Part 3

When he got home, the house he had worked so hard to clean was a mess. Tissues had flown all over the place. His beloved fruit bowl couldn’t be saved, shattered in pieces all over the wood floor. And the culprit was lying comfortably on the sofa, chewing on a cushion.

Tao Ran’s eyes darkened, and he said sharply, “Mint!”

Before Mint could react, he pressed it down and said, “You did all this?” Saying this was a waste of time. Tao Ran was already so pissed that he was dizzy. Seeing the mess on the ground, he reached out and hit Mint twice. “Why are you so naughty!”

Mint let out a “meow”, backhanded Tao Ran with a paw, and rushed out. He held down his scratched hand and thought bitterly, as expected of a cat raised by Xu Ziyang, as heartless as its owner.

There was a long wound where he had been scratched, and blood soon oozed out. Tao Ran endured the pain and squatted down to clean up the mess.

This fruit plate was bought by Xu Ziyang. At that time, Tao Ran fell in love with it as soon as he saw it, but then they had just graduated, and they were furnishing the house. The fruit bowl cost more than 4,000 yuan. Tao Ran, who was typically extravagant, hesitated and wasn’t willing to buy it.

But Xu Ziyang took it home. Tao Ran was very happy that day. He jumped on him, hanging on the man, excited and laughing stupidly. Xu Ziyang stroked his hair and said softly, I won’t let you suffer any grievances.

So he really didn’t suffer any grievances.

Xu Ziyang practically held him in the palm of his hand, pampering him like a son. Sometimes Tao Ran felt that he was being spoiled into a mess, but Xu Ziyang just kissed his face and said, I just like to see you acting cute.[1]

Without thinking too much, he accepted this unconditional pampering love.

Later, Tao Ran’s parents died suddenly. Tao Ran almost fainted from crying, lying in Xu Ziyang’s arms, choked with sobs and asking if the heavens couldn’t stand how coddled he was, and wanted to punish him with his parents.

Xu Ziyang was so distressed that his eyes were red. He hugged Tao Ran and said over and over again, you still have me, I will not leave you, I will never leave you.

…Liar.

Tao Ran pursed his lips tightly. He was already thirty, not that innocent and tender little zero[2] now. No one felt sorry for his tears, he could not cry.

But still very upset.

Tao Ran stood up and tried to get the broom, but he didn’t pay attention, slipping and falling on the broken glass all over the floor.

…it hurts.

He was stunned by the fall, and it took him a long time to get up. However, his legs hurt so much that he couldn’t stand up. On his hands and on his legs, he was cut up all over, and bleeding. It hurt too much to speak, but he was thinking that he was really a failure at doing housework.

Seeing this scene, Mint, who had hidden far away, ran out anxiously, circling around his feet and crying out repeatedly, trying to come up and lick his wounds.

Seeing Mint’s anxious appearance, Tao Ran’s tears suddenly fell.

Yes, he still had Mint.

He sat in the broken glass, carefully holding Mint in his arms. Master Mint, who usually refused to be hugged, was unusually quiet at this time. He put his paws on Tao Ran’s shoulders, leaned over, touched together the tips of their noses, and licked the tears on his face lightly.

Tao Ran’s mood suddenly collapsed.

He hugged his and Xu Ziyang’s cat tightly and wept bitterly.

“Dad…Mom…I miss you so much…”

It turned out that no matter how old a person was or how strong he looked, when he was sad, the first thing that came to his mind was his parents.

Mint was very distressed, and licked his face and fingers over and over again. Even though Tao Ran’s embrace was very uncomfortable, it didn’t leave.

After crying, he felt strangely calm. After treating his wounds, feeding Mint, and cleaning the floor, he called Lao Yang and said he wanted to meet tomorrow, and Lao Yang agreed.

As soon as they met up, Tao Ran said, straight to the point, “I plan to break up with Xu Ziyang completely, but I can’t get in touch with him. You let him know, ok.”

Lao Yang was stunned for a moment, “Didn’t you guys break up long ago… Break up… Then what, just break up… What’s the point of saying it again.”

Tao Ran pressed his forehead, “Besides not getting a certificate, we were basically no different from married. All our property was shared. Back then, he said to break up and broke up, and just got up and left by himself. I still had delusions, so I stayed all this time. But he’s been gone for three years, and hasn’t returned to the country once. It’s almost as if he’s avoiding me like a poisonous scorpion. Since this is the case…” He raised the corner of his mouth and forced a smile, “Then what else am I fantasizing about?”

As he spoke, he took out a pile of documents from his briefcase and put them in front of Lao Yang, “Cash, real estate, car… What should be his is his, I don’t want to get any more. You go out this time, and give these things to him and ask him to sign, especially the house. At that time, he directly transferred the property to me, but he paid half of the money for the purchase and the renovation. Ask him if he wants to live in it. If not, I’ll sell the house, and wire him the money when the time comes.”

Lao Yang frowned, “If you sell the house, where will you live?”

Tao Ran looked away and deliberately understated, “I’ll just buy another one.”

Although his parents died unexpectedly, the family property is still there and he has money. It’s just that he didn’t dare to move into the house he grew up in, that he lived in since he was a child. It was full of memories of his parents, and he was afraid that he would collapse.

Old Yang frowned more and more, “Da Yang said it directly when he went abroad, he would give you everything he left in the country. You know his temper. He seems to be good-natured, but he is actually more stubborn than anyone else — He definitely won’t take it. You guys don’t lack these things, keep it, it’s not good to push it around.”

Tao Ran sat there stubbornly, showing a defiant air.

Lao Yang had a headache, wanting to push the balloon out and ask him to go talk to Da Yang’s parents.

Tao Ran suddenly became annoyed, “Why are you being like this, don’t you meet often? If it wasn’t you refusing to give me his contact information, I’d have done it myself long ago — it’s not murder and arson, why is it so difficult to get you to say something to him?”

Lao Yang had a good temper. In the past two years, maybe it was because he sympathized with this abandoned wife or something, but he was extremely tolerant in front of him. For a while, Tao Ran thought he had a crush on him. Later, he found out that Lao Yang felt Xu Ziyang was not quite right. He had no choice but to help Xu Ziyang hide from him, but he felt that he was wrong and couldn’t straighten his head.

Sure enough, when Tao Ran was fierce, Lao Yang instantly became cowardly. He tugged at his hair irritably, “But this thing… this thing, aye.” He sighed and stood up with a frown, “I’m going to have a cigarette, let me think about it.”

This restaurant banned smoking. If you wanted to smoke, you had to go to the toilet. Tao Ran nodded and watched his back as he left. No matter how he looked at it, he felt there was a sense of melancholy.

He frowned.

Lao Yang seemed to be hiding something from him.

Bored of waiting, he took out his mobile phone and started to send WeChat messages to Xu Ziyang.

Tao: I thought about it all of last night. Since you’re so determined, let’s just forget about it.

Tao: This may be the last time I send you a message. I will delete you after I finish speaking. I won’t bother you in the future, are you happy now?

Tao: Actually, even now, I still like you. I can’t help it. I’m a long-term lover. I can’t be like some people, changing their mind so easily.

Tao Ran regretted those words after he sent them out. He thought about why he had become sour again. He had to be chill, chill, so he hurriedly deleted it and wrote it again.

Tao: I will visit your parents from time to time, but don’t be narcissistic, I’m not going for you. They treat me very well, so I want to be grateful.

Tao: Mint will stay with me. After you left, it wouldn’t eat or drink. Every day, it would lie on the balcony and look down, waiting for you to come back. I finally got it to forget you, so it’s mine now.

Tao: I already told Lao Yang that there will be several documents  you need to sign. I don’t want your things, it annoys me to just look at them. You take all of it away.

Tao: You have to take good care of yourself. Find a girl who can make medicinal broth. Don’t you always say that your bones hurt? Let her make bone broth for you to drink.

Tao: No matter what, I still hope you can do well.

Tao: Goodbye. I wish you a bright future and a long life.

In fact, Tao Ran felt very sad when he typed these words, but Lao Yang’s cell phone kept going ding-dong, ding-dong non-stop, and when he sent a message, it made a ring, completely ruining the atmosphere.

Tao Ran laughed angrily, thinking that he claimed to be single, but this was clearly a couple flirting with each other, with so many messages in a row.

When he sent the last sentence, as expected, Lao Yang’s cell phone rang again. Tao Ran was still immersed in sadness at first, but after a while, he realized that something was wrong.

… He sent a message to Xu Ziyang, but Lao Yang’s cell phone rang.

[1] The word here is frequently translated as “coquettish”. It’s basically a shameless kind of cute, like acting like a baby.

[2] “Zero” is Chinese slang for the bottom/shou/uke. “One” means top/gong/seme.