Chapter 21

Jiang Yi also agreed?

Yang Yunran smiled, “Really? Anything I want?”

“Anything,” Jiang Yi nodded.

Yang Yunran made a sound of acknowledgment and asked, “How much money do you have?”

Jiang Yi said, “Quite a lot, enough to buy whatever you like.”

He didn’t care much for material pleasures. The offshore account received income from scientific patents every year, and he never dabbled in stocks or options, so his savings were substantial.

As for the exact amount, Jiang Yi couldn’t remember. Last time he checked, there were roughly over three hundred million.

Whatever Yang Yunran wanted, he should be able to afford it. What he feared was that what Yang Yunran wanted wasn’t something that could be bought with money.

Sure enough, after some thought, Yang Yunran said, “But the things I want, I can buy for myself. I’m not short of money. How about changing for another reward?”

Jiang Yi’s jaw tightened slightly. “Another one? What do you mean?”

“I need to think about it. Let me think about it.” Yang Yuran took him for a walk by the waves. Suddenly, a wave washed over their shoes. Both Jiang Yi and him had forgotten to wear sandals.

Jiang Yi pulled him back. “Your shoes are wet. Don’t walk into the sea.”

“It’s okay. We’ll wash and dry them when we get home, right?” Yang Yunran didn’t care, nor did he avoid the waves. Instead, he let the seawater soak his ankles. Finally, he bent down, took off his shoes and socks, held them in his hand, and turned to Jiang Yi. “I’ve figured it out. How about you sleep with me tonight?”

Jiang Yi didn’t know how to respond, watching Yang Yunran’s smiling face under the sunlight. His eyelashes drooped lightly, his complex gaze hidden behind sunglasses. “Pick something else.”

Yang Yunran laughed, “I was just teasing. You didn’t take it seriously, did you?”

Jiang Yi made a sound of agreement, murmuring, “Sometimes I can’t tell if you’re joking or being serious.” He didn’t think Yang Yunran had deep feelings for him, just that he was young and mistook dependence for love. As long as he found a suitable partner for him and diverted his attention, it would be fine.

Yang Yunran said seriously, “Then buy me a keyboard. I happen to need one. I didn’t find a suitable one last time.”

Jiang Yi slightly relaxed at his words. “A keyboard? For making music or gaming?”

“Of course, for making music.” It wasn’t expensive, probably two or three hundred dollars for a cheap one. Yang Yunran knew he wasn’t wealthy and didn’t intend to spend his money.

“Okay,” Jiang Yi agreed, “but you delete that person.”

“Okay, deleted.” Yang Yunran picked up his phone to show him. “See?”

It was marked as “

Evan’s intermediary had indeed been shown as deleted by him.

Jiang Yi was indeed fooled by his little trick and nodded. “Besides the keyboard, do you want anything else?”

“No need, I don’t want you to spend money.” Yang Yunran picked up a plastic bag from a coffee shop on the roadside and put his shoes in it. Jiang Yi helped him carry it, and the two walked around the bay, their footprints spreading on the beach, only to be smoothed out by the waves.

Finally, Yang Yunran found a big tree, spread a picnic mat on the ground, rolled up his trousers, and sat down.

He put on his headphones, opened a group video call with a few classmates on his phone app, and discussed their project.

Jiang Yi typed on his phone’s notepad and said to him, “Don’t move from here, I’ll go buy you a drink. What do you want to drink?”

Yang Yunran whispered to him, “Juice.”

Jiang Yi briefly appeared in his video. A classmate asked, “Roy, is that your boyfriend?”

Yang Yunran’s sexual orientation didn’t seem to be a secret; everyone around knew.

“No,” Yang Yunran said, “he’s just a brother.”

The classmate said, “Well, your brother is very handsome. Can you introduce him to us?”

“No, he’s taken.” Yang Yunran continued the meeting. After waiting for twenty or thirty minutes, Jiang Yi finally came back. He bought sports pants, sandals, socks, and a jacket from the car, and also bought juice, strawberry cake, a fruit platter, and sashimi, considering everything very carefully.

Yang Yunran muted the microphone and said to him, “Did you buy all these for me?”

Jiang Yi replied, “Yes.”

Yang Yunran asked, “My hands are dirty. Have you washed yours?”

“Yes,” Jiang Yi said, “the bathroom is over there.”

“Then I want to eat strawberries. Can you feed me one?” He turned to look at Jiang Yi.

Jiang Yi hesitated a bit but complied.

Yang Yunran bit into the strawberry in his hand, put it in his mouth, looked at Jiang Yi very seriously for a few seconds, then puffed his cheeks and said, “Jiang Yi, you seem like you’d be great for marriage.”

Jiang Yi was sitting with his legs crossed, tearing open the paper packaging of the cake spoon for him, and asked, “What do you mean?”

Yang Yunran said, “Literally, I think it would be nice to marry you. You take care of me so well. It would be great if it could be like this forever.” After saying that, Yang Yunran didn’t care what he thought, opened the microphone and camera with the juice in hand, and continued to explain his business case to his group mates.

Half an hour later, Yang Yunran finished speaking, everyone else finished speaking, and the group video call ended.

Turning his head, Yang Yunran saw Jiang Yi, his legs crossed,

Jiang Yi was lying on the picnic mat, his long legs stretched out, one arm resting behind his head, his face basking in the dappled sunlight filtering through the tree canopy. Due to Jiang Yi wearing sunglasses and lacking any expression on his face, it was hard to tell if he was asleep or awake.

“Are you asleep?” Yang Yunran carefully checked for a while, feeling that Jiang Yi had his eyes closed, so he lay down as well.

There were quite a few people nearby doing the same thing, having picnics by the sea on weekends in the spring, feeling extremely content.

They didn’t look out of place.

The sea breeze was strong, and there was a rough, gravelly sensation on the picnic mat, disturbing the skin. The leaves rustled overhead, making a soothing sound. Yang Yunran lay on his side because Jiang Yi emanated warmth, he unconsciously moved closer and hugged Jiang Yi’s arm, resting his face against his bicep.

It felt natural to him, and Jiang Yi suddenly opened his eyes, turning his head to look at Yang Yunran, who was relying on him like a sloth, holding his arm. Jiang Yi’s heart skipped a beat.

The black brim of Yang Yunran’s hat obscured his eyes, only revealing the lower half of his face, which was slightly flushed from drinking the juice, and his lips were rosy. His cheeks rose and fell slightly with each breath.

Yang Yunran’s breath sprayed onto Jiang Yi’s neck, making him feel a bit itchy and warm, causing his breath to pause involuntarily.

So Jiang Yi lifted his chin slightly, trying to move away a bit. But he couldn’t completely do it; it seemed like Yang Yunran’s breath and his shower gel scent surrounded Jiang Yi.

Jiang Yi wasn’t the type to care about others’ appearance. In his eyes, people were either “able to communicate” or “too dumb to communicate.”

But Jiang Yi always thought Yang Yunran was good-looking, and now he found him cute, making him want to scratch his chin and imagine that Yang Yunran might smile and curl up.

But that wasn’t appropriate.

Jiang Yi resisted the urge. If he did that, Yang Yunran would misunderstand again. So Jiang Yi simply indulged him, letting him sleep with his arm around him. With his other hand, Jiang Yi unfolded the jacket he had brought from the car and gently covered Yang Yunran’s chest with it.

When Yang Yunran woke up, he didn’t offer any explanation for sleeping on Jiang Yi. He wiped the saliva from the corner of his mouth with the back of his hand and yawned, “What time is it?”

He looked a bit disoriented just waking up, his pupils dark and watery, the artificial eye on his right side looking hollow, while his left eye was quite hazy.

Knowing that he couldn’t see with one eye, Jiang Yi felt a bit sorry for him.

“It’s almost four o’clock.” Jiang Yi’s hand was a bit numb, and he hadn’t taken off his sunglasses, his gaze fixed on Yang Yunran’s face. “Shall we go back?”

“Yeah,” Yang Yunran said, “Thanks for sleeping with me.”

The slightly ambiguous words made Jiang Yi evade, saying, “It’s okay, I was just your pillow for a while.”

Yang Yunran said in a very casual tone, “Your arm muscles make a good pillow. I’d be willing to pay to have you as a pillow for a night. Would you be interested?”

Jiang Yi was silent for a moment, then refused him, “Let’s go, I’ll take you home.”

Yang Yunran pretended to be disappointed, “Looks like you’re not interested. I wonder if Evan’s biceps would be as comfortable.”

“…”

Jiang Yi frowned, raising his voice, “Yang Yunran?”

Yang Yunran raised his hands in surrender, his eyes curved in a smile, “Haha, I was just kidding. I still expect you to buy me a keyboard. Brother, rest assured, I won’t bother with male companions.”

Jiang Yi could only hope he’d do it of his own accord. After dinner, he took him home, coincidentally running into the young man who helped him walk his dog coming back.

Yang Yunran seemed a bit flustered all of a sudden, hurriedly pushing him into his bedroom, “Don’t come out!”

Jiang Yi didn’t understand, suspecting their relationship wasn’t pure, so he listened to their conversation from behind the door.

But the dialogue was very ordinary.

Yang Yunran said, “My uncle mentioned that your undergraduate degree… is somewhat ordinary, so you need a certain academic background. He introduced two professors at Harvard for me to take you to meet. If they’re willing to take you as a student, you might get an offer you want by April.”

The other person said something very grateful.

Then Yang Yunran’s voice came again, “Are you free tomorrow? I’ll take you to meet one of the professors.”

“I am, I am, I am!” Zhao Youmo’s face turned excitedly red. Unable to contain himself, he rushed forward and hugged Yang Yunran, crying, “Roy, you’re so good, this help you’ve given me! It’s so important to me! I, I won’t forget your kindness! Whatever you ask me to do in the future, I’ll do it, I’ll be your servant!”

Yang Yunran, caught off guard by his sudden outburst, was hugged tightly. He found it hard to breathe and awkwardly patted his shoulder, “Um… it’s nothing.”

Originally, he wanted to push Zhao Youmo away, but then, he suddenly saw his hair.

Ready-made hair. Could he pluck a few strands? Take them to his uncle for analysis.

Yang Yunran, not having done something like this before, raised his hand somewhat unskillfully, pretending to stroke his hair and plucked out a strand.

Hearing a strange sound, Jiang Yi gently pushed open the door.

Only to see the two embracing tightly, and Yang Yunran still touching the young man’s hair.

Jiang Yi’s palm clenched the door handle, his expression complex.

Yang Yunran plucked two more strands of hair after his initial reaction. He tightly clenched the strands in his hand and gently patted Zhao Youmo’s back, speaking in a gentlemanly and reassuring tone, “Alright, I’ll take you to see the professor tomorrow. You should… uh.”

He gestured for Zhao Youmo to let go of him. Zhao Youmo, tearful and emotional, realizing his earlier outburst, released his grip and said, “Thank you! I really, really don’t know how to thank you…”

“No need to worry about that.” Yang Yunran dismissed him with a few words, then tucked the strands of hair into a book.

Turning around, he saw Jiang Yi coming out of his bedroom, expressionless, and asked, “What’s the relationship between you two?”

Yang Yunran guessed that Jiang Yi had seen something. Of course, because of the original plot, Yang Yunran had been avoiding letting Jiang Yi meet Zhao Youmo, so he wasn’t too happy about it. “Didn’t I ask you to wait for me in the bedroom? Why were you peeking on us?”

Seeing his reaction, Jiang Yi subconsciously thought in the wrong direction – maybe Yang Yunran didn’t just like him.

He stood there for a few seconds, closed his eyes, and said, “Sorry.”

“After I left last night, did he come to find you?” Jiang Yi couldn’t help but ask, “You were drunk, and he has a key to your house. Did you two…”

Yang Yunran interrupted him, “Huh? I don’t remember… Are you going home or not? Shall I take you downstairs?”

Jiang Yi was escorted out of the house by him. Turning back, he said in a deep voice, “You have plans for tomorrow?”

“Yes, something came up suddenly, so I can’t make our date.” Yang Yunran looked regretful, tilting his head towards Jiang Yi, “Don’t be disappointed. Think of me in a few days, and we can still go out on a date.”

It was as if he wasn’t angry at all.

Jiang Yi was speechless, feeling as if he had been manipulated and led by the nose by Yang Yunran.

Back at home, he sent a message to Yang Yunran, saying he had arrived home.

Yang Yunran’s reply was very plain, saying “Okay.”

Jiang Yi put down his phone and went into the bathroom. He bathed himself in hot water, still carrying Yang Yunran’s socks and shoes in the bag, forgetting to return them to him.

The socks could be thrown into the washing machine, but not the shoes.

So Jiang Yi squatted down, found a shoe brush, and started brushing his sneakers. As he brushed, thoughts of Yang Yunran flooded his mind – his social situation, his confession, his seemingly genuine but also seemingly fake affections – these thoughts almost consumed his entire brain.

He had never thought about another person like this before.

At half-past nine in the evening, after showering and washing the shoes, Jiang Yi opened the lab’s group chat. He filtered through based on his impressions and profile pictures, ruling out married and taken men, leaving only single men.

There are a few gays in the group, and everyone uses their own photo as their avatar.

Jiang Yi, who had asked the well-informed member Bella for information, made a table after clarifying all the information about single gay men. An hour later, Jiang Yi saved the photos of these guys one by one, opened WeChat and opened the chat with Yang Yunran.

Poke him: “Are you asleep?”

Yang Yunran: “Taking a bath.”

Jiang Yi: “Do you like white guys or Asian guys?”

Yang Yunran: “?”

Are you really looking for a partner for yourself?

Jiang Yi, you are unbelievable.

Yang Yunran replied to him boredly: “Either is fine.” He wanted to see what Jiang Yi planned to introduce to him.

Jiang Yi sent him a PDF.

Yang Yunran opened it and saw several pages of finely detailed information like resumes.

The first male guest was Miguel from Portugal, with blond hair and blue eyes, although his teeth were not very neat, his smile was bright, which compensated for some of his appearance’s shortcomings.

The resume introduced Miguel’s age, birthday, and zodiac sign, undergraduate degree, second degree, and third degree, as well as academic achievements, work experience, etc.

The second male guest was a Dutch guy, 194 cm tall, who loved playing basketball. He had an excellent educational background, was 26 years old, and looked handsome in the photo, with a somewhat melancholic temperament.

Yang Yunran finished reading with question marks all over his head, and then scrolled back and saw Jiang Yi’s text message saying: “They’re all from the Life Sciences Laboratory, not from my group, but they work in the same building. If you don’t like any of them, I’ll screen some from other majors. But there are few Chinese students in the school, and there are more students from other countries.”

Yang Yunran: “… Are you serious about this?”

Jiang Yi hesitated for a moment and replied, “Yeah, I promised.”

Yang Yunran: “Then introduce the Dutch guy to me. Why wait? How about tomorrow night?”

The moment Jiang Yi saw the message, he immediately felt a subtle sense of regret and displeasure. The more he thought about it, the worse he felt. He wanted to retract the PDF, but it was too late.

Jiang Yi lay on the bed, typing irritably with his fingertips, asking him, “Don’t you have a date tomorrow? Do you want to meet him tomorrow?”

Yang Yunran: “I don’t want to waste time. There’s no problem with two dates in a day.”

Yang Yunran: “The Dutch guy likes playing basketball, right? He should have a good physique. You know, I really like resting on your arms. It makes me fall asleep quickly and peacefully.” With a smiling emoji attached.

The word “your” made Jiang Yi very concerned.

Without thinking, he asked, “Have you rested on someone else’s arms? How many people?”