Pure emotion error - Chapter 12
Chapter 12 Peach
“I’m moving out to share an apartment with Yan Lu.”
When Lin Yiqiao announced this at home, Xu Zihui was peeling fruit. She thought she was hallucinating because she had just performed two surgeries and was so exhausted from lack of oxygen to her brain.
Lin Yimiao’s reaction was much more direct. She said, “Holy crap.”
Then, an eerie silence fell over the living room.
Lin Yimiao broke the silence first, asking, “Brother, can I ask you something? What do you mean by ‘co-renting’?”
Lin Yiqiao looked at her with disdain for her lack of common sense: “Co-renting means two or more people sharing an apartment.”
“Yan Lu is so rich, why would he want to co-rent with you?” Lin Yimiao continued, “Is it because he can’t afford it alone?”
Lin Yiqiao said, “No, it’s because we need to maintain order together.”
Lin Yimiao chuckled: “Are you two also going to protect world peace together?”
Lin Yiqiao frowned: “There are no plans for that at the moment.”
Xu Zihui gently placed the apple and knife she was holding on the coffee table, looking up at Lin Yiqiao, “Why do you want to move out?”
“Mainly because of the commute,” Lin Yiqiao said, “His place is only a twenty-minute walk from the company, the best solution for my commute.”
Xu Zihui already knew about Lin Yimiao’s accident with the lamppost, and wasn’t against Lin Yiqiao moving closer to the company.
But she hadn’t expected that the person she was sharing the apartment with would be the most problematic one.
Just what I feared most has come to pass.
Xu Zihui sighed inwardly and calmly asked, “Tao Tao, do you think living with the person who caused your breakdown seven years ago is a safe choice?”
Lin Yimiao’s teasing expression vanished instantly, and she stared at her mother and Lin Yiqiao, barely daring to breathe.
After a few seconds of silence, Lin Yiqiao said, “Living with someone you don’t know is unsafe. I don’t know if he’ll be noisy, if he’s clean, or if he’ll touch my things without permission. These are all unknowns; I can’t calculate them, and it’s dangerous.”
“Yan Lu, on the other hand, is known. I know him very well.” He looked up at his mother. “He’s very good to me, and he’s very capable. He remembers my eating habits, avoids yellow foods on Wednesdays, makes me sandwiches without salad dressing, and translates things I don’t understand. He can even help me with cognitive overload, something I’ve never experienced before.”
“Tao Tao, known doesn’t equal safe,” Xu Zihui looked into her son’s eyes, her expression serious. “What you just said proves he’s a high-risk factor. Just because you know him doesn’t make you safe.”
Lin Yiqiao looked away, his voice lower. “What happened seven years ago has already happened. I know that feeling now, and I know how to handle it… I’ve improved; I won’t be like before. Jing Xin also said I can be independent.”
Silence fell in the living room again.
Lin Yiqiao’s lips were tightly pressed together, his eyes stubbornly refusing to look at Xu Zihui.
After a long while, Xu Zihui sighed deeply, knowing that further arguing was pointless. Lin Yiqiao’s mind was made up, just like his decision to work at CereNet; she couldn’t stop him.
“I won’t stop you,” she said, “but on moving day, I want to see Yan Lu in person.”
Lin Yiqiao nodded: “Okay.”
On Sunday morning, Xu Zihui drove an SUV, carrying Lin Yiqiao and his luggage to Binjiang Tianyu.
Yan Lu was already waiting at the lobby entrance.
He was wearing a high-quality off-white cardigan, paired with khaki casual trousers and retro sneakers, looking clean and gentle.
Seeing Xu Zihui’s car, he proactively opened the door, “Hello, Aunt Xu.”
Xu Zihui got out of the car, her gaze scanning him from head to toe like a CT scan.
This was a mature man, long past his youthful naiveté, evolved into a near-perfect adult. And therefore, more dangerous.
“Yan Lu,” Xu Zihui nodded in response.
Lin Yiqiao, carrying a backpack and wearing noise-canceling headphones, silently opened the trunk to get her luggage.
Yan Lu came over to help, looked around but couldn’t find the jellyfish, and asked, “Where are Marquez and the others?”
“The jellyfish tank was too big, I hired a moving company, they’re still in the back,” Lin Yiqiao paused, then added, “Lin Yimiao is with them.”
Yan Lu smiled: “Jellyfish keeper.”
Lin Yiqiao smiled too: “She didn’t accept my offer.”
Yan Lu said softly, “I bought brine shrimp eggs, you teach me how to hatch them.”
Lin Yiqiao was in an incredibly good mood, “Okay!”
Xu Zihui stood expressionlessly beside them, observing.
Upstairs at the front door, Yan Lu opened the door and invited them in.
“Yan Lu,” Xu Zihui called to him.
Yan Lu immediately bowed his head, responding respectfully, “Aunt Xu.”
Xu Zihui let Lin Yiqiao go in first, then said to Yan Lu, “Come here for a moment, I have something to say to you.”
Lin Yiqiao stood at the door watching them walk to the stairwell, as if they were about to say something they didn’t want her to hear, so she went inside first.
The stairwell was quiet. Xu Zihui’s voice was clear and steady, devoid of any warmth, “Yan Lu, I’m not here today to dredge up old grievances.”
“I know, Aunt Xu,” Yan Lu’s voice was low.
Xu Zihui’s tone didn’t soften at all, “I’m only warning you one thing: don’t promise him anything you can’t do.”
Yan Lu was taken aback. He thought Xu Zihui would tell him not to leave Lin Yiqiao’s side again, but he didn’t expect her to say this.
“Do you understand?” Xu Zihui looked at him.
“I understand, Aunt,” Yan Lu didn’t ask any more questions, “I won’t let him down again.”
The bed in the second bedroom was already made; Lin Yiqiao only needed to take out her luggage and unpack it in order. He was very efficient; in just a few minutes, the suitcase was almost packed.
Not long after, he received a call from Lin Yimiao, saying the moving company had arrived at the underground parking garage. Lin Yiqiao was about to go downstairs to meet them when she ran into Yan Lu and Xu Zihui coming in after their conversation.
So the three of them went downstairs together.
Upon exiting the elevator, they saw Lin Yimiao standing with her hands on her hips, directing two movers to lift the jellyfish tank off the truck. The tank was cylindrical, nearly two meters tall including the base. Through the acrylic exterior, the four Atlantic sea nettle jellyfish inside were clearly visible.
Because there was no electricity and they had traveled a long distance, they were all huddled together pitifully.
“Alright,” Lin Yimiao said, “My escort mission is complete, I’m leaving it to you!”
Xu Zihui walked to her daughter’s side and said to Lin Yiqiao, “We’ll head back now.”
Yan Lu, like a courteous host, glanced gently at the mother and daughter, and said, “Have a meal together before you leave.”
When his gaze met Lin Yimiao’s, her eyebrows twitched slightly, then she casually looked away.
“No,” Xu Zihui glanced at him expressionlessly, then looked at Lin Yiqiao, “Tao Tao, get some rest after you’re done tidying up.”
Lin Yiqiao said, “Okay.”
Xu Zihui instructed, “Call me anytime if anything happens.”
Lin Yiqiao said again, “Okay.”
The jellyfish tank was placed on the side of the living room’s feature wall away from the balcony, like a small lighthouse standing in the living room.
When the power was turned on, a deep blue light filled the entire tank.
Four Atlantic sea nettle jellyfish floated and turned gracefully.
Against the deep blue backdrop, their umbrella-shaped bodies gleamed with a mysterious purplish-red, their tentacles as light as veils, leaving long trails behind them. Each expansion and contraction carried a dreamlike rhythm.
Yan Lu and Lin Yiqiao stood side by side before the tank, neither speaking, simply watching in silence for a long time. Time seemed to stretch out with the jellyfish’s dance, the only sounds in the air the soft murmur of the water and their barely audible breathing.
“Yan Lu,” Lin Yiqiao finally spoke, his voice exceptionally clear in the stillness. He pointed to one of them, “This one with relatively shorter tentacles is Camus.”
He turned his head to look at Yan Lu, his eyes reflecting the small patch of deep sea.
Yan Lu hummed in agreement, then turned his gaze to the jellyfish, pointing to another one beside it: “Then this is… Maugham?”
“No,” Lin Yiqiao gently shook his head, “That’s Zweig. Maugham’s umbrella is more rounded, and the color is darker. Look, it’s over there.”
He leaned slightly to point it out to Yan Lu, his nose lightly touching the jar’s side.
Yan Lu seemed to be trying to identify it, but his gaze was more focused on Lin Yiqiao’s face, looking at his eyelashes glistening in the water, his slightly pursed lips, and smelling the faint scent of soap on him.
As for what Lin Yiqiao was saying, he didn’t hear a word.
“…Did you remember?” Lin Yiqiao asked him.
“I concede.” Yan Lu chuckled softly, his voice magnetic in the quiet living room: “Zweig, Camus, Maugham…and Márquez, it seems I won’t be able to tell them apart anytime soon.”
A soft blue light flowed between them, a strange atmosphere enveloping them.
Lin Yiqiao lowered his hand, his Adam’s apple bobbing slightly, and said softly, “Thank you.”
“Thank me for what?” Yan Lu’s voice was even softer.
“Thank you… for letting them stay here too.” He spoke earnestly and frankly, as if it were a favor that truly deserved solemn thanks.
Yan Lu looked at him, leaning closer, close enough to feel each other’s breath, yet not at all offensive. “So how are you going to thank me?”
Lin Yiqiao felt his heart race again. He pulled back slightly and said, “I’ll treat you to a meal.”
“You already owe me a meal,” Yan Lu said softly, “You should thank me for something else.”
Lin Yiqiao stared at the slowly expanding jellyfish, gently calming his breathing. “Then what do you want?”
Yan Lu’s gaze traced the lines of his profile. After a few seconds of silence, he spoke, his voice tinged with a hint of probing: “Let me call you Tao Tao, like… before.”
The sealed-up old files were opened by this name, and some scenes he didn’t want to remember instantly surged forth.
Lin Yiqiao felt the strange pain in his stomach return, a familiar ache rising up his esophagus and reaching his eyes.
He refused somewhat stiffly: “This won’t do.”