Afterwards
When Zhou Yaoyun returned home, he came back to a messy room.
Whether if it was the bed or Ji Chen Ai, both were covered with blood. Looking at the crimson stains scattered around the floor, it was almost certain that someone had just died here. Yet, Zhou Yaoyun found that Ji Chen Ai was just sitting on the wheelchair, typing away on his computer.
Ji Chen Ai didn’t lock the door. Hearing the door open, he turned over and smiled at Zhou Yaoyun. “You’re back?”
“Brother…” Zhou Yaoyun’s voice was rather shaky. “What happened? Were you hurt? What about Liu Ziming?” He had just got back from playing basketball and was still wearing his jersey. When he saw this scene, the basketball in his hand fell directly to the ground.
“He left earlier,” Ji Chen Ai replied.
Zhou Yaoyun apparently didn’t believe him. He rushed over and examined Ji Chen Ai’s body. “Are you injured? What the hell is going on?”
Ji Chen Ai shook his head. “I’m all right. The blood isn’t mine.”
“Is it Liu Ziming’s blood? Brother… Tell me, what the hell is going on?” Zhou Yaoyun repeated. The room reeked with a fishy smell; the bed was wet with blood. Ji Chen Ai only cleaned the blood on his face and hands. There were still large red blotches on his clothes.
Ji Chen Ai said, “Can I not tell you?”
Zhou Yaoyun’s expression froze. “Brother, why?”
Ji Chen Ai looked away from him and continued to stare at his computer. “Because I also don’t know what’s going on.”
At his brother’s refusal to speak, Zhou Yaoyun couldn’t ask anymore questions. After a moment of silence, Zhou Yaoyun used his phone to call Liu Ziming.
A few beeps later, the call connected. Zhou Yaoyun went directly to the point, “Ziming, what happened to you?”
There was no sound on the other end of the phone. Zhou Yaoyun had asked him a few more questions, but he only heard a terrified howl before the line was cut off.
When Zhou Yaoyun scanned the messy room and the expressionless Chen Ai, somehow, he felt chills crawling up his spine. He suddenly realized that Zhou Yaoqin was really strange.
Ji Chen Ai listened to Zhou Yaoyun’s phone call and saw that the latter had hung up. He turned around and softly said, “Liu Ziming had been abusing and molesting me this whole time.”
Zhou Yaoyun was stunned. “What?”
“He’s a pervert,” Ji Chen Ai continued, “he approached you just for me.”
This time, Zhou Yaoyun was filled with shock. Besides being shocked, he also felt angry and wronged. “Brother, why didn’t you tell me earlier?”
How should I know why Zhou Yaoqin didn’t tell you? Ji Chen Ai thought. Perhaps he felt too humiliated to speak. Perhaps he didn’t want to drag Zhou Yaoyun down, so he chose silence.
Ji Chen Ai told Zhou Yaoyun this to reduce the psychological impact of those bloodstains. Afterwards, Zhou Yaoyun had called Liu Ziming’s home. Upon confirming that Liu Ziming had gone back, he stopped asking anymore questions and quietly picked up mattress, throwing it away.
But Yaoyun not really throw the mattress out, instead, he put it in a storeroom, to serve as evidence.
Once he finished all the work, Zhou Yaoyun said to Ji Chen Ai, “Brother, do you want to take a bath and change your clothes?”
Ji Chen Ai closed the website and nodded his head.
In the bath, Zhou Yaoyun looked especially serious. He seemed very worried on whether or not Ji Chen Ai had been injured, so he checks his brother’s body carefully before breathing out a sigh of relief.
Ji Chen Ai didn’t mind letting Zhou Yaoyun see his body. He leaned against the bathtub, blowing bubbles in his hands. Looking at Chen Ai’s appearance, the sadness shown on Zhou Yaoyun’s eyebrows lessened by half. A moment of silence settled over them, then Zhou Yaoyun said, “Brother, if anything happens to you in the future, you must tell me, okay?”
Ji Chen Ai glanced at him and nodded.
After the bath, Zhou Yaoyun held Ji Chen Ai and brought him to his bedroom. Ji Chen Ai’s room was uninhabitable now due to all the blood stains on the floor. It was impossible to stay there tonight.
When Zhou Yaoyun asked Ji Chen Ai to squeeze together with him for the night, the latter didn’t refuse.
These brothers lived together, but Zhou Yaoyun took up the task of taking care of his brother, doing the cooking, washing and housework. He was not like a typical seventeen or eighteen year old boy; he didn’t show any careless behavior expected from his age. On the contrary, he was extremely patient, as if he didn’t mind his brother’s indifference at all.
That night, Zhou Yaoyun cleaned up Chen Ai’s bedroom and said that he would find time tomorrow to buy a new mattress. Then, he took a shower and climbed into bed.
Ji Chen Ai’s body was very thin and small. Even if he stood at his full height, he was only barely 1.7 meters. As he laid on the bed, reading the book in his hands, he looked even more like a child.
Zhou Yaoyun stared at Chen Ai and said, “Brother, I haven’t massaged you today.”
Ji Chen Ai remembered that Zhou Yaoyun would massage him everyday, so he silently agreed.
Zhou Yaoyun took off Ji Chen Ai’s trouser and started massaging the root of his brother’s thighs. He was very skilled and meticulous from top to bottom, never forgetting to massage any easily neglected areas.
The massage lasted for more than an hour until Zhou Yaoyun began to feel himself sweat. “Brother, are you sleepy?”
Ji Chen Ai was indeed sleepy. Looking at Zhou Yaoyun smiling under the dim light, he felt that this was somewhat surreal. With such a brother, Zhou Yaoqin should’ve been happy.
“Yes, you should go to bed earlier, too,” Ji Chen Ai said.
After a day’s worth of training, Zhou Yaoyun returned home at night and did a lot of housework. Tired, he laid down beside Chen Ai and went to sleep.
Ji Chen Ai reached out, dimming the light slightly. Then, he asked Xiao Qi in his mind, “Do you have any memories that you didn’t give me?”
Xiao Qi was silent.
Ji Chen Ai said, “I will encounter this kind of thing again in the future. Are you going to be responsible for it?”
Xiao Qi said, “No, believe me…”
“Sure enough, you still have memories you haven’t shown me. Xiao Qi, even if you don’t show it to me, I’ll still need to face it sooner or later.”
Xiao Qi seemed to have suffered from injustice and replied, “This is the program written by the person who set me up. I can’t violate it. Memories that I don’t show you have serious negative energy that exceeds the limit…”
When Ji Chen Ai heard this, he knew that he could not persuade the system. He put the book aside and turned off the lights. “All right, good night.”
“Good night,” Xiao Qi weakly said.
Ji Chen Ai closed his eyes and thought of the days Zhou Yaoqin had been through. Sure enough, it wasn’t as good as he thought. However, if he was Zhou Yaoqin and had a brother like Zhou Yaoyun, he would’ve never chose to commit suicide.
Seriously read this at Shunraikitranslation okay, there’s a lot of awesome people here. we won’t eat you
The next day, Ji Chen Ai woke up earlier than Zhou Yaoyun. As soon as he opened his eyes, he saw the orange sunshine sprinkled onto the floor, looking ever so warm and lovely.
Ji Chen Ai suddenly reminisced his childhood. Shen Shuya told him that people all around the world adored the sun because it made them feel warm. If he was willing to invest[1] for others like the sun, many people would like him.
[1] 付出 [fùchū]: to invest (energy or time in a friendship etc)
Shen Shuya should live in a fairytale–only in fairytales would every good person have a good ending.
The sun was not investing in anything. It just existed in its own way. If you get too close, you would melt. The so-call investment was only a fragment of imagination made up by human beings.
Zhou Yaoyun, who just woke up, said, “Brother, shall I take you out for a walk? I need to buy a new mattress.”
Today was Sunday, and it was a nice day. The weather was good enough for a walk, so Ji Chen Ai agreed.
After breakfast, Zhou Yaoyun pushed Ji Chen Ai out of the house. They were going to walk to the nearby business centre. It wasn’t too far, only ten minutes away.
The pair always attracted everybody’s eyes. Some people watched discreetly, others casted their curious gazes directly. Ji Chen Ai was used to it, so his expression didn’t change. It was Zhou Yaoyun whose eyes showed a hint of irritability. He seemed very dissatisfied with other people’s attention on Ji Chen Ai.
When they got to the mall, Ji Chen Ai said, “I’ll wait for you at the coffee shop. You choose the mattress first, then come back to me.” The mall was crowded and inconvenient, and Ji Chen Ai was too lazy to squeeze through mobs of people.
Although he hesitated for a moment, Zhou Yaoyun agreed. He first steered Chen Ai into a coffee shop and then ordered some snacks and drinks. After talking to Chen Ai for a bit, Zhou Yaoyun left.
Ji Chen Ai took out an iPad from his bag. He was about to start watching the news when, suddenly, he felt something furry touch his hand. Looking sideways, he saw a huge white fluffy dog with a big mouth puffing happily.
The big dog whimpered. He opened his mouth and showed his tongue like he was smiling. Chen Ai reached out a hand to touch his head and asked, “Where’s your master?”
No one had walked into the shop just now, and the dog was clearly not here before, having just ran over.
Naturally, the dog didn’t answer Chen Ai. Instead, it licked his hand several times, as if expressing that he liked Chen Ai very much.
Ji Chen Ai was somewhat helpless. He had just washed his hands and was preparing to eat. Now, his hands were dirty, but it was too troublesome to go back to the washroom.
The big dog didn’t know of Chen Ai’s bewilderment. It only looked at the cake on Chen Ai’s table and started to drool.
Ji Chen Ai, “……” He didn’t know if dogs could eat cake, and this big dog had a collar. Someone must’ve accidentally lost him, but then again, could a dog enter the mall in the first place?
As Ji Chen Ai was feeling tangled, he suddenly heard a man’s voice: “Babaotang[2],you’re running off again.”
[2] 八宝糖 [Babaotang]: Eight treasures sugar.
Ji Chen Ai looked in the direction of the voice and saw a man with a gentle smile on his face. He was wearing a checked shirt, appearing to be several points higher than Zhou Yaoyun. Even if he stood quite far away from Ji Chen Ai, Ji Chen Ai still felt oppressed by the man’s bearing.
The man came up and fastened the leash in his hand to the dog’s collar. He looked at Jin Chen Ai and smiled. “Sorry, as soon as I turned around, this dog ran away again.”
Ji Chen Ai shook his head, indicating that it was okay.
The man continued, “Do you need to wash your hands again? I saw Babaotang licking your hand just now.”
So the man was attentive, too. “Then, I’ll be bothering you,” Ji Chen Ai said.
Holding the dog’s leash on one hand, the man pushed Ji Chen Ai with the other. Together, they went to the washroom, the man beside Ji Chen Ai the whole time. When Ji Chen Ai finished washing his hands, the man helped him pull the tissue out to wipe his hands.
Ji Chen Ai asked, “Dogs can come here, too?” From the beginning, the owner of the coffee shop didn’t seem surprised by the dog. That included the security and cleaning staff, who didn’t object to the dog coming in.
The man just laughed. “Today is just an exception. I took Babaotang to the hospital for a check-up. I wanted to take him home directly, but something suddenly happened, so I had to bring him over.”
As he spoke, he pushed Ji Chen Ai back into the coffee shop. “I’m sorry for today. I’ll buy you dessert.”
Before Ji Chen Ai could refuse, the man smiled, paid the bill, and then left with Babaotang.
Ji Chen Ai only regarded this as an insignificant episode. He picked up the coffee and took a sip of the drink. Suddenly, he realized that the man just now was somewhat familiar…
Afterwards
When Zhou Yaoyun returned home, he came back to a messy room.
Whether if it was the bed or Ji Chen Ai, both were covered with blood. Looking at the crimson stains scattered around the floor, it was almost certain that someone had just died here. Yet, Zhou Yaoyun found that Ji Chen Ai was just sitting on the wheelchair, typing away on his computer.
Ji Chen Ai didn’t lock the door. Hearing the door open, he turned over and smiled at Zhou Yaoyun. “You’re back?”
“Brother…” Zhou Yaoyun’s voice was rather shaky. “What happened? Were you hurt? What about Liu Ziming?” He had just got back from playing basketball and was still wearing his jersey. When he saw this scene, the basketball in his hand fell directly to the ground.
“He left earlier,” Ji Chen Ai replied.
Zhou Yaoyun apparently didn’t believe him. He rushed over and examined Ji Chen Ai’s body. “Are you injured? What the hell is going on?”
Ji Chen Ai shook his head. “I’m all right. The blood isn’t mine.”
“Is it Liu Ziming’s blood? Brother… Tell me, what the hell is going on?” Zhou Yaoyun repeated. The room reeked with a fishy smell; the bed was wet with blood. Ji Chen Ai only cleaned the blood on his face and hands. There were still large red blotches on his clothes.
Ji Chen Ai said, “Can I not tell you?”
Zhou Yaoyun’s expression froze. “Brother, why?”
Ji Chen Ai looked away from him and continued to stare at his computer. “Because I also don’t know what’s going on.”
At his brother’s refusal to speak, Zhou Yaoyun couldn’t ask anymore questions. After a moment of silence, Zhou Yaoyun used his phone to call Liu Ziming.
A few beeps later, the call connected. Zhou Yaoyun went directly to the point, “Ziming, what happened to you?”
There was no sound on the other end of the phone. Zhou Yaoyun had asked him a few more questions, but he only heard a terrified howl before the line was cut off.
When Zhou Yaoyun scanned the messy room and the expressionless Chen Ai, somehow, he felt chills crawling up his spine. He suddenly realized that Zhou Yaoqin was really strange.
Ji Chen Ai listened to Zhou Yaoyun’s phone call and saw that the latter had hung up. He turned around and softly said, “Liu Ziming had been abusing and molesting me this whole time.”
Zhou Yaoyun was stunned. “What?”
“He’s a pervert,” Ji Chen Ai continued, “he approached you just for me.”
This time, Zhou Yaoyun was filled with shock. Besides being shocked, he also felt angry and wronged. “Brother, why didn’t you tell me earlier?”
How should I know why Zhou Yaoqin didn’t tell you? Ji Chen Ai thought. Perhaps he felt too humiliated to speak. Perhaps he didn’t want to drag Zhou Yaoyun down, so he chose silence.
Ji Chen Ai told Zhou Yaoyun this to reduce the psychological impact of those bloodstains. Afterwards, Zhou Yaoyun had called Liu Ziming’s home. Upon confirming that Liu Ziming had gone back, he stopped asking anymore questions and quietly picked up mattress, throwing it away.
But Yaoyun not really throw the mattress out, instead, he put it in a storeroom, to serve as evidence.
Once he finished all the work, Zhou Yaoyun said to Ji Chen Ai, “Brother, do you want to take a bath and change your clothes?”
Ji Chen Ai closed the website and nodded his head.
In the bath, Zhou Yaoyun looked especially serious. He seemed very worried on whether or not Ji Chen Ai had been injured, so he checks his brother’s body carefully before breathing out a sigh of relief.
Ji Chen Ai didn’t mind letting Zhou Yaoyun see his body. He leaned against the bathtub, blowing bubbles in his hands. Looking at Chen Ai’s appearance, the sadness shown on Zhou Yaoyun’s eyebrows lessened by half. A moment of silence settled over them, then Zhou Yaoyun said, “Brother, if anything happens to you in the future, you must tell me, okay?”
Ji Chen Ai glanced at him and nodded.
After the bath, Zhou Yaoyun held Ji Chen Ai and brought him to his bedroom. Ji Chen Ai’s room was uninhabitable now due to all the blood stains on the floor. It was impossible to stay there tonight.
When Zhou Yaoyun asked Ji Chen Ai to squeeze together with him for the night, the latter didn’t refuse.
These brothers lived together, but Zhou Yaoyun took up the task of taking care of his brother, doing the cooking, washing and housework. He was not like a typical seventeen or eighteen year old boy; he didn’t show any careless behavior expected from his age. On the contrary, he was extremely patient, as if he didn’t mind his brother’s indifference at all.
That night, Zhou Yaoyun cleaned up Chen Ai’s bedroom and said that he would find time tomorrow to buy a new mattress. Then, he took a shower and climbed into bed.
Ji Chen Ai’s body was very thin and small. Even if he stood at his full height, he was only barely 1.7 meters. As he laid on the bed, reading the book in his hands, he looked even more like a child.
Zhou Yaoyun stared at Chen Ai and said, “Brother, I haven’t massaged you today.”
Ji Chen Ai remembered that Zhou Yaoyun would massage him everyday, so he silently agreed.
Zhou Yaoyun took off Ji Chen Ai’s trouser and started massaging the root of his brother’s thighs. He was very skilled and meticulous from top to bottom, never forgetting to massage any easily neglected areas.
The massage lasted for more than an hour until Zhou Yaoyun began to feel himself sweat. “Brother, are you sleepy?”
Ji Chen Ai was indeed sleepy. Looking at Zhou Yaoyun smiling under the dim light, he felt that this was somewhat surreal. With such a brother, Zhou Yaoqin should’ve been happy.
“Yes, you should go to bed earlier, too,” Ji Chen Ai said.
After a day’s worth of training, Zhou Yaoyun returned home at night and did a lot of housework. Tired, he laid down beside Chen Ai and went to sleep.
Ji Chen Ai reached out, dimming the light slightly. Then, he asked Xiao Qi in his mind, “Do you have any memories that you didn’t give me?”
Xiao Qi was silent.
Ji Chen Ai said, “I will encounter this kind of thing again in the future. Are you going to be responsible for it?”
Xiao Qi said, “No, believe me…”
“Sure enough, you still have memories you haven’t shown me. Xiao Qi, even if you don’t show it to me, I’ll still need to face it sooner or later.”
Xiao Qi seemed to have suffered from injustice and replied, “This is the program written by the person who set me up. I can’t violate it. Memories that I don’t show you have serious negative energy that exceeds the limit…”
When Ji Chen Ai heard this, he knew that he could not persuade the system. He put the book aside and turned off the lights. “All right, good night.”
“Good night,” Xiao Qi weakly said.
Ji Chen Ai closed his eyes and thought of the days Zhou Yaoqin had been through. Sure enough, it wasn’t as good as he thought. However, if he was Zhou Yaoqin and had a brother like Zhou Yaoyun, he would’ve never chose to commit suicide.
Seriously read this at Shunraikitranslation okay, there’s a lot of awesome people here. we won’t eat you
The next day, Ji Chen Ai woke up earlier than Zhou Yaoyun. As soon as he opened his eyes, he saw the orange sunshine sprinkled onto the floor, looking ever so warm and lovely.
Ji Chen Ai suddenly reminisced his childhood. Shen Shuya told him that people all around the world adored the sun because it made them feel warm. If he was willing to invest[1] for others like the sun, many people would like him.
[1] 付出 [fùchū]: to invest (energy or time in a friendship etc)
Shen Shuya should live in a fairytale–only in fairytales would every good person have a good ending.
The sun was not investing in anything. It just existed in its own way. If you get too close, you would melt. The so-call investment was only a fragment of imagination made up by human beings.
Zhou Yaoyun, who just woke up, said, “Brother, shall I take you out for a walk? I need to buy a new mattress.”
Today was Sunday, and it was a nice day. The weather was good enough for a walk, so Ji Chen Ai agreed.
After breakfast, Zhou Yaoyun pushed Ji Chen Ai out of the house. They were going to walk to the nearby business centre. It wasn’t too far, only ten minutes away.
The pair always attracted everybody’s eyes. Some people watched discreetly, others casted their curious gazes directly. Ji Chen Ai was used to it, so his expression didn’t change. It was Zhou Yaoyun whose eyes showed a hint of irritability. He seemed very dissatisfied with other people’s attention on Ji Chen Ai.
When they got to the mall, Ji Chen Ai said, “I’ll wait for you at the coffee shop. You choose the mattress first, then come back to me.” The mall was crowded and inconvenient, and Ji Chen Ai was too lazy to squeeze through mobs of people.
Although he hesitated for a moment, Zhou Yaoyun agreed. He first steered Chen Ai into a coffee shop and then ordered some snacks and drinks. After talking to Chen Ai for a bit, Zhou Yaoyun left.
Ji Chen Ai took out an iPad from his bag. He was about to start watching the news when, suddenly, he felt something furry touch his hand. Looking sideways, he saw a huge white fluffy dog with a big mouth puffing happily.
The big dog whimpered. He opened his mouth and showed his tongue like he was smiling. Chen Ai reached out a hand to touch his head and asked, “Where’s your master?”
No one had walked into the shop just now, and the dog was clearly not here before, having just ran over.
Naturally, the dog didn’t answer Chen Ai. Instead, it licked his hand several times, as if expressing that he liked Chen Ai very much.
Ji Chen Ai was somewhat helpless. He had just washed his hands and was preparing to eat. Now, his hands were dirty, but it was too troublesome to go back to the washroom.
The big dog didn’t know of Chen Ai’s bewilderment. It only looked at the cake on Chen Ai’s table and started to drool.
Ji Chen Ai, “……” He didn’t know if dogs could eat cake, and this big dog had a collar. Someone must’ve accidentally lost him, but then again, could a dog enter the mall in the first place?
As Ji Chen Ai was feeling tangled, he suddenly heard a man’s voice: “Babaotang[2],you’re running off again.”
[2] 八宝糖 [Babaotang]: Eight treasures sugar.
Ji Chen Ai looked in the direction of the voice and saw a man with a gentle smile on his face. He was wearing a checked shirt, appearing to be several points higher than Zhou Yaoyun. Even if he stood quite far away from Ji Chen Ai, Ji Chen Ai still felt oppressed by the man’s bearing.
The man came up and fastened the leash in his hand to the dog’s collar. He looked at Jin Chen Ai and smiled. “Sorry, as soon as I turned around, this dog ran away again.”
Ji Chen Ai shook his head, indicating that it was okay.
The man continued, “Do you need to wash your hands again? I saw Babaotang licking your hand just now.”
So the man was attentive, too. “Then, I’ll be bothering you,” Ji Chen Ai said.
Holding the dog’s leash on one hand, the man pushed Ji Chen Ai with the other. Together, they went to the washroom, the man beside Ji Chen Ai the whole time. When Ji Chen Ai finished washing his hands, the man helped him pull the tissue out to wipe his hands.
Ji Chen Ai asked, “Dogs can come here, too?” From the beginning, the owner of the coffee shop didn’t seem surprised by the dog. That included the security and cleaning staff, who didn’t object to the dog coming in.
The man just laughed. “Today is just an exception. I took Babaotang to the hospital for a check-up. I wanted to take him home directly, but something suddenly happened, so I had to bring him over.”
As he spoke, he pushed Ji Chen Ai back into the coffee shop. “I’m sorry for today. I’ll buy you dessert.”
Before Ji Chen Ai could refuse, the man smiled, paid the bill, and then left with Babaotang.
Ji Chen Ai only regarded this as an insignificant episode. He picked up the coffee and took a sip of the drink. Suddenly, he realized that the man just now was somewhat familiar…
