Ming Yin stayed in his room for a while before going downstairs. Aunt Zhou, the nanny, was tidying up the table. When she saw him, she hurriedly called out, “Hello, Young Master.”
Hearing those three words, a somewhat absurd feeling welled up in Ming Yin’s heart. If he had to say it, he felt more like a blood-related outsider.
He sat down on the sofa and, after spacing out for a while, took out his phone.
He had bought the phone the year before. Back then, he had been working part-time delivering takeout, and without a phone it would not have been possible, so he had gone to a secondhand market and casually picked one up. It could make and receive calls without any problem, but it was rather old and had no entertainment content at all, which meant that even after swiping across the phone screen back and forth twice, he still could not find anything to pass the time.
The emptiness was like a spreading virus. Ming Yin did not think he was the one at fault in this matter, but Ming Juezhi’s situation was like a sword hanging over his neck, twisting his heart and making him unable to sit still.
Unconsciously, he pinched at his palm, using pain as he always did to suppress the anxiety inside.
Aunt Zhou passed by him several times, and truly could not bear to watch him torment his own hand like that. She found a reason to call him over. “Young Master, there’s fruit in the fridge. You can go wash some, all right?”
Ming Yin answered absentmindedly and stayed in his seat without moving.
Aunt Zhou looked at him and sighed. After a while, she placed a plate of green grapes on the coffee table in front of him. Her Jiang Cheng accent was a little strong, but it sounded very kind. “Try them, they’re tasty.”
Ming Yin froze for a moment. When he looked up and saw the smile on her face, he was almost dazzled by it and softly said, “Thank you.”
Aunt Zhou laughed and waved her hand awkwardly. “No need, no need, it’s only right, ah.”
The grape skins were green. He had thought they would be very sour, but they tasted very sweet. It was an expensive taste he had never tried before.
He rubbed his itchy eyes and ate the grapes in silence. Halfway through, his phone suddenly rang.
He looked at the phone screen, and his heart tightened slightly as he answered, “Hello?”
“Xiao Yin,” Ming Chengsong’s background was extremely noisy, but his voice sounded completely normal. “Are you bored at home by yourself? Just in time, Xiao Zhi doesn’t have much going on now. Do you want to come to the hospital and see him? Xiao Zhi said he has a very good impression of you. Once you get familiar with each other, you’ll have someone to look after you at your new school too.”
Very good impression? Ming Yin savored those words, and even he found them absurd and untrustworthy.
He could tell that Ming Juezhi held a strong wariness and hostility toward him, and he himself also found it hard to feel any fondness for this fake. Besides, Ming Juezhi was absolutely not as innocent and harmless as he appeared to be.
Ming Chengsong wanted to bring the two of them closer, but the barrier and conflict between them might have been doomed to be irreconcilable from the moment they were switched, whether it was his feelings toward Ming Juezhi or Ming Juezhi’s feelings toward him.
But since Ming Chengsong said so, he would not refuse.
Ming Yin gave a blank “Mm.” Ming Chengsong then happily said he could contact Uncle Zhang to pick him up. Ming Yin agreed, but when he left, he did not call Uncle Zhang. He simply hailed a car by the roadside.
The distance was not far, and it took ten minutes to get there. It cost seven yuan, a little more expensive than in the small town.
After paying, he got out of the car and looked up at the towering hospital in front of him, his brows knitting slightly.
To be honest, he had always hated hospitals. The pungent smell of disinfectant in hospitals, the gray-faced and lifeless patients, the cold and hard blue plastic seats, both new and old experiences all made him feel suffocated.
But he did not know what emotion was driving him, perhaps the curiosity of someone who had never tasted dessert before toward the cake in the display window, or perhaps the final self-denial of a person giving up sugar. He hesitated for a very long time, and in the end, with both hands in his pockets, he slowly stepped into the hospital.
The lobby was full of people coming and going, and the marble floor gleamed brightly with reflected light.
The hospital was much bigger than Xiaoling Town. Looking at the electronic signboard in front of him, a thought suddenly and without warning surfaced in Ming Yin’s mind: if Du Qingfang could have been treated here, would she not have died so quickly?
Very quickly, he snapped back to reality, gave a self-mocking curl of his lips, and cursed inwardly: Stop being so fucking pathetic. Even if she were alive, she wouldn’t care about your filial piety.
Ming Juezhi’s room was 814. Ming Yin looked for the exact direction on the signboard, then headed toward the elevator.
His timing was just a little too unlucky. The elevator had just closed.
He was not in a hurry, and did not feel like running either, so he nonchalantly prepared to wait for the next one.
But someone inside the elevator reached out to block the door for him, and the elevator opened again in front of him, as if it were waiting for him.
Ming Yin was startled for a moment, then quickly ran into the elevator and said, “Thank you.”
Only when he reached out to press the button did he realize that the eighth floor was already lit. He paused, then reacted to the fact that this person was going to the same floor as him.
He turned to look at the boy beside him, his gaze tightening.
Ming Yin had seen plenty of fairly good-looking people in Xiaoling Town, but this was the first time he had seen someone this eye-catching.
He was wearing a dark gray overcoat, both hands in his pockets, exposing a section of strong, slender wrist. The outline of his side profile was extremely clear. His long, lean figure was already leaning toward the adult range, carrying a kind of restrained but still impossible-to-ignore outward charm.
Ming Yin stared at the flashing numbers and thought absentmindedly: He’s the type who would make a lot of people pine for him, yet he’d probably remain completely unmoved.
The eighth floor arrived quickly. With a ding, the elevator doors opened. Ming Yin stepped out first, only to hear a burst of phone ringing behind him.
The other person answered the call, and a cool, indifferent voice drifted into his ears. “Mm, I’m upstairs. Tell him to wait for me a moment. I brought strawberry cake for him.”
He could not help but look back and found that the direction the other person was heading in was actually the same as his own.
So it was this coincidental?
Ming Yin suddenly had a subtle premonition and instinctively slowed down. Sure enough, he saw the other person pass him by and walk into room 814 with an exquisite box in hand, Ming Juezhi’s room.
At that moment, Ming Yin suddenly froze.
When he looked toward the room from a distance, he saw that the eighth floor was the hospital’s top floor, and its medical facilities and environment were very good.
Ming Juezhi was lying on the bed, half propped up by pillows, while a nurse gave him an injection.
The room was lit with warm yellow light, making everything inside seem soft and comfortable.
Ming Chengsong and Ke Ruolan were sitting by Ming Juezhi’s bedside, feeding him slices of apple.
Ming Juezhi said something, and all of them suddenly laughed.
The light seemed to become dazzlingly bright, bright enough to hurt Ming Yin’s eyes.
His feet came to a sudden stop outside the door.
He watched the boy sit beside the bed with the gift box containing the strawberry cake.
Then he heard Ming Juezhi call out in joy, “Brother Boheng.”
Ming Yin could no longer take even one more step.
He froze for a moment, and when he realized that this person was here to visit Ming Juezhi, an emotion he could neither understand nor name suddenly rose in his heart.
He stood there for a while, then lifted a leg and walked to the doorway of the ward, looking into the room from a distance.
The 8th floor was the top floor of the hospital, and its medical environment was the best of the best.
Ming Juezhi lay on soft pillows, stretching out an arm to let the nurse give him an injection. The lighting in the room was dim and yellow, and it looked very warm. Ming Chengsong and Ke Ruolan were sitting beside Ming Juezhi’s hospital bed, feeding him sliced apples. Ming Juezhi said something, and the few of them suddenly all laughed. The light became incomparably brilliant, bright enough to be dazzling.
Ming Yin’s feet came to a dead stop outside the door. Seeing the boy sit down beside the bed with the gift box containing the strawberry cake, and hearing Ming Juezhi cheerfully call out, “Brother Boheng,” he did not take another step.
He stared blankly at the inside, and could not help but think of the last time he had been sick. The hospital in the small town had no extra beds, so he could only hold up his IV bottle and sit on a plastic stool in the corridor to get his fluids.
Beside his ear were noisy crying and talking voices. With his sore arm held up, he could not sleep, and could only endure the anxiety and irritability of the long wait in silence.
The little girl next door cried all afternoon. When Ming Yin finally could not bear it any longer and was about to say something, he saw her sniffle twice and curl up in her mother’s arms, falling asleep.
The girl’s mother gently covered the girl’s ears and turned to look at Ming Yin, making a not very polite “shh” gesture at him.
Ming Yin opened his mouth. Clearly, he was the one in the right, yet his throat seemed to be blocked by some kind of sticky liquid, and he could not say anything at all. After a long while, he sheepishly turned back around, feeling a numb soreness at the back of his head.
Stray dogs by the roadside did not dare bark at pet dogs that had owners, because they had never been favored, and they knew they would only be kicked away without mercy.
He stiffened his neck and stood motionless, staring at his own hand, trying hard to act as if nothing was wrong, yet his eyes were so dry that they hurt.
Just like today.
After so many years, it seemed he still had not left that cold plastic stool.
Ming Yin took two hard breaths, trying to drive away the stagnant air in his lungs, but his chest felt as though a stone had been pressed on it, growing heavier and more stifling, pressing until he could not breathe.
This world was truly unfair. Some people obtained love so easily, while some people were like a stray dog begging for food.
He did not tell Ming Chengsong that he had come, and he did not go into the ward. He came silently and left silently.
When he was heading back, he almost forgot to take his phone. Only when the driver reminded him did he realize what he had left behind. He thanked the driver, took the phone, and walked forward.
The dent on the back of the phone pressed into his palm, and after a slow pause, he stuffed the phone into his pocket.
It seemed Aunt Zhou had gone out on some errand. The living room light was not on, and Ming Yin’s shadow was stretched long. He silently sat down in front of the coffee table.
The green grapes were still left in their original spot and had not been touched. He peeled one green grape and put it into his mouth, but his heart did not relax even a little. The taste he had previously thought was very sweet and delicious also seemed to have become somewhat astringent because it had been left too long.
When it was time for dinner, they still had not come back. Ke Ruolan made a phone call, saying she was apologizing to Lin Yin. In the afternoon, she had been too anxious, which was why she had been so careless about the seriousness of the matter. She had already heard from Ming Juezhi what had happened. It was that child Xiao Zhi who had been greedy, and she had also been too impulsive. She hoped Ming Yin would not blame her.
Lin Yin did not speak. It did not seem like he had received an apology, but rather a favor bestowed upon him, because if Ming Juezhi had not explained it, he would have been so perfunctorily found guilty just like that.
He stared at the setting sun sinking below the glass window, his heart seemingly being clenched by a hand, squeezing out bitter water. “Then do you really think I did it on purpose?”
Ke Ruolan was stunned. She had not expected him to suddenly ask that. After a while, she gave a somewhat unnatural smile and said, “Of course not, don’t overthink it… I was too impulsive. I know Xiao Zhi, you’re a good child.”
Lin Yin felt a little suffocated. He wanted to just ask it directly, wanted to ask whether you truly love me, whether you ever really looked forward to my arrival. But Ke Ruolan told him to eat dinner first, and in a hurry said goodbye before hanging up the phone.
Lin Yin bit his lip. His breathing seemed to blend into the air, becoming almost inaudible. He watched the sun completely sink down, leaving a blood-red mark on the glass window, and his figure looked like a dim and stuffy shadow.
He had no appetite for dinner, and after eating a little, he put down his chopsticks.
After fiddling with the water heater for a bit, Ming Yin took a hurried shower and then lay directly on the bed. The blanket was very big and very soft. The fatigue from the entire day finally turned into sleepiness and surged up. He closed his eyes, wrapped himself tightly, and slowly fell asleep.
He woke again when he heard movement downstairs. Ming Yin sat up and glanced at the time. It was not yet eleven. He opened the door, stood in the darkness, and looked downstairs.
The living room light was on. Ming Juezhi was lying on the sofa, asleep. Xu Boheng had also come back with them and was standing at the entrance, listening to Ming Chengsong and Ke Ruolan talk with a relaxed posture.
Ming Yin’s gaze once again fell uncontrollably on Xu Boheng.
His hair was a little messier than it had been in the afternoon, but he looked even more languid and casual. Under the light, the color of his pupils was very light, and a crease extended along the shape of his eyes to the corners, slightly slanting downward.
Very handsome, and also very aloof.
Ming Yin could not quite say what he felt about this person. He hated the closeness between him and Ming Juezhi, yet he was always drawn to him uncontrollably. This contradictory, entangled feeling made Ming Yin even more unable to control himself as he kept paying attention to Xu Boheng.
Ming Chengsong said a few more words, seeming to want Xu Boheng to stay the night, but Xu Boheng shook his head and refused. He tied the scarf draped over his arm around his neck, and after saying goodbye to Ke Ruolan as well, he prepared to leave.
But perhaps that gaze had been too intense. He suddenly seemed to sense something, and raised his head to look in Ming Yin’s direction.
Ming Yin was caught off guard and met his gaze.
The voyeur was exposed beneath the eyes of the person he had been spying on, yet Ming Yin felt a kind of morbid satisfaction at being watched.
He stood still and refused stubbornly to look away. He heard his own heartbeat suddenly start racing wildly, fearful that Xu Boheng would ask about him, yet also hoping that he would ask about him.
Would he recognize him?
But Xu Boheng seemed not to have recognized him, or maybe he had recognized him and simply did not care. After briefly meeting Ming Yin’s eyes, he looked away, turned around, and left.