PTGWD Chapter 17: Daily life

Daily Life

Amidst the standstill traffic, Lu Jianchuan leaned over and shared a brief kiss with Fang Xingzhou, tasting of soy milk. The heat inside his body lingered, the rhythmic pulsations growing stronger, indicating “it” was establishing deeper roots within the monster’s body, emerging as the ultimate victor.

Lu Jianchuan’s fingertips trembled slightly.

Reluctantly parting from Fang Xingzhou’s lips, he nuzzled his cheek repeatedly, like a skin-hungry patient craving closer contact to suppress his innate rejection of “it.”

Fang Xingzhou, inhaling Lu Jianchuan’s unique fragrance, indulged his puppy-like behavior, gently kissing the corner of his mouth, and said, “Alright, focus on driving.”

Lu Jianchuan didn’t let go, snuggling for a long while until he calmed down, then returned to the driver’s seat, holding Fang Xingzhou’s hand with one hand. Their engagement rings on their ring fingers touched, sharing each other’s warmth.

The green light came on, and the traffic started moving. Lu Jianchuan felt uncomfortably hot, with a restless fire burning in his abdomen. He opened the window slightly, letting the cold air flow in.

Something quietly integrated into his bones and blood, an uncomfortable process that his monster “immune system” desperately wanted to activate, which he suppressed with sheer willpower.

He enjoyed this pain, feeling intense love amidst the body’s rejection, gripping the steering wheel tightly and said in a strange tone, “Zhouzhou, I love you too.”

Fang Xingzhou had heard these words countless times every day for the past ten years.

Playing with Lu Jianchuan’s little finger, Fang Xingzhou replied with a “Mm” and focused on dealing with work messages on his phone.

After driving for thirty minutes, Lu Jianchuan kept talking nonstop about his breakup sorrow, longing pain, and unwavering love for his wife. Fang Xingzhou, used to it, responded appropriately with brief words that satisfied Lu Jianchuan, encouraging him to continue talking.

In this noisy sweet talk, they arrived at the hospital. Fang Xingzhou instructed Lu Jianchuan to drive carefully on his way back and told him not to pick him up in the evening.

Lu Jianchuan’s job was to be a full-time rich second generation, idly passing his days, with his biggest hobby being Fang Xingzhou’s life assistant and exclusive driver. Usually, he would linger for a long time before parting, but today he left decisively, even making the engine roar loudly as he stepped on the accelerator, causing the exhaust pipe to make a noise due to excessive speed.

Fang Xingzhou, almost late for work, didn’t notice this detail.

He had to work until eight in the evening, with a surgery in the morning, consultations in the afternoon, and another surgery at night.

Before the surgery, he removed the flashy engagement ring from his ring finger and carefully stored it in his personal locker in the dressing room.

His colleague, changing clothes with him, widened his eyes, filled with gossip curiosity.

The morning surgery wasn’t too difficult and ended in three hours, just in time for lunch. During these three hours, rumors spread exponentially throughout the hospital—

In various gossip groups, the headlines were consistent: The high-cold flower of the surgery department, Dr. Fang, was taken down by someone, suspected to be a rich girl with poor taste. And for love, Dr. Fang, who never wore any jewelry, crazily wore an ugly gold ring on his “surgical hand.”

People talking about this couldn’t help but click their tongues, vividly describing how ugly the ring was, spreading until it became the biggest mystery of the day, with some offering a coffee reward for a photo just to see how ugly the ring really was.

When Fang Xingzhou came out of surgery, put the ring back on, and walked into the department, everyone simultaneously looked at his hand.

Fang Xingzhou was still looking at today’s ward round records, the ring blatantly resting on his right hand.

Although the ring was made of gold, it was much brighter than typical gold, absurdly bright, dazzling even indoors. The ring was designed thick, with a hollow heart in the middle, looking like a cheap fake gold piece from a street stall in the 1980s.

Worse, this aesthetically disastrous ring was on Fang Xingzhou’s fair, slender hand that had saved countless lives.

The department fell silent for a minute.

Fang Xingzhou finished reading the records, looked up, and was slightly puzzled, “Isn’t anyone going for lunch?”

Everyone quickly averted their eyes, pretending nothing happened, continuing with their work or heading for lunch. Fang Xingzhou, with afternoon consultations to attend to, ignored the gossip, grabbed his work card, and headed to the cafeteria.

By nine in the evening, he finally came out of surgery and glanced at his phone, finding two missed calls.

He picked up his bag and called back.

While waiting for the call to connect, he took the escalator from the sixth to the fifth floor, and in his peripheral vision, he saw a familiar figure sitting outside the obstetrics department.

It was Lu Jianchuan.

He was slightly tilting his head, observing the pregnant women passing by with an indescribable expression, a mix of curiosity and a faint sense of detachment, like a zoologist watching lab mice.

Fang Xingzhou’s heart skipped a beat, and he unconsciously gripped his phone tightly.

Soon, Lu Jianchuan noticed the vibration, took out his phone from his bag.

Seeing the caller ID, the inexplicable detachment quickly faded away, as if a skeleton was covered with flesh and blood, becoming lively again.

“Hello, Zhouzhou, finally finished the surgery? I’m starving.”

His voice carried a gentle complaint.

Fang Xingzhou’s heart was still pounding, and he said in a low voice, “Didn’t I tell you to eat first? Where are you now?”

“Downstairs!” Lu Jianchuan’s tone had a hint of pride, “No matter how hungry I am, I must wait for you.”

The tight grip on the phone slowly relaxed.

Fang Xingzhou kept his eyes on that figure and said, “Turn around.”

Lu Jianchuan was slightly stunned, then turned around, and their eyes met from afar.

His translucent, beautiful pupils gradually filled with rich colors. Lu Jianchuan hung up the phone, stood up, and walked towards him, then hugged him tightly in public, as if they hadn’t seen each other for a century: “Finally, you’re off work.”

Fang Xingzhou naturally held his hand and asked, “Why were you sitting at the obstetrics department?”

Lu Jianchuan replied with a smile, “Learning.”

Fang Xingzhou looked at him for a while.

“Learning?”

Lu Jianchuan remained silent, just smiling. Fang Xingzhou tightened his grip, recalling his recent unusual behavior, a bad suspicion arose.

He firmly held Lu Jianchuan and said, “Deer, I must remind you, surrogacy is illegal and highly unethical. I will never accept such behavior.”

Lu Jianchuan nodded repeatedly, “Yes, you’re right.”

Fang Xingzhou: “Then why do you keep mentioning children recently?”

Before human technology could capture images of the egg in his abdomen, Lu Jianchuan knew such behavior would seem odd but couldn’t help but leaned close to Fang Xingzhou’s ear and whispered half-jokingly, “Dear, I can give you a child.”

Fang Xingzhou: “…”

He frowned at Lu Jianchuan.

Lu Jianchuan: “No need to see a psychiatrist, I’m very clear-headed.”

Fang Xingzhou pushed him lightly, “Get in the car.”

Lu Jianchuan obediently sat in the passenger seat, and before he could say more, his phone was taken away.

Fang Xingzhou held his phone and politely asked, “May I look through it?”

“Of course!” Lu Jianchuan agreed readily.

So, in front of Lu Jianchuan, Fang Xingzhou unlocked the phone with his fingerprint, first checked the bank account, then the email, and finally the chat records, even professionally confirming there were no hidden systems.

After a while, he returned the phone to Lu Jianchuan.

There were no large transactions, no random email exchanges, and the chat records were minimal. Given Lu Jianchuan’s knowledge of electronic devices, he shouldn’t have secretly done anything illegal to have a child.

After confirming, he still felt uneasy and warned again, “No sneaky ideas. If you really want a child, we can look into adoption together in the future.”

Lu Jianchuan opened his mouth but stopped.

Fang Xingzhou fastened his seatbelt, “What do you want to say?”

Lu Jianchuan: “Uh, nothing. How about roasted chicken wings for dinner? I already took them out to defrost. I’m so hungry.”

Fang Xingzhou replied, “Next time, don’t wait for me. Irregular meals are bad for your health.”

Lu Jianchuan pretended not to hear, “I also bought your favorite turnip cakes.”

Fang Xingzhou: “…”

Lu Jianchuan: “Can we have roasted chicken wings?”

…

In the end, Fang Xingzhou made roasted chicken wings for Lu Jianchuan.

The chicken wings were perfectly deboned, stuffed with potato strips, and roasted golden brown in the oven, finally sprinkled with parsley flakes.

Lu Jianchuan claimed he was hungry enough to eat a cow, so Fang Xingzhou also made noodles, beef, and boiled two plates of weekend-prepared dumplings, filling the table.

Then, in the next half hour, he watched Lu Jianchuan eat ten chicken wings, a whole bowl of noodles, forty dumplings, two pounds of beef, six pieces of turnip cake…

Fang Xingzhou’s noodles were only a third eaten when the table was left with empty plates.

Lu Jianchuan leaned back in his chair, satisfied, but still eyed Fang Xingzhou’s unfinished noodles and said, “Dear, it’s been a long time since I had your cooking. It’s so delicious.”

Fang Xingzhou: “…Are you full?”

Lu Jianchuan hesitated, shook his head first, then, meeting Fang Xingzhou’s gaze, changed to a nod, “I’m full, very full, can’t eat anymore.”

Fang Xingzhou took one last bite of his noodles, then pushed the rest to Lu Jianchuan, “I’m full too. Do you want it?”

The just-now full Lu Jianchuan took the chopsticks and finished the remaining noodles in a few bites, even drinking the soup, seemingly without chewing.

Putting down the bowl, seeing Fang Xingzhou still watching, he felt a bit embarrassed, “I was too hungry today…”

Fang Xingzhou smiled, “Remember to take two digestive tablets later.”

Lu Jianchuan nodded and eagerly put on an apron to wash the dishes.

Fang Xingzhou leaned against the kitchen door frame, watching his busy tall figure, feeling that since that wedding banquet, Lu Jianchuan seemed a bit different.

Becoming… both normal and strange, as if their life was silently veering off the daily track in ways he couldn’t see.

Fang Xingzhou couldn’t help but nervously scratch the door frame with his nails.

Is there something wrong with his mind?