Don't be a Kept Man

Chapter 104: Pretending to Lie to Myself that You've Been Here Before

It's been said that what you regret the most, you will dream of it the most. The journey to X City was a bit long, and except for the driver, almost all the other travellers were sleeping. Yet Yan Yu, who had just woken up from his dream, couldn't fall back asleep. He stroked a hand over Xun Chuan's head before following down his back, suddenly feeling that everything was fated.

The bus finally arrived at its destination, and compared to everyone else with their multiple pieces of luggage in hand, Yan Yu's hands were empty except for a travel bag. When he stepped off the car, he stood in one spot and didn't move. Perhaps because he didn't want to go, or perhaps he didn't know where he should go.

There were a lot of people around, bustling around on their day, coming and going, but following the passage of time and the flow of people, there were less and less. It was quite a small place indeed as when it's lively, it's boisterous and noisy, but when it's quiet, it's as quiet as a mouse.

Seeing him like this, Xun Chuan held Yan Yu's hand, bringing on that bullheaded stubbornness about him, and pulled him to the station. One step, two steps, three steps......

But Yan Yu seemed unwilling and pulled his hand away, retreating back a step.

Xun Chuan turned his head to look at him and squinted his eyes. He didn't mind Yan Yu's reluctance and sat down on a bench by himself. Compared to the past winter, there were a lot more bright colors around. Flowers were swaying in between the greenery; their faint red petals danced with the wind, swaying along with their tiny and lean stems, swirling around the whiteness of the guard rails, causing quite a few pedestrians to glance over.

A place where death used to linger, is now a shining beacon of light in the eyes of others.

Xun Chuan didn't have much of a reaction. He stretched out his legs, wiggled his toes and kept his arms taut against the bench to support his weight as he looked down at the ants on the road.

He seemed to have just simply wanted, just simply wished to sit here.

Yan Yu was standing not too far and not too close away from him. After a moment, his footsteps carried him over, and he sat down next to Xun Chuan. Shoulder to shoulder, his body temperature transferred to the other through their thinly layered clothing.

Xun Chuan looked at the endless stream of cars in front of them and then contemplated out loud,

"I've always thought you were really amazing. Every time I fell and hit myself, you would always be the first one to show up. Everything could be solved, nothing could bother you......"

Yan Yu really wanted to say that he was actually very useless. Living aimlessly and dazedly for so many years, he was like one of the many blades of the grass living on, and even as the decaying part of it too. Whatever he'll be, he'll live, to wherever he's blown to, he'll still live, unlike Xun Chuan.

Right now, at this time, Yan Yu was a perfect representation of the words, unable to sit quietly, as if the one who died here was not Xun Chuan, but him. After holding it in and forcing himself for this moment, he finally dragged Xun Chuan away from that place and headed to a direction that was away from here,

"It's quite late. Let's first find a motel and then we'll take the bus back tomorrow."

Xun Chuan obediently let himself be dragged, not struggling one bit. Occasionally taking a look around, he carefully took in the place where Yan Yu grew up.

X City wasn't exactly considered glamorous, and it didn't have hotels with five or four stars, or even any with stars. Yan Yu brought Xun Chuan a bit farther away until he finally found a motel that looked quite clean and paid out of his wallet and completed all the paperwork.