Chapter 25
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When Liu Cheng stepped out of Swindon Railway Station, he had no idea where to go next.
“Swindon only has a population of about 100,000; it’s such a small place. If you and Sun Chen are meant to be, you’ll definitely find him,” Lin Dun had told Liu Cheng when he gave him the name of this small town. He heartlessly refused Liu Cheng’s request for more details, even considering Liu Cheng lucky. “You should be glad Sun Chen didn’t actually go to London. Searching for one person out of ten million—that would keep you busy for a long time.”
But then again, even finding one person among 100,000 wasn’t easy. Assuming Liu Cheng could meet one person per second, it would still take him 300 hours to see 100,000 people. And it’s not like Liu Cheng could meet someone every second. As soon as he left the train station, he quickly realized that in this small town, the average was probably one person per minute.
Usually, Liu Cheng wouldn’t search aimlessly like this. In fact, he had several more effective ways to find Sun Chen. For instance, with Chen Xi’s wedding coming up, it shouldn’t be too hard to locate the church hosting it in such a small town. On the other hand, unless Sun Chen was staying at Chen Xi’s residence—which, despite Chen Xi getting married soon, Liu Cheng sincerely hoped Sun Chen wasn’t—hotels would also be a good place to start searching. But in the end, Liu Cheng just strolled through the streets.
He felt that love had given him enough hardships, making the journey so bitter, but there was still an inexplicable beauty that made him more romantic and eager to dream. He thought about Lin Dun’s words—if they were destined, he would definitely find Sun Chen.
He needed this kind of fate.
Normally a person who didn’t overthink things, Liu Cheng was now indecisive, full of anxiety. He needed this kind of fate to encourage him, to give him confidence, to tell him that Sun Chen and he were meant to be.
—As long as he could find Sun Chen, no matter what happened in this life, he would never let go again!
He hoped to run into Sun Chen on the streets of this town. Under the gloomy weather, he reached an intersection, casually turned his head, and just happened to see Sun Chen slowly walking from the other side of the street. At that moment, the sky cleared, and sunlight fell on the faint smile at the corners of Sun Chen’s lips.
He hoped to have such a fateful encounter with Sun Chen on the streets of this city.
Liu Cheng passed another intersection. On either side, only a few passersby walked by, and none of them were black-haired Easterners.
At that moment, he noticed a piece of white paper stuck to a nearby wall that looked like a notice. What caught his attention was that the paper had just one large Chinese character—“Sun.”
Below the character “Sun” was an arrow.
Liu Cheng stared at it for a while, not daring to immediately associate this “Sun” with Sun Chen, but with no clear direction, after a slight hesitation, he decided to take it as a sign and turned to follow the direction of the arrow.
He didn’t walk far before he saw the character “Chen” on another wall.
—Could this still be a coincidence?
Seeing the character “Chen,” Liu Cheng’s heartbeat quickened uncontrollably. He didn’t know why, didn’t understand why he was nervous, didn’t know why Sun Chen’s name was appearing on the walls. But there was also an arrow under the character “Chen,” and he instinctively quickened his pace in that direction.
After that, he saw the character “Zai.”
Then the character “Zhe.”
Liu Cheng didn’t notice when he started running. He ran through an intersection without cars, completely ignoring the red light.
—Finally, he saw the character “Li.”
The character “Li” was stuck to the back of a bench. And sitting on that bench was a person.
An Asian person with black hair, sitting on a bench in Swindon.
As Liu Cheng walked towards the bench, he felt something inside his chest, something that seemed ready to burst out.
“Xiao Chen…” As he said the name, he noticed his voice trembling slightly.
The person on the bench turned their head at the sound.
Sun Chen, sitting on the bench, turned his head at the sound.
Liu Cheng found himself in a daze, slowly crouching in front of the bench.
“I’m sorry, Xiao Chen, I’m so sorry… I wanted you to have the best, but I was so bad… I wanted you to have something better, but I just couldn’t bear to see you leave me…”
Sun Chen quietly stared into Liu Cheng’s eyes.
For a while, neither of them spoke. Then, finally, Sun Chen broke the silence. “I’ve said it before, even if you don’t like me, it’s okay, but I have no other choice—I’ll always love you.”
Liu Cheng had tried time and again to make Sun Chen believe that he could be loved and liked, but now he realized he didn’t need to keep emphasizing that. Sun Chen must have seen the answer in his eyes because Liu Cheng could see the response in Sun Chen’s eyes.
He couldn’t help but think back to each time Sun Chen had gotten inexplicably angry whenever he had hesitated.
Sun Chen had been mad at him all along, but he never doubted Liu Cheng’s feelings.
“Tell me you must have done a lot of bad things in your past life so I won’t feel so guilty and can shamelessly cling to you forever.”
“There’s a scholar in the U.S. named Stevenson who concluded through research that the so-called past life memories humans have are actually inherited through genes, passed down from ancestors, leading to déjà vu. So to be accurate, people don’t have past lives.”
Liu Cheng listened in a daze as Sun Chen discussed the concept of past lives.
Then, suddenly, Sun Chen smiled. “I was just joking.”
He still hadn’t learned to pair his jokes with facial expressions, but he knew to smile when reminding Liu Cheng.
And his smile could actually be so sweet.
“If you really want, I can do a lot of bad things in my past life,” he said.
Liu Cheng didn’t know why, in this moment of complete happiness, his voice choked with emotion. “Thank you, Xiao Chen…”
“I didn’t know you knew any polite phrases other than ‘I’m sorry,’” Sun Chen said. He was clearly very happy because he made another joke—and yes, he told Liu Cheng, “That was also a joke.”
If Liu Cheng were any more of a drama queen, he might actually be laughing and crying right now.
“Thank you for taking the trouble to leave those signs for me,” Liu Cheng said.
Sun Chen quickly replied, “I was worried that with your new haircut, you might really be too dumb to find me.”
Sun Chen didn’t say he was joking this time—maybe he genuinely thought Liu Cheng was too stupid. Liu Cheng finally burst out laughing. “It’s okay if I’m a little dumb; that way, only you will get to bully me in the future.”
Sun Chen didn’t entirely agree. “Even if you were smarter, I’d still find a way to bully you.”
“…That’s right.” Liu Cheng quickly got used to Sun Chen’s unique way of being affectionate. “No matter how smart I am, I’ll still only be bullied by you.”
“Don’t let Lin Dun bully you anymore.”
Liu Cheng paused. He hadn’t realized that bad news traveled so fast.
Sun Chen explained, “Lin Dun sent me the photo of you doing a handstand on WeChat. That was the last little bit of anger I had left, and it disappeared, so I put up those signs for you.”
“…Lin Dun is truly a good person.” Liu Cheng finally understood Lin Dun’s intentions.
Sun Chen glanced at him. “You can thank Lin Dun, but don’t like him too much.”
Sun Chen’s tone no longer carried the obvious anxiety and fear of the past, but there was still a hint of concern. Perhaps it would still be a long road to fully build his confidence, but Liu Cheng was no longer worried. After all, he and Sun Chen would have a lifetime to figure it out.
“No matter how much I like him, I only love you… Besides, only He Zaifeng can probably put up with his temper.” Liu Cheng’s sigh was sincere, and after saying it, he realized he had misspoken. He quickly pleaded with Sun Chen, “This time, please don’t tattle to Lin Dun again. I really can’t handle that little tyrant.”
Sun Chen nodded and offered a deal, “As long as you don’t stand me up for a movie again, I’ll keep this secret for you.”
Liu Cheng wanted to explain his past terrible behavior… but what could he say? He sighed, unable to defend himself. “I really have no excuse, I was just that stupid.” But then, his dejection turned into joy. “But I feel like we’re definitely meant to be! You know, I hadn’t walked long after leaving the train station when I saw your signs. Fate must have wanted me to find you, otherwise, how else could I have just stumbled upon your signs in such a big city?”
Sun Chen sympathetically studied him. “There really is a curse on your new haircut.”
“Huh?”
“You seriously believe in pseudoscience more than probability?—You didn’t just happen to see that sign. I put up 256 ‘Sun’ signs near the train station, then 64 ‘Chen’ signs, 16 ‘Zai’ signs, 4 ‘Zhe’ signs, and 1 ‘Li’ sign.”
Faced with Sun Chen’s explanation, Liu Cheng was speechless for a long time.
He thought it was fate.
“…You put up more than 300 signs?”
“341 signs.”
—But it wasn’t fate; it was Sun Chen’s effort.
It wasn’t that fate wanted Liu Cheng to find Sun Chen, but that Sun Chen wanted Liu Cheng to find him—that was what truly mattered!
“Xiao Chen…” Liu Cheng couldn’t help but squeeze Sun Chen’s hand tightly. “From now on, I won’t need fate to tell me what to do. If I’m too dumb and get something wrong, just tell me what I should do.”
He kind of wished Sun Chen would tell him to stand up and start yelling and screaming because that’s exactly what he wanted to do. He wanted to run around like a madman, grabbing strangers’ hands and telling them how happy he was right now.
But, unfortunately, what Sun Chen told him to do was something else—
“If you really want to take my advice, then I hope you’ll take me to a hotel now and get a room. You always refuse to sleep with me, and I’m starting to wonder if it’s really out of respect or if you just can’t do it.”
(The End)