One Useless Rebirth

Once again, Di Qiuhe was blacklisted by He Bai, together with his exposed alt WeChat account.

“So, you’re saying…”, cautiously asked Jiang Xiuwen after spending some time pondering over this new information, “since you realized you are in love with him, you have never got a chance to say something or do something about it? So… why did you say you’ve broken up with him? ”

Bang!

After giving the sandbag a hard punch, Di Qiuhe straightened up and took off the boxing gloves. Then he picked up the phone right beside him, turned off the speaker and put it to his ear, murmuring, “Well. I thought it was just I was suffering a summer cold… ”

Jiang Xiuwen: “…Maybe I can explain it.”

“Ok, you give it a try.” Sitting on the ground, Di Qiuhe took a towel from the bag and wiped away the sweat. Then he warned him with a rather gentle tone, “If you dare fool me again, I will make you spit out the fruit that I sent you in the same way you ate them.”

“…” It seemed that the breakup took a heavy toll on his friend. Normally, he would just sneer at him, but now he began to threaten him.

“Why don’t you explain? You don’t want to help me?” asked Di Qiuhe.

Upon hearing that, Jiang Xiuwen who was looking for an excuse to hang up the phone froze for a second, then replied with a strained laughter, “Nonsense! We are old pals. About that….. I was just so shocked. Let me put it this way. You have never shown any sign of homosexuality, and then, all of sudden, you are gay. I’m just dumbfounded. Besides, you don’t have many friends and you never fall in love with anyone, so I’m afraid you are just temporarily lost. What if it’s an illusion?”

“I want to kiss him, hug him, sleep with him and I dream about him all the time. Are these all illusions?”

For a moment, words escaped Jiang Xiuwen, and then he burst into coughing.

Di Qiuhe listened to his coughing with an abstruse expression on his face.

A minute later, Jiang Xiuwen stopped, then he asked sincerely, “Qiuhe… Are you serious?”

Serious?

With eyes slightly closed, Di Qiuhe was reminded of the little puppy eating cold noodles while sitting on the ground, and also the slight swelling on his hand and the tasty fruit cake. In the end, he thought about the first time they met. At that time, the little puppy was crouching by the roadside like an idiot.

“I wanted to be nice to him. I wanted him to live the life he wants. Moreover, I wanted to be a part of his life.” He said in a casual tone which was not to be mistaken for insincerity. “Those have been my desires long before I figure out what it is that I feel about him. That’s why I wanted him to be my little brother, because in this way I would have a legitimate reason to be nice to him.”

Jiang Xiuwen kept silent while listening to him.

“Now I still want to be nice to him. I want him to live the life he wants.” With a pause, he added in a matter-of-factly manner, “I still want to be a part of his life, but I want more. I want him to be by my side, and I want to be with no one but him.”

Jiang Xiuwen held the phone with mixed emotions, then he whispered with a sigh, “Qiuhe…” He knew well about his friend. If he was determined to do something, he would see it through. Though technically he didn’t promise to love him forever, the message couldn’t be clearer.

One wanted to be nice to the other and occupy the other’s life. ‘This is clearly not a simple crush.’

He couldn’t understand how he could fall so deep in love as they had only known each other for less than three months and he only just figured out what he wanted in life yesterday.

“So, Xiuwen, take care of him for me while I’m out of B City. Don’t let anyone make trouble for him.” There was a commotion over at the entrance of the training hall and then they heard Jiang Guanshan’s voice wafting through the air. Di Qiuhe swept a look at that direction and added quickly, “Keep an eye on Qin Li. She knew our relationship. I’m afraid she would make trouble for him. His career is on the rise. I don’t want him to get into any troubles because of me.”

With a frown, Jiang Xiuwen said, “The Qin Family has some troubles entering Area G, so they have been quiet recently. Qin Li is conducting psychological warfare against Di Bian. If she has no time for you, then I doubt she would pay much attention to He Bai.”

“Just in case. It’s best to be on the safe side.” Noticing Jiang Guanshan had entered the hall, Di Qiuhe put down the towel and got up to welcome him. Before he hung up the phone, he said, “Just take care of him for me. Uncle Jiang has got here. I gotta go.”

“Wait! Have you thought this through? As an actor, if you and He Bai were to be together, what would your father think about that? And what about the public…”

“I will deal with it. If he is willing to be with me, I wouldn’t hide him behind my back. Gotta go, bye.” Di Qiuhe hung up and put the phone into his pocket. At that time, Jiang Guanshan had already approached him and they had a hug.

Jiang Xiuwen put down the phone after he heard beeping from the other side. He fell back into sofa and rubbed his forehead with mixed feelings.

Di Qiuhe sounded very serious and without the least hesitation. It was obvious that he had already thought this through and was prepared to face all the potential challenges in the future. But, …. looking at the cellphone and camera on the table sent from Q university this morning, Jiang Xiuwen miserably covered his face with hands.

He didn’t dare to mention this to Di Qiuhe.

His friend was prepared to face the potential consequences, and yet He Bai was trying to draw a line between them. What a complicated relationship. This was truly a shitty situation.

How about sending it back?

Sitting up straight, he put the camera and phone back into the box and put the lid on carefully.

‘Send a message to inform him of this after sending it back. Best let him dream about it for a while.’ In fact, he was partially responsible for this mess. He would apologize to He Bai in person later in hope that it made things easier for his friend to pursue his girlfriend, hmm, boyfriend……

After a whole day of classes, the four roommates got together for dinner. Later, Wang Hu went to play basketball and Chen Jie went to library. Seeing that they were alone, Niu Junjie quitted the game, grabbed a chair and sat next to He Bai. He asked cautiously, “Bai, you and Qiuhe…”

“I blacklisted him.” He Bai replied matter-of-factly. He looked at him with an emotionless face and said, “You have only met twice. We’re going to live together for two years. Recently, there are a lot of news about people poisoning their roommates. ”

Niu Junjie was dumbfounded. Immediately he forgot about the future spokesman for his family. He held the shoulders of He Bai and solemnly proclaimed, “A liar should be punished! Good for you. Don’t be sad. Let’s have some midnight snack. My treat.”

“Thank you.” With a smile, He pointed at his computer screen. “I have a lot of work to deal with. You should go with LaoDa and LaoEr and bring me something if you’d like.”

“Okay, okay, no problem!” Niu Junjie answered without hesitation. Then he returned to his seat, took out of his phone and typed quickly.

Niu Junjie: Qiuhe, Bai is in rage. It’s very bad! What have you done? Did you really just use an alt WeChat account to mess with him? Bai doesn’t look like a man who will get so easily offended.

Di Qiuhe had been waiting expectantly for a reply, but his heart sank when he finally got it. Thinking about the message that Jiang Xiuwen sent earlier, he slouched, feeling even worse than a while ago. Depressed, he started typing the following message:

It’s my fault. I shouldn’t have kept deceiving him with that back-up account after I bought back the autography. How has he been recently? Is he busy at work? Has he been eating properly?

Niu Junjie: Everything is fine. His career is on the rise and he got more bonuses than he can count. He asked another half bowl of rice for dinner and said Elder Xu finally promised to teach him new things. Everything looks good. But he still gets mad whenever he thinks about you.

Di Qiuhe’s heart sank at the word “mad”.

Niu Junjie: Dude, tell me the truth. How did you offend him? I can’t help you if you don’t tell me the truth.

With a sigh, Di Qiuhe replied.

Di Qiuhe: I told him I am a girl.

Niu Junjie: That … is not that bad. Buying back your own autography can be quite embarrassing. It’s quite understandable that you want to hide who you really are. Bai won’t get offended over this. Besides, he is the one who sold out your autography. Both of you have made mistakes. I don’t see why he will get mad at you over this.

Di Qiuhe: I also tricked him into sending me gifts and voice messages.

Niu Junjie: Gifts? Those photos? That’s fine. You also gave him a gift in return. Sounds fair.