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HOW TO DEAL WITH A TSUNDERE GONG
Chapter 20 – Snowy Night

Once upon a time, there was a prince who would weep endlessly whenever he heard terrible news. He would say, “How awful. I definitely won’t be able to bear it if this happened to me.” Just like this, he would repeat these words countless times. One day when mishap truly did befall upon him, he finally understood that whoever undergoes human suffering must bear it and can bear it.

Xu Bai Chuan was just like this prince.

Over the last seven years, he was scared numerous times when thinking of his future after he leaves Tang Jin— He felt that his life will be hollow, crumble, and be filled with longing. Thus he followed the same old disastrous road and dispelled any thoughts of leaving over and over again. It wasn’t until he actually left that he discovered many of the beliefs carved in his bones and engraved in his heart, (1) merely stemmed from fear which was caused by self-suggestion and self-intimidation
[T/N: (1) Etched in his memory]

Xu Bai Chuan perfected his mental preparation bit by bit in his mind over and over again. Rather than resolutely leaving one day, it was more of a gradual acceptance that he needed to leave.

Throughout these three months, he often thought of Tang Jin. That arrogant and unyielding youngster in senior high was added with layer upon layer of filters. Compared with ice-cold suffering, he was filled with soft memories and a deep sense of remorse.

The person in his memory suddenly traversed through time and became a stern man sitting on a sofa. As the chilly winds blew, his fingers became ice-cold, and as if they were gears lacking oil, were cold and rigid. Only the fingers holding the edge of the phone felt a slight burning sensation due to the increasing pressure placed on his phone. 

Xu Bai Chuan started walking, took out the entrance keycard from his pocket and swiped it to enter the neighborhood. Recalling the staggering footsteps he just heard, he frowned. Deep within his heart, he wanted to say something to urge Tang Jin, after all, they did live together for seven years. Although they are unable to be lovers and it was best to part ways forever, he shouldn’t place the blame on Tang Jin for his fruitless love and wish for misfortune upon him. He said, “If you’re drunk, call your driver or Song Yi Yu to send you back. There’s no use in calling me. Also…”

He intended to say “don’t call me anymore”, but there was no use. As long as Tang Jin wanted to call him, he couldn’t stop him from doing so. Consequently, he stopped the conversation there and hung up the phone.

Ten meters away from the glass doors of Building B, Xu Bai Chuan placed his hands that were nearly frozen stiff into his pockets and quickly entered.

After cooking soup for himself, Xu Bai Chuan watched a movie as he ate. Lying in bed, he intended to watch the rest of the movie but unknowingly fell asleep with his phone placed on top of him. At 1 a.m., he was suddenly roused by a blast of music. In the pitch-black room, he quickly searched for the source of the sound and retrieved his muffled ringing phone from his blankets.

He sat up and turned on the bedside lamp, inducing soft light rays to immediately fill the room. The incoming call was from an unfamiliar number. His first thought was that Tang Jin was still drunk at a bar and randomly dialing people, but he compared this number with the one from last night and it was different. He couldn’t help suspecting that somebody had purchased a ‘call you to death’ service to phone him during the night and disrupt his peace.

I’ll pick up one last time. If he really was being played, he will search throughout heaven and earth to uncover this bastard who doesn’t allow others to sleep.

Xu Bai Chuan didn’t expect the caller to be Song Yi Yu when he picked up the phone.

Without any greeting whatsoever, Song Yi Yu fired a question at him. “Tang Jin’s in the hospital. Can you come over?”

It wasn’t a question but more like permission being granted. Once Xu Bai Chuan heard that Tang Jin was hospitalized, his heart dropped and he wanted to ask for details, but he dispelled this idea when he detected Song Yi Yu’s tone— There was no need to obtain permission from Song Yi Yu if he wanted to see Tang Jin. Besides, he didn’t want to go.

Wisps of cool air seeping in from the small opening of the curtains were quickly engulfed by the warmth inside the room. Xu Bai Chuan took a look at the time and saw that it was 1:57 a.m., nearing 2 a.m. He refused, “It’s too late, I’m not going.”

Clearly not expecting to be turned down, Song Yi Yu momentarily paused before continuing. “You’re not asking why?”

Xu Bai Chuan: “It shouldn’t be that serious, otherwise you wouldn’t be this calm.”

For a long time, no sound emitted from the phone and the screen soon became black. It turned out that this Young Master Song had hung up.

Xu Bai Chuan thought: “Crazy.” He was no longer in the mood to go back to sleep. Luckily it was Saturday tomorrow, or else he definitely couldn’t have woken up.

From the moment when he woke up, he felt that the air outside the window today was particularly glacial. After wearing slippers and leaving the bed, he walked over to the window and pulled the curtains open. A snow-white scenery entered his sight.

It was snowing.

As a Northerner, snow was a common occurrence for Xu Bai Chuan since long ago. The snow was not a rare thing for him, so he couldn’t understand a scene described in this book written by a Taiwanese author he read when he was a child. It portrayed everyone celebrating together as the snow floated down. When it came to him, he feared the cold and thus wasn’t too fond of snow.

Opening the window, he saw several men and women downstairs who stayed awake and were busily building snowmen in the middle of the night. Xu Bai Chuan lamented over how young people were truly foolish while feeling a sense of intimacy as he faced the snowfall. It was like his relatives and friends came to see him on this starry night.

Xu Bai Chuan was joyous: ‘It’s not the Lunar New Year or a festival. You must be rather weary from taking a trip here. I cannot invite you in to drink a cup of hot tea, so I’ll just drink it in your stead.’

Putting on a courteous front, he hurriedly drew all the window curtains and turned around to embrace the warmth immersed in the room. Then he left the bedroom, headed over to the kitchen to boil water and skimmed over the club’s group chat. The young ladies on night duty were currently vibrantly discussing the snow with those other night owls. As the electric kettle was steaming and emitting a bubbling noise, he had yet to look through all the 300+ messages when the interface suddenly switched to an incoming call.

0472, Song Yi Yu again. 

He hung up without the slightest hesitation and after reading through the chat history, was overcome with boredom so he looked at his friends’ moments. (2) The latest one was from Luo Junyu. It was a picture of a chicken running too fast which caused the background to be blurred.
[T/N: (2) Feature on WeChat. Equivalent to Instagram stories or Facebook posts.]

Text: “Nobody stop me. I’m going outside to build a snowman!”

Tsk tsk tsk. He didn’t expect that a usually bright and beautiful person had secretly never seen snow or owned a cat. 

Perhaps there was a Luo Junyu amongst those building snowmen.

Right at this moment, a text message popped up on his screen without warning: 【Tang Jin’s hospitalized because of gastric bleeding. He is currently refusing the IV. Can you come over?】

Gastric bleeding? Xu Bai Chuan became blank.

When Song Yi Yu’s call came through this time, he didn’t hang up. After connecting the call, he asked, “What’s going on?”

Song Yi Yu: “The doctor said he drank too much.”

Tang Jin called him from a bar last night. Could it be that he drank until now?

Song Yi Yu: “Can you come over?” He spoke stiffly as if he wasn’t used to requesting things from others. 

There was a split second when he was about to agree without a second thought. Fortunately, he remembered his place in time and said, “No. I already have nothing to do with him. You’re there and I trust you to take care of him well.”

Song Yi Yu finally lost his cool as he raised his voice. “Didn’t you hear that he refused the IV?”

Xu Bai Chuan: “I’m not a doctor, I can’t help him. He’s the one refusing the IV. Are you saying that if I go see him, he’ll accept it?”

Song Yi Yu: “…”

Xu Bai Chuan continued, “Besides, I’m in H city and you’re in B city. I don’t know whether there are any scheduled flights right now. Even if there were—”

Song Yi Yu: “It’s snowing so heavily. There won’t be any.”

Xu Bai Chuan abruptly paused. How does Song Yi Yu know that it’s snowing heavily in H city?

In the next moment, he heard Song Yi Yu say, “We’re in H city.”

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