Creatures of Habit

Chapter 5

It was sunny on the first day of the year.

Qin Shaocheng got up and opened the door. He saw Jiang Yishan wrapped in thin clothes and huddled on the sofa.

The heating in the living room wasn’t turned on, so the temperature was very low. He thought the other party was still pretending to be pitiful, so he didn’t pay him any attention. Qin Shaocheng had finished washing and eating breakfast, yet Jiang Yishan lay still and quietly.

Unable to rest assured, Qin Shaocheng went over and heard Jiang Yishan breathing heavily. His cheeks were red, and his lips were pale and bloodless. He reached for his forehead and, aside from him having damp hair and a hot body temperature, he did not believe that such an adult as Jiang Yishan would not take care of his own body. It was obvious that this was intentional.

Qin Shaocheng shook Jiang Yishan’s shoulder angrily. “Get up!”

Jiang Yishan’s temperature was so high that he woke up confused. When he opened his eyes and saw Qin Shaocheng, he was very happy inside. He took Qin Shaocheng’s arm and with a hoarse voice, he said, “Shaocheng…My head hurts so much…”

Qin Shaocheng pulled the man up from the sofa and said in a cold voice, “Change your clothes and go to the hospital. “

Being roughly pulled up by Qin Shaocheng, Jiang Yishan embraced Qin Shaocheng’s waist: “I will not go.”

“When are you going to stop making trouble?”

“I’m always like this. I have no one to take care of me when I go to the hospital. Only those who want to laugh at me would come to see me. Don’t leave me alone to go to the hospital.” Jiang Yishan was so pitiful. “Shaocheng, don’t be so cruel.”

Jiang Yishan was trying to manipulate him again. Qin Shaocheng felt even more disgusted with him.

Jiang Yishan saw Qin Shaocheng looked impatient with no signs of going soft. His heart was stabbed again, and he said in a panic, “I know I’m self-willed and selfish. I just don’t want you to go.”

With his high fever, Jiang Yishan’s eyes were bloodshot. Qin Shaocheng frowned at him.

“I don’t want you to go, nor do I want to go to the hospital. I’m not going anywhere.” Jiang Yishan, who couldn’t think clearly with his fever, had some worries and held Qin Shaocheng’s waist tightly. He refused to let go.

He was distressed. Qin Shao Shaocheng knew he had a fever, but he didn’t care. He didn’t kiss him, he didn’t hold him in his arms, he just wanted him gone.

“I’m in pain. Please hug me…” Jiang Yishan begged sadly. “I am so sad…”

The cell phone rang in the room. Qin Shaocheng pulled the man off and threw him on the sofa. He went to the room and answered the call from his brother. His elder brother asked him, “Why didn’t you come back yesterday? Our parents had been waiting for you at home for a long time. “

“The work just ended yesterday,” said Qin Shaocheng.

The person on the other side of the phone was silent for a moment, then asked, “You didn’t come back because you saw Jiang Yishan’s accident?”

“No.”

“I told you before, when I advised you to go home, that Jiang Yishan a man of uncertain temperament and is easily tempted by the outside world. You’ve seen what he has done over the years. His bad conduct and bad mentality are not suitable for you. “

“I know.”

“Mom and Dad didn’t agree with you when you were together. You know, come back as soon as possible.”

Qin Shaocheng lowered his eyes. “Brother, I know. I’ll go back on the seventh day. Say Happy New Year to Mom and Dad for me.”

“When you come back, kneel down and talk to the elders.” His brother said before hanging up.

Jiang Yishan, who was thrown on the sofa by Qin Shaocheng, squatted for a while. After his senses returned, he followed Qin Shaocheng into his bedroom. However, as he got up, he accidentally hit the tea table with his unstable legs. He could not ignore the pain when he heard the other party was leaving on the seventh day.

Jiang Yishan’s eyes were red. He looked at Qin Shaocheng and murmured, “You are leaving.”

Qin Shaocheng put down his mobile phone.

“You really want to go back.” Jiang Yishan felt he had a splitting headache. His heart was thumping madly in his chest and he couldn’t breathe. “What do I have to do for you to not leave me? You once let me go so I could be a star. If I stop being a star now, would you stay?”

He doesn’t want to be a star anymore. He wanted to go back in time and let things return to how they used to be.

Qin Shaocheng did not even glance at his sick appearance.

Jiang Yishan, who had been repeatedly treated with indifference, can hardly keep his back straight. “How can you do this to me… You won’t even listen to my explanation. I already know I was wrong.”

“What explanation?” Qin Shaocheng’s face was of a rare angry look. “If it hadn’t been for your situation this time, would you have come back? Jiang Yishan, I’ve been waiting for you here for four years and you never came back.”

Jiang Yishan hung his head. “It’s my fault, I know. I know I was so, so wrong…”

It was true that this accident completely woke him up, but he knew long before that he was wrong.

His high fever, his congested breathing, and his madly beating heart made Jiang Yishan feel so much pain. He tried to come up with some excuses: “I was a star when I graduated. At that time, so many people liked me. How could you expect me to just give it up?”

Qin Shaocheng was so annoyed that he lost his patience. He asked, “So what do you want me to do? Forgive you, reconcile with you, continue to support you unconditionally, be your golden lover?”

“No, that’s not it.” Jiang Yishan was discouraged. “I’m not asking you to help me. I only want you. I just want you to talk to me, to be with me. I want us together again. I don’t want anything else anymore; I only want you.”

Qin Shaocheng thought Jiang Yishan was unreasonable: “Did I spoil you so much that you felt that, as long as you recognized you were wrong and came back to me, I would agree with you?”

“Shaocheng… Don’t say that…”

Jiang Yishan knew that Qin Shaocheng was right. Qin Shaocheng used to spoil him a lot, so he thought he had a chance. Jiang Yishan knew it in his heart, but how could he admit it?

In the past, Qin Shaocheng was already used to him being like this. How did he change?

Jiang Yishan had wanted more from his relationship with Qin Shaocheng [1]. He wanted to be famous, but he also wanted Qin Shaocheng. He was reluctant to give up the former for the latter.

But was it wrong to want fame?

Jiang Yishan’s head was in a mess and his words were reversed: “I was so fixated on becoming popular, but in the end, I failed. Your family doesn’t like me because of this. I realize it now, so I’m giving it up.”

“What’s the relationship between my family’s dislike for you with your popularity?” Qin Shaocheng said mercilessly. “You weren’t able to be popular because of yourself. You didn’t want to offend your investors, so you listened to others’ opinions and got your voice damaged. Afterwards, you wanted to rely on your looks to feed yourself, but you never even thought of honing your acting skills.”

“I didn’t have a choice…”

“Yeah, you couldn’t buy fame without money, and you are nothing without fame. You say you can’t get good scripts and good roles, but in reality, you’d only participate in shows that were over-hyped. It’s always all about the money for you.

“Then, there are all those bad dramas that get famous quickly but are made crudely. Which investor or director would want you? No one wants to help you after your accident. You just want to do what you usually do–suppress your peers, buy black material, and grab resources. Who would dare want to be friends with you?”

Jiang Yishan had heard these words before, and he knew that he couldn’t do anything. He had lost his mind in his reluctance to let go of the superficial world of the entertainment industry. However, when Qin Shaocheng said it himself, it felt like being skinned alive, leaving him breathless and aching.

“My family doesn’t like you. It has nothing to do with whether you are commoner or a star. They are not bored enough to interfere in your career. If you want me to go against them again [2], do you think we could even last for a few months together in City A?”

Jiang Yishan froze in place. He had always thought that he was depressed because of the Qin family. At that time, the brokerage company advised him to break up with Qin Shaocheng. They all accused him of luring away Qin Shaocheng, and even told him that the Qin family would not let him go.

Now it seemed that it was his fault all along. He easily believed in what other people say. He was so shallow that all he ever thought of was how he could gain from something. There was nothing else to think about.

Jiang Yishan was simply too stupid.

“My family said you were too young and uncertain. I used to think it wasn’t a big deal. When you grow up, you’ll understand.”

But the result was that his family had been right. Qin Shaocheng was extremely disappointed. “You are too arrogant and impatient. You can never change.”

“Stop talking…” Jiang Yishan shivered from the cold, and when he breathed, the hot temperature burned in his mouth and nose, making it painful. “Please… Stop talking.”

Jiang Yishan’s tears rolled in his eyes. Biting his lip, he wanted to hold back his emotions. He didn’t want Qin Shaocheng to think that he was pretending to be miserable again, but his tears still flowed.

He can listen to whoever says these things, and he can take any criticism. But if it was Qin Shaocheng, who, once, would never say these kind of things to him…

It was really different.

The pain made him want to die.

Jiang Yishan’s brain was burned by Qin Shaocheng’s words. He said intermittently, “I’ve always wanted to… I’ve always wanted to be a little more. If I were famous, I’d have the courage to come back to you…”

He thought it was because of others, but he never thought it was his own problem.

Because of the attitude of the Qin family, he wanted to be popular so he can feel relief. He had always relied on this mindset. Now, he realized that the Qin family did not look down on his profession but on himself, and he had done so many wrong things.

He was laughed at by the whole network group, abandoned by the company, and the investor withdrew his capital. The breach of contract had emptied his property. If he had not kept the key to the house, he would not have even lived there. He had received retribution.

But Qin Shaocheng still had to go, and this hit him too hard.

Jiang Yishan felt his vision darkening before his eyes. Coughing, he said foolishly, “You’re leaving. You don’t want me anymore… Cough.”

Qin Shaocheng wanted to say something, but after seeing Jiang Yishan bleeding from his nose, his expression changed.