Unexpected Incident : Extra Part 1

Past Events

Liu Gang had been waiting since early morning, dressed in his finest suit.

It was not until the car pulled up smoothly at the gate and the door opened from within that he finally let out a breath.

The young man who stepped out of the car straightened up, tall and graceful. His eyes swept around with an indescribable charm. When he saw Liu Gang, his face immediately broke into a radiant smile.

“Liu Gang!”

“Xiao Yu.”

The young man strode over and embraced him firmly, patting his shoulder. After they separated, he looked Liu Gang up and down and said earnestly, “I’ve missed you so much.”

Liu Gang said, “Did studying abroad make you so bold with your words?”

The young man replied, “Not at all. I’ve always been this direct and sincere with you!”

After sending the luggage home and tidying up, the young personal servant Wang Jing was overjoyed to finally be able to follow his young master back to his homeland. He bustled about busily.

Xiao Yu said, “Wang Jing, now that we’re back, shouldn’t you be thinking about getting a wife?”

Wang Jing was taken aback. “Huh? Young master, I haven’t thought about that yet.”

“Why not?” Xiao Yu asked. “You’re not young anymore. It’s time to start a family.”

Wang Jing scratched his head and said, “I still want to follow the young master…”

Xiao Yu looked him over and curved his lips. “Could it be that you don’t want a wife because you like men?”

Wang Jing turned pale with shock. “Young master, I do not!”

This was far too shocking for a little servant like him. He could never bear such a reputation.

After Wang Jing fled in panic, Liu Gang said, “You’re teasing him again.”

Xiao Yu laughed. “Don’t you think he’s especially fun?”

Liu Gang tapped his forehead. “You, always like this.”

During this time back in the country, Xiao Yu lived quite comfortably. He had always been a passionate man, and he brought back the open attitudes he had picked up abroad. Combined with his handsome and dashing appearance, he inevitably left a trail of romantic debts everywhere he went.

Some of these romantic debts were easy to settle, others were not. Liu Gang had to step in time and again to clean up after him.

However, helping a friend out of trouble was not the worst part. The worst part was that this friend showed no sign of changing his ways.

Every time Liu Gang brought up these matters, trying to warn him, Xiao Yu would put on an innocent look. “I truly liked each of them. It’s just that the liking didn’t last forever. After a while it turned into dislike. The liking was genuine, and so was the disliking. What could I do? How can a person go against their own true feelings?”

Liu Gang truly had no response to that. He looked at Xiao Yu. Even when silent, the young man seemed to smile with his expression and his eyes held affection. He was born a man of deep feeling.

Those who love many are in fact the most heartless of all.

Whoever fell in love with someone like Xiao Yu was like a moth flying into flame, doomed beyond redemption.

That evening, after drinking with Liu Gang, Xiao Yu was slightly drunk. Liu Gang wanted to send him home, but he said, “No, let’s go to your place.”

“Why?”

“If I go home drunk, I’ll get another earful.”

Liu Gang said, “That’s what you get for your bad behavior.”

“Fine then…”

Liu Gang’s apartment seemed quite large and empty, since he lived there alone. It was tidy but had a lonely, hollow feeling to it.

Xiao Yu also said, “Oh, this house of yours, it’s nice enough, but too empty. It’s missing something… Oh, I know. It’s missing a mistress.”

Liu Gang steadied his swaying form by holding his shoulders and said, “I’m not missing anything.”

Xiao Yu turned to look at him and said in a slightly drunken tone, “Strange. I’ve never understood.”

“What?”

“You’re so handsome. How do you not have a girlfriend?”

“…”

“A face like yours.” The young man reached out and touched his cheek in a manner close to flirtatious, tracing the lines of his features with his fingertips.

Liu Gang stood motionless, tense.

“A body like this.” The young man’s fingers slid like playing a melody, full of admiration, across his Adam’s apple, neck, shoulders, chest.

Liu Gang finally grabbed his hand and said in a low voice, “You’re drunk.”

Xiao Yu laughed softly.

“You really are very good looking.”

“…”

“I think you are especially, especially good looking. No one is better looking than you.”

The young man had drawn too close. Liu Gang felt he had nowhere to escape.

Their breaths mingled urgently. In those brief seconds, outside there was already lightning and thunder, wind and rain.

No one could tell who moved forward that tiny bit first, pressing hot lips together.

In an instant, it was as if something that could no longer be suppressed exploded with a thunderous roar.

Outside the window, the rain poured down in torrents.

The next morning, both woke to heavy silence.

Xiao Yu spoke first, his voice still light. “This doesn’t mean anything. You understand that, right?”

Liu Gang stared at him.

Xiao Yu rubbed his lower back. “Actually, you didn’t lose out last night, did you? Or are you very bothered by it?”

Liu Gang was silent for a moment, then said, “I’m not bothered.”

Xiao Yu smiled. “That’s good.”

Then Liu Gang added, “But there won’t be a next time.”

Xiao Yu was quiet for a moment, then smiled again. “Ah, of course not.”

Xiao Yu straightened his collar in front of the mirror and said as if to himself, “I’m going to get married and have children.”

His tone was very light and matter of fact. “You understand, right? The eldest daughter of the Liu family. I’ve already seen her photo.”

Liu Gang asked, “Do you love her?”

Xiao Yu said, “We haven’t even met. Isn’t that word a bit too luxurious?”

Liu Gang was silent for a while, then said, “If you plan to spend your whole life with someone, is love too luxurious a condition?”

“Parents’ orders and the matchmaker’s words. Besides, she’s quite cute,” Xiao Yu said with a grin, showing two very charming canine teeth. “She’s exactly my type.”

Liu Gang’s tone carried some sarcasm. “Your type? There must be a hundred if not a thousand.”

Xiao Yu laughed. “That’s because I’m good at appreciating all kinds of beauty. Isn’t that how life should be lived?”

The Xiao Yu who was good at appreciating all kinds of beauty ultimately caused some trouble.

Though his married life was affectionate and harmonious, he still kept a mistress outside in a hidden house. He favored her greatly, even letting her bear him a son.

This enraged his wife and turned the household upside down. Xiao Yu knew he was in the wrong and obediently apologized, coaxing and placating her in every way.

He excelled at having a good attitude, being utterly sincere, taking blows without fighting back and curses without talking back. In the end, his wife forgave him.

After all, in that era, among wealthy families, this was not a major matter. Or rather, it was not a rare matter.

Two men getting together, now that was a major matter.

There was one family whose son ran off with a man, causing a citywide scandal. That family vanished entirely from social occasions for several years, because they simply could not hold their heads up in public.

Apart from this romantic scandal, life passed peacefully and smoothly, until Xiao Yu fell gravely ill and could not be cured.

He lingered in the hospital for several months. Besides his family, Liu Gang was the one who stayed by his side.

That day, Xiao Yu had slept through the day until afternoon, when he suddenly woke.

Perhaps because of the final rally before death, he seemed especially clearheaded.

Looking at Liu Gang by the bedside, he said, “Hey, Liu Gang, look at you, you’ve gotten so old. Why still no wife?”

Liu Gang looked at the man’s face, already wasted by illness, and said, “None of your business.”

“Oh, such a bad attitude.”

“…”

Xiao Yu paused a moment, then said, “Hey, I wonder what people will say about me after I’m gone, when I can’t hear anything anymore. They say the final judgment comes when the lid closes on the coffin. Will it all be bad things?”

Liu Gang said, “Don’t talk nonsense.”

Xiao Yu said again, “Do you hate me too?”

“…”

“I truly am a bad person.”

“…”

“Wan’er said so too, that I’m a bad man.” Wan’er was his wife. Xiao Yu was a passionate man. Even at his age, he still used the pet name from their youth to address his wife.

“When I had that son with Xiaoru back then, she truly hated me to death. I know I broke her heart.”

Speaking of the past, though it was already like smoke and clouds, Xiao Yu still sighed. “I was quite sorry to both of them.”

Liu Gang said, “It’s all in the past.”

The ones he had let down were far more than just those two. Regretting it now was meaningless.

Xiao Yu muttered, “But I truly did like Xiaoru back then. What could I do?”

“…”

If this were in his youth, Liu Gang would have wanted to rap him hard on the forehead, to teach this head full of improper fancies a lesson.

But with this man at death’s door, he did not want to interrupt anything about him. He only wanted to collect every move, every smile, every word, remember them well, and seal them away for later.

Xiao Yu suddenly said, “Hey, have you ever noticed that Xiaoru actually looks quite a bit like you?”

“…”

Liu Gang felt as if struck by lightning.

Xiao Yu added, “Haha, just joking. You’re not a girl, after all.”

“…”

The room was quiet for a moment. Xiao Yu exhaled and said, “Do you think I’ve always been especially heartless to you?”

“…”

“Or shameless.”

“…”

“Because I knew you would never leave me no matter what.”

“…”

“Yes, Liu Gang, that’s how I took advantage, how I played dumb while knowing full well.”

Liu Gang said in a low voice, “Stop talking.”

Xiao Yu smiled and placed his hand on top of his. These were no longer young hands. One was withered, the other rough.

“Actually, have you ever thought,” Xiao Yu said, “if you had threatened to leave, things might have been completely different.”

Liu Gang’s hand tensed. “…”

Xiao Yu said, “You’re so foolish.”

“…”

“Why didn’t you try it back then?”

Liu Gang gripped his fingers, almost gritting his teeth. “Stop talking…”

Xiao Yu seemed not to feel the pain at all and still spoke gently, “You, you foolish man.”

“…”

The two looked at each other. In each other’s eyes, they saw their weathered faces and the years that had flowed silently by, yet it was as if they were young again, at the moment they first laid eyes on each other.

One look and you fall, never to recover.

Xiao Yu suddenly said, “Liu Gang, can you promise me one thing?”

“…”

“Can you not take your resentment toward me out on my son?”

Liu Gang clenched his jaw and did not answer.

Xiao Yu sighed. “Never mind. You never forced anything from me. I cannot force anything from you either.”

“…”

Xiao Yu sighed again and closed his eyes. “I owe you.”

“…”

“In the next life, I’ll repay you.”

“…”

“In the next life, I will definitely repay you.”

Liu Gang trembled as he clutched his fingers tightly in his palm.

The light of the setting sun faded. That hand in his palm gradually turned cold.

His heart was like that waning sun, ultimately sinking along with it.

All that remained in this life was bone chilling cold and an abyss ten thousand feet deep.