CH 74

Zhou Yan’s court hearing started at 10:00 am on Wednesday. Before that, Chen Yuncheng would need to pick up Gu Yaojia and then drive nearly two hours to get to the court. If they didn’t want to leave early in the morning, they had to drive to Gu Yaojia’s hometown the day before, stay for one night, and pick up Gu Yaojia the next morning.

It didn’t matter how Chen Yuncheng arranged it, but Ning Junyan’s time was too valuable. In order to accompany Chen Yuncheng to the court hearing, he had purposely adjusted his duty and took annual leave.

When Chen Yuncheng thought about it, he seemed a little sorry for Ning Junyan, who had already accompanied him on several trips for Zhou Yan’s affairs. However, Chen Yuncheng couldn’t help but want to rely on Ning Junyan again. Probably because there were too few people he could rely on since he was a child. At this time, he especially hoped that Ning Junyan could be by his side.

Tuesday’s departure was a little later than expected because Ning Junyan was on duty the night before and encountered an emergency operation at dawn, which delayed them a whole morning.

Ning Junyan drove over to pick up Chen Yuncheng in the afternoon.

Chen Yuncheng was explaining some things to Wu Xiaozhu in the store when he saw Ning Junyan arriving, he immediately said, “Wait for me for two minutes.” Then he went into the room to pack his things.

Guan Anlin was sitting on a small chair at the door of the shop playing mobile games, when he saw Ning Junyan coming, he stood up and walked towards him.

Chen Yuncheng simply packed some things and carried a small backpack, and came out with a few bottles of mineral water in a plastic bag. He carried his things to the store door and saw Guan Anlin talking to Ning Junyan. But when he came near, Guan Anlin stopped talking and said to him, “Be careful on the way.”

“What are you talking about?” Chen Yuncheng asked suspiciously.

Guan Anlin said, “I asked him if he wanted to have a cigarette, seeing as he didn’t seem to be in good spirits.”

When he heard that, Chen Yuncheng turned his head to look at Ning Junyan and saw that he looked really haggard. He was on duty last night and had gotten up in the early hours of the morning to do emergency surgery, so he must be very tired by now.

“Let me drive,” Chen Yuncheng said to Ning Junyan.

Ning Junyan did not refuse this time, nodded and said, “I’ll sleep for a while.”

As Chen Yuncheng drove out of the city onto the highway, Ning Junyan put the back of the passenger seat down and lay on his back in the car to catch up on his sleep.

There was very soothing music playing in the car, and Chen Yuncheng turned the volume down very low, not wanting to disturb Ning Junyan’s sleep. He remembered the last time he drove to Zhou Yan’s hometown with Ning Junyan. That time Ning Junyan drove the whole time, while he slept in the car for a long time. They were not together at that time, and he was still full of hope that he could successfully find Zhou Yan.

Halfway through the trip, Chen Yuncheng stopped the car at the rest stop and went to the bathroom.

He hesitated when he got out of the car, wanting to wake up Ning Junyan, but seeing how soundly Ning Junyan was sleeping, he could not bear to call him, so he opened the car door and got out alone.

Today was neither a weekend nor a holiday. There were not many cars at the highway rest stop, and only a few cars were parked far away in the spacious parking lot.

A gust of wind blew towards his face, and Chen Yuncheng immediately felt a chill.

Spring seemed to be getting shorter and shorter these years. After winter, once the weather turns cold, it felt like the weather always rushed into summer, as if there were only two seasons left in a year, and half of them were long summers. When he went out, he only put on a long-sleeved jacket over a short-sleeved T-shirt.

Chen Yuncheng turned to look at Ning Junyan, then returned to the car gently, took off his coat and covered Ning Junyan, and was left with only a short sleeve.

When he returned from the bathroom, he saw from the car window that Ning Junyan seemed to have moved, so he walked over, pulled open the passenger door, stood in front of him, and asked softly, “Are you awake?”

Ning Junyan blinked his eyes and opened them slowly. He then stretched out his hands towards Chen Yuncheng after seeing him, and said, “Wife, hug me.”

Chen Yuncheng burst out laughing and said in disgust, “Nuts.” Although he said so, when he saw no one was around, he still reached out and hugged Ning Junyan, and asked him, “Do you want to go to the bathroom?”

Ning Junyan said, “Not going.” He lowered his head and saw the coat on his body, and stretched out his hand to grab it for Chen Yuncheng to put it back on.

Chen Yuncheng tried to refuse, “You will be cold when you sleep.”

“It’s not cold.” Ning Junyan put on his coat and even zipped it up patiently. “You can turn on the air conditioning1 if you’re cold.”

Chen Yuncheng asked him, “Then shall we continue to set off?”

Ning Junyan nodded and said, “Let me drive.”

“That won’t work,” Chen Yuncheng refused him, “What if you get me killed if you drive when you are tired?” After he said that, he raised his hand to help Ning Junyan close the passenger’s door, and walked around to the driver’s seat to get in the car.

Ning Junyan adjusted the back of the chair, took a bottle of water and unscrewed the lid. He took a sip slowly and put it back, and after Chen Yuncheng started the car, he said, “I won’t get you killed, you don’t have to be afraid of anything when you’re around me, if you’re really in danger, I’ll protect you with my life.”

Chen Yuncheng had already driven the car slowly out of the parking space. When he heard Ning Junyan’s words, he couldn’t help slamming on the brakes. He glanced at him and said, “Don’t say such things.”

Ning Junyan continued, “I am willing to do anything for you, so you can’t just refuse my request in the future.”

Chen Yuncheng let go of the brakes and felt that Ning Junyan was too troublesome. He was so passionate one second and started talking nonsense the next second, making Chen Yuncheng so unsettled, that he could only glare at him in the end.

They arrived in the county where Gu Yaojia’s hometown was located in the evening. Chen Yuncheng had already contacted Gu Yaojia before. Gu Yaojia insisted on accommodating them, but Chen Yuncheng found an excuse to refuse and only said that he would pick her and the child up early in the morning.

They randomly found a clean-looking restaurant on the side of the road to have dinner, and then drove to the hotel they had booked.

Chen Yuncheng booked a double-bed room. He thought that since they were both tired from the half-day drive and had to continue tomorrow, a double-bed room would allow both of them to rest well.

But when they opened the room, Ning Junyan was not satisfied and asked the front desk to change them to a king-size room.

Chen Yuncheng lowered his voice, approached Ning Junyan’s ear, and said, “Don’t you want to rest well?”

Ning Junyan said calmly, “I sleep better with you in my arms.”

Chen Yuncheng felt a little bashful, and saw the hotel receptionist watching them and waiting for them to decide, so he said, “Let’s change.”

But when they arrived in an unfamiliar room in an unfamiliar environment, with Ning Junyan and Chen Yuncheng lying in the same bed, obviously not just to cuddle him and sleep better.

Chen Yuncheng was also aroused by him, raised his arms to hug his shoulders, lying on his back to look at him, “Aren’t you tired?”

Ning Junyan said, “I slept all afternoon.”

Chen Yuncheng said, “But I drove all afternoon.”

Ning Junyan pressed against his earlobe and said, “Then you rest. It’s my turn now.”

After he was done, Chen Yuncheng didn’t even want to move a finger, so Ning Junyan held him in his arms, reached out and took a tissue from the bed and wiped the marks on his body.

Chen Yuncheng looked up at the ceiling and said, “Suddenly I want to smoke.”

Ning Junyan said, “It’s not good for your health.”

Chen Yuncheng turned to look at him, “Is indulgence good for your health?”

Ning Junyan looked straight into his eyes and said flatly, “It’s not good to hold back either.”

Chen Yuncheng smiled.

Ning Junyan brushed aside the hair on Chen Yuncheng’s forehead with his fingers. Chen Yuncheng’s hair had grown a little longer, allowing Ning Junyan to insert his fingers into the middle of his hair. Ning Junyan stroked his slightly sweaty forehead and said, “So you have to tell me if you want to.”

Chen Yuncheng smiled and said nothing, not pursuing the question of who wanted this more.

Ning Junyan continued, “Not only your physical needs, but you also have to tell me about other needs too.”

Chen Yuncheng asked strangely, “What are the other needs?”

Ning Junyan propped his head up with one hand and said slowly, “The 100,000 yuan you need now.”

Chen Yuncheng sat up from the bed at once, turned to look at Ning Junyan, showing a surprised expression, and quickly realized, angrily said, “Guan Anlin!”

Ning Junyan frowned, “Don’t call other men’s names on my bed.”

Chen Yuncheng ignored him and just asked, “Did he tell you that?”

Ning Junyan said, “Shouldn’t you reflect on the fact that you still need someone else to tell me such things?”

Chen Yuncheng sighed, and said to Ning Junyan, “I can’t borrow any more of your money.”

Ning Junyan reached out to him, “Come here.”

Chen Yuncheng asked, “What for?” But he leaned over anyway.

Ning Junyan held him tightly in his arms and said, “You have to cuddle and talk.”

Chen Yuncheng said helplessly, “Okay, okay. Let’s cuddle and talk.”

The author has something to say:

Let’s continue tomorrow, I should take a shower too