Chapter 45: Exclusive to Jinjiang 2/2

He suddenly sat up, pulled open Shi Zhang’s bedside table, and found the things they had bought at the supermarket before Shi Zhang went on his business trip.

Song Fuzhi silently looked at them for a while, randomly picked them up, and placed them on the table.

For some reason, he hoped that when Shi Zhang returned home tomorrow, as soon as he entered the bedroom, he would see them.

Closing his eyes, Song Fuzhi buried himself in the pillow.

The alcohol seemed to ignite the last spark at the nerve endings. Song Fuzhi still remembered Shi Zhang’s “no” when he said it, but at this moment, he really couldn’t care about that.

After all, it was Professor Shi who postponed his return home.

–

In the afternoon, southwest, hospital.

The doctor finished dressing Shi Zhang’s wound, tossing the used cotton balls into the trash can.

“There’s nothing wrong, no infection. Try not to touch water, avoid intense movement of the arm, and it should recover in a week or two.”

Shi Zhang nodded, and Liu Yang, standing beside him, breathed a sigh of relief.

The doctor prescribed some medicine, gave a few more instructions, and let them go.

After leaving the treatment room, Liu Yang continued to grumble, saying that the student was too irresponsible. If he couldn’t endure hardships on his own, he shouldn’t drag his teacher into it, making jokes about his life in the wilderness. It was irresponsible for both himself and the team.

Shi Zhang held his phone with his uninjured hand, looking down at the screen. Listening to Liu Yang’s endless complaints, Shi Zhang softly called, making Liu Yang stop.

“He sent me an apology letter.” Shi Zhang glanced at Liu Yang with a gentle tone. “Everyone makes mistakes.”

Liu Yang pursed his lips, still dissatisfied.

But thinking about it, Professor Shi had always been like this, very tolerant of students. When Liu Yang first joined Professor Shi’s project, he made a mistake that delayed the entire laboratory, but the professor didn’t get angry. He just corrected him seriously.

“Boss, you’re really good,” Liu Yang suddenly blurted out.

Shi Zhang couldn’t help but smile. “Oh, just realizing it now?”

Liu Yang laughed heartily, took out his phone, and asked for Shi Zhang’s opinion: “Professor Shi, let’s book a hotel nearby, rest for the night, and leave tomorrow.”

Shi Zhang neither agreed nor disagreed, still looking at his phone.

Liu Yang raised his voice. “Professor?”

Shi Zhang said, “I want to buy a plane ticket back tonight.”

Liu Yang was stunned for a moment. “Ah.”

“It’s 4 p.m. now. We’ll take the 6 p.m. plane, and we’ll land by 8:30 p.m. There are still tickets available.”

Shi Zhang spoke calmly and logically.

Liu Yang was a bit overwhelmed. “Professor, we’re in the city now. It takes a long time to get to the airport. If we want to catch this flight, we have to rush there without stopping. Is it necessary to be in such a hurry?”

Shi Zhang said, “Isn’t this schedule just right?”

Liu Yang still tried to persuade: “Although you’re not seriously injured, you’re still injured. It would be better to rest here for a day.”

He paused, suddenly realizing something, and his expression became somewhat subtle. “Is the group’s funding so tight that we can’t even afford to stay for one more night?”

Shi Zhang smiled. “No, the group has money. Don’t worry.”

He continued, “Don’t your parents want you to go back early? You’ve been on a business trip for two weeks.”

Liu Yang said straightforwardly, “It’s okay. I told them I would postpone my return to school for a day.”

Shi Zhang remained silent for a few seconds and said gently, “But there are people waiting for me at home.”

The professor’s tone was unusually gentle—a voice rarely heard in ordinary times.

Liu Yang suddenly became enlightened, realizing something.

It turned out that the professor was thinking about his husband!

Liu Yang immediately hailed a ride-sharing car: “Well, let’s hurry up then.”

The two hurriedly bought plane tickets and called a car.

The driver stopped in front of them and opened the trunk.

Shi Zhang lifted the suitcase with one hand and effortlessly placed it in the trunk.

“Hey, let me do it.” Liu Yang hurriedly reached out to help, aghast. “Professor, the doctor said not to move your arm violently!”

Shi Zhang, indifferent, said, “This is not considered strenuous movement.”

Liu Yang helplessly supported his forehead.

To catch the plane, the taxi rushed like the wind. When they arrived at the airport, the two quickly dragged their luggage through security, rushing all the way, and barely made it to the plane in the last few minutes, with some excitement but no danger.

“I’m exhausted.”

This guy must have been really tired these past few days. Just now, he ran in a hurry again, and as soon as the plane took off, he fell asleep.

The plane, chasing the sunset, ascended into the sky. The deep yellow light spilled into the cabin, but Shi Zhang felt no drowsiness. His mind was full of thoughts, and he hoped that there would still be a flower shop open when they arrived. He wanted to pick a bouquet of flowers.

After landing, Shi Zhang first returned to the school, put away the documents he had with him, and then took a shower at the gym downstairs.

In the mountains, there was no chance to take a good shower. Feeling dirty, he wanted to go home feeling refreshed.

Shi Zhang stood in front of the mirror, bent his arm to his chest, and examined the wound.

A long and narrow red scar, perhaps due to the bumps on the way, was now oozing a slight trace of blood.

Shi Zhang wiped away the bloodstains with a wet tissue, put on a neat shirt, and buttoned it up from the top of his neck, one button at a time.

Hmm, not bad.

–

It seemed like the first time that Song Fuzhi, while having a solitary meal, didn’t bring out any audio-visual materials for entertainment.

Because as soon as he closed his eyes, Song Fuzhi’s mind was filled with the figure of Shi Zhang.

The most direct, of course, were those vivid experiences—inside the spacious tent under the starry sky, in the mist-rising bathtub. His temperature and voice were imprinted on Song Fuzhi’s life like a mark.

But there were also more numerous and fragmented scenes flooding in, like when Shi Zhang awaited him at the finish line on the cheering school track, holding a bright orange bouquet, laughing; when he gracefully helped a child take down a kite, a hero in the child’s eyes, but leaped into his own embrace from a rock wall; even back to their first encounter at the cafe—the day Professor Shi had a calm demeanor yet left a lasting impression on Song Fuzhi.

Further on, more images gradually appeared in his mind—pure visual impact, all from Shi Zhang’s powerful and vigorous physique.

In Song Fuzhi’s eyes, this man’s figure was almost perfect, as if it had turned from fantasy into reality, as if a character had torn through the dimensional wall.

Song Fuzhi suddenly opened his eyes, cold sweat dripping from his hot skin, only to be evaporated by the surging blood rushing to his head.

Because another name popped into his mind—Zhang Yu, also known as Octopus.

Almost every night like this, Song Fuzhi would think about this cosplayer.

But today, his image was replaced by Shi Zhang.

Some things were initially unrelated, but once you realized something, your thoughts couldn’t be pulled back.

At first, Song Fuzhi never connected these two seemingly unrelated individuals.

One was a veteran in the cosplay community, active for almost twenty years, known for a “bold” style in his works.

The other was his husband, a distinguished botanist professor at a prestigious university, gentle and refined, currently conducting research on a mountain in the southwest.

How could these two people, from different dimensions, be linked together?

But at this moment, they collided in Song Fuzhi’s mind, and then these two vastly different individuals, starting from the beautiful abdominal muscle lines, height, and face shape, began to inexplicably, absurdly, unbelievably overlap.

Song Fuzhi blinked, feeling like he must be truly drunk.

But once a thought started, there was no way to stop it.

Ignoring the difficult-to-determine clue of their physique, Song Fuzhi also automatically recalled many seemingly coincidental details.

Song Fuzhi helped Shi Zhang pick paint as a wedding gift for his friend, and within a few days, the same brand of paint appeared on the table of an artist he encountered at a comic convention.

Shi Zhang once mentioned that he had just finished a long-running project, coinciding with Song Fuzhi returning from a summer comic convention. That convention turned out to be the last event for Zhang Yu.

Thinking further back, on the afternoon when he and Shi Zhang got married and settled into their new home, Zhang Yu announced his retirement from the cosplay scene.

And the reason for Zhang Yu’s retirement was that he got married and wanted to return to his family.

Even more boringly, Shi Zhang and Zhang Yu both included the same Chinese character in their names.

Sitting on the bed, Song Fuzhi could see the gold ring on his left ring finger with a mere glance, like a planetary ring floating in the universe.

It felt like all the oxygen in his body had been sucked away, and his heart was beating urgently.

Were they the same person?

This was just an absurd speculation, perhaps more whimsical than any hypothesis in the world.

Song Fuzhi’s remaining sanity even warned him: how could he confuse these two people, who were completely different in dimension and identity? It was disrespectful to both of them.

Amidst the chaotic thoughts, Song Fuzhi was suddenly captivated by another memory.

It was the occasionally revealed hidden personality of Shi Zhang that immediately tightened Song Fuzhi’s nerve endings.

How to put it, it seemed that the tough temperament shown by Zhang Yu in his works and the subtle possessiveness of Shi Zhang strangely, ludicrously, and unbelievably harmonized from a certain angle.

In the corner dominated by drunkenness, the logical thinking of the math teacher was still struggling.

Mathematics emphasizes proof.

Without proof or deduction, anything could only be a hypothesis.

Song Fuzhi thought that when Shi Zhang came back, he had to take a good look at him.

Look at his face; look at his body.

Song Fuzhi took a deep breath, and when he reached this point in his thoughts, his brain completely snapped.

“Shi Zhang…”

Song Fuzhi sighed with restraint.

A breeze from an unknown source swept through. Song Fuzhi exhaled and raised his head, only to see a tall and handsome figure standing there.

Shi Zhang, dressed in simplicity, stood by the bedroom door, holding a bouquet of pure white lilies.

Really, he must be too drunk… How could he be having hallucinations?

Song Fuzhi, in confusion, thought he would never drink so much again.

But the person in front of him was slowly walking towards him, and the strong fragrance of lilies forcefully invaded his nostrils.

Shi Zhang bent down, one hand on Song Fuzhi’s shoulder, the other tightly holding his hand.

The bouquet of lilies fell on the pillow, and the fragrance lingered.

Shi Zhang’s voice, cold and deep, sounded, “What are you doing, Fuzhi?”