My Favorite Ship Became My Sister-in-Law - Chapter 27

“No.”

“Then who was it?”

Ji Chenchuan laughed softly and said, “No one, I was just teasing you.”

“So that means you have only ever carried me on your back, right?” Shi Yue pressed further.

“Yeah,” Ji Chenchuan replied.

Hearing that Ji Chenchuan had never carried anyone else on his back and had only carried him, Shi Yue finally smiled with satisfaction. He let out a bit of a childish tantrum and said, “Then why did you lie to me just now? Bad brother, do you believe me if I say I will bite you?”

“You actually know how to bite people?” Ji Chenchuan clearly did not believe him.

“If you do not believe me, I will bite you to show you.”

As he spoke, Shi Yue took Ji Chenchuan’s earlobe into his mouth and bit it gently, copying the exact way that couple had done it just moments ago. In that instant, both of them were stunned by this highly ambiguous, gentle bite. One stood frozen in his tracks, while the other on his back was thrown into utter panic, not knowing what to do.

It took about half a minute for Ji Chenchuan to snap out of it. Like a seasoned romantic veteran, he dissolved Shi Yue’s panic with a single sentence. He said, “Are you a puppy or something? You really bit me!”

If the streetlights had been a bit brighter, Shi Yue would have noticed that the tips of Ji Chenchuan’s ears were completely red right now. He was by no means as calm and collected as his words made him seem.

“Who told you not to believe me?” Now that his panic had been effectively smoothed over, Shi Yue immediately took advantage of the situation and blamed Ji Chenchuan instead.

“Yes, it is my fault,” Ji Chenchuan replied with a smile.

Shi Yue smiled on his back, too.

The surface-level panic had been resolved, but a deafening alarm bell rang in Shi Yue’s heart. He knew that regardless of who it was, boy or girl, he would never have done such a thing to anyone else. He knew better than anyone that the reason he had just bitten Ji Chenchuan’s ear was that he was subconsciously mimicking that girl.

Shi Yue despised himself in his heart, feeling that he was shameless. Ji Chenchuan treated him as a younger brother, yet he was fantasizing about him as a romantic partner.

Even at this stage, Shi Yue still did not realize that this kind of fantasy was no longer just a simple illusion triggered by a momentary impulse, but rather that he liked Ji Chenchuan.

Shi Yue could not tolerate his own shamelessness for even a second. Despite deeply craving the warmth of Ji Chenchuan’s back, he still forced himself to say words that went against his heart: “I want to walk by myself.”

Since Shi Yue wanted to walk on his own, Ji Chenchuan put him down. Carrying the two large bags of potato chips, he walked beside Shi Yue.

The two chatted casually, walking back to their neighborhood at an unhurried pace.

Seeing how Ji Chenchuan did not seem to care about what had happened at all, Shi Yue felt both happy and disappointed. He thought that tonight’s panic, embarrassment, and helplessness should all be a thing of the past, believing it was just a temporary moment of hot-headedness.

But Shi Yue never expected that if just now was merely being hot-headed, then what happened next would make him believe he had been diagnosed with a terminal illness.

After arriving at Ji Chenchuan’s house, Ji Chenchuan went to the kitchen to wash the rice and cook, while Shi Yue was responsible for taking the taro, meat, and scallions out of the shopping bags so they could prepare the dishes.

Who would have thought that before he could even find the taro and meat in that shopping bag, he would first pull out three boxes of condoms. Staring at them, Shi Yue’s brain let out a loud buzzing sound. It was just like when he first heard that something had happened to Ji Chenchuan, his sky had collapsed.

Shi Yue cast a gaze filled with an unprecedented complexity toward Ji Chenchuan’s back as he washed rice in the kitchen. Inside that gaze was despair.

Did Ji Chenchuan get a girlfriend? Otherwise, why would he buy so many condoms?

It was also at this very instant that Shi Yue finally realized the intense, rampaging emotion inside his body; he liked Ji Chenchuan.

Shi Yue was terrified out of his wits by this conclusion.

What terrified the youth out of his wits was not his first heartbeat of love, but rather the object of that heartbeat.

But he was a boy. How could he fall for Brother Chenchuan, whom he had looked up to since childhood? How could he fall for the older brother next door who had accompanied him, nurtured him, and protected him since they were young?

As if facing the ultimate unknown, Shi Yue felt dread. He could not, he must not, and he should not fall for Ji Chenchuan. Society’s acceptance of homosexuality was still far too low. Aside from causing trouble for Ji Chenchuan, his affection would not bring any benefits whatsoever.

Amidst his anxiety, Shi Yue foresaw the dark future that would be triggered once this feeling of his was revealed.

But who could teach him what he was supposed to do?

Shi Yue had never felt so lost, confused, and helpless before. Perhaps burying this love forever in the deepest part of his heart and never letting it see the light of day was the best way to handle it. However, this method of handling things meant that from now on, he had to keep his distance from Ji Chenchuan.

No one knew how much inner struggle Shi Yue went through or how much willpower it took for him to make this decision.

“Brother Chenchuan, I suddenly do not want to eat anymore. I just remembered that I have a lot of homework that I have not written yet. I am going back.”

Shi Yue rattled off these words at his fastest speaking speed. He could hear it himself; his voice was trembling as he said these things. But he had already controlled himself as much as possible. Shi Yue did not know if Ji Chenchuan had noticed it or not. Without waiting for Ji Chenchuan to answer him, he had already rushed out of Ji Chenchuan’s house and returned to his own home.

He did not dare face Ji Chenchuan again. He was afraid that he would suddenly lose control, expose his true feelings, and demand to know who Ji Chenchuan’s girlfriend was.

Could it be Ding Nana?

Ji Zhiruo had said that she and Ji Chenchuan were a perfect match, and that Ji Chenchuan liked the cute type, which she happened to be.

During the ten-step distance from Ji Chenchuan’s house to his own, Shi Yue had already thought about this question no less than a hundred times in his head. Yet, just as he closed the door, he heard his doorbell ring.

Shi Yue looked through the peephole; it was Ji Chenchuan.

It was precisely because he did not dare to face Ji Chenchuan that he had fled back home, but Shi Yue knew clearly that if he did not open the door for Ji Chenchuan tonight to explain the reason for his sudden departure, Ji Chenchuan would definitely worry.

Shi Yue took three deep breaths in a row. Finally, when the doorbell rang for the fourth time and Ji Chenchuan had anxiously called his name over a dozen times outside the door, Shi Yue managed to disguise his nearly collapsing emotions to look like nothing was wrong.

However, before opening the door, Shi Yue turned off the light at the entryway to dim the illumination. This way, even if he failed to hide his emotions, he would not be discovered too quickly.

“Brother Chenchuan, I went to the restroom just now. What is wrong?”

Shi Yue made his voice sound as normal as possible. He stood inside the door while Ji Chenchuan stood outside, and the two of them conversed like this. This was the first time Shi Yue had no intention of letting Ji Chenchuan into his house.

The relationship between the two of them seemed to grow distant in an instant.

“Why did you suddenly want to go home?”

Ji Chenchuan had caught the trembling in Shi Yue’s voice. He did not know what had happened, which was why he had rushed over so anxiously. But looking closely, Shi Yue did not seem like anything was wrong.

“To write homework!” Shi Yue forced himself to say.

“Really?”

“Really. There is too much. You have no idea how brutal the teachers at the cram school are. Seven or eight exam papers, I do not even know until what time I will have to grind through them.”

“Shi Yue.” Ji Chenchuan did not let Shi Yue finish before interrupting him. “Do you know that whenever you lie, you over-explain a lot?”

Shi Yue lowered his eyes. He did not know what words to use to defend himself; Ji Chenchuan knew him too well.

“Tell me, what on earth happened?” Ji Chenchuan pressed gently.

Shi Yue chose silence. He was afraid that the moment he opened his mouth, he would give himself away.

To make Shi Yue resort to silence, it seemed it was no small matter. Shi Yue had been perfectly fine these past few days, so for him to suddenly become like this just now, Ji Chenchuan could only look for the reason within himself. “Did I do something wrong?”

Facing Ji Chenchuan’s gentle and cautious tone, Shi Yue had absolutely no defense. He could only use a deeper silence to conceal the panic and struggle in his heart.

“If you do not want to say it, then do not say it. Let us go.” Ji Chenchuan reached out and grabbed Shi Yue’s wrist. “Come with me to my house. With you looking like this, I do not feel safe leaving you alone at your place.”

After recognizing his own feelings, even a slight touch like this from Ji Chenchuan caused Shi Yue immense panic. As a result, his rationality lost the battle. He roughly shook off Ji Chenchuan’s hand and said resolutely:

“I am not going to your house. I want to stay at my house.”

Ji Chenchuan shuddered violently.

Shi Yue actually shook him off. It seemed whatever had happened was truly a massive deal to Shi Yue.

“If you do not want to walk, then I will carry you over. In any case, I am not letting you stay alone at your house tonight. I do not know what happened, but you are highly abnormal tonight.” As Ji Chenchuan spoke, he prepared to carry Shi Yue to his house in a bridal style. He was still haunted by the memory of Shi Yue fainting in the bathroom.

“Don’t force me anymore, Brother Chenchuan, I really,” Shi Yue pleaded, nearly crying out his true feelings.

Right at this moment, Ji Chenchuan’s phone rang. Pulling out his phone to check, the caller ID showed “Mom.” It was Feng Liuyu calling. “I will take a call first.”

“Hello, Mom.” Ji Chenchuan turned his back to take the call.

On the other end of the line came Feng Liuyu’s gentle voice: “Chenchuan, Mom heard from your aunt that you are at home. You did not go to Zhejiang?”

“Right, I have not gone yet, Mom.”

“Yueyue did not go to Zhejiang for cram school either?”

“Yeah, something unexpected happened with the cram school teacher, so it was postponed.” Ji Chenchuan answered his mother honestly. Needless to say, he knew it must have been Zhang Ping saying something to his aunt again, and his aunt had called his mother.

“I see!” Feng Liuyu asked caringly, “Then are Yueyue’s parents on a business trip again?”

“They went to Guangdong.”

“Oh. Then right now only you and Yueyue are left at home. Without Mom having to say it, as the older brother, you need to take more care of him. Don’t worry about what your uncle-in-law says, he has always been that way,” Feng Liuyu said.

Over the phone, Ji Chenchuan also heard Ji Shengqiang’s voice. His meaning was the same as Feng Liuyu’s, telling him to just do whatever he needed to do and ignore Zhang Ping. If Zhang Ping dared to push his luck, he would deal with him himself once he got back.

Although it was not necessary and Zhang Ping would not dare to act presumptuously in front of him, this trust and love from his parents made Ji Chenchuan feel very grateful and warm inside.

The mother and son chatted for a short while before hanging up the phone.

During the time Ji Chenchuan was taking the call, Shi Yue engaged in another fierce internal battle with himself. On one hand, he encouraged himself to be brave, telling himself that love needs to be spoken out loud. On the other hand, he beat himself down, making himself depressed by telling himself that once it was spoken, they would not even be able to remain neighbors.

Shi Yue felt that if he kept up this mental battle, he would definitely torture himself to the point of going insane. Consequently, at the very end, he adopted the most childish yet effective way of venting to end this self-harming internal conflict; he squatted on the ground and cried helplessly.

Shi Yue wanted to wash away this mistaken emotion, which had nowhere to go, just like his tears.