When Liang Muqiu agreed to let Cen Nan come and see Edamame, he was merely being polite and wasn’t sincere.
However, he forgot that the man on the other side of the door would hit a snake with a stick.
As a result, he soon paid the price for his soft-heartedness.
Ever since he allowed Cen Nan to visit Edamame, the man had reported to his house five days in a row.
Cen Nan didn’t come empty-handed. Each time he came, he would carry a different cake accompanied by sincere and earnest words. He would say he was cooking dinner for one person already and it was the same even if he made another portion and insisted on cooking Liang Muqiu’s dinner as well.
Liang Muqiu was sitting on the sofa and nibbling on an apple. He looked at the back of the busy man in his kitchen, his face neither ugly nor pretty.
He hadn’t used the kitchen much after he moved into the apartment and the pots and pans were barely used and as good as new. There was a pile of unused spices stacked on the shelves and dangerously close to expiring.
In less than three days, his cold and decaying kitchen seemed to usher in its master and suddenly came to life.
Cen Nan worked inside calmly. His head was bowed as he chopped vegetables and casually grabbed a plate. He wasn’t embarrassed as a guest in someone else’s house. Instead, he took it as his own home.
Liang Muqiu clicked his tongue and bit off another piece of fruit with an indescribable annoyance in his heart.
He got up from the sofa, leaned against the kitchen door and looked at Cen Nan.
Cen Nan was cutting potatoes when he noticed him approaching. Thinking that Liang Muqiu was tired of waiting, he said warmly, “Dinner will be ready soon, if you’re hungry, you can eat the cheesecake I bought in the refrigerator.”
Liang Muqiu glanced at the refrigerator.
There was no need to look. He also knew that his refrigerator was stuffed to the brim by Cen Nan as if he was afraid that he would starve himself.
However, in the past few years before Cen Nan appeared, he was used to living alone and had gotten by fine.
“I’m not hungry.” He said casually, “I’m just wondering, is your law firm going out of business? Why are you so idle, running to my house every day?”
Cen Nan smiled helplessly.
This meant that he was too diligent.
But his face had thickened and he ignored it, saying calmly, “I’ve only had more time to spare recently and although I’ve taken on a new case, I can still work from home and find some time to cook.”
Having smashed his fist into cotton, Liang Muqiu was a bit bored.
In the past, they were in their early twenties and energetic. No matter how much they were in love, and no matter how much Cen Nan protected him, they would inevitably quarrel when they supported different football teams, even to the point of fighting on the sofa. It often ended with him being pressed down by Cen Nan and begging for mercy.
But after several years, his sharpness had been restrained in front of him and the cold and arrogant young man had learnt to become a gentle and restrained man overnight.
However, he had heard Cen Nan speak with his assistant on the phone before. It was the same cold and detached Cen Nan. He was speaking in a low voice with well-paced enunciation, but he frightened the little assistant on the other side into obedience.
Only when it came to him did Cen Nan seem to lose his temper.
Liang Muqiu wasn’t a fool either.
Over the years, he also rejected many suitors of both genders who adored him and these people would flatter him even if he shared a bad joke.
He lowered his eyes. He finished eating the apple and tossed it out casually like a small hooligan. The apple formed an arc in the air and landed right in the trash can near Cen Nan’s feet.
Then he stopped looking at Cen Nan who was cooking and ran back to the sofa to play games, very much like a landlord taking advantage of his workers.
His eyes were fixed on the game screen but his soul was somewhere else as he delivered a few heads to the enemy in a row and got cursed out by his teammates.
When he looked at Cen Nan’s back in the kitchen, he had a fleeting thought that it would be nice if Cen Nan had been here all the time.
We’re sorry for MTLers or people who like using reading mode, but our translations keep getting stolen by aggregators so we’re going to bring back the copy protection. If you need to MTL please retype the gibberish parts.
This thought frightened him.
Lf xcfk tf tjv cfnfg ifa ub bo Jfc Rjc. Dea tf vlvc’a fzqfma cba ab yf jyif ab tbiv bc obg j ofk vjsr.
Jfc Rjc kjr ilxf j qblrbc rqfmljiis qgfqjgfv obg tlw. Ycmf tf uba j ajraf bo la, tf mbeivc’a fzaglmjaf tlwrfio.
Coafg vlccfg, Jfc Rjc kjr delaf mbcrmlber jcv bcis qijsfv yjii klat Svjwjwf obg j ktlif yfobgf tf abbx atf lclaljalnf ab ifjnf.
Before he left, he handed Liang Muqiu another exquisitely wrapped box and said, “I saw it by chance on the road and thought it suited you, so I bought it.”
Liang Muqiu looked at Cen Nan, then at the box, and opened it.
Inside lay a Ferrari da Varese fountain pen. The body was made of mother-of-pearl and glimmered with an iridescent glow. It lay in the box like an elegant princess.
This wasn’t something you could see by chance on the road.
He liked to collect all kinds of pens and of course, he was familiar with many brands and also knew the worth of this pen.
He looked up at Cen Nan and put the box back into Cen Nan’s hand.
“No merit, no reward,” He leaned lazily against the door. “I haven’t done you any favour and you don’t have to bribe me.”
He had expected this outcome, but Cen Nan couldn’t help but feel lost.
He whispered, “It’s just a little gift.”
Liang Muqiu uttered three crisp words in response, “Don’t want it.”
Cen Nan couldn’t do anything else. He smiled faintly at Liang Muqiu, “Alright then, you can take it when you want it.”
Liang Muqiu didn’t answer.
He rarely sent Cen Nan to the door. The past few days, he didn’t move at all and let Cen Nan leave by himself.
Seeing that Cen Nan was about to go out, he stood on the steps and raised his voice slightly, “I won’t be at home tomorrow, so you don’t have to come.”
Cen Nan looked up at him, “Okay, then I…”
Liang Muqiu interrupted him.
“Not only tomorrow, but the day after tomorrow and the next day, I won’t come back. If you want Edamame, I can send him to your place for now. However, although the two of us are old classmates, we are still distant and not close enough to live together. Thank you for dinner the past few days.”
Cen Nan could naturally understand the meaning of these words, and his eyes sank for a moment.
He looked at Liang Muqiu, who was two steps higher than him.
Liang Muqiu was wearing a thin sky-blue sweater today which revealed his beautiful collarbone and short black hair and plain white face. He was bare-footed and in a trance, he seemed to see a twenty-year-old youngster.
But after taking a closer look, he had a much more mature look than before.
At the very least, Liang Muqiu wouldn’t have refused so calmly and without flaws.
Liang Muqiu even smiled at Cen Nan, “I know you’ll say we can still be friends and neighbours and look out for each other. But I’m sorry to disappoint, I’m too small-minded to live peacefully with my ex-boyfriend.”
Since Cen Nan’s return, with Liang Muqiu’s overly gentle and mild personality, they tacitly avoided the word ‘ex-boyfriend’ when they interacted with one another.
It was as if they had never had a relationship, didn’t kiss and hug in the middle of the night, just two long-lost acquaintances that reunited after a long time.
But now Liang Muqiu had made it clear.
Cen Nan’s face paled under the lamp. He had a handsome and jade-like appearance, which once bewitched Liang Muqiu.
Until now, he still felt pain when he looked into Cen Nan’s eyes.
He heard Cen Nan say, “Do you think I’m bothering you? Then I can come less.”
Liang Muqiu shook his head, “No, I just don’t want to see you.”
Because as soon as he saw Cen Nan, his heart would shake and all these years of calmness and restraint would be for nought.
He felt a little helpless and added, “You don’t want me to move, do you? To be honest, I like this house very much.”
He seemed to see the hurt on Cen Nan’s face, a look so sorrowful that it looked like it was going to collapse. But soon, Cen Nan turned his head. His face was hidden in the shadows and he couldn’t see it clearly.
The entryway was silent.
Liang Muqiu didn’t urge him for a reply and stood quietly.
After a long time, he saw Cen Nan put the gift box on top of the shoe cabinet.
“I understand.” Cen Nan turned around and said, “If you don’t want to see me, at least keep this gift. It’s useless for me to hold onto it.”
“You don’t have to move, you don’t have to hide from me…I’m the one who should go.”
He went out and closed the door gently.
Even when he left, his back was as straight as a rod.
There was a soft click.
The inside and outside of the door were separated into two worlds.
When Cen Nan left, Liang Muqiu’s shoulders collapsed in an instant.
He slowly sat on the floor, staring at the closed door in a daze.
When he met Cen Nan again, he also wanted to be a mature adult. He didn’t want to continue counting the rights and wrongs of the relationship from seven years ago and just wanted to treat it as a fragment of the past.
He thought he had experienced a lot over the years and he could be independent in his career. It didn’t make sense that he couldn’t do the same for his emotional matters. He should get along with Cen Nan in a proper manner. He was just an old lover, not a beast. If he behaved in a flustered way, it would expose the fact that he hadn’t let go.
But now he realised.
He couldn’t do it.
For the past seven years, he hadn’t forgotten Cen Nan for a minute or even a second. He was just scared of the pain, so he locked up the memories of Cen Nan, buried them in his heart and didn’t dare touch them.
After a long time, even he believed, that he no longer cared about Cen Nan.
But this lie could only hold up until he appeared.
From that moment in the bar, when the flame of the lighter illuminated Cen Nan’s face, his lie burst like a bubble.
He hadn’t forgotten at all.
Liang Muqiu’s eyes were red and he raised the back of his hand to rub them.
He had just admitted that he was useless. The moment Cen Nan came close, he was affected.
He couldn’t be a mature and elegant adult, he had always been clumsy and reckless.
Originally, he only met Cen Nan occasionally and could barely hold on. But these days, Cen Nan went straight to his house and smiled at him. It was too much like the scenes he dreamed of in the past seven years. Every time he looked, his heart’s defences would crumble bit by bit.
Perhaps the next second, Cen Nan would beckon to him with a hand and he would throw himself into Cen Nan’s arms without a second thought.
That would be too disgraceful.
So he could only refuse to meet Cen Nan.
Liang Muqiu sniffled and blinked, forcing back his tears.
“Too embarrassing.” He said to himself, “Why am I crying, who hasn’t been blind when they were young.”
“So be it,” he thought. He had made everything clear with Cen Nan.
Cen Nan was extremely proud and knew elegance just by hearing the song of the strings, so Liang Muqiu thought he wouldn’t harass him anymore.
They would go their separate paths.
However, what he didn’t know was that just outside his house, Cen Nan was still there.
He had been standing outside the door for half an hour.
He leaned against the door and lit a cigarette. It was dark outside and the evening wind was as thick as fog. He could hear children’s laughter from afar downstairs.
Their floors were too high to see the lush trees on the first floor.
But the villa he lived in abroad had a private garden.
And in that garden was an oak tree.
The old German lady in the neighbourhood told him that the oak tree was considered a sacred tree in Europe and that couples would be blessed if they tied a red rope to the oak tree when they got married.
The white-haired old lady looked at him gently, “Young man, you must have a lover in your heart. You always look at that oak tree, looking like you miss someone.”
He smiled without denying it.
The old lady was right.
There was a rocking chair under the oak tree in his yard. He looked at it from the window countless times, thinking that if Liang Muqiu was here, he would kiss him like every newly married husband and take him to pick fruits from the oak tree.
Or, he could be ruthless and not worry about the things that bound him. He could buy a ticket back home now and stay by the side of the person he loved.
Now he was finally back.
The person he loved and the only person he wanted to marry was behind this door.
But they seem to be separated by the Pacific Ocean.
He came too late.
His lover didn’t want him anymore.
Thank you for the ko-fi Anon 💖
Thank You for the new chapter (｡･ω･｡)ﾉ♡
I understand CN had his reasons for doing what he did. But I really hate this aditude like he’s owed their relationship restarting. He has no conscience of the pain he caused LMQ. I dont think I’ve heard an apology, much less an explanation. You can’t come in all cavalier after abandoning your boyfriend so heartlessly. I dont care what your justification is thats pretty scummy.
I am guessing it is the filial part of CN that made him leave. What did his parents do? threaten LMQ? (also I am guessing its the parents because he didnt join their law firm when they were grooming him to be the successor)
either way, I am proud of LMQ!
thanks for the chapter <3
I couldnt agree more. I really hate characters that thinks one sidedly deciding to end things without talking or explaining, is ok and assumes the other will understand or expects that if they came back it’ll just resume like nothing happened. Super proud of LMQ!
Dmn I just realized Ahjuicy is also in a kind off similar situation 😰
He doesn’t even listen to Joonie’s no tho…
This gives me so much bittersweet feelings. CN really needs to apologize properly and explain himself instead of just expecting to be able to pick up where he left him off without single word. And he definitely needs to be much more patient cos even with explanation, he left him hanging for 7 years and that doesn’t just magically disappear and even if LMQ still loves him and eventually gives him a chance, broken trust is not so easily repaired.
Thank you very much!♡♡♡♡♡♡♡♡
I like how every commentator said that CN do wrong thing and hope that LM shouldn’t continue this relationship, but everyone know how this novel ended
It’s cool that everyone know that this is wrong toxic behaviour
Thank you for your translation
What’s stopping him from saying the truth! At least give a hint bro, you can’t just leave suddenly and come back as abruptly
I love this novel, im seeing things i rarely see in past novels that ive read which is mainly 1) its kind of cool how we get to see ML’s actual inner thought in response to anything harsh MC says like thats actually cool 2) MC making clear the boundary between them i love it. Loving MC’s character too like comparing the him now with the guy from the flashback you can see he matured. Idk its kind of neat.
Thanks for the chapter ♡♡♡♡♡
🙃🙃