Antidote (Jie Yao) – Chapter 31

解药
(Antidote)

「Chapter 31」

Brought to you by JustBLThings

aegyo.me/justblthings

Translator: Min
English Proofreader: Akadinosan

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

***********************************************

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

***********************************************

There weren’t many people on the escalator. The thief stood a step below Cheng Ke and at a glance, something was amiss, yet no one noticed.

People like Jiang Yuduo, who were used to taking the opportunity to assess every person while walking were rare, and as long as it overstepped the boundaries of “myself” and “mine”, it simply did not exist to a majority of people.

When the escalator was approaching the end, the thief kept inching forward while holding onto the handrail, stretching his hand into Cheng Ke’s coat pocket that was at most 10cm away.

Jiang Yuduo moved up two steps and grabbed onto the thief’s arm from behind, pulling it back.

To the thief’s surprise, he still tried to struggle, but was pulled back 180 degrees by Jiang Yuduo to stand facing him.

Jiang Yuduo raised a finger to his lips and made a soft “shh” sound.

The thief was undoubtedly too shocked to return to his senses as he froze on the spot immobile.

Cheng Ke, who was oblivious to his surroundings, still didn’t notice what was happening behind him. When the escalator reached the end, he just stepped off and started to look at the directory of the second floor.

Jiang Yuduo practically prostrated himself in admiration towards Cheng Ke. Did he look at the directory on the first floor for nothing?

After looking at it for a good few minutes and moving up one floor, was there really a need to look at it again?

He raised his arm to hook onto the thief’s shoulder who was trying to take the opportunity to escape. “Move, go down.”

The thief was extremely unwilling but he wasn’t as strong as him, and he didn’t really understand the situation he was in. All he could do was follow along as Jiang Yuduo turned and moved towards the downward escalator.

Cheng Ke felt that his memory was declining a bit, but he didn’t know if it was due to his insomnia. Before coming up, he could still remember that the electronics was on the fifth floor and the outdoor sports area was on the fourth.

After going up the escalator, he could only remember that the electronics were on the fifth floor and forgot about the outdoor sports altogether.

He sighed.

As he turned to continue making his way up the escalator, he took a glance at the descending escalator.

Was that Jiang Yuduo?

That back was quite familiar, especially that jacket— he had been wearing it before.

He stood by the railing to look for a while, yet he couldn’t confirm if it were him. After all, he had never seen Jiang Yuduo being so touchy as to hold onto anyone’s shoulder before, even if it was someone to be guarded, they would never get such treatment.

That person disappeared after he got off the escalator and turned a corner, so Cheng Ke continued going up.

Fourth floor, outdoor sports. Fifth floor, electronics.

What did he need to buy there?

Oh, a dishwasher.

Was that person really not Jiang Yuduo?

“Here is fine.” Jiang Yuduo walked to the entrance of the shopping centre and released the thief from his grasp. “You can leave.”

At this point, the thief came back to his senses. Although he wasn’t sure what Jiang Yuduo was trying to do, he could tell that he wasn’t wearing plain clothes so he definitely wouldn’t call the police. For a moment, his gaze changed.

Arrogant and fierce.

The gangsters from around here all more or less knew Jiang Yuduo, but this thief was different, he wasn’t a part of these gangsters. The two hadn’t interacted or hung out much.

“What’s your fucking problem?” The thief glared at him.

Jiang Yuduo knew that he had back-up waiting somewhere, one, two, three or four people possibly. If it weren’t for that, someone like him who, having hooked onto his shoulder, almost felt like he was strangling his brains out, even if he knew that he wouldn’t get caught by the police, he wouldn’t dare be so arrogant.

“I don’t care about others, but that guy just now? If I find you or your buddies following him again,” Jiang Yuduo said, “You can forget about leaving this street standing straight today.”

Following his statement, he didn’t even wait for the thief’s reply before turning around and returning to the shopping centre.

The resting chair from before was now occupied by someone else — an old lady with her shopping pile, and a wailing child seated on the ground.

Jiang Yuduo stood by and watched for a while.

He was a bit envious.

The child looked to be around 7 or 8 years old. Since they can throw tantrums like that, as long as no accidents happen, they can continue to make a fuss until they’re 10+ years old or until someone comes along to deal with them.

That’s pretty nice.

In Jiang Yuduo’s memory, he had never been this impudent before, let alone lying on the ground kicking his legs and rolling around. He never even dared to cry.

He stood there and watched for about 5 minutes. When the kid got tired of crying and began kicking the old lady, he turned around and went upstairs.

Usually, when Cheng Ke buys things, he would always go to the supermarket near the neighbourhood. He wasn’t sure what he needed to buy today, but yet he came all the way here.

Jiang Yuduo took the escalator up as he habitually started analysing his surroundings. Second floor  – Women’s wear, third floor – Men’s wear, fourth floor – outdoor sports, women’s wear definitely wouldn’t be… Jiang Yuduo didn’t know why he started to think about the charming little cutie…

Tch.

It wasn’t at the men’s wear either, and since Cheng Ke came here to buy clothes earlier, he didn’t need to look at the directory again. Unless he was an idiot, his goal in the shopping centre was probably on the fourth or fifth floor… So the probability of it being the electronics was slightly higher. After all, for a young master who didn’t know how to do anything, he wished to own all sorts of appliances.

Jiang Yuduo went up to the fourth floor and cautious of his surroundings, he swiftly scanned around. All he wanted was to check the condition of the injury on Cheng Ke’s face and he didn’t want to be noticed by him.

He spun half a round and spotted Cheng Ke. He was standing in the store in front of a shelf closest to the door, holding sports items from the most expensive brands.. However, Jiang Yuduo could only see him from the side and couldn’t see his swollen eye.

“This pair of pants are extremely comfortable, they’re breathable and sweat absorbant,” the sales assistant introduced. “You can wear them at the gym or when you go running, they’re most suitable.”

“Mm.” Cheng Ke replied.

“If it’s for running, we also have this type over here…” The sales assistant held up another pair of pants.

“I don’t run, nor do I go to the gym.” Cheng Ke couldn’t get used to this kind of customer service where the sales assistant follows you around like a shadow. He grabbed two pairs of pants that looked alright, and then picked two jackets. “I wear these at home.”

“Oh, that’s alright.” The sales assistant took possession of the clothes. “Would you like to take a look over here as well? This side…”

“It’s fine, this is enough.” Cheng Ke interrupted her and swiftly snatched back the clothes, fleeing to the cashier.

After taking a few steps, he glanced back at the store’s entrance.

He wasn’t sure if it was the after effect of the ghost movie, but he constantly had the feeling that someone was watching him.

However, there was no one at the entrance, only an advertisement sign in the shape of a person.

As he held the bags out, Cheng Ke moved towards the escalator. It was only when he approached the escalator that he noticed it only went upwards. If he wanted to get to the fifth floor, he would have to take a different one.

He felt a bit annoyed. These types of shopping centre escalators that refused to work properly, always made him agitated.

It took some time to finally find the escalator that went up.

When the first sales assistant came up to him, Cheng Ke hurriedly said, “Dishwasher.”

He walked in the direction that the sales assistant pointed and when approached by a second sales assistant he stated, “Dishwasher.”

After saying “dishwasher” for the fourth time, he successfully stood in front of a row of dishwashers.

“I live alone, so I just need a dishwasher that can disinfect.” Cheng Ke was at a loss looking at the pile of appliances. “Sometimes I might only have one bowl…”

Cheng Ke was stunned as he looked at an extremely cool and flashy reflective lacquered dishwater.

“This model is not bad, it’s the newest one this year. Doesn’t its appearance have a futuristic feel?” The sales assistant said, “This model comes with free installation as well, and has a mini model, if it fulfils your requirements…”

Cheng Ke didn’t listen attentively to whatever the sales assistant was saying and turned his head to look behind him.

What was going on today?

Was he cursed?

Seeing Jiang Yuduo on the escalator, feeling someone staring at him while buying clothes, and now, seeing a flash of Jiang Yuduo’s face on the door of the dishwasher.

When he turned around, there were only two sales assistants chatting behind him and they were both women.

He couldn’t take it any longer so he walked through the two rows of dishwashers behind him, looking left and right, but he didn’t see Jiang Yuduo. He didn’t even see a man.

“Sir?” The sales assistant called out to him from behind.

“I’ll get this.” Cheng Ke pointed at the reflective dishwasher. “The smallest size.”

Once Jiang Yuduo had confirmed that Cheng Ke had gone back to test appliances with the sales assistant, he emerged from a double-door refrigerator and got on the escalator, headed downstairs.

The corner of Cheng Ke’s eye had a large bruise. Although it wasn’t extremely swollen, one glance and it seemed like he had experienced a harsh fight.

However, it looked like his condition was alright. At least he saw his reflection in the dishwasher though it didn’t even stay there for more than a second.

Jiang Yuduo let out a sigh. In the past, he wouldn’t make this sort of mistake. With one look, he would be able to see what was useful and what wasn’t. Today however, he didn’t even notice the dishwasher.

Almost all of his attention was on Cheng Ke’s face.

As he walked out of the shopping centre, he received a call from Lu Qian.

“Come over and have a meal at the mahjong club,” Lu Qian said. “Everything has been settled, after you’ve eaten you can look for the building management or someone else to go to the house and pack it up.”

“Mm,” Jiang Yuduo answered. “The building management definitely wouldn’t want to deal with this, so let me find someone to do it then.”

“That works,” Lu Qian said. “Bring a bottle of wine, I want to have some fun.”

“Alright.” Jiang Yuduo laughed.

Lu Qian doesn’t have much guts. She’s not afraid of the living, but afraid of the dead.

When Jiang Yuduo brought the wine to the mahjong club, Lu Qian was the only one sitting alone at the mahjong table.

“No one?” He asked.

“Oh, there were. Everyone who came over to play with me today all knew that someone died in my building.” Lu Qian got up and from the kitchen, carried out the dishes. “This group of bastards aren’t afraid of the dead, but are afraid of their luck getting affected. Look around, it’s going to take at least two days for anyone to come over again.”

“Then you can take a good break.” Jiang Yuduo sat down.

“I don’t have the luxury of rest,” Lu Qian said. “Tomorrow, I’m going over to my mother’s place to visit. I haven’t been to see her in a long time. Look at that guy, just dying all of a sudden. So if I can accompany her more, then I will.”

Jiang Yuduo didn’t say anything.

“It’s better if you don’t drink today, your complexion doesn’t look very good.” Lu Qian took a look at him. “Have you not been sleeping well?”

“I’ve been sleeping fine.” Jiang Yuduo rubbed his face.

A night of bad sleep didn’t do much to his complexion, but his mood probably wasn’t too good today. Jiang Yuduo held his chopsticks to eat a mouthful of food.

Because someone suddenly died.

Because a friend could disappear.

Ever since he got a dishwasher, Cheng Ke felt that life became more enjoyable. Everyday, he would pour his takeout into a bowl to eat, when his cup noodles were done he would also pour it into a bowl to eat. He would even pour his snacks out of the bag onto a plate to eat… He never realised that he was this childish in the past. It was just a dishwasher, yet after playing around with it for almost half a month, its brand new feeling hadn’t dissipated.

Or could it be that life was too boring?

He had nothing to do, and the video recording that Xu Ding had arranged for, still had a week to go. In the past, if Xu Ding asked him to work once every two or three months, he would find it too much. Now, he was so bored that he wanted to call Xu Ding and ask him to hurry up and exploit him.

Actually, he had been living like this for quite some time now, it just got extremely unbearable as of late.

It could be because Jiang Yuduo really wasn’t going to appear again. There were no phone calls, no news, and no chance meetings.

Cheng Ke furrowed his brows. That’s not right.

He and Jiang Yuduo never really called each other much, and there was no way for him to find out about any news on him. The two didn’t add each other as friends either. At most, they just met up sometimes.

In the past few months, the time they spent together didn’t even add up to a week, so not meeting up for half a month was a normal occurrence.

…The only thing that was different, was probably what Jiang Yuduo said.

If anything happens in the future, just look for Chen Qing.

Meaning, he would never have any sort of interaction with Cheng Ke again.

Cheng Ke let out a sigh.

When the dishwasher started doing its job, he took his phone and sat on the sofa.

He scrolled through his phone for a long time yet he didn’t know what he should play, so he ended up opening his Friends Circle^[1].

It had been a long time since he checked it, he barely looked at his Friends Circle ever since he got cut off from his family. There wasn’t much difference in the content, let alone looking at it, even thinking about it would make you feel uninterested.

Everyone was living their usual lives, yet he was standing outside.

The first post in his Friends Circle timeline was Chen Qing.

This delighted Cheng Ke, as if he gained an emotional buffer.

But due to Chen Qing’s Friends Circle posting style, if you wanted to see older posts, after taking a look, your screen would be blocked by him.

Today alone, he had posted 10 times.

Five of them were about the shop: two of them were the shop’s ads, two promotional event alerts, and one more post for hiring, a dedicated worker who loved his job.

There were another five personal posts, including: “On their wedding night, he walked into the room and saw his wife…” and “Deciphering a 30-year case! That year, why did xx blablabla…” and the post with the highest IQ was the lifehacks, “Life expert teaches you how to quickly fold your blanket”.

Cheng Ke clicked on it and took a look, realising that this was the method that Jiang Yuduo had told him about.

He resolutely watched the video while enjoying himself.

As he scrolled down, the posts were still by Chen Qing. The rate that he posted in the Friends Circle was usually seven to eight a day.

– Jianghu^[2], my youth

It was a really cringey caption, but Cheng Ke couldn’t help but expand the photograph attached to look closer.

He had seen the scenery in the photograph before, of the small community park behind the building. There was a group of people seated or standing near the flowerbed, and sitting in the centre holding a cigarette was Jiang Yuduo.

Cheng Ke zoomed in on the photo, enlarging it until Jiang Yuduo’s face took up the entire screen.

In that moment, he suddenly felt a whole lot better.

It was like the sense of satisfaction from seeing a water droplet spreading out across the fluffy edges of the calligraphy paper.

He lit a cigarette and continued to scroll down. Chen Qing insisted on posting about his Third Bro at least once a day, as if he was Jiang Yuduo’s global fanclub.

Cheng Ke continued to scroll, but there was no end. Chen Qing’s Friend Circle timeline was about half a year’s worth, but its contents were like the sea and he couldn’t scroll to the end even after an hour.

However, Cheng Ke no longer wanted to look at it anymore, so he clicked on ‘Add Friends’ and ‘From Contacts’.

He found Jiang Yuduo’s name.

WeChat Nickname: Big Inch^[3]

Cheng Ke stared at those two words for a long time. What sort of stupid name is that, it couldn’t even compare to Chen Qing’s xxAutoDetailerChen139xxxxxxxx.

If he couldn’t think of a good name, why not just use his real name, like he did.

Cheng Ke sent a friend invite to Big Inch before lying on the sofa, switching on the television.

A few minutes later, his phone chimed.

He grabbed it to take a look. Big Inch had accepted his friend request.

He stared at the “You can start chatting now” dialogue box in the chatroom for a long time and didn’t type a single word.

Jiang Yuduo’s side was silent as well, not sending a word.

Cheng Ke waited for a while and sent a comma over.

A few minutes later, Jiang Yuduo replied with a semicolon.

Cheng Ke was stunned. He thought that Jiang Yuduo would at least reply with a question mark, but facing this semicolon now, he kind of didn’t know what to do to continue the conversation.

Seeing how Jiang Yuduo didn’t reply with anything else, he exited the chatroom, clicking into Jiang Big Inch’s Friend Circle.

What disappointed him was that Jiang Big Inch only had one post in his Friends Circle, which was posted three days ago, an unflattering image of Meow.

In the picture, Meow was rolling around, the tip of its tail circled by Jiang Big Inch in red. The caption: Little Inch

？？？

He stared at those two words for nearly ten minutes before reacting intensely to what Jiang Yuduo’s Big Inch meant.

My god!

Simply vulgar and shameless to the extreme!

His phone chimed. Jiang Yuduo had sent a message.

It was a voice message, only a second long.

Usually, Cheng Ke greatly disliked listening to voice messages, for the majority of the time he wouldn’t even open them if he saw them. Besides, that group of friends of his weren’t very close.

However, this one second voice message, he opened it. Of course, it was short.

“What’s up?” Jiang Yuduo asked. The audio sounded like there was a whirring wind in the background, it felt like those few words could be blown and scattered.

– It’s nothing.

Cheng Ke replied with that sentence and didn’t know what else he should say next.

He rarely spoke with others this way. He would usually meet up with his friends to talk in person, sending messages would usually be asking “Where are we meeting?” and “Are you here yet?” sort of thing. Even if they were to chat, it would usually be the other party bringing up topics to talk about, he would just go with the flow and it would be fine.

Encountering this sort of enquiry from Jiang Yuduo was basically a concluding signal for chatting, but he couldn’t even find another line to say.

He tossed his phone onto the coffee table, closing his eyes and sighing.

Jiang Yuduo definitely didn’t know why he would suddenly add him as a friend, and even try to force a conversation.

He, on the other hand, was very aware.

In that moment, when he saw Jiang Yuduo’s photo in Chen Qing’s Friends Circle, he knew that even if he didn’t think about him too much, at the very least, he wanted to see Jiang Yuduo again.

The last time he felt this good about someone was almost two years ago, but before it reached a higher level of affection, Cheng Ke had already lost interest.

Just like how he was satisfied with drifting along as things come with a lot of matters, not thinking a lot about them and not asking much, he was the same when it came to his feelings. He often couldn’t raise enough enthusiasm without any warning, and he would lose the interest to further his relationship with a person that he was thinking about only the day before.

Although this good feeling that he had towards Jiang Yuduo was now something that he longed for, it was also a bit strange. It felt familiar, yet as if he had never experienced it before.

Jiang Yuduo was different from anyone else he had met while growing up.

He only just came to realise how appealing Jiang Yuduo was to him.

It was strong enough to resist the dangerous fact that he had been violently beaten up less than a month ago, and was powerful enough to ignore the doubt in his heart regarding Jiang Yuduo’s mental state.

Cheng Ke wasn’t surprised that he was like this, it was just that he rarely felt this way towards anyone at all.

“You are very bold,” Father had said a long time ago. “You’re so bold that you follow your heart’s desires, and you do as you please to the point where you give up your brain!”

He had always been too embarrassed to ask Father if what he meant to say was that he had grown so bold to the point where his brain had been squeezed to nothing.

It’s not like it was a compliment anyway, but from another perspective, it might have made some sense.

On the coffee table his phone began to ring. An incoming call.

Cheng Ke grabbed his phone and took a glance. It was Jiang Yuduo.

He picked up the call. “Hello?”

“Did anything happen to you?” There was still the presence of wind on Jiang Yuduo’s end, having the feeling of the wind blowing at each sentence. “Don’t tell me you’re looking for Chen Qing, didn’t I give you his number already?”

“I’m fine.” Cheng Ke said.

“Then what did you add me for?” Jiang Yuduo asked. “Did you overheat the gas stove and explode it?”

“I randomly added you for fun,” Cheng Ke laughed, “But if I didn’t add you, I wouldn’t have known that you’d be so shameless.”

Jiang Yuduo froze. “The hell you mean I’m shameless?”

“Big Inch.” Cheng Ke clicked his tongue.                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                            

“Isn’t it big?” Jiang Yuduo said. “It’s not like you’ve never seen it before.”

“…… What does this have to do with whether it’s big or not?!” Cheng Ke nearly choked. “Whether or not you’re big, did you have to write it in your name in fear that no one will know?”

“Then you can’t say that I’m shameless, Young Master,” Jiang Yuduo said. “Over here, we also call it Big D***, I can only say that you’re too innocent.”

In the 27 years that Cheng Ke had lived, this was still the first time someone who was younger than him by a few years called him innocent. The feeling was very complicated.

“Where are you?” He casually asked.

“Patrolling the streets, counting the rubbish bins. Seeing if there’s any missing.” Jiang Yuduo said.

“I’ll go with you to count too.” Cheng Ke wanted to hang up after saying that, having said something that stupid left him speechless.

“…… Please don’t, I was kidding,” Jiang Yuduo hesitated, “I brought people with me, one of my men has been taken by someone, so we’re currently looking for them.”

Cheng Ke’s mind, for no reason at all, flashed xxAutoDetailerChen139xxxxxxxx’s sentence.

Jianghu, my youth.

“Then……” Cheng Ke didn’t know what else he should say.

“You really didn’t break anything?” Jiang Yuduo asked. “Is your dishwasher spoiled?”

“I really didn’t, that thing can clean at the press of a button, why would it even spoil?” Cheng Ke let out a sigh, but froze suddenly afterwards. “How did you know that I bought a dishwasher?”

It went silent on Jiang Yuduo’s end. After a while, he said, “This is my territory.”

“…… Oh.” Cheng Ke answered.

“Did you watch another ghost movie?” Jiang Yuduo asked again.

“No,” Cheng Ke laughed, taking a glance at the time. “How about you treat me to barbecue tonight, for supper.”

“You’ll have to wait until after I’ve found who I’m looking for.” Jiang Yuduo said.

“Mm.” Cheng Ke answered.

---

^[1] Friends Circle is a function on WeChat where you can upload posts to share with your contacts (friends)

^[2] Jianghu (江湖) is a vastness of turbulence and is a world where people obtain goals amidst peril. In the context of most poetry and other literary works (excluding novels) by ancient educated people, it contained the meaning of “out of the central government’s or emperor’s control or sight”, and sometimes “far away in the large world”. It is less of a place and more of a concept of freedom and a tumultuous journey of self-discovery. There is no English equivalent for this.

^[3] Jiang Yuduo’s WeChat nickname in Chinese characters is 大寸, which when stacked on top of each other reads 夺 (Duó) which is part of his real name. But there’s also a double meaning that is mentioned later

Antidote (Jie Yao) – Chapter 30

解药
(Antidote)

「Chapter 30」

Brought to you by JustBLThings

aegyo.me/justblthings

Translator: Firagara
English Proofreader: Brie

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

***********************************************

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

***********************************************

In all honesty, seeing Chen Qing slam his chopsticks and get genuinely mad, Cheng Ke was very moved.

Jiang Yuduo had said, Friends are very important.

Chen Qing was his friend, and was indeed worthy of this “importance”.

Cheng Ke hadn’t experienced such gravitas. He didn’t have such friends. In his darkest moments, none of his so-called friends stood with him, but instead neatly and unanimously became Cheng Yi’s friends. The only person who kept the same attitude towards him, was someone who technically wasn’t a friend, Xu Ding.

Thus, even if Jiang Yuduo made a friend such as him, Cheng Ke had no idea if he would be as defensive of Jiang Yuduo as Chen Qing had been, if put in the same situation..

“I find people like you really funny,” Chen Qing jabbed towards at him, “Do you look down on people that much? How long have you known him? How long have I known him? Sure is easy for you to open your mouth and accuse people of being nuts! Who the fuck are you calling nuts?”

“Not crazy…” Cheng Ke corrected Chen Qing, “I mean…”

“Who the fuck careswhat you mean,” Chen Qing interrupted him, “You’re the nutjob here!”

“Sorry.” Cheng Ke could only apologise. With Chen Qing all riled up, there’s no chance of him listening to reason.

“Third Bro treated you as a friend,” Chen Qing continued pointing. The word “sorry” to people like Chen Qing probably was as worthless as someone coughing to attract attention. “ He was worried something would happen to you, and specially got Da Bin and the others to look over you, and this is how you fucking see him behind his back?”

“That’s not what I meant,” Cheng Ke sighed again, “I only want to figure out what’s going on, since I almost got crippled by him today.”

“Are you crippled now!?” Chen Qing asked.

“What if he didn’t stop?” Cheng Ke slammed his chopsticks on the table too, “You’d been beaten by him before too, you know how much strength he uses! I’m asking you precisely because I treat him as a friend! If it were anybody else, I’d have had him arrested and call it a day! See if I fucking care!”

Chen Qing glared at him with his brows furrowed for a while longer. With less tension in his voice, but still obviously displeased, “I find that you rich lot have too much free time. Such a simple issue and you can think up a million conspiracy theories.”

Cheng Ke poured wine for Chen Qing, “Let’s just say we show concern for friends in different ways.”

“Let me just warn you,” Chen Qing nodded, “You better not show this kind of ‘concern’ for Third Bro in front of him.Your kind of concern is the sort that’s asking for a beating.”

“Sure,” Cheng Ke nodded, “How old were you both when you met?”

“He was about 10 or 11,” Chen Qing drank a mouthful of wine, “I was older by two years, but I wasn’t taller than him then.”

“…You still aren’t.” Cheng Ke said.

“Do you even know how to make conversation?” Chen Qing tutted, “Are you taller than him?”

“About the same. I’m not shorter than him, whatever the case.” Cheng Ke smiled.

“So?” Chen Qing said, “Go compare with Ba Pie then, he’s one ninety-something, who gives a shit if you people are one eighty-something.”

“Yeah, you’re right,” Cheng Ke nodded to stop Chen Qing from derailing the topic, and brought it back, “He said he was an orphan?”

“That’s right, when he arrived he was alone, and had no luggage,” Chen Qing said, “But he had about two, three hundred dollars. That was quite a lot back then, richer than you, rummaging through a bin for a hundred dollars in this day and age.”

Oh fuck off!

“Oh,” Cheng Ke took a sip from his glass, “That is quite wealthy.”

“Know why I’m this loyal to him?” Chen Qing said.

“Why?” Cheng Ke asked.

“He saved my life,” Chen Qing said, “The first time we met was when he fished me out of a lake.”

“Is that so…” Cheng Ke was surprised.

“I’ll tell you something, I was pretty useless when I was little…of course, not that I’m much use now either,” Chen Qing said as he gnawed on a piece of bone, “I was always bullied as a kid by hooligans slightly older than me. I couldn’t win fights and had a loose mouth, so I was always getting beaten up.

“Can’t you just shut up and be more modest?” Cheng Ke asked.

“No, I have my pride and sense of justice!” Chen Qing crushed the bone with his teeth, “That day they went overboard. They tied me to a rock and threw me into the lake.

“What the fuck?” Cheng Ke couldn’t believe it, “Were they not afraid of getting people killed?”

“The fuck they’re afraid of,” Chen Qing said, “You’re a local, don’t you know that this piece of land here only started developing seven or eight years ago? There was no fucking thing here, and I heard the old pier used to be a cemetery too.

“That was some decades ago.” Cheng Ke said.

 “Regardless, if you really died there, no one would know., It was late at night,” Chen Qing said, “There wasn’t any surveillance around so, when people were beaten to death on the streets in those days, that was that. A few of those cases haven’t been solved even now.”

This was something Cheng Ke knew, and one of them was even a case of family annihilation. His mother would always mutter prayers every time she mentioned it.

“It was Jiang Yuduo who rescued you?”

“Yeah,” Chen Qing nodded, “It was the beginning of autumn that time, not too cold yet. He was sleeping by the bridge and saw it happen.”

Cheng Ke didn’t speak. A night at the beginning of autumn, even if it wasn’t freezing, would still be pretty cold. A ten-year-old boy, sleeping by the bridge.

“Back then, he impressed me in two aspects,” Chen Qing raised two fingers, “One, how calm he was. After those people threw me in they were watching me suffocate from the lakeside. If it were someone else they surely would have yelled or run off, but he slipped into the water without anyone noticing.”

Cheng Ke looked at him and nodded.

“Two,” Chen Qing waggled his two fingers and picked up another piece of rib into his mouth, “He could really fucking hold his breath! Damn, he could hold his breath the longest among all the anyone I’ve ever seen!”

“Can’t you hold your breath pretty well too?” Cheng Ke asked.

“No, he untied the rock from underwater, then butted me to the surface,” Chen Qing said, “I could gasp and struggle on the surface, while he stayed underwater and dragged me like a kite a few hundred metres to shore.”

“Usually a drowning person flails a lot. He was safer that way,” Cheng Ke said. Except that when he recalled that Jiang Yuduo was only ten at that time, it was rather amazing, “And that way he would not have been noticed by the people on the shore, right?”

“You’re right,” Chen Qing pointed at him, “Smart, no wonder Third Bro likes you. He was especially careful that time, worried that someone would discover him.”

Cheng Ke sighed gently.

“From that time onwards, I decided to follow him,” Chen Qing said, “Third bro is the best leader I’ve seen.”

“Why is he called Third Bro?” Chen Qing asked.

“His surname is Jiang, which is written three strokes in its character*,” Chen Qing said, “So I call him Third Bro. When you’re on the streets, you have to have an alias.”

(T/N: This is the simplified version of the explanation- skip ahead if you’re not interested in Chinese characters or calligraphy. Basically the word Jiang in Chinese looks like this “江”. Chinese words are often composed of roots and radicals, with the radical being a hint towards the meaning of the word. The word 江 is composed of the radical for water “氵”, which are the three left strokes, and the root on the right “工”. When 氵 is written awkwardly like those by children with bad penmanship, it looks like three instead 三. This is the basis of Chen Qing’s convoluted choice of nickname- breaking down the word Jiang into its meaningless radical and root, then morphing the warped version of the radical into another word. 

The attachment of Bro/Sis to the end of an adjective or noun or the shortened version of a person’s full name is often used by the Chinese (No matter Hong Kong, China, Taiwan, Singapore, Malaysia or abroad) to indicate reverence, familiarity or fondness.)

Cheng Ke smiled.

Chen Qing can’t really hold his liquor, and just a little red wine would get him excited, blabbing about how Jiang Yuduo was like as a kid- about how he would butt heads with others, how he would go and work at Lu Qian’s, how he would help one after another of his lackeys.

But Cheng Ke had to admit, Chen Qing was not a complete idiot. No matter how excited he got, he remained tight-lipped about Jiang Yuduo before he first met him.

“At that time this place was a mess, with fights and protection rackets around,” Chen Qing tutted, “Decadence and fighting, night and day… Third Bro never claimed to be boss, but no one dared to piss him off. No one could beat him one on one.”

“Yeah,” Cheng Ke nodded. He could tell Chen Qing utterly worshipped Jiang Yuduo.

“That time there was also a rumour that was spread a lot,” Chen Qing chuckled, “They said Third Bro had no pain nerves, couldn’t feel pain.”

“Really?” Cheng Ke asked.

“Rubbish, but he really could endure pain really well.” Chen Qing said.

Maybe not just endure it, but possibly ignore it sometimes.

The table full of food was mostly eaten by Chen Qing. Cheng Ke watched as Chen Qing drank the last mouthful of soup, and wondered how he could maintain his lumberjack physique.

“That’s it, I already said plenty today,” Chen Qing wiped his mouth, “Third Bro said that if there’s anything you need during this time, you come look for me instead. He’s probably embarrassed to meet you after hurting you.”

“It’s fine.” Cheng Ke said.

“I’m leaving,” Chen Qing took out his phone, “I’ll add you and send the address to you. Help me drive the car back, and remember to do it before nine, if you’re late I’ll be yelled into mush by my superior.”

“Yeah,” Cheng Ke took his phone and swapped contacts with Chen Qing. Looking at the address he sent, “I say, how is it that you’re swapping cars to drive every day?”

Chen Qing smiled, “Let me know what kind of car you want to drive, I’m buddy with the clients, it’s no problem borrowing those cars for a day or two.”

“I’m not into driving.” Cheng Ke smiled.

“I’m leaving,” Chen Qing stood up, put on his coat, and walked towards the door, “There’s one more thing I want to say.”

“Yeah,” Cheng Ke responded.

“Third Bro is not nuts,” Chen Qing said, “If he really was, would people here still be afraid of him?”

“Yeah,” Cheng Ke nodded.

“Rest well,” Chen Qing opened the door, and pointed at the corner of his eye, “pay attention to that injury, if anything looks wrong, you let me know. My mother has contacts in a hospital, I can take you for a check up.”

“Sure,” Cheng Ke said.

When Chen Qing left he slammed the door as usual, making even the windows rattle.

Cheng Ke sighed and stood beside the table for a while, before taking the largest sized bin bag and sweeping all the lunchboxes in. He was starting to feel regret. If he hadn’t plated the food, he’d have been done with cleaning up.

What’s the point of being particular? Now he has dishes to do.

He slowly collected the plates into the sink. It looked like it was time to buy a dishwasher.

But even if he were to buy one, it wouldn’t be able to wash these dishes in front of him right now.

Since waking up, Cheng Ke had already unable to muster up much enthusiasm for the day. Now that he’d heard Chen Qing talk aimlessly about Jiang Yuduo for a night, he only felt even more bothered and without direction.

After looking at the plates for a while, he threw them into the bin bag as well.

There, all tidied up.

He had many plates left, and he usually only ate instant noodles and had no use for them anyway.

Cheng Ke took a shower. His shoulder, which already started scabbing, on being rinsed by water hurt a bit. He sprayed some alcohol slapdashedly and returned to the living room couch to sit.

How was he going to kill time through this long, long night?

He took the remote for the projector, thinking of watching a movie, but put the remote back down as he fingered the power button. Thinking about yesterday’s movie, he felt chills running down his back.

The house wasn’t large, but when he remembered the banshee in blue, with him alone in the house it felt vulnerably spacious, and with his shoulder injury making him associate to that scene with the shoulder tapping.

“Shit,” Cheng Ke laid on the sofa, and wrapped the blanket that hadn’t been packed away yet over himself.

Frankly, what made him scared wasn’t Cho Yan-may the ghost.

It was because once the lively atmosphere from Chen Qing’s presence was gone. Cheng Ke gradually stirred from his whirlwind of thoughts to remembering Jiang Yuduo’s violent punch hurling towards him.

He was rather scared, still.

Chen Qing insisted that Jiang Yuduo didn’t have mental issues. Cheng Ke could feel that he truly believed it and wasn’t just protecting his Third Bro’s image.

Cheng Ke was conflicted. Some of Chen Qing’s words made sense. If Jiang Yuduo really had mental problems, how could he have stayed here all these years, keeping the thugs wary of him?

Thugs are thugs, and thugs are no fools. They would be afraid of an adept-in-combat, crowd-subduing ringleader, but not an adept-in-combat, crowd-subduing…nutjob.

Maybe it wasn’t as serious as he thought. With a painful childhood like Jiang Yuduo’s, he was over-cautious, and perhaps would mistakenly hurt someone from hypervigilance.

Cheng Ke furrowed his brows.

Therein lied the problem.

This kind of mental state was not normal in the first place.

It also couldn’t explain how Chen Qing, who was close enough to him to be able to enter his home freely, had somehow never seen “them” or witnessed “them”” hurting Jiang Yuduo.

Cheng Ke lit a cigarette, staring into the television that wasn’t on.

After finishing it, he entered the bedroom.

Bedtime.

Stop thinking about it.

Why should he, who didn’t even bother to thoroughly evaluate how and why Cheng Yi manipulated him out of his home, bother to take to heart a street hooligan whom he only knew for such a short period of time?

In any case, the morning’s incident did not bring him any serious repercussions, and Jiang Yuduo would no longer appear before him.

…No longer appear?

Fuck.

Chen Qing’s car had to be driven back before nine in the morning. Heeding the estimated duration of the trip by the GPS, Cheng Ke woke at past seven, cooked some instant noodles to eat and headed out.

Usually he’d still be drifting in and out of sleep at this time, yet today he could wake up because he didn’t get much sleep the entire night.

Other than inadvertently thinking back to whether Jiang Yuduo had mental issues, his mind kept going back to that assault.

He didn’t want to think too much about Jiang Yuduo assaulting him, nor did he assign blame. After all, he dislocated Jiang Yuduo’s wrist.

Except even though he had fought with others since he was young, and fighting with Cheng Yi for all things big and small was nearly a weekly occurrence, none of the fights had ever been like this.

He couldn’t deny that a pampered young master like him was thoroughly shaken.

Among the routes given by the GPS, he chose the closest.

Halfway into the route, he discovered that it would pass through the narrow street where Jiang Yuduo’s place was.

That gave him a mysterious feeling. Cheng Ke used to play, eat or visit bars around the area, but had never gone down this street. But after knowing Jiang Yuduo, he realised that as long as one headed that way, one had to pass by this street, as if it were a key junction.

He wanted to drive to a main street, to bypass this street.

But upon seeing the windows of Jiang Yuduo’s place, he didn’t drive out.

He even tried to glance through the windows as he passed by.

The curtains remain pulled.

He couldn’t help but imagine Jiang Yuduo at this very moment, possibly standing next to the window, peeping out through the gap of the curtains.

“Third Bro, it’s not that I’m not paying,” A young lady from room 702 with a face full of unremoved makeup leaned on the door looking at Jiang Yuduo, “You have to at least let me know in advance for me to prepare the cash. First thing in the morning you come over, who’d have it ready for you?”

“Where’s your phone?” Jiang Yuduo asked.

“What do you want? My phone’s worth more than the rent!” The young lady glared.

“Let me see,” Jiang Yuduo said.

The lady hesitated for a moment, then handed the phone out.

“Unlock it.”Jiang Yuduo didn’t take it.

“What is it!” The lady was very reluctant.

“Do as you’re told!” Da Bin said from behind, impatient, “If you don’t want to then pay your rent! It’s not like we’re here to rob you, why is it that you’re treating paying rent like martyrdom?”

The young lady tutted and unlocked her phone.

Jiang Yuduo took the phone, opened the SMS inbox and scrolled down to find the notice for due rent that he sent, then turned the screen towards her and said, “I’m not here for trouble, I’m here for the rent. If you want trouble, I’ll give you trouble regardless of your face or chest.”

“For fuck’s sake!” The lady snatched the phone back, turned around towards the house closing the door, “How troublesome, wait here!”

Jiang Yuduo stretched his foot to block the closing door, and she looked back.

“Faster.”Jiang Yuduo watched her.

After a few minutes of mucking about, the lady finally handed over the rent.

Jiang Yuduo stored the money, and kicked the next door.

The cheaper the rent,the harder it was to collect.

Many who could only afford such cheap, be it a cent, were unwilling to offer it cleanly and quickly. A day or short as ten minutes, if they could delay it, they’d feel that it was worth it.

Jiang Yuduo had never experienced what it was like to delay paying rent.

He had slept in all sorts of places when he didn’t have money, and when he did, and Lu Qian asked him for rent, he would hand it over without hesitation.

He was scared of that feeling of being pressured.

Among the rooms in apartment three, the quickest to pay rent was this tenant- the thin uncle living next to the lady.

In the few months that he stayed here, whenever it was time to collect rent, he would open the door, hand over the money and take the receipt in one swift motion, not a single word spared.

However, the thin uncle didn’t open the door today. Jiang Yuduo waited outside for a few minutes without a stir inside.

“I thought this person never went out?” Da Bin was curious as well, and moved forward to knock a few times, yelling, “Open up! Rent is due!”

The door next to it opened and the lady popped her head out, “I hadn’t heard him come out to throw out the trash for two days already.”

Jiang Yuduo looked at her.

“Probably died inside?” She continued, “Seemed like he had some illness in the first place.”

Jiang Yuduo frowned, and turned his head to give Da Bin a look.

Da Bin took out the key to open the door, and as he pushed it ajar he yelled again, “Anyone here?” 

The window inside the room had a slight gap, and as the door opened and drew out the air, a dusty and decadent funk rolled out.

Collecting rent from this tenant was a short matter, so this was the first time Jiang Yuduo smelled the scent of the room. He couldn’t understand how that thin uncle was able to take a tidy room and live in it to the point where it gave such a funk.

But he knew this smell very well.

No light, no ventilation, no cleaning, no tidying, nor a livable presence.

He had spent many years living in such a funk.

The funk where not even a glimmer of hope could be seen.

“Motherfucker!” Da Bin entered the room for two seconds before retreating, a face full of panic.

Jiang Yuduo knew what happened inside with a single look. He didn’t enter, and after closing the door let Da Bin call the police.

The police arrived quickly. The tenants, masters of disappearing acts when it came to paying rent, now flock out on this floor to rubberneck.

Jiang Yuduo found it somewhat hard to breathe.

Someone died.

No one knew his name.

Lu Qian’s place had his name registered, but only just. After that page was flipped and the next person’s details were written, no longer would anyone remember who this was, what he was called, where he was from nor what he was doing.

And now this person was dead.

Gone amidst so many people.

Yet no one noticed.

Jiang Yuduo had never seen anyone die.

But he imagined it countless times.

An existence devoid of notice.

A disappearance devoid of notice.

After leaving apartment three, Jiang Yuduo didn’t head home, but went to the mall.

The mall had a lot of people, and a lot of voices. If there was danger, it would be hard to spot.

But in the mall the lights were bright and colourful, and every look soothed his stifling mood.

He sat on the resting benches next to the stairs and looked at the crowds silently.

Cheng Ke entered from the mall entrance, his face slapped by the hanging cotton blinds, looking rather pissed off.

(T/N: No idea why the large entrance of a mall would be using huge cotton blinds as partitions acting like doors, but that was the original text.)

Jiang Yuduo lowered the tongue of his cap to cover his face, but his eyes couldn’t help but follow Cheng Ke.

After entering, Cheng Ke looked at the directory’s map for ages, probably unaware of which floor the thing he wanted to buy was on.

Cheng Ke stood in front of the map for almost a minute without moving. Jiang Yuduo sighed as the thief closed in behind him and almost stuck to his back. If that thief breathed any harder he’d feel it on his neck, but he remained completely oblivious.

He indeed had a wealthy upbringing, having no vigilance against thieves.

As the thief reached out his hand towards Cheng Ke’s coat pocket, he finally finished reading the map and walked towards the escalator. The thief withdrew his hand but not his thieving heart, probably thinking that an easy target like that didn’t come often. As Cheng Ke entered the lift, the thief followed.

Jiang Yuduo stood up and quickly entered as well.

Antidote (Jie Yao) – Chapter 29

解药
(Antidote)

「Chapter 29」

Brought to you by JustBLThings

aegyo.me/justblthings

Translator: Firagara
English Proofreader: Brie

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

***********************************************

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

***********************************************

After Chen Qing hung up, Cheng Ke stood still holding his phone staring into nothing for a long while, before coming out of his reverie and placing it on the bedside.

Though it took much effort each time he tried to talk to Chen Qing, hoping to end the conversation after a sentence or two… this time he didn’t want Chen Qing to hang up.

That’s because if he did, Cheng Ke would have to continue facing the Jiang Yuduo curled on the mattress.

Jiang Yuduo should have returned to normal. Just that Cheng Ke had no way of knowing whether he would strike again, or how strong he’d be if he did.

Truthfully, from the moment he knew Jiang Yuduo, every so often he’d think this guy was unhinged, but he didn’t delve too deeply. Excluding the fact that he didn’t know Jiang Yuduo well enough to dig so deep, he probably also subconsciously felt positive about him.

Whether the sense of positivity arose from Jiang Yuduo personally, or because Cheng Ke was in the midst of a big change in his life, he definitely felt it was there.

Now, abruptly facing such a side of Jiang Yuduo, Cheng Ke felt at a loss of what to do.

He stood on the bedside, watching Jiang Yuduo lying quietly within the bedsheet, not sure of what to say, whether to just stand there, or to unwrap the bedsheet to examine his hand.

After standing for a while, his right shoulder started to ache where Jiang Yuduo had bitten him.

He walked to the closet and opened the door, pulling out the full length mirror, but with the mirror facing him, his first line of vision was still aimed towards Jiang Yuduo on the bed. Seeing that he didn’t move, before he proceeded to check his shoulder and saw blood seeping through the white T-shirt.

Jiang Yuduo was indeed vicious with his bite. Tearing his collar down, he saw three round punctures that were already swelling.

But compared to the bite, the punch to his face bothered him more.

It was too obvious.

The corner under his right eye was red, swollen, and beginning to bruise.

Cheng Ke sighed, closed the closet door and eyed Jiang Yuduo another time, before heading to the kitchen.

The fridge didn’t have ice, but it did have yoghurt. Cheng Ke took out one cup and pressed it against his eye. He didn’t return to the bedroom but sat on the sofa in the living room staring into nothing.

Chen Qing arrived rather quickly. Within half an hour, the doorbell rang, yet while heading to get the door, in Cheng Ke’s mind he felt that it still took too long.

“Third Bro!” The moment a gap opened from the door, Chen Qing’s voice squeezed through, “You alright?”

Jiang Yuduo, who was in the bedroom, didn’t answer.

“Jaeger, are you alr-” Chen Qing took in Cheng Ke’s face after entering, halted, and lowered his voice immediately, “What happened to your eye?… Does it hurt? Should we get someone to look at it? I drove here.”

“Check on your bro first…” Cheng Ke pointed towards the bedroom.

He was slightly worried that Chen Qing would freak out at seeing Jiang Yuduo rolled up like a Peking Duck roll. However, when Cheng Ke walked back into the bedroom, he found Jiang Yuduo had crawled out of the bedsheet and was sitting on the edge of the bed looking nothing out of the ordinary, aside from his slightly messy hair.

“Third Bro?” Chen Qing walked over, “Are you okay?”

“I’m fine.” 

Jiang Yuduo supported his left wrist with his right hand.

“His wrist is likely dislocated,” Cheng Ke looked at Jiang Yuduo, “Just now, I… might have used too much force.” 

Chen Qing looked down to his hand, “Dislocated?”

“Yeah.” Jiang Yuduo responded.

“Without waiting for Cheng Ke to suggest going to a clinic to have it checked, he grabbed his left hand with his right and gave a violent pull.

“You!” Cheng Ke turned his head away, feeling second-hand pain in his wrist just from witnessing this.

He knew Jiang Yuduo was just fixing his dislocated joint, but watching his self-help tug of the wrist compared to a professional tenderly reattaching of a joint still gave him whiplash.

In the dim light he saw Chen Qing seemingly more calm than he was, standing still in front of Jiang Yuduo to watch him fix his hand.

“Better?” Chen Qing asked after a moment.

“Yeah,” Jiang Yuduo stood up, “Wait for me downstairs.”

Chen Qing eyed Cheng Ke, turned around, and left.

Cheng Ke sensed Jiang Yuduo wanted to say something, to explain, or apologise.

But they stood facing each other for almost a minute, without Jiang Yuduo uttering a word.

Cheng Ke wanted to speak up too, but couldn’t either.

After more awkward silence, Jiang Yuduo stirred and moved around to put on his clothes.

It was at that moment Cheng Ke realised Jiang Yuduo was only wearing a piece of underwear. The fight was probably so overwhelming that he didn’t notice.

Jiang Yuduo finished putting on his clothes, took his phone and poked it a few times. Cheng Ke could hear his own phone ringing in the living room.

“I sent you Chen Qing’s number,” Jiang Yuduo pocketed his phone, “From now on… he will collect rent, and you can call him if anything breaks and needs fixing or replacing.”

“Okay,” Cheng Ke replied.

“Are you hurt anywhere else?” Jiang Yuduo asked.

Cheng Ke kneaded the swollen corner of his eye, and while it did hurt a bit, he was alright except for his shoulder. He shook his head, “No.”

Jiang Yuduo nodded, stood for two seconds, and walked past him out of the bedroom. The apartment door thudded, and he was gone.

Cheng Ke sighed, sat on the bed staring at the floor.

He should have apologised.

Jiang Yuduo felt a pang of regret after entering the lift.

But an apology didn’t quite cut it.

The worse a situation was, the less impactful the words “sorry” felt.

Since he was young, he hadn’t uttered those words much more than “I trust you”. It just wasn’t his habit, nor within his awareness to do so.

Besides, he had already apologised to Cheng Ke once today.

Saying “sorry” twice in a day…

It sounded as laughable as it was insincere.

Perhaps the most sincere apology was to no longer show up in Cheng Ke’s life.

Chen Qing drove the car to the apartment entrance, and Jiang Yuduo got in.

As soon as he closed the car door, he patted his pocket hoping to find a cigarette, but it was empty. He probably left the packet at Cheng Ke’s place.

“You still have to stabilise your arm, don’t you?” Chen Qing handed him his own lighter and cigarette.

“Yeah,” Jiang Yuduo lit the cigarette, “I’ll handle it after heading back.”

“Will Jaeger’s eye be alright? It looked really swollen to me.”

“Don’t know,” Jiang Yuduo frowned, “Call him to ask when you’re free.”

“Sure,” Chen Qing started the engine and drove towards the gates.

“I gave him your number,” Jiang Yuduo said, “Go collect his rent or whatever else from now on.”

“Alright,” Chen Qing nodded, then thought for a bit before eyeing him. After a moment’s hesitation, he steeled himself and asked, “Hasn’t it been a while since that happened? Mistaking a person for someone else.”

“We were watching a horror film last night,” Jiang Yuduo slid open the sunroof slightly, “Probably got a fright.”

“How bored can the two of you get? Playing charades and watching horror films,” Chen Qing sighed, “having some grilled food or wine would have been so much more relaxing.”

Jiang Yuduo didn’t speak, but lifted his head looking at the open slit of the sunroof.

Chen Qing was rather considerate today. Without saying another word, he drove him home.

After helping Jiang Yuduo secure his wrist with bandages at home, Chen Qing left for work.

Jiang Yuduo stood beside the window, peering out through the curtains.

It really had been a while. Ever since beating up Chen Qing a few years ago, it hadn’t happened again.

Maybe he really shouldn’t watch horror films.

He rarely watched them. In fact, he rarely watched movies at all.

No matter the film, no matter the story, there would always be one or two things— or even completely unrelated things that would, for reasons unbeknownst to him, remind him of snippets from his past.

Horror films were more direct and scary.

No matter what form fear took, it is still fear.

Once fear had struck him, no matter how much he told himself it wasn’t real, his self-assurance was in vain.

Until Cheng Ke walked in front of him he was drowning in fear.

You’re just a mutt, a young mutt now, and an old mutt  in the future.

You have a name? I gave you that, and I can just as easily take it away.

Sit! Stand up! Sit! Stand up! Run! Run! Run!

Don’t shut your eyes, don’t look elsewhere, focus on your opponent!

You only have one chance to strike, and if they don’t fall, you will. Don’t give them a chance to rise up…

No matter when, no matter where, there will always be an opponent.

……

Jiang Yuduo stood beside the window, watching the light from outside turn from dim to bright; then to piercingly bright, darken again, and finally fade to a dull orange.

No suspicious shadows, no fishy noises.

Maybe he had become slow. It had been a long time since those days, and the vigilance that was maintained through high pressure and intense training was fading bit by bit.

“It’s alright, you’re all safe from now on, you’re all safe, no one will hurt you guys anymore, no one will hurt you anymore.”

Someone once told him that.

But he could no longer remember who.

He only knew that he couldn’t trust anyone who showed him goodwill. Anything that could lower your guard would lead to the next attack.

But he trusted those words once, trusted them really deeply.

That was because it was what he kept hoping for.

Alas.

All these years, he still couldn’t let go of those people, those memories, and those wounds.

Just like in those days, neither light nor heavy, never fatal, but very painful.

The only change was that he would no longer tell others of his past, nor who those people were. No one would believe him, and he was unwilling to be taken for a nutjob.

From the window, a car was seen stopping in front of the windowsill, then beeping.

This was Chen Qing.

Jiang Yuduo went to open the door.

“I went to that Ting Fook restaurant* to buy a few dishes,” Chen Qing carried two containers inside the house, “these are your favourites.”

(T/N: This restaurant was mentioned as early as chapter 2, but apparently it was just translated into “street vendors” at that time)

 “Okay,” Jiang Yuduo nodded.

“Shall I turn on the lights?” Chen Qing asked, hand on the switch.

“Yeah,” Jiang Yuduo sat at the table.

Chen Qing turned the lights on and went over to help him take the food out onto the table, “Eat, I’ll head home first.”

“Okay,” Jiang Yuduo responded.

Chen Qing was an idiot most of the time, but he had always handled the sort of situation they were in right now well, giving Jiang Yuduo enough time to brood.

“The rent collection for apartment three is tomorrow,” Chen Qing said, “Shall I go too?”

“I’ll do it,” Jiang Yuduo said. Cheng Ke’s rent could be collected by Chen Qing, but he’d do this part himself. He didn’t want Lu Qian to worry.

“Alright,” Chen Qing poured him a cup of water, then left.

Jiang Yuduo didn’t have an appetite, despite the lovely fragrance from his favourite dishes.

Nevertheless, he picked up the chopsticks, and ate them all, with a burp at the end.

The phone rang in the living room while Cheng Ke stood looking at the pot in front of the stove, completely reluctant to fetch it.

At that moment, he was despondent while seething. Though he thought cooking porridge would be easy, an hour later all he achieved was a bowl of ricey water.

It was only today that he realised that a kitchen without a rice cooker was incredibly inconvenient. After living by himself for so long all he cooked was this bowl of porridge.

Had he known it’d turn out like this, he’d have ordered takeaway. Oh how he overestimated his own cooking abilities!

The second time the phone rang, he finally turned towards the living room to check it. Surprisingly, the number was Chen Qing’s.

He picked up the phone, “Hello?”

“Jae Bro,” Chen Qing’s voice came from the receiver, “Had dinner?” 

Cheng Ke was too tired to correct this new name, and just responded, “No, I’m making it.”

“You’re making dinner?” Chen Qing was flabbergasted, “That’s rather unsafe, right?”

Cheng Ke didn’t speak. He didn’t know whether this “unsafe” meant he was expected to blow up the kitchen or poison himself with the food.

“Should I bring some over?” Chen Qing asked, “I just went over to Ting Fook to buy some food and gave some to Third Bro. There’s still a lot left.”

“It’s fine, it’s fine,” Cheng Ke said quickly, “I’m already done.”

“Weren’t you making it?” Chen Qing asked.

“Yeah, and now it’s done.” Cheng Ke answered.

“…Oh, that’s quite fast,” Chen Qing mused, “Then, just curious, how is your injury? Can you see alright?”

Though the punch didn’t connect with his eye, Cheng Ke still blinked subconsciously, then tested it by looked around, before replying, “My sight’s fine.”

“Shouldn’t you get it checked at the hospital?” Chen Qing didn’t sound too convinced, “This kind of situation…Third Bro must have punched hard.”

When Chen Qing mentioned Jiang Yuduo, Cheng Ke hesitated, “How about you bring the food over anyway.”

“Huh?” 

“I have some wine here,” Cheng Ke said, “Let’s eat together.”

Chen Qing took ages before replying, “What are you up to?”

“…What can I be up to?” Cheng Ke said.

It took another moment’s silence before Chen Qing answered, “Alright, I’ll head over right now.”

Cheng Ke poured away half the water from his ricey water, placed the pot back on the stove and continued to cook. Perhaps when the water dried he could get a pot of rice?

But Chen Qing’s first words upon arriving shattered his hopes.

“You’re such a blueblood,” Chen Qing sighed as he turned off the stove, “it wouldn’t become cooked rice even if you got on your knees and begged.”

“Oh.” Cheng Ke sighed as well.

“I have rice, three boxes of it,” Chen Qing said, “enough to eat.”

Cheng Ke, slightly upset, took a few plates to the living room and doled out the food Chen Qing brought onto the plates.

“How particular,” Chen Qing sat, “Isn’t it the same eating from the lunchbox?”

“Easier on the eyes,” Cheng Ke placed a bottle of red wine on the table, “Are you used to drinking this? I don’t have white wine here.”

“It’s all the same,” Chen Qing poured two glasses, “in fact, if it’s white I daren’t drive after.”

“You can’t drive after drinking this either.” Cheng Ke looked at him.

“I’ll be fine.” Chen Qing said, “Including those years of licenseless driving, I’ve spent ages being a driver.”

“This is drink driving.” Cheng Ke pressed down on his glass.

“Goddammit,” Chen Qing looked at him, and finally waved his hand after a while, “Fine, fine, I won’t drink.”

“You can hail a taxi tonight after drinking,” Cheng Ke said, “And fetch your car tomorrow.”

Chen Qing didn’t speak, and looked like he was having a fierce internal struggle between wanting to drink and not wanting to fetch his car the next day.

“How about this,” Cheng Ke thought for a moment, “Give me your address, I’ll drive it back tomorrow.”

Since he didn’t call Chen Qing over just to drink wind and have dinner…

“That works!” Chen Qing slapped his thigh, then looked at him, “You have a license?”

“I got an A2 license,” Cheng Ke said.

“Shit, what are you doing with a license for trucks?” Chen Qing was astonished.

“It was fun to learn,” Cheng Ke said.

“Well that’s true…” Chen Qing placed the car keys on the table, “Be careful when you drive, this car is a client’s. It was just spray painted yesterday.”

“Okay.” Cheng Ke nodded.

Chen Qing took the glass and drank a sip of wine, then took a piece of rib and chewed on it.

Cheng Ke was debating how to ease into his topic of conversation, when Chen Qing looked at him and smiled, “I know why you brought me here today.”

“Yeah?” Cheng Ke eyed him.

“If it weren’t to ask me about Third Bro,’ Cheng Qing said, “You’d never have invited me over to have dinner. Not in this lifetime.”

“Don’t say that with such certainty.” Cheng Ke said.

“It is just that certain,” Chen Qing said, “I don’t mean anything by it. You and I, we’re different people. You don’t say it cause you’re cultured and courteous, but deep inside you definitely look down on me. You and Third bro, you’re different people too.

Cheng Ke didn’t respond.

“But you wouldn’t look down on him,” Chen Qing said, “He’s different from us, technically, just that we happened to come across each other.

Cheng Ke smiled. Guess Chen Qing wasn’t an idiot all the time.

“So you can be straightforward, us from the streets, we don’t beat around the bush,” Chen Qing said, “But I can’t guarantee how much I can say.”

“Is Jiang Yuduo always like that?” Cheng Ke asked.

“Like how? Beating someone suddenly?” Chen Qing frowned, “Didn’t I mention already? It’s been years since he did that. He only beat me once before.”

“He beat you?” Cheng Ke asked.

“Yeah,” Chen Qing nodded, “No idea what he was thinking that day, I thought he was playing with his phone and tapped him, then got hit, but he stopped after a few punches.”

Cheng Ke recalled Jiang Yuduo’s arm slamming onto the mattress that morning. If he didn’t hadn’t paused like that…

“He does this.. But why?” Cheng Ke asked again.

Chen Qing eyed him without speaking and stuffed his face with food.

“I got beaten up by him first thing this morning,” Cheng Ke recalled, “I at least deserve to know why, right?”

“What is there to know,” Chen Qing sighed, “He’s tensed every day… worried about danger if he let his guard down, lashing out when he gets too nervous.”

Cheng Ke didn’t speak. Chen Qing’s explanation was not wrong, but also didn’t feel quite right.

“What kind of danger?” Cheng Ke asked, “Is it related to when he was a kid?”

Chen Qing raised his head, “He told you about when he was a kid?”

“A passing remark or two,” Cheng Ke said, “Nothing detailed.”

Chen Qing stared at him for a while, “Then I can’t say much either.”

“You know a lot?” Cheng Ke probed further.

“How long have I known him for?” Chen Qing said, “I knew him ever since he came here.”

Cheng Ke poured him a full glass of wine, “Then when he was little…”

“I won’t tell you,” Chen Qing said, “Really, stop asking, I won’t even say a word.”

Cheng Ke sighed again, and it was a while before he continued, “Who are “they”?  Does he suspect he’s being stalked?”

“Suspect?” Chen Qing frowned, “What do you mean, suspect? He is being followed!”

Cheng Ke was startled. Someone was really stalking Jiang Yuduo?

He always felt Jiang Yuduo was rather paranoid about this. Perhaps he misjudged him?

“Have you seen them?” Cheng Ke asked, “Those people stalking him?”

Chen Qing looked him over, picked up a piece of rib with his chopsticks, and entered a reverie as he chewed. When he finally swallowed the rib, he answered, “No.”

Cheng Ke was bemused again.

“As you know, people like me, aren’t made for places like these,” Chen Qing said, “If it weren’t for Third Bro, I wouldn’t know how many times I would have been assaulted, I can’t sense any danger at all.”

“If you’ve never seen anyone following him,” Cheng Ke asked, “Why do you believe he’s being stalked?”

“Are you an idiot?” Chen Qing stared at him.

“…Probably.” Cheng Ke was at a loss at being accused of that by Cheng Qing, of all people.

“The injuries on his body! Didn’t you see them?” Chen Qing continued to stare at him, “Every time he sensed something wrong, he would come out with injuries! Haven’t you seen them? Who else dares to trouble him relentlessly? What kind of people are capable of injuring him so easily?”

Cheng Ke was silent for a while, “Have you seen him get hurt?”

“What a pointless question, of course.” Chen Qing.

“Have you seen those stalkers with injuries?” Cheng Ke asked further.

“No,” Chen Qing said impatiently, “I already said I haven’t seen those peo- no, what are you trying to say?”

“I’m trying to say…” Cheng Ke gritted his teeth, “Is Jiang Yuduo having mental problems?”

“What the fuck?” Chen Qing looked at him, and after a while slammed his chopsticks, “Sounds to me like you’re the one who’s nuts! Completely nuts!”

Antidote (Jie Yao) – Chapter 28

解药
(Antidote)

「Chapter 28」

Brought to you by JustBLThings

aegyo.me/justblthings

Translator: Firagara
English Proofreader: havinsomelitoast

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

***********************************************

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

***********************************************

Cheng Ke couldn’t remember the first time he watched A Wicked Ghost, only that it was when he was quite little. Both he and Cheng Yi called over their respective classmates to their house to watch it together.

Everyone was scared half to death, and the girls were so scared, they forgot to scream.

Other than being scary, Cheng Ke’s other memory was how calm Cheng Yi was, without a hint of fear on his face. In fact, he couldn’t stop himself from laughing when seeing their classmates scared out of their wits.

Cheng Ke couldn’t understand why he kept this film all these years, occasionally bringing it out to watch. Other than because it left such a deep impression of fear, could it also be because of Cheng Yi’s derision?

He always felt that he subconsciously minded Cheng Yi’s various mocking laughs, no matter who those were directed at, honing it to him through a sensitivity he couldn’t detect from himself.

He was aware of this state that made him very unhappy but remained hard to control.

Perhaps he wanted to try watching the film till one day when he would no longer feel scared, as if it would help bring him out of Cheng Yi’s derision.

Yet among all horror films, this remained the one he would always be scared off when watching.

Real fear is fear rooted in your childhood.

On reaching here from his train of thoughts, Cheng Ke couldn’t help but glance over to Jiang Yuduo.

Jiang Yuduo had something he was afraid of. Even though Cheng Ke didn’t know who “they” were, whether they were human, incorporeal, or something else altogether, the fear underneath all that swagger from Jiang Yuduo’s composure was real, and was perhaps related to his childhood experience.

As to what it was… He had no clue.

Mutt.

Someone else’s mutt. 

What kind of person would call their child a mutt?

Cheng Ke disliked wasting energy thinking about many different things. Jiang Yuduo counted as someone he thought about a lot, expending much of his energy, tiring him out.

Be as it may that people are “friends”, don’t think too deeply about the relationship between them.

It’s tiring.

When it gets tiring, it won’t last.

“Weren’t there some cushions on the sofa originally?” Jiang Yuduo’s eyes never left the screen.

“I often lie here, so I stored them elsewhere,” Cheng Ke said, “You want them?”

“Bring me one,” Jiang Yuduo’s eyes were glued to the screen, “When I’m hugging something, I get less scared. I can’t be hugging you, can I – you’re so large.”

Cheng Ke lifted himself up and headed to the bedroom. As he opened the closet door to take a cushion, Jiang Yuduo yelled from the living room, “Hurry up!”

Cheng Ke took a cushion, and after a moment’s hesitation, another.

What if he wanted to hug something too.

With the two of them each hugging a cushion, sitting on the sofa and watching an ancient horror film, Cheng Ke felt like laughing out of nowhere.

Originally thinking that with the two of them watching it together, Cheng Ke wouldn’t be as scared, but he ended up with someone like Jiang Yuduo who looked vicious but was more frightened of horror films than he was…

Yet Jiang Yuduo was different from him. If Cheng Ke was scared, he would turn his eyes away, and steal glances from the corners of his eyes until the horror shots were over, but Jiang Yuduo would stare at the scene, eyes bulging wide.

What’s up with that?

Because the lights were off and it was snowing outside, other than the projector screen being lit up, the rest of the house was dark.

The atmosphere was well set up.

At the beginning, Cheng Ke felt okay, and although Jiang Yuduo said he was scared, he sat there without fidgeting or letting out scared groans.

As Cheng Ke could remember the plot, he could still tolerate the horror.

Up till the point where the protagonist’s friend went to the bar restroom, with a long-haired banshee following her with a hand on her shoulder, did Cheng Ke start to feel scared.

Just because of this scene, whenever he went to a bar restroom, he would look over his shoulder.

“Fuck.” Jiang Yuduo swore under his breath.

Cheng Ke felt that he needed a sip of water to calm his nerves, and was about to get up after putting down the cushion when Jiang Yuduo gripped his arm, “Where are you going?”

“To get a cup of water,” Cheng Ke said.

“I want one too,” Jiang Yuduo nodded, “I’m thirsty.”

“Okay.” Cheng Ke stood up and walked into the kitchen. As he turned on the lights, he daren’t look at it, for fear of seeing another hand.

After pouring a cup and drinking it hastily, he took another and scampered back to the living room.

Jiang Yuduo took the cup and gulped twice, wiping his mouth, “Fuck, as you walked into the kitchen, I kept looking at your back, afraid that someone would touch your shoulder.”

“Fuck off!” Cheng Ke felt a chill down his spine, and hurriedly slammed himself down onto the sofa, feeling more secure with his back touching the sofa.

“Tell me if there are any scary scenes later,” Jiang Yuduo said, “Spoilers are necessary at a time like this. If you don’t spoil it, you’re a dick.”

“Right.” Cheng Ke responded.

To spoil it for him, Cheng Ke had to be watching the film himself…

“All the people in the village are dead.” Cheng Ke whispered softly, “This grave’s owner is the ghost, Cho Yan-may.”

“Yeah,” Jiang Yuduo whispered too, “Is the ghost coming out?”

“Coming! From behind!” Cheng Ke quickly looked away.

When the ghost appeared behind the protagonist, Jiang Yuduo gnashed his teeth and yelled, “Bastard! You scared the shit out of me! Isn’t that a man?”

“A villager, killed by Cho Yan-may.” Cheng Ke said.

“Right.” Jiang Yuduo nodded.

In order to forewarn Jiang Yuduo, Cheng Ke had to focus on how the movie unfolded next, and perhaps because of this shift in focus, he found himself less frightened than before.

“Toilet bowl!”

“What’s with the toil-” Before Jiang Yuduo could finish asking, hair emerged from the toilet bowl. He squeezed against Cheng Ke violently, “Christ!”

Upon being squished, the relatively calm Cheng Ke found that his childhood fear had rekindled, and squeezed himself up against Jiang Yuduo’s side as well. 

With both of them forcefully shoving into each other, they stared at the projection together.

“I need to ask,” Cheng Ke went off-topic to release his tension, “If you’re this scared, why do you keep looking?”

“Huh?” Jiang Yuduo eyed him, and quickly looked back at the screen, “They said that the more frightening it is, the more you should look at it.”

Cheng Ke didn’t speak.

Jiang Yuduo’s reply mysteriously added to Cheng Ke’s fear.

But because he had to continue spoiling the jump scares, his emotions calmed down slowly. In the end, when the heroine’s face became that of a ghost right in front of the protagonist, though the shot was not too frightening, perhaps because he didn’t spoil the scene properly, it still gave Jiang Yuduo a fright.

“Fuck!” He roared, and gripped Cheng Ke’s arm.

The worst thing to have to deal with while watching a horror film is to have your limbs or body be grabbed by someone. Anyone would think they’d been grabbed by a ghost.

Cheng Ke also yelled from being grabbed suddenly, and returned the favour.

The two of them gripped each other’s arms as if in some kind of tango.

When they heard the dialogue “You really love her”, Cheng Ke relaxed his hold on Jiang Yuduo and leaned back onto the sofa.

“God damn it,” Jiang Yuduo also sank into the sofa after a long pause, “With 30-year-old special effects, this was supposed to be the least scary jumpscare. You can already guess what’s going to happen.”

“Yeah,” Cheng Ke said, “Yet it took you by surprise this much?”

“I don’t understand it either,” Jiang Yuduo waved his hand, “Hurry up and turn it off.”

Cheng Ke smiled, and turned off the film and swap the projection to that of a television programme. He turned on the living room lights again, and felt all tension leave his body.

“Want some water?” Cheng Ke raised the cup and asked.

“Will I get possessed after drinking it?” Jian Yuduo asked after a pause.

“Can you not?” Cheng Ke turned to look at him.

Jiang Yuduo laughed, “Sure, I want some.”

As Cheng Ke got to the kitchen to pour water, he couldn’t help but look around again, and without filling it fully ran back to the living room. As Jiang Yuduo stretched his hand to receive the cup, he started drinking from it.

“Fuck.” Jiang Yuduo looked at him with his arm outstretched.

“Wait a moment.” After Cheng Ke finished his drink, he ran to the kitchen to fill half a cup and bolted back again.

“I’ll do it myself.” Jiang Yuduo stood up, “You’re no less scared than I am! You didn’t even watch that much and you’re like this?”

“The point of horror films is to give yourself a scare,” Cheng Ke, “The only thing that can frighten you is yourself.”

Jiang Yuduo stopped just short of the kitchen door upon hearing these words, and turned his head, “Is that so?”

“Yeah, the things we fear most …most of them,” Cheng Ke pointed at his head, “Come from here.”

“Things you experienced? Or imagine?” Jiang Yuduo asked.

“The scarier the experience, the more it’s demonified in our minds,” Cheng Ke smiled after saying this, “I’m just spitballing, that’s what I think.” Jiang Yuduo didn’t reply, and entered the kitchen.

Maybe he was trying to prove that he was braver, but he finished his drink before coming out of the kitchen.

“Let’s watch some straight-laced Channel 7 news,” Cheng Ke took the remote and changed channels, “And go to sleep afterwards.”

“Isn’t that the agriculture channel?” Cheng Ke gave a glance, “What’s straight-laced about it?”

“Agriculture, military,” Cheng Ke pointed at the screen, “Look at that, life in the military is very straight-laced. After watching ghost films you’ve got to temper the fright with some dicks full of Yang energy*.

(*T/N: In Chinese culture, females, the underworld, introversion, passiveness, etc are called Ying-heavy concepts, and males, the physical plane, extroversion and aggressiveness are called Yang-heavy concepts. The vagina is literally called the Ying channel in Chinese. Ghosts in general are said to either cause people to have heavy Ying chi or induce having Ying chi.)

“Oh.” Jiang Yuduo looked at the screen, and back at him.

After a while, Cheng Ke noticed Jiang Yuduo hadn’t moved at all and eyed him from the side, only to see that his face was full of suppressed, unspoken thoughts.

Cheng Ke realised what he said and sighed, “My intentions are chaste*, get your mind out of the gutter.”

“I feel like this would be as if I were watching a beauty pageant,” Jiang Yuduo sat down, “Throughout the show, I wouldn’t be chaste* at all.”

“That’s just you,” Cheng Ke tutted, but thought for a bit and was surprised, “You know what chaste means? I thought you didn’t go to school.”

(*T/N: Actual text uses a four word Chinese proverb, so just *insert any profound phrase uneducated people might not understand here*)

“Yeah,” Jiang Yuduo lit a cigarette, “But whatever the case, I know words, I’ve read a lot.”

“That’s good, you had books to read. I’ve loved reading ever since I was little.” Cheng Ke let out a sigh of relief, if Jiang Yuduo could read in his childhood, it shouldn’t have been too bad?

“There’s a difference.” Jiang Yuduo said.

“How?” Cheng Ke asked.

“I’d get beaten whenever I read.” Jiang Yuduo said.

Cheng Ke fell silent.

After saying that, Jiang Yuduo stared at the television without speaking, and did not even spare a glance at Cheng Ke.

Cheng Ke was also forced to finish watching this military life show in a state of speechlessness.

As the next programme began after the commercials, Jiang Yuduo yawned, and as if catching it, Cheng Ke yawned as well.

“Tired.” Jiang Yuduo rubbed his eyes.

“Want a shower?” Cheng Ke asked, “I’ll hand you a towel.”

Jiang Yuduo hesitated before nodding his head, “Okay.”

Cheng Ke suddenly felt like it was an inappropriate question, as if he thought Jiang Yuduo stank and had to shower before heading to bed, so he added, “It’s fine even if you don’t want to.”

But it felt as if it was made more apparent after saying that.

Fortunately, Jiang Yuduo didn’t seem to notice, “I will. It feels better sleeping after a shower.”

Cheng Ke lent him a set of his own pajamas, and took a new pair of underwear, a new towel and brush.

“So complete,” Jiang Yuduo accepted them and sighed, “My place won’t do at all, I only have one set of everything.”

“I bought a bunch.” Cheng Ke smiled.

Cheng Ke didn’t know how Jiang Yuduo was going to shower with the injury on his hand. Regardless, it took a long time, and when he came out of the bathroom Cheng Ke was almost asleep on the sofa.

“I thought you were going to shower till tomorrow.” Cheng Ke stood up.

“While I was standing under the shower,” Jiang Yuduo cleared his throat, embarrassed, “I accidentally fell asleep.”

Cheng Ke was in awe, “Are you a horse? You’re able to fall asleep standing?”

“Yeah,” Jiang Yuduo nodded, “If one had to stand day and night, how can one cope without dozing off?”

Cheng Ke couldn’t understand that sentence, but before he could pursue the matter, Jiang Yuduo had already headed to the bedroom, laid down, and moved no longer.

Straight-forward as he was, he slept on the bed when allowed to, without some false courtesy of declining first.

Cheng Ke entered the bathroom and began showering. With his hand supporting him against the wall, he tried to sleep standing.

He didn’t succeed.

What kind of amazing ability is this, and what kind of circumstances would lead one to train for it?

As Cheng Ke got out from the bathroom, he looked over to the bedroom. Jiang Yuduo didn’t close the door, and he was still visibly sleeping in the same posture as before, without a blanket on him.

Cheng Ke entered, took out a blanket, and laid down on the sofa.

He was pretty tired, the sort where you could fall asleep just by closing your eyes. Even if the lights were off, his eyes were shut, and a blue-clothed banshee appeared in front of his eyes, it didn’t take a few seconds of fearful moments to fall asleep.

But the result of this speedy fall into sleep probably led to the rise of those horror scenes that Cheng Ke didn’t have time to process previously in his dreams.

Especially because it was a dream, it was ultra-realistic, with movie stereo sound and omni-directional view.

Finally, when Cheng Ke was scared awake, he could still hear his own huffing and puffing, as if he had been doing something naughty.

The view outside was brighter, and Cheng Ke looked at his phone. It was 6am.

A nightmare that lasted the entire night?

Cheng Ke panted so much that he felt thirsty.

He sat up, took a cup to the kitchen, and felt better after downing some water.

As he headed back to the living room he glanced at the bedroom and gave a start.

There was no one on the bed.

“Lao San?” Suppressing his voice, he asked, “Jiang Yuduo? You’re up?”

No one answered.

He left?

Cheng Ke headed towards the bedroom wondering if he was on the balcony.

He pulled open the curtains and could see past the glass window wall that there was no one on the balcony either.

“What the fuck?” Cheng Ke was at a loss, and was ready to head to the living room to call Jiang Yuduo.

As he turned around, he saw someone between the corner of the room and the closet.

This gave him a scare and he reeled before stopping, his heart thudding.

 His senses caught up to him and he recognised it was Jiang Yuduo.

“Why are you standing there?” Cheng Ke asked. “You scared me.”

Jiang Yuduo didn’t speak, but slowly raised his head.

Without an open door to let in the light, Cheng Ke could not see his expression, but felt that something was off. Looking at Jiang Yuduo’s eyes, it reminded him of the time he was flipped onto the floor by him when they were slipping on the blanket covers.

“Are you awake?” Cheng Ke asked again, and headed towards the front edge of the bed where the light switch laid.

Jiang Yuduo still didn’t speak.

This situation made Cheng Ke uncomfortable, and he hastened his pace to the switch.

But as he walked by Jiang Yuduo, he suddenly stood up.

Cheng Ke’s subconscious raise of his arm withstood the punch that Jiang Yuduo swung towards his face, and he silently swore.

He didn’t have time to swear out loud, as Jiang Yuduo’s next punch was approaching.

This time it was aimed at his stomach.

Cheng Ke’s arm quickly lowered to parry, and he pressed Jiang Yuduo’s wrist and led it askew, grazing his waist.

“Jiang Yuduo!” Cheng Ke roared. He was lucky to have been more awakeor the fist would have connected.

Jiang Yuduo didn’t stop, and lept towards him, pressing him on the bed, flinging a fist towards his face.

With his shoulders trapped, Cheng Ke’s arms couldn’t raise in time, and his face took a clean hit.

It was a heavy blow, andCheng Ke saw stars.

The strength of the punch made Cheng Ke frantic,scaring him a million times more than watching A Wicked Ghost, because he could feel from that punch that Jiang Yuduo was serious.

Jiang Yuduo was giving his all to assault him.

“Jiang Yuduo! You motherfucker!” Cheng Ke raised his voice and yelled again. Weaving his arms through his torso, he shoved Jiang Yuduo’s arms away from his sides, “Are you sleepwalking!?”

This is the only explanation he could imagine at this point.

Sleepwalking.

Otherwise he couldn’t understand why Jiang Yuduo would act like this.

Losing the support of his arms, Jiang Yuduo slammed onto his body. As Cheng Ke was about to push him off, a pain shot from his shoulder.

The agony was too much for him to cry aloud.

Jiang Yuduo had bitten his shoulder, and followed up with a punch to below his ribs.

In this split second, a single thought rose in Cheng Ke’s mind.

Jiang Yuduo wasn’t in his right mind.

He gritted his teeth to calm himself, grabbed Jiang Yuduo’s wrist and twisted it hard.

He mustered all his strength to do this, and any ordinary person would flip themselves in pain along the direction of the twist to prevent dislocation.

But Jiang Yuduo seemed to not have felt it, pressing his other hand onto Cheng Ke’s shoulder without releasing his tension.

Cheng Ke could feel his hand inching towards his neck next, so he steeled his heart and twisted the wrist further.

A second later, he heard a loud crack.

Jiang Yuduo lost his balance and fell, which Cheng Ke made use of to roll over and to try to knee Jiang Yuduo in the stomach.

But the mattress was too soft, and the leg supporting his body wobbled.

In this small window, if Jiang Yuduo countered, Cheng Ke would be kicked down the bed to the floor, and with Jiang Yuduo’s strength, he would not have any chance of winning.

Amitabha.*

(*T/N: Common Chinese exclamation by people into Buddhism that’s so culturally overused it’s lost all original meaning. Please treat it as saying “Jesus Christ!”, or “Good Lord!”.)

Cheng Ke didn’t know why but instead of thinking of a counter strategy, his mind came up with this useless exclamation.

But he wasn’t shoved off the bed. Jiang Yuduo’s raised hand suddenly stopped in mid-air, then slammed hard onto the mattress.

Without giving further thought, Cheng Ke grabbed the bedsheet, draped it over Jiang Yuduo’s body, and rolled him inside the cover like a kebab.

In this state, Jiang Yuduo couldn’t do anything.

“Are you awake yet!?” Cheng Ke held his knee on Jiang Yuduo’s stomach, his neck wedged by his hands.

Jiang Yuduo looked at him. WIth the light from outside, Cheng Ke could finally see his face clearly.

Cheng Ke didn’t know what expression he wore a moment ago, but right then, Jiang Yuduo was looking at him, his eyes full of sadness.

“Jiang Yuduo!” Cheng Ke shouted again.

Jiang Yuduo didn’t speak, and closed his eyes.

If he was having a fit just now, Cheng Ke could conclude that he should have regained his sanity by now.

“Your wrist might be dislocated,” Cheng Ke said, “Don’t move.”

Jiang Yuduo closed his eyes, and neither spoke nor moved.

Cheng Ke released him carefully, and climbed off the bed.

Watching the ummoving Jiang Yuduo for a moment, he switched on the light.

The corner of Jiang Yuduo’s eyes were damp.

Cheng Ke looked at him, walked to the bedside and took his phone, “I’m calling Chen Qing.”

Jiang Yuduo remained silent.

Cheng Ke found Chen Qing’s number and called.

“Third Bro?” Chen Qing answered quickly.

“It’s me, Cheng Ke,” Cheng Ke looked at Jiang Yuduo, “Come over immediately, Jiang Yuduo he…”

“He what?” Chen Qing asked immediately, “He fainted?”

“No,” Cheng Ke didn’t know what to say, with Jiang Yuduo lying there. If he used the wrong phrase… He chose a neutral perspective, “We had a fight.”

“He attacked you, didn’t he?” Chen Qing asked.

Cheng Ke was surprised at his knowing response.

“He mistook you for someone else… It’s been years since it happened,” Cheng Ke’s voice was laced with concern, “I’ll be right there.”

Antidote (Jie Yao) – Chapter 27

解药
(Antidote)

「Chapter 27」

Brought to you by JustBLThings

aegyo.me/justblthings

Translator: Firagara
English Proofreader: havinsomelitoast
Special Thanks: Min

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

***********************************************

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

***********************************************

Jiang Yuduo already knew that Cheng Ke was unfamiliar with chores and domestic work, but couldn’t believe he didn’t even know how to slip on a pillow case.

The bed was made neatly, the blanket set properly and folded over at the top only to reveal the blanket cover below and the bolster case laying on top of the bolster.

Jiang Yuduo silently thought Cheng Ke was a pig. How much time could slipping a blanket cover on take? Yet here was Cheng Ke showing him that he might have slept with all these separated layers after moving in.

Jiang Yuduo would occasionally feel that Cheng Ke had some rather suspicious details; A lot actually, if you counted them.. His judgment of Cheng Ke swayed left and right, as Cheng Ke more often than not, appeared to be a well-tempered moron.

Today, he decided to no longer doubt Cheng Ke. If there were any trouble, Cheng Ke would be the one with something to lose.

Besides the fight with Ba Pie, Jiang Yuduo had found another reason to move Cheng Ke outside his definition of a friend. 

Sleep should be a blissful affair. Everyone tried to make themselves sleep more comfortably. Having the blanket cover wrap around one’s arms and thigh while the blanket lay haphazardly atop it was the sort of sleeping habit that showed that Cheng Ke was harmless.  

Lu Qian told him many years ago that he should try trusting his friends.

This request was too hard for Jiang Yuduo. Up till now, he truly believed that very few people would bring no harm to him.

If you have to trust your friends, then you should simply make less friends.

Li Quan and Chen Qing were his friends. There were a few other selected friends that he could trust, but Jiang Yuduo no longer remembered who they were, or even whether they were male or female.

That is to say, the price to pay for trusting friends is too great.;they might not hurt you on purpose, but they could disappear from your life quietly, never to come back.

Cheng Ke might be this type of friend.

Someday, this young master*, who didn’t even know how to put on a blanket cover, would return to his life of luxury. Perhaps by winning his power struggle with his brother or perhaps by obediently caving in, and then Cheng Ke would disappear from his life.

*T/N: The original term used was “少爺”, which lends a certain tone of mockery but not too rudely. Young master implies a more aristocratic upbringing, but more often than not “少爺” can be used to mock spoiled people without relation to their social status.

And slowly, he would no longer remember this person.

“The purpose of a blanket cover is to prevent your blanket from getting dirty,” Cheng Ke said, “Is there any difference to putting it on halfway or fully? The sleeper and the blanket are separated anyway.”

“Isn’t it uncomfortable?” Jiang Yuduo closed the bedroom door.

“It is,” Cheng Ke said, “But I’m used to it now. It’s pretty convenient when washing the cover anyway, there’s no need to take it off again.”

“Oh,” Jiang Yuduo looked at him, “I was gonna teach you how to put it on, but if you aren’t even willing to take it off, then forget it.”

“You know how to?” Cheng Ke asked immediately.

“I’m not mocking you, Cheng Ke,” Jiang Yuduo sighed again, “Probably everyone knows how to do it, it’s just a matter of speed.”

“…Oh,” Cheng Ke tutted, then stood up after a moment’s thought, “Why don’t you do it for me and I’ll see if I can learn.”

“Okay,” Jiang Yuduo nodded. He rarely treats anyone this way. He wouldn’t even help Chen Qing this much. He didn’t know why, but every time he saw Cheng Ke like this, he felt sorry for him, “Actually, it’s not like I’m a pro at it either, but I definitely know more than enough to teach you.”

“No need to preface it with a disclaimer,” Cheng Ke said, “I won’t laugh even if you can’t put it on.”

Jiang Yuduo entered the bedroom and approached the bed. Cheng Ke followed and leaned against the closet, looking at him.

In reality, Jiang Yuduo found slipping on the blanket covers troublesome. It wasn’t like he was particularly good at doing it but this was the first time he was being observed while doing it. It made him feel restless.

Should he be explaining as he goes along?

“This blanket,” Jiang Yuduo folded the blanket, lifted it and handed it to Cheng Ke, “Put it aside and I’ll teach you a simple method.”

“Okay.” Cheng Ke took the blanket and placed it on the table.

“First…” Jiang Yuduo only saw the blanket cover properly after the blanket was taken away. It was a tangled mess. “You flattened the blanket neatly just to hide this mess, didn’t you?”

“Yeah,” Cheng Ke answered truthfully, “It can’t be unknotted anymore.”

“How is that possible?” Jiang Yuduo sighed. He grabbed the cover and shook it.

The cover twisted up.

He shook it again.

And again.

The cover was still tangled.

Jiang Yuduo had no choice but to search around, before turning his head, “How did you even sleep? Where are the corners?”

“How would I know?” Cheng Ke sighed, ”Probably rolled inside somewhere.”

Cheng Ke started to get worked up, but he kept his patience and bent down to look for the corners.

Eventually he felt his way to one of the corners, which he grabbed quickly to shake but to no avail.

He decided to give up and pull around the bundle till he found the opening of the cover.

The instant he saw the opening he said with contempt to Cheng Ke, “Couldn’t you at least zip the cover up! Having the blanket half in, half out! Are you a pig!?”

He grabbed the opening with both hands and shook the cover violently, “This can be sorted out…”

On hearing a ripping sound, he halted.

The house was quiet.

After a moment, he peered at the blanket cover. The opening ripped along the seams to the front.

“Did you just,” Cheng Ke cleared his throat, “Rip my blanket cover?”

Jiang Yuduo turned his head, “Yes. I’ll pay you back.”

Cheng Ke didn’t speak. Unable to hold it in, he leaned against the closet and started laughing like crazy.

“Do you have a needle and thread?” Jiang Yuduo said, having lost face.

“What,” Cheng Ke stopped laughing out of surprise, “You know how to sew too?”

“I’ve sewed clothing before, but never blanket covers,” Jiang Yuduo frowned, “Should be about the same.” 

“No, I don’t,” Cheng Ke started laughing again as he opened the closet and took out another blanket cover, “Come, tear this one too.”

“Fuck off,” Jiang Yuduo took the blanket.

He realised that Cheng Ke’s blanket cover  had probably never been flattened from the day it was first used; so no, regardless of if it was washed, folded, and taken again from the closet, it would always be a crumpled mess.

“You probably don’t know how to fold your clothes too, right?” Jiang Yuduo placed the spare blanket on the bed and slowly located the four corners.”

“I do, but I hang all my clothes,” Cheng Ke said, “I’ve never folded them before.”

Jiang Yuduo didn’t really believe this answer, but he left at that as he had to focus his attention on not tearing this blanket cover too.

Speaking of which, this blanket cover’s quality wasn’t even that good either. The young master probably didn’t know how to pick a good one.

With the blanket cover finally sorted out, Jiang Yuduo laid it flat onto the bed and heaved a sigh of relief.

“Look, flip the cover over first and lay it flat,” He gestured to Cheng Ke, “Then lay the blanket on top and arrange it.”

“Isn’t that just what I did?” Cheng Ke carried the blanket over and laid it on the bed as Jiang Yuduo had done.

“Shut it, this is just the first step,” Jiang Yuduo said. Perfume wafted up to his face when Cheng Ke plopped the blanket down. “You spray perfume on it too?”

“Only on the blanket. It helps me sleep better.”

“To hide some kind of smell? 

“You’ve done something like this before?” Cheng Ke narrowed his brows.

“No,” Jiang Yuduo said, “I air out my blanket every so often. I bet you don’t since you spray perfume onto it…”

“You son of a bitch, smell it, why don’t you!” Cheng Ke grabbed Jiang Yuduo’s head and shoved it to the blanket, “Do you smell anything!?”

Jiang Yuduo didn’t speak and stood still for two seconds after being forced down.

“It’s equally fragr-” Cheng Ke released his hand, but before he could finish his sentence, Jiang Yuduo abruptly straightened and whipped his arm back.

Cheng Ke’s hand was gripped before he could pull it back.With a twist and a pull, he felt a sharp pain on his shoulder before he could respond.

When he came to his senses, he was already on the ground.

“What are you doing!?” Cheng Ke yelled.

Jiang Yuduo only panted and looked at him with his head lowered.

Cheng Ke noticed his red eyes, felt a sudden chill, and hurriedly yelled, “Dude!” 

Jiang Yuduo stopped, and as if only just realising Cheng Ke was on the ground, came over to hoist him up slowly by the arms.

“Don’t move yet,” Jiang Yuduo said without releasing his grip, “Are you hurt anywhere?”

“No,” Cheng Ke said, “I landed ass-first.”

“…Oh,” Jiang Yuduo released his hand, and took a while before saying, “I- I was caught by surprise and acted on reflex.”

“Yeah.” Cheng Ke rubbed his painful elbows which had slammed against the ground. 

“Sorry.”

“It’s fine.” Cheng Ke didn’t understand why he had such an overreaction, but everyone had buttons that nobody should push, and Cheng Ke had been slightly out of line with what he did.

“There’s no smell.”

“What?”

“The blanket doesn’t stink.” 

“Of course,” Cheng Ke looked at him, “I spread it out on the balcony to air it out just a few days ago.”

“On the ground?” Jiang Yuduo asked.

“Oh,” Cheng Ke replied.

“Take two chairs and drape the blanket on top. That way you keep it clean while it’s airing out.”

“Oh.” Cheng Ke said again.

After this ridiculous exchange, Jiang Yuduo cleared his throat and returned by the bed to ruffle the messy blanket, “Look, from opposite the opening, roll it inwards together with the cover.”

“Okay,” Cheng Ke approached quickly to roll the blanket together, “What’s this for?”

Jiang Yuduo only spoke after rolling the blanket to the top, “Now take these two corners and pull them out from the opening.”

Cheng Ke imitated him and reached inside the opening with his hand to grab the rolled up blanket from within. On seeing the cover on the right side up as he pulled, he understood immediately, “Damn, and then if you continue pulling the blanket you’d have the whole cover wrapped around it, right!”

“That’s right,” Jiang Yuduo nodded, “Smart of you to realize.”

The blanket was sorted out and flattened on the bed neatly. Cheng Ke took the corners and shook them, the sense of achievement flowing into him, “I didn’t know blankets could be inserted in this way.”

“I learnt it from watching an online video,” Jiang Yuduo, “Just last month.”

Cheng Ke smiled.

 “Your..uhm.. torn…” Jiang Yuduo hesitated, “Let me take it back to fix it.”

“No need,” Cheng Ke said, “This cover’s been used a bunch of times already, it’s about time to throw it away.”

Jiang Yuduo looked at him quietly.

Cheng Ke didn’t speak either, and opened the sliding door to the balcony. Opening the window just a crack, he lit a cigarette. He didn’t know how many times blanket covers were normally used before being thrown away. It couldn’t be that one threw them away only at the point where they were torn… but even so, that blanket was already torn.

Jiang Yuduo followed and stood beside him.

Cheng Ke handed him the packet, and he took out a cigarette to light it. He looked outside the window.

“You… When you were young,” Cheng Ke examined the scar on his face, “Did you live alone?”

“No,” Jiang Yuduo said, “I lived together with a few others.”

“Oh, I thought you lived alone ever since you were young, and so learnt how to do everything,” Cheng Ke nodded.

“I probably only started living alone when I was ten.”

“Ten is considered young.”

“Is that so?” Jiang Yuduo eyed him, “I had to grow up fast.”

Cheng Ke fell silent.

“What about you?” Jiang Yuduo asked, “Were you always bullied by your younger brother?”

“Not exactly,” Cheng Ke smiled, “I would play alone. My dad built a small shed in our garden. It was super small, so Cheng Yi didn’t like it. I usually read inside.”

“That’s pretty nice,” Jiang Yuduo said, “Must have felt safe.”

“It wasn’t safe,” Cheng Ke’s smile faded, “Cheng Yi got a dog later on. My dad let the dog have it and said he would build me another one. He never did.”

“ Who would have thought that the young master of a rich household would have to deal with such indignities. ” Jiang Yuduo sighed.

“My dad was already pretty disappointed with me by then,” Cheng Ke stretched his back, “If Cheng Yi wanted a kennel, Dad would have made him one immediately, but he had to compete with me. What a pain.”

“You shouldn’t have given in,” Jiang Yuduo said. “If you concede once, there will be a next time, and a next, and soon no one will notice you anymore.”

Cheng Ke looked at him in silence.

“Don’t even concede once, no matter what,” Jiang Yuduo’s face looked blank, “But…”

“What is it?” Cheng Ke whispered.

“Who would you like to have noticed you?” Jiang Yuduo said, “I didn’t know who I wanted to notice me.”

Cheng Ke snuffed out his cigarette, and fell silent. After a while, he asked, “Did you live in an orphanage when you were young?” 

“No,” Jiang Yuduo shook his head, “I lived at home.”

“With your parents?” Cheng Ke asked carefully.

“Yeah, I called them parents,” Jiang Yuduo unexpectedly did answer his question, “With a few other mutts.”

Cheng Ke thought it sounded wrong, “Mutts?”

“Mutts like me.” Jiang Yuduo said.

Cheng Ke was startled. When he was about to ask more, Jiang Yuduo raised his index finger, “Stop your questions, they’ll look for you if you know too much.”

Without waiting for Cheng Ke’s reply, Jiang Yuduo snuffed out his cigarette on the windowsill and returned to the room.

Cheng Ke looked at the black mark on the windowsill, and didn’t know whether to  think about what Jiang Yuduo just said, or to tell him off for snuffing out the cigarette on the windowsill when there was an ashtray right beside it.

“I didn’t see the ashtray.” Jiang Yuduo’s voice called out from behind.

“Ack!” Cheng Ke jumped in surprise and looked back.

Jiang Yuduo stuck his head out from the sliding door, “I only saw the ashtray after I rubbed out the cigarette head.”

“…It’s fine,” Cheng Ke said, “It can scrubbed it off.”

“No it can’t, that’s a plaster wall. It’s neither painted over nor tiled with porcelain,” Jiang Yuduo said, “Actually, I’ve always snuffed the cigarette heads at the windowsill…”

Cheng Ke pushed the window further open to look at the outer edge of the windowsill to see a neat line of black marks.

“Your handiwork?” He turned his head back.

“Yep,” Jiang Yuduo smiled.

“Are you trying to piss me off?”

“No, just letting you know.” 

“…Okay, I understand.” Cheng Ke nodded.

Jiang Yuduo closed the door and headed to the living room.

Cheng Ke didn’t know whether to laugh or cry, and paced around the balcony for a while. He couldn’t stop himself from rubbing at the  mark with his hand.

It really wouldn’t come off.

He sighed and headed back inside.

Jiang Yuduo was sitting on the sofa looking at his phone.

He washed his hands and returned to the living room to turn on the television.

“You’re still gonna watch TV?”

“The house seems hollow without any sound.” He sat on the other end of the sofa.

“It’s hollow with sound when you can’t hear the words properly.” Jiang Yuduo continued looking at his phone.

“Are you still reading that thigh porno*?”

*T/N: This refers to chapter 19 when Jiang Yuduo was reading an ebook that mentions “snowy-white thighs”.

“I gave up on it,” Jiang Yuduo said, “I’m reading something else now, but there are some things I can’t understand.”

“The vocabulary?” Cheng Ke was a bit surprised, but suddenly remembered that based on Jiang Yuduo’s ‘childhood’, he might not have had a proper education.

“No. This one says that one day, the third dimension disappeared into emptiness,” Jiang Yuduo said, “Leaving behind that little bit of two dimension* left.”

T/N: “Three dimensional world” refers to the real world, and “two dimensional world” is an endearing term used by otakus to refer to their anime waifus and culture as if it were interactable as a real thing.

“Oh,” Cheng Ke nodded, “What about people like me who don’t use the internet?”

“Probably faded into emptiness.”

Cheng Ke laughed, “Shit, scary.”

“It’s nice to be empty, you’re nowhere and everywhere,” Jiang Yuduo, “I don’t quite understand it. I think I prefer Chinese fantasy*.”

*T/N: Previously translated as deity cultivation in chapter 20, the actual term is 修仙, which is a fictional idea of Taoist enlightenment to become a “fairy” of sorts. The genre mixes concepts of martial arts, hermit living in the mountains, and supernatural element that has nothing to do with ghosts or Chinese alchemy, which are other Chinese fiction genres.

“How about a movie?” Cheng Ke asked.

Jiang Yuduo put down his phone and considered it, “Okay.”

Cheng Ke took the remote for the projector before hesitating, “Just to let you know, a few screws were drilled to install the projector. You can fill in the holes when it’s taken down.”

Jiang Yuduo looked at him for a while before saying, “You even installed a projector?”

“Yeah.” Cheng Ke nodded. 

“Weren’t you kicked out of the house?” Jiang Yuduo was puzzled, “Where the fucking hell did you find such money to squander?”

“Can’t you be more civil?” Cheng Ke asked.

“Where the fucking heck did you find such money to squander?”

“Your definition of civil needs revising,” Cheng Ke muttered.

“Where the…” Jiang Yuduo continued.

“I have savings.” Cheng Ke interrupted.

“You seriously have savings? I thought your money was from Xu Ding’s charity,” Jiang Yuduo said, “Going by standard procedure, shouldn’t your credit card have been frozen?”

“Third Bro, we live under the rule of law. An account isn’t frozen just because someone wants it to be,” Cheng Ke looked at him, “It’s not Chinese fantasy you like reading about, but oppressive tycoons, isn’t it?

Cheng Ke laughed and waved his hand, “Let’s watch the movie.”

“I have a classic saved here,” Cheng Ke took out his phone and poked at the screen. “After I changed phones, I downloaded it again just to watch it when I have nothing else to do. You might not have seen it, since you’re so young.”

“Sure, let’s watch that classic.”

“Okay, give me a moment.” Cheng Ke turned on the projector and connected it to his phone, before opening the video folder on his phone.

As he scrolled through his files, Jiang Yuduo, who was scrutinizing the projector beside him, said, “I thought you’d have saved up some porn, didn’t you say that you watch it?”

Cheng Ke looked over, “What? You wanna see?”

“No!” Jiang Yuduo’s face was full of horror, “I was just saying!”

Cheng Ke tutted and clicked the file.

To feel like he was really watching a movie, he had set up a stereo, but had no chance to use it previously.It sounded okay when the video had started playing, but the video quality was so bad because of how old it was.  

He stood up to turn off the lights in the living room.

“Why is the music…” Jiang Yuduo said with a voice full of tension, “so…sca-”

Before he could finish, the movie title plastered the screen.

“Fuck! It’s A Wicked Ghost*!” Jiang Yuduo howled.

*T/N: A 1999 Hong Kong Horror Film

“You know it?” Cheng Ke sat back onto the sofa, “This counts as a classic, no? Every time I watch it, I…”

“Yes, it’s scary as fuck, shit,” Jiang Yuduo said has he shimmied his way over to Cheng Ke’s side till he was squeezed right up next to him, “Fuck…fuck…”

“Are you kidding me,” Cheng Ke smirked, “That scary?”

“Why can’t I be scared?” Jiang Yuduo said, displeased.

“Sure you can.” Cheng Ke smiled as he nodded, gave a thought, and lowered his voice, “Actually I get pissed scared too every time I watch it.”

“Then why are you still watching it?” Jiang Yuduo glared at him.

“Cheng Ke whispered, “Cause you’re here, with two people it’s not so…”

“Fucking shit! Shit! It’s starting!” Jiang Yuduo turned his head towards the screen.

The duo nervously watched the screen. Eventually Jiang Yuduo laughed suddenly, “Dammit, this is embarrassing.” 

“If you get scared later, don’t grab me suddenly,” Cheng Ke said, “I will yell at you.”

Jiang Yuduo nodded, “You too.”  

Antidote (Jie Yao) – Chapter 26

解药
(Antidote)

「Chapter 26」

Brought to you by JustBLThings

aegyo.me/justblthings

Translator: Shion
English Proofreader: Snuffles

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

***********************************************

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

***********************************************

Jiang Yuduo turned around and lunged towards the door handle. He grabbed it and shook it a few times but the door didn’t budge at all. At first glance, you could tell that it was very secure.

“It’s locked.” Jiang Yuduo turned and looked at him.

“What do you think?” Cheng Ke asked, “if you use more strength, you could break the lock.”

“Fuck.” Jiang Yuduo continued shaking the door handle violently and with some hints of displeasure. After a while, he turned back aggressively.

“Did you turn off the gas stove?!”

“I did.” Cheng Ke replied.

A sigh of relief escaped Jiang Yuduo’s mouth as he continued shaking the door handle vigorously.

“Are you high?” Cheng Ke was at a loss for words when he saw the blood oozing from Jiang Yuduo’s gauze-covered hands. This man doesn’t seem to feel any pain.

“I’m not paying for it if you break the door.”

Jiang Yuduo sighed as he stopped momentarily to lean against the door.

Cheng Ke no longer knew what he was feeling anymore at that moment. Anger and frustration gnawed at him, giving him the urge to beat somebody up. Yet he felt so down that he couldn’t even summon the strength to lift a finger.

He sat unmoving, eyeing the elevator door. It felt as if he could stay like this till the next morning.

The elevator door opened.

“You should go back.” Cheng Ke said.

“I’ll go get the key,” Jiang Yuduo said.

Cheng Ke didn’t reply, he didn’t want to think about anything anymore.

Jiang Yuduo stepped into the elevator and looked at him as the doors closed. He re-emerged from the elevator a few seconds later.

“Put this on.” He said, taking his jacket off.

Cheng Ke suddenly realised that he was only wearing a thin wool shirt.

He didn’t know why he hadn’t felt anything earlier, but right after hearing Jiang Yuduo’s words, the cold started biting him immediately.

It was fucking cold.

He then started to shiver excessively and uncontrollably.

Usually, even if he felt that cold, he wouldn’t be shaking so much. He’d been through a lot today, yet he felt like an idiot for shaking so much.

“Fuck.” Jiang Yuduo draped the shirt around Cheng Ke in a hurry. “You’re really weak against the cold. Don’t tell me you’re going down just like that?”

“G-get l-lost…” Cheng Ke’s teeth chattered, breaking the two words into a string of sounds.

Just when Jiang Yuduo was about to enter the elevator again, Cheng Ke suddenly came to his senses and grabbed Yuduo’s arm.

Jiang Yuduo is always dressed in a down jacket with a T-shirt. And after taking off his jacket, he was left wearing only a long-sleeved one. Regardless of how adept he was at withstanding the cold, he couldn’t possibly survive in this temperature.

“Get Chen Qing to send some clothes over.” Cheng Ke said.

“Uhm,” Jiang Yuduo nodded and started making the call on his phone.

The corridor fell into silence after his call with Chen Qing ended.

Cheng Ke searched the pockets of Jiang Yuduo’s jacket and fished out some cigarettes and a lighter. He walked onto the fire escape and started smoking by the window.

The sky was dark and little shadows danced beneath the light from his cigarette.

It actually started snowing.

Cheng Ke puffed out some smoke. It intermingled with his breath and danced vigorously for a brief moment before disappearing.

He puffed out another breath. It disappeared.

And another, which then disappeared again.

“Give me one,” Jiang Yuduo stuck his head through the fire escape door.

“Don’t smoke in the corridor.” Cheng Ke handed him the box of cigarettes along with the lighter.

“Yea.” Jiang Yuduo lit his cigarette and stuck his head through the door without stepping onto the fire escape. “I’ll just smoke while doing this.”

“It’d be great if your neck broke,” Cheng Ke muttered. “Must you do that?”

“Of course,” Jiang Yuduo said, “it’s warmer in the corridor. It’s so chilly out there and I’m only dressed in a T-shirt…”

It took a moment before Cheng Ke realised that he was only able to stand outside so comfortably because he was wearing Jiang Yuduo’s jacket. He quickly took it off, “Put this on, I’ll wait in the corridor instead”.

Jiang Yuduo hesitated for a moment before accepting the jacket. “Let’s go to the security room after this, there’s a heater there.”

“Is there?” Cheng Ke asked.

“How can they work if there’s no heater?” Jiang Yuduo stared at him.

“Oh.” Cheng Ke nodded slowly.

There were indeed heaters in the security room, but those alone were not adequate enough. Luckily, there was also a stove in the room, so it was actually quite toasty.

Cheng Ke heaved a sigh of relief once he walked into the room.

The tea the guard had been making on the stove smelled great. If the mug hadn’t looked so horrible, Cheng Ke would have really wanted some.

Jiang Yuduo obviously wasn’t as particular as the other was, and gulped the tea down after receiving the mug from the guard. He even wiped his mouth with satisfaction and asked, “you added sugar to the tea?”

“Sure I did, you have to add sugar to English black tea. I added Osmanthus sugar,” the guard replied, “isn’t it especially aromatic?”

“Definitely.” Jiang Yuduo nodded in agreement.

Cheng Ke had never tried this type of “English black tea” before, he couldn’t stand it. Before the guard could take a sip from the mug, he blurted, “let me try it.”

“Here.” The guard graciously handed him the mug.

Pu’er tea sweetened with osmanthus.

It was the most exquisite-tasting tea Cheng Ke had ever tasted in his life.

“How is it? The taste of my English black tea is great, isn’t it?” The guard asked.

Cheng Ke gave him a thumbs up.

Who knows where Chen Qing was currently working at. Almost an hour since Jiang Yuduo made the call passed before they saw a car in front of the building.

When Cheng Qing ran from the car towards the elevator, Cheng Ke couldn’t even see the shape of a human-being, he only saw a huge bundle of clothing.

“Here!” Jiang Yuduo yelled.

The huge bundle of clothing made a turn and ran towards the security room.

“Here, hurry, put this on.” When Chen Qing stepped into the security room, the small room became even smaller.

“What did you bring?” Jiang Yuduo frowned.

“My dad’s fur leather jacket,” Chen Qing said, “I’m sure you two can’t fit into my clothes, I’m a bodybuilder. We should be a few sizes apart, right?”

Cheng Ke looked at the fur leather jacket; it was of superior quality. The leather looked great and the fur lining was thick and soft… the jacket looked more impressive than anything.

Jiang Yuduo glanced over. Cheng Ke swiftly grabbed the down jacket which Jiang Yuduo had on, “I’m happy with this.”

“Is this the only winter jacket your dad owns? Is this what he wears when he goes hunting in the mountains?” Jiang Yuduo unwillingly put on the leather jacket.

“Don’t you have another one?”

“This jacket is the warmest.” Chen Qing’s answer reflected his impeccable sincerity.

Jiang Yuduo walked out of the security room after putting on the jacket.

Cheng Ke followed behind while eyeing him. It was hard to believe it but… the leather jacket actually suited him very well. If they were at another location, he could very well had been a bandit chief.

“Let’s go,” Jiang Yuduo said, “Let’s get the keys from Lu Qian.”

“Don’t worry about it,” Chen Qing brought out a bunch of keys from his pocket, “I just got these from sister Lu.”

Cheng Ke was taken aback.

He suddenly felt a rush of unhappiness after seeing the keys.

Yes, he was very unhappy.

He wasn’t aware of it earlier, but upon seeing the keys, he suddenly discovered that he felt a little… disappointed.

“Fuck.” Jiang Yuduo snatched the keys from Chen Qing and glared at him. “Why did you fucking bring the jacket when you had the keys? You just had to pass us the keys!”

“You were the one who asked me to bring a jacket,” Chen Qing said.

“I asked you to bring a jacket because we were going out to get the keys!” Jiang Yuduo said.

“Anyway, the keys are here,” Chen Qing glanced at his phone, “You can return the jacket tomorrow. I need to return the car to the shop soon, and won’t have any space to keep the jacket.”

“Get lost then.” Jiang Yuduo growled.

Chen Qing took off immediately.

“Here.” Jiang Yuduo passed the keys over.

Cheng Ke took the keys and hesitated for a while before unzipping his jacket.

“Take it off after we’re up.” Jiang Yuduo walked towards the elevator.

Cheng Ke followed him into the elevator and unlocked the front door after reaching his apartment.

“You should change to a fingerprint lock soon,” Jiang Yuduo said.

“Yea.” Cheng Ke took his jacket off, “Do you still want to have some instant noodles?”

“…I do,” Jiang Yuduo rubbed his stomach, “Can I have two portions?”

Cheng Ke eyed him, “Sure.”

After entering the kitchen, Cheng Ke took a look at the opened cup noodles packaging on the counter and felt a momentary flash of unhappiness.

Mum was just in the house. She hadn’t entered the bedroom and the spare room, but she definitely entered the kitchen, and should have seen the noodles.

He was about to have dinner with his disagreeable landlord, and they were about to have cup noodles, which was something you would only share with someone you were closer to. Mum might have her own thoughts after seeing these, and she might complain about it to dad later.

Although dad didn’t care much and was dismissive towards his sexual orientation, if mum spoke about this, dad’s unfavourable impression of Cheng Ke will worsen.

Since he was ten, Cheng Ke no longer craved any validation from others. He didn’t care about what his dad thought of him, but what hurt him the most was that nobody cared for his explanations when there were misunderstandings.

Cheng Yi was very similar to dad in this aspect. Once he’s decided on something, it was very hard to change his mind.

“Should I prepare it?” Jiang Yuduo came into the kitchen.

“No, get out.” Cheng Ke said.

“You’ve been standing around for quite a while,” Jiang Yuduo said, “Even if you’re not hungry, I am. I’m going crazy from hunger.”

Cheng Ke threw him a look before leaving the kitchen.

He laid on the couch without moving until Jiang Yuduo brought two bowls out.

“It’s done, we can eat now.” Jiang Yuduo said.

Cheng Ke got up and took a seat at the dining table, “Thanks.”

Jiang Yuduo paid him no heed and lowered his head to start eating.

“Why did you pour the noodles from the cups?” Cheng Ke frowned, the strange unhappiness he was feeling hadn’t disappeared and it felt like he might explode.

“We’ll have to wash two more bowls now.”

Jiang Yuduo eyed him and slammed his chopsticks on the table.

The sound rang through the room.

Cheng Ke stared at him.

“Plus two pair of chopsticks,” Jiang Yuduo added, “You’ll be dead tired after washing these, won’t you?”

Cheng Ke didn’t reply and started eating his noodles.

“I can’t care less for all this crap. But if you flare up at me again,” Jiang Yuduo stared at him, “I will make sure you’re unable to stand for the rest of the month!”

Cheng Ke fished out a few pieces of meat cubes from the instant noodles and examined them before chewing on them slowly.

It was strange, but the meat was tasteless and it felt absolutely meaningless to eat it.

“Your temper is actually too mild,” Jiang Yuduo said as he ate, “If I had a brother like yours, I’d have beaten him up like crazy long ago, until he starts to kneel at my feet every time he sees me.

“It started when I was two,” Cheng Ke said, “listening to my parents tell me that I have to be kind to my little brother because he’s younger than me, that I was older than him, therefore I should be more mature. I hated hearing those words, it sickened me. I’m only older than him by two years, not twenty years. But I couldn’t really do anything about it back then, I could only be exasperated.”

“Hm,” Jiang Yuduo nodded.

“But as time went by, I realised that although I was unhappy about it, I still obeyed their wishes. I don’t know why.” Cheng Ke said, “It’s as if I was brainwashed, you know what I mean?”

“Brainwashed?” Jiang Yuduo looked up.

“Right.” Cheng Ke nodded.

“I know,” Jiang Yuduo looked down as he picked up some noodles with his chopsticks. He looked as if he had something to say, before looking down and repeating himself, “I know.”

“Cheng Yi is smarter than me,” Cheng Ke sighed. “Everyone always thought that I was bullying him.”

“He’s street smart, “Jiang Yuduo said, “you definitely lose to him for that.”

“Actually leaving home,” Cheng Ke said while looking into his bowl, “made me rather happy. We can just go our separate ways. I can’t help my family much, and I don’t need anything from them either.”

“Yea.” Jiang Yuduo agreed as he lifted his bowl to his face to finish the soup.

Cheng Ke looked at the empty bowl in shock, “You finished it all? Two portions?”

“I did say that I was going crazy from hunger,” Jiang Yuduo said, “I nearly went into my room to start eating first while your mum was still here.”

Cheng Ke looked at him and started laughing suddenly.

“What’s wrong?” Jiang Yuduo tutted.

“You were too rude earlier,” Cheng Ke chuckled, “you didn’t even get up despite the presence of an elder.

“If your mum was alone, I would have definitely stood up,” Jiang Yuduo waved his hands dismissively, “But your brother was here. I felt so annoyed when I saw him, you should be glad that I didn’t lie down, let alone not get up.”

Cheng Ke didn’t reply, but kept chuckling.

“Are you alright?” Jiang Yuduo frowned, “you were so angry earlier, and now you can’t stop laughing.”

“I’m fine,” Cheng Ke rubbed his nose, “I just felt like it.”

After having two bites, he put his chopsticks down and sighed, “I lost my appetite, I can’t finish this.”

“… You only had a few mouthfuls,” Jiang Yuduo said, “Your appetite is so gay. Even I can eat anytime I want to.”

Cheng Ke eyed him.

“So you’re not eating anymore?” Jiang Yuduo asked.

“I’m so gay that I can’t stomach anymore,” Cheng Ke said.

“Give it to me,” Jiang Yuduo reached for the bowl, “I didn’t say it earlier but actually I haven’t had my fill yet…”

“You’re rather lax with yourself,” Cheng Ke mumbled in shock.

“You can’t say that you have much self discipline either,” Jiang Yuduo smiled,

“Didn’t you drink the tea just now although you had issues with the mug?”

“Damn,” Cheng Ke was reminded of the Pu’er tea with Osmanthus sugar.

Jiang Yuduo emptied his new bowl of noodles rapidly and leaned against his chair, sighing in contentment, “I’m full.”

Cheng Ke got up and brought the bowls to the kitchen.

“If you don’t want to wash up, leave them. I’ll do it.” Jiang Yuduo said, “don’t use it as an excuse to flare up at me again.”

Cheng Ke ignored him and washed the bowls.

When he stepped out of the kitchen, Jiang Yuduo was already on his feet, reaching for his jacket.

“I’m leaving,” He looked at Cheng Ke, “give me Lu Qian’s keys.”

Cheng Ke threw the keys over to him.

He suddenly felt a rush of panic upon seeing Jiang Yuduo all dressed up and heading out.

He didn’t know why, but he didn’t feel like being alone.

Right now, even if the one by his side was Chen Qing, he would have felt more secure.

“Young one.” Cheng Ke called out to Jiang Yuduo.

“Huh?” Jiang Yuduo looked back.

“Why don’t you stay here tonight?” Cheng Ke suggested.

“Why? What happened?” Jiang Yuduo was taken aback.

“I don’t want to be alone,” Cheng Ke said, “It’s too spacious here.”

Jiang Yuduo looked at him, and finally nodded after a long while.

“You can have the bed,” Cheng Ke quickly said, “I’ll take the couch.”

“Sure,” Jiang Yuduo took his jacket off and peeked into the bedroom.

If he had done this last time, Cheng Ke would have definitely stopped him without hesitation. But despite seeing Jiang Yuduo open his bedroom door, the current Cheng Ke didn’t mind it.

Humans can have such high tolerance, especially when they are in a vulnerable state.

“Actually let me take the c…” Jiang Yuduo trailed off mid-sentence after peeking into the bedroom, before continuing “Young master, you actually have the gull to offer such a bed for another person to sleep in?”

“What’s wrong with the bed?” Cheng Ke was shocked. Jiang Yuduo was the type who would flick his cigarette ashes on the floor while smoking on the bed.

“I can give you a break if you don’t use a quilt cover, “Jiang Yuduo said, “But can’t you even use pillowcases?”

MNLWYPBP – Chapter 53

My New Life, Would You Please Become Peaceful?!

Chapter 53 – Sincerity of A Fool Cut Deeper Than The Wisest Words

Brought to you by JustBLThings

aegyo.me/justblthings

Translator: LazySinkCat
English Proofreader: IP

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

***********************************************

“What the hell is this?”

This commotion is rather troublesome , but Cass Bedivere wanted an answer right here, right now. He is ready to use every possible means if it can give him an answer.

He didn’t understand a thing. When he walked out of the forest, he saw his big brother soaked in blood. One maniac was screaming, a white-haired dude trying to calm the maniac and a dark-skinned dude, who’s become pale, is trying to carry his big brother … but couldn’t and had to follow the group at the back while the other to-be Dukes do the carrying.

As for him … he was detained. Cass Bedivere was held up since there were things that couldn’t be explained. He, who has popped up out of nowhere, turned into a prime suspect right at that instance. However, it’s something that can confirm his assumption.

He has the power of darkness; therefore, he is under suspicion despite such power having always been sealed.

Glancing at the white-haired dude … Haref Lancelot. Cass is too young to be thrown into the dungeon, but the sealed power of darkness is a real deal. Hence, the person with the opposing power like Haref automatically became his warden.

Nigel Gawain is currently in the dungeon. The other to-be Dukes couldn’t find the explanation to what happened between Gilbert Bedivere and Nigel Gawain. But after some contemplation … it wouldn’t be long till they do.

Nigel has the power of ice. For blood to suddenly burst out, if one is looking for evidence or a relevant suspect, then connecting it to the power that can cause such an effect isn’t too hard … water element.

The forbidden water element is only something that he thought of, not sure whether it’s right or not. Thus, he’ll have to see if any other factors could persuade him otherwise.

“Aren’t you going to say anything?”

“The patient needs to rest.” The white-haired dude countered back while the dark-skinned dude had his arms across his chest with his feet wriggling about. Pfft, how cute. “But if you don’t want to see your brother, I’ll take you back to your room.”

“He won’t wake up no matter how loud you are…” The corner of the boy’s mouth twitched while Haref’s rainbow pupils dimmed. “My brother won’t wake up … Isn’t that the truth for the past 3 days!? That’s why I want to know about everything that has happened rather than wasting time like this!”

His big brother hasn’t woken up for 3 days …

First assumption was due to the blood loss, but when this progressed to the second day … there’s something more than that.

A letter has already been sent to their father. He believed that their father should reach here by tomorrow.

“Know it and what? Don’t know it and what?” The dark-skinned dude that’s been silent for a long while interrupted. “Either it’s you or this brat … does it help with anything?”

Cass really doesn’t like this dark-skinned dude.

From young until now, he has never liked this person, so he furiously glared at him then crossed his arms over his chest … Fine! Want to know what he can do? Of course … he, himself, believed that he has what it takes to tackle these 2 gramps.

Cass Bedivere, who’s a relatively good boy before his brother, arrogantly lifts his chin before sneering out, intimidating a certain someone in the room.

“Sure … sure thing! By the way, when did your skin get this bright, huh, Prince Salsaal? … Hmph, and white-haired … meaning you Haref Lancelot, bring out your Excalibur.”

The light in the dark-skinned and white-haired dude dimmed down while the adorable face like an angel smiled beautifully.

“Alright, the dark-skinned prince who ran away from home and the white-haired to-be Duke who possesses the sword that could get himself killed, are you ready to have a chat with me?”

After the words left his mouth, silence consumed the room.

However, hidden beneath the silence is some sort of pressure within. Cass can feel himself sweating. He’s smart enough for negotiation but didn’t have the power to fight the 2 gramps here head-on. Yet, it didn’t mean that he hadn’t prepared his escape route.

The jewel of magic is tightly held in his hand.

We can be arrogant when the power of negotiation is in our hand. However, once the truth is revealed, there are 2 consequences from it. You either have the right to propose something or die.

“Hmph”

Within the silence, the sound of snickering came from the one sitting with his wiggling foot.

Replacing the boy with a young man … Prince Salsaal, who has already undone the curse and transformed, sneered.

“With your previous babbling of threats about mine and his secrets is you telling the world that you’re so smart, ain’t it?” The red pupils narrowed. “I … the prince who ran away from home and the white-haired macho who possessed the forbidden sword, if words got out … that bastard will kill me and him …”

The so-called ‘bastard’ is the current King Arthur.

“Therefore, I can do whatever you want … but you mustn’t tell my father. I …”

The Prince placed his hand over his chest before letting out a long sigh …

“You think I’d say something like this?”

In that instant, the Prince’s power burst out.

Cass couldn’t breathe while Haref frowned. All around is consumed by darkness which blocks out any hope of external help. The tremendous amount of magic that even Haref, who’s connected to Excalibur, smirked.

It wasn’t surprising for the Prince to be arrogant since he possesses this much power. Don’t mention other princes, it’s a wonder if even King Arthur could manage to beat his own son.

If not for the power of darkness, the position of Crown Prince can’t be anyone other than Prince Salsaal.

Maybe Haref was lost in his own thoughts for too long when he returned to reality the prince had already charged in to kick Cass Bedivere.

… But with this behavior, he thinks that it wouldn’t change anything.

“You shouldn’t kick the kid.” Haref furrowed his brows. The barrier not only brings forth suffocation, but it also restricts all movements. “… at least, you shouldn’t do it when his body can’t move like this.”

His words didn’t sound quite right. Not sure if Haref is still hung on the term that Cass used for calling him?

“Fuck off! White-haired brute like you just stay there! I’ll go kick you next! Hey! Darling … no, ex-darling.” The Prince exclaimed before tugging the small body with his foot while no shame could be found on his face. “I’m not going to ask what you know because it’s total bullshit. But I’m going to ask what you can do? You don’t have any power, short, and muscle-less. You think with just your 2 hands you could do something?”

“Then you want me … to sit there and do nothing?” The small voice seethed out. “You want me to idly do nothing? The person lying there is my big brother, my …”

… beloved big brother

Big brother is a good-for-nothing … that’s why Cass needed to be strong.

Big brother doesn’t know how to take care of others … that’s why Cass needed to be his caretaker.

He couldn’t remember when he’d been telling himself this, but every time he saw that smile Cass knew that he must do it. No one expected anything from him. No one told him to try. There’s only him.

That he must grow up to protect someone despite that person not asking for it.

“Oh, then how could you be so sure that you’re not making things worse?”

The Prince snickered at the same time the other to-be Duke didn’t say anything. “Me and that white-haired brute are a million times stronger than you, couldn’t do anything. You think you who’s … short, weak and useless could do something?”

“Things aren’t that simple.” Haref has removed the dark barrier causing the Prince to frown. “Because you appeared at the right time, it made you the suspect.”

“Just this and it’s enough to destroy the whole Bedivere.” The Prince huffed. “They couldn’t answer what caused Gilbert’s symptoms. Thus, there’s 2 possible cases; one the cursed power of darkness or two, the forbidden water element. In this case, with your appearance they assumed that it was due to the power of darkness.

However, one important fact is that you couldn’t use it because it was sealed when you were young. The Dukes are coming over and to test exactly this. Do you know what would happen if the test showed that you have such power?” The Prince used his finger to slit across his throat. “You made it up till now because the power was sealed. But if it can no longer be sealed, it won’t end with your death, but the destruction of your whole family.”

With the charge of concealing the most dangerous thing from the kingdom.

Yet, Cass isn’t afraid to admit. “I can’t use it.”

“Then it would fall onto the second assumption, water element.” Haref Lancelot closed his eyes. “When the Dukes come, you’ll live. But the investigated Nigel will die.”

The assumption, Cass has already thought of it. It’s just that …

“And you … you’re … still so calm about it?!!” Cass’s voice has turned hoarse. “One friend is not waking up and the other one is waiting for death. But all you do is just sit there and do nothing … just like that?”

When the question was asked, the answer he got back was their indifferent expression.

“… we can’t do anything.” Haref Lancelot closed his eyes.

“My status doesn’t allow me to do anything.” The Prince mocked himself.

One is a young Lancelot, the other is ‘imprisoned’ Arthur, with their statuses, what can they do!?

“You guys say that you’re smarter than me, powerful than me. You have the capability…!” The boy stood up and clenched his fist.

“What do you think is behind me Cass Bedivere?” The rainbow pupils clashed with the other side. “You demand things. You run forward head on, but have you ever looked back at those behind you? Your parents, your brother, your servants, are they not living people?”

“It’s like a question asking you to choose between your friends and family.” The Prince chuckled and tilted his head. “My situation is like his. If the difference is either my life or Nigel Gawain.”

Prince “But, hey! This isn’t a fairy tale, between my own life and another’s, do I still have to choose?”

This is reality.

This is what reality is.

Cass looked at the two before him, different from him who’s demanding to save everyone just like a kid’s dream where everything is expected to have a beautiful ending while there’s nothing as such in reality.

That made him realize …

“You know, if you ask me to choose between the servants in my family and my big brother, who would I choose?” He smiled. “For me … I won’t hesitate to choose my big brother.”

Their eyes narrowed …

“You know if you ask me to choose between my family and my big brother, who would I choose?”

“You …”

“You know if you ask me to choose between myself and my big brother, who would I choose?

… I won’t hesitate to choose my big brother.

I’m glad that I’m a kid. If I have to think so much like you guys or have to hesitate.

I’d rather stay as a kid.”

Honest with one’s own feelings.

And not regret doing it.

“The cruelest thing that you could do to Nigel and big brother is that you do nothing. You dare to call them your friends?

You said that I’m weak. You told me that you’re strong. You told me I don’t have any power. You told me you have more power than anyone.

Then what are you afraid of?

Because you’re a Lancelot? Because of the forbidden magic? But aren’t you guys the most powerful ones?

What exactly is stopping you?

The people behind you or your own fear?”

The red eyes flickered for a second.

When … in the 40 possible scenarios of the future that he had seen

There were 3 times that he fell in love with the person before him with all his heart

Two happy endings and a disappointing end

He once asked Gilbert how someone easily agitated like himself could love this kid. Yet, Gilbert never answered him and he, himself, didn’t really pay attention.

Time has passed till the question was forgotten then it returned once more when this kid is grown up and standing before him. Despite possessing the same power of darkness like himself, he somehow grew up into a bright light that he hated.

The white clean hands offered before him

“Since you’re hesitating, give me your power because I won’t.”

“Yeah right.”

Then he extended his hand forward

Sincerity of a fool cut deeper than the wisest words.

The Prince sneered at himself as he stepped into the dungeon holding Nigel Gawain. In the midst of the night is when his power is at its fullest. Moreover, his power is one that is hard to detect. Everything seemed easy … that it was strange to be hesitating prior

The 3 days that had passed, for the past 3 days

Did they really not do anything?

Nigel Gawain appeared before him.

His handsome features were obscured by the blood stain. If one is powerful enough, one would see the power of light casted by Haref Lancelot to hold Nigel Gawain.

“..?..”

Cass’s step came to a sudden halt. This course of action caused the Prince following behind him to sneer while Haref looked the other way.

The face is still as handsome as ever. The blood on his face still belonged to Gilbert, but

“Your … voice …”

The trace of sword wound … through the neck

Deep … until the bone could be seen

He saw the Nigel who’s ‘dying’

“Why …” Cass shivered. “…why…”

Because pain could maintain consciousness to control the power … because blood loss could decrease the power …” Haref chose not to look at the light magic beneath Nigel’s feet. “So, Nigel chose to …”

Destroy himself

Control of magic that came too late

The heart that was broken too fast

Not that they didn’t help

Haref rainbowed eyes closed before pursing his lips tightly …

But they …. could no longer help.

“Cass Bedivere, I’ve asked you before. What could you do even if you knew?” Within the silence, the Prince once again spoke. “This is the answer …”

Therefore, when you extended your hand, I didn’t hesitate to take it for you to see…

“This is … the truth.”

Your dream … how much it has hurt those who listened when they have to witness such reality…

‘You guys say that you’re smarter than me, powerful than me. You have the capability.’

 ‘But when two friends are in need, need help, you say your status is preventing you? And you give up?!’

“Truth is … we couldn’t do anything.”

————————

[Tea party behind the curtain – Hopeless! Hopeless till I couldn’t laugh!]

Nigel: “I already have little lines, why … why are you so cruel?”

Salsaal: “In fact you shouldn’t slit your throat but cut up your face!”

Nigel: “… about that … I wasn’t thinking back then”

Nigel: “Besides, for me to destroy my looks, I …”

Gilbert: “Big scars would make you look more manly!”

Haref: “You’re already too good-looking Nigel”

Salsaal: “Right. You’ve already got muscles so losing your looks won’t kill you!”

Nigel: “…”

Nigel: “Sometimes … besides feeling hopeless with the story, I also feel hopeless with lots of you as well.”

Antidote (Jie Yao) – Chapter 25

解药
(Antidote)

「Chapter 25」

Brought to you by JustBLThings

aegyo.me/justblthings

Translator: Firagara
English Proofreader: havinsomelitoast

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

***********************************************

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

***********************************************

Cheng Ke remembered not too long ago, when Jiang Yuduo told him solemnly, “Friends over here are very important.”

Cheng Ke had always believed Jiang Yuduo did not consider him a friend, despite the reverse being true – after all, his standard for becoming friends was rather lenient. Within a few meals, he would introduce his other party as a friend. As for Yuduo, Cheng Ke never considered this person’s friend status in his mind too deeply.

And now when hearing him suddenly announcing that they were friends, besides a fluffy feeling in his heart, Cheng Ke also felt confused.

It hadn’t even been that long, and Jiang Yuduo’s definition of a friend was as flippant as he was.

“Weren’t you saying that… Being your friend takes serious consideration…” Cheng Ke looked at him.

“Just because you came back today.” Jiang Yuduo said.

“That so?” Cheng Ke gave a start, “I was mostly afraid things would get out of hand. I thought Chen Qing could last a while, but he keeled over in a second.”

Jiang Yuduo smiled, “He can’t fight, his mom pampered him from birth.”

“I wasn’t…” Cheng Ke did stop worrying, but he was never an unfeeling person in the first place. Besides, watching someone you know be outnumbered three to one and the fact that his opponent called him out… Yuduo was willing to forsake his reputation by having him call the police to ensure his safety. Cheng Ke couldn’t run away in good conscience.  “Cheng Qing and your merry band of bros wouldn’t abandon you either.”

“That’s different,” Yuduo said, “Not counting Cheng Qing, those bros of mine know that if they abandoned me this time, Third Bro won’t be looking out for them next time.”

Cheng Ke could almost understand what he meant. Jiang Yuduo would have his bros’ backs, and they would have his. But Jiang Yuduo was different compared to those other gang leaders like Ba Pie, even if it was only an exchange of mutual benefit. The Yuduo who could see his mate’s freezing scalp while even as he hastily hailed a taxi in the bitter cold had to be different.

Cheng Ke felt that this may be the reason why he got anxious whenever Jiang Yuduo got into trouble.

“No one has ever treated me like that before either.” Jiang Yuduo inhaled a puff of cigarette smoke.

“Treated you how?” Cheng Ke smiled. “Came back for you despite not being your bro?”

“No one has ever held me back when I was fighting someone,” Jiang Yuduo interrupted him.

Cheng Ke looked at him for ages, before responding, “Oh.”

“That’s different from running back to help me,” Cheng Yuduo said, “That’s the first time someone was worried my punches were too hard. That’s never happened before. They always told me to go all out.”

Again with the “they”.

Cheng Ke could tell Jiang Yuduo didn’t mean Chen Qing and those mates of his with this mention of  “they”, these people only wanted him to win.

But he didn’t pursue who “they” were, given Jiang Yuduo and his silence, with his upbringing, he couldn’t bear to push further.

Perhaps someday Jiang Yuduo would be willing to broach the matter himself.

“What was that noise?” Jiang Yuduo stopped.

“Alarm clock,” Cheng Ke returned to the living room to switch it off, “Reminding me it’s almost time for dinner.”

Jiang Yuduo followed and stared at him, “Do you need to have your brain checked?”

“I sleep here sometimes,”  Cheng Ke explained.

“That’s the first time I’ve heard someone setting an alarm for dinner,” Jiang Yuduo said, “Do you even know that you can set an alarm on your phone?”

“I like alarm clocks,” Cheng Ke set the alarm to ring a minute later and placed it on the table, looking back at Jiang Yuduo, “Just like that.”

“Just like what?” Jiang Yuduo looked at him with confusion.

“Waiting.” Cheng Ke replied.

“Waiting for what?” Jiang Yuduo asked.

Cheng Ke kept quiet, looking at him.

Jiang Yuduo furrowed his eyebrows and stared back.

A minute later, the alarm rang with a shrill ring.

“Fuck!” Jiang Yuduo leapt to the side and hollered, “Why the fuck is it ringing again?”

Cheng Ke stretched a hand to slap the button on the alarm clock and silenced it.

“Just like that,” he said, “I like slapping the button down with a thwack to make it stop.”

“Aren’t you a busy bee everyday,” Jiang Yuduo said, “To the point of passing your time like this.”

“Don’t you have these sort of small gestures to kill time?”

“No.” Jiang Yuduo shook his head. “Big, medium, small, I don’t have any. I have no time to waste.”

“Are you always that busy every day?” Cheng Ke said with a tut, “At your construction site counting rubbish bins?”

“No,” Jiang Yuduo said, “I haven’t counted them, but I know that at that bar lined street, there are two every hundred metres, some with waste sorting, some without, and those streets with less people have one every hundred and fifty metres.”

Cheng Ke looked at him, dumbfounded.

“You can’t kill time.”

“Pardon?” Cheng Ke was looking at the needle hand of his alarm.

“Time passes slowly, always that slowly, and the more you try to kill it the slower it goes,” Jiang Yuduo said, “It’s when you forget about it that it feels better.”

Cheng Ke gave a smile.

He couldn’t quite understand Jiang Yuduo’s thoughts on this. To him, it’s only when it feels terrible, like when he’s ill, or unwell, or depressed, that he feels that time passes too slow.

He suddenly recalled Jiang Yuduo’s reply about not being the main character of his own life.

“I’m not.”

What sort of life would make someone feel that time always passed slowly?

The two of them stood in the living room in silence for a moment. As Jiang Yuduo walked next to the window to look outside, Cheng Ke realised that Jiang Yuduo never pulled apart the curtains to look out the window.

He stared at Jiang Yuduo’s side profile, and looked at the time after another moment’s pause.

It’s time for dinner, and to Cheng Ke, this moment could not be more awkward seeing that Jiang Ke was standing there without any intention of leaving.

If he were alone, he would have ordered take-away if he was hungry, if he wasn’t too hungry he would have just gone for instant noodles or two eggs.

Now, if he were to have Jiang Yuduo over for dinner, he didn’t have anything worth serving, and he was reluctant to head out to eat, seeing that never in his life had he treated someone two days in a row.

Nor could he bring himself to send Jiang Yuduo off just like that.

“Are you… hungry?” After struggling with himself for a period of time, Cheng Ke asked.

“Yeah.” Jiang Yuduo replied crisply, not reading between the lines. After uttering this one word, he didn’t say more.

“What… would you like to eat?” Cheng Ke brought himself to continue.

“You can’t even light a stove,” Jiang Yuduo turned to look at him, “And you have the nerve to ask this kind of question?”

“I so fucking can!” Cheng Ke huffed.

“Sichuan style food.” Jiang Yuduo said.

“…What?” Cheng Ke stared blankly.

“You asked me what I wanted to eat,” The corner of Jiang Yuduo’s mouth twitched upwards, leering tauntingly, “I told you I wanted to eat Sichuan style food, so?”

“Go eat it yourself.” Cheng Ke said.

“You’re not hungry?” Jiang Yuduo asked.

“I’ll cook myself instant noodles,” Cheng Ke said, smirking as well, “are you gonna eat that too?”

“Sure,” Jiang Yuduo replied.

Cheng Ke said nothing as his jaw fell open and hung there.

“You don’t know actually how to cook instant noodles, do you?” Jiang Yuduo asked.

“Sure,” Cheng Ke turned and walked towards the kitchen, “Just you wait, you’re the one who asked for it, no take backs.”

“Right.”

Instant noodles were actually rather easy to cook. Cheng Ke took the kettle, filled it with water and heated it on the stove. Sometimes, he took things one step further and cooked an egg along with it.

Compared to how he was at home, his current improvement made him want to pat himself on the back.

But he had no intention of doing that today, and settled for cooking two instant noodles.

Taking two cups from the cabinet, he asked “Fragrant Spicy, Sour Spicy or the Triple Ingredient?”

“Fragrant spicy,” Jiang Yuduo walked to the kitchen door and leaned against the frame, “you have so much variety?”

“Gotta mix things up sometimes,” Cheng Ke took two Fragrant Spicy flavoured cups and set them on the table.

“Isn’t it all just instant noodles?”

“Can’t you just watch quietly? Or perhaps go read something?” Cheng Ke frowned while removing the plastic wrap.

“I’ll watch quietly, then.”

Cheng Ke ignored him and tore open the lid, taking the spice packet out, and pouring the contents one by one. When both cups were ready, he approached the stove and waited for the water to boil.

As the kettle began to heat up, his phone rang in the living room.

Cheng Ke was taken by surprise. Ever since he left home, he almost never received any calls. Other than Liu Tiancheng, his previous “friends” occasionally sent texts, while the rest of his contacts treated him as if they never met and didn’t keep in touch. Even Xu Ding usually texted him when something was going on. Recently as well, he hasn’t been receiving any scams or sales calls.

As he took the phone and glanced at the displayed number, his heart sank.

He didn’t Cheng Yi’s number saved, but he remembered the end digits the same way one may remember the end numbers of a license plate.

As for why Cheng Yi would call him, a private call couldn’t demonstrate the so-called depth of their sibling bond – A pointless investment.

After starting at the number for a while, Cheng Ke hit the answer button, “Hey.”

“Bro, it’s me, Little Yi.” That gentle voice that trailed out sounded far away from the phone, “where are you right now?”

“Ready to board the ship.” Cheng Ke replied.

“What ship? You’re going on a trip?” Cheng Yi gasped.

“Spaceship.” Cheng Ke said, “I’m ready to head out to save humanity.”

“Are you at home?” Cheng Yi ignored him and pressed on.

“What’s your deal?” Cheng Ke asked unpleasantly.

“Wanted to see you.” Cheng Yi said.

“Haven’t you seen enough after 25 years?” Cheng Ke felt annoyed, “Couldn’t you be any less fake? I don’t want to see you at all.”

“Is it Little Ke?” A female voice spoke from afar.

Cheng Ke gave a violent start. That was his mother’s voice.

“I’m on speaker phone with Mom,” Cheng Yi said, “Mom wants to see you.”

“What’s there to see?” Cheng Ke flinched, realizing why Cheng Yi sounded so far away.

In that instant, he felt like holding Cheng Yi to the ground to stomp on him.

Cheng Yi turned the speaker phone on precisely because he knew how he’d be treated.

What a fearsome brother!

Cheng Ke paced around the living room restlessly, annoyed.

“You’ve been away for so long,” Cheng Yi said, “Isn’t it normal for Mom to want to see you?”

Bullshit!

Mom was a person who lived her life peacefully and detached regardless of the cruelties of the world. While it can’t be said that she didn’t care about her family, chanting Buddhist scriptures daily to wish her family health and prosperity. She was the only one among the family, including relatives, to require delving into her beliefs to calm herself upon discovering his sexuality. If it weren’t for Cheng Yi, she would never have wanted to come over to see him.

“It’s not a great time.” Cheng Ke grit his teeth.

“Why? Do you have…” a short pause, ”a friend over?” Cheng Yi asked.

Cheng Yi’s pause was strategic and more calculated than to have said “a guy” and corrected himself.

“No.” Cheng Ke felt like smashing his phone, “Why are you still outside at this time of day, aren’t you gonna have dinner?”

“This week, Mom’s abstaining from food after noon.”

“We’ve already arrived downstairs,” His mother’s voice rang out again, “You’re home, aren’t you, Little Ke?”

“…Yes.” Cheng Ke sat on the sofa.

“Which floor?” His mother continued.

“The sixteenth.”

After hanging up, Cheng Ke swept his eyes around the house. If his mother saw Jiang Yuduo, she would surely draw her own conclusion, ‘Even having been chased out, my son still finds it in himself to find himself a man to live with him.’ Especially now that he’s said that there was no one else at home.

Normally he couldn’t care less, but his ego couldn’t take this additional blow after he was already chased out of the house.

Cheng Ke looked at Jiang Yuduo, regretting his impulsive invitation of him to his home. Yet it’s too late to send him off. Given Cheng Yi’s style, he would have looked for an excuse to have their mother wait a while longer for Jiang Yuduo to come out before approaching to greet him.

What kind of person would he be to have Jiang Yuduo hide away in the stairwell till they left?

“What’s the matter?” Jiang Yuduo looked at him.

“My mother and brother are coming up right now.” Cheng Ke said.

“To see you?”

“Yes.” Cheng Ke forced a smile.

“Then I should go.” Jiang Yuduo took his coat, but then hesitated. “Have they entered the lift? Will we bump into each other? Your brother recognises me.”

Cheng Ke was surprised. Jiang Yuduo was not a shy person. He wouldn’t mind facing strangers, let alone Cheng Yi.

He didn’t think Jiang Yuduo would be in such a hurry to leave.

“I don’t think it’ll go well.” Jiang Yuduo said.

“Why?” Cheng Ke asked.

“Your brother’s a given but if your mother saw me…” Jiang Yuduo frowned, “To be mixed up with someone like me, how would you ever return to your life of luxury?”

Cheng Ke’s mind was in a tizzy, but he felt happy upon hearing those words.

After another moment’s thought, his smile faded and he  felt a mysterious pang of sorrow.

“Stay.” Cheng Ke stood and took the coat from Jiang Yuduo’s arms and hung it on the coat rack. “As long as you don’t mind my Mom mistaking you for my boyfriend, there’s nothing to worry about.”

“Fuck.” Jiang Yuduo was nervous all of a sudden, “Your mom’s that type?”

Cheng Ke jerked around to look at him.

As indifferent as he was towards others’ perception of himself, he couldn’t understand why Jiang Yuduo’s inadvertent reactions kept piercing his heart.

“Yeah.” He nodded, and took the coat off the rack again. “Perhaps you should hang for a bit in the stairs till they leave the house.

Jiang Yuduo paused, before violently gesturing, “No, no, I’m not leaving, that’s not what I meant.”

Cheng Ke narrowed his eyes.

“I don’t mind if she misunderstands, it’s not like it’s true, “Jiang Yuduo continued, “I’m just sad that your mom’s the same as your brother.”

“The apple doesn’t fall far from the tree.” 

“I’m not leaving.” As if trying to prove something, Jiang Yuduo immediately plopped down onto the sofa and stretched his legs, as if he had been there all this time.

Cheng Ke had little time to clean up the things carelessly tossed around the house before the doorbell rang.

He gave a glance at the man still spread out on his sofa, and went to the door.

His mother and Cheng Yi stood outside. Cheng Ke stepped aside, “Mom.”

“You’ve gotten thinner.” His mother looked him over, before entering the house, “Are you not eating nor sleeping well?…”

Silence fell on them upon seeing Jiang Yuduo on the sofa.

Jiang Yuduo had probably never experienced something like this in his life. He didn’t even stand up, only sat up from his splayed position. He nodded his head at Cheng Ke’s mother and Cheng Yi, saying “Good evening.”

Cheng Ke didn’t know why but he suddenly wanted to laugh.

“Ah, good evening,” His mother gave a slight nod, withholding her shock and displeasure before turning her head to look back at Cheng Ke, “Is this your friend?”

“Yes.” Cheng Ke nodded.

“Landlord,” Jiang Yuduo said. Cheng Ke looked at him. “Landlord. I’m here for the rent,” he emphasised again.

“Oh.” Cheng Ke’s mother nodded, and glanced at Cheng Yi.

“Yeah, he’s pretty nice,” Cheng Yi smiled. “He came along to Brother’s last performance too.”

Cheng Ke took his mother’s coat to hang on the coat rack and wished he could stay looking at it. He felt like hugging the coat rack till everyone left.

He was not good at, nor was he willing to deal with this situation. It annoyed him greatly, especially with someone as quick as Cheng Yi.

“Not really,” Jiang Yuduo said, “I was invited by Xu Ding.”

“Oh.” Cheng Yi smiled again. “Come sit, Mom.”

Cheng Ke turned his head to see his mother spare a glance at the sofa before moving to sit next to the dinner table.

Cheng Yi also took a chair and sat beside their mother.

Cheng Ke was about to head to the sofa, when the kettle whistled.

“Water’s done.” He moved towards the kitchen.

On entering the kitchen, he heard his mother’s voice, “And he knows how to boil water now.”

He turned off the stove, staring at the kettle for a while, before turning back to the living room.

The occupants continued to stay silent. Jiang Yuduo relaxed his posture on the sofa again and played on his phone. Cheng Ke’s mother looked around the room as if she had nothing better to do. Cheng Yi, who could read the atmosphere like a book, chose to not  make conversation in order to avoid making things awkward – allowing the atmosphere to curdle like paste.

“This apartment’s alright. It’s new.” Cheng Ke said.

“I can tell,” His mother replied. “Won’t it be noisy, I see a public park downstairs.”

“It’s on a high floor, I don’t hear much noise.” Cheng Ke sat on the sofa.

“Why didn’t you…” His mother looked at Jiang Yuduo momentarily, “call home at all?”

“Everything’s alright, there’s nothing to bother you with,” Cheng Ke said.

His mother appeared to have more to say, but perhaps in Jiang Yuduo’s presence, she stopped at this. She made idle chat about the apartment and his current life before standing up and saying, “It’s good that everything’s alright. We’ll be taking our leave.”

“I’ll send you off.” Cheng Ke stood as well.

“It’s fine, it’s cold outside.” His mother patted his arm.

“Your friend’s still here,” Cheng Yi said, “You don’t have to send us off.”

Cheng Ke grit his teeth without speaking.

As his mother and Cheng Yi reached the door, Jiang Yuduo stood up and approached them, “Take care, Auntie.”

“Ay, I will.” Cheng Ke’s mother smiled.

As the two entered the lift, Cheng Ke stood there, looking at the closed doors of the lift in a daze.

A flame was lit under his feet, and while he did his mightiest not to let it spread, it was to no avail.

He had never felt such an emotion before. His hatred of his brother reached its peak in this one split moment. He couldn’t understand why Cheng Yi would use his relentlessness on him.

Anger and helplessness swirled inside him and scaled his hands and feet to a chill.

“Aren’t you cold?” Jiang Yuduo asked beside the door.

Cheng Ke swerved his head, thinking about his reply to his mother and Jiang Yuduo’s response of ‘Landlord.’ His anger boiled over and spilled out.

“None of your fucking business,” Cheng Ke said, “You fucking landlord!”

Jiang Yuduo was startled, “Excuse me? I was sparing you from having your mother think otherwise!”

“Really?” Cheng Ke sneered, “What kind of landlord doesn’t leave? We had guests! A fucking landlord sitting on the sofa playing on his phone!”

“Don’t you “fucking” this, “fucking” that,” Jiang Yuduo glared at him, “I wasn’t the one giving you trouble!”

“Who was the one giving me trouble?” Cheng Ke hollered, “Who was the one giving me trouble! Who was the fucking one giving me fucking trouble! It’s fucking trouble fucking looking for me!”

Jiang Yuduo didn’t say a word. After glaring at Cheng ke, he grabbed his coat and walked out, slamming the door shut and pushing him aside to press the lift button.

Cheng Ke looked at him, and after two seconds gave another frustrated yell, “I didn’t grab the fucking keys!”

Jiang Yuduo gave a start and swivelled his head. “Fuck!”

Antidote (Jie Yao) – Chapter 24

解药
(Antidote)

「Chapter 24」

Brought to you by JustBLThings

aegyo.me/justblthings

Translator: Tion
English Proofreader: Snuffles

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

***********************************************

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

***********************************************

Even if Cheng Ke had determined that Chen Qing was a black-box guardian, he would not have imagined that he could be so weak before seeing it with his own eyes. After all, he worked with the boss of this area.

Cheng Ke felt that these dozen steps were extremely long.

During ten of those steps, he saw Jiang Yuduo get elbowed on the back, then elbow that person’s nose in return. As the man turned his head, blood splashed out of his nose and Cheng Ke saw Ba Pie* draw out a knife.

(Note: We have changed Ba Pie’s name to the proper romanization, from the previous chapters, the name used was ‘Ba Pi’.)

Although Cheng Ke doesn’t know much about the specific forms of this kind of gangster fight, he also knows that he can’t recklessly use a knife. Unlike fists and clubs, you can easily cause serious injury with a knife.

But his next move made Cheng Ke to understand why Jiang Yuduo is the leader of his gang.

Jiang Yuduo, who was facing away from Ba Pie, didn’t know in which direction he caught a glimpse of the knife. Nevertheless, he stretched out his hand and grabbed the blade, pushing it in the opposite direction.

The knife flew out of Ba Pie’s hand and landed on the ground next to him.

At that moment, Cheng Ke felt only a sharp pain in his palm.

Ba Pie didn’t care about the knife anymore, and raised his elbow to Jiang Yuduo’s shoulder, planning to smash it down again. If it hits, Jiang Yuduo would at least fall on one knee. That same move would completely bring Chen Qing down to the ground.

But before his elbow could fall on the other man, Jiang Yuduo’s elbow had already hit Ba Pie on his lower abdomen, squeezing out screams of agony deep from his lungs in layers of tearing pain.

To the side, another man was fighting with Chen Qing. He lifted his foot to step on Chen Qing’s stomach, but Cheng Ke quickly rushed over and kicked the man directly to the ground. The inertia of Cheng Ke’s attack sent the man rolling out two or three meters away.

As Ba Pie’s screams faded into pained groans, his combat effectiveness deteriorated as well. At that moment, the other guy rushed to pick up the knife on the ground.

Cheng Ke was about to tell Jiang Yuduo to be careful, but Jiang Yuduo had already stepped over. Before the man could stand up, he stretched his arms over the man’s shoulder and grabbed him by the chin.

“Jiang Yuduo!” Cheng Ke yelled. He froze on the spot and a chill rushed from the soles of his feet to his head, leaving his mind blank.

Jiang Yuduo seemed to have not heard his voice. He pulled the man’s chin and pushed his other shoulder with his other hand. The man suddenly rotated in the air like a top then rushed down and fell to the ground.

Cheng Ke rushed over and grabbed Jiang Yuduo’s arm, violently dragging him back two steps.

At that moment, Jiang Yuduo turned his face and stared at him for a while: “I told you to run.”

Cheng Ke wanted to say something, but couldn’t; Jiang Yuduo’s eyes were as cold as what he had just done.

He turned his head and looked behind him again.

Ba Pie was groaning in pain with a sullen expression, clutching his stomach. Laying on the ground not far was the Top who tried getting up two times before collapsing again.

The man who was kicked by Cheng Ke got up, but Chen Qing jumped from the ground and shoved him, knocking him to the ground again.

“You,” Jiang Yuduo pointed to the man who had just been hit, “Can you move?”

The man sat on the ground and shook his head after hesitating for a while.

“No?” Jiang Yuduo tilted his head.

The man was stunned, then nodded quickly.

“Call your people to that place,” Jiang Yuduo said, “I will be there in five minutes. If they haven’t left when I arrive, they will not be leaving today.”

The man looked at Ba Pie and the Top, then took out his cell phone.

“Go.” Jiang Yuduo picked up the bag that was thrown aside by Cheng Ke, grabbed Cheng Ke’s arm, and led him to the side road.

“That person…” Cheng Ke was still a little worried, turning his head and looking at the person who was still lying on the ground.

“I just stunned him,” Jiang Yuduo turned to look at him, “Do you really think I would break his neck?”

Cheng Ke frowned and said nothing.

“Impossible, Third Brother is generous,” Chen Qing said while shaking his arms and legs behind him, “He hasn’t put a heavy hand on anyone for so many years.”

Cheng Ke was speechless.

After walking down the path, Jiang Yuduo stopped and looked at Cheng Ke.

“I’m going home.” Cheng Ke reached for the bag.

When he saw Jiang Yuduo’s hands full of blood, he suddenly remembered Jiang Yuduo’s empty hands…No, the moment when Jiang Yuduo grabbed the blade with his bare hands. Cheng Ke suddenly felt that his own hands were a little weak.

“Forget it,” Jiang Yuduo moved the bag back, “You can just follow me and take a taxi back later.”

“We have to deal with your injury first.” Cheng Ke said.

“I will just go to Sister Qian’s place and treat it.” Jiang Yuduo said.

Cheng Ke’s mind was quite confused now, so he didn’t say much, and simply continued to follow him.

After walking out of that road for a while, they arrived at another small street that looked like Jiang Yu’s place. There were a variety of health and disfigurement homes, early child education centers, as well as breakfast restaurants and grocery stores.

Jiang Yuduo stopped in front of a door without a sign.

“It’s over there.” Chen Qing pointed his chin forward, motioning at the door.

Cheng Ke looked to the side and spotted several people standing next to the telephone pole ten meters away. They must be Ba Pie’s people…

Jiang Yuduo glanced at them and entered the unnamed store.

“Go in,” Chen Qing whispered to Cheng Ke, “If we don’t go in, they will come over and do something to us.”

Cheng Ke followed into the shop.

It was a chess and card room with four or five card tables and a mahjong table that was overturned. Mahjong chips were scattered all over the floor.

There were a few people inside, neither sitting nor standing playing cards.

Cheng Ke looked around. Some of them were here to simply play cards, and some were Jiang Yuduo’s men. He recognized Da Bin.

“Brother,” Da Bin approached us, “Are you all right?”

“I’m okay.” Jiang Yuduo said.

“What should I do with the people outside?” Da Bin asked.

“Escort them away,” Jiang Yuduo said, “try not to get physical.”

Da Bin nodded and took a few people out with him.

“This matter must be solved by the Third Brother,” said a man standing in the corner.

“Shut the fuck up!” A woman’s voice screamed aggressively, “You must not want to live anymore if you’re doing something as stupid as cheating at the game”

Cheng Ke was taken aback when he saw a woman standing in front of the tea room.

She looked in her early forties and was tall. Cheng Ke figured that she must’ve been pretty when she was young, but now she looks like someone you shouldn’t provoke. She can make anyone kneel just by yelling.

This should be the owner of the house that he rented.

“I didn’t…” The man began to argue.

“Take his money!” Lu Qian pointed at him, “Search him until he has no money left!”

“I have no money!” The man shouted, “Third brother! Third brother! Don’t let your sister be so unreasonable!”

“Qing’er,” Jiang Yu opened his mouth, “if he says another word, strip him naked and throw him out.”

“Alright.” Chen Qing swung his neck with a crack.

The man lost his voice, and several of his poker companions in the room turned over his money under the command of Lu Qian.

“I will say it here today,” She said. “Just play cards and be happy. Whoever dares to cheat, I will make your whole family suffer!”

The man didn’t speak, and walked along the wall to the door.

“Did I say you could go?!” Lu Qian glared at him, “If I let you today, don’t you think Ba Pie’s people would try the same? You want to go now? You’re too naive!”

“Then what am I going to do? Nothing serious happened!” The man was very shameless, “Sister Qian, I am also an old customer…”

“You’re an old customer, and you play like such!” she screamed at the man, “My table is broken too! The chairs are gone!”

“My money is there,” he said.

“This is the money that you won by cheating!” Lu Qian said, “Before five o’clock tomorrow afternoon, send me the money with double the amount. If I don’t see the money before five o’clock, you will get what’s coming.”

To be honest, Cheng Ke had never seen such a scene. He was stunned during the whole process, until Lu Qian set a price of 3,000 yuan and the man left irritated.

The people in the room began to lift the tables and chairs, setting them back up, and arranging the mahjong chips once again.

Chen Qing took a first-aid box and began treating Jiang Yuduo’s wounded hand. He felt that Chenre Qing’s bandaging technique was good and better than Jiang Yuduo’s.

However, the injury was not as serious as Cheng Ke had imagined. Jiang Yuduo didn’t move his hand after holding the knife, so his wound was not deep, but the bleeding hadn’t stopped and already red droplets stained the floor.

“Does it hurt anywhere else?” Lu Qian asked Jiang Yuduo.

“No.” Jiang Yuduo said.

“Is this your friend?” Lu Qian looked at Cheng Ke again.

“Well, he’s the one who rented your house,” Jiang Yuduo said, “Cheng Ke.”

Cheng Ke nodded to Lu Qian, not knowing what to say, and simply continued to be silent.

Lu Qian frowned, “Why did you get a civilian involved?!”

“It wasn’t intentional,” Chen Qing said. “He came over to pay the rent, and Ba Pie blocked him when he went out.”

“Ba Pie went and blocked you?” Lu Qian was a little surprised.

“It’s okay,” Jiang Yuduo said, “he doesn’t dare to do anything in the future.”

“Send him back home quickly,” Lu Qian waved, “Don’t be pestering me here.”

“Okay.” Jiang Yuduo responded.

“Cheng Ke, right?” Lu Qian turned her head to look back at him, “Why are you still with them? Next time ask the Third Brother to collect the rent, and don’t come over.”

“Alright.” Cheng Ke nodded.

“Where is your car?” Lu Qian looked at Chen Qing, “Send him back.”

“We didn’t drive here, the car can’t go in reverse when it comes in.” Chen Qing said.

“Do you fly an aircraft carrier? Just go out from the front!” Lu Qian said.

“I’ll go get the car.” Chen Qing sighed, turned and walked quickly towards the door.

“Just take a taxi,” Jiang Yuduo said, taking out Cheng Ke’s rent from his pocket and handing it to Lu Qian, “Here.”

“Take these and give them to me next month,” Lu Qian waved, “Hurry up and go, I feel dizzy looking at you all.”

Cheng Ke noticed that Da Bin and his people had already come back, and they were all blocking the door.

After leaving the house, Jiang Yuduo let Da Bin’s group go away and let Chen Qing go back first.

“You’re sending him back alone?” Chen Qing asked.

“It makes no difference if you follow him,” Jiang Yuduo said. “Aren’t you on duty at four o’clock today?”

“…Right.” Chen Qing nodded, turned and left.

Jiang Yuduo pointed to the other end of the alleyway: “Go over there, it’s the street, you can take a taxi.”

“I don’t want to take a taxi.” Cheng Ke said.

“Huh?” Jiang Yuduo looked at him.

“Will there be trouble?” Cheng Ke asked.

“No,” Jiang Yuduo said, “It seems that you’re particularly reluctant to walk.”

“Let’s go,” Cheng Ke pulled the zipper of his jacket and put the hoodie over his head, “I’ll get motion sickness if I take a taxi.”

“Fine.” Jiang Yuduo said.

“Your hand…” Cheng Ke looked at Jiang Yuduo’s hand. Blood had leaked out from under the bandages again, but only a few bloody droplets.

“It’s okay,” Jiang Yuduo raised his hand and examined it, “I never feel any pain.”

After walking into the street, Cheng Ke could feel that the north wind was only blowing gently. He took a deep breath against the wind and let out a long breath.

But neither he nor Jiang Yuduo spoke.

He didn’t know why Jiang Yuduo was silent. He hasn’t talked much since he finished eating yesterday.

He didn’t speak because he wanted to say too much, and his mind was full of the figures of Jiang Yuduo neatly tidying up the people from before, combined with the scene of the chief guard riding a bicycle.

“That Ba Pie,” Cheng Ke asked, breaking the previous silence. “How are his injuries? Does he have internal organ damage? A cracked bladder?”

“…I don’t know,” Jiang Yuduo turned his head, “I didn’t use too much force, don’t try to help me here.”

Cheng Ke smiled.

“Are you cold?” Jiang Yuduo asked.

“Yeah,” Cheng Ke said, “but I don’t want to take a taxi.”

“I’m not asking you to take a taxi,” Jiang Yuduo pointed forward, “I’m asking if you want something warm to drink.”

“What?” Cheng Ke looked ahead and saw a row of beautifully decorated small shops: coffee, milk tea and dessert shop.

“Fresh ginger crushed milk.” Jiang Yuduo said.

“Fresh crushed what?” Cheng Ke asked confused, “fresh ginger?”

“Well, crushed milk.” Jiang Yuduo said.

Cheng Ke hesitated for a moment, and followed Jiang Yuduo into a small shop. It sounded a little uncivilized, but he still wanted to taste it somehow.

In fact, the fresh ginger is crushed and mixed with milk. It looks very simple and civilized, but it doesn’t look like it will taste good at all.

“Taste it.” Jiang Yuduo handed him the cup, looking expectant.

Cheng Ke was so used to Jiang Yuduo being like this. Every time he asked him to taste something, he would have this look of expectation, which looked particularly…childish and sincere.

Especially now, after Cheng Ke watched him turning people into spinning tops with that coldness in his eyes; the contrast was a bit jarring.

So he grabbed the cup and took a sip.

He does not like to drink milk tea, nor does he like to eat things with ginger in it, let alone ginger bits, but facing Jiang Yuduo’s eyes, he decided that when he took this sip, no matter how badly it tastes, he has to say that it tastes good.

“How is it?” Jiang Yuduo asked.

“It’s delicious,” Cheng Ke replied. Surprisingly, his answer was sincere. He took another sip, “Actually, it’s delicious.”

“I don’t like eating ginger,” Jiang Yuduo took another glass and took a big sip. “But I think this is good, and the ginger taste is not strong.”

“True.” Cheng Ke nodded.

When they came out of the milk tea shop, they still had nothing to say, but the atmosphere was not as tense as before.

When they finally arrived at Cheng Ke’s place, the two stopped at the bottom of the stairs. Cheng Ke hesitated: “Do you want to come up and sit down?”

Jiang Yuduo looked at him silently.

“Then it’s best if you go back,” Cheng Ke said, guessing that he was unwilling to go in. He felt a little abrupt asking him. He turned to the elevator and walked over, “Thank you.”

“You’re welcome.” Jiang Yuduo replied.

His answer made Cheng Ke not want to turn his head back to look at him. After pressing the elevator button, he stared at the elevator door in a daze.

The elevator came down quickly, the door opened, and he walked in.

As soon as he turned around, he found that there was another person behind him, almost walking into the elevator next to him.

He was taken aback, and quickly staggered a step back. When he looked over, he found that it was actually Jiang Yuduo.

“What the hell?” Cheng Ke looked at him, “Didn’t you just leave?”

“Didn’t you invite me to go up and sit down?” Jiang Yuduo pressed down the floor and glanced at him. “You really are slow. Didn’t you sense that I was standing behind you?”

“…No.” Cheng Ke said.

“If someone were to attack you,” Jiang Yuduo said. “You probably wouldn’t be able to stop it with a single move.”

“Who would attack me?” Cheng Ke said.

After speaking, he remembered Jiang Yuduo’s previous words and the days when he turned around downstairs.

“Are you talking about them? Ba Pie’s people?” He asked.

“No.” Jiang Yuduo said.

“Then who the hell is it?” Cheng Ke asked again.

“They haven’t been here these days,” Jiang Yuduo didn’t answer directly, “I’m still surprised.”

Cheng Ke couldn’t keep asking, so he remained silent.

After entering the house, Jiang Yuduo took off his coat and turned around in the living room: “Is this a safe?”

“Which one?” Cheng Ke turned his head and saw him standing in front of the wine cabinet, “Who the hell would have a transparent safe? Who puts their wine in the safe?”

“Oh, it’s a wine shelf, right?” Jiang Yuduo bent over and took a look, “You even put red wine that doesn’t reach 300 yuan in here?”

“I just took it from the supermarket,” Cheng Ke laughed. “How do you know the price so well?”

“I’m not familiar with the expensive ones,” Jiang Yuduo sat on the sofa, “I know the supermarket’s red wine better. I go shopping every week.”

Cheng Ke looked at him. Sometimes he felt that Jiang Yuduo was a very complicated person. Apart from the look of expectation when recommending food, he was also not very capable of pushing Jiang Yuduo and buying groceries in the supermarket every week. Just now Jiang Yuduo, who was fighting with people on the street, was the same person.

“I want water.” Jiang Yuduo said.

“Oh,” Cheng Ke quickly took a cup and walked towards the drinking machine, “I forgot.”

“Let me play with this.” Jiang Yuduo got up and followed.

“What are you doing?” Cheng Ke was stunned.

“This drinking fountain,” Jiang Yuduo took the cup, “do I turn this faucet?”

“Yes.” Cheng Ke looked at him.

Jiang Yuduo put the cup under the faucet, opened the water, and immediately bent over to open the door under the water fountain, and looked inside: “Oh, it’s filtered from the machine below.”

“Yeah.” Cheng Ke responded.

It was not until the cup had been filled up that Jiang Yuduo closed the door and took a sip of water: “This is very convenient.”

Cheng Ke watched him silently, and after a while he asked, “You asked me to teach you taekwondo that day”

“Well,” Jiang Yuduo nodded, “can’t you?”

“Maybe,” Cheng Ke smiled, “I think if we actually fought, I wouldn’t be able to beat you.”

“Your expectations for me are too high,” Jiang Yuduo leaned against the water fountain, “I didn’t have it easy the last time we fought…”

“I meant a fight like today’s.” Cheng Ke said.

Jiang Yuduo took a sip of water and said nothing.

“Why did you make me run?” Cheng Ke asked, “And why did you let me call the police? Those people were not your opponents.”

“Just in case,” Jiang Yuduo said.

“In case of what?” Cheng Ke asked again.

“What if I can’t beat him,” Jiang Yuduo frowned, “I’ve never fought with Ba Pie before. He’s not here often.”

Cheng Ke couldn’t tell what was going on in his head.

“I wouldn’t have called the police if you weren’t there,” Jiang Yuduo lit a cigarette, “you’re different from us.”

“Oh.” Cheng Ke sighed softly, after thinking about it, he couldn’t help but ask, “Do you…always fight like this…?”

“It depends on who you run into.” Jiang Yuduo said.

“I actually wanted to ask… Where did you learn those tricks?” Cheng Ke asked. Ordinary street gangsters have been fighting for their entire life and yet they would never pick up skills like Jiang Yudo’s.

He was silent for a while, and sighed: “I fight like that as soon as I start to remember things.”

Cheng Ke felt that he couldn’t continue this conversation.

“Cheng Ke,” Jiang Yuduo put down the cup, “I…just, I just want to ask something.”

“What else do you want to ask?” Cheng Ke felt helpless when he heard him ask questions like this.

“Yesterday,” Jiang Yuduo cleared his throat, “were you angry?”

Cheng Ke was stunned for two seconds and then breathed a sigh of relief: “No, I wasn’t angry yesterday, and I’m not angry now.”

“…Oh,” Jiang Yuduo cleared his throat again, and stood up straight with determination, “I’m sorry.”

“Huh?” Cheng Ke was stunned again.

“I didn’t mean to say that you’re disgusting. Even with someone as stupid as Chen Qing, I’ve never find him disgusting.” Jiang Yuduo said, “I treat you as a good friend.”

Cheng Ke didn’t understand the logic of his comparison with Chen Qing, but his heart is slightly moved.

“Friend?” He looked at Jiang Yuduo.

“Yeah.” Jiang Yuduo nodded, and a pile of soot fell from the cigarette he was smoking. He took the cigarette out from his mouth and nodded again.

Antidote (Jie Yao) – Chapter 23

解药
(Antidote)

「Chapter 23」

Brought to you by JustBLThings

aegyo.me/justblthings

Translator: Tion
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)

***********************************************

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

***********************************************

Jiang Yuduo regretted asking those questions. He had never been exposed to these. Whenever he was with his group of brothers, all they talked about were girls, breasts, legs… It’s the first time he saw a homosexual….in person, which is young master Cheng Ke. He really didn’t control his mouth.

Although they did not continue this topic afterwards, they could feel that Cheng Ke was not in a good mood until the end of the meal.

He still smiled, talked the same, even his appetite was not affected, and he ate more than him.

But something that he was familiar with in his eyes was gone. Several times, Jiang Yuduo had the illusion that he and Cheng Ke just met yesterday.

After Cheng Ke settled the bill, he lit a cigarette and took out his cell phone: “Let me call a car, it’s windy now.”

“Yeah.” Cheng Ke replied.

“Want one?” Jiang Yuduo handed him the cigarette case.

“No,” Cheng Ke shook his head, “Too dull.”

Jiang Yuduo put away the cigarette case and stared at the phone silently. When the car was 50 meters away, he stood up: “Here, let’s go.”

Walking out of the hotel entrance, Cheng Ke took a deep breath and let out a long sigh.

“The air inside isn’t so good, right?” Jiang Yuduo said, “This kind of store is just like that, they all smoke inside.”

“It’s okay,” Cheng Ke said. “I used to eat with my friends there, and whether if there’s girls or not, we would still smoke.”

The car that Jiang Yuduo rushed over beckoned, and the car stopped in front of them. Cheng Ke got into the back seat. He hesitated for a moment and took the seat of the co-driver.

He figured that Cheng Ke was upset, but he really didn’t have any tricks, let alone continue to apologize, so he decided to sit in the front and not annoy people.

Both of them didn’t speak along the way. Cheng Ke closed his eyes on the back seat with a drowsy expression. The car drove until Cheng Ke’s place and stopped. Jiang Yuduo called him twice and he didn’t respond.

“Hey!” Jiang Yuduo raised his hand and slapped his leg, “We’re here!”

Cheng Ke opened his eyes and looked out the window: “Here?”

“Yeah,” Jiang Yuduo looked at him, “Get out of the car.”

Cheng Ke opened the door and got out of the car. After taking a step, he turned around and knocked on the window of the passenger seat.

Jiang Yuduo pulled down the car window.

“Tomorrow I will go to your place to pay the rent,” Cheng Ke said, “I will buy clothes and go along the way.”

“Well, what time?” Jiang Yuduo asked.

“In the afternoon, around three o’clock?” Cheng Ke said.

“Alright.” Jiang Yuduo nodded.

Cheng Ke turned and entered the corridor.

Jiang Yuduo watched him enter, then looked around, the driver asked, and he gave him his address.

When the car drove outside the community, he felt that there was someone, but he poked his head several times to look at the stairs to Cheng Ke’s house, but he didn’t see anything.

He frowned.

For a few moments, during the process when Cheng Ke suddenly became very cold, he wanted to stop taking care of Cheng Ke’s affairs several times. Is he being watched by someone? Is he in danger? He doesn’t want to care anymore.

After all, he couldn’t even handle his own troubles, bored when he opened his eyes, having nightmares when closing them.

Cheng Ke was a young master, and even if he was kicked out of the house, if he really wanted to run into something, he had nothing to worry about.

When he walked out of the art museum with Cheng Ke and Xu Ding today, watching people greet Cheng Ke one after another; it was the first time that he had such a slight sense of Cheng Ke’s past life, even if it was just the tip of the iceberg. It was also completely two different worlds.

He sighed.

When he got home, there was a car parked at the entrance of the corridor. As long as a high-end car was parked there, it must be Chen Qing’s car.

He went over and took a look. The car’s engine had been turned off and there was no one inside. He assumed that Chen Qing had entered the house. Chen Qing left the car here every time he entered the house so as not to accidentally injure someone when he entered the house.

Jiang Yuduo opened the door and entered the house. Chen Qing was making himself busy in the kitchen.

“How good is it for you to order a takeaway?” He walked over and took a look.

“Tired of eating it,” Chen Qing turned around, “have you eaten yet?”

“I already ate, you can just get your own,” he said, “Go and park your car properly.”

“I’m marinating meat,” Chen Qing said, “the key’s on the table, you can do it for me.”

Jiang Yuduo didn’t make a sound, then turned to the table in the living room and took the car key and went out.

“Third Bro, have you taken the exam?” A tender voice rang from the side.

Jiang Yuduo turned his head and glanced at the three-and-a-half-year-old child next door. He was standing by the door with a chicken leg and gnawing.

“I took the exam when you were still in your dad’s stomach.” Jiang Yuduo said.

“Why am I in my dad’s stomach,” the child laughed very loudly, “you are talking nonsense.”

“No nonsense.” Jiang Yuduo smiled.

“Third child!” The child’s grandmother ran out, dragged the child back into the house, and pointed at him, “You don’t have anything nice to say! Why are you saying such things to such a small child?!”

“…You actually understand?” Jiang Yuduo was a little surprised.

“Bah!” The old lady glared at him, “if I hear you telling him that next time, I’ll break your leg!”

He did not speak, smiled and got into the car.

The old lady closed the door begrudgingly.

Jiang Yuduo started the car and glanced at the parking spaces in front. They were all full. He glanced at the rearview mirror again to see if there was any space behind.

There was an empty parking space.

But he gripped the steering wheel without moving.

He was no longer surprised and scared with such a scene, and when he has not seen them near his home during this period of time, he will even feel a little anxious.

He was not afraid of danger, but he was afraid of not knowing where the danger was.

This was the real deal, there was no time, no place.

There was a person standing in that empty parking space, his hood pressed down to his eyes, his face was hidden in the shadows, and he couldn’t see clearly.

But Jiang Yuduo could feel his sight.

It was all too familiar.

For so many years, he had been unable to escape that sight.

It never left him alone.

There was not much harm and no serious consequences, but it was like a needle stuck on his flesh. The wound would never heal or die, the wound would become red, painful, and infected, but it would never be healed.

He looked down at his feet, pulled the steering wheel lock out of the seat, opened the door and got out of the car.

The person who has not moved raised his head slightly, as if looking behind him.

Jiang Yuduo’s heart sank.

His attention was on the person, his back was completely unguarded.

It was too late to look back, he ducked down directly, but still couldn’t escape.

Before he even had time to feel the pain, he was swallowed by the sudden darkness before him.

The last thing he remembered was his knees falling on the ground, and a vague “Cheng Ke” out of his mouth.

Cheng Ke opened the wine cabinet and took out a bottle of red wine from it.

This wine cabinet was bought before, and only a few bottles of wine were placed in there. He didn’t know why he wanted to buy a temperature controlled wine cabinet. He had no particular interest in red wine.

Probably because when the house was being renovated, there were a few hooks on the cabinets for hanging the wine. He looked at the rows of hooks that were not pleasing to the eye. The humidity and temperature of the cabinet could not even be controlled. Maybe he bought a wine cabinet just to show the hooks that they are completely meaningless.

He took the wine and sat on the sofa, froze for a while and got up and put the wine back.

He didn’t want to drink it at all, and he didn’t know why he took them out.

Boredom.

He went back to lie down on the sofa, closed his eyes and let out a sigh of relief.

Today’s hot pot meal was still very refreshing, eating meat and drinking alcohol.

The only bad thing was that he didn’t talk much with Jiang Yuduo afterwards.

Jiang Yuduo’s nauseating words did affect his mood, but it was not worth the silence for half a meal. The main reason was that Jiang Yuduo didn’t say anything afterwards, and he was not good at restoring the atmosphere in this situation.

If the other party was silent, he wouldn’t try to speak again.

He was too lazy to bother to find the rhythm, and he didn’t want to think about what to say next.

He likes to do whatever he wants, as long as he feels comfortable.

People who know him know about his habit of not putting in any effort in talking, and those who don’t know continue their effort to make a conversation. After all, he is the young master.

The phone rang and Xu Ding sent a message.

-Pay within this week, and confirm the account

-Confirmed. Can you not do this every time? I will tell you if I change my account

-Just in case, it doesn’t take much trouble anyway. Today, the third child got in the video. Do you want to cut a copy of payment for him?

Cheng Ke smiled.

-Fine by me

Jiang Yuduo didn’t necessarily want to see how he looked when he watched the performance seriously with his mouth open, but Cheng Ke wanted to see what he looked like in the lens.

Thinking of Jiang Yuduo, Cheng Ke thought of Cheng Yi.

Although Cheng Yi would talk to Jiang Yuduo, he wasn’t too surprised. Cheng Yi’s personality had been like this since he was a child. Even if the other party admitted defeat, he would not stop as long as he did not feel that he had reached the last step.

But he was still depressed that Cheng Yi would choose such a topic to chat with Jiang Yuduo.

Probably he hadn’t actually gone through the trash can, and it was not over in Cheng Yi’s view.

But Jiang Yuduo’s reaction… it was quite interesting to look at, excluding the word ”disgusting”, and he just wanted to laugh when he thought of it.

If Cheng Yi knew his reaction, he would be a little disappointed.

Cheng Ke smiled.

There was nothing to do after eating and drinking, so the most pleasant thing to do was to sleep.

Sleeping on the sofa was also very nice .

In the middle of his nap, Cheng Ke woke up several times. The first time was around five o’clock, his stomach told him that he hadn’t digested what he ate at noon, and the second time was more than ten o’clock in the evening. It didn’t make much sense to wake up sooner or later., so he continued to sleep. The third time was when someone was quarreling downstairs in the middle of the night. The two men quarreled fiercely, and he slumped from the sofa to the bed.

When he woke up, it was already noon, to be precise, lunch time had already passed.

He got off the bed and felt that his mental appearance was not good, and he was wrinkled like the clothes he had.

Only after taking a shower did he wake up a little bit.

Mainly because of being woken up once at night… Cheng Ke paused.

Then he walked to the window in two quick steps and pushed the window open.

He felt that he had overreacted, but the injuries on Jiang Yuduo’s body and his words during this period of time still made him more or less sensitive in doubt.

Downstairs was still a patch of gray, the snow and the fallen leaves that had been integrated with the ground were as lonely as usual.

He stared at the ground downstairs and took a closer look. He didn’t see any traces of fighting. He breathed a sigh of relief and mourned his inexplicable silence for three seconds.

But when he went out to buy clothes in the mall, he looked downstairs again.

There was no blood, and the security guard downstairs was calm.

……Crazy.

Cheng Ke took a taxi to the mall, because the distance was so close, he got to the place before he was too stable.

Buying clothes went by very quickly as well. He didn’t look at the brand, and didn’t think about the quality. He just took it if it looked pleasing to his eye. He also wore more than 100 cotton clothes and felt that it was quite comfortable.

Today, he just wanted to find something with the same style of Jiang Yuduo’s down jacket. It was comfortable, warm and looked pretty.

However, he didn’t find the menswear after looking around three times. In the end, he could only take two pieces and paid for them.

It was almost three o’clock when he walked out of the mall. It was very close to Jiang Yuduo’s home, and it was just the right time to stop by.

He regretted walking with bags halfway. No matter how much he stepped, the bags would hit his legs back and forth, and he was annoyed.

In a rage, he took the clothes out of the bag and tucked them under his arm, throwing the bags away.

He felt like a fool when he walked to the door of Jiang Yuduo’s house with four clothes in between his arm.

“Jiang Yuduo!” he shouted as he passed by the window.

“Yeah?” someone inside responded, but the voice was not Jiang Yuduo’s.

The curtain was opened, and Chen Qing’s face appeared in the window: “Cheng?”

“He’s not there?” Cheng Ke asked.

“Yes, but…” Chen Qing looked at the clothes in his hand, “Did someone rob you?”

“Well,” Cheng Ke walked into the corridor, “They robbed the bag and left the clothes.”

Chen Qing came over and opened the door for him, with a look of surprise: “Why don’t you tell me if you were robbed? People would dare not touch you if you say Third Bro’s name! Are you stupid?!”

Cheng Ke looked at him, and the Chief Guardian was probably already excited after only hearing the word grabbing. He sighed, “No, I’m not afraid of losing a little money. I still have a lot.”

“Why are you here anyway?” Chen Qing asked.

“Paying rent, I told Jiang Yuduo yesterday.” Cheng Ke stood in the living room and looked at it. Jiang Yuduo was not seen, and there was no one in the bedroom.

“Oh,” Chen Qing turned his head and shouted at the bathroom, “Brother, Cheng Ke came to pay -“

The bathroom door opened, Jiang Yuduo wrinkled his eyebrows and walked out: “Stop shouting!”

Chen Qing shut up and sat on the sofa with his mobile phone and played.

Jiang Yuduo looked at the pile of clothes he was holding, reached out and picked up the tag and looked at it: “Just bought it?”

“Yeah.” Cheng Ke nodded.

“Was there nothing to put them into?” Jiang Yuduo looked at him.

“I threw the bags away.” Cheng Ke put the clothes on the sofa, took them up again after putting them down, and put them down again after making sure that the position was not where the cat had peed.

“…Very individualistic.” Jiang Yuduo took out the receipt from the drawer and lowered his head to write.

When Cheng Ke looked at Jiang Yuduo, he felt that his complexion was very bad, not the kind of bad complexion after insomnia, but very pale, as if he was sick.

But Chen Qing was sitting next to him, and he couldn’t ask more questions.

Jiang Yuduo lowered his head, writing very slowly, stroke by stroke, and stopped after writing two strokes.

Cheng Ke looked at it for a while and still couldn’t hold it back. He approached and asked softly, “Are you sick?”

“He got dizzy yesterday afternoon, and just now in the morning.” Chen Qing said next to him.

“Oh.” Cheng Ke didn’t know what to say, and sat down in the chair and waited.

“There’s even a huge bump on his head.” Chen Qing sighed.

“What’s wrong?” Cheng Ke was stunned.

Jiang Yuduo stopped the pen and looked up at Chen Qing, who lowered his head and continued to play with his phone.

The receipt was finally written, Cheng Ke took it and put it in his pocket, took out his wallet, and gave the cash he had just taken to Jiang Yuduo.

“Your coat,” Cheng Ke picked up Jiang Yuduo’s down jacket, “Will I have to wash it before returning it to you?”

“No need,” Jiang Yuduo said, “I wash these clothes only in spring.”

“All right,” Cheng Ke didn’t insist, and asked again after thinking about it, “Where did you buy these clothes? I didn’t find this brand after looking around for a long time today.”

“…Wholesale market.” Jiang Yuduo looked at him.

“Oh,” Cheng Ke looked at the clothes again, “it’s good.”

“If you want to buy it, I can take you there.” Jiang Yuduo said.

“This is only four hundred,” Chen Qing’s cell phone rang, and he said as he took out his phone, “do you want it too?”

Before Cheng Ke could answer, he said “Hi” on the phone, and then frowned.

“Who’s that.” Jiang Yuduo looked at her.

“Who’s there?” Chen Qing asked, “Well, are there only four people? Alright..”

“Who?” Jiang Yuduo asked again.

“The Ba Pi people are with Sister Qian,” Chen Qing stood up, holding her mobile phone and dialing the number, “I will take a few people to have a look. If Ba Pi is also there, it will be troublesome.”

“What’s the use of you going?” Jiang Yuduo took the down jacket from Cheng Ke and put it on. “When did Ba Pi fear you?”

“No one’s fucking afraid of me,” Chen Qing said, “what should I do then, let you go there like this?”

Jiang Yuduo went into the bathroom and washed his face. When he came out, there were droplets of water on his face: “Call Da Bin to go directly.”

Chen Qing looked at him without speaking.

Cheng Ke was still sitting on the chair, looking at Jiang Yuduo.

Probably at this moment, he suddenly and clearly realized how different Jiang Yuduo was in the world that was completely different from his.

With just a short time to wash his face, the somewhat exhausted state of Jiang Yuduo’s still pale face had disappeared, and he had returned to his usual arrogance with a trace of fierceness.

“You…” Jiang Yuduo turned to look at him, “Go back.”

“Yeah.” Cheng Ke stood up, picked up a new coat and put it on.

Jiang Yuduo took an ecobag from the cabinet, rolled up his other three pieces of clothing, and stuffed them into the bag.

Cheng Ke took the bag and walked out of the corridor behind Jiang Yuduo and Chen Qing.

After walking a few steps towards the intersection, Jiang Yuduo stopped: “We’re going over there.”

“Well, you…” He felt that he needed to say something at this time.

Don’t go.

Be careful.

Call the police.

Neither sentence seemed appropriate, nor did any of them seem meaningful.

He was suddenly a little frustrated, and depressed to the extreme.

The feelings he felt for Jiang Yuduo couldn’t go back as far back to when he first met, so he couldn’t really treat Jiang Yuduo as a stranger who lives a completely different life than him.

There was something in Jiang Yuduo, which was different from Chen Qing, his brothers, and the street gangsters who laughed and kicked over the trash can.

What it was, he didn’t know.

But this kind of thing would make him intensely uneasy, when Jiang Yuduo was about to “solve” the trouble.

“Third bro!” someone on the other side suddenly shouted loudly with a joking tone.

Jiang Yuduo turned his head.

The three people on the opposite street walked slowly to directly face them. This street was very narrow, almost making them standing facing each other. The smug smile on their face can be seen clearly.

“Fuck, why is he here?” Chen Qing cursed.

Cheng Ke reacted right away. The person in the middle who was wearing a tight-fitting sports suit just to stretch out his muscle like a stupid man was Ba Pi.

Jiang Yuduo and Chen Qing obviously didn’t expect him to show up here, and the people who they called for as backup went directly to Sister Qian’s place.

Not bad.

They were quite skilled in trickery.

“Cheng Ke, go back,” Jiang Yuduo quickly took out the key from his pocket and stuffed it into his hand. “Immediately.”

Cheng Ke took the key, but did not move.

Logically, he should leave immediately and go back to Jiang Yuduo’s house, or find another way. This is not his business, nor was it something he should mix in.

According to Cheng Yi’s words, too low-level.

But he did not want to leave.

Chen Qing didn’t have much fighting capacity, so he didn’t have to try. Just by looking at his figure, he knew that he wouldn’t put up too much of a fight. If he left, Jiang Yuduo would be the only one left.

The three people on the opposite side looked like they just escaped from prison a few seconds ago, and Jiang Yuduo was not an opponent to them.

“That handsome guy,” Ba Zai raised his chin and motioned towards Cheng Ke, “Is that the one who beat up my newly-acquired younger brother that day?”

“It’s him.” The man on his right stared at Cheng Ke’s face, “We can just hit two birds with one stone.”

“Fuck.” Chen Qing gritted his teeth and whispered, “Fuck this, let’s go, what should I do, third bro?”

“What are you afraid of, haven’t you ever been hit by anyone?” Jiang Yuduo said.

“All right,” Chen Qing shook his head, his neck creaked, “I’m not scared at all.”

“When I count to three,” Jiang Yuduo looked at Cheng Ke, “just run.”

Cheng Ke looked at him.

“Then call the police.” Jiang Yuduo said.

“What?” Chen Qing turned his head to look at him abruptly, “Fuck me, why should we call the police? Do you still want to live?”

Cheng Ke was also stunned. Jiang Yuduo asked him to run and he could understand, but he was very surprised when he asked him to call the police. The meaning of Chen Qing’s words is also very clear. In this case, if you call the police, Jiang Yuduo’s status of this “third brother” would probably be overwhelming for them.

Although he didn’t think it would be any different.

The people on the other side are walking towards them, and on this street, you will be facing close to each other within ten steps.

“One, two, three.” Jiang Yuduo stretched out his hand and pushed abruptly against his shoulder, then turned and rushed out to the few people.

“Shit!” Chen Qing shouted, and rushed towards him.

In Cheng Ke’s mind, there were more than two hundred TV shows with the dialogue: “Let’s go!” “I’m not going!” “You have to go! Leave me alone!” “No, I can’t go!”

The ending of this kind of scene was that both are usually damned to die.

He turned and ran back.

After running for a dozen steps, he took out his phone, and then looked back.

Ba Pi slammed Jiang Yuduo’s elbow behind him, and Chen Qing had fallen aside, struggling to stand.

“Fuck.” Cheng Ke stopped abruptly.