Bite Your Fingertips

56th -【Someone to look after】

After returning to Lu Shi’s house together, Chu Yu was still a little restless.

He didn’t know exactly what he was feeling. When he was within half a meter of Lu Shi, his mind would be somewhat muddled.

Worried that he would say something weird, Chu Yu thought hard until inspiration flashed. “I… that’s right, I’ll go take a bath!”

Seeing him eagerly enter the bathroom like a rabbit, Lu Shi didn’t speak.

After the bathroom door was closed, the sound of the shower sprinkling and a faint humming tone followed. Lu Shi went to the bedroom, found his pajamas from the closet, brought it over to the bathroom door and knocked.

Chu Yu, who was rubbing bubbles on his body, was startled when he heard the knock on the door.

He took two steps and carefully stood by the door. “You… are you going to come in?”

After asking, he suddenly realized that his sentence was ambiguous.

What he obviously wanted to ask was, ‘Lu Shi, do you want to use the bathroom’!

Sure enough, Lu Shi’s voice carried a hint of a smile. “Won’t come in, just keep bathing.”

??

Fuq, this answer seemed to imply that he was inviting Lu Shi to come in and shower together!

Inside the bathroom filled with steam, the skin on Chu Yu’s face and body was flushed a light red. He asked in a steady voice, “Then is something the matter?”

“Pajamas.”

Only then did Chu Yu realize that he slipped in to take a bath without taking anything with him.

Opening a crack in the door, Chu Yu stretched his hand out with difficulty, grabbed the fabric, and quickly pulled back his hand.

The door closed again, and he quietly breathed a sigh of relief.

However, as he looked at the clothes he was holding, Chu Yu’s thoughts couldn’t help but diverge.

Wearing Lu Shi’s clothes, it’s a bit like… being hugged.

Stop your brain right now, Chu Yu, what were you thinking about? It’s just putting on clothes, hug, what hug?

In the end, he still couldn’t hold on to his rationality. Chu Yu grabbed Lu Shi’s pajamas, and finally couldn’t help it. He placed it on the tip of his nose and sniffed.

When Chu Yu came out after taking a shower and putting on the pajamas, the room was already warmed-up by the air-conditioner.

Lu Shi was sitting before the desk with his legs up, holding a book of questions, and pinching a pencil to answer.

Lu Shi lifted his eyelids, an undistinguishable look in his eyes. Chu Yu was quite concerned about this look, so he raised his hand and stretched his legs, wondering, “Your pajamas are a size bigger than I am. What’s wrong? It doesn’t look good?”

He even worked very hard to sort out his hair that he had just blow-dried.

“Looks good.”

Lu Shi liked Chu Yu wearing his clothes and being covered with his scent.

At that moment, a phone suddenly beeped.

Lu Shi took it in his hand and tapped on the screen. A few seconds later, Chu Yu suddenly heard a familiar female voice coming from the phone. The voice was not very clear, and there was even a faint static buzzing in.

“I haven’t been able to sleep well these days.”

It really was that stepmother of Lu Shi!

Chu Yu understood promptly. Lu Shi was listening in on his stepmother’s call.

Realizing that his presence was not suitable here, Chu Yu turned around and prepared to go out. He and Lu Shi were indeed close, but when it comes to this kind of thing, he decided to keep away from it.

Unexpectedly, Lu Shi was clearly staring at the phone, but as if he had a third eye, he easily grabbed his hand and loosely held his wrist.

He obviously didn’t use that much effort, but Chu Yu couldn’t struggle free.

Knowing what Lu Shi meant, Chu Yu let Lu Shi pull him. He stood still and they listened to the voice on the phone together.

Fang Weiyun’s tone was weak and a little anxious. “It rained every day during this time, just like that night—” Realizing something, she stopped talking, and changed her speech, “The noise agitates me. Dr. Sun, the medicine you prescribed last time was useless, I still couldn’t sleep.”

The person called Dr. Sun was very patient. “Mrs. Lu, we have already discussed this issue. Your current situation is not suitable for increasing the dose. You can’t sleep well on rainy days, it’s not a problem that’s been going on for three or five years, you see. Do you want to go on vacation?”

“How dare I go on vacation? When I come back after a month or two of being out, it’s not certain that my position as Mrs. Lu can still be kept!” There was sarcasm in her tone. “The woman my husband raised outside jumps around practically everyday. Not even looking in the mirror to see what kind of witch she is, and she still wants to marry into the Lu family? To even dare think about it, her heart is higher than the sky!”1The whole proverb is: A heart is higher than the sky, and a fate thinner than paper. It means having lofty ambitions but a trash fate. One’s life and death is beyond one’s control, one is born poor and lowly, unable to realize their ambitions and will die poor and lowly as well.

“Feng Luwei?”

Fang Weiyun replied in contempt, “It hasn’t been this Miss Feng for a long time. The latest one is reportedly a mixed-race model named Iris who acts awfully coquettish.”

Chu Yu strived to piece together the information.

This person called “Doctor Sun” was probably Lu Shi’s stepmother’s shrink.

Fang Weiyun was recently suffering from insomnia and couldn’t sleep even after taking medicine. The reason was the rain and Lu Shi’s father raising a lover outside.

Rain; why would she be insomniac when it rains? And the latter half of the sentence Fang Weiyun didn’t finish, ‘like that night,’ which night was it?

Thinking of this, Chu Yu quietly looked at Lu Shi’s profile and found that Lu Shi’s expression hadn’t changed at all after hearing those things, as if he was—already used to it.

Chu Yu felt a bit distressed.

Fang Weiyun complained that her husband changed his lover like changing his clothes and said a few more words before hanging up the phone.

Lu Shi held Chu Yu’s wrist in one hand without letting go and threw his phone onto the table with the other.

Lu Shi turned his head to meet Chu Yu’s meaningful eyes and explained in a few words, “I’ve known since I was just a child that Lu Shaochu has a lot of lovers outside.”

That’s why Fang Weiyun always scolded him for having filthy blood flowing in his body. He believed that it was Fang Weiyun’s disgust and resentment against Lu Shaochu’s lover-raising behavior that would make her scold him like this.

He even felt sorry for Fang Weiyun and allowed her to insult him in hopes of making her feel better.

His former self was truly naively and stupidly ridiculous.

Chu Yu was puzzled. “Then… does Fang Weiyun not care?”

Chu Yu’s family was in a special situation. His father unexpectedly died before he was born, so he had no reference.

But as far as he knew, for example, at He Zhihao’s home, He Zhihao’s father used to keep a lover outside, but then He Zhihao’s mother caught them in the act. In the chaos, she instructed people to strike He Zhihao’s father’s leg to give it a slight fracture, causing him to lay in the hospital for a long time.

“She doesn’t dare care.”

Chu Yu didn’t understand. “Doesn’t dare? Why?”

Lu Shi’s fingers gently stroked the delicate white skin on Chu Yu’s wrist, as if suppressing something.

“Lu Shaochu once said to Fang Weiyun,” Lu Shi’s voice became softer, “What? Do you want to kill another one?”

“Was he implying that Fang Weiyun has black material—” Chu Yu abruptly went silent.

A bucket of water containing ice poured down his head, making him shiver from the inside out.

If it was “kill another one”, then who was the first person that was killed?

Lu Shi’s father knew about this, and even used this to threaten Fang Weiyun to keep her quiet and not point fingers at him for keeping lovers.

Fang Weiyun dared not make a move out of fear of the consequences.

Chu Yu’s throat felt astringent. “But… but aren’t they husband and wife? Your mother, a-and—”

“Yeah, they’re an officially wedded, deeply affectionate husband and wife.”

Lu Shi’s hand moved down from Chu Yu’s wrist inch by inch, until he finally squeezed Chu Yu’s fingers and carefully fiddled with it. His drooping eyelids concealed his eyes and emotions.

“So, compared to monsters, people are a more terrifying existence, aren’t they?”

Chu Yu was pulled back to that rainy night in an instant. In the park in the middle of its street, he was terrified because of the awakening of his bloodthirst. This was exactly how Lu Shi comforted him.

At that time, he only felt that there were too many things he couldn’t understand hidden inside Lu Shi’s pitch-black eyes.

Until now, he only understood so little.

The tip of his heart seemed to have been cut by a blunt knife. Chu Yu learned from Lu Shi’s actions and reached out to rub his hair. “Don’t be afraid.”

Seeing Chu Yu coax himself earnestly, Lu Shi’s lips curled up in a smile. He sat loosely and spoke in a slack tone. “Who said I was scared?”

Being asked this way, Chu Yu felt that it seemed to be correct.

Lu Shi was not afraid, he wanted revenge.

He was about to say something to comfort Lu Shi when he felt Lu Shi gently knead his fingertips. He raised his thin eyelids, and said, “Do you think I am as timid and a crybaby like you?”

???

Chu Yu was very angry!

“Who’s timid? Who’s a crybaby? Is that how I am in your eyes? Lu Shi, I will give you another chance, so speak properly!”

Lu Shi felt like he had been scratched by the kitten that was baring its teeth and claws.

He stared at Chu Yu with an unrestrained smile in his eyes, and finally, he reached out and squeezed Chu Yu’s face. “Mm, don’t be angry.”

The next day, Chu Yu slept until noon, then he washed his face, changed clothes, and followed Lu Shi out to find food.

Chu Yu rubbed his eyes and muttered, “The weather is getting colder and it’s getting harder and harder to get out of bed. I really want to stay for life in bed with the quilt…”

Lu Shi, who was walking in front, suddenly stopped and turned to look at him, “Stay for life?”

Feeling that this tone was inexplicably dangerous, Chu Yu subconsciously corrected his words, “Then… linger around?”

At that time, someone called Lu Shi’s name.

Chu Yu turned his head and saw a man with a strong build, sporting a buzz cut with a scar on the corner of one eye, standing beside the street wearing a leather jacket. Chu Yu recognized the person at a glance. “It seems to be that man named- named Brother Lie! Yes, it’s Brother Lie.”

Chu Yu had an impression of this man whom he met that time in the underground race.

The two went over.

Brother Lie had been standing in front of a noodle restaurant and was just about to go in. After saying hello, he asked Lu Shi in a rough voice, “Are you going to take your little classmate with you?”

He then said to Chu Yu, “Don’t judge this shop by its dirt and shabbiness, their food is really good. I’ve been eating it for almost ten years and still haven’t gotten tired of it. My treat, how about giving me face?”

Chu Yu didn’t agree without permission. Only after Lu Shi lifted his foot and walked in did he smile and reply, “Okay, then I’ll trouble you to spend money.”

There was no one in the store. The menu on the wall had only two kinds of noodles in total, which was very willful of them. Their group of three sat down, and ordered a bowl each.

Brother Lie took out a silver-gray metal lighter, spun it around in his hand, and said to Lu Shi, “Wanna go out for a smoke?”

Knowing that there was something they were going to talk about, Lu Shi got up and followed.

The two stood along the street.

There was no sun, and the old buildings on Qingchuan Road seemed as if placed in a dusty background.

Brother Lie fished out a box of soft zhonghuaA brand of cigarette. and skillfully placed one in his mouth and ignited it. After inhaling a mouthful, he breathed out white smoke. He raised his eyebrows at Lu Shi. “I heard what you did yesterday, that you’ve pierced someone’s hand?”

“En, too noisy.”

Brother Lie’s smile deepened, causing the scar on the corner of his eyes to appear sinister. “People from their side came to me early this morning. Guess they were scared by you so they didn’t dare look for you directly and instead came running to talk to me. I told them that you don’t have beef with me so it was useless to find me, and I would come talk to you personally if there ever was anything. Besides, if someone’s cheap mouth got a beating, they have to learn to admit their wrongs. That bunch of people clamored for a long time before finally going back.”

Having learned that Brother Lie had helped him with the matter, Lu Shi thanked him.

Brother Lie flicked the soot and waved his hand. “It wasn’t a big deal, you’ve helped me more than once or twice.”

He proceeded to talk about the main topic, “I’m looking for you mainly because there’ll be a race soon. The one on my side was injured a few days ago because their car overturned. That person’s still in the hospital. As for the rest, you know already, yellow doesn’t reach greenThe yellow autumn crop doesn’t last until the green spring crop. There’s a temporary deficit in manpower., there’s no two people who can undertake the task. If you’re available, would you like to race two laps on the track? The prize money is high, and the date is on Saturday night, which won’t delay your schooling.”

Lu Shi refused without a hesitation, “I can’t.”

Brother Lie’s hand that was holding the cigarette paused. He wondered, “Is there a conflict in your schedule? Or do you guys have an exam?”

He knew Lu Shi. He was young, but he would never cower. His driving was wild. He would also dare to drive under heavy rain. He admired Lu Shi’s ferociousness.

Is this a change in character right now?

“No.”

Lu Shi casually placed his hands in his trouser pockets before replying succinctly, “There’s someone to look after, so I’m not allowed on the track.”

The author has something to say: Here’s a dazzling little heart~

Xena updatesSorry you guys, I said I was gonna update last week but after exams, things happened. I even made new friends 0.0 and we went somewhere, we did some sports that resulted in me not being able to do anything the next day due to body aches ha ha (I’m addicted to table tennis now kkkhh). Anyway! For sure, I’ll update two other chaps this week… pls plans, succeed

• 1The whole proverb is: A heart is higher than the sky, and a fate thinner than paper. It means having lofty ambitions but a trash fate. One’s life and death is beyond one’s control, one is born poor and lowly, unable to realize their ambitions and will die poor and lowly as well.
• 2A brand of cigarette.
• 3The yellow autumn crop doesn’t last until the green spring crop. There’s a temporary deficit in manpower.