It's not true that there was no contact at all after the breakup. Three days after returning the phone, Li Shu sent Shen Yiyou a flight number, and Shen Yiyou sent him a question mark back. Li Shu said, "You are welcome to see me off as a friend."
Shen Yiyou felt unable to answer, and only replied the next day: "Next time."
Li Shu returned much faster than Shen Yiyou, and said after five minutes: "Okay." Then said: "I will let you know when I come to S city next time." Shen Yiyou didn't return.
After that, I completely cut off contact, and it has been three weeks since then.
In mid-to-late July, the biggest exhibition of the year planned by Shen Yiyou passed the approval ahead of schedule, and the entire month of August will be busy without touching the ground.
And his birthday is at the end of the month, and he spends it with Li Shu in previous years, but this year has not been arranged, so when Tao Jiu asked him to go to country S for a visit before returning to London, he agreed without thinking.
Tao Jiu went to college at Shen Yiyou's alma mater. He is cheerful, innocent and carefree. He is a game video blogger with many subscribers. He is on summer vacation, doing nothing all day long, playing around, probably the kind of friend that Li Shu would classify as the same type as Xing Pei.
Arrived in Country S in the afternoon, packed their luggage, and went to the restaurant on the second floor of the hotel to have breakfast and dinner. Lu Yue, a friend who often came here, took them to the casino with ease.
The casino is fully air-conditioned and has a dry aroma. Shen Yiyou stood aside with his arms folded, watching them gamble a few rounds, but he didn't go to the table.
Lu Yue noticed that Shen Yi Yougan was standing, and asked him, "Why didn't you come?"
"I don't know how to do it," Shen Yiyou said, staring at Tao Jiu's card, "I dare not spend money recklessly."
"Come on," Lu Yue smiled, "Your father can buy a table of chips here with one word."
Shen Yiyou got dizzy when he heard his father, pretended to be stupid, and slipped away.
His father was a great calligrapher, and his mother was a professor at Capital University. The two acted very righteous outside, talking about the freedom of love and opposing discrimination based on sexual orientation. At the beginning of this year, Shen Yiyou suddenly came out of the closet. They just realized that they could not accept homosexuality, so they turned against each other on the spot and suspended Shen Yiyou's secondary card. They have not contacted him since then.
Three years ago, after Shen Yiyou graduated from London and returned to China, he co-founded an exhibition planning studio with him. Probably because of his father's favor, his career has developed fairly smoothly, and he became financially independent very early, and the suspension of the secondary card will not affect his life.
But he still has the car loan to pay back, and his parents paid for the house in full. He is afraid that one day they will be in a bad mood and call him to get out. He still has to save some money for himself.
Shen Yiyou sat down in front of a slot machine, put in the money, and played one by one.
He was lucky enough to win a few big jackpots, and the slot machine would sometimes fill up and sometimes run out of cash, always giving him a place to sit without having to put any more cash.
After staying in the casino for two hours, Shen Yiyou was so sleepy that he yawned. Tao Jiu finally found Shen Yiyou and said he planned to go back.
Shen Yiyou glanced at the screen, there was fifty yuan left in the machine, he didn't bother to exchange it, so he doubled up and played for the last time, trying to spend the fifty yuan, but unexpectedly won the jackpot of the slot machine.
The slot machine simulates the sound of falling coins, the God of Wealth on the screen is smiling and jumping around, the glittering golden numbers are getting bigger and bigger, equipped with various exaggerated and bizarre computer special effects.
The movement of the first prize was really loud, and all the guests around him rushed over. Tao Jiu was stunned, and couldn't help saying a dirty word, then grabbed Shen Yiyou's hand and rubbed it indiscriminately: "Lend me my luck."
The first prize of the slot machine is not much, but luck itself is exciting. Shen Yiyou is in a good mood and cashes the chips back into cash, and walks out of the casino door.
This was the happiest moment for Shen Yiyou in the past three weeks, and it didn't take long before his good mood disappeared.
Back in the room, Shen Yiyou seemed to have coins flashing in front of his eyes, feeling that his energy was exhausted by good luck, so he lay down and took a nap for a while.
He had a short dream like a running account, and went through the entire itinerary of the day, and then he was woken up by a message from Tao Jiu.
Tao Jiu warmly invited everyone to swim on the top floor in half an hour.
Shen Yiyou lay on the bed holding his phone and thought for a while, before replying with difficulty.
Lu Yue replied "OK" almost at the same time as him. After a few seconds, Tao Jiu suddenly asked Lu Yue, "Who is your avatar?"
"Why are you secretly taking pictures like a paparazzi?" Tao Jiu said again.
Only then did Shen Yiyou realize that Lu Yue had changed his avatar, and he clicked on it, and it did indeed look like a paparazzi photo, the color of the photo was gray, the pixels were not high, and the location seemed to be a dark restaurant.
The woman in the photo rests her chin on one hand and smiles at the man in formal suit opposite her.
Shen Yiyou looked at the man's back, and a strange feeling rose from his heart.
It's a bit like Li Shu, but Li Shu doesn't wear formal clothes, Shen Yiyou stared at the phone screen, thinking.
Li Shu has a strange prejudice, thinking that formal suits are disgusting, and only Wall Street beasts wear suits and leather shoes.
Lu Yue quickly replied to Tao Jiu: "Ms. Lilith and her new date."
Shen Yiyou knew that Lilith, Lu Yue's beloved supermodel, had recently ended a scandalous marriage history and regained her freedom.
Shen Yiyou stared at the small picture of Lu Yue's profile picture, still a little uneasy, just about to ask Lilith's date's identity, Lu Yue sent another new message.
She said: "It is rumored to be the CEO of Esp. It is said to be ugly, but it is better than a scumbag ex-husband!"
"It's enough to be nice to her!" She said again, "Don't you think it's not bad to see the back?"
Shen Yiyou was stunned for a moment, put down the phone, and continued to lie down and text for a while.
His chest felt tight, like a vacuum pump was slowly sucking out all the air in his esophagus and stomach, making it impossible for him to take a full breath.
Sad and not quite sad.
Li Shu is single now, whether he is in a relationship or married, and has nothing to do with Shen Yiyou at all—the reason is like this, unwillingness is inevitable, Shen Yiyou doesn't want to lie to himself.
He was always soft-hearted towards Li Shu, and he didn't mention anything Li Shu didn't like. But when he saw Li Shu making an exception for others, there was still a strong and ugly desire to crawl out from the bottom of Shen Yiyou's heart.
Shen Yiyou also wanted Li Shu to make an exception for him, even once.
After more than half an hour, Tao Jiu came knocking on his door. He sat up, rubbed his eyes, and walked out.
It was getting late, but there were quite a few people on the top floor of the hotel. They sat for a while, and several waves of people came to strike up a conversation, but Shen Yiyou ignored them, and sat by the side drinking in a towel.
Tao Jiu was broadcasting live, and suddenly turned to Shen Yiyou with the camera in his hand, and said, "Come to say hello."
Shen Yiyou was drunk, cast a sidelong glance at Tao Jiu, smiled at the camera again, raised his hand to say hi, Tao Jiu looked at him with a smile for a while, leaned over, and entered the camera with Shen Yiyou.
Tao Jiu's cheeks were a bit baby fat, but his facial features were three-dimensional and his skin was fair. He said to the screen, "Shen Yiyou, the only winner today, why does his face stink like a broken relationship?"
Shen Yiyou looked at himself on the electronic screen of the anti-shake camera. The eyes of the person on the screen were cold, and his hair was messed up by the wind from the top floor. Compared with a broken relationship, he looked more like a very unhappy person, with a look that was hard to please look.
"Someone asked if you were still single," Tao Jiu read the words on the screen with his head down, and asked Shen Yiyou, "Will you accept the pursuit?"
Shen Yiyou said: "Yes."
Tao Jiu was stunned for a moment, put his arms around Shen Yiyou's shoulders, moved his face to the screen, and asked, "Why didn't you answer the last question, do you accept it or not?"
Shen Yiyou glanced at the camera briefly, and said indifferently: "Accept."
Tao Jiu was a bit crazy, so he immediately decided to seek friends for Shen Yiyou. He praised Shen Yiyou, uttered some nonsense conditions, and created a Shen Yiyou mailbox on the spot.
In the end, Shen Yiyou also laughed, and leaned his head on Tao Jiu's shoulder, listening to him speak nonsensical words to the camera.
After a while, Tao Jiu went to another place. Shen Yiyou lay down alone and drank a few sips of wine, seeing that there was no one in the swimming pool, he walked over to swim.
The water covered his knees, his ribs, and stopped at his chest. He felt that the water temperature was still a bit low, but luckily it wasn't so cold that he could shiver, and after a few seconds, he got used to it.
The stars in the sky are particularly bright, the moon is in the sky, and there is no cloud in the sky. The edge of the undulating water of the swimming pool is integrated with the night sky and the night scene of the city.
In fact, a long time ago, Li Shu made a video call with Shen Yiyou in this hotel.
Li Shu had just finished swimming, his hair was also wet, and a towel was put on his body. The lines of his chest and abdominal muscles looked very sexy in the dim and colorful lights.
His eyes are very sincere, with the indomitable innocence that Shen Yiyou loves most, saying that he likes this place, "You will come with me next year".
In the end they broke up, Li Shu started to meet new people, and Shen Yiyou came by himself.
When swimming, Shen Yiyou buried half of his face in the water, sometimes he saw the light on the water surface, and sometimes saw the light under the water. In the soft, cold and warm water, he remembered the first time he had with Li Shu.
He was not happy at first that day. In the afternoon, he had a quarrel with his mother on the phone, and forced himself to attend the annual meeting of an Internet company he was cooperating with. The start-up company's annual meeting is not luxurious, and there are not many people. People are invited to decorate the office, and some drinks and meals are arranged.
There was little wind in the evening, but the temperature was very low, and the humidity penetrated into the bones. Shen Yiyou was so cold that he could only lean against the neon lights on the balcony and stand next to the heating box, staring at the river view in a daze.
Then Li Shu stood beside Shen Yiyou.
Li Shu was wearing a hoodie, jeans, black-rimmed glasses, and held a half-champagne glass of mineral water. He stood persistently for ten minutes, and looked at Shen Yiyou about 20 times before he spoke. Said to Shen Yiyou: "Wouldn't it be cold if you wear so little?"
Shen Yiyou glanced at him, but without speaking, Li Shu fell silent again. He was about eighty centimeters away from Shen Yiyou, looking at Shen Yiyou again and again. Shen Yiyou was annoyed at first, but then he was amused by this idiot, and finally turned sideways to meet Li Shu's eyes.
"My name is Shen Yiyou." This was the first sentence Shen Yiyou said to Li Shu.
And Li Shu was like an automatic response device, quickly replied in the next second: "My name is Li Shu."