The youth’s warm hand and the chirping cicadas in the trees caused Song Wenqing’s heart to stir slightly. Having teased him enough, he finally said with a smile, “I was wrong.”
Pei Jinrong cleared his throat lightly, released his grip, and sat back in his wheelchair. He turned his head to the side, a suspicious shade of pink spreading across his face. He thought to himself that Song Wenqing’s eyelashes were remarkably long.
The weather was incredibly hot. Song Wenqing casually tossed together two bowls of cold noodles, scattered some chopped green onions on top, and the two of them made do by eating them alongside the leftovers from yesterday. The days here brightened quickly and darkened just as fast. He could not tell if it was because the original owner of his body had jumped into the well the previous day, but Song Wenqing felt quite unwell.
His head was terribly dizzy, and his body felt severely uncomfortable. Judging by the symptoms, there was a ninety percent chance that he had caught a cold. The rabbit meat they had planned to eat for dinner had to be put on hold.
Fortunately, when he went to the market to buy chickens, the stall owner had given him a bit of chicken feed. Forcing his body to endure the discomfort, he poured the feed out for the chickens. He then went over to the stove, took the withered vegetable leaves, and fed them to the rabbits. After settling everything, he finally lay back down on the bed to rest.
In his hazy state, his burning forehead suddenly felt a bit cooler. His eyelids felt incredibly heavy, but he still forced himself to open them. He saw Pei Jinrong looking exceedingly anxious, having completely abandoned his wheelchair. Seeing that Song Wenqing was awake, the youth did not make a sound. He silently removed the hot square handkerchief from Song Wenqing’s forehead, rinsed it in a basin of water, and placed it back on his brow.
Song Wenqing smiled softly, and the heavy discomfort in his heart dissipated along with it.
Since Pei Jinrong remained silent, Song Wenqing decided to tease him. Using all the strength he could muster, he tugged at the youth’s sleeve and said, “You must not cry, I am perfectly fine.”
Seeing that Pei Jinrong still ignored him, he added, “If you do not wish to speak to me, I will stop talking. Just acknowledge me.”
Hearing this, Pei Jinrong finally spoke up, looking thoroughly aggrieved, “Was that bowl of sour plum soup at noon too cold?”
It was all his fault. If he had not tried to be clever by placing the sour plum soup in the well water to chill it, Song Wenqing would not have caught a cold. Yet every time his father returned home, his mother would serve his father a cool bowl of sour plum soup just like that, and his father would always be extremely happy.
The youth did not conceal his self-blame in the slightest. Song Wenqing froze momentarily, wondering if the youth was blaming himself.
“Sigh,” he let out a sigh. He could not help but reach out to stroke Pei Jinrong’s furry head, saying, “It has nothing to do with you. The sour plum soup was delicious.”
It was uncertain whether Pei Jinrong truly took the words to heart, but he gave a small nod in response and tucked the blanket around him.
The original owner had jumped into the well yesterday. At first, everything had seemed fine, but now the physical toll had descended upon him all at once. Drowsy and disoriented, Song Wenqing felt as though he were being tortured back and forth in purgatory, completely losing consciousness. From time to time, however, he could feel his body sinking slightly, only to be gathered into an embrace and held tightly.
He knew it was Pei Jinrong.
By the time he woke up again, nearly half a month had already passed. His throat was so dry that he could not speak a word. Pei Jinrong was sitting right beside him, dozing off with one hand supporting himself on the bed, while his other hand kept moving to fan him with a round straw fan.
A small bowl filled to the brim with honey water sat on the table beside the head of the bed. Song Wenqing finally realized that despite sleeping for such a long time, his body did not feel ravenously hungry. He supposed he had this honey to thank for that.
June brought a massive influx of mosquitoes and insects, so mugwort was hung outside the door. He did not wake Pei Jinrong, choosing instead to stare blankly at the mugwort. Being cared for so meticulously was something that belonged to a time long, long ago. It was so distant that he had almost forgotten what it felt like.
It seemed to be when he was fifteen years old that his grandmother passed away from liver cancer. Yet, that lovely little old lady had spent her entire life working hard to earn money for him, a person with whom she shared no blood relation. She had raised him, watched him grow, and sent him to school. But fate could be cruel. He had skipped several grades and finally received his admission letter for the eight-year clinical medicine program at A University at the age of fifteen, only to receive the devastating news from the hospital at the same time.
From then on, whenever he fell ill, he would casually swallow some medicine and sleep on his bed until day turned to night. Once his body felt a bit better, he would drag his starving self to order takeout, eating a couple of bites just to keep his body going.
“Ah Wen, you are finally awake.” In his drowsy state, Pei Jinrong had a feeling that Song Wenqing might wake up today. Upon opening his eyes, he found that he had actually awakened.
Hearing his voice, Song Wenqing’s drifting thoughts finally returned, and he said in a quiet tone, “I want to drink water.”
The youth stood up in pleasant surprise. Before long, he returned carrying a bowl. He blew on it a few times at his lips before handing it to the person bracing himself up, saying, “Ah Wen, it is hot. Drink slowly.”
Song Wenqing: “…”
He was already burning up.
However, seeing the eager look in Pei Jinrong’s eyes, he ultimately swallowed the words he wanted to say and sipped the water in small mouthfuls.
Forget it. If he were to say he wanted to drink cold water, he was afraid Pei Jinrong would start crying again.
Once he recovered his bearings, he discovered the youth staring straight at him, his gaze incredibly intense.
Song Wenqing felt rather self-conscious. He cleared his throat lightly, using the bowl to hide his face as he laughed with mock annoyance, “Even if you keep staring at me like that, it is not as if I can vanish into thin air, right?”
Knowing that his embarrassment had been discovered, Pei Jinrong finally averted his gaze and lowered his eyes.
Noticing that Pei Jinrong had finally stopped looking at him, Song Wenqing let out a sigh of relief. The bowl was now empty, and he was just about to hand it back to Pei Jinrong. To his utter surprise, in the very next second, he was gathered into a tight embrace.
The youth’s hair was not coarse at all, rubbing smoothly against his neck. This time he did not cry, but after a long silence, he said in a muffled voice, “You are a liar.”
At the beginning, Ah Wen had said he was fine, yet he had ended up bedridden for nearly half a month. If his temperature had not finally dropped on the sixth day, he had fully intended to take him back to the capital.
Song Wenqing did not speak. His hands slowly wrapped around Pei Jinrong. He wondered if the heavens had seen how lonely he was and decided to give him such a wonderful gift.
If all of this was a dream, he only hoped that he would never wake up from it.
Following that day, Song Wenqing’s body began to recover rapidly. At the beginning, he could only lie in bed, but now he could slowly walk on the ground.
Everything he ate over the past few days was prepared by Pei Jinrong. Sometimes it was porridge, and fearing that he might find it bland, the youth would add a bit of salted vegetables. Other times it was clear noodle soup, and only when he saw that Song Wenqing was truly craving it would he frown and add a small spoonful of chili oil for him.
He also discovered that apart from being a bit of a crybaby, his newly acquired husband was actually quite a good cook.
What surprised him most out of all these matters was that Pei Jinrong had raised those few chickens exceptionally well. He had even built a layer of fencing around the yard. The little chicks chirped merrily, scratching vigorously at the ground whenever they discovered insects in the dirt.
The chicken feed was almost gone, and he noted this down silently. Once his health improved a bit more, he would need to buy some coarse corn flour and cut some wild grass. He could scald the grass with hot water, and then it would be ready to feed to the chickens.
The rabbits were a circle fatter than they had been a few days ago. Having eaten nothing but bland food lately, he felt as though his mouth had lost all flavor.
Consequently, he turned around, looking down at the youth who was sitting in the yard weaving a grass cage, and said, “Husband, I want to eat rabbit meat.”
Hearing this, Pei Jinrong’s movements stiffened, and his face burned with intense heat.
“Let… let us speak of this later.”
He needed to finish making these woven items that the villagers had requested of him first. Back when he was in the capital, the main focus of his family’s business was weaving and dyeing, alongside making decorative lanterns. Adding a few strokes of paint to a lantern made it highly sought after by the young ladies and young masters of wealthy households.
Lanterns were woven from bamboo. After coming to Yunhan Village, the locals did not care for such impractical items, so he shifted his focus toward making grass cages, bamboo baskets, and the like. The items he made were both beautiful and sturdy. Over time, whenever the villagers had such work to be done, they would seek him out first.
However, he had previously brought some silver from home and did not have a wife or a partner to provide for, so he rarely used much of it and seldom agreed to take on such work.
Now that he had a partner, he naturally had to put his heart into it.
Seeing Pei Jinrong nod, Song Wenqing happily fetched the rabbit out. Although his cooking was not as delicious as Pei Jinrong’s, he would certainly not lose to him when it came to dissection.
Sure enough, when Pei Jinrong scooped the neatly chopped, small pieces of rabbit meat out of the pot that evening, he froze for a moment.
Song Wenqing stood beside him to assist. Seeing his face full of eagerness to try, Pei Jinrong found it difficult to refuse, so he stood by his side and guided him on how to marinate it.
Following Pei Jinrong’s instructions, Song Wenqing added a small amount of salt, pepper powder, and potato starch to marinate the rabbit meat.
Meanwhile, the youth turned to the fire and set up the pot. Seeing steam rise from the pot, he quickly poured the oil inside. Once the oil was boiling, he scooped a large spoonful of chopped chili peppers into it, mixing it with the ladle. He then grabbed a handful of previously prepared minced garlic, Sichuan peppercorns, and star anise, tossed the well-marinated rabbit meat inside, and stir-fried it for about three minutes.
He did not scoop the fried rabbit meat out of the pot until the oil became clear. The fragrant aroma drifted right up to his nose, causing Song Wenqing, who had been craving it by the stove for a long time, to swallow his saliva involuntarily.
Pei Jinrong used chopsticks to pick up a piece first, feeding it to him so he could taste it. The rabbit meat was crispy on the outside and tender on the inside. Only after it reached his stomach did he finally feel a sense of reality.
Before long, the youth brought out several plates of side dishes from the stove area. The two of them finally began to raise their chopsticks. This was only the third meal he had shared with Pei Jinrong, and it remained exceedingly quiet. However, Song Wenqing did not find it awkward at all. For him, this was a very novel experience.
Back when he worked at the hospital, he spent the vast majority of his time studying or performing surgeries. The doctors in the department were also incredibly busy. Sometimes, even when they managed to carve out time to gather, the few of them would simply look at each other in silence.
During such times, he preferred to curl up at home, reading books or binge-watching shows. But staying together with Pei Jinrong made him feel as though he could finally catch his breath.
It felt exactly like the period of time when he lived in the countryside with his grandmother. He was not entirely certain whether it was the scenery before his eyes or the person before him that gave him this beautiful illusion.
He only knew that if it were possible, he wanted to keep living with Pei Jinrong just like this forever.
When sound is suddenly introduced to a world that has been silent for a long time, one can no longer tolerate loneliness.
After finishing the meal, Song Wenqing insisted on washing the dishes on the table. The food had been prepared by Pei Jinrong, and now that his health was nearly restored, he could not bring himself to push all the work onto Pei Jinrong alone.
The evening breeze felt very comfortable against his face. Pei Jinrong brought out two bamboo chairs from the house. He placed one to the side and sat on the other, continuing to weave a bamboo basket.
After washing the dishes, Song Wenqing noticed the bamboo chair by the yard. He sat down upon it, propping his head up to watch him weave.
A dog barked somewhere near the end of the house, likely because another passerby was walking past.
Before long, a beautiful and exquisite bamboo basket was born. His face filled with novelty as he picked it up and examined it for a long time, saying, “Husband, the bamboo basket you made is truly beautiful.”
Being praised by Song Wenqing caused the corners of Pei Jinrong’s mouth to curve slightly. After thinking for a moment, he turned to him and said, “Ah Wen, you should still call me Ah Jin in the future. Hearing you call me husband feels rather strange.”
It was better to be called Ah Jin. His father and mother had told him that calling someone husband created too much distance, whereas calling someone by their childhood name was much more intimate.