and fell onto the sofa.
The secret that Guan Shu had always thought was hidden turned out to be known by Shen Yao long ago. Guan Shu pressed down on his shoulders, losing control, his hands trembling incessantly.
His Adam’s apple bobbed up and down, as if he had swallowed a mouthful of blood foam, and he asked in a low roar, “You saw… Shen Yao… You saw me standing there, so you deliberately kissed Xu Yibai?!”
“There was no other way. I wanted you to give up. Wasn’t this the only way to do it? You must have been furious at that time, right?” Shen Yao endured the pain, wearing an expression of helplessness. “Guan Shu, that’s why I’m asking you now if you’re happy.”
His long and thick eyelashes curled naturally upward. They were pressed too closely together, and when he blinked, it felt as if they brushed against Guan Shu’s face. Shen Yao asked softly, “Of course, what I really want to ask you is, do you still like me?”
Guan Shu’s chest heaved, and his gaze once again grazed over the red marks on Shen Yao’s neck, intensely glaring.
His tense arm quickly relaxed. He stood upright, coldly turning his face away. “Why should I be happy? Just because I beat up Xu Yibai? I won’t like a fickle omega like you, Shen Yao. I won’t make the same mistakes again. Whoever dares to continue liking you won’t even know when they’ll end up with a green hat.”
Both his past self and the present Xu Yibai were the outcomes of sincerely devoting themselves to Shen Yao.
Shen Yao saw him in a wretched state at the corner, but he acted as if he hadn’t seen anything. He dashed into Xu Yibai’s embrace in the darkness and lifted his face to kiss him.
Guan Shu didn’t know what Shen Yao was thinking at that moment. All he knew was that Shen Yao had long stopped liking him.
Having fallen into the same pit once before, he wasn’t prepared to fall into it a second time. Guan Shu turned to leave, but Shen Yao called out to him.
“Guan Shu.” Shen Yao slightly lifted his chin in the direction of the bedroom, as if giving a hint. Then he turned his face away, playing with his fingers as if nothing had happened, and said, “Go take a look. In the second drawer of my bedside table, there’s a password-protected box.”
Guan Shu had long lost any curiosity about what was inside. He didn’t believe it would have anything to do with him. Perhaps it contained love letters between Shen Yao and Xu Yibai. After all, Shen Yao was most skilled at smiling while cutting him.
However, his footsteps paused, and he asked, “What’s the password?”
Guan Shu told himself that after helping Shen Yao with this promised task, he would follow Guan Yan’s arrangements, leave this place, and enter the Flowing Eagle to complete the unfinished business from the past.
“The password is the date we got together.”
Guan Shu’s heart trembled for a moment. His breathing became erratic for a moment before he replied with a cold and sarcastic tone, “Did you forget the password yourself, so you’re asking me to help you open it? It’s been so long, how could I possibly remember when we were together?”
However, Shen Yao seemed like a patient angler leisurely dropping his fishing line. He softly and gently said, “I believe you definitely haven’t forgotten.”
Guan Shu hesitated for a moment, but in the end, he stepped into the bedroom. He half-knelt on the ground and opened the drawer.
Exactly as Shen Yao had said, there laid a dark-colored password-protected box inside, not very large in size. It was a Pandora’s box, and Guan Shu had no idea what was inside.
The most likely possibility should align with his guess. After all, Shen Yao must also hate him, always racking his brain to think of ways to hurt him.
His visibly prominent Adam’s apple moved up and down as he entered the password.
If Shen Yao hadn’t broken up with him, today would have been their seventh year together, the 2567th day.
Guan Shu hated himself for remembering everything so clearly.
“Du—”
After a short and sharp sound, the password box automatically opened. Guan Shu’s heart raced, and he even doubted if he was hallucinating.
A slightly unrefined glass trophy laid on the black cloth, and on the base, two names were engraved with different knife techniques. It had been well-preserved, the glass wiped clean. It held the memories of Guan Shu’s arduous journey to win the trophy and every beautiful pledge he made to Shen Yao.
This trophy meant too much.
Guan Shu’s heart trembled violently, his gaze fixated on the trophy, unable to move. In an instant, all his emotions surged forth.
Disbelief, daze, a sense of loss, concealed deep within, and an imperceptible self-satisfaction.
He never expected that Shen Yao would keep this trophy?! Does him keeping this trophy mean…
In a moment, Guan Shu was clouded in confusion, forgetting where he was and what he was doing.
But his fragile nerves were quickly jolted awake. He abruptly lifted his leg, disregarding the pain. Guan Shu didn’t give himself time to take a deep breath.
He uncontrollably grabbed the trophy, stumbled in his footsteps, and ran towards the living room, nearly slipping at the doorway.
Shen Yao remained seated on the couch, still not turning around despite hearing the hurried footsteps behind him. He had kept this trophy all along because Shen Yao was convinced…
Guan Shu will definitely come back to find him.
Guan Shu completely abandoned his previous cold indifference. He ran up to Shen Yao, losing all rationality, and repeated his question anxiously, “Shen Yao… Why did you keep this trophy? Do you… still have some feelings for me? Is that true, Shen Yao?”
He anxiously grabbed Shen Yao’s arm, as if he had lost the ability to speak, only able to repeat these few sentences, continuing to ask urgently, “Do you still like me?”
“Is it important whether I still like you or not?” Shen Yao shrugged off his hand, lifted his face, and with a slightly perplexed look in his eyes, he asked, “I just asked you, didn’t you say didn’t like me? And didn’t you say you didn’t want to be a third party?”
“…,” Guan Shu tightened his grip on Shen Yao’s arm again. He knew he shouldn’t be hurting Shen Yao, but he couldn’t control his strength. He blurted out, “But you two broke up, right?”
“Yes, it’s true. I did break up with Xu Yibai,” Shen Yao replied calmly, this time not shaking off Guan Shu’s hand. He calmly picked up his glass and took a sip of water. “Wasn’t it you who intentionally left the shoulder mark on the sofa for Xu Yibai to see? Xu Yibai found out about Yan Zhixing because you told him, right?”
Guan Shu was speechless and couldn’t deny it. After learning that Shen Yao was dating Xu Yibai, he never kissed Shen Yao again, nor did they engage in any intimate acts.
His pride didn’t allow him to be a third party, so he intervened and broke up Shen Yao and Xu Yibai.
“Congratulations, Guan Shu, you won,” Shen Yao clapped his hands lightly to celebrate for Guan Shu. “You have me now.”
With a simple sentence, Guan Shu’s heart was instantly ignited. He lowered his head uncontrollably, wanting to kiss Shen Yao, but his lips were met with resistance.
With fingers that exerted little strength, Shen Yao managed to keep him in place. Like a hound with its neck held tight, Guan Shu’s impatient gaze remained glued to Shen Yao, but he restrained himself, not moving a muscle.
“Why are you in such a hurry?” Shen Yao lifted his leg, placing his toes against Guan Shu’s knee, pushing him away slowly. “Guan Shu, the first time we reunited, I asked you how you’ve been lately. Let me ask you again—have you been doing well without me?”
Guan Shu’s eyes turned red, as if tears were about to fall.
“…Not good,” his voice was hoarse. Since their reunion, it was the first time Guan Shu spoke honestly to Shen Yao. “I haven’t been doing well at all. Except for practicing and working, I’ve been constantly thinking about you. Are you satisfied?”
Suddenly, Shen Yao reached out toward Guan Shu’s neck. There was a black string hanging there, usually hidden beneath his collar. It had flipped out from his collar during his fight with Xu Yibai, glinting briefly.
Guan Shu didn’t react in time, nor did he have the chance to stop him. Shen Yao easily hooked it out with his fingers.
It wasn’t a necklace; it was a silver ring hanging from it, and he could still feel its warmth when he held it in his palm.
Shen Yao discarded it without a second thought, but Guan Shu spent several nights searching for it, eventually finding the ring in a corner.
He strung the ring onto the necklace, wearing it close to his heart. Guan Shu never took it off for a moment, wearing it for so many years that he almost forgot about its existence.
“You still like me, don’t you?” Shen Yao extended his hand, as white as jade, tempting him step by step. “If you admit it, I’ll allow you to put it back on me.”
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