The Stars In Your Eyes - Chapter 217

Bai Yuren looked very calm, while He Zheng clearly looked like he was struggling in the chop-board, waiting for the butcher swinging the knives down.

“Ah, gege. This is my friend, He Zheng. He was in the same year as me, we were often placed in the same division.” Bai Yuren said, answering Bai Yutang’s question. The division Bai Yuren speaks about is the division in the hospital they sent to do their internship.

What makes Bai Yuren consider He Zheng feeling toward her is that He Zheng is not like the other men in their class. One needs to say internship is busy, they also have night shifts in the hospital. A lot of work to do while studying and observing.

The number of men and women in the medical faculty is now shifted, more women compared to men. Some said men tend to protect women. In medical school, that is a trash idiom.. Lots of these men sneak away on their night shift, sometimes their phone could not be reached and left the women to handle the task by themselves.

He Zheng is one of the rare exceptions, and it was not exclusively toward Bai Yuren. It’s in his nature to be kind to women and take more of the guarding hour if he has a night shift with the opposite gender.

This left a deep impression on Bai Yuren, thus she brought He Zheng’s name when her mother questioned her on that night. If only because He Zheng shows some deep gaze on his eyes toward her, Bai Yuren won’t even consider him at all.

For the last three months, she still didn’t feel what she had toward He Zheng could be said as love. But she enjoyed their conversation, she enjoyed his companion, and when the day was bad, she sometimes had the urge to chat or hear He Zheng’s voice.

He Zheng took something from his bag and stood once more, “Hello, my name is He Zheng. Happy birthday, Mrs. Lu Hua. Here is my gift for you. I’m sorry if I didn’t prepare the gift well.”

“Ah Zheng, you don’t have to. This is so kind of you. Come, come.. Eat.” Lu Hua smiled and said.

Bai Yutang waiting, why his cheap sister didn’t introduce him. When his mother talked about his life resume again, he smiled and cut his mother’s conversation with Yang Liu.

“Hello, He Zheng. I’m Bai Yutang, RenRen’s brother. Where are you from?”

Their seat position is the furthest. Bai Yuren, Lu Hua, and Bai Yutang are on the one side, while the other had He Zheng, Yang Liu, and Zheng Nian.

He Zheng answered, Bai Yutang asked again. But don’t need to explain that it’s really difficult to conduct conversation this way.

This time, it’s Lu Hua’s turn to cut Bai Yutang, “Don’t scream in my ear. Better you talk to Zheng Nian.” Then she whispered, “Don’t make her feel uncomfortable..”

Bai Yutang now often talks with clients and vendors, and his nature is also not the one who is too timid to talk to new people. So he forced a smile and talked about trivial things to Yang Liu and her daughter.

Luckily Bai Yuren dragged her mother and Yang Liu to talk to her and He Zheng. Lu Hua already knew He Zheng, Bai Yuren took him to their house several times under Lu Hua’s invitation to eat lunch together.

With mother’s attention dragged away, Bai Yutang and Zheng Nian eat their dinner in silence, and only speak again when their mother remembers their hidden mission and urges them to speak again.

One hour later after they ate the sweet snow fungus soup, Lu Hua said, “I heard Zheng Nian needs to buy a new rice cooker for her apartment. Why don’t you accompany her for a while, TangTang? You like to cook so you must know which brand is the best.”

Bai Yutang’s face is very stiff. He wants to reject, but he also can’t humiliate his mother. So finally both of them stand up and walk to the supermarket downstairs. While walking, both of them are very silent, until they arrive in the supermarket.

After Bai Yutang gave his opinion for the rice cooker brand and size, which suits two girls who rent the apartment together, they pay. There’s short queue in the cashier, Bai Yutang took this opportunity to speak.

“I’m sorry to make you uncomfortable, Ms. Zheng.”

Zheng Nian smiled shyly, “It’s okay. I know you’re not interested in me. Pardon my mother, she’s just too excited and worried about me being single.”

“I already have a lover.” Bai Yutang said. “It’s just my mother doesn’t agree with me being with my lover.”

Zheng Nian looked at him with pity, and she didn’t probe further. “Good luck, hope auntie will bless you and your girlfriend soon.”

Bai Yutang didn’t correct Zheng Nian’s words and just smiled. While Zheng Nian paid, he texted his lover, telling that he just finished the dinner and will go home after this. Bai Yutang reflexively took the rice cooker, carried it for Zheng Nian and went back to the restaurant.

The four people left there already finished their drinks and talked to each other. Bai Yutang excuses himself to settle the payment then they prepare to go home.

He Zheng said his goodbye. He will ride the bus again to go home. Bai Yutang wants to interrogate his sister later on. What kind of ordinary friend who came to the mother’s birthday? Definitely more than friends. But he has a good impression of this man.

“TangTang, we’ll send Mrs. Yang Liu and Zheng Nian first to their house.” Lu Hua said.

“Okay, mom.” Bai Yutang said.

Lu Hua and Yang Liu told Zheng Nian to sit in the front. Both Zheng Nian and Bai Yutang were truly good children who didn’t refute their parent’s words.

Bai Yuren needs to admit, if there’s no Jian Kang Lu, maybe both of them could make a good couple.

The next day, Bai Yutang prepared to come back to B city again. Last night was still his mother’s birthday celebration, so he didn’t say anything. But he couldn’t sleep last night, and he also didn’t tell his lover about what happened.

His heart is heavy, and he knows his mother won’t give up if he doesn’t confirm his position. So after lunch, before he calls for the taxi to bring him to the airport, he speaks with his mother.

“Mom.. I love you, and I know you mean well. It’s just that I’m not interested in women. So please don’t do things like yesterday again.”

Lu Hua sat in the living room watching television. She didn’t divert her eyes from it. “How do you know if you never try. You just blinded by that devil. He always guards you tight, it is only because you never try and never see the world outside thus making you think that way.”

Bai Yutang put his elbow on his knee, his palm supporting his forehead while he lowered down his head. “No mom. I have always been interested in men, even before I met gege. I’m lucky I finally found a man who wants to love me back.” He lied.

“What do you mean by that?” Lu Hua turns her head, her eyes still stubbornly believing that his son is a normal guy who is led astray by the devil.

“I never could be interested in girls no matter how I try, mom. Since high school, I have only liked men. So even though I force myself to have a girlfriend, it won’t be fair to her since I can’t like them at all,” Bai Yutang decides to lie. He thinks this is the best way to cut her mother’s hope for him to have a wife in the future.

Lu Hua cried again. She didn’t want to hear this kind of conversation. She’s so happy last night to see her son walk together with Zheng Nian. She already imagined the wedding, and Zheng Nian gave her a bunch of cute grandchildren.

A loving family, a normal family.

“Why can’t you try again? For me?” She took the tissue to wipe her tears.

“I’m sorry mom.. I could try but then i can’t be happy, and the girl definitely can’t be happy too. Don’t you pity her? I could only lie to her and rob her future, give her a fake marriage and fake life? Zheng Nian is a good girl. Do you want her to suffer in that kind of life? I definitely can’t give her children like she deserved also.”

Lu Hua’s tears fell again. Her hope shattered in less than 24 hours.

Bai Yutang walks to his mother and hugs her tight. Her mother is skinny now. His heart ached to know he gave his mother suffering instead of happiness. Just like every child in this world, he also wants to give his parents the happiness and the peace of mind in their further life.

“I’m sorry mom, I’m really sorry.” He rubs his mother’s back. “I’m sorry, but this is who I am, and I can’t change it. This is not your fault, not everyone’s fault. This is not my fault either. I was born this way. I’m sorry I can’t be the son you want me to be, but I beg you to see that I’m happy with my choice..”

Lu Hua answered with her choking voice. Her tears could not stop. They stay in silence, hugging each other.

Bai Yutang was still comforting his mother when he saw the clock. It’s almost 2 o’clock, he needs to go now or else he will miss the flight.

“I need to go, mom.. Don’t cry, okay? I’ll visit you again next month.”

Lu Hua still had some tears lingering in the corner of her eyes when she saw her son call a taxi and took his luggage upstairs. She still has the moist on her eyelashes with red face and puffy eyes when she waves goodbye to her son.

She slowly closes the gate and walks back to her empty house. Her skinny hands open the door and then close it. She laid her back on the door, facing the desolate living room. Her eyes are empty. She steeling her heart to face another day in loneliness.