Do you mind feeding him like this?

哢哒.

Jiang Songhe turned off the stove and ladled a bowl of fish and rice porridge from the pot.

Jonathan remained quiet on the other side of the island until Jiang Songhe turned around and reached out his uninjured hand to receive her.

After Jiang Songhe returned to his room and changed into his pajamas, he barely spoke when he came back in. He ignored Jonathan's outstretched hand, walked around the island counter, and sat on the high stool next to Jonathan.

After settling down, he held a bowl in one hand and a spoon in the other, then hooked his foot and pulled the bewildered Jonathan, chair and all, to his side.

He originally wanted to say "open your mouth," but those two words were currently very sensitive and awkward. Just thinking about them reminded Jiang Songhe of the punishment he had given him in the Vito car when he was furious, and the hurtful things he had said in the Guiman 512.

So he gave a soft "hmm," raised his chin, and gestured for Jonathan to comply.

Jonathan stared at Jiang Songhe's face, which was fixed on her mouth and the bowl and spoon. Confused, she was fed a few bites. Suddenly, her eyes flashed, and she tilted her head back slightly, saying, "I'm not actually hungry. Aren't you very tired? Go back to sleep."

After speaking, he tilted his head, closed his thin lips, and made a move to get off the high stool.

Jiang Songhe placed the bowl on the table, then used both hands and feet on her left side to grab Jonathan's chin and pull him closer. Without giving him a chance to refuse, she brought the spoon with a mouthful of porridge in her right hand to his tightly closed mouth and said, "Tsk, ah."

Jonathan was unhappy that Jiang Songhe had tried to trick him into feeding her before, but now that Jiang Songhe was offering herself up, Jonathan was not happy about it.

The two acted as if their souls had swapped, defying all expectations. Like a spoon and a mouth locked in a playful chase, they chased each other for a while. Jonathan frowned and asked, "Are you pitying me? No need! I told you, nothing like that ever happened, it was all a lie!"

Jiang Songhe, who used to be easily provoked, cleverly used the shape of Jonathan's mouth to pinch his temporomandibular joint, so Jonathan could not shut up but had no choice but to shut up.

Jiang Songhe's lips curled into a few pixels as he placed the spoon into Jonathan's mouth and successfully fed him. He then released his magic fingers from his knuckles, pulled the spoon out, and flipped his thenar eminence to cover the upper and lower jaws.

“I don’t mind feeding him like this.” Jiang Songhe was probably not as clear-headed as he thought. He had wrapped the tissue he was using to wipe his mouth around the spoon handle and was holding it in his hand, but he ignored it and used his thumb instead.

"..."

After feeding him the porridge, Jiang Songhe leaned against the island counter, gazing absently at the living room's floor-to-ceiling windows.

"Aren't you leaving yet?" Jonathan turned to the left, stood up from the bar stool, and tapped the table with his fingers to signal that he was leaving. "I'm going to sleep."

Having drunk a whole bottle of red wine, Jiang Songhe spoke slowly and reacted slowly, as if his brain processor hadn't yet received Jonathan's message. He replied belatedly, "I need to wash the dishes."

Then, he blankly turned his gaze, from the bandage peeking out from behind Jonah to the haggard look on his face, and added, "I have obsessive-compulsive disorder."

"Whatever." Jonathan, whose mouth had been pried open like a clam, said this irritably and went straight back to his bedroom.

The tap water flowed in a fine, silky stream. Jiang Songhe turned on the silent mode and washed the dishes and chopsticks clean. Then he strolled out of the kitchen area, glanced at the bedroom, and saw that the light was still on. He stood at attention for a moment, then quietly turned and walked towards the entrance.

A barely perceptible sound of the door closing was heard, and the bedroom light went out.

-

In the middle of the night, Jonathan woke up thirsty.

After being pulled up in the elevator, to avoid attracting unnecessary attention, Vasin escorted Jonathan to see Tang Lan. Tang Lan prescribed anti-inflammatory and fever-reducing medicine, saying that the effect was immediate, but the side effect was that it would cause dry mouth, so he had to drink more water.

Jonathan lay in bed feeling his body. Apart from his throat feeling like it was on fire and his wounds still stinging, his body temperature seemed to have dropped significantly, and his limbs felt much lighter.

I craned my neck to look out of the bedroom. All the lights were off, and only the outline of the floor-to-ceiling window was magnified by the city lights, casting shadows on the floor and walls as far as I could see.

Propelling herself up, Jonathan stared into the darkness, her sore eyes trying to regain her sense of direction. She then got out of bed and headed to the kitchen, where she took a bottle of sparkling water from the refrigerator.

The icy, leaping bubbles flowed down my esophagus into my stomach, activating every cell in my body. The fire in my throat subsided, but at the same time, the lingering fear of weightlessness at high altitude crept into my heart.

Achoo!

Suddenly, voices came from the living room. Jonathan's body stiffened, and his breath caught in his throat. After listening intently for a long time, he cautiously put down the water bottle, closed the refrigerator door, and pulled a metal baseball bat from a crack in the corner of the wall…

With his right hand gripping the baseball bat in reverse, Jonathan sneaked into the living room. His first instinct was to check the curtains on either side of the French windows. After confirming that there was nothing amiss, he silently swallowed the saliva that had been secreted due to stress and then took a few more steps further in.

There's someone on the sofa!

With her heart pounding, Jonathan gasped and squinted, trying to focus her gaze.

The person was lying facing outwards, his slightly curled-up posture, combined with the interference of the projection outside the window, made it impossible for Jonathan to discern the uninvited guest's actual height, but he could still tell that the other person was several sizes taller and stronger than himself.

The sudden crisis yesterday evening was due to my own negligence in this regard, and I must not be careless again this time!

Jonathan gripped his right wrist tightly and approached step by step. When he was about a meter away from the sofa, he lightly supported the handle with his left hand, bent his elbow, and raised the club high. After taking a few deep breaths, he steeled his resolve and decisively swung it down hard at the man's head in the shadows—

“Joe… Nash…”

The staff suddenly veered to the side.

That voice…it’s Jiang Songhe?! Didn’t he leave a long time ago? Why is he still here?!

He is the only person who would call himself by his full name in porcelain script.

Jonathan let out a long sigh of relief, put down his baseball bat, used the thick end to brace himself against the floor in front of the sofa, and squatted down.

"You almost scared me to death..." Jonathan glared at Jiang Songhe's sleeping face and gently scolded her.

Jiang Songhe shivered, hugging her arms, not knowing whether she felt cold or what.

Jonah returned to his seat in shock, only to find that Jiang Songhe had no warm blankets over her thin pajamas. He belatedly recalled that the voice he had just heard was actually a sneeze.

"I'll forgive you since you dreamed about me again." Jonathan went back to the bedroom, pulled out a thick blanket, and quietly covered Jiang Songhe with it. He then sat cross-legged on the sofa and used his gaze as a pen to trace the frown lines that formed between Jiang Songhe's brows. "You've gone astray."

After drinking the cold beverage and being startled by Jiang Songhe, Jonathan was no longer sleepy. Bored, he started playing a game of asking and answering himself with the soundly sleeping wooden figure.

Jonathan (original audio): "Why did you stay behind to feint an attack?"

Jonathan (Wooden Version): "Because I care about you, it's settled, right?!"

Jonathan (original voice version): "No, you have to explain why?"

Jonathan (Wooden Version): "Because you will be afraid, tired, and in pain."

Jonathan (original audio): "So?"

Jonathan (Wooden Version): "So I'm also afraid, tired, and in pain."

Jonathan (original audio): "Then why are you afraid? Why are you tired? Why is it hurting?"

Jonathan (Wooden Version): "Because I like you."

Jonathan (original voice version): "I almost forgot you don't have a mouth... The character is off, let's start over~~ Uh umm... No, you have to explain why?"

Jonathan (Wooden Version): "Isn't it because he's afraid you'll sleepwalk?"

...

As he played, Jonathan laughed at his own silly self-amusement, and without controlling his volume, he suddenly burst out with a "haha".

Jiang Songhe suddenly moved, and Jonathan immediately fell silent, observing quietly for a while. Fortunately, Jiang Songhe showed no signs of being woken up, so he decided to call it a day and add some ritual to the end of the game.

"Dreams involving frowning are generally not good dreams. As a guest on camera, I have the right to choose a story background that I like."

"I have sleepwalking, and you're drunk. A sleepwalker can make a lighthearted move on a drunk, and the drunk won't mind, right?"

"If the drunkard doesn't speak, we'll take that as consent."

Jonathan's smile faded. He knelt down to support himself, rested his arms on the back and armrests of the sofa, and leaned down to peck Jiang Songhe's lips twice. After each peck, he uttered a pair of syllables: "Sweet dreams, wood."

As he lifted one knee and turned around, before he could even stand up straight, Jonathan felt his left wrist and waist being grabbed from behind and pulled towards the sofa. By the time he realized what was happening, he was already nestled in Jiang Songhe's arms.

A strong heartbeat pressed firmly against the left sphenoid bone, where the longevity lock was tattooed. Jonathan realized this, and his internal organs were immediately enveloped by a strange, warm current that made him feel numb and tingly.

His blood surged, and Jonathan felt a faint itch and pain in the wound on his left arm. He seemed to be hallucinating; he could hear the bells hanging from the longevity lock tinkling in sync with his two increasingly synchronized heartbeats.

"Hey, you're actually pretending to be asleep, aren't you?" Jonathan was momentarily at a loss, even a little panicked, by this unfamiliar feeling. "Stop...stop pretending, your heartbeat is so loud!"

He made a couple of bluffs and then immediately fell silent, feeling a bit awkward about the wooden man pretending to be asleep and having overheard his boring game.

However, the wooden figure was completely oblivious to his helplessness and panic, and continued to sleep soundly. Even when disturbed by a few words from so close by, it was able to adjust to a more comfortable position, using its long arms and legs to roll him over.

The blanket that had just been placed over this person was now wrapped around Jonathan like a spring roll wrapper.

The feeling of being unable to move was strangely familiar. Jonathan, his face burning, tried to trace the origin of this feeling in his mind: tired, drunk, asleep... Jiang Songhe might, possibly, should... really be having a very immersive dream.

Jonah had just breathed a sigh of relief after successfully maintaining her image as a top idol with a carefree and unrestrained personality, but then she remembered what had happened last time, and the heat on her face vanished instantly.

"...If you call me 'Mom' again, I'll beat you up."