Blue Cocktail chapter 45
The sun was three poles high, and the sunlight was dazzling.
Cheng Shuo slowly sat up from the bed, feeling groggy and somewhat disoriented.
He sat quietly for a while, contemplating the events of the previous night. The coherent recollections stopped at the dressing room around ten o’clock, where he downed the blue cocktail in one gulp.
Beyond that point, the scenes abruptly shattered. Memory fragments flashed like a passing panorama—blurry, disordered, and even a bit ambiguous. His head swelled as if it were about to explode, and the boundary between dream and reality became indistinct.
He had drunk away parts of his memory.
His fingertips absentmindedly touched his lips, and Cheng Shuo hesitated, lifting the bedding to check for any suspicious marks on his body. To his surprise, there were none. It was as if to suggest that all the seemingly ambiguous moments in his memories were just a bizarre dream.
Silently, he dressed and opened the bedroom door.
On the dining table were bread, milk, and fried eggs, among other things. Lu Huaiqian was lazily leaning back in a wooden chair, smiling as he greeted Cheng Shuo, “You’re awake. Good morning—though it’s not really morning anymore. Just wait a moment, and I’ll warm up the breakfast for you.”
A few minutes later, the breakfast was steaming hot and placed in front of Cheng Shuo.
Taking the utensils handed to him, Cheng Shuo said, “Thank you.”
He lowered his eyelids, mechanically repeating the chewing motion. His gaze wandered aimlessly in the air, contemplating who knows what.
Seating himself across from Cheng Shuo, Lu Huaiqian took advantage of the situation, supporting his chin with one hand and smiling as if searching for topics, “How do you find my heart-shaped fried eggs?”
Cheng Shuo paused for a moment, then quickly replied, “Not bad.”
Perhaps it was this unprecedented, reluctantly positive feedback that boosted Lu Huaiqian’s confidence. He continued, discussing every item on the table, and pulled Cheng Shuo into meaningless small talk.
It wasn’t really a conversation because most of the time, Lu Huaiqian enthusiastically spoke while Cheng Shuo listened, occasionally offering a few words of agreement. On the other side, it was as if someone had injected Lu Huaiqian with chicken blood. He effortlessly extended into new topics, his thoughts running wild, reaching corners unknown.
By the end, Cheng Shuo found himself daydreaming. He took large bites of the bread, forcing it down, feeling somewhat choked. He drank the milk in silence, and his fingertips involuntarily tightened around the warm glass. Why didn’t Lu Huaiqian mention anything about last night? Did he genuinely believe that nothing happened, or did he consider it not worth mentioning?
Neither.
Lu Huaiqian just felt that Cheng Shuo, such a proud person, probably didn’t want others to know about his broken past. Childhood shortcomings were a lifelong regret, and unless time could be turned back, no comforting words could alleviate the pain. They would only sound feeble and inadequate, carrying a sense of pity from an outsider.
Bringing it up voluntarily would be like picking at old wounds. It was unnecessary. They could both play dumb about it if Cheng Shuo remembered.
After finishing the milk in one gulp, Cheng Shuo placed the slightly warm glass on the table. There was a subtle struggle in his eyes, and finally, he said, “I got drunk last night. Thank you for letting me stay overnight.”
Lu Huaiqian raised his eyebrows and smiled, “Do we still need to be so polite with each other?”
Cheng Shuo smiled back, a response that lacked a smile in his eyes.
Sometimes, he couldn’t help but suspect that Lu Huaiqian might be a kind of tapeworm in his stomach—a talkative species. Otherwise, how could he talk so much and always manage to skillfully avoid what Cheng Shuo wanted to know?
Not only this time but also during the incident with the brooch.
Silently twisting his fingertips, he seemed to be secretly challenging himself. After a while, he asked, “Last night, did I do anything inappropriate or disturb you?”
At these words, Lu Huaiqian slightly narrowed his eyes but continued to smile, “Don’t remember?”
Cheng Shuo had a plan and ambiguously replied, “I remember a little.”
“What do you remember?”
After a moment of contemplation, Cheng Shuo was about to provide an answer. At the last moment, he suddenly realized that the initiative of the conversation was about to slip back into Lu Huaiqian’s hands.
He changed his response on the spot, following Lu Huaiqian’s lead, and replied with a question, “What do you hope I remember?”
The smile in Lu Huaiqian’s eyes seemed to deepen. He lowered his gaze for a few seconds and then looked into Cheng Shuo’s eyes, saying, “Honestly, I hope you remember everything even the cheek kiss you gave me.”
Cheng Shuo was taken aback.
So… it wasn’t a dream. He pursed his lips.
“Judging by your expression, it seems you still remember,” Lu Huaiqian remarked.
Cheng Shuo evaded the question, “Since you’ve had experience studying abroad, you should know that friends can express affection through kisses. It’s just that this way is rarely seen in China.”
Lu Huaiqian clicked his tongue, “Why not call it a cheeky greeting?”
Cheng Shuo scoffed lightly, “It’s not what you said. A cheeky greeting doesn’t actually touch the other person’s cheek.”
Lu Huaiqian nodded, “Hmm, you indeed remember.”
Cheng Shuo seemed to choke for a moment, remaining silent for a while. “But I basically don’t remember what happened afterward.”
“As you touched the pillow, you fell asleep on my bedroom bed,” Lu Huaiqian said as if it were true, using a playful tone, “So, I had to obediently sleep on the floor next door.”
He concealed that lingering deep passionate kiss they shared.
It was precisely because of Cheng Shuo’s tacit approval of that deep kiss that he started to lose control, go crazy. He admitted that he almost did something wrong last night. He shouldn’t have entertained thoughts of the other person while Cheng Shuo wasn’t sober, even though Cheng Shuo willingly let him get him drunk.
Fortunately, he was pushed away in time, the moment his fingertips touched the edge of the other’s underwear.
Cheng Shuo exhaled gently. Nothing had happened, so the secret remained a secret. Their relationship seemed as usual, and he couldn’t decide whether he felt relieved or disappointed.
“However, haven’t you always thought that I rarely speak the truth?” Lu Huaiqian suddenly asked. “Just because I said it, do you really believe it?”
“If I say I don’t believe it, would you change your words?” Cheng Shuo answered before Lu Huaiqian could, “Like many times, people only believe what they want to believe. I’m no exception.”
Lu Huaiqian narrowed his eyes, “Is that so?”
As Cheng Shuo was about to reply, Lu Huaiqian preempted, “Then I must be quite talented, unexpectedly guessing the result you wanted.”
Cheng Shuo was taken aback and then chuckled dumbfoundedly.
Just as Lu Huaiqian was about to say something else, the ringtone of his phone suddenly rang. Glancing at the screen, it was Lu Huaixuan again?
His head suddenly started to ache.
It was almost lunchtime. Lu Huaiqian answered while involuntarily imagining Lu Huaixuan’s miserable fate in a little over an hour.
However, the first sentence from the other side was beyond his expectations, “Bro, I wanted to ask you about your 29th birthday party. Do you have any ideas?”
A few seconds later, Lu Huaixuan’s usually steady voice showed a hint of fluctuation, “You haven’t forgotten about your birthday next Saturday, have you?”
“Right, I forgot. There have been a lot of things lately, and I got busy and forgot,” Lu Huaiqian casually said.
Lu Huaixuan was already accustomed to it, “Mom asked me to arrange the venue, food, and so on. Do you have any ideas? As your younger brother, I’ll do my best to help you achieve them.”
Just as Lu Huaiqian was about to speak, the person on the other side seemed to intuitively say, “Except for canceling the deal we have about helping me with blind dates.”
“Well, do as you please. Do whatever you want.”
Lu Huaiqian thought for a moment and added, “I’ll invite some friends to come over, and the rest is up to you.”
“Bro, this is your birthday party.”
“Uh, you and Mom and Dad usually treat birthday parties as a means to expand your social circle, right? Sometimes even discussing a few business deals?”
“That’s right.”
“So, I’m not the focus. As a bar owner, they’re all trying to flatter you. They want to become strategic partners with you.”
The other side had to express their thoughts, and after listening, Lu Huaiqian readily agreed, concluding, “You can come whenever it’s convenient for you. I trust you to handle things, don’t work too hard. Hang up, bye.”
After the call ended, Lu Huaiqian looked at Cheng Shuo, “Next Saturday is my birthday party. Will you come?”