Chapter 32

Bai Wei sat on the hospital bed, wishing he could just crawl into a crack in the floor.

By the bed, Lu Sen was introducing himself.

“I’m Awei’s husband. It’s been a year and two months since we got married.”

“I met Awei in Beidu. After dating for three months, we got engaged. We entered marriage amid the blessings of everyone and went on a honeymoon around the world.”

“Later, considering Awei’s respiratory system, we settled in Snow Mountain Town and bought a house. We may live here for five to ten years. After moving here, I gradually learned how to cook. Thanks to Awei’s encouragement, my cooking skills have greatly improved. Just now, I went home and brought back some daily necessities for Awei.”

When Lu Sen finished, he smiled as if he had finished saying everything he needed to.

—–

“Uh…” Ren Junyao was stunned, “You… um…”

“Your name,” Bai Wei finally emerged from his mortification and said to Lu Sen in exasperation.

Had Lu Sen really forgotten the name he had made up for himself? Truly, what a monster.

“Oh, I forgot to say, my name is Lu Sen,” Lu Sen said. “Luckily, Awei reminded me. He always helps me remember what I should be doing.”

Ren Junyao: …

Bai Wei wanted to bury his face in the bed curtains. However, Lu Sen’s arrival made him feel less awkward compared to the earlier moment alone with Ren Junyao. Lu Sen handed him the charger and said, “When I got home, I not only brought the charger and clean clothes but also some things you might need…”

“Wait a minute.” Ren Junyao, deprived of his visual focus, spoke loudly. “Who allowed you to bring all these people and things in? I’m the doctor…”

Lu Sen: “Oh, you’re the director? I had brought in some expensive wine, but then I remembered the patients can’t drink. I happened to run into the director, who asked what I was doing, so I gave all the wine to him.”

Ren Junyao: …

Ren Junyao almost choked. He knew better than anyone that the director was a drunkard. After moving to Snow Mountain Town, he had gone out of his way to inquire about the hobbies of the local “celebrities.”

He watched the workers coming and going in the hospital room—installing a TV, a desk lamp, setting up a wardrobe… Outside the room, not only the nurses but also the on-duty doctors and patients from other rooms, along with their families, gathered to watch.

“Who’s staying in this room?”

“This family must be very wealthy!”

“They even set up a wardrobe and a night light… The husband is so thoughtful.”

People were distracted by the new things, no longer paying attention to him. In that intense moment of being forgotten, Ren Junyao remembered the question he should ask.

“You really bought a lot of things. But Bai Wei, are these things what you need?”

He smiled and looked at Bai Wei.

Ren Junyao, of course, knew Bai Wei’s personality. This repressed top student would only find everything in front of him complicated and foolish. Moreover, Bai Wei wasn’t good at hiding his emotions—he would display his boredom and indifference directly.

But Bai Wei looked at Lu Sen and thought, Lu Sen is a monster… he could at least buy carnations instead of chrysanthemums, and a wheelchair instead of a rocking horse—that’s already pretty good.

And Lu Sen was his family member. It was different. Bai Wei wouldn’t let his family members lose face in public (though losing his life would be another matter).

“Thank you,” Bai Wei said to Lu Sen. “The things you brought are really useful.”

Ren Junyao: ?

He watched Lu Sen remove a metal lid and pour some soup for Bai Wei to drink. Ren Junyao certainly wasn’t going to let himself be the third wheel in this situation. He adjusted his hair, smiled at Bai Wei, and said, “Senior, you should rest well. I’ll visit you again tomorrow.”

“Take care,” Bai Wei said.

Lu Sen was still feeding Bai Wei. Ren Junyao walked through the crowd in the hallway, hearing murmurs of envy and curiosity. He walked faster, striding quickly, and turned a corner where no one could see him, lifting the edge of his coat.

At that moment, in his ugly mood, he suddenly remembered something.

—From beginning to end, Lu Sen hadn’t asked him who he was.

Bai Wei had also noticed this. But for someone like Lu Sen, asking or not asking was normal. Or perhaps, seeking logic from a monster was a mistake in itself… As he drank the soup, Bai Wei felt a tingling sensation in his scalp, gradually getting used to the feeling of being watched by outsiders.

At least it felt safer, better than being alone with Lu Sen in a room.

After Lu Sen fed him, he began cleaning. This made Bai Wei even more surprised. He stared at Lu Sen, who was diligently cleaning, even wondering if Lu Sen had switched personalities.

As night fell, the crowd of onlookers left. Bai Wei thought Lu Sen would leave as well, but he was surprised to find that Lu Sen had laid down on the small bed beside him.

That small bed was provided by the hospital for family members to sleep on. It was small and narrow, making it difficult for even an average woman to sleep, let alone Lu Sen.

Bai Wei watched as Lu Sen’s people decorated the hospital room, adding this and that, turning the room into a luxurious space, like a room in a castle. They didn’t touch the small bed, so Bai Wei naturally thought that Lu Sen wouldn’t stay in the room.

But now it seemed like he was about to sleep here… Bai Wei said, “Are you planning to sleep here tonight?”

Lu Sen immediately turned around: “Yes, I think the nurse can’t take better care of me than I can.”

“This bed… why didn’t you buy a replacement bed?” Bai Wei said, then added, “Of course, I’m not encouraging you to buy random things…”

—–

After speaking, Bai Wei realized that his last sentence wasn’t necessary. Since Lu Sen was a monster, he could do whatever he liked. If he wanted to kill someone, take someone’s heart, or even dance face-to-face with the principal in the mirror while shaving, it was all his choice. No one would say that a ghost can’t crawl out of a TV, and no one would ask a ghost not to blow out a candle instead of turning off the lights. So Lu Sen could do whatever he wanted without explanation.

Bai Wei’s expression turned a little painful. He realized that his instinctive thought had been to criticize Lu Sen for wasting money and for not reading the atmosphere of the hospital, as though he was trying to control him.

“Oh, I don’t think it’s necessary.” Lu Sen lay down on the small bed. His leg hung over the edge, looking as if he were on a human seesaw, which seemed rather comical.

“Not necessary?” Maybe monsters just like sleeping this way. Maybe after falling asleep, the monster would secretly change shape to fit the small bed. Bai Wei’s mind flashed with countless possibilities but couldn’t think of the one where Lu Sen had, in those three hours, thought of countless things Bai Wei needed but forgot about his own need for a small bed.

Bai Wei told himself not to think about such strange things. The monster sleeping next to him was one he couldn’t escape, even in the hospital. He couldn’t ignore Lu Sen’s presence, which made him tense up, unable to sleep despite the night.

Bai Wei fidgeted under the blanket for a while and finally said, “You should go back to sleep. If you sleep on that small bed, I just can’t sleep thinking about it.”

Lu Sen said, “This small bed isn’t bad. A long time ago, I didn’t even have a bed to sleep on.”

“You, a rich young master, didn’t have a bed to sleep on…” Bai Wei started but then alarm bells went off in his head. He was afraid of revealing the truth and breaking the balance of the moment, so he changed the subject, “I heard many international students, in their first week abroad, can only sleep on the floor.”

Uh, yes, the floor is indeed hard. Lu Sen, too, felt wary for slipping up. Fortunately, Bai Wei, who knew nothing, offered an out.

Actually, they could have just taken the easy route. By saying a simple sentence, they would remain as the rich young master Lu Sen and the prestigious Bai Wei, just like Bai Wei’s life before his injury. But Lu Sen found himself resisting that idea deeply.

Showing Bai Wei his background was something he could not bring himself to do. Just thinking about it made him even more resistant. It meant he and Bai Wei would no longer be from the same world.

Lu Sen curled up on the small, hard bed, and with a human voice, he said, “Maybe my childhood had many things you can’t imagine.”

Vague, yet heart-pounding.

He thought Bai Wei would say, “Really? I’m the same.”

But what he received was Bai Wei’s silence.

Bai Wei turned over. The ice in his heart seemed harder than anything non-human. He said, “Really? That’s impressive.”

On this damp spring night, one of them was like a scout wandering in the wilderness, unsure whether to advance or retreat. The other was like a prince in a fortress, closing all windows, neither seeking death nor life.

Perhaps he should wait. Lu Sen looked at Bai Wei’s back in the night, like the distant spring mountains. He thought he had already made up his mind: he would make their family better, better than any two humans could ever build.

—-

Bai Wei was anxious, often forgetting that he should be. It had been several days since he realized Lu Sen was a monster. During the day, when he had nothing to do, he would lie in bed and carefully think over the past. The idea that Lu Sen was a super-powered monster seemed more plausible each time.

His first encounter with Lu Sen had been in a café. At that time, both his grandfather and the butler already knew about his sexual aversion. The butler called him and said that his grandfather wanted him to meet “Little Lu”—a name that should have been “Little Deer” or “Little Lu,” but now was untraceable. Bai Wei thought at the time that he was going to meet a woman, and he felt that he must become someone capable of taking responsibility for her future life. The repeated blind dates his grandfather insisted on caused him so much pressure that he even vomited once in the bathroom.

However, when he had waited in the café for five minutes and messaged “Little Deer,” the person who arrived was a man—taller than him. Bai Wei found it very unbelievable, even forgetting to drink his coffee, staring at Lu Sen. He looked left and right, doubting whether his grandfather was trying to take a different approach, restoring his male function even without descendants, maybe through the prostate. This could be said to be the most rude stare he had ever given a stranger.

Perhaps this gesture triggered the butler’s misunderstanding. Bai Wei later learned that every time he went on a blind date, his grandfather had the butler sit in a place where he could easily observe Bai Wei’s reactions. The butler thought Bai Wei was satisfied with “Little Deer,” and his grandfather texted Bai Wei, asking him to arrange a second meeting with “Little Deer.”

Bai Wei and Lu Sen’s second meeting was at an aquarium. This time, Lu Sen arrived fifteen minutes early. He was warm and elegant, and on top of that, he was extremely knowledgeable, able to speak about the living habits and evolutionary history of every marine creature.

His descriptions of the taste of various marine creatures added to his charm—perhaps it was hellish, but for Bai Wei, who had been interested in making body specimens since childhood, it was just right, that subtle yet humorous malice. Lu Sen’s excellent performance on their second date erased Bai Wei’s negative feelings about his five-minute lateness on their first date. It made him feel that going out with Lu Sen wasn’t as awkward as he first thought.

However, looking back now, Bai Wei felt a slight chill. During their third date, Bai Wei analyzed the skeletal and muscular structures of various biological specimens, as well as their vital points. But this was purely his own rational analysis. However, for Lu Sen, the taste of those marine creatures… could it be that he had really eaten them?!

What was even more nauseating than this was the presence of Bai Wei’s family. After their second date, Bai Wei received another piece of information—more like a report, which praised his compatibility with Lu Sen.

—–

In the past, Bai Wei had received similar reports after each blind date.

But this report, about his time with Lu Sen, was different. Looking back, perhaps everything at that time had a strange, eerie undertone.