Back Then, I Adored You

“No, thank you,” Gu Yusheng responded shortly. His eyes were fixed on the computer while he was busy doing something. The conversation didn’t seem to affect his typing speed.

Lu Bancheng shrugged without saying anything else. He walked to the fridge and took a bottle of spring water out of the fridge, twisted the cap open, and walked back to the living room as he drank.

He stood by the sofa, watching Gu Yusheng work for a while before he put the water bottle down and went upstairs.

When Lu Bancheng came downstairs after a shower, Gu Yusheng’s driver, Xiaowang, was already in the living room.

Gu Yusheng’s computer was on the coffee table with the screen visible. He held a few files and flipped through them, making marks at times.

Xiaowang saw Lu Bancheng and nodded in greeting. He didn’t talk, afraid of distracting Gu Yusheng from his work.

Lu Bancheng waved at Xiaowang in acknowledgment and took a seat on the sofa. He took his cell phone out and started to play with it.

The house was completely quiet for about twenty minutes. Gu Yusheng closed his files and passed them to Xiaowang. “Can you deliver these files to the company?”

“Yes, Mr. Gu,” Xiaowang said. Xiaowang held the files in his arms.

Gu Yusheng pulled an old-fashioned envelope out from underneath his laptop and passed it to Xiaowang. “Can you stop by the post office on the way to the company? Buy a stamp and mail this letter.”

“Got it, Mr. Gu,” Xiaowang said.

Gu Yusheng had no more instructions for Xiaowang, so he waved at Xiaowang to signal that it was time for him to leave.

Xiaowang politely said goodbye to both Gu Yusheng and Lu Bancheng before he turned around to leave the house.

Once the door was closed after Xiaowang, Lu Bancheng looked surprised and asked, “You aren’t still in touch with your pen-pal, are you?”

Gu Yusheng glanced at Lu Bancheng, but didn’t feel like responding to his question. Instead, he picked up the laptop and placed it on his lap. He moved his fingers on the touchpad to read his emails.

“Bro Sheng, pen-pals were just a game for high school students back then. I can’t believe you still write letters to each other. It’s nothing wrong for you guys to keep in contact, but you should at least keep up with technology, right? At least use WeChat or QQ? Email would work too. Or, you can give your pen-pal your phone number. You guys could text or call each other,” Lu Bancheng said.

Lu Bancheng made a lot comments, but he saw Gu Yusheng had no intention of responding to him. He looked like he suddenly remembered something and asked with a cautious tone, “Bro Sheng, do you still know nothing about your pen-pal? You’ve been in touch with them for so many years.”

Gu Yusheng slowly stopped moving his fingers on the touchpad.

What the heck! Lu Bancheng couldn’t believe he had guessed right. The look on Lu Bancheng was frozen. He had his mouth slightly open for a while before he shook his head and composed himself from the shock. “I cannot believe the existence of pen-pals nowadays. I thought contacting under anonymous names was better for sex purposes, like for instance, finding a Tinder partner.”

Gu Yusheng looked up at Lu Bancheng slightly. The look on Gu Yusheng’a face scared him. He immediately smiled and tried to back down. “I’m quite interested in who your pen-pal is, even though you’re not. I cannot believe there is a person you would like to keep in touch for so long, especially in the old-fashioned way, writing letters to each other.”

Lu Bancheng’s talk calmed Gu Yusheng down. Gu Yusheng didn’t say anything for quite a while. He responded to Lu Bancheng calmly, saying, “I have no idea.”