TA •Chapter 38

Chapter 38

Jiang Yuduo’s constitution really was a little special. When Cheng Ke held him, it did not feel like wrapping his arms around a popsicle that had been frozen on a balcony for two hours. It felt more like holding a giant space heater.

Jiang Yuduo was actually warm.

It was magical.

That was one of the main reasons Cheng Ke did not let go even after Jiang Yuduo’s one sentence had shattered his moment of emotion to pieces. The less important reason was that he did not want to let go, he just wanted to hold him.

Of course, the order of those two reasons could probably be reversed.

But this kind of behavior, hugging someone on in silence after cursing once, required a thick skin.

Cheng Ke had always thought his own skin was pretty thick in certain respects, when he was enduring the title of “trash,” and right now, when he was trying to get a little advantage.

“Did you practice some kind of secret internal skill?” he said.

“What?” Jiang Yuduo asked.

“Aren’t you cold?” Cheng Ke asked. “You’re actually warm.”

“I’ve always been like this, Chen Qing says I have a fire body.” Jiang Yuduo said.

“A fire body?” Cheng Ke laughed. “Then do you have to run naked in summer…”

“I run naked in winter too.” Jiang Yuduo said.

Cheng Ke immediately thought of the scene that day, when Jiang Yuduo had opened the door stark naked. His whole body instantly felt hot, like he was about to break out in heat rash.

The conversation abruptly died there.

“Aren’t you cold?” Jiang Yuduo asked.

“Cold.” Cheng Ke answered.

“Then go inside and sleep,” Jiang Yuduo said.

“You… stop standing out here.” Cheng Ke looked outside. It was still pitch-black, the apartment buildings nearby all dark, only the commercial buildings in the distance still lit up with neon signs. In the night, that kind of light suddenly made a person feel lonely. He unconsciously tightened his arms.

When he used to hang around nightclubs, they would only play until two or three. By five, even if he was still awake, there would not be any chance to just stand there looking out.

This was basically his first time seeing what the city looked like at five in the morning. It was unfamiliar, far away.

Completely different from what he remembered.

“I’ll stay a little longer,” Jiang Yuduo said.

“There’s nobody out there anymore, and it’s this cold,” Cheng Ke said, hugging him as he gently pulled him back a little. “No one can stand out in the snow for hours. As long as no car has just pulled up, there won’t be anyone.”

Jiang Yuduo said nothing.

“Have any of the cars down there moved?” Cheng Ke asked.

“Three drove off,” Jiang Yuduo said. “There are twenty-six left that I can see.”

“Have they moved?” Cheng Ke asked again.

“They were here before it started snowing,” Jiang Yuduo said. “The snow on the roofs is about the same thickness.”

“Then that’s it,” Cheng Ke continued to slowly pull him toward the door. “It’s safe now. I’m safe now. You’re safe now too.”

You’re safe now.

Jiang Yuduo had not heard that sentence in many years.

It was already very unfamiliar.

Just like an embrace that had never existed before was unfamiliar.

Cheng Ke wrapped both his arm and his body around him. Being held that tightly made Jiang Yuduo panic in the very first instant.

But this action, similar to an ambush from behind yet with a completely different force and angle, was something his body reacted to faster than his brain.

The brain relied on experience. The body probably relied on instinct. No, not instinct.

Jiang Yuduo had never experienced what an embrace felt like, had never known what it was like to be held so firmly in someone’s arms, and he had never thought about it either.

It was only when Cheng Ke held him that he realized he seemed to have long wanted such an embrace.

It was different from the feeling when Cheng Ke had comforted him after he woke from a nightmare. It was also different from when he had hugged Cheng Ke on the street before.

His whole body seemed to go a little soft, as if some support had been taken away.

Sleepy.

When Cheng Ke pulled him back toward the room again, he glanced down over the railing at the floor below, then followed Cheng Ke inside.

The room was warm, and there was also the faint scent of the cologne Cheng Ke had sprayed into the wardrobe.

“I’m going to the sofa…” he said hesitantly.

“No need to fuss, we’d still have to get bedding,” Cheng Ke let him go, pulled a small blanket from the closet, and tossed it onto the bed. “Just sleep on the bed.”

Jiang Yuduo looked at the blanket without a cover on it. “No duvet cover…”

“Just fucking sleep for a while!” Cheng Ke shoved him from behind.

He fell onto the bed, face buried in the pillow.

Comfortable dizziness, soft and safe wrapping, the faint scent mixed into the warmth, nothing for him to keep his nerves on edge about for the time being…

“Jiang Yuduo?” Cheng Ke looked at him, still sprawled on the bed and not moving. “Please get up and take your clothes off!”

Half of Jiang Yuduo’s face was buried in the pillow, his eyes closed, motionless.

“Hey, fine, leave the clothes on,” Cheng Ke said, pushing him again. “But you’ve been messing around outside all day, and you’re going to come lie on my bed in those pants?”

Jiang Yuduo still did not move.

A few seconds later, he actually made a very low little snore.

“Fuck?” Cheng Ke was stunned.

This was the first time he had personally witnessed someone fall asleep in seconds. If he had not been sure that he had not used any force when he shoved Jiang Yuduo just now, he would have suspected he had knocked him out with one palm.

After his shock passed, he stood there blankly for a long time, then sighed.

Someone like Jiang Yuduo, who could stand there for hours, or even a whole day without moving or sleeping, probably relied on tightly stretched nerves and a willpower that had already gone perverse. Once he relaxed… that was basically the same as passing out.

Cheng Ke stood by the bed for a while, confirming that Jiang Yuduo’s breathing was normal.

Then, after hesitating for a few seconds, he reached out and patted Jiang Yuduo’s lower back. “Hey, I’ll take them off for you.”

Cheng Ke did not have a clean-freak’s habits, and he was not especially particular, but he still could not tolerate outdoor pants worn for a day or two being brought straight onto the bed. Not only could he not tolerate it, even Jiang Yuduo, who was the kind of person who smoked in bed and flicked ash onto the floor, could not tolerate it. The last time he had spent the night at Jiang Yuduo’s place and been ordered to take his pants off without any face-saving at all was still vivid in his memory.

Jiang Yuduo gave no response, and Cheng Ke could not bear to wake him again, so he reached out and grabbed his waistband.

Fortunately, he was wearing sweatpants.

Cheng Ke cleared his throat.

…Why had he cleared his throat?

He did not know.

He cleared his throat and tugged down on the waistband.

Jiang Yuduo’s black underwear was exposed.

This was far too uncivilized.

Far too uncivilized.

He quickly used some force and yanked the pants all the way down to his legs.

Scars.

Jiang Yuduo was practically a collection of scars.

But very quickly he froze again. In weather this cold, this person was only wearing a pair of sweatpants, even if they were thick fleece… even if he was young, and the Grand Guardian had stamped him as a fire body, was it not a little too cocky to go out on a snowy day without even thermal underwear?

Cheng Ke clicked his tongue and walked over again, grabbed Jiang Yuduo’s pant legs, and with a swish pulled the pants right off.

What he should do next was shake out the little blanket and cover Jiang Yuduo with it.

But that action stalled for quite a long time, because his gaze kept lingering on the section from Jiang Yuduo’s butt to his legs.

He could not pull himself away.

After a very long while, he gritted his teeth and grabbed the little blanket, shaking it hard.

He shook it too hard. The blanket flipped over completely and landed over his head instead. Blinded by his own blanket, he lurched forward violently, nearly falling onto Jiang Yuduo.

Go to hell.

He clenched his teeth, adjusted his strength, and shook it again before finally laying the little blanket over Jiang Yuduo.

When it fell over him, Jiang Yuduo gave a soft grunt, turned over, and curled up on his side with the blanket in his arms.

Cheng Ke immediately felt a wave of Amitabha wash over him. The little sparks that had not yet had time to flare inside him instantly turned into a wisp of blue smoke and scattered away.

Jiang Yuduo’s sleep was much lighter than the one Cheng Ke had imagined with his head full of lust.

If he had really done anything, he probably would have been beaten to death right beside the bed by Jiang Yuduo, who could have been startled awake at any moment.

It was just past five now. Once Cheng Ke settled down, he immediately got sleepy too. He put away those shameless thoughts, dragged his own blanket closer, and slipped under it.

But after closing his eyes, he still used the last remnants of his shamelessness, rolled over to lie against Jiang Yuduo’s back, and forcibly pretended it was completely natural as he shoved his arm into Jiang Yuduo’s blanket.

He did not go any farther. He only pressed one fingertip against Jiang Yuduo’s lower back.

Burning hot.

So he really was a fire body.

With so many thoughts rising and falling in his head from time to time, Cheng Ke sighed in admiration that he had actually not even dreamed before sleeping until dawn.

When he woke up, even his posture had not changed. His arm was still inside Jiang Yuduo’s blanket.

The only change was that it was no longer just his fingertip pressing against Jiang Yuduo’s lower back.

Jiang Yuduo had turned over onto his back and was pinning Cheng Ke’s hand beneath him, and the middle finger that had been pressing against his lower back was now bent, folded and crushed until it had gone numb.

Cheng Ke carefully tried to pull his hand out, but could not.

The sour numbness in his hand instantly surged into his arm, then into the whole arm, so painfully sour that he twisted his brows and silently cursed a whole string of “fuck.”

After the numbness passed, only the pain in the middle finger remained.

Pain, pain, pain, pain…

He did not have time to care whether he would wake Jiang Yuduo, and quickly tried to pull his hand free.

Just as he pulled it out, Jiang Yuduo suddenly moved. Before Cheng Ke could bring his hand back into his own blanket, it had already been grabbed hard by Jiang Yuduo.

That reflex was deeply admirable.

Only after Jiang Yuduo had seized his hand did he suddenly spring upright. Cheng Ke even felt that Jiang Yuduo’s eyes had opened only when he flipped over and rose, pressing a knee down on Cheng Ke’s arm.

“Me!” Cheng Ke shouted immediately. “Cheng Ke, Cheng Ke, Cheng Ke!”

Jiang Yuduo pressed one hand on his wrist and his knee on Cheng Ke’s elbow. He glared at him for a long time before finally saying, “What did you do?”

“Let go!” Cheng Ke flexed his middle finger. “My finger is going to break!”

“I’m holding your wrist.” Jiang Yuduo was still staring at him.

“You were just pressing on my finger!” Cheng Ke frowned.

“Why would I be pressing on your finger?” Jiang Yuduo turned and glanced at the half of the bed he had been sleeping on. “I didn’t even sleep over the line.”

Cheng Ke fell into an extremely awkward silence.

“Why was your hand in my blanket?” Jiang Yuduo looked back and continued staring at him.

“How should I know?” Cheng Ke said. “I’m used to sleeping alone. My hand can go wherever it wants, reach wherever it wants.”

Jiang Yuduo sighed and let him go. “You scared the sleep right out of me.”

“I scared you?” Cheng Ke asked.

“Sleeping fine, then all of a sudden I felt someone touching me,” Jiang Yuduo said, sitting up and running a hand over his head a few times. “Is your finger okay?”

“It’s fine.” Cheng Ke rubbed his middle finger.

“What time is it?” Jiang Yuduo asked.

Cheng Ke looked at the small alarm clock by the bed. “10:40.”

Jiang Yuduo turned over in surprise to confirm it. “I actually slept until now?”

“You only fell asleep at five,” Cheng Ke said. “Sleeping until now is not even six hours.”

“Usually, no matter what time I sleep, I wake up around seven.” Jiang Yuduo said.

“What you did yesterday wasn’t sleeping,” Cheng Ke sat up and shook his hand. “That was passing out. To put it nicely, it was a coma.”

Jiang Yuduo smiled, then lowered his head to look at his own legs. After a while, he looked up. “You took my pants off?”

“Yeah,” Cheng Ke looked at his legs. “Pulled them right off.”

Jiang Yuduo said nothing. He sighed, stood there in a daze for a while, then got out of bed and put on his pants. “Are the toothbrush and stuff I used last time still here?”

“They’re there, untouched.” Cheng Ke said.

“Oh.” Jiang Yuduo nodded and walked to the bedroom door. “I’m going to wash up.”

“I’ll order breakfast for us,” Cheng Ke said, reaching for his phone. “By the time we’re done washing up, it should arrive. It’s freezing out, I don’t feel like going out to eat.”

“Mm.” Jiang Yuduo answered. After walking out of the bedroom, he suddenly came back and stared at him.

“What?” Cheng Ke felt a little uneasy under his gaze.

“Were you secretly touching me in the middle of the night?” Jiang Yuduo asked, brows furrowed.

“I…” Cheng Ke’s embarrassment right now was probably shooting straight to the sky. He had thought he had already brushed it off, but he did not expect Jiang Yuduo to circle back to it. He was almost embarrassed into anger. “Do you think you’re some pretty little sweetheart? I was half-dead with sleep in the middle of the night, and I still had time to touch you?”

Jiang Yuduo kept his brows furrowed. After a while, he clicked his tongue and turned away.

“…Fuck.” Cheng Ke muttered, clutching the blanket and collapsing onto the bed. This was too humiliating.

Jiang Yuduo went into the bathroom and first turned on the cold water to wash his face.

His head felt a little dizzy. Not the kind of dizziness from not sleeping enough or not having slept well, and not the kind from a vertigo attack.

It should have been…

After splashing his face with cold water, there was still no improvement. Instead, the icy water made him feel a little uncomfortable.

A fever, maybe?

He touched his forehead and could not tell.

After washing up, he went to the living room, pulled open a drawer, and took out the thermometer Cheng Ke had planned to use yesterday to check the water temperature.

“You’ve got a fever?” Cheng Ke just happened to come out of the bedroom with his phone in hand.

“No,” Jiang Yuduo said, shaking the thermometer. “I’m playing with it for a while.”

Cheng Ke did not respond. He came over in two steps and slapped the back of Jiang Yuduo’s forehead.

Although the slap was a little heavy because of momentum, making a loud crack, Jiang Yuduo did not react much, so Cheng Ke did not pull his hand back and instead pressed it against Jiang Yuduo’s forehead for two seconds.

Burning hot.

He should have realized that last night. When he had pressed against Jiang Yuduo’s back last night, he could already tell it was scorching hot.

“What the fuck fire body, you just have a fever!” he said.

“…I usually run hot too,” Jiang Yuduo put the thermometer under his arm. “It’s just not usually this hot.”

“How do you deal with a fever?” Cheng Ke asked. “Should I boil some brown sugar water with ginger or something?”

“No idea,” Jiang Yuduo said after hesitating a moment. “Isn’t that for period cramps?”

“Is it?” Cheng Ke froze. “Then what do you drink to sweat it out? Aren’t you good at this kind of everyday stuff? So you also have times when you don’t know things, just like a useless person?”

Jiang Yuduo sat down on the sofa. “I haven’t had a fever in many years.”

“Then what about the time when you had a fever many years ago?” Cheng Ke asked.

“I just endured it,” Jiang Yuduo answered very calmly.

Cheng Ke paused, then picked up his phone. “Let’s take your temperature first and see how much it is.”

“Mm.” Jiang Yuduo nodded.

Cheng Ke checked what to do for a fever, and the answers were more or less the same: drink lots of warm water, rub alcohol over the whole body… rub the whole body? Drink ginger and brown sugar water, and take fever medicine.

“The ginger and brown sugar water part is right,” Cheng Ke said. “You can drink that.”

“Do you have ginger?” Jiang Yuduo asked.

“…No,” Cheng Ke said. “And also drinking water, rubbing alcohol over the whole body…”

He did not mention the medicine. Jiang Yuduo did not want to go to the hospital, and he was not sure whether Jiang Yuduo would be willing to take medicine just for a fever.

“You only have water here too, right.” Jiang Yuduo smiled.

“Alcohol… I also have it,” Cheng Ke said. “But…”

“You don’t need to worry about it,” Jiang Yuduo said. “It’s just a fever. I’ll go back and sleep a bit more later, and I’ll be fine. Even when I was a kid, I never bothered with it.”

“Fine.” Cheng Ke sat down. “Breakfast should be here in about half an hour. Can you eat when you have a fever?”

“I can eat,” Jiang Yuduo said. “I can eat anytime.”

The thermometer showed 38 degrees Celsius, and Cheng Ke looked at it again. “38 degrees. That counts as a high fever, right?”

“It doesn’t,” Jiang Yuduo answered firmly.

“When I had a 38-degree fever, I was hospitalized for an IV drip.” Cheng Ke said.

“Do you get hospitalized every time you cough once?” Jiang Yuduo asked.

“Anyway, I don’t just tough it out at 38 degrees. Suit yourself.” Cheng Ke did not say anything else. Jiang Yuduo had lived like this for years, and compared with someone like him, who had grown up spoiled and pampered, maybe having a fever really was no different from coughing a couple of times.

And Jiang Yuduo did not look any different from usual. If Cheng Ke had not touched him himself, he would not have discovered that Jiang Yuduo had a fever at all.

People really were different.

The delivery call came through, and after Cheng Ke finished answering it, he was about to open the door.

Jiang Yuduo stood up and got to the door ahead of him. He looked through the peephole first, then opened it.

Cheng Ke took the takeout boxes and set them on the table. “It’s all stuff I wanted to eat. I don’t know whether you like it.”

Jiang Yuduo sat down by the table and looked at it. “Pancakes and soy milk?”

“Mm.” Cheng Ke sat down, picked up a pancake, and took a bite. “When I used to eat breakfast, it was all Western food. My dad and Cheng Yi liked it.”

Jiang Yuduo sighed. “At least you’re a young master. If you want to eat this stuff, why not just have someone make you a separate portion?”

“Forget it,” Cheng Ke said. “Too much trouble. Besides, if I want to eat it now, I can eat it now.”

“Another day I’ll take you to Lu Qian’s place for a meal,” Jiang Yuduo said. “She makes amazing pancakes. Her mom used to sell pancakes too, there were lines just to buy them.”

“Really?” Cheng Ke immediately became interested. “Is that convenient?”

“Convenient for what?” Jiang Yuduo drank some soy milk and looked at him.

“I mean, is it convenient to go over and eat pancakes?” Cheng Ke asked.

“…Who’s supposed to be convenient?” Jiang Yuduo did not understand.

Cheng Ke gave up, took another bite of pancake, and changed the subject. “When are we going?”

“In a couple of days. Once her mom goes back, she’ll be keeping her grandma company these next few days,” Jiang Yuduo said.

“Okay.” Cheng Ke nodded.

After breakfast, Jiang Yuduo put on his coat and prepared to leave.

Cheng Ke watched him and suddenly felt a little lonely. Since getting up this morning, even if he had been embarrassed, embarrassed, or annoyed, his mood had been pretty good the whole time.

Now that Jiang Yuduo was about to leave, he did not actually feel that bad, but he just felt lonely. Jiang Yuduo had not even left yet, and he had already started feeling it.

“I’ll bring the cat and its stuff over later,” Jiang Yuduo said. “The old lady’s coming over this afternoon.”

“Mm,” Cheng Ke answered, and his mood immediately soared again. “Why don’t I go get it? You’ve got a fever.”

Jiang Yuduo looked at him without saying anything.

“What?” Cheng Ke felt a little guilty.

“Why are you smiling?” Jiang Yuduo asked.

“Fuck?” Cheng Ke froze, then quickly touched his own face. “Was I smiling? I don’t think so.”

“You didn’t smile out loud,” Jiang Yuduo said. “But I can feel that you’re smiling.”

“Stop pretending you’re some half-immortal,” Cheng Ke picked up his own coat. “Let’s go, I’ll go with you to get it. Is there a lot of stuff?”

“There’s quite a bit. A cage, water bowl, food bowl, litter box, litter, cat food, and canned food… also a towel it especially likes to hug when it sleeps,” Jiang Yuduo said, sounding a little embarrassed. “But it’s only for two days…”

“It’s fine.” Cheng Ke said.

Jiang Yuduo called a car. Before it arrived, he forcibly dragged Cheng Ke into the security booth, where two guards were already on duty.

He said it was because it was cold, but honestly, the security booth was not much warmer than the first-floor elevator lobby.

Cheng Ke knew he was probably doing it for safety.

Only when the car arrived did the two of them say goodbye to the guards and get directly into the car.

All the way there, Cheng Ke held back a sentence and did not dare say it, feeling like it would make things too obvious if he did.

What made him even more frustrated was that he never would have expected there to come a day when he would be so restless for the sake of a street thug he had only known for a few months, someone who seemed to have mental issues and whose origins were unclear.

He really was the kind of person who did things on a whim. His dad said he had no perseverance, no resolve, no self-control, no sense of priorities, all sorts of complaints. Sometimes, thinking about it, that really did seem justified. He was so capricious that even he could not control himself.

Jiang Yuduo’s place had already been cleaned up. It was very neat, and the cat’s things had all already been packed up.

“Just these,” Jiang Yuduo said, picking up the stuff. “You take the cat.”

Cheng Ke went over and picked up the cat, thought about it, then tucked it inside his coat.

Just as Jiang Yuduo was about to open the door and leave, he said, “Why don’t you just stay at my place?”

“Hm?” Jiang Yuduo looked at him.

“I mean…” Cheng Ke pinched the cat’s ear and rubbed it between his fingers repeatedly. “For safety’s sake…”

“You,” Jiang Yuduo’s brows furrowed again as he stared at him. “Do you have some kind of… idea about me?”

In that instant, Cheng Ke wanted nothing more than to kick Jiang Yuduo in the face.

Could he be a little more tactful?

Could he be a little more tactful!

“Are you a little too full of yourself?” Cheng Ke looked at him.