Pavilion in the garden

The moment he heard Ji Tingxie's voice, Qi Ye calmed down instead.

He twitched the corner of his mouth lightly, revealing a vague smile, then loosened his tense body, and sat down on the sofa beside him.

"Well. I like you."

The curvature of the lips increased, and he even laughed out loud, but he did not show his neat and white teeth as usual.

While speaking, Qi Ye opened the bottle of wine, a little too hard, some of the wine mixed with foam leaked out and wet his hands.

He held the wine bottle indifferently and poured it into two empty glasses. It was a little full, and it seemed like it would overflow in a second.

He picked up one of the glasses and handed it to Ji Tingxie. The wine stains on his hands were not wiped off, and even the glass became slippery.

Ji Tingxie looked at the wine in his hand, the translucent red liquid showed a strange color under the light, dyed with a light warm yellow.

He reached out to take it, but didn't drink it, but put the wine on the table.

"Drink."

"Why don't you drink, are you afraid that I will get you drunk?"

Qi Ye's beautiful face was stained with a bit of sinister expression, as if he was a different person.

Seeing that he still didn't speak.

Laughing self-deprecatingly, he took the wine he just put down and drank it down, "That's right. I was thinking of waiting for you to ask something when you were drunk, or," he paused, "to sneak in."

Then he picked up another glass of wine and drank most of it.

After a few glasses of wine, his brows and eyes were stained with a bit of drunkenness, but his eyes were surprisingly bright, clearly sober.

"Stop drinking."

Ji Tingxie spoke suddenly, leaned over and put the wine bottle in front of him on the ground.

There was a thick blanket on the floor, and the glassware did not make any sound when it fell to the ground.

He added another sentence, "I'll have to send you back when you get drunk later."

"Then I won't drink it. It's up to you."

Qi Ye leaned his whole body on the sofa as if he was tired, and spoke softly.There was tenderness in the eyes, revealing some obvious expectations.

"I do not like."

Without hesitation, Ji Tingxie answered directly.

Qi Ye was visibly startled for a moment, his heart tightened for a while, his body felt hot and sore.

Blunted: "Don't you like me?"

"Yes."

Ji Tingxie looked into his eyes without any hesitation.

There has never been a slight change in his eyes, neither the secret joy of being confessed nor the anxiety and impatience of being troubled.

Just plain as usual.

"Then who do you like? Or, neither."

Qi Ye managed to calm down and asked again.But he clenched his hands unconsciously, and veins appeared on his fair skin.

"You just need the answer to one question. There's no need to ask anything else."

Ji Tingxie sat there without moving a muscle, his eyes kept looking at Qi Ye.

Qi Ye had already been distracted by the opening sentence "I don't like it", and his whole body revealed a sense of depression, full of suppressed pain.

"You're not gay. I should have known."

Qi Ye's voice trembled, he murmured numbly, his lips were tightly pressed into a straight line.

He couldn't help covering his eyes with his hands, and in the next second, tears flowed down his eyes, slipped embarrassingly across his slightly flushed skin, and was wiped away by his hands indiscriminately.

Weeping in a low voice, he spoke confusedly again, vaguely: "Is there anything wrong with me...Even if I'm not a woman, I'm no worse than them."

Qi Ye suddenly let go of the hand that had been covering his face, and laughed again in a fit of anger, "How do you know it's not okay?"

Ji Tingxie looked at him, with obvious intolerance and pity in his eyes, but there was something strange about it.

"Qi Ye."

Ji Tingxie spoke softly, with a slightly lower tone.This is the first time he has voluntarily called his name.

"I can't be in love with anyone."

Like a deep water jet, it erupted in an instant, violently disturbing Qi Ye's already bewildered heart.

"You... what did you say?"

Qi Ye was slurring his speech, and he managed to concentrate, staring at him who was still sitting quietly.

"I'm asexual."

Ji Tingxie looked straight into his eyes, her voice was calm, as if she was telling a simple fact.

"Is that all right?"

After speaking, he stood up and walked straight to the door.

"Wait, you..."

Qi Ye was so shocked that he couldn't regain his senses, and was incoherent for a while.

He tried his best to straighten his somewhat weak body, and was about to chase him, a jerk almost limp on the ground.

Ji Tingxie supported him in time, stretched out his hands to straighten his crooked collar, and pulled up the chain of his coat a little bit, then let go, turned and left.

"Since you already know. Let's stop here."

Ji Tingxie's voice resounded, as calm as it was at first, but now it sounded mixed with a bit of emotionless indifference.

Qi Ye couldn't remember how he got back that night.

He just remembered that he was sitting there again unconsciously, forgetting to get up to chase him, and forgetting what he was going to do.

Just stood there, motionless.Slowly coming back to his senses, he bent down to reach for the wine on the ground, and with all his force, he fell to the ground.

It doesn't hurt either.He opened a bottle of wine and drank it one gulp at a time. The spicy taste of alcohol continuously irritated his throat, and even spread to his heart, liver, spleen and lungs, and his body became numb along with it.

A lot of wine spilled from his mouth, flowed down his chin, and reached his neck, soaking his inner clothes, but Qi Ye didn't notice a trace of coldness.

His whole body was hot.

When I woke up the next day, it was already afternoon.The taste of the hangover made him feel dizzy and had a splitting headache.

Qi Ye rubbed his sore head, unconsciously rolled over and got up, stepped on the ground with bare feet, but because of the carpet, it was not cold.

His eyes wandered around the room, and it took him a moment to remember what he was looking for.

He saw the coat on the sofa, which was changed last night.He fumbled in his pocket and finally found the phone inside.

The screen turned on, and he quickly clicked on the favorites in the address book. When he saw the word "Ji Tingxie", he was about to press it.

It stopped again in the next second.He remembered what happened last night, including every word Ji Tingxie said.

He doesn't like himself.

He is asexual.

He said it's over with me.

Qi Ye was in pain, the phone fell to the ground, and he sat on the ground.

Can't...

Can't...

He muttered to himself, then came to his senses in an instant, stood up quickly, and ran towards the door.

After opening the door, he walked quickly to the opposite room, and knocked on the door vigorously.

nobody.

Qi Ye panicked all of a sudden, did he leave?

Regardless of whether he was wearing pajamas, he ran to the elevator again, pressed the elevator and went down.

"Hello, have the guests in 902 checked out?"

The lady at the front desk recognized him as a guest of the hotel, politely said "wait a moment", and began to investigate.

"No. You booked a hotel for two nights."

Qi Ye was stunned when he heard the words, thanked him and walked back.

He thought hard, and finally remembered that Ji Tingxie said before that he wanted to see this afternoon's art exhibition.

After calming down, I turned back to the hotel room and prepared to take a hot bath.

After a scalding hot bath, his tense nerves slowly relaxed, the discomfort of hangover and the accumulated fatigue all night gradually dissipated, and Qi Ye felt much more comfortable.

Turn on the TV in the room and change channels aimlessly.

He looked at the flashing screen, didn't pay attention to the content, and pressed the keys one after another.But he couldn't stop, and didn't put down the remote control until he had cycled through all the TV stations.

He watched the program played inside, but his eyes were out of focus.

Qi Ye sat on the bed and stared at it for a long time.

He couldn't help but picked up the phone on the ground and looked at the time on the screen.

It's getting late, and it's five o'clock before you know it.

He should have finished watching the exhibition, where is he now?Will you come back?

Qi Ye secretly had a question in his heart, but there was no answer.

Suddenly, the phone vibrated and buzzed, and Ji Tingxie's name was impressively displayed on the screen.

Qi Ye was flustered for a while, but he calmed down immediately and pressed the answer button.

"Haven't you eaten yet? Come to XX Restaurant."

Ji Tingxie's voice came from the phone, but it sounded unreal.

Qi Ye reflexively said "Oh", as if he didn't hear clearly, he asked again, "Where is it?"

Ji Tingxie said the address again and hung up the phone.

It seems that nothing important happened between them.

Ji Tingxie and Qi Ye sat facing each other, eating together, but did not speak.

Qi Ye had a lot of things he wanted to say, but they were out of order, and all his thoughts were stuck in his throat.

So the speed of eating also slowed down, without saying a word.

There is always an end to a meal.Seeing that Qi Ye also put down his chopsticks, Ji Tingxie planned to get up and pay the bill.

"and many more."

Qi Ye couldn't help calling out to him.

It was not time for dinner, and there was no one around.Qi Ye asked softly: "Let's have a good chat, can we?"

Ji Tingxie replied with an "um" and sat down again.

Ji Tingxie was still looking at him, his eyes were as calm as water, he obviously didn't show any emotion but contained deep meaning.

Looking at his calm eyes from beginning to end, Qi Ye put away his messy thoughts instead, and blurted out without thinking much.

"Are you really...asexual?"

Those three words were still a bit of a mouthful, and he almost finished speaking every single word.

"Yes. You needn't doubt that."

Ji Tingxie said quietly, without any hesitation.

"But why is it you? Have you really never liked anyone? Even if it's just a little tempting..."

In fact, what I want to say is myself.

Qi Ye's tone was a little unstable, he was a little confused with excitement.

Hearing this, Ji Tingxie moved his body slightly, his lips curled up slowly, and there was a smile in his eyes.

Picking up the exquisite porcelain pot on the table, he poured a cup of clear tea into the empty white porcelain cup, and leaned over to pour another cup for Qi Ye.

During a meal, the tea was no longer hot, but at a moderate temperature, Ji Tingxie picked up the cup and took a sip.

"that is the truth."

After speaking, he looked to the side at Qi Ye who was obviously stunned.

Qi Ye felt that his emotions were not as complicated as those two days in his life.

What exactly happened here?

He fell in love with someone, treated him well regardless of the reason, approached him, tried his best to remove the obstacles between the two, but refused to admit defeat, there must be a result.

But now?This so-called result was completely beyond his expectations.

Last night, he was hit by the neat "dislike", and his whole body was depressed, even ignoring the most important explanation behind him.Now that I finally wake up, I find that the real problem lies behind.

It's almost going to kill him.

He was stuck in his throat and couldn't speak a word.

After a long time, until Ji Tingxie got up and walked to the front desk, Qi Ye's voice sounded softly behind him, with a fearlessness of throwing everything away.

"Then I'll try it too."