Chapter 13: Fingers Intertwined

After the heavy rain passed, the storm outside began to calm. The thunder and lightning completely stopped, leaving only a fine drizzle drifting down.

Shen Zhoudu had basically pressed Meng Weiyu beneath him, his pale blue eyes staring unblinkingly at Meng Weiyu’s reaction. Meng Weiyu’s face was turned to the side, his cotton-white hair falling across his fair cheeks. His black eyes reflected the bright indoor light as he stared at the soft fabric of the sofa.

“Being poked in the butt was just a biased way of describing my helpless confusion.” Meng Weiyu spoke while looking at the sofa backrest.

Shen Zhoudu frowned. His hand turned slightly, making Meng Weiyu’s face turn back toward him.

Meng Weiyu instantly faced Shen Zhoudu directly.

Shen Zhoudu’s hand was still on his face. His mouth opened slightly, and a familiar throbbing stirred in his heart.

“Simply put, what I’m afraid of is doing something with you under these unclear circumstances that I might regret later.” Meng Weiyu closed his eyes and made a praying gesture with his usable hand. “For example, you might think we still have a reasonable marriage relationship, and after seeing how pretty and cute I am, you want to force yourself on me. But I would rather die than submit, being noble and virtuous, and punch you to death.”

What he meant by being afraid of regretting it later was that he was afraid he would regret in prison why he had impulsively killed someone.

“You’d beat me to death?” Shen Zhoudu found it funny.

Meng Weiyu opened his eyes and said painfully, “What if I can’t hold back?”

Shen Zhoudu changed the hand on his face from a relaxed palm into a fist, placing it beside Meng Weiyu’s cheek. He even deliberately touched Meng Weiyu’s cheek lightly with his fist.

This pampered young master had very good skin and a small face.

Tsk.

The money he earned was spent entirely on raising this face.

Meng Weiyu understood what Shen Zhoudu meant. Based on their physiques, if they really fought, the only result would be Meng Weiyu being one-sidedly suppressed.

“You’re not human. You even bully patients.” Meng Weiyu tried to restrain him with morality.

Shen Zhoudu immediately pinched Meng Weiyu’s cheek and narrowed his eyes unhappily, discovering that the teenage Meng Weiyu was especially in need of discipline.

“Mmph mmph!” Meng Weiyu began to struggle.

Just as Shen Zhoudu was suppressing him, the phone in his pocket rang.

“One moment.” Shen Zhoudu acted as if he were educating a cat and would play with it later. He sat up and answered the call first.

Meng Weiyu used his only movable left hand to claw at Shen Zhoudu, wanting to push him away.

Shen Zhoudu glanced at him, then extended his own left hand and intertwined their fingers, stopping Meng Weiyu from continuing to make trouble at the side.

Their hands touched. Meng Weiyu’s ring finger was pressed by hard metal, and he subconsciously looked over. Only then did he realize that what had touched him were the two identical rings Shen Zhoudu wore on his ring finger. In fact, the two rings were almost the same size, but one was indeed a little bigger. Shen Zhoudu wore the properly fitted ring on the outside, using it to hold the slightly larger one in place.

It really was a style he liked.

Meng Weiyu’s fingers moved downward, and he took the initiative to hold Shen Zhoudu’s hand.

Shen Zhoudu, who was listening to the person on the phone, instantly froze. His pale blue eyes turned toward him.

Meng Weiyu really had held his hand and pulled it over, but only because he wanted to look at the two rings. When he had first woken up, one reason was that his thoughts were chaotic, and another was that the ring had been stained with blood and was too dirty, so he had not cared about a mere accessory at all. Now that he had the leisure to observe it, this ring was completely within his aesthetic preferences.

His fingers moved.

The only thing he could not understand was how Shen Zhoudu’s fingers could possibly be thinner than his.

Meng Weiyu used his fingernail to pick at the inner ring.

“What are you doing?” Shen Zhoudu could not help speaking.

Meng Weiyu suddenly snapped out of it as if waking from a dream. As if he had touched something filthy, he frantically shook off his hand.

“Pain.” Shen Zhoudu sucked in a breath. After Meng Weiyu shook off his hand, he immediately held it and looked at the finger wearing the rings.

“I can’t…” Staying with this guy was too dangerous.

Meng Weiyu suddenly woke up to reality.

“Uncle Wang said the water heater is fixed. Have you eaten dinner? If you have, go shower now.” Before Meng Weiyu could cause the next disaster, Shen Zhoudu stood up first.

“I haven’t eaten.” Meng Weiyu hugged his stomach pitifully. Originally, he should have had a full meal at Ning Wu’s house and rested properly. Who could have expected him to run into the scene of a married couple arguing? The road here was also far, so he had missed dinnertime just like that.

“What do you want to do?” Shen Zhoudu asked for his opinion. “Uncle Wang is in another building, and his rheumatism has been uncomfortable recently. But if you need him, he’ll come over to cook for you.”

“Is Uncle Wang my Uncle Wang?” Meng Weiyu was not sure whether the old people from the past were still by his side.

“You don’t have a hobby of collecting surnames either.” Shen Zhoudu answered his question from the side.

Meng Weiyu sighed and said helplessly, “Can’t you just directly answer yes or no?”

“Yes.” Shen Zhoudu nodded.

Even though he was obedient afterward, Meng Weiyu was still angered.

“I’ll call him over.” Shen Zhoudu stopped asking.

“No need. He’s elderly and unwell, and it’s raining now. If I make him come over just to cook for me, am I even human?” Meng Weiyu felt the condemnation of humanity. “If I stay hungry long enough, I won’t be hungry anymore. Or if there are any snacks, give me a bag.”

“Mm.”

“Don’t just ‘mm.’ Give me food.” Meng Weiyu reached his hand out toward him.

“Or if there’s something you want to eat, I’ll cook it for you.” Shen Zhoudu lowered his head and looked at him.

Hearing this, Meng Weiyu first suspected that something was wrong with his ears. Then he was so startled that his hand dropped, and he shifted a large distance across the sofa.

“You’re so annoying.” He had cooked for him for so many years.

“How do you know how to cook?” Meng Weiyu’s reaction was even greater than ten years ago. He directly performed a frantic head-shaking act in front of Shen Zhoudu.

“When I was young, my parents were often not home, so I know how to cook.” Shen Zhoudu had not expected that after five years of marriage, he would still have to explain this matter.

“So that’s how it is.” Meng Weiyu forced himself to calm down, then looked at Shen Zhoudu with sympathetic eyes. “Did your parents abuse you and not find an uncle or auntie to cook for you?”

Shen Zhoudu nearly could not hold back his laughter. Why were Meng Weiyu’s reactions always exactly the same?

“What are you laughing at?” Meng Weiyu caught his fleeting smile.

“Nothing.” Shen Zhoudu turned and left. “So what do you want to eat?”

“Chestnut chicken, carrot-corn pork rib soup, and cold lotus root salad.” Meng Weiyu had especially wanted to eat these three dishes recently, but because his parents had suddenly returned home, it had not been his turn to request dishes.

Shen Zhoudu opened the fridge and silently rummaged through the ingredients. Then he helplessly told Meng Weiyu, “What should we do? Since no one has been staying here recently, there aren’t many ingredients in the fridge.”

“Then what can you make?” Meng Weiyu looked at him with contempt.

Shen Zhoudu had not expected that his attempt to recreate the first time he gained Meng Weiyu’s favor would collapse just like that. He answered, “Tomato, beef, and vegetable noodles.”

“Fine.” Better than going hungry.

Shen Zhoudu took out the ingredients and went aside to prepare them. Meng Weiyu sat on the sofa. He should have adhered to the method of keeping as much distance from this person as possible, but he was truly too bored. He sat on the sofa, lay on it, lay upside down—he had done everything. Meanwhile, Shen Zhoudu had only just started boiling water. He had no choice but to jump off the sofa and walk toward the only person here who could move.

“If you’re bored, you can play with your phone, if you can still use your current phone,” Shen Zhoudu said when he saw Meng Weiyu’s movements, able to guess his state of mind.

“It’s meaningless.” Meng Weiyu moved his feet and stood two steps behind Shen Zhoudu.

“Then am I meaningful?” Shen Zhoudu found it funny.

“Even more meaningless.” In Meng Weiyu’s understanding, Shen Zhoudu belonged among the ranks of boring people.

Amid his voice, Shen Zhoudu put the noodles into the hot water.

Just as he was seriously cooking dinner, Meng Weiyu suddenly poked his head out to look at him.

Shen Zhoudu: “…”

“The things I said just now weren’t deliberately meant to disgust you.” Meng Weiyu explained softly.

“It’s fine.” Shen Zhoudu’s attitude was cold. It was hard to tell whether he had accepted the apology or not. He merely picked up the beef slices and placed them in.

Meng Weiyu stood behind him, anxiously leaning left and right to look at Shen Zhoudu.

Shen Zhoudu tapped the wet chopsticks against the edge of the pot, then calmly turned his head to look at Meng Weiyu and asked, “Want to chat?”

“Sure. I want to ask, why exactly did I… agree to marry you?” Meng Weiyu had many questions he wanted to ask Shen Zhoudu, and this was the one he was most curious about. “Don’t give me the answer from before. What I want to know is my own thoughts.”

“Oh.” Shen Zhoudu did not take it seriously and confidently said, “Because you liked me.”

“Ahhhhh!” Meng Weiyu covered his head and began screaming like a ghost.

“It’s true.” Shen Zhoudu laughed softly.

“But I don’t like men.” Meng Weiyu reminded himself of one thing. “Girls are so nice.”

“You said you suddenly discovered the good points of men.”

“Only a ghost would discover something like that.” Meng Weiyu felt that he might have been possessed.

Alright. Shen Zhoudu had once again discovered the nonsense Meng Weiyu used to say in the past.

“And my relationship with you was also very bad.” Meng Weiyu began suspecting that he was the only normal one, while everyone else had gone insane.

Shen Zhoudu picked up a freshly cut slice of tomato and stuffed it into Meng Weiyu’s mouth.

You’re too noisy.

Meng Weiyu bit down and held it in his mouth, starting to eat. At the same time, he no longer had time to speak.

“About two months after the point in time where your current memories stopped, I was by the sea. When I had the impulse to commit suicide, you took me away. After that, there were exams coming up, and your little tutor Xiao Jialu was busy, so I taught you how to solve problems instead. Back and forth, our relationship became pretty good.”

The relationship between him and Meng Weiyu had needed to be explored bit by bit, advanced little by little. Only then, on a certain day, through the romance given by the moon, the stimulation given by the night wind, and the courage given by the heart, could they cross into the next territory.

Of course, before that, they also needed to step past prejudice, the self, and the ideas of the secular world.

“Why did you want to kill yourself?” Meng Weiyu could not understand what especially serious worries Shen Zhoudu could have. He had an outstanding family background and was already a favored child of heaven himself. Or was it because of his parents? But he had heard that Shen Zhoudu’s parents had a good relationship and treated him very well.

How enviable.

“That morning.” Shen Zhoudu placed the vegetables into the pot. His glasses were covered by mist. He had not expected that even now, he would have to recall the pain from back then. But fortunately, to the person he was today, none of the past agony remained. “My father discovered that I might be gay, and I was educated both openly and subtly.”

His parents treated him very well, but they were also very strict with him.

He had to be the most outstanding, and at the same time, he could not draw any strange looks from others.

Then of course he could not be gay.

But what could he do?

Shen Zhoudu could only leave home in a sorry state, board a bus he had never ridden before, and after a long time, arrive at a completely unfamiliar place.

Would he die?

He had actually thought about this question. However, that careless thought ended with a boy’s call.

That summer, the moment the rainstorm stopped, everything was silent. Yet Shen Zhoudu’s heart began to race like a startled deer, the sound echoing through his ears and heart.

The storm of the heart was even more terrifying than the threat of nature.

“Young Master Meng, the ancients often said that when one receives a life-saving grace, one should repay it with one’s body.” Shen Zhoudu revealed a gentle smile Meng Weiyu had never seen before. “So that’s what I did.”

To this, Meng Weiyu honestly said, “Was that you repaying me? You were clearly harming me.”