Blue Cocktail chapter 42

Lu Huaiqian’s arm still hung on Cheng Shuo’s left shoulder, with a smile that seemed both playful and nonchalant. His naturally hanging fingers swayed casually in the air, and Cheng Shuo’s gray-blue hair brushed back and forth across his chin with Lu Huaiqian’s slight movements.

There was a slight itch in Lu Huaiqian’s heart, and he couldn’t help but reach out and touch it. The feel was good, so he touched it a couple more times. Surprisingly, Cheng Shuo didn’t reject him, and he couldn’t help but touch it three more times.

“Don’t touch my hair.” Finally Cheng Shuo couldn’t take it anymore and pushed him away, stepping back to maintain social distance.

Lu Huaiqian’s arms suddenly empty, he had to slowly retract his hand, and there was a helpless smile on his lips. “Do you really hate people touching your hair?”

Cheng Shuo furrowed his brows. “When my head is touched, I feel like I’m being treated like a child.”

“But I think that’s your perspective. Physical actions are a way of expressing affection. There’s no rule that says head-patting is only for elders to younger ones. If you like, I can let you pat mine.”

Lu Huaiqian paused. “However, I’m currently in a standing position. Would it be a bit difficult for you? Do you need me to crouch down?”

“Lu Huaiqian!” Cheng Shuo interrupted him with a frown, a hint of killing intent in his tone.

Hearing this, Lu Huaiqian burst into laughter. He thought, “Okay, I accidentally provoked the little wildcat again.” He skillfully apologized, “I’m sorry, I couldn’t help but make a joke. But please rest assured, I’ll keep in mind. You don’t like your hair being rubbed.”

Cheng Shuo lightly sneered, “I hope your memory is slightly better than a goldfish.”

Lu Huaiqian laughed, “Thank you for your approval; I will do my best.”

Cheng Shuo squinted at him, a look not of disdain but open disbelief.

Seeing Cheng Shuo’s reaction, Lu Huaiqian laughed even more brilliantly, as if not being mischievous made him uncomfortable. Cheng Shuo helplessly pulled the corners of his mouth, the disdain in his eyes becoming more apparent. However, slowly, he followed the other’s lead and raised the corners of his eyes, thinking he might have been infected with something called “Lu Huaiqian.”

Perhaps his heartbeat and emotions were out of control at that moment. Just a second ago, he was still laughing, and now he couldn’t help but feel a sudden sadness. He hated the feeling of losing control, but he was powerless to change it.

Suddenly, he thought of something. Habitually lowering his gaze, he gathered his fingertips to the palm of his hand, pressed slightly, and his nails sank into the flesh. “But you still haven’t answered my previous question, Lu Huaiqian.”

“What question?” Lu Huaiqian continued to smile. “I’ve forgotten it a bit. Oh well, I indeed have a goldfish’s memory. I hope you won’t find me annoying and repeat it?”

Is it really forgotten or does he not want to answer?

Cheng Shuo looked up at him, still unable to see through Lu Huaiqian’s smile. He lowered his head again, tightened his fingertips, and, as if competing with himself, used a bit of force, burying his nails in his flesh. “Zhao Ge told me that you already have someone you like. So, why are you still going on a blind date?”

Lu Huaiqian clicked his tongue, “You can’t trust that big mouth Zhao Ge.”

Then he gave an explanation, “I’m going on blind dates for my younger brother. It’s just a formality because all the blind dates for my brother are with girls, but I like guys, so it’s completely useless.”

Cheng Shuo was surprised, “You can go on a blind date for someone else?”

Lu Huaiqian shook his head and sighed, “Why not? After all, I promised my brother. In return, he agreed to the conditions I proposed.”

Cheng Shuo uttered a sound, then asked, “What conditions?”

“Can’t you guess?”

“How could I guess about the exchange of interests between you and your brother?”

“Land use rights.”

Cheng Shuo suddenly froze.

“My brother, handsome and wealthy, never lacks people wanting to date him. They all say ‘establishing a family and career.’ His career is already established, and my parents are urging him to get married every day. He’s also filial, almost completely obedient to my parents’ requests. My parents arrange blind dates for him, he doesn’t want to go, but he doesn’t refuse either. So, he asked me to help him out.”

Cheng Shuo raised his head, looking blankly at Lu Huaiqian.

“In order to make him transfer the land use rights, I had to temporarily sell my time and personal freedom. He asked me to go on blind dates for him ten times,” Lu Huaiqian calculated, “now there are six times left. I thought of finishing it early this month, so I’ve been going frequently.”

The other’s explanation matched Zhao Ge’s mention of four times. Cheng Shuo nodded, “So, that’s how it is.”

He thought for a moment and asked, “According to reason, you’re older than your brother. Shouldn’t you be the one pressured by your parents to get married more?”

“Right, but my parents can’t control me.”

“I don’t want to go on blind dates myself. They can’t force me to go. So, they can only control my brother.”

Cheng Shuo chuckled and echoed, “My parents can’t control me either.”

But he belonged to a different level of being uncontrollable, or more precisely, he had never been controlled.

“Keep everything I told you a secret, especially don’t tell Zhao Ge. If you tell him today, tomorrow the whole bar will know that I’m going on blind dates for someone. It would damage my dignity and reputation as the boss?”

Cheng Shuo replied, “Understood.”

Lu Huaiqian bit his lip, wanting to say something more, but his phone rang.

He glanced at the phone screen and instantly wore an indescribable expression on his face. His features twisted slightly, “I’m afraid whenever I see a call from Lu Huaixuan.”

After complaining, he turned and walked towards a corner.

Cheng Shuo secretly enjoyed the sight from behind. Before he could laugh a few times, the person in his line of sight suddenly turned around, making a few lip shapes at him.

Okay, you’re reveling in my misfortune again.

Cheng Shuo shrugged, laughed even more, and replied—

What can you do to me?

Lu Huaiqian’s call lasted quite a while. Finally, when the call ended and he walked towards Cheng Shuo, he just passed him, and said he needed to go change the bartender’s uniform.

Zhao Ge was the first to return to the bar after Lu Huaiqian. He had left his post just now because he had diarrhea. Seeing Lu Huaiqian return from the blind date, he casually greeted and joked a few times, as usual, trying hard to make the other person feel uncomfortable and taking joy in it. Although he never won against Lu Huaiqian.

Cheng Shuo silently listened by the side. He rarely had the desire to interrupt when there were many people. He usually chose to be a listener.

Laughing, occasionally, some thoughts would flash through his mind. For example, it seemed like he had forgotten to ask something. Then he would suppress the thought without showing it; after all, it was not suitable to ask now, especially about who Lu Huaiqian liked.

Because impulsiveness requires special conditions, as he had told Lu Huaiqian a long time ago.

Customers gradually decreased around 9:30 p.m.

At this time, there were only thirty minutes left until Cheng Shuo finished work. After serving a cocktail to a guest, he returned to the bar and was stopped by Lu Huaiqian. “Cheng Shuo, do you want to have a cocktail? I’ll treat you to one.”

Out of the blue, a sentence without continuation, but the one asking was Lu Huaiqian, so it didn’t seem abrupt. Cheng Shuo didn’t answer directly but asked, “Why suddenly want to invite me for a drink?”

Lu Huaiqian raised his eyebrows, “Answering questions should follow the order, right? I think you should answer my question first, and then I’ll answer yours.”

“But I’m a bit worried. My tolerance for alcohol is not good. If I drink a cocktail and then ride my electric scooter home, I’m afraid I’ll collapse on the road.”

“Well, that makes sense. I didn’t consider it thoroughly.” Lu Huaiqian fell silent for a moment. “If you really get drunk, I can take you home, or you can sleep upstairs in the bar. If you trust me, and I remember correctly, today is Friday, and you don’t have classes tomorrow.”

Cheng Shuo’s eyes flickered slightly, teasing, “How is your memory sometimes good and sometimes bad?”

Lu Huaiqian pretended to be innocent, “I don’t know.”

“So if I refuse, will I still know your answer?”

“I think it’s hard to say. After all, you have to understand the feelings of someone being rejected. Maybe I’ll be upset for a while. When I’m upset, I probably won’t feel like talking.”

Cheng Shuo glanced at him askew, “Is it that exaggerated?”

“Is today the first day you’ve known me?” Lu Huaiqian looked innocent, “I’ve always been like this.”

After a brief silence.

“Okay, I agree.” Cheng Shuo lowered his gaze, “Now, can you tell me the answer?”

After a few seconds of silence, he furrowed his brow, “Don’t tell me you’ve forgotten the question again.”

“I haven’t forgotten. I’ve learned my lesson this time,” Lu Huaiqian smiled slightly, “But first, you need to witness the birth of this cocktail. It’ll only take three minutes. After this I’ll answer you.”

“You didn’t mention so many conditions just now.”

“So I’m adding them now.”

“Fine.”

Lu Huaiqian turned around, took a bottle, measuring cup, and glass from the liquor cabinet.

The bottle was covered in English, and Cheng Shuo couldn’t understand it, so he gave up.

The measuring cup was a silver metal double-ended instrument, shaped like an hourglass.

As for the glass.

Cheng Shuo gestured with his hand from a distance, grasped it, and it seemed to perfectly cover the entire glass. “Such a mini glass.”

“It’s called a shot glass. It’s designed for a quick drink.”

“I feel like it doesn’t hold much alcohol. I might not get drunk after finishing it.”

“That’s not necessarily true.”

Lu Huaiqian poured blue liquid into the glass. The liquid filled the bottom half-sphere shape of the glass, a deep, high-purity, high-saturation blue, crystal clear like an uncut sapphire. “This is blue kumquat juice. Do you think it resembles the color of the deep sea?”

Cheng Shuo replied, “I think it looks like the color of concentrated copper sulfate solution.”

Lu Huaiqian couldn’t help but laugh, “Are you allergic to romance?”

Cheng Shuo answered seriously, “Yes, and I’m a severe case.”

Lu Huaiqian chuckled at his response. He then added a colorless, transparent liquid to the glass. Instead of mixing, the two liquids formed distinct layers. When it reached two centimeters from the rim, he switched to a light blue liquid.

The glass finally showed a gradient from light blue, to colorless, and then to deep blue.

He picked up a dropper, “I’ll perform a magic trick for you. Absolutely do not blink.”

As soon as he spoke, a drop of milky white liqueur fell into the blue liquid. Gravity pulled it down to the colorless transparent layer, and the liqueur suspended in mid-air. It first expanded into a half-sphere, and as it diffused, it became even more transparent, reflecting a light blue hue from the surroundings. Many light blue threads slowly descended, landing at the boundary between deep blue and colorless.

Cheng Shuo widened his eyes, “It looks like… a jellyfish.”

Lu Huaiqian smiled and remained silent. He added a second drop of liqueur to the glass, causing the suspended “jellyfish” to sway slightly, as if it were truly floating in the deep sea.

“Is it beautiful?” Lu Huaiqian asked.

“It’s amazing.”

Cheng Shuo approached a bit, staring at the almost stationary jellyfish in the glass, its body suspended in the colorless transparent layer, with light blue tentacles, dreamlike.

“I’m  hesitating to drink it,” Cheng Shuo said after pondering for a few seconds. “At the moment the milky white liquid was dropped in, I felt like a captive plankton. Breaking free from the dropper’s seal, returning to the ocean, its compressed body finally able to expand freely.”

Lu Huaiqian laughed, the smile gradually spreading across his brows, eyes, and lips.

“The name of this cocktail is Deep Sea Jellyfish.”

“My impression of jellyfish is that they are beautiful and resilient plankton, with stinging tentacles but a soft interior. Most importantly, in the deep sea, they are free.”

Also, you are quite similar to it, he left out this half-sentence, only saying it in his heart.

Lu Huaiqian gazed at Cheng Shuo, his smile gradually deepening. “When we weren’t very familiar, if I were to offer you a cocktail, I thought you might misunderstand it as a malicious intention. You might think I spiked the drink, and you’d likely reject me, or superficially accept while secretly refusing.”

“But actually, from the moment I first saw you, I wanted to personally mix this Deep Sea Jellyfish cocktail for you.”