Chen Sui raised his eyebrows, his eyes full of surprise. He was the one who completely distrusted Ou Shaowen’s ability to regrow organs Guan Qijun talked about; but Ou Shaowen answered so accurately and professionally that it didn’t seem to stem from imagination at all. 

“Where can I get this kind of instrument?” Guan Qijun did believe what he said without hesitation.

The certainty in Ou Shaowen’s eyes dissipated a little bit. He looked away and shook his head blankly, “I don’t know where one can get it now.”

He didn’t even know how the device worked, because every time it was used, he was firmly restrained, unable to see anything except the blindingly white ceiling. All he knew was that his body was connected to a dense net of tubes, and then there was an infinite, long, dark pain.

Thinking about it, he was… actually a little bit scared.

Every operation in the laboratory had its usual set of procedures, one after another, in a cycle. Now that he thought about it, that was what made him feel safe. He could be sure and knew what to expect, and when the process was over, he was whole and healthy again.

Unlike now, when everything was so unknown and he didn’t even know if he was going to die.

“Then what is the principle of its work?”

“It’s about imitating the function of the heart and powering the flow of blood. There are also some other small instruments for absorption and filtration, which are used to maintain cell metabolism.” He was a little distressed, “More specifically, I don’t know.”

Since he said the first sentence, Dr. Chen had been in a state of amazement. The knowledge he had since he was a child had been overthrown and broken. He actually began to think that what Ou Shaowen said might really be true. 

After all, the world was so big and the human body was so mysterious. He was not sure if there were some crazy organisations that were keen on human experimentation that could create a product like Ou Shaowen.

“Good.” Guan Qijun nodded, “During this time, I will do my best to use all the connections I can to see if I can get a similar instrument.”

Ou Shaowen pursed his lips, a little moved, “Thank you.”

Guan Qijun avoided his gaze and was silent for a while, “It may take a while, you’d better… not tell Ou Renjin for the time being.”

Before he could persuade him further, Ou Shaowen nodded, “I know, if Ou Renjin knows it, he will definitely not agree.” He paused and added, “He cares about me the most.”

He even looked in the direction of Dr. Chen and begged: “Dr. Chen, please help keep it a secret, don’t tell Ou Renjin about it.”

“I…” Chen Sui was very confused. In fact, he was not as firm as he thought. If he were really so principled, he would not have been in cahoots with Guan Qijun in the first place.

“Let’s keep it a secret first. For people with heart disease, don’t you want to make sure they are in a peaceful mood?” Ou Shaowen was very calm and mature at this moment, not at all like he was in front of Ou Renjin.

Guan Qijun’s expression was very stiff, and his body was trembling slightly. Finally, he took a deep breath, “Leave him to me, I will convince him. That’s the decision for now then, I’ll let you know as soon as I have any news.”

“Good.”

“Let’s go first.” He took Chen Sui’s arm and walked out, stopping when he reached the door, turning around and urging, “While you take care of Ou Renjin, you must also take care of yourself. I’ll buy something to eat and bring it to you later. Remember to eat on time.”

“Okay.” Ou Shaowen nodded, very obediently, “Thank you.”

As soon as they went out, Chen Sui broke free of Guan Qijun’s hand, his expression full of annoyance, “Don’t you feel bad about deceiving a person like this?”

“No.” Guan Qijun’s face was expressionless, “Besides, I didn’t deceive him, everything was his own decision.”

“He can’t be responsible for his decision.”

“He’s already an adult.”

“Ou Renjin won’t agree.”

“So keep it a secret.” He raised his eyebrows, “This is also his own decision. I’m just cooperating.

“Chen Sui.” Guan Qijun looked at him with no emotion in his eyes, “You should trust Ou Shaowen a little, maybe he really won’t die, then in the end it will be a happy ending for everyone.”

“The more logical outcome is that he will die.”

“He said it himself that he had transplanted his heart to others. As long as we can find the equipment he needs, everything will return to normal in two months.” Guan Qijun walked straight forward as if he hadn’t heard it. At the last corner of the corridor, he stopped and smiled at Chen Sui, “I know, you won’t tell Ou Renjin.”

After saying that, he pressed the elevator button and walked in.

Chen Sui stood still and watched the elevator door slowly close in front of him. The light cast a shadow on half of his face. His clenched fists loosened a little bit. After a while, he turned around and walked to his office.

Guan Qijun bought some food and came back. Ou Shaowen obediently finished eating, and extended his leave with his manager on WeChat.

He was most worried that his absence would affect the schedule of the entire team, and his words were full of guilt.

In fact, Ou Renjin had already said hello to Dingyi Entertainment for this doomed leave of absence. The two companies were cooperating recently and wouldn’t refuse to give each other face.

The manager readily approved the leave and comforted him: “It’s okay, everyone recently started working with their own resources, so you don’t have to worry about affecting them.”

Although this was not a favourable decision for the members with middle and lower levels of popularity, the entertainment industry was like that. Capitalists would take the risk, but they were only willing to invest in members with high commercial value.

Ou Renjin didn’t wake up until the next day. He still had a slight fever that didn’t go away, and neither the doctors nor the nurses showed any sign of relaxing; a long low fever could sometimes be more troublesome than a high one.

“You’re awake?” Ou Shaowen was sitting next to him and was using his mobile phone to look through some medical literature. This thing was actually not something you could search on Baidu, so he scrolled from top to bottom for a long time and didn’t find what he was looking for. 

There was still half a bottle of medicine hanging on the IV stand. Ou Renjin rubbed his heavy head with his other hand and hooked the corners of his mouth in understanding, “Nothing was wrong with the source of the heart. It turned out to be me who was faulty this time.”

Ou Shaowen couldn’t tell if he was disappointed and sad, so he cautiously comforted: “It’s okay, if you miss it this time, there will be another time.”

Ou Renjin turned his head to look at him, “I thought the first thing you would say to me would be: let’s use my heart.”

Ou Shaowen had made his decision and started to avoid talking about it in front of Ou Renjin. This was the first time he lied to Ou Renjin. He expected himself to panic but at this point a light smile came naturally, “So I have listened to you, I’ve been better behaved. Are you going to reward me?”

“Yes, I’m very happy that I didn’t hear you say such a thing.” As Ou Renjin said this, his eyelashes hid the look in his eyes. Somehow, Ou Shaowen felt that he… seemed to be a little sad at the moment.

“Do you want to eat something? Shall I cook porridge for you? White porridge without adding anything.”

“Okay.” He nodded and watched as Ou Shaowen walked out of the ward, closing the door behind himself. Then he closed eyes and let the numb disappointment overwhelm him.

He sneered softly, and for a moment a little bit of hatred filled him. But he didn’t know what he could hate. Do you hate fate?

Originally, before this, he was able to accept everything fairly calmly, not caring very much about anything except the hatred for his parents’ death. He even considered that if he was going to die one day, he would forget about legal principles and just take his revenge and get rid of his obsession.

Since his heart condition was diagnosed, he had been trying hard to accept that he would die one day, and he felt ready to have fun and live happily every day until then.

It was just that he met Ou Shaowen, and he suddenly wanted to live. Ou Shaowen was so simple and kind to everyone, and eager to repay you with his heart and his lungs, in the true sense.

He was worried; if he was gone, would Ou Shaowen meet a better person, a man or a woman? At that time, he would treat that person like he treated him, and then he might be cherished or might be let down.

He met Ou Renjin when he was a blank piece of paper, and the way he was now was to some extent created by Ou Renjin. He wasn’t given other options. After he left, would Ou Shaowen realise that there were still many ways to go in this world?

He was afraid that he would let him go too soon and that he would never be able to let him go for the rest of his life.

While his mind was in a mess, Ou Shaowen had already returned to the room with the porridge, “Let me feed you.”

He adjusted Ou Renjin’s bed slightly higher and took the spoon to feed him carefully.

Ou Renjin finished eating cooperatively and suddenly said to him, “Actually, I occasionally wonder what it would be like now if you hadn’t hit my car in the first place.”

Ou Shaowen shook his head, “I don’t want to explore such a hypothesis.”

“Why?”

“I can’t accept the hypothesis that there is no you.”

Ou Renjin patted him on the head, and said something cruel very easily, “Little friend, you should start preparing now. If you can’t even accept the hypothesis that there was no me in the past, how can you accept the reality that there will be no me in the future?”

Ou Shaowen put the bowl and spoon on the table beside him. When he heard these words, he was taken aback. He turned his head and stared at Ou Renjin with a fierce look, “It won’t be possible, you will get better.”

“Tsk, I don’t know how many times I have heard the comforting ‘You will get better’ since I was a child. It is perfunctory and useless.”

“Don’t say anything more.” Ou Shaowen threatened him viciously, “If you say anything more, I will immediately call Dr. Chen over and cut out my heart for you.”

Ou Renjin couldn’t help laughing, “This is the first time I have heard such a terrifying threat. I’m really scared.”

“Then don’t say it.” His tone weakened and he pursed his lips, looking a little sad as he repeated, “Don’t say it again.”

Ou Renjin’s little smile receded, and he turned away, feeling worried and distressed for such Ou Shaowen.

It was always possible to accept something slowly, even if it was something that you felt you couldn’t accept before.

He was just heartbroken that Ou Shaowen was bound to go through this painful and torturous process.

Previous / ToC / Next

Early the next morning, Ou Shaowen was the first to wake up. He turned his head. Ou Renjin was still asleep. He was frowning slightly and his cheeks were a little red.

Ou Shaowen didn’t disturb him, got out of bed and went to the bathroom to wash. Then he glanced at Ou Renjin on the bed again. He suddenly remembered that he seemed to have said yesterday that his throat was sore.

Ou Renjin’s personal kitchen was on the sixth floor last time he was there. Ou Shaowen quietly closed the door and went there to make breakfast for him.

The ingredients in the fridge seemed to have just been replenished and there was no trace of anything being used. He steamed two bowls of egg custard, cooked some white porridge and brought it down together.

He forgot to bring his mobile phone and was afraid that Ou Renjin would wake up and wouldn’t find him, so he was in a bit of a hurry. Fortunately, back in the ward, Ou Renjin hadn’t woken up yet.

Ou Shaowen set up the breakfast, and then went over and called him, “Ou Renjin, wake up, it’s time for breakfast.”

Ou Renjin’s eyelashes moved slightly, but he didn’t open his eyes and his expression was somewhat uncomfortable.

“Ou Renjin?” Ou Shaowen’s heart skipped a beat suddenly as he reached out to touch his face, then shrank back in shock feeling the higher-than-normal temperature.

Dr. Chen had just finished answering the phone; the hospice notified him that the patient was in a bad condition and might die tonight or tomorrow. They had already done one round of resuscitation and there would probably not be a second round, according to the wishes of the family.

He called Dr. Wu, who was in touch with him but had been in a neighbouring city for the past few days conducting a seminar on heart transplantation and had flown over afterwards to wait.

The hospital had arranged for him to live nearby, and as soon as the heart was in place, the operation could begin immediately.

Everything was going well.

Before Dr. Chen could show a smile of relief, a nurse hurriedly knocked on the door of his office.

At the moment he looked at the anxious face of the nurse, his eardrums buzzed, as if a bucket of icy water was poured onto his head. His heart jolted, and before she spoke, he somehow had a feeling that this would definitely not be the news he wanted to hear.

Is there always Murphy’s Law in this world?

The more you fear something, the more it will happen.

“Dr. Chen, Mr. Ou Renjin, he has a fever. It is a cold, and fever symptoms are caused by inflammation of the tonsils.” The nurse took a few breaths, “What do you think we should do next?”

For ordinary people, a cold was just a common and harmless disease. Even if you didn’t take the medicine, you would generally be fine in a week. However, for patients with heart disease, colds were their archenemy. They could seriously affect heart and lung function and aggravate heart insufficiency, easily becoming a cause of heart attack.

Therefore, once he had a fever, Ou Renjin’s condition would become precarious. And it was absolutely impossible to perform surgery in this situation.

Chen Sui had been a doctor for many years. At this moment, he suddenly understood why their director never operated on people he knew. The more personal feelings you had, the more unable you were to make even basic judgments calmly.

At this time, he was sitting somewhat helplessly, slumped in his chair, and his mind was in a mess. After a while, he raised his head and said to the nurse who had been waiting for a long time, “First ask Director Li to come over and take a look to determine… whether it is still possible to perform the surgery as planned and whether we need to call the hospice immediately and let them…”

He had a hard time saying the remaining half of the sentence, “…contact other patients who are suitable for heart source.”

Something like a heart source was inherently rare and precious, there was no way it could be saved for when you had a suitable time for surgery. A missed opportunity was a missed opportunity, and there was nothing anyone could do about it.

He suddenly regretted that he hadn’t done anything when Guan Qijun had made that suggestion yesterday.

Why did fate always have to be so cruel to a person? He couldn’t help but feel indignant for Ou Renjin, for his destiny seemed to have been sealed by the heavens.

A group of doctors surrounded Ou Renjin’s bed for a long time, and soon a nurse came in with a trolley full of needles, syringes and drip bottles.

Then, the ECG monitor was immediately connected to the bedside.

“Beep. Beep.”

The instrument was beeping continuously, and Ou Shaowen sat aside like a piece of wood, with cold white porridge and egg custard on the table in front of him.

“It’s okay,” he whispered, his voice so low that it was practically a murmur, “He’ll be fine.”

As long as Ou Renjin was okay this time, after a period of time to adjust, his heart could be transplanted.

You see, the heavens also felt it was better to use his heart.

So when Dr. Chen and Guan Qijun came together, he behaved even more calmly than them.

He turned his head when he heard the voices and said, “I was just about to call the nurse, the medicine is almost over.”

Guan Qijun pressed the call button at the head of the bed and slowed down the drip that was about to be finished, “She will be here soon.”

The two people were both very calm.

Dr. Chen glanced at the two of them, “The current situation is to see if the inflammation can subside and the temperature can go down. There might be good news from the heart source. Maybe the patient is more tenacious and can hold on for a few more days, just in time for Ou Renjin to get better.”

In the end, his tone became weaker and weaker, as if he couldn’t even convince himself.

“It’s okay, if you miss it, you miss it. There’s still me,” Ou Shaowen said.

Guan Qijun’s fingers that had been clenched into fists loosened slightly. He looked up at Ou Shaowen, and suddenly laughed softly.

“Ou Shaowen, let’s talk,” he said.

Dr. Chen frowned. He knew better than anyone else why Guan Qijun had left Ou Renjin’s side. “Guan Qijun, don’t mess around while Ou Renjin is unconscious.”

Guan Qijun turned his head and smiled at him meaningfully, then turned back and said to Ou Shaowen, “Shall we just talk here?”

“Yeah.” He glanced at Ou Renjin on the hospital bed, “I have to look at him.”

“Well, then let’s talk here.“ Guan Qijun didn’t even ask Dr. Chen to leave and said directly, “You said that your organs can regrow. They don’t believe it, but I believe it.”

Ou Shaowen’s attention seemed to be hooked, and he looked at Guan Qijun.

“Ou Renjin’s condition has always made me very depressed. It seems that I have tried everything, but I always make mistakes, and there is nothing I can do. I even consulted a friend who was studying artificial hearts abroad. He said that the current artificial heart technology can only last for one to two years, but you definitely don’t want Ou Renjin to have only one to two years of life left, right?”

Ou Shaowen looked at him quietly. Guan Qijun lowered his gaze and asked, “How long will it take for your heart to regrow?”

“Guan Qijun.” Dr. Chen’s face is already extremely ugly. “Things haven’t reached that final stage yet, don’t go crazy here.”

“About two months.” Ou Shaowen replied, his expression calm and determined.

“Then in the two months while it grows again, what do you live on?”

No one cared about Chen Sui.

“The extracorporeal blood supply instrument.” For some reason, Guan Qijun’s calm expression and tone brought Ou Shaowen a wonderful sense of trust. He knew that the two of them had the same purpose.

Previous / ToC / Next

Soon he arrived at the hospital.

When Ou Shaowen walked into the ward, Ou Renjin was standing by the window making a phone call. Seeing Ou Shaowen, he made a reassuring gesture and methodically finished the call.

The person on the other end of the line must have known Ou Renjin well, and although they were talking about business matters, the tone was casual.

Ou Shaowen didn’t have much expression on his face. When he entered the room, he found a chair and sat down quietly.

“Have you communicated with the movie department?

“I’d say, brother, you report everything to me, why don’t you just call the mayor when you find a yuan on the road?”

Ou Shaowen’s attention was drawn to the content of the phone call and he turned his head, staring at Ou Renjin.

“I have already told the secretariat that an investment of less than 100 million yuan can be signed by two heads of departments. Also, don’t give out my number casually. There are always directors coming to me for investment, isn’t there a project incubator in the movie department? Tell them to contact the person in charge there directly.” He was impatient, “I can’t even stay at the hospital in peace.”

It seemed that the other side was concerned about why he was hospitalised, and he casually said, “It’s not a major surgery, just a gallstone.”

……

Five minutes later the call was over. Ou Shaowen withdrew his gaze, turned away and looked blankly ahead.

Ou Renjin walked up to him and pinched his face, “Wow, someone has turned into a bulging little potato.”

“I’m not angry.” Ou Shaowen raised his head in response to his movement and replied calmly, “And you, in fact, have never believed me at all.”

Ou Renjin smiled as usual, “Do you think I have been perfunctory to you?”

“Yes.”

“We haven’t talked about this properly before, let’s talk about it today.” He didn’t choose to sit next to Ou Shaowen, but sat in a chair opposite, his posture and tone formal.

“You told me earlier that you were able to regrow a new heart after it was transplanted to me?”

Ou Shaowen shook his head and added, “Not just the heart, but all the organs in my entire body are like this.”

“Then… how long does this process of regrowth take?” Even though deep down, he didn’t believe in what Ou Shaowen said, he still asked his questions on the premise of believing him.

“They are all different, some take long and some regrow quickly.” Ou Shaowen recalled seriously, “Some organs that don’t affect me might grow on their own when I am not paying attention, so I don’t know the specific time. Moreover, the recovery time is not particularly stable, and there are small differences every time.”

He paused, as if he was a little uncertain again, “However, the lights are always on, the room is always very bright, and there is no device nearby that can display the time, so I have no concept of time.”

Speaking of this, he suddenly began to wonder. At the beginning, all the concepts of time were instilled in him by the researchers in the laboratory. Were the two months they said it took for the heart to regrow equivalent to the two months in his current cognition?

“Then…” Ou Renjin’s eyes moved slightly, but he maintained his steady tone, “Do you know why you have such an ability?”

“I don’t know. They don’t know either, they don’t know which step produced the effect, and they don’t know which way this body mutated, what made me such a freak, so I’m unique and can’t be replicated. You don’t know, I actually used to have a lot of nicknames. Sometimes they called me a freak, and sometimes they called me a miracle. Although I don’t like surgery very much, I know that my organs can save many, many people, and I will occasionally feel a little happy.”

In the beginning, he would hate those people too. At least, when no one came to make a deal with the laboratory, his life could still be calm for a few days and he would not be firmly restrained in bed. He would be able to listen to the researchers talk and watch them do their experiments.

It was just that the more he hated them, the more painful he felt inside. Suddenly one day, he began to realise that impotent hatred would not change anything. His body was already in enough pain. What else could he do but live like this? At least he could keep his mind calm.

So, like an ostrich, he began to slowly ignore the malice that every aspect and act of the surgery contained, and openly accepted the meaning of his existence, as if he had undergone a grand successful self-hypnosis.

At the end of the conversation, Ou Shaowen was already answering some questions that had not been asked yet.

The shock in Ou Renjin’s heart swirled in a circle like a wave, and more questions instantly popped into his mind: why would he be called such nicknames? Who were the people who called him those nicknames? Where was the room that was always lit? What kind of surgery? In what sense was it surgery?

Ou Shaowen’s tone was too natural, and he didn’t hesitate at all, as if he had really experienced all these things. His chaotic description, every word of it, seemed to be in line with Ou Renjin’s previous terrifying guesses. Ou Renjin pursed his lips tightly, his eyes sharp, and he was almost unable to control his emotions.

But in the end he didn’t ask anything, he just raised his eyes and looked at Ou Shaowen, “Will this process of regrowth be painful?”

“Yes…” Ou Shaowen looked into his eyes and hesitated for a moment, “A little bit.”

Ou Renjin’s eyes looked very beautiful at this moment, like the wind sweeping over a clear lake, sparkling with softness and heartache that could encompass Ou Shaowen’s entire being.

Ou Renjin finally found his purpose for starting this conversation, hooked the corner of his mouth and smiled, “That’s why I don’t want to. Even if your heart can regrow within an hour, as long as it will cause you pain, I don’t want it.”

Ou Shaowen’s eyes widened suddenly and his whole body trembled uncontrollably. He pursed his lips hard, looking at Ou Renjin with a very shocked and extremely moved gaze.

Ou Renjin was just saying the usual nice and gentle words to coax him. In his eyes, these words were no different from his previous words like “I miss you, kid”. He could never realise how, for Ou Shaowen, these words had turned everything he was used to upside down.

When he was accustomed to pain, it turned out that there would really be such a person in this world who would say to him, “As long as it will cause you pain, I don’t want it.”

These words made him feel vulnerable, as if he had naturally become the way Ou Renjin saw him, someone who needed protection, who couldn’t be hurt, who couldn’t suffer the slightest bit of pain.

“It doesn’t have to be you now, does it? We already have a suitable source of heart, the doctors have done many tests and this one is healthy, not much different from yours, so you should stop competing, okay?” Ou Renjin smiled and teased him, “Besides, you like me so much, chances are your heart will be so nervous that it won’t move when you put it inside my body.”

Ou Shaowen originally had tears in his eyes, but this teasing made him laugh, “No, it will move faster than a rabbit.”

“This won’t work either. If your heart rate is too fast, it can kill you.”

Ou Shaowen smiled, and halfway through the smile, he curled his mouth again, blinked, and tears fell from his eyes, a whimper escaping his throat. He turned his head away, no longer facing Ou Renjin.

“What’s the matter?” This time he really didn’t know why Ou Shaowen was suddenly aggrieved and weeping. He took a step forward and squatted in front of him, trying to turn his head back.

Ou Shaowen grabbed his hand, but his head was bowed lower and lower, as if he was trying to bury it in the back of the chair. He didn’t know what was wrong with him. Ou Renjin rejected him, but he was actually moved.

At this moment, his crying became more and more uncontrollable, his shoulders shuddered, his sobs became louder and louder, and his whole body shrank into a ball, desperately avoiding Ou Renjin’s hand that reached out to touch his cheek.

“What’s the matter? Does the relationship between us have to rely on heart donation? You don’t need to deliberately do something for me, I love you very much anyway.”

Ou Renjin guessed the cause of his sudden emotional breakdown wildly, but from a certain point of view, he guessed part of it correctly.

As if afraid of scaring Ou Shaowen, he said very softly, “I didn’t deliberately reject your heart, I know you care about me very much, so you would rather suffer yourself and keep me healthy, right? I know, I feel it, I can be sure that you love me the most in the world…”

The more Ou Renjin comforted him, the more Ou Shaowen’s emotions got out of control. He wanted to try his best to swallow his sobs, but in a few seconds at most, he was sobbing again.

He covered his head and pressed his whole head against the wall, and no matter what, he just wouldn’t let Ou Renjin look at him.

“Did I say something wrong? Something that makes you so sad?” This was the first time, and he really couldn’t guess the reason for Ou Shaowen’s emotional outbreak.

Ou Shaowen sobbed and shook his head, “I’m sorry… sorry, let me… cry by myself… for a while.”

“Good.” Ou Renjin stood up, “Then I’ll lie down on the bed first. Come and hug me when you’re done crying, okay?”

“Uh-huh.” Ou Shaowen whimpered in response

After about three minutes, Ou Renjin sensed him come from the other end of the room, slowly climb into the bed, put his arms around his waist, and cling to his back tightly. His head rested against the back of Ou Renjin’s neck, and every three or five seconds, he sobbed softly.

With some effort Ou Renjin turned around on the bed and kissed his red eyes, “I think I feel some discomfort in my heart.”

“Ah, what discomfort?” Ou Shaowen hurriedly wanted to sit up and ring the nurse’s bell, but Ou Renjin grabbed his arm.

“I saw you crying, so I felt uncomfortable.”

Ou Shaowen breathed a sigh of relief, and was about to lie down again but Ou Renjin also sat up, “The food at noon was already spicy enough to make my throat hurt, and after coaxing you for so long, my throat is almost smoking. Pour me a glass of water.”

“Okay.” Ou Shaowen obediently got down and poured him water.

Ou Renjin took the water, stretched out his hand and patted his shoulder with a smile, “Don’t get back yet, go take a shower, and after that it’s time to sleep. Today I want you to sleep with me, okay?”

He didn’t ask Ou Shaowen why he was crying just now, nor was he going to comfort him too much, he just wanted to sleep with his arms around him.

“Yes.” Ou Shaowen answered seriously, took a quick shower, got into the bed and nestled in Ou Renjin’s arms.

Previous / ToC / Next

“Don’t be nervous, nothing will happen again.” Dr. Chen was much more calm than Guan Qijun was, flipping through the CT images of Ou Renjin’s heart. Although it was unlikely that he would be the surgeon for this operation, he had actually seen these images many times.

This showed that he was actually nervous too.

“He’s going to die anyway, isn’t it possible for him to just die sooner?” Guan Qijun raised his eyes, full of darkness.

Dr. Chen’s movements paused. He frowned but didn’t bother with professional ethics to reprimand him. He just said lightly: “Don’t keep thinking one thing after another.”

Guan Qijun said what he had just said, and suddenly it seemed to be a wake-up call for him, “From the point of view of humanity, if a patient like him died a day sooner, he would be relieved a day sooner, right?” He spoke faster and faster, not giving Dr. Chen a chance to interrupt him, “Yes, that’s it. One more day increases the chance of an accident. Didn’t we contact the top heart transplant specialist in the country? What if something suddenly happens in just these two days? What if the patient suddenly suffers a total organ failure in the next two days, it’s hard to say, isn’t it?”

“Guan Qijun, calm down.”

He fell silent, and after a long time, his tone regained its calmness, “Is there really no room for manoeuvre?”

“No, the patient is not in our hospital, the heart will be delivered here in a special car after his death.”

“What if the car breaks down halfway?”

“Guan Qijun.” Dr. Chen’s face finally became stern, “Turn right on the 5th floor for the psychiatric department. If you are really nervous, you can go and talk to the doctor.”

“Sorry.” Guan Qijun sat down and finally stopped talking.

“Don’t you have to go to work?”

“I took a week of annual leave.”

Dr. Chen looked at his not-so-good face and advised, “You’d better go back and wait for the news, don’t stay in the hospital, the more you stay, the more nervous you get.”

“Okay.” Guan Qijun stood up and prepared to leave. Before he walked out of the office, he stopped and turned back to ask, “By the way, when Ou Renjin was admitted to the hospital, didn’t anyone even inform Ou Shaowen?”

“President Ou said that he would inform him when the surgery arrangements were finalised.”

“It’s better to inform him earlier.” Guan Qijun hooked the corner of his mouth, “It’s always like this on TV, you notify him late and he won’t even get to see him one last time.”

“…you.”

Guan Qijun had already walked out.

Dr. Chen was a little worried. With Guan Qijun’s current state, it was inevitable to make people wonder what he would do if something really happened this time?

Having finished a big operation, Dr. Chen headed downstairs, and when he passed the floor where Ou Renjin was staying, he considered for a moment and went to the ward to talk to Ou Renjin, advising him to inform Ou Shaowen earlier.

“He’s from the entertainment industry after all, and his schedule isn’t that easy to adjust.”

“It’s okay, I’ve already spoken to their boss about vacating his schedule for a week.” Ou Renjin coughed twice, lowering his head and fiddling with his phone.

Dr. Chen glanced at it; still talking about work!

“Stop being busy. Can’t a company this big do without you?”

“You don’t understand, sometimes it’s not good to have people underneath you who are too capable.” Ou Renjin cleared his throat and suddenly grumbled with a frown, “Isn’t your hospital supposed to serve meals of an extremely high standard? I didn’t ask Xiao Liu to come over to deliver the food because I didn’t want to trouble him, but I ended up tasting shredded potatoes at lunch that looked bland but were actually spicy, and my throat is sore now.”

Dr. Chen laughed at this, “Are you sure that shredded potatoes were spicy at lunch? You can’t bear spicy food, right? Our colleague even complained that the peppers in the shredded potatoes were just for the colour.”

Dr. Chen said again before he left, “I think you should inform Ou Shaowen quickly. This kind of thing is not very predictable, you may have to wait for ten days and half a month, or you may suddenly be pushed onto the operating table tomorrow. It is better to let the kid have psychological preparation as early as possible.”

“Okay, got it.” Ou Renjin seemed to be convinced by him, and when Dr. Chen left, he sat in silence for a while, and then sent a WeChat to Ou Shaowen.

“I’ve recently found a suitable heart source. I might have to do a heart transplant in the near future, I don’t know which day yet.”

When Ou Shaowen received this message, he was playing around with his teammates and filming their little dorm routine, ignoring the camera. This job was no different to a holiday for him.

According to his manager, after this month they would be able to go home and wouldn’t need to live together. FT9 had already filmed a lot of materials, enough to be spread out for more than half a year, and they would meet up again in advance when they had some job.

So Ou Shaowen was in a good mood for the past few days. He would be able to go back to the villa and live with Ou Renjin! Even if they both left early and returned late, seeing each other even for an hour a day would be enough to make him happy.

He was still imagining the sweet arrangement afterwards, when he suddenly received this message.

With a bang, the chair hit the ground, the room suddenly became quiet, and everyone looked at him.

“I… have to go out for a bit, I’ll call and ask for leave from Sister Yu later.”

After saying that, he turned and ran, leaving his teammates bewildered and puzzled.

Just as he ran out the door, Ou Renjin’s second WeChat message came, “Don’t be in a hurry, I’ve asked Uncle Li to go over and pick you up. Wait for him a little while, don’t take a taxi to come over.”

He dialled the number straight back.

“Where are you? Are you at the hospital?”

“Yeah.”

“Can’t you use my heart? Why do you need someone else’s? Really, it would be better to use mine, in case of a rejection reaction…” He was halfway through his sentence when he suddenly realised that there was no longer a laboratory in this world to make the special medicine for the anti-rejection treatment from his blood.

Ou Renjin frowned, but did not pierce his conceit and said with a chuckle: “If there was a rejection reaction, it would be possible to transplant anyone’s heart. You think that just because you carry my surname, you’re really my son.”

“My heart is healthier than his, and as long as the transplant is successful, you won’t be much different from a normal person, really, and you’ll be fine running fast and playing ball and racing cars…”

“Good boy, come over here first, come over and I will tell you everything slowly.” Ou Renjin interrupted him, rubbing his forehead with some headache. He had not thought that Ou Shaowen would be so obsessed with this matter, still persevering despite having a suitable heart source.

Was he supposed to be moved that he loved him so much?

After a while, Uncle Li’s car stopped downstairs. Ou Shaowen pursed his lips tightly and sat in it without saying a word.

Uncle Li guessed that he was worried and said softly, “It’s okay, President Ou has not been sick for a while and his heart is in good condition. The doctor he invited is one of the top experts in the country, the surgery will go smoothly.”

Ou Shaowen, as if he hadn’t heard, mumbled softly, “It would be great if I could go back.”

“What?” Uncle Li didn’t hear.

Ou Shaowen shook his head and quietly stared out the window without speaking.

Previous / ToC / Next

Ou Renjin looked straight at him, not knowing whether his cheeks were too cold or whether Ou Shaowen’s body temperature was too hot. The warmth of the hands cupping his cheeks made his whole face warm up with them.

The next second, he was kissed.

The scent of hairspray and make-up mingled in his nose; his arms were pressed tightly against his body in a carefully planned attack.

It had been a long, long time since Ou Shaowen had been this close to him. He hugged Ou Renjin tightly and every piece of Ou Renjin’s skin that came into contact with him seemed to be chasing his warmth happily.

Ou Renjin couldn’t help but stop this gentle kiss, take his shoulders and push him away, gasp twice and say in displeasure: “My ribs are about to be broken by you.”

It was his own habitual chest tightness. He couldn’t even enjoy a good kiss, so he threw the blame on Ou Shaowen.

But Ou Shaowen believed it and nervously pulled away from him a little more, “Did I squeeze you too hard? I’m sorry, it’s because I really missed you too much.”

Ou Renjin then beckoned to him again, wrapped his arms around his neck, and pulled him in for another kiss.

Ou Shaowen was careful this time, embracing him gently, running his hands up his back. His lips were soft, and he remained in this posture contentedly, motionless.

Ou Renjin had had his own fun, so he pressed on Ou Shaowen’s forehead to push him away. Then, feeling that he had used a little too much force, he leaned down and kissed the forehead where his fingers had pressed in comfort.

“So does this mean you admit to being affected by me?”

“Of course a man will kiss you only if he’s affected by you. Otherwise is it because the make-up on your face is extra sweet?” He opened Ou Shaowen’s shirt to reveal half of his clavicle, lowered his head and kissed him, “It’s not bad here, no make-up smell.”

Obviously, when he was watching the videos just now, he swallowed once or twice at the sight of Ou Shaowen’s clavicle under the stage lights.

Apart from his fingers, this was the first time Ou Shaowen had been kissed below the neck, so close to his heart that it was like an electric shock.

“I told you in advance this time that we were going on holiday, do you have time to accompany me?” He searched haphazardly for a topic of conversation to hide how overwhelmed he was feeling.

“Yes, do you want to go out and play?” Ou Renjin lazily leaned back on the sofa.

Seeing this, Ou Shaowen nestled his whole body in his arms and rubbed against him, then lay still.

Ou Renjin put his arms around his neck, tugging at the hair that was stuck together on his head strand by strand.

“I want to, but it doesn’t seem like it’s very convenient to just go out and play right now.” They were so hot right now that several fans chased the cars after the concert, almost like in “Fast and Furious”.

“It’s fine, we have the money, it’s not a big deal to clear the place when the time comes.” Ou Renjin said indifferently in the tone that was stinking of money, the tone that the haters of the rich loved to hate.

Ou Shaowen didn’t see anything wrong with that either. “If I could lie around with you all day like I am now, I don’t need to go out to play.”

It was very comfortable, and his whole being was at peace.

“Then we won’t go out. Let’s play games.” Ou Renjin actually didn’t like going out much in his free time. It was because before Ou Shaowen always felt novel and surprised by everything, so he always wanted to take him to see things in the world that he hadn’t been exposed to.

But in fact, there was nothing much left that he could still take him to experience. Ou Renjin had rarely been exposed to strange, exciting and fun things since he was a child. He was a very boring person.

“We can play games but you can’t ever beat me.” Ou Shaowen was straightforward and didn’t give him any face at all.

Ou Renjin also had the self-awareness and begged, “Can’t we just be teammates? You’re a god, you can just take me to win.”

“Is there any other game where we can be teammates?”

Ou Renjin then took his phone over and clicked on Honor of Kings.

“Go to bed first, rest well, I’ll teach you how to play in the morning when you get up.”

Then, they spent the next day in bed. Except for going downstairs for a few meals, the rest of the time was spent playing together. Ou Shaowen just started, walking around with a little Luban, and Ou Renjin chose a Cai Wenji to follow and nurse him, from beginning to end not bothering with fighting except for when playing in a group.

After playing a few games, Ou Shaowen quickly got the hang of it and played decently, his record surprisingly good.

Seeing that he was getting better and better, Ou Renjin, conscious of being a showbiz person always eager to generate some heat, opened a screen recording software and started recording their game footage.

“Don’t worry, I’ll protect you and won’t let you die. As long as I, Cai Wenji, have a drop of blood left, I will never let you die in front of me.”

“You can fight, you can fight, my second skill stunned him.”

“Retreat, retreat, retreat, you go first, I’ll die if I have to. Go, don’t look back, archers never look back as a sign of respect for their supports.”

In case the video was too boring, Ou Renjin was having a conversation. Suddenly he felt that the kid was too quiet, so he looked at Ou Shaowen’s expression and asked, “What’s wrong?”

“I suddenly don’t like playing this game anymore.” Ou Shaowen ran back to the tower alone and stared blankly at the little healer’s fallen corpse.

“Why?”

“Can I play Cai Wenji next game?”

“No,” Ou Renjin categorically refused, “I just want to lie down, I don’t want to carry.”

“But I can’t seem to carry you either.” Ou Shaowen was a bit lost. Ou Renjin originally said that he wanted him to take him to win a few games, but since the beginning, he seemed to have always lost more.

Ou Renjin smiled softly, “Your record is already very good, but you can’t just play this game by yourself, you have to pay attention to the cooperation between your teammates. You still have some playing to do if you want to really understand this game.”

Perhaps some enemy teammate couldn’t bear to see him lose so much, so he gave him five kills in the next wave of the group battles.

Ou Shaowen was instantly happy and bounced on the bed, “Ou Renjin, look at this, I got five kills! Just now the fielder called for a retreat, but I said I could play. The enemy fielder and mage didn’t dodge, the big move was released but they didn’t believe me!”

“It’s okay, I believe you, ah. Do you think I am not following you?”

The other party’s group was destroyed, and the player was so angry that he opened all channels and sent a message, “Damn, the other party Luban and Cai Wenji are Siamese twins, why do you just stick together? It’s disgusting.”

When Ou Shaowen saw this, he turned his head to look at Ou Renjin who just stroked his head, “It’s okay, it’s a game term, it means to praise you for playing well.”

Ou Shaowen chuckled twice and didn’t say whether he believed it or not, but continued to lead his troops to the tower.

The game ended with Ou Shaowen taking the mvp, holding 18 heads, with a very impressive record, not at all like a newcomer who had just entered the game half a day ago.

Ou Renjin felt that the footage of the game was quite suitable, saved it and sent it to Xiao Liu, asking him to find someone to do subtitles, not forgetting to turn the game ID that cursed them into a mosaic.

That day, they played until the anti-addiction time arrived before they finally put down their phones and decided to go for a walk in the garden to rest their eyes. (When the total online time reaches 6 hours, the player is forced to go offline for 15 minutes).

It was quite a decadent life.

But Ou Shaowen somehow felt happier than if he had gone out with Ou Renjin, probably because if they had gone out, he wouldn’t have been able to lie in his arms for the whole day.

His desire for Ou Renjin’s skin far outweighed his enjoyment of the novelties.

The video of the two of them playing was finished a few days later and Ou Renjin personally released it on his Weibo. He had previously considered whether Ou Shaowen-only fans would mind their relationship, so he had been rather restrained for a while, trying to reduce the frequency of the two of them being seen together, but had now changed his thinking. It was more realistic to suck in another wave of cp fans.

The two groups did not overlap and the volume and buying power of cp fans was no less than that of the “only” fans. The netizens were forgetful; after they sincerely showed their love for a period of time, all his previous reputation for being romantic and flirtatious and all his exes who had been with him would become a stepping stone to prove how good Ou Shaowen was.

While there certainly would be comparisons and it was a bit ruthless to his exes, but exes were exes now, was he supposed to still care about them?

Ou Shaowen’s fans had been celebrating every day lately. Their group’s intensive schedule meant that fans had new materials to enjoy all the time. Interviews, variety shows, concert videos hardly stopped, and now Ou Renjin released the game video.

One had to admit that as the person in charge of an entertainment company and a patient with a heavy Weibo addiction, Ou Renjin was very good at finding the fans’ cute spots.

This video presented Ou Shaowen as awesome and adorable.

Admiration for power and doting motherly care flooded together.

“Ah ah ah ah, President Ou, I love you. It’s not easy not to see Ou Shaowen for so long, but you don’t forget to give the fans a treat.”

“Shocked! The young couple hasn’t seen each other for many days and they actually spend the whole day in bed!”

“Hahahahaha, let’s not scold President Ou for being a dog and a scumbag today.”

“Only fans and cp fans have a temporary truce.”

“It’s actually Honor of Kings, I’m so happy, gosh.”

“Such a Siamese couple would be scolded by me if I met them, but if they can get five kills, then – yes, you guys can stick together as much as you want and I don’t have any problem with you sticking together for a whole game.”

“So sweet, so sweet, so sweet, so sweet, I’m going to faint.”

“The two little short legs are just too cute. President Ou chasing Brother Shaowen the whole time, this image is totally wrong, ah, President Ou where is your dignity as a gong?”

“Brother Xiao Wen can score five kills on his first day of playing, ah ah ah, so powerful, ah, I’m so excited I’m incoherent.”

Ou Renjin briefly flipped through the comments and was very satisfied with the effect.

It was just they were like the Cowherd and the Weaver Girl, meeting briefly for a short while and then going back to their own affairs.

Recently, that vegetative patient’s vital signs had been getting worse and worse, and Ou Renjin was admitted to the hospital, awaiting the surgery that could come at any time. Although this was quite heartless and cruel, Ou Renjin thought very darkly, if only this man could die quickly and without any problems, he would be grateful for the rest of his life.

Let there be no more accidents.

Guan Qijun came to see him once quietly, glancing at the door, not daring to enter, and went to see Dr. Chen, his whole body tense with anxiety.

“Have you confirmed the vital signs of that patient today?”

“Confirmed, I guess it will be the next two days.”

“Chen Sui, I’m a bit scared.” Guan Qijun took a deep breath to suppress the trembling of his body.

Translator’s note: I have never played “Honor of Kings”, so if there are fans among the readers, please let me know what to change to what, and I’ll be very grateful 🙂

Previous / ToC / Next

Ou Shaowen had very little time to spare from the moment he opened his eyes in the morning to the late hours of the night and his calls to Ou Renjin were never without interruption.

A few days ago, before He Yixin left China, Ou Renjin thought they could get together again. But that time he couldn’t get through to Ou Shaowen, so he must have been busy. Ou Renjin had an entertainment company in his hands and it wasn’t like he didn’t understand the nature of this line of work. Watching Ou Shaowen happy all day long, he never complained and also never thought to intervene to do something.

But now, it seemed that he had to intervene.

He sent a message to Xiao Liu, asking him to discuss swapping resources with Dingyi Entertainment. It was called a swap, but the idol department of Qimeng had just been established. Except for Song Yijiu, who was somewhat well-known, the others were all freshly signed trainees. Given the volume of the two companies’ channels and the quality of their resources, it was a great bargain for Dingyi Entertainment to trade the song and dance resources for the film and TV advertising resources.

At the same time, the condition of Qimeng was that in order to ensure the status of its artist Ou Shaowen and his group in the entertainment industry, Dingyi was required to refuse to endorse products that did not conform to his image and reduce the number of commercial performances.

After hearing his request, Xiao Liu shook his head and smacked his lips on the other end of the phone, and very theatrically howled in his head: whose love do you think you are enjoying, it’s the love of an overbearing CEO!

Meanwhile, he replied, “Yes, I understand, President Ou, I will contact them immediately.”

After quickly finishing acting on President Ou’s instructions, Xiao Liu turned his head and sold him on his private account.

There’s no gossip I don’t know about Qimeng: Big Boss’s love is all-encompassing and eccentric, love one person and love his whole team, so generous! Fans can just sit and wait, there are guaranteed resources to trample all the rest of the groups in the country.

There were always some powerful fans in the entertainment circle. Xiao Liu had long revealed his identity of being an internal employee of Qimeng. Recently, he sighed a lot about the sweet love of the big boss on Weibo, the code that had long been deciphered by others secretly eating sugar.

“Damn, is that what I think it means?”

“So it really took eight lifetimes of luck to participate in this show and make a successful debut. All of them are able to follow along with the glory (dog head)”

“I just hope that fans of other families will not eat meat from their bowls and curse the cook when they put down their chopsticks.” 

“Sweet, so damn sweet.”

Two days later, Ou Shaowen and his team were informed that a group interview was cancelled and the advertising endorsement that had been under negotiation because of the price was also rejected outright. According to the manager, it was quietly revealed that it was because a first-tier men’s clothing brand was waiting for them to officially debut as a group to announce the cooperation with them. Meanwhile, the previous brand was not famous and was stingy with money, so there was no need to waste any more time on it.

So now, the whole team was just concentrating on preparing for their debut performance in half a month, trying to boost to the maximum the popularity they had built up over the past two months with various screen appearances.

Ou Renjin smiled slightly, hiding his meritorious deeds.

Although there was no need to run to various jobs, everyone was preparing for the concert day and night. Ou Shaowen was conscientious. Although he had mastered the program quickly, as long as his teammates were still practising, he couldn’t sneak out on a date by himself.

So it was still just a long-distance relationship with Ou Renjin by phone and WeChat, counting down each day with him and being more careful with his words every day.

“There’s less than a week to go, and the manager said we can take a vacation after the concert.”

“Three days to go.”

“Two days.”

“I’ll see you soon, I know you miss me, can you wait a little longer?”

“I miss you too, I dreamt about you yesterday.”

“I’m sorry, I originally said I would sneak out to meet you once before the concert, but they suddenly had to add another make-up rehearsal, if not for that, I would have time, I really didn’t mean to miss the appointment.”

Ou Shaowen apologised to Ou Renjin, his own sadness already overwhelming even before Ou Renjin replied. He really hated this forced disruption of plans and broken agreements, and he could have sworn that this kind of impromptu change had become the most annoying thing since his debut, more annoying than practising dance day and night and not being able to meet with Ou Renjin for over a month.

Ou Renjin smiled and said to him “It’s okay”, and then teased him, “It seems you’re completely going to pass your two-month punishment period like this. I wanted to teach you a lesson and since the purpose of the lesson is not achieved… let’s postpone the statute of limitations.”

“No, no, no, don’t postpone it! I’ve learned my lesson. I remember your words clearly and firmly. During this time I practised dancing, I didn’t even sprain my waist once.” Ou Shaowen was anxious when he heard it, and the loss, anger and grievances just now were instantly forgotten.

He had counted the two months on his fingers for a long time, and counting today, less than four days were left. He originally planned that when he went to meet with Ou Renjin today, if Ou Renjin was in a good mood, he would beg for mercy and make a surprise attack to see if he could skip the last few days. If it was postponed, he would go crazy.

“Then I’ll see you after the concert. I’ll see how you do at the concert. If you’re handsome enough to make my heart throb, the last few days will be waived for you as a reward.” Ou Renjin had been so busy with work these days to free up a short break, and although he did think of Ou Shaowen in between countless hours of work, it wouldn’t break his heart not to see him one day earlier.

“I’ll hang up and go do the final rehearsals then.” Ou Shaowen finished warmly and softly, asking with a rare touch of arrogance and willfulness, “I’ll definitely be the most handsome one at the concert, you… don’t get too affected, okay?”

Ou Renjin smiled, digesting his cuteness for a while before answering “Okay”.

The next day, at the debut concert, various fans arranged support and warm-up outside the venue from early in the morning, and some of the local tycoons directly chartered the largest commercial street screen to congratulate FT9 on its debut, not to mention various entertainment forums being flooded. 

Ou Renjin chose not to attend.

His match report had just come out, and it was a very rare successful match with the vegetative patient who was approaching his death due to complications. So recently Ou Renjin had been adjusting his work time while taking care of his body in anticipation of being in the best possible shape for the heart transplant, even though he didn’t know if it would go smoothly or not.

Perhaps because he had experienced so many disappointments before, he didn’t even have any expectations that he would ever be completely free of this shadow. He had long been accustomed to using the calmest state of mind and waiting for the worst when facing a healthy heart that had not yet been put into his chest.

Before he was put onto the operating table, there was always the possibility that things could go wrong.

So he didn’t tell Ou Shaowen the news. Ou Shaowen really was a little too concerned about it, and Ou Renjin was afraid that if things didn’t go well, Ou Shaowen would be too upset. He was also afraid that his mental state would be affected by it. The kid insisted that he could grow a new one, so he had to accept his heart?

It would be fine to tell him when the surgery arrangements were really well set.

The concert wasn’t broadcast live, and Ou Shaowen was a bit sad that he couldn’t let Ou Renjin see how handsome he was in the first place. He was indeed thrillingly handsome today. His seemingly messy and casual hair was blow-dried by the stylist for two whole hours. His face was fully made up, his eyes looking sharp and seductive. His high brow bones, deep eye sockets and luscious lips combined with his extremely white complexion reflected a vampire-like charm. But when he opened his eyes and looked over, he looked like an elf who strayed into the mortal world.

It was a little disappointing that his best looks could not be seen by the person he cared about most.

But he was still very excited today. The entire 10,000-person arena was glowing with the same colour, and everyone cheered their names together. Everyone’s blood was boiling because of them. The light on the stage made it impossible for Ou Shaowen to see any face in the audience clearly, but he felt as if he was shining because of these people.

In fact, before today, he was still worried about whether the venue could be filled. Would there really be so many people who wanted to see them? Now he was convinced. There had been no moment when he was more confident than right now. Listening to these people shouting their names in unison over and over again, each of them believed that they were indeed loved by thousands of fans.

The concert lasted for a total of two and a half hours. They sang eight group songs plus one solo, a total of nine songs, in reference to the nine people of FT9. At the end of the concert, the nine young men held their hands and bowed to the fans. Ou Shaowen stood in the middle of the stage, his eyes gleaming, and restrained himself from crying.

He had never cried in front of anyone other than Ou Renjin before.

Until the celebration party was over and he got in the car to go back to the villa, Ou Shaowen was still immersed in that kind of emotion and excitement. He deliberately didn’t remove his makeup, eager to go back and let Ou Renjin feel the mood.

But what he didn’t know was that Ou Renjin had already been at home for two whole hours, swiping through the concert materials. Photos, videos, candid shots, different angles, different compositions, every outfit, every look, he unabashedly liked every post he looked at.

Not reposting them straight away and then typing a long string of “ah ah ah ah” was already the result of his efforts to maintain his persona.

After all, he disliked the idea of being called something like an “idiot”, which stemmed from his inexplicable pride and a strong desire to show that he was not the one who loved the other person more in a relationship.

The exact opposite of Ou Shaowen.

It was a certain kind of hypocrisy that belonged exclusively to scumbags.

“Ou Renjin!” As soon as Ou Shaowen entered the villa, the first thing he saw was the man sitting on the sofa waiting for him. He called for him, then rushed up and pounced on his back just as he had half turned around.

“Hmm.” Ou Renjin steadied himself after being pounced on and reached out to rub Ou Shaowen’s head with some amusement, catching a handful of hairspray and fluorescent powder, “Are you getting more and more disobedient? I haven’t agreed that you can touch me yet.”

Ou Shaowen raised his eyes in surprise, walked around the sofa and sat down beside him, cupping Ou Renjin’s face in his hands so he was looking straight at him, “Look at me, look at this face of mine, isn’t it exciting enough?”

Previous / ToC / Next

The video started with the encounter in “Under the Lights”. Zhang Houyue sat in the middle of the pyramid and smiled, waving to Ou Shaowen and asking him what his name was.

“Zhang Houyue.” Ou Shaowen was confident and calm, his eyes bright as he looked at him.

Zhang Houyue squinted his eyes and smiled happily as the suggestive lyrics in the background were sung softly and affectionately, as if telling a story that was destined to begin.

As the music became softer and softer, each time they were in the same frame during the show, Zhang Houyue’s gaze grew deeper and deeper as he looked at Ou Shaowen, secretly watching during everyone’s discussions and deliberately lowering his eyes when Ou Shaowen looked back at him. Their casual physical contact increased, one holding the other’s arm, touching the neck, hooking the arm around the shoulders, their fingers gently curled as they patted each other’s chests.

With a little restrained aura, it was as if they were having an affair in full view of everyone. A love affair that, taking into account the fact that one of them had an official boyfriend, was more like a desperate tragedy.

There was something magical about video editing, and if Ou Renjin were just an uninvolved bystander, he would be saying “Ah, this beautiful love” at the moment.

Unfortunately, he was the official boyfriend who caused this desperate tragedy, but that didn’t stop him from admiring the divine editing. So he reposted it, adding a sentence: I’m crying, such a sour and poignant taste. Brother Shaowen, please look at your captain.

Sort of… harbouring malicious intentions?

After playing this trick, he himself felt childish and left it alone, so he didn’t see the reposts and comments that flooded quickly.

“I was in a daze and thought I was following the wrong person.”

“???”

“You’ve been robbed, President Ou?”

“Hahahahahahahaha, my god, how can forwarding this video with the original blog ID be so funny together!”

“Zhang Houyue: I feel that I am about to be blocked.”

“Is President Ou jealous, ironic or declaring sovereignty?”

“Or was he using a fake account to eat melons and forgot to switch?”

“Or is he acting coquettish with Shaowen, being a willful little thing, Brother Shaowen, hey hey, quickly look at me?”

“Oh my god, following President Ou is new fun every day, much more enjoyable than chasing stars.”

“What kind of star are you still chasing? Is President Ou not handsome enough, or are the melons he provides not enough and not delicious enough?”

Because of the way Ou Renjin had always acted, it seemed like there were not many die-hard fans who really chased him as an idol, but no matter which fan circle you belonged to, as long as you paid attention to the entertainment industry, you must have eaten Ou Renjin’s melons, so no matter what he posted, the comments were naturally excited and people were enthusiastic to add something.

Unlike other male celebrities, where every Weibo post was dominated by “ah ah ah, Brother’s so handsome, licking the screen”, Ou Renjin’s Weibo comments were funny and extraordinarily exciting.

Thanks to Ou Renjin’s blessing, the Weibo post was reposted more and more, and some entertainment marketing accounts also followed suit and joined the fun. As a result, it finally managed to be seen by the two parties involved.

“Crap!” Zhang Houyue’s entire body stiffened as he took two steps past the sofa to the dining table, where Ou Shaowen was sitting, slowly eating a piece of chocolate cake, raising his eyes to look at him.

“What’s wrong?”

“It’s over, how can I live if President Ou has seen that kind of video? It’s horrible, is my future going to be ruined like this? Go and coax him, and remember to put in a good word for me.”

He then reacted in the middle of the sentence and waved his hands, “Hey, no, no, no, don’t say anything good about me in front of him, just say that you actually hate me and that’s it…. No, that doesn’t seem good either. It is normal for boys to have a little physical contact with each other, right? If he minds, I’ll be sure to pay attention in the future.”

His mind wandered off again and he looked at the ceiling, thinking to himself, “No way, did I ever look at him like that? Do I usually look at people so subtly?”

He rattled like a machine gun and said a long string of words, causing Ou Shaowen to look confused, “Huh?”

Zhang Houyue came back to his senses and let out a long sigh, “Oh, just take a look at President Ou’s Weibo.”

So Ou Shaowen went to look at Ou Renjin’s Weibo. With his current emotional intelligence he wasn’t able to accurately comprehend this different kind of humour. He clicked on the link first and watched the video. While he was watching it, his whole face unconsciously scrunched. He raised his head and looked at Zhang Houyue with a strange expression.

“Don’t look at me with such eyes!” Zhang Houyue jumped back a step in horror and held up three fingers to swear, “I promise I’m straight! Ironclad straight! Straighter than an arrow! There’s absolutely no way I’ll fall in love with you, don’t worry.”

The text was just text, it was impossible to judge Ou Renjin’s tone and expression when he posted this sentence. Ou Shaowen had no way to know if he was angry. He pursed his lips and clicked on the comment to prepare a reply.

Zhang Houyue said from the side, “Remember to ask him if he will block me.”

“Why would he block you?” Ou Shaowen said in confusion, but he didn’t know what to comment with anyway, so he took advantage of the situation and asked.

Ou Shaowen: Zhang Houyue asked me to ask you if you would block him.

When this comment came out, the fans were instantly high.

“Hahahahahahahahaha, what kind of absolute cutie is this? All three of them are too cute, right?”

“President Ou: Will I block him, don’t you guys have a clue? (dog head)”

“President Ou: Am I really green?” (cheated on)

“I wasn’t going to block him, but since you ask me that, should I or shouldn’t I?”

“After not seeing my boyfriend for eternity, I watch him fall in love with someone else on Weibo. It looks like it’s time for Dingyi Entertainment to go bankrupt.”

It took Ou Renjin a long time to see Ou Shaowen’s comment. He replied in a domineering manner, “This depends on your behaviour.”

Incidentally, he also answered a comment from one of his other fans.

“President Ou, are you a Yuewen (Zhang Houyue/Ou Shaowen cp) fan?”

“The cp that can only rely on scissors to live usually doesn’t provide much sugar. So if I have to be a cp fan, I’d be a Wenyi fan. After all, Ou Shaowen himself fed me sugar, saying that when Lin Qiyi shook his arm and was coquettish with him, asking him to call him Yiyi, he was super cute and adorable. His name is also cute, and he is cute on the whole. This is real sugar!”

It was much more attentive than his reply to Ou Shaowen.

Once Ou Renjin posted this reply, somehow, his persona in everyone’s eyes changed instantly.

“What the hell? President Ou, say it again, what cp fan are you?”

“Double Ou fans are waiting for you to feed them all day long, but it turns out that you’re feeding the fans of another cp? You have no conscience.”

“Holy shit, hahahahahahaha, I’m going to die laughing today, it’s Ou Renjin’s fault.”

“Ah ah ah, I told you, our brother Shaowen is the gong, Wenyi szd!!!” (“szd” means “it’s real”)

They managed to raise this post to the top of the popular Weibo list, and watching the hilarious cp battle, everyone was happy.

Ou Shaowen was the only one who called over nervously.

“Yiyi is cute, but I don’t like him.”

“Oh.” Ou Renjin laughed.

“I don’t like Zhang Houyue either.” He emphasised seriously, “I only like you, no one else.”

“Good.”

“Don’t be jealous, I’ve been so busy lately and I haven’t had time to go out with you.” He coaxed Ou Renjin softly.

“Yeah, what should I do? I thought that not letting you touch me for two months was a punishment, but now it seems like we won’t be able to see each other even a few times for two months.” Ou Renjin lowered his voice, showing a bit of both real and fake displeasure.

“Huh?” Ou Shaowen didn’t know what to say for a while. If this was his  work alone, maybe he could put it off without hesitation in order to accompany Ou Renjin, but now the nine of them were a team with common interests, everyone was working hard and there was no way he could hold the others back for selfish reasons.

But he really missed Ou Renjin, very, very much. He sometimes thought regretfully that he should not have come to the show, that he should not have made his debut, otherwise he would be able to hang out with Ou Renjin every day.

But now he really loved the feeling of standing on stage and dancing, and loved the feeling of playing and practising with his teammates. He was afraid that it meant that his liking for Ou Renjin was not pure enough anymore.

“Ou Renjin, I actually kind of like hanging out with everyone.” It was a little difficult for him to say this, “Our schedule has also been arranged, and it has been scheduled for a long, long time. Can you wait a bit longer? The one and a half year contract will be over soon and we’ll be together every day then.”

“A year and a half, ah. That’s still a long time away.” Ou Renjin had a smile in his eyes but pretended to be aggrieved.

“But the promises cannot be broken.” Ou Shaowen comforted him solemnly, “Be a good boy, you must be obedient, okay?”

“Haha, okay, I’ll be good.” Ou Renjin found this kind of words coming out of Ou Shaowen’s mouth particularly amusing. He usually used this kind of tone with Ou Shaowen once in a while. No wonder Ou Shaowen liked to listen to it; he was indeed quite comforted when he was coaxed like this.

The result was that after pretending to be a good boy, he wanted to tease Ou Shaowen again, “Right, didn’t you say last time that you wanted to give He Yixin a gift in return? He’s already back in the US, so it looks like he won’t be getting your gift. See, when you keep promises to your teammates, you can’t guarantee keeping your promise to He Yixin.”

“Ah, he’s already gone back? Why didn’t you tell me earlier? I’ve actually picked out the gift and was thinking of when to give it to him.” Ou Shaowen was a little anxious. He felt that he was particularly rude and began to worry if Ou Renjin’s cousin would hate him for it.

“I can’t help it, you’re too busy!” Ou Renjin had the sense of measure  and started reassuring him, “I’ll let you know the next time he returns to China.”

“Then you must remember to let me know as soon as possible.” The photographer was rushing them over to shoot the daily materials. Ou Shaowen said goodbye to him in a hurry, hanging up the phone somewhat abruptly.

Ou Renjin frowned, really feeling uncomfortable this time. It seemed that the netizens were quite right, it was getting cold and it was time for Dingyi Entertainment to go bankrupt.

They had only been a group for less than two months, and they had already received three endorsements, performed in four shows, shot two commercials, given at least a dozen of media interviews, and at the same time had been on the stage three or four times, participated in two variety shows, recorded two songs for the group’s show, and were now preparing for their official debut concert.

No matter how you thought about it, their schedule was too busy and they were overstretching their popularity.

Previous / ToC / Next

“A new complete organ?” Dr. Chen repeated in surprise, and then replied seriously after a while, “According to normal human physiology, such a thing cannot happen. Why do you ask?”

“It’s nothing.” Ou Renjin picked up the donation consent form on the table, stood up and prepared to leave, “The kid is recovering from his wounds a little faster, thinks he’s a Superman and is whimsical at home.”

Dr. Chen smiled at his words, “Maybe it’s because he cares too much about your condition.”

Out of his professionalism, he added, “But if you want a more detailed answer, I can check the relevant literature for you, to see if there are any related cases.”

“Don’t bother, I’m just asking casually.” At this moment, in Ou Renjin’s heart, he already believed in his own dark and creepy guess.

When Ou Renjin left, Dr. Chen sat in the same place for a while, recalling the question he had just been asked, and as a result, he felt funny again and chuckled to himself a few times, until Guan Qijun called to discuss the matter of the heart source with him.

After he left Qimeng, Guan Qijun went to a new company, and also quickly made it to the position of the secretary of the president. On the surface, he no longer had any involvement with Ou Renjin, but after all, he had been with Ou Renjin since he was a child, and had seen him struggle to reach this point along the way, but because of his heart condition, Ou Renjin had never made any plans for the future, as if he had acquiesced to the fact that he had no future.

It became a sort of obsession for Guan Qijun.

And all those previous constant searches for the organ source still entered his dreams every now and then, and every time he repeated his mistakes and missed them. It was simply the most terrifying nightmare for him.

“My friend told me that there is a vegetative patient who has been lying in the hospice for several years and may not be able to last long. His family has already signed the consent form for organ donation. I’ve applied there first to see if it can be a match with Ou Renjin. I’ve sent you the contact details of the hospital over there on WeChat, you can contact them, I won’t show up.”

“Okay, I’ll talk to President Ou right away and get back in touch with them.” Having good news always makes people happy. Dr. Chen smiled, “It’s a coincidence that you are calling now. President Ou came over for a routine check-up today and just left.

“By the way, he came over specifically to find me and took away the organ donation consent form Ou Shaowen signed earlier.”

Guan Qijun was silent for a moment, and then whispered “I expected that”. He asked, “What are the results of the check-up? Is he okay?”

“He’s fine, no tendency to get worse.”

“He also asked me a particularly interesting question.” Dr. Chen found it funny and cute when he thought about it, and shared lightly, “You know Ou Shaowen’s physique is special and his wounds heal extra fast, right? He was therefore whimsical at home and told President Ou that he thought he could grow a new complete heart again after it was taken out.”

As he said this, he was amused again, “Maybe he is really worried about President Ou. I think he was sincere when signing this organ donation consent form. Quite crazy.”

Guan Qijun also let out a face-saving chuckle. Then, he suddenly stopped. There was an unexplainable feeling that slowly rose up from the bottom of his heart.

“Ou Renjin asked you specifically?”

“Well, he asked me if this kind of thing was possible.”

“Then… is it possible?”

Dr. Chen smiled and scolded: “What do you say, have you also gone crazy?”

“Ou Renjin has asked you this kind of unbelievable thing, so I’ll just follow suit and ask.” Guan Qijun said jokingly, but his eyes were a bit weird, “If there’s nothing else, I’ll hang up now.”

After hanging up, he held the phone, wondering if he was really going crazy.

Guan Qijun stared at the dark mobile phone screen blankly for a while, and found Ou Shaowen’s phone in his contact page.

This number was the one he had helped him to apply for before, but he didn’t know if Ou Shaowen had gotten a new one since he had gotten an ID card. He stared at the number for a while, smiling to himself.

If Ou Renjin found out again, he wouldn’t let him go so easily this time, would he?

……

Ou Shaowen’s group’s long-awaited show that had been filmed for a long time finally went live. It was originally a low-budget, homemade show, but it quickly rose to the top on the exclusive video sites thanks to the popularity of the nine boys.

Ou Renjin went to the hospital for a match today and took a day off to rest at home. Finally, he had the time to indulge himself and swipe Weibo, and saw the manifesto of “Ou Shaowen’s evil cult cp” fans.

The ID obtained was particularly provocative.

Has Brother Shaowen broken up with President Ou today? The man I love is not my lover, every inch of his heart belongs to another. Brother Shaowen, look at Houyue, he is the one who loves you the most.

There was also a link to a cp video clip.

Ou Renjin was not very angry, but instead let out a “tsk” twice and clicked on it curiously.

Previous / ToC / Next

The anger burned to the apex but all together he had calmed down. He thought: this kid could never remember the lesson. Every time he said he remembered it, it didn’t enter his heart at all, and he didn’t understand the real reason for his anger. 

Ou Shaowen regarded himself as a grass shoe, never cared about himself, and didn’t feel that he should be cherished.

The fact that he had a special physique further contributed to this mentality, and over time, without the fear of injury and death, he must have become accustomed to hovering on the edge of danger.

Ou Renjin was actually not too patient, and was too lazy to reason with him slowly, word for word, so let’s leave it at that. If Ou Shaowen really cared about him as much as he showed he did, using himself as the restraint should work.

“I’ll remember.” Ou Shaowen nodded with tears in his eyes.

“In the future, if I find out that you’ve been hurt, I’ll settle the score.”

“Okay, but…” Ou Shaowen raised his eyes, met Ou Renjin’s gaze and shook his head again, “nothing.”

But he had often been injured in his dance practice, and, usually, if he didn’t say anything, these injuries would heal quickly before anyone knew.

But if he retorted at this point, Ou Renjin would be angry again. He would just be more careful not to hurt himself in the future.

Ou Renjin glanced at the wound on his palm that almost stopped bleeding and incidentally glanced at the time on his watch, “It’s been twenty minutes, go back to practising, I’m going down.”

“Your wound?”

“I’ll take care of it.” The wound looked long, but it wasn’t very deep.

The little bit of blood he had just dripped was still on the floor, and Ou Renjin took out a pack of tissues from his pocket, squatted down and wiped the already nearly coagulated blood on the floor little by little.

Ou Shaowen wanted to help, but halfway through reaching out, he remembered the punishment of not being able to touch Ou Renjin for two months, so he shrank back sadly.

Ou Renjin stood up, raised his chin slightly in the direction of the door, and motioned to him to help open it, “You don’t have to call me again tonight. It’s too late, I might go to bed when I go back. You can practise well.”

“Okay.” Ou Shaowen didn’t seem to know what else to say other than that word anymore. Still a little stunned, he walked with Ou Renjin to the elevator and quietly watched him enter it.

The moment before the elevator door was about to close, Ou Renjin gazed into his eyes and a little light smile suddenly appeared on his lips, like a melting glacier and a warm spring breeze, “I like you a little more today than I did yesterday. Good night, I will miss you when I go to bed.”

He seemed to have precisely calculated the moment when the elevator door closed. After Ou Shaowen finished hearing the last word of the sentence, the door had completely closed in front of him. So the light that suddenly lit up his eyes, the surprise and excitement that suddenly rose up were impossible for Ou Renjin to see.

“…Good night, and I like you a little more than I did yesterday too.” Ou Shaowen looked at the elevator door that had been closed for a long time, and slowly smiled.

His bad mood just went away so quickly. As long as he was sure that Ou Renjin still loved him and hadn’t made the decision to leave him yet, all the other little twists, turns and bumps on the road weren’t important things.

Instantly comforted, Ou Shaowen went back to practising with full energy.

He was already familiar with these dances to the point where he had them in his muscle memory. The reason why he kept practising was largely to cooperate with his teammates without getting a special treatment, so he indulged himself while dancing and started to think about Ou Renjin.

He was so kind!

Ou Shaowen was not stupid. At this moment, he was slowly experiencing a bit of sweetness emerging from the panic and sadness he’d felt just now. He knew that Ou Renjin wanted to tell him that he didn’t like to see him hurt, whether he could heal quickly or not.

So when Ou Renjin threatened him with himself, Ou Shaowen wanted to emphasise that he could recover quickly, but he didn’t dare to say it.

He thought again of the way Ou Renjin had just looked at him with a blank face, and suddenly his earlobes turned a little red.

So when he took a break at the end of a song, he hurriedly sent a message.

“I’m practising dance, but I always think of the way you taught me just now.”

Ou Renjin was still in the car on the way back. After receiving the message, he began to consider whether he was really too fierce just now.

“Scared you?” Obviously he had deliberately calmed down the kid a little before leaving.

“No. Although it’s a bit inappropriate to say this, I just suddenly thought you were so handsome like that! Just thinking about it makes my heart beat a bit faster.”

Ou Renjin froze for a moment, couldn’t hold back his laughter, and reprimanded in a low voice, “Suck-up.”

He was too lazy to type with a sore hand, so he replied with a voice message, “Okay, I received your heartfelt message for today.”

It was a deliberately bland sentence, but with a little chuckle at the end he couldn’t restrain.

He thought Ou Shaowen was cute and a bit of a headache at the same time.

Only ten minutes had passed, and this kid was cheerfully teasing him again. Who knows if he had taken to heart his warning words just now.

At the red light, He Yixin glanced at him, and seeing him with such a helpless smile, he felt that the sense of oppression in the car was slightly relieved.

“Looking at you like this, I don’t think you quarrelled with Ou Shaowen?”

“With him?” Ou Renjin shook his head, “I couldn’t quarrel with him even if I wanted to, he’s the best at being coquettish with you while looking innocent.”

“Tsk.” He Yixin clicked his tongue, “I really didn’t expect there would be a day when I’d hear you say such things in front of me.

“Then did you ask him about things like organs being able to regrow, and why he was so sure about it?” He Yixin hadn’t believed this statement at all; it was just that in that situation at the time, he was afraid that if he accidentally irritated Ou Shaowen, he would prove what he said by plunging the knife that had already been stuck into his palm directly into his heart in front of him.

He didn’t dare to bet.

He casually guessed, “Is it possible that he’s actually had his organs transplanted?”

Ou Renjin’s expression then went cold again, and he certainly didn’t really believe in such unthinkable things as a heart being removed and a new one growing.

But he knew that Ou Shaowen must have been sincere when he said those words. He felt that way from the bottom of his heart, believing in it as much as he believed that his wounds would heal quickly.

“Maybe in his perception, he did have his organs transplanted? That perception can be artificially instilled. You will be unconscious for a few hours and then wake up with a cut on your stomach. Then someone tells you that you had an organ taken out, but it’s okay, you’ll grow a new one. And how will you know what the real fact is?”

He Yixin’s heart was chilled as he listened, “What kind of person would be ruthless enough to do such a thing?”

“Who knows, this world is so big, there are all kinds of perverts.” Ou Renjin lowered his eyes, pressed a tissue to his wound and stopped talking.

The next day, Ou Renjin went to the hospital for a routine check-up and made a special trip to the office to see Dr. Chen.

He sat in front of his desk, leaning forward and knocking on his desk, “I heard that last time Ou Shaowen signed a consent form for organ donation with you?”

“Yes.” Dr. Chen could still vividly recall that scene to this day, “Signed without hesitation.”

“Can you show it to me?”

Dr. Chen looked at him steadily for a long time, sighed, lowered his head, opened the locked drawer and took out the donation consent form.

“I felt bad about it before, I always thought he couldn’t take responsibility for the decision yet, so I held it back and didn’t report it.” The next sentence contained a hint of mockery, “I knew you would come over to take it back, so it waited for you.”

Ou Renjin looked over the two pages seriously. The signature on the last page was firm and crisp, and indeed there was not a hint of hesitation to be seen.

“There is one more question I want you to ask.” He closed the consent form solemnly and raised his head with a serious expression, “Ou Shaowen’s wounds heal quickly, something I assume you have case notes on.”

“Yes.”

“With that rate of healing, do you think it’s possible that he could, after taking out a certain organ…” he said, feeling ridiculous himself and wondering if he would be a laughing stock in the doctors’ community by asking about such things, “…regrow a new and complete organ in his body?”

Previous / ToC / Next

“Eh?” Ou Shaowen turned and looked at Ou Renjin suspiciously, “Why do you suddenly come up here? Did you leave something with me?”

He had by now changed into a black T-shirt for practice and explained, “I left the clothes I just changed in the dressing room.”

Ou Renjin’s gaze was cold, and a little fake smile curved his lips, “I’ve called your manager and borrowed you for twenty minutes.”

Ou Shaowen blinked and quietly pressed his thumb to the wound he had just made, no longer feeling any pain at all.

“Oh.” He realised what Ou Renjin wanted to say to him and followed behind him somewhat nervously.

He Yixin had already told him, hadn’t he, that the reason why he had felt touched before was all due to a misunderstanding. At this moment, for some reason, he suddenly remembered what Ou Renjin had said in that interview programme, where he said that he actually enjoyed being loved, and then the host asked him, “You have been with Ou Shaowen the longest, is it because he loves you the most?”

Ou Renjin denied it at the time.

But for some reason Ou Shaowen just felt that what the host said was correct, that it perfectly matched his perceptions and answered his doubts. He believed that her words were correct, because only then could he understand why Ou Renjin had been so good to him, why he had never left him, why he was willing to continue to have a sweet relationship with him.

Everything in this world had a cause and effect, everything that was gained had to be paid for first, and that was the way it was.

It was because he loved Ou Renjin more than his exes that Ou Renjin loved him more than any of his boyfriends.

He clenched his fists and wondered, somewhat dejectedly, if… now that Ou Renjin had learned that his previous willingness was because he would not have died of it at all, had learned he was aware of it but hesitated to tell him the truth, would he stop feeling that he loved him more than the others?

Wouldn’t he stop loving him too?

It was all his fault. He had vowed to show more love to Ou Renjin, so that he could be more convinced of this fact. But the result was that he was a liar who would only make up his mind for a moment, and as soon as it was over, he would forget it all about his determination. In the end, as before, he passively accepted everything Ou Renjin gave him from start to finish. 

He had done nothing for him.

The itinerary on his side was getting tighter and tighter, and even accompanying Ou Renjin to a meal had to be done in a hurry, watching the clock. It was too much trouble to fall in love with someone like him.

Ou Renjin took Ou Shaowen into an unoccupied room and locked the door, and when he turned around to look at him, he realised that Ou Shaowen’s eyes were downcast and his face was so sad that he was about to cry.

“Starting to act pitiful because you know I’m going to start scolding you?” He leaned back against the wall and looked at Ou Shaowen coldly, in an alienated yet serious manner, “Don’t think you can do whatever you want in front of me just because I once said that I can’t get angry when I face you.”

Ou Shaowen raised his eyes to glance at him before lowering them again, “I’m sorry.”

“Why are you sorry?”

“I didn’t tell you about this early on and caused you to misunderstand. But,” although he was sad, he explained calmly, “I only realised later… that what you thought was a little different from what I thought. I didn’t mean to hide it from you on purpose.”

“Who told you that I was angry about these things?” Ou Renjin raised his voice, interrupting him. He seemed to have returned to the mood of a long time ago, when he found out that Ou Shaowen had been left in the barren mountains after filming an advertisement, but foolishly walked all the way back alone. He felt that the person in front of him was pitiful and irritating; especially this look of being completely unaware of what he had done wrong was irritating.

Ou Shaowen blinked in surprise innocently, “So what are you angry about?”

He struggled to remember what else he had done wrong.

“Fine, you don’t know, do you? Then I’ll tell you properly, and when I’m done, I’ll take the punishment that was set aside last time and combine it with this one.” Ou Renjin lowered his voice, revealing a fierce aura that he would only demonstrate at the negotiation table, “Firstly, do you know He Yixin well? Why did you choose to tell him when you had a secret to reveal? What, do you trust him more than you trust me?”

“No.” Ou Shaowen shook his head, his tone and expression very calm because his heart was prepared for the worst, “He is the family member you personally introduced to me, I trusted him because I trusted you.”

“Your trust is given quite easily. Even blood brothers have scores to settle. The ties between parents and children can be broken. I am not a god, how can I be sure what all my relatives are like? He may indeed be a good man one second, but won’t good men be tempted?” Ou Renjin began his trademark pattern of oppressive rhetorical questions again, one after another, leaving little room for thought and deliberation.

Ou Shaowen seemed a little surprised by his questions, “I… haven’t thought about it that much.”

Ou Renjin came to his senses when hearing his response and suddenly calmed down. An embarrassment flashed in his eyes and he unnaturally avoided Ou Shaowen’s gaze. A person like Ou Shaowen, who was naturally clean and clear, would probably find his words just now so dark that they sent chills down his spine.

After a pause, Ou Renjin went back to his rhythm, “Even if you trusted him because of me, why didn’t you just tell me?”

“I just… because I cared about you, I couldn’t say it all the more.” Ou Shaowen felt even more sad; his eyelashes fell softly, hiding the look in his eyes, “To you, I just couldn’t say it.”

“Why?” Ou Renjin’s voice lightened a little, but he still didn’t let him off the hook like that, insisting on asking, “Is there something about me that scares you?”

Those eyelashes fluttered gently, “I feared that you wouldn’t like me as much after you knew…  that I wouldn’t die for you.”

His words were light and airy, but they were like a heavy hammer that struck Ou Renjin’s heart. A boundless sourness spread out. It was undeniable that he was very distressed, distressed by this trembling person who could never accept love calmly. However, he suddenly felt a little tired again, and he began to wonder if this person’s character had already been formed and there would never be a way to change it.

He thought he had changed Ou Shaowen, but in fact Ou Shaowen had never changed.

He would think that if he didn’t dare to die for someone, he wouldn’t deserve to be loved.

“Do you think that I love you because you were willing to die for me?” His voice was low and flat, without ripples.

Ou Shaowen was acutely aware that Ou Renjin was sad. Say something quickly, he told himself.

But what was it Ou Renjin wanted to hear? He could not guess the correct answer.

If he had to answer the question according to his heart, he would answer, “Yes.”

For it was really as if only after that had Ou Renjin begun to be more and more gentle and tolerant towards him.

But he could tell that Ou Renjin didn’t want to hear that answer.

“So now that you know the truth, do you still like me?” He didn’t know how he was going to answer, so he asked what he most wanted to ask.

Ou Renjin was exasperated by him, “If you ask me that question again, I think I’m going to be sick.”

“Then I won’t ask.” Ou Shaowen hurriedly shut his mouth.

Ou Renjin took a few deep breaths, and after a long time, feeling that he could finally answer him calmly, he said word by word, “I still like you.”

Ou Shaowen finally raised his eyes to look at him, solemnly checking the expression on his face, and after confirming that he was serious, it was as if some burden had been lifted from him, and a layer of light rippled in the depths of his eyes as he stretched out his arms to hug Ou Renjin.

Ou Renjin took a step back, “It’s just that because of you, I feel sad and dejected.”

“Why? I’m sorry, I won’t let you be sad and dejected next time.”

Ou Renjin turned his face away, not directly answering his question, “Let’s continue with the topic just now. Secondly, He Yixin said that you showed him your ability to heal quickly. How did you show it?”

“Just…” Ou Shaowen tremblingly stretched his palm in front of him, like a child waiting for his teacher to slap him, “After making the wound, I let him watch the healing with his own eyes. This is more intuitive, and there is no need to explain more.”

There was still a light white mark on his palm, and if he didn’t say anything, no one would know that this had been a wound that had pierced his entire hand just over an hour ago.

Ou Renjin looked straight at it but didn’t reach out to touch it, “What kind of wound?”

“A knife… wound.” A kind of small animal-like intuition made Ou Shaowen nervous.

Ou Renjin spotted the narrow, tiny white mark on his palm that couldn’t possibly be a scratch, “How deep was it?”

After contemplating the thickness of his palm, Ou Shaowen turned his hand over to show him the back, “Just this deep.”

Ou Renjin turned his head away and faced the wall in silence for a moment before looking back at him, his tone flat, “Doesn’t it hurt?”

“It hurts a little,” in such an atmosphere, Ou Shaowen seemed afraid to tell a single lie, “just… a little.”

There was a long silence again, as if Ou Renjin had to expend a tremendous amount of strength to suppress those waves that were churning in his heart before he spoke again.

“And then? Did the wound heal quickly?”

“Yes, very quickly.”

“But you only demonstrated it to him, I didn’t see it, and there’s no way I can believe something I haven’t seen with my own eyes.”

“…Then, I’ll show you again?” Ou Shaowen asked in a small, tentative voice.

Ou Renjin’s throat moved and he spat out a “yes”.

“I’ll find a tool?” At this moment, Ou Shaowen was at a loss for words. He could only follow Ou Renjin’s instructions like a robot. There was a string in his mind that was tightly stretched, as if it could break at any time.

The room was a cloakroom, with rows and rows of hangers arranged together, full of clothes hanging, and next to them a workbench, perhaps used by the company’s stylists to occasionally alter clothes.

Ou Shaowen searched around blankly and found a utility knife in the pencil holder on the workbench. He took the knife and walked up to Ou Renjin.

“Then you watch carefully!”

“Good.”

There was nothing wrong with Ou Renjin’s expression. Ou Shaowen breathed a sigh of relief. He felt that he was probably too nervous just now, so he calmly took the blade and drew it towards his palm.

He also very thoughtfully switched hands, and remembering Ou Renjin’s strange demeanour and tone of voice just now, was prepared not to make it so horrific this time, just a slight cut, although this proof would be less powerful than before.

However, he felt it would be better not to frighten Ou Renjin.

The blade was halfway down and Ou Shaowen prepared to feel the pain when he saw a hand reaching out in the air in front of him, catching the sharp blade in its palm.

In that instant, it was as if a blinding light flashed in front of his eyes.

Ou Shaowen’s eyes narrowed subconsciously, and he took a step back in a stress reaction, pulling the knife away.

Ou Renjin let go, but his movement was too sharp and too violent, as if his ultimate goal was to make a wound on his palm.

As expected, the blade had already made a long and narrow cut in his palm, and the blood seemed to be still for half a moment before it slowly began to seep out of the wound, drop by drop, not raging, but continuous.

“What are you doing?” Ou Shaowen’s voice trembled. He dropped the knife and tried to cover Ou Renjin’s wound with his hand, but then withdrew it as if it were inappropriate. At this moment, he finally realised Ou Renjin’s premeditation and said in a hurry and panic, “You hurt yourself on purpose, why did you do that?

“I’ll look for something to stop the bleeding.” He really started crying, spinning around in place, dazed and confused, then pulled a random piece of clean cloth, trying to come over and bandage the wound.

Ou Renjin looked him straight in the eye and took a step back.

Ou Shaowen was most familiar with this action, a sign that he was not allowed to approach. He suddenly stopped moving and stood still as if he had lost his soul, tears falling from his eyes. But this time Ou Renjin did not come over to take him into his arms, softening his tone and coaxing him in a low voice.

“Didn’t we talk about it before? The punishment you were spared from before is combined with the punishment this time.” Ou Renjin stood still, his expression calm, “So, don’t touch me for two months from now on.”

“Can I… bandage the wound first?” Ou Shaowen sobbed, crying pitifully.

“Why are you crying?” Ou Renjin asked him, “It’s not like you’re the one who’s hurting, obviously.”

“Because you’re hurt and I… I’m sorry, I know I must have done something wrong, I can go two months without touching you, but don’t let yourself get hurt on purpose, okay?” From the moment they entered this room, his mind was a mess, and now, as he looked at Ou Renjin’s palm that was still bleeding continuously, vaguely, he seemed to understand what Ou Renjin wanted to say to him.

“I know I was wrong, I’ll correct it and promise never to do it again… woo woo woo woo.” His shoulders shuddered and he buried his face in his palms.

“Is it uncomfortable? Watching me get hurt.”

“Uh-huh.” Ou Shaowen confirmed in a sobbing, flustered voice.

“Okay, if you hurt yourself one more time on purpose, I’ll follow suit and hurt myself. Want to compete in not being afraid of pain? We can compete.” When Ou Renjin said this, his expression was still calm, but there was a certain madness in the depths of his eyes that had been suppressed for a long time.

This direction was actually not what Ou Renjin expected. He didn’t know how it suddenly changed from the frank communication he wanted to this way.

When Ou Shaowen said it seemingly very easily and casually that he made a wound in the palm of his hand just to demonstrate it in a more intuitive way so that there was no need to explain more, his anger couldn’t be suppressed.

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