Deng Feng asked them to drink at a bar they used to go to. Ji Minglun parked the car in the basement, took the elevator to the 42nd floor, and pushed open the door of a bar with a style full of ruins elements.
This bar has a unique design, but the owner has positioned it as a quiet bar. The music is very suitable for conversation, and the floor-to-ceiling windows on the entire wall opposite the bar overlook the sea view. It is Deng Feng's favorite bar. When Ji Minglun agreed to open [Chaka] with him in the first place, it was discussed here.
Seeing Deng Feng's back at the old seat, Ji Minglun walked to the bar, asked the bartender to open a bottle of ice white wine, and took two slender high-heeled glasses and walked to the opposite side of Deng Feng.
Deng Feng had a bottle of Gold Label Tequila next to him, which was already half empty. Seeing that he actually opened a bottle of sour and sweet ice wine, he complained: "What are you doing? Ordering a woman's drink."
Ji Minglun ignored the tequila he placed in front of him, poured wine into two goblets, and pushed one to Deng Feng: "I don't want to get drunk tonight, so let's change our taste once in a while."
Deng Feng picked up the wine glass, looked at the golden liquor in the transparent cup, smiled helplessly, tilted his head back and drank it in one gulp.
Ji Minglun shook the wine glass slightly, took a sip, and felt the unique fragrance of the icy white wine releasing in his taste buds. He lowered his eyes to look at the floor-to-ceiling glass next to him.
The quiet sea is vast and deep. There is no moonlight tonight and thick clouds cover the sky. When I came out, I heard a radio broadcast that there will be another typhoon landing in two days.
"Have you recruited any new people in the store?" Ji Minglun asked, staring at the buoy ball flashing on the sea level.
After taking a sip of tequila, Deng Feng said, "Zhuzhu recommended his friends to come here, so there is no problem with manpower."
Ji Minglun nodded and just as he said "That's good" Deng Feng threw a pack of cigarettes at him. He wanted to refuse, but out of the corner of his eye he noticed that the outer packaging was Baoheng Mojito.
Deng Feng had always looked down on the cigarettes he smoked, thinking the taste was too bland, but this pack of Bao Heng Mojitos had been opened, and most of the cigarettes were missing.
He pinched the cigarette box and asked, "Why did you change the flavor?"
"Deng Yi's." Deng Feng propped his chin with the back of his hand and glanced at Ji Minglun. "I found it in her room. I asked her why she started smoking and she said she had quit. She was going to throw these away."
After drinking the rest of the wine in the glass, Ji Minglun took out a brand new pack of Baoheng Mojito from his trouser pocket, tore open the package and lit one.
Seeing him puffing away across from him, Deng Feng also lit up a cigarette. After taking a puff, he still felt uncomfortable and put it out in the ashtray: "What's going on between you and my sister? Can you explain it clearly?"
Ji Minglun looked at the sea view outside the window and replied absentmindedly: "I told her that if she doesn't know how to restrain herself, we won't be friends anymore."
"What happened? What did she do again?"
Ji Minglun left Deng Yi's birthday party early that day, and later Deng Feng was unable to attend due to other things. Deng Yi must have told Shi Xiaomin and the others not to tell anyone, so Deng Feng still doesn't know what happened.
I came out tonight to show my cards. Now that we've come to this point, Ji Minglun no longer hides anything. He shook a piece of ash into the metal ashtray and said, "Deng Yi found out that Jiang Lin and I were together, but she misunderstood that Jiang Lin was trying to hook up with both you and me. That day, Jiang Lin went to her birthday party to look for me, and she accidentally pushed me into the water."
Ji Minglun's tone was very calm, and he summarized the whole story in just a few short sentences. However, these few sentences contained so much information that Deng Feng was stunned at first. It took him a few seconds to suddenly grasp the key points and look at him in disbelief.
"You and Jiang Lin, are you together?!"
Ji Minglun knew that it was hard for Deng Feng to accept this. After all, he was also wrong in this matter. At the beginning, because of the awkward relationship with Jiang Lin, they both concealed their previous acquaintance from each other. Later, as time went by, it became more and more difficult to confess. If Deng Feng knew about his past with Jiang Lin earlier, perhaps there would be no trouble later.
"Well," Ji Minglun lowered his voice, his expression adding a bit of guilt, "Actually, I knew him when we were in kindergarten, and we were good friends until we graduated from college. But I confessed to him before he went abroad, and he didn't accept me at that time, and we broke up. So when he came back this summer, I didn't expect him to work in our store."
Deng Feng still had an expression of disbelief: "So he rejected me and said that he already had someone he liked, and that person was you?"
Ji Minglun picked up the tequila that Deng Feng had poured for him just now, raised his head and drank it all in one gulp. After the bitter taste passed through his throat, he looked at the person opposite him and said, "Hmm."
Deng Feng was stunned for a while, then suddenly sneered, his shoulders shaking as he moved. Ji Minglun saw him raise his left hand, put the back of his hand against his chin and clench his fist, and soon laughed a second time, then laughed so hard that his whole body leaned back and collapsed on the back of the metal chair.
His actions were exaggerated, which made Ji Minglun frown. Just as he was thinking about how to start, he heard him sigh in self-mockery: "No wonder."
"No wonder Jiang Lin goes to the store so often, no wonder you come to the store so often this month, no wonder he agreed to go on a trip when I asked him to."
"And last time, I said I would send him back but he looked at you instead." Deng Feng slapped the marble tabletop, and his palm made a dull sound. "At that time, he actually wanted to take your car and leave."
Ji Minglun didn't know what to say.
Deng Feng's expression was uncertain. He was laughing sarcastically the moment before, then his shoulders slumped dejectedly. But now he straightened his back and stared at him as he summarized his previous guesses.
"You looked like that a year ago because of Jiang Lin, right? When did you two get together?"
Without waiting for Ji Minglun's answer, Deng Feng continued to ask: "When you were in Xi'an?"
"No," Ji Minglun denied, "I asked you in Xi'an if you were pursuing Jiang Lin. At that time, I didn't know his true thoughts."
Ji Minglun's left hand was casually placed next to the wine glass. Deng Feng glanced at the silver chain on his wrist, pointed at it with his fingertips, and asked, "Is this bracelet also given by Jiang Lin?"
Deng Feng was the friend who had spent the most time with Ji Minglun this year. He naturally recognized the bracelet that he always wore, and he also knew that the bracelet had been broken and sent for repair some time ago. Now seeing him wearing it again, Deng Feng remembered the scene in the luxury store where he saw Jiang Lin excitedly wearing the bracelet. At that time, he thought Jiang Lin didn't buy it because he thought it was too expensive. Now it seems that it was probably because Ji Minglun had caught it beforehand.
Thinking about the stupid things he did later, Deng Feng felt really embarrassed and drank three glasses of wine in one breath. In the end, Ji Minglun held his hand down.
"If you're still angry, let's go out and have a fight. I'll let you beat me." Ji Minglun took the bottle of wine next to him and said sincerely.
Ji Minglun was not the kind of person who would initiate a fight with others, but this incident did cause harm to Deng Feng, and he didn't want Deng Feng to blame Jiang Lin, so the best way was to let Deng Feng beat him up to vent his anger.
Deng Feng's eyes passed over, his emotionless pupils reflected the cold light of the atmosphere lamps next to him, and he felt a little strange. Ji Minglun did not avoid his gaze, and the two looked at each other for a long time. Suddenly, there was a burst of laughter from the next table. Deng Feng's attention was interrupted, and he turned his head to glance at the men and women at that table, then retracted his gaze and said, "Come on, if I hit you, my hand will suffer too."
After all, Ji Minglun had asked him if he was interested in Jiang Lin, but he himself did not admit it. If he had admitted it at that time, the development of the situation might have been more tortuous, but the ending would not have changed.
Jiang Lin didn't say who he liked on the phone that day. Now that he knew it was Ji Minglun, he understood the efforts Jiang Lin had made to get close to Ji Minglun during this period of time.
Jiang Lin had a clear purpose from the beginning, and Ji Minglun kept thinking about Jiang Lin, so how could anyone else interfere between these two
The most frightening thing for people is to be stubborn and unable to understand something. Once the truth is understood, it is not so difficult to swallow. Moreover, although he still wanted to keep Jiang Lin these days, he knew in his heart that when Jiang Lin returned to Los Angeles, the next year would be a cross-border connection, and it was self-evident how difficult it would be.
Deng Feng raised his hands and placed them on the table, rubbed his face with his palms, and after a moment he let out a sigh.
The music in the bar was playing, and Ji Minglun did not hear the sigh. He only saw him put his hand down quickly, and when he looked at him again, his eyes had become calm.
"Okay, let's not talk about this matter anymore."
Deng Feng has always been an open-minded person, but it is hard to say about feelings. Before it came out, Ji Minglun was still unsure. Seeing that he did not make a fuss about Jiang Lin, he finally breathed a sigh of relief. Who knew that he would hear him ask next: "But have you considered what to do in the next year?"
When leaving the bar, Ji Minglun went around to the rooftop at the back and stood in front of the guardrail to look at the scenery for a while.
The sky and the coast were facing each other, the night sank into the deep sea, and the neon lights of the charming buildings on the left appeared like strokes of rich color on the dark canvas, dividing the left and right worlds. A girl a few steps away was broadcasting live on the video, and her disturbing voice almost covered the strong wind in the sky. Ji Minglun stood for a while and then left. When he left, he glanced at the seats in the bar. Deng Feng was still sitting there, talking on the phone with someone unknown.
Back in the car, he called Jiang Lin.
The phone rang for a long time before Jiang Lin picked up. Before he spoke, he heard the rustling sound of water and couldn't help but construct a beautiful scene in his mind.
"In the shower?" he asked.
"Well," Jiang Lin's voice was a little hoarse, "Have you finished talking with Deng Feng?"
"We're done talking," Ji Minglun took out a cigarette from his pocket, lowered the car window and lit one, "I explained it clearly, and he can understand it."
"Really?" Jiang Lin's tone was quite surprised, obviously not expecting it to be so smooth. Ji Minglun smiled, and the white mist from his nose swirled in front of his eyes: "I won't get any money if I cheat you."
Jiang Lin was speechless, and then he heard Ji Minglun say: "I'm going back now, are you hungry? Is there anything you want to eat?"
"I'm not hungry," Jiang Lin said, "You should come back early."
Ji Minglun used the fingers holding the cigarette to pull the seat belt and buckle it, then pressed the start button of the car: "Miss me?"
Jiang Lin didn't say anything, and there was only the sound of water on the other end of the phone. Imagining Jiang Lin standing naked in his bathroom, dripping with water, Ji Minglun's throat tightened, as if he could smell the unique sandalwood and cedar scent on Jiang Lin's hair, and the milky white foam sliding down his delicate skin.
Gripping the steering wheel tightly, Ji Minglun lowered his voice and said, "Jiang Lin, I miss you."
There was still no one answering him on the other end of the phone, but he heard a very slight sound, like a gasp.
Jiang Lin lowered his eyelids, with a few tiny drops of water hanging on his eyelashes. Looking at the impulse aroused by Ji Minglun's words, he inexplicably had difficulty breathing, and an irrepressible desire surged in his heart.
Raising his left hand and hugging his right arm, he closed his eyes and said, "I miss you, too. Please come back soon."