Lu Lin’s expression stiffened for a moment.

Shi Sheng didn’t notice his change and was just glad that someone from the studio had finally come.

The man had already walked quickly in, dressed in casual clothes and wearing a pair of gold-rimmed round glasses. His gaze suddenly froze when he saw Shi Sheng. “How did you get injured so badly?”

Shi Sheng rubbed his face and looked up.

Nan er, he remembered this name.

Wu Nan er placed the flower basket aside and sat down. Lu Lin had already set up the table on the bed and checked the temperature of the porridge.

“I saw Lu Lin arranging your leave matters and mentioning that you were hit by a car and experiencing amnesia,” Wu Nan er reached out to touch Shi Sheng’s head, but Shi Sheng instinctively dodged, meeting his slightly puzzled gaze. He asked Shi Sheng, “Do you not remember who I am?”

“You are the PR from the studio, Wu Nan er,” Shi Sheng matched his appearance and name. “I remembered the names of the people in the studio this afternoon.”

Seeing this, Wu Nan er seemed to have some mixed feelings, difficult to discern. He forced a smile and said, “You were still so clever as a child. But besides being the studio’s PR, I’m also your high school classmate and your friend.”

“Friend?”

“Yes, we’ve known each other for many years,” he looked closely at Shi Sheng and replied, “You, me, and Lu Lin were classmates in high school. Later, you and Lu Lin became closer and even attended the same university.”

Lu Lin’s alarm bells were ringing loudly in his mind, but he didn’t show it on his face. He scooped up a spoonful of porridge and offered it to Shi Sheng’s lips. Shi Sheng gave him a strange look but still ate it.

The slightly salty lean pork and preserved egg porridge was his favorite flavor.

Lu Lin saw him take a bite and fed him another. Wu Nan er’s gaze deepened at the sight.

“Shi Sheng, did you injure your hand too?”

“Cough, cough,” Shi Sheng choked suddenly and glanced at Lu Lin, quickly grabbing the spoon from his hand. “No, I can eat by myself.”

“Sorry, I should have come as soon as I saw the message, but I was held up by some things,” Wu Nan er looked at Lu Lin, then withdrew his gaze, “I wasn’t there for you right away when you woke up. You must have been scared.”

“It’s okay,” Shi Sheng shook his head, unsure why, but he felt more inclined to be closer to Lu Lin.

He had heard that a baby bird would regard the first animal it saw after hatching as its mother, so was it some kind of imprinting phenomenon with Lu Lin? Shi Sheng furrowed his brows.

Hmm, Lu Mama doesn’t sound bad either.

Seeing that he didn’t react much, Wu Nan er eventually suppressed his smile, stood up, and said, “I won’t disturb your rest anymore. I’ll come to see you again tomorrow.”

He left quickly, and Shi Sheng came back to his senses, nodding, “Okay.”

Not long after Wu Nan er left, Shi Sheng finished the porridge. With his ribs still broken and not fully healed, he lay down again and started playing dead.

“Does it hurt? The effect of the painkiller should have worn off after the nap this afternoon, right?” Lu Lin tidied up the dishes, set the table aside, and looked a bit worried.

Shi Sheng’s face was somewhat pale, blinking his eyes, “You seem a bit unhappy.”

“Do I?”

“After Wu Nan er came, you seemed a bit off. There seems to be something I don’t know,” Shi Sheng looked at him sitting down, tapping his fingertips together in thought. “Curious.”

“Want to know?” Lu Lin lowered his head, pointing to his cheek. “There’s a fee for that.”

Shi Sheng widened his eyes suddenly. “Are you trying to extort me?”

“Love it or leave it.” Since Shi Sheng didn’t remember anyone at the moment, and Lu Lin didn’t intend to deepen his impression of irrelevant people, this tactic served to block his inquiries.

But Shi Sheng started to take it seriously.

In the end, he figured that a grown man could just kiss another man’s cheek, and it wouldn’t be much of a loss.

So when Lu Lin was busy looking at his phone, Shi Sheng called him over.

“What’s up?”

He kissed his own finger and then pressed it against Lu Lin’s face like a seal.

“I kissed you.”

Lu Lin was stunned for a moment, touched his own face, unexpectedly, this stroke of luck had fallen from the sky, and there was still such a good thing. Since it was offered on a platter, he had to take it.

Lu Lin lowered his head again, and his nose brushed against Shi Sheng’s cheek as he leaned down and kissed him decisively.

Shi Sheng suddenly shrank back, “What’s this again?”

“I’m giving you a freebie.”

“…”

“Alright,” Lu Lin straightened up, “Wu Nan er can be considered a rival in love, but he’s very weak-willed. I don’t take him seriously.”

“That’s it? So, are you jealous?”

Shi Sheng raised an eyebrow, thinking, “Jealous King of East Asia, is that what this is?” He had looked in the mirror in the afternoon.”

Afterwards, he was still quite confident about his looks. A handsome guy like him would surely make Lu Lin feel jealous every year.

Lu Lin flicked his forehead without saying anything. Actually, he felt more insecure inside.

After a while,

“Where does it hurt again?” Lu Lin looked at Sheng, who was curled up.

Shi Sheng blinked. “It’s okay. I’m just thinking about when I can be discharged.”

“It’s too early to be discharged. Besides, even after you’re discharged, you’ll be alone at home,” Lu Lin poured him a glass of water. “Before I came back, I had already applied for the command center dormitory. After you’re discharged, we’ll move to the dormitory at the command post first.”

“Is the dormitory separated from yours?”

Lu Lin took a sip of water and looked down at Shi Sheng, whose face was pale and fragile, with slightly curled light brown hair pressed between the pillows. He slightly raised his lips. “Of course not—we’ll be living together.”

“Ah… living together,” Shi Sheng elongated the last syllable, then changed the subject, “Sharing the same bed too?”

Lu Lin choked on his water suddenly, coughing.

Shi Sheng looked teasingly at him. his confidence surged as he remembered all the times he had flirted with Lu Lin.

Lu Lin sat down, pinched Shi Sheng’s cheek unceremoniously, “You, with your current physical condition, sleeping together means just covering with a blanket and chatting, right?”

“Boyfriend,” Shi Sheng smiled, squinting. “We’re all adults.”

Lu Lin leaned in, tilting his head slightly. “Are you sure?”

Shi Sheng’s smile froze, blinking. He swore he was just joking. Why did calling him “boyfriend” feel like it had crossed a line?

Lu Lin watched with interest, slowly leaning in until his clear eyes reflected Shi Sheng’s face. Shi Sheng’s long eyelashes brushed lightly, leaving a hint of space between them. Their breaths mingled, carrying a faint scent of hormones.

He reached out and playfully covered Lu Lin’s face with his hand.

“I feel like we’ve only been together for seven days. Even after being discharged, it’s not that many days.”

He grabbed Shi Sheng’s hand. “So?”

“The level of affection isn’t full yet, right?”

Lu Lin chuckled and let go of his hand.

But he did go find a doctor to inquire about the discharge time, showing a willingness to serve as a free laborer. Shi Sheng licked his lips, feeling that he had already developed a lot of trust in Lu Lin. Just chatting with him in a simple and straightforward manner made him feel very comfortable from the bottom of his heart.

But he didn’t think he would stoop so low as to move in with him so soon,

So, while Lu Lin wasn’t back yet, he called his dad again.

This time, the call went through.

But Shi Sheng suddenly felt a little uneasy. Facing the most familiar stranger on the other end of the phone, he held the phone to his ear.

“Hello, Dad.”

On the other end of the phone came the voice of a middle-aged man. “What’s wrong? Why so many calls?”

The man’s tone was somewhat distant, and Shi Sheng couldn’t quite grasp the depth of the father-son relationship. Whether it was because of the man’s personality or something else, Shi Sheng furrowed his brow, hesitating. “I… I got into an accident and I’m hospitalized.”

“Accident?” The man sounded surprised. After a moment, he asked, “What happened? Is the injury serious?”

“I can’t remember anything. The doctor said it might be temporary amnesia caused by the accident. Right now, my friend is taking care of me in the hospital,” Shi Sheng looked out the window, which was pitch black. “It was quite a serious collision.”

“I’m busy with company matters. Since you have a friend there, there shouldn’t be any major problems,” the voice from the phone attempted to sound concerned, but it was rather indifferent.

“Wait for me to transfer you money, can you hire a caregiver to take good care of you?”

He pursed his lips, hesitated for a moment before finally answering softly, “…Okay.”

“Good, if there’s anything, call your mom. I have to go, I’m busy now.”

Shi Sheng put down his phone in confusion, feeling like it shouldn’t be like this. Suddenly, he lowered his head and dialed the number saved as “Mom” in his contacts.

After a “beep” sound, the call was disconnected, indicating that the line was busy.

Lu Lin walked in and found Shi Sheng sitting by the bedside, silent, staring at his phone.

“What’s wrong?”

Shi Sheng turned his head slightly as if puzzled, raised his hand to show Lu Lin the call log, but suddenly felt a headache. He reached for his head, a ringing sound in his ears, and a vase shattered on the ground accompanied by hysterical arguing and fluttering of white papers.

Lu Lin quickly reached out and grabbed his shoulder, calling out softly, but his voice seemed to grow more and more distant. Shi Sheng gritted his teeth, seeing a series of images overlapping and projecting until the final one tore apart.

Suddenly, it felt like a scorching summer day, cicadas chirping mournfully in the trees, people coming and going in front of the civil affairs bureau, and he stood blankly at the entrance, looking up as those two people walked in different directions.

“Dad!”

“Mom!”

“So, they had divorced long ago…” Fragmented memories intertwined, stimulating Shi Sheng’s temples to throb.

Lu Lin’s comforting hand on his back froze in midair.

“Did you call your parents?”

“I’ve been lying in the ICU for two days and in the general ward for another three days, but I didn’t receive any calls from them,” he murmured to himself, “I should have guessed earlier.”

“Sorry, I should have told you earlier.”

But he didn’t know how to bring it up to Shi Sheng. The seemingly affectionate but distant couple had gone their separate ways after their son’s college entrance exam. He had thought that besides sending money every month, they would still show a little more care and love for their son.

Shi Sheng lay back down, looking calm, but there was inevitably a hint of loneliness in his eyes. Lu Lin held his hand, rough with calluses, scraping against his wrist, “Move in together?”

“Sigh.”

Shi Sheng shrunk and remained motionless, obviously still hesitating.

However, just as he was still in contemplation, the screen suddenly lit up, showing that a certain cheap dad had transferred one hundred thousand yuan into his account.

Shi Sheng’s eyes widened suddenly.

“What’s wrong?” Lu Lin asked nervously.

“It seems I don’t need to move. I have a lot of money.”