A Round Trip To Love Volume 1 Chapter 27 108 Mar 09, 2020

My spirit descending into turmoil, I raised my head.

Lu Feng.

Good heavens, it is Lu Feng.

My visions blurred and cleared up, then blurred again. It was so unreal that I could feel a fainting spell coming on.

Everyone has their own life trajectory, for ours to culminate here is a coincidence too unbelievable.

I took two steps forward automatically, my posture stiff as a board. Keep it together, keep it together. It has been five years, we have both grown up………. We are technically strangers now. I am sure jumping up for a hug and screaming in excitement right now is going to be an overkill, but I am not sure what kind of reaction is the norm.

Lu Feng examined me intently, as if trying to detect any difference between the man standing before him and the Cheng Yi Chen that exists in his memory.

The person I am today is probably beyond recognition.

" Yi Chen. " He uttered the two syllables almost in a stammer, but swiftly recovered with a smile, " I didn't imagine that I would see you again. " He walked towards me, patted my shoulder with his left hand, and stretched out his right hand in a customary gesture.

There were no other options but to shake his extended hand.

An element of surprise lingered in the air. ” Do you know each other?” The director asked with a polite smile.

” High schoolmates, we were pretty close then.”

I chewed on his oversimplified explanation and forcefully swallowed this gross understatement.

The director had not quite brought Lu Feng out the office before Ding Ding burst out impatiently: ” Yi Chen, lady luck is smiling on you now, your promotion is at hand. You just need to grab this chance to reminisce with an old friend during the welcoming dinner for the boss tonight.”

I forced a grin on my face: ” Don't be ridiculous, we have lost contact for many years……… we were not even all that close to begin with………. there's nothing to reminisce.”

Lu Feng paused in his steps, and turned slightly to glance at me.

The dinner was in buffet style with free seating, this arrangement allowed everyone to feel at ease, saving us from getting indigestion if we had to squeeze onto a few big tables with the boss and the directors.

In groups of two or three, some were standing and some were sitting, while me and Ding Ding and Zhu Sha, being the newest recruits in the company has formed our own clique. I did not have the energy to be sandwiched in between their firing cannons so I brought my plate of salad to a corner of the walls to eat in peace.

Those pair of living treasures, one on the left the other on the right definitely raised the bar for being tireless.

” Yi Chen, you are so thin how could you just eat salad, come, let me give you this. ” Zhu Sha plonked two pieces of roasted lamb and a pair of chicken wings onto my plate while Ding Ding appeared irritated at that.

The apple and potato slices in my mouth have been chewed to death yet I could not swallow them down. Lu Feng is In the midst of socializing in a very polite stance not far from me. He has truly changed, no longer the teen in sneakers and battered jeans. The kind of formality and seriousness he is displaying is unlike anything I ever seen him capable of putting on.

Even the suit meticulously worn on his body oozes such a fine workmanship that it was an attire he would never stand for previously…………. the him now, would never use those feet clad with Italian soft leathered shoes to kick someone onto the wall.

Peeking at Ding Ding chattering away, I suspected that he might just kill himself if he knew how much those pair of shoes cost.

I read somewhere that human cells fully rejuvenate itself every seven years, which basically means, after seven years, the friend standing in front of you has transformed from head to toe into a total stranger. In our five years apart……………. we would have changed about 70 to 80%. Five years ago I could not feel fully satisfied even if I owned all of him, but now, just watching him at the side silently, I feel more than contented.

" Are you in a daze alone here?"

" Ah? " I startled like I just awoke from a dream, " No, I have…………" I suddenly realized that Ding Ding and Zhu Sha had snuck away cleanly without my knowledge.

Lu Feng sat down next to me, and seemed to be in deep thoughts while idling with the glass in his hand, we were both speechless.

" How have you been………. these past few years? "

This question could not have been a more conventional conversation starter, hence I should give a fluent response to break the ice, yet I found myself keeping my head lowered, struggling to mutter: " Very good……… I made it to X university………… and came here to work."

" I knew you would be able to make it." He smiled, and casually held my wrist, " You………. why are you still so skinny? "

I shrank back my hand as if touched by burning fire.

We looked at each other with shock and confusion, then both felt embarrassed.

Lu Feng gave a cough, and lowered his glass: " Xiao Chen……… actually……… these few years in US…………"

He was struggling to find the right words.

" For a period of time, I really did forget you…………"

Even though I was mentally prepared for this, my brain went 'thump' and my mind turned into a blank.

" As you know, over there, I thought I would never get a chance to come back and see you ever again, that's why…………….."

" I understand. " I interrupted him in a hurry, afraid to hear more of these truthful, frank and immeasurably cruel words, " I totally understand, you don't have to explain anything! "

Lu Feng looked at me, his lips moved, and I quickly cut him off and said before him: " Your fiancée, how is your fiancée? "

He froze, and nodded his head stiffly. I then injected all the confidence in my being to self-assuredly continue: " She looks very pretty, and come from a brilliant family background, so compatible with you. I saw the news, your engagement ceremony was really grand………… it won't be long until your wedding isn't it. You must not forget to invite me, no matter what……… we can be considered to be friends. I even had some money saved for your wedding gift…………… of course, when it is my turn to get married I will surely send you an invitation too, you must attend my wedding too for old times sake………."

Honestly I do not know what I was on about.

" You have a girlfriend now? "

While he is basking in happiness right now how could I burst his bubble and admit to him, that until now I am all alone in this world. A piteous homosexual incapable of coming out of the closet, and no one is willing to love me.

" Yup. " I smiled like an fool.

" Oh……. is it the long haired girl I saw earlier, the one who is in the same department as you? "

Not trusting myself to produce a convincing sound from my throat, I could only smile some more and nodded my head like a bigger fool.