Xu Zhi’s biological clock was messed up. Of course, it might not just be his biological clock that was messed up.
He didn’t drive Zhou Mu out of bed until the end, and they kissed many times.
Xu Zhi felt that Zhou Mu’s kiss was like the rain in all seasons.
Sometimes it’s gentle and affectionate; sometimes it’s like water pouring down, filling Xu Zhi’s heart with moisture and making Xu Zhi’s electric shock linger for a long time.
Later, when Zhou Mu put his hand into Xu Zhi’s pants, Xu Zhi felt that he was going to die in the next second. Of course, they only went this far.
The tension he felt when kissing Zhou Mu was completely different from the anxiety he felt when he first met Zhou Mu. Being kissed by Zhou Mu felt like he was stepping on clouds with his bare feet—weightless but very addictive.
The sleeping pills prescribed by Wen Shuyao took effect around five in the morning. Subsequently, Xu Zhi slept deeply in the embrace of Zhou Mu for a long yet chaotic slumber.
Furthermore, he had a dream for the first time.
Xu Zhi in the dream was not 26 years old; he was only 17 that year.
That year, the family welcomed a new member, and his parents gave him a younger brother.
When his younger brother was just born, he was predicted by a master to do great things because his cry was particularly loud.
Somewhat ironically, Xu Zhi was suspended from school at home because of an anxiety disorder that could not be cured.
The young Xu Zhi was no different from now. He didn’t have many friends since he was a child. The only one he had fun with was Wen Shuyao, who lived next door.
But at that time, Wen Shuyao had just become a senior in high school and seemed to be preparing to study abroad. He was busy with his studies all day long and would always stay in his room.
Xu Zhi admitted that he was not very afraid of loneliness, but he forgot why he went to see Wen Shuyao that day.
Xu Zhi guessed that it might be because he saw a mountain bike that he had never seen parked in front of Wen Shuyao’s house.
The Xu Zhi family’s house was side by side with the Wen family’s house. The parents of the two families had a good relationship, so they combined the two open spaces in front of the door to build a large flower bed, leaving only a narrow road in the middle.
Wen Shuyao lived on the second floor, so Xu Zhi ran to the narrow road and shouted his name to the second floor.
Xu Zhi shouted three times before the door to the balcony on the second floor was opened.
Wen Shuyao’s father is an architectural designer who has strict requirements on building design and color matching, while his mother is an abstract painting artist, so the overall design style of the Wen family is very mixed.
The railings of the balcony on the second floor are very simple white Roman columns, and the walls are painted in dark blue and light blue with indistinguishable sunflowers all over the wall.
Therefore, every time Wen Shuyao opened the balcony door on the second floor, Xu Zhi would say that he seemed to have just returned from doing farm work in the sunflower field.
But it was not Wen Shuyao who opened the door this time.
A very strange young man opened the door and walked out, glanced at Xu Zhi a few times, and shouted into the room in a dull voice, “The kid next door is looking for you.”
In his memory, this was the only time that Xu Zhi got upset with Wen Shuyao.
He couldn’t understand why Wen Shuyao would invite someone over when the two of them got along so well.
Then he thought about how he had always been the one left alone and how his playmates always left him sooner or later.
He thought that it would be fine if Wen Shuyao left too; he didn’t want to play with Wen Shuyao anymore.
But perhaps because he didn’t want to accept the fact that he had been abandoned again, he still waited until Wen Shuyao came out.
Wen Shuyao came out soon. He stood close to the boy, leaned on the railing, and shouted to Xu Zhi downstairs: “Xiao Zhi, come up!”
Xu Zhi stared blankly at the two intimate people a few times. He wanted to get angry and leave, but he still couldn’t bear to leave and went in through the gate.
Wen Shuyao had already come down and was waiting in the living room. When he saw him come in, he asked, “Have you finished your homework assigned by the tutor? Let’s play wildly.”
Xu Zhi naturally didn’t do it because no one cared whether he did it or not.
But Wen Shuyao always told him that if he wanted to do well in college, he must do his homework.
Thinking about the stranger upstairs, it was quite unusual for Xu Zhi not to refuse Wen Shuyao and he said, “I’ll go back and do it then.”
Wen Shuyao had always been the ideal child, excelling in both academics and looks. He had a great personality, too, and was always surrounded by friends.
And not just any friends, but top-quality friends. Except, of course, for Xu Zhi.
But what he had an abundance of, even more so than friends, was the anger of kids from all around.
Including Xu Zhi.
As the child closest to other people’s children, Xu Zhi has lived in the shadow of Wen Shuyao since he was a child. If Wen Shuyao hadn’t been particularly kind to Xu Zhi, Xu Zhi would have broken off his friendship with Wen Shuyao as early as the age of three.
When Xu Zhi was three years old, four-year-old Wen Shuyao was already famous among kindergarten parents for his extremely high-level children’s paintings.
Although Xu Zhi thought he was scribbling, he had to admit that he was still happy when he recalled being compared with Wen Shuyao.
Because he was still a healthy child at that time, and his parents were a bit like parents in a normal family, expecting him to make great achievements in the future.
“Who is that person?” Xu Zhi held a can of iced Coke and asked Wen Shuyao to tell him who was occupying upstairs.
“My classmate,” Wen Shuyao glanced upstairs, “I am in the same competition group, and he came to me to discuss the issue.”
“Oh.” Xu Zhi said.
Wen Shuyao took the Coke in his hand and replaced it with watermelon juice with ice cubes, “Want me to introduce you?”
“No.” Xu Zhi refused.
He sat cross-legged on the sofa and asked Wen Shuyao, “Have you finished the discussion?”
“Almost done,” Wen Shuyao didn’t hide it from him. “Do you want to come up with me? It’s nothing secret.”
“No,” Xu Zhi grabbed a square pillow, hugged it, and said nonchalantly, “You go up first and call me after the discussion is over.”
Wen Shuyao nodded and told Xu Zhi that he would be down in ten minutes at most.
Xu Zhi nodded seemingly indifferently and sent him up.
When Wen Shuyao had just gone upstairs, Xu Zhi started staring at the living room’s wall clock. Every ten minutes, he impatiently glanced at the staircase, as if, after ten minutes, it would prove that Wen Shuyao really didn’t want to play with him anymore.
However, ten minutes later, Wen Shuyao hadn’t come downstairs.
Xu Zhi was quite impatient; he could guess that Wen Shuyao had encountered a tricky problem. But he couldn’t control his temper.
He waited for 15 minutes, and there was still no sign of Wen Shuyao coming down, so he turned right and headed back to his own home.
Even though there is no one at home, it is better than waiting downstairs for people who may not want to play with him anymore.
He forgot how long he had been waiting at home and whether Wen Shuyao came to see him later, but then the scene changed, and he had another dream.
It was still a very unpleasant dream.
Although he dropped out of school at that time, he did not fall behind in his studies. He was admitted to a very well-ranked university in this city.
In the dream, he had already received his college notice. Just after his 19th birthday, his mother, Liang Yaqing came to talk to him.
The general purpose is to make it easier for him to go to school and help him buy a ready-made apartment near the school. It is fully furnished and can be moved in at any time.
At that time, he actually wanted to move out because he wanted to go to college, but he didn’t expect that Liang Yaqing was more anxious than him.
He wanted to say outright that he had already found a place and would move out soon, but he didn’t say it.
He asked surly, “Are you so looking forward to me leaving?”
Liang Yaqing seemed startled by his sudden outburst, but she still said bravely, “Your brother is just two years old, you…”
“I know.” Xu Zhi interrupted her and didn’t let her finish. “I’m going to pack my things right now.”
Even though Liang Yaqing hadn’t finished what she said at that time, Xu Zhi knew what she was going to say.
Liang Yaqing was very nurturing and would not directly mention the word mental illness to irritate Xu Zhi, but she would say it tactfully.
She might say, your brother is just two years old, and if you live with him, he may be affected.
Xu Zhi has never lived with anyone since he moved out of home at the age of 19.
This was the first time, and it was an abnormal situation, that Zhou Mu moved into his house. Within a couple of days of moving in, he was sleeping in his bedroom, on his bed.
Wen Shuyao once said that there is no dreaming in a state of deep sleep.
But Xu Zhi had two dreams in a row in which he was either abandoned or discarded, so Xu Zhi concluded that he had not slept well.
As for why he didn’t sleep well, Xu Zhi came to the conclusion, after careful consideration and reasoning, that Zhou Mu had kissed him for too long.
It took so long that Xu Zhi felt that there seemed to be nothing wrong with living like this for the rest of his life.
Because if Zhou Mu was always around, maybe deep sleep would be easy to achieve.
t/n: Hey guys, this is me speaking on the 19th, school’s out for Christmas break! I will schedule more chapters after this since I do need to get into the translating groove again. So, expect updates either every day (most likely) or every other day depending on how many I translated so far. Thanks for waiting this long and enjoy reading! ^^
