Chapter One Hundred and Forty: The Smitten Scoundrel Who Forgot His Friends
“Wait, what do you mean by ‘targeted’ and ‘troublemaker’? The last time I saw you was in the hospital…”
Xiao Yu felt completely lost by Chu Ge’s words. To be precise, he didn’t even understand the meaning of the individual phrases.
I-Interrogation?
Chu Ge cast his mind back and suddenly realized, “Ah right, you blacked out from the alcohol. Think back to the Saturday before the last, on the day before the Qingming Festival.”
Xiao Yu took out his phone to check his calendar. Today was Monday the twentieth, the second week of Yan Jin’s return to work. Last Monday was the day Xiao Yu should have reported in to YL but ended up postponing it because of his leftover tasks as Mr. Mystery.
As for the Saturday before the last…
“Ah, it’s the day of my class reunion.” Xiao Yu’s eyes widened in surprise. “You came to my class reunion? Are you also from F University?”
“No, I’m… the person Yan Jin arranged for to pick you up.” After thinking about it, Chu Ge chose not to broach the overly complicated events. He still wasn’t entirely sure of Xiao Yu’s identity; there could be problems if he revealed too much, so he hastily attributed everything to Yan Jin. “When I got there, you were already unconscious from the alcohol. Then, I dropped you off at Yan Jin’s place.”
“Ah, so you were the one who saved me!” Xiao Yu understood and fearfully said, “Good thing you came in time. My Senior spiked my drink and I blacked out. If you hadn’t come to save me, who knows what could have happened.”
The recent peaceful days had cleansed all of Xiao Yu’s worries after returning back to his human form, as if he’d gone back to his carefree life as a pet. However, the issue with Lin Zhou still pricked at his heart, causing him to panic.
“That Senior of yours…” Chu Ge paused and didn’t continue. He shouldn’t say too much, especially since the matter had yet to be entirely resolved.
“Yeah?” Xiao Yu pressed.
“Never mind. When I saw you lying on the sofa, I dragged you out.”
Chu Ge evaded the topic and ended the conversation.
The two of them fell into silence afterwards.
Chu Ge shifted uncomfortably. Grabbing his phone inside his pocket, he tried to come up with an excuse to leave so he could message Yan Jin.
The atmosphere felt extremely strange. Not only had their conversation not settled Chu Ge’s doubts, Chu Ge fearfully jumped to all kinds of conclusions as he connected the dots to the ring on Xiao Yu’s finger…
What is Yan Jin playing at? At least he should have said something beforehand.
Chu Ge grumbled internally, unconsciously scrunching his eyebrows.
“Well…”
Xiao Yu unexpectedly broke the silence first, awkwardly asking, “Then you probably don’t know that I’m Fishy right?”
“I know your name.” Chu Ge said without thinking. (T/N: Reminder that “Fishy” sounds like “Xiao Yu” in Chinese)
“I don’t mean my name, Xiao Yu. I’m Fishy. That Fishy.”
One moment went by without a reaction from Chu Ge. Then two.
He stared strangely at Xiao Yu. Xiao Yu awkwardly but honestly stared right back.
They looked at each other for a few more seconds. Xiao Yu helplessly emphasized, “Fishy, not Xiao Yu.” But Chu Ge still didn’t understand. His vacant look only lacked the three black question marks on his forehead from comics.
“They’re homophones,” Xiao Yu supplied.
“…Ah?” Chu Ge was still confused.
“Just as I said, they’re homophones…”
“Eh?” Chu Ge still didn’t get it.
“Ahh how should I explain? It’s me, it’s me!” Xiao Yu had no other choice. He faced down his shame to spell everything out clearly. “I’m the hamster Yan Jin raised. My cage was even bought by you.”
Chu Ge released the phone he’d been holding in his pocket, but he didn’t take his hands out.
From his overwhelming shock, he couldn’t do anything other than react in surprise.
The comically awkward silence persisted for another thirty seconds. In the end, the silence was broken by an utterly shocked “What the fuck?!”
Perhaps because of the higher pitch that Xiao Yu interpreted as doubt, Xiao Yu hurriedly added, “I’m really Fishy. After drinking alcohol, I can change back to a hamster – wait, it’ll take an hour though…”
“Nonono.” Chu Ge reached his hands out to stop Xiao Yu from getting alcohol and retracted them back to massage his temples.
Chu Ge wondered if he’d overdosed on Formalin and was hearing things.
His face seemed comically broken.
“In the beginning I thought it was like a fantasy novel too, but after I accepted it, it’s not so bad. If I don’t drink alcohol I’m just the same as a regular person,” Xiao Yu said lightly.
It’s not so easy to accept!
Ever since Chu Ge discovered the hamster could type words, his long-held world view of materialism had begun to collapse. Now, those views seemed to be a scene growing ever more distant.
“*Sigh*, it’s all Yan Jin’s fault for not telling you. I’m calling him right now to scold him.” Xiao Yu could sympathize greatly with Chu Ge’s plight, shifting all the blame to Yan Jin.
“Nonono, waitwaitwait.”
Chu Ge stopped Xiao Yu again. From his angle he couldn’t quite see Xiao Yu’s phone screen, but he could see that Xiao Yu’s finger was already pressed down. If he were a moment slower, the call would have gone out.
Chu Ge could practically see what would have happened after.
In summary, he couldn’t allow Xiao Yu to notify Yan Jin.
“I’ve been… traveling the past two weeks.” Chu Ge wiped the cold sweat off his forehead. “Probably Yan Jin didn’t want to disturb me from the goodness of his heart, so he didn’t tell me.”
“Oh, so it’s like that. No wonder.” Xiao Yu easily believed Chu Ge. “We only just formalized our relationship. Probably if you hadn’t visited today, Yan Jin would have told you everything in a few more days.”
“It would have been good, pretty good to know earlier.”
Chu Ge’s vision blurred and his mind still felt disconnected. Nevertheless, he still tried to find out more. “Speaking of which, didn’t I ask you before whether you were able to turn into a human? Didn’t you tell me you couldn’t? Did something else happen that I’m not aware of?”
“Haha, I didn’t know I could turn back either. After I woke up from my accident on March 5th, I had turned into a hamster. Even more interesting was that I discovered I’d gone back in time, and then…”
Xiao Yu recounted all his experiences to Chu Ge. Unlike with Yan Jin where it took an entire night, he only needed ten minutes since he didn’t have too much interaction with Chu Ge.
“… So it was like this.”
Only when Chu Ge heard those events he himself was involved in did he believe Xiao Yu’s real identity. With some difficulty, he accepted the principles behind Xiao Yu’s changing forms.
It wasn’t like he could decide between “this young man is mentally insane” or “I’m insane”.
“Basically, that’s pretty much it. I don’t really understand the finer details, but Yan Jin said he does. Apparently it comes with… some complex algebra and temporal theory or something. You can ask him if you want.”
Chu Ge laughed bitterly. Despite scoring very well in university in medical physics and higher mathematics, he had no interest whatsoever in delving deeper into the supernatural.
“Hey, sorry about last time in the hospital.” Chu Ge coughed embarrassedly. “I was a little emotional at the time. If I’d listened, things wouldn’t have turned out like they did.”
Although Xiao Yu didn’t directly talk about his hardships before he had found Yan Jin again, Chu Ge could roughly guess.
Unlike the Nan Family’s unambiguous aggression, the defining trait of the Yan Family was a blade from the dark. They operated without a trace and loved to manipulate others as their weapons.
It was all fine now since their target was incorrect, but they came very close to disaster.
If Yan Jin had brought this up directly with Chu Ge, Chu Ge reckoned that he might first laugh three times before helping him think of how to clean up the mess.
“Don’t worry about it; it’s in the past. I know you didn’t mean it.” Xiao Yu didn’t hold any grudges for it. Pausing for a moment, he emphasized, “It’s all Yan Jin’s fault. I’ll help you scold him.”
Anticipating his troubles were about to begin, Chu Ge began considering the possibility of actually vacationing overseas for two weeks.
With the conversation flowing steadily, Chu Ge felt less restrained than before, but he had even more he dared not say.
There wasn’t anything he could do about it. He had just come back from the corpse-filled interrogation room. His spirit still hadn’t left the darkness of that underworld, and he suddenly had to deal with a packed bundle of optimism. Looking at the foolishly giggling Xiao Yu, Chu Ge could sense even in his state how much Yan Jin protected and cared for Xiao Yu.
This sight, wasn’t it just too similar to that of the hamster separated from the concerns and struggles of a normal human?
Raising a living human as a pet, Yan Jin really was too talented.
Finally lowering his guard, Chu Ge lifted the teacup that he originally suspected Xiao Yu may have poisoned and drank a mouthful. Startled, Chu Ge realized the tea was actually made from Yan Jin’s treasured tea leaves. They weren’t available commercially. The last time Chu Ge had tasted that tea was when he’d helped Yan Jin negotiate on the black market several islands’ worth of profit. Chairman Yan had awarded him a little as if it were an equal trade.
Seeing Chu Ge stop after just one gulp, Xiao Yu thought Chu Ge didn’t like the taste and hurriedly apologized, “Sorry, I also think these tea leaves taste funny, but with Yan Jin not around, I don’t know where the other tea leaves might be.”
“No, it’s pretty good.” Chu Ge gave Xiao Yu a complicated look before draining the rest in one breath. “It really does taste pretty good to me. What brand is it?”
“It doesn’t say. Probably it’s just one of the normal ones. If you like it, take some with you. The bag is so large we could drink it for a year and still not finish.
Chu Ge laughed bitterly.
The bag is so large? Yan Jin previously only doled it out by the gram.
The slight bitter taste of the tea turned extremely sour.
He’d seen smitten scoundrels who forgot their friends, but Yan Jin was the most shameless of them all.
Crying internally, Chu Ge sourly indicated the pink diamond on Xiao Yu’s finger. The voice that left his mouth didn’t sound quite right. “So Yan Jin bought that for you too?”
Shyly, Xiao Yu withdrew his hand a little unconsciously and mumbled in assent.
“Then the two of you – the two of you are planning to get married?” Chu Ge nearly bit his tongue on the last two words.
“Yup. Do you think that because we’re both men…” Xiao Yu lowered his head, seeming extremely pitiful.
“Nope, I already knew Yan Jin preferred guys.”
In fact, he had only found out recently.
Yan Jin really hid his secrets too well. If he hadn’t accidentally come across Yan Jin’s close confidant, he reckoned he’d be in the dark for a lot longer.
Actually, one reason he had come that day was to confirm the truth with Yan Jin, but now it no longer appeared necessary.
“Oh? That’s really good then.”
Chu Ge’s reassurance heartened Xiao Yu, who began speaking much more animatedly.
“In fact, I thought we’d moved too quickly too. Do you think so? Especially since we’re both men. And…” In relief, Xiao Yu long-windedly spilled all his disorganized thoughts.
Chu Ge’s expression grew more complicated. He didn’t know whether he wanted to scold Yan Jin for bringing disaster on someone so adorable or to make fun of him for courting someone who used to be his pet. His shamelessness had already far exceeded that of a bestiality play.
In more abstract terms, after being exposed to so much lovey-dovey, the single Chu Ge felt somewhat moody.
In the next instant, Chu Ge distantly realized why Yan Jin had forgotten to inform him of such an important matter. Aside from Chu Ge objectively being hard to get a hold of recently, Chairman Yan had only cared about blissfully spending time with his fiance. He probably had completely forgotten about any other tasks or people.
Haha.
……
That night, Yan Jin received a letter before he left the office.
It was the kind that had a postage stamp on it.
In this age dominated by the Internet, receiving a letter was really hard to understand. However, there was a portrait of a cute hamster on it, so Chairman Yan gave it the benefit of the doubt and opened it.
Respectful greetings,
To the smitten scoundrel who forgot his friends:
I’m vacationing overseas. Goodbye.
Yan Jin: ???
