40. Come and get him.

After saying this, the terrace fell into complete silence.

It’s unclear how much time passed, but Xu Yuanzhe lowered his eyes, about to light the cigarette in his mouth. However, at that moment, Yu Yue suddenly leaned forward, reached out, and took a cigarette from the pack in Xu Yuanzhe’s other hand.

Xu Yuanzhe hadn’t reacted yet, but the lighter’s flame had already sparked.

Biting the cigarette, Yu Yue moved forward, tilting his head slightly as if to kiss, but he only bit the cigarette, leaning forward to borrow the fire. Before Xu Yuanzhe could react, Yu Yue leaned back, returning to the original position against the terrace doorframe.

Snowflakes fell silently, covering the terrace and its railings with a thin layer of white.

Xu Yuanzhe put away the lighter, gently pressing the still-hot lighter. Keeping a moderate distance, he looked at Yu Yue and asked, “When did you learn to smoke?”

Yu Yue turned his head, bit the cigarette, looked at the terrace outside, and replied vaguely, “I don’t know.” After a slight pause, he blinked his pitch-black and dense eyelashes, obscuring the emotions in his eyes. “One day I felt like it, and suddenly I knew how to.”

Xu Yuanzhe remained silent.

After a while, Yu Yue gently held the cigarette, turned back, glanced at Xu Yuanzhe, and asked, “When did you start smoking?”

Xu Yuanzhe raised his eyebrows slightly and answered, “I can’t remember. It seems like I’ve been smoking for a long time.”

The two smoked quietly, and the snowflakes fell without a sound.

Yu Yue finished his cigarette, feeling that the taste wasn’t much, but because he saw Xu Yuanzhe smoking two in front of him, he suddenly had an idea.

As he didn’t have any addiction, there was almost no smoking at home or on him. However, today he happened to want to smoke, but there was nowhere to find cigarettes. It was just that his body reacted faster than his brain, and before he thought about it, he had made the series of actions just now.

Yu Yue gently extinguished the cigarette in his hand and walked directly to the terrace.

The snow was heavy. Looking up, he could only see densely packed snowflakes falling from the sky, accompanied by a cold wind.

After who knew how long, Yu Yue finally turned around and went back to the private room.

But Zhou Ling still hadn’t come back.

Yu Yue glanced at the time, pulled out a tissue from the table, wrote down a number lightly with a pencil, and then walked to Xu Yuanzhe, handing it to him.

“My work number. It’s inconvenient to discuss work on my personal number. Let’s use this one for future contact.”

Xu Yuanzhe had finished his cigarette but was still leaning against the terrace door.

He lowered his eyes, looking at the tissue paper in Yu Yue’s hand.

After a while, Xu Yuanzhe didn’t even extend his hand to take the tissue paper handed to him by Yu Yue.

He just said, “I’ll remember.”

Yu Yue didn’t mind, placed the tissue paper aside, walked to the entrance of the private room, put on his coat, pushed open the door, and left.

In his peripheral vision, the door to the private room opened and gradually closed, until it was completely shut, leaving no gap. This closed door seemed to decisively and cruelly separate the two of them into two different worlds.

Xu Yuanzhe turned his head, his gaze falling on the ashtray by his hand, where three cigarette butts were lined up.

When Zhou Ling returned, she found that Yu Yue was gone.

She was puzzled, “Where is he?”

Xu Yuanzhe withdrew his gaze, straightened up, and finally came back from the terrace door, “He left.”

He walked to the table and saw the tissue paper on which Yu Yue had written the work number.

After staring at it for a long time, before leaving the private room, Xu Yuanzhe finally put the tissue paper with the number into his coat pocket.

Driving on the road, Yu Yue received a call from Dan Hang.

Dan Hang was very concerned about his meeting with Xu Yuanzhe and asked, “How was it? Did it go well?”

Yu Yue thought for a moment, “It was okay.”

Dan Hang actually wanted to ask about Xu Yuanzhe, but hesitated and couldn’t bring himself to ask directly. He just said, “Um, that guy, did he say anything to you?”

After a moment of contemplation, Yu Yue felt that Xu Yuanzhe, over the course of the entire meal, had said no more than five sentences to him.

When did he become so silent and indifferent? Yu Yue didn’t know, and it didn’t matter much to him.

Feeling Yu Yue’s silence, Dan Hang seemed to understand something and sighed suddenly.

He told Yu Yue, “Come to my bar? Let’s have a drink.”

Yu Yue smiled faintly, “I’m driving.”

“Ah,” Dan Hang said, “Just get a designated driver. Come on, I’ll send you the address. You don’t seem to have had a good time. Come, let your brother accompany you for a good chat. We won’t return until we’re drunk.”

Yu Yue neither agreed nor refused.

He parked the car on the side of the road, saw that Dan Hang had sent an address, checked the distance, and decided to drive to Dan Hang’s bar.

Dan Hang’s bar was quite impressive.

After parking the car, Yu Yue went straight to the second floor. Dan Hang happened to be coming downstairs, but seeing Yu Yue had already come up, he stood at the end of the second-floor stairs.

When Yu Yue came up, Dan Hang raised his hand and gently hooked his neck, asking, “What do you want to drink? The entire second floor is reserved for you today.”

Yu Yue smiled, “I have a poor tolerance for alcohol, but you already know that.”

Dan Hang clicked his tongue and directly ordered whiskey.

Yu Yue didn’t mind.

His alcohol tolerance might be low, but before getting drunk, he could drink however much he wanted.

Outside the second floor, there was a covered terrace. Unlike the private room from earlier, even if it was snowing heavily outside, the snowflakes wouldn’t fall on the terrace.

Yu Yue held a glass of whiskey, leaned on the railing, and watched the passing vehicles on the road.

Dan Hang leaned against the railing, took a few sips of his drink, was about to say something pointless, and then heard Yu Yue speak.

Yu Yue’s voice was quite soft, lighter than snowflakes falling on eyelashes.

He turned his head, looking at the streetlights not far away in the heavy snow, and said, “Five years ago, I told myself that given five years, I would definitely be able to forget Xu Yuanzhe.”

Dan Hang’s figure paused, and he turned to look at Yu Yue.

After a moment of silence, Yu Yue continued, “Five years have passed, and I feel like I’ve really forgotten him.”

Dan Hang was about to say that’s good.

However, Yu Yue continued, “But today, after seeing him again, I feel like I might need another five years.”

Dan Hang’s lips moved, but he didn’t say anything.

When Yu Yue spoke, he was remarkably calm, so calm that it didn’t seem ordinary. His profile looked as desolate as a distant star, and his eyes, always carrying a glimmer of starlight, now seemed as serene as a lake without ripples.

Dan Hang had never seen Yu Yue’s eyes lose their former brilliance.

What had real life brought to Yu Yue?

Dan Hang didn’t know.

It’s too cruel, Dan Hang couldn’t help but think, why does reality have to be so cruel, clearly, they were once so deeply in love.

After taking a sip of whiskey, the icy and spicy liquid slid down Yu Yue’s throat, stimulating him to the point of tears. He squinted his eyes lightly, and after a long while, he whispered, “Every time we meet, those five years meant for forgetting get pushed back by one day. Do you think there will come a day when, until my death, I still won’t have forgotten him?”

“You still like him,” Dan Hang said, “Why don’t you be with him?”

Yu Yue replied, “Not all likes have to end up together.”

After a long silence, Yu Yue turned his head and looked at Dan Hang, “Moreover, to this day, I still regret it.” He paused slightly, “Regret being with him back then; otherwise, I wouldn’t need to spend one after another five years trying to forget someone.”

Dan Hang looked at Yu Yue.

Turning back to the snowy street scene before him, Yu Yue softened his eyes very gently in the cold air, “Do you know? I’m actually happy.”

Dan Hang remained silent.

Yu Yue continued, “In the best years of my life, I met the best person in the world.”

“Although we didn’t make it to the end,” Yu Yue straightened up a bit, “I always feel that neither of us betrayed the other. If this happened a few years ago, I might still question Xu Yuanzhe in my dreams, asking why I didn’t say let go first, why he let go first. But not anymore because I know the decision to separate was made by both of us. It wasn’t just him letting go. Everyone might think it was Xu Yuanzhe letting go, but it wasn’t.”

A snowflake gently fell on the back of Yu Yue’s hand.

He lowered his eyes, watching the snowflake melt into water on the warmth of his hand, “I’ve let go too. Before he started regretting, before our last argument, he had already felt my pain.”

“So…” Yu Yue said, “Regardless of who let go, the ending would be the same. I should have learned to accept it a long time ago.”

He straightened up completely, one hand lightly against the railing, and said the last words, “The two of us, it’s not a matter of heaven not favoring our wishes; it’s that we lacked too much fate.”

Downstairs in the bar, the resident singer sang “With Feelings,” and the song drifted up to the second floor, “I pour my feelings into the flowing water, love is pitiful compared to not loving, every word once said about vows and promises is precious.”

After that, Yu Yue didn’t say another word.

Perhaps it wasn’t that he didn’t want to speak, but he was already drunk.

After about an hour, Dan Hang stood alone on the terrace for a long time, finishing the remaining whiskey before returning to the second floor.

On a small round table near the sofa, Yu Yue was lying there, already asleep.

Dan Hang watched Yu Yue for a long time, and in the end, he gently said, “Little Sleeping Beauty.”

He touched Yu Yue with his fingers, but there was no response at all. His face was embarrassingly hot; it seemed like he was genuinely intoxicated.

Dan Hang sat beside Yu Yue, took out his phone, scrolled through the contacts, and found a particular person’s name.

This number was saved by Dan Hang a long time ago, back when Yu Yue was in a relationship. Dan Hang knew that this little young master was too naive, fearing that he might get deceived, so he took the number for potential future use.

However, Dan Hang had never called this number.

He didn’t even know if the person still had the same number.

Dan Hang dialed the number.

After a few “beeps,” it connected.

The person on the other end said, “Who is this?”

Upon hearing this voice, Dan Hang unexpectedly found it quite familiar. Many years ago, at a barbecue place… ten years ago, he heard such a voice. Back then, this voice sounded even more youthful, but it was still the same cold and deep tone, saying to everyone:

“Minors are prohibited from drinking.”

Dan Hang couldn’t help glancing at Yu Yue, who was peacefully asleep.

Ten years ago, this little prince was still a minor.

Dan Hang didn’t answer the question of “Who is this?” Instead, he directly asked, “Xu Yuanzhe, I have a question for you.”

The other person remained silent, not saying anything.

Dan Hang continued, “Do you still love Yu Yue?”

Xu Yuanzhe still didn’t speak.

Dan Hang said, “Answer me with one or two words. Don’t think too much, give me an immediate response.”

The person on the phone uttered one word.

Dan Hang said, “Alright, send you the address, come over and take him.”

Dan Hang hung up the phone.

He sent the address of the bar to Xu Yuanzhe. After putting down his phone, he turned his head and looked at Yu Yue.

Dan Hang stared at Yu Yue for a long time, then couldn’t help reaching out and gently pinching Yu Yue’s cheek. With a tone of half teasing, half scolding, he said, “Silly kid… if there’s no fate, then create one. Otherwise, how do you think I managed to win my girlfriend?”

TN:

THANK YOU SHAN HANG!!!