After The Honest Person Was Discovered For Simultaneously Pursuing Three People - Chapter 21

Chapter 21: Goodbye

Beep! Congratulations, host, your mission is 32% complete! Keep up the good work!

The mechanical voice in his mind was harsh and cold. Tao Ning remained silent and still, watching the man who was kissing his wrist. Finally, he withdrew his hand.

The man kept his head down, his posture unchanged as if he were a rigid statue.

Tao Ning couldn’t see the expression on his face. After a long pause, his voice was soft and light: “Zhao Jingqun… I’m sorry.”

Zhao Jingqun lowered his eyes and never looked up. When he heard Tao Ning, he feigned composure and asked, “My little dummy… would you be willing to elope? We can go somewhere where no one knows us. I’ll support you while you study. I swear I won’t let you suffer at all. Just give me three years, and I’ll get you a house in the best neighborhood in Star City, I…”

“Zhao Jingqun.”

The two simple words, spoken in a soft and gentle voice, effortlessly interrupted the man’s desperate attempt to prove himself.

Zhao Jingqun finally looked up, his eyes shockingly red. The man whose eyes were always full of indifference and ruthlessness now looked like a child about to be abandoned, gazing at Tao Ning on the hospital bed with a pathetic, bewildered expression.

The morning light shone in, casting their shadows on the white wall. The shadow on the bed was slender, and the simple words it spoke instantly made the tall shadow on the floor tremble.

“Let’s… let’s break up.”

“…Why?”

Zhao Jingqun closed his eyes, then reopened them, and the emotions inside suddenly became calm, as if nothing had happened. His tone was even a little forceful: “Tao Ning, tell me… why?”

For a long time, no other sound echoed in the room. Finally, Tao Ning looked at his now dull red hair. He remembered when he first met him, that red hair was wild and unrestrained, and its owner’s lips always held a hint of a cold smile, making him look unapproachable.

But only Tao Ning knew how warm and passionate his embrace was. After living at his house for a while, black roots had grown out from under the red hair.

He watched for a long time before finally saying, “Because of your red hair.”

Zhao Jingqun watched Tao Ning speak calmly, and the latter said it a second time, “…I don’t like your red hair.”

—Your red hair was so eye-catching. You would rest your head on my lap and ask me to see if you had any gray hairs. If I didn’t find any, you would use that as an excuse to kiss me.

His gaze moved to his ears. Tao Ning continued, “…I don’t like your earrings.”

—You would deliberately rub your earrings against my neck. The coldness of the earrings sliding on my delicate skin always made me feel shy. I would push you away, but you wouldn’t stop.

“I don’t like…”

“That’s enough! Tao Ning.” Zhao Jingqun roared, then almost pleaded, “Don’t say anything else… Don’t say it.”

He was breathing heavily, his fists under the hospital bed clenched so tightly they were almost bleeding. His fingernails dug deep into his flesh; only the pain could keep him from losing his mind at that moment, like a lone wolf being driven out by its pack, barely surviving. “Does it have to be this way?”

Tao Ning stared back at him in silence. After a long moment, he nodded very lightly and slowly.

The second hand on the clock in the room moved for a minute. Finally, the man said nothing more and left the place.

After that, Tao Ning never saw Zhao Jingqun again. The night he went home, he saw the photos the system had sent him.

The background was the vast universe. Under countless dazzling galaxies, the Earth was like an insignificant blue speck of dust, lonely in this mysterious ocean of the cosmos.

System, are there other people doing missions like this?

Uh… well, that’s a secret of our research institute. I can’t tell you. My little dummy, what’s wrong with you?

Nothing.

After a while, the system heard its host ask again: Is Zhao Jingqun okay?

My little dummy, I’ve told you before, I can’t see the things and people that you can’t see either.

Oh.

Tao Ning didn’t ask again. His room at home was mostly empty. Zhao Jingqun hadn’t taken his things with him, except for the love letter. After that day at the hospital, he never returned. Tao Yuan gradually sent all of his original and newly bought items to Secretary Liu’s house.

But there was one thing Tao Yuan couldn’t find, which was the phone Zhao Jingqun had given him, because Tao Ning had hidden it.

Tao Yuan, of course, knew this and sternly asked him: “Where’s the phone? Tao Ning, hand it over. Our family can’t take a single thing from him.”

The boy, being scolded, lowered his head, still in his old state, not resisting but also not speaking, like a sluggish snail that retreats into its shell when stimulated by the outside world.

Tao Yuan’s heart eventually softened. She sighed and said with a straight face, “Forget it. That phone must be expensive. You can sell it for a lot of money later… If you dare to contact him secretly behind my back, I’ll beat you, you hear me? And you can forget about having the phone.”

“Yes.”

The boy agreed with Tao Yuan, but late at night, in the dead of silence, he would stare blankly at the phone screen with no new messages. But he would only watch for a while before the exhaustion took over and he would fall asleep.

He returned to his old life. There were about ten days left before the summer vacation ended. The system told him to wait for the news about going to the city, and Tao Yuan was busy preparing a farewell banquet for him.

Tao Ning refused, “Let’s just eat at home.”

Tao Yuan said, “How can we do that? You won’t be back for a year or two once you go. It’s not convenient for me to visit the city, and it’s not convenient for you to come home. We’ll only be able to see each other every few months…” As she spoke, tears flashed in the eyes of this strong woman again. “No, you must listen to me on this. I’ll contact the relatives tomorrow and ask everyone to come and send you off.”

Tao Ning couldn’t argue with her and had to agree. He counted down the days, and he never opened the phone again, packing it into the luggage he had prepared for the city.

Little Meng didn’t want him to leave. These past few days, he insisted on sleeping with Tao Ning. When he snuggled into his arms, he would ask innocently, “Uncle, what are airplanes like? Mom said there are also fast-moving cars in the city. What are they called?”

“I don’t know.” Tao Ning stroked his head, looking at the dilapidated concrete ceiling. “Probably high-speed trains.”

“Oh… So, Uncle… are you going to take a high-speed train to the city…” Little Meng mumbled, falling into a hazy sleep.

Tao Ning didn’t answer. Faced with completely unfamiliar things and places, he finally felt a sense of unknown bewilderment.

A few days before he was scheduled to leave, the house suddenly became lively. First, Li Xiangdong, who was chased away by Tao Yuan, came back. Then came Tao Ning’s eldest and second sisters. Having not seen them for six or seven years, they brought their families, including nephews and nieces Tao Ning had never met.

They congratulated Tao Ning with joyful faces, “Oh, the smoke from our Old Tao family’s ancestral grave is finally turning green. Ning Ning is going to study in the city, and tuition is all waived! It’s such an honor for our family!”

“That’s right, that’s right,” the second sister echoed with a smile. “If our dad knew this in the afterlife, he would be so happy he’d drink a few big bowls. He loved to have a little drink every now and then…”

Tao Ning, the person of interest, who was being watched like a tourist attraction, sat at the dinner table and didn’t respond, which made his two sisters feel awkward and they could only laugh dryly. The house was very noisy because there were three children in total.

One of the nieces was clamoring for the only chicken drumstick. The other two nephews also wanted it, but normally, Tao Yuan would give the drumstick to Little Meng and Tao Ning. Now that there were three more children, plus Little Meng and Tao Ning, there wasn’t enough to go around.

To curry favor, the second sister slapped her daughter’s hand as she reached with her chopsticks: “Eat, eat, eat, all you know is to eat! You can have this chicken drumstick when you can study as well as your uncle.” After saying that, she flatteringly picked up the drumstick and put it in Tao Ning’s bowl, saying happily, “Good Ning Ning, you eat, eat more and grow taller so you can bring honor to us out there…”

She rolled her eyes. “Ning Ning, what school are you going to in the city? Do you have the number of the person who’s sponsoring you?”

When the eldest sister saw her get ahead, she immediately became unhappy and quickly told her two sons to get the oat milk she bought from their bag. “Oh, what’s so great about this chicken drumstick? Our Ning Ning needs to eat more tonics…”

As soon as she said this, the second sister became dissatisfied, and the two of them started to argue noisily. Li Xiangdong was so annoyed that he took his bowl and went outside. Tao Yuan, who was still in the kitchen serving dishes, came in and saw the two of them almost fighting. She shouted angrily, “Are you two done?! If you’re not going to eat, get out!”

“Eldest sister, you’re still so unpleasant to talk to…”

Tao Ning lost his appetite and quietly packed up his bowl and chopsticks and left the main hall. He went back to his room and continued to pack his luggage. He didn’t have many things. After packing his room, he only had two hemp sacks and a very heavy backpack.

He sat on the bed in a daze, and the phone screen lit up. Tao Ning quickly picked it up. It was a text message from a contact named “Husband”—

Liar.

Tao Ning’s heart skipped a beat. He stared at the two words in a daze. He finally didn’t reply and turned off the phone.

The next afternoon, Tao Yuan took the family of more than ten people, old and young, to the largest restaurant in town. Of course, she had collected money from the relatives in advance, which was her ultimate goal.

Halfway through the family meal, a waiter suddenly came over and said to Tao Ning, “Handsome young man, there’s a person with the last name Zhao waiting for you at the entrance.”

Tao Yuan was already a little tipsy, but she had been extremely sensitive to anything concerning Tao Ning lately. When she saw the waiter whispering to him, she immediately glared. “What are you doing, Tao Ning?”

The others didn’t know what had happened and criticized Tao Yuan for being too strict with her brother. What could a boy possibly get up to? Tao Ning said calmly, “Sister, the restaurant has prepared a cake for me. They want me to go get it.”

Tao Yuan impatiently told the others to shut up. Hearing this reason, she marveled at the good service of big restaurants and waved for him to go.

When he got to the restaurant entrance, it was actually very dark. Tao Ning looked around. Instantly, someone covered his mouth from behind and picked him up, carrying him horizontally into a small alley.

Just as Tao Ning was about to struggle, a familiar, strong smell of tobacco surrounded him, and he instantly gave up. In the darkness, he could vaguely see the man’s stubble, which looked much more tired and weathered, and his tense jawline, which signaled that the man was in a very bad mood.

Zhao Jingqun didn’t put him down until he reached a secluded street lamp. As soon as he set him down, he spoke directly: “Tao Ning, I dyed my hair black, and I threw away all my earrings. Now my car is right outside this alley… Will you come with me?”

Tao Ning stared at him, stunned, and only then did he realize that the person in front of him had changed so much. The wildly fiery red hair was now dyed black, covering up some of his roguishness. With a simple shirt and trousers, he looked almost like a boy next door.

The man’s ears were also clean, with nothing there. He just stared at him with his dark eyes, which were bloodshot. His lips were chapped to the point of bleeding. There was anticipation, nervousness, and fear in those eyes… and the love he had spoken of.

What had he gone through in the past few days? Tao Ning wanted to ask but said nothing.

So the two of them stood in the dull and dim alley, staring at each other without a word. There had been another heavy rain a few days ago, and the water on the eaves hadn’t dried up. It dripped continuously onto the ground like a broken string of beads, pattering, pattering, and coinciding with their gradually solidifying heartbeats.

Until Tao Yuan’s anxious calls came from a distance, Tao Ning soberly understood that it was time to get back on track.

Finally, Zhao Jingqun watched the boy’s slender back, leaving the dim alley step by step. He was speechless for a long time. A clear voice came from behind him: “Brother, aren’t we leaving yet?”

Zhao Jiansui came over in her high heels. She could only see the man’s silent back, lonely in the dim light. There was only his shadow on the ground, and nothing else.

“…Brother?”

She was puzzled. She went forward and reached out to get the attention of her brother, who had little affection for the Zhao family, but her hand froze in mid-air when she saw the expression on his face.

The raindrops on the eaves continued to fall, making a dripping sound.

It turned out he was crying.

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