At this moment, Ji Yanchen’s soul ascended to heaven, and his thoughts had long drifted away from the body. He was petrified on the spot, his eyes were blank, not even knowing that Lu Ming had taken Chi Qiu away.
It was Auntie Zhang who hurried over, enduring the smell of alcohol as she led Ji Yanchen through the door to the guest bathroom. A guest bathrobe and disposable underwear had already been prepared for him.
“Second Young Master Ji, put your changed clothes in the dirty clothes basket, I’ll wash them later. If it’s convenient, you can stay in the guest room tonight. Mr. Lu had already told me.”
Ji Yanchen nodded his head in despair, not wanting to say anything.
He smelled so bad, so sour, so nauseated
Although he and Chi Qiu were good brothers who ‘wore a pair of pants’, all of this couldn’t be worth his body being vomited all over.
Ji Yanchen silently went into the bathroom, took off his clothes and turned on the shower. Unknowingly, his eyes filled with tears and he punched the bathroom wall.
He had never been so speechless in his life.
Ji Yanchen would probably never take Chi Qiu to drink again. Just because he let Chi Qiu drink a few sips of wine, not only he received a lecture from Lu Ming today, but also suffered Chi Qiu’s vomiting…he was really, really wronged!
Wronged enough to immediately write an eight hundred characters diary and complain to Ji Feining, although Ji Feining might not pay attention to him.
And in the master bedroom of the villa.
As his partner, Lu Ming was different from Ji Yanchen. Regardless of how unpleasant the sour vomit smelled, he took Chi Qiu to the bathroom with a calm face. In three or two tries, he finally managed to help Chi Qiu take off his dirty clothes and pants, leaving only a pair of white boxers on his body.
Chi Qiu woke up a little bit, staring at the front in a daze. His eyes were in a trance, but they were so similar as when he was pretending to be blind that it could pass off as if he was really blind.
Seeing that he was awake, Lu Ming tried to communicate with him: “Chi Qiu.”
Chi Qiu blinked, probably a little tired but he replied obediently, “What?”
Lu Ming said, “Go rinse your mouth.”
The soft light of the bathroom reflected Chi Qiu’s eyes very beautifully, even if Chi Qiu’s left eye did not have any hint of brilliance.
Chi Qiu tilted his head and actually understood Lu Ming’s words, so he obediently followed Lu Ming to the bathroom, rinsing his mouth carefully and brushing his teeth. The sole of his feet slipped and his entire weight rested on Lu Ming. He let out a deep breath and washed his face.
Slowly, he raised his head and stared blankly at himself in the mirror. He saw that he had a dull left eye, like a piece of ‘art’ that could only be viewed.
For a moment, because of alcohol, Chi Qiu didn’t know what was in his heart.
He lowered his eyes and said nothing.
Seeing that he was still confused, Lu Ming took him back to the bed: “Wait for me for a while.”
Although Chi Qiu only drank a little bit of wine, it was not advisable to take a shower immediately after being drunk, so Lu Ming only went to the bathroom, picking up a small basin of warm water to wipe Chi Qiu’s body with a wet towel that was already wrung.
In order to avoid Chi Qiu’s discomfort, he let Chi Qiu lean in his arms and stroked his back. Lu Ming turned sideways and picked up a cup of warm water sitting on the bedside table; it should have been brought in by Auntie Zhang just now.
“You’ve just thrown up, it’s better to drink some warm water before you go to sleep.”
Chi Qiu nodded. After taking a large sip, he suddenly asked, “Who is Zhiyan…?”
Lu Ming’s hand paused and his tone was on the deep side: “How did you know him?”
“Is he a relative of yours, or a friend?” Chi Qiu’s tone was low as he asked the question in a tangled way.
“He’s my classmate when I was studying abroad.” Lu Ming frowned. He put his water glass casually on the bedside table, and added truthfully, “He and I don’t get along.”
Chi Qiu’s head was dizzy, obviously he didn’t hear what Lu Ming was saying. He leaned weakly into Lu Ming’s arms and said, “But…”
Lu Ming thought it was Xia Zhiyan who came to Chi Qiu out of nowhere, so he was vaguely unhappy: “Did he come to you? I will deal with his affairs. You don’t need to pay attention to him.”
Chi Qiu didn’t answer him. Instead, he said to himself, “Yanchen said…his eyes are very similar to mine.”
Lu Ming fell silent.
He saw Chi Qiu pursing his lips, looking very drunk. With a bit of self-deprecation, he explained: “Yanchen must have made a mistake…How can healthy eyes be the same as mine? My left eye has never been able to see since I was a child. Mom and grandma are very sad. Mom always said it was her fault for not being able to give me a healthy eye. But, it wasn’t her fault. It’s because of me that she has so much trouble…”
Chi Qiu rubbed his eyes, and his inner desire was the wet spring rain. It fell continuously, wetting Lu Ming’s palm.
Chi Qiu grabbed Lu Ming’s clothes and said dejectedly: “Although I don’t know ‘Zhiyan’, I kind of envy him. Lu Ming… I know this is not very good, but his body seems to glow…”
Particularly beautiful and confident, this was something that Chi Qiu, who was trapped in a place, thought he didn’t have.
After seeing him today, he felt a rampantly growing inferiority complex for a person who was similar to himself, yet extremely different.
Lu Ming knew that Chi Qiu’s eyes could feel light, but this light could never come from Xia Zhiyan.
Back then, Xia Zhiyan used Lu You’s design to change his rat-like life. And Lu You was the most sensitive and vulnerable place in Lu Ming’s heart. Xia Zhiyan stepped on it with the bottom of his feet and climbed up from there.
This kind of person, how could there be light? If there was, maybe it was stolen from others.
Lu Ming thought Chi Qiu was full of nonsense because of drinking, so he patiently corrected him: “There is no light on him, you ‘saw’ it wrong.”
“I didn’t see it wrong.” Chi Qiu relentlessly confronted him, launched a breathless ‘drinking madness’, and stubbornly being serious: “Why do you say that I saw it wrong…I can see him clearly, I can even see how good-looking he is! Besides, Uncle invited him to the exhibition, I could only go secretly. You didn’t want to take me there…”
Chi Qiu lowered his voice, unaware of his drunken slip of the tongue. So Lu Ming was stunned for a moment.
Chi Qiu closed his eyes and murmured, “I’m not quite the same, I’m not very good.”
Chi Qiu’s left eye was born blind.
Since childhood, no matter who saw him, they had to lament a sentence: “What a smart kid.” ——Unfortunately, one eye was blind.
They would not say the next sentence, because that was the only respect they had left for Chi Qiu.
Every time it was like this, Chi Qiu would say thank you in an understanding way.
But most of the time, he was depressed. Was there a big difference between one eye and two eyes? What others could do well with two eyes, he could do just as well.
He did well in culture classes and was not bad in sports. For a long time, he had always been the ‘child of someone else’s family’ in the mouth of the parents.
Chi Qiu was gentle on the surface, but he was a strong person on the inside.
He wanted everyone to recognize him, he wanted to shine, and he did.
But then he lost the sight in his other eye in an accident. All the pitiful and regretful voices swelled in an instant, bursting into his darkness like a baptism of fireworks, and people’s pity all turned into ‘goodwill’ towards him.
“What a smart boy, unfortunately he is blind.”
“Doesn’t Chi family have a daughter? I see that Mrs. Chi is now concentrating on raising the daughter.”
“Mrs. Chi’s daughter is also pitiful. This brother will probably depend on her for the rest of his life, ba.”
“Pity for what, everything is hers in the future.”
In the end, even the only respect left no longer existed.
Therefore, Chi Qiu always made a wish in his heart, hoping that his eyes would return to normal. Perhaps his prayer was too devout, and God gave him a chance to start over.
The black layer of smoke finally cleared and then, came a long-awaited light. He saw the family he missed and met the person he liked. He should have taken that step.
However, the quarrels and conflicts at home were like huge mountains on his shoulders, and he was too powerless to get rid of them. Then, faced with Lu Ming’s sudden disappearance, Chi Qiu’s heart gradually became ashes.
So what if he could see, so what if he couldn’t see?
As a mother, Chi Lanyan couldn’t give up Chi Xia for Chi Qiu, so she must be so entangled. In that case, perhaps it would be better if he could never see, as Chi Xia said.
This way, there would be no arguments; Chi Lanyan could be a little more relaxed, and Chi Xia would also be happier.
The secret would guard a home; Chi Qiu firmly believed in this, so he voluntarily gave up many things.
At that time, Chi Qiu, who was young, could not speak frankly after all, hiding the fact he had regained his sight. He swallowed the secret in his heart dully, and what he pressed in his heart was a grievance that was more tortuous than the mountain road.
He might never be able to become as bright and confident as Xia Zhiyan.
