EOD Chapter24

After Yi Yang left, Lu Zhao snapped back to reality from his inexplicable sense of amusement.

It wasn’t that Lu Zhao was unaware of his own deep-seated flaws; whenever something slipped beyond his grasp, he would simply give up on it entirely and stop trying. This was true for his career, and it was equally true for his relationships. What he wanted was complete, absolute initiative and controllability.

Zhou Zefeng was currently the greatest force Majeure in his life.

He had thought he had Zhou Zefeng wrapped securely around his finger, but he hadn’t expected that after the other party merely stopped taking the initiative to approach him for a short while, he would actually feel a bit unaccustomed to it.

Moreover, the moment he thought about how Zhou Zefeng’s medication had long since run out, yet he hadn’t returned to the hospital since, Lu Zhao found it even harder to stop dwelling on the matter over and over again.

Lying in bed, he opened his messages. Zhou Zefeng hadn’t contacted him again at all; the conversation was still frozen on Zhou Zefeng asking if he needed to return the shirt. Recalling the scene he had witnessed at the open-air restaurant earlier today, Lu Zhao locked his phone screen once more.

It’s fine if he doesn’t get tangled up with me anyway. I’m not some good person either.

Just then, Lu Zhao’s phone suddenly lit up, indicating that a spam text message had been received and automatically filtered into the junk folder. He usually received similar texts, but he always assumed they were promotional notifications from medical public accounts or apps and never bothered to open them.

Lu Zhao casually tapped it open, and as expected, it was a reminder for a massive shopping festival sale. He deleted it offhandedly. Intending to clean up the rest of the messages in his junk folder, his eyes fell upon a somewhat familiar number that had over a dozen unread text messages sitting in it.

Lu Zhao remembered now, this was the harassing number he had casually blocked back then just because it sent the line “Your waist is so slim.” Following that incident, it had sent many more messages, not a single one of which he had ever actually received. Lu Zhao tapped into it, scrolled up to the top, and began reading through them one by one.

[Is having sex with a man really that good?] 9.23 Thursday 23:12

This was sent a few days after “Your waist is so slim.” Lu Zhao had an impression of this date and time, because that night was the eve of the Mid-Autumn Festival when Zhou Zefeng had woken him from his sleep with a phone call in the middle of the night, and had foolishly sent him a text message wishing him a happy Mid-Autumn Festival.

Was it a coincidence?

[Do you sell worn clothes? I want to buy them] 9.24 Friday 15:23

[Recall, recall, pretend I didn’t say the line above] 9.24 Friday 15:25

Separated by only a single day, this person had asked yet another perverted question. Looking across all the text messages sent to Lu Zhao, more than half of them were questions. Lu Zhao also noticed the date; this was the day Zhou Zefeng came for his follow-up appointment, when he had been caught red-handed burying his face in Lu Zhao’s white lab coat.

[I want to screw you [Image]] 10.01 Wednesday 02:44

…

Restless, Lu Zhao flipped over, clamping the blanket between his legs as he continued reading down the screen.

The text messages below became significantly more wholesome and cleaner. They were all instances of Zhou Zefeng sharing pieces of his life with him. Most of these messages were sent during the National Day holiday; Zhou Zefeng didn’t seem to have gone home, and he was the only one left in the dorm room.

The photos Zhou Zefeng took were either at the sports field or the swimming pool, and occasionally the gym, the library, or the cafeteria. He would either share the books he was reading or snap pictures of the meals he was eating. His life followed a strict routine just like any ordinary college student, acting as if he didn’t care whether the recipient of the text messages would ever see them or not, treating it purely as a wish well.

There were actually very few photos, and he quickly scrolled to the bottom. The newest image had been sent two hours ago; it was an image of a vibrant, red hot pot, though the photography technique wasn’t very good as the lens was entirely covered in steam. Lu Zhao recognized it; it was the beef hot pot restaurant right across from the open-air restaurant.

The image of a big college guy who had to take a photo and send a text before doing anything surfaced in Lu Zhao’s mind, making him unable to hold back a laugh.

Following that was a rare text message sent tonight.

[You have no heart.] 10.11 Friday 22:31

Lu Zhao had a premonition that he would never receive another message from this number again.

He stood up, paced around the room a few times, and began biting his fingernails. This was a nervous habit from his adolescence whenever he felt anxious; he had broken it long ago, but now he was reverting right back to his old ways.

After a good while, Lu Zhao picked up his phone once more, typed out a message, and sent it over.

[Are you asleep?]

Upon seeing the message, Zhou Zefeng shot upright in bed as if a fish had suddenly been thrown out of water.

Lu Zhao had actually replied to him? One had to know that aside from the previous [Thanks], Lu Zhao had never given another response. Zhou Zefeng had long assumed this number was blocked by Lu Zhao. Now that he had replied out of nowhere, what was he trying to do?

Did Lu Zhao know who owned this number?

Zhou Zefeng cautiously texted back a [?].

[Having sex with a man is indeed quite comfortable. Do you want to try it?]

[Do you know who I am?]

[I don’t, but you look like you have pretty good stats.]

Lu Zhao hadn’t recognized him.

This should have been something that allowed Zhou Zefeng to breathe a sigh of relief, but instead, it left his breath hitch high in his chest. Zhou Zefeng felt a stifling tightness in his heart, making it hard to breathe as if he were being weighed down by a wet, water-logged cotton quilt weighing several kilograms during the damp monsoon season.

So, Lu Zhao had just finished dining with a man in the evening, only to come home and flirt with another completely strange man?

Zhou Zefeng felt both furious and aggrieved. He aggressively typed out a message and sent it over: [Let’s try it then. I’ve wanted to screw you for a long time]

Lu Zhao raised an eyebrow. He hadn’t expected this development, and his playful side was thoroughly piqued.

[Compound XX, Apartment 1205. Waiting for you.]

Unbelievable. Inviting a man he had never even laid eyes on before straight to his home for a first-time hookup without even knowing if the guy was a dangerous person with malicious intent???

Zhou Zefeng felt like he was about to explode with anger. Taking a deep breath, he typed out the four words [Be there or be square], threw his phone aside, and sat there brooding.

Lu Zhao didn’t reply again. He didn’t know what he should say or do when he saw Zhou Zefeng the next day either.

Since he had finally encountered someone who suited his tastes so perfectly, even just seeing him regularly would be good. Whether it was orgasm control or moving a step further, they would just take it one step at a time.

Lu Zhao fell asleep after a short while, but on the other side, Zhou Zefeng remained unable to sleep for a very long time.

He realized he had just made a decision from which there was no turning back.

Was it really going to come to this point? But what exactly were Lu Zhao’s thoughts? If he continued to associate with him, under what identity and title would it be? Zhou Zefeng hadn’t figured out any of it yet.

He picked his phone back up and opened the chat interface with his mother.

For a few days after he had sent that voice message, he hadn’t received any reply. He had thought at the time that perhaps the signal on his mother’s end was bad, making her unable to receive it, so Zhou Zefeng had decided to tell her in person.

Zhou Zefeng had gone to visit his mother during the National Day holiday, specifically bringing along her favorite eustomas.

Ms. Li’s residence was located in the suburbs, surrounded by green hills and clear waters. The scenery here was pleasant, planted with evergreen pines and cypresses. According to the caretaker, birds also loved to frequent the area, making it quiet but not lonely; an extremely fitting place for Ms. Li, who loved tranquility.

A bouquet of lilies wrapped in exquisite paper sat blooming peacefully. Zhou Zefeng frowned, moved the lilies aside, and carefully placed the eustomas against the base. He sat on the ground and watched the scenery for a while before finally speaking.

“Mom, you didn’t reply to the WeChat message I sent you. I was worried you were trying to save money and were too lazy to install broadband, so you couldn’t receive messages,” Zhou Zefeng’s voice was very soft, drifting faintly away into the wind without an echo. “Did you listen to all the messages I sent you? If you don’t know, let me tell you about it again. It’s really fun abroad, it’s just a bit lonely by myself.”

Zhou Zefeng began to ramble on about his life abroad. He was usually a man of few words, but the things he was saying now could probably match his speaking volume of several months. It was only when he got to the part about returning to the country that he began to hesitate.

“I think I’ve fallen for someone. His name is Lu Zhao,” Zhou Zefeng paused for a moment. “He’s a guy. Will you be angry?”

The only things answering him were the whistling wind of the mountains and the chirping sounds of little birds flapping their wings.

“Actually, I don’t really know if it’s love either. We haven’t even met that many times, and I don’t know what the real him is like either. I just want to see him every day, that’s all. Was it like this with you and your first love? Give me a little hint.”

“Mom, will you blame me?” Zhou Zefeng said to himself. “But I won’t be like that person. If I really end up with him, I won’t do anything to betray him.”

Zhou Zefeng knew he wouldn’t receive an answer, yet he still talked at great length. Seeing that it was getting late, he finally stood up reluctantly and left the cemetery.

Ms. Li had been diagnosed with breast cancer when Zhou Zefeng was in high school. Back then, WeChat had just become popular, and she found it incredibly novel; after asking Zhou Zefeng for guidance, she tried out all its features. The Moments she posted were all about Zhou Zefeng and his dad, or the flowers and plants she grew, completely devoid of a patient’s despondency.

If Ms. Li was still alive today, she would definitely take videos of him playing basketball, show off his swimming competition medals, and maybe even follow the trends by messing around on Douyin and Xiaolushu.

Zhou Zefeng stood by the roadside waiting for the bus. The bouquet of lilies he had just taken from Ms. Li’s grave was pure white and holy, blooming beautifully. Zhou Zefeng looked at it with cold eyes and casually threw the bouquet into the trash can.

Ms. Li didn’t have many friends. Aside from Zhou Zefeng, only one other person would come to visit her, but Zhou Zefeng didn’t know where Zhou Ruixuan got the nerve to dare show his face here.

Zhou Zefeng boarded the bus, unable to suppress certain disgusting memories from flooding back, which was the other reason for his homophobia.

And that was—Zhou Zefeng’s father, Zhou Ruixuan, who was a gay man who had entered a fraudulent marriage.

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