Chapter 23: The Vicious Fake Young Master of a Wealthy Family · 23

There was some water on the floor. After the underwear fell, it got wet and couldn’t be worn for the time being.

Su Wenyu couldn’t exactly go out naked and ask Zhou Xu to bring him another pair. He had no choice but to put on his shirt and pants first, then call Zhou Xu in to help him out.

Zhou Xu opened the door, squinting as he glanced at him. Only after confirming his clothes were properly on did he enter.

“The floor is slippery. Let me carry you out on my back.” Zhou Xu crouched down in front of him, and Su Wenyu, practiced by now, climbed onto his back.

As Zhou Xu stood up, his peripheral vision caught that Su Wenyu, whose arms were wrapped around his neck, was holding something in his hand. He frowned and asked, “What are you holding in your hand?”

“Oh, this.” Su Wenyu unfurled the partially wet underwear right in front of his eyes and showed him. “It accidentally fell and got wet. I can’t wear it. I’ll just get a fresh pair later.”

Zhou Xu’s steps faltered. The arms supporting Su Wenyu seemed to tremble.

His voice sounded like it was squeezed through gritted teeth as he asked, “So right now, you’re…?”

Su Wenyu sighed: “Not wearing any. It feels so empty and strange. Very unsettling.”

Even back when he was hospitalized, he’d always had disposable underwear he could change frequently.

Unless he’d just had surgery and was in the ICU—but in those times, he was usually not very conscious anyway, so the sensation of being without underwear under his gown wasn’t obvious.

Not like now. Clearly wearing a pair of pants, yet feeling as if he wasn’t.

Zhou Xu stared at the small piece of underwear right in front of him and felt his vision go dark.

If not for his reason still holding firm, he really might have just dropped Su Wenyu right there in the bathroom!

“Are you doing this on purpose?” Zhou Xu’s voice was tinged with a gnashing of teeth.

520 immediately popped up, excitedly reporting: [Villain Value has gone up again!!]

Su Wenyu: [Huh?]

Why?

Su Wenyu hastily tightened his arms around Zhou Xu’s neck, afraid his soaring Villain Value would make him drop him on the spot. At the same time, he reviewed what he’d just done. His conclusion was—

He hadn’t done anything!

Su Wenyu was utterly baffled, his heart full of tension. Fearing that Zhou Xu might suddenly let go, he instinctively wrapped both arms and legs tightly around Zhou Xu.

Zhou Xu only felt a sudden tightness at his neck and waist, nearly being choked and squeezed breathless by Su Wenyu.

“Are you trying to kill me?” Zhou Xu swatted at Su Wenyu’s arm.

Su Wenyu said nervously, “Just get me out of here first.”

Zhou Xu could only feel the warm body plastered against his back, its presence so distinct he couldn’t ignore it. Even the spot where Su Wenyu’s legs wrapped around his waist, pressing tightly against him, felt tense to the point of numbness.

“Don’t cling so tightly,” Zhou Xu said, holding back his irritation.

Su Wenyu: “I’m afraid you’ll throw me off.”

Zhou Xu seized on the loophole in his words: “Why would you be afraid I’d throw you off? Are you feeling guilty?”

Initially, Su Wenyu hadn’t been afraid. It was only after he’d pulled out the underwear and shaken it in front of his face that he suddenly grabbed his neck tightly.

So Su Wenyu had deliberately gone without underwear, trying to seduce him, and then, remembering his injured foot, became afraid he’d be thrown off?

And now this excessive clinging… was that also deliberate?

Zhou Xu ground his teeth. He really wanted to crack open Su Wenyu’s skull and see what was inside. His foot was injured, yet he still schemed these crooked ideas!

Su Wenyu felt truly wronged. He completely couldn’t grasp what Zhou Xu was talking about. How had he become guilty?

It was like the two of them were on completely different wavelengths, yet communicating seamlessly the entire time.

“What exactly are you trying to do?!” Zhou Xu demanded.

Su Wenyu was on the verge of tears: “I want to get out of here! I want to put on some underwear!”

Zhou Xu: “Tell me the truth.”

Su Wenyu broke down: “This is the truth! I really want to wear underwear! The seam on these pants is chafing me so badly it hurts.”

Su Wenyu had skin that was naturally delicate and prone to marking. This was obvious from how his whole body would bruise purple from a single bump.

The pants Zhou Xu had given him were loose, but when Zhou Xu carried him on his back, the fabric at his inner thigh inevitably pulled taut against his skin. The most sensitive and vulnerable area was being rubbed raw; it was truly uncomfortable. He felt it might already be red and irritated.

“I really didn’t intend to do anything! Won’t you know once you carry me out? With my foot hurting and my arm hurting right now, what could I possibly do to you?” Su Wenyu tried to defend himself.

Unfortunately, Su Wenyu’s credibility with Zhou Xu was basically zero. His words were always taken with a grain of salt.

Even though he didn’t believe Su Wenyu’s excuse, Zhou Xu still carried him out first.

Otherwise, staying in the bathroom would only give him more opportunities to take advantage.

Once Su Wenyu was set down, balancing on his one good foot, he was almost impatient. He propped himself against the desk and shuffled to the wardrobe, taking out a fresh pair of underwear from inside.

When it came time to take off his pants, he didn’t think much of it. They were both guys; there was nothing to be shy about. So he directly unfastened his waistband.

The loose waistband couldn’t catch on his hip bones, and the pants fell down with a soft whump, pooling at his ankles.

Hearing the sound, Zhou Xu turned his head just in time to see Su Wenyu, bare-bottomed, bending over and struggling to pull up his underwear.

That pale skin seemed especially dazzling under the lights. His legs were so long and slender. Zhou Xu felt his heart give a violent lurch.

Before he could flusteredly avert his gaze and question what Su Wenyu was doing, a click echoed. In an instant, darkness descended.

Eleven o’clock. The dormitory lights went out.

The cramped dorm room was plunged into pitch blackness. Su Wenyu was startled, but because he was holding onto the wardrobe, he remained standing steadily.

“Do you have a desk lamp?” Su Wenyu asked, looking towards where Zhou Xu was in the darkness.

For a long moment, Su Wenyu received no answer from Zhou Xu. He could only feel his way in the dark along the wardrobe and desk until he reached the chair, where he sat down and continued pulling up his pants.

Luckily, the AC was on in the dorm, keeping it cool. Otherwise, just the effort of putting on pants would have left Su Wenyu drenched in sweat.

“Alright, I’m dressed.” Su Wenyu fixed his waistband, found his phone on the desk, and switched on the flashlight, shining it in Zhou Xu’s direction. “Where are you? Why’d you go silent the moment the lights went out? Are you afraid of the dark?”

Zhou Xu squinted at the light but didn’t make a sound.

He wanted to demand why Su Wenyu had suddenly taken his pants off. But he knew Su Wenyu would definitely answer that in a male dormitory, changing clothes and taking off pants was perfectly normal.

It was normal. Yet Zhou Xu’s heart had given a strange jolt. Just recalling the flash of white that had appeared before his eyes made Zhou Xu’s throat feel uncontrollably dry.

Zhou Xu found an explanation for his odd reaction. He figured it was because Su Wenyu, as a gay man, wasn’t like an ordinary guy, and shouldn’t be stripping his pants off so nonchalantly in the dorm. That was what had startled him.

“Alright, you’re dressed. Get into bed and sleep. Turn off that flashlight.”

Zhou Xu walked to his desk and switched on his desk lamp.

The warm-toned light immediately illuminated a corner of the dormitory. Seeing light, Su Wenyu turned off his phone’s flashlight and asked the most crucial question of the night: “How do I get up there?”

Zhou Xu tilted his head.

It seemed that only now, after this entire afternoon and evening, had he realized that the dorm beds were upper bunks. Su Wenyu couldn’t even get up when his foot was uninjured, let alone now when it was hurt.

Su Wenyu also felt that trying to get into an upper bunk with his injured ankle was asking for trouble and inconvenient. So he suggested, “Let’s just take the bedding down. I’ll sleep on the floor.”

For the time being, only he and Zhou Xu were in the dorm. If they pushed both chairs under the desks, there was still a fairly large space in the middle. More than enough room for him to lie down.

When they’d moved into the dorm, besides the blanket, the butler had also laid a moderately thick mattress pad on his bed board. Bringing it down to the floor meant he wouldn’t have to worry about catching a chill.

Zhou Xu frowned slightly, seeming to think that sleeping on the floor was improper. “I can lift you up,” he said.

Zhou Xu’s arm strength was something Su Wenyu had personally witnessed. Lifting him up onto the bed genuinely wouldn’t be a problem.

But Su Wenyu thought about how, after this, getting up and down would always require his help, and it felt like it would be too much trouble for him.

“I’ll just sleep down here. What if I need to go to the bathroom in the middle of the night? I’d have to bother you then, too,” Su Wenyu said.

Seeing him insist, Zhou Xu said nothing more. He reached up, rolled up the bedding from his bed, and carried it down, spreading it out in the empty floor space.

“I won’t turn off the desk lamp. If you need to get up during the night, be careful,” Zhou Xu said.

Su Wenyu nodded. He didn’t feel the slightest bit wronged about sleeping on the floor. Instead, he found the floor much more reassuring than the upper bunk. He comfortably settled into the bedding, asked Zhou Xu to charge his phone for him, and then closed his eyes, seemingly ready to sleep right away.

Whether he was actually asleep or pretending, Zhou Xu didn’t bother to figure out. He plugged Su Wenyu’s phone in to charge and then climbed up to his own upper bunk.

Unlike Su Wenyu, who got stuck mid-air while trying, Zhou Xu only needed to step on the middle rung, grab the bed frame with his hand, and with a pull of his arm strength, he flipped himself up effortlessly.

Su Wenyu opened his eyes while Zhou Xu was climbing the ladder, watching his movements thoughtfully. So that was how it was done.

He’d try it next time.

Drowsiness, guided by his biological clock, swept over him. Before Su Wenyu could imagine himself flipping onto the bed handsomely, his eyelids stuck together uncontrollably, and he quickly fell asleep.

Su Wenyu fell asleep fast. Zhou Xu, that night, experienced an unprecedented bout of insomnia.

Listening to the sound of another person’s breathing in the room, it wasn’t until the latter half of the night that he finally managed to doze off briefly.

At six in the morning, Zhou Xu’s alarm rang. He instantly silenced it, sat up in bed, rubbed his temples, and glanced down at the lower floor.

Su Wenyu hadn’t been woken. He was still sleeping deeply. His sleeping position had changed from lying flat to curling on his side, hugging the blanket. His loose shirt had ridden up due to his sleeping position, revealing a slender strip of his waist. Zhou Xu looked at it for a moment before averting his gaze and quietly getting out of bed.

At S University, the first class of the morning started uniformly at eight o’clock. It was still early. He didn’t wake Su Wenyu. After washing up, he took his phone and IC card and went out.

It wasn’t until about seven o’clock that Zhou Xu returned, carrying a bag of breakfast. He’d been doing who-knew-what outside; there was even some sweat on his forehead.

“Time to get up. Wash up and eat breakfast.” Zhou Xu went into the bathroom to wash his face, then came out and called Su Wenyu.

Su Wenyu groggily opened his eyes. As he turned over in his nest of bedding, he saw Zhou Xu sitting at his desk eating breakfast.

The aroma of steamed buns stirred Su Wenyu’s appetite. His sleepiness vanished instantly: “Good morning! You woke up so early. When did you go out to buy breakfast? I didn’t even notice.”

Zhou Xu swallowed the food in his mouth: “It’s already seven.”

Su Wenyu understood the implication. He immediately wanted to get up and wash.

Seeing him struggling to get up and wasting time, Zhou Xu simply put down his breakfast, walked over, and plucked Su Wenyu out of his nest. After he put on his slippers, Zhou Xu steered him all the way into the bathroom.

“Call me when you’re done washing up.” Zhou Xu closed the bathroom door and went back to his breakfast.

Su Wenyu used the toilet, then shuffled to the sink to wash his face and brush his teeth. After drying his face, he called out to Zhou Xu, who came in without delay and steered him right back out.

“Medicine first. You can take your breakfast to go. We don’t have much time.” Zhou Xu had him sit on the chair. He brought out the swelling spray and antiseptic solution and began applying his medicine.

It was at that moment that Zhou Xu noticed the wound on Su Wenyu’s elbow hadn’t healed. Instead, it looked more severe.

“What’s going on?” Zhou Xu grasped his arm, lifting it, and leaned in close to inspect it, frowning. “Were you scratching it in your sleep last night?”