Blooming Romance Chapter 1

At around 7AM, Chu Xun was buying breakfast. The students around him were noisily fooling around, school uniform unkempt and not wearing their scarfs. Their youthful faces were dazzling.

Chu Xun was really envious. It was his thirtieth birthday this Sunday, so many years passed just like that. He was no longer young. Even with the thermal inner wear inside his suit and a thick cashmere jacket outside, he still felt cold and needed to wrap a scarf tightly around his neck as though he was about to hang himself.

Done buying, he headed to Ji Tianze’s house to pass him his breakfast.

Yet, Ji Tianze wasn’t pleased. “I want the beef-flavoured one, this is pork. How did you even get this wrong?”

He added, “Stand further away from me. The oily smell of meat on you stinks.”

Even though he didn’t like it, Ji Tianze still ate what Chu Xun bought and said, “Where are the powerpoint slides I need to use today? What’s with you? Not done with them yet?”

Chu Xun wearily nodded, “I’m done with them. Let me go through the slides with you. You need to at least be familiar with them to present later…”

Talking and talking, Chu Xun lost focus. He had been out of it recently, recalling the students he passed by in the morning but not remembering their faces. In his head, it was as though the faces of those students were erased away and changed to how he looked like when he was younger.

He remembered he started liking Ji Tianze when he was sixteen, still in high school. Since that day, he would buy breakfast for Ji Tianze regardless of the weather and everyone would call him young master Ji’s errand boy.

He never minded that, pathetically liking Ji Tianze.

Back then, Ji Tianze would hold onto his shoulders and say, “Xiao Xun, you’re my best buddy, aren’t you?”

He became even more attracted to Ji Tianze, nodding his head with a flushed face and fast-beating heart.

Ten years passed and they were still…best friends. He was afraid that they wouldn’t even be able to be friends once he confessed, so he simply watched as Ji Tianze switched from one girlfriend to another and actually smiled while wishing him well each time.

Before leaving, Ji Tianze instructed, “Come home earlier today and help me tidy up my room. You had something on last week, so the dirty clothes are piling up and the floor needs to be mopped properly too.”

Chu Xun hesitated, “I have something to tell you… It’s my birthday this weekend.”

The atmosphere turned weird and not turning back, Ji Tianze purposely changed the topic, “I need to go. Anything else, tell me about it when I get back tonight.”

It wasn’t like something one would say to a friend; it was more of something one would say to a subordinate.

Chu Xun didn’t answer, and Ji Tianze didn’t realised. He was saying a command anyway, not a request. Chu Xun is very obedient; he would do whatever Ji Tianze said.

Chu Xun’s company didn’t celebrate western festivals so New Year’s Eve wasn’t considered a holiday.

Taking a day off the day before, Chu Xun had a mountain of work to complete, so he arrived at the company 25 minutes earlier. He started working at this company after graduation and had been here for seven years. He was intelligent and serious, yet willing to give in to others, well-organised and managed to be promoted within two to three years. The previous general manager(GM) admired Chu Xun greatly but before he was promoted to the HQ, he asked for Chu Xun to stay in the office. Everyone else was shocked. Was Chu Xun going to become the branch office’s head?

But without a warning, a young master with background, Zhuang Hanxue, came. He was the CEO’s youngest son, only twenty-two this year, a fresh university graduate.

Therefore, Chu Xun had to accept the position to be Zhuang Hanxue’s right-hand man.

He, however, wasn’t angry because he was long used to such things. Besides, it was his teacher who specifically asked him to stay and gave him the chance to be on good terms with the youngest son of the CEO.

Sadly, Zhuang Hanxue wasn’t like what his name says. He was ignorant and incompetent, not to mention always arriving late and leaving early, and sometimes just fooling around elsewhere instead of turning up at the company.

With Zhuang Hanxue calling the shots, the company’s atmosphere was no longer as before and while Chu Xun did his best to keep things under control, he was hardly able to maintain the current condition.

Chu Xun devoted to guiding the CEO’s son but he was not appreciated.

Zhuang Hanxue presumptuously said, “I have money even without working, so why do I want to work so hard.”

Chu Xun was speechless. After asking around, he learned that Zhuang Hanxue had been unruly since young despite the beautiful resume, seeing that Zhuang Hanxue graduated from a renowned school and was more educated than him. The Zhuang family had three children; Zhuang HanXue was the youngest with a sister and brother before him, each a prodigy, except him who had chased his violin teacher out of his house by beating the teacher with a violin and needed his father to donate a block of building to the school in exchange for his university graduation certificate.

This past half a year was exhausting.

Chu Xun was only gone for a day for the company to be in a mess. He heard that young master Zhuang didn’t even bother to turn up yesterday.

Checking through all the work from yesterday, Chu Xun was lucky to spot a mistake, made by a male university student who just entered the company, that almost caused big trouble, so he called the worker to his office and reprimanded him. Chu Xun had a feminine look; pale skin, upturned eyes, a pair of metallic thin-framed glasses resting on his nose bridge and a cold aura around him. He was sure he had not said anything harsh, but the guy was so afraid he was about to cry. Chu Xun didn’t take pity on the worker for the worker’s own good because he knew people only stop committing mistakes after remembering their mistakes.

In the afternoon, the workers were having their lunch while Chu Xun continued working, planning to finish all the work on his hands before leaving.

He had decided to resign and wanted to finish his work earlier so that the company wouldn’t be in too much of a mess after he left.

His phone rang. Someone sent him a message. Chu Xun picked his phone up to see and a line of text surfaced in front of his eyes: That old sissy guy was making a mountain out of a molehill. So petty, he wouldn’t let go of such a small mistake as if not doing so, he can’t show how superior he is.

Chu Xun only saw the message for a moment before it was deleted, as though nothing had happened.

He felt kind of sad. Hah. Though it wasn’t the first time someone was scolding him behind his back.

In the evening, Zhuang Hanxue finally entered the company’s doors and felt guilty for a bit when he saw Chu Xun. Chu Xun used to call him to rush him to work whether or not he would work properly, just so he would obediently sit on the chair in the GM office. He went to dance at a nightclub last night, got drunk, slept and only woke up in the afternoon, ate lunch, remembered that Chu Xun came to work today, struggled, then decided to turn up in the end. He believed he was giving Chu Xun quite a lot of respect and was afraid Chu Xun would pull an evil-stepmother-look and nag nonstop at him again to be proactive in his learning. His parents didn’t even care, Chu Xun was just finding more work for himself.

When Chu Xun ended up not scolding him, Zhuang Hanxue got worried.

Why should he scold him? Chu Xun thought and was disheartened, thinking Zhuang Hanxue might be calling him sissy behind his back too.

His efforts had always been futile.

When Zhuang Hanxue saw Chu Xun deep in his work, he got carried away and sneakily moved his big pile of documents that only required to be looked through, stamped and signed onto Chu Xun’s table.

Chu Xun looked at Zhuang Hanxue coldly and the latter pressed the side of his forehead, acting sick. “I drank too much last night, head still hurts. I’m working even though I’m feeling unwell today and should be complimented for this. Help me do half of them, just half, or else I’m afraid I can’t finish them… If not, one-third of them?”

Chu Xun said, ” Do you think this is the wet market and you can bargain?”

Zhuang Hanxue was good at sweet-talking and was shameless enough. “After all, I’m useless so I need Chu-gege4 to help me.”

Chu Xun felt extremely tired at that very moment.

Too much work ended up delaying the time Chu Xun knocked off from work, causing him to reach Ji Tianze’s house late.

Ji Tianze gave him a straight face and picked on him. “Are you that busy? If you couldn’t be early, you should have told me earlier instead of making me wait for you.”

“What’s with you these days? You’re out of it again?”

“You weren’t on time in the morning too.”

“That powerpoint wasn’t done well too. I lost to that colleague I hate today.”

“I’m talking here, are you listening to me?”

“Chu Xun!”

Chu Xun once asked Ji Tianze why he didn’t buy takeaways if he was lazy to cook and why he didn’t just hire a helper if he didn’t want to do the housework. Ji Tianze said, “Takeaways don’t taste as good as your food, I got sick of them. Helpers aren’t reliable, I can’t find any good ones and they are not as good as you too. Xiao Chu, you’re the best to me.”

As though Chu Xun was absolutely necessary in Ji Tianze’s life.

Chu Xun didn’t eat dinner before rushing to Ji Tianze’s house and was already very tired and hungry, yet he still had to be scolded. Looking at Ji Tianze’s annoying face, getting insulted by him and then recalling the upsetting events he had experienced at the company today, he suddenly laughed.

He realised he was really quite cheap.

How hilarious.

Ji Tianze frowned. “What are you laughing at?”

‌Chu Xun said, “I’m laughing at myself for finally waking up after being at your beck and call for so many years.”

Ji Tianze started panicking. “What are you talking about, Chu Xun?”

Chu Xun was too tired that he didn’t even want to speak with Ji Tianze anymore, so he turned to leave.

Ji Tianze pulled him back. “Explain what you mean. You’re already of this age. Don’t throw a tantrum like a kid.”

“I mean, please find yourself another lackey in the future. I’m going to live my own life.” Chu Xun said and got out of his grip.

Chu Xun walked halfway and turned back, only to see darkness. There was no one there. He laughed at himself for being weak enough to want to give Ji Tianze another chance after saying those words.

Ji Tianze simply didn’t cherish Chu Xun; he was tempting Chu Xun under the name of “best friends” for so many years, merely because Chu Xun would listen to him and do his housework for free.

Chu Xun was driving before he stopped at the side of the road, leaning against the steering wheel because he felt unwell. He took out a thin piece of paper from his pocket, the diagnosis results he got from the hospital yesterday.

He wanted to show it to Ji Tianze but he couldn’t find the time to, and he wouldn’t need to do so again next time.

The doctor told him he had contracted a terminal illness and could only live for another half a year. If he focused on treating the illness and was lucky, he could probably attempt to live for another one and a half year.

Chu Xun clenched tightly onto that death-sentencing paper, nails tearing through it and pressing into his palm, causing him to laugh in pain.

Even if he died, the earth will continue to rotate. There is more than a million ordinary citizens like him in this world; his one death is nothing.

He wanted to tell Ji Tianze, but the latter didn’t even know he went to the hospital. The many times he tried to tell Ji Tianze, the man wouldn’t even bother to pay attention to him.

He wanted to finish settling the work at his company before resigning, but his subordinates were scolding him behind his back and his boss was taking the chance to slack. Was he really needed? The company wouldn’t just close down without him around.

As for his parents, long when he came out with his sexuality, he was disowned, and it had been five years since he went home.

He thought too highly of himself.

No one on earth cared whether he was alive or dead.

He lived his twenty-nine years in a mess and like an idiot.

It was only now, when he was about to die, that he was thinking to live for himself.

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To Be Continued...

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