Blinded by Lust chapter 40
Shen Jixue calmly took a step forward, shifting his gaze from the boy at the elevator to Wu Bie standing in the doorway next door, making the atmosphere instantly awkward.
Wu Bie’s heart leapt into his throat. He had been hiding all night, only to be caught red-handed by Shen Jixue first thing in the morning. That would be too much of a loss, right? He had to say something to fool Shen Jixue.
Even though he had never met the guy in front of him, since he lived with Chen Xian, Huo Zhanyan could easily guess that this was Chen Xian’s boyfriend. Wu Bie didn’t want anyone knowing about their relationship and he usually didn’t get along with Chen Xian’s boyfriend so he would hate to get caught by him.
Huo Zhanyan blinked innocently, glancing back and forth between Wu Bie and the guy. “Are you guys getting on or not?”
Wu Bie’s brain froze for a moment; he had no idea what Huo Zhanyan was trying to do.
Then Huo Zhanyan suddenly muttered, “If you’re not getting on, why did you press the button?”
At this, Wu Bie’s rusty brain finally started working again. He quickly followed up on Huo Zhanyan’s words. “Getting on! Getting on!”
With that, Wu Bie shuffled into the elevator in his slippers, took a deep breath, and turned to Shen Jixue with a righteous expression. “Aren’t you getting on?”
Shen Jixue felt something was off but couldn’t quite pinpoint what it was. He glanced at Wu Bie before silently stepping into the elevator.
In the cramped elevator, Huo Zhanyan and Wu Bie stood in opposite corners leaning against the walls, while Shen Jixue stood in the middle, back facing them. The boy seemed unfamiliar, and after thinking for a while, Shen Jixue confirmed that he had never seen him before.
At that moment, the boy suddenly spoke up, “You live on the same floor?”
Wu Bie was drenched in sweat, unsure what new trick Huo Zhanyan was about to pull. He shot Huo Zhanyan a vicious glare, signaling for him to behave.
Out of courtesy, Shen Jixue turned around, “Yeah.”
The boy flashed a bright smile at Shen Jixue, extending his hand, “I live upstairs, just moved in. My name’s Huo Zhanyan.”
Damn it!
Wu Bie screamed inside. What was this kid trying to do?! Couldn’t he just keep quiet? Did he really need to add unnecessary details?
Shen Jixue maintained his composure, glancing Huo Zhanyan up and down before shaking his hand. “Shen Jixue.”
Huo Zhanyan, bold as ever, after shaking Shen Jixue’s hand, extended his hand toward Wu Bie as well. Wu Bie was stuck — shaking hands felt wrong, but not shaking hands felt even worse. Under Shen Jixue’s watchful eyes, he had to keep up appearances.
“Wu Bie.”
Huo Zhanyan didn’t immediately release Wu Bie’s hand. His fingertips, finally satisfied, brushed against the veins on the back of Wu Bie’s hand. Wu Bie’s hand was a bit rough, with pronounced knuckles, clearly from doing manual labor regularly.
“You guys heading downstairs for breakfast?”
Huo Zhanyan acted as if they were long-time neighbors. Seeing this was a new neighbor, Shen Jixue still responded politely, “I’m going downstairs to buy breakfast.” As he spoke, he looked at Wu Bie, wondering what Wu Bie was doing up so early on a weekend.
Wu Bie wanted to strangle Huo Zhanyan. He tried to pull his hand away from Huo Zhanyan’s grasp but couldn’t move too obviously under Shen Jixue’s watchful gaze. He forced a smile.
“I’m going to buy cigarettes.”
Shen Jixue looked at him disapprovingly. “Didn’t Chen Xian just buy you a pack last night? Is your addiction that bad? Chen Xian got into smoking because of you.”
“What’s your problem? Every guy on the ship smokes.”
Late-night shifts on the ship required smoking to stay awake. Most of the older men on the ship were heavy smokers, easily going through two packs a day.
At this point, only arguing with Shen Jixue could calm Wu Bie down.
As the elevator reached the first floor, Huo Zhanyan finally, though reluctantly, released Wu Bie’s hand. The security guard at the side entrance had already changed shifts. As Huo Zhanyan stepped outside, he breathed a sigh of relief.
“I’ll go buy breakfast now,” Shen Jixue pointed politely to a breakfast stall in the distance.
Huo Zhanyan enthusiastically waved goodbye, “Bye-bye.”
Shen Jixue didn’t bother with Wu Bie and turned to leave. From behind, Wu Bie scoffed, “Tch.”
Once Shen Jixue had walked far enough, Wu Bie backed up to a large tree where Shen Jixue was completely out of sight. Only then did he explode in anger at Huo Zhanyan.
“What the hell is wrong with you? What nonsense were you spouting?”
Huo Zhanyan didn’t think he had said anything wrong. Every detail had been executed perfectly, giving Shen Jixue the impression that he was just a new neighbor upstairs. Wasn’t he helping Wu Bie?
“If I didn’t say that, what if he didn’t believe me?”
Wu Bie was still furious but couldn’t think of a better excuse. Now that the tension had eased, he realized his back was drenched in sweat. Nothing good ever happened around Huo Zhanyan, and encountering Shen Jixue made things worse.
“Just get lost.” Wu Bie was too drained to deal with Huo Zhanyan anymore. He bought a pack of cigarettes from the convenience store next door and planned to go back to sleep.
Always being told to leave, Huo Zhanyan felt hurt. He asked cautiously, “I really can’t come find you anymore?”
“If you dare come to my house, I’ll beat you to a pulp. I don’t care if it’s a heavy rainstorm or if you’re running a fever. Even if it’s raining knives or if your leg’s broken, you’ll have to crawl out of my house.”
Leaving behind those harsh words, Wu Bie stormed through the side entrance of the apartment complex without looking back.
Huo Zhanyan gazed longingly at Wu Bie’s retreating figure. He couldn’t enter Wu Bie’s place, but if Wu Bie came to his, he wouldn’t have any objections. Turning his gaze toward the security booth, he walked over to inquire.
“Excuse me, are there still any units for sale above the seventh floor of Building Seven?”
The security guard, who dealt in real estate, immediately started chatting with Huo Zhanyan. But upon hearing that the prices were four to five million, Huo Zhanyan instantly deflated. He didn’t have that much money right now. He couldn’t ask his older brother for it, could he?
“Are there any places for rent?”
Suddenly switching from buying to renting confused the security guard for a moment, but he patiently explained, “There are rentals too. On the ninth floor of Building Seven, but I wouldn’t recommend renting in the lower floors — it’s expensive. Higher floors are much cheaper.”
“How much would the rent be?”
“It would be seventeen thousand a month.”
Seventeen thousand a month? Even renting for a year would be much cheaper than four or five million. There’s no need to ask his brother for help; he could manage the cost on his own. Huo Zhanyan didn’t think it was expensive—it was actually quite cost-effective, especially since it was close to Wu Bie. He quickly left his contact information with the guard.
Just as the rental agreement was settled, Huo Zhanyan hadn’t even had a chance to move in when he received some news—whether good or bad, he wasn’t sure: he could be discharged from the hospital.
On the day of his discharge, Liu Fei made a point to bring Huo Zhanting along to pick up Huo Zhanyan. In the car, Liu Fei gently asked for his opinion.
“Xiao Yan, do you want to take a break for a while and go back to school next semester, or do you want to take a year off altogether?”
His school wasn’t nearby, and leaving now meant being separated from Wu Bie, making their chances even slimmer. However, he had already delayed his studies for some time and didn’t want to continue putting it off. Huo Zhanyan wanted to have it all.
“I don’t need to rest. I can go back to school right now.”
Huo Zhanyan thought, with transportation being so advanced these days, whether by plane or high-speed train, it wouldn’t take much time to come back from school. If he wanted, he could see Wu Bie every weekend. It all depends on the effort.
Liu Fei was a little surprised, but since Huo Zhanyan had already decided, she didn’t say anything more. “Alright, I’ll have everything arranged for Monday.”
“I don’t want to drag it out,” Huo Zhanyan insisted. “Let’s make it the day after tomorrow. I’ll take care of some things tomorrow, and then I’ll leave.”
Although Wu Bie had blocked him on WeChat and hadn’t updated his video account, Huo Zhanyan found that their mutual follow status on the video app hadn’t been removed. As one of Wu Bie’s friends, he could still see when Wu Bie was online.
Huo Zhanyan thought, maybe Wu Bie had forgotten, or maybe Wu Bie had left him a way out. He didn’t want to push Wu Bie too hard, so he stayed quietly in Wu Bie’s friend list. As long as he could see Wu Bie online every day, he was happy and never dared to send a message, fearing that if he did, Wu Bie might cut off the last connection.
That night, as usual, Wu Bie was online. After much hesitation, Huo Zhanyan decided to message him. He was torn: should he send everything at once or bit by bit?
If he sent everything at once—a long message with several hundred words—he feared Wu Bie might block him without reading it. But if he sent multiple messages, Wu Bie might find him annoying and block him before he got to the point.
No matter what, it seemed like the outcome would be the same—getting blocked by Wu Bie. So, Huo Zhanyan stopped hesitating.
“Wu Bie.”
“I’m out of the hospital.”
The typing indicator appeared on the chat screen, but Wu Bie didn’t reply. Huo Zhanyan suddenly got nervous and quickly sent another message.
“Please don’t be mad. I just wanted to say goodbye. I’m heading back to school the day after tomorrow.”
Wu Bie was lying on his bed, aimlessly scrolling through videos on his phone. Back when he was on the boat, he didn’t have enough data to waste on videos, but now that he had Wi-Fi, he found them boring.
After swiping past a few videos of beautiful women, the algorithm stopped showing them and started feeding him videos of sailors. Working at sea is like that—when you’re out at sea, you miss home, but when you’re back on land, you start missing the ship.
Wu Bie rolled over, and suddenly noticed he had two unread messages. It wasn’t a like; he hadn’t posted any videos recently. His heart sank a little as he opened the messages—it was Huo Zhanyan, saying he had been discharged.
Maybe he should pretend he didn’t see it.
Wu Bie exited the message screen but soon clicked back in, debating whether to block Huo Zhanyan’s video account as well. But blocking him wouldn’t solve anything—after all, a video account isn’t like a WeChat account. Huo Zhanyan could easily create a new one and follow him again.
Just then, another message from Huo Zhanyan came in: “Please don’t be mad. I just wanted to say goodbye. I’m heading back to school the day after tomorrow.”
Well, that was good news. It meant they’d have fewer chances to meet. Wu Bie felt a sense of relief and replied, “Well, congratulations.”
The “typing” indicator appeared again. Just as Wu Bie was losing patience, another message popped up from Huo Zhanyan.
“Can we meet tomorrow? Just to say goodbye.”
“You promised that when you got back, you’d take me to the places I wanted to go.”
“Please, Wu Bie.”
Huo Zhanyan typed so fast that before Wu Bie could reply with a single word, he had already sent a bunch of messages.
Annoyed, Wu Bie tossed his phone onto the bed, lay back with his arm under his head, and closed his eyes. But within seconds, he suddenly opened them again and cursed, “What a nutcase.”