This is the 8th year that Zhou Mu and Xu Zhi have been together. Xu Zhi’s paranoia psychosis1paranoia psychosis also known as paranoia schiznophrenia has relapsed for the 7th time in 8 years.
Perhaps it can’t be called a relapse because Xu Zhi has never really been completely well.
What is worse than the situation where Xu Zhi could face the possibility of encountering strangers in the room at any time is the situation where Zhou Mu needs to quickly assume the roles arranged for him by Xu Zhi.
“You can confidently forget the task of reminding Xu Zhi; leave it to Zhou Mu.”
Zhou Mu said it this way, and he did it that way.
After he discovered that Xu Zhi did not recognize him, he took Xu Zhi to Wen Shuyao’s hospital on the grounds that he might need a full-body examination.
“It should be that the medication is starting to take effect,” Wen Shuyao said.
Zhou Mu was still staring at the bedroom door. After hearing this, he just nodded seriously and said, “It’s the fifth day.”
This is the fifth day since Xu Zhi entered the delusional state.
“I’ll go in and see him.” Zhou Mu sat up from the sofa and walked towards the bedroom.
Xu Zhi must have cried a lot. There were still tears on his face, and his brows were furrowed, looking a little pitiful.
He looks very young. He looks like a college student, even at 26 years old.
Zhou Mu looked at Xu Zhi’s face, which had not changed much over the years, and suddenly thought of the scene when he first met Xu Zhi.
The first time he met Xu Zhi was at Wen Shuyao’s house. Xu Zhi was only 17 years old at the time.
At that time, he had just entered the third year of high school and was in the same mathematics competition group as Wen Shuyao. The two often discussed problems together, but this was the first time he went to Wen Shuyao’s house.
At that time, he and Wen Shuyao were working on an advanced math problem in the bedroom when they heard someone shouting Wen Shuyao’s name downstairs.
“Brother2not biologically related, just a common way to address someone Wen! Shuyao! Wen Shuyao!” A person downstairs shouted.
It was generally known that Wen Shuyao had a good relationship with his younger brother Zhou Mu in the lower grade. He and Wen Shuyao had known each other for a long time. Wen Shuyao had mentioned to him that Xu Zhi had dropped out of school due to physical reasons.
Therefore, he had never seen Xu Zhi before, but he knew who was coming almost as soon as the shouts came from downstairs.
“Shuyao,” Zhou Mu stopped his calculations and called Wen Shuyao, “There is someone looking for you downstairs.”
Wen Shuyao had his earphones on and was busy calculating; therefore, he didn’t hear his words at all.
Zhou Mu then opened the door on his own initiative.
It’s hard to say why, maybe because Wen Shuyao always mentioned him, sparking his curiosity about Xu Zhi. But it could also be simply because Xu Zhi’s voice sounded very pleasant.
It is worth mentioning that before this, Zhou Mu was a person with no curiosity.
The flower bed shared by the Wen family and the Xu family was full of roses. As soon as Zhou Mu opened the door, he saw Xu Zhi wearing a white T-shirt, standing on the path among the flowers, looking up.
He remembered that towards evening that day, the setting sun cast a square building shadow in the flower field. Half of the flower field was lit, and half was dark.
Xu Zhi stood in the bright light and looked at him with squinted eyes, his eyes very alert.
Zhou Mu didn’t know what he was feeling guilty about, but after they looked at each other for a few seconds, he turned around and called Wen Shuyao.
Wen Shuyao heard it this time. After he went out, Xu Zhi didn’t even look at Zhou Mu anymore, so Zhou Mu could look at Xu Zhi unscrupulously.
The color of Xu Zhi’s eyes is very light. When he looks up, he catches the now less intense sunlight perfectly. Although there are no tears in his eyes, they appear moist, like a small creature that has been wronged.
Perhaps Zhou Mu was looking too directly, because Xu Zhi noticed it within a few seconds. While talking to Wen Shuyao, he stared at Zhou Mu with dissatisfaction.
Zhou Mu calmly looked away, but his heart was so nervous that it almost jumped out of his chest.
Later, when Xu Zhi came to the house, he hid upstairs and did not go down on the grounds that he had calculated the answer wrong and needed to deduce it again.
Wen Shuyao didn’t stay downstairs for long before he came up.
“Leaving?” Zhou Mu looked towards the door without even looking at Wen Shuyao.
“No,” Wen Shuyao picked up the collection of questions scattered on the table and called to Zhou Mu, “speed up; don’t let him wait.”
“Tell him to come up,” Zhou Mu said casually, drawing on the draft with a pen, “I don’t know how long it will take.”
“It’s useless,” Wen Shuyao turned over a page of the book and marked a question, “He doesn’t like meeting strangers.”
Zhou Mu paused, but before he could speak, Wen Shuyao snatched the draft away.
Wen Shuyao squinted his eyes, scrutinizing him, “What’s going on with you? Aren’t you the one who hates being disturbed the most when doing problems?”
“Just a suggestion,” Zhou Mu said, changing a sheet of paper without changing his expression, “Hurry up and calculate.”
After saying that, they started calculating.
Because Zhou Mu was uncooperative, the two of them stopped continuing the topic. The problem they solved was very troublesome, and it took them more than ten minutes to figure out how to calculate it.
Almost as soon as he stopped writing, Wen Shuyao couldn’t wait to drive him away, “Hurry up; my brother is still waiting downstairs.”
Zhou Mu packed up his things and followed Wen Shuyao downstairs. When he came to the corner, Wen Shuyao said that he would introduce Xu Zhi to him.
Somehow, he thought of those moist eyes and inexplicably felt a bit embarrassed, so he made up an excuse to deflect.
Then they met again in the year when Xu Zhi was admitted to university at the age of 19.
Also in that year, Zhou Mu pursued Xu Zhi, and then they have been together until now.
“Old Zhou.” Wen Shuyao called him softly from outside the door.
Zhou Mu helped Xu Zhi raise the air conditioner temperature, closed the door quietly, and walked out. He sat down on the sofa, and there was some silence between the two.
Wen Shuyao lowered his head and thought for a while, then spoke first, “You’d better…”
“Shuyao,” Zhou Mu interrupted him and turned his gaze from the bedroom door to him, “He doesn’t want to.”
“This is not a question of whether he is willing or not,” Wen Shuyao said, standing up from the sofa. “He can only receive more professional treatment now.”
Zhou Mu also stood up. He and Wen Shuyao were similar in height, so they could see each other’s eyes just by looking at each other.
“That’s the problem in my opinion,” Zhou Mu said, taking a step closer to Wen Shuyao, “As long as he doesn’t want to, I won’t send him there.”
“He is completely unaware that he has entered a state of delusion,” Wen Shuyao argued based on his professional knowledge, “his insight is clearly impaired now…”
“But his social functions are intact,” Zhou Mu interrupted, “and he has no other dangerous tendencies.”
“This isn’t the first time,” Wen Shuyao lowered his voice, looking towards the bedroom, “It’s going back and forth, and if it continues like this…”
“Then what do you want me to tell him?” Zhou Mu raised his hand and grabbed Wen Shuyao’s collar to prevent him from continuing.
His voice was very low, “Tell him that everything he thinks is false; tell him that he is actually a mental patient in a very bad condition; and then send him to a lunatic asylum?”
“It’s not a lunatic asylum,” Wen Shuyao’s tone was also urgent: “If this situation is not hospitalized for treatment, it will only get worse. Are you just going to act with him all the time?”
Zhou Mu paused, released his grip on Wen Shuyao’s collar, and then sat back on the sofa.
The day was a bit cloudy. Even though it was summer, it was already dark at four, five o’clock in the afternoon, so the whole room was a bit gray.
Zhou Mu stared at the lunch set on the dining table that was arranged but untouched for a long time, then spoke very softly, ‘It’s nothing; he just… forgot about me.”
Wen Shuyao suddenly didn’t know what to say.
He felt that Zhou Mu seemed to need comfort, but he didn’t seem that sad, so he couldn’t say anything.
There was silence in the living room for a while.
About ten minutes later, Zhou Mu turned on the warm floor lamp.
Because it was still daytime, it made no difference whether the lights were on or off. The room was still gray.
Zhou Mu was wearing a very casual T-shirt, sitting on the sofa with his shoulders slumped, staring at the half-drunk glass of water on the coffee table in a daze.
There were obviously two people in the living room, but Wen Shuyao still felt that Zhou Mu was lonely.
After some time, the aperture of the warm light expanded a bit, and half of Zhou Mu’s face was enveloped in it.
“I probably will never understand Xu Zhi’s thoughts for the rest of my life,” Zhou Mu said, lowering his head.
Wen Shuyao opened his mouth to say something, but Zhou Mu raised his head and smiled at him.
“But I am ready to act with him for the rest of my life.”
Zhou Mu said, “Although my imagination isn’t that great compared to Xu Zhi’s, I can play any role that Xu Zhi assigns to me.”
t/n: Hey guys, I didn’t know this was two volumes and since it’s less than 35 chapters, I’ll just combine them. Just know that this is the start of the second volume. Once again, thanks for reading, have a great day!
![Flash marriage at 30 [Short Story]](https://www.freenovels.net/wp-content/uploads/2024/12/novelimage.png "Flash marriage at 30 [Short Story]")
