Outside the door, Qin Sihai sat on the sofa, his wrinkled face full of melancholy.
He furrowed his brows from time to time, peering toward the cozy bedroom with a look of uncertainty. He could not wrap his head around whether this was real or fake. Could he really have a male daughter-in-law?
The household was already in utter chaos, and if word got out about this, would not people just laugh at them?
After suffering in thought for a while, he pulled a rough cigarette out of his pocket, braced his knees, and stood up with a slight hunch, walking toward the door on tiptoe.
After half a minute, Qin Zhen also opened a crack in the door and slipped out into the hallway.
Father and son had not seen each other in over a year. Left alone together, they were initially at a loss for words until Qin Sihai forced a smile and asked, “Are you used to being back?”
Qin Zhen nodded. “Pretty good.”
Once he finished speaking, silence fell again.
Qin Zhen also pulled a cigarette from his pocket. Soon, wisps of smoke drifted out of the small window in the old apartment building’s hallway, getting trapped and surrounded by the moonlight of the small town’s night as if penned in.
“That little Shen.”
“I changed jobs.”
Both of them spoke at the same time. Qin Sihai’s weathered face, worn from years of carrying bricks, showed an expression of awkwardness once more. He repeatedly waved the hand holding his cigarette. “I am fine. You speak first. Go ahead.”
Qin Zhen glanced at his father, let out a slow breath, and spoke in a deep voice, “That is not real. Mom just mistook him for someone else, but it makes her happy.”
“Ah, right, good, good, good,” Qin Sihai replied with a relieved smile.
“As long as it is not real, making her happy is good. You should definitely treat your friend well. We never saw you bring friends home when you were little.”
His voice grew softer and softer, the final few words almost swallowed up by his weary and guilty tone.
Qin Zhen had always understood his father’s thoughts.
Growing up, their family conditions were very average, relying solely on his father earning money at construction sites. At a time when other only children could casually ask for snacks, their family still relied on burning coal in a single-story house to stay warm and roast potatoes.
When he started school later on, he did not have many friends because their home was too far away from the other kids.
Later still, Qin Zhen started middle school as a boarder, and their neighborhood underwent government demolition, finally moving them into an apartment building. Just as everyone finally felt things were looking up, his mother fell ill.
From that point on, Qin Zhen began earning money nearby from the third year of middle school to help supplement the household expenses. High school and university did not cost a single cent from the family, and he even scrimped and saved at school just to buy a bit more medicine for his mother.
Relatives all advised them to stop treating her like that, saying a mental illness was not cancer as long as she was not going to die, and dumping her into a psychiatric hospital would solve everything.
No one could let a single person drag down an entire family.
Yet only Qin Sihai and Qin Zhen knew that they could not harden their hearts enough to throw a relative they lived alongside day and night into an asylum.
Qin Zhen felt this way as a son, and Qin Sihai felt it even more as a husband and father. On one hand, he felt guilty that he could not give his son anything and still needed his son to send back so much money every year, while on the other hand, he remained deeply attached to his wife.
He was uneducated and simply felt that no matter what circumstances arose, he could never abandon Rumo.
The two of them stood there for a while as clouds gradually swallowed the moonlight, leaving the small window pitch black.
Qin Zhen broke the silence in the dark: “Dad, I changed jobs and I am earning more money now. I will send more money back in the future. We will stay here and accompany her this week, and I will come home more often from now on. We are a family, and facing things together is how it should be. Go get some sleep early.”
With that, he climbed up a few steps and went back inside.
Leaving Qin Sihai standing in place to pull out another cigarette and light it.
Meanwhile, inside the bedroom.
When Qin Zhen finished washing up and walked into the bedroom wrapped in a bath towel, Shen Jin’an was already lying quietly in bed.
Only his fuzzy head was exposed, his contrasting black-and-white pupils staring straight at him.
The exhaustion that Qin Zhen had carried all day finally melted away as he returned to his comfort zone. Looking at Shen Jin’an’s flustered appearance, the corners of his lips curved upward into a genuine smile.
“You do not expect me to sleep on the floor, do you?”
Shen Jin’an blinked silently without speaking, reaching out one hand to pull back a corner of the red quilt, showing he was not entirely averse to sharing a bed with Qin Zhen.
Qin Zhen stood by the bedside, looking down at him from above with a raised, quizzical eyebrow.
Besides, it was not like he could act shy even if he wanted to. Their place was small with very few spots to sleep, and after driving for half a day, Qin Zhen had no desire to go sleep outside on that half-collapsed sofa.
So he tossed the bath towel aside and simply lay flat.
The moment Shen Jin’an’s bare hands and feet brushed against Qin Zhen, it felt as though he had been scalded by boiling water, his alabaster skin turning as red as a cooked prawn. He inched quietly toward the wall, and Qin Zhen crowded closer toward that side as well.
After shifting back and forth a few times, Shen Jin’an had nowhere left to retreat, pressing his entire body against the ice-cold wall. Qin Zhen could see his eyelashes trembling.
“Shen Jin’an,” Qin Zhen’s deep voice resonated right next to Shen Jin’an’s ear as he grabbed Shen Jin’an’s wrist under the covers.
“What are you so nervous about?” he asked.
Shen Jin’an’s fingers slowly tightened and then relaxed, finally opening his eyes with a look of reckless resignation. He parted his lips as if about to speak, but as he turned his face slightly, his lips brushed against Qin Zhen’s.
Qin Zhen was still smiling, his expression full of hidden meaning.
Whatever words were on the tip of Shen Jin’an’s tongue vanished completely. He feigned indifference and glanced coldly at Qin Zhen, spitting out a casual “nothing,” even though his hands were shaking.
His voice was unsteady too.
Qin Zhen’s smile faded slightly as he pulled the quilt down halfway from Shen Jin’an’s body.
“It is the middle of summer. Are you not hot covered up this much?”
The lights were turned off. Shen Jin’an’s face flushed bright red in the dark. He stared at Qin Zhen’s silhouette for a long moment before blurting out two insincere words: “Not hot.”
A moment later, both of them quieted down. Shen Jin’an slowly clutched the edge of the quilt and drifted off to sleep.
Qin Zhen, however, remained wide awake with racing thoughts. He listened to the security door click shut as his father padded lightly back to the other bedroom before finally closing his eyes with peace of mind, though sleep refused to come.
At that moment, 999 quietly materialized.
It emitted a faint glow, circled around the area a couple of times, and floated back in front of Qin Zhen.
[Host, I just received some good news and some bad news. Which one would you like to hear first?]
Qin Zhen slanted a glance at it, feeling exceptionally irritable. [Do not want to hear either.]
In a rare occurrence, 999 seemed to manifest a touch of awkwardness across its nose-less face. It cleared its throat and read out both messages using its mechanical electronic voice:
The good news is that Shen Jin’an’s redemption value has already passed the halfway mark.
The bad news is that it can no longer detect any emotional fluctuations from Shen Jin’an whatsoever.
A little past 2:00 AM.
Shen Jin’an fell into a nightmare. He wanted to wake up but could not break free, covered in sweat with his brow furrowed tightly, his hand blindly grabbing at whatever was nearby until it touched Qin Zhen’s hand.
Qin Zhen had already woken up the moment Shen Jin’an’s breathing turned ragged.
He quietly watched Shen Jin’an, wishing he could slip past Shen Jin’an’s exterior and dive straight into his dreams to see what on earth he had lived through to make him so deeply unsettled and world-weary.
A few minutes later.
Shen Jin’an suddenly rolled over and burrowed right into Qin Zhen’s arms. Qin Zhen’s fingers paused for a few seconds, an initial impulse pushing him to shove the person away, but after a brief silence, he ultimately pulled the person in tight, reflexively patting Shen Jin’an’s back in a soothing, rhythmic motion.
A little past 4:00 AM.
Either Qin’s father or mother got up to use the restroom, making rustling sounds, followed shortly by the sound of whispering conversation.
Shen Jin’an frowned and woke up from Qin Zhen’s embrace.
His eyes remained dark and unfathomable. Slender fingers wrapped around Qin Zhen’s back, gradually tightening their grip as he rested his head against Qin Zhen’s broad shoulder.