Chapter 10 Embracing the Wounded: Sleepless nights, without tossing and turning...
Without crutches tonight, she couldn't even take a shower; she could only carefully wash herself with a towel.
When I came out of the bathroom, the lights in the hallway were dimmed. This was a common practice in the Cheng family. After 10 p.m., all the spaces within eye reach would be dimly lit to ensure that all family members could fall asleep.
From the bathroom, she could see across the hallway into the dark living room, where the projector was still running, and movie images were flickering on the screen.
She subconsciously worried that Cheng Mingdu might have fallen asleep on the sofa. Whether out of concern or curiosity, she slowly moved over and peeked out half of her face.
In the dim light, she saw the once familiar but now unfamiliar figure on the sofa. The angles of his face flickered in the movie footage, and the outward curve of his nose and jaw was outlined with a somewhat sharp contour in the dim light.
It is said that the faces in the illustrations are cut out by the artist using countless straight lines, and that's probably what the outline looks like.
Thinking that Cheng Mingdu hadn't noticed her, she couldn't help but scrutinize him for a while longer.
The deep collarbone hidden beneath his shirt collar, and the large bone structure beneath his tall frame, his entire body was filled and outlined by meticulously sculpted and perfectly proportioned muscles...
Ye Yuying thought of something, her breathing became disordered, and in an instant her heart desperately squeezed the blood in her body, making her chest feel burning.
She felt a strange sensation as her blood flowed through her body; having dealt with machines and programs for so long, she felt as if she had unknowingly become a dead person.
At this moment, the blood on the dead body came back to life.
Lively as a runaway wild horse, she could almost sense where Cheng Mingdu was sitting... the same place he used to sit...
However, at midnight, he would have another version of himself on his leg.
She would often deliberately disturb him when he was watching movies at midnight, silently climbing onto his lap, hugging him face to face, and burying her head in the crook of his neck, which was always the warmest place on his body besides his embrace, with a throbbing pulse.
The feel of his skin always reminded her of moonlight—a smooth, slightly cool sensation with a clean, crisp woody scent.
He seemed occasionally helpless, but then he would gently embrace her, letting her perch on him like a koala.
Sometimes, when her wet hair hadn't dried properly, soaking large areas of her back with fabric, he would reach out and place an absorbent towel behind her.
She lifted her head from the crook of his neck and restlessly shifted her legs slightly—
Cheng Mingdu's breath hitched, his Adam's apple bobbed, and he warned in a low voice, "Don't move."
A slightly wicked smile appeared on her face. She raised her hand and used the base of her thumb to lift his chin, letting her breath touch the tip of his nose.
"I want to see how long you can hold out."
As soon as she finished speaking, she tilted her head back and kissed his Adam's apple, slowly closing her smiling eyes with a playful smile on her lips.
Like a spark falling on a wasteland, it can start a prairie fire in an instant.
Cheng Mingdu's eyes flickered, his deep, dark eyes brushed by the spring breeze, and his lowered gaze was already tinged with desire.
The force around her waist tightened slowly, and the moment she withdrew her lips, he turned and pressed himself against her, controlling and responding, drawing her into his breath with a sense of aggression and punishment.
Her back was grabbed by a large hand, and she was completely drawn into his territory.
In his presence, her heart seemed to beat at a different rhythm, a mix of pain and itch.
Sometimes she couldn't tell if he had lost his mind, and she wanted to observe how he was different when he was with her compared to his usual self.
“Focus…” he said softly.
But she could never see clearly because he would kiss her again, leaving her trapped in a mixture of suffocation and heat, with only oxygen deprivation and trembling remaining.
The memory sent a jolt through her body; the physical reaction at that moment was so real, as if it had awakened a dormant nerve.
This startled Cheng Mingdu, who turned his head to look at her, their eyes meeting in surprise.
The air seemed to freeze in that instant.
His silence at this moment was very noticeable in the heavy night, as if it could easily dissect her heart, just like in the past.
But what stood between their gazes was an unfamiliar and cold air.
Under such gazes, she swayed slightly, silently raised her hand to steady herself against the wall, her lips moved slightly, but her tone remained almost indifferent, "I'm going to sleep."
“…Goodnight.” It seemed that more words were about to flow out the moment he spoke, but they were ultimately stuck in his throat, like a swirling leaf that needs time to fall to the ground. In the end, what came out was a word that couldn’t be simpler.
"Good night." Her words were condensed into just these two words.
That night, the wind and rain arrived as expected and lasted for half the night.
The pain in the bones of the disabled is always more acute than the weather forecast, feeling as if they are being pried open inch by inch by a knife.
This forced her to take more painkillers than usual.
She had developed a habit of taking painkillers, and sometimes she didn't know whether her subconscious action of putting the pill in her mouth was to stop the nerve pain or to use the medication to plug the hole in her heart.
The disabled person spends sleepless nights, tossing and turning.
She curled up in the blanket, trying to wrap herself up as tightly as possible, as if that would replicate the outline of his embrace. When she was wrapped up enough, she felt that this might restore two parts of his embrace.
The similarity of two points is already quite high.
In the latter half of the night, the wind and rain subsided, and the drizzle quieted down. Only the soft sounds of breathing and heartbeats remained in the room. The temperature gradually rose, and the pain gradually subsided, causing her to drift off to sleep.
That night, she dreamt of her own voice from many years ago, an indistinct sound produced by bone conduction.
"Brother... I have a devil inside me, I'm a freak, I like you."
The night was long, but finally, a tiny crack appeared, allowing light to shine through.
The next morning, just as dawn broke, the sound of rustling wind came from the bamboo forest. The rain had stopped, and a faint light shone through the sky. A thin layer of mist rose from the lake, like ice crystals frozen in mid-air in the cold weather.
Cheng Mingdu woke up earlier than usual.
He had spent the night lying on his side on the sofa in the guest room. When he woke up, the back of his neck was slightly cool, and he was still wearing his shirt, with a mark left on his wrist by the watch strap. He sat up, propping his forehead up with his hand. The sky outside the window was a gray-blue at the cusp of dawn and sunrise, so quiet that he could almost hear time slipping through the eaves.
He got up, took a shower, changed his clothes, went into the kitchen, boiled water, and cooked porridge, his movements so quiet they were almost silent.
The pot hadn't boiled yet. He stood in front of the French windows, gazing at the lake, his fingertips unconsciously tracing the edge of the glass, when he suddenly heard a very faint sound of a door opening behind him.
Ye Yuying was wearing yesterday's clothes and slippers, and walked very slowly.
Her complexion was a little better than last night, but the dark circles under her eyes were still undeniable.
"Awake?" he asked softly.
She nodded. "I didn't sleep well last night, and I still feel a little dizzy."
"I cooked some porridge, I'll eat some first." He turned to get a bowl.
She slowly sat down, and her palms felt a warmth as a cup of warm water was silently handed to her. The warmth of the cup slowly seeped from her fingertips into her palms, as if sending a faint but firm warmth to her heart.
“…Thank you.” She began, her lips trembling, as if she had racked her brains but couldn’t think of any other more suitable words.
He didn't turn around, but his fingertips paused for a moment.
After a while, Cheng Mingdu brought the porridge to the table, and casually added a plate of stir-fried bok choy and fried eggs. She paused, looking at the familiar combination.
"It's the same set again." She looked at the dishes and smiled serenely.
He nodded gently, "You... can't drink porridge on an empty stomach in the morning, it will cause acid reflux."
He didn't say the second-person pronoun aloud, but Ye Yuying's mind had already automatically filled in the missing "you".
She didn't speak, picked up the spoon, scooped up a spoonful, and found it slightly hot, yet it seemed to soothe the hole in her heart.
After a while, she suddenly looked up and said, "By the way, you don't need to see me off later. A friend is picking me up."
He paused, without looking up: "Assistant?"
She gently shook her head: "My car was scratched yesterday, and someone else came to pick me up."
He listened without speaking, but his fingertips tightened slightly, as if he could easily guess who it was.
In the end, he simply replied in a low voice, "Okay."
She stared at him, her gaze complex.
He seemed to suddenly realize something, looked up and met her gaze. Before Cheng Mingdu could see it, her eyes had already returned to normal.
A fleeting emotion flickered in her eyes, but she quickly composed herself, lowered her head to drink her porridge, and remained silent.
After finishing breakfast, she asked in a very soft voice, "Could you take me to the city center later?"
Cheng Mingdu stopped what he was doing, looked up at her, and asked, "Why didn't you let him come directly here?"
She shook her head. "No."
Is your past hidden here?
Cheng Mingdu did not ask the question aloud.
Before leaving, Ye Yuying stood at the door, suddenly turned around, and carefully looked at everything in the room.
"I saw recently that they're going to build a resort in this area, and this house..."
“That project hasn’t been finalized yet; I’m still considering it,” Cheng Mingdu said in a deep voice.
She paused for a moment, then smiled. "If we don't demolish it, would you consider selling it?"
“Yes…” He suddenly looked at her, a barely perceptible ripple appearing in his eyes, “Do you want to buy it?”
She shook her head honestly: "I can't afford it."
"If you could afford it, would you want to buy it?"
“I will buy it. This is the last non-commercial area in Chengdu. Why not buy it?” Her voice was soft, yet it contained a clear and discerning perspective unique to entrepreneurs.
But when his gaze fell on the sliding wooden door, he fell into a silent melancholy.
She didn't look at him again, but lowered her head and opened the door. "Let's go."
She turned and walked down the steps slowly, her figure gradually disappearing into the bamboo shadows.
Cheng Mingdu belatedly realized that the morning mist over the lake was actually a little thicker than usual.
The words she hadn't finished saying, and the unfinished words he had stuck in his throat, all dissolved heavily in the morning mist.
He stood at the door for a long time before finally taking a step.
A note from the author:
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50 red envelopes!
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