Chapter 43: Chapter 42 - As long as he ignored them, it was fine.

Edited by Divetus and Noks

The next day, Mo Nancheng gathered everyone to check out at 10:00 a.m.

All the people who had attended his birthday celebrations were very busy people. There were a few who had to rush back to Jincheng for business meetings.

Yi Ran yawned. “Cheng Ge, how about you guys go back first ba? I’ll sleep for a few more hours, and book my own flight back.”

“Get on the plane and sleep ba.” Mo Nancheng looked around. “Where’s your Ge?”

“Ah? I don’t know. You haven’t seen him?” asked Yi Ran. “He would never simply laze in bed.”

Yi Chen zipped up his suitcase and placed it by his feet before finally looking at the person in the bedroom.

The person inside was still sleeping. The air conditioner hadn’t been set too high, but he was completely wrapped up in his quilt, only revealing his face.

Even though he was drunk, he still slept with a well-mannered posture. The posture with which he had fallen asleep last night had been maintained up to now. However, due to this, one side of his hair had been crushed and had become a tragic sight to see.

Yi Chen dragged his suitcase and turned to exit the room.

However, after a moment, he turned back and tightly closed the living room curtains before leaving again.

“There he is!” Mo Nancheng was about to make a call when he saw the person that he was looking for step out of the elevator. “Let’s go ba. Give them the room card and they’ll do the rest.”

“Wait.”

Yi Chen’s hands were empty, with no sign of a room card in them.

He went to the front desk and said, “Add another day to Room 2311.”

The front desk receptionist was stunned but hastily nodded. “Alright.”

When Mo Nancheng heard this, he was surprised at first, but then pulled the man aside to quietly ask, “… What’s going on? You tossed that person around until they couldn’t even get up this morning?”

It took Yi Chen a moment to understand what Mo Nancheng’s “tossed around” meant. He replied, “I said it before, he’s just a friend.”

Yi Ran came up and asked, “What friend ah? Ge, why did you renew your room, are you staying another day? That’s great, I’m also very sleepy. Anyway, as there are exactly two bedrooms, you can let me freeload in one ba.”

“No, I’m leaving soon.” Having said that, Yi Chen went back to the front desk. “Deliver Chinese cuisine for lunch and dinner as scheduled. Ring the doorbell twice, if no one answers, just leave it.”

“Alright.”

“Send them a new set of bathrobes and towels.” Everything in a hotel was dirty, so each time they checked into one, they would directly ask the hotel for brand new items.

“Alright.”

“Don’t forget the fruit and dessert after the meals.”

“… Alright.”

Listening to this conversation as it went on for a while caused Yi Ran to feel more awake. He asked, “Cheng Ge, what the fuck… What’s going on ah?”

Mo Nancheng clicked his tongue and said, “What else could it be? There’s still someone sleeping in that room bei.”

Yi Ran adamantly refused. “Impossible.”

“I rarely deceive you.”

“…” Yi Ran was shocked. “Is this honestly true? Did you personally see it?”

Mo Nancheng replied, “I didn’t personally see it, but I heard it.”

Heard it?

This hotel’s soundproofing was so awesome, and yet you could still hear it??

It was still too early in the morning for Yi Ran to have so many bombs dropped onto his brain. He didn’t know which matter to be surprised about first.

“Did you recognize that person?”

“Didn’t recognize them.” Mo Nancheng said, “Last night, didn’t he go back into the nightclub ma? It’s most likely someone that he brought back from there.”

“No way ba. How could my Ge know someone in this tiny city’s nightclub…”

Yi Ran had only spoken half of the words he wanted to say before he came to a complete halt.

… Hold on.

Fuck, there really was someone.

——

Yu Yan never thought that there would be a day when he was woken up by his own stench.

This specific situation occurred because he had turned over while he was sleeping, and had then stuffed his face into the bed. The smell of alcohol on his body had accumulated throughout the night, and by this point, it could be regarded as a biohazard.

Fortunately for him, this time, his survival instinct acted up and led him to instantly sit up, along with practically sobering him up right away.

He had been awake for only two seconds, before he sank into a dumbfounded state again.

There were only three questions in his mind—Who am I? Where am I? What am I supposed to be doing?

It took him about ten seconds to solve the first question.

He had a terrible headache. He lifted his quilt, stood up, and surveyed his surroundings again.

He had gone to the classmate reunion yesterday, quarreled with Li Hang, and then drank with his classmates.

… And then what?

When the doorbell rang, he stopped thinking and opened the door first.

An attendant stood outside with a serving cart on hand. It had an exquisite meal on top of it. “Good afternoon, your lunch has arrived.”

Yu Yan stared at the serving cart for a few seconds, feeling extremely distressed.

As he thought about it, he could figure out what had happened. He had probably been drunk and confused last night and his classmates hadn’t known his address, so they had just moved him to a hotel.

Bringing the serving cart in, he sat on the sofa and looked around the room again, becoming more and more sure——

It must’ve been Li Hang who had brought him back.

Apart from Li Hang, he couldn’t think of anyone else who hated him so much that they would send him to a hotel where a room was worth at least four figures a night.

He walked back to the bedroom and found his cellphone on the bed. As soon as he looked at it, he fell into a daze——

The whole screen was crammed with notifications and missed calls, right beside the shining line of numbers: 12:03.

!!!

He had just thought something felt wrong, and now he remembered, the attendant had said “lunch” instead of “breakfast”…

He quickly opened his stream. Sure enough, there were loads of lines floating in the barrage.

[It’s 12 o’clock. The flowers on my windowsill have all wilted, and the person I’m waiting for still hasn’t arrived.]

[The anchor became just a little famous and then drifted away. How punctual he used to be ah. These past few days, he’s been asking for leave every other day. I’m going to watch someone else’s stream.]

[Holy crap! He’s here, he’s here! The anchor just entered the stream—]

Yu Yan sent out an apology to the barrage. Then, he changed the stream’s name to [Will start streaming at 3pm. Sending out a red envelope as an apology…] and went to Weibo to request for leave before calling Lu Xiuhe back.

“Holy crap bro, I thought that you had gone missing!” Lu Xiuhe was extremely agitated.

“… I’m fine.” Yu Yan went into the bathroom, turned on the faucet, and adjusted the water temperature. “Had a classmate reunion yesterday and drank too much.”

“Where are you now? Do you know what happened yesterday?”

Yu Yan froze. “What happened?”

“It’s just, an anchor went to report laoshu using his real name.”

“… Report what?”

“Report that he bought a water army to inflate his popularity. He also reported the fact that laoshu found people to specifically go after and slander other anchors!”

Yu Yan was calm. “That matter ah…”

“Why aren’t you surprised?”

“I had already guessed it a while ago.” Yu Yan tested the water temperature. “Let’s talk when I get back ba. I’m going to take a bath first.”

He hung up the call and opened WeChat, wanting to ask about the situation last night, but saw a group chat notification on the screen.

He opened it. There was a line of white text——

[You have been removed from the group chat by Li Hang LH]

“…”

They were all adults already. How could this person be so childish?

His heart didn’t get stirred at all. He found Li Hang’s profile on WeChat and tried the red envelope system. Sure enough, although the other side had kicked him out of the group chat, he hadn’t blacklisted him.

If he had to say why he had never deleted Li Hang… it was probably because he was afraid he wouldn’t be able to look at his Moments anymore ba.

Yu Yan used Li Hang’s Moments to vicariously travel around almost every holiday. Today was a sports car, tomorrow was a party; it was as happy as could be.

Now though, he directly and efficiently blacklisted the other party. Afterwards, he scrolled through his contact list and found his former dorm monitor’s WeChat.

Yu Yan: Dorm monitor, I was drunk yesterday. I’m sorry to have troubled all of you. Who sent me to the hotel? How much was payment? I’ll transfer the money to whoever paid.

After sending this sentence, he put his cellphone aside and entered the luxurious bathroom to take a bath.

Since the money had already been spent, he could only lie back and enjoy it.

After the bath, he picked up his cellphone and glanced at it.

Dorm Monitor: It’s okay, it was my fault. If I had known earlier that you couldn’t drink much, I wouldn’t have tried to force so many drinks down your throat. You’re not feeling ill ba?

Dorm Monitor: It was your friend who sent you back last night ah.

Yu Yan rubbed his hair using the bath towel and dried the water dripping from it. He then replied: Which friend?

Dorm Monitor: The person you stickied to the top of your WeChat.

Oh. The person he had stickied to the top of his WeChat.

Who had he stickied to the top of his WeChat?

Yu Yan closed the chat and looked up.

The profile picture of the full moon in the dark night quietly stared back at him. Their last conversation had been at 10:14 p.m. last night.

He solidified his original stance. It took a while before he replied: Impossible.

Dorm Monitor: What? It was the person you have stickied to the top of your WeChat; Weizi looked at your cellphone with his own eyes. That man said that you guys had agreed for him to pick you up before, so we let him take you away.

Yu Yan: ….

The bath towel slipped from his head. He remained stunned for a long time before he could close the chat box he was using to talk with the former dorm monitor.

It was 1 who had brought him to the hotel?

No way, 1 didn’t live in Manyang——

But 1 was on a business trip.

….

Inside his heart, Yu Yan felt like some kind of dimensional wall was being chipped away, little by little, at the speed of a tortoise.

He opened his chat with 1. He found that almost all of the most recent messages were sent by the other side.

1: Nightclubs are messy, go back earlier.

1: Did you go back?

1: .

He experienced inner turmoil for a long time after realising what had actually happened, and couldn’t help but raise his hand to lightly smack his head.

Hurry up and remember something ah!!

Unexpectedly, he really did manage to knock a few memories back.

He seemed to have vomited last night.

He had been holding onto the toilet, with a bad appearance, changed beyond recognition. But, he still couldn’t recollect any impression of the person beside him.

Calm down, calm down first.

How could such a coincidence happen in this world? 1’s business trip just happened to be in Manyang. In the evening, he just happened to go to that nightclub to relax. Lastly, he just happened to run into his drunk self?

Not only that, when he left, his classmates must’ve also been intoxicated. Maybe they were being rowdy—like whose chat was stickied on top. And then, when they got up this morning, they remembered it wrong?

Yu Yan comforted himself in this way in his heart, finished his lunch while trembling with fear, and hurried downstairs to check out before the 2:00 p.m. check-out time.

“Hello sir, your room has already been fully paid for.”

“…” Yu Yan asked, “Can I ask who paid?”

The receptionist shook her head. “I’m sorry, I wasn’t on duty this morning. I’m not sure.”

“Then, the person’s ID card who checked in… Can you tell me the name on it?”

“Sorry. We have to maintain confidentiality on all our guests.” The front desk’s receptionist clicked on the computer. “Sir, your room also has dessert, dinner, and our hotel’s spa reserved. If you check out now, we won’t refund these items.”

“…”

In the taxi, Yu Yan’s expression was grave. He held his cellphone in his hand and could feel his pulse pound loudly within his palm.

After a long time, he seemed to have made up his mind and opened the cellphone’s chat box——

On the other side, Yi Chen held the little anchor’s personal files in his hands.

This was actually the first time he had ever looked up an employee file for personal reasons.

The person in this 1-inch photo looked a little more immature than he was now. There were two words beside it: Yu Yan.

It was no wonder why every time they talked about Yanyan, the little anchor would blush and let his eyes unconsciously drift away.

The little anchor liked him.

Yi Chen kneaded the space between his eyebrows as he experienced a rare feeling of remorse. At that time, he had just randomly picked this name for the cat. Unexpectedly, he had inadvertently teased the little anchor. In addition, he really had said some things too casually online.

He was very appreciative of the little anchor. This person was cute, hardworking, strived hard, good tempered, and had a bottom line. During his spare time, he was very much willing to contact such people, those who made him feel relaxed and at ease—he really liked this kind of friend.

It was a pity.

From a young age, he had had many admirers, both men and women. The way that he refused them was very simple: he distanced himself.

As long as he ignored them, it was fine. Once the other party grew tired, they would naturally give up.

Yi Chen thought of this and then neatly put the file into the cabinet.

Two minutes later, his phone dinged.

Little Anchor: 1… Where are you now?

Yi Chen’s heart jumped, but he recovered within a second and then replied with his current location——

Little Anchor: Oh oh, I’m sorry. I drank too much last night, so I didn’t reply to you…. When did you return to Jincheng ah?

1: Last night.

Little Anchor: !!! Really?

1: En, what’s the matter?

Little Anchor: My friend told me that you were the one who sent me back to the hotel last night. That scared me to death… It must’ve been that they were also drunk and remembered wrong… Sending you a message midday, I didn’t disturb you ba?

“…”

1: No.

1: You just said you drank too much? Are you better now?

Little Anchor: I’m alright. My head just hurts. I should be fine if I rest tonight.

Yi Chen calmly and composedly found and sent the several articles that he had just bookmarked.

1: [WeChat article: What’s best to eat the next day after a hangover?]

1: [WeChat article: This heinous “drinking culture”!]

1: [WeChat article: Shocking! It’s a matter of life and death—these two kinds of alcohol must never be mixed together!!]

—

The author has something to say:

Chen: Just distancing myself is good.

—

Juurensha: …this counts as distancing, Boss Yi? You still seem to care a lot.

Divi: What a caring, distant friend. Your lie is gonna come out soon anyway, there were so many eyewitnesses… They can’t all be drunk.

Noks: Both of them are in ‘denial’ land… how long will they last there though?

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