Blue Cocktail chapter 54
At five in the evening, the bar began its operation. As Lu Huaiqian couldn’t mix drinks with his right hand in a cast, he conscientiously took a temporary backseat while ensuring Cheng Shuo was with him. It was Saturday, and the bar would be closed for a birthday party, granting employees a day off. Cheng Shuo was originally scheduled to work today, but Lu Huaiqian being an ailing patient, he needed someone to take care of him, right?
On the second floor of the bar, after dinner, Cheng Shuo went into the kitchen to wash dishes and grapes. The dark purple grapes, plucked from their branches, were carefully rinsed one by one under the flowing water. Finally, they were arranged on a fruit tray and placed on the coffee table.
On the genuine leather sofa around the coffee table, Lu Huaiqian patted the seat next to him, indicating for Cheng Shuo to sit down. Cheng Shuo remained silent on the surface but silently complied with the action.
Before he could begin any flirting, Lu Huaiqian suddenly received a call from his dear mother. She cut to the chase, inquiring about the right-hand fracture.
In a hurry, Lu Huaiqian gave a summarizing phrase: “No big deal.”
He had anticipated this. At the latest by tomorrow night, he would have to face his mother’s inquiries about the injury. Therefore, he had prepared all the responses when he had the cast applied.
As for how his parents found out—well, the driver leaked the information. The driver who had been with the Lu family for at least a dozen years was practically treated like a close confidant. Back in the day, when Lu Huaiqian experienced the worldly pleasures with his friends, such as skipping class for internet cafes, playing video games, enjoying grilled skewers and beer on the roadside, skateboarding, and playing with puzzles, the driver happened to witness one of these escapades. Lu Huaiqian naively handed over a few hundred bucks as pocket money, attempting to bribe the driver to keep it a secret.
The driver refused, righteous and upright, stating that it wasn’t necessary.
Lu Huaiqian thought the driver was helping him keep it under wraps, secretly relieved that he had narrowly escaped trouble. He decided to lay low and avoid attracting attention.
Little did he know, the next evening after school, the truth came out completely. Lu Huaiqian was summoned for a stern talking-to, a mixed-gender lecture that left him feeling overwhelmed, much like Sun Wukong enduring Tang Sanzang’s scriptures. Without thinking, he guessed that the informant, aside from the driver, could be no one else.
At such a young age, he had already experienced the treacherous nature of human hearts.
Listening through the phone, Mrs. Lu asked him how he got injured. Lu Huaiqian’s thoughts instantly returned to reality, and he frankly explained that it was to save someone, someone he was in a romantic relationship with now.
Mrs. Lu’s curiosity flared up, but she only asked one more question.
Lu Huaiqian took advantage of the situation to praise Cheng Shuo, embellishing his compliments with elaborate descriptions. He painted Cheng Shuo in the most glorious light, making it sound like a celestial being.
Since Mrs. Lu knew her son’s character too well—complimenting him would only make him exaggerate—she believed him but not entirely. She considered it as listening to a funny story.
When it came to the topic of his romantic partner, Lu Huaiqian took the opportunity to express that he couldn’t continue to look after Tang Yi. It wasn’t appropriate, as Tang Yi might get jealous.
In fact, during the two years of studying abroad in the UK, Lu Huaiqian had earnestly expressed similar sentiments to his mother. He emphasized that Tang Yi liked him and that constantly checking up on him, might lead to misunderstandings.
Regarding his mother’s response, she said he was overly self-aware, narcissistic, and overthinking. Tang Yi regarded him as a brother, according to her — to hell with being a brother, Lu Huaiqian argued. He asked which younger brother, when drunk, would tightly hold onto his brother’s waist, not letting go, and even try to play a forced kiss?
His mother simply refused to listen, firmly believing that the relationship between him and Tang Yi was purely sibling affection. She even actively explained on Tang Yi’s behalf, suggesting that perhaps Tang Yi mistook him for someone else while intoxicated — she favored Tang Yi to the extent that Lu Huaiqian sometimes wondered if Tang Yi was her biological child.
At that time, Lu Huaiqian was truly at a loss for words.
Back then, the Mo Blue Bar didn’t exist, and Lu Huaiqian was still plotting his future. His mother regularly sent him money, and since he wasn’t entirely financially independent, he couldn’t refuse her requests.
However, things were different now, and he had a legitimate reason.
His mother readily agreed and announced that from now on, the responsibility of taking care of Tang Yi would be entirely entrusted to his good little brother — after all, Huai Xuan still hadn’t settled down. Speaking of which, his mother’s tone carried a hint of resentment when mentioning Huai Xuan’s marital status.
Lu Huaiqian managed to extricate himself from the situation while maintaining family harmony.
It could be considered a perfect solution — the only flaw was Huai Xuan, but he didn’t care.
In just a short phone call, quite a few grapes were peeled, lying silently in the dish. Lu Huaiqian picked up one with his left hand and offered it to Cheng Shuo’s lips.
Cheng Shuo: “I peeled it for you to eat. If I want some, I’ll peel it myself.”
Lu Huaiqian ignored his words and insisted with a tone that brooked no dissent, “Open your mouth, be good.”
Cheng Shuo furrowed his brows and gave Lu Huaiqian a stern look, deliberately chewing the grape loudly. “If you keep doing this, I’ll bite you.”
Lu Huaiqian again brought his fingers to Cheng Shuo’s lips, smiling in a somewhat provocative manner, saying, “Go ahead, bite.”
Cheng Shuo stared at Lu Huaiqian’s fingertips for two seconds and ultimately chose to ignore it. He believed that if he bit down, it would probably end with Lu Huaiqian playing with his tongue using his fingers — the old fox had no sense of morality or shame; there was nothing he wouldn’t do.
“I won’t peel anymore; this should be enough for you to eat,” Cheng Shuo suddenly stood up, “I’m going to do my assignmemt.”
His English listening assignment.
Starting from when he woke up this morning, he had been on the receiving end of Lu Huaiqian’s persuasion countless times—he had no classes on Monday, so he stayed overnight with him, just now remembering he had assignments.
“What? There’s still assignments to be done? Can’t you do them online? use my computer as you wish”, Lu Huaiqian replied.
Seeing the other party insist, and to fulfill Lu Huaiqian’s wish, Cheng Shuo had no choice but to comply.
As Cheng Shuo was seen entering the study, soon, Lu Huaixuan, who was still unaware that he had been deceived by his own brother, called to inquire about the injury.
Lu Huaiqian’s comforting words were not much different from those of his mother.
After the conversation, as if suddenly remembering something, he warned Lu Huaixuan not to tell Tang Yi about his injured hand. Otherwise, Tang Yi would definitely come over, using the excuse of taking care of family members to play ambiguously.
Growing up together with his brother and Tang Yi, they all understood that Tang Yi was not someone with a sense of boundaries, but he was, after all, the child of a close friend of their mother.
Lu Huaiqian didn’t want to handle the situation too rigidly, leaving a bit of face for the other party, as long as Tang Yi didn’t cross his bottom line.
Finally, the highlight of this phone call, Lu Huaiqian proudly announced that he had a significant other—according to the agreement they made initially, only if one of them fell in love they could terminate the deal they had in advance. The remaining blind date opportunities would be canceled, and compensation could be negotiated.
After hearing this, Lu Huaixuan’s expression turned serious, “Brother, given my understanding of your character, I seriously doubt that you lied about having a significant other just to avoid blind dates.”
Lu Huaiqian immediately retorted, “My dear brother, if I wanted to lie to you, why wouldn’t I have said I had a significant other from the beginning? Why go on four blind dates for you and then claim to have a significant other? I went on a total of four blind dates, you know how painful and agonizing each one was!”
“I don’t know,” Lu Huaixuan remained unmoved, “Maybe you’re deliberately playing reverse psychology.”
Lu Huaiqian laughed and scolded.
People who are never serious often have low credibility, Lu Huaiqian understood, but he was unchanging in his ways.
After bidding farewell to Huaixuan, Lu Huaiqian opened WeChat and edited a message for his mom, with the main idea being: Don’t tell Tang Yi about his wrist fracture.
After handling that, he headed towards the study.
At that moment, in the study, Cheng Shuo was anxiously scratching his head.
“The listening part ends here—”
The cursor hovered over the submit button, and the index finger on the left mouse button trembled slightly.
Recalling Mr. Lu Xun’s earnest teachings, a true warrior faces the bitterness of life courageously. Cheng Shuo closed his eyes, steeled his resolve, and lightly pressed his index finger—
In an instant, everything turned into a sea of red, Chinese red, the red of the setting sun.
An unsurprising result.
Cheng Shuo hesitated for two seconds about whether to review the wrong answers—decisively chose not to.
If Lu Huaiqian saw the test results, he would surely mock him again.
About to close the webpage.
Suddenly, a lazy voice sounded from behind, “Oh, I wish the stocks I bought could be as red as this.”
Cheng Shuo turned abruptly.
Only to see Lu Huaiqian casually resting his left hand on the back of a chair, standing lazily, with a smirk.
When did this person arrive?
Truly elusive.
Cheng Shuo glanced resentfully at Lu Huaiqian’s face, then turned away, pretending not to hear.
Under normal circumstances, he couldn’t argue with Lu Huaiqian, especially not in English, where he had an absolute disadvantage.
Lu Huaiqian, however, unabashedly continued to scrutinize, blatantly staring at the eight big characters, “Simulated CET-6 Listening Test.” “Are you preparing for CET-6?”
Cheng Shuo didn’t give a direct answer, “This is an assignment given by the English teacher, and the difficulty is equivalent to CET-6 listening.”
“So, did you register for the CET-6 exam this semester?”
“…I did.”
“Isn’t that considered preparation?”
“… “
“Do you need me to provide you with tutoring, for free?” Lu Huaiqian shamelessly introduced himself, “I scored 600 on CET-6, IELTS 8, and I also have two years of studying abroad in the UK.”
It’s truly amazing that he remembers scores from so long ago.
“No, thanks.”
A sly fox offering goodwill surely had ulterior motives, and Cheng Shuo didn’t want to be sold and still help count the money.
“Don’t be too absolute in your words. Maybe someday in the future, you’ll need my help in English.”
“Absolutely impossible, rest assured.”
“Oh, really?” Countless scheming thoughts flashed through Lu Huaiqian’s mind in an instant, “I think anything is possible.”
Cheng Shuo chuckled, clearly not believing it, and didn’t want to say much about it.
Lu Huaiqian then changed the topic, “After you left the living room, Huaixuan also called.”
Cheng Shuo: “Oh.”
“He told me something serious. This matter is a bit related to you, so I came to discuss it with you.”
Cheng Shuo’s curiosity was piqued, and he turned the swivel chair halfway around, “What’s the matter?”
“Do you still remember the ‘blind date deal’?” Lu Huaiqian made a quick calculation, “I still have six blind dates left.”
“Do you think I should go? If I go, you’ll be unhappy. If I don’t go, it’ll seem like I lack commitment, right?”
“I won’t be unhappy.” Cheng Shuo’s gaze wandered, “Since you’re dating girls, and I know your sexual orientation, aren’t you just going through the motions? It’s totally fine. If you want to go, just go. Don’t use me as an excuse.”
“Oh, I see.” Lu Huaiqian nodded knowingly, glanced at Cheng Shuo’s tightly pursed lips, and deliberately said, “But I just went through a lot of trouble, almost giving up my face, using both hard and soft tactics, to convince Huaixuan to cancel the ‘deal.’ If I tell him I can go again, would that be contradictory?”
“Then don’t go!” Cheng Shuo quickly said.
After a few seconds, he bit his lip, frowned, and added, “You’re so wishy-washy. Aren’t you afraid of trouble?”
“I’m not afraid of trouble; I’m more afraid of breaking my word.”
Cheng Shuo seemed choked for a moment. “You lie every day. You’ve long lost your credibility. Are you really afraid of breaking your word?”
“But he’s my real younger brother.” Lu Huaiqian justified himself, “I can break my word in front of others, but not in front of my real younger brother. Moreover, Huaixuan is the president of a leading company in the internet industry. I must maintain a good relationship. What if we turn against each other? How can I survive in Huafu City in the future?”
“Oh.” Cheng Shuo lowered his head.
From his throat, he squeezed out a sentence, “Then go.”
Lu Huaiqian heard this but remained standing in place with a smile.
Cheng Shuo’s head lowered for a while longer, and in his field of vision, Lu Huaiqian’s shoe tips remained motionless.
He muttered, “Why haven’t you left yet? Didn’t you say you were going? Just go.”
As if he had truly hurt someone, Lu Huaiqian cursed himself silently in his heart. He stepped in front of Cheng Shuo, grabbed the tips of Cheng Shuo’s right fingers with his left hand, and coaxed gently, “Do you not want me to go? If you don’t, just say it. I’m very easy to talk to. Hmm?”
“No.”
“Looking at your expression, it seems like you’re a little unhappy.”
“You read it wrong.”
Even at this time, he still maintained a tough attitude. Lu Huaiqian raised an eyebrow unexpectedly. He had indeed underestimated Cheng Shuo’s level of stubbornness.
Taking advantage of Cheng Shuo’s grip, Lu Huaiqian let go of his hand and took a step back. “Then, should I really go?”
The hem of his clothes was suddenly grasped tightly.
Cheng Shuo firmly held the fabric in the palm of his hand, and even the edges of his fingernails turned white.
His head lowered even more, and his voice was squeezed out from between his teeth, “Do you dare?”
Lu Huaiqian chuckled dumbly, “I don’t.”