I Treat You as a Brother - Chapter 28

The conversation took an unfriendly turn.

Boss Zou Shun was not happy, as if it was a shame to be mistaken for liking Fang Mo.

The two started bickering over the phone. One said, “I’m sacrificing so much for you to chase this man. Working this hard does not benefit me at all, and yet I’m this misunderstood, and not only do you not want to help me clear this up, but you also want to exploit me and take advantage of my misfortune. The other said, “If you didn’t keep coming over, we wouldn’t have this misunderstanding. Do you think I’m not embarrassed? I’m also embarrassed. What’s wrong with taking advantage of the situation for a bit? Do you think I also want to be this misunderstood?”

In the end, for the time being, they reached an agreement. Zou Shun aggrievedly backed down and decided to sacrifice himself for Fang Mo.

In this turn of events, Fang Mo immediately changed his attitude toward him and started saying overly nice things to him, praising him for his kindness and nobleness, and wishing that he could soon get with his straight man.

But when Zou Shun heard this, he couldn’t feel that happy. With a long sigh, he said, “I hope so.”

From this tone, he could tell that things were not going well between him and that man.

Fang Mo quickly worried for him, “What’s wrong now?”

“You remember how he asked me to watch a movie with him last time?” Zou Shun asked.

Fang Mo remembered. The man had said they would have dinner and watch a movie together, and also have him help choose a gift for his blind date.

“Did you go already?” he asked.

“No,” Zou Shun said helplessly, “I tried making plans several times, but it never happened. He’s always busy.”

“So you haven’t seen each other since then?”

“No,” Zou Shun said, “We only occasionally contact each other.”

“Eh… on the bright side, he’s so busy that he definitely doesn’t have time to go on his blind date, right?” Fang Mo said.

“Pei,” Zou Shun snorted angrily, “They go on dates every week.”

Fang Mo was surprised, “How do you know? Did he tell you?”

“No, he told me they haven’t met yet. I found out by accident,” Zou Shun said.

~

Zou Shun didn’t have class on weekends, so he had been making plans for the past three weekends, but every time he chose a movie and bought the tickets, something would always come up. Other than the first time when Zou Shun couldn’t go because of something at school, the other two times were the other’s fault.

Last week, something happened at his store, and the week before, relatives from his hometown suddenly came over without warning. It all sounded perfectly reasonable, and Zou Shun could only pretend to be generous in order to maintain his image, and even reassured him by saying that he should not worry about it.

But he himself could not let it go. He suspected that the emergencies were all made up on the spot, and that the man canceled plans only because he had already seen the film before with other people.

~

“He doesn’t know that I know his username,” Zou Shun said in a bleak tone, “I found it by accident. For the movies that we said we were going to watch together, he had already rated them and written reviews for them a few days before. Tell me, who else would he be watching them with?”

Fang Mo didn’t say a word.

Because he had already watched those movies with other people, he stood Zou Shun up and refused to admit the truth. This was simply downright bad.

Fang Mo thought of Xu Xiran and felt that if this silly straight man were in the same situation, he would truthfully tell him that he had already seen it before with a girl, and would even be willing to watch it again with him. Xu Xiran did not have demons in his heart, and his actions were always honest and sincere.

That man’s operation was undoubtedly done because he knew Zou Shun would mind if he dated a girl, which meant that he knew that Zou Shun liked him. While neither accepting nor rejecting him, and at the same time, acting ambiguous while trying to get a girl to like him, this man seemed to be complete trash.

Zou Shun was a smart person. All these things that Fang Mo thought of, he couldn’t have not already known.

“This is pointless,” Zou Shun said in a low voice, “I don’t need to be like that with him anyway, why bother.”

Fang Mo hesitated, then finally couldn’t help but say, “The question you asked me last time, now I want to ask you. What do you like about him?”

Zou Shun was silent for a long time, then replied, “I don’t know.”

A while later, he added in a quieter voice, “…Maybe I’m blind.”

~

After hanging up the phone, Fang Mo lay in bed feeling agitated.

He was pissed off and at his wit’s end. If that man was in front of him right now, he would probably go and get into a fight with him. What kind of game was this? Why would he play around with people like that? Zou Shun was good in everything except for his judgment.

In contrast, Xu Xiran was ten thousand times better than that man.

But unfortunately, Zou Shun already knew this truth. He knew that this man was unreliable, and knew that he was foolish himself, so he stopped blindly defending him, but was still unable to let go. This made Fang Mo unable to find a way to console him.

After tossing and turning in bed, he wondered to himself whether he could save the country with a curve1. They say that the best way to let go of a relationship is to start a new one. If he could introduce Zou Shun to a reliable man who was good in every aspect, he might be able to pull him back from the wrong path.

But where could he find such a person?

Fang Mo let out an exaggerated sigh and rolled over in his bed. Suddenly, he heard a sound from less than half a meter from his head.

He was startled and quickly looked up to see that the bathroom door was open, and someone was just walking out.

Fang Mo’s eyes widened, but the other person only bowed his head and politely smiled at him, then passed by his bed as if nothing happened, walked to the bed diagonally from him, and sat down.

It was Liu Xiaochang.

Fang Mo had been on the phone for at least an hour just now. During that time, because he thought that there was no one else in the room, he did not hold back the volume of his voice. From his experience, the doors did not block sound very well, and he was afraid that Liu Xiaochang had heard his entire call.

What has this guy been doing in there for so long? Even if he was constipated, it wouldn’t take that long, not to mention that there wasn’t any flushing sound. Did he hide in there to eavesdrop on purpose?

Noticing that Fang Mo was staring at him, Liu Xiaochang took the initiative to ask, “What is it?”

When he spoke, his expression was calm, as if he wasn’t just caught red-handed.

However, Fang Mo wasn’t fooled. During this period of time, although he didn’t have much direct contact, he lived in the same dormitory after all, so he had somewhat of an understanding of this person. This Liu Xiaochang, most of the time, always acted so calm and unperturbed. No matter what the other two roommates were talking about, if he was mentioned, he would always be able to join in and joke around without putting on airs, but with a level of shrewdness. Fang Mo never took the initiative to talk to him, and even the other two roommates could see that he was cold towards him. However, Liu Xiaochang himself was always unaware of this, and would still take the initiative to greet him whenever he saw him.

Fang Mo didn’t bother to guess his thoughts. If someone else was around, he would be perfunctory, and if he was alone with him, he would simply ignore. Liu Xiaochang didn’t seem to care.

However, at this moment, Fang Mo felt that it was necessary to talk about his behavior just now. He had chatted with Zou Shun for too long, and too much had been said. He didn’t know how much Liu Xiaochang had heard through the door and it made him feel ill at ease.

“What were you doing in there for so long?” he asked.

Liu Xiaochang innocently raised his hand, and showed Fang Mo a pendant on his wrist, “It’s a little rusty so I was washing it.”

Fang Mo frowned, “It took you that long to wash? Why wasn’t there any sound of movement at all?”

“Because when you came back, I was already done washing,” Liu Xiaochang said, “I was in the middle of cleaning up when you suddenly started calling. I felt a little awkward and was embarrassed to come out.”

“……”

Liu Xiaochang smiled at him, “Then I thought about it, and felt that this couldn’t go on anymore. I couldn’t possibly stay in there forever if you didn’t leave. If you have to come in to use the bathroom later, wouldn’t that be even more embarrassing?”

Is it not already embarrassing right now? Fang Mo was speechless. But in the face of his seemingly honest answer, he couldn’t find a comeback, and felt very aggrieved.

In the end, he could only roll his eyes, forcefully swallow his breath, and lay back down.

Just as his head touched the pillow, Liu Xiaochang suddenly spoke up.

“You and that Xu Xiran upstairs. So it’s true?”

Fang Mo suddenly choked, and his face turned red from the coughing. When he finally calmed down and glanced diagonally across, Liu Xiaochang was looking at him with his head tilted slightly.

After struggling for five seconds between “That’s none of your business” and “What did you hear?”, Fang Mo looked at him and nodded slightly.

Regardless of why he came to this conclusion, pretending to be a couple in front of such people was a consensus he and Xu Xiran had reached long ago. Why wait if he could start now.

Liu Xiaochang raised his eyebrows.

“What, what are you doing?” Fang Mo deliberately increased his volume because of his guilty conscience.

Liu Xiaochang suddenly stood up. He walked to Fang Mo’s bed and sat down on the edge. Fang Mo quickly got up and moved back a little.

“What is it?” He looked wary.

Liu Xiaochang leaned over and asked softly in an ambiguous tone, “How did it feel?”

Fang Mo wanted to answer, but he hesitated. He was keenly aware that his words had a deeper meaning. Although Liu Xiaochang’s delicate and pretty face didn’t show any obscenity, it was clear that what he asked was definitely not how it felt to fall in love with Xu Xiran.

To answer this type of question, one can only rely on obscenity. As a virgin, Fang Mo’s face turned red on the spot.

Liu Xiaochang immediately misunderstood, “Wow, pretty good, huh?”

Fang Mo turned his head, laid down again, and issued an order to evict the guest, “Am I really close enough with you to talk about this?”

No matter how cold your tone is when you are blushing, your lethality is limited. Liu Xiaochang shrugged with a smile and returned to his bed.

After being quiet for a while, this guy was unwilling to be lonely again. He whistled, and then asked Fang Mo, “Did one of your friends encounter some emotional troubles?”

It turned out that this guy really did hear it all. Fang Mo was displeased, “Why are you so nosy?”

“I’ve seen him before, right? Is he around this tall?” Liu Xiaochang raised his hand and gestured. “He’s pretty good-looking, the one who always rolls up his pants and exposes his ankles?”

Zou Shun indeed had this habit. But when those words came out of Liu Xiaochang’s mouth, for some reason, it made Fang Mo’s skin crawl.

“Why do you care?” He said while glaring at Liu Xiaochang.

Liu Xiaochang smiled at him and closed his mouth.  Then, he took out his phone from his pocket and began to fiddle with it.

This is a reference to someone collaborating with the Japanese during the Sino-Japanese war of 1937-1945 to secretly work for the Nationalists against the Communists. Figuratively, it means to use indirect strategies to gradually fight the enemy if you are not powerful enough to face them head-on.