Ni Jiu (Intoxicated) - Chap 70

Before Shen Tingwei had finished these things, he found a band-aid in the medicine cabinet in the living room. He put it on the finger that started to turn white after soaking in water.
As a gift from Lian Jue for giving him roses, he prepared a sumptuous dinner. During the cooking process, Kang Tong called and said that he wanted to stay at his classmate’s house tonight and asked him if he could.
Before Shen Tingwei could make up his mind, he took his mobile phone upstairs and knocked on the door of Lian Jue’s study.
After half a minute, Lian Jue came to open the door watching Shen Tingwei without speaking.
Shen Tingwei read his unhappiness from his expressionless face, pointed to the mobile phone in his hand and said to Lian Jue: “Tongtong’s classmates are hosting a school party at home, can he live with them tonight?”
Lian Jue didn’t answer quickly but put his gaze on his face and then his expression became even more unhappy.
Lian Jue didn’t say yes or no. He took the phone directly from him and asked, “Which classmate?”
Kang Tong seemed a little nervous when he heard Lian Jue’s voice. He carefully reported the names and home addresses of his classmates to Lian Jue and seemed to make some behavioral guarantees. Shen Tingwei lowered his head and couldn’t hear him clearly. He listened to Lian Jue’s response to Kang Tong with brief words from time to time in a trance and realized later that Lian Jue was just waiting for him to explain.
After Lian Jue and Kang Tong ended the call, he handed the phone back to Shen Tingwei. He took it over and said to Lian Jue, “Dinner is almost ready. It will be ready in ten minutes.”
Lian Jue made a “hmm” and turned towards the study room. Shen Tingwei looked at his back and quickly said in a low voice, “The rose just now—”
Before he would say “I like it very much”, but Lian Jue’s attitude seemed impatient and unwilling to continue the topic and interrupted coldly, “Lin Chen prepared it.”

Shen Ting’s words were stuck in his throat before he finished speaking. He was not completely doubtful about Lian Jue’s act of giving him roses, so he recalled that Lian Jue just took the flowers back and didn’t “send them”, so when Lian Jue said this sentence, he didn’t have any doubts in his heart. There was a big gap but he felt a tightness in his chest halfway through the conversation. Finally, before the study door was completely closed he said, “Oh, okay.”
Shen Ting bring the last dish to the table, so the placement of the plates seemed a little tight. Shen Tingwei was not slow to realize that if Kang Tong didn’t come back at night, he and Lian Jue would be the only ones to have dinner. It was a waste to cook so many dishes by himself.
Lian Jue was very punctual and came downstairs ten minutes after Shen Tingwei went downstairs.
Shen Tingwei noticed that he glanced at the bunch of roses on the table. There was a pause of less than a second in the movement of reaching for the chair and then he sat down calmly at the table.
His expression seemed to be looser than before but it didn’t reveal any more. Before Shen Tingwei try to find a clearer emotion on his face, Lian Jue had already started to eat without squinting.
Shen Tingwei wanted to explain what happened earlier. He raised his head to look at Lian Jue several times. Lian Jue remained silent with an indifferent expression. He seemed to have no desire to communicate with him, so he held back, lowered his head and eat in silence.
Lin Chen bought the flowers, maybe Lian Jue didn’t care whether he liked them or how to deal with them.
Lian Jue didn’t eat too much. Shen Tingwei didn’t even take a sip of the soup that was served to him. He simply left the table after he was full.
Shen Tingwei still had some vague discomfort in his stomach because he vomited just now and he didn’t eat anything.
Lian Jue does not allow dishes that have been heated for the second time at home. Shen Tingwei didn’t know his habit at first. The chicken wings left at noon were reheated for dinner and served again. Lian Jue didn’t touch a single bite. He glanced at him while clipping, and timidly retracted the chopsticks.
Later, Shen Tingwei began to control the amount of vegetables and even if the leftovers were thrown away at the end, he would not feel distressed.
But today he cooked too many dishes and after thinking about it, he still put two dishes that were not touched by chopsticks in the refrigerator, thinking that he could eat them while reheating them at noon tomorrow when he was not even there and only eat the rest.
After cleaning the table, he put the dishes in the dishwasher, wiped his hands and walked out of the kitchen.
It was still too early, Shen Tingwei didn’t know what to do when he went back to the room, so he went back to the living room and sat down before the sofa. He turned on the TV and tuned to a channel that would play dramas in prime time at night.
He watched the advertisement aimlessly for a while and couldn’t help but think of the bunch of flowers.
He thought about it, took out his mobile phone from his pocket, edited a polite thank-you message and sent it to Lin Chen.
Unusually, Lin Chen didn’t reply to his WeChat immediately. Shen Tingwei didn’t wait deliberately. The commercials on TV finally ended, it jumped into the prime-time preview.
“—Next, what you will see is the Qixi Festival special program “Magpie Bridge Concert” prepared for you by a certain channel. The guests participating in the performance tonight are—”
Before waiting for the preview of the TV series, Shen Tingwei looked up unexpectedly.
The preview time was very long. There was a long list of stars and posters who appeared in the party. The introduction of the guests was long and boring.
The TV was stuck on time and entered the feature film. First, there was a distant view of the venue. The party was arranged in an antique style. The host on the stage was also dressed in ancient costumes and had a special appearance.
“Hello everyone in front of the TV and the Internet, it’s the seventh day of the seventh lunar month every year, ushering in our annual traditional festival – Qixi Festival.”
The host of the TV show said that today is the seventh day of the seventh lunar month but the date on the calendar today is August 26th. Shen Tingwei was not as shocked as when he first learned about the lunar calendar. It has been a long time since he came to this world. He has long understood that people here have two ways of dating but he is not very familiar with it until now, so now he understands that this ‘Tanabata’ is also an important tradition in this world.
The two hosts sang and said the opening remarks, telling the allusions and origins of the Qixi Festival. Shen Tingwei did not find it strange and listened carefully.
“It is said that on the seventh day of the seventh lunar month every year, the Cowherd and the Weaver Girl will meet at the Magpie Bridge…”
Shen Tingwei’s cell phone vibrated in his pocket. While listening to the TV, he took out his cell phone and looked at it. It was Lin Chen’s reply to him, a very brief one: ?

Shen Tingwei did not look at the news and did not understand the meaning of the question mark.
The other party quickly withdrew the question mark. The wording became a little more rigorous: I’m sorry, Mr. Shen, I just saw WeChat. That bouquet of roses was personally selected by President Lian. I don’t deserve this ‘thank you’. You should thank President Lian.
When Shen Tingwei was staring at WeChat, the host on the TV just said: “So the Qixi Festival has always been known as “traditional Valentine’s Day” in our hearts——”
Shen Tingwei suddenly raised his head and glanced at the TV after hearing the words. What surprised him more than the news sent by Lin Chen was that this ‘Qianxi Festival’ was in the traditional sense here… Valentine’s Day.
Shen Tingwei is not stupid, of course he understands the meaning of giving roses on Valentine’s Day.
Recalling the weirdness and indifference of Lian Jue just now, his heart was overturned for a while and the expression on his face was difficult to stabilize.
The phone vibrated again in his hand, interrupting his thoughts.
Shen Tingwei picked up the phone, and found that the message Lin Chen had just re-sent had also been withdrawn.
He guessed that Lin Chen might have realized something as much as he did and there was a new message in the dialog box: Did you just like it?
Shen Tingwei was holding the phone and hesitated what to reply when he saw that Lin Chen withdrew the sentence “you like it” again and changed it to: received.

Lin Chen is obviously more struggling and tangled than he is. After all, in this kind of festival, it becomes difficult to distinguish between taking the blame or not.
Shen Tingwei did not embarrass him further he put away the phone and did not reply.
He stared absently at the TV for a while, then got up from the sofa, turned off the TV and walked up to the second floor.
When knocking on the door of the study, Shen Tingwei was unconsciously nervous.
He only knocked twice before putting down his hand, looking down and waiting for Lian Jue to come to open the door.
The sound insulation of the room was so good that he couldn’t hear any footsteps approaching. His mind was full of mixed feelings. On one hand, he thought about the rhetoric used to please Lian Jue and on the other hand, he wondered whether it would happen this time, another misunderstanding.
The door in front of him was pulled open from the inside when he was caught off guard. A pair of dark blue household slippers appeared in his sight.
“What’s the matter?” Lian Jue asked.
Shen Tingwei heard his voice. He just felt that his heart was beating too fast. He didn’t fully think about the words, there was a momentary blank in his mind.
So the answer can’t keep up.
Lian Jue waited for him impatiently for a few seconds and when he didn’t speak, he was about to close the door.
Shen Tingwei saw Lian Jue raising his hand and panicked in his heart. His hand was one step faster than his head, he grabbed the corner of Lian Jue’s clothes, raised his head in a panic and stopped him: “Lian Jue!”
Lian Jue looked down at his tightly clenched hands and then slowly moved his gaze to his face.
Shen Tingwei’s ears were very red and his eyes were not so focused.
“I’m…a little sensitive to roses.” He was a little incoherent and his palms were hot. He was holding Lian Jue’s clothes, worried that the sweat of his palms would soak his clothes and said in a low voice, “I used to—because of some things Idon’t like the smell…but I’m happy and I love the flowers you gave me.”
Lian Jue looked at him without saying a word, quietly as if waiting for his next words.
Shen Tingwei raised his head. The bright light of the study room reflected on his thin and upward eyes, his eyes gradually converged, stared at Lian Jue’s eyes a little embarrassedly and said softly: “Next time if you want to send flowers , can you send jasmine?”

There seemed to be a slight change on Lian Jue’s face. His eyes were not as calm as they used to benbut there were subtle waves hidden in them. The corners of his straight lips moved slightly but he didn’t speak.
Shen Tingwei was pulling harder on the corner of Lian Jue’s clothes. He didn’t know whether he wanted to bring Lian Jue closer to him or send himself to Lian Jue’s arms.
He stood on tiptoe and kissed Lian Jue on the corner of his lips then he didn’t dare to look into Lian Jue’s eyes. He lowered his head slightly while blushing.
And to make “the next time” more realistic he asked: “Tomorrow… can you give me Jasmine?”