CH 19

The majority of Fu Zhi Zhou’s wounds were on his back and arm. His hand and face had some minor ones too.

Mother and Father Qiao were worried and ended up calling a surgeon that they knew to ask for advice. After confirming again and again that Fu Zhi Zhou’s abdomen and head area weren’t affected, they then helped to clean the wounds and got him to rest early. 

Qiao Luo wasn’t present throughout the entire process.

Father and Mother Qiao were fretting about Fu Zhi Zhou’s condition so they didn’t notice him being odd. But Fu Zhi Zhou, who had hung his heart on Qiao Luo, felt that something was off.

Back in the car, the little guy was crazy concerned about him, but how come he was ignoring him now that they were home?

Mulling over and over, he finally came to a conclusion to not let Qiao Luo see all these green and purplish bruises over himself, lest he get his brownie points reduced again.

Fu Zhi Zhou bandaged his wounds and naturally went to find Qiao Luo.

It was too late in the night so he had to stay overnight in the Qiao house. Obviously, he would sleep in Qiao Luo’s bedroom.

Fu Zhi Zhou had never avoided nor crossed any lines. Qiao Luo clung to him so he would accompany Qiao Luo to sleep, but wouldn’t allow Qiao Luo to nest in his blanket.

And on this day, when he went up and pushed open the door, he unexpectedly found that Qiao Luo had locked it.

Fu Zhi Zhou, “……?”

Fu Zhi Zhou stood outside of the door to reflect for a good minute. After deducing that he hadn’t done anything to agitate Qiao Luo, his thoughts went astray and created an imaginary scenario; Could it be that my injuries made the little guy angry?

Then his messy thoughts went tumbling towards the vinegar pot: Or maybe… The girl that gave him the love letter was also harassed, so the little rascal was currently comforting her?

Fu Zhi Zhou took a deep breath and lightly knocked twice on the door, “Qiao Luo?”

Qiao Luo didn’t move, pretending to be dead asleep.

Fu Zhi Zhou felt rather helpless and could only turn to Father Qiao for help. For the first time in his life, he had to borrow the guest room in the Qiao house.

Qiao Luo was nervous to death. He was afraid that if Fu Zhi Zhou said anything more, he wouldn’t be able to continue his act of being asleep. 

After hearing Fu Zhi Zhou move downstairs, Qiao Luo let out a sigh of relief. He sat on the bed soullessly, as if preoccupied with something. His gaze was always shifting around.

Whenever he met any problems that he couldn’t solve in the past, he would always instantly call or run to Fu Zhi Zhou next door to act cutesy, “Zhou Zhou gege, what should I do?”

But this time, the one who made him feel so lost was the very same Fu Zhi Zhou.

Qiao Luo thought about Fu Zhi Zhou’s injuries for a while. Remorse gripped his heart thinking about how he had knowingly locked Fu Zhi Zhou outside. A while later, Fu Zhi Zhou’s face floated up in his thoughts, his heart beat so fast that it almost felt unbearable.

He had never faced any thorny problems in his simple and happy life before. His brain felt as if it had crashed, his thoughts all jumbled up into a ball of yarn, unable to find the hidden end of the string. He was completely unable to organise them, and as a last straw, he turned to google for help.

Question: Male, what to do if I want to kiss1 my brother?

The search engine was just as retarded as he was. All the results given were “What if I like my biological2 brother?”

How was kissing a brother and biological brother the same?!

Fu Zhi Zhou wasn’t his biological brother at all!!

No, wait…… Like?!

He liked Fu Zhi Zhou?!

The end of the yarn of thoughts had finally been located. Tugging onto this found end, Qiao Luo’s brain that was jumbled up suddenly cleared into a smooth path. All the strings that were mixed up together now hung a bright and shiny word, “like”.

He liked Fu Zhi Zhou. This was so obvious.

He was over-reliant on Fu Zhi Zhou, and this reliance had transformed over the long 10 over years worth of time. It had become a fondness to rely on that person for his entire lifetime.

Qiao Luo couldn’t sit still.

He wanted to ask Fu Zhi Zhou so many, so many questions. But first, he needed to see how his injuries were doing.

His Zhou Zhou gege, the one he just determined his heart’s intention on, had been injured while protecting him today.

Qiao Luo silently opened the door. The house was as quiet as the night. After a whole night of tossing here and there, his parents were long asleep. It was pitch dark. The only glimmer of light was the moonlight which was shining through the uncovered windows, casting a layer of sugary frost across the wooden floor.

Qiao Luo stepped on this layer of frost and drilled into the guest room on the first level. The frost had formed into a type of sweetness.

Fu Zhi Zhou hadn’t locked the door. When Qiao Luo drilled in, he had been replying to messages.

The guest room was only for him to use and since he was injured, Fu Zhi Zhou only wore his joggers which he left in the Qiao house as pajamas. His bare upper body was sitting up against the headrest. He was due to return to his lab to test out a process tonight, however, he’d caused a disturbance and entered the local police station. He had been uncontactable for the entire night. His phone had accumulated many of his classmates’ messages and he had to reply to them.

When Qiao Luo was younger, he had seen a Fu Zhi Zhou with bare torso playing basketball and they had even gone swimming together. However, seeing the distinct appearance of Fu Zhi Zhou’s waist, his face went inexplicably red. He called out softly and sweetly, “Zhou Zhou gege.”

Fu Zhi Zhou raised his head only to see Qiao Luo dressed in soft cotton pajamas. The bright yellow wrapped around a clean and fair person just like a floury dumpling. Pale pinkish hue that resembled a cherry blossom seeped through the small face. The first reaction that came to his mind was to put on some clothes.

However, the clothes that he wore were thrown into the washing machine. He didn’t even have a t-shirt on hand. Forcefully digging around for a shirt would be too odd, so he could only control himself and not move, asking, “What’s wrong?”

Qiao Luo made a bogus accusation, “Why are you sleeping in the guest room?”

Fu Zhi Zhou, “……Isn’t it because you locked the door?”

Qiao Luo played innocent, “I didn’t. But maybe I unconsciously did it. You could have called me.”

He rushed towards Fu Zhi Zhou’s body to inspect his wounds and asked with worry, “Zhou Zhou gege, does it hurt?”

Qiao Luo’s breath fell onto Fu Zhi Zhou’s shoulder, his soft and tender body leaning in close, nearly pasting itself on his skin. Fu Zhi Zhou got up feeling uneasy. He threw his phone aside and purposely stood up to flip through the wardrobe. He found a bath towel and draped it over his shoulder. Only then did he say, “Not painful. It’s okay.”

He reached out a hand to rub Qiao Luo who was blindly following him, “I’m really fine. Go to sleep.”

Qiao Luo held his hand and looked up at Fu Zhi Zhou with his face that wasn’t wider than his palm. His gaze was soft and melted into a puddle, “You don’t want me anymore?”

This was blatantly changing the whites to black. He was obviously the one who was locked out of the door.

Fu Zhi Zhou was rendered helpless by Qiao Luo. He could only flip his hand to hold Qiao Luo’s and pulled him towards the exit, saying, “Who was the little rascal who didn’t want to open the door for me just now?”

Qiao Luo dragged out his vowels as he sold meng, “I don’t know~”

It was already very late. Fu Zhi Zhou followed Qiao Luo back to his room and dug around to find the large t-shirt he placed here as his pajamas. Then, he tucked Qiao Luo in and coaxed, “Sleep faster. You still have school tomorrow. I’ll send you there.”

But Qiao Luo refused to sleep.

He had something in his heart. Hiding the little thought that he refused to show others, he grabbed a corner of Fu Zhi Zhou’s shirt, “Zhou Zhou gege, if I were to do something now, will you beat me up?”

Fu Zhi Zhou half sprawled as he tried to lift the pressure off his wounds and said, “Yes.”

Qiao Luo felt a slight sense of loss and feeling not resigned to fate, he asked, “Then will you not want me anymore?”

Fu Zhi Zhou furrowed his brows in the darkness. He felt that Qiao Luo today was really off. Could it be that he had something going on with that girl? Was he giving himself a preventive measure?

Thus, Fu Zhi Zhou didn’t give a definite answer and asked, “What do you think?”

Qiao Luo couldn’t guess if Fu Zhi Zhou would or would not. He puckered his lips and wondered for a moment. Then, he asked, “Then do you have someone you like?”

Fu Zhi Zhou opened his eyes. Through the darkness, he looked into Qiao Luo’s bright eyes. His heart went soft and sour. He wanted to monopolise Qiao Luo and make him his in that instant. However, he could only fight himself as he said indifferently, “None. Are you still thinking about how late night romance dramas come about? Go to sleep quickly.”

Qiao Luo was completely disappointed. His Zhou Zhou gege didn’t have someone he liked. His Zhou Zhou gege didn’t like him.

He felt discontented by Fu Zhi Zhou’s strict and distant tone. His nose turned sour and said unbearably, “But I have someone I like.”

Fu Zhi Zhou’s hand that was hidden in the blankets curled up into a fist. His whole body tensed up and his heart throbbed even more painful than the other parts of his body.

Dead, he thought, the little rascal really fell for that girl and had even laid all his cards on the table seriously.

What should he…… do then?