Chapter 80
Act X: Singing In the Rain (5)
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When Tan Yiming heard Xiang Cai call himself ‘Teacher Tan’, his heart immediately began to thud. His head was clearly covered with cold wind and fine snow, but a layer of sweat broke out on Tan Yiming's back.
Tan Yiming wanted to explain, but when he spoke, he found that there was no room for explanation.
Yao Yin chased him, but he had refused him. In the past five years, they had had no contact. The two were innocent, but when Tan Yiming met Xiang Cai’s calm eyes, he felt the inexplicable panic of being caught.
However, Yao Yin saw that the funeral wasn’t a big deal, and asked with great fanfare: "You two are really just roommates?"
[T/N: see that the funeral isn’t a big deal = standing idly by others’ misfortunes and watching amusedly.]
Xiang Cai looked away from Tan Yiming, only staring at the clear patches his footprints had left. The amount of snow falling grew heavier and there was a thin layer of fresh snow on the ground. They had left footprints all along the way they had walked.
Xiang Cai seemed to think that those messy footprints were fun, as he stared at the footprints and refused to look up.
He replied: "I rent out Teacher Tan's house, so not only is he my roommate, but he is also my landlord." He stopped, and then asked, "Isn’t that right, Teacher Tan?"
Teacher Tan: "..." Teacher Tan thought about the distraught kiss on that rainy night, and wanted to say no, but after thinking about it, could only squeeze out a different word from between his teeth: "Yes."
Xiang Cai grew dull again.
He felt that he was too contradictory and weird. He was the one who initially told Yao Yin that he and Tan Yiming were just ordinary roommates. But why did he feel depressed and angry when Tan Yiming agreed with him?
The three people stood facing each other. Xiang Cai lost his appetite, he didn't want to eat a New Year's Eve dinner at all, and just wanted to go back to his room and fall asleep.
But it was impossible to escape.
Yao Yin grabbed his wrist and said aggrievedly: "Didn't you agree to accompany me to go to the revolving restaurant?"
Tan Yiming's fiery gaze fell on Yao Yin's paws, and he squeezed out a sentence from between his teeth: "Cai Cai and I are going home to eat hot pot."
The two of them fought to the end, and then unexpectedly, each took a step back - the three of them were going to the revolving restaurant together for the New Year!
Xiang Cai: "...?"
What was this development?
The revolving restaurant was about ten kilometers away from the rehearsal hall, but Tan Yiming and Yao Yin still held a second round of dispute over ‘whose car Cai Cai will ride’.
Tan Yiming said: "My car is an SUV, and the seating is comfortable and spacious. Cai Cai is already used to it and there is also a small blanket for him in the car."
Yao Yin said: "It’s spacious? Then why can’t he take the bus directly? Teacher Tan, your whole car is not as expensive as the door of my car. On the road, you can just catch the breeze that my supercar leaves."
"What breeze?" Tan Yiming sneered. "Even if it's a supercar, you can’t think about driving over 50 kph within the fifth ring."
Yao Yin hummed: "I don't care what you, a working-class man, say. You haven't even sat in a supercar. How can you laugh at one?"
Tan Yiming asked back: "Who said I’ve never sat in one?!"
"Oh, yes, how could I forget?" Yao Yin raised his eyebrows. "When I was chasing you, didn’t you take my supercar to and from work every day?”
Xiang Cai: "..."
Tan Yiming had cultivated his good temperament for 30 years but had to declare bankruptcy within ten minutes of meeting Yao Yin again. Between the two of them, there was no joy of ‘meeting a stranger in another country’, there were only swords drawn as if they were in a bullfight.
When Xiang Cai, who was beside them, listened to them discuss the various past events from five years ago, he found that he was not qualified to interrupt.
What was Tan Yiming like five years ago? —Xiang Cai only knew the ‘Wang Qingyun’ idol who was worshipped by all his fans on the Internet, he did not know the newcomer CV who stumbled to start his dubbing career.
But...Yao Yin knew, Yao Yin understood.
An unspeakable sourness arose from the bottom of Xiang Cai’s heart, and the boy was taken aback by his ‘narrow-mindedness’.
He could actually feel that nothing really happened between Tan Yiming and Yao Yin. They were not ambiguous, nor were they disconnected.
But things that were understood rationally, sometimes couldn’t be understood emotionally, in a vicious cycle.
He found out—he actually didn't want anyone to understand or know Tan Yiming better than him.
...
The three finally chose to sit in Tan Yiming’s car and rushed to the revolving restaurant.
There was a sudden snowfall on New Year's Eve and so there were traffic jams everywhere on the road. It had actually taken over half an hour for the three to arrive at the revolving restaurant.
Yao Yin was a frequent visitor to this restaurant, and his consumption was very high every time, so the restaurant manager gave him a lot of face. They added a small table for him in the best viewing area of the revolving restaurant.
The revolving restaurant was located on the top floor of an old TV tower that was once the tallest building in Huacheng. The entire restaurant was a circular ring shape with a 360-degree view glass wall.
Their newly given location was close to the glass wall. Two sets of cutlery were placed on a small square table, and a romantic candlestick was placed in the center.
The manager said guiltily, "I'm sorry, Mr. Yao. Because you said that this was for two people, we had only prepared for two people here."
Yao Yin smiled: "A two-person set is fine. My driver can go back and eat a sandwich."
The driver Tan Yiming: "..."
Xiang Cai hurriedly ended their farce, and gently asked the manager: "Can you add a seat to the side for me?"
The restaurant manager hurriedly asked someone to bring in a comfortable, soft chair, and then removed the candlestick that occupied the extra space on the table. Only then could he place the third set of tableware.
The three of them were seated. Xiang Cai took the initiative to sit on the furthest seat to the back, with Tan Yiming on his left and Yao Yin on his right. As the two on his left and right looked at each other, countless swords and shadows flashed by.
After a while, the waiter pushed over an ice bucket to serve the wine.
The waiter whispered: "Mr. Yao, the Boston lobster and Wellington steak you ordered before are both for two people. The chef does not have enough ingredients to make a third one. What other dishes would you like?”
Yao Yin didn't open the menu, and asked directly: "I remember that you can also cook Chinese food, right?"
"Yes." The waiter said politely, "If you would like it, you can also ask the chef of the Chinese restaurant to deliver it. However, an additional 25% service charge will be charged."
This revolving restaurant was divided into two areas, left and right. The right area they were located in was where they mainly served Western food, and the opposite was where Chinese food was made. However, rich people had many quirks. As long as they could afford to pay, whether they ate Western food in the Chinese restaurant or ate Chinese food in the Western restaurant, the restaurant manager would not mind.
"That's fine." Yao Yin crossed his arms, stared in Tan Yiming’s direction, and slowly said, "Let your chef make a ‘pickled cabbage fish’."
Tan Yiming: "..."
Yao Yin deliberately provoked: "On such a good New Year's Eve, I invited a friend to come out to enjoy the night scene. However, someone had the cheek to follow, so sour and unnecessary."
Tan Yiming didn't even raise his eyebrows, and calmly asked the waiter: "Can you make stinky mandarin fish here?"
Yao Yin: "?"
Tan Yiming said, “A New Year’s Eve dinner is really important. But the important thing is not where to eat and how high-end the ingredients are, but the good intentions and heart. Otherwise, no matter how much you spend, it's all stinky, expensive and redundant."
Waiter: "..."
The waiter bit the bullet and said: "Sorry, gentlemen, we neither make pickled cabbage fish nor stinky mandarin fish here."
Tan Yiming and Yao Yin: "..."
The two ridiculed each other. It needn’t be mentioned that they were attempting to irritate each other; it could also be called joking, but it held some irony. They both believed that the other party was the superfluous person at the table, but as Xiang Cai quietly listened on, he felt that he himself who wasn’t talking was the superfluous one.
In the end, Tan Yiming ordered a set of chef-recommended meals, including appetizers, dinners and a dessert. As for how the meal tasted... Tan Yiming didn't taste it, causing him to feel aggrieved!
During the meal, Yao Yin chatted with Xiang Cai about work.
Those complicated, high-end exclusive terms, those niche and well-known seniors, and countless big and small things that happened during their work... Yao Yin said one sentence, followed by another sentence to Xiang Cai. Xiang Cai not only answered, but even deliberately stirred up new topics. More than half an hour after their meal had begun, the conversation between the two never stopped!
Tan Yiming didn't realize until today that he turned out to be such a narrow-minded man.
Tan Yiming couldn't help but interrupt them, saying, "Today is New Year's Eve. Yao Yin, do you have to talk to Cai Cai about work at this time?"
Yao Yin rolled his eyes and asked: "Xiao Cai Cai and I are colleagues. Strictly speaking, I can still be regarded as his boss. If we don't talk about work, what shall we talk about?--Talk about you?"
Tan Yiming could see that Yao Yin was provoking him today. But Tan Yiming couldn't figure it out. Was Yao Yin taking revenge on Tan Yiming for rejecting him five years ago, and deliberately making him angry, or did he really like Xiang Cai?
But... if he was not mistaken, wasn’t Yao Yin a bottom?
Yao Yin seemed to have mind-reading skills, and actually read Tan Yiming's question.
Yao Yin curled up the corners of his mouth and said meaningfully: "If you don't loosen the soil for me, can't I loosen the soil for others?"
Tan Yiming: "..."
Xiang Cai couldn't understand the secret words between the two.
Once again, Xiang Cai felt that he was excluded by them.
Obviously, he had worked so hard to create topics, desperately chatting about work and internal affairs, and doing his best to center Yao Yin's attention on himself, just to prevent Yao Yin and Tan Yiming from arguing more.
However, as long as Tan Yiming gave a word, the two of them would immediately enter their own world. Everything they talked about had something to do with five years ago—and that was a past that Xiang Cai couldn't touch.
For example, now, they were talking about loosening the soil and not loosening the soil; Xiang Cai couldn’t even guess at what the code words they were using meant.
He was sitting in the most expensive restaurant in the city and eating the chef’s meticulous cooking, but Xiang Cai felt like he was chewing wax. He wished to take Tan Yiming back to their house right that moment.
He and Yao Yin had been working together for so long and had always gotten along very well. Yao Yin guided him in work and helped him in life. They were not only colleagues, but also very good friends.
But now, Xiang Cai was jealous of his friend!
In the face of this unfamiliar sourness, Xiang Cai didn't have a trace of resistance.
The meal became more and more tasteless as Xiang Cai's thoughts uncontrollably flew back to the past. In his mind, he constructed the appearance of Tan Yiming from five years ago.
The Tan Yiming at that time would be younger than he looked now. He was high-spirited, the best Chinese student in his school, and the most capable intern at his investment bank. At that time, how did he take care of two jobs? While busy fighting fiercely in the financial market, he went to the recording studio. And Yao Yin had appeared next to him at that time...
The more he thought about it, the deeper he thought.
He thought, ‘Teacher Yao Yin is excellent and proud, yet such a distant flower is still obsessed with Tan Yiming after five years. Can it be because…’
The sense of crisis in the little swan's heart surged out instantly.
Tan Yiming didn't notice that Xiang Cai was in a bad mood. Seeing him stop the motions of his knife and fork, Tan Yiming asked, "Have you finished eating?"
Xiang Cai nodded silently.
Tan Yiming immediately got up and went to checkout. If it was possible, he couldn’t wait to teleport home with Xiang Cai now, he must absolutely not let Xiang Cai be poisoned by Yao Yin again!
After he left, Yao Yin looked at Tan Yiming's receding back, put away the sneer building at the corners of his mouth, and shook his head, exclaiming: "Xiang Cai, how small is this world? I really didn't expect that the one you were rooming with would actually be Tan Yiming."
He was talking to himself, but Xiang Cai answered him: "...We aren’t rooming together."
"What?" Yao Yin didn't hear clearly.
So Xiang Cai repeated it again: "Tan Yiming and I aren’t rooming together—"
The boy thought to himself, he must be crazy. Otherwise, why would he say such a thing so shamelessly?
"—We are living together."
...
Xiang Cai was really the most selfish tenant in the world.
It was not enough for him to live in Tan Yiming's house, now he wanted to live in Tan Yiming's heart.
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----------
When Tan Yiming heard Xiang Cai call himself ‘Teacher Tan’, his heart immediately began to thud. His head was clearly covered with cold wind and fine snow, but a layer of sweat broke out on Tan Yiming's back.
Tan Yiming wanted to explain, but when he spoke, he found that there was no room for explanation.
Yao Yin chased him, but he had refused him. In the past five years, they had had no contact. The two were innocent, but when Tan Yiming met Xiang Cai’s calm eyes, he felt the inexplicable panic of being caught.
However, Yao Yin saw that the funeral wasn’t a big deal, and asked with great fanfare: "You two are really just roommates?"
[T/N: see that the funeral isn’t a big deal = standing idly by others’ misfortunes and watching amusedly.]
Xiang Cai looked away from Tan Yiming, only staring at the clear patches his footprints had left. The amount of snow falling grew heavier and there was a thin layer of fresh snow on the ground. They had left footprints all along the way they had walked.
Xiang Cai seemed to think that those messy footprints were fun, as he stared at the footprints and refused to look up.
He replied: "I rent out Teacher Tan's house, so not only is he my roommate, but he is also my landlord." He stopped, and then asked, "Isn’t that right, Teacher Tan?"
Teacher Tan: "..." Teacher Tan thought about the distraught kiss on that rainy night, and wanted to say no, but after thinking about it, could only squeeze out a different word from between his teeth: "Yes."
Xiang Cai grew dull again.
He felt that he was too contradictory and weird. He was the one who initially told Yao Yin that he and Tan Yiming were just ordinary roommates. But why did he feel depressed and angry when Tan Yiming agreed with him?
The three people stood facing each other. Xiang Cai lost his appetite, he didn't want to eat a New Year's Eve dinner at all, and just wanted to go back to his room and fall asleep.
But it was impossible to escape.
Yao Yin grabbed his wrist and said aggrievedly: "Didn't you agree to accompany me to go to the revolving restaurant?"
Tan Yiming's fiery gaze fell on Yao Yin's paws, and he squeezed out a sentence from between his teeth: "Cai Cai and I are going home to eat hot pot."
The two of them fought to the end, and then unexpectedly, each took a step back - the three of them were going to the revolving restaurant together for the New Year!
Xiang Cai: "...?"
What was this development?
The revolving restaurant was about ten kilometers away from the rehearsal hall, but Tan Yiming and Yao Yin still held a second round of dispute over ‘whose car Cai Cai will ride’.
Tan Yiming said: "My car is an SUV, and the seating is comfortable and spacious. Cai Cai is already used to it and there is also a small blanket for him in the car."
Yao Yin said: "It’s spacious? Then why can’t he take the bus directly? Teacher Tan, your whole car is not as expensive as the door of my car. On the road, you can just catch the breeze that my supercar leaves."
"What breeze?" Tan Yiming sneered. "Even if it's a supercar, you can’t think about driving over 50 kph within the fifth ring."
Yao Yin hummed: "I don't care what you, a working-class man, say. You haven't even sat in a supercar. How can you laugh at one?"
Tan Yiming asked back: "Who said I’ve never sat in one?!"
"Oh, yes, how could I forget?" Yao Yin raised his eyebrows. "When I was chasing you, didn’t you take my supercar to and from work every day?”
Xiang Cai: "..."
Tan Yiming had cultivated his good temperament for 30 years but had to declare bankruptcy within ten minutes of meeting Yao Yin again. Between the two of them, there was no joy of ‘meeting a stranger in another country’, there were only swords drawn as if they were in a bullfight.
When Xiang Cai, who was beside them, listened to them discuss the various past events from five years ago, he found that he was not qualified to interrupt.
What was Tan Yiming like five years ago? —Xiang Cai only knew the ‘Wang Qingyun’ idol who was worshipped by all his fans on the Internet, he did not know the newcomer CV who stumbled to start his dubbing career.
But...Yao Yin knew, Yao Yin understood.
An unspeakable sourness arose from the bottom of Xiang Cai’s heart, and the boy was taken aback by his ‘narrow-mindedness’.
He could actually feel that nothing really happened between Tan Yiming and Yao Yin. They were not ambiguous, nor were they disconnected.
But things that were understood rationally, sometimes couldn’t be understood emotionally, in a vicious cycle.
He found out—he actually didn't want anyone to understand or know Tan Yiming better than him.
...
The three finally chose to sit in Tan Yiming’s car and rushed to the revolving restaurant.
There was a sudden snowfall on New Year's Eve and so there were traffic jams everywhere on the road. It had actually taken over half an hour for the three to arrive at the revolving restaurant.
Yao Yin was a frequent visitor to this restaurant, and his consumption was very high every time, so the restaurant manager gave him a lot of face. They added a small table for him in the best viewing area of the revolving restaurant.
The revolving restaurant was located on the top floor of an old TV tower that was once the tallest building in Huacheng. The entire restaurant was a circular ring shape with a 360-degree view glass wall.
Their newly given location was close to the glass wall. Two sets of cutlery were placed on a small square table, and a romantic candlestick was placed in the center.
The manager said guiltily, "I'm sorry, Mr. Yao. Because you said that this was for two people, we had only prepared for two people here."
Yao Yin smiled: "A two-person set is fine. My driver can go back and eat a sandwich."
The driver Tan Yiming: "..."
Xiang Cai hurriedly ended their farce, and gently asked the manager: "Can you add a seat to the side for me?"
The restaurant manager hurriedly asked someone to bring in a comfortable, soft chair, and then removed the candlestick that occupied the extra space on the table. Only then could he place the third set of tableware.
The three of them were seated. Xiang Cai took the initiative to sit on the furthest seat to the back, with Tan Yiming on his left and Yao Yin on his right. As the two on his left and right looked at each other, countless swords and shadows flashed by.
After a while, the waiter pushed over an ice bucket to serve the wine.
The waiter whispered: "Mr. Yao, the Boston lobster and Wellington steak you ordered before are both for two people. The chef does not have enough ingredients to make a third one. What other dishes would you like?”
Yao Yin didn't open the menu, and asked directly: "I remember that you can also cook Chinese food, right?"
"Yes." The waiter said politely, "If you would like it, you can also ask the chef of the Chinese restaurant to deliver it. However, an additional 25% service charge will be charged."
This revolving restaurant was divided into two areas, left and right. The right area they were located in was where they mainly served Western food, and the opposite was where Chinese food was made. However, rich people had many quirks. As long as they could afford to pay, whether they ate Western food in the Chinese restaurant or ate Chinese food in the Western restaurant, the restaurant manager would not mind.
"That's fine." Yao Yin crossed his arms, stared in Tan Yiming’s direction, and slowly said, "Let your chef make a ‘pickled cabbage fish’."
Tan Yiming: "..."
Yao Yin deliberately provoked: "On such a good New Year's Eve, I invited a friend to come out to enjoy the night scene. However, someone had the cheek to follow, so sour and unnecessary."
Tan Yiming didn't even raise his eyebrows, and calmly asked the waiter: "Can you make stinky mandarin fish here?"
Yao Yin: "?"
Tan Yiming said, “A New Year’s Eve dinner is really important. But the important thing is not where to eat and how high-end the ingredients are, but the good intentions and heart. Otherwise, no matter how much you spend, it's all stinky, expensive and redundant."
Waiter: "..."
The waiter bit the bullet and said: "Sorry, gentlemen, we neither make pickled cabbage fish nor stinky mandarin fish here."
Tan Yiming and Yao Yin: "..."
The two ridiculed each other. It needn’t be mentioned that they were attempting to irritate each other; it could also be called joking, but it held some irony. They both believed that the other party was the superfluous person at the table, but as Xiang Cai quietly listened on, he felt that he himself who wasn’t talking was the superfluous one.
In the end, Tan Yiming ordered a set of chef-recommended meals, including appetizers, dinners and a dessert. As for how the meal tasted... Tan Yiming didn't taste it, causing him to feel aggrieved!
During the meal, Yao Yin chatted with Xiang Cai about work.
Those complicated, high-end exclusive terms, those niche and well-known seniors, and countless big and small things that happened during their work... Yao Yin said one sentence, followed by another sentence to Xiang Cai. Xiang Cai not only answered, but even deliberately stirred up new topics. More than half an hour after their meal had begun, the conversation between the two never stopped!
Tan Yiming didn't realize until today that he turned out to be such a narrow-minded man.
Tan Yiming couldn't help but interrupt them, saying, "Today is New Year's Eve. Yao Yin, do you have to talk to Cai Cai about work at this time?"
Yao Yin rolled his eyes and asked: "Xiao Cai Cai and I are colleagues. Strictly speaking, I can still be regarded as his boss. If we don't talk about work, what shall we talk about?--Talk about you?"
Tan Yiming could see that Yao Yin was provoking him today. But Tan Yiming couldn't figure it out. Was Yao Yin taking revenge on Tan Yiming for rejecting him five years ago, and deliberately making him angry, or did he really like Xiang Cai?
But... if he was not mistaken, wasn’t Yao Yin a bottom?
Yao Yin seemed to have mind-reading skills, and actually read Tan Yiming's question.
Yao Yin curled up the corners of his mouth and said meaningfully: "If you don't loosen the soil for me, can't I loosen the soil for others?"
Tan Yiming: "..."
Xiang Cai couldn't understand the secret words between the two.
Once again, Xiang Cai felt that he was excluded by them.
Obviously, he had worked so hard to create topics, desperately chatting about work and internal affairs, and doing his best to center Yao Yin's attention on himself, just to prevent Yao Yin and Tan Yiming from arguing more.
However, as long as Tan Yiming gave a word, the two of them would immediately enter their own world. Everything they talked about had something to do with five years ago—and that was a past that Xiang Cai couldn't touch.
For example, now, they were talking about loosening the soil and not loosening the soil; Xiang Cai couldn’t even guess at what the code words they were using meant.
He was sitting in the most expensive restaurant in the city and eating the chef’s meticulous cooking, but Xiang Cai felt like he was chewing wax. He wished to take Tan Yiming back to their house right that moment.
He and Yao Yin had been working together for so long and had always gotten along very well. Yao Yin guided him in work and helped him in life. They were not only colleagues, but also very good friends.
But now, Xiang Cai was jealous of his friend!
In the face of this unfamiliar sourness, Xiang Cai didn't have a trace of resistance.
The meal became more and more tasteless as Xiang Cai's thoughts uncontrollably flew back to the past. In his mind, he constructed the appearance of Tan Yiming from five years ago.
The Tan Yiming at that time would be younger than he looked now. He was high-spirited, the best Chinese student in his school, and the most capable intern at his investment bank. At that time, how did he take care of two jobs? While busy fighting fiercely in the financial market, he went to the recording studio. And Yao Yin had appeared next to him at that time...
The more he thought about it, the deeper he thought.
He thought, ‘Teacher Yao Yin is excellent and proud, yet such a distant flower is still obsessed with Tan Yiming after five years. Can it be because…’
The sense of crisis in the little swan's heart surged out instantly.
Tan Yiming didn't notice that Xiang Cai was in a bad mood. Seeing him stop the motions of his knife and fork, Tan Yiming asked, "Have you finished eating?"
Xiang Cai nodded silently.
Tan Yiming immediately got up and went to checkout. If it was possible, he couldn’t wait to teleport home with Xiang Cai now, he must absolutely not let Xiang Cai be poisoned by Yao Yin again!
After he left, Yao Yin looked at Tan Yiming's receding back, put away the sneer building at the corners of his mouth, and shook his head, exclaiming: "Xiang Cai, how small is this world? I really didn't expect that the one you were rooming with would actually be Tan Yiming."
He was talking to himself, but Xiang Cai answered him: "...We aren’t rooming together."
"What?" Yao Yin didn't hear clearly.
So Xiang Cai repeated it again: "Tan Yiming and I aren’t rooming together—"
The boy thought to himself, he must be crazy. Otherwise, why would he say such a thing so shamelessly?
"—We are living together."
...
Xiang Cai was really the most selfish tenant in the world.
It was not enough for him to live in Tan Yiming's house, now he wanted to live in Tan Yiming's heart.
----------
Hahaha, I love their bickering XD
ReplyDeleteDon't worry Cai Cai, you have a free pass to live in Tan Yiming's heart forever and more!!
Thanks for the chapter!!!! ^^
Oh my goodness. How childish ! But so understandable!! And i didn’t realise that those two dishes actually exist!? 👏🙏🤣❣️
ReplyDeleteSo childish, these two :)) /// also, the last sentence is beautiful~
ReplyDeleteThank you for the chapter!