CH 13

Song Ning felt a ‘buzz’ in his head as the pen he held in hand fell to the ground with a loud sound.

Liang Rong was awakened from his hypnotic state due to the commotion. He opened his eyes and asked in a daze, “What’s wrong?”

Song Ning’s heart was thumping really fast and heat rose up to his face. He hurriedly bent down to pick the pen up and said, “You were dreaming and talking nonsense just now.”

He didn’t dare to look directly at Liang Rong when he said those words.

Liang Rong quietly watched him turn around and squat on the ground for a long time. The pen was already right in front of his eyes but he was still pretending he couldn’t find it. The corners of Liang Rong’s mouth curved downwards.

“I wasn’t talking nonsense. I meant what I said.”

Song Ning’s back froze and only after a long time did he stand up from the ground and said to him with a solemn expression. “I can pretend I didn’t hear it.”

31.

Song Ning didn’t stay any longer and fled back home.

He didn’t visit Liang Rong for the next one week nor did he go to the clinic.

He plopped down on the couch at home and buried his head under a pillow, ignoring the phone vibrating continuously beside him.

He knew that it must be another message sent by Liang Rong. That guy had been texting him for several days in a row already.

“Ah Ning, I’m sorry. I was too rash.”

“But I really do like you.”

“Can you please don’t ignore me?”

“Ah Ning…”

“I miss you.”

And so on.

In between these texts there would occasionally be some selfies where he looked pitiful. Song Ning felt his heart soften and drop when he saw those, so he steeled himself not to touch his phone anymore.

32.

Song Ning actually knew clearly in his heart that the degree of care he had for Liang Rong all this while long exceeded what a psychiatrist should do.

After all, which psychiatrist would bring their patient home to meet their parents?

It was just that he never bothered to think about what this really meant.

Song Ning had never dated anyone before. The crush he had in high school did not have a good ending and he had only been with a senior in university for a short time.

At that time, both of them were well-known for doing really well academically. While they studied together, they realized they got along pretty well and it slowly developed into a campus romance.

But it was simply a platonic relationship with a focus on academics. In the two-year long relationships, he gained a total of one SCI and two core journals. In the end, their relationship drifted apart as he went abroad to study.

Song Ning originally thought that adult love was meant to be like this. Plain, simple yet full of rationality.

Until he met Liang Rong and learned the existence of a feeling named falling in love.

33.

Song Ning’s mother gave him a phone call over the weekend. Song Ning picked it up in a daze.

“Are you coming back this weekend?” She asked.

“I don’t think so. Didn’t I just return two weeks ago.”

“Aiya, bring your partner back more often for us to see.”

Song Ning was startled, “Since when do I have a partner?”

“You don’t?” Song Ning’s mother asked in doubt, “But I could tell that Xiao Liang was quite interested in you then.”

Song Ning hastily interrupted her, “Don’t guess blindly. We’re not suitable together. And I’m only responsible for curing his illness. Once he recovers from it in due time, he won’t have anything to do with me anymore…”

When he finished that last sentence, Song Ning felt his heart tighten up unconsciously and it was flooded with a faint pain.

It was silent for a while on the other side of the call. Song Ning’s mother threw over some words of advice and comfort, “Son, how will you know if it’s right or not without trying it out when it comes to a partner? Furthermore, he’s a film emperor. If you dated him, the one suffering would be him instead, not you. What are you afraid of?”

34.

Song Ning’s mother worked as a language teacher before she retired so she spent half an hour lecturing him about the importance of ‘fate’. Song Ning finally managed to find an excuse to end the call after that.

However, he couldn’t deny that he was indeed wavered by what she said.

He sat there in a daze for a moment longer. Then, he suddenly jumped up, grabbed his car keys and hurried downstairs.

Song Ning considered himself as a person who lacked any passion towards life. He was only in his twenties, but he already had no special expectations for love.

In his life plan, there might be a good, decent person introduced by a friend, whom he would live out his uneventful life with.

Or maybe he would be single all his life, finding a remote nursing home to grow old after retirement.

But life always has a way to go off the rails in a predetermined track. Somehow, he was led to meet a person named Liang Rong.

Although he didn’t know if this ridiculous love would hail any results, he still wanted to give himself a chance.

In the future, when he sits by the entrance of a nursing home under the sun, he could brag to the other old men there: I once dated the film emperor.