Honey Stewed Squid

Chapter 19 – Countdown to the Breakup?

Of course, Tong Nian’s mom was not very amiable to talk to.

At least, she did not shake his hand. She merely gave a “ha ha,” then arbitrarily said that she had seen many photographs of Gun from when he was young, that she had met his parents before, and that who would have thought that in the blink of an eye, he was so grown up already.

Tong Nian’s dad felt that his wife was out of line, and after everyone had taken a seat, he asked her in a low voice why she had not even given face to a junior of a younger generation. Disgruntled, Tong Nian’s mom glanced over at Gun, who sat separated from them with Tong Nian in between. “Kids nowadays are not like us in the past. Being ‘friends’ is not something that is secure and steady anymore. Who knows? Maybe by tomorrow, they’ll break-up.”

Tong Nian’s dad mulled over this for a moment, then wholeheartedly agreed.

Gun did not seem to mind at all that he had just received a veiled cold-shoulder treatment, and throughout the entire dinner, he performed very poorly.

For instance, never once did he pour a drink for Tong Nian, never once did he whisper sweet nothings in her ear to make her happy, never once did he take care of her and get her food from the dishes, never once… In the end, even Auntie was thinking it was lucky her daughter had not been matched with this man who behaved like he was a privileged young master. Otherwise, it would just end up that the girl’s side would be the one on the short end of the stick.

The entire dinner was nearly over before Tong Nian at last furtively input a row of words into her mobile phone and held it over so it was in front of his eyes: Why… did you need to say something untrue?

Don’t judge this line of words simply based on how short and simple it was. She had used a full ten minutes to type it and had tried all sorts of different wordings.

Despite knowing that what he had said was not true, she still held out a teeny bit of hope, even if the chance was one out of ten thousand… Could it be he… felt that she was more of a fit for him than Cousin?

When he got a clear view of the question, Gun felt a slight headache.

The answer to this question would be a little bothersome to explain and needed to begin from when Dt returned to China twelve years ago. Clearly, he did not want to use any brainpower tonight and needed, in the fastest way possible, to provide a safe, harmless answer.

“My little brother has a girl whom he has liked for ten years.” Using the closest possible distance between the two of them and the safest volume of voice, he told her, “Before he came, he requested that I please help him get out of this blind date. But it was too thorny of a problem, and I had no choice but to use extreme measures. My apologies. After tonight, you can find any excuse you want to say you’ve broken up with me. Not considerate, not loving and gentle, nothing in common we can talk about, too old—all of these are fine. The reason for breaking up is up to you to decide as you please.”

“Oh…” Her eyes dimmed.

“I’m sorry.” For once, this particular sentence was actually spoken with sincerity.

“It’s no problem… It’s to help him,” she murmured softly.

Her eyes lightly flicked over for a glimpse of that grown boy who was eating his dinner. Presumably because he was eating with elders, he, for once, was not wearing his ball cap and had removed it, setting it on his lap. Without saying a word, he kept his head down and ate.

A girl whom he has liked for ten years. That’s so nice. Ten years ago, I was only nine years old…

Eh? Wait, no. Ten years ago, wouldn’t he also have only been twelve years old?

!!!!

So young!

At night, when everyone was preparing to leave, his grandfather specifically told him to drive Tong Nian and her parents home.

The vehicle pulled up beside the building of their home, and the engine was turned off.

Tong Nian slowly unfastened her seat belt.

Her mom still wanted to stay in the vehicle to keep an eye on the two of them, but her dad had already nudged her first on the shoulder. The meaning of that was, “Hey you, the elder, no matter what, you’ve got to at least kind of show that you’re giving them a little bit of time to talk.”

And so, grudgingly and reluctantly, Tong Nian’s parents got out of the car.

Inside the vehicle, a song was playing on the radio. It was Pu Shu’s The Ordinary Road. He had turned the volume up very high, and the lyrics were circulating through the entire interior of the vehicle.
“I once traversed the mountains and the great seas,

And once passed through mountains and seas of people,

I once possessed everything,

But in a blink, they vanished like the dissipating mist and clouds.

……

I once ruined all that I had,

And wanted only to forever leave.

I once fell into a boundless darkness,

And wanted to struggle, but yet was unable to free myself…”

……

“May I ask you a question?” Tong Nian asked softly, her eyes glancing toward her dad and mom, who were outside the car.

Gun’s mind was somewhat preoccupied. It was not certain whether it was because he was paying attention to the lyrics or because the volume of the music truly was too loud but he could only hear that she was speaking and could not clearly catch what exactly she was saying.

His gaze shifted back from the views outside the car window and landed on her. “Why aren’t you heading back into your home?”

“I want to ask a question first.” She raised her hand, reiterating her request.

Gun arched his brow and motioned for her to continue speaking.

“When… are we going to break up?”

There should at least be a timeframe, right?

Gun had not expected that this would be her question.

In the little girl’s eyes, he saw many different emotions and states of mind: confusion and struggle, disappointment, fluster, speaking things that were contrary to her heart… But beneath all these different emotions, what could not be concealed was that tiny trace of hope that she very much wanted to repress…

Inside the vehicle, it was abnormally quiet.

……

……

One minute later, Tong Nian docilely stepped out of the car.

Immediately, her mom pulled the front of Tong Nian’s coat, which had not completely done up, tightly closed and asked in a low voice, “What did you talk about? It took so long?”

“We didn’t really talk about anything.” Rubbing her cheeks with her hands, she mumbled quietly, “We just… said a few sentences.”

Gun parked his vehicle into the underground garage. Stepping out of the car, he walked into the elevator and pressed the button for the twentieth floor. Fifteen seconds later, the elevator arrived at the first floor. It just so happened that when the door opened, several K&K members  walked in, carrying box little boxes of food for a late-night meal. Seeing Gun, the youngest of them, demo, first took a reflexive step backwards before following closely after the other two team members in front, who had instantly shut their mouths and slipped into the elevator with lowered heads.

Leader… is eating candy. T.T … What should we do?

Captain, oh, Captain Dt, where are you? Grunt, oh, g Shuai, where are you? We can’t handle Leader, ah, ah, ah, AAAAH!

The door slowly slid shut.

From behind them, two hands reached forward to simultaneously take hold of the shoulders belonging to demo and one of the other team members. “That’s Lunar New Year’s Eve dinner?”

“Yes… Leader.” demo’s voice was tight, and he dared not turn around. “We couldn’t buy plane or train tickets, right? So we’re just planning on going home on the second day of the new lunar year… remember? …”

“When you guys are done eating, come to my room. I’ll test your hand reaction time.”

……

After saying this, he thought for a moment, then asked, “Who else is here? Call them all over. Anyone who doesn’t pass will have to go running in the morning.”

……

Everyone was on the verge of tears.

Who tests hand reaction time on Lunar New Year’s Eve?! And who has morning runs on Lunar New Year’s Day?!

Is he even going to let people just have a nice Lunar New Year celebration?!!!! There’s no way we can stay on this team anymore!!!!

Noticing that there was no sound in response, Gun’s brows creased. In the mirror, his extremely black eyes swept a gaze over the few of them. “Didn’t hear what I said?”

One hour ago, inside the vehicle.

The song was gradually approaching its end. Gun felt that the temperature inside the car was slightly too high. Shutting off the heat, he unconcernedly returned her question with his own. “When would you like to break up?”

Huh? Me?

“What’s the matter?” His tone was flat. “Don’t know?”

“I don’t know what would be a suitable time, either…”

Now? Now didn’t seem to be a suitable time, right? Tomorrow? That seemed a little too soon, too… A week later? Would one week make her seem a little too fickle when it came to relationships 0.0? A month later?

In her mind, she continually pushed the timeline back later and later…

“Let’s do this.” Gun interrupted her aimless time wasting and pressed the unlock button on the centre console. With a click, the front doors of the car were unlocked. “When you think the time is right, let me know.”