Even A Heartthrob Can Lose A Puppy - Chapter 2

He Yun caught him.

No matter how slender Si Yu was, he was still a six-foot-one-inch tall man, which caused He Yun to stagger backward a few steps.

Before he could regain his balance, the next second, he was violently tackled to the ground.

Lying on the soft flowerbed where the soil had just been loosened yesterday, He Yun forced himself not to look down, daring only to watch the seabirds sing and fly across the azure sky.

Yet Si Yu’s face appeared much too easily.

He only needed to lift his head, and he would dominate all of He Yun’s vision in such an overbearing and unreasonable manner.

Si Yu always knew which angle made him look better, how to raise his ending tone to sound the most enchanting, and even designed the exact curve of his smiling lips.

“Hello there, new neighbor!”

Si Yu said with a smile.

Si Yu always had a hundred ways to barge into his life.

He Yun should have known this.

A quarter of an hour later.

“Let go.”

“I will not!”

Si Yu gripped the other end of the wooden box, using all his strength to prevent He Yun from easily lifting it away.

“The first green leaf grown from a seed is crucial. Mr. He, surely you do not want to watch your flowers and plants smash flat onto the ground like this?”

He Yun:

Aside from photography, He Yun loved tending to flowers and plants, so his decision to give up the struggle was well within Si Yu’s expectations.

Following that, Si Yu carefully set the seed box down as well.

“When you first saw me just now, you seemed really surprised. What is it, were you actually worried I would leave?”

He Yun turned his face away, refusing to look at him.

“I spent a year looking for you. How could I possibly just leave like that?”

Si Yu stepped closer, softening and lowering his tone. “I really missed you.”

Seeing that He Yun still wore a cold expression, Si Yu lowered his gaze slightly, letting his attention fall back onto the seed box.

“Are these rose seeds? I never saw any in your garden. Do you not love ros…”

“No, roses are too cliché. I do not want to plant them.”

Hearing this, the fingertips of Si Yu, who had been about to touch the young seedlings, froze in place.

Si Yu’s debut work, The Harp Boy, featured a vast amount of rose scenery and metaphors.

And to this day, one of the biggest labels attached to Si Yu was the rose.

He straightened up and looked at He Yun.

Si Yu: “Just admit you do not know how to raise them!”

He Yun:

Just as He Yun was about to speak, a shout rang out from outside.

“Boss, Boss! I parked your car right here for you!”

He Yun was stunned for a moment, as if completely forgetting his standoff with Si Yu, and instead asked, “You drove here?”

Ignoring him, Si Yu walked out the door, cheerfully paid the parking fee, and retrieved his documents and emergency cash from the car.

When he turned back around, He Yun had come outside at some point.

He was staring intently at the sports car, which, despite being washed clean, still showed numerous scratches and dents.

He Yun shifted his gaze away from the Jiang A40101 license plate, his brow furrowing even tighter. “You drove all the way from Jiangcheng?”

Knowing what He Yun meant, Si Yu gave him a dissatisfied look and muttered, “I just do not drive often, it is not like I do not know how.”

This remark did not make He Yun’s expression relax in the slightest, and Si Yu even felt as though He Yun might burn a hole through him with his stare.

“There was a heavy rainstorm in Huaicheng, and all flights were canceled.” Si Yu rubbed his elbow joints, which were still aching slightly from the rain the night before. “It took me forever to find you, and I was not in the mood to wait around for flights.”

Whether or not this reason convinced He Yun, he ultimately said nothing more and walked out of Si Yu’s small courtyard.

Bang!

He Yun’s hand gripped the doorknob, trembling slightly, yet he still failed to control the force with which he shut the door.

He strode over to the window, picked up the black landline phone that could practically be called an antique, and dialed a string of numbers without a moment’s hesitation.

“It is He Yun. Do you know that Si Yu drove for eight hours? How could you let him drive? Do you not know he almost got into a car accident the last time he drove?”

Hiding in the restroom at TK headquarters to take the call, Nie Shuang wore an expression uglier than constipation.

“No, you know what Si Yu’s temper is like. Aside from you, who can control him? Besides, wasn’t he supposed to be vacationing in Tahiti? How did he… hello? He Yun? Hello?”

Nie Shuang stared at the hung-up phone, reacting belatedly.

“He Yun?!”

As executive manager who had spent ten years following Si Yu, Nie Shuang knew far too well about Si Yu’s occasional loss of control and the source behind those incidents.

“If you all do not let me date He Yun, I will go skinny-dipping in the English Channel right now!”

“If you dare introduce He Yun to shoot another magazine, I will publicly come out of the closet this instant!”

“If you cannot find He Yun right now, I am going to unhook this wire and jump down!”

Nie Shuang dared not refuse Si Yu, and no one had ever refused Si Yu before.

Troublemaking media outlets, sharp film critics, waves of audiences… they all showed extraordinary leniency toward Si Yu.

Debuting at seventeen, Si Yu gave mainstream media outlets in both the East and the West a harsh lesson, carving out an entirely unique lane of his own on the screen:

An ambiguous, melancholic Eastern youth with an elusive gender, a cold-blooded homicidal android, a villainous protagonist who plays the pig to eat the tiger, an eccentric and deranged mastermind behind the scenes…

Si Yu always delivered performances that satisfied both academic critics and the commercial market.

“Our Si Yu only takes high-end luxury endorsements!”

“Our Si Yu does not act in small-screen dramas!”

“Our Si Yu pulling a triple crown is just basic operations!”

Si Yu did not even have his own personal social media account in the country, yet fans still poured in like a tidal wave.

It seemed as though all he needed to do was stand there, and every spotlight, flower, and round of applause would rush toward him.

Even the outside world’s intense prying into his heavily guarded private life shifted from initial curiosity to:

#Si Yu goes to the Himalayas to seek enlightenment when he is not filming#

Everyone loves Si Yu.

At least, everyone eventually falls in love with Si Yu, such as He Yun.

Nie Shuang had witnessed the entire process of the cold, aloof iceberg He Yun transforming into an inseparable, clingy boyfriend.

He Yun leaving was something Nie Shuang had never anticipated; but He Yun returning was something he had foreseen long ago.

However, the one thing he could not figure out was whether or not he should inform:

[President Shen: The flight landed ages ago. Why hasn’t he turned his phone on yet?]

[President Shen: If you want to resign, you can tell me directly.]

Nie Shuang grabbed his hair and let out a miserable howl.

“Ahhhhh! It hurts, it hurts, it hurts!”

“Oh dear, you caught a chill. If we do not rub it out with white liquor, it is going to ache too much for you to sleep tonight.”

Looking at the thin and slender-limbed Si Yu, Auntie Zhou spread her hands helplessly.

Yet shortly after, she caught a glimpse of a figure flickering past outside the door and hurriedly called out, “Little Ho, come here!”

Si Yu, who had been wincing in pain and rolling around on the spot, immediately stood up.

“Um, A-yu, he… huh?”

Auntie Zhou turned back, looking in bewilderment at the magically transformed Si Yu.

In front of her, he was clutching his knees with his flushed, slender arms, curled up on the sofa. Half the collar of his shirt had slipped off his shoulder, revealing a fair collarbone, and his peach blossom eyes were brimming with tears, the small mole at the corner of his eye resembling a black pearl in clear seawater.

Auntie Zhou: Why does he look different from a second ago?

“Well, A-yu caught a chill in his joints, and I was massaging him. My hands are rough and my strength is too heavy, so you give him a rub.”

“There is no need, Auntie Zhou. My body is just weak. I do not want to waste Mr. He’s time because of me.”

He Yun:

Huaiacheng, Beidao County, Qingshui Village’s enthusiastic resident Auntie Zhou: “We are just rubbing it with white liquor! What waste of time? Come here!”

Without allowing any room for argument, Auntie Zhou grabbed He Yun, who was holding the clinic bag from the village entrance, and pushed him down to sit.

Immediately after, a porcelain bowl was thrust into his hands, the white liquor inside still carrying dark, burnt ash.

He Yun glanced at Si Yu, who turned away in a huff, acting either out of stubbornness or grievance.

Tap.

Hearing the sound of the porcelain bowl being set down, Si Yu tried to turn back, only to have his wrist gripped by a warm, thick hand.

“Straighten your leg.”

Si Yu turned his head and saw that He Yun’s knuckle-defined hands were coated with a brownish-red liquid.

The pungent scent of medicinal wine instantly filled the entire room.

He looked up along He Yun’s wheat-skinned arm:

Thin lips pressed into a straight line, while his high bridge of nose and raven-feather eyelashes cast shadows across his rugged facial features.

“It hurts.”

Si Yu whispered.

He Yun’s medicinal-wine-soaked palms hovered halfway in the air. A few seconds later, when they came down again, they truly were a bit lighter.

Inside the room, the two of them had been left alone long ago.

Light and shadow poured in through the square window, shining on Si Yu’s legs, which were clad only in loose shorts.

He slowly lifted one leg, resting his foot on the sofa on the other side of He Yun, using his bent knee to trap He Yun within a narrow space.

“It hurts right here, too.”

Si Yu pointed to his knee.

He Yun did not move. He lowered his gaze, staring at the patches of purplish-blue bruises, lost in thought.

Si Yu pulled He Yun’s hand, gently placing his warm palm against his own skin, which was as smooth as mutton-fat jade.

“He Yun, help me rub it out.”

He Yun’s body was entirely different from the cold, damp British Peninsula where he was born; his body was warm.

He possessed a warmth that completely contrasted with his tall frame and rugged exterior.

Every inch of Si Yu’s skin knew this.

Therefore, he leaned closer, resting his shoulder lightly against He Yun’s chest, waiting for He Yun to pull him into an embrace.

The heat around his knee gradually accumulated, and the damp medicinal wine slowly dried.

A tingling sensation traveled all the way from He Yun’s palm straight to his heart.

“Rub it yourself.”

He Yun gripped Si Yu’s lower leg and placed both of his feet back down onto the slippers resting on the concrete floor.

Si Yu watched He Yun’s retreating back as he stood up to leave. Just as he was about to call out to stop him, his gaze was drawn to the plastic bag left behind on the sofa.

Si Yu flipped it open with his fingertips: cold medicine, painkillers, anti-inflammatory drugs, blood-circulation patches…

He Yun understood him far too well.

“So that is why you knew exactly which words would make me give up, right?”

Si Yu gave a self-deprecating laugh, stretched out his legs to rest them casually on the small wooden table, and tilted his head back to stare at the ceiling.

On the ceiling danced the rippling reflections of the pond outside, swaying and shifting until the sea water deepened, transforming into a massive sapphire under the afternoon sun.

“That house by the shore originally belonged to the He family, but you see…”

Si Yu sat on a rock, obediently handing a water cup to the auntie whose throat was parched from talking.

“His grandfather sold it when he went abroad back in the day!”

“Exactly, a person still needs to leave themselves a fallback, otherwise when the descendants run out of options, they have to come back and rent a place to live.”

Si Yu retied the floral headscarf that had been blown loose by the sea breeze and continued asking, “So, going by that, He Yun has been back for a year without a job, and he still has to rent a house? Where does he get his money?”

“Seems like he takes photographs. Sometimes I spot him standing by the seaside all morning holding a camera.”

Standing by the seaside all morning was hardly anything unusual for He Yun. Si Yu had once accompanied him to Africa to photograph wildlife, and He Yun could lie flat in a ravine all day long.

“And then there is growing flowers. His garden is genuinely gorgeous! Sometimes you spot license plates from other places coming over just like you did, driving all the way here just to buy a pot of flowers.”

He Yun’s garden was indeed breathtaking.

Following the seawater and rocks along the southeast corner of Beidao, one would find He Yun’s garden sloping slightly southward.

The three-bedroom house to its north had walls built of blue-and-white stones and a roof covered in green grass, shielding it from the cold northern winds.

This allowed the south-facing garden to fully bask in the sunlight of the northern island.

Blue-purple clematis, larkspurs, wisteria stretching past the wooden fence, and downward into layers of green foliage, alongside neatly separated flowerbeds or clusters of red, yellow, and pink flower patches scattered like paint dropped casually onto a green canvas.

When Si Yu pushed open the small black iron gate and stepped inside, a few small sparrows landed amidst the rose bushes.

They flapped their pretty brown wings, walking proudly along the veranda with puffed-out chests.

He watched the plump little creatures raised by He Yun chirp, fly low, and land lightly in the soil to peck at something.

Si Yu rarely had moments like this. He only ever felt a fleeting sense of peace when he was by He Yun’s side.

He stepped in barefoot, closed his eyes, spread his arms wide, and quietly felt the warm sunlight, the soft soil, the fragrance of flowers, the harmony between man and nature, and He Yun’s interrogation.

Huh?

“Are you trying to figure out whether you crushed more seeds with your feet or more seeds were eaten by the sparrows?”

Si Yu maintained his pose with arms outspread, staring stiffly at He Yun, who was holding a tray with a helpless expression.

“Chirp!”

Having gorged itself and eaten its fill, a plump little sparrow clenched a seed in its beak and cast a grateful look at him before flying off into the distance.

Si Yu: