In the evening, Shi Wen and Jiang Xu were already waiting for Ning Guiqu at the Mao Buli Restaurant. The two were determined to make Ning Guiqu reconcile with Lu Yuan completely! After waiting for a while, Ning Guiqu and Lu Yuan arrived leisurely.
Ning Guiqu kept his head down submissively, while Lu Yuan’s face looked even darker!
Jiang Xu and Shi Wen exchanged glances, one going to Ning Guiqu’s side and the other to Lu Yuan’s. Shi Wen put his arm around Ning Guiqu’s shoulders and walked towards the private room Ning Guiqu had reserved, asking in a low voice, “What did you do to anger Lu Yuan again?”
Ning Guiqu lifted his innocent eyelids, “I didn’t do anything.”
Shi Wen said, “I could tell! When you came in, you were following Lu Yuan like a little quail. If you didn’t make him angry, then what happened?”
Talking about this, Ning Guiqu felt troubled.
He glanced at Lu Yuan and Jiang Xu walking ahead, then scratched his face with a slightly aggrieved look, “You noticed it too? I thought I was just being paranoid.”
Since Lu Yuan returned to the dormitory that afternoon, Ning Guiqu had wanted to please him with a greeting and find a topic to chat about, but he discovered that the area around Lu Yuan was like a hailstorm. He couldn’t get close to him at all!
Ning Guiqu still forced himself to say, “They’re ready to go to the restaurant. Shall we go too?”
Lu Yuan swept him with his bloodthirsty and cold eyes before humming in response.
Ning Guiqu was so frightened by this version of Lu Yuan that he wanted to complain. But just as he opened his phone, Lu Yuan’s gaze flicked towards it. Although his phone had a privacy screen, under Lu Yuan’s intense stare, Ning Guiqu turned off his phone with an innocent look.
Lu Yuan didn’t move his gaze away and inexplicably said, “Gays like you are still a minority.”
Ning Guiqu: ??
What? Like him in what way??
Ning Guiqu tried to humbly inquire further. The result was a cold laugh from Lu Yuan.
Ning Guiqu: “……”
Did he mean like him being a loser? Was his loser aura already so obvious?
Shi Wen was still pressing for answers, but Ning Guiqu was unwilling to say.
He didn’t want more people to know he was a loser.
After reaching the private room, Ning Guiqu ordered a bunch of dishes. There were dishes Shi Wen liked, dishes Jiang Xu liked, and also dishes Lu Yuan liked. After Ning Guiqu finished ordering, Jiang Xu added two bottles of baijiu1白酒 (bái jiǔ) – baijiu, a spirit usually distilled from sorghum / (Tw) white wine.
Ning Guiqu thoughtfully said, “Baijiu has a high alcohol content. You’ll get drunk!”
Jiang Xu retorted, “You think it’s too expensive?”
Ning Guiqu hurriedly shook his head, no longer concerned about the alcohol content.
After ordering the baijiu, Jiang Xu began discussing something in hushed tones with Shi Wen.
Shi Wen asked, “Did you find out anything?”
Jiang Xu replied, “What could I find out? Lu Yuan barely talks and knows how to deflect. He dismissed me with a single ‘nothing’s wrong.’ What about you? You must have gathered quite a bit of information, right? What’s going on between those two?”
Shi Wen smiled bitterly, “Not at all. Xiao Qu just said, ‘You noticed it too’ and didn’t reveal any useful information.”
Jiang Xu’s expression turned serious as he pondered, “Although we don’t know what happened between them, from what we can see, we still need to get them to communicate. I ordered baijiu. We’ll just have to get one of them drunk.”
Suddenly, the two whispering men heard Ning Guiqu’s voice.
“I heard that.”
Shi Wen: “……”
Jiang Xu: “……”
The two looked up.
Ning Guiqu and Lu Yuan were both staring at them.
Jiang Xu smiled, “Isn’t this all for your sake? Since you’ve heard it all, just speak your minds. There’s nothing in this world that can’t be resolved. Xiao Qu, did you steal Lu Yuan’s girlfriend?”
Ning Guiqu’s face went blank, too lazy to even answer such a question.
Jiang Xu continued, “Well, there you have it. You didn’t steal anyone’s girlfriend, so what could be the problem? Xiao Lu, you too, stop looking so grim all the time. You need to loosen up a bit in life.”
Shi Wen secretly gave Jiang Xu a thumbs up.
Just then, the waiter brought over the baijiu Jiang Xu had ordered.
Ning Guiqu said softly, “So you want to get us drunk, huh.”
Jiang Xu: “……”
Jiang Xu smiled, pouring a drink for Ning Guiqu, “Since you’ve heard everything, what’s the point of getting you drunk now? Xiao Qu, you can handle at least one cup, right?”
“Of course, I can,” Ning Guiqu naturally accepted the cup.
Lu Yuan: “……”
How gullible.
How did he end up falling for such a stupid gay? Both stupid and fickle. Ning Guiqu, you’d better not drink a second cup, or you’ll really prove how stupid you are!
Jiang Xu naturally poured for Lu Yuan as well, filling half a cup.
Now, Jiang Xu’s goal was very clear.
After all the dishes arrived, Jiang Xu and Shi Wen took turns casually clinking glasses with Ning Guiqu, essentially saying things like, “Xiao Qu, let’s have a toast!” as they ate.
Ning Guiqu didn’t realize anything was wrong.
Then he was poured a second cup.
Ning Guiqu finally caught on, staring at the glass, and said softly, “You’re trying to get me drunk.”
Jiang Xu pushed the filled glass towards Ning Guiqu, “With your impressive alcohol tolerance, two cups are enough to get you drunk?”
Ning Guiqu thought about it and agreed. He, Genius Xiao Qu, had never been drunk before.
Lu Yuan: “……”
He really was too stupid.
Lu Yuan didn’t try to stop him either. He was quite curious to see Ning Guiqu drunk, wanting to know just how much space Song Huai occupied in Ning Guiqu’s heart! Moreover, besides Song Huai, how many others did this fickle gay have in his heart!
Understanding these things, Lu Yuan felt he could finally give up, and stop feeling depressed over Ning Guiqu, this fickle gay. Because he absolutely refused to be anyone’s spare tire!
By the third cup, Ning Guiqu’s face was completely flushed, and his speech had become a bit stuttered.
“G-good, let’s t-toast!”
The other three in the restaurant realized something was off.
Jiang Xu directly asked, “Xiao Qu, who am I?”
Ning Guiqu slammed his glass on the table, causing the liquid inside to slosh around, with a small amount spilling out.
“You’re the idiot Jiang Xu.”
Jiang Xu was stunned for a moment.
The crude words came out of Ning Guiqu’s mouth. Ning Guiqu himself seemed unaware of any issue, even slightly raising his chin as he turned to Shi Wen, “And you, idiot Shi Wen, always playing games with that idiot Li Mu, and now you’re c-complaining that I’m bad at it!”
As he spoke, Ning Guiqu took another sip of wine, both aggrieved and indignant. Then he glared at the idiot Shi Wen.
Shi Wen was dumbfounded.
Is this… is this really Xiao Qu??
Under Xiao Qu’s gaze, Shi Wen pointed to the man next to Ning Guiqu, “What about him?”
Lu Yuan’s heart tightened, though his face remained calm and indifferent. As Ning Guiqu turned his head, he uttered a word: “Penguin.”
Shi Wen’s eyes widened, “So he’s not an idiot?”
Ning Guiqu confirmed, “He’s not. He’s the most handsome… penguin!”
Lu Yuan inexplicably felt a hint of secret pleasure.
Shi Wen was already rolling up his sleeves, eyes full of disbelief. He was about to say something when Jiang Xu quickly intervened, “This is good. He insulted us but praised Xiao Lu. The alcohol is working. Plus, Xiao Qu is complimenting Xiao Lu, so his drunken words are probably all good. Let them talk; they might even reconcile!”
Shi Wen was persuaded to hold back.
Jiang Xu then turned to Lu Yuan and said, “Xiao Qu is drunk. You should take him back to the dorm. Shi Wen is coming to my place to hang out, so he won’t be going back to the dorm. We’re leaving!”
Lu Yuan: “……”
It was a blatantly obvious conspiracy, one that only someone as naive as Ning Guiqu would fall for. Lu Yuan didn’t expose it, though, and pretended to be oblivious as he hummed in response.
Then, the primary culprit, Jiang Xu, and his accomplice Shi Wen, who had gotten Ning Guiqu drunk, quickly slipped away. They were gone before Lu Yuan could say another word.
Lu Yuan glanced at Ning Guiqu, who was trying to clink glasses with him, and promptly took the glass from Ning Guiqu’s hand.
Ning Guiqu looked up, bewildered.
Lu Yuan said, “You can’t drink anymore. Let’s go back.”
As Lu Yuan was about to stand up to support Ning Guiqu, unexpectedly, Ning Guiqu suddenly hugged his arm.
Lu Yuan: ?
Half of Lu Yuan’s arm felt numb, as if electrified, but he didn’t shake Ning Guiqu off.
“What are you doing?”
Drunk Ning Guiqu had hazy eyes. It seemed his vision was impaired by the alcohol, so he tried to open his already round eyes even wider. Lu Yuan thought Ning Guiqu now looked like a little cat.
“Can you stop hanging out with id-idiots?”
??
Lu Yuan was puzzled.
Was he some kind of strange person? Hanging out with idiots? But this idiot, could it be Song Huai?
Lu Yuan asked directly, “Who’s the idiot?”
Ning Guiqu: “The protagonist gong.”
The protagonist gong meant Song Huai.
So Song Huai was an idiot, too, and he wasn’t. Did that mean he might not be just a second choice after all?
Lu Yuan allowed Ning Guiqu to cling to his arm as he brought up old grievances, not sparing the drunk Ning Guiqu. “Didn’t you say earlier today that you weren’t worthy of me cutting ties with him for your sake?”
Ning Guiqu replied with a sincere expression, “That… wasn’t the truth.”
Lu Yuan raised an eyebrow slightly, asking nonchalantly, “Then what is the truth?”
Ning Guiqu released Lu Yuan’s arm and sat up straight with his back rigid. Except for his flushed face, he didn’t appear drunk at all. But as soon as he spoke, it was evident.
“I’m super… super worthy! He doesn’t deserve you! I’m definitely much better than Song Hua (Huai)! Does he fetch water for you? Squeeze toothpaste for you? Help… help you make your bed?”
As Ning Guiqu spoke, he grew more confident, more boastful, and increasingly convinced that Genius Xiao Qu was the best friend in the world!
So, Ning Guiqu naturally grabbed Lu Yuan’s arm again, earnestly saying, “You… you should be with me!”
Lu Yuan’s eyelids lowered slightly, easily falling into Ning Guiqu’s round eyes. They were so wide open that Lu Yuan could even see his own reflection in them.
Although it was blurry, Lu Yuan felt his expression probably wasn’t cold anymore.
Seeing Lu Yuan’s silence, Ning Guiqu added forcefully, “Kick him away!”
Lu Yuan’s lips curved slightly upward. Taking advantage of Ning Guiqu’s drunken state, he pinched Ning Guiqu’s cheek, which was indeed very soft, and then ruffled Ning Guiqu’s hair – the head of a silly fool.
Ning Guiqu did not understand Lu Yuan’s actions and tilted his head.
He may be stupid, but he was undeniably cute. Fickle-hearted too… really fickle-hearted.
Lu Yuan withdrew his hand, his voice noticeably gentler, “I can kick him away. But you need to tell me, do you like him?”
Ning Guiqu shook his head instantly.
“I don’t like him!”
Lu Yuan’s eyes narrowed slightly. Really? That denial came too quickly. Were all of Ning Guiqu’s drunken words true?
Lu Yuan asked again, “Who do you like?”
Ning Guiqu answered quickly again, “You!”
Undeniably, Lu Yuan’s heart skipped a beat. But the cautious Lu Yuan didn’t believe Ning Guiqu.
“Besides me?”
Ning Guiqu: “Dad and Mom!”
He was even before Ning Guiqu’s parents. Lu Yuan found this incredible. Ning Guiqu didn’t seem to have a bad relationship with his parents, so the drunk Ning Guiqu was very likely talking nonsense.
Realizing this, Lu Yuan couldn’t be bothered to ask Ning Guiqu anything more. So he helped Ning Guiqu up, saying, “Let’s go back to the dorm.”
As soon as Ning Guiqu stood up, he was swaying unsteadily. He managed to say, wobbling, “But, the two kinds of like are different!”
TL Notes
- 1白酒 (bái jiǔ) – baijiu, a spirit usually distilled from sorghum / (Tw) white wine
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