Ni Jiu (Intoxicated) - Chap 82
“Are you okay?” The middle-aged man looked worriedly at the young Omega who was pregnant in front of him and asked politely, “Do you need help?”
A few minutes ago, he had just bought a bunch of flowers from the flower shop and happened to see the lost young pregnant man on the sidewalk across the road, so he quickly walked over to see if the other party needed help.
When he walked over, he noticed that the Omega in front of him was a little strange. He was wearing a clean and tidy striped hospital gown. A thick gauze was wrapped around his head but he didn’t show too much sloppy and haggard. He looked weak. He clearly looked like a well-cared-for patient but at this moment he was walking barefoot on this somewhat remote street which made him a little puzzled.
In his mind, he was quickly recalling the gangs of China-Touching Gangs that were often mentioned in the recent TV news. The Omega in front of him suddenly pressed his head, his dry and white lips were tightly pursed and his expression looked very painful. .
The kind-hearted Beta man suddenly lost his thoughts. He quickly supported him when his body began to shake and asked worriedly, “Are you uncomfortable? Do you want me to take you back to the hospital?”
The weather was already at the end of October, the temperature was gradually changing to winter. The coldness on the ground was passed from the soles of his bare feet making Shen Tingwei’s calf a little sore and numb. During this period of time, he only relied on liquid food and nutritional supplementsbwhich caused his body to lose weight again. The hospital gown which had been enlarged by a few sizes because of his pregnancy was even more loose.
Shen Tingwei was helped by the kind-hearted Beta in front of him. Then, he shook his head gently and whispered in a hoarse voice, “Thank you… No need.”
He raised his eyes from the hospital gown he was wearing and stared at the street scene that seemed familiar but made him feel inexplicably unfamiliar.
Since waking up on the street corner just now, his chaotic consciousness seems to have been pulled back to a few months ago in an instant. He also stood blankly at an alleyway that was relatively unfamiliar to him. Looking in front of him, the street scene of the changed world is ecstatic.
But Shen Tingwei never thought of returning to this dream world again, under such circumstances.
He endured the severe headache from the wound on his head which became more severe due to random thinking. The “I do” in his ear was far away and seemed incomprehensible.
With the outline that he could draw when he closed his eyes, it was like an incomplete dream of yellow lilies. At the moment when he was about to see the end, he woke up from the dream. The moment he opened his eyes, the knitting was completed. The fantasy dream all dissipated with the things that gradually became clear in front of him.
Shen Tingwei subconsciously raised his hand and gently stroked his bulging belly, feeling the cold sensation at the base of his fingers which forced him to wake up from his self-deceiving fantasy and make him recognize the reality.
The memories are real, the baby in the womb is real and even the secrets are real.
But he came back.
When he thought that he was about to have an absurd but happy ending, he returned to this world that belonged to him with the idea of starting to forget the past.
Shen Tingwei smelled the faint fragrance of jasmine at this time.
The Beta man noticed his gaze with a slightly embarrassed but uncontrollable smile on his face. He put the jasmine bouquet in his hand generously in front of him, perhaps thinking that he had the same thoughts about this bouquet of jasmine as the public. The man said with a smile: “Is it a bit strange that jasmine flowers are packaged in bouquets? Like wild vegetables, I thought so when I first saw them.”
Shen Tingwei said ‘no’ softly and praised the beautiful bouquet in his hand.
The man was obviously pleased by his compliment and said happily: “It’s hard to find a shop that sells jasmine bouquets in Su City. It took me a long time to find a flower shop here, so I come here every week to buy a bunch.”
The memories brought back by the bunch of jasmine Shen Tingwei made his head hurt a lot but since chatting with him can temporarily divert his attention and stop himself from thinking wildly. He threw a topic in a low voice. : “Does your wife like jasmine?”
The middle-aged man’s face showed a little embarrassment but there was a very pleasant smile on the corner of his mouth: “She’snot my wife. I’m still pursuing her.” Seeing that Shen Tingwei showed that he was very interested in his topic, so he didn’t have reservations because the two of them were just strangers who met by chance, perhaps with a little bit of sharing and showing off, he described to him how gentle the girl he liked and said, “She likes jasmine very much. She can only be happy when she sees jasmine and I want her to be happy.”
When Shen Tingwei heard this Mr. Beta, who seemed to be about the same age as his father, happily used ‘girl’ to describe the person he liked, Shen Tingwei revealed an unconscious soft smile in the dullness that filled his heart, so he sincerely said to this lovely Beta man: “I wish you success. She will love it.”
“Hope,” the man whispered and added, “but she probably won’t accept me any time soon.”
After seeing Shen Tingwei’s puzzled expression, he shook his head lightly, without any intention of continuing the conversation. He just said, “But it’s okay, I’ll just wait.”
After finishing his topic, the man asked him again worriedly as to why is he barefoot and alone.
Shen Tingwei didn’t know how to answer his question, so he avoided his gaze subconsciously and hurriedly made up an excuse that even he felt lame: “My shoes don’t fit. My husband will help me change them… I…I’m waiting for him here…”
The man was obviously stunned by his reasons and then said in surprise: “…He made you wait here barefoot?”
Shen Tingwei was also fooled by his own excuse. He opened his mouth and was too embarrassed to answer his words: “…”
“How can this be done, such a cold weather…”
While the man was talking, he looked down at his feet. Shen Tingwei felt flustered in his heart. He took a small step back with a guilty conscience, trying to find a new excuse to make up for it. The man had already looked away and raised his head. He looked around the street.
“Wait for a moment.” The man suddenly put the jasmine bouquet into his hand and said, “I’ll be back soon, just a moment-”
A few minutes later, the man ran back again, handed him a bottle of warm milk, took out the thing under his arm and opened the package.
The man squatted down in front of him: “The slippers sold in the convenience store are not very good-looking. I hope you don’t mind. The main reason is that now you are pregnant and the weather is so cold, you can easily get sick with bare feet…”
Shen Tingwei put on the cotton slippers that the man bought for him from the convenience store embarrassedly and thanked him constantly.
The man waved his hand to him indifferently, smiled and said it was okay. Let him not be too burdened. He don’t know if it was to ease the atmosphere or something and said, “Actually, when I first saw you, I thought you looked very good.”
But before he could finish speaking, the phone in his inner pocket rang.
He nodded apologetically to Shen Tingwei, who shook his head to show that he didn’t care and motioned him to answer the phone first.
He watched the man take the phone out of his pocket. The smile on his face became thicker and softer the moment he saw the lit screen. He picked up the phone and said the address to the other party in a gentle voice.
Shen Tingwei lowered his eyes after he stopped communicating with him, staring straight at the dark blue cotton slippers on his feet.
He couldn’t help but think of Lian Jue, who always liked to wear this simple blue slippers.
It was not until the man in front of him ended the call and said goodbye to him that he finally interrupted the thoughts that gave him a splitting headache.
“She’s coming.” The man said, looking at Shen Tingwei’s not-so-good face again. He hesitated, “Do you need me to help you contact your husband… He seems to have been away for a long time.”
Shen Tingwei said in a low voice, “…not for a long time.”
The man didn’t hear clearly: “What?”
“I mean he’ll be here soon. Go get busy. Don’t worry about me.” Shen Tingwei raised his eyes to look at the man. The corners of his mouth drew a somewhat reluctant arc. Shen Tingwei looked at the the jasmine on his hands and said softly, “My husband also gave me jasmine.”
The man smiled and said, “That’s such a coincidence.”
After the two said their goodbyes, Shen Tingwei walked aimlessly along the sidewalk.
Perhaps a clear destination appeared in his mind but his footsteps were deliberately contrary to his own thoughts.
He really wanted to go home. He wanted to see his parents but… he was scared.
Shen Tingwei is not good at dealing with all kinds of strange things that happen to him but he is sometimes good at escaping.
He didn’t dare to think about Lian Jue who was now in another world and was at a loss because of his sudden disappearance. He didn’t dare to think about how he should appear in front of his parents with such a down and embarrassed appearance.
He looked down at his hand, at the diamond ring that he had been wearing since he woke up. He raised his hand warmed by the milk bottle to cover his belly through the thin clothes, suddenly between his nose feeling sour.
Shen Tingwei blinked his eyes quickly. He wiped the tears from his eyes with the back of his hand, let out a breath and walked slowly with small steps.
He heard the well-meaning Mr. Beta raise his voice and call someone’s name and his footsteps paused.
Then the gentleman called again: “Peshu-this way.”
Shen Tingwei’s back stiffened for a moment.
His cranky brain turned blank at this moment. He turned his head subconsciously and stiffly-
He saw the middle-aged woman across the road shyly taking the flowers handed by the man whispering something to him then holding the flowers and sniffing lightly. The picture that seemed to be much older in just a few months, a slightly relaxed smile appeared on his face.
It’s his mother.
