Xiao Fengtai rarely found himself standing on what he considered the moral high ground during his disagreements with Jiang Tong. Naturally, he refused to yield, waiting instead for Jiang Tong to come to him with an apology. However, after two days of silence, the two of them somehow drifted into a cold war.
It felt as though a thread had been pulled through his heart, leaving him suspended precariously in mid-air. He was stuck in a state of limbo where only the lingering pain and anxiety felt real. The more joy they found in each other’s company, the more unbearable the separation became. He spent every waking moment speculating about the other’s thoughts, tortured by the unknown, all while exhausting his mental energy to keep his fingers from being the first to raise the white flag of surrender.
David was quite gleeful about the situation. "So, you’ve finally met your match. It seems God is fair after all."
Xiao Fengtai gave him a dark glare. "Shut up."
"Keep that expression, don't move. Let me take a photo," David said, seemingly unable to quit while he was ahead. He continued enthusiastically, "I really want you to see yourself. You look exactly like one of those stone statues on Easter Island!"
Xiao Fengtai stood up to leave. Seeing that he was truly angry, David hurriedly pulled him back. "My mistake, my mistake! This meal is on me! Young Master Xiao is magnanimous; surely you won't lower yourself to my level."
Xiao Fengtai sat back down without a word. He subconsciously glanced at his phone screen, and seeing it empty and silent, his expression chilled further.
"Just give the guy a break," David advised earnestly. "Look at you—you can't eat, you can't sleep. You might as well just make up and be done with it."
"I didn't do anything wrong," Xiao Fengtai said coldly.
"A relationship isn't an exam where you get points for being right and lose them for being wrong." David rolled his eyes. "If you're the first to make peace, the older one might actually think you're being generous and manly."
Xiao Fengtai crossed his arms, looking David up and down. "You certainly talk a big game, sir. You must be quite experienced—lucky Tiffany."
"Fine, pretend I said nothing." David sighed resentfully and raised his hand for the waiter. "Check, please!"
David went home full of irritation, entirely unaware that his words had taken root in Xiao Fengtai’s mind. The latter found that his thumbs seemed to have developed a consciousness of their own. During the short time he spent spacing out on the way home, he had already opened his chat window with Jiang Tong four times.
*If Jiang Tong doesn't take the initiative to contact me today, I'll be magnanimous just this once and extend the olive branch tomorrow.* Before getting out of the car, Xiao Fengtai finally made up his mind. As David had said, he wanted to show his mature and rational side; he couldn't be as petty as Jiang Tong.
Unfortunately, Jiang Tong didn't give him the chance. That night at 11:55 PM, five minutes before "tomorrow" began, the phone by Xiao Fengtai’s pillow buzzed.
With bleary eyes, he swiped the screen to light it up. Jiang Tong made no mention of their previous argument. He simply informed Xiao Fengtai that he had a group meeting on Saturday and asked if they could reschedule their lesson. The tone of the message was calm and concise, as if their cold war had been nothing more than Xiao Fengtai’s unilateral hallucination.
*Jiang Tong bowed his head first!* Xiao Fengtai scrambled out of bed. He clutched his phone, typing and deleting several times before finally turning the device off and tossing it aside.
He couldn't reply too quickly. It would make it look like he’d been staying up all night specifically waiting for Jiang Tong’s message. Xiao Fengtai lay back down and closed his eyes tight, but the corners of his mouth couldn't help but curl upward.
With the heavy stone lifted from his chest, Xiao Fengtai had no more worries and soon sank into a deep sleep. When he woke the next morning, he was full of energy. He carefully measured his tone as he replied to Jiang Tong’s message. Jiang Tong confirmed the time immediately, and with that back-and-forth, the atmosphere returned to the harmony they had enjoyed before the cold war.
Whether intentionally or not, Xiao Fengtai overlooked one important thing. Although it seemed insignificant at the time, much later, when he was finally able to look back on this past with calm rationality, he had to admit that during that midnight hour when he fell asleep with a sense of relief, their relationship had already developed its first crack. It was a tiny, hidden fissure, almost negligible. But from that moment on, their flawless, dreamlike bond underwent a qualitative change.
Jiang Tong had not apologized to him.
