"Please bring three more pairs of chopsticks," Yu Huan pressed the service button beside the table, his expression calm as if he hadn't just uttered something shocking.
"What the hell do you mean you're gay?!" Ruan Qiuping finally reacted, slapping the back of Yu Huan's head. "You only learned that term a few hours ago and now you're gay?!"
He had looked utterly shocked earlier when watching the video, as if he'd just discovered two men could do that kind of thing together. And now, less than two hours later, he's claiming to be gay—who would believe that?!
Yu Huan covered the back of his head where he'd been hit and angrily shouted at Ruan Qiuping, "Ruan Qiuping!"
"What!" Ruan Qiuping yelled back even louder.
Yu Huan's chest heaved with anger as he glared at Ruan Qiuping, his eyes reddening slightly.
Ruan Qiuping felt a bit unnerved by the glare and immediately lowered his voice, "What's wrong..."
Yu Huan gave Ruan Qiuping another red-eyed look, then stood up, grabbed his jacket, and stormed out.
Ruan Qiuping: "..."
Ruan Qiuping also stood up and gathered the remaining things, saying to the two girls opposite them, "I'm sorry about that. The kid's going through his rebellious teenage phase. I went through it many years ago too... Sorry you had to see that. The bill for this table has already been paid, so please continue eating."
With that, Ruan Qiuping took his things and ran out to chase after Yu Huan.
Yu Huan, with his long legs, was walking away quickly. By the time Ruan Qiuping ran out, Yu Huan had already reached the end of the street.
"Yu Huan!" Ruan Qiuping called out Yu Huan's name.
Whether it was his imagination or not, Ruan Qiuping felt that Yu Huan started walking even faster after he called his name.
What on earth is little Yu Huan sulking about...
Ruan Qiuping sighed and ran towards Yu Huan.
But after just a few steps, he noticed his shoelace had come undone. Ruan Qiuping frowned. There were many people here, and if he stopped to tie his shoelace, he might lose sight of little Yu Huan when he looked up. But if he didn't tie it, he wasn't sure if he could escape the curse of inevitably tripping when a shoelace comes undone...
While Ruan Qiuping was lost in thought, a small leather ball suddenly rolled into the middle of the road.
Ruan Qiuping stared at the ball, alarm bells ringing in his mind: Ah! Could this be the legendary ball of misfortune that always brings about a traffic accident?!
The driver of an approaching electric scooter had clearly seen this scene too, as well as the small child taking tiny steps to retrieve the ball.
Her heart tightened, and she hurriedly pressed the emergency brake while instinctively swerving—
"Bang!"
The electric scooter crashed hard into another motorcycle parked by the roadside. Ruan Qiuping was quite close to this motorcycle, and fearing it might fall on him, he hurriedly stepped back. But as soon as he moved, he tripped over his shoelace and fell to the ground. The next second, the motorcycle that had been hit by the electric scooter came crashing down hard onto Ruan Qiuping's leg!
Ruan Qiuping: "..."
The driver who caused the accident let out a scream, the child holding the ball began to cry and make a fuss, and Ruan Qiuping silently looked up at the sky, letting out a deep sigh.
See? Only the god of misfortune gets hurt in this world.
However, this accident didn't bring only bad things. For instance, Yu Huan, who had almost been lost in the crowd, pushed through the people and walked over.
Yu Huan looked at Ruan Qiuping, who was still waving his arm with a bright smile on his face even after being pinned down by the motorcycle, feeling both angry and heartbroken.
After dealing with the tearful, repeatedly apologizing girl who caused the accident, Ruan Qiuping let out a long sigh of relief.
"You're quite magnanimous, not blaming anyone at all," Yu Huan said coolly.
"Who should I blame? The passerby who knocked the child's ball away, the child who went to pick up the ball, the girl riding the electric scooter, the motorcycle owner who parked illegally... There are so many people, it would be too troublesome to blame them one by one. It's simpler to blame my own bad luck... Oh right, it might also be because my shoelace came undone. I'm cursed to fall 100% of the time when my shoelace comes undone..." Suddenly, Ruan Qiuping thought of something else and turned to look at Yu Huan, saying, "Maybe the accident happened because of me. Because I appeared here, the luck in this area was ruined, so an accident occurred."
"What does it have to do with you?!" Yu Huan frowned, saying angrily.
Ruan Qiuping didn't say anything, just grinned.
Yu Huan took a deep breath, his eyes fixed on Ruan Qiuping's bloody wound, and asked, "Are you sure you don't want to go to the hospital?"
"No need, I know my own body best." Ruan Qiuping reached for the bag of medical supplies Yu Huan had just bought.
Yu Huan moved his hand away and crouched in front of Ruan Qiuping, taking out alcohol and cotton swabs: "Let me do it."
"No." Ruan Qiuping moved his leg away, saying, "I'll do it myself. If you touch my blood, you'll become unlucky."
Yu Huan pressed his lips together, not saying anything.
Ruan Qiuping snatched the items from Yu Huan's hands, saying, "If you become unlucky because of me, I'll be sad."
Ruan Qiuping held the cotton swabs and alcohol but didn't immediately start treating his wound.
His blood not only represented misfortune but even had the property of corroding everything it touched. These cotton swabs and gauze would probably instantly burn to ash upon contact, but this was something Yu Huan absolutely couldn't see.
Ruan Qiuping blinked, then touched his throat and said, "I'm so thirsty..."
"I'll go buy you some water."
After Yu Huan left, Ruan Qiuping finally breathed a sigh of relief. He used magic to treat his wound and the blood, then symbolically wrapped it with gauze.
As the sky gradually darkened, Ruan Qiuping leaned on Yu Huan as they walked towards home.
Although Ruan Qiuping had used magic to treat the wound, his powers in the human world could only stop the bleeding, not completely heal it.
Therefore, he was still limping as he walked, looking quite strained.
Yu Huan let go of Ruan Qiuping's hand and crouched down in front of him: "I'll carry you on my back."
Ruan Qiuping hesitated for only a moment before climbing onto Yu Huan's back.
No need to be polite with his own child.
This was the first time Ruan Qiuping had been carried on someone's back. Both his feet were off the ground, and he didn't need to use any strength at all. It was a strange feeling. Ruan Qiuping hugged Yu Huan's neck and swung his dangling legs.
"Don't move around," Yu Huan said.
Ruan Qiuping stopped moving, obediently hugging Yu Huan's neck tightly, and asked, "Am I heavy?"
"It's fine."
Ruan Qiuping turned his head to look at Yu Huan's profile and asked again, "Are you still angry?"
Yu Huan didn't say anything.
...Seems like he's still angry.
Ruan Qiuping lay on Yu Huan's back and said softly, "I was wrong this time, I'm sorry... I didn't respect your opinion and tried to set you up with someone, so you acted impulsively and said those things to spite me..."
Ruan Qiuping paused for a moment, then continued, "But you're quite good at applying what you've just learned. You just watched that film and learned about those things, and immediately applied it to yourself. But that excuse was too fake, it was obviously just something you said on the spur of the moment. Not just me, even those two female classmates wouldn't believe it at all... But Ouyang Classmate must be very upset. After all, you even made up such a lie to reject her. The young lady must feel quite hurt. When you have the chance, remember to apologize to her... Little Yu Huan, why aren't you saying anything?"
Yu Huan didn't know what to say.
When he said those words in the private room, there was indeed an element of impulse, and also a component of opposing Ruan Qiuping and trying to spite him, but there was no element of lying.
After saying those words, not only were those three people shocked, but Yu Huan himself was also startled. He was just pretending to be calm.
Leaving the private room was partly because he was angry that Ruan Qiuping didn't believe what he said, and partly because he didn't know how to face Ruan Qiuping.
"...Little Yu Huan?" Ruan Qiuping asked tentatively, "Are you not talking to me because you're still angry?"
Yu Huan was silent for a moment, then said, "It's because I'm carrying you on my back, so talking takes a lot of effort."
"Then I'll get down."
"No need." Yu Huan carried Ruan Qiuping even tighter.
"There's a taxi!" Ruan Qiuping pointed at a taxi not far away and said, "Put me down, let's take a taxi."
Yu Huan's steps faltered for a moment, then he continued carrying Ruan Qiuping forward.
"...Taking a taxi is not conducive to energy conservation and emission reduction," Yu Huan said.
Yu Huan's apartment wasn't large; it was a studio with only one bed.
Fortunately, the bed was big enough that when Ruan Qiuping had visited before, he and Yu Huan had always slept together on it without feeling cramped.
However, today Ruan Qiuping had been rolling around on the bed for a long time, bored, without seeing Yu Huan come in to sleep.
Ruan Qiuping got out of bed, wanting to see what Yu Huan was doing.
But when he opened the door, he found that the living room light was already off, and Yu Huan was lying alone on the pitch-black sofa, seemingly asleep.
Ruan Qiuping was taken aback.
Yu Huan lay on the sofa, his back to him, just like the countless cold, indifferent figures Ruan Qiuping had seen turning their backs on him before.
Ruan Qiuping initially thought that since Yu Huan was already asleep, he shouldn't disturb him, and whatever it was could wait until tomorrow.
But his feet remained rooted to the spot, unable to turn back.
Ruan Qiuping finally walked to the front of Yu Huan.
Yu Huan hadn't actually been asleep, and upon hearing footsteps, he opened his eyes.
The living room was unlit, with only a faint light spilling over from the bedroom.
Ruan Qiuping stood motionless in front of him, his gaze somewhat lost and confused.
Ruan Qiuping just looked at him, light flickering in his clear eyes, and carefully said:
"Yu Huan, you can be angry with me, but please don't ignore me, okay?"
There were no tears in Ruan Qiuping's eyes, but Yu Huan felt as if he was about to cry at that moment.
Yu Huan sat up on the sofa, seemingly at a loss, his voice involuntarily softening: "I'm not angry with you, I just... just have some things I need to think about."
Yu Huan looked at Ruan Qiuping and sighed softly in his heart.
He stood up, reached for Ruan Qiuping's hand, and said gently, "Come on, let's go to sleep."