For Shen Mingjin, although he had known from the beginning that Xu Duwan’s gaze towards him was not entirely innocent, Xu Duwan’s audacity in groping him inside his clothes in front of everyone made Shen Mingjin’s face turn ashen. He coldly grabbed Xu Duwan’s hand and lifted it up.
“Stop touching me.”
“Why can’t I touch it?”
Xu Duwan’s brain felt as if it were soaked in alcohol, every nerve etched with the words “unconscious.” Hearing this, he looked up, his eyes watery, and pouted, clearly displeased.
“I already paid!”
“…Even if you pay, it won’t work.” Shen Mingjin was too lazy to waste words with the drunkard. He grabbed Xu Duwan’s wrists with one hand, pulled him into his arms, and gave him a perfunctory pat on the waist.
“Behave yourself.”
Don’t touch me.
A warm palm brushed against Xu Duwan’s waist like a gentle breeze, sending a tingling sensation that shot from his tailbone to his brain. Xu Duwan’s scalp tingled, and he almost cried out.
He didn’t even bother glaring at the man who was secretly filming Shen Mingjin. His face was slightly contorted with grievance, and his eyes were bloodshot as he stared at Shen Mingjin. He was about to ask Shen Mingjin if he thought the money wasn’t enough when, unexpectedly, the next second, his stomach started churning. He staggered, clutching his chest, and leaned against Shen Mingjin, then vomited with a loud “whoosh.”
Shen Mingjin: “………”
He glanced at the stained money on the ground and at Xu Duwan, who was dizzy and unsteady on his feet and couldn’t care less about “molesting” him again. Veins throbbed on his forehead. After a long while, he sighed, walked up to Xu Duwan, and casually scooped him up and hoisted him onto his shoulder.
Xu Duwan seemed to be in pain as well, clutching his upset stomach, his eyes closed and covered in cold sweat, without saying a word. From Yu Qingbie’s angle, the light shone on his profile, making his pale face look somewhat docile.
“Boss, I’ll take him to change his clothes,” Shen Mingjin turned around, carefully avoiding the money scattered on the ground, and hopped to the other side with Xu Duwan on his back. He turned back to Yu’s father with an apologetic smile:
“He is my friend, I can’t abandon him.”
“…” Mr. Yu had been rooted in Ningcheng for many years, doing business here for so long, he knew who he could afford to offend and who he couldn’t. Looking at Xu Duwan’s imposing manner, he knew that this person came from an extraordinary family. Hearing this, he quickly nodded:
“Okay, it’s almost time to get off work anyway, you can go ahead.”
Just as Shen Mingjin was about to say that he would come back later to clean up the mess, Xu Duwan, who was hanging upside down on his shoulder and was in a daze, suddenly became unhappy for some reason. He kept saying that he felt uncomfortable with a sticky voice. Shen Mingjin had no choice but to ask his colleague, who was working during the summer vacation, to help clean up. Then he carried Xu Duwan away.
Xu Duwan vomited all over himself tonight, and he would feel very uncomfortable if he didn’t change his clothes. Shen Mingjin coaxed him to take off his clothes as if he were a disobedient child, and wanted to throw him into the bathtub.
Unexpectedly, Xu Duwan was very cooperative when taking off his clothes, but when it came to taking off his pants, he started to make a fuss. He sat in the bathtub, holding onto his pants tightly and refusing to let go.
“Let go,”
Shen Mingjin was drenched in sweat from Xu Duwan’s drunken antics, and even the most good-tempered saint was on the verge of losing his composure.
“You’re dirty.”
“But there are things Mingjin gave me in my pants.”
Xu Duwan felt a little wronged. He lay in the bathtub, gripping the edge with both hands, staring at Shen Mingjin with his dark, moist eyes, and angrily blew a bubble in the water:
“No one can take him away from me!”
Shen Mingjin closed his eyes, wiped his face, and wiped away the water droplets with a dark expression. He couldn’t understand what he had given Xu Duwan that made him treasure so much.
But he forcibly suppressed the agitation in his heart and tried to understand Xu Duwan’s thoughts. He ruffled Xu Duwan’s wet hair and coaxed him in a low voice, like he used to coax a disobedient puppy at his grandfather’s house:
“If you behave well, I’ll get you a new one later, okay?”
“…” Xu Duwan buried half his face in the water, staring into Shen Mingjin’s increasingly sincere eyes, as if trying to determine whether Shen Mingjin was telling the truth or lying.
After a while, just as Shen Mingjin was about to lose his fake smile, Xu Duwan finally slowly released the grip on his pants, letting Shen Mingjin take them away and throw them into the washing machine next to him.
Shen Mingjin poured in the laundry detergent, pressed the start button, and then walked to Xu Duwan’s side, rolled up his sleeves, turned on the shower, and started washing and scrubbing Xu Duwan.
With a clear mind, he watched as the warm water brushed against Xu Duwan’s fair face and then up to his neck.
Shen Mingjin ran his fingertips through the water to test the temperature, then sat on the edge of the bathtub, preparing to squeeze shower gel onto Xu Duwan. But he saw Xu Duwan, who had just been as docile as a kitten, start to raise his neck and back away again.
“Hmm? What’s wrong with you now?”
Shen Mingjin had one hand covered in shower gel, the other free. He raised an eyebrow, trying to pull Xu Duwan back.
“Come here, or I won’t wash you.”
Not washing you means ignoring you.
After the automatic translation of Shen Mingjin’s meaning, Xu Duwan’s body stiffened in the bathtub, his expression immediately tensing up. A hint of hesitation flashed in his eyes. After a moment, like a kitten, he scurried over to Shen Mingjin’s side, then reverently reached out and grasped Shen Mingjin’s free hands, placing his palms on his head. Looking at Shen Mingjin expectantly, he whispered:
“Say it again.”
“What?” Shen Mingjin looked at Xu Duwan, confused.
“What do you want me to say?”
Xu Duwan’s expression gradually became anxious, and his movements became a bit too large. The glistening liquid flowed down his neck and gathered into a small puddle at his collarbone, causing Shen Mingjin to look away uncomfortably.
“It’s the sentence above,” Xu Duwan urged, forcefully pressing Shen Mingjin’s hand above his head.
“Tell me quickly.”
“……..” Shen Mingjin thought for a moment and tentatively said, “Come here, or I won’t wash you.”
“That’s not it!” Xu Duwan angrily started biting the edge of the bathtub.
“What’s wrong with you now?”
Xu Duwan was furious. He swam to the corner of the bathtub, turned his back to Shen Mingjin, and ignored him.
“…” Shen Mingjin pondered for a while, thinking hard and hard, and after a long time, a flash of inspiration struck him. He whispered to Xu Duwan’s back:
“You’ll be a good boy and listen to me?”
Xu Duwan’s ears twitched slightly, his face flushed a little. He had cheered himself up, and he swam back on his own, lying on the edge of the bathtub, letting Shen Mingjin stroke his head. His eyes were bright, and he whispered expectantly:
“Say it again.”
“Good boy?” Shen Mingjin understood a little this time and continued speaking in accordance with Xu Duwan’s thoughts.
“Mmm!” Xu Duwan happily rubbed against Shen Mingjin, like a puppy, getting Shen Mingjin all wet.
“…………”
After exhausting himself serving this ancestor to a bath, Shen Mingjin dressed Xu Duwan in pajamas, intending to coax him to sleep before returning to clean up the mess.
After all, there’s a room full of money; it wouldn’t do to leave it unattended.
Thinking this, he went into the bathroom, took out Xu Duwan’s clothes that had been washed, and was about to hang them up for him when he suddenly remembered that Xu Duwan had been clinging to his pants and wouldn’t let go, saying that there was a gift from Shen Mingjin in his pocket. With a thought, he couldn’t help but pause.
Although Shen Mingjin didn’t have a penchant for spying on other people’s privacy, Xu Duwan’s behavior just now was so much like a puppy guarding its food that it made Shen Mingjin, who had no memory of what he had given Xu Duwan before, start to wonder what it was that made the other party cherish it so much, while at the same time, he had no recollection of it.
Perhaps seeing this will help me regain my lost memories?
Thinking of this, Shen Mingjin lowered his eyes, his eyelashes trembled slightly, and after a moment he mustered his courage and reached in.
He had expected to find something valuable, but when Shen Mingjin rummaged through his pockets and only pulled out a plastic bag, his mind went blank, and he fell into deep confusion and thought:
The thing Xu Duwan mentioned giving him was just this ordinary, ubiquitous, worn-out plastic bag?