Chapter 66: CH 58

Shen Fangyu had just made dinner when Jiang Xu returned from work.

Yesterday, Shen Fangyu told him that he had some personal matters to attend to today and had switched shifts with someone in order to take the rest of the day off. He originally thought that Shen Fangyu would be late, but when he was about to leave work, Shen Fangyu sent him a message asking him to go back for dinner.

It just so happened that Jiang Xu was craving tiger-skin green peppers, so he deliberately left his stomach empty for this meal and returned home early.

Unexpectedly, he sat down at the table and realized that there were many dishes on the table, but there was no plate of tiger-skinned green peppers.

This made Jiang Xu a little disappointed, and he asked Shen Fangyu, as if inadvertently, “Won’t you show off your tiger-skin green peppers today?”

Ever since he found out that he had a good opinion of this dish, Shen Fangyu often made it for him and always made a fuss about it, saying that he had passed down his grandfather’s cooking skills.

“I ……” Shen Fangyu hesitated for a moment, “I couldn’t find any green peppers,” he scooped up a spoonful of corn for Jiang Xu, “Why don’t you try this?”

Jiang Xu looked at the yellow-orange corn kernels in the bowl, his expression a little subtle.

He felt like there was something wrong with Shen Fangyu today, but it seemed impolite to ask him where he had been during the day.

Such a thought flashed through Jiang Xu’s mind, and his nerves suddenly jumped.

When did he start to get curious about Shen Fangyu’s whereabouts?

This was too inappropriate and beyond the social distance that two adults should have.

Jiang Xu tried to push back this emotion, but after trying for a while, he found that he still wanted to know.

Very much so.

The meal was inexplicably silent, and Jiang Xu realized for the first time that when Shen Fangyu was quiet, there really wasn’t much sound in the room.

Jiang Xu glanced at Shen Fangyu, who was eating very seriously and not joking with him. He looked so solemn, as if he needed to think about chewing, and he looked distracted.

Had he done something to upset Shen Fangyu?

First, he refused to sleep with him, and now he won’t cook his favorite food. In the past, Shen Fangyu had insisted on scheduling his leave on the same day as his, but this time, the other party had taken the initiative to separate their breaks.

For the first time, Jiang Xu briefly reflected on himself and how he spent his time with Shen Fangyu.

Then he reacted with a jolt and a slightly dazed look on his face, as if he was extremely puzzled.

He was actually reflecting over Shen Fangyu?

This was too outrageous.

Shen Fangyu was not just a paperweight, what could he have done to hurt Shen Fangyu?

Yes, his attitude was a bit off, but Shen Fangyu had known him for more than ten years. Could it be that Shen Fangyu suddenly became angry in the past two days after so much time?

Then it had nothing to do with him; it was Shen Fangyu’s own problem.

“Jiang Xu.”

As he was thinking this, Shen Fangyu suddenly interrupted his thoughts.

“Hm?” Jiang Xu raised his eyes to look at him.

“When was the last time you liked someone?”

Jiang Xu swallowed his corn kernels, slightly surprised by Shen Fangyu’s question.

What was Shen Fangyu trying to do, talk to him about his feelings?

If it was before, he might not have bothered to answer such a gossipy question, but because of this bit of reflection today, Jiang Xu thought for a while and decided that he should be more patient with Shen Fangyu, so he paused and said succinctly, “Zhong Lan.”

“How did you know that you liked Zhong Lan?” Shen Fangyu asked again.

“……” Jiang Xu was speechless, but he still said patiently, “It was very comfortable and natural to get along with her.”

“Then aren’t you comfortable and natural with Senior Brother Wu?” Shen Fangyu said, “Do you like Senior Brother Wu too?”

Jiang Xu’s patience faded. “What are you talking about? Senior Brother Wu is all married.”

“And what about me?”

“You what?”

“Are you comfortable with me?”

Jiang Xu paused briefly for a moment and gave a very soft “mmm,” “It’s okay.”

Shen Fangyu asked, “I’m not married, so do you like me?”

Jiang Xu: “?”

He was halfway through his corn kernels and choked at the words, so he quickly drew a tissue to cover his mouth and coughed violently, his face turning red from the choking.

Shen Fangyu patted his back as he said, “Eat slowly.”

When Jiang Xu calmed down, the corners of his eyes were already watery. He took a tissue and wiped them, making them slightly red, and Shen Fangyu immediately averted his gaze.

“What are you huffing and puffing for?” Jiang Xu stood up from the table and said inexplicably, “What exactly are you trying to say?”

“Nothing, I was just joking,” Shen Fangyu turned his face away, “you didn’t smile much all day.”

“This is the first time you’ve seen me all day today.” Jiang Xu pointed out with an expressionless face.

When he got up this morning, Shen Fangyu had already left, leaving only breakfast on the table, and it wasn’t until he came back from work this evening that the two of them met for the first time today.

“Do you have a problem with me?” Jiang Xu asked bluntly.

“No,” Shen Fangyu lowered his gaze and stacked the dishes and chopsticks together. He knew that Jiang Xu had noticed his absence at work and said, “It was work-related.”

Jiang Xu looked at him in silence for a while. He hesitated before saying, “If there’s something I can help you with, you can talk to me.”

This was the first time he had ever offered to help Shen Fangyu, and it was a rare occurrence for him to do so, but to his surprise, Shen Fangyu said, “No need.”

Jiang Xu put down his chopsticks with a cold expression and turned around to go to the study.

He left the door open and half-listened to the sound of dishes being cleaned and washed outside the door. Then everything became quiet, but Shen Fangyu did not come to the study.

Normally, Shen Fangyu would not work in the living room or dining room unless there was a meeting. But today, there was no sound of Shen Fangyu talking outside.

He wasn’t in a meeting.

But he hadn’t come to the study either.

Jiang Xu raised his eyes to the empty table and chair opposite him and the bouquet of red roses beside him. The once bright buds no longer had the color they once had and were wilting and decaying as they clung to their last vestiges of life.

He suddenly stood up and threw the whole bouquet of wilted flowers at the door, closing it behind him. The moment he stood up to close the door, Shen Fangyu, who was sitting on the sofa reading something, turned around at the sound, “What’s wrong?”

Jiang Xu gave him a meaningful look and sat back in his study without looking back.

————–

“Brother Xu, milk tea.”

Jiang Xu had just come out of the operating room in the afternoon when he bumped into Yu Sang, who was handing out milk tea in the office.

He had to think about his diet now and couldn’t drink such things, so he waved his hand and politely declined Yu Sang’s kind offer.

“Why are you so health conscious these days? I haven’t seen you have coffee for quite a while.” Yu Sang said.

Jiang Xu gave a vague “hmm”, took a cup full of plain water at the right temperature, and said to Yu Sang, “A happy occasion?”

When Yu Sang was promoted last time, he treated everyone in the department to a meal. It hadn’t been long since then, so Yu Sang wouldn’t have spent money again unless it was a big event.

Yu Sang’s eyes were full of smiles. “Brother Xu, I’ve found someone.”

Jiang Xu was a little surprised, but there was a little happiness in his eyes, “Congratulations.”

He knew that Yu Sang had always been very hardworking and hadn’t had time to find a lover for so many years. When they used to get together for dinner, Yu Sang often talked about a girl he had secretly liked for many years, and he was always afraid that if he didn’t confess, she would soon get married.

“I didn’t want to bother her because I didn’t have much money or time,” Yu Sang said. “But when I finally got hired as an attending doctor, I confessed my love to her, and she said I had to chase her first. I thought it was a rejection, but unexpectedly…” the more Yu Sang talked, the redder his face became, and he couldn’t hide his smile. “But I got her.”

“But my girlfriend says I’m too much of a straight man and not interesting.” Probably because of the sweet annoyance, Yu Sang’s face was still piled high with smiles even with such words. He casually pulled out a book from the bookshelf at his workstation and handed it to Jiang Xu to read. “So I bought this to see how people maintain and repair relationships.”

Jiang Xu scanned it; it was probably some kind of chicken soup guide from an emotional guru.

He normally wouldn’t give this kind of book an extra look, but for some reason, he paused for a moment today, asking, “Is it useful?”

The man immersed in the sweetness of love blurted out, “Of course it is, relationships always need to be maintained.” After he finished, he realized something was wrong and asked, “What’s wrong, Brother Xu? Are you …… planning to chase someone?”

Jiang Xu withdrew his gaze and said, “Just asking.”

“Or are you having trouble with any of your friends?” Yu Sang followed closely, “I read in this book that relationships between friends and lovers have a lot of similarities.”

Jiang Xu’s hand rested on his pen, and after a long time, he raised his eyes and said to Yu Sang, “That cousin of mine ……”

Yu Sang immediately came to a realization when Jiang Xu said that. According to Jiang Xu’s kind of hospitality, his honest and simple cousin would sooner or later develop a dislike for him.

“Brother Xu, you have to be warm and forthcoming,” he said. “You’re the host, you can’t let your guests feel neglected.”

The speaker had no intentions when saying this, but the listener had a heart.

Yu Sang had said it casually, but for some reason, it suddenly reminded Jiang Xu of the night he had run away from home.

Shen Fangyu’s heartbreaking words had stimulated him so much that whenever he recalled that day afterward, he would subconsciously stop himself from remembering the words, and it was only now that he remembered some of them.

When he tried to download the surgery video and it got stuck, Shen Fangyu said he was a guest in the house. That he (Jiang Xu) knew it, the wifi at his house also knew it, and only he did not know.

Was it really because …… he had made Shen Fangyu feel like he was just a dispensable guest?

“Brother Xu, I know you don’t want to repair that kind of relationship,” Yu Sang was still rambling in his ear, “but feelings are mutual-“

“Give a link.” Jiang Xu interrupted.

“Huh?”

Jiang Xu used his eyes to point at the book in his hand.

Yu Sang looked down at the book in his hand in a daze and saw the emotion guru smiling meaningfully on the cover.

—————-

Shen Fangyu suspected that Jiang Xu might have been stimulated by something recently.

At night, he was sitting on the sofa after taking a shower and revising his student’s paper when Jiang Xu, who usually worked in his study, suddenly sat next to him with his computer in his arms.

Before he could say anything, Jiang Xu handed him a glass of monk fruit juice and said thoughtfully, “Seeing as you went to class at A Medical University today, moisten your throat.”

Shen Fangyu looked as if he had seen a ghost, and he took the glass with trembling hands. Unexpectedly, Jiang Xu didn’t snatch back the glass and splash him with water.

When he finished drinking cautiously, he realized that Jiang Xu was sitting next to him. The sofa was so big, but even a pillow couldn’t fit between them. Shen Fangyu could hear and feel the sound of Jiang Xu’s breathing and the temperature of his body.

He didn’t know what Jiang Xu was thinking. Whether he had been possessed or was suffering from schizophrenia didn’t matter to him. He only knew that his brain seemed to be warning him that it was going down again.

Shen Fangyu struggled to move his attention back to the paper, but the plain English letters seemed particularly uninteresting at the moment, and he failed to focus his vision several times. An hour had passed, and he was still correcting the sentence from an hour ago.

He took a deep breath and stood up, Jiang Xu immediately looked up at him and asked, “Where are you going?”

Shen Fangyu, who had been caught trying to run away, had to change his mind and say, “I’m going to make you some milk.”

Jiang Xu took a sip from his glass of milk, and seeing that Shen Fangyu was still standing, he gave him a puzzled look.

Shen Fangyu’s gaze fell on his milk-stained upper lip and he suddenly felt his throat burn a little.

He found that Jiang Xu’s lips were beautiful. They had a slight pout to them, and he hadn’t noticed such a detail before because they were a bit thin. But now that they were drenched in milk, it looked extra clear.

Then Jiang Xu unconsciously stretched out his tongue and licked his lips.

Shen Fangyu’s scalp went numb.

He felt that he had not drunk monk fruit juice earlier, but some new type of drug he didn’t know about; otherwise, why wasn’t his thirst quenched and his throat felt increasingly dry?

He picked up his computer and decided it was better to leave this place of right and wrong. He organized his composure and said calmly, “The sofa is too soft, I’m starting to get sleepy, so I’ll go to the study to do the paper.”

He had just walked to the study and put down his computer when the door suddenly opened again and Jiang Xu walked in with his computer in his arms. Seeing him look over, he said, “I think the sofa is too soft too.”

Shen Fangyu’s tongue pushed hard against his upper jaw, and he nodded with forced composure.

The two sat facing each other, and thanks to the shelter of the computer, Shen Fangyu’s heart gradually calmed down, and he finally concentrated on the sentence he had been on for the past hour. He was just about to pick out the faults and change them when something suddenly touched him.

It was cool, and almost nonexistent.

It was Jiang Xu’s ankle.

Shen Fangyu’s heart skipped a beat, and the little revision he had managed to work out flew away.

He glanced at Jiang Xu and then quickly withdrew his gaze. Jiang Xu was frowning slightly, his attention on the computer, apparently unaware of the abrupt contact.

After a long while, Shen Fangyu gulped and said to Jiang Xu, “Why aren’t you wearing socks?”

Jiang Xu gave him a puzzled look.

Just when Shen Fangyu thought Jiang Xu was about to get mad, the other party suddenly stood up and went to the bedroom to get a pair of socks.

Shen Fangyu glanced at his feet when he came back, pursed his lips, and said hesitantly, “Why don’t you change into longer ones that will protect your ankles ……”

Jiang Xu was silent for a moment, then he patted him on the shoulder and gestured for him to enter the bedroom, “Come here.”

Shen Fangyu thought Jiang Xu was going to punch him, but to his surprise, Jiang Xu actually pulled open the wardrobe drawer and said, “You pick a pair.”

Shen Fangyu felt a bit mystical.

Was this Jiang Xu?

This good temper was too strange.

He tentatively took out a pair of long socks that would cover the ankles and handed them to Jiang Xu, who surprisingly took them and started putting them on in front of him.

He had just taken a shower and was wearing loose home clothes with the top button undone, so as soon as he bent over, Shen Fangyu saw his collarbone and the vermilion mole on his chest.

He hurriedly averted his gaze and said, “You didn’t button properly.”

Jiang Xu lowered his head and took a look; the buttons were neatly done, and there was nothing wrong with them.

Shen Fangyu said, “Don’t you always button your shirt to the top button when you go to work?”

Jiang Xu bent over and paused at his words, “These are home clothes.”

“So home clothes should not be buttoned up to the top one?”

Jiang Xu: “……”

He couldn’t stand it anymore.

To repair his relationship with Shen Fangyu, he had already put on his best attitude today, not only had he made tea for him, he had even taken the initiative to work with him, and changed places when Shen Fangyu had the urge to do so, put on socks when Shen Fangyu asked him to, and even changed the socks when he was asked to. But now Shen Fangyu was even telling him to do his buttons.

Fuck fixing relationships.

He took off the socks and tossed them aside, undid several buttons on his shirt, then took his computer to the bedroom and closed the door with a slam.

After a while, he opened the door again as if he had suddenly remembered something.

“If you’re sick, go to the hospital and get your brain fixed.”

He finished saying the blunt words to Shen Fangyu, who looked confused outside the door and laid back down on the bed.

Finally, he was comfortable.

Meanwhile, Shen Fangyu stood outside the door and slowly took a deep breath.

He wanted to tell Jiang Xu that if he hadn’t gone to the hospital to have his brain looked at, he wouldn’t have become like this.

The old doctor’s words were like a catalyst, turning his not-so-serious state directly into an irredeemable one. He was now like a firecracker when facing Jiang Xu. It made him panic.

He felt that he might really like Jiang Xu.

Because a lot of bad thoughts were coming up in his mind.

For example, he didn’t want Jiang Xu to button up.

Then again, he wanted to open the door and rip all of his buttons off, and then …… he didn’t dare to continue thinking about what he’d do next.

Shen Fangyu raised his hand and slapped himself, finally allowing his messy thoughts to calm down a little.

How could he think about such things?

Dr. Shen pressed his brow, and for the first time, he felt that he might be a bit too shameless.