Chapter 11

The meeting time with the blind date was set a day ago. In the coffee shop with soothing music, Ji Heyi hadn’t finished a cup of coffee when he received a text message from Ms. He. The person he was meeting was sitting across from him. Although he saw the phone light up and the sender of the message, he couldn’t be rude enough to reply to a text during a date.

“Pfft——” The woman across laughed, her fingers curling her charming long hair, and pushed the phone in front of him, “Reply, it’s almost lunchtime, so Ms. He doesn’t have to wait for the message until she can’t eat.”

Ji Heyi took the phone obligingly, took a picture of the two cups on the table, and sent it.

“Why don’t you tell her the result directly?” His blind date, like all the students taught by Ms. He, would have a hard time facing Ms. He’s profound prestige, “It’s a bit hard for me to speak here——Sorry, I’m not attracted to your son that you’re proud of, if I say this, Ms. He would doubt my taste.”

She blinked, “Moreover, I don’t really like hypocrisy. From an unilateral point of view, excluding the gender factor, I think we get along quite well.”

Ji Heyi lowered his head to put away his phone: “Miss Gu, you also said it’s lunchtime, so I won’t affect Ms. He’s appetite first.”

From the moment he sat down to now, he has been trying to consider the feelings of his date during their conversation. He is sorry for wasting her morning, “The responsibility for this failed date is of course on me, I will explain to Ms. He later, she won’t ask you about today.”

“You don’t have to say that, I quite enjoyed this hour.” She changed her address, “Senior Ji——”

Ji Heyi looked at her a bit surprised.

“Are you surprised to hear me call you that? As an alumnus two grades below you, for three years in high school, I’m quite familiar with the stories about you, a person of great renown.”

She stirred her coffee, and said jokingly, “Including your love affair before graduation, the day after we got the news, many girls in our class even organized to go and admire your girlfriend from another school, so——ah.” She suddenly sighed, looking in the direction behind him, “If it weren’t for the person sitting over there whose gaze is too obvious, I almost thought that sexual orientation or something was your excuse.”

Ji Heyi paused in the action of putting down his cup, followed her gaze and looked back.

The person sitting by the window met his gaze, loosened his lips that were pursed into a straight line, and slowly showed a not-so-obvious smile to the two of them.

“Indeed, he really came for you? It’s been half an hour, and I haven’t seen his eyes leave us.”

She started joking, “I always feel that if we talk for another ten minutes, he will come over and knock on our table. Should I leave? And let the waiter help that handsome guy refill a cup and bring it to my seat?”

Ji Heyi withdrew his gaze, looked at the person across from him, this situation was definitely not a pleasant experience for the date: “………I’m sorry.”

“It’s okay, the timing is just right, I can still go home and have lunch with my parents.” She finally drank a sip of coffee and stood up. As Ji Heyi also stood up, she turned back and waved with a smile, “Don’t send me off——the pancakes in this shop are good, I recommend them to you.”

When Chi Yan pulled the chair and sat down, the waiter just served the pancake that Ji Heyi had just ordered, one serving.

The two looked at each other, Ji Heyi pushed the plate over, Chi Yan touched the fork and knife, and took them back: “I’ll order something else………..”

Ji Heyi interrupted him: “It’s yours, I’ve had breakfast.”

The silence made the slight collision of the cups and plates clearly audible. Separated by layers of green plants and curtains, no one disturbed this corner of the booth. Ji Heyi faced the window, drinking his coffee and waiting for him to fill his stomach, but he didn’t see the person across from him move the fork for a long time.

“You just had a good chat with her.” Chi Yan spoke softly, his gaze stopped on the lipstick mark on the rim of the cup next to his hand, trying to bring a little smile into his words, “Is it……..about company matters? Why discuss it in such a place.”

As soon as the words fell, it seemed like he didn’t want to hear any answer, he immediately changed his words, speaking to him indirectly: “The environment of this shop is really good——by the way, you said you wanted to talk about something before you left, do you have anything to do at noon? Or we can change the place, besides drinks, there are only desserts here, the food ordered can’t be a proper meal.”

Ji Heyi put down his cup, turned his head to look at him, and waited for the person who had been avoiding his gaze to finally raise his eyes, then asked: “How did you know I was here?”

Chi Yan was silent for a while: “………I have the location of your car in my phone.”

He opened his mouth wanting to say something, but under the silent gaze of the person across from him, he lost all his words to explain himself.

Ji Heyi looked at the person he had been with day and night for three years, his gaze traced from his eyes to his chin. Just like standing at the door of the house last night, there was a moment when he inexplicably saw a bit of strangeness from this familiar face, and his well-managed three-year relationship also became blurred.

He answered Chi Yan’s passing question: “The person who was sitting here just now was my blind date.”

“……Ah.” He lowered his head, his fingers knocked on the edge of the plate, and picked up the fork on the plate.

“When she left, I had to apologize to her.”

Chi Yan raised his head.

“Because of the disturbance my ex caused to this date.”

Ji Heyi’s gaze flickered over his suddenly clenched fingers, and when he spoke again, his voice slowed down, showing the intention of getting to the point, “This seems not to be the first time I asked you.” He said, “Chi Yan, do you know what breaking up means?”

Even if the words were not pleasant to hear, when he spoke, he always had such a calm gaze, in his pupils was the still reflection of the person he was talking to. Chi Yan was only staring at his eyes close at hand, those words passed through the thin air around him, floating emptily into his mind.

“It means I can be moved again, I can fall in love again, I can go on blind dates, and get engaged. No matter who it is between us, it’s very presumptuous to deliberately appear on the other’s date without a word.” He paused, then asked, “A month ago, the day you proposed to break up with an impeccable reason——”

This sentence made the still person suddenly raise his head, his eyes, which were dry and slightly red due to long-term irregular work and rest, became even more obviously red. Ji Heyi met his gaze: “Your parents——or my dad, what did they say to you?”

Chi Yan was stunned, he was caught off guard by his question, “……..how……..” He curled up his fingers, “Why suddenly ask this.”

Ji Heyi silently looked at him.

“It wasn’t that day, it was when I said to break up………” His pupils trembled for a moment, “It was three days before I said to break up……..I met your dad, we just happened to meet on the Chiang Mai project, your dad stopped me in the hotel corridor.” He put his uncontrollably clenched hand under the table, his throat moved once, “He said he couldn’t contact my parents, asked me to help set a time this month, to settle you………to settle the matter between you and Chi Cong, and also asked me not to forget to go together at that time, I——”

He quickly continued, “I didn’t forget this matter, but I couldn’t contact my parents here, they will be back in two days, you and Chi Cong——” When he got here, his voice suddenly became hoarse, he paused for a while, those words seemed to finally cut through, it was difficult to speak as if one more sentence would hurt his throat, “you and Chi Cong……….”

“Chi Cong and I.” Ji Heyi took over his words, quietly waiting for his almost embarrassed gaze to look over again, “Chi Cong and I——classmates from junior school to high school, good friends who get along well, but in these more than ten years of friendship, our friendship has never had anything else.”

For his own defense about Chi Cong, he couldn’t help but feel a bit absurd. However, looking at the other person’s still suppressed eyes, he slowly continued, making sure his words were steady and clear, “Five years ago, right? You’re talking about that time. I can’t remember everything I said, and I don’t know what you heard, so I won’t judge whether the things you’ve believed in these years are justifiable or absurd. You also saw the movie yesterday, that was a line from a script, the lead actor Chi Cong——your brother, pulling his good friend, in a nice atmosphere during the holiday, asked him to help recite a line.”

Ji Heyi took a sip of coffee, seeing the person across from him slowly freeze in his words, even blinking mechanically. But he hadn’t finished speaking, they had almost no quarrels and misunderstandings in these three years, Ji Heyi had no reference to whether his pace of statement could be easily digested by the other party.

“The day you proposed to break up, I sent you the location of the dinner restaurant. I planned to see your mood, if you were in a good mood, I would mention to you about going home and meeting my parents——I took it for granted, a minute before I went to the bar to find you, I still thought that on such an ordinary night, there was no reason for you to be in a bad mood.”

“…….” The person across seemed to want to speak, opened his mouth, but because of holding his breath for too long, he could only make a gasping sound, he coughed, and his bewildered expression seemed to be sleepwalking.

“Chi Yan.” Ji Heyi closed his eyes, he didn’t sleep well last night, and now he barely restrained his hand from rubbing his temples, “Differences can be communicated, misunderstandings can be resolved, a certain degree of harm can also be forgiven, in a relationship, other than no longer being in love, I don’t think there is any reason that can be used to break up——what do you think?”

The coffee was already empty, everything that should be said had been said, Ji Heyi glanced at the time on his phone, didn’t wait for the other person to reply, and stood up.

The person across saw this, suddenly stood up as well, the hand that reached out clumsily swept the table, because the action was too violent, the utensils clattered all over the floor.

Fortunately, this noise was loud enough to bring the sleepwalking person back to his senses a bit.

Ji Heyi looked down at the mess on the floor. He didn’t see a waiter coming over——the coffee shop was very large, the counter was some distance from the corner.

He turned his head to ask Chi Yan: “Did you bring cash?”

Chi Yan was only staring intently at the face in front of him, unconsciously shook his head.

“What about a card?”

Shook his head.

“What about your phone?”

He followed the words and dully touched his empty pocket, “…….I left it in the car.”

A good interpretation of what it means to be penniless.

Ji Heyi pressed him back into his seat, examined the stunned look on his face that hadn’t recovered yet, reached out and flicked his forehead: “Figure it out, you have to pay for this blind date.”

Without waiting for the other person to react, he took a step and left.