Seventh Year Of Separation chapter 1

Reunion on a Stormy Night

“Starting today, due to the impact of severe convective weather, our city will experience significant precipitation and intermittent high temperatures. We urge citizens to pay attention to avoiding rain and taking precautions for safe travels…”

Gu Jiahe lifted his head from in front of the shelves, glancing at the television on the convenience store wall.

It was going to rain again. Relentless.

The electronic clock on the wall had jumped to 10:30 PM. Gu Jiahe rubbed his sore shoulders, casually grabbed a bottle of beverage from the shelf, and walked to the cashier.

“Eight point five.” The cashier held the scanning gun, indicating Gu Jiahe to make the payment.

“Damn, so expensive.” Gu Jiahe muttered under his breath, then looked up, smiled at the cashier, and said, “I’ll grab a different one.”

The cashier seemed a bit impatient, handed him the can, and continued staring at the television with folded arms.

Half a minute later, Gu Jiahe picked a three-yuan cola, returned to the cashier, and prepared to check out.

The can had ice water stains on the outside, slipped in his hand, and with a clatter, it fell to the ground.

The can rolled two meters away, sliding into a gap on the opposite side of the shelf.

Gu Jiahe hurriedly walked over, crouched down, and reached out to retrieve the can. After a futile attempt, he had to bend down and lie on the floor.

Just as he was about to reach for the can, he raised his eyes and saw a pair of black men’s shoes on the opposite side of the shelf.

The next second, a pair of slender hands picked up the cola can.

Gu Jiahe quickly stood up, reaching his hand over the shelf, and said, “Thank you…”

He hadn’t finished saying a word when he froze.

He stayed silent for a while, his mouth half-open, unable to close it.

No way. He shouldn’t be tired enough to see things, right?

Time seemed to freeze.

The man on the other side of the shelf also froze. His Adam’s apple rolled up and down, and after several seconds, he finally spoke.

“Long time no see, Gu Jiahe.”

Even though they hadn’t been in touch for many years, Gu Jiahe still remembered this voice. Now it sounded mature, with only a slight change.

“Long time no see.” Gu Jiahe took the cola can, and his fingers trembled uncontrollably.

He walked quickly to the cashier, scanned and paid.

The man followed behind him, seemingly not intending to leave.

Boom, boom, boom…

The weather changed suddenly in early summer.

It started pouring rain outside the convenience store, and the raindrops connected into sheets, shrouding the night street like mist.

“I’ll go first.” Gu Jiahe didn’t look at the man again, raised the cola can as a gesture, then pushed open the glass door of the convenience store and walked quickly into the rain.

The rain was too heavy. Even though there were umbrellas available next to the convenience store counter, Gu Jiahe was anxious to leave, and he even forgot about this option.

Countless questions echoed in his mind.

How could he appear here?

Was he also working here?

Gu Jiahe tightly held the cold cola can as he walked in the heavy rain. However, his mind kept flashing back to the appearance of that man.

He was dressed in a well-fitted light blue shirt and black trousers.

His hair seemed slightly shorter than before, and he presented himself in a neat manner.

Li Zhao, unexpectedly, Gu Jiahe encountered Li Zhao again after more than six years.

The rain intensified. Gu Jiahe, walking, felt a slip under his feet and almost fell into a puddle.

By the time he reached the entrance of the residential building, he was soaked from head to toe. Water from his hair flowed down his back, making him look extremely disheveled.

In this old and rundown residential area, the unit door was an old rusty iron door. Gu Jiahe searched his pockets and finally found the old yellow key.

As soon as he inserted the key into the lock of the unit door, a voice came from behind him.

“Gu Jiahe.”

The voice cut through the rain, sounding somewhat urgent and carrying an unsteady breath.

Gu Jiahe had never hated this old lock so much before; why was it so slow to open? After turning the key several times and finally opening the door, Li Zhao had already walked up behind him.

“You didn’t bring an umbrella. Why did you run so fast?”

Gu Jiahe had to turn around to face him, asking, “What are you doing here?”

Li Zhao did not answer; his eyes were fixed on the person in front of him, as if afraid he would run away again.

Gu Jiahe glanced away and looked to the side, speaking with a somewhat serious tone, “Stalking is illegal. You, being a law student, should know that, right?”

“Where did you go?” Li Zhao’s voice was muffled, as if rain had seeped into the soil.

“What do you mean, where did I go? I’ve been here all along.” Gu Jiahe opened the iron door, turned, and headed up the stairs.

Li Zhao closely followed behind him.

Gu Jiahe rented the attic on the top floor, and it took quite some time to climb from the first floor.

He took a step, and the person behind him took a step.

Gu Jiahe never turned back.

It wasn’t until they reached the top floor on the sixth floor that he took out the key and opened the wooden door to the attic. The person behind him still showed no intention of leaving.

Gu Jiahe entered the room, and as he tried to close the door, Li Zhao blocked it with his hand.

Gu Jiahe ignored him. Drenched all over, he didn’t immediately grab a towel to dry himself; instead, he lowered his head and pulled the tab of the cola can in his hand.

Crack —

After the bumpy journey, the cola eagerly rushed out of the bottle.

Gu Jiahe took a sip, but the liquid flowed out too quickly, causing him to choke. He lowered his head and coughed violently.

Li Zhao just watched him, tightly clenching his own palms.

Gu Jiahe coughed for about half a minute before stopping.

Li Zhao glanced around the room. “Do you live here?”

The old attic had only a small window, a narrow wooden bed against the innermost wall, and a dilapidated old wardrobe beside it.

The entire space was cramped and damp.

Gu Jiahe lowered his head, rubbing his dry eyes. “I need to rest. Please leave.”

Li Zhao clenched his fists and forcibly squeezed into the room.

Gu Jiahe didn’t understand his actions. “What are you doing?”

“I’m not leaving.”

Li Zhao approached step by step. The room was already small, and Li Zhao’s height was oppressive. In just a couple of steps, he cornered Gu Jiahe.

Gu Jiahe’s back was against the wall, and the man’s presence enveloped him. Human senses are always accompanied by strong memories. The familiar scent, the rain outside, seemed to throw him back into the summer of many years ago.

The distance between them was only two punches.

Gu Jiahe knew he should kick Li Zhao out. Running into his home like this wasn’t a rational act.

But for some reason, Gu Jiahe didn’t move.

His hands hung at his sides, and his knuckles were still dripping with water.

Li Zhao had a bit of new stubble on his chin, but he still looked clean.

His breath lightly brushed against the side of Gu Jiahe’s face. The smell, the tone of his voice, the texture of his skin—things he thought he had long forgotten suddenly rushed back.

After a while, Gu Jiahe lifted his head, forced a smile, and tried to cover his emotions with a teasing tone. “What’s the matter, Zhao ge, feeling lonely and came to revisit old memories with me?”

Li Zhao, who had managed to keep his composure, darkened at these words.

“Yes, it’s been too long since I touched you, and it’s been bothering me.”

His emphasis was on the words “bothering me,” causing a shiver in Gu Jiahe’s heart.

After many years, he had undergone a significant change in temperament. In Gu Jiahe’s memory, he had never seen Li Zhao lose his temper.

Gu Jiahe glanced at the dilapidated calendar on the wall, placed the cola can on the nearby cabinet, and reached out to touch the collar of Li Zhao’s neat shirt. In a fit of pique, he said, “Sure, I don’t mind sleeping with you once.”

His hands were wet, and water seeped into Li Zhao’s shirt collar, leaving a dirty stain.

Following his words, Li Zhao lifted Gu Jiahe’s soaked T-shirt.

“Give a finger, take the whole hand.”

…

Li Zhao’s lips were very warm, brushing against Gu Jiahe’s wet neck, shoulders, and collarbone.

But he deliberately avoided his lips.

Gu Jiahe gradually lost his balance and fell onto the small wooden bed that was less than five feet away.

A body that hadn’t experienced intimacy for a long time became stiff and difficult to explore. It wasn’t until half an hour later that they gradually reached a climax.

Outside the window, the rain subsided, and the intermittent sobbing and creaking of the wooden boards were the only sounds in the room.

After a night of rain, it finally stopped after an hour.

Li Zhao hugged Gu Jiahe’s sore waist, leaning his head between his back, his voice muffled. “Gu Jiahe…”

Enduring the pain, Gu Jiahe forced a smile, looking quite unpleasant. “I haven’t exercised much these years; It’ll do for sleep.”

His tone was mixed with a touch of sarcasm, not holding back. However, after he finished the last word, he accidentally kicked a certain area with his leg and made a painful “hiss” sound.

Li Zhao loosened his arm around him, and his tone softened a bit. “Does it hurt?”

Gu Jiahe didn’t answer. He hesitated for a moment and then turned around to continue facing away from Li Zhao.

“You’ve achieved your goal tonight, so you can leave.”

This was a statement, not an inquiry into Li Zhao’s opinion.

He heard the person behind him take a deep breath.

Li Zhao got up, walked to the adjacent small bathroom, and the floor creaked with his steps.

Later, the sound of water in the bathroom came gushing in.

In a short while, Li Zhao came out of the bathroom neatly dressed. In his hands, he held a basin of warm water and a steaming towel.

He sat on the edge of the bed, placing the warm towel on Gu Jiahe’s waist and abdomen. But he didn’t say a word.

“Go on, I’m tired,” Gu Jiahe didn’t touch the towel, nor did he look at Li Zhao. He just stared at a blurry point in the darkness.

“Gu Jiahe!” Li Zhao’s tone was a bit out of control, sounding somewhat impatient in this silent night. “Why the hell did you…”

“Why what?” Gu Jiahe sat up from the bed, with a face that showed no concern. “Now, you don’t need to know why for everything, right? We’re not taking exams or studying.”

Li Zhao was choked by this sentence, feeling a surge of anger. He tightly gripped the cola can, crushing it until it deformed, and even the joints made a sound.

Bang! He slammed the can into the trash bin.

He took a deep breath, struggled to control his emotions, lowered his eyelids, and avoided looking at him.

“Never mind.”

Gu Jiahe retreated back to the bed, covering his head with the blanket to hide his expression.

Li Zhao sat silently by the bed for two minutes, while Gu Jiahe hid under the blanket for two minutes.

It wasn’t until Gu Jiahe heard Li Zhao getting up, the bed creaking, followed by the sound of the door opening and gently closing.

Only then did he peek out from under the blanket, breathing heavily.

At this moment, the small attic fell into complete silence, as if dead.

This absurd night had finally come to an end.

Gu Jiahe, with his eyes wide open, stared at the damp window pane. He had just lied; he wasn’t sleepy at all.

He felt the house was too quiet. He reached under his pillow, grabbed a remote control, and turned on the only old television in the room.

The TV automatically tuned to the sports channel.

Left by the landlord for many years, the TV had poor quality, and the sound carried a slight crackling of electric current.

“The World Cup in Russia has recently opened. Let’s follow the reporter’s lens…”

Gu Jiahe shook his head, lost in a daze of time and space.

The 2010 World Cup in South Africa, they had argued over the teams they supported. In the end, they made up after a fierce fight. That was their usual way of resolving conflicts.

Little did he expect that years later, they would meet again, and it would end in such a ridiculous way.

Gu Jiahe’s gaze shifted from the TV screen to the wooden door that someone had closed. After exhaling, he fell into a long silence.

After a while, he retreated back under the blanket. He gently rubbed his fingertips, recalling a touch from moments ago.

In the inexplicable and silent lovemaking just now, at the moment when he was about to lose strength, Li Zhao clasped his fingers.

Then, he felt a mark on the middle joint of Li Zhao’s left ring finger, a mark resembling…

It looked a lot like the trace left by a ring worn for many years.