“Hello, I made an appointment with someone, in this private room.”
The car stopped in front. Lu Youling smiled and asked the front desk about the private room’s floor. The front desk said: “Oh, the room you’re going to is on the sixth floor. Go straight ahead to the elevator. Do you need us to escort you to the private room door?”
“No need, thank you.”
After knowing the floor, Lu Youling could not suppress his joyful mood at seeing Gong Ze. He walked briskly toward the elevator, but suddenly heard the front desk and doorman chatting behind him.
“This is the third one, right… So many guests for this private room today… Strange… I didn’t hear anyone call for service or order anything, and even stranger, no one came out…”
Lu Youling’s steps slowed.
Many people?
What did that mean? He felt inexplicably a little uncomfortable.
Then he heard the doorman retort to the front desk: “What third one? You remembered wrong. It’s only this one. I didn’t see anyone else go in earlier.”
The front desk subconsciously lowered her head to look at the records on her computer and said: “Impossible! I clearly remember—huh?”
Seeing the computer records clearly, the front desk was stunned.
“How can this be? There really isn’t any. But I clearly remember someone named Feng or something, and someone named Sang or something came to ask, right? Is there something wrong with my brain?”
The doorman disapproved: “I was guarding the entrance. If I had seen them, how could I forget? There are few guests in the morning anyway, only a few people total. How could I remember wrong? Maybe you remembered afternoon guests as morning guests. Why don’t you tell me their clothes and appearance, and I’ll help you recall.”
“This… I, I can’t remember clearly…”
So strange…
Logically it was clearly something from two hours ago, but even her memories of those two guests’ faces and appearances had blurred.
“You, you just haven’t slept enough recently.”
“Probably…”
The front desk still felt strange. She always felt she had forgotten something. Sigh, what was wrong with her?
And Lu Youling, who had been secretly listening to their conversation, felt relieved. He resumed his steps toward the elevator, the smile returning to his face.
In the elevator, Lu Youling laughed at himself for being overly suspicious.
Since Gong Ze had invited him, how could he invite someone else? Besides, he and Gong Ze’s friends did not know each other. Wouldn’t that be strange?
Moreover, he looked at the smooth, gorgeous copper-colored inner wall of the elevator. It reflected his flushed, expectant expression. Lu Youling could not help fantasizing about Gong Ze asking him out.
***After that fateful encounter, he had been unable to forget Gong Ze. Perhaps Gong Ze felt the same way about him. So after they coincidentally reunited yesterday, was Gong Ze also thinking of developing a new relationship with him?
Lu Youling looked at himself and could not help smiling. From the corner of his eye he saw the elevator was about to arrive. He hurriedly tidied his forehead hair in the shining elevator. After the elevator opened, Lu Youling hurried to the room Gong Ze had told him.
“Gong Ze?”
He knocked on the door.
Inside, a clear, pleasant youthful voice sounded: “Come in.”
Lu Youling expectantly curved his lips and forcefully pushed open the door. The instant he saw the person inside, the heart in his chest pounded wildly, as if about to jump out of his throat. His blood pressure rose along with it, and his head had a brief dizziness.
Was it because he was too excited?
Lu Youling did not take it seriously, only thinking it was the feeling of love. But he forgot that besides joy, fear could also make a person dizzy and speed up the heartbeat…
He did not notice that the exposed skin on his arms and neck, under his sixth sense’s fear, had erupted with dense goosebumps.
Even less did he know that in Gong Ze’s pocket, the golden feather was continuously emitting power like a pollutant, like radiation.
“I’m late.” Lu Youling tugged his collar with one hand. He was a little short of breath, but at this moment all his attention was on Gong Ze. Lu Youling said shyly: “Have you been waiting long? What do you want to eat? Have you ordered?”
Gong Ze’s hand was in his pocket, thinking about how to start this with Lu Youling. He pulled out one hand and handed him the menu. While Lu Youling looked at the menu, the two chatted.
“No rush on this. You can look first.”
“What?” Lu Youling curved his eyes, his gaze rippling with obvious good feeling. He acted spoiled toward Gong Ze: “You’re going to treat me?”
Even a fool could see his feelings for him.
It was just that now the other was the younger one. As the younger one, Gong Ze found it novel and raised an eyebrow. “Otherwise? I call you out to eat and then we go Dutch?”
Lu Youling burst out laughing.
Then he said: “Dutch is fine too. I won’t look down on you. Our ages are here. I’m already working and you’re still a student, right? Never mind Dutch, I can treat you too.”
Lu Youling was just like his name.
He was like a sika deer in the forest.
Fair, clean skin, monolid eyes, but very large and round. At this moment his elbow rested on the table, chin on the back of his hand, head tilted, looking at Gong Ze with a hint.
Gong Ze found it funny. “What do you mean? Treating me to food, spending money on me willingly? Want to keep me?”
Lu Youling was not embarrassed at having his thoughts seen through. He had always been bold in this area before. In a joking tone he probed: “So are you willing?”
“Heh.”
Gong Ze only smiled and said nothing.
Lu Youling was afraid Gong Ze would think he was looking down on him. Kids nowadays had big tempers and self-esteem. Lu Youling hurriedly pressed down his inner anxiety and pretended not to care.
Lightly he said: “It’s fine if you don’t agree. I was joking.”
“I heard Feng Xueping brag that his good brother is a study god, already handed over to the country. I just didn’t expect that good brother to be you. In the future you’ll definitely have a better prospect than me. Maybe even now you’re richer than me. So this counts as choosing a man early.”
After praising him twice, Lu Youling secretly observed Gong Ze’s expression.
Gong Ze’s other hand pinched the stem of the feather, rubbing it against his fingertip. Hearing this, he smiled. “Then this is too early. Aren’t you afraid your cousin, my good brother Feng Xueping, will find out? Not afraid I have someone I like? Not afraid a kid’s mind is unsettled, interested for only three or two days? I can tell you’re not a casual person.”
Lu Youling: “I thought about it. But who made me like you? The first time, when I woke up in the hotel and found you gone, I started regretting it, but I wasn’t sure. Last night when we slept in the same room, I completely understood my feelings for you. Since that’s the case, why shouldn’t I fight for it?”
Lu Youling took a cigarette from his pocket. Under Gong Ze’s surprised eyebrow raise, he held it in his mouth without lighting it.
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