After Shen Li returned to his room, Li Ming left as well. He had wanted to vent some frustration for Ji Zhouye, but he also felt that this kind of matter was best left for the two of them to resolve on their own.
Ji Zhouye pushed the door open and entered. Shen Li was lying on his side on the bed, and only his back was visible.
The person on the bed suddenly spoke up, “Ji Zhouye, I want to go home for a couple of days. Is that okay?”
Ji Zhouye walked over, sat down on the edge of the bed, and looked down at him. “Why do you want to go home?”
“I haven’t been back in a long time.” Half of Shen Li’s face was buried under the blanket, his eyelashes trembling slightly.
The bedroom lights were off, leaving only a single floor lamp on.
A quiet atmosphere hung in the air for a moment.
“How many days?”
“I don’t know.” Shen Li’s voice sounded muffled.
He thought that if Ji Zhouye wouldn’t let him go, he would take a gamble and tell Ji Zhouye that he was simply jealous, that he simply couldn’t stand seeing him with someone else.
He had messed around with Li Ming before, but only once or twice, and he didn’t truly understand Li Ming’s real thoughts toward Ji Zhouye.
It was just that before he and Ji Zhouye started dating, he had once heard rumors about Ji Zhouye and Li Ming.
“It’s too late today, go back tomorrow.” Ji Zhouye pulled the blanket covering him downward a bit. “Aren’t you feeling stuffy?”
“I’m fine.” The person who left first had no right to feel aggrieved, but when grievance arrived, there was no stopping it.
After getting off work, Shen Li went home. He hadn’t been back in a long time, and a thin layer of dust had settled over the interior. He cleaned up briefly, took a shower, and fell fast asleep in a daze.
He had felt faintly unwell since getting to work today, but he hadn’t paid much attention to it.
After drifting in and out of sleep for two hours, Shen Li realized he had a fever. He got up to look for medicine, searching everywhere without finding any fever reducers.
Tang Qinian called to ask him if he had eaten.
“No.”
Tang Qinian asked, “Where is your place? I’ll come over and get food with you.”
“I’ll send you my address on WeChat.”
After hanging up, Shen Li bought fever medicine through an app.
Tang Qinian arrived half an hour later and happened to run into the food delivery rider at the entrance. “What’s wrong with you?”
Shen Li took the medicine and thanked the delivery rider. “It’s nothing, just running a slight fever.”
Tang Qinian carried the food inside and looked around. “What on earth happened to you this past year? Why are you living in an apartment now?”
“Some things happened at home.” Shen Li tossed the medicine onto the coffee table. “An apartment is pretty nice too; a villa is too empty when you live alone.”
Right now, he felt that even this small apartment was empty and devoid of any human warmth.
“If you’re having a hard time, tell me. We’re brothers, don’t bottle it up.”
Tang Qinian opened the food containers and handed Shen Li a pair of chopsticks.
For the past year, Shen Li had never mentioned to Tang Qinian the things that had happened at his home. “It’s fine, it’s already been resolved.”
“Have you gone for your follow-up checkup?” Tang Qinian asked.
Shen Li was startled, his gaze darkening a fraction. “No.”
After going abroad, Shen Li had developed depression. During that period, he was very reclusive and had even self-harmed, with not a single friend by his side. Later on, after getting to know Tang Qinian, it was Tang Qinian who noticed something was wrong with him and found a psychological counselor for him.
Through a period of medication and psychological counseling, Shen Li’s condition was noticeably much better than before.
Aside from Tang Qinian, no one else knew about these things.
“If you haven’t, then you haven’t.” Seeing that Shen Li’s condition seemed alright, Tang Qinian didn’t say anything further.
Tang Qinian left right after finishing his meal.
Less than two minutes after he left, Tang Qinian sent a message: Your first love is downstairs at your place.
Back abroad, Tang Qinian had seen a photo of Ji Zhouye on the coffee table at Shen Li’s place. Having seen it multiple times, he had naturally remembered it.
When Shen Li looked down from upstairs, he didn’t see Ji Zhouye; he must have already left.
Did Ji Zhouye know about Tang Qinian’s existence? If he knew, would he misunderstand his relationship with Tang Qinian?
He wanted to explain something, yet he didn’t know how to phrase it.
Perhaps Ji Zhouye didn’t care about these matters of his at all, and he was just being narcissistic and reading too much into it.
Words of explanation were typed and deleted in the input box, and in the end, they were never sent.
Shen Li took the fever medicine and lay in bed, unable to fall asleep for a long time. On the very first day Ji Zhouye wasn’t by his side, he suffered from insomnia.
Tossing and turning without being able to sleep, he sat up and adjusted the air conditioning to its lowest temperature. The room was filled with cold air, and Shen Li buried his face in the blanket.
The relationship between him and Ji Zhouye was very delicate, and also very awkward.
Shen Li knew full well what was causing his own behavior, yet he had no idea why Ji Zhouye’s attitude had changed.
What on earth was Ji Zhouye being so aloof and awkward about?
Less than two hours after taking the fever medicine, his fever spiked again. For Shen Li, fever reducers didn’t have a very noticeable effect.
When a person gets sick, all their grievances come rushing up at once, and he no longer wanted to endure the torment in silence.
After much hesitation, he dialed Ji Zhouye’s phone number.
Ji Zhouye answered the call, and the person on the other end asked him in a weak, powerless voice, “Why are you acting so aloof and difficult with me?”
Even if Ji Zhouye hadn’t shown it outwardly, he could still sense the change in Ji Zhouye’s emotions.
Hearing that his voice didn’t sound right, Ji Zhouye furrowed his brows slightly. “You’re sick?”
Shen Li’s voice was muffled. “Answer me first. Why are you acting this way with me? Weren’t we still fine this morning?”
“We’ll talk in person.”
Ji Zhouye hung up the phone. He had stayed right outside the apartment entrance the whole time without leaving. He drove into the apartment complex, and while waiting for the elevator, he called a house doctor.
A knock sounded at the door. Dragging his aching, shivering body, Shen Li went to open it. When he opened the door, he glanced at Ji Zhouye, didn’t say a word, and turned back inside.
The moment Ji Zhouye stepped inside, a wave of chilliness washed over him; the indoor temperature was comparable to a completely different world compared to outside.
Shen Li went back to bed and curled himself into a blanket, completely devoid of any sleeping posture. Ji Zhouye adjusted the air conditioning to twenty-six degrees, paying no mind to whether he agreed or not.
The person on the bed picked up a pillow and hurled it right at him. “Ji Zhouye, this is my home, don’t mess with my air conditioning temperature.”
Ji Zhouye caught the thrown pillow, walked over to the bedside, placed the pillow properly, and reached out to feel the temperature of his forehead.
The back of his hand pressed against his forehead like an immobilization spell, and Shen Li instantly became obedient.
Ji Zhouye’s expression darkened, anger flashing through the depths of his eyes. “You have a fever and you still set the AC this low? You’re courting death.”
With the air conditioning set to the lowest, Shen Li subconsciously still possessed a tendency toward self-harm, though he hadn’t paid much attention to it. “You still haven’t answered why you’re acting so aloof with me.”
With a gloomy expression, Ji Zhouye asked, “Who did you eat dinner with tonight?”
Shen Li snapped to realization. “Ji Zhouye, you’re investigating me. At the end of the day, you still don’t trust me. You don’t believe that I would stay peacefully by your side.”
“What kind of trust can there be left with someone who breaks up without warning and leaves without saying goodbye?” Ji Zhouye suppressed the rising fire deep within his heart. “Tell me, Shen Li, how do you expect me to trust you?”
Shen Li fell silent. He had no right to question Ji Zhouye.
He sat up, his distinct knuckles resting over the back of Ji Zhouye’s hand, his voice weak and devoid of strength. “Then did you manage to find out whether Tang Qinian has a girlfriend who just broke up with him recently?”
Ji Zhouye froze slightly. He hadn’t bothered to thoroughly investigate Tang Qinian, and certainly didn’t know about him having a girlfriend.
There were some things he didn’t dare to investigate too closely, afraid that the outcome would be something he couldn’t bear to see and unable to accept.
The house doctor arrived, and Ji Zhouye went to open the door.