Chapter 29: Rabies Vaccine

There were still two days until the weekend, but Meng Weiyu could already sense Shen Zhoudu’s psychological pressure.

First, Shen Zhoudu followed him back to the room on the second floor, opened one of the cabinets, and took out a wallet from inside. His hand hesitated directly over several bank cards, then he drew out the black one and handed it to Meng Weiyu.

“Use this card for now. The limit is enough for you to swipe however you want.”

Meng Weiyu looked at his expression, which seemed as if his parents had died, and asked curiously, “Do you want me to accept it or not?”

If he wanted to lend him the card, why did his expression look so gloomy? If he was unwilling to lend him the card, why would he take the initiative to suggest something like this?

“Accept it. And absolutely do not say in front of Grandpa, Grandma, Grandfather, and Grandmother that you don’t have money to spend.” This was Shen Zhoudu’s true thought.

Meng Weiyu had originally wanted to refuse, but Shen Zhoudu’s expression gradually became solemn, as if he would kill himself if Meng Weiyu did not accept the card. So Meng Weiyu reached out and took it, while telling him, “I won’t spend money recklessly. And once I remember my bank card password, I’ll pay you back.”

Shen Zhoudu was listless and already too lazy to say there was no need to pay him back.

Meng Weiyu scratched his hair.

“And deliberately bullying you tonight was my fault.” Shen Zhoudu suddenly started apologizing for no reason.

“What, what?” Why was he apologizing so suddenly? When he was bullying him today, he had clearly been very happy.

“Just remember that I apologized.” Shen Zhoudu told him to remember it.

Meng Weiyu held the bank card in his hand and twirled it around. His movement was nimble, and he looked at Shen Zhoudu with an easy smile, saying frivolously, “Aiya, are you afraid Grandpa, Grandma, Grandfather, and Grandmother will scold you?”

Regarding this question, Shen Zhoudu had nothing to say.

“I definitely won’t forget how you deliberately refused to give me food earlier!” Meng Weiyu was just that petty. He pointed the credit card in his hand at Shen Zhoudu. “Using money to buy me off is useless. Because I, from childhood to adulthood, have always been a young master who has never lacked money.”

“Sigh.” Shen Zhoudu was amused by him. He turned his head aside and revealed a helpless yet indulgent smile.

“If you kneel down and beg me now, I’ll consider whether to forgive you during the last second before I fall asleep.” Meng Weiyu was pushing his luck.

Shen Zhoudu returned to his expressionless face, turned his head, and met Meng Weiyu’s eyes.

Meng Weiyu looked at him calmly.

Shen Zhoudu took one step toward him.

There had originally been some distance between them, and a chandelier hung in the space between them. Shen Zhoudu’s step moved the lamp’s position behind him, blocking the light that had been shining toward Meng Weiyu. Replacing the artificial light above Meng Weiyu’s head was the shadow cast by Shen Zhoudu’s body.

Meng Weiyu could not help taking one step back, intending to escape Shen Zhoudu’s range of control.

When Shen Zhoudu saw him retreat, he hurriedly took two quick steps forward.

Just like that, Meng Weiyu was blocked against the wall by him, involuntarily close to him. At such a short distance, even the pattern of their breathing could be seen clearly. They were too close. If either of them moved a little too much, their bodies would touch. Meng Weiyu stayed completely still, his back pressed fully against the wall. Shen Zhoudu no longer moved closer, maintaining an ambiguous distance that was just within reach yet still slightly apart.

Meng Weiyu’s eyes shifted around before finally stopping on Shen Zhoudu’s chest.

A terrifying truth: chest muscles really did attract one’s gaze.

“Do you really want me to kneel?” Shen Zhoudu’s voice was low. The fingers he had braced against the wall moved restlessly.

“No.” Meng Weiyu raised his head to look at him, full of courage. “But you have to admit your mistake. Today, I dragged my broken body all the way over just to deliver food to you, and this is the attitude you have toward me?”

“Ah-ha.” Shen Zhoudu laughed and lowered his head to look at him. “My dear husband, my Xiao Yu, I understand you better than anyone. Why don’t you tell me what kind of mentality made you willing to drag your broken body! Across such a long distance! Just to deliver afternoon tea to me?”

When Shen Zhoudu repeated Meng Weiyu’s words, he emphasized his tone.

Meng Weiyu lifted his head, rebellious and unrepentant. He wanted to make himself seem more confident, but his stammering tone revealed his true feelings. “Respect… respecting the elderly.”

Shen Zhoudu had really been angered into laughing several times today. He helplessly shook his head.

“Ning Wu told you that everyone now knows you’re making a fuss about divorcing me, right?” Unlike him, Shen Zhoudu did not like rambling about unrelated things.

“I looked at the wrong profile picture and sent the message to the wrong person.” Meng Weiyu’s mood was heavy as he continuously admitted what he had done.

“You can’t do this again.” Shen Zhoudu said to him.

Meng Weiyu hummed.

“Mm?” Shen Zhoudu leaned a little closer to him and frowned as he stared at Meng Weiyu’s face. “What does humming mean?”

“I’m not someone who goes around talking about this kind of private matter in the first place. This time was an accident.” Seeing how serious he was, Meng Weiyu simply stopped dodging around with his words and explained his situation to him.

“I said before that I don’t blame you for saying anything.” Shen Zhoudu’s attitude toward him was indulgence, favoritism, and having no bottom line.

“Then what exactly is the thing you’re telling me I can’t do from now on?” Meng Weiyu asked with a confused face.

Shen Zhoudu said, “Planning to divorce.”

Meng Weiyu froze. Then he pouted, avoided Shen Zhoudu’s gaze, looked up at the ceiling, and began humming again.

“Young Master Meng, you actually dare to play dumb?” Although Shen Zhoudu knew he was childish, he had not expected him to use such a completely unskilled method.

Meng Weiyu could not help sticking out his tongue.

Seeing this, Shen Zhoudu braced his elbow against the wall and lowered his head toward him.

“What are you doing?” Meng Weiyu was so frightened that his body slid downward, wanting to use that to escape Shen Zhoudu’s approaching face. But he forgot that the two of them were currently standing too close. So the moment he slid down, his face buried itself into Shen Zhoudu’s chest.

Ugh.

Meng Weiyu did not dare move even more.

When Shen Zhoudu’s chest was pressed tightly against warm skin, his body could not help trembling.

Meng Weiyu raised his hand shakily and slowly placed it on Shen Zhoudu’s shoulder, preparing to push him away.

Seeing this, Shen Zhoudu moved the hand that had originally been on the wall downward and directly held the back of Meng Weiyu’s head, pressing him completely against his chest.

The hand Meng Weiyu had placed on Shen Zhoudu’s shoulder instantly fell powerlessly.

Help. There was a pervert here.

“You took advantage. These are your favorite chest muscles.” Shen Zhoudu said it with a perfectly serious face, but the ears hidden beneath his light brown hair quietly turned red.

Meng Weiyu did not dare speak. His hand on Shen Zhoudu’s shoulder tapped him.

Shen Zhoudu held the back of his head, and being this close to Meng Weiyu allowed his foot to move slightly forward, completely pressing Meng Weiyu against the wall.

“Our bodies should be very compatible.” Shen Zhoudu’s hand on the back of his head slightly tightened, grabbing his hair as he approached him hungrily. His thigh pressed against Meng Weiyu’s side. “Don’t people say high school students think about lewd things from time to time?”

“I… I, I…” Meng Weiyu seemed to have something to say.

“Don’t say you can’t accept men. I have a lot of evidence proving you had a lot of fun.” Shen Zhoudu exhausted every inviting phrase he could think of.

“I wanted to say… I can’t stand for too long. My feet have no strength. They might be going numb.” Meng Weiyu’s body slid completely downward.

Hearing this, Shen Zhoudu was about to freeze, but Meng Weiyu really was sliding down in an unnatural posture. With quick eyes and hands, Shen Zhoudu used one hand to protect the back of his head and the other to wrap around his waist, pulling Meng Weiyu up.

“I’m going to suffocate.” He had nearly been murdered by chest muscles.

Looking as if he had no way to deal with him, Shen Zhoudu carried him to the bed.

The moment Meng Weiyu was on the bed, he decisively lay down, closed his eyes, and played dead.

Shen Zhoudu sat beside him, turning sideways to look at Meng Weiyu, who had both hands placed over his stomach and was not moving at all. From the bottom of his heart, he reminded him, “Don’t you think lying down makes you even more dangerous?”

“Do you think I was lying to you when I said my feet were numb?” Meng Weiyu despised him. Did Shen Zhoudu really think he was someone full of lies?

Hearing this, Shen Zhoudu moved on the bed. In an instant, the entire bed trembled slightly because of his movements. Meng Weiyu lay there with his eyes closed, feeling the waves beneath him like the sea.

Meng Weiyu sighed, opened his eyes, and really wanted to advise him to stop making trouble and go wash up and sleep.

Shen Zhoudu had already successfully gotten onto the bed. One leg crossed over Meng Weiyu’s body, hovering above him, and his palm pressed down beside Meng Weiyu’s head.

Meng Weiyu looked at the face that had once again appeared in front of him and sincerely asked, “Are you not tired at all?”

Shen Zhoudu numbly nodded.

“Sit down,” Meng Weiyu ordered him.

Shen Zhoudu carefully sat on his waist, using his feet and hands to distribute the weight.

Meng Weiyu had rarely felt such absurdity in his life. Because it was too unrealistic and funny, he was too lazy to get worked up. He leisurely looked at Shen Zhoudu above him, wanting to see what else he could possibly do.

The chandelier’s light flowed with color. Shen Zhoudu looked at Meng Weiyu’s face. Although Meng Weiyu was clearly being pressed down, his attitude remained high above, without intimidation, as if everything Shen Zhoudu did was only a clown performance meant to please him.

‘Only if I like it and allow it can you do certain things.’

‘Whatever you can do is something I permit.’

Shen Zhoudu smiled. His pale blue eyes gazed at his face, then he lowered the upper half of his body and suddenly hugged him.

Meng Weiyu was suddenly held in his arms, his eyes wide and round, darting around.

This was probably what a terrified cat looked like.

An aloof cat was not afraid of cold wind or cruel surroundings. Warmth was what shattered his principles.

Shen Zhoudu simply held him like this and did not do anything else that crossed Meng Weiyu’s psychological boundary. He held Meng Weiyu in his arms and repeatedly stroked his hair with his hand.

“What are you doing?” In the end, it was still Meng Weiyu who could not help reaching out, slightly pressing against his chest and struggling to poke his head out.

“Hugging you.” Shen Zhoudu did not think there was anything incomprehensible about his actions.

“Why are you hugging me for no reason?” This person was super inexplicable.

“Didn’t you say you schemed so hard today to deliver afternoon tea to me?” Shen Zhoudu loosened the hand at the back of his head, letting his head fall onto the mattress and slightly pulling away from himself so that they could look at each other. “So I’m praising you.”

“Am I a child?” Meng Weiyu laughed in anger. But he quickly thought it over and felt that the reason Shen Zhoudu did this might be understandable. “Speaking of which, right now you’re twenty-seven and I’m seventeen. To you, I really am a brat.”

“No.” Shen Zhoudu propped his head up and looked at Meng Weiyu from the closest distance.

“Are you going to say I’m pretending to be young again?” Even if he was not pretending to be young, he could not pretend to be old either. His current mental age was just that small.

“How would I dare hug and touch the seventeen-year-old Meng Weiyu?” Shen Zhoudu reminded him. “Of course, I would only reward the twenty-seven-year-old you like this.”

Meng Weiyu narrowed his eyes at him, strongly disapproving of the way the two of them got along. His opinion was as follows: “Your behavior makes me feel like I’m someone severely lacking fatherly and motherly love.”

“Aren’t you?” Shen Zhoudu said bluntly.

Hearing this, Meng Weiyu forcefully pinched his face.

“But it doesn’t matter.” Shen Zhoudu took down his hand and pressed it against his own face, solemnly promising, “If you need comfort, I’ll be your therapist. If you need family affection, I’ll be your father and mother. If you need desire, I’ll be your toy. If you need a challenge, I’ll be your best enemy. Even if you don’t need anything, I can simply be the air that provides you breath.”

Hearing this, Meng Weiyu frowned, thought deeply, then hesitantly said, “You hold that many positions?”

“Because the compensation you give is generous, so I can do a bit more.” Shen Zhoudu was worried about his current weak body, so he slowly withdrew his leg from over him and sat down on the bed. After sitting up, Shen Zhoudu habitually wanted to adjust his glasses, only to remember that he was not wearing any right now. Also, when he had taken a shower earlier, he did not know where he had placed them.

He felt that he had frightened Meng Weiyu quite a lot tonight, so he neatly found an excuse, turned his head, and told him, “My glasses seem to have been left in the bathroom. I’ll go downstairs first to look… What are you doing?”

Meng Weiyu suddenly tightly closed his own collar.

He told Shen Zhoudu, “I feel like what you just said was something dirty.”

What did generous compensation refer to? Was it a dirty innuendo?

“After hearing what I said just now, can’t you be even a little moved?” Shen Zhoudu’s heart full of care and love had been fed to a heartless cat.

“I’m allergic to romance.” Meng Weiyu groaned painfully.

“That’s not true.” Shen Zhoudu denied his claim and stood up from the bed.

“Eh, you’re done playing?” Seeing that he was leaving, Meng Weiyu immediately sat up from the bed.

Hearing this, Shen Zhoudu reached out toward him.

Meng Weiyu leaned over.

“If we keep playing, you’ll get angry. Next time.” Shen Zhoudu touched his chin, applying the technique he used to pet Xueci on him again.

Seeing that he was about to leave, Meng Weiyu leaned forward and urgently told him something: “I’m so bored at home!”

“Mm? Look at the album?” Had he not given him Truffle’s album?

“I can finish looking through the album in no time. Is there anything else for me to do?” He was too bored!

“Watch movies? Play games?” Since Meng Weiyu was not very convenient to go out right now, these were probably the kinds of things he could do.

“What else?” Meng Weiyu tried to find other forms of entertainment.

Shen Zhoudu glanced at him and finally thought of something that would absolutely keep Meng Weiyu busy. “Redo the college entrance exam mock papers.”

Meng Weiyu’s expression stiffened. Then, gritting his teeth, he said firmly, “Just because of that sentence, I’m divorcing you right now.”

What kind of person was this?

Shen Zhoudu did not take it seriously and said, “Doing problems is quite interesting. Even now, I still continue studying.”

Meng Weiyu could not believe it. Was this person a huge pervert?

“I remember there should still be exercise collections in the storage room. If you need them, I can go find them for you now.” As Shen Zhoudu said this, he really wanted to go find a stack of exercises for Meng Weiyu to pass the time.

Meng Weiyu suspected that if he answered questions incorrectly, Shen Zhoudu would patiently explain them to him after coming home from work.

Ah!

Thinking of this, Meng Weiyu hugged his head and rolled around on the bed.

The things in the storage room.

Meng Weiyu suddenly remembered something. He stopped his hysteria and sneakily glanced at Shen Zhoudu.

“I was joking with you.” Shen Zhoudu caught Meng Weiyu’s gaze and smiled at him. Even if he was stiff and dull, he still knew Meng Weiyu could not possibly want to pass time by studying.

“I actually went to the storage room to look for game discs,” Meng Weiyu brought up this matter.

“Look through whatever you want.” Shen Zhoudu hoped he could be more comfortable and casual here. After all, this was his own home. “If you make a mess, just leave it. I’ll tidy it when I have time, or someone specially hired will come organize it.”

“I saw the high school notebook,” Meng Weiyu continued his topic.

“The university notes are there too.” Shen Zhoudu did not realize what story he wanted to bring up.

“My notebook had your handwriting in it,” Meng Weiyu continued.

“Mm? What’s strange about that?” Shen Zhoudu remembered some things from the past very clearly. “I already said that, two months after the point in time currently in your memory, our relationship was already very good. Xiao Jialu had a period when she didn’t have time to tutor you. By coincidence, I took over that task. Sometimes we studied at your house, and two or three times we stayed overnight at my house to play games and study along the way. But we weren’t classmates. On normal weekends, you and I each had our own things to do, so we weren’t always free to meet. That’s why I would take your notebook in the afternoon, mark the key points for you, then return it the next morning.”

They had exchanged messages from afar in the margins of those notebooks precisely because they had to pass notebooks back and forth.

Meng Weiyu made a heart shape with both hands.

“Mm, mm, mm?” Shen Zhoudu looked at him with his heart blooming, the light in his eyes spreading in layers like halos.

If humans had tails, Shen Zhoudu would definitely be wagging his happily at this very moment.

“There was a heart drawn in the notebook.” Meng Weiyu was not flirting with him.

Hearing this, Shen Zhoudu touched his chin and fell into thought, interrupting his love brain in time.

“I first drew a crooked heart,” Meng Weiyu tried to awaken his memory.

“Is drawing hearts for other people something rare for you?” Shen Zhoudu had deliberately jumped into his trap while fully awake. Before Meng Weiyu fell in love with him, all those actions that seemed to express affection were nothing more than mass-produced heart-fluttering moments that the general public could receive.

“No.” Meng Weiyu admitted honestly.

“Then what’s the issue?”

Seeing that he could not explain clearly, Meng Weiyu immediately got off the bed and ran out the door.

Shen Zhoudu looked at him in confusion.

“Wait for me.” Meng Weiyu pointed at the floor, telling him to stay where he was, then hurriedly ran out.

“Be careful.” Shen Zhoudu slowly walked out of the room and leaned against the railing to watch him.

Meng Weiyu moved like the wind as he went downstairs. He rummaged through things in the storage room, and the noise was clearly audible upstairs. Listening to the sounds, Shen Zhoudu silently turned around and returned to the room. Although he had told him to be casual and that he would clean the house, Shen Zhoudu still hoped Meng Weiyu would not destroy the home.

Shen Zhoudu sat on the bed and noticed that Meng Weiyu had placed Truffle’s album on the bedside table, probably preparing to look at it before sleeping.

“If you look at these things before bed, you’ll cry.” Shen Zhoudu opened the album and looked at the cat inside, a cat that had accompanied Meng Weiyu from youth until marriage. For some reason, he sighed. The cat was very cute. Every time he saw photos of Truffle, his heart would fill with nostalgia, joy, and sorrow. But he knew very well that the current Meng Weiyu was not yet ready to accept the fact that his beloved cat was truly gone.

Shen Zhoudu closed the album, made a decision, and waited for Meng Weiyu on the bed.

Before long, hurried footsteps came from the stairs. Meng Weiyu quickly ran back, holding a notebook in his hand.

Shen Zhoudu could not help showing a disgusted expression.

In the past, when he sat on the bed waiting for someone, at least he had been waiting to play games or go straight to bed. Now, when he sat on the bed waiting for someone, it was actually to look at high school exam questions.

“Cough. You’re really doing problems?” Shen Zhoudu really wanted to leave.

Meng Weiyu quickly opened the notebook, ran in front of Shen Zhoudu, and showed him the heart he had drawn back then.

“There was indeed such a thing.” Shen Zhoudu gradually remembered what had happened at the time.

“See? How perfunctory. The heart is crooked, and it isn’t even closed properly.” Meng Weiyu forcefully tapped the page.

“I told you to practice handwriting before, but you wouldn’t listen,” Shen Zhoudu said helplessly.

Meng Weiyu bit his lower lip, a fierce light appearing in his eyes. Then he said viciously, “Shut up.”

Shen Zhoudu: “…”

Then what exactly do you want to do?

“In short, I want to remind you that I’m just that kind of heartless person.” After more than ten years, Meng Weiyu issued a belated warning.

Shen Zhoudu did not speak. He simply looked at his face and blinked.

“What do you mean by not speaking? Did you listen to what I said or not?” Meng Weiyu became angry out of embarrassment.

“You told me to shut up.” Shen Zhoudu attempted to speak.

“The seal is temporarily lifted.” Meng Weiyu flipped through the notebook, then turned to the page where Shen Zhoudu had drawn a heart and shoved it in his face. “This was drawn by you, right?”

Shen Zhoudu was not wearing glasses, but the moment Meng Weiyu said this, he remembered everything he had done in this notebook. Without needing to search, his eyes directly looked toward a certain corner.

“Of course I drew it. Look, the handwriting is the same as the words beside it.” Shen Zhoudu pointed to the heart and the copied words beside it. They had both been written with the same blue ballpoint pen.

Meng Weiyu said gravely, “It’s really hard to imagine what kind of psychological struggle you went through when you drew this.”

He imagined it a little and actually felt somewhat sorry for Shen Zhoudu.

Hearing this, Shen Zhoudu showed an expression of incomprehension. He reached out with both hands and took the notebook. He looked again and again at the heart drawn on it, then looked at Meng Weiyu.

What psychological struggle did drawing a heart require?

“Mm?” Meng Weiyu alertly discovered that Shen Zhoudu’s expression seemed a bit off.

“Pfft.” Shen Zhoudu suddenly remembered.

“What are you laughing at?” Meng Weiyu withdrew his pity and emotion.

“Nothing.” Shen Zhoudu slightly restrained the smile on his face, closed the notebook, placed it aside, and instead picked up the album. “I’ll look at Truffle’s album with you. I haven’t looked at it in a long time.”

“So what were you laughing at just now?” Meng Weiyu sat beside him curiously.

“Look.” Shen Zhoudu turned the album to the middle. “This is a photo of you and Truffle after you came home on the day of high school graduation.”

“I’m asking what you were laughing at just now.” Meng Weiyu squeezed over. His curiosity was like a cat lightly scratching his palm.

“There’s even a solo photo of me and Truffle.” Shen Zhoudu turned to another page.

“Truffle is very cute, and you’re very strange, but I’m asking what that laugh just now meant.” Meng Weiyu bumped his shoulder against Shen Zhoudu’s, chattering endlessly and repeatedly pursuing the question, intending to resolve the itch of curiosity as soon as possible. “Tell me.”

“Our family photo.” Shen Zhoudu turned a blind eye to his words and continued flipping through the album. His slender fingers brushed across the album page, over Meng Weiyu’s face in the photo, where he smiled with a face full of happiness.

Meng Weiyu was about to die of anger, so he reached out, grabbed Shen Zhoudu’s arm, and directly bit him.

Shen Zhoudu said, “Tomorrow I’ll have to get a rabies vaccine.”

“Ah!” Meng Weiyu threw a tantrum.