CH 76

Liu Zhongming suddenly stabbed his back hard with a pen, messing up the few strokes he had just written. Seeing his tightened shoulder bones relax did he use his fingernails to scratch it off before rewriting.

Qu Chenzhou noticed that the mood was wrong, and his shoulder blade was a little painful. He vaguely guessed that Liu Zhongming was not happy because of what he said just now, he also didn’t know what his heart was feeling, so he endured and didn’t speak.

The word “Ming” was slowly written. Liu Zhongming blew out a breath, and the chill made his back tremble. Before he could shrink back in habit, Liu Zhongming gave another blow.

Qu Chenzhou noticed this lame prank, and finally couldn’t help turning his head: “Shizi hasn’t finished writing yet?”

“I’m done, have you finished washing?”

He was obviously looking for trouble. He pursed his lips and looked away to the side: “I’m finished.”

Liu Zhongming pinched his chin from behind and lifted it upwards. As soon as their eyes met, one up one down, in the air: “If you’re finished, then get up.” 

The water temperature was indeed getting colder and colder. Chenzhou hesitated for a moment: “Please go out.”

“Go out?” Liu Zhongming turned to the front. His hand did not leave, but went down along the arc of his lower jaw, frivolously rubbing the throat bone sliding between his throat: “You just reminded me, there is a difference between a master and a slave.”

Qu Chenzhou turned his face away and replied softly, “Yes.”

Liu Zhongming was irritated by the word, and his voice suddenly became violent: “Since there is a difference between a master and a slave, then your life and death is mine, why can’t I take a look at you!”

Qu Chenzhou raised his head in amazement, as if he didn’t know how the words were irritating him, and why the sudden attack was happening now.

Liu Zhongming didn’t know whether he was more angry or more unwilling; he was the dignified Shizi, how could he be inferior to another.

But he was a step too late.

Qu Chenzhou had no place in his heart to accommodate him. Even if he died tragically, Qu Chenzhou still didn’t hold any resentment towards that person, and even excused him so calmly – he didn’t blame him.

It was in vain that he endured shame and went to Zhiwei to ask for advice on those things that were not mainstream. It turned out that he had no chance at all, that the other party did not take him seriously at all, and even arranged for him to marry a wife and have children.

He was jealous of that person, and he hated Qu Chenzhou.

Qu Chenzhou stared at him silently, seeing the blood in his chest boil for a while, ready to spurt out with only the vibration of a stone.

“What?” He asked bitterly: “Still thinking about another, and wanting to protect him like a jade? Taking you out one day, if I want your body, do you plan to die for him and this love?”

Qu Chenzhou suddenly shot out and a hand heavily slapped him in the face.

Liu Zhongming staggered back two steps, and before he could react, the hand returned, and the back of his hand slapped his other cheek fiercely.

These two slaps were sharp and savage, making a crisp echo.

Liu Zhongming was stunned by this unexpected slap. He covered his face, unable to believe it: “You… hit me?”

“Yes I hit you!” Qu Chenzhou gritted his teeth and sneered, “We have not even taken one step on the road to succession, yet you are thinking about being sour and jealous?  Shizi is really in good spirits, have you been with Ning Wang for such a long time that even your brain is muddled with his?”

“I…I just…” Liu Zhongming was speechless for a while, and those words of love were caught in his cheeks and a burning pain pressed in his throat.

“Just what?” Qu Chenzhou’s fingers were clenched white and he was shaking with anger: “It’s just that Shizi wants to find someone to extinguish his fire?”

“Yes! What if that is the case?”

Liu Zhongming snapped the pen in his hand and his fake calmness snapped along with it. His heart was swayed, turning into a mess.

He racked his brains to find excuses, worrying about the person getting hurt, worrying about the person’s pain, but this person crushed his good intentions under his feet; when did he, Liu Zhongming, become so humble and lowly!

“You are not confused! You are simply thinking about using me to avenge yourself! Let me see your sincerity!”

He leaned against the wooden barrel and gritted his teeth viciously: “I’m going to f*ck you and I’m going to do it now!”

Qu Chenzhou’s fingertips were whitish on the side of the barrel, and he slowly let go. Breathing quickly, he opened his mouth again and his voice was as cold as the surface of a lake in extreme winter.

“My body is simply a leather bag, if Shizi wants it, just take it.”

He raised his eyes and looked at Liu Zhongming: “Not to mention it’s just a wreck. Even if I die on the journey one day, it’s just firewood burning in the fire. Use it as best as you can.”

The adam’s apple that had just been stroked slipped for a moment, and the man stood up from the wooden barrel. With the sound of water and under Liu Zhongming’s astonished eyes, he stepped over the edge of the barrel and stood unobstructed on the ground.

It was still the soft-line body of a young man, fresh and slender, and the water droplets meandered down the glowing skin, accumulating into a puddle at his feet.

At first, Liu Zhongming’s eyes only fell on his white feet, but gradually he moved up along his straight and slender legs. His lower abdomen was hidden in a hazy shadow. It was very calm – completely different from him burning with pain.

“Shizi, this is my sincerity, I will give and take.” Qu Chenzhou looked at him calmly, bowed to one knee, then knelt down and kotowed: “This slave, Qu Chenzhou, thanks Shizi for his grace.”

Liu Zhongming’s nose was aching, even his eyes were red. He suddenly took out the big cloak, and with a flick of his hand, he wrapped Qu Chenzhou in it, and carried him on his shoulders: “Your sincerity, I will accept it.”

Qu Chenzhou fell down on his shoulders. He watched the footsteps cross the threshold and walk through the corridor, the trees in the atrium rustled in the cold wind and dropped their leaves, falling to the ground in a whirl, and stepped on again.

He was a little tired, but he still refused to close his eyes.

The door of the bedroom was kicked open, and as light as a straw, turned over in Liu Zhongming’s hands, and was placed on his back in the sarong.

The cloak that was folded in front of his chest was lifted, and almost at the same time, his long and heavy body was turned over with a hand stroking up from his side and sliding straight to the base of his legs.

He twitched slightly, pressed his moan under his tongue, and as soon as he shrank, someone grabbed his knees and pulled them apart.

“Do you regret it?” Liu Zhongming asked him through gritted teeth.

Qu Chenzhou looked up at the roof across the sarong, and relaxed his legs silently.

“You won’t regret it?! You won’t regret it?!” Liu Zhongming asked bitterly, his five fingers contracted, as if he was about to break his leg.

Qu Chenzhou was speechless in pain and only shook his head.

“So you won’t regret it?”

This time, before he had time to respond, his body lightened and the body pressing down on him stood up. His breath was still uncontrollably heavy, but it was choked back with gnashing of the teeth.

“Since you have no regrets, why are you crying!” The edge of the sarong’s bed was crushed by the sudden movement of getting up. Liu Zhongming slammed the door and left: “I hate you!”

Qu Chenzhou laid motionless on his back until the crack of the door let in wind that caused a chill on his naked body, so he slowly pulled the cloak to cover himself, and tapped the corners of his eyes with his fingertips.

There were really tears.

Even the plaster on his temple was wet.

Wasn’t that Zhongming? Wasn’t this what he longed for? Why did he cry?

And what he just said – being sour and jealous…

***

Liu Zhongming looked up at the top of the curtain, his eyes were dry and astringent, but he still couldn’t sleep.

They haven’t spoken since the afternoon tantrum. This time, Qu Chenzhou did not hide from him in the east wing as before, and just stayed in the outer sarong.

When he slammed the door in the afternoon, he instructed the servants in the yard to bring everything over and lock the east wing. If they saw that Qu Chenzhou dared to go elsewhere, he was to be brought back directly.

When he came back in the evening, he saw Qu Chenzhou lying in the sarong. When he entered the door, he didn’t say hello. He just turned over, turning his back to him.

Liu Zhongming didn’t bother to pay attention to it. He went into the inner room without looking, and when he was going around the screen, the corner of his robe was caught by something. He turned around and kicked it, and the screen fell to the ground.

A servant came in from outside and “get out” was yelled at him, so no one dared to disturb him again.

Without the screen, he saw the man lying still as if he was pretending to be dead. He raised his hand and pulled down the curtain hung by the golden hook, finally separating the annoying sight.

If he can’t see, he can’t be bothered. However, there was a gap in the curtain, and he could hear the breathing outside.

The person in the sarong was not asleep either.

At first, there was still noise in the courtyard, and he couldn’t hear it clearly, but gradually it became night, and the messy and heavy breathing became more and more obvious.

The doctor of the residence told him that the medicine was expensive and powerful, and the wound on his face had not healed. It was now the time when he was supposed to take his medicine. If Brother Qu couldn’t bear the pain, he could take a small amount of opium to relieve the pain.

But using that thing for a long time can cause him to become addicted to it, and there was already Shuo Ye on Qu Chenzhou that couldn’t be cured, so he didn’t want him to drink poison to quench his thirst.

In his mind, heaven and man were fighting. He repeatedly weighed the sound of heavy breathing and opium. He was helpless, and the sound of breathing outside gradually decreased until it was almost inaudible.

The lowering speed and sound did not sound like the sound of falling into deep sleep. Liu Zhongming pricked up his ears and listened for a while before confirming that this was not right!

Qu Chenzhou shouldn’t be breathing so lightly.

He almost didn’t even think about it, he rushed out of the curtain with one stride, and saw Qu Chenzhou sitting cross-legged in the sarong, adjusting his breath.

Qu Chenzhou was in so much pain that he didn’t care, he didn’t notice that Liu Zhongming hadn’t slept at this time, and he didn’t expect that someone would suddenly rush out; his breath was chaotic, and he was about to fall to the side.

A hand came over.

“Don’t panic!” Liu Zhongming put his other hand on his neck and let out a low voice, but his heart was like a stormy sea.

They had been together day and night for more than half a year, but he never knew that Qu Chenzhou could adjust his breath like this, and he was even more surprised that this method of adjustment was actually the same as his own.

For a moment, he even suspected Bai Shiyan’s guess was correct – could this person be himself?

Feeling restless under his fingertips, Liu Zhongming didn’t think about it any longer, and said in a low voice, “Return to the center with a single thought.”

“Let the short become long.”

Liu Zhongming was usually busy with mundane affairs and neglected his practice of martial arts. Now it was extremely difficult to coordinate, and he felt ashamed and did not dare to be distracted or confused.

In the end, when his qi returned to his dantian, Qu Chenzhou let out a long sigh, and raised his hand weakly to push Liu Zhongming away.

“Thank you for your help.”

He leaned back against the wall, pondered for a moment, and said, “I used to have a good relationship with the Bai family…”

Liu Zhongming fell into the chair, sweating all over. Trying to steady his own breath, it was as if he didn’t hear the explanation he forced out. After a while, he went to the side to take the cloak and threw it on Qu Chenzhou.

“Follow me!” 

It was halfway through the night, and the little servant in the yard was dozing drowsily. Hearing the sound of the door opening, he quickly became alert and came to greet him, but was repelled by Liu Zhongming with a wave of his hand.

Qu Chenzhou closed his cloak, followed without a word, walked around the study, and stopped on the right side of the room.

This was where Liu Zhongming used to store his books. He was allowed to come in and look for books twice, but the light inside was dim, which made him uncomfortable, so he never came back.

He didn’t know why they came here suddenly in the middle of the night.

He was suspicious when Liu Zhongming opened the door and motioned for him to follow.

The two walked all the way to the southwest corner of the room. Liu Zhongming kicked the table by the window and stepped on the ground. The ground opened in response, revealing a two-foot-square hole.

There were stone steps under the entrance of the hole, the passage was cramped and pitch-black, and only a little light can be seen below.

After walking down the distance of about thirty or forty steps, the faint light magnified in front of him, it was an oil lamp embedded into the stone wall. Liu Zhongming lit the flint and lit the surrounding candles in turn, and then Qu Chenzhou could see the appearance of the underground.

This was not a small space, it was about the size of two or three of their bedrooms, with a wide surrounding area, no tables, chairs and screens.

It should be a ventilated place, as there was no damp and musty smell that indicated it had been sealed for a long time, but there was another unpleasant smell.

A bloody smell.