Chapter 44 A Turbid Night
When Fu Yanle came out of the bathroom, there was no sound outside. He climbed into bed, checked his phone, and saw that it was already 11 p.m.
"At this hour, they shouldn't be busy with work anymore, right?" Fu Yanle rolled over and over, remembering a dating post she had read before.
The post said that when dating, you can call your partner to stay connected, maintain the spark, and increase trust. The professional term for this is "long phone conversations." I heard some couples talk for one or two hours straight, as if they have endless things to say. He and Yu Jingchen certainly couldn't talk for that long, since they both had work the next day.
Fu Yanle stretched out his legs, lifted the blanket around his feet, rolled himself up like a silkworm cocoon, and then made a video call to Yu Jingchen.
With a notification tone, the other party answered almost instantly.
Yu Jingchen's face appeared on the screen. Fu Yanle leaned closer and said with a smile, "Good evening."
"Good evening." Yu Jingchen tapped the screen with his finger. "Yanle, don't get too close, be careful to protect your eyes."
"Okay." Fu Yanle obediently moved away a little, his eyes lingering on Yu Jingchen's collarbone, where water droplets still clung.
"Did you just take a shower? Me too, I was on a group chat with An Shigou and the others earlier."
“I went out with my uncle for a while tonight and only came back a short while ago.” Yu Jingchen’s tone was gentle, calm and tender in the night. “He also mentioned you.”
Fu Yanle rolled over and said, "Go ahead and bring it up. I think I'm quite presentable."
“Yes, I think so too.” Yu Jingchen looked intently at Fu Yanle on the screen.
Because of his side-lying position, Fu Yanle's cheek was squeezed into a small mound of flesh, and his mouth was also puffed out, making his dark eyebrows and eyes look even brighter, like a delicate and cute little snowman. Yu Jingchen didn't dare to be too obvious, so he could only hide his intentions in his eyes and stroke Fu Yanle's face through the screen.
That gaze was so intense that Fu Yanle smiled and exposed her, "Are you coveting my good looks?"
Yu Jingchen chuckled and said, "Since Yanle is so generous, of course I should take the opportunity to covet it a few more times."
Fu Yanle pursed his lips and said, "Brother Chen, why don't you get in bed too? We can lie down, and I'll tell you a bedtime story, then we'll go to sleep together, okay?"
“…Okay.” Yu Jingchen obediently did as Fu Yanle said and lay down on his side as well.
Fu Yanle thought for a moment and said, "When I first arrived at the Lu family, I was quite shy. Although I desperately wanted to never return to the Fu family, even if I had to live under someone else's roof at the Lu family, it was still an unfamiliar environment. I had no blood relation with the Lu family, so I kept to myself when I first arrived. The old man never said anything mushy, and he was even quite fierce at times, but he was very kind to me, just like Lu Minghe."
"Hmm." Yu Jingchen listened attentively.
“I was young then, not very capable, and didn’t have much money. I always wanted to repay him. He loved flowers, birds, fish, and insects. He had just started raising a little parrot and loved it very much. Once, he had to go out and wouldn’t be back for more than half a month. I thought I would take good care of the parrot for him and make it plump and healthy.”
Upon hearing this, Yu Jingchen asked, "Have you gotten into trouble?"
Fu Yanle scratched his head. "Yes. I didn't do any research or preparation before raising it. I fed it incorrectly, which caused the little parrot to get bursal inflammation and die. At the time, I was both guilty and scared. I was afraid that when the old man came back, he would think I was disobedient and send me back to the Fu family. So I kept it a secret, but the maid who was responsible for feeding the little parrot was also very scared."
“You don’t dare admit your mistakes, nor do you want to shift the blame onto others,” Yu Jingchen said. “Then what did you do? Let me hear how stupid Yanle was when he was a child.”
"I was so conflicted, I had no idea what to do. I was in a daze for a long time, and then Lu Minghe found out. Then I got even more scared!" Fu Yanle jumped up and down in the blanket, trying her best to convey her fear at the time. "Ever since I entered the Lu family, Lu Minghe has been making me suffer with him. I thought I was doomed, and that Lu Minghe would definitely not let this opportunity pass! But I didn't expect that when the old man came back and started to investigate the mistakes, he actually took the blame for me."
Fu Yanle rubbed his face and said with a smile, "The old man chased him all the way down the street, and he was beaten to tears, but he still didn't betray me. At first, I felt relieved, but later I felt more and more uncomfortable, and I felt like I was an utterly wicked villain."
Yu Jingchen said, "So you still chose to be honest."
“I wrote a long letter that included thanks, an admission of mistakes, an apology, and an IOU. I secretly slipped it under the old man’s pillow, then took a hard-boiled egg and a carton of milk from the Lu family, and left wearing my old clothes.”
Fu Yanle could still recall his lonely figure that day, a small body with a huge sense of dejection.
“My maternal grandparents did not agree to my mother marrying Fu Sheng. After my mother got married, the relationship between the two sides was severed. Because my mother passed away, my maternal grandparents hated Fu Sheng to the bone and were not kind to me either. So at that time, I had no one to rely on and I did not want to go back to the Fu family.”
Fu Yanle sighed, his tone pitiful.
“I thought of many options at the time, such as going to an orphanage or performing on the street to make a living. But before I had gone far, the old man rushed over, picked me up, and started scolding and spanking me, calling me an ungrateful wretch. I cried so hard.”
Fu Yanle's eyelids drooped.
“But he carried me on his shoulders and took me home. Not long after, we moved to a place far away from the Fu family. Lu Minghe and I went to school together and came home together. People always asked us if we were brothers. Neither of us denied it. Over time, everyone thought we were brothers, one with our father's surname and the other with our mother's.”
Yu Jingchen said, "You are destined to be with them. You are not family, but you are closer than family."
“Once, Lu Minghe’s parents came to our house for dinner and were quite unhappy to see me. In front of me, they said that the old man was raising someone else’s son, keeping an outsider in the house, which was really outrageous. They also said that like father, like son, Fu Sheng was no good, and I was no better.”
Fu Yanle rubbed his nose.
"Of course I couldn't say anything, so I buried my head in my chicken leg, but my ears were getting hotter and hotter."
Yu Jingchen's heart tightened, and he said in a hoarse voice, "I heard that Old Master Lu and this young couple are not close."
"This couple is morally corrupt, greedy for quick success and rash, not very capable but very ambitious. They just want to inherit the family property after the old man passes away. The old man was already disappointed in them and was afraid that they would corrupt Lu Minghe, so he kept Lu Minghe by his side."
Fu Yanle rolled over and lay on his side.
"At that time, the old man slammed his fist on the table and cursed them, then kicked them out. I will always remember what he said that day."
Fu Yanle lowered his eyes, concealing his slightly reddened face. "He said he has no sons, only two grandsons."
Yu Jingchen reached out and touched Fu Yanle's reddened eyes through the screen, "Yanle, don't cry."
“I can’t control this either.” Fu Yanle sniffed. “I can never repay the kindness they’ve shown me in my entire life. If it weren’t for the old man, you might not have met me.”
“So I am very grateful to them,” Yu Jingchen said. “But Yanle, I think Grandpa Lu doesn’t want you to repay or give anything back. As long as you are healthy, safe, happy and content, that is the greatest way to repay him.”
Fu Yanle said, "Then I will try my best to do it well!"
"I will do my best to help you." Yu Jingchen leaned closer to the screen, and across the air that was so close yet so far apart, he gently kissed the tip of Fu Yanle's nose.
"Yanle, may you always be happy."
Fu Yanle stared blankly into Yu Jingchen's eyes, as if the screen in front of him had turned into air, and Yu Jingchen was right beside him, their eyes meeting. He could even imagine Yu Jingchen's breath and scent, and the tremor in his heart when that light kiss landed on the tip of his nose.
The cold screen couldn't hide Yu Jingchen's gentleness.
Fu Yanle licked his lips and suddenly said, "Brother Chen, I'm hard."
The air was silent around them.
After what seemed like an eternity, Yu Jingchen asked in a low voice, "Yanle doesn't like sleeping in his pants, right?"
“…Yes.” Fu Yanle said softly, “I’m wearing a bathrobe.”
A crack appeared in Yu Jingchen's gentle expression, and lust squeezed out from the crack, "Will Yanle listen to me?"
"Yes, I guess so," Fu Yanle stammered. "I will."
“Take it off, and come with me, okay?” Yu Jingchen’s voice was hoarse, the hook at the end of his words silently circling, “Yanle, be good.”
Fu Yanle's ears were itchy. He turned his face away in embarrassment, but he still couldn't help but sneak a peek at Yu Jingchen on the screen. That handsome, godlike face was flushed with spring, his long, narrow eyelids drooped, and dark waves surged in his dark pupils, trying to drown both of them.
This is absolutely terrible.
Fu Yanle's hands seemed to be bound by red puppet strings, obediently going where they were supposed to go. A small piece of fabric slipped from between his legs, hanging awkwardly on his ankle. He gently closed his eyes, lifted his foot, and flung it away.
A sparse rubbing sound echoed back and forth in their ears.
Time slips away in turbidity.
After an unknown amount of time, Yu Jingchen sighed almost inaudibly and said, "Yanle is so good."
Fu Yanle looked up, speechless.
The light overhead began to disperse, shining on his face like the rebuke of a white god. He was so ashamed that he could only close his eyes to escape, but Yu Jingchen's breath was still unrestrained in his ear, and transparent, colorless threads passed through his ear, scratching his internal organs.
He began to tremble.
"You know what, Yanle? Tonight, my uncle asked me if we'd ever done it together?"
Yu Jingchen was more greedy than Fu Yanle. He didn't want to close his eyes; he wanted to memorize every expression Fu Yanle had at that moment. So he kept his eyes open, his lower abdomen tensing and his tailbone tingling from the heat and redness on Fu Yanle's face.
Fu Yanle didn't reply; his wrist started to ache.
“I said no.” Yu Jingchen looked up and took a quick breath. “He said I was useless.”
Fu Yanle let out a breathy sound, and the phone in his other hand fell limply onto the pillow.
“I have no way to refute it.” Yu Jingchen’s neck turned bright red. “I think this is forbidden for me. Just imagining it is already an offense against the gods in my heart, and I should be struck by lightning.”
All that could be heard was their uncontrolled breathing.
Fu Yanle's throat was dry and hoarse. He turned his head and said, "It's okay."
He released his damp palm.
"Even the gods break the law for you tonight."
Author's Note:
ah!
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