BTMDY Chapter 128

Shi Yuan was jolted awake by an incredibly loud clap of thunder.

Rain was rare this time of year, so the sudden roar of the storm was deafening. Shi Yuan was a light sleeper; any small noise could wake him. Groggy, he reached for his phone on the bedside table and switched on the screen. It was 3:15 a.m.

He set the phone down and, half-asleep, was just about to drift back off when a sudden flash lit up the room, a harsh glare slicing across the pale ceiling.

Another roll of thunder followed almost immediately outside the window.

The hospital’s walls blocked most of the rain’s sound, but the thunder alone was enough to wake anyone and made it clear how bad the weather had turned.

Shi Yuan opened his eyes again. The room was silent, wrapped in a thick, oppressive darkness that seemed to swallow him whole.

He thought of Lin Wangye, who had been locked in a windowless room during those days of being kidnapped—when the lights were off, he couldn’t see a thing. Instantly, Shi Yuan was fully awake; the fog of sleep vanished. He threw off the covers and got out of bed, heading to the next room over.

Lin Wangye hadn’t been stirred by the thunder. He was still lying in bed, deep in sleep.

Shi Yuan switched on the warm yellow night lamp by his bedside and noticed that Lin Wangye wasn’t sleeping peacefully. His brows were furrowed, eyelashes trembling, lips moving as if he were trying to speak.

Sweat dotted his forehead and neck, soaking the strands of hair clinging to his skin.

It was obvious—he was trapped in some kind of nightmare.

Lin Wangye had never been like this before.

The boy had always been fearless, untouchable. He had never been afraid of the dark, or of thunderstorms.

In that moment, Shi Yuan’s chest tightened painfully. His heart ached.

He reached for the tissues on the bedside table to wipe Lin Wangye’s sweat, only to notice that the lid of his thermos was open.

The hot water he had prepared before bed had somehow been completely drunk.

Lin Wangye usually slept straight through to morning and rarely got up at night. He couldn’t have drunk that much water on his own. Clearly, he had been forced awake at some point, but for some reason, he hadn’t called for anyone nearby.

Shi Yuan’s pupils narrowed slightly, a bitter ache spreading through his chest as he guessed why. He slowed his movements, sat on the edge of the bed, and gently wiped Lin Wangye’s forehead with a tissue.

Just then, several flashes of white light streaked across the room.

A deafening clap of thunder followed immediately.

Lin Wangye gasped in his sleep, his body jerking violently. Shi Yuan immediately dropped the tissue and pressed his hands over Lin Wangye’s ears, shielding him from the next few rumbles that followed.

The thunder passed, but whether it was Shi Yuan’s movements or the scare itself, Lin Wangye slowly opened his eyes, eyelashes trembling. There was a trace of fear and daze lingering in his gaze.

Under the soft glow of the night lamp, Shi Yuan saw his long, thick eyelashes damp, and half-dried tears clinging to the corners of his eyes.

Half-awake and still unsure what was happening, Lin Wangye felt Shi Yuan bend down and pull him into a protective embrace, his chin brushing lightly against the top of his head. Shi Yuan whispered softly:

“Don’t be afraid… I’m here…”

The central air kept the hospital ward pleasantly warm.

Both of them were wearing just thin layers of pajamas, and lying so close together, Lin Wangye could feel the steady, strong beat of his lover’s heart against his chest.

He lay there dazed, staring at the ceiling, and only after a long while did he realize that the darkness and the flashes of fire from earlier had just been a dream.

Time passed unnoticed until the tight ache in his chest reminded him that he had even forgotten to breathe. He gasped a few hurried breaths, then gathered all his strength to hug the person beside him as tightly as he could, wishing he could melt into them, bone and blood.

“I can’t leave you.”

Lin Wangye’s voice came muffled, faintly trembling with tears.

“Take me with you when you go. I don’t want to study, I don’t want to work. We’re always apart… I don’t want to be away from you again.”

“I’m not going anywhere.” Feeling a dampness spreading over his chest, Shi Yuan gently stroked his hair, took a deep breath to steady his voice, and whispered softly, “I just applied for a break from school the other day. My advisor approved it. I’ll stay and finish college with you.”

Hearing that, Lin Wangye immediately lifted his tear-glazed eyes to look at him, then frowned. “No… you’re doing so well in Sigwell. This will affect you.”

Shi Yuan’s tone stayed gentle, but unusually, he didn’t back down in front of Lin Wangye.

“Staying here won’t affect my career—just a temporary pause in my studies.”

“No. I won’t agree.”

“The school has approved it. There’s no turning back.”

“You…”

Lin Wangye was frustrated, but he realized there was no point arguing further. This was a done deal. Thinking that Shi Yuan was doing this for him, and that he was the one benefiting, he quickly gave in and accepted it.

“Alright.” Lin Wangye buried his head back into Shi Yuan’s chest, rubbing his tears dry, and closed his eyes peacefully. “After I graduate, I’ll go back with you to study in Sigwell.”

“No matter what Lin Shen says,” Shi Yuan teased deliberately.

“I don’t care what he says.” Lin Wangye took a deep breath, calm and matter-of-fact. “With Brother Lu around, I don’t have to worry… My dad once said something very true—I just need to drive my own little rocking car.”

In just a few words, the emotional turbulence left by the earlier nightmare melted away effortlessly.

Shi Yuan reached over to turn off the night lamp. His fingers played with the swirl of hair at Lin Wangye’s crown as he closed his eyes and chatted with him. “Those two… they’re kind of strange.”

Gossip is one of the hardest things for humans to resist—especially when a couple is whispering bedside in the middle of the night, talking about other people’s love lives.

Lin Wangye had been a little sleepy, and Shi Yuan, after taking care of him all these days, was too. But as soon as those words came out, Lin Wangye perked up, popping his head out of the covers and blinking at him.

“You think so too?”

He lifted his head, and Shi Yuan, with no place to rest his chin, had to lay it on the pillow, looking up at Lin Wangye’s bright eyes in the darkness. “I can’t really tell what Lu Chengxuan is thinking. Lin Shen always watches him, whether he realizes it or not, but then acts like they don’t even know each other. Clearly, they both have feelings, but they’re awkward about it.”

“Do you think they’re together?” Lin Wangye asked.

“Not really,” Shi Yuan said. “Doesn’t feel like they’ve made it official. You always tease Lin Shen about being single—if he wasn’t, he’d be showing off to you right away.”

“See? That’s exactly the problem,” Lin Wangye said, growing more animated. He wriggled into a more comfortable position, lying face-to-face with Shi Yuan on the pillow. Even though it was just the two of them, he deliberately lowered his voice to make the moment feel more intimate.

“They’ve clearly done everything, but they haven’t confirmed their relationship.”

Shi Yuan raised an eyebrow. “You know this much? Did they accidentally let you see it?”

“Me? See that? No way!” Lin Wangye blushed, lowering his voice even further. “You know that little rest room next to my dad’s office? I was always there keeping him company while he worked overtime. Once, I dreamed that someone was working there, you suddenly came back to the country, and we… you know, did it there without props. I woke up panicking, so I secretly bought one and put it in the drawer by the bed.”

Shi Yuan froze for a moment, then couldn’t help but burst out laughing. “Pfft.”

“Babe, you’re even more impatient than I imagined.”

Lin Wangye’s face heated up even more. He pretended to glare at him. “If I’m the impatient one, then why are you tormenting me until dawn? Who’s really more impatient here?”

“Alright, it’s me,” Shi Yuan admitted willingly. He leaned into Lin Wangye’s earlier words and asked, “So they secretly used the stuff you prepared, and you caught them?”

Lin Wangye, brimming with gossip, continued eagerly: “Yes! And they were completely clueless, trying to cover it up. They even bought a brand-new identical one to put back in the drawer.”

“Hm…” Shi Yuan suddenly noticed a flaw. “If they replaced it with the same one, how did you notice?”

“Because I wanted to smell the lube, so I’d opened the seal before. Later, they put the new one back—it still had the plastic wrapper. There’s no way the old lube could magically make a new plastic seal appear on its own. Obviously, it had been swapped!”

“Such sloppy work. That must’ve been Lin Shen,” Shi Yuan said, shaking his head.

“I guessed so too,” Lin Wangye nodded, lying back and tilting his head to stare at the ceiling, thinking it over.

“They’re so strange. They’ve done all this stuff, but they act so distant. Especially old Lin—he always targets Brother Lu, even over the tiniest things, just to pick on him. If it were me, I’d have lost it already.”

“I can roughly guess Lin Shen’s mindset,” Shi Yuan said.

“Hmm?” Lin Wangye prodded. “What do you mean?”

“It’s about their personalities. Lu Chengxuan keeps everything buried deep, never shows it on the surface.”

Shi Yuan thought about how the two of them interacted and continued explaining to Lin Wangye, “This wouldn’t be a flaw in other areas, but when it comes to relationships, it doesn’t work. Love needs a response—even if it’s a rejection. But Lin Shen probably can’t get that kind of response from Lu Chengxuan, so he keeps using other ways to repeatedly confirm his feelings.”

Hearing this, Lin Wangye seemed to get it a little—but not completely. “So you mean he’s just deliberately teasing Brother Lu? What’s the point of always acting unreasonable? What does making Brother Lu angry do for him?”

Lin Wangye and the young Lin Shen looked strikingly similar at first glance.

Both were passionate and bold, full of the enthusiasm unique to youth.

But in essence, they were different.

Compared to Lin Wangye, Lin Shen had more pride and stubbornness, and less courage and straightforwardness.

Lin Wangye would fight for what he liked. Growing up pampered made him brave enough to pursue anything he wanted. When he liked someone, he’d go after them wholeheartedly, confidently, and expect them to like him back.

Lin Shen was different. His pride wouldn’t let him ask for anything.

His stance was simple—

If you have feelings for me, you should actively prove it.

So it was completely normal that Lin Wangye couldn’t fully understand Lin Shen’s way of thinking.

Shi Yuan, having seen much of the world, could naturally understand. He patiently explained to Lin Wangye, “If my guess is right, Lin Shen’s goal isn’t to make Lu Chengxuan angry at all. He’s just using this kind of all-or-nothing approach to test how Lu Chengxuan feels about him.”

The more Lin Wangye listened, the more confused he became. “How can he test him if Brother Lu doesn’t even react, maybe doesn’t even know what he means? How’s he supposed to get a response?”

“Lu Chengxuan doesn’t need to know what he means.”

Shi Yuan smiled knowingly and said slowly, “Not leaving—that’s the best response.”

Hearing this, Lin Wangye suddenly had an epiphany. Finally, it clicked.

But he still didn’t quite understand. He mumbled softly, “They’re so weird… they like to make things hard for themselves.”

“There’s actually a psychological theory about this,” Shi Yuan said. “The more you love someone, the more you want to test them. It’s a little pathological. Like a case study where someone cherishes a cup so much, they fear it might suddenly break. The more they fear it, the more they want to test it. And once this kind of mindset takes hold, the cup’s ending is almost always—breaking.”

Lin Wangye sucked in a sharp breath, then turned to hug him tightly. “Don’t scare me! I’m counting on them to control the storm in the business world, so I can become the most awesome rocking car owner in history!”

Shi Yuan laughed softly and held him close.

“Don’t worry. I think Lu Chengxuan is that cup that will never break.”

For some reason, Lin Wangye felt inexplicably reassured.

Sleepiness began creeping in. He squinted, mumbling again, “But… is what my dad did really okay? Is it fair to Brother Lu?”

Shi Yuan replied calmly, “Lu Chengxuan isn’t the kind of person who would lack this kind of grace. Besides, for him, this love is something regained after loss. If it were me, I’d accept being scolded willingly.”

Lin Wangye stayed like that for a moment, then hugged him a little tighter.

“I’m not scolding you. You’re the best.”

“You’re the best too, Xiao Lin.” Shi Yuan pinched his face gently, patting his back lightly, rhythmless but soothing. “It’s late. Sleep now.”

“Mm.”

Lin Wangye closed his eyes and mumbled vaguely.

“I need to figure out a way… to make them—”

Shi Yuan asked softly, “Make them what?”

“Lock in… and give me the coins…”

Hello, everyone ヾ(＾∇＾). I hope you enjoyed the story! If you’re feeling generous, please buy me a coffee, share/comment on my translated works! Check out the link below for early chapters.  (๑>ᴗ<๑)