Cosmic Love Affair

Chapter 1: The Kuiper Belt I

Xie Li's first experience of love was witnessing a grand scene of infidelity. He had just spent a day and a night working on data for his boyfriend's thesis, only to turn around and see his boyfriend, who claimed to be revising his thesis in the office, hanging on the shoulder of another man, intimately close at the main school gate, a sight that was extremely distressing.

At that moment, Xie Li felt a thud in his heart, as if a green light had descended from the sky, blinding him. Before his brain could react, his body had already rushed over, kicking his boyfriend, who was still clinging to the adulterer, with precision, hitting the vital spot.

The result of the strike was that he had to sit outside the emergency room of the hospital, on the same chair as the adulterer, listening to his boyfriend shouting and screaming inside the emergency room.

This scene was too absurd, Xie Li thought. If it followed the plot of a homoerotic romance novel, the doctor would come out next and ask who the father of the child was.

Thinking of this, he looked up warily, secretly observing the adulterer next to him. The more he looked, the more familiar the adulterer seemed.

The adulterer was frowning, sending messages on his phone. He was quite good-looking, Xie Li thought sourly. With deep eyebrows and eyes, a stern expression, and neatly combed hair. The buttons on his clothes were dazzlingly gold, and the collar of his shirt was embroidered with two flying letters in fine dark gray stitches.

Although Xie Li himself was penniless, his mentor was a petty bourgeois who had been soaked in capitalism for many years, with a corrupt and luxurious lifestyle. Xie Li had been around him for a long time and could tell at a glance that the suit next to the man was from a famous tailor street on the other side of the ocean.

His mentor had a suit of the same brand, as precious as a family heirloom, which was not easily shown at high-end international academic conferences.

Now, the brother of the family heirloom was casually draped on the chair in the emergency room.

Moreover, the adulterer had a good figure, with the outline of muscles vaguely visible under his shirt. He was tall and sitting next to Xie Li, like a mountain.

Xie Li had calmed down at this point and was somewhat puzzled by the situation. What he saw at the school gate definitely indicated that Song Yi and this man had an extraordinary relationship.

But Song Yi claimed to be a straight man, who would rather die than be submissive, so how could he now be involved with a muscular man?

He pondered in his heart, so is this muscular adulterer submissive?

The adulterer seemed to feel the gaze from the side, suddenly looked up, and just happened to meet Xie Li's line of sight in mid-air.

Under his deep eyebrows and eyes, that look was cold and fierce, exuding an indescribable momentum, as if a lion napping on the grassland suddenly opened its eyes and caught a gazelle peeking from the grass.

Xie Li hurriedly turned his head, not knowing why he felt guilty.

The adulterer gave an ambiguous smile and said, "I think you might have misunderstood something. Song Yi was drunk, and I was sending him back to school. What you saw was him being drunk and disorderly."

Xie Li snorted from his nose.

All the infidelity starts with "you misunderstood," thinking he doesn't watch TV dramas?

Moreover, he's not a fool. When he met Song Yi at the school gate, half of Song Yi's body was pressed against the other party, and he was obviously about to kiss.

The adulterer ignored Xie Li's attitude and continued, "Moreover, I don't care about Song Yi's emotional status and have no intention of getting involved in your young people's emotional relationships."

He emphasized the words "emotional relationships."

Xie Li felt that this set of rhetoric was clearly perfunctory and evasive, and coupled with this aloof and indifferent tone, it was even more infuriating.

Xie Li was about to explode, but when he looked up at the adulterer's face, something flashed quickly in his mind.

He hesitated for a moment, swallowed the words he was about to scold, and hesitantly said, "Are you, surnamed Tan, as in the word for 'talk'?"

The adulterer was obviously surprised, raised his eyebrows, and admitted generously, "I do indeed have the surname Tan."

Xie Li finally remembered where he had seen this face - it was in the photo on Song Yi's computer lock screen!

One person in the photo was Song Yi, who was now lying inside being examined in the emergency room.

And the other was sitting in front of him!

This person's facial features hadn't changed much, only the outline had matured a lot.

That photo was obviously taken many years ago. Song Yi in the photo was wearing a uniform that looked like a high school uniform.

What did Song Yi explain at the time, an admired senior for many years?

The adulterer picked up his suit jacket, adjusted his cuffs, and said, "I think Song Yi is not in serious trouble. The rest is your private matter, I won't disturb you."

His rhetoric was gentle and polite, but his tone did not have the slightest intention to discuss with Xie Li.

He walked away.

Xie Li hesitated to stand up, and for a moment, he didn't know whether he should stop the other party.

Seeing the man walk away, the emergency room door suddenly opened, but it was Song Yi who heard the conversation inside and rushed out. He didn't even look at Xie Li standing at the door, just chasing the man who was about to leave.

"Brother Tan Ke!"

The man's back paused, and he slowly turned in the corridor bathed in the golden sunset.

Song Yi had already run up.

Xie Li followed inexplicably.

As soon as he walked over, he heard Song Yi say urgently and urgently, "...I didn't want to hide it, I also planned to explain it to him in the next few days, so I didn't think it was necessary to tell others..."

Xie Li stood behind the two, with Song Yi's back to him, not yet aware that there was someone behind.

But the man opposite Song Yi looked up and looked straight at Xie Li, making eye contact.

So Xie Li clearly saw the undisguised annoyance and what seemed to be a sympathetic look from the other party, as if looking at the defeated one in the two fighting puppies.

There was a kind of condescension in that gaze that Xie Li was very familiar with.

That look was like a cup of water poured into hot oil, and Xie Li's self-esteem suddenly boiled up.

Being caught in person with his boyfriend clinging to someone else was not so embarrassing, nor was realizing that his boyfriend might have someone else in his heart.

What really embarrassed him was sympathy. The sympathy on the other party's face made Xie Li feel ashamed.

"Shut up."

Xie Li could no longer bear it and gritted his teeth: "Don't wait for these two days, just today."

Song Yi turned around in shock.

Xie Li took out a USB drive from his pocket and threw it at Song Yi's face.

The USB drive contained the data he had prepared for Song Yi. Before, he was afraid that the online backup data would be problematic, so he specifically copied a copy.

Song Yi couldn't dodge in time and was hit, and his handsome face immediately twisted. He didn't want to get angry in front of others, so he lowered his voice and threatened Xie Li: "I'll settle with you about today's matter later, don't push your luck..."

The round USB drive bounced off Song Yi's face and rolled back to Xie Li's feet.

"What don't you want?" Xie Li stepped on the USB drive that rolled to his feet and looked up at Song Yi. The plastic shell couldn't withstand the force and cracked.

"Don't you want the data I helped you with?" He gritted his teeth, stepping hard, as if he was stepping on Song Yi's face.

The plastic shell and electronic components were quickly crushed into a pile of debris,

"Since you were planning to break up early, this thing should go to the trash can earlier." Xie Li's tone was solemn. His eyes, which usually curved when he laughed, were now wide open, and his expression was even a bit terrifying.

But the corners of his eyes began to turn red.

After saying that, Xie Li left.

He brushed past the two people, and the sunset stretched his straight back shadow on the hospital corridor floor, forming a not very good-looking picture with the shocked two people and a pile of debris.

He was afraid that if he stayed one more second, he would cry in front of those two people.

He walked forward with his head down, and Song Yi shouted behind him, his voice blurred and distorted.

His eyes were blurred, and he groped through the crowd in front of the hospital, through the traffic on the road, not remembering whether he had bumped into anyone, nor how he got on the bus, or how he walked back to the dormitory.

Like a small celestial body that lost its orbit, it fell to the Kuiper Belt, only bumping around blindly.

When he woke up again, the whole room was dark, with faint dawn light seeping in through the cracks in the window.

Xie Li rubbed his eyes and felt around for his phone, his eyelids were sore and heavy.

He ran back to the dormitory in the evening, cried and stopped, stopped and cried, and finally fell asleep exhausted.

He found his phone, turned on the screen, squinted and saw more than a dozen missed calls, all from his senior.

Xie Li was still a bit confused, and he dialed back his senior, his voice soft and hoarse from just waking up: "Senior, why did you call me so many times?"

"Li ah!" The person on the other end of the phone exploded as soon as he picked up, like a machine gun, "Last night the boss also came to the observatory, looking for you but couldn't find you. I couldn't cover for you, you're on your own!"

Xie Li stared blankly and "um" a few times, then suddenly sat up in bed - yesterday was the observation day of their group!

He went out yesterday, originally to take the bus at the school gate and go to the Xiaosu Mountain Astronomical Observatory!

Xie Li thought of his mentor's smiling face, and couldn't help shivering.

Xie Li is studying for a doctorate at Lancheng University, majoring in astrophysics, and his mentor is the famous strict professor in this department.

It is said that he once had a senior sister who couldn't remember the exponential formula in the first year of her doctorate, and made two Fourier transformations wrong in a row, causing the whole group's data to be wrong. When Xie Li's mentor found out, he didn't say a word and directly arranged a basic math class for the senior sister in the undergraduate department, requiring her to follow the undergraduates to take the basic math class for three months.

The senior sister broke down on the spot, and her mental defense and personal dignity collapsed together.

In the end, the matter ended with the senior sister crying and changing mentors, and Xie Li's mentor successfully topped the blacklist of Lan Da doctoral supervisors.

The person on the phone was still chattering endlessly: "Li ah, it's not that I don't help you, I have a mouth and the boss knows the trajectory of my saliva, and I really don't know where you went, I can't lie, I have old and young at home, I really can't risk my life to accompany you..."

Xie Li sighed and touched his heart: "Senior, it's my fault for forgetting to go yesterday. I'll go and explain to the boss later."

Before hanging up the phone, his senior still couldn't help being nosy and asked Xie Li where he went last night.

Xie Li held the phone for a long time without making a sound, and finally said in a low voice: "Senior, don't ask."