Chapter 46

Song Wenzhou spent the time waiting for Mu Chi idly wandering around the spacious living room. He noticed that there was a fine layer of dust on the cabinet in the corner and wondered how long it had been since Mu Chi had bothered to hire someone to clean the house.

In the past, every weekend, he would drag Mu Chi to clean the rooms together. However, this house, occupying an entire floor, was so large that it was exhausting to clean everything, so they usually only tidied up the two bedrooms and the study they slept in, while hiring someone to clean the rest of the rooms regularly.

Since he had moved out over a month ago, it was clear that Mu Chi had forgotten about this.

Song Wenzhou grumbled to himself, while patting the dark-colored sofa cushion, relieved that there was no dust rising. It seemed like Mu Chi still frequented this place often.

So he turned around and sank into the soft sofa, his body and mind relaxing.

On the armrest beside him was a bright orange square pillow. Song Wenzhou casually grabbed it and hugged it to his chest, just like how he would after a regular workday.

When Mu Chi finished arranging the flowers and came back in, he scanned the room and didn’t see Song Wenzhou. He thought he might have broken his promise, but as he turned around, he saw Song Wenzhou lounging on the sofa, with his head resting on the orange pillow, looking as if he had fallen asleep.

Mu Chi breathed a sigh of relief and silently tiptoed to the front of the sofa. He squatted down to look at the man, whose breathing was so calm that it almost seemed like he wasn’t breathing at all.

Song Wenzhou’s hair had grown a bit longer, and one strand seemed to have absorbed more nutrients than the others, hanging slightly longer and slanting over his eyebrow.

Mu Chi stared at it for a while and couldn’t resist reaching out to gently push the strand of hair.

Song Wenzhou had only been lightly squinting, and when Mu Chi’s finger brushed against his eyebrow, he reflexively shivered and then opened his eyes.

“Did I wake you?” Mu Chi asked, feeling a bit guilty. “Are you tired? You can sleep in the bed.”

Mu Chi’s face was too close to him, and Song Wenzhou suddenly sat up straight, shaking his head. “I’m not tired.”

In fact, the night before, they had shared the bed again after many days, and Song Wenzhou subconsciously felt at ease, so he slept well. There wasn’t much work during the day, and he had relaxed too much in the familiar environment, so he had dozed off unintentionally.

“You’re too slow,” Song Wenzhou said.

Mu Chi replied, “I’m not familiar with it.”

That was true—handling plants and flowers had always been something Song Wenzhou took care of.

After receiving the flowers, he insisted on dealing with them on his own, always turning down Mu Chi’s offer to help. So, when he was finished, he hadn’t thought about helping Mu Chi either.

Song Wenzhou grabbed a handful of his hair and said casually, “Since it’s done, let’s go.”

“Go where?”

“Didn’t you want to watch a movie?”

“We can watch it at home.”

“At home…” It wasn’t impossible, but Song Wenzhou had planned this date to be with Mu Chi. “Do you want to watch it at home instead?”

Mu Chi squatted in front of him and nodded.

“Alright,” Song Wenzhou agreed.

At home, there was a dedicated movie room. When they renovated, Mu Chi only asked for two bedrooms, while the rest of the rooms were designated for office work and leisure activities.

Both bedrooms were where he and Song Wenzhou slept. This house had hosted many relatives and friends, but none of them had stayed overnight.

Of course, Mu Chi didn’t reserve the two bedrooms for the purpose of separating during an argument. He hadn’t even considered that at the time.

The idea of having two rooms with almost identical layouts was so that if they stayed up too late one night and Mu Chi was too lazy to change the bed sheets, they could simply move to the other room, carrying a sleepy Song Wenzhou, and sleep in a fresh bed… cough.

In any case, the two bedrooms were very practical for a young, passionate couple, at least in Mu Chi’s view.

As usual, Mu Chi let Song Wenzhou pick a movie in the movie room first, and it wasn’t until a while later that he came in with a bunch of snacks.

He inserted straws into the drinks, opened the packages of snacks, peeled and cut the fruits, placing everything on the small wooden table within easy reach.

Once all that was done, Mu Chi half-lay on the sofa bed, sitting right next to Song Wenzhou.

“Have you picked a movie?” Mu Chi asked.

Song Wenzhou planned to go along with Mu Chi’s preferences tonight, so he hadn’t decided yet. He selected five movies they hadn’t watched together and projected them onto the huge screen, saying, “You pick one.”

Mu Chi first handed Song Wenzhou a glass of freshly squeezed watermelon juice, then seriously looked at the screen.

Although Song Wenzhou and Mu Chi had very different personalities, their movie preferences were almost the same. Mu Chi thought any of the five movies would be great.

After a moment of consideration, Mu Chi picked one of the newly released films, which had premiered half a month after Song Wenzhou moved out.

Mu Chi didn’t really care about which movie they watched. In fact, his main intention tonight wasn’t about the movie, so any choice was fine with him.

Once the movie started, Song Wenzhou turned off all the lights in the room, leaving only the light from the movie screen and the faint glow from the starry ceiling.

The dim light scattered over them, even making the corners of their clothes, which brushed against each other, appear to have a hint of intimacy.

For a couple who had been together for many years, this kind of feeling, where they couldn’t quite pull away from each other, had become rare.

In the past, in this movie room, Song Wenzhou and Mu Chi had never sat next to each other like this. Usually, Mu Chi would spread his arms and legs wide, pulling Song Wenzhou into his embrace, and occasionally leaning over to kiss Song Wenzhou’s cheek or neck.

A single movie would often need to be interrupted several times before it was finished, as they had to stop midway to deal with certain things due to Mu Chi’s teasing…

For the two-and-a-half-hour movie, Mu Chi had only managed to watch about twenty minutes of it, as the rest of the time he was focused on Song Wenzhou.

Song Wenzhou, on the other hand, watched very seriously. This time, he wasn’t disturbed by Mu Chi’s teasing, and he finally managed to watch a movie from start to finish.

However, he still couldn’t remember all the details. Even though Mu Chi hadn’t teased him tonight, he kept feeding him food every few minutes, bringing everything right up to his mouth. He had no choice but to eat it, and had to distract himself by telling Mu Chi to stop feeding him.

Mu Chi would always nod and say, “Okay,” but within five minutes, he would continue feeding him.

By the end of the movie, all the food Mu Chi had brought in was gone. Song Wenzhou had eaten a bellyful of fruit, snacks, and drinks. The first thing he did when the movie finished was rush to the bathroom.

After coming out of the bathroom and not finding Mu Chi, seeing that it was getting late, Song Wenzhou prepared to tell Mu Chi that he needed to go home. He stood in the living room and called out Mu Chi’s name.

“Zhouzhou?” The voice responding came from the bedroom. A few seconds later, Mu Chi appeared in the doorway of the bedroom. “What’s up?”

Song Wenzhou said, “I’m going home.”

Mu Chi looked down at his watch and said, “It’s already past 10 o’clock. Sleep here tonight. I’ve already made the bed.”

Song Wenzhou: “…Still not okay.”

“Why?” Mu Chi asked, walking closer to Song Wenzhou. “Didn’t we sleep together last night?”

“Last night, I didn’t want my parents to find out, so…” Song Wenzhou pressed his lips together. “Anyway, I have to go back. I just came to tell you, so you won’t say I sneaked away.”

After saying that, he turned to leave.

In a moment of panic, Mu Chi grabbed his wrist, saying urgently, “Then if I agree to your pursuit right now, will you stay here to sleep?”

Song Wenzhou’s eyes widened. “How can you say that? We agreed you’d let me pursue you for a while!”

“I changed my mind. I want to be with you now.”

“No, you have to keep your word.”

“……”

Mu Chi was about to be driven crazy by him. He pitifully asked, “You really want to leave?”

Song Wenzhou nodded.

Mu Chi gently pinched Song Wenzhou’s delicate wrist. “But you’ve left the most important thing behind.”

Given that Mu Chi had sent him several things recently, saying they were things he had forgotten, Song Wenzhou instinctively asked, “What thing?”

“Me,” Mu Chi said, feeling wronged, “You left me behind.”

Song Wenzhou fell silent for a moment, his expression strange, then asked, “Are you a thing?”

“I’m not a thing,” Mu Chi quickly shook his head, “Also not. I am a thing… Anyway, you either sleep here tonight, or take me with you.”

“Could you be a bit more reserved?” Song Wenzhou insisted. “I’m still pursuing you.”

Mu Chi wasn’t interested in being reserved, saying, “I already agreed to be with you.”

“You can’t agree now, I just started pursuing you.”

And just like that, the conversation circled back. Mu Chi pressed his forehead, pained, and asked, “So when can you agree?”

Song Wenzhou was stumped for a moment. He hesitated and said, “Ten days? Or maybe a week?” Then, feeling the time was too long, he corrected himself, “Depends on the situation.”

Song Wenzhou was set on leaving, and Mu Chi had no choice but to complain as he saw him to the garage. Before leaving, he cupped Song Wenzhou’s face and forcibly kissed his forehead with a loud smack. “Be careful on the road.”

Song Wenzhou wiped the saliva from his forehead, holding the car door as he said his goodbye. “Got it. I’ll pick you up for work tomorrow morning. Good night.”

“Good night.” Mu Chi’s face was filled with unease.