CH 47

Chapter 47 Game

“Shizi…get up…”

“Wait a little longer…my knees are still a little numb,” Liu Zhongming lied against his will, making a blunt excuse for his inability to look away: “Steward Lin is right, your face should be treated, go to the residence doctor tomorrow, otherwise… otherwise…”

Qu Chenzhou gave a very light “en”.

In fact, Liu Zhongming didn’t know what “otherwise” was, he was just racking his brains trying to explain himself. The soft numbness on his knees receded a little and he propped himself up on his knees, then finally thought of a good excuse.

“Otherwise, it would be too embarrassing to take you out in the future.”

Qu Chenzhou’s eyelashes trembled slightly.

“Too embarrassing….” 

A long time ago, he used to cry like this, burying his face in his knees: 

“Shizi, they said that the emperor won’t take me to meet people because he thinks I’m ugly, and too embarrassing to take out.”

“No!” The young man at that time asked angrily: “Who said that! I’ll teach him a lesson!”

“Don’t go…” He tearfully held the person back: “If you go, they will know it’s me who complained to you. When you are gone, they will bully me again. In fact, I…I know it myself…”

“Chenzhou! Look up at me! You are not ugly at all! Don’t worry, I will find someone to heal you! You will be cured no matter what!”

“Cured…then after…” He said nervously with selfishness.

But Zhongming didn’t give him an answer that day and disappeared for a few days. When they met again, he put a small jade pendant with a bell in his hand.

“I asked for it from the Buddhist Hall, it will ensure you are safe forever,” Zhongming blushed and said in a small voice, “It’s also… a token I’m giving you, wait for me…”

The 6 words that followed supported him in the years that followed, stopping his spine from falling – wait for me to marry you.

In the silence, Qu Chenzhou listened to his heavy breathing. After a while, he finally opened his eyes, hummed, and then slowly moved out from between Liu Zhongming’s knees.

For a moment, he got caught up in thinking, and forgot to pull Liu Zhongming up. Only when he pushed the door and went out did he remember and respond again.

“Thank you Shizi for reminding me, I understand.” 

With no one under him almost being crushed, Liu Zhongming sat on the ground. With bared teeth, he rolled up his trouser legs to take a look. It was worse than he imagined. His arms were bruised, injured by falling firewood.

But he didn’t care about these injuries. He sat on the ground for a while, then suddenly gave himself a slap on the face.

“What the h*ll was I saying.”

When he went to bed at night, he realized that Qu Chenzhou wasn’t in the sarong and had moved to the east wing.

Now that there was another Dan Lang in the inner courtyard, it made more sense for one to go east and one west, but Liu Zhongming laid on his bed for a long time. The cries of bugs and birds outside the window were even louder than usual causing him unable to sleep, his heart a little sullen.

He was a dignified Shizi, why does he need to put on an act for outsiders? Qu Chenzhou belonged to him, so why should he suffer such grievances?

When he was clear-headed, he was already standing outside the door of the east wing, his knuckles pressed against the door. He had knocked on the door and there was no way out.

He thought he might have gone mad without realizing it.

Qu Chenzhou quickly came to open the door, only wearing a Zhongyi (white clothes worn inside robes). He pinched the front of his lapel with two fingers, and looked at him from behind the half-closed door: “Why hasn’t Shizi slept yet?”

“I came out to take a walk.” Liu Zhongming reached out and pushed the door, and without waiting for anyone’s invitation, he stepped over the threshold by himself.

The east wing room was not big, there was no distinction between inside and outside (sometimes rooms have an inner section and outer section), there was only one space. He saw the medicine that he had sent on the table at a glance. He weighed it in his hand and asked, “Where is the injury?”

Qu Chenzhou closed the door behind him and followed him: “The back. There is no need to bother Shizi…”

Seeing Liu Zhongming motioning to the chair, he hesitated for a moment, then sat down and released his fingers holding his lapel.

Liu Zhongming helped him toss his clothes aside, then looked at the wound. His two shoulder blades were clearly protruding and the bruise was very severe. It went down along the gently undulating back, and there was also a dark red near the back waist.

Looking at the situation on his back, Qu Chenzhou wouldn’t be able to see the injury on his back and can only grope around and smear a little.

He really had a stubborn stinky temper that didn’t want to request for help.

Liu Zhongming sighed. When he saw the loose hair sticking to the wound and the medicine, he gathered it up, and the long black hair fell from his fingers like running water and fine sand.

He was stunned. He held his breath and drew his hair together again. His fingers seemed to be inserted into moist clouds and it was soft and smooth to touch.

Qu Chenzhou tilted his head, tied it together, and brought it to his chest: “Thank you, Shizi.” 

His hand was empty and a sense of loss involuntarily surged up. Liu Zhongming glanced at the hair, wrapped gauze around his fingertips, then poured some medicine and tapped it lightly on the wound.

“Next time if you need anything, ask someone to help you, don’t keep holding it in, no one will laugh at you. Does it hurt? Put your hair up higher, it’s covering it.”

Qu Chenzhou shook his head gently, then pulled up the loose hair higher.

Without the cover, he could clearly see a soft dip in the back of his neck. Liu Zhongming’s fingers stroked his butterfly bone (shoulder blades), somehow remembering what Ning Wang said – ecstasy eyes, he couldn’t help but follow his back to look down.

The dip in his back was deep, forming a dark shadow at the belt, while further down was obstructed.

As if he couldn’t bear the silence, he quickly heard Qu Chenzhou ask softly, “Isn’t the Shizi going over there?”

Liu Zhongming quickly realized what “over there” meant. If it was usual, he would’ve ran his mouth, but today he knew that he said something wrong in the afternoon, so he honestly explained: “I’m not going.” 

After thinking about it, he explained: “It wasn’t me in the afternoon, it was Fang Wuyang. He heard that I went and bought someone, begged me early in the morning, so I let him try something new…”

“When I brought Dan Lang back, I sent someone to look for Fang Wuyang and when the two of you were alone, I went to pick him up.”

“Don’t worry, he can imitate the voices of many people. Blindfolded, Dan Lang won’t find out.”

Liu Zhongming racked his brains, trying to explain clearly, but also didn’t want to lower his position. His heart was full of anxiety, for fear that Qu Chenzhou would say, “Shizi doesn’t need to explain this to me.” He was afraid of being embarrassed.

But he soon discovered that he was still too naive and thought of Qu Chenzhou too well.

The man pondered for a moment, then seriously agreed with his approach.

“That’s fine. He was born in the brothel. If Shizi was to go into battle in person, Dan Lang would soon discover that Shizi’s skills is shaky. The so-called having many flowers would not live up to it’s name. It is better to go with Fang Wuyang.”

“What did you say?” He thought he heard wrong, so he asked again.

Qu Chenzhou explained it to him concisely: “I said that Shizi’s bed skills might be  out of practice…”

“You!” Liu Zhongming was filled with anger surging to the top of his head. He unconsciously used his strength to poke into his back. “Say that one more time!”

Qu Chenzhou groaned in pain, and asked in surprise, “Am I wrong?”

Liu Zhongming felt that he was about to burst with anger in the next moment. He couldn’t help slander: “I’m not skilled at all, that’s right, but is it possible that you have slept with someone?”

He was originally angry and said it casually, but when he saw Qu Chenzhou’s shoulders suddenly tighten.

“…”

This silence was the most obvious acquiescence. Liu Zhongming felt sour in his heart, and after holding it in for a long time, he finally couldn’t help but ask: “Who…with who…a person you like?”

This time the silence seemed even longer, he finally gave an answer: “Someone I like, and someone I don’t like.”

Liu Zhongming’s fingers on his back stopped.

Qu Chenzhou turned his face sideways, but there was no smile in his eyes: “Sorry, I can’t comfort myself by saying ‘it’s over’. Since I’m alive, they will have to all die.”

This was the first time Liu Zhongming saw Qu Chenzhou so murderous. It didn’t look scary, but it hurt a little.

But the comfort at this time was a kind of pity that did not need to exist, and the other party was not someone who needed pity.

He wanted to ask about the past, but he knew that there would be no results. After thinking for a long time, he replied softly: “Then I will help you.”

Qu Chenzhou lowered his head slightly and returned to the silence again. He didn’t know if he heard him.

After the medicine was applied to the butterfly bone, his fingers slid down the dip. Qu Chenzhou straightened his waist following the gesture and the skin under his fingers moved. This was a wonderful touch, but it made him feel that something was wrong.

He could only half squat down to hide the reaction he shouldn’t have, then along the way, he helped apply it to a piece of his back waist. Out of the corner of his eye, he suddenly saw a little light brown on the edge of the belt, which looked a bit like the birthmark he had under his eye     

But before his fingers could touch it, Qu Chenzhou, who had been sitting obediently, jumped up like a live fish on a chopping block. He took a few steps back quickly, covered the birthmark, and said half ashamed and half angry: “Don’t touch it!”     

After he finished speaking, he realized that he seemed to have overreacted and quickly put his clothes on in embarrassment.     

“Thank you, Shizi, it’s getting late, Shizi should go back to rest.”     

Liu Zhongming was surprised, but since it was a taboo for the other person, he didn’t force it, but he didn’t leave. Instead he stretched out his hand: “Come back to sleep with me. The sun will shine here, you can’t sleep well in the morning.”     

“It doesn’t matter, I sleep very well…”     

Liu Zhongming was determined to take the person away tonight, and proposed: “Can I play a game with you?”     

“What game?” Qu Chenzhou was surprised, but also a little interested – they used to play some games together. It seemed silly to outsiders, but they never got tired of it.    

Liu Zhongming smiled, pulled off his hairband and handed it over: “Blindfold yourself.”

Qu Chenzhou took it, without asking anything, obediently blindfolded himself, and stood quietly in place.

“Give me your hand,” Liu Zhongming put out a hand: “From now on, I will tell you how to walk, and you will just do it. Take two steps forward.”

This is the game that his brother always played with him in the past. Brother once said – Zhongming, try to give all your trust to brother, brother will take you away.

At first, he was always uneasy, for fear that his brother would say the wrong thing, and for fear that he would fall if he took one step, so he always pulled down the blindfold to look.

Gradually, he knew that his brother was right, he only needed to trust him and he would definitely keep him safe.

Later, he also wanted to play the role of the guide. His brother was blindfolded, and he stumbled and stumbled under his mischievous leadership.

He laughed smugly, but his brother only patted his clothes without undoing the cloth straps on his eyes, allowing him to lead him.

Later, he no longer deliberately did bad things, but became more and more careful – someone truly trusted him, how dare he not live up to it, he was willing to live up to it.

Since his brother passed away, he dared not recall these details. The more he thought about it, the more he realized that it was so precious to have a person who was willing to trust him wholeheartedly.

Before Qu Chenzhou blindfolded himself, they could all see that there was a table not far in front of them. But according to Liu Zhongming’s judgment, Qu Chenzhou’s two steps would just stop in front of the table and would not collide with it.

He stared at the person in front of him, wondering if Qu Chenzhou would take these two steps.

Almost as soon as he finished speaking, Qu Chenzhou took the first step, then the second step. Standing, his body was less than a fist away from the table.

Liu Zhongming’s eyes suddenly turned red, and he did not dare to speak immediately, for fear that Qu Chenzhou would hear a choked voice when he opened his mouth.

“Chenzhou… turn left four steps.”

“Go forward, stop, lift your foot to the threshold, take two steps, go down the steps…”

The moon was bright and the wind was clear, the insects were rustling, his voice was soft, like carrying a fragile treasure. He led Qu Chenzhou to the bedroom step by step.

When he stood for a while in the courtyard, he looked back and saw the overlapping shadows of the two of them. He felt that the night seemed to be much gentler than before.

That night, Liu Zhongming slept sweetly after a long time. He didn’t know if it was a hallucination or a dream, but he seemed to be holding a hand the entire time.