Early the next morning, as soon as Xu Chi opened his eyes, he ran straight into a pair of blue-gray pupils.
It scared him so badly he almost died on the spot.
Only after he remembered what had happened yesterday did he manage to steady his heartbeat and sit up, bracing himself on the armrest.
“You… what are you doing crouching there?”
When You Chumu saw that he was awake, his mood seemed especially good, and he curved his lips into a bottomless smile.
“Brother, you lied to me.”
“…What? Lied to you about what?” Xu Chi swallowed hard.
You Chumu leaned in a little closer, his voice low and soft. “Brother, when you sleep, you don’t snore, and you don’t talk in your sleep either. You don’t sleepwalk.”
Xu Chi was forced to back up a little, his heart pounding.
What the hell!
How could You Chumu know what he was like in his sleep? A possibility flashed through his mind, and his scalp instantly went numb. Even his voice trembled.
“How do you know how I sleep… Don’t tell me you crouched here and watched me all night?”
Impossible, impossible. You Chumu couldn’t be that perverted, crouching here and watching him all night. Impossible, impossible!
“Yes.”
You Chumu flashed a bright smile.
Holy shit!!!
Xu Chi’s scream almost burst out of his throat, and he wished he could run away immediately.
But he didn’t dare. Damn it, he didn’t dare.
Cold sweat poured down his back in the early morning. He had been watched all night by one person.
Thinking of the pair of eyes he had met when he woke up, he was so scared he almost wanted to dig his own eyes out.
He had to get him away, and fast!
“You… you didn’t sleep? What were you doing, watching me all night?” He forced up a smile that looked natural but was stiff enough to twist.
“Because I wanted to know whether what brother said was true… and then I found out brother lied to me.” He blinked and tilted his head with a smile. “Brother, why did you lie to me?”
You Chumu’s gray-blue eyes, framed by dark lashes, stared straight at him, as if forcing him to tell the truth, or like a knife that would stab in the next second.
Xu Chi was so scared he laughed twice in a panic, then put on a casual look as he lifted the blanket and got off the sofa, his long legs touching the floor. “What? Maybe I just didn’t talk in my sleep last night. I used to have that habit, but I don’t do it every night, haha.”
As he spoke, Xu Chi walked toward the bathroom, calm on the surface but terrified inside. He only wanted to get away from this boy who looked innocent but was vicious to the core.
And the boy, seeing him go into the bathroom, followed him in too.
In front of the mirror above the not-so-large washstand stood a young man and a teenager.
Xu Chi stiffly rummaged through a nearby rack and took out an unopened toothbrush. When he saw the boy come in, he found another one for him as well.
The boy took it and stared at him with utterly innocent eyes.
The toothpaste was on the rack too. Xu Chi picked it up, squeezed some onto You Chumu’s toothbrush first, then onto his own. Just as he was about to put it in his mouth, he heard the boy say:
“Brother, I want to use yours.”
Xu Chi’s hand froze, and without another word, he swapped with him.
The two of them brushed their teeth in sync.
Xu Chi was 1.8 meters tall, and You Chumu was about the same height now…
In the original novel, this guy later grew to 1.94 meters, with an amazing build.
Their brushing speed was the same. Xu Chi belatedly realized how horrifying that was: You Chumu was learning from him, perfectly copying his movements with astonishing reaction speed, which let him do exactly the same thing at the same time.
In other words, as long as You Chumu watched him, he knew what Xu Chi was going to do next.
Xu Chi shuddered all over, suddenly feeling like he was wearing too little.
After washing up, the two of them left the bathroom.
Xu Chi was dying to bring up taking him to the management office, but he didn’t dare mention it too soon, afraid that You Chumu would ask why he was in such a hurry.
His gaze flicked to You Chumu’s bare feet. He wasn’t wearing shoes at all… It seemed like he had never worn any… Could it be that he had crouched there barefoot all night too?
Xu Chi walked over to the shoe cabinet, took out a pair of slippers, and tossed them to You Chumu’s feet.
“Put them on.”
Thinking of the plot, You Chumu had run out of the lab barefoot… and the road had been full of hardship…
When Xu Chi brought him back last night, he seemed to have been barefoot too.
But his constitution was special; he rarely left scars, and even if he did, they healed very quickly.
Thinking of it that way, giving him shoes might have been unnecessary. He probably wouldn’t feel cold anyway, or he wouldn’t have been crouching in the living room for an entire night in short sleeves and barefoot, in temperatures below 10 degrees.
You Chumu stared at the slippers placed in front of him, then crouched down and leaned closer to examine them, as if studying some rare object.
Then he looked up at Xu Chi, his eyes very clear.
“Brother, is this a bomb?”
“…”
Xu Chi was dumbfounded again. Why would You Chumu think this was a bomb? No, given the kind of education You Chumu had been fed, suspecting it was a bomb actually seemed pretty normal…
He suddenly softened his voice, a little helpless. “No.”
“Are they slippers?” You Chumu asked again.
“Yes.”
“Something you wear on your feet?”
“Yes.”
Seeing that You Chumu was still studying them and didn’t look like he was going to put them on, Xu Chi took off his own slippers, put on the pair he had given him, and demonstrated.
“See? Not a bomb. It won’t explode.”
After demonstrating, he took them off again and waited for You Chumu to put them on.
You Chumu stood up, slid his feet into the slippers, and started walking. Strangely, he walked awkwardly, his arms and legs stiff and uncoordinated, like a robot just learning how to walk.
How could he walk fine barefoot but not with shoes on?
Xu Chi ignored the strange behavior and went into the kitchen.
He was hungry anyway.
After seeing how much You Chumu could eat last night, he made a little extra today.
He used only what was in the fridge and still made noodles, but added beef and greens.
While he was cooking, he suddenly heard You Chumu laughing behind him.
It startled him so badly that he shuddered all over and turned his head stiffly to look. He saw You Chumu sprawled on the sofa, his legs propped up in the air as he wiggled his feet there.
As if he were admiring his slippers.
His mouth was split wide open, and he was laughing very happily.
The laughter was broken and airy, carrying the clarity and depth of a young man’s voice.
A teenager laughing was nothing unusual, but this was You Chumu, and it only made Xu Chi’s scalp tingle, like something out of a horror movie.
After finishing the noodles, he turned around with the bowl in hand and unexpectedly bumped into the person standing behind him.
“Fuck!”
The bowl nearly tipped over, and he was almost scared to death. He hadn’t made a single sound.
But You Chumu was quick and caught the bowl.
When Xu Chi touched You Chumu’s icy hand, his heart jumped again, but he couldn’t let go.
So he had to keep holding the bowl and walk forward. Once it was steady, You Chumu let go.
He set the noodles on the table, then turned around and saw that You Chumu was still standing there, looking curiously at his own hand.
“…What’s wrong?” Xu Chi felt a chill at the sight of how little he could understand You Chumu.
You Chumu brought his hand to his nose and sniffed it twice, then looked up at him.
“Brother, your hand is warm, and it smells like beef.”
“…” Xu Chi explained, “It smells like beef because I just cut some beef.”