UI CH 39

The next morning, when Shen Ran woke up, there was no one beside him.

He had forgotten to close the curtains before sleeping, and now, sunlight reflected off the distant sea, streaming through the bright window and hitting his eyelids. The glare disturbed him, forcing him to open his eyes. He lay there for a while, staring blankly at the ceiling, before his mind finally cleared.

When he tried to sit up as he usually would, a sharp soreness spread through his waist, making him pause. Reaching back to press against his lower back, a series of fragmented memories suddenly flooded his mind.

The flashes were brief, yet utterly shocking. The next wave of recollections surged like a tide, hitting him before he could brace himself. Shen Ran planted his hands on either side of his body, taking several deep breaths to steady himself, trying to push aside the chaotic flood of memories. But when he looked down at his clothes, his fingers clenched the bedsheet tightly.

Last night, after showering, he had clearly worn a T-shirt—so why was he now dressed in a sports tank top? And his pants… they had been changed too.

Swallowing hard, his throat dry and scratchy, he ignored his thirst and quickly tugged at the waistband of his pants to take a look.

What he saw made his mind go blank, as if someone had slapped him hard across the face. A loud buzz rang in his ears.

Even his underwear… had been changed.

Dragging his fingers roughly through his hair, he forced himself to calm down. Sure, he and Zhao Jiyu had grown closer, but that didn’t mean he would just climb into bed with him after getting drunk. Besides, there was no unbearable pain anywhere on his body.

Realizing this, his tense emotions eased slightly. He slipped his feet into his slippers and, as he stood up, instinctively supported his lower back again.
The soreness in his waist was even more noticeable than when he first woke up. Walking to the door, he cracked it open slightly and looked toward another tightly shut door in the distance.
It seemed like Zhao Jiyu was still inside.

Entering the living room, he noticed that the mess from last night was still untouched. Used chopsticks and gloves were scattered on the plates of leftover food, several bottles of sake were lying around haphazardly, and a bottle of liqueur was nearly empty.
After tidying up a few cushions on the sofa, he bent down to clean up the dishes—only to straighten up again, pressing a hand against his lower back.
Although the pain wasn’t unbearable, the soreness was quite bothersome. He walked over to the medicine cabinet, crouched down, and found some spray and medicated patches for muscle strain. Returning to his room, he applied them himself.

Zhao Jiyu’s medicinal patches and spray didn’t have an unpleasant scent. Instead, they carried a faint herbal fragrance.
After applying them, he lay down for a while longer. The medicine worked well, and before long, he felt much better. However, his emotions were too conflicted for him to truly relax. Restless, he soon got up again.
This time, when he opened his door, he saw that Zhao Jiyu’s door was also open. There were sounds coming from the sofa area.

Before he could fully prepare himself to face Zhao Jiyu, Zhao Jiyu casually walked past a few scattered bottles and greeted him just as he usually would, “Morning.”

His hand was still on the doorknob, and for a moment, he felt awkward—stepping out didn’t seem right, but closing the door again wasn’t an option either. In the end, he could only reply stiffly, “Morning.”

“Go freshen up first, I’ll make breakfast.”

Zhao Jiyu didn’t linger and headed straight to the kitchen. Shen Ran, on the other hand, went into the bathroom. Once the door was closed, his expression turned complicated again.

Zhao Jiyu’s demeanor was so natural—so natural that it didn’t seem like anything awkward had happened at all.

Had he been overthinking?
Maybe nothing had actually happened last night, and he had just had another erotic dream?
As he brushed his teeth, he stared at his reflection in the mirror.

Memories of their kisses from the previous night slowly surfaced in his mind, but his lips weren’t swollen. When he took off his shirt, he found no extra marks on his body either.
Uncertain again, he headed to the kitchen. But the moment he saw Zhao Jiyu standing by the sink, dressed in a black silk robe, another vivid image flashed through his mind—him being pinned down, unable to move, his hands grasping at the fabric of that very robe, pulling at its smooth, soft back.

Zhao Jiyu was plating food with his back to him. Upon hearing the noise, he turned around and asked,
“Want some sticky rice chicken? Old Wu made these himself. I tried them last time, and they were pretty good.”

Shen Ran hesitated as he looked at the plate Zhao Jiyu was holding. There were three lotus leaf-wrapped sticky rice chickens inside. Seeing that he didn’t respond, Zhao Jiyu asked, “Do you have work today?”

“Yes,” Shen Ran replied in a muffled voice, walking over to the sink to pour himself a glass of filtered water.

“Are you coming home for dinner?”

“I have plans with Mingjin tonight.”

After drinking his water, Shen Ran turned and walked to the balcony. As he opened the sliding glass door, the sunlight reflected off the vast ocean in front of him, momentarily blinding him. He raised his hand to shield his eyes and stepped outside, gazing at the scenery to his left.

The sky was an almost surreal shade of blue today, as if a high-saturation filter had been applied. The sunlight was bright and vivid, while the strong winds at high altitude dispersed the summer heat, making it more comfortable than the previous days. Shen Ran sat down on a chair beside the small round table, brushing aside his windswept bangs.

The curtain behind him blocked the view of the living room, effectively separating him from Zhao Jiyu on the other side. He finally relaxed, yet the furrow in his brow never quite smoothed out. Unable to distract himself, he pulled out his phone.

Aside from school messages, Zheng Mingjin had also texted him, asking where they were meeting tonight.

He wasn’t in the mood to go out, but he didn’t want to stay home and face Zhao Jiyu either, so he quickly picked a location. Soon after, his coach messaged, reminding all players in tomorrow’s basketball game not to be late.

He hadn’t forgotten about the match, but his abdomen still felt uncomfortable. If he forced himself to play, he’d only drag his team down. As he was contemplating whether to ask someone to take his place, he suddenly sensed something off. Turning his head, he saw Zhao Jiyu standing behind him, holding a glass of honey water.

Placing the cup on the table beside him, Zhao Jiyu said, “Honey water helps with hangovers. Drink some.”

Shen Ran didn’t move.

Just seeing Zhao Jiyu made last night’s memories resurface. Yet Zhao Jiyu acted as if nothing unusual had happened, and besides changing his clothes, there was no solid proof that anything had. He wanted to ask, but he had no idea how—what if he’d only had an erotic dream and mistakenly took it as reality? That would be beyond embarrassing.

Feeling frustrated, he picked up the cup and took a few sips.

Just then, the doorbell rang. Zhao Jiyu went to answer it.

Shen Ran assumed it was Old Wu bringing groceries, but instead, a stranger walked in—a man about their age, who immediately noticed him.

“Why is there someone here?” the man asked in surprise. “Who is he?”

Guessing that the man was an acquaintance of Zhao Jiyu’s, Shen Ran stood up, debating whether to go inside and greet him. Before he could decide, Zhao Jiyu casually draped an arm over the man’s shoulder, leaned in close to whisper something into his ear, and led him straight into the master bedroom, shutting the door behind them.

It was the first time Shen Ran had ever seen Zhao Jiyu so casually touch someone like that.

The way Zhao Jiyu’s face nearly brushed against the other man’s ear, the familiarity in their posture—it was strikingly intimate.

Glancing down at his own casual home attire, Shen Ran turned around and headed back to his room.

As he passed by the master bedroom, he stole a glance at the closed door. He didn’t know what Zhao Jiyu and that man were discussing, but since Zhao Jiyu clearly didn’t want him interacting with the guest, it was best if he left.

After changing into proper clothes, Shen Ran grabbed his bag and keys. When he stepped outside, Zhao Jiyu’s door was still shut, so he went straight to the entryway to put on his shoes.

On his way out, he called Ji Minglun, a senior from the basketball club, and asked him to take his place in the match. Though Ji Minglun was a graduate student, tomorrow’s game didn’t have separate divisions.

When Ji Minglun asked for a reason, Shen Ran casually made up an excuse—saying he had slipped in the shower and hurt his waist. Ji Minglun agreed without hesitation.

After hanging up, Shen Ran noticed a new message from Zhao Jiyu.

[Why did you leave without saying anything?]

He wanted to reply, “Aren’t your friends all here?”, but just as he was about to type, he realized it didn’t seem like the best response. So, he simply didn’t send anything. Not long after locking his screen, Zhao Jiyu called. The phone vibrated continuously in his palm. Shen Ran furrowed his brows, feeling conflicted—answering didn’t seem right, but neither did ignoring it. In the end, he just watched as the call timed out without picking up.

After that call, Zhao Jiyu didn’t contact him again for the rest of the day, all the way until the evening when he got off work.

Today, his lower back felt uncomfortable, and he found it hard to concentrate. Xu Tian assumed he was sick and took the initiative to handle all the heavy lifting at work. When they finished for the day and Shen Ran was about to leave alone, Xu Tian asked why Zhao Jiyu wasn’t there to pick him up.

He still wasn’t sure what Xu Tian thought about Zhao Jiyu, but that question successfully reminded him of the person he hadn’t contacted all day. Opening WeChat, his gaze lingered on the last message from that morning for a moment before he locked the screen again.

Dinner was planned at a nearby all-you-can-eat hotpot restaurant. When Shen Ran arrived, Zheng Mingjin had already secured a table and ordered the soup base and ingredients.

Having not seen each other for several days, Zheng Mingjin looked even more handsome than before—love really did have a nourishing effect. Once Shen Ran sat down, Zheng Mingjin handed him a bottle of cold beer. However, at the sight of alcohol, Shen Ran instinctively thought of last night and raised his hand in refusal.
“Not drinking, switch it for a Coke.”

Normally, the two of them would always drink beer when eating hotpot. Zheng Mingjin scrutinized his expression.
“Are you sick?”

Not wanting to explain too much, Shen Ran simply said, “Twisted my back. I’ve got a medicated patch on, so I can’t drink.”

Zheng Mingjin, who had seen him walking in just fine earlier, pressed further,
“What happened? Too much heavy lifting at the shop?”

Shen Ran casually responded and then opened a can of cold Coke, taking a couple of sips. The air conditioning in the restaurant wasn’t strong enough, and after sitting for a while, he still felt stiflingly hot. He grabbed the menu beside him to fan himself while placing thin slices of raw beef into the bubbling pot.

After eating a few bites of hot food, he kept fanning himself even faster. Zheng Mingjin sensed something was off, put down his chopsticks, and asked,
“What’s going on with you? Got something on your mind?”

Ever since leaving the bar that night to pick up Yang Ting at the station, Zheng Mingjin and Shen Ran hadn’t seen each other. Lately, Zheng Mingjin had been spending all his time with Yang Ting, barely talking to Shen Ran at all. He didn’t even know that Shen Ran had been scammed by their sub-landlord, Chen Kang, and was left without a place to stay.

It had already passed, and Shen Ran didn’t want to dwell on it. But his mood was at rock bottom today. Too much had happened lately, and at this moment, he could clearly feel that he was no longer able to process or resolve everything on his own—especially the complicated relationship with Zhao Jiyu.

Seeing Shen Ran put down his chopsticks with a look that suggested he had something to say but couldn’t get it out, Zheng Mingjin asked,
“What’s going on? Is it really that hard to tell even me?”

Shen Ran still didn’t respond, so Zheng Mingjin stood up and moved to sit beside him on the long wooden bench, urging him again.

With two people sharing a single wooden bench, Shen Ran had no choice but to lean back against the wall. This posture reminded him of how Zhao Jiyu had cornered him between his body and the wall the night before. Finally unable to hold it in, Shen Ran downed the rest of his half-can of cold Coke in one go, then lowered his voice and said,
“I think I might have slept with someone more than once.”