Chapter 7: Travel is Meaningful

But he couldn't say why he loves him.

In the room, Ya Bu hung his head in silence and looked at Jiang Bai.

When Jiang Bai washed his face, he wet his hair, and water marks ran down from his temples and trickled into his collar along the line of his neck. After hyperventilating for a while, his eyes were a little red and watery, looking like he had just cried bitterly.

Ya Bu lifted his hand to touch his face.

Jiang Bai suddenly laughed out loud.

He asked, "Do you think I'm a bedmate?"

Ya Bu was silent.

Jiang Bai pulled up a smile and asked, "So, with my body, were you satisfied?"

Ya Bu struggled for what felt like half a day, but he finally whispered a praise with full sincerity: "You… are unparalleled."

Jiang Bai lifted his hand to take off his shirt, and as soon as he yanked off the undershirt inside, he walked up to Ya Bu and began to unbuckle his belt, still laughing: "Then let's do it right now."

Ya Bu looked at Jiang Bai's frighteningly bright eyes and was a little startled. He unconsciously took a step back.

Jiang Bai stripped himself down to just a pair of his underwear, reached around Ya Bu's neck and asked in a low voice, "Don't you want it?"

"I..."

Ya Bu only felt like he was palpitating, so he reached out to clutch Jiang Bai's wrist, put his arm down, his voice with a trace of painful hoarseness: "I'm sorry."

Tears pooled in Jiang Bai's eyes, but he stubbornly raised the corners of his mouth to smile: "You don’t even want my body anymore?"

Ya Bu inhaled sharply and finally couldn't help but take the person into his arms and hug him tightly.

How could he not want, he missed Jiang Bai's body so much that he was going crazy! However, what he wanted long ago was not only this young body anymore. He could not bear to see such a fragile and injured expression in Jiang Bai’s face, so he could only hold the person into his arms, not to look at his face, so that his own thoughts would not be disturbed.

"I'm sorry, my phone fell off a cliff when I first arrived in the Alps. I'm not saying this to shirk anything, you can take it as a feeble excuse, I just don't want too many misunderstandings between us."

Ya Bu spoke slowly, trying to find easy-to-understand words to ensure that Jiang Bai would not struggle too much to understand.

"I really only thought of you as a little prey I hunted before... Don't move, listen to me, I'm sorry! I apologize from the bottom of my heart and sincerely for hurting you! I was simply an asshole!"

He stroked the hair on the back of Jiang Bai's head, and slowly said:

"I've been struggling during this month, I never thought I would miss someone so, so much too. You actually have long been not just any person, you are the one I think about day and night."

"I was in my tent in the snowy mountains thinking about your face, your songs, and I couldn't wait to get back to Paris and come back to this place the next second. I tried to call you, but I... damn it! I realized I can't remember your number at all, I'm a total idiot! I can't even memorize my sister's cell phone number."

"I realized I've never seriously cared about anyone. How funny that it took me over thirty years to realize this."

"I jumped off the Alps and I realized that my favorite pastime of skiing was surprisingly not giving me any pleasure anymore. I became afraid that I would die in this extremely dangerous sport, and if I died, I would not be able to see you again, to hold you, to hear your songs, to… are you crying?"

Ya Bu reached out and tried to pull Jiang Bai to himself, but Jiang Bai wrapped his arms around his neck in death and trembled violently.

"Okay, okay, don't cry baby. Let's talk about something else?"

"It was from the moment I started to be afraid that I realized you were not my prey at all, I was yours. My heart had fallen into your cleverly designed trap and I didn't want to get it back at all."

"But I couldn't return alone, I came back too late, I'm sorry, Bai."

Jiang Bai didn't say anything for a long time, he lay on Ya Bu's shoulder until his breathing had stabilized, then he straightened up and wiped his face, stared into Ya Bu's eyes and asked, "Do you love me?"

Ya Bu was stunned.

After a moment, he spoke hesitantly, "I don't know... sorry. I like you very much, very much... but I don't know if this is love. After all, all I like for the time being, for now, is your face and your singing voice. I haven't taken the time to get to know you, and our interactions are still limited to this bar... Even so, you've made me very interested."

Jiang Bai said as if he was being defiant, "I also just like your face and voice, and I don't know if I'll fall in love with you."

Ya Bu observed Jiang Bai's evasive eyes, then relaxed and smiled, raising an eyebrow, "Oh? Just face and voice? Don't like my body and 'big guy'?"

Jiang Bai was so angry that he turned around and walked away.

Ya Bu went after him and hugged him from behind Jiang Bai, whispering in his ear, "We should have a relationship, nothing too spectacular, just something plain and simple. I’d come to your school every day to pick you up from class, we’d come to the bar to sing for a while, and then go home. We would make love, take a shower together, and say good night to each other. The next morning I will wake you up with a kiss and take you to school."

"On weekends we can go to the movies, listen to the opera, or go to a museum... I remember that you studied painting so you would love the art galleries in Paris. I can also show you my terrible cooking skills, but you have to eat it all. If you'll cook for me, I'll eat all of it!"

"Let's go on a trip together during the holidays. I've been to many places and can be your best and most considerate personal tour guide… hey, why are you still weeping?"

Jiang Bai turned around violently and wrapped his arms around Ya Bu's neck and kissed him on the lips.

Ya Bu quickly grasped the younger, took the initiative and turned around with Jiang Bai in his arms, pushing him down onto the mattress in the bedroom.

"I forgive you. But," Jiang Bai pushed Ya Bu away and gasped in the gap between kisses, "but you have to let me out, I can't let you get by so easily. I won't sleep with you until you've done what I want."

Ya Bu froze for a moment, then fell on top of Jiang Bai's body and stifled a laugh.

Outside the window, fireworks suddenly exploded. In the tiny but not dense streak of early snow, the night sky dyed with splashes of color. The mellifluous sound of bells in the distance was quickly overshadowed by the shrill cheers and thumping of paper cones coming up from the bar downstairs.

"It's midnight. Happy New Year."

Ya Bu murmured in Jiang Bai's ear.

"Happy New Year." Jiang Bai replied, "My boyfriend."

Ya Bu moved to kiss Jiang Bai again.

Jiang Bai did not stay at the bar that night. On one hand, he missed Ya Bu for too long and was afraid that if he couldn't keep it together, he would compromise and spend another night with him. On the other hand... he didn't want Fang Yuan to be so angry that he'd rush up and kill Ya Bu.

The next day was New Year's Day, Jiang Bai came to the bar early, only to find that Ya Bu had already put away the metal shutters in the door.

This time, Jiang Bai did not wait long, and Ya Bu opened the door.

He was wearing a casual sweatshirt, holding a coffee in one hand and pinching a slice of toast in the other, and was eating breakfast.

This day was still a public holiday, and it was the right day for New Year's Day, so the bar was closed for customers. Jiang Bai didn't bring his guitar home last night, and when he entered the store, he found his guitar and Ya Bu's guitar standing side-by-side on the sofa in the corner booth.

"Ready to go?" Jiang Bai asked with a smile.

After getting up from a good night's sleep, the alcohol in his body was finally gone, and his emotions were back under his control. But he did not regret what he did last night, but was very grateful. If he had not been in a state of emotionally uncontrolled by reason last night, he would not have been able to put down his face so easily and make peace with Ya Bu.

And once he was reserved on his side, the Frenchman, who liked to be straightforward, would not have thought he was being tongue-in-cheek. Ya Bu will believe what he sees and hears, and the result will likely turn out to be Ya Bu's one-sided remorse, regret, and eventually letting go.

Ya Bu finished the last sip of coffee and said while washing his cup, "It's just learning two songs, simple."

Jiang Bai shook his head and said, "Not two songs, but three songs. I learned a song specifically before, thinking I'd sing it to you when you came back and then dump you."

Ya Bu showed a pitiful expression: "Oh no... baby..."

"Now, although I won't dump you for the time being, I insist on singing this song to you. As punishment, you must listen to the end!"

Jiang Bai said, holding up the guitar.

Ya Bu dried his hands and sat down on the sofa opposite him.

Only then did Jiang Bai start playing and singing.

　　"You have seen so many beauties, loved so many faces, sowed your sweet memories among the lands."

　　"You love the late night in Paris, you love Beijing in the rain, that book about love, do you still have it with you?"

　　"But you never told me you loved me, I never knew why you loved me, I never understood how you saw me."

　　"Please tell me why ......"

　　"One day you told me how you loved me, yes, you loved me."

　　"Then tell me why you forgot, all those love letters you gave me."

　　"And you left me and embarked on a journey ......"

Ya Bu quietly listened to the song, his expression looked sad, and his voice carried an unnoticeable nasal voice: "Bai..."

Jiang Bai picked up the corners of his mouth and smiled: "Next, the third song."

Ya Bu helpless: "Okay, I’ll listen to you."

Jiang Bai pulled out a few sheets of paper from his school bag, slapped them on the coffee table between the two, and picked out a page from it with the lyrics sheet of "The Meaning of Travel" printed on it and pushed it in front of Ya Bu.

"This is the song just now, just learn this one!"

He had an unquestionable command on his face and a hint of villainous pride.

Ya Bu didn't hold back and smiled as he reached out to scratch the bridge of Jiang Bai's nose.

Then he picked up the other two lyric sheets and saw that on them were "Silence" and "The Rush Hour".

Jiang Bai threatened, "These two songs that I have sung in the bar, you must learn them, or else I..."

"...will never sleep with me again." Ya Bu added very naturally.

Jiang Bai gritted his teeth for a while.

Ya Bu picked up his guitar and smiled evilly, "Don't you want to at all? Punish me in this way, and in fact, both of us won’t be very comfortable... Why don't I buy you a small leather whip? If you want, we can play some other punishment games."

Jiang Bai did not understand the word "small leather whip", but from the look on Ya Bu’s face and combined with the context, it shouldn’t be something good. He rolled the lyrics sheet in his hand into a paper tube and knocked it on Ya Bu's head: "Learn the song!"

Ya Bu cheated: "I can't learn by listening to the original song, you have to sing it."

Jiang Bai suddenly began to wonder if he was really asking for trouble.

"You sing a line, I'll learn a line." Ya Bu was still bargaining with him.

Jiang Bai resigned himself into picking up his guitar, "Okay."

On the first day of the new year, in the narrow stone alley of Little Jasmine Road, with a bar with its door slightly hidden, the gentle chords of the guitar came out of the doorway, accompanied by two different textured but equally tender male voices, singing a moving love song.

　　MAIN STORY END

The author has something to say:

The Travel is Meaningful in French: 《Pourquoi tu pars en voyage》by Clementine.

TL Note:

I teared up in this chapter, wishing the two of them a happy relationship in the future. :)

There is one more chapter after this one, then the author’s afterword.