Finally Being Snatched Away at My Wedding by My Ex-Boyfriend - Chapter 16

Chapter 16: Sleeping Together Tonight

Su Yuan opened his eyes to look, and after confirming it was him, closed them again, allowing Pei Xing to hold his arm firmly.

Five minutes suddenly felt long.

Pei Xing thought about what Su Yuan had said that a cold was a very troublesome thing for him. Su Yuan had come here for three consecutive years and went to see the Crested Ibises almost every morning; what else could be so “troublesome”?

A second before the piercing timer was set to go off, he manually silenced it and took the thermometer from Su Yuan’s side: 37.5°C.

Not too bad.

Pei Xing breathed a sigh of relief.

“Su Yuan, you have a slight fever.” Pei Xing laid him back onto the bed. “You probably can’t take medicine haphazardly. Tell me, what should I do?”

Su Yuan’s spirits seemed okay. He rolled over, turning his back to him. “I don’t need you to take care of me.”

Unpredictable, occasionally throwing a little tantrum.

Pei Xing should have listened to him and tactfully left, but he didn’t.

Pei Xing stared at the back of the head Su Yuan had left him. “If I did something to make you unhappy, you can ignore me after you get well. If you refuse to speak, then I’ll go find your medicine myself.”

After saying this, he made a move to stand up.

As expected, Su Yuan turned back. “There is Traditional Chinese Medicine in the refrigerator.”

Pei Xing smiled, peeled open a cooling patch he had brought, stuck it on Su Yuan’s forehead, and turned to walk into the kitchen.

The black, murky TCM bottles filled the entire refrigerator compartment; he was stunned for a moment.

Each bottle had a label. Pei Xing found the one marked “Wind-Cold Flu,” thawed and heated it, and carried it into the room. On the tray, there was also sliced passion fruit and warm water.

“Water will dilute the medicine, but you can eat the fruit…”

Su Yuan picked up the bowl, tilted his head, and drained it in one go before lying back down. He drank it decisively, not even giving Pei Xing a chance to finish his sentence.

The sunset faded, and Su Yuan’s face was pale and calm, devoid of any luster.

Pei Xing looked down at the dark brown dregs at the bottom of the bowl. “Isn’t it bitter?”

“I’m used to it.”

Su Yuan didn’t look at him, his fingers gripping the pillow. “They don’t let me eat fruit or drink water after taking medicine. Even if the doctors say it’s fine, they still worry it will affect the efficacy.”

“How many years have you been drinking it?”

“I don’t remember.”

Pei Xing continued staring at the dregs in the bowl; it felt like a giant stone weighing him down. The passion fruit on the tray seemed a bit unreasonable now—he couldn’t guarantee that Su Yuan would get to eat it every time he took medicine.

However,

What if he could?

A spoon filled with passion fruit suddenly appeared before Su Yuan’s eyes. He froze for a moment, then looked at Pei Xing.

“Passion fruit isn’t hard to buy,” Pei Xing said. “When I go to Huaicheng, I’ll bring you some every day.”

Pei Xing’s voice wasn’t loud, but it was firm. There was no urging in his eyes, just a quiet wait for Su Yuan to make a decision while holding the spoon.

Su Yuan opened his mouth. The slippery, sweet-and-sour pulp occupied his entire mouth, washing away the bitterness of the medicine.

“Pei Xing, sometimes you are so annoying.”

Clearly [I was] ignoring you, yet you’d send so many messages and make so many calls; clearly [I was] ignoring you, yet you still stayed.

Clearly a block of wood.

…

Worried that Su Yuan’s condition might worsen, Pei Xing did not leave after he fell asleep, instead resting on the living room sofa. Every hour, he went into the bedroom to check Su Yuan’s temperature. When he was a child and his father couldn’t come home from the night shift, he would take over his father’s job listening to his mother’s heartbeat and feeling her pulse at night.

In his brief sleep, Pei Xing saw Su Yuan again.

The way Su Yuan looked at him in the dream, contrasted with Su Yuan’s weakness and avoidance in reality, made Pei Xing feel as if he were sleeping on a small boat on a lake—swaying and surreal.

Su Yuan woke up very early. Pei Xing didn’t let him get out of bed, placing a small bed-table over him and watching him finish breakfast.

Su Yuan watched as Pei Xing finished clearing the dishes and immediately began cleaning, not even sparing the glass balcony doors. He couldn’t help but speak up: “Landlord, are you trying to earn cleaning fees from me too?”

“Mm. If you’re going to give me money, include the fees for a caregiver as well.”

“…”

Su Yuan lay back down, unable to stop himself from laughing.

After lunch, Su Yuan really couldn’t stay lying down anymore. He secretly took his medicine and called for Pei Xing, who was in the living room researching how to use a steam mop.

“I want to watch TV.”

There was only a TV in the living room; Su Yuan’s request was reasonable.

Pei Xing thought for a moment, walked straight to the bedside, and picked Su Yuan up. He was very light, like holding a bundle of cotton with a frame.

Su Yuan was completely stunned. “What are you doing carrying me?”

Pei Xing was also stunned. “Didn’t you call me so that I could carry you out?”

The two looked at each other, both realizing their own abnormality. Su Yuan didn’t need Pei Xing’s permission [to move], and Pei Xing shouldn’t have made such an intimate gesture.

They tacitly moved their gazes away. Su Yuan sat obediently on the sofa while Pei Xing went back to studying the mop.

Su Yuan listlessly flipped through TV channels. He saw Su Zhen appear on the screen, paused for a few seconds, and then quickly changed the channel when Pei Xing approached with fruit. Su Yuan’s family, like his heart disease, was a bargaining chip that would make people “pity” him; he didn’t want Pei Xing to know.

Pei Xing placed the fruit plate on the coffee table. “Bored?”

Su Yuan scratched his back shoulder. “It’s okay.”

His movement was keenly captured by Pei Xing. Pei Xing sat down beside him. “You were scratching last night too. An allergy?”

Su Yuan shook his head and said he didn’t know. Without thinking, he unbuttoned his pajamas and let them slide halfway down. “Help me take a look.”

The person beside him instinctively looked away, remaining motionless for a moment.

Su Yuan huffed. “You were so proficient when you were carrying me, but now you don’t dare take a look? Who was it that unbuttoned my clothes yesterday?”

“…”

Pei Xing let out a long breath. “Su Yuan, you’re also quite annoying sometimes.”

His gaze fell on Su Yuan’s thin shoulders. The originally fair and smooth skin was suddenly marred by a large, extremely prominent red patch. Pei Xing’s brow furrowed. “Sunburn peeling.”

Su Yuan didn’t seem very surprised. He had guessed as much from the moment Pei Xing put him under the sun to dry.

“In the third drawer of the cabinet next to the Golden Fragrant Willow, there’s sunburn medicine. Help me apply it.”

After speaking, he noticed there was no movement behind him. Turning back, he saw Pei Xing with downcast eyes, his thin lips pressed tight. Su Yuan smiled. “It’s fine, it’ll get better soon. Besides, I had a lot of fun.”

After a while, he finally heard Pei Xing give a low “Mm,” followed by the sound of a drawer opening and closing.

Pei Xing held the spray, ointment, and dressing, reading the instructions seriously word by word. Su Yuan watched him, feeling he was as focused as if he were solving a major high school math problem.

After washing his hands, Pei Xing sat back down and took out the spray.

The cool mist sprayed onto the skin. Su Yuan moved his shoulder; the sensation of water droplets rolling down his back was too itchy, and then there were the fingertips snagging his half-shed pajamas touching the skin made it even itchier.

Su Yuan squirmed twice and simply took the clothes off entirely, tossing them aside.

The rinsing spray behind him suddenly stopped.

Su Yuan turned his head slightly. “What is it?”

“…Nothing,” Pei Xing said.

Su Yuan got tired of sitting, so he turned around, grabbed a throw pillow, placed it on Pei Xing’s tensed thigh, and lay down on it. He stretched out his arms and looked sideways at Pei Xing. “This is okay, right?”

Pei Xing avoided his gaze.

The stream of mist followed the hollow of the spine, bit by bit gathering into the deep small of his back, shimmering.

“Too much water is flowing,” Su Yuan said, his voice soft as he buried his face in the pillow. “Wipe it.”

Pei Xing’s voice seemed swallowed. He numbly picked up a tissue and wiped away that small pool of water.

Su Yuan’s body was fair and lean. Inexplicably, it reminded him of a harp he had never seen in person—elegant and soft.

He suddenly really wanted to know if it would also emit a lingering sound when touched. Perhaps the body would shrink back, or let out a soft groan; he would only know by touching.

“Much more comfortable.”

A coquettish sigh pulled Pei Xing’s thoughts back.

Pei Xing picked up Vitamin B5, a soft, creamy white paste. If he used a little force, he could rub them right into Su Yuan’s body. Just as the cotton swab dipped in the paste touched him, Su Yuan spoke again.

“Uncomfortable. Use your fingers.”

Su Yuan’s voice was lighter than the wind tangling the leaves outside the window, pulling Pei Xing’s fingers down onto the slightly cool skin. The body trembled slightly, and the shoulders hunched together, confirming one of his theories.

Pei Xing suppressed his heartbeat and the uneasy reaction beneath the pillow with a tone as calm as possible. “Like this?”

Su Yuan laughed and nodded. “Apply more. It’ll be uncomfortable if it’s too dry.”

Pei Xing began to repeatedly calculate university physics problems in his mind to dissipate the heat transmitted through his fingertips and to ignore Su Yuan’s unblinking eyes watching him.

The problems yielded no solution, but the body’s reaction became more intense.

His Adam’s apple rolled a few times. “Why are you looking at me?”

Su Yuan blinked slowly and laughed. “I’m not telling you.”

…

Pei Xing felt as if he were in another dream.

After lunch, Su Yuan fell asleep again.

Pei Xing returned to his room and moved from calculus to linear algebra. He forced himself not to think of anything else, but the little Crested Ibis sitting on the windowsill could always easily distract him, yet he couldn’t bear to lock it in a drawer.

He put down his pen and buried his face in his arms.

Su Yuan was elusive, like a wind that casually stirs everything and then leaves gracefully, leaving no trace. Su Yuan’s hints and proximity, and the coming autumn, gave him the hope that he could chase the wind, yet he still didn’t know which way it would blow.

From a rational standpoint, he had a thousand reasons to keep his distance from Su Yuan. But he had already experienced Su Yuan’s disappearance once; he didn’t want a second time.

He straightened up and faced the window. The summer night was quiet, the insect chirping weak; the night had entranced his heart.

Pei Xing walked into Su Yuan’s room.

To approach Su Yuan was destined to come at the cost of all his rationality.

Su Yuan’s voice came from the bedroom, gently knocking on his heart. “Pei Xing, I’m a bit scared. Can you come in and stay with me?”

Su Yuan sat on the bed hugging his knees. The moonlight fell perfectly on his face, his eyes deep and clear, staring aggrievedly at the man who had run into the bedroom. “When I woke up, it was already dark.”

Pei Xing squatted by the bed. “Why didn’t you call me? What if I hadn’t come?”

Su Yuan was silent for a short while. “If you hadn’t come, I wouldn’t have waited for you anymore.”

He looked at Su Yuan, feeling in this moment that Su Yuan was like a cat needing affirmation, certainty, and a love without hesitation before he would pull back his claws.

Pei Xing said nothing. He piled the pillows high, helped Su Yuan lie down, and quickly set up a floor bed by the bedside. That reclining chair was just right for Su Yuan, but it was too narrow for him; almost half his calves were hanging off.

“The temperature is normal now.” Pei Xing put away the thermometer. “Sleep.”

Su Yuan liked to lie flat with the head of the bed raised so he wouldn’t feel short of breath at night; lying on his right side was also a good choice to reduce pressure on the heart and to see Pei Xing’s currently side-lying back.

He was conflicted: he both hoped Pei Xing wouldn’t find taking care of him tiring, and also didn’t want Pei Xing to not find it tiring.

Pei Xing was like a burning candle. Su Yuan wanted to be near Pei Xing who emitted a warm light, yet worried Pei Xing would melt into a pool of hot wax because of him.

He already had so much in life; he shouldn’t take more from Pei Xing.

…

Pei Xing did not sleep.

He kept replaying in his mind the two times Su Yuan had “pushed him away,” hoping to find a reason. Yes” pushed him away” without any omen.

If last time it was because he hadn’t honestly answered about that little Crested Ibis, then what about this time?

Everything was fine. Su Yuan’s appearance in the water was free and beautiful, looking at him with pure and direct eyes like a beautiful vortex pulling him down. Even when Pei Wen suddenly burst in, Su Yuan wasn’t angry; the way he sat in the sun waiting for his hair to be dried was very well-behaved.

Suddenly, Pei Xing thought of something.

Su Yuan rested his head on his hands, looking at Pei Xing who had turned over to meet his gaze. Inexplicably, he just knew what Pei Xing wanted to ask, and even intended to speak first.

Pei Xing beat him to it. “Su Yuan, yesterday by the water, what did you want to ask me?”

Su Yuan stared at the fluffy stray hairs on Pei Xing’s forehead. He was quiet for a few seconds. “Pei Xing, taking care of a sick person is very tiring, isn’t it?”

Pei Xing was stunned.

“Taking care of your sick mother when you were little, and having to take care of me in the future it will be very tiring.” Su Yuan didn’t realize he was already imagining the future, let alone that he had said it out loud.

“No.”

Pei Xing didn’t hesitate for a moment. “Taking care of the person you love doesn’t feel tiring.”

Pei Xing felt he was a very traditional man, just as his father had taught by example.

Loath to let his mother move far away, his father had come to Fuxian himself, ignoring the ridicule of being a “live-in son-in-law.” After his mother gave birth to him and was diagnosed with heart disease, his father immediately let his mother rest at home and started working harder to earn money, support the family, send him to school, and save for his mother’s surgery.

His father worked up to four jobs a day, so tired he could barely keep his eyes open, but he’d come home all smiles, with candy in his pocket for him and medicine bought for his mother.

“Ah-Xing, your mother is right about everything, except when she says she’s dragging us down, that’s where she’s wrong. Remember what Papa told you? We men are born to”

Six-year-old Pei Xing stood before the burning stove, raising a spatula, his little face solemn: “Earn money to support the family, take care of my wife.”

That was the last time Pei Xing saw his father.

Pulling himself back from his thoughts, Pei Xing said it again: “It won’t be tiring. Don’t let your thoughts wander.”

Su Yuan remained in that position, quietly watching him and blinking slowly. “Wandering to what?”

He realized Su Yuan was starting to subconsciously want an answer that was affirmative, certain, and without hesitation.

So, he raised his arm across his eyes and lowered his voice. “Taking care of you is not a hard thing. I don’t find it tiring. Seeing you get better makes me very happy.”

“But…”

“Mm, you were premature and your health is not good; you might get sick a lot, and a cold is a troublesome thing for you I know.” Pei Xing paused. “But it’s not like there are only tiring parts.”

Just like today, just like right now I can be by your side.

Pei Xing waited a moment, and hearing no answer from Su Yuan, he lowered his arm. “Did I make myself clear?”

Su Yuan nodded seriously.

Pei Xing gave an “Mm” and told him to rest early, but he didn’t expect Su Yuan to speak suddenly.

“Pei Xing, you gave me an answer I like very much, so you can ask me a question too.”

Almost without hesitation, Pei Xing blurted out:

“From August 16th to August 21st, why didn’t you reply to my messages?”