How boring. This is Tao Ling’s first thought.
Taps open. This is Tao Ling’s first reaction.
The post consisted of a very very long writing of complaint. But after skimming through it, there was in fact nothing significant mentioned. If you were to wipe off the all kinds of expressions of anger and disappointment, then the whole thing could be summarized into one sentence——
Wen Qingying is a scum.
Someone immediately followed on the second floor: “Hurry up, OP. We will sue you if you don’t show us the evidence. Or is it that you’re pretending to be a girl, seeing that our boss gege is more popular than you and so decided to take revenge on him?”
OP: “Bear with me please, I just had to vent my anger for a moment. I also wanted to give some time for the fan club to prepare themselves mentally for what’s coming. Why would I say something so wild if I didn’t have pictures?”
Fan… club?
“…”
After being urged by several floors in a row, the pictures were posted at last; it was still the flower shop. Wen Qingying was standing by the entrance while a girl was rushing forward to embrace him.
The pictures were taken in one sitting. As such, the process of the hug could be seen perfectly by connecting the five to six pictures together.
The last picture showed Wen Qingying hugging the girl. He bent his waist slightly to adjust to the girl’s height, a gesture in which pamper could be visibly seen. Although the girl’s back was faced to the camera, Tao Ling could tell with just a glance that the girl isn’t Wen Qingying’s elder sister.
Because this one has short hair.
The few familiar IDs among the floors had exploded already. After a while of blabbering, someone asked: “Calm yourselves a little. Did the pretty girl from before cut her hair?”
Someone below replied: “Don’t act like you’re blind. How can you mistake a big sister for a loli?”
As if caught in a farce, the 48th floor said: “I’m announcing that the fan club is to be shut down. We four sisters should go back to our own families and find our moms. A playboy doesn’t deserve our time.”
49th floor: “Wuwuwu, no wonder he didn’t open the shop on Saturday either. He must have been on a date. Damn it, I’m so heartbroken.”
Reading this, Tao Ling was stopped in his tracks. So apparently the flower shop didn’t also open on Saturday?
But Tao Jun’s death anniversary was also on Saturday. They went to the cemetery and returned home together; Wen Qingying had clearly opened the shop in the afternoon.
Next, he looked towards the bottom. The 50th floor said: “He’s so handsome though. Can I just be a facecon and not look at his character?”
51st floor: “Ptui! You don’t have any moral values! A simp will never have a house [to collapse]!”
[This is a Chinese slang within the entertainment industry. “塌房” is used when someone, typically a celebrity, whom you’re a fan of gets into a scandal and so you are left with a house that has fallen apart. It’s also sometimes used with dramas, shows, novels, etc.]
52nd floor: “Let me say some words of justice. Since your handsome guy is already standing on two boats at once, then I don’t mind being the third one.”
53rd floor: “I knew it, it’s you again, the floor above. Are you even still hiding in the closet? Damned gay!”
The post was new. As such, the floors were not stacked up very high yet. Tao Ling finished reading every single of them and swiped up again to examine those pictures carefully.
He had to admit that Wen Qingying’s temperament was very special. The manliness and youthfulness harmonized perfectly with one another, and this bit would become most apparent when he is intimate around girls.
The girl was petite, thus even though she was standing on her tiptoes, she became even tinier in his embrace. His large, manly hand was placed on her back. A type of indescribable charm could be seen in this action.
When the picture was zoomed in, Tao Ling could see that Wen Qingying was also smiling. He could see his eyeteeth without the slightest amount of effort.
The one from before was his elder sister. This one couldn’t possibly be his little sister, right?
Tao Ling raised a smirk, sneering at himself. Right, Wen Qingying said that he didn’t want him to misunderstand—to misunderstand that he was standing on two boats at once, that’s all. It had nothing to do with whether he was single or not.
Besides, there was actually no need for Wen Qingying to clarify his dating situation with him.
Tao Ling didn’t dwell on the post. His stomach was aching very badly. The medicine that went down his throat seemed to have disappeared without a trace.
There was no use, no sense of responsibility.
He threw his phone, took off his glasses, and faced towards the backrest, curling himself even harder.
For the following half of the week, Tao Ling refrained from stopping off at the flower shop. Instead, he would only greet Wen Qingying every day when he passed by. Other than that, Tao Ling did not have any interactions with Wen Qingying.
This type of condition lasted until Thursday afternoon.
When he passed by the flower shop after getting off work, there was no one inside the shop. Wen Qingying was standing at the entrance. Tao Ling waved his hand and was about to leave when Wen Qingying’s long pair of legs suddenly strode a couple of steps before him. He turned around and stood in front of him.
“What’s wrong?” Tao Ling asked as he looked up.
Wen Qingying pursed his lips, raising his phone to his eyes. On it were words that have been written in advance: “Mister, are the hoary stocks still blooming well? The petals of these flowers are easy to fall off.”
Tao Ling took out his phone to reply: “They are withering, a lot of petals have fallen onto the table.” He originally wanted to say basin instead.
Wen Qingying asked again: “Has mister been very busy lately?”
Tao Ling lowered his eyes, he knew that his own deliberate actions got noticed by the other party. Nevertheless, he typed with a calm face: “Yeah, I have been working overtime.”
Wen Qingying formed an “oh” mouth shape and nodded.
After a moment of silence, Tao Ling typed: “Should I get going then?”
It seemed like Wen Qingying had something else to say. As such, Tao Ling waited patiently for him. After a long time of no movement, in the end, he received another question: “Can I still attend mister’s class tomorrow?”
Tao Ling was caught off guard, suddenly feeling that this “reasonless” estrangement of his had crossed the line.
Wen Qingying is very sharp-witted. This isn’t the first time he has seen through his behavior. The hustle that Tao Ling had put on for these past few days had become noticeable in his eyes. Perhaps this caused him to think that he had done something wrong.
In order to clear up the misunderstanding, Tao Ling answered: “Of course you can.”
Wen Qingying raised a smile. However, it did not look as cheerful as before; only half of his eyeteeth could be miserably seen.
Tao Ling sighed to himself, lowering his head to type again: “Don’t ask me such questions. You are free to listen to my classes if you want to. If not, then it also doesn’t matter.”
It would have been better if he hadn’t said these words. The moment he read them, Wen Qingying became agitated. He made a few hand gestures before suddenly realizing that Tao Ling did not know sign language. As such, he could only resume typing: “Mister, I don’t dislike listening to your classes. No matter when, I will still attend them. I like your teaching very much, really.”
Tao Ling thought, you’re a pretty studious person then. He spread a simple smile on his face and waved his hand.
Wen Qingying stood there as he watched him walk away.
On Friday night, Tao Ling barely made it to school on time. While he inserted the USB drive, he raised his head and swept a glance around the room. Wen Qingying wasn’t here yet.
In the past two weeks, though, he could spot him just by raising his head.
It was only until he said “let’s begin our class” that Wen Qingying rolled in from the back door and sat down on the seat beside him.
Tao Ling’s mind fell calm all of a sudden.
It was the third week of the class, and the number of people was noticeably decreasing. Tao Ling knew that a lot of people came to the previous two classes solely to sit back and eat popcorn, but he didn’t mind it much.
Seeing that Wen Qingying had already gotten himself prepared, he cleared his throat and opened the slides presentation. “Today, we will pick up from where we left off on the topic from the last session and dive deeper into self-religion and religious groups…”
After class, two girls came over to ask him a few questions. During this time, Tao Ling had to restrain himself from lifting his head, for he was afraid that Wen Qingying was waiting for him.
And that he wasn’t waiting for him either.
He could tell that the students had taken the class very seriously. Although the questions that they asked were not especially deep, they were still very essential and relevant. As such, their discussion was a little long.
By the time he finished answering them, the charlady had already entered the room with a bucket in her hands. Tao Ling bowed and smiled towards her, and then raised his gaze.
The classroom was completely empty.
Tao Ling couldn’t describe what he felt in that instant; he did not want to think about it either. As always, he simply got off the podium and walked towards the back door.
But as soon as he got out of the classroom, he saw a person standing by the handrail nearby.
Outside of this classroom is a short corridor. The end of the corridor is faced towards a small pond in which water lilies are planted. Wen Qingying was leaning against the handrail, looking down at the pond below the lighting. However, his head was facing slightly towards the other side of the classroom.
When he caught sight of Tao Ling through the corner of his eyes, he slowly straightened up his body and shot him a smile.
The lights of the ceiling of the corridor were rather dim; leastwise they were not as bright as the street lamps outside. Tao Ling nevertheless was already able to see clearly that face, as well as that pair of eyes.
When Wen Qingying walked up to him, Tao Ling suddenly felt as though he was about to lose his breath.
The scene was the same as that from two weeks ago, they both got down the stairs together, exited the graduate school, and slowly walked past the other half of the campus as they headed towards the west gate.
When they reached the flower shop entrance, Tao Ling stopped his steps out of habit. Wen Qingying, however, did not seem to plan on entering the shop.
As they approached the neighborhood, Tao Ling finally couldn’t resist typing: “Do you have any questions you want to ask today?”
Wen Qingying shook his head, then nodded right afterward.
Under the light poured by the street lamp, seeing that Tao Ling was furrowing his eyebrows, he took out his phone as well: “I feel that mister is a little tired right now, so it’s better to save them for another time. Is that fine with you?”
Tao Ling had no idea what face he ought to make. After contemplating for a moment, in the end, he simply nodded and pointed towards the neighborhood gate, suggesting that it was time for him to leave.
Wen Qingying stuck his index finger up. Tao Ling was guessing that he was asking for one minute more.
He therefore waited for another moment. Wen Qingying soon raised his phone to him, on it was written: “Mister, I want to visit my mom tomorrow. Are you planning on visiting your brother too?”
How boring. This is Tao Ling’s first thought.
Taps open. This is Tao Ling’s first reaction.
The post consisted of a very very long writing of complaint. But after skimming through it, there was in fact nothing significant mentioned. If you were to wipe off the all kinds of expressions of anger and disappointment, then the whole thing could be summarized into one sentence——
Wen Qingying is a scum.
Someone immediately followed on the second floor: “Hurry up, OP. We will sue you if you don’t show us the evidence. Or is it that you’re pretending to be a girl, seeing that our boss gege is more popular than you and so decided to take revenge on him?”
OP: “Bear with me please, I just had to vent my anger for a moment. I also wanted to give some time for the fan club to prepare themselves mentally for what’s coming. Why would I say something so wild if I didn’t have pictures?”
Fan… club?
“…”
After being urged by several floors in a row, the pictures were posted at last; it was still the flower shop. Wen Qingying was standing by the entrance while a girl was rushing forward to embrace him.
The pictures were taken in one sitting. As such, the process of the hug could be seen perfectly by connecting the five to six pictures together.
The last picture showed Wen Qingying hugging the girl. He bent his waist slightly to adjust to the girl’s height, a gesture in which pamper could be visibly seen. Although the girl’s back was faced to the camera, Tao Ling could tell with just a glance that the girl isn’t Wen Qingying’s elder sister.
Because this one has short hair.
The few familiar IDs among the floors had exploded already. After a while of blabbering, someone asked: “Calm yourselves a little. Did the pretty girl from before cut her hair?”
Someone below replied: “Don’t act like you’re blind. How can you mistake a big sister for a loli?”
As if caught in a farce, the 48th floor said: “I’m announcing that the fan club is to be shut down. We four sisters should go back to our own families and find our moms. A playboy doesn’t deserve our time.”
49th floor: “Wuwuwu, no wonder he didn’t open the shop on Saturday either. He must have been on a date. Damn it, I’m so heartbroken.”
Reading this, Tao Ling was stopped in his tracks. So apparently the flower shop didn’t also open on Saturday?
But Tao Jun’s death anniversary was also on Saturday. They went to the cemetery and returned home together; Wen Qingying had clearly opened the shop in the afternoon.
Next, he looked towards the bottom. The 50th floor said: “He’s so handsome though. Can I just be a facecon and not look at his character?”
51st floor: “Ptui! You don’t have any moral values! A simp will never have a house [to collapse]!”
[This is a Chinese slang within the entertainment industry. “塌房” is used when someone, typically a celebrity, whom you’re a fan of gets into a scandal and so you are left with a house that has fallen apart. It’s also sometimes used with dramas, shows, novels, etc.]
52nd floor: “Let me say some words of justice. Since your handsome guy is already standing on two boats at once, then I don’t mind being the third one.”
53rd floor: “I knew it, it’s you again, the floor above. Are you even still hiding in the closet? Damned gay!”
The post was new. As such, the floors were not stacked up very high yet. Tao Ling finished reading every single of them and swiped up again to examine those pictures carefully.
He had to admit that Wen Qingying’s temperament was very special. The manliness and youthfulness harmonized perfectly with one another, and this bit would become most apparent when he is intimate around girls.
The girl was petite, thus even though she was standing on her tiptoes, she became even tinier in his embrace. His large, manly hand was placed on her back. A type of indescribable charm could be seen in this action.
When the picture was zoomed in, Tao Ling could see that Wen Qingying was also smiling. He could see his eyeteeth without the slightest amount of effort.
The one from before was his elder sister. This one couldn’t possibly be his little sister, right?
Tao Ling raised a smirk, sneering at himself. Right, Wen Qingying said that he didn’t want him to misunderstand—to misunderstand that he was standing on two boats at once, that’s all. It had nothing to do with whether he was single or not.
Besides, there was actually no need for Wen Qingying to clarify his dating situation with him.
Tao Ling didn’t dwell on the post. His stomach was aching very badly. The medicine that went down his throat seemed to have disappeared without a trace.
There was no use, no sense of responsibility.
He threw his phone, took off his glasses, and faced towards the backrest, curling himself even harder.
For the following half of the week, Tao Ling refrained from stopping off at the flower shop. Instead, he would only greet Wen Qingying every day when he passed by. Other than that, Tao Ling did not have any interactions with Wen Qingying.
This type of condition lasted until Thursday afternoon.
When he passed by the flower shop after getting off work, there was no one inside the shop. Wen Qingying was standing at the entrance. Tao Ling waved his hand and was about to leave when Wen Qingying’s long pair of legs suddenly strode a couple of steps before him. He turned around and stood in front of him.
“What’s wrong?” Tao Ling asked as he looked up.
Wen Qingying pursed his lips, raising his phone to his eyes. On it were words that have been written in advance: “Mister, are the hoary stocks still blooming well? The petals of these flowers are easy to fall off.”
Tao Ling took out his phone to reply: “They are withering, a lot of petals have fallen onto the table.” He originally wanted to say basin instead.
Wen Qingying asked again: “Has mister been very busy lately?”
Tao Ling lowered his eyes, he knew that his own deliberate actions got noticed by the other party. Nevertheless, he typed with a calm face: “Yeah, I have been working overtime.”
Wen Qingying formed an “oh” mouth shape and nodded.
After a moment of silence, Tao Ling typed: “Should I get going then?”
It seemed like Wen Qingying had something else to say. As such, Tao Ling waited patiently for him. After a long time of no movement, in the end, he received another question: “Can I still attend mister’s class tomorrow?”
Tao Ling was caught off guard, suddenly feeling that this “reasonless” estrangement of his had crossed the line.
Wen Qingying is very sharp-witted. This isn’t the first time he has seen through his behavior. The hustle that Tao Ling had put on for these past few days had become noticeable in his eyes. Perhaps this caused him to think that he had done something wrong.
In order to clear up the misunderstanding, Tao Ling answered: “Of course you can.”
Wen Qingying raised a smile. However, it did not look as cheerful as before; only half of his eyeteeth could be miserably seen.
Tao Ling sighed to himself, lowering his head to type again: “Don’t ask me such questions. You are free to listen to my classes if you want to. If not, then it also doesn’t matter.”
It would have been better if he hadn’t said these words. The moment he read them, Wen Qingying became agitated. He made a few hand gestures before suddenly realizing that Tao Ling did not know sign language. As such, he could only resume typing: “Mister, I don’t dislike listening to your classes. No matter when, I will still attend them. I like your teaching very much, really.”
Tao Ling thought, you’re a pretty studious person then. He spread a simple smile on his face and waved his hand.
Wen Qingying stood there as he watched him walk away.
On Friday night, Tao Ling barely made it to school on time. While he inserted the USB drive, he raised his head and swept a glance around the room. Wen Qingying wasn’t here yet.
In the past two weeks, though, he could spot him just by raising his head.
It was only until he said “let’s begin our class” that Wen Qingying rolled in from the back door and sat down on the seat beside him.
Tao Ling’s mind fell calm all of a sudden.
It was the third week of the class, and the number of people was noticeably decreasing. Tao Ling knew that a lot of people came to the previous two classes solely to sit back and eat popcorn, but he didn’t mind it much.
Seeing that Wen Qingying had already gotten himself prepared, he cleared his throat and opened the slides presentation. “Today, we will pick up from where we left off on the topic from the last session and dive deeper into self-religion and religious groups…”
After class, two girls came over to ask him a few questions. During this time, Tao Ling had to restrain himself from lifting his head, for he was afraid that Wen Qingying was waiting for him.
And that he wasn’t waiting for him either.
He could tell that the students had taken the class very seriously. Although the questions that they asked were not especially deep, they were still very essential and relevant. As such, their discussion was a little long.
By the time he finished answering them, the charlady had already entered the room with a bucket in her hands. Tao Ling bowed and smiled towards her, and then raised his gaze.
The classroom was completely empty.
Tao Ling couldn’t describe what he felt in that instant; he did not want to think about it either. As always, he simply got off the podium and walked towards the back door.
But as soon as he got out of the classroom, he saw a person standing by the handrail nearby.
Outside of this classroom is a short corridor. The end of the corridor is faced towards a small pond in which water lilies are planted. Wen Qingying was leaning against the handrail, looking down at the pond below the lighting. However, his head was facing slightly towards the other side of the classroom.
When he caught sight of Tao Ling through the corner of his eyes, he slowly straightened up his body and shot him a smile.
The lights of the ceiling of the corridor were rather dim; leastwise they were not as bright as the street lamps outside. Tao Ling nevertheless was already able to see clearly that face, as well as that pair of eyes.
When Wen Qingying walked up to him, Tao Ling suddenly felt as though he was about to lose his breath.
The scene was the same as that from two weeks ago, they both got down the stairs together, exited the graduate school, and slowly walked past the other half of the campus as they headed towards the west gate.
When they reached the flower shop entrance, Tao Ling stopped his steps out of habit. Wen Qingying, however, did not seem to plan on entering the shop.
As they approached the neighborhood, Tao Ling finally couldn’t resist typing: “Do you have any questions you want to ask today?”
Wen Qingying shook his head, then nodded right afterward.
Under the light poured by the street lamp, seeing that Tao Ling was furrowing his eyebrows, he took out his phone as well: “I feel that mister is a little tired right now, so it’s better to save them for another time. Is that fine with you?”
Tao Ling had no idea what face he ought to make. After contemplating for a moment, in the end, he simply nodded and pointed towards the neighborhood gate, suggesting that it was time for him to leave.
Wen Qingying stuck his index finger up. Tao Ling was guessing that he was asking for one minute more.
He therefore waited for another moment. Wen Qingying soon raised his phone to him, on it was written: “Mister, I want to visit my mom tomorrow. Are you planning on visiting your brother too?”
