Ni Jiu (Intoxicated) - Chap 81
After Lian Jue came out of Chen’s house, Lin Chen quickly opened the car door for him and asked him in a low voice, “Are you going home, President Lian?”
From the moment he got into the car, Lian Jue obviously fell into the kind of silence that would happen when he was alone. He silently looked out the window at the thick night that was stagnant because the car had not started. His dark eyes were as empty as if he were alone. Unable to focus, he could only hear some heavy breathing in the car for a long time.
Lin Chen drove Lian Jue home on his own initiative.
Lian Jue’s state is really bad at the moment. He has a dark stubble on his chin at some point. His hair is a little messy because he hasn’t taken good care of it for a few days and his eyes are covered with fine red color, bloodshot. The dark marks are heavier than when Lin Chen left a week ago.
“…Mr. Lian,” Lin Chen glanced at Lian Jue in the back row with the rearview mirror and said hesitantly, “You haven’t had a good rest for a long time, do you need me to arrange for a doctor to come?”
It seems that Lian Jue raised his eyes to meet his eyes when he mentioned the doctor and said, “No need.”
“Mr. Shen, he…” Lin Chen hesitated for a long time but stopped when he first spoke.
He originally wanted to comfort him with a few words but he was afraid that the words would not be rigorous and would show indifference towards the impending fire from the other side.
Shen Tingwei suddenly disappeared without a trace. There was no news… Even if his life or death was uncertain, Lin Chen understood that it was unlikely that Lian Jue would be able to hear any comfort at this time, so he simply said something else casually. He tried to lighten the atmosphere but he didn’t get any response from Lian Jue until he stopped.
It wasn’t until the car parked in the courtyard of the villa that Lian Jue seemed to recover his thoughts from a long period of daze and asked him, “What did you just say?”
Lin Chen secretly sighed in his heart and said, “It’s nothing.”
After returning home, Lian Jue went straight to the second floor, went back to the room and locked the door from the inside.
Lin Chen knocked on the door but Lian Jue didn’t give him any response. No one had seen Lian Jue in such a mental state. He was worried that something would happen, so he decided to stay here first so that he could listen to the movement upstairs at any time.
The lights were not turned on in the bedroom. After Lian Jue returned to the room, he lay directly on the bed, looking at the ceiling from his dim vision.
No one has slept in this bed for a week. The smell of Shen Tingwei on the bed has faded away.
Lian Jue’s eyes were a little sour. He closed his eyes, thinking of how stupid Shen Tingwei had put his blanket and clothes on his bed. Shyly asking him to smell his own smell and fall asleep.
“Maybe this will make you feel more comfortable.” Shen Tingwei said.
Thinking of Shen Tingwei’s way of expressing his love to him in a low voice with his eyes down after he hurriedly urged him to go home. “…It’s just that I need you very much.” Shen Tingwei said.
Lian Jue thought that he would not feel comfortable because of Shen Tingwei’s strange smell and also thought that he did not need Shen Tingwei so indispensably. But now he seems to have said it again, Lian Jue thought, the little bit of Shen Tingwei’s scent on the bed seems to be the only thing that can comfort him in such a state.
He fetched Shen Tingwei’s pillow but felt that it was not enough. He involuntarily pulled up half of the quilt that Shen Tingwei often covered and wrapped himself together with the pillow.
He rested his chin on Shen Tingwei’s pillow. His nose was filled with the faint scent of sweet wine mixed in the artificial fragrance of shampoo and detergent. He couldn’t help but think, the night of Shen Tingwei’s birthday. That night when he slept in his arms with his back to him. ‘ Did he really secretly cry for a long time under the quilt. ‘
This sudden thought seemed to have suddenly mixed a bit of bitterness into the sweetness that was almost dissipating all over his body. His wandering thoughts were pulled back by the smell.
With hindsight, he realized that he was lying on the bed wearing clothes that he hadn’t changed for two days, so he lifted the quilt and sat up slowly. The abundant air diluted the nostalgic scent in his breath. He got up from the bed, stood beside the bed and took off his clothes one by one.
Shen Tingwei had some cleanliness addictions that he had shown to him before.
On a night when he was a little tired after an entertainment, Shen Tingwei came out of the bathroom and saw that he was sitting on the bed temporarily because he waited too long. He stopped talking for a long time.
Lian Jue asked, “What’s wrong?”
Shen Tingwei went to the closet and helped him take out a set of clean home clothes. When he handed it to him, he asked in a low voice, “Can you change your clothes and go to bed when you come back later…”
When Lian Jue turned to look for the home clothes. The toe of his shoe accidentally kicked something. He heard the sound of the roller sliding on the floor.
Lian Jue reached out in the dark and touched it. It was a suitcase brought back from the airport. It may be that Kang Tong helped him bring the box back to his room before he went to the school for boarding.
Perhaps it was because he hadn’t rested for too long. The moment he got up from the bed, Lian Jue felt an unprecedented tiredness hit him. He was too lazy to turn on the lights. He was too lazy to rummage in the closet. He pulled the clothes out of the box one by one. He used his hand to find the pajamas that Shen Tingwei put away for him.
The familiar soft touch with his fingertips made him pause for a moment when he took the clothes out. He had a premonition almost at this moment. He took out the folded, cotton-thread-like item and walked over. Turn on the headlights in the room.
The moment the light came on, Lian Jue’s eyes were stinged and his breathing was slightly stagnant.
In his hand was a dark grey scarf woven from wool.
The scarf is somewhat similar to Kang Tong’s. The style is slightly changed. There are no childish Susui dangling at both ends. The style looks simple and elegant but it is not difficult to find the complicated patterns in the stitches if you look closely.
Lian Jue took a few heavy breaths, as if to expel the turbid air that had settled in his lungs. It took him a while to calm down.
He still remembered the morning when Shen Tingwei brought the white scarf to Kang Tong and seemed to ask casually, “Is it not as good-looking as the one bought outside?”
He was answering Alex’s email with his head down at the time and he replied casually: “It’s fine.”
Shen Tingwei asked him again, “It doesn’t look ugly, does it?”
Lian Jue seemed to raise his eyes and glanced at it but he didn’t seem to have any and said perfunctorily, “No.”
He remembered that Shen Tingwei’s tone seemed very happy and said, “That’s good.”
Even the pictures of Shen Tingwei that Lian Jue recalled during this period would make him feel pain. His eyes seemed to be aching from the warmth conveyed by the scarf. When he unfolded the scarf, the yellow sticky note in the middle fell out of it.
Shen Tingwei’s style leaving a note, as always, shows his mood on the paper:
‘ I checked the weather and the lowest temperature in Jiangcheng this week is less than ten degrees. If it’s cold, wear this and make do with it ☺️. ‘
This is followed by a line of small print in parentheses: and wondered why Shen Tingwei had such a good temper?
He missed Shen Tingwei’s birthday, made him wait all day and made him cry all night. Where did he get the mood to care whether he should keep warm?
Shen Tingwei didn’t even have time to receive that late birthday greeting.
Lian Jue thought that Shen Tingwei was looking at the phone at the time. If he had sent it out a few seconds earlier, maybe Shen Tingwei would have seen it.
– How many seconds earlier?
A guess suddenly flashed in Lian Jue’s mind. He lowered his head almost without thinking. He rummage through the phone in his coat pocket.
He took out the phone. The screen that lit up showed that the battery was too low. Lian Jue tried to decipher Shen Tingwei’s phone password while looking for a phone charger in the room.
He tried Shen Tingwei’s birthday. The birthday on his ID card. Kang Tong’s birthday.
Shen Tingwei is a very simple person. The lock screen password is easy to decipher, perhaps because he thought it was a bit complicated. He tried four times and finally, under a hopeless test, he used the last four digits of Shen Tingwei’s mobile phone number. Phone unlocked.
Although Lian Jue had already had a hunch, after the system’s built-in lock screen was opened. He saw that the page stayed on the chat box of the two of them. At this moment, his throat seemed to be strangled by a pair of cold and invisible hands. He couldn’t take his stinging eyes away for a long time.
There is half a sentence lying in the text sending box and it has not been entered yet, it is broken abruptly:
Then, next year, remember my birthday.
The unfinished message left in the input method interface.
Shen Tingwei’s [entering] WeChat message that he never waited for…
Lian Jue’s hand holding the phone slowly softened, staring at the line without entering a complete sentence, his mind remained blank, until the phone screen jumped out of the automatic shutdown page. He mechanically walked towards the bed. He connected the phone to the charger.
Shen Tingwei’s unread messages are very empty and only one person named [Happy] has sent him a few WeChat messages in the past few days.
Happy: Does your husband like the cake?
Happy: No, no, no, with a man forget me.
Happy: I’m so angry, you haven’t replied to my message for a day, it’s faded, my feelings are faded!
Happy: Exhale.jpg
Happy: Weiweiweiweiweiwei?
Happy: Why didn’t you reply to my WeChat for so many days! QAQ
Happy:? ? ? Are you okay?
The other party’s messages on the WeChat account took up a whole page. After flipping up and down a few times, he saw the chat record of the two on the afternoon of October 16th.
Shen Tingwei: I made a cake for my husband, but it seems a bit ugly 🙁
Shen Tingwei: [Picture]
Happy: What century did you come from, brother. You still use such a dirty expression
Happy: Hahahahaha sorry I just clicked the picture. I laughed, this cake is really not ugly. I thought you made a whole sponge.
Shen Tingwei: I can’t make a good-looking appearance, should I cut it into a heart shape? But I don’t have a mold here, it’s probably a bit difficult.
Happy: You can get some cream. Try it with some decoration.
Shen Tingwei: My husband doesn’t like sweet foods. I don’t like it too much either 🙁
Shen Tingwei: Is this expression better?
Happy: Not good?
Happy: You don’t like sweet food, so you can cut some fruit? Sprinkle some jelly beans, sugar or something. I saw a few pictures on Weibo before. They are quite cute. I will find them and send them to you. If you don’t like it too sweet, just get rid of it at that time~
Shen Tingwei: Good 🙂
When Lian Jue came downstairs in a hurry, Lin Chen just helped the cat to fill up the little food left in the automatic feeding and water feeder.
Because there are too many things going on recently. Kang Tong has no one to take care of him and was temporarily arranged by Lian Jue to go to school for accommodation. The home is a bit empty.
He watched Lian Jue walk towards the kitchen and was startled at first, then quickly said, “Mr. Lian, do you need me to order food for you?”
When Lian Jue heard his voice his footsteps did not stop and his tone was a little cold: “Why are you still here?”
Lin Chen was stunned again by his expulsion: “Ah, after I feed a cat, I’ll be leaving…”
Lian Jue let out an “um”, walked straight to the refrigerator and opened it.
The warm yellow lamp in the refrigerator outlines lit the delicately decorated cake with a soft light edge. The strawberries and cherries used for decoration are covered with a thin layer of cold frosting. The edges of the cake were slowly collapsing due to the long storage.
It’s far better than the photo that Shen Tingwei sent to the girl for confirmation after it was finished.
Lian Jue looked at the cake in front of him that had become no longer fresh after such a long period of refrigerating, as if he could see that Shen Tingwei carefully put it in, looking forward to opening the refrigerator when he came back. But, then it was followed by a long wait that is gradually disappointing.
After Lin Chen left the villa that day, Lian Jue sat alone at the dining table and ate the whole cake.
He didn’t taste the sweetness that Shen Tingwei had repeatedly worried about in the chat records, only bitterness and sourness.
