Chapter 40 – Master Of Reasoning

Fang Mo had only met this person once, and he had never even fully introduced himself. To be able to call out Fang Mo’s name, was without a doubt because Zou Shun had told him in private.

The fact that he was here at this moment must also be related to Zou Shun.

However, Zou Shun had not talked about this person in several days. In order to take care of his emotions, Fang Mo never took the initiative to ask. When Zou Shun suddenly realized that the two had drifted apart, Fang Mo thought that he would give Zou Shun time for himself without being disturbed.

Could it be that they were still in contact and have made plans to meet? Then why was Zou Shun not with him right now?

Fang Mo had distrust all over his face, and upon seeing this, the other person smiled at him, and then said, “You must remember me, right?”

His smile didn’t look natural and it seemed somewhat forced.

Fang Mo felt weird and hesitated when he spoke, “I remember, you’re that… that…”

“Last time I was in a hurry, so I didn’t have a chance to introduce myself. My surname is He, He Chengyi.” The other person reached into his pocket, then shook his head with a forced smile, “Ahya, I was in a hurry to leave today, and didn’t bring my business card.”

He spoke at a moderate speed, with a calm, gentle tone, and a mellow voice. Although Fang Mo had some complaints about him deep inside, he also felt a strange sense of comfort when talking to him.

He nodded at the other party again, “Hello, you came here today for…?”

He Chengyi smiled at him again, and then asked: “Zou Shun, how has he been lately?”

“He…” Fang Mo fell into hesitation, then after a while, decided to find out why he came here, “Are you here to find him? Why don’t you just call him?”

He Chengyi lowered his gaze when he heard the words, then slowly nodded, “I understand now. Actually, there’s nothing urgent, I just stopped by to have a look. I won’t bother you now.”

After he said this, he smiled at Fang Mo and nodded, then turned to leave. Fang Mo was at a loss for half a second, then reached out and grabbed him.

“Wait, wait, are you or are you not here to look for Zou Shun?” He asked loudly.

He Chengyi didn’t expect Fang Mo to act like this, and he seemed a little surprised for a moment. But soon, he readjusted his calm and composed face, and said, “I haven’t been able to reach him lately.”

“…” Fang Mo immediately let go of his hand, “Ah, so that’s how it is.”

“So… I’m a little worried,” He Chengyi continued, “I don’t have any mutual friends with him, and I couldn’t message him, so I could only come here to try my luck.”

“He… he’s fine, nothing’s wrong.” Fang Mo said.

“Oh, I see,” He Chengyi nodded, “If nothing’s wrong then that’s good.”

After he said this, he said goodbye to Fang Mo again and turned to leave. Fang Mo couldn’t help but continue to ask, “Aren’t you going to meet him?”

He Chengyi hesitated for a moment, then shook his head.

“I won’t bother him,” he said.

 

~

 

When he finally walked away, Xu Xiran, who had been standing quietly by the side, finally said, “Who was that person?”

Fang Mo struggled for a while, but still told the truth, “Do you remember me telling you that Zou Shun had taken me to meet the person he likes?”

“Ah, so it’s him.” Xu Xiran glanced at He Chengyi’s back from afar, “Is he not quite handsome? He doesn’t look bad.”

“…Is he handsome?” Fang Mo scrunched his brows.

In his eyes, He Chengyi’s features were not flawed but they also did not stand out. He was neither tall nor short, and he was overall mediocre, with the exception that his voice was not bad. 

“He seems to have class,” Xu Xiran said, “How do you say this… He has grace, and gives off the vibe of a mature man.”

Looking at his expression and tone, there was actually a trace of longing.

Fang Mo was astonished: “Are you interested in him?”

“The hell,” Xu Xiran said with an expression of being unable to stand him, “I’m just evaluating him objectively. If only I could also give off that kind of vibe in ten or twenty years, that would be amazing. Mature and stable.”

Fang Mo thought, impossible. You are way more handsome than him.

For a man like Xu Xiran, no matter how old he gets, he would still always be this sunny and carefree. Even if that part of him gradually fades as time goes by, he would still certainly have his cute side.

He was already good enough and didn’t need to be more graceful or classy.

Fang Mo’s mind was still bubbling with thoughts when Xu Xiran’s own focus had already gone elsewhere.

“However, from what you two were saying… something’s obviously not right…” He held his chest in one hand and held his chin with the other, looking like he was actively thinking, “If Zou Shun really likes him, why would he deliberately ignore him?”

“Ehh…” Fang Mo didn’t know how to explain, “Maybe there is something that we don’t know.”

“No, I know,” Xu Xiran said with a serious face, “The inside story is that Zou Shun likes you and is just using him.”

“……”

Fang Mo speechlessly looked at Xu Xiran, who was addicted to reasoning.

“He doesn’t want to let you know that he has feelings for you, so he wants to trick you into thinking he has someone he likes, and then drag that person to put on an act,” Xu Xiran said logically, “Now that the performance is over, he has no use for him, so he doesn’t care about him anymore. You see, all these clues are connected together now, the logic is smooth, and everything is reasonable and fair.”

Fang Mo thought in desperation, and for a moment, it seemed that he really couldn’t find any flaws.

“But… Zou Shun is not that kind of a person,” he tried to save Zou Shun’s image, “I’ve known him for a long time, and I know he won’t play with other people’s feelings like that. If he doesn’t like someone, he definitely wouldn’t deliberately lie to them.”

“Right, so that’s why that person was able to walk away without any hesitation at all.” Xu Xiran clenched his right hand into a fist and hit the palm of his left hand, “Zou Shun probably clearly said something to him, so he has no intentions for Zou Shun, and came here just to check on the situation.”

This sounded very reasonable.

“So, it’s probably like this. In the beginning, he agreed to help and pretend a bit for Zou Shun, but in the process, he began to develop some feelings for Zou Shun. After knowing about this, Zou Shun purposely distanced himself and cut contact, and he was vaguely aware of this, but couldn’t persuade himself to immediately give up, so he couldn’t help but come over to take a look. Now that you told him that Zou Shun was doing fine, he now has a complete understanding of Zou Shun’s attitude, and feels that there is no need to meet him again and bring shame upon himself.”

He had proven himself to be someone who could come up with a forty-minute analysis from a twenty-minute episode.

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The first half of his conclusion was all nonsense, but Fang Mo couldn’t help but take notice during the other half.

“Do you think he’s interested in Zou Shun?” He asked Xu Xiran.

“Our school is so big, so he most likely would not be able to meet Zou Shun by coming here so aimlessly. If he didn’t happen to meet you, he would’ve come for nothing,” Xu Xiran said, “If he didn’t like him, would he be this impulsive?”

Although Fang Mo knew that his analyses were all wrong, Fang Mo still couldn’t help but feel excited when he heard that he had come to this conclusion through logic.

So He Chengyi most likely cared about Zou Shun.

He wanted to immediately tell this good news to Zou Shun. But having this silly, straight man standing beside him made that inconvenient. Fang Mo looked at Xu Xiran, and his heart suddenly skipped a beat.

He cleared his throat, and then asked, “Not necessarily… If I didn’t live so close to you, and you suddenly couldn’t get in contact with me one day, wouldn’t you get worried and come to find me?”

Xu Xiran was stunned for a moment, then thought about it for a while before saying: “But I wouldn’t leave as soon as I know that you’re fine. No matter what, I would still want to meet with you and ask what’s going on.”

“You’d come and find me?” Fang Mo said, “Even if you might come for nothing, you’d still look for me?”

“Of course I would,” Xu Xiran said, “The relationship that we have, how could it be the same as theirs? Zou Shun and that man have such a big age gap, are they able to talk to each other like how we do? If someone said they were good brothers to each other, would you believe that?”

Fang Mo made no comment.

Xu Xiran seemed to suddenly have another thought, and clearly forced a smile when he spoke again: “If you need an analogy… aren’t you my wife? Of course I would come and find you.”

“……”

Xu Xiran was inexplicably pleased with himself, and smiled as he was about to say something else when he was interrupted by Fang Mo.

“Your point card, aren’t you going to hurry and find it?”

Xu Xiran woke up like he was in a trance, and hurried to the stairs. Seeing his figure disappear around the corner, Fang Mo was just about to take out his phone to call Zou Shun, when he saw that Xu Xiran had returned.

He quickly ran back to Fang Mo and jumped in place: “Quick, quick, I’ll help you up the stairs.”

 

~

 

There were people in his dormitory, so it was inconvenient to talk. After Xu Xiran had left, Fang Mo walked to the corner of the stairs with his phone, and was finally able to call Zou Shun.

The call quickly connected.

“What is it? You actually have free time to call me?” Zou Shun clearly had a teasing tone, “Are you not having dinner together?”

“He lost something, so he’s looking for it right now,” Fang Mo said, “Let me ask you, have you contacted him recently?”

Fang Mo only said “him”, but Zou Shun immediately understood who he was referring to.

The other end of the line became quiet.

Fang Mo wanted to tell him what happened just now, but instead heard Zou Shun lightly sigh. When he spoke again, his tone was calm and unwavering.

“I blocked him,” he said. “It feels great. I feel so much better these days. If you hadn’t mentioned it, I would’ve completely forgotten.”

The thing that Fang Mo originally wanted to say immediately got stuck in his throat.

Xu Xiran’s analysis was not necessarily completely correct. At the same time, he also has a reasonable argument about all the things that were not true.

Fang Mo chose to believe a small part of it, more out of subjective hope, because he thought it would be good for Zou Shun.

But if Zou Shun had already walked out, was it necessary to mention this to him? In the case that He Chengyi really just passed by for a casual glance and didn’t meet with Zou Shun because he didn’t care that much, wouldn’t it be more harmful to pull Zou Shun back in again?

While he was hesitating, Zou Shun spoke again: “So… do you still remember the person I told you about last time?”

“Who?” Fang Mo was still dazed.

“The one with a good figure but you can’t see his face clearly,” Zou Shun’s tone began to sound cheerful again, “He asked to meet me.”

“Ah,” Fang Mo furrowed his eyebrows, “Are you going to meet him?”

“We’ve been talking a lot recently, and I have a good impression of him,” Zou Shun said, “so I think it’s not bad if I meet him.”

Fang Mo could hear from his tone that he was full of high hopes. He ended up completely swallowing his words. 

“Mn, then you should meet him. Be safe.”

Zou Shun suddenly laughed, “He swore to me that he’s not ugly, and told me to rest assured.”

“When are you meeting him?” Fang Mo asked.

“This weekend,” Zou Shun sighed with sorrow, “It’s really been too long, I actually feel a bit nervous.”

“Don’t worry, he’s seen your picture so he must like you if he asked you to meet.”

“That’s true,” Zou Shun said, “I’m worried that I won’t like him. I’m pretty picky.”

Before Fang Mo could reply, someone suddenly rushed down the stairs. As he raised his head to look, it was Xu Xiran.

Xu Xiran looked broken and wailed at Fang Mo, “What do I do, I can’t find it!”

 

 

Author’s note:

There are drafts for this story, and what you see every day is what I wrote at least a week ago, and all directions have already been established (I won’t add more)

Next, you’ll see that there will be stories of supporting characters interspersed in the plot one after another. Because they are closely related to the main plot line, it is impossible to separate these parts into separate chapters. If you mind this, you can skip according to the context. (I personally think it’s quite interesting) (I can’t guarantee that everyone will find it interesting) (I’ve warned you many times! If you don’t like it, please don’t scold me!) (You don’t need to notify me if you abandon the article) (…I really think it’s quite interesting )

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