Translator: Dj22031
Editor: Dj22031
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Shen Yiyou’s August was busier than he thought.
Various trivial problems frequently occurred during the exhibition, and Shen Yiyou could only take assistants and workers to communicate with all kinds of people.
One day in the last ten days, his luck improved a little. The artist who he had met in the capital suddenly called Shen Yiyou, saying that he was very interested in the theme. After thinking about it, he decided to cooperate with Shen Yiyou.
Shen Yiyou, together with his partner, began to run around to accomplish this.
And since the start of the road show, Li Shu changed places every few days, and Shen Yiyou often couldn’t remember where he was.
But Shen Yiyou faintly noticed Li Shu’s change.
When contacting Shen Yiyou, even if the two of them didn’t talk about anything and were working or doing things, Li Shu used Shen Yiyou’s promise that he “wouldn’t not answer the phone” as an excuse to keep the call connected until Shen Yiyou really fell asleep, and was then only willing to say good night.
At the same time, Li Shu would also attack Shen Yiyou suddenly in various contexts, forcing Shen Yiyou to answer the question “have you considered it clearly”, emphasizing that “the company is going to be listed soon”, and then pitifully expressing that he missed Shen Yiyou very much, saying things like “I am very satisfied with you every day”, “I think you are very good”, and swore that if Shen Yiyou came to work in his company, he would never be fired.
Shen Yiyou felt that they were in contact too often and thought about reducing the frequency of the telecommunication connection, but Li Shu’s behavior showing his lack of a sense of security often made Shen Yiyou soft-hearted, and the relationship between the two became uncontrollable and unclear.
Li Shu was a little more considerate than before, but the problem still seemed to persist between him and Li Shu, which was irritating.
Shen Yiyou had a sloppy sense of powerlessness, afraid that if they continued like this, they would only repeat their previous mode of getting along.
But he didn’t know how to solve it himself, and Li Shu, who felt that there was no problem at all, was even more unreliable. Shen Yiyou sometimes thought that maybe he should be more resolute towards Li Shu, but sometimes he thought that maybe him being resolute was meaningless.
In this hesitation, most of the time passed.
One day at the end of August, Li Shu suddenly sent Shen Yiyou a short story called “The Life of X. Bin”. He said that the novel was written by his friend Fred and touched many mutual friends, so he copied it and sent it to Shen Yiyou.
Shen Yiyou didn’t have time to read it until he got home in the evening. The short story contained less than 1,000 words in total, so he finished it in a few minutes.
It was not that he didn’t understand it, but he just didn’t know why this story, which was so precise as to be written by a machine, would move many friends, but Li Shu seemed to want to hear Shen Yiyou’s feedback, so Shen Yiyou still thought about it carefully. After a few minutes, he squeezed out three words and sent it to Li Shu: “Very touching.”
This day, Li Shu was on the road show in Geneva. It should have been four o’clock in the afternoon when he received the text message. Shen Yiyou thought he would be busy, but the reply came quickly: “Be more specific.”
Shen Yiyou asked Li Shu somewhat inexplicably, “How specific does touching have to be?”
Li Shu called him, Shen Yiyou picked it up, and Li Shu said, “Do you have any special insights? Why do you think they can’t be together? Is there any way to improve it?”
“…Because he doesn’t deserve it, I don’t know.” Shen Yiyou was really clueless, so he changed the subject and asked Li Shu, “You are alone now, it sounds very quiet?”
Li Shu was silent for a while, then said “um”, without chasing Shen Yiyou’s post-reading feelings, and told Shen Yiyou, “There is a dinner party in the evening, and I’m just changing my clothes.”
“What clothes?” Shen Yiyou asked him.
Li Shu said reluctantly, “A suit.”
“The listing team insists that wearing formal clothes can create a reliable CEO image, and arguing with them is a waste of time,” Li Shu explained, and then said to Shen Yiyou, “Next time I will change the team.” As if afraid that Shen Yiyou would comment on his remarks on suits.
Shen Yiyou thought that Li Shu was very interesting, so he asked him, “Can you let me take a look.”
Shen Yiyou was really interested because he had only seen Li Shu wearing a formal suit in a low-resolution sneak photo, in which Li Shu was sitting opposite his rumored girlfriend.
“I don’t want to.” Li Shu refused.
Shen Yiyou pretended to be depressed and said, “You said you would show it to me at the hotel last time.”
“I didn’t say that,” Li Shu retorted, repeating what he said at the time, “I meant if you’re not angry, you can come watch the road show.”
Shen Yiyou insisted: “I want to see it.”
In the end, Li Shu compromised. Within seconds after they hung up the phone, Li Shu made a video call to Shen Yiyou, Shen Yiyou answered it, and Li Shu appeared on the screen of his mobile phone.
Li Shu stood in a spacious dressing room with plenty of lighting.
He was turned unnaturally, with an impatient look on his face, and he had deliberately put the phone’s camera to the side, but Shen Yiyou could still see him clearly.
Li Shu was wearing a white shirt and a black suit jacket. His hair had obviously been groomed, and it seemed that he had waxed it to make it very neat, and his glasses had been replaced with metal frames.
Shen Yiyou felt that the listing team was right. Li Shu indeed looked much more reliable than before. At least he finally looked like a successful businessman, not a tall boy who came out of the science and engineering campus to eat.
“Have you read it yet?” Li Shu asked quickly, his eyes never looking at the camera.
“No,” Shen Yiyou slowed down and said, “Didn’t you dress in a suit to eat with Lilith? I didn’t think you could do it.”
“I was very hungry that day,” Li Shu explained warmly, “I left after eating.” After that, he raised his hand with a frown, touched his hair, and put it down immediately.
Shen Yiyou did not speak and looked at Li Shu.
After a while, Li Shu finally turned his eyes back to the screen. He also looked at the screen and was quiet for a while, then he said, “Really.”
“I was eating with Li Shishan at the beginning,” for some reason, Li Shu’s speech speed became a little faster, “I was halfway through my meal, when Li Shishan suddenly invited Leslie, and soon Li Shishan received a call and left, but I didn’t spend more than five minutes alone with Leslie.”
Shen Yiyou watched Li Shu’s defense quietly, unable to explain what he felt.
Li Shu didn’t seem to understand at all, but in fact he didn’t have to explain too much to Shen Yiyou, even if he really dated Lilith, it couldn’t be considered anything wrong.
“I see.” Shen Yiyou said to Li Shu.
Li Shu was silent, he seemed to be enduring something, but finally he couldn’t hold back, and said to Shen Yiyou, “I don’t like it when you lean on others and say that you accept their pursuit.”
His tone wasn’t intense, but it sounded like he was throwing a tantrum.
Then, as if he didn’t like the pair of glasses he was wearing now, Li Shu irritably took off the glasses and replaced them with his own black frame on the table, returning to his normal appearance.
“I have things I don’t like either.” Li Shu slowly repeated to Shen Yiyou.
Li Shu saw that Shen Yiyou did not speak, so Li Shu paused and asked Shen Yiyou, “Don’t do this in the future, can you?”
Shen Yiyou thought for a while, then said “um”, then paused for a few seconds, trying to make the atmosphere less heavy, then looking at Li Shu a few times, he praised him and said, “Actually, you look good in a suit.”
Li Shu looked away, and asked in a low voice, “Really?”
“–but I do not like it.”
“—But if you don’t like it, forget it.”
Shen Yiyou spoke at almost the same time as Li Shu.
There was an indescribable distress that slowly emerged from Shen Yiyou’s heart.
Even though most of the time, it was Li Shu who was driving ordinary people to adapt to his way of life and work, but whenever he saw Li Shu struggling to adapt to the rules, Shen Yiyou had an unrealistic hope: I hope the world can stop embarrassing Li Shu and the society can adapt to Li Shu instead of Li Shu adapting to the society.
Then Shen Yiyou thought again, his own hope seemed to be very cheap.
Because obviously he himself couldn’t fully adapt to Li Shu, and when he couldn’t stand it, even he would want to leave.
When they were in love, the two were not perfect, but they got along a lot. Shen Yiyou was the only one of the two who thought of running away.
——But Li Shu was so easily satisfied by Shen Yiyou.
Li Shu said “Okay”, the screen flashed, and the screen went black, but the call was not cut. Shen Yiyou was stunned for a moment, then he realized that Li Shu must have put his phone with the camera facing the table.
“Shen Yiyou,” then Shen Yiyou heard Li Shu say unskillfully, “…I like you.”
“I’ll give in to you, okay,” he said in a gruff voice from the loudspeaker, sounding very serious and persistent, “don’t think about it anymore.”
Before Shen Yiyou could speak, a knock on the door sounded from Li Shu’s side.
Afterwards, a woman spoke to Li Shu, seemingly urging him to go out to the roadshow dinner, then she asked Li Shu if he had changed his glasses.
Li Shu seemed to be afraid that Shen Yiyou would immediately reject him, or say something evasive, so he said, “I’m leaving.”
Shen Yiyou said goodbye to him.
In this way, this day, their topic did not continue.
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