Unspeakable

After Shen Kanyu spent days and nights completing the “friendship beta” with his delinquent friends, 《Laughter in the Vast Seas》 approached perfection and it was soon open to appraisal discussions.

Gu Yansheng, who was in the middle of doing a comprehensive analysis of the game’s framework, felt his phone continuously vibrate in his pocket. Once he finished his speech and returned to his seat, he immediately took it out.

It was his college roommate, Li Kui. A hoodlum who was now saying he had turned over a new leaf, that he wanted to throw himself into the gaming industry and earn money by riding Gu Yansheng’s coattails. Knowing that he was shrewd and conniving, Gu Yansheng had told him many times that he’d be able to apply for any job he wanted once the game was officially launched and recruitment was open to the public. Yet he stubbornly wanted to worm his way into being a limited partner, someone who only inserted capital and didn’t put in the work.

Since Gu Yansheng didn’t answer his calls, he simply bombarded him with WeChat1 messages. 
[T/N: 1Chinese messaging app.]

[Sheng-ge, are you there? Sheng-ge?]

[Sheng-ge, I hear your masterpiece’s just about done. Bring me along, eh?]

[I’m at your house downstairs. Come out, let’s talk.]

[By the way, is sister-in-law at home ah? I’ll seek him out to play.]

Once Gu Yansheng saw the last message, his face stayed expressionless as he clenched his teeth. Lowering his voice, he said to Su Tong who sat beside him, “I need to head home. I’ll be back soon.”

Su Tong was slightly stunned, “What’s wrong?”

“Something urgent.” Gu Yansheng answered in a muffled voice as he gathered the documents on the desk.

“Okay,” Su Tong didn’t question him anymore and responded softly, “I’m here, it’ll be fine.”

Gu Yansheng made a sound of agreement and got up to leave without delay.

***

After parking his car in the lot, he took a shortcut home, only to run head-on into Li Kui in a dark alley. 

Several underlings stood by him and like monkeys, they scurried out and instantly encircled Gu Yansheng, trapping him in the center.

“Sheng-ge, long time no see. Did you miss me?” Li Kui leaned against a wall, smirking at Gu Yansheng.

“Didn’t you say you were gonna turn over a new leaf?” Gu Yansheng looked straight ahead with a blank expression, not focussing on any one of them in particular.

“I’d like to, but you’re not giving me a chance ah,” Li Kui said aggrievedly, “Is our four years of friendship from being roommates gonna be put to the test just like this?”

Gu Yansheng lowered his head, fixed his cuffs, and blandly said, “So do you intend to beat me up until I give you a chance?”

“No, no, Sheng-ge, let’s talk it out.” Li Kui moved closer to face Gu Yansheng and flashed a vulgar smile. “Haven’t you always disliked sister-in-law? As for me, I really like him ah, give him to me if you don’t want him.”

Gu Yansheng’s eyeballs finally shook. They slowly turned to land on Li Kui, looking at him with a deep gaze.

“Sister-in-law sure is a gem ah,” Li Kui stroked his chin with a look of infatuation, “I saw sister-in-law the other day from outside. That figure, that face, I nearly took off my pants on the spot, went up and did it…HEY! What are you doing bro, it hurts! Don’t use violence!”

Gu Yansheng didn’t hit him, he didn’t even say anything. He simply held onto his wrist. The tranquil expression on his face, just like a pool of stagnant water, made it seem as if he wasn’t exerting any strength into his grip. However, Li Kui felt like his hand was about to snap off. 

“Hey, fuck, it hurts hurts hurts hurts hurts! What are you guys doing standing there in a daze, my hand’s about to break!”

Gu Yansheng was just about to throw off Li Kui and deal with his lackeys when a person flew down from above and kicked those thugs to the ground with a succession of whirlwind kicks. 

Gu Yansheng blanked for a moment before he heard an all-too-familiar voice going off into a shrewish cursing mode. “Damnit Li Kui, it’s you again! Laozi2 could see you had ulterior motives towards A-Sheng back in school! After all these years, you haven’t found a wife yet, is it because you still think of him? Let’s see what you can use to think of him after I knock your head off today!” 
[T/N: 2Laozi – addressing yourself in an arrogant way]

“…” Gu Yansheng could only silently stand to the side like a weak and delicate pampered rich boy.

Li Kui looked at Shen Kanyu with wide eyes and after a long pause, only yelled out aggrievedly. “I didn’t ah sister-in-law!”

Shen Kanyu took in Gu Yansheng’s helpless and pitiful look. Becoming so angry that his head ached, he turned back and kicked Li Kui in the kneecap which caused the man to fall to his knees. “What fucking sister-in-law, you touched his hand just now, are you treating me as if I’m blind?”

“No! It was he who held onto me ah!” Li Kui felt like weeping but he failed to shed any tears. “Sister-in-law, the one I want to sleep with is you!”

“…” Shen Kanyu’s face paled with rage and his teeth clenched. “Fuck, I see you really don’t wanna live anymore.”

“Shen Kanyu,” Gu Yansheng spoke and then hesitated, “Forget it, he didn’t take advantage of me.”

Shen Kanyu didn’t care. The rim of his eyes turned red and his tongue kept on trembling. “Didn’t take advantage of you? He’s even touched your hand, I…even I haven’t touched it in a long time!”

Gu Yansheng sighed, stepped forward, and grabbed onto Shen Kanyu’s wrist.

Shen Kanyu’s entire body stiffened. He turned to look back, so stunned he didn’t even blink as he stared at Gu Yansheng.

Gu Yansheng lightly said, “Now you’ve touched it.”

Like a cat with bristled fur that was suddenly petted from the back of its head to the end of its spine, Shen Kanyu couldn’t think of anything else other than to squint his eyes in bliss as his whole body went limp.

Gu Yansheng looked at Li Kui and his few lackeys as he spoke without inflection, his voice like the quiet wind across mountains and valleys which makes a chill run down people’s spines and their feet go cold when they hear it. “Still not leaving?”

Li Kui frantically crawled up from the ground then gnashed his teeth as he said, “Gu Yansheng, you’ll pay for this, mark my words.”

Only when Gu Yansheng saw their figures disappear at the end of the alley did he release Shen Kanyu’s hand. He said, “It’s fine now, let’s go back.”

Shen Kanyu was still lost in the clouds. For a moment, he couldn’t come down since it felt way too good being rubbed. Stroking the place Gu Yansheng touched, he grinned and chuckled stupidly. 

“…” Gu Yansheng lightly sighed, “You’re laughing? Didn’t you hear what Li Kui said?” 

How could Shen Kanyu possibly care about what Li Kui was just saying now? A puppy-like smile was stuck on his face as he giddily looked at Gu Yansheng. He simply wanted to run around him in joy.

Feeling a headache, Gu Yansheng pinched the bridge of his nose. “Were you preparing to go out just now? Where to?”

Shen Kanyu blinked at him, then gently replied, “To buy things.”

Gu Yansheng felt as if he could see a tail wagging non-stop behind Shen Kanyu. He was somewhat torn between laughter and tears, and his expression softened. “Let’s go, I’ll take you there.”

Shen Kanyu stared vacantly for two seconds and by the time he came back to his senses, Gu Yansheng had already turned around and walked off. He scampered after him at once and caught up. “A-Sheng, I can go by myself. Go ahead if you’ve got things to do, don’t delay ah!”

“I have something to say to you.”

“Oh, okay.” Shen Kanyu followed behind Gu Yansheng, secretly taking out a packet of pills from his pocket, swallowing a few of them.

***

Shen Kanyu was very mindful when sitting in Gu Yansheng’s car. As if what he was sitting on was a balloon, he sat on less than a third of the seat.

After sitting down steadily, he held onto the chair with one hand while his other hand rummaged for a packet of tissues in his pocket with some difficulty. Then he took out two and placed them under his shoes. Once he finished this action, he gave Gu Yansheng a smile that revealed his white teeth. “This car is really new ah. I’ve already forgotten the last time I sat in it. It doesn’t feel any different, looking just as new. A-Sheng really cherishes his things.”

Gu Yansheng ignored his nonsense. His jaw was very tense. He stared at his butt which was seated on a third of the seat, and expressionlessly asked, “What are you doing?” 

Shen Kanyu burst into shivers due to his stare. He immediately raised his butt and pulled out a tissue in a fluster. “I…I’ll put a tissue there before sitting down again.”

Gu Yansheng directly pressed him down.

Shen Kanyu weakly let out an “ah” before hurriedly lowering his head to conceal the pain on his face.

Gu Yansheng was slightly stunned, “What’s wrong?”

“No-nothing,” Shen Kanyu laughed twice, “You’re suddenly like this, it scared me.”

This lousy waist was really going to be ruined. He only fought with a measly few people yet it hurt so much it felt like it’d snap. Moreover, the pain spread to the rest of his body and made it feel as if it was crumbling. Even sitting became a difficult task due to this torment and feebleness he was experiencing.

Perceiving it as Shen Kanyu having nothing better to do than causing him to panic, Gu Yansheng’s face clouded over again. “Sit properly, the seat won’t cave in.”

Shen Kanyu lowered his eyelashes, wiped the sweat on his forehead, and said somewhat wearily, “But…I’m very hot ah, I keep on sweating. What if I dirty it…”

Gu Yansheng turned the air conditioning switch. “Just turn on the air conditioning if it’s hot, I can also open the windows. Sit properly.”

As a child, Shen Kanyu was strong and healthy, braving both the cold and the heat. In recent years, since his health steadily deteriorated, he would strangely feel cold during the summer. After being tormented like this, he simply came to fear the cold and wouldn’t dare to face air conditioners directly. Seeing Gu Yansheng’s sullen look, he didn’t dare to act impulsively and just sat on the chair obediently.

But his waist really did ache so leaning against the seat felt extremely uncomfortable. He could only support it with his right hand on the side that Gu Yansheng couldn’t see; the pain became a little better.

It’ll be nice if there was a cushion to lean on.

Despite the suffering his waist was undergoing, Shen Kanyu still wore a smile on his face because he truly was in a good mood. “A-Sheng, did something good happen to you today which is making you super happy?”

Gu Yansheng, shooting a glance at the tissue underneath his feet, didn’t feel like answering him.

Shen Kanyu’s superb skill in shamelessness made its appearance. “It must be a very good thing. Look, you’re not finding me that annoying. The last time I sat in your car, you warned me not to dirty it and now you don’t mind, haha.”

Gu Yansheng still didn’t want to pay attention to him.

Shen Kanyu just happily continued, “So what is it? Were you not going to tell me something just now, tell me.”

Gu Yansheng was so blown away by his cicada way of talking that he could only resign himself to get straight to the topic. “Do you know why Li Kui came over today?”

Shen Kanyu hadn’t thought of this issue. In a second, he became serious and on guard. “Is he trying to threaten you? I know he has always coveted your good looks, but he won’t go so far as to bully you to get your attention right? Does he think he’s some overbearing CEO3?”
[T/N: 3霸道总裁 – That stereotypical domineering CEO character in a genre of Chinese romantic fiction targeted towards young women.]

Gu Yansheng choked on his own saliva the instant he heard “coveted your good looks”. Restraining himself from interrupting, he tried to wait until Shen Kanyu finished but still ended up choking. 

“What’s wrong?” Shen Kanyu tensed up. 

Gu Yansheng shook his head, still coughing.

Feeling his heart quivering with his every cough, Shen Kanyu subconsciously leaned a little closer to him, reached out and gently patted his back. “Don’t be scared A-Sheng, he won’t dare bully you again, I’ll beat his head in if he dares.”

Gu Yansheng stopped coughing yet he didn’t respond. He only looked at him silently with deep, dark eyes.

Shen Kanyu met his gaze, then looked back at the hand that was still placed on his shoulder. In that instant, he thought that he was screwed.