When Zhang Jing woke up, he felt like his head was about to explode, and his stomach also throbbed with pain. But he was accustomed to the severe stomach aches that arrive punctually every morning, especially as the weather became increasingly colder.
However, the headaches were horrendous.
He reached for his phone and glanced at it—it’s only five thirty.
So he closed his eyes to rest a bit more; but the longer he lied there, the more restless he became. He walked to the bathroom, turned on the hot water, and stood under the shower, watching the water droplets trickling down his face. His arms hung limply and powerlessly on both sides. At this point, even he thought of himself as pitiful and hopeless.
After a shower, his headache still persisted, so he gulped a bottle of water to restore consciousness.
Since sleep wasn’t an option, he left for work at six twenty and called Lin Zhou. Three calls later, Lin Zhou finally picked up and immediately grumbled.
“Holy sh*t, are you f*cking okay… It’s not even sunrise yet, are you tryna kill me… Hurry up and spit out what you need. One day I will beat your ass…”
Zhang Jing shivered in the numbing cold air and pulled his zipper all the way to his chin. With one hand in his pocket and another hand holding the phone, he jogged and requested, “Lemme pick up my motorcycle.”
Lin Zhou was stunned and speechless.
“Hey honey, lemme ask you.” When he talked again, he switched to a half-joking tone. “Who do you think I am? Your mother?”
Zhang Jing frowned. “Why are you talking so much?”
“…” Lin Zhou sneered. “You think my place is your backyard? And I’m your chamberlain? When you’re drunk and can’t walk, I have to carry you home. But when you’re able to walk, I have to look after your motorcycle. So what you’re implying is that I must go to the bar with you?”
Zhang Jing ignored what he just said, and walked out of the neighborhood to call a taxi. “Are you at home?”
“Bruh, you little brat,” Lin Zhou complained. “Fine, get your ass over here.”
Zhang Jing hung up the call and gave the taxi driver the address. Throughout the drive, he stared outside the window with his hands warm in his pockets.
His hand unconsciously scratched the base knuckle of his ring finger, a habit since many years ago.
When he opened the door, Lin Zhou only wore an underwear and had “sleepy” written all over his face. He glared at Zhang Jing, who, in return, said with an ingratiating smile, “Brother, can you give me the keys?”
Lin Zhou didn’t respond; instead, he just leaned there, crossing his arms and staring at him.
Zhang Jing continued smiling coyly. “I’m really thankful for your hard work, brother.”
Lin Zhou looked at him for a while, but eventually stepped away from the door helplessly and invited, “Come in and stay for a bit. It’s way too early to go to work.”
“I thought my motorcycle was still at the bar, so I left home earlier. But I just saw it in the parking lot.” Zhang Jing took off his shoes and walked to the sofa. “Oh brother, did you bring my helmet home as well?”
Picking it up from the table, Lin Zhou threw it to him. “No sh*t, obviously. If I didn’t wear a helmet, the wind last night would’ve ripped my face apart.”
We’re sorry for MTLers or people who like using reading mode, but our translations keep getting stolen by aggregators so we’re going to bring back the copy protection. If you need to MTL please retype the gibberish parts.
Zhang Jing continued smiling.
“Dget rabq rwlilcu; sbe’gf ilxf j qjlcalcu—ja ifjra vbc’a rwlif rb ojxfis. Vlut, sbe bcis mjii wf ‘ygbatfg’ ja alwfr ilxf atfrf.”
Itjcu Alcu kjr regqglrlcuis byfvlfca: tf lwwfvljafis rabqqfv rwlilcu.
“Tbe mjc ufa eq rb fjgis vfrqlaf vglcxlcu rb wemt. Vb sbecu, rb fcfgufalm…” Cr Olc Itbe ajixfv, j rtlgaifrr ybs kjixfv bea bo atf yfvgbbw. Rba bcis rtlgaifrr, tf kjr jirb mbwqifafis ecmbnfgfv, cba j rlcuif qlfmf bo ojyglm. Olc Itbe yglfois ibbxfv ja tlw jcv mbcalcefv ajixlcu, “… Vbbcfg bg ijafg sbe’gf ubccj gelc sbeg tfjiat.”
That guy probably didn’t expect a guest, or maybe he was still half-asleep. So he looked at Zhang Jing blankly, both of them not knowing how to react.
Zhang Jing: ……
The guy: “Uh… I need to use the restroom…”
Lin Zhou looked back at him and hurried, “Then go? Why just stand here?”
The guy dashed into the bathroom and closed the door.
Zhang Jing commented, “I’m astonished. Speechless.”
Lin Zhou lifted his left eyebrow. “Hm? You’re not happy about that? If you don’t like that, then why don’t you become my boyfriend? I’ll dump all of them.”
Zhang Jing picked up his helmet and stood up. “Nah, brother you can enjoy these delicacies to your heart’s content. Don’t give up an entire forest for one tree—only idiots do that. I need to go to work. I wouldn’t have come in if I knew someone else was in your house. Oh, don’t forget to wear protection; they exist to protect promiscuous people like you.”
Hearing that worsened Lin Zhou’s mood. “F*ck off.”
He immediately left with the keys—so awkward.
Since it wasn’t rush hour, Zhang Jing encountered no traffic. His headache still persisted, and the chilly wind didn’t help either.
When he arrived, he was the only person at the office. He filled his cup with some hot water, and rested his head on the table while hugging the hot mug.
Closing his eyes, he remembered Ji Dongxun from last night.
So pretty. His voice so charming too.
Inside Zhang Jing’s numb and stiff heart, a little soft sprout grew out of the quagmire of despair.
He reminisced the sensation of Ji Dongxun’s lips touching his forehead. Even now, the kiss from last night felt so real.
Zhang Jing pressed on his stomach as he was suddenly extremely nauseated. He rushed into the bathroom, but because his stomach was empty, he vomited nothing. From his stomach to his esophagus to his throat, everything seemed to be burning.
He looked at his image in the mirror: his face was as pale as a ghost.
When Bai Qi arrived, he happened to see Zhang Jing walk out of the bathroom and was shocked. “You’re so pale. What happened?”
Zhang Jing shook his head. “Stomach pain.”
Bai Qi quickly placed his bag on his desk. “Perfect timing. I ate shrimp dumplings for breakfast, so I brought you some. There’s also porridge. Hurry and eat, your face is way too pale. What did you do to it?”
Zhang Jing picked up his hot water and sipped some. Then he shook his head again and said, “I’ll pass. I have no appetite.”
Bai Qi frowned. “Impossible. If you eat some, you’ll feel better. If you don’t, the discomfort will just increase. Just eat some.”
So he ate two shrimp dumplings and a quarter of the porridge. After that, he refused to eat anything no matter how much Bai Qi urged. He pleaded, “Mother, I really can’t fit any more food.”
Bai Qi laughed at the honorific “mother” and said, “If you can’t, then don’t. If your stomach pain doesn’t lessen, feel free to go home. We have no urgent deadlines anyways.”
“It’s fine, it should go away soon.”
A few hours later, Zhang Jing vomited again, leaving no scraps of the breakfast in his stomach. After he rinsed his mouth, he leaned on the wall and stared blankly into the air.
In the afternoon, he messaged Doggo: [Doggo, wanna live at my place for a few days?]
Doggo responded promptly: [My Jingjing, you miss me?]
Zhang Jing: [Yeah, I miss you.]
Doggo: [Sure, I can live with you, but I have to work overtime tonight.]
Zhang Jing: [Call me when you get off work. I’ll pick you up, and let’s go eat.]
Doggo: [1111111]
Zhang Jing actually wanted to message Lincoln since his company is closer to his home. But Lincoln recently got a girlfriend, so he didn’t have the heart to separate a sweet couple.
After Zhang Jing got off work, he went directly to Doggo’s workplace. He stood under the building and leaned on his motorcycle while smoking. Some of the girls passing by couldn’t help but shoot a glance at him.
“Jingjing, you came so- so early.” When Doggo walked out, Zhang Jing was still stuck in his thoughts. His mind was wandering elsewhere until Doggo said something to him.
Zhang Jing chuckled and pulled his employee badge. “With an employee ID badge, you look so professional.”
Doggo slapped his hand away. “Don’t pull… on it. So annoying.”
He asked Zhang Jing, “You didn’t- didn’t bring my helmet?”
Zhang Jing buckled his helmet. “Just hold onto me. I lost a helmet, so I only have one now.”
When they ate hot pot for dinner, he was still in discomfort, so he barely moved his chopsticks. On the other hand, Doggo wasn’t bothered, so he feasted merrily.
He asked, “Jingjing, are y- you okay? If you were fine, you wouldn’t have… messaged me.”
“Bruh,” Zhang Jing replied. “Are you saying I can’t message you when I miss you?”
“No… no.” Doggo looked at him for a second, then closed his mouth—he didn’t say what he wanted to.
At night, Doggo played video games on Zhang Jing’s laptop while Zhang Jing replied to Josh’s text every other minute. Doggo, squating on the chair, asked him, “Texting… your boyfriend?”
“Bullsh*t, we aren’t dating.”
Doggo replied, “Then why keep texting?”
Zhang Jing sighed, “I can’t just leave him on read.”
“M… mhmm.”
Zhang Jing threw a pillow to the back of Doggo’s head. “Just focus on your game. Conversing takes so much energy.”
Doggo’s mouth continued talking while his hand focused on the game. “I’m not even- even tired, why are you?”
Zhang Jing didn’t respond. Compared to the pain during the day, he didn’t feel as miserable. His head was still dizzy, but it no longer ached.
With a person near him, along with Doggo’s stuttering curses towards his teammates, Zhang Jing felt safe and at ease. Hugging a pillow, he quickly fell into light sleep.
After Doggo finished three games, he looked back and saw a sleeping Zhang Jing, so he covered him with a blanket.
Suddenly, Zhang Jing opened his eyes and smiled extremely tenderly.
Doggo’s heart sank.
He went to the bathroom to wash his face. When he came back, Zhang Jing was hugging the same pillow and sleeping soundly. Doggo moved to the other side of the bed and lied down, pulling a small corner of the blanket for himself.
Despite moving quietly, Zhang Jing still sensed it. Slightly annoyed, he flipped to his other side and gazed at Doggo.
Doggo looked attentively at his eyes and said nothing.
Zhang Jing moved closer to him and hugged him around his waist. He widened his eyes and said, “Babyyy.”
Zhang Jing continued saying, “Where did you go? You’re home so late.”
Doggo felt sad for him, and his eyes watered. He tightened the hug and lightly patted his back. “Please take- take care of your health.”
Zhang Jing closed his eyes and replied with a wide smile. “You’re talking like Doggo.”
Aww.. my heart aches for him. Just go and drag your husband back home already. 😩
Thank you for this chapter, Izzy. 💕
Literallyyy!
Poor baby 😭😭 I want a solid explanation from ji dongxun and why he left without so much as to say anything :((((
We are slowly getting there 😭