Chapter 14
When Zhou Wangchuan used one million to bribe Shang Mu's gambling-addicted father in the alley outside the school, he and Shang Mu were actually not dating.
He even witnessed Shang Mu interacting with others.
Since the last time he met Shang Mu and a boy from the same school outside the hotel, Zhou Wangchuan has seen that boy many times.
The boy's name was Fu Nian. He was in the same college as Shang Mu, but in a different major. He was a year older than Shang Mu. Every two weeks, Shang Mu would go out with Fu Nian to get a room—and he would ask Zhou Wangchuan to pick them up.
Zhou Wangchuan didn't know how the incident started. He was on duty at the school hospital that day and received a call from Shang Mu.
"Senior." As soon as the call was connected, Shang Mu called him softly, his voice so weak that it was almost a whisper, "Are you free now?"
"What's wrong with you?" Zhou Wangchuan asked.
"Sorry, I can't think of anyone else to contact..." Shang Mu said, "Can you pick me up at the hotel?"
His voice was like a thin silk thread, soft and moist, and seemed to be about to break with the slightest effort. It was interspersed with slight gasps, as if he was trying his best to endure the discomfort.
"What's wrong with you?" Zhou Wangchuan asked again, "Are you feeling unwell?" As he asked this, he stood up subconsciously, holding his mobile phone in one hand and taking off his white coat with the other hand and putting it on the back of the chair.
The voice on the other end was very low: "Hmm..."
Zhou Wangchuan asked, "Where are you?"
"It's the same hotel as last time, the room at the end of the third floor."
Zhou Wangchuan paused as he pushed the door open. He remembered the boy from last time. Shang Mu was supported by that boy and they walked out of the hotel together.
"Can't I?" Without waiting for an answer, Shang Mu said softly, "It doesn't matter if you can't, you have already helped me a lot." He finished his voice lightly, as if he really didn't care, but also seemed a little aggrieved.
Zhou Wangchuan's refusal lingered in his mouth for a moment, then he swallowed it back as if nothing had happened. He said, "I didn't say no."
Twenty minutes later, Zhou Wangchuan arrived at the hotel and found Shang Mu alone in the room.
Shang Mu was sitting on the headboard, hugging a pillow, curled up in a posture. He was already rather thin, and occupying only a small corner on the two-meter-long bed, he looked even more frail and pitiful.
Seeing someone coming, he raised his head and called softly, "Senior."
Zhou Wangchuan found that his complexion was really bad, his lips were so pale that they had completely lost their blood color, and there were traces of blood oozing from his lower lip after being bitten.
Under the sweat-soaked light blue shirt, her beautiful butterfly bones were highlighted by the curled-up posture and were trembling slightly.
"Where do you feel uncomfortable?" Zhou Wangchuan walked to the bed and sat down, asking worriedly.
Shang Mu clutched the pillow weakly and pressed it against his abdomen. He moved his lips and said in a voice so low it was almost inaudible, "My stomach hurts."
"I remember you seemed to have a stomachache last time? Do you want to go to the hospital for a check-up..." Zhou Wangchuan suddenly paused, as if remembering something, and said a little embarrassedly, "Uh, is it... not cleaned..." He glanced at the bathroom, the floor was dry, with no signs of bathing.
Shang Mu blinked: "Senior, I seem to have told you that even if I am, I am still 1."
Zhou Wangchuan couldn't think of any other reason for the stomachache after leaving the hotel, other than sex. But he wasn't one to argue, and Shang Mu wasn't feeling well at the moment, so he naturally stopped talking.
"Do you need me to take you to the hospital?" Zhou Wangchuan asked.
Shang Mu shook his head: "I'll sit down for a while and relax, then I'll go back to school."
Zhou Wangchuan nodded: "Okay."
The atmosphere was too eerie, so Zhou Wangchuan went to the tea station by the door to boil some water. He poured mineral water into the kettle, poured out the first pot of water after it boiled, and while waiting for the second pot of water to boil, he washed the cups and poured new water into the cups to cool.
Shang Mu sat on the bed and looked at him quietly.
Zhou Wangchuan brought over the slightly scalding water: "Have some water."
"Thank you, Senior." Shang Mu smiled sweetly, took the cup, and drank the hot water in small sips. Slowly, his stomach felt better.
On the way to send Shang Mu back to the dormitory, Zhou Wangchuan kept holding back a lot of words in his heart.
Shang Mu tilted his head to look at him: "What do you want to say, Senior?"
Zhou Wangchuan thought of the scumbag who had left Shang Mu in the hotel and ran away after having sex with him. He also thought of Shang Mu's weak appearance after being ravaged and tortured. He said tactfully: "...If you need money, you can borrow from me."
Shang Mu was stunned for a moment, then burst out laughing.
Zhou Wangchuan didn't understand what he was laughing at, so he said again seriously, "I'm serious."
Shang Mu stopped laughing and said, "Okay."
After the first time, there will be a second time, and there will be a third and fourth time.
Sometimes Shang Mu was alone, but most of the time, there was another person, X, in the room. Almost every time, it wasn't the same person. X represented a variable in mathematics, but also a changing person.
Every time, X was dressed neatly, but Shang Mu was leaning against the head of the bed in dishevel, facing X's inquiries with a cold face.
As soon as Zhou Wangchuan arrived, Shang Mu pulled him to sit down beside the bed and said to X with a cold expression, "Someone is sending me off. Hurry and leave."
X would glare at Zhou Wangchuan hatefully and leave unwillingly.
Zhou Wangchuan was quite puzzled.
Among these Xs, only one person had a name. He was Fu Nian, the boy Zhou Wangchuan had bumped into outside the bookstore that day, helping Shang Mu out of the hotel.
Fu Nian is the only duplicate in the X set.
One day when Zhou Wangchuan went to pick up Shang Mu, he happened to see the two of them arguing.
Shang Mu lazily leaned on the bed as usual, saying nonchalantly, "I told you, no."
Fu Nian stood in front of him and said excitedly, "Why not? We obviously have the same interests! If you promise me, we can go together once every two weeks, and I can take care of you after that. We can go to class together and go to the library together. If you are with me, you don't have to look for someone else outside."
Zhou Wangchuan, who was walking towards the door, stopped awkwardly upon hearing this. Just as he was about to turn around and avoid Shang Mu, he saw him and called out, "Senior."
Zhou Wangchuan had no choice but to stop and meet Fu Nian who turned around.
"Is it because of him?" Fu Nian pointed at Zhou Wangchuan and asked Shang Mu, as if he had suddenly realized something. "He was the one who sent you back to school last time. Is it because you were dating him?"
Before Zhou Wangchuan could say anything, Shang Mu said coldly, "So what?"
"you……"
Zhou Wangchuan coughed and asked, "How about you two chat first?"
Shang Mu looked up at him, the cold frost in his eyes suddenly melted away, and he blinked: "Senior, I can't sit still, can you help me up?"
Those eyes were very beautiful, with mist condensing on their long black eyelashes. Zhou Wangchuan couldn't say no to such eyes. He paused for only a few seconds, then walked over and sat down, gently holding Shang Mu's shoulders. Shang Mu relaxed his body and leaned on him.
Fu Nian couldn't believe it, and looked at their expressions as if they were looking at an adulterer.
"We are obviously the same kind! You and him?! Does he know who you are? Does he understand you?" Fu Nian sneered, "If he knew——"
"Fu Nian." Shang Mu interrupted him softly, "Don't make me hate you."
Fu Nian's face turned pale, he took a few steps back, glared at Zhou Wangchuan hatefully, then turned and left.
Zhou Wangchuan had suffered such looks too many times and had long been accustomed to it.
But he was thinking about something else at this moment.
Shang Mu had emphasized to him twice, "Even if I am, I am still number one," but how could he explain the situation before him? Fu Nian's words still echoed in his ears, "Be with me, and you won't have to go out and find someone else." He thought of the men who came and went, all kinds of men.
Zhou Wangchuan moved his lips, but all the words in his mouth were stuck there, and his muscles, bones and teeth were sore.
Shang Mu raised his wet eyes and looked at him: "What do you want to say?"
"Come with me."
The room suddenly fell silent. Zhou Wangchuan was surprised for a moment that he actually said that.
He took a deep breath and continued, "Don't look for other men. Tell me any difficulties you have and I'll help you solve them. Leave it to me and study hard. Those things in the past are irrelevant. Just focus on studying hard and getting your scholarship." He thought Shang Mu had encountered difficulties and needed a lot of money, so he would... sell himself. He spoke these words in a confused manner.
Shang Mu looked a little surprised, and after a while, he showed a pensive expression.
"Let me think about it," he said finally.
At that time, Zhou Wangchuan was on the eve of graduation and was afraid he wouldn't be able to wait any longer. But he suppressed his anxiety and replied gently, "Okay."
Shang Mu didn't let him wait long.
Half a month later, after the graduation ceremony, Shang Mulai found him and asked, "If we were together, would you hit me?"
Zhou Wangchuan immediately said, "No, it's a coward's act to hit someone. If we were together, I would treat you well."
"What if I asked you to hit me?"
"That won't happen either."
Shang Mu looked a little disappointed, lost in thought. Zhou Wangchuan appeared calm on the surface, but inwardly he was nervously waiting.
Finally, with the background music of the school welcoming and seeing off graduates, Shang Mu said, "Then give it a try."
*
After finishing the roses at the hotel, Shang Mu was absent-minded all the way. Even when he sat in the office, he was still feeling a little depressed.
When the assistant said it for the third time, Shang Mu finally responded: "A new photographer is here?"
"Yes." The assistant took out the information and introduced, "The new photographer is..."
"It's me."
Suddenly a laughing voice came from the door.
The voice sounded familiar. Shang Mu raised his head, thought for a few seconds, and called out the other person's name: "Fu Nian."
Fu Nian seemed a little surprised: "You still remember me. It's an honor."
He walked in and said to his assistant, "Little girl, could you please close the door for us? He and I are old classmates, so we could chat and catch up."
The assistant looked at Shang Mu hesitantly, and Shang Mu nodded slightly.
The door closed.
Fu Nian walked over with a smile and asked, "I haven't seen you for several years. How have you been?"
"fine and you?"
"I haven't seen you for a few years. I feel really bad." Fu Nian said, "I heard that you are dating that doctor? Does he know about your hobby?"
Shang Mu leaned back in his chair, twirling a pen between his fingers, and said nonchalantly, "It has nothing to do with you."
"Tsk, we're old classmates, can't we be honest with each other? I've found several partners since graduation, but we all broke up in the end because we weren't the same type of people, couldn't understand each other, and couldn't accept each other." Fu Nian sighed, "For people like us, if we can't find someone who understands us, dating is torture, right?"
The spinning pen stopped.
Fu Nian raised his eyebrows: "Am I right?"
Shang Mu flicked his finger, and the ballpoint pen fell accurately into the pen holder on the table.
"You came here just to talk nonsense?" Shang Mu said coldly, "It's working hours now, don't talk to me about anything other than work."
Fu Nian smiled and said, "Why are you so fierce? We worked well together in the past, didn't we? As the saying goes, those who are close to the water get the moon first. You don't need to look for others to practice with you. Consider me. If you need anything, I can help you keep it a secret from your doctor and make sure he doesn't know."
Shang Mu said, "I'm sorry, I never have any contact with my colleagues outside of work."
Fu Nian didn't take it as an offense at all. He took out a business card and placed it on the table. "It's okay. Think about it carefully. You can contact me anytime within 24 hours."
He said that and left.
That afternoon, Shang Mu began to feel extremely irritable.
He practiced once every two weeks. Like Qingye, he took a bath, took pills, and was sent to the hospital for gastric lavage. For most of the day, it felt like millions of ants were crawling all over his body, and he had to use all his strength to barely control his irritability.
In the early hours of the morning, he was still tossing and turning in bed, unable to fall asleep.
Zhou Wangchuan was woken up by him and asked, "What's wrong?"
Shang Mu took a few quick breaths and sat up.
"Did you have a nightmare?" Zhou Wangchuan sat up with him and put his arm around his shoulders. "I'll go get you a glass of water."
Shang Mu suddenly grabbed his hand, and before he could react, he pressed it hard against his abdomen, while commanding in a hoarse voice, "Help me."
He needed violent fists to fill the emptiness in his stomach.
Zhou Wangchuan was fully awake and looked at him with a frown.
Shang Mu held his hand tightly and pleaded in a low voice: "Brother Zhou, help me, I feel uncomfortable."
"You just had an IV yesterday, and your body hasn't recovered yet."
Zhou Wangchuan tried to comfort him, but Shang Mu took a few deep breaths and shook off his hand.
"You're not going to help me, are you?" The voice was cold.
"It's not like that. It's already very late. Wait until tomorrow..." Zhou Wangchuan tried to pull his hand, but was pushed away again.
Shang Mu leaned over, took the coat from the bedside, shook out a business card, and dialed the number on it.
The moment the call was connected, Zhou Wangchuan saw the name on the business card clearly and his expression changed slightly.
"Hello? Have you figured it out?" In the silent night, the voice on the other end of the phone was extremely clear.
Shang Mu stared at Zhou Wangchuan and replied word by word: "Now, go to the hotel and practice with me."
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