Quite awkward

Chapter 140 Bitter Fruit

Qi Yu pulled down his mask, tasted a mouthful of creamy ice cream, and asked casually, "Brother, did that person know you?"

"He's a former student of mine. He's currently studying for his master's degree and works part-time on weekends."

Just as he walked out of the supermarket, Mu Yanqing was standing aside waiting for Qi Yu. He accidentally saw that the Santa Claus salesman looked familiar, so he walked closer to take a look.

When the other party saw him, he was stunned for a moment, then ran over excitedly to greet him and called him Professor Mu.

He had been living in the United States before, and after returning to China, he went to Yunnan and Guizhou to teach. It was rare for him to see his former students, so he had a pleasant chat with them.

In order to complete the task, the student stuffed a few condoms into his shopping bag. He smiled faintly and acquiesced to the student's behavior, which was considered as a small favor for the student.

Seeing that the male student looked like her peer, Qi Yu sighed slightly: "He is so bold, actually promoting this."

"My students said that the hourly wage for sales is higher."

Oh, I see.

After Qi Yu finished her ice cream, she took the initiative to share a shopping bag, which contained her newly bought shampoo and conditioner, as well as a few condoms she had just stuffed in. She planned to take them directly into the bathroom when she got home.

The journey home was quite long, and the two chatted as they walked.

The Christmas decorations everywhere in the supermarket and the Santa Claus just now remind people that this year's Christmas is coming soon.

Mu Yanqing couldn't help but think of Qi Yu's 24th birthday, which would be in just over ten days. He suddenly asked her, "Do you have any birthday gifts you want?"

"No, and I didn't give you a gift on your birthday this year, brother. Why not just forget it? I have everything I need now."

"Then I'd rather give you a necklace. I think it looks great on you when you walk the red carpet."

Hearing this, Qi Yu stopped in his tracks, looked up at him, and many doubts arose in his mind. He thought carefully about the wording and asked tentatively.

"Brother, are you talking about that sapphire necklace? I really like it, but I rarely have the chance to wear it."

"Yes, I won the necklace I gave you at an auction. It came in seven colors, and I happened to win three. I gave the emerald necklace to my mom, the ruby one to Nianhan, and the aquamarine one to you."

Qi Yu followed in silence, with complex emotions intertwined deep in his heart, and anger was the first to bear the brunt.

That person was so shameless that he actually took the gift given to her by his elder brother for himself and delayed delivering it to her for nearly nine months.

After walking the red carpet wearing the necklace that day, Qi Yu appeared on several hot searches in a row and gradually became famous in the entertainment industry.

In her joy, she took the initiative to run to his villa to thank him in person, but he did not correct her misunderstanding. Instead, he arrogantly enjoyed her flattery.

It's sad and funny.

She secretly decided that she must stay away from this man in the future, avoid all his entanglements, and never give him a good face again.

……

After returning home, Qi Yu carried the shopping bag directly into the bathroom of the room. She put the shampoo and conditioner into the alcove, and finally stuffed the bag and the remaining things into the cabinet under the sink. There were all kinds of miscellaneous items in it, and she rarely opened it.

When she returned to the room, her cell phone rang. She saw the caller ID, pursed her lips and hung up the phone. Then she quickly blacklisted Muchenan's number and WeChat.

She has never been a numb and indifferent person. Even though she was very determined to end the relationship with him, she did not deliberately avoid meeting him later and still politely and respectfully called him "Second Brother".

But this time it was different. She accidentally learned the truth about the necklace and once again saw his true character. It seemed to be reminding her that she was not worthy of punishment and allowed such a bad person to continue to approach her.

Qi Yu walked into the living room and saw his elder brother wearing a dark shirt and a light yellow apron, with his head down, preparing ingredients in the kitchen.

Although the phone on the coffee table was on silent mode, it was still vibrating slightly. She leaned in to take a look, then quietly waited for the vibration to stop.

She walked to the kitchen door and asked, "Brother, do you need my help?"

Mu Yanqing was cutting the beef into small pieces. He turned around and said, "The rice is cooked. I'll make the difficult dishes first. You can stir-fry the vegetables later."

This makes her feel involved as well.

"Oh well."

Qi Yu walked to the entrance and carefully closed the shoe cabinet door.

At this moment, the video doorbell at home suddenly rang. She looked up and noticed that the system was prompting that a visitor had arrived and asking her if she agreed to let the visitor take the elevator to their floor.

Her intuition told her that this visitor was most likely Muchenan.

After hesitating for only half a minute, she touched the screen and clicked "Reject", no longer wanting to tolerate him coming in and out of her home freely.

……

Three dishes and one soup were served.

Mu Yanqing wiped his hands, walked to the coffee table, looked at his phone, and murmured, "What does Chen An want me to do?"

"Brother, come and eat first, otherwise the food will get cold." Qi Yu brought two bowls of white rice to the table, placed the chopsticks and urged.

Mu Yanqing put down his phone and walked towards the restaurant. Thinking that it was nothing serious, he ate his meal first and called back later.

A rectangular dining table with two people sitting at each end.

Qi Yu picked up her chopsticks and picked up a piece of braised beef to taste. The delicious food stimulated her taste buds and made her eyes light up.

"Brother, your cooking skills have become so good!"

Mu Yanqing raised his lips and said, "When we were in the United States, Nianhan and I would occasionally go to the Chinese Super League to buy ingredients, and then cook a meal together for my parents."

Despite being divorced, he has never deliberately avoided mentioning his ex-wife Xu Nianhan. That time in the United States has become a very important memory in his life that is difficult to erase.

Shortly after finishing the meal, Mu Yanqing was about to leave, and Qi Yu asked him to help throw away the trash.

The black, hard plastic garbage bag was filled with kitchen waste from the previous cooking, as well as some items she had cleaned out.

"It's a bit heavy. When you walk out of the unit door, you'll see a big trash can. Just throw it away."

Mu Yanqing picked up the garbage bag with one hand and responded to her.

"Okay, I'm going back to Yunnan and Guizhou on my flight at 4pm tomorrow afternoon. I'll come back at noon. Do you want anything to eat?"

"Brother, please buy me a chocolate cream cake as an early birthday present."

For her birthday this year, she doesn't want to receive an expensive necklace. If her elder brother insists on giving her a gift, then she wants a birthday cake.

-

downstairs.

Mu Chenan stood in the cold wind, with the community's flower beds and greenery behind him. He looked up in the direction of a certain house and suddenly realized that from childhood to adulthood, he was like the third person outside the relationship between Qi Yu and his eldest brother.

In the past years, he didn't care about the closeness between Qi Yu and his elder brother, and he was even more unwilling to get involved in this relationship. Whenever it came to Qi Yu, he always found various reasons to push it away, and felt very troubled from the bottom of his heart.

But he never imagined that one day he would have to endure the bitter consequences of this.

When Qi Yu was in trouble and helpless, he suddenly wanted to keep her by his side. At that time, he no longer hated her so much, but wanted to be close to her. He knew in his heart that he had been attracted to her for a long time, but he was unwilling to admit this fact.

Later, he used threats and inducements to force her to surrender and make her willingly maintain an intimate and ambiguous relationship with him, but she suddenly came to her senses and proposed to end the relationship. Everything collapsed in an instant, catching him off guard.

-

Mu Yanqing walked out of the unit door, threw away the garbage, took out his cell phone from his pocket and remembered to call Mu Chenan back.

After a few rings, the other party answered.

"Chen An, what did you call me about just now?"

Mu Chenan saw his elder brother's back walking towards the parking space from afar. He stepped onto the flower bed with one foot, and his inquiring tone was filled with endless coldness.

“What were you doing when I called?”

"Cook."

"Cooking for Qi Yu?"

“Yes, what’s the problem?”

"What is your relationship with Qi Yu now?" Mu Chenan was eager to know the answer.

He wanted to know how far the relationship between the two had progressed, whether Qi Yu had confessed her feelings, and whether his elder brother would soften his heart and agree to her.

What were they doing upstairs?

Did you kiss?

Have you done it?

Why did Qi Yu suddenly block him?

Why didn’t my brother answer his call in time?

Who clicked the "Reject" button on the video doorbell?

Mu Yanqing suddenly stopped, was silent for a moment, and asked in a deep voice: "What do you want to know?"

"Brother, you can't be with Qi Yu, you really can't."

At the end of his words, the man's voice faded away.

Muchan felt a strong sense of frustration and unwillingness. He tried to change the status quo, but invisibly pushed Qi Yu towards others.

Mu Yanqing didn't notice that the wind was whistling in sync with the sound of the wind on the other end of the phone and in his ears.

In fact, they were only a hundred meters apart.

"Chen An, I deeply regret leaving Ah Yu in your care. It's all my fault that things have turned out this way, so please control your emotions. Ah Yu will have her own choice."

This statement sounds very ambiguous.

However, in Mu Chenan's view, his elder brother already knew Qi Yu's feelings, and she had made her choice.

Can she really accept that she has been with a pair of brothers one after another?

After the call was hung up, Mu Chenan did not respond to the last sentence.

He couldn't control his emotions. The longer time went on, the stronger his love for Qi Yu became. He wanted to have her more and even thought of keeping her imprisoned by his side forever.

-

A huge black garbage bag was placed on the top layer of the green trash can. Mu Chenan stood in front of the trash can, trying to penetrate the black layer with his eyes, wanting to know what was hidden inside.

He reached out and picked up the bag of garbage, placed it on the ground, and opened the bag. At that moment, the smell of leftovers hit his nose, and the unpleasant smell was hard to ignore.

There were a lot of debris in the bag, so he picked up a clean deformed clothes hanger and used it as a tool to rummage through the garbage bag.

This was a completely inexplicable and strong impulse. He might have some strange disease, or he had no place to vent his emotions, so he was rummaging through the garbage here.

He couldn't explain exactly what he was looking for, but there were things he didn't want to see.

I don’t want to see sticky toilet paper, and I don’t want to see used condoms.

Mu Chenan also felt that he might be really crazy.

Under the appearance of brotherly harmony, he couldn't make a hysterical noise with his eldest brother.

Blocked by the access control, he could not impulsively rush upstairs to see Qi Yu.

He poured out all his anger and resentment on the bag of garbage.

After rummaging through the pile of small pieces of garbage, there were either vegetable leaves and leftovers, or food packaging bags.

He couldn't help but breathe a sigh of relief and poked a smooth milky white bag, which seemed to contain discarded clothes.

He put the hanger aside to avoid the dirt, reached out and quickly untied the knot, took out a shirt from it, put it on his wrist, turned around and looked at the clothes clearly in the light of the community street lamp.

The next second, Mu Chenan's heart sank suddenly, his chest heaved up and down, and even his breathing became rapid.

This is the shirt that Qi Yu picked up and used as pajamas.

He had only worn it once, but he didn't know how many times she had worn this shirt as pajamas in the past year or so.

The shirt was still clean and white, but today, she was willing to throw it away.

He lowered his eyes and wiped his hands repeatedly with the shirt, and the fabric was soon covered with irregular wrinkles.

Just like its fate when it was discarded in the first place, the shirt was thrown into the trash can again with the bag of garbage, and his mood fell to the bottom.

The cold night wind in winter does not make people feel awake, but makes their minds more confused.

Muchenan ignored the unpleasant smell and remained there, facing the trash can, lost in thought.

When other people passed by and took a look, they felt that the sharp lines of this handsome man revealed his extreme coldness, and there was an invisible sense of "keep away from strangers".

After a long time, he finally moved and walked back.

The car stopped across the road from the residential complex. There was a zebra crossing with a red light. Mu Chen waited quietly for dozens of seconds to pass.

Perhaps he had some indescribable complex emotions towards this community. Inadvertently, he glanced at the entrance of the community from the corner of his eye. His gaze suddenly froze, and he turned his head completely and found Qi Yu standing by the roadside.

Qi Yu folded his arms and wrapped his coat tightly around himself to keep out the cold wind.

Across from her stood a young woman in a long down jacket, who handed her something that looked like a courier box.

The two stood there and talked for a few words, then she smiled and pulled the young woman's sleeve, as if trying to keep her.

The other party waved his hand, turned on the screen of his mobile phone, showing the time in the evening, and politely and kindly declined her invitation.

Qi Yu's back looked a little regretful. She accompanied the young woman to wait for the car she had called. About three minutes later, after she sent the person to the car, she picked up the express box and turned to walk into the community.

During this time, the traffic light changed again and again, but Mu Chenan's eyes were fixed on that side, and he never stepped onto the zebra crossing to the other side.

At this moment, he turned around and quickened his pace to try to catch up with Qi Yu in front of him.

Perhaps it was too cold at night, so she did not walk slowly like before, but jogged home along the cobblestone road in the community.