BFILWY CH 30

Chapter 30: A Lesson from the Past

“You called him Yezi!” Shao Ye roared, and the entire room fell silent.

“This is beyond awkward,” An Yue thought. “How could someone make such a rookie mistake and call out the wrong name?”

“Get out.”

Just moments ago, He Zhifan had gone from being furious to aggrieved to completely exasperated. But now, all his emotions had vanished. His voice was chillingly indifferent as he pushed Shao Ye out of the bedroom. Caught off guard, Shao Ye stumbled backward, and before he could react, the door slammed shut and locked behind him.

He Zhifan’s tone was calm, but as someone who knew him well, Ye Qinghe immediately understood—Shao Ye was in deep trouble. When He Zhifan truly lost his temper, not even the gods could coax him out of it. With a sigh, Ye Qinghe stood up from the sofa and, with practiced ease, made his way toward his own bedroom. He had to make sure Shao Ye understood exactly what had just happened.

“Ahem.”

Sensing someone pacing anxiously in front of him, Ye Qinghe stopped precisely two or three steps away from Shao Ye. Clearing his throat, he prepared to enlighten him.

“Conductor Shao, do you know that when this guy gives nicknames to people he’s close to, he always adds a ‘Zi’ at the end? For example, he calls his older brother ‘Gezi,’ he calls me ‘Yezi,’ and we have a good friend surnamed Zhuang, whom he calls ‘Zhuangzi.’ People who don’t know might think he’s talking about a wooden training dummy for martial arts…”

“So what?”

Seeing his supposed “love rival” standing before him, Shao Ye felt nothing but overwhelming irritation.

“Nothing much,” Ye Qinghe chuckled, rubbing his nose. “I just wanted to remind you that your name also contains the character ‘Ye’ (燁). He was probably trying to say ‘Yèzi’ (燁子),” he pointed toward Shao Ye, “but it ended up sounding like ‘Yezi’ (葉子),” this time pointing at himself.

Shao Ye, who had been scowling moments ago, suddenly froze. His mouth fell slightly open, and his eyes widened as if he’d just been struck by lightning. Shock turned into disbelief, then into joy—so much so that he was momentarily speechless.

Having delivered his lesson, Ye Qinghe turned and leisurely made his way back to the sofa. Meanwhile, An Yue, who had been listening from the living room, was struggling to hold back his laughter. His face was a masterpiece of suppressed amusement as he eagerly anticipated how the cold-faced conductor would survive this devilish trial.

Shao Ye stood frozen for nearly a full minute before snapping back to reality. Turning around, he knocked on the door, his voice filled with both excitement and urgency.

“Zhifan, open the door. I’m sorry. So that day… you actually—”

“No,” He Zhifan interrupted as he swung the door open. “I was calling Ye Qinghe.”

Then, without another word, he dragged his suitcase out.

“I won’t let you go,” Shao Ye said, his emotions running high as he grabbed He Zhifan’s wrist. “Let’s clear this up. You—you like me too, don’t you? It’s not just me… not just me foolishly chasing after you one-sidedly, right?”

He Zhifan let out a cold chuckle, shook off Shao Ye’s hand, and ignored him completely. Instead, he walked straight to Ye Qinghe and lightly patted his wrist.

“Yezi, I’m heading back now. Take care. Sorry for disturbing you these past few days—and for making a spectacle of myself before leaving.”

“Don’t apologize,” Ye Qinghe grinned. “At least it was an entertaining spectacle.”

He grabbed He Zhifan’s hand, preventing him from raising it to strike someone. Without a word, He Zhifan used his free hand to viciously pinch Ye Qinghe’s arm.

“Ow—” Ye Qinghe yelped in pain and quickly let go, rubbing his sore arm. As he massaged it, he finally said something sincere. “Thanks for taking care of me these past few days. And if anything happens, don’t keep it bottled up. You’re always welcome to come over.”

Only then did He Zhifan let out a satisfied hum before turning to bid farewell to An Yue.

“Teacher An, I’m off!” He held out his hand.

An Yue quickly stood up and shook it. “Safe travels, Mr. He. Thank you for everything these past few days—your cooking is amazing.”

He Zhifan chuckled. “Glad you liked it. Once Yezi’s eyesight gets better, you can have him cook for you. He’s not great in the kitchen, but I did teach him how to make steak—it’s decent enough. For now, I’ll have to leave Yezi in your care.”

He leaned in and whispered near An Yue’s ear, “He really, really likes you. Can’t you give him a chance?”

As He Zhifan pulled back, he watched as An Yue’s ears slowly turned red.

An Yue pursed his lips in frustration and muttered, “Mind your own business.” Then, as if changing the subject, he pulled two candies from his coat pocket and shoved them into He Zhifan’s hand, subtly gesturing with his chin toward Shao Ye, who was trailing behind.

He Zhifan pretended not to see Shao Ye at all. With one hand holding the candies and the other dragging his suitcase, he deliberately circled around the living room to avoid him. Just as he was about to head into the study to grab his violin case, Shao Ye, ever sharp-eyed, spotted the bright red case sitting in the open room.

In a flash, he darted inside, slung the violin case over his back, and grinned at He Zhifan. “I’ll carry it for you.”

Too tired to argue, He Zhifan—whose back was already sore—was more than happy to make use of a free porter. With a wave toward the living room, he called out, “I’m off!”

As soon as he left Ye Qinghe’s house, Shao Ye stuck close to him, as if afraid that his precious boyfriend would slip away again.

Finally, the two melodramatic male leads of this soap opera had left. Ye Qinghe collapsed onto the sofa with a sigh of relief. But as he replayed the scene in his mind, he couldn’t help but start laughing again.

Seeing this, An Yue also burst into laughter, unable to hold it in any longer.

Between laughs, he still managed to scold Ye Qinghe, “Chairman Ye, Mr. He was already so mad, and you still laughed at him. You’re terrible!”

“I wasn’t laughing at him—I was happy for him,” Ye Qinghe said, grinning. “You don’t know, but he’s had a crush on that Conductor Shao for years. Even before he joined the orchestra, he already admired him. Two years ago, when he finally passed the audition and got in, I thought that spending so much time together, up close, would give him the chance to—”

But even after his idol shattered, he still ended up falling even harder for him.”

Ye Qinghe sighed as he continued, “As you just heard, we all thought Shao Ye had a girlfriend, so for the past two years, Zhifan has been suffering. He suppressed his feelings and didn’t dare disturb Shao Ye. But that guy kept leading him on, pushing Zhifan to the brink of madness. This time, Zhifan probably ran away hard enough that Shao Ye finally couldn’t take it anymore and confessed.”

“They’re both ridiculous,” An Yue said. “Two years, and they couldn’t even figure out if he had a girlfriend?”

“One was too much of an ostrich, and the other just took things for granted. So they ended up with this absurd misunderstanding,” Ye Qinghe said with a shake of his head. Then, as if suddenly remembering something, he sat up straight and asked seriously, “That day—when I confessed to you—did you reject me because you thought Zhifan was my boyfriend?”

When Shao Ye had just yelled at He Zhifan outside the door, Ye Qinghe had felt a strange sense of déjà vu. He couldn’t help but wonder if the same kind of bizarre misunderstanding existed between him and An Yue as well. Learning from others’ mistakes was important—asking more questions wouldn’t hurt.

Caught off guard by the sudden question, An Yu’s heart skipped a beat. “O-Of course not!” He was relieved that Ye Qinghe couldn’t see his face, allowing him to blush freely. “I already told you—I rejected you because I… I don’t like men.”

“Really?” Ye Qinghe’s tone was full of doubt. He was just about to press further when the front door opened again.

Aunt Chen walked in, carrying large bags of groceries.

“Aunt Chen, you’re back,” An Yue said, as if spotting a lifeline. He immediately rushed over to help with the bags. “Why’d you buy so much food?”

“I haven’t been able to come over every day lately, so I thought I’d stock up while I had the time,” Aunt Chen said with a warm smile. She took a closer look at An Yue and then suddenly frowned. “Come here, let me see—have you lost weight? And why is your face so red? Are you running a fever?”

Ye Qinghe chuckled softly from the living room.

An Yue shot a glare at Aunt Chen, feeling utterly betrayed.

This so-called lifeline… really had a big mouth.

(To be continued…)