047: Sneaking Around, Sneaking Around!
Tang Yu’s eyes were full of suspicion.
Sang Zhao kept sneaking glances at him. When he saw Tang Yu’s face full of vague contemplation, his back went cold, and a bad premonition started to rise.
Huh? What are you thinking about, Corn Bean?
That expression that was shock laced with disbelief, confusion wrapped around a hint of world-weariness, and mixed into the doubt, a layer of trust… what exactly was he thinking?
Sang Zhao was starting to panic. He actually had no idea what Tang Yu was thinking right now, but whatever it was, it was absolutely not what Tang Yu’s brain had come up with!
Sang Zhao: …Ah, um, well, how should I put this! Going to play what?
He really couldn’t lie his way through this, so he might as well just tell the truth.
“Actually, it’s just going to the reservoir. It’s kind of like camping, I guess. Eating some fish, taking some pictures, that kind of thing,” he said.
But that still didn’t explain the clothes!
Tang Yu looked at him, then pressed on, “So I can’t go?”
If they were just going out to the reservoir to play, to go camping, was he, the boyfriend, seriously not allowed to go along?
Sang Zhao nodded, then shook his head. He looked a little dejected and a little apologetic. “Mm, because it’s not just Big Sister Xiao An. There’ll be some of my friends too. It’ll probably be really busy, and if you go, it’ll just be really troublesome…”
Right now, everything Sang Zhao was saying was the truth.
Just think about it. When the time came, everyone would be all furry and fluffy, the black panther would be sprinting past, the Pallas’s cat would be digging holes everywhere, the pelican would be in the water gobbling fish with its huge mouth, everybody would be having a great time, and then there would be Tang Yu, the only human, scared half to death… There’s no way he could enjoy himself like that…
Sang Zhao looked deeply at Tang Yu, steeled himself, and held firm as he refused. “Anyway, um, next time, when there’s a chance, I mean next time, you can come play, okay?”
Next time when it was an outing for humans, Corn Bean could go. That would be much better!
This was what Sang Zhao thought, feeling very pleased with himself.
Tang Yu was still Tang Yu. He’d never been able to bear putting Sang Zhao on the spot. Even though right now he was completely in the dark, with his head full of keywords like 【outdoors · camping · completely naked · party】, he didn’t go on questioning.
He just dipped his head slightly, obediently saying he understood, and agreed like that.
Only then did Sang Zhao finally breathe out in relief. After that, he happily latched onto Tang Yu and, full of righteous confidence, went to wipe out the fruit platter reserved for office guests.
He was too busy eating to notice the storm brewing in Tang Yu’s eyes, or the stiffness that remained in his expression even after he tried to cover it up.
That’s right, Tang Yu still wasn’t at ease.
Don’t be fooled by how patient he was with Sang Zhao, how careful, and how good-tempered. By nature, he was actually pretty suspicious, not that patient at all, and even a little quick-tempered.
After Sang Zhao went home, Tang Yu stared at his blank computer screen and thought things over carefully. Tsk. The more he thought about it, the more wrong it felt.
It wasn’t that he wanted to think the worst of Sang Zhao. It was just that everything Sang Zhao said and did was incredibly suspicious.
Tang Yu kept feeling there was something off. Or rather, that he’d been ignoring and missing something all along.
He spent the whole night mulling it over and still couldn’t come up with an answer. It was like he’d wedged himself into a dead end and couldn’t easily find his way back out. If he couldn’t get a real answer or a conclusion, he didn’t want to come out.
Which was how, at five in the morning the next day, Tang Yu ended up sitting in Vice President Xiao’s car. The two of them were hunkered down in the car outside Sang Zhao’s apartment building, on a stakeout.
In all his twenty-odd years of life, Vice President Xiao had never seen anything this bizarre.
He glanced at Tang Yu’s dark expression, then at the apartment building in front of them, gave a huge yawn, and checked the time. Damn. 【05:08】.
What kind of normal person was already out here on a weekend at five a.m., on a stakeout to tail somebody?!
“I can’t take this anymore!” the vice president shouted. “What are you, some kind of tailing pervert, Tang Yu? I swear, man, you really are…”
Tang Yu stared intently at the front door of the apartment building, at the entrance to the building where Sang Zhao lived. He didn’t look away once as he said, “Shut up, Xiao Hengmiao. Don’t yell.”
Xiao Hengmiao slumped back hard against the driver’s seat. “You think this is me wanting to yell?! You want to stalk and tail him, why don’t you come on your own? What’d you drag me into it for?”
Tang Yu gave him a surprised look. “It’s not like I wanted you to come. I just wanted to borrow your car.”
His logic was very thorough. “Because I’ve picked him up and dropped him off a few times, he probably recognizes my car. I can’t drive my own, so of course I have to borrow yours.”
“But when I asked to borrow it, you wouldn’t lend it. You said only you can drive your car. So I had no choice. If it’s got to be your car, then you’ve got to be the one driving.”
Covering his face, Xiao Hengmiao mourned his own deeds of getting up at the crack of dawn to play driver. “How was I supposed to know you needed the car at five in the morning just to go ‘catch someone cheating’?”
Tang Yu clicked his tongue in displeasure. “Watch your wording.”
What catching someone cheating? It wasn’t that at all. Tang Yu absolutely refused to admit to that phrase.
He explained, “I just don’t feel comfortable. I came to escort him. I’m afraid he might end up with the wrong kind of friends, so I’m here to check if he’s safe. That’s all this is. What kind of wording is that? Does it sound reasonable to you?”
“Oh suuure, of course. You’re just worried. You came to take a look. You didn’t ask him where he was going. You just came to tail him on your own. You didn’t ask him what time he’d be leaving, you just got here at five so you wouldn’t miss him if he left early. I don’t get it. If you show up at five in the morning, what are you here to watch, if not cheating? The sunrise?”
Clutching his chest, Xiao Hengmiao put on a theatrically heartbroken face. “Tell me my cp isn’t fake, okay? Tell me my ship isn’t going to collapse?”
Tang Yu’s mouth was even harder than the iron pot of a spicy chicken stew. “No! Impossible! Absolutely impossible!”
The tone in which Xiao Hengmiao answered him could only be described as perfunctory and half-assed.
“Ah ah ah, yeah yeah yeah, sure, sure. You’re just sitting downstairs at five in the morning because you’re worried, because you’re here to protect your boyfriend, and there’s not a single other thought in that head of yours.”
Tang Yu shot him a glance and said nothing.
Sleepy and irritated, Xiao Hengmiao wanted a cigarette to wake himself up, so he asked Tang Yu, “We might as well smoke one while we’re waiting?”
Tang Yu shook his head. Not going to.
“I don’t really smoke anymore,” Tang Yu said. “He can’t stand the smell of smoke.”
The motion of rummaging for his lighter froze in Xiao Hengmiao’s pocket. He looked a little stunned. “…Seriously?? You can’t be for real.”
Tang Yu rested his arm along the inside of the car window and looked out at the early-morning sky with a distant gaze, not really understanding himself either.
He just said softly, “Anyway, recently, I actually haven’t really wanted to smoke that much.”
For a veteran corporate drone, smoking actually felt pretty good.
When the pressure piled up, when you took out a cigarette in a bad mood and drew it in, drag after drag, your lungs filling and emptying, with a faint haze in your head and everything you saw blurred by smoke…
It relaxed you, soothed you. For a brief moment, it was like you couldn’t think of anything at all, like you could toss all your worries aside.
He always used to have a smoke. It wasn’t to indulge in the illusion, but to make himself snap awake.
After all, hiding in an illusion could only last about three minutes. He still had to face the hardships and pain of reality.
Tang Yu did have a bit of a nicotine addiction. He did, but it wasn’t that bad. It was more like he treated smoking the way other people treated cracking sunflower seeds, something to pass the time and unwind.
That was how he’d always been, until three months ago, when Sang Zhao showed up. Then things changed.
After Tang Yu had a smoke, even if he only passed by near where Sang Zhao was without going up to talk to him, he could still see Sang Zhao’s brows draw together.
He had no idea why, but that nose of Sang Zhao’s was unbelievably sharp. Sang Zhao had said before that he hated strong, irritating smells, and it turned out he really couldn’t stand even a trace of cigarette smoke.
In the end, whenever Tang Yu really felt like smoking, he basically only smoked at home in the middle of the night. After long enough, he didn’t feel the urge as much during the day. When the workload and pressure were heavy, he was too busy working to remember smoking at all.
Now, even when Sang Zhao wasn’t by his side, if someone asked him to smoke, he just didn’t feel like it that much.
Gazing at him in disbelief, Xiao Hengmiao said, “You tried to quit how many times before, and it never worked. Now suddenly it works? You’re about to quit for real at this rate.”
He squinted, shaking his head over and over, his expression so shocked it was almost twisted. “I don’t get it. Since when does falling in love help you quit smoking?”
Tang Yu smiled faintly and thought about it for a moment. He felt like he was being cheesy, but he still said it.
“Maybe just being in love doesn’t do it. But if it’s true love, maybe that’s when miracles can happen.”
For a second, Xiao Hengmiao went silent. He was so grossed out by what Tang Yu said that he let out a huge, loud gagging noise. “Ugh!”
“Then why are you still tailing him? I honestly do not get you!” he ranted.
They ended up squatting there for a full three hours. By the time it was after eight, Xiao Hengmiao had fallen asleep and woken up several times already. He was half asleep again when Tang Yu suddenly shook him awake.
“Shh! Look! That’s An Tihu’s car!”
Groggy, Xiao Hengmiao looked over and saw that a car really had pulled up.
Tang Yu solemnly reached into his jacket and took out a pair of binoculars.
“...Dude! You even brought gear? What kind of god-tier creature are you?”
Ignoring him, Tang Yu raised the binoculars to his eyes, then clicked his tongue again when he found out they were pretty useless, more like a toy. Even so, they helped him lock onto the target and get a good look inside the car so he could count how many people were in there.
He said, “It’s just An Tihu in the driver’s seat by herself. Looks like she’s here to pick up my boyfriend.”
Still watching the fun, Xiao Hengmiao said, “So now you don’t even call him by name, you just go straight to ‘my boyfriend,’ huh?”
After An Tihu pulled up and parked, it wasn’t even five minutes before Sang Zhao came downstairs.
He was wearing a grass-green T-shirt with black knee-length shorts. He looked relaxed and handsome, his bright golden-orange hair catching the sunlight.
Tang Yu stared at him, entranced, muttering for Xiao Hengmiao to hear, “I told him that pairing green with black looks good, and he went and wore a green top with black pants. Don’t be fooled by how he wouldn’t let me come along, he really does have me in his heart.”
Xiao Hengmiao’s expression scrunched up like an old rag.
Circling the car once, Sang Zhao looked curiously all around, then opened the passenger door and climbed in.
Tang Yu made a snap decision. “Come on, let’s follow them.”
Starting the engine, Xiao Hengmiao kept a careful distance behind An Tihu’s car. As he drove, he also narrated. “So right now it’s one guy and one girl alone together, just the two of them… Tsk. Not a great look.”
Tang Yu leaned back in the passenger seat, arms folded.
They’d been driving twenty minutes and still hadn’t arrived anywhere when Xiao Hengmiao started complaining. “Why are we going further and further out… Did he say where they were going to play?”
Tang Yu thought back. “Some reservoir. Said he was going camping with a group of friends.”
“We’re still in the city here. There’s no campsite, no nothing. How does this look anything like going camping…”
Left turn, right turn, then suddenly An Tihu’s car stopped.
Xiao Hengmiao also pulled over right away. The two of them shrank down in their seats and silently watched.
They didn’t even need to look carefully. At a glance, there was nothing around here that looked like a campsite, or even remotely like a reservoir.
As soon as the car stopped, Tang Yu watched as An Tihu and Sang Zhao both got out, then walked along the sidewalk toward a commercial building by the road.
Sang Zhao walked in front with his phone out, while An Tihu followed behind. It looked like he was the one leading the way.
Then they pushed open a door and went into a building.
Tang Yu looked up and saw the sign: 【Dreamy Vacation Couples Hotel】
Tang Yu: …
The atmosphere in the car turned painfully awkward.
Normally, Xiao Hengmiao loved to talk, but he’d gone completely quiet. It was like his upper and lower lips were glued together. He couldn’t squeeze out a single word.
Tang Yu gave a light cough. His voice was hoarse when he finally said, in a muffled tone, “Maybe they went in to buy something.”
Pushed past his limit, Xiao Hengmiao slapped the steering wheel. “Buy what in a couples hotel? Even if it is buying things, what great things are they selling? Condoms or lube? Tang Yu, get a grip!”
“What did he tell you? Out in the wild? Camping? Lots of friends? Is this the wild? Do you see lots of friends? He’s spinning you in circles and you’re still making excuses for him?”
Tang Yu said calmly, “…Who’s spinning me? He is not. What do you mean spinning me in circles? I was born liking to spin, so what?”
At that, all Xiao Hengmiao could do was shut up.
He drew in a deep breath and started clapping. As he clapped, he spoke loudly in praise. “Wow. Wow. Huge.”
Tang Yu glanced over. “What’s huge?”
“Your full-blown love-brain,” Xiao Hengmiao said, clicking his tongue.
Tang Yu wasn’t faking his composure. He really was fairly calm. Sure there was a knot in his chest, but he didn’t start randomly getting jealous or casually suspecting Sang Zhao.
Staring at the neon sign of the hotel, his eyes fixed on the word “couples,” his mind was unusually cool and clear.
“I trust him. I trust that he’s kind and sincere, so I also trust that he wouldn’t betray me. I’m tailing him… not because he’s that suspicious or that he’s giving people leverage over him. Honestly it’s because I’m petty and suspicious.”
He’d only just started dating Sang Zhao, had only just taken on the title of “boyfriend.” By common worldly standards, or by his own personality, he should be suspicious.
But he wasn’t. He was as calm as a still lake.
“He won’t do that. He’s special. He’s my especially good Sang Zhao.”
Sure enough, it wasn’t long before they watched Sang Zhao and An Tihu come back out again.
This time they came out with another person, a boy with a big travel backpack.
The boy clearly knew Sang Zhao well. He walked shoulder-to-shoulder with him and kept chatting as they went. They really did look like friends. With An Tihu, though, he didn’t seem very close. They just exchanged greetings and didn’t really talk.
Only then did Xiao Hengmiao finally breathe a sigh of relief. “Scared me to death. Looks like they were just picking up a friend.”
With great dignity, Tang Yu scolded his filthy imagination. “Honestly. Are people not allowed to have friends who work at a hotel? Is it necessary to overthink someone picking up a friend?”
If Tang Yu put it like that, there was no way Xiao Hengmiao was going to accept it.
He opened his mouth and started babbling nonsense. “Ha, is that so? You trust him again that quickly? What’s so innocent about three people? Three people can be suspicious too. Maybe it’s a menage-à-trois, you know? It could be a ‘Ran Dong’ situation.”
He eyed the guy. The kid was delicate and refined and seriously good-looking.
Tang Yu snorted. “Slander.”
Once they got back into the car, Tang Yu and Xiao Hengmiao followed again. But after a while, they realized the car had just looped around and driven back to the loft apartments where Sang Zhao lived.
They still didn’t get out. Both cars idled at the entrance for a bit, until a child Tang Yu recognized came out of the building. It was Xia Moye.
There was only one open seat left in the back of An Tihu’s car, and Xia Moye happily dove into it.
Clearly, they’d driven back to the apartment complex just to pick up this kid. They hadn’t brought him along earlier, but had now specially returned to get him.
Looking at the scene, Xiao Hengmiao sighed. “My god. They left the kid behind. Talk about big hearts.”
He turned his head and found himself face to face with Tang Yu’s thoughtful expression.
“What?” he asked. “What are you thinking? Now that they’ve come back for the kid, you can relax? They won’t do anything wild if they’ve got a child with them.”
Tang Yu really did feel much more at ease, and those doubts weighing on him were much lighter.
After all, Xia Moye was just a kid in third grade, right at that playful, energetic age. If you went out with a child, even if it wasn’t meant to be an outing, it would turn into one.
Tang Yu muttered, “So why can’t I go? It’s not just my boyfriend there, there’s also the kid who calls me ‘Auntie.’ Even with that, I still can’t go?”
He no longer had doubts, but at the same time he felt like he had even more questions.
Was it that when they first left, they’d just forgotten Xia Moye? But how does something like ‘forgetting the kid’ even happen? Why did Xia Moye seem to be living with Sang Zhao so often? He had before, and he was now. Didn’t he spend much time living with his own mom and dad? Was his relationship with his uncle really that close?
Tang Yu just kept feeling like there was something off about all this.
Still, by this point, there wasn’t much reason to keep tailing them. But now it was Xiao Hengmiao who felt like, since they’d come all this way, going back without finding anything out would be such a waste.
“At least follow them long enough to see which reservoir they’re going to, right?” So the car kept following.
At a red light, they ended up one car behind, close enough that they could see vague silhouettes moving inside the other car.
Driving while staring straight ahead, all Xiao Hengmiao saw in the rear window of An Tihu’s car was a huge mass of fluffy white something.
What the heck, a giant ball of white fur?
He squeezed his eyes shut and opened them again, staring at the bouncing white fluff on the back seat. In shock, he said, “Whoa, that’s a big dog. Looks like a Samoyed!”
Tang Yu had been looking down at his phone, but when he heard that, he looked up too. By the time he stared at the rear window, though, all he could see was one adult’s head and a kid bouncing all over the back seat.
“Nope, just one big and one little, both human. I don’t see any dog,” Tang Yu said casually, then dropped his gaze again and went back to scrolling through An Tihu’s Moments.
When Xiao Hengmiao looked again, it really was just a kid. He thought he must have been seeing things, feeling confused, but let it go.
Except after two more red lights, when he looked again, what he saw was definitely a huge, fluffy, white dog curled up on the back seat.
He dragged Tang Yu’s attention back again. “I’m not crazy! I really did see a dog!”
The moment Tang Yu looked up, there wasn’t a single white hair in sight.
Annoyed, he said, “What’s wrong with your eyes? How are you mixing up a child and a dog?”
While Xiao Hengmiao was questioning his grasp on reality, Xia Moye in the car ahead was happily changing shape whenever he felt like it.
One moment he was human, the next he was a dog, pouncing over and over on the Pallas’s cat next to him.
Ye Ye knew the Pallas’s cat! At the last night party in the wild, the Pallas’s cat had been the main BBQ chef! The chicken wings the Pallas’s cat grilled were amazing.
He stuck to the Pallas’s cat, talking to him in a sticky, clingy way. “We drank together before! And now we’re going out to play together! I’m so happy. Ye Ye’s going out to play, woof woof woof woof woof!!”
He was making a racket in the back, and the Pallas’s cat was delighted, letting himself get knocked over again and again.
Thinking about it, Sang Zhao realized, oh right, last time at the barbecue party there had been both the Pallas’s cat and Ye Ye. That was the time they’d had some homemade fruit wine brewed by the black panther’s fox friend. One round and it had knocked out all the big cats and little cats.
Losing Ye Ye in the middle of downtown and losing the Pallas’s cat in front of a breakfast shop, two equally shocking incidents for the Yao Bureau.
Secretly, Sang Zhao nodded to himself. Ohhh, no wonder Ye Ye was so familiar with the Pallas’s cat. They were both victims of that drinking party and were now going out to play again!
While Ye Ye was tossing himself around in the back, An Tihu finally had enough.
What was this situation? A glance in the rearview mirror showed a fluffy white cotton-ball Samoyed dog, and the next glance showed a well-behaved elementary schooler. Who was she supposed to believe?
Nervous to the point that even her driving was starting to wobble, An Tihu said, “Stop changing back and forth, dog then human. If you’re going to be a dog, stay a dog. If you’re going to be human, stay human. Don’t keep switching in the back seat!”
Backing her up, Sang Zhao said, “Exactly! No more random transforming, little pup!”
Pouting, Xia Moye let out a soft hum in protest at Sang Zhao.
“If I hadn’t gone looking for you, seen you weren’t home, and sent you a message, would you have even told me you were going out to play?”
He stuck his head into the space between the driver’s and passenger’s seats, tilting it as he stared fixedly at Sang Zhao.
The way he spoke was as dramatic as it got.
“What do you take a little dog for! You can’t just like a little dog because little dogs are cute. If you like a little dog, you also have to like how little dogs cling, and how little dogs go ‘woo woof woof woof’ when they bark, and how little dogs want to dig in the mud and doggy paddle when they go out to play!”
Giving him a glance, Sang Zhao deliberately said, “…But I don’t even like little dogs.”
What he didn’t expect was that Xia Moye didn’t let out a whimper or a single doggy yelp. He’d thought that if he said something like this, the little dog would get mad and sad and start whining in the car.
But there was none of that. Xia Moye actually looked very calm.
Smugly, he sniffed and then said, in a sing-song, “But I like little cats.”
He went straight for the direct hit, throwing a little dog fastball right at the little cat.
“When I like little cats, it’s not just because little cats are cute. I also like how little cats are sly, how little cats are proud, and how little cats refuse to admit anything.”
Laughing like she was watching a show, An Tihu burst out, “Hahahaha, oh my god.”
She never would have imagined a little yaoguai that talked like this. No wonder humans adored little dogs. Seriously, who wouldn’t like a little dog like this? Even she, a big water bird with a giant beak, was starting to admire little dogs.
Face in his hands, Sang Zhao dodged the dog-to-cat direct hits over and over. “Throw him out, hurry!”
The Pallas’s cat in the back had been watching the show the whole time. When he heard that, he lifted his head and, sounding a little puzzled, asked, “Huh? Really? But he’s just telling the truth.”
Furious, Sang Zhao snarled at both of them, “Throw you out too!”
Author’s Note:
Juan Juan is working so hard he’s turning into a bitter little melon! No more working, I’m clocking out to go slack off with the kitty!
(roars) (yells) (pulls out a fishing rod) (casts the line) (fishes) (watches the leopards, lynxes, Pallas’s cats, kitties, doggies, and birdies in the water) (sips cola in satisfaction) (doesn’t catch a single fish) (mooches fish the cats caught instead)
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