CH 17

Lu Yong stood still and the light shone in through the French windows on his side, casting a thin oblique shadow in front of him which slowly draped over Shen Wenqiu’s shoulders. The shadow pressed down heavily, silently pressing Shen Wenqiu in place.

He was born with a tall body and an unfriendly face. Just standing straight silently could make people feel a strong aura. But when he got angry, it would be especially scary. When Lu Yong was angry, he would not make a lot of noise but he would be quieter, like a hibernating beast ready to hold you down and break your throat in the next second. There was a fearful aura emanating from all over his body.

So, the classmates in the previous class were always afraid of him.

Shen Wenqiu didn’t raise his head, and he could feel Lu Yong’s overly sharp gaze, pressing his head down even deeper. He put his hands on the table and held his right hand with his left hand, trying to stop the trembling, but he still kept shaking.

It was not because of fear.

It was obviously in the middle of summer, but he felt as if he had returned to the snowy day from ten years ago. He was in a trance. Suddenly he felt that he had abandoned Lu Yong again, feeling as if he was the one standing in the snow instead of Lu Yong.

In fact, he didn’t sleep well, so he lied to Lu Yong. He closed his eyes as if he was dreaming yet he didn’t know if it was considered as dreaming or not. He woke up and fell asleep at night, feeling restless, and finally stayed up till a glimmer of the sky could be seen outside. He thought, It’s probably morning already, I should just get up.

He didn’t know what to do. He didn’t take a shower last night, so he went to the bathroom to wash his hair and take a shower.

A few strands of hair fell while blowing drying his hair. Shen Wenqiu picked it up and found a gray hair. He stared at the gray hair for an unknown length of time.

He came back to his senses.

Shen Wenqiu thought, It turns out that I have reached the age of growing  gray hair, huh?

These years seemed to have passed in the blink of an eye.

After graduating from high school, his shoe size didn’t increase, his height didn’t increase, his weight didn’t increase, his soul seemed to be trapped at the age of twenty, and he didn’t progress any further.

He always felt that he was still young. He felt like he was a boy who had just entered society, and he wasn’t used to anything yet. His father even said he was childish.

So he became a social rubbish.

…One could also say that this gray hair had already started to grow.

He just didn’t pay attention to it before, so he only found out about it now. He found that many, many years had passed.

He gently threw his hair into the trash can, wiped the vanity and the spilled water clean. He then felt that those things were placed messily, so he tidied it up again, and then felt that the mirror seemed a bit dirty again, so he continued to wipe the mirror. One after another, he tidied up the entire bathroom inside and out carefully, even the tile cracks were not spared.

It’s dirty.

So dirty!

Shen Wenqiu suddenly felt unbearably uncomfortable. He started to tidy up the room like crazy, suffocating himself, and doing it lightly to avoid waking Lu Yong.

He flipped a few bags out and filled in all the garbage he made in the living room.

He kept throwing and throwing, and filled several bags.

He only stopped when there was really nothing to put in the garbage bag. He then found that he had cleaned the entire living room. The traces of his life left here during this period of time had almost completely disappeared.

He just needed to wash the blanket he slept with and it would be completely gone.

There was nothing left. Shen Wenqiu stood alone in the slightly empty living room for a while. The air conditioner made him feel chilly, so he moved his feet and lifted all the garbage bags outside the house.

Shen Wenqiu didn’t feel sleepy anyway, so he washed his hands and then immersed himself in cooking until Lu Yong woke up.

He invited him to dinner.

And raised the issue about leaving.

Shen Wenqiu finally stopped shaking, he raised his head and looked back at Lu Yong. Then he also stood up, took the bowl out of Lu Yong’s hand, tried to ease the freezing atmosphere with a gentle chuckle, and said, “Place it there, I will wash the dishes. I have lived in your house for almost a month, and I feel like I have no manners at all. I just ate and drank like a freeloader and didn’t even do housework.”

“I will clean up today, and I will wash the blankets later.”

“Isn’t the Mid-Autumn Festival near? I want to go back to visit my father’s grave. Nothing will work out if I keep living with you all the time, I have to find a job.”

“I still owe you money…”

“Oh, by the way, I cleaned up all the garbage and put it outside by the door. When I leave, I will go downstairs and throw it away. Don’t worry.”

He used to be the most delicate when he stayed in Lu Yong’s house. He also knew that he should take the bowl. He just wanted to make Lu Yong impatient and angry with him, but Lu Yong just didn’t get angry.

He waited for Lu Yong to speak. The longer his silence, the more restless his heart became.

He thought that even if Lu Yong asked him to stay, he could no longer be indecisive.

Lu Yong even picked up a sick puppy on the side of the road, and sponsored so many girls that were unrelated to him to study. Of course, he would not bear to watch him stay on the street.

Shen Wenqiu just watched the gurgling bubbles in the saucepan for half an hour and had already figured out how to lie. Lu Yong was so stupid that he could lie to him.

After a while, Lu Yong finally said, “Did you leave the garbage at the door?”

Shen Wenqiu said “En” and repeated, “I’ll take it and throw it away.”

It wasn’t like he didn’t see Shen Wenqiu trembling just now, so Lu Yong suppressed his anger and made himself less scary, but it was counterproductive. He couldn’t look in the mirror, and didn’t know how terrifying his face was at this moment. “Has it been sorted?”

“……what?”

Shen Wenqiu was startled, “Do we need to sort it out? Is it included in your community rules?”

Lu Yong said, “I can sort it out. Aren’t there trash bags of several colours in the drawer? They are used to sort the garbage.”

Shen Wenqiu had really never observed how Lu Yong cleaned up the garbage before. He blushed at the thought of stuffing everything into the bag and said, “I’m sorry. I don’t know.”

“I, I’ll go divide it up.”

Shen Wenqiu began to feel uncomfortable once again as if his obsessive-compulsive disorder had been suddenly attacked. There was nothing else he could do, and he just wanted to fix his relationship with Lu Yong before leaving. As a result, he couldn’t even clean up the garbage properly, he didn’t even know how to sort it out. Probably children were better than him.

Lu Yong shook his head, “You can’t sort it out, I’ll do it.”

Shen Wenqiu could only say, “Then I will take the pot and wash it.”

There was an integrated dishwasher in the kitchen. He rinsed the tableware, put them in the dishwasher, and pushed the operate button. The door was open. Shen Wenqiu heard the sound of plastic bags being opened, and some rustling could be heard as things were poured out.

Shen Wenqiu wiped his hands and went out to see.

Lu Yong had dumped out almost all the garbage. He squatted on the ground while wearing a suit, leather shoes, and plastic gloves with one leg bent on his knees. He was categorising different types of garbage.

He has a stern and serious expression on his face. In fact, it didn’t look like he was picking up litter. He looked like an elite police officer  investigating clues to a murder.

Bottles, cans, and cardboard waste were first put in a green bag. He said, “I usually give goods like this that would sell well to a nearby Grandpa Chen who collects junk in a nearby neighbourhood.”

“Paper can be used to make recycled paper. One tonne of waste paper can make 800 kilograms of good paper. It can also be used to generate electricity, be turned into feed or fertiliser, and so on.”

“Plastic bottles are compressed and smashed, washed and dried, melted and refined, and they will turn back to polyester fibre, which is a common polyester that can be used to make clothes.”

“Even wet kitchen waste can be used for fertiliser, oil extraction, and biogas power generation after accumulation and fermentation.”

Shen Wenqiu asked, “There are no regulations yet, right?”

Lu Yong said, “If there is no regulation, should you just throw it out simply? I can’t control others. I control myself. I just don’t think they are mixed up garbage.”

Lu Yong seemed to have forgotten that Shen Wenqiu was leaving. He cleaned it up neatly. When he had only one hand, it didn’t hinder his work. Now that he had two hands, he was faster.

Shen Wenqiu silently watched him use that 800,000-dollar hand to pick out the trash without complaining about the dirtiness. He couldn’t help and said dryly, “I’m sorry. I just piled up the trash indiscriminately. And now you’ll have to re-sort the garbage.”

“It’s not garbage.” Lu Yong retorted, “Everything’s just misplaced. One could say that it is a misplaced resource. They are all useful once you find a suitable way to handle them.”

Obviously, Lu Yong wasn’t scolding him, but Shen Wenqiu always felt that he was being taught a lesson in a fierce manner.

Shen Wenqiu pursed his lips tightly and said nothing.

Lu Yong finally sorted the trash again and took the mop over to remove the dirty water that came out when he sorted the trash. He worked fast and vigorously. Shen Wenqiu saw that his arm muscles were puffing up even though he was just mopping the floor. But it was as if he was using some weapon, every muscle in his body seemed to be fully charged and would explode soon.

Rip——!

There was a slight ripping sound.

Lu Yong stopped the overly-rough movement of doing housework and glanced at his shirt. The stitching joint of the shirt on his arm had actually ripped.

Shen Wenqiu: “…”

Lu Yong: “……”

Shen Wenqiu asked unconsciously, “Then what should we do with the shirt?”

Lu Yong replied without difficulty, “I can sew clothes, and I can continue to wear them after I sew them.”

Shen Wenqiu said, “You are now the president. Why are you still wearing stitched clothes?”

Lu Yong was not ashamed of it and said openly and naturally, “Why not? You can wear it after being sewn. Anyway, the recycling industry was originally called a beggars union. To be exact, it was a beggars union in ancient times.”

Lu Yong was angry.

Shen Wenqiu was also anxious about the flame burning in his heart. He grabbed the mop from his hand and said, “I’m going to wash the mop. It’s already so late, you should go to work. You are the boss, are you taking the lead in being late?”

Lu Yong did not speak as followed behind him and went back to the room.

Shen Wenqiu pretended not to care, thinking that if he didn’t ask for him to stay, it meant that he was allowing him to leave by default. In fact, every cell in his body was watching Lu Yong who was behind him. He only took two steps into the room and heard the sound of a falling lock.

“Click. Ding.”

The door was locked.

Lu Yong asked, “Where is the spare room card I gave you?”

Shen Wenqiu was taken aback, he forgot about it, turned around, took out his room card from his pocket, and handed it to Lu Yong.

Lu Yong finally drove him away. Shen Wenqiu thought.

But he was not happy at all.

Lu Yong took it back, didn’t talk to him anymore, and went back to the room to change his clothes.

Shen Wenqiu looked at his closed bedroom door, his heart  was floating, couldn’t find a place to land again. He was a little scared. If Lu Yong kept him locked up, how could he leave? Climb a dozen floors down the fire corridor?

Lu Yong changed his clothes and carried the torn clothes in a bag. When he walked to the door, Shen Wenqiu followed quietly without saying anything.

Lu Yong seemed to accept it quietly and let him follow him into the elevator.

Both of them carried garbage bags in large and small bags.

Lu Yong pressed the basement floor, and Shen Wenqiu pressed the ground floor.

The elevator reached the ground floor first. Shen Wenqiu was about to go out when Lu Yong grabbed him with his right hand, the mechanical right hand. It felt cold, and it reminded Shen Wenqiu of the touch of handcuffs.

Shen Wenqiu turned his face, raised his head slightly, and looked at him. Lu Yong’s face was expressionless as if the hand was acting without the owner’s permission.

Shen Wenqiu stated, “Let go of me, Dayong. I will go from the ground floor.”

Lu Yong didn’t look at him, looked straight ahead, and said logically, “I just called someone from the company. I’m not going to the company today. I’ll take you back. I’ll see with my own eyes where you go back to live, and what kind of job you are looking for.”

Every word was filled with chills.