Ni Jiu (Intoxicated) - Chap 84

Lian Jue locked himself in the dark bedroom this night and did something that wasn’t quite magnanimous.

He rummaged through Shen Tingwei’s cell phone without authorization and read the clips related to Shen Tingwei countless times.

The only photo Lian Jue found in Shen Tingwei’s phone album that could be considered a selfie was a blurry photo with a tricky angle and no focus.

Shen Tingwei had a fingernail-sized rash behind his ears. Maybe it was because it was so itchy that he couldn’t see behind his ears. He cleverly photographed it with a camera, leaving a small half of his face that could not be seen clearly in the photo.

Lian Jue long-pressed the photo and played the live of the photo over and over again. Just to see the corner of Shen Ting’s eyes flashing into the screen before he took the phone back in front of him.

What he thought was that Shen Tingwei had slept beside him for so many nights, why didn’t he even know that he had eczema behind his ears?

Lian Jue heard that Shen Tingwei and the girl named [Happy] reassured: “He is a first marriage, really a first marriage.” The questions that were smashed by the other party afterward were a little helpless. He used the kind of very gentle tone of voice that can be heard to appease the other party but also seems to be a little embarrassed, “Okay, don’t guess, he is really good to me…I have the opportunity to introduce you to each other.”

He was confused and puzzled by the empty contact list on Shen Tingwei’s phone but such thoughts were quickly replaced by the bitterness overflowing from his heart, as if the frequency of his heartbeat had become dull and unbearable.

The undrawn window let in a pale sky, illuminating the fine dust floating in the air.

Lian Jue pulled out his thoughts from the loneliness hidden in Shen Tingwei’s mobile phone, sat up on the bed in a daze and stared blankly at the light cast on the quilt.

After the consciousness slowly returned to the cage, Lian Jue quickly got up from the bed, went into the bathroom to wash, changed his clothes and drove to the police station to inquire about the result.

While waiting on the bench of the police station, Shen Tingwei’s cell phone rang softly.

Lian Jue took it out and found that Shen Tingwei’s number was bound to the school communication of Kangtong School when he didn’t know it and the head teacher sent Kangtong’s make-up exam results.

Kang Tong is very competitive, perhaps because he is too sensible or under pressure from him, but he has been neglected for a while. Even the English, which is usually the least good at, got full marks in the make-up exam.

[UPLOADER’S NOTE:
“Wow, so every wished that Weiwei has asked during his birthdays came true. But then again it costs him pain. 😔.”]

Lian Jue glanced at the calendar, today is Friday. In the afternoon, he can personally go to school to pick up Kang Tong. According to Shen Tingwei’s expectations for him, he should give Kang Tong a little praise and a little reward.

Although he was not in the mood to think about how to praise him, he did everything Shen Tingwei asked for.

…

Shen Tingwei was still lying on the dusty bed when he woke up. Every breath contained the strange smell of dust mites, which made him dizzy.

He propped up his heavy eyelids and opened his eyes, still seeing the dark night in front of him.

He didn’t close the bedroom door when he returned to the room. The silence in his ears was filled with the sound of the hands stuttering. Perhaps the battery in the clock was about to run out of power.

His home is facing a main road and occasionally vehicles pass by, whistling with the night wind.

Shen Tingwei glanced at his phone, only to realize that he had slept for a long time.

None of the fantastical things in his chaotic dreams had happened, just as he had woken up in the familiar corner yesterday, reality was forcing him to break the illusion and he had to keep his cool in the reality of what happened.

Shen Tingwei adjusted his breathing and sat up slowly from the bed. He had not eaten for about two days. His nutrition and physical strength could not keep up. When he got up, he had a brief dizziness and a dull pain in his stomach.

But fortunately, the baby has calmed down and obediently did not continue to torture him.

Shen Tingwei looked at the countless calls he made on his mobile phone that would never be answered and then realized how whimsical his actions and thoughts last night were. But after a few minutes of thinking, he clicked on the app download store with unrealistic hopes, in a naive attempt to find clues to intersect with another world.

But when he saw that several different app searches were all blank, he held the phone weakly and froze.

When Shen Tingwei came back to his senses, he thought that the dusty smell in the room was harmful to the respiratory tract and might be bad for the baby. He moved slowly to the bedside, wondering if the savings card that he had put in the car after he came out of the blind date restaurant a few months ago had been put away by his mother. He was a little uncomfortable and needed to eat something before going to the hospital as soon as possible.

He won’t come back at night. The house is too messy. He will come back tomorrow and clean the house well.

The matter of reporting his safety towards his mother and father will simply be left for tomorrow. It is too late now. Shen Tingwei didn’t think that his mother would be very happy to see him.

When Shen Tingwei stood up from the bed, his feet were weak. He was supported by the bookcase next to him and stood for a while. Then, he walked over to open the window even with the darkness before his eyes. The dust might cause him and the baby further harm if not ventilated.

The cold wind blowing in from the window blew through Shen Tingwei’s thin hospital gown but finally dispelled the strange smell in the room.

He stood in front of the window, breathing, staring blankly downstairs at the wide and secluded street. It was late at night, there were not many cars passing by on the road. The two street lamps were glowing bright yellow. Shen Tingwei remembered that when he was a child, he often stretched his head on his desk and looked out the window. He was happy when he saw his father’s car and wave towards him.

Occasionally, his mother would say, “I bought the house in the wrong place. It should be closer to the city, so that the surrounding area can be more lively and not so deserted.”

Shen Tingwei didn’t understand the coldness in his mother’s mouth at the time but felt that he was full of anticipation every time he lay at the window.

Now that the people he was looking forward to returning home were no longer around, it was the first time that he felt that the late night here was indeed as desolate as his mother said.

Shen Tingwei took a coat of his own from the closet and put it on. The one his mother bought for him for Christmas last year had a ring of fluff embedded in the neckline. He originally wanted to replace the stained hospital gown but he couldn’t find a size he could wear now, so he gave up.

He took out his medical insurance card from the cabinet. The savings card that saved all his internship wages could not be found. Maybe he was too hungry and did not search carefully, so he had to use the spare cash that his mother used to keep in the foot cabinet.

He put the keys and mobile phone in his pocket, locked the door and walked down the sidewalk toward the small shop he remembered that was open late.

Autumn and winter in Su City are very cold. The night wind is piercingly cold before November.

Shen Tingwei was very afraid of the cold. He turned on the heater in advance every year before the late autumn. His father expressed his dissatisfaction with his mother’s extravagant and wasteful behavior several times, thinking that Shen Tingwei was too delicate, maybe in Shen Tingwei’s absence under the circumstances, there were several quarrels in the family and his father slowly stopped talking about it.

Shen Tingwei wrapoed his coat tightly and walked slowly into the dilapidated narrow alley.

There is a wonton shop in the narrow alley that has been open for many years. The grandma who runs the shop is very old. Shen Tingwei thought she was a little pitiful at first, so he would come here occasionally but later he got used to the taste of this shop.

It may be that his body is still too weak. Shen Tingwei walks very slowly again. He feels that this alley seems to be much longer than the one he has walked before, as if it will not end for a long time.

Shen Tingwei was a little puzzled, he took out his mobile phone and opened the map to see if he hadn’t come to mark the intersection for too long.

Before he could finish entering the address, he suddenly heard a bicycle bell from a far. He raised his head and saw a boy in the uniform of a nearby middle school flying out from the corner of the alley on a mountain bike.

This alley is very narrow, Shen Tingwei was startled and hurriedly turned sideways to dodge. The boy was also a little nervous when he saw him, as if he wanted to slow down but it was too late, he hurriedly shouted while braking: “Shit -”

The boy who couldn’t stop the bike passed by the wrong way and the handlebar accidentally rubbed his arm. Fortunately, Shen Tingwei’s coat was very thick and was not injured but his legs and feet were weak because of the inertia of the handlebar.

Shen Tingwei stood firm against the rough wall bricks in the alley but his already drowsy brain became a little dizzy with the small step he just took. Even the picture in his sight spun up and down causing his stomach to feel dizzy. A spasm, a feeling of wanting to gag.

He pursed his pale lips and raised his hand to press his stomach but he felt a trance in front of him, as if the narrow alley he had walked many times had changed in the hazy and blurred double image in front of him.

Shen Tingwei blinked his eyes with force but there were still some swaying narrow alleys in his sight, luckily nothing had changed. He had to close his eyes for a while and his fingers which were white with force. He used the red bricks on the wall as support, waiting for the uncomfortable dizziness on his body to pass as soon as possible.

He felt that he might not be able to continue looking for that wonton shop and he had to go to the hospital quickly…

The sound of brakes that pierced his ear drums finally stopped. The boy just shouted at him from a distance, “I’m sorry-”

At the moment when Shen Tingwei suddenly heard nothing, he seemed to hear another kind of noise from far to near in his brain. He heard someone talking from a distance, heard music and heard chaotic noises, footsteps.

All his consciousness fell into chaos in this inexplicable noise. He could only hear the boy’s frightened question from a distance in his ear: “-Are you all right?!”

Shen Tingwei really wanted to answer that it’s okay to not make him feel afraid but suddenly he couldn’t open his mouth at this moment.

The boy who couldn’t wait for a response quickly dropped the bicycle in his hand and ran into the dark alley.

But when he almost ran to the end of the alley, his footsteps gradually slowed down and he hesitated for a while, looking at the empty alley all the way doubtfully and murmured to himself: “Huh? What about person? So soon gone?”

…

“–Are you okay?”

A clear, somewhat immature voice sounded in front of him.

Shen Tingwei opened his eyes as his dizziness gradually eased. He was startled for a moment but the boy riding a bicycle in front of him suddenly disappeared, replaced by a little boy who looked much younger than Kang Tong.

Shen Tingwei lowered his head and looked blankly at the child in front of him.

The little boy was not afraid of life. With a candy ball in his cheek, he pointed to Shen Tingwei’s belly: “Brother, your belly is so fat, fatter than my father.”

Shen Tingwei looked at him in daze and the rough touch between his fingers seemed to have become a little smoother. When Shen Tingwei realized this, his heartbeat suddenly became fast. He raised his head and looked at the uneven white tiles on the walls making his vision froze.

Soothing and soft music came from a shopping mall not far away, pedestrians hurried past at the entrance of the alley and a few steps away there was the sound of food stalls selling small speakers-

The little boy seemed to be taken aback by the big brother who was crying suddenly in front of him. He tilted his head and asked, “Brother why are you crying?”

Shen Tingwei raised his hand to wipe his face and rubbed his eyes heavily with his sleeve but he couldn’t stop the turbulent of his tears. He wanted to tell the little boy that he was alright but when he opened his mouth he could hardly cry, so he continued to wipe his tears hard while picking up the phone that was tightly held in his hand.

Due to the shaking of his hand, he couldn’t press the number he wanted to select several times. Then, he finally unlocked the lock after several error prompts. Shen Tingwei found in despair that his mobile phone card was in a state of no service.

The little boy seemed to realize that he wanted to make a call, so he opened his sleeves and stretched out his arms enthusiastically: “Use my phone watch.”

Shen Tingwei suppressed the trembling of his voice and hurriedly thanked him. He bent down with difficulty to touch the small screen but tears fell on the square screen on his wrist rustling down his chin.

The little boy carelessly rubbed the tears on the screen on his clothes and raised his wrist again in front of him. Shen Tingwei unskilledly entered the string of numbers that he had typed nearly a hundred times on the still vague watch screen. —

The phone rang only once and was quickly picked up. The voice that Shen Tingwei was familiar with but was now unusually hoarse, came from the watch: “Who is this?”

Shen Tingwei made a low voice from his throat: “Lian Jue…” He trembled in a heavier breathing to the opposite side, “…I want to go home.”

He asked, “Lian Jue, when are you coming to pick me up?”