My Favorite Ship Became My Sister-in-Law - Chapter 28

Panic, conflict, and helplessness will all fade away with tears.

“If you don’t want to go to my house, I won’t force you. I’ll stay with you at your place.”

Ji Chenchuan hung up the phone and turned around, only to see Shi Yue squatting on the floor and crying. His heart ached terribly. Ji Chenchuan carried Shi Yue over to his bed and let him sleep for a while, intending to cook some food at his own place and bring it over later.

Ji Chenchuan took Shi Yue’s house keys and went back to his home.

Shi Yue buried his head tightly under the blanket and had a thoroughly good cry. In the end, he realized that panic, conflict, and helplessness would all flow out of his body along with his tears; only his love would not.

Shi Yue kicked the blanket aside, retrieved some ice from the refrigerator, dumped it into the bathtub, and then submerged his body into the ice-cold water mixed with ice.

Love might not flow out of the body, but water that was cold enough would certainly calm it down.

Shi Yue stayed submerged in the ice water until he was shivering uncontrollably. Only then did he climb out of the bathtub, dry himself off, put on his pajamas, and drain the ice water from the tub.

How wonderful. This method was indeed effective. Shi Yue felt that he had truly calmed down quite a bit, and his rationality had returned. It was just that his head ached terribly and he felt freezing cold. Shi Yue had no choice but to wrap himself in a thick blanket and curl up on the sofa, shivering.

When Ji Chenchuan brought the food over, Shi Yue was shivering violently. Terrified, Ji Chenchuan hurriedly set the food down. While anxiously questioning him, he felt Shi Yue’s body; it was as cold as ice. In his panic, Ji Chenchuan wanted to rush Shi Yue to the hospital immediately.

“There’s no need to go to the hospital, Brother Chenchuan,” Shi Yue’s voice trembled with shivers. “I’m fine right now. I just took an ice bath, that’s all. Seriously, I’m doing great, so there is no need to see a doctor.”

Hearing that Shi Yue had taken an ice bath, Ji Chenchuan abruptly whipped the blanket aside and grabbed Shi Yue’s hand to check it. Seeing that it wasn’t swollen, he finally breathed a sigh of relief.

Shi Yue’s skin was exceptionally sensitive. Even in the summer, he could not touch water that was too cold, otherwise his fingers would swell. This had happened once at Ji Chenchuan’s house when they were kids, and Ji Chenchuan had always remembered it.

“Shi Yue, tell me, what on earth happened to you tonight?” Ji Chenchuan was not interrogating him; rather, he was pleading gently.

Shi Yue’s extremely abnormal, almost self-harming behavior filled Ji Chenchuan with panic.

“I’m really fine, it’s just that I felt hot,” Shi Yue concocted an excuse that seemed somewhat reasonable. “Yes, it was just too hot, so I took an ice bath, that’s all.”

Aside from his pale face and overly cold body, Ji Chenchuan honestly could not see anything unusual about Shi Yue’s outward appearance, though that was only because he knew Shi Yue so well.

“Whenever you feel like telling me, I will be more than willing to listen.” Seeing that Shi Yue remained completely secretive, Ji Chenchuan stopped pressing him.

Shi Yue, on his part, put on an act to show that he was truly fine. He clamored to Ji Chenchuan that he was starving and wanted to eat.

Chenchuan brought the food to the coffee table, and the two of them ate there.

In order to prevent Ji Chenchuan from noticing any clues, Shi Yue spent the meal praising Ji Chenchuan’s cooking skills, saying it was almost on par with Feng Liuyu’s, and telling lame jokes, asking Ji Chenchuan if they were funny.

In any case, Shi Yue simply refused to let his mouth stay idle, because the moment he fell silent, he would not know how to interact with Ji Chenchuan.

Shi Yue thought his disguise was flawless, completely unaware that he was overdoing it.

Ji Chenchuan did not expose him. However, his heart felt as though it was being continuously pricked by sharp needles, causing him immense pain. He could not fathom what kind of matter could possibly drive Shi Yue to this state.

“Even if Ji Chenchuan gets married in the future, we will still be neighbors, and I will still be able to see him. That will be enough,” Shi Yue thought to himself.

That night, they still did the same thing as the previous few nights, except the location had shifted from Ji Chenchuan’s house to Shi Yue’s.

Shi Yue sat at his desk working through exam papers while Ji Chenchuan sat beside him, keeping him company. It was around one o’clock again when they went to sleep, and they still slept in the same bed.

However, Shi Yue was absurdly well-behaved, even more so than when they had squeezed into the same hospital bed during Ji Chenchuan’s injury.

This was because Shi Yue spent the entire night in a state of fear and anxiety. He was terrified that some part of his body might accidentally touch Ji Chenchuan, and then, without permission, make an unauthorized, out-of-line move that would expose his feelings and disgust Ji Chenchuan. Naturally, he did not dare to move a single inch.

The next day, due to maintaining a single position the entire night, Shi Yue felt his hands and feet go completely numb. “How tragic,” Shi Yue pitied himself internally.

Ji Chenchuan made breakfast at his own place and brought it over for Shi Yue to eat.

While eating breakfast, Shi Yue took the opportunity to say that he wanted to ride his bicycle to his tutoring class by himself today, telling Ji Chenchuan that he did not need to drive him. In reality, his main goal was to start practicing keeping his distance from Ji Chenchuan.

“It’s raining today, so it’s not safe to ride a bike. Let me drive you instead.”

Ji Chenchuan looked out at the rain striking the windowpane. Ever since Shi Yue had slept without moving an inch until dawn last night, Ji Chenchuan had sensed that Shi Yue was distancing himself. However, he could not find the reason, so he pretended not to notice the estrangement.

Last night, Ji Chenchuan had taken the meat and taro out of a different shopping bag, so he had absolutely no idea that the other shopping bag hid the culprit that had driven Shi Yue nearly insane.

Shi Yue did not know that Ji Chenchuan had already seen through his attempts to distance himself. He kept pretending that he simply wanted to ride his bike to tutoring. Only when Ji Chenchuan insisted once more on driving him did Shi Yue give up his ridiculous pretense.

But when getting into the car, using the excuse of rushing to finish his homework, Shi Yue no longer sat in the passenger seat. Instead, he sat in the back row, pretending to work through his exam papers.

On the road, because the rain was too heavy, the car windows were all rolled up. This caused the interior of the car to be filled with Ji Chenchuan’s pleasant, faint scent of aftershave. This scent made Shi Yue’s heart race, beating so fast that his chest felt tight. He could not even keep up the act of doing his papers anymore. He had thought that last night’s ice bath had calmed him down, but it seemed it had not.

Fortunately, they arrived at the tutoring center. Before Ji Chenchuan could even bring the car to a steady halt, and without even waiting to grab an umbrella, Shi Yue dashed out of the car as if fleeing.

The rain was pouring heavily. Shi Yue put his hands over his head to shield himself from the rain. It was a walk of over ten meters from the roadside to the tutoring center; by the time he reached the classroom, his clothes would inevitably be soaked.

Ji Chenchuan turned on the hazard lights and immediately grabbed two umbrellas, getting out of the car to chase after Shi Yue. He held one open and carried the other. Suddenly, he heard someone ahead calling out to Shi Yue; that person had turned out from the alleyway ahead at some unknown point.

Seeing that Shi Yue had not heard, the person ran over quickly, held the umbrella over Shi Yue’s head, and wrapped an arm around Shi Yue’s shoulder.

“It’s raining so hard, why didn’t you bring an umbrella?” The person was none other than Tang Yao, who asked Shi Yue with concern.

“I was in too much of a hurry getting out of the car just now, so I forgot to grab it,” Shi Yue said, feeling a bit awkward.

The rain grew heavier and heavier. Shi Yue and Tang Yao quickened their pace, almost breaking into a jog.

Seeing Shi Yue walking away arm-in-arm with a classmate, Ji Chenchuan’s brow furrowed tightly; it was clear he felt quite uncomfortable inside.

Ji Chenchuan slowed his pace and walked behind Shi Yue, following him all the way up to the third-floor tutoring center. Standing by the back door, he watched Shi Yue walk over and take his seat. Ji Chenchuan originally intended to leave the umbrella on the very last desk and text Shi Yue about it. Just then, a short-haired girl happened to walk past him, preparing to enter the classroom.

“Excuse me.”

Ji Chenchuan called out to the girl, handing the unopened black umbrella to her, and asked her to please pass it to Shi Yue.

As luck would have it, this girl happened to be the one who was trying to pursue Shi Yue. She took the umbrella and looked at Ji Chenchuan, a flash of pleasant surprise in her eyes. In real life, it had been a long time since she had seen such a handsome guy. She was more than happy to help with this favor.

Ji Chenchuan thanked her politely, took one last look at Shi Yue’s back, and then turned to leave.

The girl watched Ji Chenchuan head down to the second floor until he turned the corner of the stairs and vanished from sight. Only then did she reluctantly withdraw her gaze. She entered the tutoring room through the back door, walked straight to Shi Yue’s desk, and placed the umbrella down with a moderate thud.

“Here, your umbrella.”

Shi Yue was currently using a tissue to wipe the rainwater from his head. He had absolutely no idea that Ji Chenchuan had followed him, and assuming the girl was trying to show unsolicited kindness again, he declined.

“I don’t need an umbrella, thank you!”

The girl burst out laughing. She was an optimistic and open-minded person; she was not the type to harbor a grudge just because she could not successfully pursue someone. If she behaved a bit better, perhaps there would still be a chance to move up in rank. Smiling, she said, “Don’t be so quick to refuse. I didn’t give it to you anyway. A really handsome guy asked me to hand it to you.”

A really handsome guy, could it be Brother Chenchuan?

Shi Yue instantly stopped what he was doing and pressed the girl, asking if the handsome guy she mentioned was wearing a black shirt.

The girl replied, “Yes.”

Shi Yue immediately bolted out of the classroom. He had thought that as long as he ran fast enough, Ji Chenchuan would not worry about him getting drenched and would not chase after him to deliver an umbrella.

“He left ages ago, what are you running for?”

Shi Yue heard the girl’s voice coming from behind him, but he did not answer. He ran straight to the very end of the hallway. From the end of the hallway, the road was visible. Standing there, Shi Yue saw Ji Chenchuan just pulling open the car door, preparing to get in.

“Brother Chenchuan!” Shi Yue shouted at the top of his lungs.

Hearing the sound, Ji Chenchuan abruptly tilted his umbrella aside and saw Shi Yue standing at the end of the hallway. He offered a gentle smile.

At this very moment, Shi Yue wanted nothing more than to rush down to Ji Chenchuan, tightly wrap his arms around Ji Chenchuan’s waist, and bury his head in Ji Chenchuan’s chest, holding him exactly the way he had during that embrace the other night.

It was too difficult.

Shi Yue could not do it. He truly could not do it. No matter what, he simply could not bring himself to do it. His flesh, his bones, his breathing, and his heartbeat were all warring against him.

He had only held out for a single night and the beginning of this morning before breaking down. He simply could not force himself to maintain a distance from Ji Chenchuan. He could not control himself. He did not possess an adult’s rationality toward love; he was merely a teenager experiencing the first awakenings of love. Shi Yue wanted to be brave for once, regardless of the consequences, and tell Ji Chenchuan that he liked him.

Shi Yue rushed down the stairs impetuously and ran toward Ji Chenchuan.

Seeing Shi Yue running over through the rain, Ji Chenchuan had no idea what kind of reckless stunt Shi Yue was pulling this time. He could only step forward to meet him.