Chapter 93: The Painting and the Cufflink

The air remained silent for a full two seconds. The two of them stayed in the same position, their faces slightly turned away from each other, neither making a move.

In that moment, You Chong even began to suspect that Lin Hexi wasn’t actually drunk. He reached out, intending to help Lin Hexi sit up straight.

But the next second, as if to prove his assumption wrong, Lin Hexi’s head suddenly drooped down.

Immediately after, a heavy sensation pressed down on You Chong’s shoulder.

Turning his head, You Chong saw Lin Hexi’s head resting against his shoulder. His eyes were quietly closed, and his breathing gradually became steady and deep.

Staring at Lin Hexi’s face for a moment, You Chong almost began to wonder whether Lin Hexi, after getting drunk, had even recognized him before leaning in so close.

Deciding not to wake him to take any sobering medicine, You Chong carefully carried Lin Hexi into the guest bedroom.

There were blankets and pillows on the bed. After placing Lin Hexi in the center of the large bed and taking off his shoes, You Chong covered him with the blanket. But he didn’t leave immediately. Instead, he stood by the bedside and looked at him for a long time.

He stood there so long that Lin Hexi, pretending to be asleep, began to doubt whether his act had been seen through. Just as that thought crossed his mind, he sensed You Chong suddenly leaning closer.

With his eyes tightly shut, Lin Hexi couldn’t determine why You Chong was doing this. He could only guess from the warm breath brushing against his face that You Chong’s face must be extremely close to his.

His heart began to race uncontrollably as Lin Hexi silently counted the seconds in his mind.

After a few seconds, the sensation of breath against his skin finally disappeared. You Chong moved away from his face and spoke to him in a low, deep voice.

The tone of his voice was so soft that it felt less like he was speaking to Lin Hexi and more like he was talking to himself.

The few indistinct words drifted by, and Lin Hexi, with his eyes still closed, found himself momentarily dazed. When he tried to focus and recall what had been said, he realized he could no longer remember the content of You Chong’s words.

He hadn’t caught what You Chong said.

And by then, You Chong had already fallen silent. He turned off the lights and walked out of the room.

The sound of the door clicking shut echoed softly. The footsteps fade away, and now muffled beyond the door.

Lin Hexi slowly emerged from the pillow, opening his eyes in the darkness. He stared absentmindedly at the ceiling, lost in thought.

After a moment, he slowly came back to his senses, raising a hand to cover his eyes as he let out a long breath.

Lin Hexi wasn’t in the habit of going to sleep without showering. After lying under the blanket and silently playing on his phone for an hour, he sat up, turned on the bedside lamp, and slipped on his shoes before heading to open the door.

The guest room was downstairs, and the living room lights were still brightly lit. As Lin Hexi stepped out of the room, he saw that You Chong was still sitting in the living room, working. An Alaskan Malamute and an orange cat were sprawled on the sofa beside him, both poking their heads toward You Chong’s laptop in unison, as if curious about what he was doing.

Hearing Lin Hexi’s footsteps, the Alaskan Malamute and the orange cat simultaneously whipped their heads around, staring at him with wide, round eyes.

You Chong lifted his head from the laptop screen, his gaze meeting Lin Hexi’s clear eyes. He paused for a brief moment, almost imperceptibly, before asking, “Sober now?”

Lin Hexi replied, “Yes, I’m sober.”

You Chong’s dark eyes remained locked on his face. “Do you remember anything that happened after you got drunk?”

Lin Hexi furrowed his brows, thinking for a moment, then shook his head with a hint of regret.

Unable to discern whether the emotions on Lin Hexi’s face were genuine, You Chong calmly averted his gaze. “I couldn’t find your hotel room key, so I brought you back to my place,” he said coolly. Without pausing, he added, “Do you want to take a shower?”

“If it’s convenient,” Lin Hexi replied after a brief pause, then added, “I don’t have any clothes to change into.”

Clearly unsettled by Lin Hexi’s polite and distant tone, You Chong frowned slightly, and his voice grew a bit deeper. “The second bedroom upstairs—there are pajamas in the wardrobe. You can wear those.”

Not quite grasping the underlying meaning of You Chong’s words, Lin Hexi stood still for a moment, waiting. After confirming that You Chong had no intention of getting up to fetch the clothes for him, he hesitated before asking, “You want me to get them myself?”

You Chong, unfazed, replied, “If you don’t want to go upstairs alone, you can ask Fantuan to go with you.”

As soon as he finished speaking, he even reached out and gave the Alaskan Malamute a pat on its rear.

The dog swiftly jumped off the sofa and stood firmly on the floor, lifting its head to look at Lin Hexi with an innocent expression.

Lin Hexi paused for a second, then turned and walked toward the stairs leading to the second floor.

You Chong’s gaze lingered on his back, following him until his figure disappeared up the staircase.

As Lin Hexi walked away, the Alaskan Malamute looked up at the departing figure, then at You Chong, who remained seated without moving. After hesitating for a moment, the dog decided to stay where it was.

Meanwhile, the orange cat, lazily sprawled atop the sofa, showed no such hesitation. It leapt silently from the top of the couch and followed Lin Hexi upstairs without a sound.

You Chong leaned down, running his hand through the soft fur on the Malamute’s back, and, for a moment, old memories of living together with Lin Hexi resurfaced in his mind.

The orange cat named Shousi, which had been picked up from an alley, always liked to follow closely behind Lin Hexi wherever he went. When Lin Hexi wasn’t home, Shousi would carry things it liked from around the house back to its nest and hide them. Then, when Lin Hexi returned, the cat would enthusiastically present the gathered items to him as gifts.

Even the two paintings of Lin Hexi’s, which You Chong had hung on the wall, had once been taken down by the mischievous orange cat.

Thinking of this, a faint smile appeared at the corner of You Chong’s lips, and he bent down to rub the Alaskan Malamute’s head.

But just as his hand hovered in midair, he suddenly seemed to recall something, and his movement abruptly stopped.

The smile on You Chong’s lips vanished entirely. He abruptly rose from the sofa and strode quickly toward the stairs. Just before Lin Hexi could push open the bedroom door, You Chong stopped him in the hallway.

Seeing You Chong’s tense expression, Lin Hexi instinctively lowered his hand and asked, “What’s wrong?”

Stopping in front of him, You Chong said, “I’ll get it for you.”

Lin Hexi gave a small nod and stepped back from the master bedroom door without any hint of wanting to peek inside.

You Chong cast him a glance, said nothing more, and entered the bedroom, closing the door behind him as he went.

Lin Hexi was slightly taken aback. He hadn’t expected that there would really be something in You Chong’s room that couldn’t be shown to outsiders. Along with his surprise came a tinge of sadness—so he had now been relegated to the status of an outsider in You Chong’s mind.

The door in front of him wasn’t fully closed, and through the narrow gap, he could faintly see a picture frame hanging on the wall.

When they used to live together, You Chong had a habit of hanging paintings on the walls. Understanding this, Lin Hexi shifted a couple of steps to the side, deliberately avoiding looking through the gap in the door any further.

The Alaskan Malamute, which had followed You Chong upstairs, was also left outside the room. It didn’t try to push the door open but instead turned and nudged Lin Hexi’s knee with its nose.

Lin Hexi bent down to pat the Alaskan Malamute’s head, allowing the dog to lead him a couple of steps further down the hallway.

As they played, the Malamute accidentally bumped into the door next to the master bedroom, causing it to swing open slightly.

Reacting quickly, Lin Hexi straightened up and reached out to close the door. However, the orange cat trotted over, raised a paw, and pushed the door further open.

The room’s lights were still on, and a sliver of light spilled through the widening gap. Unable to resist its curiosity, the cat stretched its neck and pressed itself against the gap, trying to peek inside.

Lin Hexi had no choice but to reach out and pick up the cat.

Noticing Lin Hexi’s movement, the orange cat nimbly pushed the door wide open and darted inside.

Lin Hexi glanced into the room and realized it was a walk-in closet.

Worried that the cat might trample and ruin the clothes inside, Lin Hexi didn’t think twice and quickly followed it in to catch it.

The room had closed wardrobes on both sides, leaving no space for the cat to squeeze into or climb. Instead, it dashed forward, eventually leaping onto a low cabinet by the side and from there onto a glass display case at the far end of the room, where it finally ran out of places to go.

Lin Hexi stepped forward and scooped the cat into his arms. As he did, his peripheral vision caught sight of the display case beneath the cat’s paws, revealing an assortment of cufflinks inside.

Not intending to linger, he was about to leave with the cat in his arms when a familiar design flashed before his eyes.

His steps halted, and his gaze instinctively returned to the glass case. His eyes finally settled on a particular pair of cufflinks placed at the center of the display.

They weren’t the most beautiful nor the most expensive pair among the collection, yet Lin Hexi found himself unable to look away, and his gaze lingering for a long time.