Chapter 121 - Shen Yan’s Side Story (Part 3) (1/2)

Translated by Karcessel of Exiled Rebels Scanlations

Shen Yan thought that he had been clear enough. Even if Jiang Cheng was different from seven years ago, he still should have understood Shen Yan’s intentions and stayed away.

In the morning, Shen Yan heard about Shen Fu and Lin ShuYi’s plan to take their little family over to S City. Considering the irritated mood he’d been in the past few days because of Jiang Cheng, Shen Yan decided to go along with them, celebrate New Year’s with Old Man Yang and destress a bit.

Shen Fu’s family consisted of four people, and with Chen Fang in addition, their car was completely full. With a quiet glance at Chen Fang, Shen Yan decided to let him have the seat, and headed to the garage to get his own car.

Shen Yan left two of his Lotuses* at Old Man Yang’s place, and a third was out for maintenance, so he had no choice but to start up his long neglected SUV. Shen Fu’s car was parked in the yard waiting for him, and when Shen Yan drove up, Shen Fu shot his car a once over from his car window before rolling it up wordlessly and driving ahead to lead.

*A brand of sports cars apparently?

Halfway there, a call came on his phone.

Shen Yan was in the middle of driving, so he pressed a button on his earpiece, picking up without even checking who was calling.

“Where are you?” Jiang Cheng’s tone was clear, and he didn’t seem to be in a bad mood.

Shen Yan, “…”

Lifting his hand up again, Shen Yan tugged the Bluetooth earpiece off his ear and threw it on the passenger seat, gritting his teeth. It seemed that he had really underestimated Jiang Cheng’s shamelessness. It almost seemed like this wasn’t the Jiang Cheng he used to know at all, more like someone in a disguise trying to play a trick on him.

The call was still active, and it seemed that Jiang Cheng was still talking, but with how muffled it was, Shen Yan couldn’t understand a single word. In that single moment, Shen Yan’s entire mood sunk and his face turned dark. With one glance at Shen Yan the moment Shen Fu got out of his car, his mood became a little more cautious.

Shen Yan didn’t know where Jiang Cheng got his number, but in order to avoid any more calls from him, Shen Yan decided to turn off his phone before he got off his car. Straightening out his expression, he followed Shen Fu as he went into Old Man Yang’s house to wish him a happy new year.

Old Man Yang’s home welcomed warmly, and Shen Yan didn’t express any unhappiness, but Shen Fu still shot him a glance now and then as if he had something he wanted to say.

The year Jiang Cheng left, Shen Fu was still in highschool. It was a busy time of the year at his private school so he didn’t get many chances to visit home. Because of this, and because his family was trying to hide it from him, Shen Fu only know that Jiang Cheng went abroad but didn’t know what had happened between them. Shen Fu didn’t have that strong an opinion of Jiang Cheng, and Jiang Cheng never came back, so other than a few questions the first year after he left, Shen Fu never brought Jiang Cheng up in front of Shen Yan again. The Shen family never brought anything up, much less Shen Yan. Thus, now that Shen Yan actually wanted to talk to someone, he didn’t even know where to start.

However, Shen Fu must have noticed how out of sorts he’d been lately. If Shen Fu brought it up, should he tell him? Shen Yan was thinking about it when Xiao Wan’s grandma came out of the kitchen, carrying several plates of delicious looking side dishes.

Shen Yan, “…”

Forget Jiang Cheng, that could wait until later.

Just before bedtime that night, as expected, everyone made some room for Shen Yan and Shen Fu to talk alone. Shen Fu looked at him, and though he knew what Shen Fu wanted to say, he still asked, “What are you still doing here?”

Shen Fu looked at him with a rare serious expression. “Is there something on your mind?”

“Is it that obvious?”

Shen Fu’s expression fell just short of rolling his eyes. “You drove out that Range Rover you’d rather die than be seen in, what do you think?”

Shen Yan, “…”

Sure, he didn’t like SUVs, but was it really that obvious? He did still take that car out for maintenance every month.

Shen Yan suddenly wanted to laugh. Shen Fu really knew him best, but all the words he wanted to say before, he didn’t want to say anymore. In the end, he just asked vaguely, “Is it possible for someone who liked women to like men too?”

As soon as those words left Shen Yan’s mouth, Shen Fu looked as if he had been struck by lightning. “Bro, don’t scare me, you like men now?!!”

Embarrassed, Shen Yan replied, “Not me.”

In his heart, he thought, he didn’t like men now, he always had.

Shen Fu looked at him suspiciously, but decided to believe him in the end, and started trying to help. “…Someone set their eyes on you?”

Shen Yan suddenly turned his face away, Jiang Cheng’s face unexpectedly flashed in his mind. “I’m just asking a question, it’s not like that.”

“Brother, the important part isn’t gender, but whether you like him or not. Mom and dad shouldn’t mind that much.”

Shen Fu rarely called him ‘brother’ so seriously, and even more rarely tried to offer him genuine advice, not to mention his lack of concern about the possibility that Shen Yan might like men. To say that Shen Yan wasn’t touched would be lying. But even so, Shen Yan had long passed the age where he wore his heart on his sleeve, so he just got up and said, “Mn, okay. You should get some rest.”

Shen Yan thought that it would take him a while to fall asleep, but who would have expected that he was out almost as soon as his head hit the pillow. And then he started to dream.

He dreamt about the first time he met Jiang Cheng, in the Wen family’s courtyard. A younger Jiang Cheng stood straight under the light of the sunset, looking over his shoulder towards Shen Yan, and Shen Yan’s heart began to speed up.

And then the scene changed. It changed to that year, by the riverside, when Jiang Cheng told him he liked him. He remained calm on the surface, but underneath, hsi heart was about to jump out of his throat. They kissed deeply, and when they parted, Jiang Cheng kept repeating, “A-Yan, A-Yan…” by his ear, as if afraid of speaking too loudly, lest it shatter the dreamscape.

The last scene was the last time they saw each other, just before Jiang Cheng left the country. Jiang Cheng’s back was towards him, saying quietly but coldly, “Shen Yan, you should go back.”