Chapter 29

Yang Yunran was left puzzled by his question, “What happened on the 5th of last month? Who kissed me?”

Jiang Yi’s lips tightened involuntarily as he swiftly replied, “On that day, you and Jimmy were at the bar, and I came to take you home. I left around 11:15 PM. The next day, you mentioned someone came to your house, and you two… but it wasn’t me.”

…

Even Yang Yunran himself couldn’t recall it clearly, yet he still remembered.

It was just a dream!!

He had dreamed, mistakenly thinking something happened with Jiang Yi, which led him to ask the next day, “Did we kiss last night?”

Jiang Yi said no.

Yang Yunran recalled it was just a dream, with Jiang Yi as the protagonist. It sounded embarrassing, so he casually brushed it off.

But he didn’t want to break up, and he didn’t want his ex to think he was fooling around during their relationship.

So he explained, “Oh, I remember now, what you said was like this. I misspoke, it didn’t happen. Shall I escort you downstairs?”

Jiang Yi replied, “Is that so? You misspoke…” He seemed to believe some of it, and lowered his head to assess Yang Yunran’s expression. Yang Yunran, still holding Jiang Yi’s hand, decided to take him out, “Let’s check if you’ve forgotten anything, like your charger or something.”

“Are we going out for a walk with the dog?” Jiang Yi waved and called Harry, “Harry, come here, let’s go out to play.”

Yang Yunran looked puzzled, “Aren’t you going home?”

Jiang Yi lowered his head and said, “I’ll go back later.” He wanted to think things through carefully again, to avoid making hasty decisions due to Yang Yunran’s lack of seriousness.

Their love security guard, Harry, had already dashed to the door. Jiang Yi naturally squatted down to put a chest strap on the Samoyed, also letting go of Yang Yunran’s hand.

“I’ll walk the dog for you first,” Jiang Yi said.

“No need, I can do it myself.” Yang Yunran put his hands in his pockets. Holding hands could be too heart-stirring; he couldn’t let a scumbag hold his hand. He looked at Jiang Yi’s actions and said, “Did you understand what I just said?”

“I did.” Jiang Yi looked up at him, his usually cold voice softening. “I need some time… is that okay?”

Yang Yunran said, “Um, sure. How long do you need?”

Jiang Yi remained silent for a moment, then said, “About a month.”

Yang Yunran: “?”

Yang Yunran hesitated, “Isn’t that too long? How about you decide by tonight?”

…This was too fast.

Jiang Yi felt it was too rushed. After all, he had only known Yang Yunran for four months, and besides, Yang Yunran was the nephew of his teacher. Furthermore, he wasn’t even sure of his own sexual orientation. He needed to try, and he needed time.

It takes multiple confirmations to give Yang Yunran a definite answer after careful consideration.

This is probably a common problem among researchers, perhaps only he is so meticulous about it.

Experiments allow for failure, the more failures, the greater the chance of success; but human emotions are different, once broken, there will inevitably be cracks.

Jiang Yi doesn’t want the beginning of their relationship to be imperfect or hasty. He takes it seriously.

Jiang Yi looked at Yang Yunran, quietly opened the door, and held Harry’s hand. “Can it be half a month? It’s a bit too fast, Yunran.”

Yang Yunran: “Do you need so much time? Isn’t it a simple matter? Let’s just clarify our feelings. I’ve already thought it through, but you’re still dragging your feet. It’s not appropriate.”

Jiang Yi nodded affirmatively. “I need time.”

The two entered the elevator.

Yang Yunran: “Then Saturday, before Saturday, on my birthday, I want to have a brand new 22.”

Jiang Yi watched the elevator numbers change, and Yang Yunran’s face reflected on the dark gray metal elevator wall.

Jiang Yi: “Hmm.”

Saturday, four days away. Still too fast.

Jiang Yi asked him, “Are you single now?”

Yang Yunran: “Yeah, but it doesn’t matter. Although I’m single, I won’t have trouble finding someone. Of course, you don’t have to worry either. If we don’t work out, we can still part amicably.”

Jiang Yi didn’t respond. He didn’t really want to part ways with Yang Yunran. This was forcing him to make a decision. If he didn’t give an answer soon, he might end up with someone else.

The two walked out of the apartment building side by side, and a black Hummer was parked by the roadside, right next to Jiang Yi’s Accord, making his second-hand car look even more shabby.

Jimmy got out of the car aggressively. “Hey, you!”

Jimmy was wearing an expensive, flashy shirt and sunglasses, striding up to Jiang Yi.

“You dare to come and see Yang Yunran again?” Jimmy grabbed Yang Yunran.

Jiang Yi stared at his hand, his gaze icy. “I came to see him. So what?”

Jimmy, with a fierce demeanor, pointed at Jiang Yi’s nose. “You come again, I’ll call my goons to break your hands. I’ll disable your hands.”

Jiang Yi: “Oh?”

Jimmy frowned, not sure what Jiang Yi was trying to do. A broke international student selling second-hand stuff, and he was hanging around his buddy Yang Yunran.

Yang Yunran felt it was too much. “Jimmy, don’t be like this. I’ve already talked to him, and he’s agreed. He won’t bother me anymore.”

“Talked it out?” Jimmy turned his head,

Jiang Yi strutted arrogantly, “Alright then, I hope you’ll be sensible, you poor bastard. If you keep pestering us, I won’t let you off.”

Jiang Yi’s tone was cold, “Hmm, I’ll consider it carefully. I won’t entangle with Yunran like this anymore. Please remove your hand.” He stared at Jimmy’s hand resting on Yang Yunran’s shoulder. “It’s too annoying.”

“Ha,” Jimmy chuckled, then asked Yang Yunran, “What did he say?”

Jimmy looked at Jiang Yi, raising his middle finger. “Who do you think you are? Jealous? Get lost.” Then he muttered under his breath, “U motherfucker.”

Yang Yunran shook his head at the profanity. “Stop cursing.”

“Sorry, Jiang Yi. You go home first,” Yang Yunran said to him.

“For Yunran’s sake, Jimmy, I won’t argue with you,” Jiang Yi said expressionlessly.

Jimmy: “Haha, you motherfucker, fuck off…”

He was about to kick Jiang Yi, but Yang Yunran held him back, and his slipper flew off.

Excitedly, Harry rushed over and licked Jiang Yi’s face.

Jiang Yi got into the car. He really didn’t want to deal with Jimmy, was a little worried about his relationship with Yang Yunran, but he couldn’t stop Yang Yunran from making friends. He lowered the car window and drove up to them, “I’m going home first. Don’t go to bad places tonight.”

“You’re really controlling! Why don’t you save it for later?” Jimmy cursed in Cantonese, which was quite unpleasant. Jiang Yi remained calm, thinking he didn’t understand anything, then said to Yang Yunran, “Yunran, call me if you need anything.”

Yang Yunran: “Bye bye, hurry up and leave!”

Yang Yunran saw Jimmy throw his slipper at Jiang Yi’s car window.

“The jinx is finally gone,” Jimmy said as he put on the slipper that Harry brought back. “You’re so slow. Good thing I came over, or else you’d be walking your dog. And then you’d be capturing handsome men’s hearts again? Haha. Being handsome isn’t everything, right? He’s just a broke guy, I don’t know what he’s pretending for.”

“Forget it,” Yang Yunran didn’t want him to insult Jiang Yi like that. Criticizing was one thing, but cursing was another. “Let’s be civilized.”

Jimmy sighed, frustrated. “You’re so indecisive. Do you really like that guy so much?”

“…Kind of,” Yang Yunran couldn’t quite explain. Originally, he was just looking for inspiration to write songs, taking advantage of the original owner’s leftovers.

Then he found out his boyfriend didn’t like him, or rather, didn’t like the original owner. He didn’t even notice the switch.

Later on, perhaps he began to like himself a bit.

However, Jiang Yi was not one to express his feelings. He was like a beautiful but impoverished flower on a high peak.

Yang Yunran didn’t want to keep guessing about him, it was exhausting.

In the car, Jiang Yi was playing songs by Harry Yeah Yeah.

He didn’t usually listen to music much, but because it was sung by Yang Yunran, he found every song enjoyable. He went through the app, clicking “like” and “save” on each one.

Yang Yunran sang with a mask on, probably not wanting to be recognized.

His reputation on the internet wasn’t good, so even though Jiang Yi listened, he didn’t tell him.

After finding out that he livestreamed singing every day, the next morning, Jiang Yi downloaded the Whale Live app, followed Harry Yeah Yeah, and visited his livestream.

Jiang Yi sent Yang Yunran a “good morning,” but Yang Yunran didn’t reply.

Yang Yunran, wearing a white wolf mask, entered the livestream room and saw that there were seventy thousand people online at the same time.

“Hello, everyone, I’m Yeah Yeah.”

It was Jiang Yi’s first time watching a livestream and using this kind of app, so he wasn’t very familiar with it. He tried everything out, and saw some bullet comments:

“Ah Ah Ah Yeah Yeah is so punctual, here to listen to songs!!!”

“I really like Yeah Yeah, I really like Yeah Yeah!!!”

Comments could be posted in the lower left corner. Jiang Yi commented: “Like, thumbs up.”

He was a guest user, with an ID that was a string of random characters.

The bullet comments were very enthusiastic. Although Yang Yunran didn’t show his face, netizens were speculating that he was ugly, but this only fueled their imaginations.

After all, seeing his figure wasn’t bad, he was tall, with long legs, fair skin, and slender fingers…

It left room for people’s imagination.

So there were also some affectionate bullet comments.

“I really like Yeah Yeah, sings so well, I want to marry him!!”

“Yeah, Yeah is so handsome, so cute, I want to…(not safe for work)”

Jiang Yi frowned, clicked on that bullet comment, and found he could report it. He reported it directly, selecting “vulgar and obscene” as the reason.

Yang Yunran spoke up: “Today, let’s start with an original song. The one I sang before, ‘Good Times,’ is for everyone.”

Then he started the prelude, and Yang Yunran began to sing.

Jiang Yi commented again: “Love listening, so nice.”

His comment was drowned out among the thousands of bullet comments.

But among this sea of white text, there was one that shone brightly, adorned with a rainbow pendant and a unique profile picture, so it stood out.

“Yeah, Yeah’s wife, I’m here!!!!!”

Who is this person?

How can they call Yang Yunran “wife”? Is it okay to call them that casually? Isn’t Yang Yunran a guy?

Jiang Yi furrowed his brows, clicked on that barrage, and quickly found out why. This person’s name is “Lin Liangbei,” and they’ve given Yang Yunran roughly one million in gifts, ranking first on the gift-giving leaderboard, so in Yang Yunran’s live broadcast room, they have all kinds of privileges.

Jiang Yi wasn’t very happy, especially when Yang Yunran finished singing and even sent another song separately: “The next song was requested by Miss Lin Liangbei the day before yesterday. I spent several hours specifically learning it, an English song, a cover of Shawn Mendes’ ‘Why.'”

Lin Liangbei: “Ah ah ah! I love it, give Ye Ye Teacher a carnival!!”

Lin Liangbei is also Lin, the CEO of Wanyan Entertainment. They quickly sent ten carnivals to Yang Yunran, and the barrage showed the carnival effect of fireworks.

Jiang Yi understood. Yang Yunran definitely doesn’t know this person, but this girl sent gifts to Yang Yunran, so she can request songs.

Yang Yunran often gifts songs to fans, and anyone can request them.

But being first on the list is special.

Plus, this first on the list never sends him private messages, but Yang Yunran often sings the songs they request.

Jiang Yi spent some time getting his account verified with his real name, and took an ID, called “099,” which is his lab number.

One carnival is three thousand. Jiang Yi first sent ten, saw himself ranked at the back, became unhappy again, and sent another hundred. There was a limit prompt, and his private client manager even called to ask.

They said, “Seeing you recharging the live broadcast platform, I’m worried you’ve been scammed. Mr. Jiang, there are many online scams nowadays.”

Jiang Yi patiently said, “I’m watching a live broadcast, not being scammed. Please open the limit for me as soon as possible.”

It sounded more like a scam. The manager said, “Alright, how much do you want the limit to be?”

Jiang Yi only has that much in his account, and he never spends money, as the school provides accommodation and subsidies. He said, “Let’s open it to three million first.”

Because Yang Yunran was so focused and immersed in singing, they only saw someone sending a lot of carnivals, pushing the live room to the first on the platform, and suddenly, two hundred thousand people rushed in!

Yang Yunran didn’t know how much this newcomer “099” sent, but when they finished broadcasting and glanced at it, they found that the first on the list had already changed.