Chapter 33

Throws kisses at Kemostt for a coffee

TLC: Lilies

Editing: Mashiro

He undid the first button.

Gently pushing against the button with his thumb, it smoothly popped out through the thin and narrow buttonhole. Because of that, the collar of the shirt came slightly undone to reveal the collarbones on either side.

Qi Jing’s Adam’s apple had also been brushed lightly by those fingers at some moment.

Even though his collar has already been loosened, Qi Jing still felt his throat tighten. For a moment, he held his breath, not knowing where to look. The second button had also been unbuttoned under the gentle movements of the hands in front of him.

“Are you alright?” Shen Yan asked in a low voice.

His fingers stopped on the third button; the dim and yellow light of the wall lamp covered them in a faint glow, like a layer of fine gold.

Qi Jing found himself slightly backed against the wall outside the bathroom. Realising that he had nowhere to retreat, he raised his lowered head to meet the eyes of the other man directly. Probably because of the light, those eyes looked even more profound than during the day, resembling a dark sea enveloping him; the warm waters made it hard for him to pull away.

“I… I’m alright.” Qi Jing answered in a similarly low voice, then laughed absent-mindedly.

But when Shen Yan reached the third button, which was located closest to Qi Jing’s heart, his hand stopped there. With only a piece of fabric between them, he could completely feel Qi Jing’s heart beating against his chest—thump, thump, thump…

“Just call me later if you feel like the water is too cold, or if you can’t find something. I will be waiting for you outside.”

Shen Yan lowered his eyes, staring intently at his fingers that fiddled with the third button. He pushed it through the buttonhole, letting it come undone before slowly making his way down the other buttons. Qi Jing responded in a light voice, while letting Shen Yan fiddle with his shirt despite feeling slightly at a loss on where to put his hands.

He had a lot of trouble undressing himself, and he usually had to struggle with his clothes for quite a while before he could take a shower.

Of course it was better now, with someone there to help him—or so it would have been, if the whole situation didn’t make him feel so embarrassed.

Thanks to the light from the lamp outside the bathroom, Qi Jing subtly sneaked a peek of his reflection in the mirror—Luckily, my face doesn’t look flushed yet.

Outside the bathroom there was a tiny compartment where the washstand and washing machine were located. Besides the door to the bathroom, that compartment itself also had a separate door leading to the living room. When Shen Yan said he would wait for him outside, he meant he would be waiting in the living room, but the door of the compartment would be left open.

One drawback to the old apartments was the lack of space in bathrooms.

Although the interior was nice and tidy, it was still rather cramped, about half the size of the bathroom in Qi Jing’s apartment. Shen Yan was afraid that because Qi Jing wasn’t used to the layout here, he might bump into something and possibly even fall—to give himself a peace of mind, he made sure he would be able to hear what Qi Jing was doing.

By the time all of the buttons were unbuttoned, he could see Qi Jing’s chest through the opening in the shirt, rising and falling at an unusually fast pace.

Shen Yan’s hands once again went back to Qi Jing’s collar, loosened the sling holding the cast, before gently pushing his hand under Qi Jing’s shirt from either side. He could feel Qi Jing’s pulse with his fingertips, as it throbbed rhythmically under the skin.

Anyone would be nervous at a time like this, so his hands stopped for a moment.

As if making a reminder, Shen Yan whispered: “Okay, move your left hand out a little, don’t make any sudden movements.”

Qi Jing moved his arm as he was told. He didn’t know if it was because he was afraid of pain, or perhaps because of something else, but he even closed his eyes as he did so. Shen Yan didn’t say anything and started to take off Qi Jing’s shirt from his shoulders.

With the cover on his body gone, Qi Jing felt a chill run through him, and he couldn’t help but tremble a little. He moved in accordance with Shen Yan’s every action in a daze, until all of the clothes on his upper body were off.

When it was done, Qi Jing took a deep breath. Not because he felt chilly, but to calm his mind.

At that moment, Shen Yan suddenly put a hand on his body lightly which gave Qi Jing a start, causing him to raise his head abruptly. However, to his surprise the other man’s face was stern as he stared at the place his fingers touched with a furrow—turns out he was looking at the scars left by the glass shards during the accident. Apart from the one Shen Yan touched, there were a few more of such similar cuts all over his body. Even though most of them had already scabbed, the sight was still shocking to witness.

“I’m already okay now.” Qi Jing saw the gloom in his eyes and comforted him with a smile.

Those wounds were nothing serious, it was just hard to change the bandages, that’s all.

Shen Yan stayed silent for a while, then said with a sigh: “…If only I had been by your side when you were in hospital.”

What he had said sounded completely unrealistic, but Qi Jing was content with just that one sentence from him.

“Okay, okay, I’m going to catch another cold if you don’t let me go into the bath.” Qi Jing urged him on purpose to dispel Shen Yan’s self-reproaching thoughts. As expected, Shen Yan quietly removed his hand when he heard Qi Jing’s words and covered the cast with a plastic film to prevent it from getting soaked.

After Shen Yan left the compartment, Qi Jing went into the bathroom alone and closed the door under a calm facadek2014;only then did he slowly exhale a long breath as he patted his scalding cheeks.

Shen Yan only took care of the upper clothes that were the most problematic for him. He didn’t touch anything below, so Qi Jing had to take his time taking off his trousers.

Of course, he didn’t have courage to let Shen Yan take care of those, otherwise his mind would go wild for sure.

However, as it stands, taking off his clothes was relatively easy, especially when compared to the need to put them back on at the moment.

When Qi Jing thought of that, he realised that he actually forgot to take a towel with him because of how nervous he was before coming in—that was simply too tragic.

“Crap…” At that moment he was standing stark naked under the shower, hot water pouring on his head in a steady stream. His rapid heartbeat was like the countless drops of water falling on his hair—it wouldn’t stop at all.

Given his current circumstances, dressing up and going out with his body wet was basically a form of torture.

He stood there blankly for quite a long while, then paced back and forth under the shower. Finally, he had no choice but to grit his teeth and pull the shower curtain so that it covered as much as possible before calling out: “Shen Yan—”

Within a moment, that man’s hurried footsteps could be heard outside the bathroom.

Maybe it was because Shen Yan thought that something had happened inside, so he sounded very anxious when asking: “What happened? Did you bump against something?”

“I didn’t,” Qi Jing tried his best to sound as calm as he could, “I forgot to bring in the towel, it’s the one by the sink…Can I trouble you to pass it to me?”

The man outside seemed to be taken aback, and only managed an “Okay” after a while

Qi Jing subconsciously hid himself further behind the shower curtain. He didn’t turn off the water, as the sound of flowing water in the bathroom could temporarily obscure his slightly awkward gasping.

At that moment the bathroom door opened slowly with a ‘clack’, and a sound of footsteps could be heard going inside. The vapour was thick in the room as it veiled everything behind a layer of white fog, and there was also a shower curtain between two of them. Logically speaking, neither of them should be able to see the other clearly. Nevertheless, when Qi Jing reached out his hand to receive the towel, the water droplets still quivered from the trembling of his fingers.

And as expected, there was a towel for him to receive not so far away.

“Thank you.” He tugged on it the moment his fingers touched the fabric, but got a slight surprise when he didn’t manage to grab the towel from Shen Yan’s hand. The towel only fell into his hand without much resistance when he pulled on it for the second time.

The water from the shower was still raining down loudly.

And the thing in his chest was also being loud..

Steam from the hot water was too thick, Qi Jing could feel his breathing slowly growing laborious.

“Is there anything else… you need me to get?” He didn’t know that even with a shower curtain between them, a person’s voice could still sound so deep and strong.

“There’s nothing.” And his voice on the other hand couldn’t be any softer.

“Okay.” Shen Yan’s response before he went out was exactly the same as when Qi Jing was about to go in. His footsteps were light and he went out of the compartment room quietly, as if he didn’t want to disturb Qi Jing.

After taking a shower, Qi Jing properly dried himself and came out.

He took off the plastic on his cast and put on his trousers, but his upper body was still naked. He wasn’t able to dry himself completely with only one hand, so some places on his body were still wet and glistened under the lamp light. It was the same for his hair, droplets the size of the beans were falling from it one by one.

Originally, he wanted to try his best and put on the top by himself, but Shen Yan saw he had gone out of the bathroom already. He slowly got up from the living room sofa and walked over without saying anything as he first helped Qi Jing put his clothes on. Just when Qi Jing was about to thank him, Shen Yan took a towel from somewhere and gently placed it over his head.

“Your hair needs to be blown dry, you can’t catch a cold.” He said while wiping off the excess water from Qi Jing’s hair for him.

“Hm? Are you going to help me?”Qi Jing said, purely out of jest. He still couldn’t forget about the scene in the bathroom, so he had to joke around a little in order to disperse this atmosphere that made his heart throb.

He didn’t expect that Shen Yan would actually take a hair dryer and make him sit down.

Warm air blew against Qi Jing’s head as that man gently ruffled his fingers through his hair—it was inexplicably pleasant. He was so comfortable with being blown dry that he couldn’t help but tilt his head a little. Seemingly aware of this, when Qi Jing tilted his head, Shen Yan moved his hand to stroke the hair on his temples, then his thumb rubbed slightly against the base of his ear. It felt a little ticklish, but was extremely addictive.

Qi Jing had a sense of déjà vu like he had also done this action somewhere, at some point.

The moment Shen Yan turned off the hair dryer, Qi Jing finally had an inkling after racking his brains over it—these moves were exactly the same as when he was taking care of Little Return Date!

So he turned his head in a daze, blurting out a question: “Did you just… treat me like a cat?”

To be honest, such a thought didn’t occur to Shen Yan, and he was also dumbfounded when he heard Qi Jing’s words. After thinking it through carefully, those habitual actions he made due to his profession… It really seemed to be the case.

Thinking of this, Shen Yan’s couldn’t stop corners of his mouth from quirking up as he laughed lightly.

Qi Jing was already used to seeing him behave upright and gentle, but it was the first time for him to see Shen Yan make such a cheerful expression, and was momentarily stunned. It even caused him to forget to probe Shen Yan further for an answer to his question.

The lights in the old town were turned off earlier at night than in the community Qi Jing lived in, maybe because there were more elderly people living here.

Shen Yan lived on the third floor, which was rather close to the ground floor.

If one opened the windows, a rustling sound of bodhi tree’s leaves would be heard. It was a dark night, and it was hard to discern if it’s drizzling again; one could only try to figure out from the sound of water falling from the eaves.

Qi Jing didn’t touch the computer for a whole day, so now, when he finally had time to sit down, he intended to check messages on QQ.

Shen Yan brought him a cup of water and some cut fruits. They were very beneficial for recovery of patients with a bone fracture, so Qi Jing accepted them with a smile. When Shen Yan put those items down, he was in the middle of poking at the keyboard with his finger. Even a password took him forever to type, not to mention typing the chat messages.

“I can type for you.” Shen Yan said softly, “If you have some messages you need to reply to.”

Qi Jing did have a lot of messages to reply to.

Due to the difficulty he recently faced with typing, he left a lot of invitations from producers hanging, and didn’t respond to messages in group chats for production crews or private messages. In the post threads for the published audio dramas he simply wrote a short “Congratulations”, and his weibo account also contained barely a few words—in other people’s eyes, even though he was recuperating at home, it wasn’t much different from when he “played dead” a lot.

“Really? Thank you so much for your help.” Qi Jing’s smile was both full of apology and gratitude as he scooted over to make space for Shen Yan in front of the computer, and found himself a stool to sit on the side.

Shen Yan sat down, and started with opening emails according to Qi Jing’s directions.

For the most part, those emails were from the producers.

The first producer asked if he received the script for the drama while crying noodle tears. After opening the email, the sorrowful wails of the producer lady occupied most of the message window. Shen Yan could only turn his head and look silently at Qi Jing.

Geese Fly North who had always answered every prayer and replied to each message in time probably had never seen a scene like that.

Qi Jing held back his laughter: “Just tell her that I will definitely read it over the next two days, and give her reply after reading through it.”

So Shen Yan typed a sentence according to his words. But just when he was about to send it, he seemed to think of something. Qi Jing’s curiosity was starting to snowball; only to see Shen Yan add something at the end of the sentence.

Don’t ask for my return date: I will make sure to read it over the next two days and give you a reply after reading through it. ^_^

With three symbols, they nicely came together to make Qi Jing’s trademark smiling face.

Qi Jing was quite surprised and looked at Shen Yan with raised eyebrows.

Shen Yan didn’t say a word, and moved on to click on the message by the next producer after sending the message. This time there was no wailing nor noodle tears, instead there was a long string of exclamation marks after each sentence.

Qi Jing skimmed through it from the beginning to the end. That lady used about 500 characters to express her love towards《Trap》audio drama, then she used 500 characters to express her love towards his sexy voice, and the last 300 characters were mostly her acting cute while she pleaded with him to accept a new role.

Once again Shen Yan gave him that helpless look.

This time, Qi Jing couldn’t contain it anymore, and laughed out loud: “You can express thanks in your own words, then ask this producer lady to send me a script to read first. Preferably one that includes the story outline and character introduction. She can also include a link to the original novel, I will be sure to read it if I’m interested in accepting the role.”

Therefore Shen Yan heeded Qi Jing’s words and wrote a long paragraph of thanks that was incredibly formal and serious; it was a seriousness that Qi Jing might not be able to express even if he crafted the message himself. At the end, he once again added that smiling expression on his own accord.

Don’t ask for my return date: If you don’t mind, Ms. Producer, please send me a script with a brief outline of the story and an introduction to the character for me to read. You can also include a link to the original novel, if I make the decision to accept this role, then I will make sure to read it. ^_^

“Why do you add a smiling face in every response?” And it’s the one he liked to use the most too.

“Because you would always use it whenever you responded to me in your emails.” Shen Yan said in a low voice. He was quite familiar with the content of Qi Jing’s mails, including the signature emoticon the latter liked to use the most; who knows how many times he had looked through them, over and over again, during time when Qi Jing had disappeared into thin air.

Qi Jing felt warm in his heart; he couldn’t help but move closer so that they sat side by side and leaned on the other’s shoulder.

Qi Jing’s hair wasn’t completely dried yet and the damp ends of his hair wetted the side of Shen Yan’s collar, making him feel cold. But at the same time a faint scent of shampoo could be smelled. Out of habit, Shen Yan lowered his head and buried his face in it—it was the same scent of shampoo as the one he had in his bathroom, so its smell felt very intimate.

The two of them maintained that sitting posture while slowly replying to all of the private messages.

Next, were messages from the group chats.

At that moment, Qi Jing suddenly thought of an interesting idea. He looked to his side, and with a smile on his face, he got Shen Yan to open the group chat named ‘Gradually inching towards quitting the community’ first.

Surprisingly enough, there were quite a lot of people online in the chat, including the Ninth lady from the time difference gang.

It was rare for her to get up so early on the weekend to chat with everyone online—it really seemed to be a good day to reunite with the old friends.

But he decided to temporarily keep the fact they were his old friends a secret from Shen Yan.

“Say hello to them, you can greet them in whatever way you think is the most appropriate.” Although Qi Jing said it with a straight face that didn’t reveal anything, he had already made his little calculations in his heart.

Shen Yan thought for a while, then he typed the most common greeting in a tone Qi Jing always used whenever he replied to his emails.

Don’t ask for my return date: Good evening everyone, I’m back. ^_^

Ninth lady: ……Σ( °△°|||)︴

iCookie：……Σ( °△°|||)︴

Rolling ball of Meows: ……Σ( °△°|||)︴【what happened?】

I won’t survive if I don’t procrastinate: ……Σ( °△°|||)︴【I don’t know… Keep the formation!】

March Bamboo Shoots: ……Σ( °△°|||)︴Senior?? Senior, you’ve been hacked?!

Ninth lady: …(facepalm) Who are you! Quickly confess who you are! You can’t possibly be Return date, so who are you??

As expected, Shen Yan froze in front of the screen for quite a long while, before he turned to look at Qi Jing with a dazed look on his face.

His expression was exactly the one Qi Jing had expected, right down to the finest detail. Qi Jing completely lost it as laughter escaped his lips. While he leaned against Shen Yan’s shoulder, he was laughing so hard he couldn’t stop trembling: “Hahahaha…”

Seeing this, Shen Yan more or less understood what had happened, and he couldn’t help but smile helplessly.

“I’m sorry, I’m sorry, I didn’t tell you that all of them are my friends from before I even got into the circle.” Qi Jing laughed while apologising. He didn’t leave Shen Yan’s shoulder, instead leaning even closer, “I don’t act so proper with people I’m close with, I don’t greet them so politely, and like to joke around.”

At that moment Shen Yan also laughed lightly, “Just like now?”

Qi Jing teased him deliberately and was delighted to see his reaction; even though he placed a trap for Shen Yan himself, at the end, he still used his shoulder as a pillow while he laughed without a care.

Qi Jing was taken aback. After a moment he revealed a faint smile without giving a proper response.

It’s just his actions had already revealed the answer.

A/N:

Happy Chinese Valentine Day! ~\(≧▽≦)/~

I heard that on days like this it’s a must to write suggestive parts, en… So they do act suggestively.

T/N:

Lucilla: Wow, Qi Jing, I didn’t expect you would be so thirsty~ Tsk, tsk, tsk, that’s so ungentlemanly of you LMAO. Though I’d love to know what was happening in Shen Yan’s head when he helped Qi Jing with undressing.

Also, we slowly get to know different sides of the both of them! The plot is slowly shifting towards showering us with dog food~

Mashiro: Oh poor Shen Yan!! He totally fell for Qi Jing’s prank!! But imagining the scene where both of them laughs together happily…Sigh, I feel so content with all the fluffs provided to us ∩(︶▽︶)∩