Second Male Lead to One, Male Lead to Another (Part 2)

290 A Break-Up in the Making?

Standing in his kitchen, Li Ming stared at the last message he had gotten, feeling bewildered.

Rui Lan: [Xiao Ming, my brother, you have to help me! If there's a moment with just the two of us, let's have a chat!]

Looking at this ... it seemed there was some kind of problem between Rui Lan and his girlfriend? Actually, imagining that, he felt a headache.

Rui Lan and Cang Gui Ying had actually been together before they both started working at the railroad station. That was to say, when it had only been Rui Lan who worked with them, he had constantly been bragging about his girlfriend. Then, a few months later, she also joined them, and slowly but surely, things started to get odd between them. It was as if, after spending all their free time together, and now also regularly seeing each other at work, these two were getting on each other's nerves. In the end, they had a huge blow-out fight and broke up.

At that time, there had also been talk about whether they should stay at the railroad station or not. Rui Lan insisted that he had been there first so nobody could ask him to leave, Cang Gui Ying was angry and felt that as a man, he should take 'fucking responsibility'. To say that it had been a mess back then was really an understatement.

Li Ming had been closer to Rui Lan but got along reasonably well with both of them. He had tried to mediate between the two of them, but there really wasn't much you could do if both people were still angry about how the relationship had ended. They neither wanted to see the other person nor did they want to budge.

It had taken a lot of work to get them to be somewhat civil around each other again and also needed some help from Mister Mo scheduling them so that they wouldn't see each other as often. Still, in the beginning, there had been more than one occasion where they would coincidently run into each other in the break room or when they were changing shifts and had started to quarrel again.

After that time, when they had slowly calmed down and even briefly dated other people, everyone had been happy that that episode was over. It was one of the reasons why everyone was careful about starting a relationship with somebody else at the railroad station.

Well, he was the only idiot who hadn't taken that into consideration when starting to date Mo Fang, and look where it had gotten him! Well, he wasn't unhappy about having left so not taking that into consideration back then had actually been to his advantage.

But thinking that these two were back together now and might be at a point where a breakup was in the near future once again, he couldn't help but worry. Even though he was Rui Lan's friend and wanted to help him, he feared that it wouldn't be very successful this time either. So he really hoped that he was wrong about what was going on.

Thinking for a bit, he felt that he at least owed him a response to his message first. Everything else could be cleared up later.

Li Ming: [Let's see what we can do. If there's no time today, maybe we can have a talk another day. Anyway, I'm there for you no matter what is going on.]

He hesitated before he typed the last part, but finally still send it over like that. Yes, no matter what it was, talking it through with Rui Lan was the least he could do. If he couldn't help further than that ... well, he'd see about that when the time came.

Rui Lan and Cang Gui Ying didn't need long to come over. Ringing the doorbell and stepping into the apartment, they were immediately greeted by a tantalizing smell from the kitchen.

Cang Gui Ying sniffed and couldn't help but smile. "I saw Mo Fang bringing in the meals you made him every day and he was always going on about how good they were. So really, thanks for inviting us. I feel like us helping you that one time can't measure up to that. Ah Lan and I definitely made a profit here!"

Li Ming laughed and motioned over to the couch. "Have a seat. Or do you want to eat in the kitchen?"

Rui Lan eyed the carpet beneath the table and straightforwardly walked to the kitchen. "Let's eat in the kitchen!"

Cang Gui Ying had actually wanted to go to the couch but since her boyfriend couldn't be bothered about that, she followed him over. "Yes, why not? Eating in the kitchen is good as well." Anyway, as long as the food was good, did it matter where they were eating?

Also, the kitchen had the advantage that they would be close to where Li Ming was cooking. Considering that they had come over pretty much right after receiving his messages, she didn't think that he had managed to prepare everything yet. It would be best to give him some more time to finish things up while they sat down.

Li Ming was actually pretty much done at this point, having chosen a couple of dishes that he was very familiar with and that also wouldn't take too much time to prepare. He set the first few bowls and plates down in front of them, giving a smile. "There are two or three more that I'm making so you can start with that first but there'll be a bit more."

Cang Gui Ying's brows shot up while her boyfriend already reached out, starting to heap some food into his bowl and plate. "Well, don't mind if we do!" Anyway, he'd never say no to good food.