Mr. Yuan is Always Unhappy - Chap 23
Edited by Yummers
It was only an addition and subtraction problem for 3 digit numbers, so it wasn’t hard. When Yuan Rui got into Ren Da for high school, he didn’t have to take the entrance exam because he’d won the championship for the Mathematical Olympiad before. He was a top student all the way throughout high school until his mom passed away from an illness. That had a drastic effect on him, and thus his college entrance exam score wasn’t high enough for a top college. That was when his stepdad sent him overseas, and somehow, he ended up as a model.
Before middle school, the only time his math grade was down to the ground was during his 4th grade years. When he was always tugged on the ear by Mrs. Wang.
One morning, just around the beginning of his 4th grade year, his dad told him that he was going to divorce his mom and take him away. Yuan Rui imagined a life without his mom, plus the cruel lifestyle under a stepmom. He stayed home and cried for the entire day instead of going to school. He happened to miss the lesson on the decimal system that day. For half a school year, his math grade kept dropping. Up until their finals, after four whole months of ear tugging, he finally understood why when you add the last 2 numbers together, an extra 1 would pop out.
Later, he became a 0 that really liked 1’s. Maybe that was a foreshadow implanted at that time.
As Zheng Qiuyang walked in after parking his car, he ran into his ex at the entrance. She was a young girl who liked literature and art. Although she called herself an artist, she really only managed to get by depending on her parents and boyfriends. She played around a lot too, she changed her boyfriends like changing clothes.
His exes were mostly like her. Neither side needed to take responsibility and neither side thought much of responsibility either. Both just took what they wanted, it made it easier both physically and mentally.
His ex said, “I haven’t seen you in a long time, how have you been?”
“Pretty good. Are you waiting for someone?”
She nodded. “Waiting for my boyfriend, what about you?”
Zheng Qiuyang pointed inside, “I’m eating with a friend. I won’t bother you anymore then, plus it might be bad if your boyfriend sees me.”
His ex laughed, “Sure, I’ll pick a seat far away from you later.”
He walked in and found Yuan Rui sitting in the corner, their food wasn’t ready yet.
Yuan Rui was typing on his phone. He looked up and saw him, then increased his typing speed.
Zheng Qiuyang sat down and looked over. “Are you replying to your fans’ comments again?”
“I’m going to make one last reply, I’ll be done really fast.”
“You’ve got thousands of fans commenting every day. You’re honestly the only one who replies so sincerely.”
Yuan Rui posted the last reply, then turned off his data. “But they also leave comments very sincerely.”
Zheng Qiuyang glanced at the phone he placed on the table. He smiled and said nothing.
Before he even started dating Yuan Rui, he realized that Yuan Rui would never go on his phone when eating with someone else.
One time when Fang Shiqing invited them out to eat, he had invited 3-4 other friends aside from them. With that many people around the table, someone would always be sneaking a look at their phone every so often. No matter if it was him, Fang Shiqing, or the other friends, everyone did the same.
The only exception was Yuan Rui. He didn’t take his phone out at all. He listened to what every person had to say attentively.
After they got together, he’d asked Yuan Rui about it once. Yuan Rui said, “If someone’s talking but everyone else is looking down at their phones, it’d definitely upset the speaker.”
Zheng Qiuyang felt like his reason was a bit dumb, it wasn’t like the speaker would always be talking to him.
But Zheng Qiuyang didn’t tell him that. From then on, no matter if it was at home or if they were outside, he never played with his phone when eating with Yuan Rui. It wasn’t just because it might upset Yuan Rui, but also the fact that Yuan Rui was a lot more interesting than his phone.
The tender and juicy ribeye steak finally came. After starving the entire day, Yuan Rui dug in quickly with a fork and knife.
Zheng Qiuyang was alright. He cut the steak slowly and ate it slowly. Sometimes, he’d look at Yuan Rui and think about how cute he was with the sauce on the corner of his mouth.
A girl suddenly came by their table without any warning. She exclaimed very surprisingly, “Qiuyang, it’s really you, what a coincidence!”
Zheng Qiuyang was speechless.
The ex who said she’d sit far away from him was great at acting. “I saw your figure from far away. I thought it might’ve been you so I came to say hi.”
Zheng Qiuyang could only comply, “It is a very great coincidence, you’re eating here too? You should hurry back then.”
Instead of replying, the girl looked at Yuan Rui. “Are you Yuan Rui?”
Yuan Rui instantly swallowed a piece of meat that he didn’t get to chew yet, he wiped his mouth fastly. “Hello.”
He’d removed his makeup and was wearing a black-framed pair of glasses. Along with the dim lighting inside the restaurant, he thought that aside from the waiter who would have to get up close to take his order, no one else would be able to recognize him.
The girl said, “I’m your fan! I like you so much! Look!” She took out a moisturizing spray from her purse, “This is the new product from the Japanese brand that you were endorsing for. Because of you, I switched out my entire skincare set!”
It was the first time Yuan Rui had met such a fangirl, he was overwhelmed by her favor. “Thank you, thank you.”
They were sitting in the booths, so the girl was able to sit down right next to him. Her bright eyes stared at him, making him squirm back instantly from fear.
The girl said, “You’re so handsome in person, even better looking than on TV. Your skin’s great too, I can’t even see your pores. Ah, let me show you something.”
She clicked into her photo album, inside were all portraits of Yuan Rui. There were over ten of them, some were sketches while some were oil paintings.
Yuan Rui was both shy and excited. Oh god, he even has skilled fangirls now!
The girl was even shyer. “I’m actually an artist.”
Zheng Qiuyang couldn’t help but interrupt, “That’s about enough. What artist? You can barely finish any paintings in a year.”
The girl gave him a glance before telling Yuan Rui, “He’s right, the only one I’ve been drawing this year was you!”
Yuan Rui finally caught on, he asked, “Are you and Zheng Qiuyang…friends?”
The girl might’ve thought that Zheng Qiuyang was going to say the truth anyway, so she went ahead and informed him generously, “We dated before, then we broke up. Though to be your friend, he must be a good person. But you probably already know what a playboy he is, I couldn’t take it so I dumped him.”
Zheng Qiuyang, “……”
Yuan Rui, “……”
The girl was blushing. “But we can still be friends after breaking up…can I sit with you guys?”
Zheng Qiuyang, “……”
Yuan Rui, “……”
The girl raised her hand, “Waiter! Ordering, please give us another set of utensils here, thank you!”
Yuan Rui, “……”
Zheng Qiuyang cut in, “……Didn’t you say you came with your boyfriend?”
The girl put on a boggled expression. “Boyfriend? I don’t have a boyfriend right now.”
Then, the girl turned to ask bashfully. “Yuan Rui, what kind of girl do you actually like?”
After they were done eating and finally got rid of the girl, both of them were exhausted to the extreme.
Zheng Qiuyang opened the passenger seat door for him. “Come on, let’s go home.”
Yuan Rui got in the car quietly. He waited until Zheng Qiuyang got on as well to say, “She’s actually pretty cute.”
“……”
“Pretty and lively, she can draw too.”
Zheng Qiuyang inhaled, he tried to joke with him, “If you like, I can give you her phone number.”
Yuan Rui glanced at him, he asked cautiously, “You still have her phone number? Are you guys still in contact?”
“……”
He took out his phone and passed it to Yuan Rui. “You can look at my call history.”
Yuan Rui didn’t take it. “I’m not looking, that’s your privacy.”
“What privacy would I have around you?” Zheng Qiuyang opened his contact list, searching through them as he said, “Will it be fine if I let you watch me delete her number? It’s not like you don’t know me, I’m a very carefree person. I don’t take the time to delete numbers that I don’t need.”
Yuan Rui stopped him. “There’s no need, I didn’t mean it like that.”
“Really? I thought you were jealous.”
Yuan Rui smiled. “Nah, she likes me now.”
“……”
After an interval of silence, Zheng Qiuyang finally said, “I’m not in contact with her, nor am I with anyone from the past. None of them actually liked me, nor did I actually like them back. Yuan Xiao Rui, you’re the first person I fell in love with.”
“Mn.”
Zheng Qiuyang thought that his confession was very genuine, yet Yuan Rui’s reply was so indifferent.
He was a bit disappointed. He said nothing as he turned the car key, stepped on the pedal, and drove home.
When they got inside, Yuan Rui poured himself a cup of water. He asked him, “Do you want any?”
“No.”
Yuan Rui finished the water, then went to the bathroom. A little while passed before he called out for Zheng Qiuyang, “Come over here for a bit.”
Zheng Qiuyang, “???”
He went inside confusingly. He saw Yuan Rui sitting on the toilet with a gloomy face with the toilet cover still on the seat.
“……What are you doing?”
“I’m upset.”
“……”
Yuan Rui endured his feeling of being wronged, “I think I’m jealous.”
“……”
Yuan Rui looked up at him. “Am I too narrow-minded?”
Zheng Qiuyang stepped forward to give him a tight hug, his heart was both aching and happy.
Yuan Rui hugged him back as he said in a small voice, “Your ex-girlfriend’s chest is so big.”
