DILLYH Chapter 23

TL: Hua

Chapter 23: Initiative

Yu Haozhou was covered in shame and struggled to free his hand. Because he hadn’t expected Zhou Zhizheng to come in, it was the first time he’d ever been caught doing such a thing. Yu Haozhou wished he could find a crack in the floor to crawl into; he couldn’t face anyone. He was now harder to restrain than a pig being prepped for the New Year.

“Damn you, let go of me, Zhou Zizheng!”

Yu Haozhou tried a sonic attack to ward off Zhou Zizheng; he was truly furious now.

Zhou Zizheng had been busy all night and should have been tired, but without Yu Haozhou beside him, he couldn’t sleep at all.

He simply went upstairs, wanting to hold Yu Haozhou to sleep. Worried about disturbing him, his movements were careful and quiet. He hadn’t expected to walk in on this. Yu Haozhou’s shy reaction made him both exasperated and amused.

He pulled a few tissues and wiped the liquid from Yu Haozhou’s hand. “It’s so late; why aren’t you asleep yet?”

His calm reaction somewhat cooled Yu Haozhou down, but his face was still flushed. His frantically beating heart wouldn’t slow down. Yu Haozhou pulled his hand away and wiped it himself: “Can’t sleep.”

Zhou Zizheng asked, “Why can’t you sleep?”

Yu Haozhou certainly wouldn’t tell the truth: “I just can’t sleep. Why so many questions?”

Zhou Zizheng, however, listened to him and hugged him: “I can’t sleep either, Zhouzhou…”

“What?”

Zhou Zizheng’s chin dug into his shoulder, making Yu Haozhou squirm in pain. The person holding him kept tightening his grip, as if trying to tie him up. He was almost suffocated. Yu Haozhou frowned in displeasure: “Zhou Zizheng, you—”

Zhou Zizheng loosened his grip slightly and continued what he hadn’t finished saying: “I think I love you even more than I thought.”

Yu Haozhou’s outburst was choked in his throat. Zhou Zizheng’s show of vulnerability made him gradually forget the awkward incident from earlier.

Zhou Zizheng said, “Without you by my side, I feel very insecure, and I can’t sleep.”

Yu Haozhou awkwardly hummed in acknowledgement.

…

The next morning, Zhou Zizheng had to go to work and couldn’t look after the cats. Although he didn’t say it, Yu Haozhou automatically stepped into the role of “Dad,” feeling that he should be the one to look after the kittens during the day.

Yawning, he went downstairs and was about to check on the kittens when he discovered a few strangers in the room.

They were currently lying on the floor, one by one, feeding milk to the kittens.

Yu Haozhou walked in, tilting his head: “Who are you?”

The people heard the sound, turned around, and immediately stood up, looking somewhat restrained: “Good morning, Mr. Yu.”

They then gave a neat self-introduction: “We are the caregivers Mr. Zhou hired to look after the kittens. We have already agreed that once the kittens’ vital signs are stable in the next few days, we will immediately take them away and will not cause any further disturbance.”

Yu Haozhou found this very odd. Did he look that intimidating? Why did these people seem so afraid of him? He deliberately gave a friendly smile: “Okay, then please carry on.”

Since his business here was done, Yu Haozhou didn’t linger. He scratched his messy hair and walked towards the door. He remembered something and suddenly turned back: “Oh, and—”

The caregivers hadn’t expected him to make a sudden return; they were startled: “Wh-what is it? Please say.”

Yu Haozhou was genuinely curious now and smiled, bewildered: “Do I speak too harshly? Why are you all so easily startled?”

The people who had come were all women, and Yu Haozhou deliberately lowered his voice.

One of the shorter girls waved her hand and explained, “No, it’s just that Mr. Zhou told us that you don’t like strangers in the house, and you don’t like cats, so he asked us to try not to appear in front of you. But… we didn’t expect to run into you right after arriving. We were worried our presence would cause you discomfort.”

Yu Haozhou hadn’t realized Zhou Zizheng had thought of everything to this extent. It was impossible not to be touched, but he also felt Zhou Zizheng was being overly cautious.

He truly didn’t like strangers in the house or cats, but because it mattered to Zhou Zizheng, he was willing to try and accept it.

Seeing that the girls were too tense, Yu Haozhou reassured them: “Don’t worry too much; just relax.”

Afterward, he went back to his room and didn’t come out, to prevent them from remaining nervous if he were to wander around downstairs.

At noon, Yu Haozhou ordered takeout for three people. His phone notified him that the property manager had left the food at the door. Yu Haozhou finally left his room and called for the people to come eat.

He happened to run into them changing their shoes at the entrance: “Why are you leaving? Aren’t you having lunch? I ordered some for you.”

The same shorter girl spoke for the group: “It’s fine, it’s fine. Mr. Zhou gave us a very generous wage, and that includes our meal allowance.”

The other shorter one nodded in agreement next to her.

Yu Haozhou asked, “Are you coming back this afternoon?”

“We’ll come over.”

“Then stay and eat.” Yu Haozhou said. “I’m not that unfeeling.”

The two girls smiled shyly, exchanged a look, and decided to stay: “Thank you, Mr. Yu.”

Not only was this job a lucrative one, but the employers were also more good-looking than the last.

The taller girl silently wished in her heart for more high-quality jobs like this.

Yu Haozhou was afraid his presence would make them uncomfortable.

After taking his portion of food, he went out to the balcony.

Zhou Zizheng happened to call via video at this moment: “What are you eating for lunch?”

Yu Haozhou pointed the camera at his meal to show him, then asked casually, “Are you really willing to give away those kittens?”

With everything arranged so methodically, and even coming back to personally care for the kittens at night, Yu Haozhou didn’t think Zhou Zizheng would be willing to give them away when the time came.

Just yesterday he had specifically looked, and it was a litter of six orange-and-white tabby farm cats.

Yu Haozhou vaguely remembered that when they were in junior high, Zhou Zizheng had mentioned that his family back home raised an orange cat named ‘Juzi’ (Orange) that was very intelligent. He wasn’t very clear about what happened to Juzi later, but if it were still around, Zhou Zizheng would certainly have it with him.

Zhou Zizheng said, “I’ve already asked a friend who runs a pet hospital. The kittens will be kept at their hospital and won’t be given away. I can go and see them whenever I want.”

Yu Haozhou grumbled internally: Doesn’t he mind the trouble?

He didn’t show it on his face, but he raised an eyebrow, his tone sounding unnatural: “Zhou Zizheng, why don’t you beg me?”

“Hmm?”

Zhou Zizheng was quite surprised. It wasn’t that he didn’t understand; he just couldn’t believe it: “Beg you for what?”

Yu Haozhou was annoyed that he didn’t understand his meaning. He just bit into his food as if it were Zhou Zizheng: “Forget it if you don’t understand.”

Zhou Zizheng covered his mouth and chuckled. His Zhouzhou was always so shy, never saying what he meant directly, always beating around the bush.

However, he actually enjoyed this particular little temper that Yu Haozhou only showed to him.

“If you don’t like it, I won’t force it. Why not use a win-win solution to solve the problem?”

Damn it, I hate people who put on airs.

This initial attempt at being proactive ended in failure, and Yu Haozhou was so angry he hung up the phone. Zhou Zizheng, fearlessly, sent a simple question mark, but Yu Haozhou ignored him completely.

Zhou Zizheng spent the whole afternoon trying to contact Yu Haozhou. Not only did Yu Haozhou not reply, but he also intentionally posted something on his Moments, as if to mess with him.

Sometimes he would reply to other people’s comments, but he completely ignored all of Zhou Zizheng’s attempts to contact him.

When he got home from work, Zhou Zizheng naturally went to the master bedroom to coax the person.

The door was open, but no one was inside. Yu Haozhou wasn’t home. Zhou Zizheng asked the people looking after the kittens if Yu Haozhou had gone out. They mostly stayed in the kitten room and weren’t clear about the situation outside.

Zhou Zizheng practically searched the whole house from top to bottom but couldn’t find him. He was just about to go to the parking lot to drive out and look for him when Han Jin called.

“Brother Zhou, Haozi is drunk and causing a scene. Come and pick him up.”

Zhou Zizheng wasn’t very happy to hear the news: “Send me the location.”

In almost half an hour, Zhou Zizheng drove to the place where they were hanging out. When he entered, Yu Haozhou was dragging someone to sing, howling like a ghost.

After realizing he had done something wrong by drinking, Han Jin dared not drink anymore.

When Yu Haozhou suddenly called him out today and asked him to drink, he showed up but didn’t touch a drop of alcohol. As soon as he saw Zhou Zizheng, he rushed over: “Brother Zhou, you’re finally here. Quickly take him away; I can’t stand his ‘devilish sounds’ anymore.”

There were countless men and women in the private room. Yu Haozhou’s demonic shouting and yelling noises from the microphone reached every corner.

Everyone had varying degrees of painful expressions, and those closest to him were already covering their ears in distress. They tried to escape but were pulled back by Yu Haozhou, forced to listen carefully to his singing.

Yu Haozhou couldn’t hold his liquor well to begin with. Zhou Zizheng skipped the process of asking how much he had drunk and walked directly up to Yu Haozhou. He reached out his hand and asked if he wanted to go home with him.

One very peculiar thing about Yu Haozhou was that when he got drunk, he only recognized Zhou Zizheng. He wouldn’t even look at anyone else trying to tell him what to do.

Today was no exception. Even though his eyes were blurry from the alcohol, when he vaguely saw the person in front of him, he put down the microphone.

The howling finally stopped. The private room became much quieter. Just as everyone thought this little tyrant was finally going to leave, they heard a crisp ‘slap.’ Yu Haozhou had slapped Zhou Zizheng across the face. The sound was much louder and clearer than his singing.

“……”

The private room became even quieter. It was so silent one could hear a pin drop, an almost appalling stillness.

Everyone wished they could be invisible, pretending they had never attended this gathering.

Han Jin thought to himself, “We’re doomed.” He was about to say a few good words for his brother to avoid a terrible fate at home when…

Zhou Zizheng stood there, completely still, and slightly offered the other, unslapped side of his right cheek: “Did that get the anger out?”

Han Jin: “…….”

Wow, he didn’t realize Zhou Zizheng was an M.

Do these two play such kinky games in private?

Perhaps Yu Haozhou realized something, or perhaps he just found it boring. He stepped down from the platform and walked unsteadily toward the door, ignoring the gaping mouths of the crowd.

Looking at him now, it seemed like he wasn’t drunk at all. So, that slap…

Zhou Zizheng gave the crowd a polite smile: “Excuse us, dinner’s on me tonight; please enjoy yourselves.”

Then he quickly turned around and rushed to support Yu Haozhou. Yu Haozhou didn’t resist. The two of them left the club side by side.