Yu Juan slept on the couch in a daze. When he woke up and saw the dense shrubbery outside the window, making it seem as if he was in the middle of a forest, he thought he had transmigrated again.
A few seconds later, Yu Juan regained clarity and remembered yesterday’s matters.
After knowing he had transmigrated into a novel, Yu Juan had little interest in the grand plot that would unfurl– he just wanted to find Zhou Huiyue and get his revenge before leaving. Yet, the very same male protagonist who had enacted his revenge like chopping melons and cutting vegetables unexpectedly looked on the verge of death at present, as if he could kick the bucket at any time. (T/N: Achieve something easily)
Yu Juan had no way to seek revenge. With Zhou Huiyue’s tenacious vitality, he could bet that the other would definitely recover as the plot progressed– but this was his current reality, and he couldn’t simply rely on a few sentences mentioned briefly in the novel.
Especially not when Zhou Huiyue didn’t seem to have much of a desire to live.
Yu Juan…unexpectedly felt a bit soft-hearted.
Not that he would ever admit this to anyone.
His purpose for his trip thus changed– at least until Zhou Huiyue truly recovered and survived. Only then would he carry out his revenge and leave.
With these thoughts, Yu Juan was once again troubled. It was easier said than done. However, he was prepared to go at it one step at a time and not rush.
The good news was that Sun Qibai didn’t live here and didn’t seem to come by frequently either, as could be seen by the dense vegetation along the path leading to the manor. There was a simple, remodelled kitchen on the second floor. In the fridge was a variety of frozen food as well as a small amount of fresh vegetables– these daily necessities should’ve been brought by Sun Qibai from the city whenever he would drop by.
Yu Juan felt hungry, but he was a picky eater who didn’t really like instant food. As such, he had to prepare to make something to eat himself.
It was unfortunate that cooking wasn’t part of the experience he had gained from living on his own in his senior year of high school.
After his third time making the kitchen smoky, Yu Juan took out his phone and typed: “Is it still possible to eat burnt egg?”
— “There’s no difficulty in frying an egg, how can it smoke the kitchen? Let me see.”
Yu Juan took a picture and uploaded it.
“Today I learnt that fried eggs could be fried in such a manner.”
“If you have someone you hate, you can send it to them and let them have a taste.”
Yu Juan looked pensive. “It just happens that I do have someone I hate upstairs, weak and bedridden. It seems to be quite appropriate.”
“…OP, please be careful, you’ll get locked up if you deliberately poison someone.”
Of course, Yu Juan was merely joking– he wasn’t so vicious as to make Zhou Huiyue’s already weak body worse.
It was just regrettable that the first time he tried to make a meal ended in failure.
Yu Juan put away his phone and took out a cup of instant noodles from the cupboard.
Just when he was halfway through the meal, the sound of a car came from outside.
Yu Juan finished eating his noodles slowly before going downstairs. Sun Qibai was seated on the couch in the living room with a cigarette in hand and an unpleasant expression on his face.
The choking smell of cigarette smoke filled the air.
Yu Juan knew that Lu Shuicheng had managed to convince Su Li to let him stay.
Zhou Huiyue was trapped here while his company had fallen apart, becoming an empty shell after his business partners sold the core technology. As for Zhou Heng, who was abroad, he had never once shown any concern towards Zhou Huiyue– he was a perfectionist who wouldn’t tolerate his heir having any physical flaws.
Neither the Yu family nor Yu Juan had any reason to place their bets on someone who had nothing to his name.
It was crucial for successful people to maintain appearances and not let others find fault.
With Zhou Huiyue’s inability to walk, looking after him was easy. However, with Yu Juan’s arrival, Sun Qibai had one more thing to report to Su Li about.
Thus, he pretended to flatter even though he wasn’t actually being courteous, “This place is mainly a place to recuperate and relax, so its conditions aren’t the best. It’s likely that a young master like you might not be able to adapt.”
Yu Juan didn’t get too close, standing by the stairs with his waist propped by the handrail. He looked really easy to bully with his small figure.
Sun Qibai continued, “This is really inconvenient for you. Perhaps if you had listened to my advice not to come yesterday, the situation right now…”
Yu Juan raised his brow and interrupted, “Firstly, it’s up to me if I want to go anywhere. It isn’t anyone else’s concern.”
Sun Qibai’s smile instantly froze.
Yu Juan’s temper wasn’t very good. There was no acting at present, only his true self. “Secondly, the smell of cigarette smoke disgusts me. The next time you come here, smoking will be prohibited.”
“Lastly, this couch belongs to me. I don’t like sharing my things with others.”
*
After Sun Qibai left, in order to understand this place a bit more, Yu Juan walked around the entire manor as planned.
Due to the neglect over the years, the plants outside had grown in an unrestrained manner and covered up the manor’s original appearance. Most of the rooms on the first and second floors hadn’t been cleaned, and only those that needed to be used often were tidied up. There was also a third floor, but it was likely not in use– Yu Juan didn’t want to go there to choke on dust.
This manor was truly big. By the time he was done, it was already evening.
Yu Juan returned to his room. Since he hadn’t planned to stay long originally, there were quite a number of things lacking in his luggage that it didn’t take him much effort to sort it out.
On the wall by the bed were a few stains not small in size that didn’t look like traces of mould.
Yu Juan merely glanced at it. Then, as if he realised something, he turned back again.
Pitch-black, distorted, monster-like, and with an unknown amount of legs—
Yu Juan suddenly felt as if a basin of cold water had been splashed on his face, a shiver running down his spine as his nerves stretched taut.
—Bugs.
With an expressionless face, Yu Juan walked out of the room backwards and slammed the door shut before going downstairs at an unusual speed.
Yu Juan then swore that he would never step foot inside that room again.
Yu Juan wasn’t very courageous as a kid– to be more precise, he was a coward who was really afraid of anything that looked strange and would cry upon seeing them. Although he had made up for most of his shortcomings as he grew older, one of the few things he couldn’t overcome was his fear of bugs.
However, it was a biased fear– insects that looked good, like butterflies or dragonflies, were okay, but those that were ugly would make him think of unpleasant things.
At present, Yu Juan was seated on the sofa as he began to seriously consider how much money it would cost him to hire a pest control company to clean up the room.
“Yu Juan.”
When he heard his name being called, Yu Juan lifted his head and looked towards the source of the voice.
As the wheelchair stopped at the edge of the stairs on the second floor, Zhou Huiyue looked down with half-lidded eyes.
With a cold voice, he asked calmly, “Are you not returning to your room?”
The noise just now had been so loud that it almost broke the already creaking wooden floor.
Yu Juan said in a perfunctory manner, “I don’t want to.”
Zhou Huiyue was immersed in the shadows due to the light coming from behind him. “It’s getting dark soon. Are you not going to go to sleep?”
With the image of being surrounded by bugs still lingering on Yu Juan’s mind, he snapped, “Can I not like sleeping on the couch?”
His temper was a bit bad.
A moment of silence later, Zhou Huiyue laughed very faintly. “Yu Juan, is providing you with a peaceful and comfortable sleeping area not part of the requirements you’ve set for your fiancé?”
It sounded like a joke, but for some reason, when it came from Zhou Huiyue, it seemed like a serious question.
Yu Juan was so startled that it took him a moment to react– those words were from the random excuse he had came up with yesterday.
Unsure of why the other had asked such a question, he hummed in reply and said with some hesitation, “It…is, I guess.”
Zhou Huiyue was unable to go downstairs with his wheelchair and could only continue the conversation from afar, “What’s the matter then?”
The warm evening breeze somehow made his voice seem less cold.
Yu Juan’s face was also affected by the warmth. “I hate bugs.”
There were bugs in the room.
A few seconds later, Yu Juan stood in front of the closed door and only then realised that a certain person was preparing to fulfil his obligations as a fiancé.
It was strange no matter how he thought about it. Yu Juan was absent-minded until the room opened again, then he lowered his head to look at Zhou Huiyue before saying slowly, “Thank you.”
After the wheelchair was moved backwards a bit to keep an appropriate distance between them, Zhou Huiyue said, “The window screen is broken, so bugs will fly in if you open the window.”
After all, this place hadn’t been renovated for so many years. It was normal to have this kind of small issue. In fact, most of the rooms had broken windows.
Yu Juan felt his scalp tingle just from the thought of bugs, and he desperately wanted to add a layer of protection to the window. He recalled having seen many tools that had been used many years ago still in the storeroom on the first floor.
Zhou Huiyue hadn’t left by the time he went downstairs to fetch the tools.
It was getting dark, and the sun in the horizon had already set halfway through.
Yu Juan’s side profile was illuminated in the dusk. His slender and pale fingers were coated with some dust from holding the mottled hammer that had not been used for a long time, creating quite a contrast and making it seem like he might accidentally get hurt.
Zhou Huiyue looked at him for a moment, then unexpectedly said, “Let me do it.”
Although Yu Juan was still struggling with nailing the window screen, he couldn’t let a patient do this kind of physical work.
He said, “It’s fine.”
Zhou Huiyue raised his gaze and asked calmly, “Is this not a requirement for your fiancé?”
Yu Juan, “…”
Once again, he found himself speechless by his own words.
He propped his chin and watched as Zhou Huiyue opened the window and cut off the wild and protruding branches. His legs couldn’t move, and while his arms were thin, they were still as strong as before. Yu Juan felt that those branches should obviously be tough to cut through, but they were taken care of rather easily.
Zhou Huiyue was likely someone with a strong sense of responsibility and pride, and his identity as a fiancé would make him unwilling to lose.
Yu Juan had some unreasonable thoughts.
Although it was only a temporary excuse, it seemed like he could continue using it.
Once everything was settled, he could just say that he was still unsatisfied and carry out his revenge before running away.
