A Round Trip to Love 2: Separate Routes

Chapter Five

In high spirits, my brother Yi Chen held up two tickets in his hand and asked if we like to attend a concert tomorrow night.

"What type of music are they performing?"

"Rock."

"Is the band good?"

"They are top-notch." Yi Chen replied with an air of smugness pointing proudly at himself.

"Your band will be playing?" I should have guessed. Being a big brother, there is no way I can decline the invite as it is my sacred duty to encourage and endorse my brother's artistic career.

All packed and ready to fly directly to Kyoto in the afternoon, Lu Feng's face turned black as charcoal upon receiving the news. If things had gone according to his plan, we would be enjoying a piece of bland yudofu at a kiosk in Gion, soaking in a hot spring under the cherry blossom trees by tomorrow night, instead of squeezing in a small bar with a bunch of unrelated people listening to rock music that holds zero appeal to him.

Not expecting to stay in Xiamen for an extra day and a half, I had to bring him around sight-seeing to kill time. I discovered that Lu Feng would show a very lukewarm attitude to all those locations famous for their scenery, that is until I start a narrative along the lines of, "I have been here before ....... I have tried this before ...... I used to always ......." and only then would he cheer up and show some intrigue. Upon arriving at a coffeeshop I have to yet again inject another line of introduction: "I used to come here often for their fantastic mocha."

Lu Feng took a sip, and criticised, "This? Your standard is pretty low."

I am sorry Young Master, I was only a poor student back then, these small luxuries are all I could afford, did you expect it to be the exclusive Blue Mountain coffee?

After finishing the last piece of mini muffin, we headed to the cashier for the bill, and as we were making our way out of the door, the corner of my eyes caught the familiar figure of a young man sitting leisurely with his legs folded in the middle of the cottage.

At this non-peak hours, business is slow in the cafe and most seats are vacant. Typically, customers would pick cosy spots that are either leaning against the wall or windows. There is only one person I know who would deliberately sit in the most eye-catching position flaunting his flowers and branches, but he should be in Tokyo having sashimi for dinner right now.

Tentatively, I walked over and patted him on the shoulder: "Qin Lang?"

The man turned his head over, his beautiful eyes widened by a few millimeters: "Xiao Chen? ! !"

He looks more astounded to see me, than me him.

"When did you get back?" Have the stars aligned themselves specially this year? How did everyone end up in Xiamen. "Does Yi Chen know?"

There was a slight uneasiness on his face.

"Xiao Chen, who is he?" Lu Feng frowned and does not appear particularly impressed by the person before us, looked him up and down with a slightly disgusted expression. Qin Lang being the type of man who struts around like a peacock are the ones that gets on his nerves.

His handsome face went through a 360 degrees transformation, he suddenly sprang to his feet and grabbed my hands, pouring himself at me: "Xiao Chen, how have you been this past two years, I really missed you!"

Are you courting death?

I do not even dare to step on Lu Feng's toes, but he actually went on a rampage in front of Lu Feng, I do not know what the thing resembling a head sitting on his shoulders contain but it is unlikely to be brains.

I pretended to be docile and smiled back: "Really? I will be visiting Yi Chen in a couple of days, I will be sure to convey this word for word to him, don't you worry ......"

I have yet to finish before his face turned green like he is going to be sick, backing away two or three steps to the side, and looked at me with a face full of melancholy.

"Go and visit Yi Chen when you have the time." These are things I must say, "He lost quite a bit of weight."

Qin Lang looked at my hand clasped with Lu Feng's and his lips turned downwards into an even more sorrowful look.

"This guy is Yi Chen's?" Lu Feng found it hard to believe. "Is he serious? Such frivolous character he is ......"

In an attempt to better his impression on him, I used the same narrative introducing those sight-seeing locations: "Me and him used to always ........"

"Mmm?"

A cold sweat dropped down from my forehead, guess it does not produce the same effect in this situation: "Nothing ......" almost making a tragic mistake that leads to a thousand years of hate.

When Yi Chen appeared on stage the following night, I could tell Qin Lang had successfully reconciled with him by the way Yi Chen was lumbering about like he is having difficulties with his legs. This guy does not waste any time.

The performance is held in Shen Chao's bar, there were no lack of supporters, with the most conspicuous young master Qin holding a big bouquet of flowers seated closest to the band with pure adoration transfixed on his face.

Rock music is like an acquired taste, without much exposure Lu Feng could only interpret it as noise, so he might as well sit at the bar drinking, Shen Chao and Yi Chen's senior sister approached him full of curiosity and chatted him up. It is not an everyday occurrence that Lu Feng can engage well with others, so feeling rest assured, I focused on the band's raucous performance and my brother's amazing stage presence.

Facts have shown that the only foolproof method to prevent troubles is to keep Lu Feng tied around my waist at all times.

After the performance I was getting ready to say a few words to the smitten Qin Lang who was basking in happiness and contentment, and someone picked me up from the back, carried me out of the bar and stuffed me haphazardly into a taxi.

Poor me was not even given the chance to defend myself and was thrown directly onto the big bed of the hotel and tortured inside out. This guy deserves to be struck by lightning, did not even bother with lubrication, and was rough to the max, and the worst part was that he lasted so long ......

"Have you not gotten over him, mm?" He was the one who made you take off to Shanghai in tears, so does this mean I became the spare? Where has he touched you? Here, here, or here? Or is it right here? ......"

I shrieked with alarm, cried wildly, screamed in agony, wailed for mercy, until I have no more cries left, thoroughly received a cleansing from him head to toes a few times over. And with just one breath of life left in me, he finally carried me over to the bathtub to wash me down.

"I am warning you, if you dare to fantasize about other men or I find out that you deviate from me the slightest bit, I will break your legs ....... what, you don't believe me? I am not joking with you, you had better listen carefully and remember this."

"Those who betray me will come to no good end, you are not an exception."

"If you are ever disloyal to me, you will wish you were never born."

Sigh, always scaring me like this.