WHV | Chapter 13

Bringing a Wolf Into the House, Part 2

It had taken Yu Wei until the early hours of the morning to finally feel a little sleepy. He was just drifting off into a proper doze when the rain outside suddenly roared like a waterfall, and thunder crashed like drums, scattering the drowsiness he had just managed to gather.

Frustrated, Yu Wei clapped his hands over his ears and stared blankly at the ceiling in the dark, looking like life had lost all meaning. He was exhausted, he was sleepy, and yet he just could not fall asleep.

Sure enough, milk did not do much for him. He still needed a melatonin pill.

Yu Wei lay there for a while, but in the end he could not hold out any longer. He threw off the blanket and got out of bed. Too lazy to turn on the light, he fumbled through the dark to the door and unlocked it. Just then, a bolt of lightning split the darkness outside, flashing the hallway bright for an instant and letting Yu Wei catch a glimpse of some indistinct mass by the door.

“Holy shit, what the hell is that-”

He had still been half asleep, but that scene scared the drowsiness right out of him. He hurriedly switched on the light. The bedroom lit up all at once, and the sudden glare stabbed at his eyes. He reflexively shut them, then squinted after a moment toward the doorway.

“What are you doing here?”

Shi Ci Yan was curled up with his arms wrapped around his knees, crouching at the door to Yu Wei’s bedroom and trembling. At the sound of Yu Wei’s voice, he slowly lifted his head. The skin around his eyes was red, as if he might start crying any second.

Yu Wei frowned and walked over to pull him up. “What’s wrong with you?”

Before he even heard Shi Ci Yan answer, thunder rumbled outside again. Shi Ci Yan flinched, then suddenly threw himself into Yu Wei’s arms and began shaking even harder.

Being hugged out of nowhere, Yu Wei’s body went rigid. He forced down the urge to push him away and asked cautiously, “Are you scared of thunder?”

Shi Ci Yan did not answer. He just held on tighter, which said everything.

Helpless, Yu Wei dropped the hands he had been about to use to pry him off and patted his back lightly instead. “Don’t be afraid. I’m here.”

But his comfort did not seem to work. Shi Ci Yan still clung to him and made no move to let go on his own. Yu Wei had never comforted anyone before, and he truly could not think of anything else to say, so he simply kept quiet and let him hold on, waiting for Shi Ci Yan to calm down by himself.

The two of them stayed like that at the door for ten minutes. Outside, there was only the patter of rain. Shi Ci Yan had buried his whole face against Yu Wei’s neck and had not moved at all.

He wasn’t standing there asleep, was he?

Yu Wei’s legs were starting to ache from standing. He shifted his shoulders and asked, “Did you fall asleep?”

Only then did Shi Ci Yan let go, looking a little embarrassed. “No. I was just too scared. Sorry.”

“It’s fine. It’s too late anyway, go back and sleep.” Yu Wei said, “I’m right next door, you don’t need to be scared.”

Shi Ci Yan obediently said yes, but he kept looking back every three steps, his face full of reluctance.

“What is it?” Yu Wei thought he still had something to say.

“Thunder. I can’t sleep alone.”

“If you can’t sleep alone, then come sleep in my room.” Yu Wei said it without thinking at all. The moment the words left his mouth, he regretted them, but Shi Ci Yan did not give him a chance to take them back and immediately answered, “Okay. I’ll go get my blanket and set up a floor bed in your room.”

Yu Wei watched his light, quick back as he left and felt a little dazed. Why did Shi Ci Yan seem kind of happy now? Wasn’t he afraid of thunder? Why did he look so pleased?

Very soon, Shi Ci Yan came back carrying a blanket and pillow, his dark eyes shining with an excitement Yu Wei could not quite understand. It was like he was about to eat a dessert he had been craving for ages, his eyes practically glowing.

Shi Ci Yan set up his own floor bed and climbed in, then looked at the dazed Yu Wei standing by the door and blinked innocently. “Let’s go to sleep. It’s too late.”

Yu Wei had originally planned to go downstairs for a cup of hot water and take a melatonin pill before sleeping, but in this situation, he felt it was better not to.

He answered with a yes, turned off the light, and climbed back into bed. He still did not get to take his sleeping pill that night, and after lying awake for half an hour with his eyes open, he still had no sleepiness at all.

“You can’t sleep either?” Yu Wei turned his head toward where Shi Ci Yan was lying. In the dark, every sense felt magnified, and Shi Ci Yan’s breathing, the rustle of him turning over, were all especially clear. “Is the floor cold?”

Shi Ci Yan turned over to face Yu Wei’s direction and said softly, “It’s okay. Why are you still awake?”

“I can’t sleep.” Yu Wei stared at the ceiling, his mind blank. His body was tired, and he wanted to sleep well, but his brain was unusually active. The moment he closed his eyes, all kinds of thoughts crowded in, and he could not fall asleep for the longest time. “Shi Ci Yan, if you can’t sleep on the floor, do you want to come up here?”

Suddenly, the room fell silent for a few seconds, so quiet that only Yu Wei’s own breathing remained. After a long while, he finally heard Shi Ci Yan ask, “Can I?”

He probably wasn’t going to sleep tonight anyway. The bed was so wide. Rather than let Shi Ci Yan lie on the floor and keep him company through insomnia, it was better to let him get on the bed and sleep properly.

If Yu Wei could not sleep, he could skip work tomorrow and rest at home. But Shi Ci Yan still had to go back to school for class.

“Yes. Come up.” Yu Wei shifted over and made room for him.

Shi Ci Yan climbed into bed in the dark, sliding under the blanket that still carried Yu Wei’s body heat. He pulled the blanket up to his nose. In the darkness, where Yu Wei could not see, he looked like a shameless creep, taking a deep sniff of the sweet, fragrant scent of information.

For a full month, he had not even had a chance to get close to Yu Wei.

He had never expected Yu Wei to deliver himself to his doorstep today.

“Yu Wei ge…” Shi Ci Yan suddenly said, his voice a little hoarse, “you’re really nice.”

Yu Wei turned over with his back to him and closed his eyes, saying indifferently, “Enough with the nice or not nice. Go to sleep. You still have school tomorrow.”

When Yu Wei slept, there could be nothing on the bed except the pillow and the blanket, not even another person. On top of that, he had not been sleeping well lately, so he had assumed tonight would be a sleepless night.

He had never expected that once he closed his eyes, he would actually drift off. And with someone lying right next to him, no less.

He woke again at noon. After the rain, the sunlight was bright, slipping through the gap in the curtains that had not been drawn tightly and casting a clear band of light across the floor.

Yu Wei opened his eyes and stared at the ceiling, not quite having come to yet. It was not until the bedroom door was quietly pushed open and Shi Ci Yan’s face appeared that he finally reacted. When Shi Ci Yan saw that he was awake, a flicker of disappointment passed through his eyes, only to be replaced by delight a moment later. “You’re awake. I made lunch. Come downstairs and eat a bit.”

Yu Wei was still a little dazed. Lately, even when he took sleeping pills, he had never slept this well. “What time is it now?”

“Twelve twenty. Just in time for lunch.”

“Then shouldn’t you be at school right now? Why are you still here?” Yu Wei was still sleepy, and his brain had not fully caught up yet.

“I don’t have class today.”

Yu Wei nodded blankly. He stretched in the blanket and frowned slightly.

“What’s wrong? Are you uncomfortable somewhere?” Shi Ci Yan rushed to the bed in a few quick steps, looking tense.

“No, it’s just that my legs are a little sore. I’m going to change clothes, you go do your thing first.”

To be exact, the roots of his thighs were a little sore. Yu Wei was puzzled. Could it be that if he ran too long in a dream, his legs would still ache in real life?

He had slept exceptionally deeply this time, and he had even dreamt. In the dream, he was lying in an orchard, surrounded on all sides by apple trees so dense they left no room to breathe. Every inhale and exhale was filled with fresh fruit fragrance. He was intoxicated by that scent, lazily basking in the warm sun as he slept, when out of nowhere a giant serpent crawled out. Its cold body wrapped tightly around him, and its tongue slipped out to probe at his body.

Yu Wei had found it hard to breathe under the coils. He struggled free from the giant snake’s restraint again and again, trying over and over to escape the orchard, only to fail each time. The serpent wound around him, played with him, and in the end devoured him bit by bit until not even a bone was left.

Now, aside from his legs feeling a little sore, he had no discomfort at all. In fact, he even felt as if he had slept through the night and woken up completely refreshed. The anxiety and fatigue brought on by his insomnia had disappeared without a trace, and his body felt incredibly light. He felt so comfortable all over that he only wanted to lie in bed, not even move a finger.

But his stomach had begun to growl in protest. He had eaten very little last night, and after a whole night, he was starving.

Yu Wei stretched again. This time no one was watching him, so he rolled from the head of the bed to the foot, then back from the foot to the head, loosening up his body before reluctantly getting up and going into the bathroom to wash up.

In the bathroom, his toothpaste had already been squeezed out and placed in the most obvious spot. Yu Wei paused for a moment, then began brushing his teeth with complete ease. He had taken Shi Ci Yan in for the night, so it made sense for Shi Ci Yan to repay him with little things like this.

Yu Wei brushed his teeth and looked up at the mirror. In the reflection, he was radiant, his complexion rosy, his eyes bright and alive, his lips full and red, completely unlike his previous self, who had been short on energy and blood, with a sallow face.

He spit out the foam in his mouth and leaned closer to the mirror to study himself carefully.

“Could I be some kind of monster with a split personality, and when I go to sleep at night, my second personality comes out to suck people’s essence?”

As soon as he finished speaking, Yu Wei laughed at his own stupid words.

After laughing enough, Yu Wei washed up as fast as he could and came out. He found a set of loungewear and stood in front of the full-length mirror to change clothes.

“Huh?” Just as Yu Wei was about to undo the buttons of his pajamas, he looked down and saw that all the buttons on his shirt had been fastened wrong. “I was too sleepy last night, so I buttoned them wrong?”

Yu Wei tilted his head and thought for two seconds. He could not remember how he had buttoned them wrong last night, so he gave up thinking about it. Getting dressed and going downstairs for food was more important.

He took off his shirt, and his lean waist was reflected in the mirror. His muscles were nowhere near as perfect as Shi Ci Yan’s, but he had no extra fat either, and his build was fairly balanced.

His skin had always been pale, and that was especially true for a body that had not seen the sun. Yu Wei looked at the snow-white body in the mirror, his gaze drawn to the two spots that looked like ripe cherries.

Had they always been this red?

He had changed clothes in front of the mirror every day before today, but he had never noticed it. He had no memory of it at all now.

Forget it, forget it. Whether they were red or pink, what mattered was eating.

No matter how urgent things were, he should still go downstairs and eat first.