TSMITB Chapter67

His consciousness was like a small boat, drifting in the chaotic and confusing old events of the past.

The forgotten past, deliberately sealed away, was like shards of a shattered mirror, their jagged edges cutting through the black cloth veiling the memories in Shen Que’s mind. The moment the light seeped in, every shard reflected Sheng Qixiao’s face, his expressions innocent, complicated, and filled with love, sometimes blurred and sometimes crystal clear.

Finally, all the light and shadows converged into the scene of Sheng Qixiao, covered in blood, holding him as he tremulously summoned fluorescent butterflies, erased his memories, and placed him outside the boundary marker of E’yun Mountain.

Shen Que’s heart suddenly contracted, and he abruptly awoke from the memory.

His sight was met by a retro and luxurious crystal chandelier. Warm white light quietly spilled down.

A faint smell of disinfectant permeated the air, but it wasn’t pungent.

The curtains billowed slightly in the breeze, while moonlight faintly spilled across the floor by the window, resembling ripples of water slowly shifting with the curtains’ movement.

“Young Master Shen! You’re awake!” Gang Zi ‘s loud and boisterous voice was the first to break the silence, immediately followed by hurried footsteps.

That hard-won bit of clarity was shattered by the sound. Shen Que frowned and closed his eyes again.

“How do you feel? Is your head clear? Do you still feel like you’re going to die?”

“……”

Shen Que resignedly opened his eyes. The faces of Gang Zi and the others immediately came into view, casting three clumsy shadows onto the light-colored duvet under the illumination of the lamp.

“You’re finally awake.” Old Qiu’s voice carried some fatigue. He carefully helped Shen Que sit up and brought a cup of perfectly warmed water to his lips.

The warm liquid slid down his parched throat, and his long-dormant body gradually began to revive.

Gang Zi half-squatted by the bed, his tone half complaint, half lingering fear, “Exactly, you suddenly fell down then, you scared us half to death.”

“We later asked that person from the Outer Stockade, and he said you went down willingly… He said you wanted to die together with him.”

Ah Chao weakly asked, “Didn’t you say it was all just for show, and you didn’t like him… why did you go to die with him?”

Shen Que took a deep breath. He neither refuted nor explained, merely lifting his eyelids to quickly scan the entire room. “How did I get out?”

Gang Zi scratched his head and explained, “Sheng Qixiao and Ke Di had planned everything out long ago. He suddenly drew blood to attract those people’s attention. The original plan was to cause chaos, giving us the chance to rescue you first and then capture them all.”

Gang Zi subtly glanced at Shen Que, thinking he was being discreet, and continued, “And then you followed him down… That scared the life out of all of us, especially Ke Di, whose face turned as black as charcoal at the time. He nearly copied you and wrote a will on the spot, kept muttering that Sheng Qixiao was definitely going to finish him off…”

Shen Que’s eyelashes fluttered. His expression was quite sincere, “Oh, so you mean I messed up your plan?”

“Th-th-that… That’s not it, I didn’t mean that at all… I mean… things went a bit beyond expectation, but at least the outcome is good, everyone’s fine.”

“Where is he?” Shen Que showed little reaction, asking the question that had been lingering on his lips for a long time.

“Who? Sheng Qixiao?” Gang Zi paused for a second. “Ke Di’s wife was injured too, and he took her somewhere, we don’t know where. Sheng Qixiao was left with no one to look after him. We didn’t dare take him to a hospital in that condition, and he doesn’t have any identification documents anyway. So we brought him back with us. He’s in the guest room on the first floor.”

“I’ll go see him.”

Shen Que threw back the covers and sat up without hesitation.

The door to the spare bedroom was slightly ajar, and a gentle push swung it open.

The lighting in the room was dimmed. Sheng Qixiao lay quietly in bed, completely still.

Shen Que walked over softly, watching him under the dim light.

Sheng Qixiao was pale, and his usually ruddy and full lips were colorless. Shen Que thought he was asleep. Just as he leaned closer, wanting to look at him more carefully, those long, dense eyelashes suddenly trembled.

Sheng Qixiao slowly opened his eyes. His light brown pupils seemed to retain some of the moist haze from Shen Que’s memory. He stared quietly back at Shen Que. A trace of complexity flashed in his eyes, which was immediately filled with a gentle light.

“You’re awake?” Sheng Qixiao’s voice was very soft with the hoarseness of drowsiness. He struggled to sit up, but Shen Que pressed down on his shoulders.

“Just lie down.”

Sheng Qixiao submissively lay down, reversing his hand to grip Shen Que’s wrist. His palm was as cold as ever.

“I’m fine.” He forced a faint smile, gently rubbing the delicate skin on the inside of Shen Que’s wrist with his thumb. “I’m just a little tired and want to sleep for a bit. Will you stay with me?”

“Really?” Looking at him like this made Shen Que’s heart ache, and for some reason, his throat felt painfully constricted.

He used to always think that if Sheng Qixiao were a little weaker, he could manipulate and use him better. But when Sheng Qixiao truly became this vulnerable, easily-exploited figure, the first person to feel heartache and sadness was still himself.

Is this what liking someone feels like? Shen Que touched his chest. So, the previous Sheng Qixiao, when facing him, had been harboring such contradictory emotions.

“Really.”

Shen Que lifted the covers and tucked himself in. The bed was large, but he snuggled close to Sheng Qixiao, and their body temperatures gradually merged.

“Why won’t you let them give you medicine?” Shen Que turned onto his side, looked into his eyes, and asked in a low voice.

Sheng Qixiao leaned in, his slightly cool lips brushing against the corner of Shen Que’s mouth for a brief kiss. “It won’t work. I’ll get better on my own.”

“I remember everything.” Shen Que didn’t resist the brief kiss, using the tip of his tongue to moisten Sheng Qixiao’s somewhat dehydrated lips.

“What did you remember?”

Shen Que hugged him, pressing his palm lightly against his chest, feeling a heartbeat that was far less steady than before. “I remembered how you deliberately lured me a long, long time ago. You seemed both clumsy and cunning back then…”

Like a fox that didn’t know how to hunt but stubbornly flaunted its bait, making people unable to resist getting closer even when they knew it was a trap.

Sheng Qixiao chuckled, the vibration in his chest clearly transmitting to Shen Que’s palm. “And now?”

“Now? You’re not as cute as you were back then. You’re full of tricks from head to toe now.”

“Alright.” Sheng Qixiao sighed. “If I were still like before, would you like me more?”

Shen Que pondered for a moment, nodded, and then shook his head. “If you still didn’t know how to resist like before, you might not have survived until now…”

He patted him soothingly and smoothed his somewhat messy long hair. “You’re still very good-looking now.”

“Is looking good, the only thing you focus on?”

“What else then?” Shen Que answered matter-of-factly. “Besides being good-looking, what else do you have? You’re neither understanding nor obedient.”

Sheng Qixiao was silent for a moment, “And I like you.”

Shen Que choked for a second and immediately pulled back slightly, not wanting the vigorous thump of his heartbeat to reach Sheng Qixiao’s ears.

“It’s only right that you like me.”

“Are you shy?” Sheng Qixiao proactively moved closer. “Why is your face red?”

“……”

Over the next few days, Sheng Qixiao was constantly sleepy, and the duration of his sleep grew longer and longer.

Shen Que initially thought it was due to excessive blood loss, so he fed him blood-nourishing foods every day.

Yet, his spirit grew worse day by day. Several times, the amount of time he was awake was barely enough to exchange a couple of sentences with Shen Que.

In the end, even lifting his hand seemed strenuous.

The panic in Shen Que’s heart grew wildly day by day. He arranged for people to acquire the most advanced medical equipment available and hired the most authoritative doctors at a high price.

However, all the inspection reports showed that Sheng Qixiao’s vital signs were perfectly normal with no issues whatsoever.

“He is much healthier than many normal people,” the doctor pushed up his glasses. “This kind of narcolepsy, medically, is currently… unexplainable.”

Shen Que controlled his temper, crumpled the report into a ball, and violently slammed it into the trash can.

He questioned Sheng Qixiao again and again about what was happening.

Sheng Qixiao always shook his head and said he would get better soon.

Shen Que sat beside the bed, watching Sheng Qixiao, who had been asleep for more than twenty-four hours, his eye sockets aching painfully.

Outside the window, the bright moon hung high. Inside the room, the person’s breathing was almost fading away.

“Shen Que.” Sheng Qixiao awoke, blinking slowly. “Are you crying?”

Shen Que didn’t answer immediately. A scalding hot drop of liquid slid unexpectedly from his eye socket, splashing onto the back of his hand.

He reacted as if he had been burned, suddenly leaning over and burying his face in Sheng Qixiao’s shoulder.

The light-colored fabric quickly became soaked, then fiercely bitten by Shen Que. He didn’t want to make any sound, but his body couldn’t stop trembling slightly.

“Sheng Qixiao,” his voice was squeezed out from deep in his throat, mixed with unconcealable sobs, “What is wrong with you?”

Sheng Qixiao stared intently at his trembling back, letting his tears soak his clothing. He wanted to raise his hand, but his arm remained weakly glued to the bed surface, unable to truly pull him into an embrace.

“Shen Que, if one day, I truly disappear, will you miss me?”

He had asked this question before, and the answer he got was negative.

This time, Shen Que rubbed against his neck a few times, wiping away his tears before looking up. The corners of his eyes were red, making him appear especially vulnerable, “What exactly is wrong? What else are you hiding from me?”

“If you lie to me again, I definitely won’t miss you.”

“I had already planned everything out. You could come and live with me later. And if you still wanted to stay in E’yun Mountain, I would often come back to visit you when I was in a good mood.”

“And I never intended to like you; I just thought you were good-looking…”

“Sheng Qixiao, what exactly is wrong? Stop hiding things from me.”

As Shen Que spoke, his voice grew softer and softer, and his eyelids grew heavier and heavier. He hadn’t closed his eyes for as long as Sheng Qixiao had been asleep. Now, in the warm, familiar embrace, his consciousness quickly became hazy.

Just before he completely lost consciousness, he thought he heard Sheng Qixiao whisper something into his ear.

“I’m sorry…” I promise, this is the last time.

Sheng Qixiao also closed his eyes, using the tip of his nose to rub gently and lingeringly against the soft crown of Shen Que’s head.

A translucent butterfly, shimmering with a silver-blue light, condensed from his fingertips, flew out past the window, and disappeared into the unknown.

The next morning, Shen Que received a phone call from Old Master Shen.

“Shen Que, your older brother is better.”

“En.” Shen Que responded emotionlessly. “It is good that he’s better.”

“When are you coming back?”

“I’m hanging up.”

Shen Que decisively switched off the screen and looked at Sheng Qixiao, whose face was pale, with an almost bluish tinge.

Sheng Qixiao was smiling again. Lately, he seemed to love smiling as if he was trying to use up a lifetime’s worth of smiles in these few days.

Shen Que also smiled faintly, but his nose felt sore. He reached out and poked Sheng Qixiao’s small dimple. The chilling sensation traveled from his fingertip, almost instantly cooling his heart.

“Sheng Qixiao, are you very cold?”

Sheng Qixiao shook his head. “Kiss me, and I won’t be cold anymore.”

Shen Que complied, leaning down and lightly pecking his equally cold lips.

Just then, the door was knocked with a series of urgent “bang, bang” sounds.

Shen Que straightened up, tucked the blanket around Sheng Qixiao, and then turned to leave the room.

Standing in the living room was Ke Di, who had rushed over, covered in dust.

He looked even more haggard than Sheng Qixiao, with dark circles under his eyes. As soon as he saw Shen Que, he dropped a bombshell, “He’s crazy! He never dissolved his connection with the Blood Vine!”

Shen Que’s eyes widened instantly, “How is that possible! Didn’t he say he had already dissolved it?”

Ke Di shook his head, “No, not at all… The ritual was only halfway done when those old geezers forced him out. The original plan was to safely send you away, and then he would continue once he was better…”

Shen Que grabbed his collar. “Then why the hell are you only showing up now? It’s been half a month! Anyone with a slightly weaker constitution would have damn well died already.”

“Exactly!” Gang Zi chimed in indignantly from the side. “The few of us took a lot of people looking for you everywhere, asking if anyone knew what was going on with him. With such a huge commotion, you couldn’t possibly not know anything!”

Ke Di hesitated, only offering a dry explanation, “Don’t worry, he won’t die… but he has to go back as soon as possible.”

The two pushed open the door. Sheng Qixiao wasn’t lying down as usual but was propped up, half-sitting against the headboard.

Shen Que looked at him, “You lied to me again.”

“Shen Que, are you angry? I just wanted to, look at you a few more times.” Sheng Qixiao lowered his gaze, putting on a pitiful expression.

Shen Que turned his eyes away from him and walked away.

Gang Zi, who was guarding the doorway, handed him a tissue, motioned for him to wipe the tears from his face, and asked, “So what do we do now?”

“What else can we do? Send him back to where he came from.”

Inside the room, Ke Di stood by the bed. Only after seeing Shen Que walk away did he dare to speak, “You’re asking for trouble and dragging me into getting scolded!”

“He even questioned why I only came now. Would I dare to leave without your permission!” Ke Di was so aggrieved but only dared to whisper his complaints.

The next second, the door was forcefully pushed open.

Shen Que walked into the room carrying a pile of clothes, dressing Sheng Qixiao in them one piece at a time. His expression was foul, but his movements were gentle. He expended a good deal of effort to bundle Sheng Qixiao up like a rice dumpling, “Let’s go. I’m sending you back.”