Chapter 52 Part 1

It wasn’t early anymore, so Lu Ping told his parents that he would be coming home late today before getting into the car with Shen Yuze.

The car drove steadily and quickly, arriving at the People’s Hospital on the South Shore in no time.

Lu Ping thought that since it was just a follow-up check, they could simply get a regular number, have the doctor look at the X-ray, and be done with it. But Shen Yuze had his own way of doing things. He had arranged hospital services through the housekeeper in advance. Upon arrival, they took the elevator straight to the top floor, where a dedicated receptionist led them to the specialist’s office for the check-up.

Lu Ping clutched his student medical insurance card and quietly asked the receptionist, “Excuse me, can we use medical insurance here?”

The receptionist glanced at him in his student attire with some surprise, then looked at the young man in the suit beside him, and shook her head. “Sorry, this department doesn’t accept medical insurance.”

Jiao River didn’t have the kind of high-end private hospitals found in big cities, so the People’s Hospital had specially opened this department to serve the wealthy. When Shen Yuze had been hospitalized for his allergy before, he stayed in a ward on a floor that was exceptionally quiet, and they didn’t even have to wait in line for X-rays.

“The recovery is going very well—not surprising for someone young,” the doctor said after looking at the X-ray and nodding. “The cracked bone has mostly healed, but you still need to take care of it. Avoid intense exercise for the time being, and especially steer clear of falls… By the way, with all that heavy rain last week, did the injured area hurt?”

Many patients with bone cracks or fractures experienced a dull ache in the injured spot on rainy days—a lingering aftereffect from nerve damage near the wound.

Lu Ping was pondering how to respond when Shen Yuze spoke up beside him. “His wound has been a bit itchy.”

Lu Ping: “???” He was shocked. “How do you know that?”

Shen Yuze answered calmly, “Did you forget we slept together during those typhoon days? You kept tossing and turning in your sleep, waking me up several times. When I asked what was wrong, you mumbled half-asleep that your butt itched.”

Lu Ping: “……………………”

The doctor’s hand paused while writing in the medical record. He raised his head and gave them both a strange look, but quickly lowered it again as if nothing had happened, his face clearly saying, I have professional ethics; I never pry into patients’ private lives.

Under that bizarre gaze, Lu Ping clenched his fists so hard they cracked. If the doctor hadn’t been there, he definitely would have given Shen Yuze a good beating.

Sleeping together? That had indeed happened. ✓

Butt itching? That had also happened. ✓

But putting the two together and hearing it from Shen Yuze’s mouth made it sound so weird!!!

Lu Ping didn’t know whether to explain or not. It seemed like no matter if he did or didn’t, things wouldn’t be cleared up…

Fortunately, the doctor, who charged such high fees, had long mastered the art of playing deaf and dumb. He quickly finished writing Lu Ping’s medical record and prescribed two new tubes of topical ointment. Of course, they didn’t need to go downstairs to pick up the medicine themselves—someone specially packed the ointment and delivered it to the car.

When they left the consultation room, Lu Ping was still fuming a bit. Shen Yuze poked his cheek, finding the feel quite nice. “What’s wrong?”

Lu Ping dodged his hand. “Why did you say that stuff in front of the doctor earlier?”

“When did I say anything random?” Shen Yuze asked knowingly. “We did sleep together during those typhoon days.”

“That was arranged by the school! You only said half of it, so when others hear it, they’ll think we’re…”

“Think we’re what?”

“…” Lu Ping fell silent.

Shen Yuze pressed him. “Now you’re the one only saying half.”

Lu Ping knew he was digging a pit for him, but he had no choice but to jump in. “…Others will think we’re ‘gay’.”

When he uttered those two words, Lu Ping’s voice was especially low, mumbled in his mouth as if saying it any louder would pop some invisible bubble. The boy’s gaze shifted sideways, too embarrassed to meet Shen Yuze’s eyes. Terms like “gay” weren’t unfamiliar to high schoolers. In school, any two guys who were close would get labeled “gay” by other boys. And the games boys loved playing like “truth or dare” or “stacking,” were full of bromance that made people blush, but no one ever took those jokes seriously.

Lu Ping thought back to his interactions with Shen Yuze lately… Overall, they seemed overly intimate compared to other guys in the class. They were stuck together like glue—he remembered what Shen Yuze was allergic to, and Shen Yuze remembered his casual complaints.

Vaguely, Lu Ping felt something was off, but he couldn’t pinpoint what.

Faced with Lu Ping’s hesitant words, Shen Yuze was silent for a few seconds but soon regained his usual breezy demeanor.

“Being close means ‘being gay’?” The young man scoffed. “Then Chen Miaomiao holds hands with her deskmate Li Yue going to the bathroom every day—are they ‘being gay’ too?”

“Her name is Zhou Yue!” Lu Ping’s attention was successfully diverted by the interruption. “And girls don’t call it ‘being gay’; that’s for guys!”

“So what do girls call it?”

“They call it ‘lala’.”

“Oh—” Shen Yuze drawled, sizing him up. “You know quite a bit.”

Lu Ping: “…”

Weird, how had he lost the upper hand again?

Shen Yuze pressed his advantage. “Have we ever held hands going to the bathroom?”

“…No.”

“Do we huddle together right after class gossiping about school drama?”

“…No.”

“Have we ever shared the same lip balm or drunk milk tea from the same straw?”

“…No.”

Shen Yuze raised a brow. “So where do we qualify as being gay?”

Lu Ping was dazed as Shen Yuze led him astray. Comparing to the intimacy between girls, their daily interactions… Hmm, they really weren’t a big deal. Once, he’d even seen two girls in class kiss, and some called each other “hubby” and “wifey” while others cheered them on—no one said anything.

By that logic, he and Shen Yuze were a universe away from “being gay.”

As for Shen Yuze applying medicine to his butt or him making breakfast for Shen Yuze, those were perfectly normal.

(Straight guy approves.jpg)

Lu Ping thought maybe because he’d been so lonely before with no other friends, now that he finally had a good friend like Shen Yuze, he wasn’t used to it yet and was overthinking.

He put away his messy thoughts and turned back into a carefree, happy little mouse.

“Shen Yuze, you go wait for me at the parking lot first.” Lu Ping directed him. “I need to use the bathroom.”

But Shen Yuze didn’t move. Instead, he extended his hand toward him.

Lu Ping: “?”

Shen Yuze teased, “Not going hand-in-hand together?”

“…Shen Yuze, believe it or not, I’ll bite you!”

…

At lunch, Shen Yuze specially chose a well-reviewed local Chinese restaurant. But facing the table full of delicious food, Lu Ping ate absentmindedly, his mind on the afternoon competition. After a few bites, he asked Shen Yuze, “What time is it? We can’t be late.”

“We won’t be late. The competition starts at three; audience enters at two-thirty, contestants at two.” Shen Yuze checked his watch. “It’s just past one now. Eat slowly; no rush.”

With that, Shen Yuze picked some more dishes for Lu Ping.

Lu Ping hurriedly covered his bowl. “Don’t pick more for me; I haven’t fully digested this morning’s Food Pancake Roll yet!”

Shen Yuze finally stopped.

After the meal, Shen Yuze wiped the stain from the corner of his mouth with a napkin and stood to leave. Lu Ping stopped him. “Hold on, hold on—there’s so much leftover. Aren’t we packing it up?”

Though it was just the two of them, Shen Yuze had ordered two meat dishes, one veggie, and a soup, with half of each left.

Shen Yuze clearly paused—clearly, “takeout” wasn’t in the young master’s vocabulary.

Seeing this, Lu Ping felt like lecturing him about “At noon they till, sweat drops to the soil…”

He called the server over and asked for some takeout boxes. Soon, the server brought several boxes and informed him that each takeout box cost two yuan, each paper bag one yuan.

Lu Ping asked directly, “Don’t you have free boxes?”

Seeing how familiar he was, the server told the truth. “We do, but the free ones are softer and can’t hold soup.”

Lu Ping nodded. “Alright then. Give me three free boxes for the dishes, and keep one better one for the soup.”

The server had no choice but to bring new free boxes as requested.

Lu Ping and Shen Yuze both ate politely without rummaging through the dishes, so the leftovers were still neat. Lu Ping quickly packed the food into the boxes. Afraid the soup would splash on Shen Yuze, he didn’t let him help.

Shen Yuze watched him converse fluently with the server, his expression complicated. “I didn’t even know takeout boxes came free or paid.”

If it were him, he would have just paid whatever the server brought.

“These are all business tricks. You’re not short a yuan or two, so you don’t care. But some money you can save, you should—little savings add up to big ones.” Lu Ping was always chatty around Shen Yuze. As he organized the boxes, he continued, “Actually, the sterilized bowls and chopsticks they gave us are charged too—a set costs two yuan. Check the bill; it’s listed. If you don’t want them, you can ask for free ones—they’re pretty clean too…”

Soon, Lu Ping had everything packed neatly into the paper bag. As he did all this with a pure, earnest expression—the look of someone who lived life seriously—Shen Yuze found himself unwittingly captivated.

When Lu Ping finished and looked up, he inexplicably met Shen Yuze’s amber eyes.

Lu Ping tilted his head in confusion. “Why are you staring at me?”

“Nothing.” Shen Yuze took the paper bag from Lu Ping’s hand. “I just feel like I saw what you’d be like after marriage.”

Lu Ping: “…?”

What kind of compliment was that?