Chapter 14
As soon as Song Shuci came out of the shower, he saw Jian Wu rolled up like a burrito in the bed.
He was no stranger to Jian Wu’s habit of wrapping himself in a quilt. It seemed that since he was very young, Jian Wu would choose this silent and withdrawn method to express his silent protest whenever he was sulking.
Petulant yet adorable.
Song Shuci took a few steps closer, knelt on the bed with one leg, and tentatively asked: “Are you angry?”
Jian Wu ignored him.
Song Shuci leaned over and tried to pull the quilt away, but Jian Wu, in a fit of pique, wrapped himself even tighter, leaving no room for his hand to exert force.
Song Shuci simply took off his slippers, climbed onto the bed, and wrapped his arms around the human burrito from behind, preparing to lift him up.
“Song Shuci!” The person inside the burrito finally poked his head out.
Song Shuci immediately let go and raised his hands in surrender before he could explode.
Jian Wu sat up, propped himself up with one hand, and turned to accuse him: “You really are–” He stopped mid-sentence as a rapid knock came from the door.
Jian Wu immediately fell silent, his ears perked up as he looked towards the door. Song Shuci also looked over.
“Did you order takeout again?” Jian Wu asked.
Song Shuci frowned slightly: “No.”
“Who would knock on the door at this hour?” Jian Wu looked back, his gaze suddenly falling on Song Shuci’s pajamas.
—They were identical to his.
“Holy shit, you…”
Jian Wu pointed at his clothes with a hand sticking out from the quilt.
The quilt was propped up over his head, and with this gesture, the lower half of his face was revealed.
Perhaps because the duvet cover Song Shuci had brought was dark gray, it made Jian Wu’s face look particularly fair, even the redness from the dilated capillaries after his shower was clearly visible.
Song Shuci stared at his flushed face for a while before glancing down at his own clothes and explaining: “I didn’t expect you to be wearing this one today as well.”
Jian Wu completely emerged from the quilt, sat cross-legged on the bed, and asked in exasperation: “Couldn’t you have brought pajamas that weren’t matching mine?”
Song Shuci retorted: “Which of our pajamas aren’t matching?”
Jian Wu racked his brain and realized that the pajamas they bought when they were together were indeed all matching sets.
But… Jian Wu took a deep breath: “Are salaries in America that low? You couldn’t afford a new set of pajamas after four years of breaking up?”
“Aren’t you also wearing clothes from four years ago?”
Jian Wu lowered his voice, afraid of being overheard, but he still couldn’t suppress his anger: “What’s wrong with someone with a 5,000 yuan monthly salary being frugal? You earn hundreds of thousands a year, and you’re still wearing old pajamas?”
“Old ones are comfortable,” Song Shuci said matter-of-factly.
Jian Wu sneered: “I’ve only heard of ‘new clothes are better than old, but old friends are better than new.'”
Song Shuci looked down at him for a moment, his gaze deepening: “Do you also think old friends are better than new?”
Before Jian Wu could ponder the meaning of this sentence, the urgent knocking came again.
Perhaps because their previous knocking hadn’t been answered, the person outside was clearly losing patience. This time, the knocking was louder and faster, accompanied by shouts: “Jian Wu! What are you doing! Why aren’t you opening the door!”
“It’s Ling Meng,” Jian Wu immediately recognized the voice.
Song Shuci got up to open the door. Jian Wu quickly grabbed his wrist: “Hey, wait!”
Song Shuci subconsciously looked at his wrist, and Jian Wu quickly let go.
He coughed twice and lowered his voice, pointing at their clothes: “If she sees our matching pajamas, we won’t be able to clear our names even if we jumped into the Yellow River.”
“Then what should we do?” Song Shuci asked, “Take them off?”
“Take them off my ass.” Jian Wu retorted, then shouted in a slightly panicked voice: “What’s up? We’re almost asleep!”
Fortunately, the person outside didn’t notice the chaos inside and simply explained: “Oh! We wanted to ask you to come out and play board games, but it’s fine if you’re sleeping!”
Jian Wu breathed a sigh of relief: “We’ll play next time!”
“Okay!”
After speaking to him, Ling Meng said to He Yong beside her: “I don’t know what’s wrong with Jian Wu, he usually never sleeps before 10 pm, but he went to bed so early today.”
The hotel room’s soundproofing wasn’t that great, and their conversation drifted into the room.
He Yong said: “Maybe Professor Song went to bed early, so Jian Wu followed suit.”
They came up with their own explanations and went to the next room. Hearing their receding footsteps, Jian Wu’s surging adrenaline slowly subsided.
Just as he had calmed down, Song Shuci suddenly said thoughtfully: “What do you mean ‘jump into the Yellow River and still not be able to clear our names’? Is our relationship… that innocent?”
Jian Wu was speechless.
Based on the number of times they had slept together, it was definitely not innocent.
But based on their current relationship, it was absolutely pure and innocent, so clean that even a bucket of Yellow River water couldn’t stain it.
“Why are you so panicked?” Seeing Jian Wu didn’t answer, Song Shuci let out a self-deprecating chuckle. “Is it that hard for you to admit I’m your ex-boyfriend?”
Hearing Song Shuci speak like this, Jian Wu’s anger flared up: “Weren’t you the one who felt it was hard to admit it first?”
“Do I need to remind you, Song Shuci?” He recounted the past details, “Who was the one who kept saying he liked me, then took off the earrings I gave him? And who was the one who insisted on using our photo as his profile picture, then changed it without a word?”
Song Shuci wanted to explain: “That’s because–”
“You always have an excuse,” Jian Wu interrupted.
His voice lowered: “But I’m really tired of hearing them.”
The barking of dogs outside was like a rest note, interspersed with the unintentional vulnerability revealed by the humans.
They looked at each other, the emotions in their eyes unclear.
“Forget it,” he looked away, clutching a corner of the quilt, and sighed softly, “It’s been so many years since we broke up, I don’t want to rehash old arguments and fight about meaningless things anymore.”
He took a deep breath and lay back down: “Let’s sleep.”
He put on his Bluetooth earphones, played music on his phone, left only a nightlight on, closed his eyes, and chose to shut out the outside world.
After an unknown amount of time, he felt Song Shuci finally lie down beside him, facing his back.
After a while, he heard Song Shuci get up. The man seemed to be pouring water, then came the sound of a metal zipper.
Song Shuci seemed to have taken something and sat back on the bed…
Jian Wu felt like he wasn’t thinking about anything, yet he remained in a focused state, and this focus was constantly on Song Shuci, which was quite annoying.
He closed his eyes tightly, wanting to break this focus, but the sound of pills rattling squeezed into the gaps in his music.
The man who had been pretending to sleep suddenly gave up the act. He took off his earphones, turned around, and snatched the pill bottle from Song Shuci’s hand: “Again, again, you only know how to take sleeping pills!”
Song Shuci raised an eyebrow at him: “You weren’t asleep?”
“What’s it to you?” Jian Wu hid the pill bottle behind his back.
“Take painkillers when you’re in pain, sleeping pills when you can’t sleep, isn’t that normal?” Song Shuci took a sip of water.
Jian Wu said, puzzled: “Are these the words of someone who studied medicine?”
Song Shuci chuckled and rubbed the bottom of the cup, his voice low and slightly nasal: “People who study medicine usually don’t have good health.”
The warm yellow light of the bedside lamp cast a shadow on Song Shuci’s face. His hair was still wet from the shower, plastered to his forehead.
The old pajamas had faded from years of washing, but the green turtle pattern, with a shell design on the back, was still Jian Wu’s favorite.
This was Jian Wu’s favorite set of pajamas, and also Song Shuci’s least favorite.
Jian Wu, still holding the pill bottle, suddenly felt his heart soften.
He hesitantly asked with concern: “After all this time, is your insomnia still that bad?”
During their last year together, Song Shuci’s studies were particularly demanding, and his stress reached its peak. That year, they both suffered from insomnia, rarely getting a good night’s sleep.
“Much better,” Song Shuci leaned back, “What about you?”
Jian Wu lowered his eyes: “I’m much better too.”
Song Shuci nodded slightly: “That’s good.”
After a moment of silence, Jian Wu pointed at the burger on the table and reminded him: “You haven’t finished your burger.”
Song Shuci didn’t even glance at the burger: “I wasn’t hungry to begin with.”
He unconsciously scratched the paper cup, creating a faint white noise in the room.
Jian Wu looked at his hand and said slowly: “Then why did you order takeout?”
Song Shuci looked at him and said casually: “I just ordered it.”
Jian Wu’s fingers fiddled with the corner of the pillow under the cover of darkness. The words turned on his tongue before he finally asked: “Is it that hard to admit you ordered it for me?”
Song Shuci smiled knowingly, looked away, and didn’t speak.
The hotel room window wasn’t tightly closed, and a breeze blew in through the screen, rustling the white curtains.
Although it was April and spring had arrived, the night wind was still a bit chilly.
The croaking of frogs outside celebrated the humidity of the rainy season.
Jian Wu glanced at Song Shuci’s damp hair: “Why don’t you go dry your hair first?”
“The hairdryer is quite loud, aren’t you going to sleep?” Song Shuci said, “It’s fine, it’ll air dry in a bit.”
He put down the cup and lay down on his side, facing Jian Wu, one arm bent under his head: “I was lying like this just now, I won’t get the pillow wet.”
“That’s so uncomfortable.” Jian Wu reached out to pull him up, but stopped halfway, nudging him through the quilt, “Get up.”
“Okay,” Song Shuci sat up cooperatively, “Then I’ll go dry it.”
He got up, took the hairdryer, and went into the bathroom. The noisy sound of the machine, muffled by the glass door, echoed with a dull hum.
Jian Wu’s hand smoothed the spot where Song Shuci had lain, then stared blankly into space, his thoughts unclear.
The hotel’s hairdryer was powerful. Song Shuci quickly dried his hair. Seeing him come out, Jian Wu quickly withdrew his hand.
He put Song Shuci’s pill bottle aside and suggested: “Why don’t you try lying down first, maybe you’ll fall asleep?”
Song Shuci glanced at the smoothed bedsheet where he had lain, then looked at Jian Wu, silent for a while.
Jian Wu avoided his gaze: “I’m not giving you the pills, you only lay down for a bit and you want to take sleeping pills already?”
“Forty-seven minutes,” Song Shuci said.
“Then lie down for another forty minutes,” Jian Wu said, “If you still can’t sleep, I’ll give you the pills.”
Song Shuci didn’t speak, just looked at him with a faint smile.
Jian Wu: “I’ll add ten minutes for every time you look at me.”
Threatened, Song Shuci finally looked away. He nonchalantly hummed in agreement and lay down again, facing Jian Wu.
Jian Wu glanced down at him. Song Shuci had already closed his eyes.
He was silent for a moment, then turned his back to Song Shuci and burrowed into the quilt. After a while, he reached out an arm from under the quilt and turned off the bedside lamp.
