Fishing-Type Beauties Will Never Love Crematorium - Chapter 14

At the full table, only Wei Yan was oblivious. After a brief pause, he slapped the table confidently. “Of course not! I am a straight man, a hardcore straight man!”

As he spoke, he became somewhat defensive. “Little Chen, what do you mean by that? Are you genuinely interested in that stuff, or are you testing my sexual orientation?”

Shen He glanced at Chen Qingtang from the corner of his eye.

Chen Qingtang smiled. “Do not get excited. You were the one who said you had all kinds of things; I was just asking out of curiosity.”

Wei Yan breathed a sigh of relief. “Man, you scared me.”

He had almost lost his reputation.

Shen He lowered his head and continued eating. It must be that I am overthinking things.

Only Luo Xin stared at Chen Qingtang with a strange expression.

Chen Qingtang asked, “What is it?”

Luo Xin hurriedly shook his head, burying his face almost entirely in his bowl.

After the meal, the group headed back to the dormitory. While passing the track, they saw the running teams, and Wei Yan sighed. “Damn it, have you guys started your campus runs yet?”

Since these runs were tied to academic credits, they were a real headache.

Luo Xin replied, “Not yet. It is so exhausting.”

Shen He was the only one who had already finished his runs. “I told you to keep up with your exercise regularly.”

Wei Yan said smugly, “I just do not like running, but I have been working out in the dorm, you know? I even have six-pack abs.”

Chen Qingtang looked at him. “Really?”

Wei Yan patted his chest. “I guarantee it! Do you want to see?”

Since Wei Yan was so forthcoming, Chen Qingtang felt it would be rude not to look. “Let us see.”

Wei Yan walked ahead of Chen Qingtang, walking backward. As he did, he lifted his shirt. “I have six-pack abs! Once summer comes, I am counting on them to help me find a girlfriend.”

Just as he was about to reveal his midsection, Shen He reached out and pulled his shirt back down to cover him.

Wei Yan looked puzzled. “What?”

Shen He said calmly, “There are girls on the track. It is inappropriate.”

Wei Yan muttered, “Fine. Little Chen, I will show you when we get back.”

Chen Qingtang smiled lightly. “I was just asking.”

Wei Yan bit his lip in frustration. “You will regret not looking, I swear.”

Damn it, he thought, I spent so much effort training these abs; why won’t anyone look?

Back in the dorm, Shen He opened WPS Office to continue reviewing his documents. The teacher had sent him the files to add annotations to the key information. After opening the application, the first thing he saw was that glaring, explicit document.

Shen He recalled that Chen Qingtang had been reading it in class, and he pursed his lips tightly. Could I have been wrong? Is this actually a normal document?

Perhaps the term was just internet slang, or maybe it was an abbreviation for some English term. Driven by an impulse he could not control, Shen He hovered his finger over the file. His heart hammered in his chest.

Just as he was about to click, at the very last second, Shen He shut his eyes tightly and pulled his hand back. No. That would be an invasion of privacy.

Shen He took a deep breath, turned away, and opened his own academic document.

At that moment, Chen Qingtang was lying on his bed, watching Shen He’s series of reactions through the gap in his bed curtains. A satisfied smile curved his lips.

Chu Xi sent a message, chatting idly: “What are you doing? I have been asking you to play games for ages and you are ignoring me.”

Chen Qingtang: “Watching something interesting.”

Chu Xi: “What is it?”

Chen Qingtang: “Watching a moral paragon almost break his own ethical principles.”

Watching a pure-hearted person fall into desire and seeing a gentleman tear off his mask; what could be more interesting than that?

Chu Xi: “Is this gossip? I want to hear it.”

Chen Qingtang told him the story from beginning to end.

Chu Xi was shocked, responding with two lines of exclamation marks: “You did that on purpose, right? Are you planning to come out to him?”

Chen Qingtang replied nonchalantly: “I am not going to come out to him.”

Chu Xi paused, his eyes widening: “You want him to discover for himself that you are gay? A passive coming-out?”

He was already very familiar with Chen Qingtang’s tactics. He never acted proactively; he only set the bait.

Chen Qingtang: “It is exploration. He has to take the initiative to explore me.”

Like a seeker exploring a treasure, drawn by an irresistible force to move forward and excavate. Shen He had high moral standards and was nearly obsessive about his integrity. If they reached a point of deep intimacy and Shen He discovered then that Chen Qingtang had hidden the fact that he was gay, his high sense of character would lead him to respect Chen Qingtang’s orientation, but he would inevitably feel repulsed. Their relationship would likely end right there.

Therefore, Chen Qingtang needed to “out” his orientation passively before they became too intimate.

Chu Xi: “Aren’t you afraid he will hate you once he finds out you are gay?”

Chen Qingtang: “Do you think the affinity points I have been farming all this time were for nothing?”

Chu Xi: “Impressive. With all this complexity, wouldn’t it be easier to just tell him you are gay?”

Chen Qingtang: “What do you think is the most agonizing, most intoxicating part of the ambiguity phase?”

Chu Xi thought for a few seconds: “Does he like me? Does he have feelings for me, too?”

Chen Qingtang: “No. It is: Guess.”

You cannot guess the other person’s behavior, their thoughts, or their emotions. Because you cannot guess or figure them out, you toss and turn, pondering it, unable to stop wanting the answer.

People say you should maintain mystery in a relationship, but mystery is not about hiding everything so the other person cannot see; it is about a half-veiled quality, showing just enough to give the other person options and room for imagination. Simply put, it is just two words: “You guess.”

But the things to guess should not be too complex; you cannot leave them with zero clues. You have to provide a thread to guide them. The core is to let the other person go through the process of trying to figure you out.

Chu Xi: “Master! I understand! So dating is just a riddle game.”

Chen Qingtang: “The goal is not just to make them solve riddles, but to stir their emotions, to make them toss and turn because of you, to make them unsettled, to cause emotional fluctuations. If you can throw something at them to make them wonder, never state it directly.”

Stating it directly is like a glass of plain water; it leaves no room for imagination and is bland and boring. The greatest charm of romance actually comes from one’s own imagination and the emotional value generated by what one imagines.

Chu Xi: “I understand now, Master. I feel so strong right now. Bring me a man to practice on!”

Chen Qingtang: “Alright, are we playing the game or not?”

After several instances of feeling an inexplicable desire to open that document, Shen He felt he was on the verge of a major lapse in judgment. He could not ignore the file, nor could he control his desire. For the first time, Shen He realized he had a voyeuristic impulse, which felt so base.

To avoid making a mistake, Shen He decided to sign up for his own membership instead of using Chen Qingtang’s account. Once he had his own account, he logged into Chen Qingtang’s one last time to export his documents.

Just then, he received a message from his teacher. After a quick reply, he switched back to the software.

When a person is busy, it is easy to make a mistake when distracted. In a moment of haste, Shen He clicked on the very document that had been disrupting his peace of mind.

At first, Shen He did not notice. He assumed he had opened his own academic file and intended to do a final check. However, after reading a few lines, he realized something was wrong.

The explicit, extremely suggestive words flooded his eyes before his brain could react. Shen He realized he had opened the wrong document; his fingers stiffened for several seconds, unable to move.

Then, a secret pleasure, accompanied by excitement, surged from his spine to his brain and spread to his chest, expanding like a sponge. His breathing grew shallow. Shen He knew this was wrong; he should have closed the document immediately. But his eyes, seemingly out of his control, greedily scanned the words on the screen.

Under extreme nervous tension, his brain lost the ability to process the text; it just numbly recorded everything he saw. He did not know how long this state lasted until a WeChat notification popped up at the top of his tablet, snapping him out of it.

Shen He jolted, took a deep breath, and closed the document without hesitation.

He closed his eyes firmly. “Shameless.”

What am I doing?

Shen He stood up to wash his face, and only after he had calmed down did he return to his seat to prepare. Although he wanted to continue his work, his brain began to replay the content of the document. The words imprinted in his mind were only then being interpreted word by word.

Shen He sat there, his body slowly becoming rigid and mechanical, his ears flushed with a frenzied red.

Two men?

A few seconds later, Shen He suddenly understood what he had seen, and he stood up abruptly.