©Novel Buddy
If You Don't Fall In Love, You'll Die-Chapter 32
Translator: tiredpotats
Editor: Amaris
How would you feel when you suddenly found out that you were in love with your sworn brother?
Yu Xingzhe knew the answer to this too well since ten years ago.
Yu Xingzhe grew up together with Ye Chen and Gu Xi. Their families were also close to each other. When they were younger, they would gather outside to play together when they were waiting for the adults who were having a banquet, drinking and chatting together in a large group.
Both Yu Xingzhe and Gu Xi were quite thick headed so they were often in dispute with each other. Ye Chen was softer than the both of them, so he often appeased them, acting as the 'good guy'.
Yu Xingzhe treated Ye Chen as his best friend. Gu Xi also thought so about Ye Chen.
Ye Chen himself had always regarded both of them as his best friends, too.
In their younger days, whenever Yu Xingzhe and Gu Xi fought, they often made Ye Chen choose.
"Say, who do you like to play with better?"
Ye Chen was very troubled. How would he be able to choose?
At first, Yu Xingzhe and Gu Xi only wanted him to choose. But one time, Ye Chen was under so much pressure that he became helpless. His eyes turned red, teardrops pooled in them as he called out 'brother Zhe' here and 'brother Xi' there.
The moment 'brother Zhe' turned around to see him, his heart felt as if it had melted away. Since then, he never asked Ye Chen that question anymore.
Gu Xi was more mature. As long as Yu Xingzhe didn't mess with him, he wouldn't take the initiative to start anything.
Later, they started school. Ye Chen grew up small with fair and tender skin, so some people often tried to bully him. But Gu Xi was black hearted and Yu Xingzhe's hands were merciless. They trained poor little Ye Chen into Boss Ye and accidentally turned him into the school's hegemony, which was why he was quite the legend.
All the way to high school, these three grew close together. They were tight-knit brothers.
But in their second year of high school, Yu Xingzhe suddenly became weird.
When he was still young and ignorant, he caught his brother from the next class sneakily looking at a porn book. Yu Xingzhe moved closer to take a look, then he snorted as he said, "What's so good to look at there?
The brother said, "They're fair skinned and good looking!"
Yu Xingzhe thought inside his heart: They're not as fair skinned as A Chen.
The moment that thought flashed through his mind, his heart jumped.
Coincidentally, they went to the seaside to play that weekend. When he looked at Ye Chen in swimming trunks, his heart was in a mess.
One moment, he wanted to wrap him up. The next time, he wanted to kick everyone who saw him flying. The other time……
It was such a chaotic day. Things were even more absurd at night for him. He had a nocturnal emission while dreaming of his brother who grew up together with him.
The next day, when he looked at Ye Chen, Yu Xingzhe felt so guilty he might die. How could he do that? How could he…… This is so perverted!
From that day on, Yu Xingzhe began to avoid Ye Chen. He still couldn’t recognize his feelings, but he felt that there was something wrong with himself.
Later on, he pondered over and over, Is it because Ye Chen looked a lot like a girl, thus I treated him like a girl? But that made it even worse. Ye Chen was his brother who grew up together with him. That was like insulting Ye Chen!
Yu Xingzhe didn’t dare to come closer to Ye Chen. He was even afraid of looking at him or hearing his voice.
In this state of mind, it would be too kind of anyone to say that he was not insane.
After he graduated from high school, he fled to country F, far, far away from Ye Chen and Gu Xi.
Unfortunately, even though he had gone far away, his heart remained in his hometown. He couldn’t help but paid attention to Ye Chen. He wanted to be closer to him but at the same time he didn’t want to, yet Ye Chen still lingered in his mind.
Every year, the happiest moment for him was when he followed his mom to pay a visit to Ye Family’s house because he could see Ye Chen there. Even just watching from afar was enough for him.
Halfway through university, Yu Xingzhe tried to talk about love affairs with a beautiful girl from F country. In the end, she threw a sentence to him, "You have someone in your heart, right?"
Yu Xingzhe, "……"
The girl said at ease, "If you like someone, then chase after them. What's there to be terrified about?"
Yu Xingzhe suddenly figured things out.
He liked Ye Chen, he really did. It was not because he was insane nor was there something wrong with his brain. He simply liked Ye Chen.
If you like someone, then chase after them. Right, he would chase after Ye Chen! Even if he was going to be killed by Auntie Ye, he would still chase after Ye Chen!
Yu Xingzhe returned home with overweening arrogance. He was really happy to see Ye Chen again, but his confession withered away even after he had flown back from the other side of the world.
He had been away for too long. Ye Chen had become estranged with him.
It was obvious that Ye Chen trusted him more in the past, but now all that came out from his mouth was 'brother Xi'.
Looking at the evil Gu Xi who became skinnier now, Yu Xingzhe's heart thumped. It hurt so much he felt it might break soon.
What was more frightening, Gu Xi had come out of the closet. This fatty had become skinny now, yet he became bolder than before. He honestly came out of the closet to everyone!
Uncle Gu almost beat Gu Xi to death. But Gu Xi wouldn't relent either, so he ran away from home afterwards.
It took Ye Chen quite a while to talk to his parents to take Gu Xi in. It could be said that he was quite manly for standing up for Gu Xi like that.
Yu Xingzhe realized that he couldn't be as close to them as they were, the distant feeling made him weak and nervous.
But he knew Ye Chen really well. He was the softest out of the three of them. As long as he pretended to be pitiful, Ye Chen would soon become closer to him again.
But Gu Xi was an eyesore to him.
He was really an eyesore to look at. He used to be a fat pig, but now he unexpectedly became so handsome.
Especially now that he had come out of the closet, he was a bona fide gay man!
The problem was that this damned gay man treated Ye Chen very well.
This could be described as Sima Zhao's ill intent was known to all!
Yu Xingzhe even felt that Ye Chen turned Gu Xi gay just like him. But that damned fatty was a lot taller than him now. He was and had always been around Ye Chen. He had properly came out of the closet and stepped estimately 10,000 more steps ahead of him.
Yu Xingzhe couldn't get enough oxygen for his brain, so he focused on taking care of Gu Xi more and more.
It was natural for Ye Chen to lean more on Gu Xi.
It was not because he had been getting along with Gu Xi for a long time, but because he could tell what was right and wrong.
It was obvious that Gu Xi wasn't at fault and Yu Xingzhe was the one to nitpick with him, which was why it'd be too wrong of him if he sided with Yu Xingzhe.
In this way, Gu Xi became more of an eyesore to Yu Xingzhe and his attempts on nitpicking Gu Xi became more intense.
Like a vicious cycle, when Yu Xingzhe retaliated, he couldn't be stopped anymore.
Later, he saw the 'fun' act of Ye Chen confessing to Gu Xi.
Right at that moment, Yu Xingzhe became very downhearted. He had secretly loved Ye Chen for years only to get such a result in the end.
That was really, really, really, hurtful for him.
Yu Xingzhe went back to country F, never wanting to go back.
For the sake of President Yu's mental progress, Gu Xi chose to sneer at him, "Listen here, you trash."
President Yu, "……"
Gu Xi said, "Don't try to babble about anything. I'll just say this: A Chen has no feelings for you beyond that of being his brother. You got that?"
Yu Xingzhe angrily replied, "I know."
Even though he didn't want to admit it, Yu Xingzhe had already realized it.
Before he knew it, he had drifted himself away from Ye Chen after knowing about his feelings. He was afraid to see Ye Chen’s disgusted eyes if he confessed. Since he realized his feelings from the start, he didn’t dare to say anything at all when he returned home again, because he knew very well that it would be useless even if he said it.
Right from the beginning until now, Ye Chen hadn’t given him even the least bit of chance. Let alone a little bit of chance, if Ye Chen had given him a tiny hint, he wouldn’t have been this terrified (to confess).
He had foreseen the result since years ago, so even though he had finally said it, he wasn’t really sad. He felt liberated instead.
Gu Xi stated, "I know what Ren Jing is doing over there. Don’t try to meddle."
Yu Xingzhe asked, "What the hell do you know?"
Gu Xi replied, "For so many years, I had been bullied 'cause of Chen Chen?"
Yu Xingzhe, "……"
Gu Xi added, "You good-for-nothing, just go somewhere else."
For the first time ever, Yu Xingzhe was scolded by someone. Yet, he couldn’t refute.
After he slowly accepted the scolding, he stated sternly, "I don’t know the situation there in China, but Ren Jing must have been the evil backstage manipulator regarding the problem concerning Morningstar Entertainment."
Gu Xi said, "Morningstar Entertainment is in a huge mess right now. It’s hard to say what’s going on."
Yu Xingzhe replied, "The entire Morningstar Entertainment was in turmoil so some people fell on hard times. Ren Jing is the only one to rise above others. To say that he is completely innocent is quite unbelievable."
Gu Xi responded, "But there really isn’t any news about him."
Yu Xingzhe stated, "Which is why I said that this man is very dangerous."
It wouldn't have been a problem if there were any clues about him, but they didn’t even have a single clue about him, then whatever means Ren Jing had were too frightening.
Morningstar Entertainment was Ren Jing’s agency. Three years ago, it was one of the top industry leaders, they had countless king and queen of the silver screen. But because of its overbearing contract and dark history, none of these actors could escape from its control.
But one day, the large building collapsed, completely shattered.
Soon after that incident, many people were affected. Some of them suffered setbacks and it became a dog fight. The breaking news ruined a lot of people’s lives.
But Ren Jing’s record was clear. As the top figure in Chinese entertainment circle at that time, Ren Jing was definitely at the heart of the struggle, yet he still emerged with nothing shady attached to him.
There were people who were absolutely pure in this world, but Ren Jing was definitely not one of them.
For him to be that 'clean' made people feel that he had a fathomless amount of darkness behind him.
Gu Xi knitted his brows as he said, "I really can’t think of his ulterior motives to approach A Chen."
Yu Xingzhe said, "He doesn’t have any ulterior motives. He just wants to play around, and when he had played enough, he’ll destroy A Chen."
Gu Xi’s heart trembled. This kind of 'play' is too terrible in his opinion.
When he played around, he deeply loved Ye Chen. But when he left him, it would be too cruel for Ye Chen.
Even he could not stand it, how would Ye Chen be able to endure such pain?
Yu Xingzhe sighed again as he said, "But it was already too late, A Chen is all enchanted."
Gu Xi remained silent for awhile.
Yu Xingzhe said, "I’ll hang up first. A Chen is back."
Ren Jing was incredibly ecstatic after being coaxed in just a few words by Ye Chen. Master Yu and Master Gu might have overthought it.
Ye Chen was indeed 'enchanted', but it was too bad that Ren Jing was a lot more 'enchanted'. Moreover, he had been 'enchanted' since long ago.
After saying so many words, Ye Chen felt quite embarrassed. When they went back to the hotel, Ye Chen secretly held Ren Jing’s hand. As he did so, his heart felt so sweet. But he also felt so shy he wanted to find a hole to hide in.
Yet, he wouldn’t let go of Ren Jing’s hand.
Ren Jing didn’t finish what he wanted to say. He felt it was extremely unreal, he feared that it was his own delusion, and when he opened his mouth, his delusion would unravel.
When they were almost at the hotel, Daddy Death System kindly reminded Ye Chen, "You have a daily mission to clear things up with Yu Xingzhe in front of Ren Jing. Don’t say I didn’t remind you."
Ye Chen immediately snapped out of it. He pondered for awhile as he thought of an idea in his mind.
He would definitely clear things up with Yu Xingzhe. This matter couldn’t be delayed, he had to rip the band-aid off with no delay!
But since he had to do it in front of Ren Jing, it would hurt Yu Xingzhe’s pride too much.
President Yu was immensely proud on the outside, yet a complete tsundere inside.
This was going to slap him in the face, and he would probably explode right at that moment.
Just because of that fraudulent mission, Ye Chen had to do it like this.
All of sudden, Ye Chen’s mind brightened up with an idea.
When they got into the elevator, he told Ren Jing, "Just words alone are not enough for proof."
Ren Jing didn’t understand what these eight words meant. After all, in his mind, whatever Ye Chen said was right. Even if Ye Chen was wrong, or even if Ye Chen deceived him, all of them would be right to Ren Jing.
Ye Chen said under his breath, "I’ll go inside and talk to Yu Xingzhe to clear things up in a moment. You stand there, don’t go anywhere."
Ren Jing’s heart thumped.
Ye Chen said again, "You have to hear and see us, but since A Zhe is sensitive and gets upset easily, you mustn’t let him see you, understand?"
Ren Jing finally spoke, his voice soft, "No need to do that much, I believe in you."
"That won’t do!" Ye Chen insisted, "I must make this clear. And I won’t leave any misunderstandings behind."
Ren Jing couldn’t help but held Ye Chen’s hand tighter.
Ye Chen said earnestly, "This is really important, although you may not understand why. I know you believed in me, so I wish to let you know that your trust in me isn't misplaced!"
These words lingered within Ren Jing. It was so sweet that it made Ren Jing’s heart about to burst in happiness.
Ren Jing chuckled, his thin lips tucked into a smile, his voice unexpectedly carrying the feeling of a youth’s green and puerility as he said, "Alright."
Ye Chen’s heart inexplicably thumped. It felt like a deja vu.
Author’s Note
The author has something to say:
Master Yu: I absolutely didn’t expect that there are still 10000 critical strikes waiting for me. *Ge You slouch*
Translator’s Note
Hello, good to see everyone again this week. Hope everyone has been doing well!
Now now, we’ve got Yu Xingzhe’s reasons, the misunderstanding is almost clear… What’s the worse that could happen, I wonder? Hehe, I wonder.
Anyways, I’d like to apologize in advance if I couldn’t immediately replied to comments later. I haven’t been feeling too well orz. Just trying to get up even feels impossible for me these days, muahahah. No worries though, I can manage… I think.
So, that’s it for this week. Thank you for reading, hope to see everyone again next week. Cheers!
Smol spoiler: something serious gonna happen and a new chara is going to make his debut soon. Brace yourselves, hooman.