Chapter 3: Because of Love

At the end of October, the students in Paris had a week-long fall break.

The language classes were not too heavy, so this week was a good opportunity for Jiang Bai to practice his new songs. He already knew the music by heart, and now all he needed to remember was the adapted French lyrics.

Early that morning, he brought his guitar to No. 6 Little Jasmine Road. The bar was closed in the morning and Ya Bu had asked him on the phone yesterday to come here to practice with him.

With such an invitation, Jiang Bai, who already had grass growing in his heart, was naturally happy to do so.

Jiang Bai knocked on the door for a while before Ya Bu opened the door for him with a sleepy face.

The man leaned lazily on the doorframe, his hair disheveled, wearing a loose short-sleeved sweatshirt as pajamas. Underneath, he only wore shorts, his long and straight legs bare, the hair is not heavy, only a very thin layer attached to the calf, but brings a unique sexy air.

Jiang Bai cursed “damn” in his heart.

"Good morning."

Ya Bu lifted up the corners of his lips, greeted with a huskier voice in the morning, then walked forward, palm brushing the side of Jiang Bai's neck, making a cheek-to-cheek greeting with him. When their cheeks pressed together, he gently curled his lips in Jiang Bai's ear and let out a clear "kiss".

Jiang Bai could feel the extremely short beard on the other party's cheeks, which was unexpectedly not pricking him, and was dense and very soft.

After this greeting, Ya Bu leaned against the door frame, looking at Jiang Bai with a smile.

"Aren't you cold?" Jiang Bai asked, "It's October!"

"How can I be cold?" Ya Bu laughed, "My whole body is on fire as you stand here."

Jiang Bai was speechless and looked at Ya Bu with an expressionless face.

Ya Bu laughed at himself, left the door open, and turned around to go inside the bar.

Jiang Bai put the guitar on the sofa and turned his head to watch Ya Bu open a wooden panel door at the end of the bar corridor, where there was a stairwell leading to the second floor. Ya Bu walked up not long after, the sound of water from the upper bathroom came from the stairwell, accompanied by a muffled hum.

　　"Because of love, it won't be easy to be sad—"

A soft song, on the contrary, was sung by Ya Bu with his hoarseness.

Jiang Bai couldn't help but laugh out loud.

He held the guitar in his arms, gently picked the strings, and followed Ya Bu's bathroom singing upstairs, singing in French.

　　"Because I still love you, I will never forget, all the moments I will remember in my heart ......"

　　"Because still love you, mixed with endless tenderness, the moon will prove that I still retain my love for you ......"

After taking a shower, Ya Bu went downstairs in loose sweatpants and sweatshirt, went to the front of the store to put down the metal roll-up curtain to just half a meter above the ground, came back and sat down on the sofa opposite Jiang Bai, arm across the back of the sofa, casually crossed his legs and quietly listened to Jiang Bai finish his song.

"Very well sung." He praised, followed by asking, "Your emotions when you sang this song…"

Seeing Jiang Bai's dumbfounded face, Ya Bu smiled and slowed down his speech, "Your emotions when you sang this song were spot on, are you still in love with your ex-boyfriend?"

After "Because of Love" was adapted into French, the lyrics turned into a monologue with overtones of sadness and remembrance of love, with a hint of anticipation for a reunion amidst deep pain. The lyrics were sung in French, which is a naturally emotional language, and would touch people's hearts.

Jiang Bai twisted the strings with his eyes downcast and replied with the first line of the lyrics, "It's been two years since we broke up."

Ya Bu then quoted the next line: "Do you still often cry about it?"

"No." Jiang Bai couldn't stop smiling, "I never cried."

"Why?" Ya Bu asked.

"What why?"

"Are you sure you love him?"

Ya Bu still maintained his posture of lazily leaning on the sofa, but his eyes became extremely focused.

Jiang Bai was silent for a moment and organized his language before he spoke: "To be honest, I don't know. We started out just playing together, and the closer we got, I don't even remember which day or why, we suddenly kissed and got together."

"Kissed and got together?" Ya Bu's face was full of playfulness, "So if I kiss you now, will you stay with me?"

Jiang Bai raised his hand and touched his nose: "I came to practice the song!"

Ya Bu got up from the sofa and switched to sit next to Jiang Bai, raised his arm on the back of the sofa, leaned over slightly, and half-embraced Jiang Bai in his arms.

"That song you just sang was already very good." Ya Bu whispered, "I'll teach you… another song?"

The fresh water vapor from the bath and Ya Bu’s low voice penetrated the deadly atmosphere. In addition, Ya Bu's image is originally the type of mature male that Jiang Bai likes, that when he leaned over, Jiang Bai could even see his tight pectoral and abdominal muscles from the neckline of his loose sweatshirt.

The rhythm of Jiang Bai's breathing changed slightly, and his young body gave in to the beauty in front of him before his senses.

When Ya Bu's lips closed in, Jiang Bai obediently closed his eyes.

French kisses were extremely famous around the world. It is warm and soft, it is passionate and lingering, from the touch of the lips, to the teasing of the tongue, from the tearing of the teeth, to the lingering of the breath, it is ever-changing at every moment, and one cannot stop thinking about it.

Jiang Bai never thought that kissing would really be dizzying.

　　......

The bar's metal shutter door suddenly clattered.

The company's main business is to provide a wide range of products and services to the market.

Jiang Bai immediately turned over and got up, and Ya Bu quickly turned around and went into the guest bathroom next to him.

Silvia opened the door and came in from outside. Seeing Jiang Bai sitting at the booth with his guitar in his arms, she was surprised, "You're already here, why did you close the shutters?"

Jiang Bai couldn't say that Ya Bu was proactive or sophisticated. Although he could not use such a high-end vocabulary with his French ability for the time being, likewise, with his French ability, he also had no way to organize a nice excuse in a short time, and could only freeze in place.

Silvia grumpily took out three bottles of beer from the bar cooler, and didn't insist anymore. Instead she walked to the sofa opposite Jiang Bai and sat down, pushing a bottle of beer to him. At the end she looked around and asked, "Where's Ya Bu?"

"He went to the bathroom."

The aftershocks of Jiang Bai's heartbeat had not yet subsided, and he hurriedly held the cold beer bottle, trying to use it to calm down.

"How is the practice of your songs going? Do I have the honor to listen to your singing in advance?" Silvia’s eyes were filled with excitement, and her long, curly eyelashes flapped and flapped.

Jiang Bai was eager to find something to do, so he immediately picked up his guitar and started to play and sing "Because of Love".

When he finished the whole song, Ya Bu came out of the bathroom. Seeing that there was cold beer on the table, he reached out and took it, knocked the cap off on the side of the table and tilted his head and drank a few mouthfuls.

While drinking, his eyes were fixed on Jiang Bai, full of the aggressiveness of a large feline hunting for food.

With Silvia supervising, Jiang Bai and Ya Bu never found a chance to be alone that morning anymore, and had to settle to practice the Chinese and French versions of "Because of Love" over and over again.

But Ya Bu was a little out of shape this morning and was teased several times by Silvia.

"My brother, you've been away from the stage for too long!" She exaggeratedly laughed a few times, "The emotion of this song is not that intense, you sing it like you want to eat people!"

Jiang Bai didn't understand Silvia's words filled with vulgar slang jokes, otherwise, he would have added in his heart: sister you are right.

Ya Bu’s state continued until a few people had lunch, and Silvia was called away by her friends to go shopping. Now, there were only two people left in the bar. He hugged Jiang Bai from behind and buried his head on his neck, sniffing the clean and fresh scent of Jiang Bai's body almost greedily.

"Don't be like this, Lijie will be here any minute." Jiang Bai pushed Ya Bu.

After a morning of cooling off by burying his head in song practice, he now found his sanity again and felt that this man Ya Bu was just too dangerous and too easy to make himself lose his guard, and had to firmly— first… hang out for a while first.

Ya Bu also knows that Chen Lijie will come at any time, and the afternoon is not a good time to tear up the child and eat him. So he only held him for a while and picked up the guitar to continue to practice songs.

After singing a few more times, he finally threw the guitar away and said glumly, "No, I don't want to sing this song anymore!"

Jiang Bai didn't know how to comfort Ya Bu, or rather, his French level wasn't good enough to let him comfort others as he wished. He could only hold his guitar, gently pluck the strings, and speak leisurely.

　　"Give you a CD of the past, listen to the love we had back then. Sometimes it can suddenly slip my mind that I'm still in love with you…"

His voice was equally thick, just slightly softer than Ya Bu's mellow voice, and his velvety tone was more emotionally charged when singing this type of tender and loving song.

Halfway through Jiang Bai's song, Ya Bu suddenly picked up his own guitar and harmonized the strings with Jiang Bai.

"Because of love, it won't be easy to be sad." He joined the chorus.

"So everything is the way happiness looks." Jiang Bai smiled and continued.

After the two of them finished a chorus, Ya Bu came up and kissed the corner of Jiang Bai's mouth, smiling, "Your voice is perfect for this song, My bones are getting soft just listening to it."

"You're feeling it now?" Jiang Bai asked.

"There have always been feelings. Since you entered the bar today, I've been 'feeling it'." Ya Bu said immodestly.

Jiang Bai said helplessly, "Are you always like this?"

Ya Bu did not understand: "What kind?"

"In France… well, in Paris," Jiang Bai weighed his words, "is it common to talk directly about these things, this situation, before you start a relationship ? Or is this also just a level of communication like 'playing together'?"

Ya Bu put down his guitar and looked at Jiang Bai's eyes and became serious.

He said, "I can't say that this is a common state in France, or Paris, it doesn't really have much to do with geography. Personally, I only expect something from a person's soul when I am attracted to his appearance and body. Wouldn't it be enough to be very good friends if you just like his mind or philosophy of the world?"

　　......

Later that day, Chen Lijie and Fang Yuan arrived at the bar together, and soon customers began to come in, and the bar gradually became crowded in the slowly descending night.

After Fang Yuan listened to Ya Bu’s version of "Because of Love", he felt that the song didn't suit his voice.

"I've heard a song from a friend before, maybe you guys can try it, it's a Chinese song covered by this same band." Fang Yuan took out his phone, opened the song list, and picked out a song.

Jiang Bai picked up his headphones and shared them with Ya Bu. With their heads close together, they listened quietly.

After a moment, Ya Bu lifted up the corners of his mouth and smiled: "I like this song. And, if you were to sing this song, it would be very beautiful."

Jiang Bai was a little unsure: "The lyrics of this song… don't sound very easy to learn. And the Chinese lyrics of this song are also a bit difficult for you, are you sure you want to sing this one?"

He said this, completely unaware that he had acquiesced that he would be singing the same song as Ya Bu.

Ya Bu noticed this, but didn't remind Jiang Bai.

He raised his eyebrows and said, "We can help each other, you should still be on autumn break now, you can visit the bar every day to practice my song."

Jiang Bai said to himself, "I'm afraid I'll be sent here every day to be eaten up by you, right?”

The author has something to say:

Refining it :)

Because of Love French version: 弗雷德乐队·《A force de t’aimer》

TL Note:

As usual, the songs mentioned in this chapter are found in the TLSWST Playlist I’ve created on YouTube~