Antidote (Jie Yao) – Chapter 19

解药
(Antidote)

「Chapter 19」

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Translator: Highonmilktea
English Proofreader: Rae Lee

(NOTE: Please DO NOT re-distribute/re- translate without our permission. We may cease this project if found shared/re-translated online without permission)

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The BL donghua “Antidote” was adapted from this novel.

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Jiang Yuduo was startled by the loud voice. It took him a while before regaining his composure. “The heck.”

Cheng Ke ignored him and continued looking at his phone.

“You’d better watch your tone when you speak to me in future.” Jiang Yuduo said. “No one in this area has ever fucking spoken to me like this.”

“I’m not even from your area.” Cheng Ke replied with an annoyed tone.

Jiang Yuduo frowned. He couldn’t find any words to refute immediately, so he tilted his head to look at Cheng Ke, who was playing on his phone.

There was nothing interesting about Cheng Ke’s phone. Jiang Yuduo observed that he was just scrolling around those few pages, tapping into some apps then backing out and repeating the process.

No games and no interesting apps. Cheng Ke even tapped into a ride-hailing app and the GPS.

This was the most boring phone Jiang Yuduo had ever seen. It feels like this phone doesn’t have any uses other than making calls and receiving texts.

“Don’t you know that it is very rude to look at someone else’s phone?” Cheng Ke glanced towards his side.

“You’re afraid of letting people look at a phone like yours?” Jiang Yuduo said. “It doesn’t even have shit, I won’t even take a look if you show it to me.”

“Were we talking about this?” Cheng Ke turned his head, “Can you not run off the topic?”

“You should just use a phone for the elderly instead”, Jiang Yuduo told him, “It’s a waste to use a phone that cost a few thousand dollars. This phone must be crying every night to be owned by you.”

“I told you not to look at my phone!” Cheng Ke glared at him, “Do you understand?”

“Understood!” Jiang Yuduo felt a little humiliated and shouted, “You must have been chased out because you talked too much!”

He wasn’t satisfied even after he shouted, so he threw his own phone at Cheng Ke. “Come on, you can look at mine! Quick, feel free to browse through!”

Cheng Ke let out a tsk sound and took his phone. He took two glances at the screen that was still lit up: “Her snowy-white thighs…”

“The fuck?” Jiang Yuduo stretched out his arm in an attempt to snatch his phone back, “What was that? Show it to me!”

Cheng Ke blocked his arm, leaned towards the side and continued reading: “The wind blew her hair up, revealing her snowy-white neck and…”

“Argh!” Jiang Yuduo exclaimed, “You must be fucking doing it on purpose!”

“You were the one who wanted me to see it!”, Cheng Ke returned the phone to him, “Aren’t you ashamed to show another person your phone when you are reading such things?”

“What the fuck was I reading?” Jiang Yuduo was totally speechless and used his finger to tap on the screen a few times. “She raised her sword and pointed at that person. Today, only one of us shall leave this place alive… Why didn’t you read this sentence? They were having a fight, for fuck’s sake, yet you only picked those lines that mentioned snowy-white to recite.”

“Wasn’t that stuff about snowy-white a part of the things you were reading?” Cheng Ke replied. 

“Can you have some consciousness when you’re lodging under another person’s roof?” Jiang Yuduo asked.

“Good night.” Cheng Ke smiled, pulled his pillow down and laid down.

Jiang Yuduo was raging. A decent novel became an erotic novel after Jiang Yuduo read it out. He frowned but continued reading it. 

The fight started in the next chapter. There wasn’t a single ‘snowy-white’, neither was there a ‘thigh’ nor a ‘neck’. He looked over at Cheng Ke’s side.

Cheng Ke was lying down, facing the other side and never made a single movement.

“Hey, are you asleep yet?” Jiang Yuduo asked.

Cheng Ke did not move and did not reply.

Jiang Yuduo hesitated for a while, brought his phone in front of Cheng Ke’s face, then pushed him. “You’d better fucking read this part out!”

Cheng Ke still did not move or make any sound.

“Pretending to be asleep, aren’t you?” Jiang Yuduo asked.

Cheng Ke started laughing and accidentally laughed out loud. 

“You saw that? Mark my words, one more fucking laugh and I’m going to throw you out, ‘kay?” Jiang Yuduo told him, “Read it!”

Cheng Ke let out a sigh and looked at the phone, “She lightly twisted her flexible waist…”

“Eff off!” Jiang Yuduo snatched his phone back and took a look at his phone. Cheng Ke didn’t actually make this up.

It was supposed to be a fighting scene! What’s wrong with the author? Who the fuck would notice whether someone’s waist was flexible or not during a fight!

“Not reading anymore”, Jiang Yuduo pulled the pillow over and threw it against the wall towards Cheng Ke’s direction, “Gonna sleep!”

The switch on the wall clacked and the lights in the house were turned off.

Cheng Ke was taken aback by his audacious way of turning off the lights: “Can’t you just tell me to turn it off?”

“I don’t want to speak to you”, Jiang Yuduo put the pillow in place, laid down and continued, “son.”

“What?” Cheng Ke was stunned.

“You said it yourself. You’ll be my son if you speak another word to me”, Jiang Yuduo told him. “I’ve been saving your face by not acknowledging you as my son. However, I’ve decided to do it now.”

It was then that Cheng Ke finally recalled himself saying those words when he slammed the door and ran out earlier on: “Childish.”

“You’re the most matured”, Jiang Yuduo said. “Why didn’t you dump your worn out clothes today? Isn’t it nice to go back topless?”

“Shut up.” Cheng Ke sighed. He pondered and spoke again, “Can we still get that key back? That cat head keychain is still with it.”

“Mm”, Jiang Yuduo replied, “I’ll go get it back when I wake up tomorrow.”

“I think… I should write a report”, Cheng Ke said, “to install a fingerprint door lock.”

“Sure. But let me tell you in advance, my fingerprint has to be recorded too.” Jiang Yuduo said.

“….On what grounds?” Cheng Ke turned his head.

“Because I used to be able to enter using the key. But I won’t be able to do it anymore,” Jiang Yuduo answered. “Furthermore, I’ve already told you at the start that changing locks isn’t allowed.”

Cheng Ke was a little hesitant. He wasn’t sure if Jiang Yuduo would really enter his house. Strictly speaking, Jiang Yuduo wasn’t a bad guy. He was different from those thugs in his impression. Sometimes, he felt that this big boss was really like a child, but he definitely wasn’t able to predict what he would do when he was mad.

He eventually nodded. “Alright.”

“I won’t go in”, Jiang Yuduo said, “I’m a man of my words.”

“Mm.” Cheng Ke replied.

Jiang Yuduo didn’t speak further. The silence in the bedroom was a little awkward. Cheng Ke closed his eyes and repeatedly told himself to quickly fall asleep. It wouldn’t be awkward if he was asleep.

He laid on one side of his body till it got numb, yet he still couldn’t fall asleep.

There was a wound on the back of his head, so he wasn’t able to lie down on his back. If he wanted to change a position, he could only turn to the left side. But there would be someone lying in front of him, which was worse than feeling numb on one side of his body.

He persisted for a while and couldn’t take it anymore, as his right arm became numb too. But most importantly, his right arm was still hurt.

Cheng Ke clenched his teeth and flipped over. He was now lying on his left. He took a glance at Jiang Yuduo, who was now lying on his back. Cheng Ke really wanted to give him a push so that his back would be facing him. 

While contemplating, under the moonlight, he saw Jiang Yuduo blinking twice.

“Do you have insomnia too?” Jiang Yuduo suddenly turned his head around.

“…I don’t”, Cheng Ke shifted back a little, “I can’t really fall asleep easily in a different environment.” 

“Oh.” Jiang Yuduo turned his head back and continued staring upwards.

“Do you always have trouble sleeping?” Cheng Ke asked.

“Not always,” Jiang Yuduo replied, “probably about 8 or 10 days in a month.”

“You’ll have to go to the doc…” Cheng Ke was halfway through his sentence when he remembered that Jiang Yuduo seemed unwilling to go to the hospital, so he did not complete it.

After a moment of silence, Jiang Yuduo turned his head and looked at him again. “Hey, why were you given this name? I’ve always wanted to ask.”

“What do you mean why?”, Cheng Ke replied. “My father came up with it. Kè shǒu. It means something like that. But the higher the hopes, the bigger the disappointment.

[T/N: 恪守 (kè shǒu) means to scrupulously abide.]

Cheng Ke laughed: “What about your younger brother? What’s his name?”

“Cheng Yi”, Cheng Ke replied, “Replace the radical in yì from fān yì with xīn.”

[T/N: 翻译 (fān yì) means to translate. When the “讠” radical on the left of 译 is replaced with the radical ” 忄”, it becomes the character “怿 (yì)” in Cheng Yi’s name.]

Jiang Yuduo did not reply. Cheng Ke couldn’t tell if he was thinking about it or if he didn’t understand it.

A while later, Jiang Yuduo took his phone and tapped on it a few times: “There’s really such a word. Yì, it means happy.”

“Mm.” Cheng Ke answered.

Jiang Yuduo tossed his phone on the bedside table and pondered. “I guess your father wasn’t disappointed in you when your younger brother was born.”

“What?” Cheng Ke asked.

“Look. Your name represents having high hopes and expectations”, Jiang Yuduo explained. “However, there weren’t many expectations for your brother, but only hopes for him to be happy. You weren’t a useless piece of trash then.”

Cheng Ke took a glance at him. Jiang Yuduo seemed to be good at analyzing at times.

‘Right.” Cheng Ke laughed, “My brother is two years younger. Can’t tell that I’m a useless piece of trash when I was two.”

“But definitely not as good as the three-year-old kid next door.” Jiang Yuduo replied. 

“Gonna go take a look at the kid next door tomorrow. I’m curious, since you kept mentioning him.” Cheng Ke sighed.

“He’s quite cute and very smart”, Jiang Yuduo replied. “His grandma kept boasting that he could already speak when he was just three months old. So I asked her whether he spoke ah ah, ee ee or oh oh and she ignored me.

Cheng Ke laughed: “You’re fucking annoying.”

“You’re no better.” Jiang Yuduo said, “I didn’t think you were such a person at first.”

“Mm. I too didn’t realize you are similar to Chen Qing.” Cheng Ke said.

“Piss off. Chen Qing is a dumbass.” Jiang Yuduo made a tsk sound.

“Your name. I wanted to ask about it too.” Cheng Ke said.

Jiang Yuduo stayed in silence before asking: “What about it?”

“It was just… a little strange”, Cheng Ke replied. “Why was this name chosen? Yú qǔ yú duó, shēng shā yǔ duó… It sounds a little…”

[T/N: The idiom 予取予夺 (yú qǔ yú duó) means to take away or snatch away, while the idiom 生杀予夺 (shēng shā yǔ duó) means to have power over one’s life and death.]

“I have no idea”, Jiang Yuduo’s voice sound a little low, “I don’t really remember how they look like.”

Jiang Yuduo’s mind went blank. He couldn’t see Jiang Yuduo’s expressions but could tell that he was a little moody from his voice.

“I’m sorry.” Cheng Ke said.

“What’s there to be sorry for?” Jiang Yuduo asked.

“I’m just… sorry.” Cheng Ke thought he needed to explain, “I wasn’t aware of that when I mentioned it.”

Jiang Yuduo let out a sigh, “Can’t you be a little more thick-skinned? Why are you always being apologetic?”

“Alright then.” Cheng Ke smiled.

He didn’t expect Jiang Yuduo to not have parents. He had always imagined that a big boss who would collect rents, get into fights and take in underlings all day like Jiang Yuduo would have parents that were like him.

“Then how…”, Cheng Ke didn’t really want to probe but he was rather curious. After all, his lifestyle was so much different from someone like Jiang Yuduo. “How did you grow up?”

“Eat, drink, sleep. That’s how I grew up.” Jiang Yuduo replied.

“Damn.” Jiang Yuduo started laughing.

Jiang Yuduo laughed along with him. Moments later he continued. “I don’t remember a lot of things.”

“Oh.” Cheng Ke looked at him.

“It wasn’t good.” Jiang Yuduo replied.

Cheng Ke suddenly thought of the injuries on Jiang Yuduo’s body and regretted it at once. He felt that he was being too insensitive to have asked such a question.

He almost blurted out an apology, but managed to keep it in.

Words of apology were of little value to what Jiang Yuduo had gone through.

“Go to sleep.” Cheng Ke closed his eyes, “Good night.”

Jiang Yuduo stayed in silence.

Cheng Ke felt that the liquor they drank today must be made from some kind of special ingredients. He couldn’t fall asleep right now, and he wasn’t even feeling tired. He closed his eyes while still feeling wide-awake.

It was indeed quite tedious.

He felt a little relieved because Jiang Yuduo seemed to have fallen asleep.

About an hour went past after Cheng Ke wished him good night. He started feeling numbness on the left side of his body when Jiang Yuduo’s breathing rate began decreasing.

Cheng Ke let out a sigh of relief.

Moments later, he turned over slowly and was once again lying on his right.

He wasn’t familiar with the feeling of not being able to fall asleep at night. His sleep quality had always been quite good. He didn’t have troubles falling asleep even when he somehow had to take a blame for Cheng Yi or when he was being called a piece of useless trash by his father on a daily basis. Even after leaving the house, there weren’t many nights that he had troubles sleeping.

Yet now, he was experiencing it every time he was at Jiang Yuduo’s. He wasn’t sure if it was because Jiang Yuduo was having insomnia on a regular basis that it affected the aura of the house…

Will being in this house cause him to be influenced by Jiang Yuduo’s weirdness?

Cheng Ke recalled how Jiang Yuduo looked like when he was rinsing his arm over the basin today.

As well as the expression in his eyes.

Perhaps Jiang Yuduo moved on too quickly. In the dead of the night, where imaginations ran wild was when Cheng Ke started to recall the things that had happened.

I didn’t dare to move.

They saw you.

Cheng Ke didn’t think much about those two sentences previously as he was too focused on figuring out what was wrong with Jiang Yuduo.

Recalling it now, it instantly brought a chill down his spine.

Cheng Ke couldn’t help but lean back, tugging the blanket between them till its limit before stopping. Then, he felt compelled to shift himself up to take a look behind.

Jiang Yuduo was still sleeping on his back and never moved.

But his eyebrows were drawn together.

Cheng Ke laid back down on his pillow before letting out a soft sigh.

He did not expect to have a life like this after leaving his house.

He thought it would just be a change of place to live in, and that he could continue idling around and doing whatever he wanted even in another environment.

Yet these two months were…thrilling.

If he were to pen down all 27 years of his trashy life, the total number of words would probably be nothing compared to what will be written about these two months.

But he definitely wouldn’t write about it since he doesn’t even read novels……

The snowy-white thighs.

Cheng Ke closed his eyes and smiled.

The sound of a rooster crowing could be heard from outside the window.

Cheng Ke was a little startled and reached out for his phone. It wasn’t even that long when the thoughts had started running around in his head, and yet it was already time for the chickens to crow?

The time displayed on the screen was 3:11.

Cheng Ke was in a daze before stuffing his phone back under the pillow.

What was wrong with this darn chicken?

Wasn’t it too unprofessional to be crowing at three o’clock!

…What time should chickens be crowing?

Four o’clock? Five o’clock?

Jiang Yuduo’s steadied breathing rate started increasing slowly.

Could he have been woken up by the chicken?

Cheng Ke laid down quickly and closed his eyes. He wouldn’t be able to pull off a conversation if Jiang Yuduo had woken up now.

Jiang Yuduo’s breathing rate was increasing and it started to get heavier. It sounded like he was out of breath.

Cheng Ke opened his eyes.

What kind of sound was that?

He was afraid to turn behind because it honestly sounded like he was doing something indecent.

Suddenly getting aroused in the middle of the night? Furthermore, with an outsider sleeping next to him. 

It’s not possible right?

Cheng Ke noticed that the mattress wasn’t even shaking and Jiang Yuduo was just lying there without moving.

Was it a relapse?

Cheng Ke got a little anxious and turned around. Under the moonlight that was shining through the windows, he could see Jiang Yuduo’s face.

Jiang Yuduo’s eyebrows were knitted together and he was gasping heavily.

Cheng Ke realized that this gasping sounded different from the heavy breathing while doing that thing. Jiang Yuduo sounded like he was…out of breath.

“Hey”, Cheng Ke shook him hastily, “Jiang Yuduo?”

Jiang Yuduo’s body shook along with him, but he didn’t wake up and was still breathing hard.

“Jiang Yuduo!” Cheng Ke sat up, held him by his shoulders and shook them. “What’s wrong?”, he raised his voice.

Jiang Yuduo muttered something. Cheng Ke couldn’t understand what he was saying because he was still panting and it sounded like he was sleep-talking.

“What did you say?” Cheng Ke patted on his face, “Wake up.”

Jiang Yuduo tilted his head. Cheng Ke could see the scar on his face clearly. He couldn’t explain why but in this situation, seeing this scar suddenly made him feel scared.

“It’s not…real.” Jiang Yuduo added.

Cheng Ke heard it clearly this time.

“What’s not real?” He went blank before realizing. Could it be a nightmare?

“It’s not real.” Jiang Yuduo said while still sounding out of breath.

“Yes, it’s not real.” Cheng Ke felt terribly anxious. He grabbed Jiang Yuduo by the shoulders in a panic and pulled him up. Jiang Yuduo then leaned forward against his shoulder.

“It’s not real, it’s not real.” Cheng Ke patted his back twice before giving his back a smack, “For fuck’s sake, quick, wake up!”

Jiang Yuduo’s breathing stopped for a moment, then came a deep inhale and a very slow exhale.

“Are you awake?” Cheng Ke continued patting a few more times on his back and wanted to turn his head for a glance, but Jiang Yuduo was still lying on his shoulders, so he couldn’t see his face.

“Mm.” Jiang Yuduo answered. His voice sounded very nasal and very confused.

“Were you having a nightmare?” Cheng Ke asked.

“Mm”, Jiang Yuduo responded. A while later, he replied with another, “Mm?”

“’Mm’ your ass?” Cheng Ke frowned, “Are you awake yet?”

Jiang Yuduo didn’t answer. He abruptly sat up straight two seconds later and pushed him away.

“Fuck”, Cheng Ke wasn’t leaning back on anything and this push caused him to lie straight back onto the bed. Fortunately, there was a blanket on the area below his head. If his head were to hit the foot of the bed, he would prance right up to throw the cat head ashtray on Jiang Yuduo’s face. “I really should have fucking slapped you awake just now.”

Jiang Yuduo glared at Cheng Ke for a moment, stretched out his hand and pulled him up.

“I had a nightmare.” Jiang Yuduo kneaded his face.

“I can tell”, Cheng Ke replied. “You were deep in your dream, I couldn’t even wake you up.”

“It was…horrifying”, Jiang Yuduo lowered his head. His arms were on his knees, he was grabbing his head and tugging on it erratically, “Fuck.”

“What did you dream of?” Cheng Ke asked, “You couldn’t even catch your breath.”

Jiang Yuduo didn’t reply.

“Drink some water and go back to sleep.” Cheng Ke told him.

Jiang Yuduo hugged the pillow and stayed in silence for a moment, then abruptly raised his head and looked at Cheng Ke. “Don’t be afraid.”

“Wha…” Cheng Ke was stunned, “What should I be afraid of?”

“I’m here.” Jiang Yuduo grabbed his head again.

Jiang Yuduo was a little scared and baffled by his words. “What are you talking about?”

“They saw you”, Jiang Yuduo said. “I’m a little worried. Don’t go out these few days. I’ll send you back tomorrow.”

“Who are they?” Cheng Ke asked.

“…I can’t explain it clearly to you right now”, Jiang Yuduo raised his head, “I’m in a mess at the moment.”

“Alright then” Cheng Ke noticed that he looked like he was in a trance, “I’ll wait… for you to say it when you wake up.”

Jiang Yuduo took a look at him, leaned back on the headboard, lit a cigarette and held it between his lips. “You can go ahead and sleep, I can’t sleep anymore.”

“Mm.” Cheng Ke pulled the blanket and laid back down on the pillow.

Jiang Yuduo must have been in a shock. After mentioning that he couldn’t fall asleep anymore, Cheng Ke closed his eyes and fell asleep in minutes.

But Cheng Ke didn’t sleep for long. The phone screen showed 8:10 in the morning when he awoke, which was around the same time that he would usually wake up.

Cheng Ke turned his head and glanced towards Jiang Yuduo’s direction. He wasn’t there and the blanket was left there in a mess.

He got down the bed and was about to put on his clothes and wash up when he noticed that Jiang Yuduo wasn’t at home as well.

After washing up, Cheng Ke took his phone, walked over to the windows while browsing through his contacts and glanced outside.

At one glance, he could see Jiang Yuduo squatting beside the pavement on the opposite street with a cigarette between his fingers.

Cheng Ke put his phone aside to focus on him.

Shortly later, a skinny middle-aged man ran towards Jiang Yuduo and handed something to him.

Jiang Yuduo stood up after receiving the item, looked on both sides before crossing the street.

“You’re awake?” Jiang Yuduo came into the house and looked at him blankly, “I thought you would only get up in the afternoon.”

“Just woke up.” Cheng Ke said.

“Here.” Jiang Yuduo threw over the item in his hand. 

Cheng Ke caught it and took a look. It’s the key and the cat head was still with it.

“Chen Qing bought breakfast, he’ll be here soon”, Jiang Yuduo said, “I’ll send you back when you’re done eating.”

“…Sure.” Cheng Ke nodded.

“You’re not going out today right?” Jiang Yuduo asked.

Probably…” Cheng Ke thought for a while, “not.”

“Alright.” Jiang Yuduo said.

“What’s wrong?” Cheng Ke asked, “Yesterday night you said…”

“During this period of time, I’ll be following you”, Jiang Yuduo looked at him, “Wherever you go, I’ll be there.”

“What?” Cheng Ke thought he heard it wrong.

“Wherever you go, I’ll be there”, Jiang Yuduo repeated. “Other than having troubles falling asleep at night, you’re even experiencing hearing loss.”

“Why!” Cheng Ke thought it was completely ridiculous.

“No reason!”, Jiang Yuduo said, “This is my territory, I will do whatever I want.”