The Stranger’s Homeward Journey

After the meal, the person in charge of the restaurant came over again. When he finished talking with Shen Mucheng and the others, Luo Shaoheng called him.

“Yes, Mr. Luo, what else do you need?” The person in charge asked.

“For the coconut milk cake with wine served earlier, it would be better if you lessen the wine and add some honey over the fruit sugar.” Luo Shaoheng said.

“This…” The person in charge subconsciously looked over at Shen Mucheng.

“Try what he said.” Shen Mucheng said.

“Yes! Thank you for bringing this up, Mr. Luo.” The person in charge said.

“You’re welcome. I just have had this before.” Luo Shaoheng laughed.

This dessert was suggested by Shen Mucheng, so Shen Yun was a little surprised to hear him say so. “Has Mr. Luo eaten this before? I thought that we were the first being listed.”

“You should be the first being listed. I just ate it by chance. They didn’t sell it then.” Luo Shaoheng explained half-truthfully.

“So, that’s how it is!” Shen Yun nodded his head.

This meal took nearly two hours and then they went right back to the hotel after leaving the restaurant.

When they arrived at the hotel lobby, Shen Yun took the opportunity to slow down Shen Yu by two steps. He then nodded with his chin pointed at Shen Mucheng towards Luo Shaoheng who was in front, asking him what happened in the car earlier with his eyes, and why he suddenly brought him back.

Shen Yu looked at him, gesturing at him to shut up, as he quickly went across the elevator door. Shen Yun, who didn’t get his answer, could only follow obediently.

As the elevator slowly rose up, Luo Shaoheng suddenly asked, “By the way, will I disturb you guys?”

Shen Yun almost choked even though he wasn’t drinking anything when he heard his question. Da ge1, isn’t it a little too late for you to ask this question now? We are already close to the room.

Shen Yu looked at Luo Shaoheng and saw him looking at himself with an expression of “I won’t leave.” that was written in big font, so he said, “Not really.”

“That’s good, then I’ll be intruding .” Luo Shaoheng continued quickly, as if he was waiting for him to say this.

Shen Yun’s eyes turned between the two, and then looked at his brother, who had already entered a deaf-mute state as he followed him to step back. 

When they reached the upper floor, Shen Yu stopped at the entrance of a room and made a gesture of invitation to Luo Shaoheng, “Mr. Luo, this is your room.”

Luo Shaoheng took the room card and nodded at him, “Thank you.” Then he looked at Shen Mucheng again and asked, “Where is your room?”

“In front.” Shen Mucheng raised his chin slightly and pointed to the room diagonally opposite the door in front.

Shen Yun thought in his heart: OMG, he even asked about his room number, xiongdi2, you are not going to knock on the door in the middle of the night, right?

“You won’t suddenly leave in the middle of the night, right?” Luo Shaoheng asked half-jokingly yet seriously.

“No.” Shen Mucheng said, “I won’t go back on what I said.”

“That’s good then, good night.” Luo Shaoheng put his heart down, took his card and swiped open the door to his room. He pushed open the door and stopped there, hesitated for a moment, and still turned back and shouted at them, “Wait a minute.”

The three people stopped and looked back at him. Luo Shaoheng looked at Shen Mucheng and asked, “I’m sorry, there’s still something I want to confirm.”

“Go ahead.” Shen Mucheng said.

“Do you remember that you went to City A twelve years ago?” Luo Shaoheng still couldn’t resist asking. This question had been in his heart since dinner.

He said twelve years ago, not twelve days ago. Anyone else wouldn’t necessarily remember it, but Shen Mucheng remembered it very clearly. Twelve years ago, his subordinates betrayed him. It was originally a proper negotiation, but it turned into a battleground. He was injured and fell into a coma due to that accident. He was bedridden for nine years and woke up only three years ago.

During that year, he went to City A for business. At that time, not many people knew about it. Almost everyone involved in the accident is dead. But now that Luo Shaoheng was asking, does it mean that he was related to what happened back then?

Thinking about this, Shen Mucheng’s gaze paused slightly, as he unhurriedly replied, “Yes, I remember.”

Luo Shaoheng’s heart tightened, his feet moved towards him, his tone was slightly anxious, “Then do you still remember…”

A crisp ringing tone interrupted the conversation between the two. Shen Mucheng, geastured and turned to leave. Shen Yun quickly stepped forward to help him open the door, as the three made an exit.

“… then do you still remember who saved you back then, and who you promised that you’ll stay with forever?” Luo Shaoheng stood at the same place and finished the sentence that he hadn’t finished saying earlier, and watched as the door closed before his eyes. 

The sudden surge of strength to speak that came flowing up earlier slowly drained away. He stood for a while after which he turned around and stepped into his room.

After closing the door, Luo Shaoheng leaned his back against the door. He took several deep breaths, but still couldn’t calm his heart. He slid down from the door panel to the floor, forcefully closing his eyes. His chest was heaving dramatically as he clenched his teeth.

After a long while, he raised his hand to cover his chest, feeling the intense throbbing and ache over there. 

The corners of his mouth slowly raised into an arc as he whispered, “… Luckily, you are still alive.”

They were just five simple words, yet at the end of the sentence, a faint, almost inaudible cry could be heard. 

*

At night, Luo Shaoheng dreamed of the day he confessed to Shen Mucheng, probably because he had confessed to Shen Mucheng during the day, he dreamed of his eighteen-year-old self stealing a kiss from Shen Mucheng in the art room.

Luo Shaoheng couldn’t say clearly when he fell in love with Shen Mucheng, probably when he carried his drunken self home from the street, or probably when he went to learn cooking for him or maybe when he first smiled before him and reached out to caress the top of his head.

In the process of spending their days and nights together, strange feeling started bloomed in his heart. At first, he didn’t notice and only thought it was due to his desire and pursuit for beauty. When he came to his senses, he discovered that the lines under his brush had slowly changed, the finished product presented had also changed, and the whole art room was almost full of portraits of the same person.

His brush had fallen in love with the person in the painting, and so did his heart for the Shen Mucheng in reality.

Looking at Shen Mucheng, who was leaning on a chair and sleeping because of fatigue, he gingerly walked over and quietly looked at his sleeping face.

Shen Mucheng’s tall body was shrunk in a wooden chair, one of his legs was bent and the other was straightened, casually resting on the ground. Dark jeans wrapped around his long legs , flaunting his slender legs. Luo Shaoheng knew how beautiful the lines hidden under the fabric were. Every part of it was as if they were carefully carved out .

He knew that only he was the most familiar with every line of Shen Mucheng’s body . He had drawn this person countless times, almost to the point where he could depict him with his eyes closed.

Probably due to the filter of being his lover, he actually felt that this person with a short spiky beard , even when he frowned with a cold expression while sleeping, was much more good-looking than anyone he had drawn before. 

He was so good-looking that he could feel his heart leap, just by looking at him. He was so good-looking that he couldn’t help but want to touch him, kiss him and use his fingers to depict his body instead of the brush little by little, from head to toe, not leaving a part out. 

His inner desire defeated his rationality. Luo Shaoheng obeyed his heart, slowly leaned down, dropped a kiss on Shen Mucheng’s cheekbone very lightly, lingered on it for a few seconds before reluctantly leaving, then returned to his seat to continue the unfinished painting.

Ten minutes after he left, Shen Mucheng woke up and saw him still sitting in front of the easel. He got up from the chair and said, “I’m going out to cook, what do you want to eat?”

“Anything is fine.” Luo Shaoheng said without raising his head. The brush in his hand didn’t stop.

Both of their meals had always been prepared by Shen Mucheng, and Shen Mucheng was very clear about what he liked, so he went out to prepare. When he passed by the easel, Luo Shaoheng called out to him, “Wait a minute.”

“Hmm?” Shen Mucheng looked back at him.

“You haven’t given me an answer.” Luo Shaoheng said as he drew the last stroke and looked up at him.

“What?” Shen Mucheng didn’t understand.

Luo Shaoheng used the end of the brush to point at his cheek and looked at him with a smile, “Understand?”

Shen Mucheng saw him pointing it out bluntly, he fell into silence for a few seconds, “How did you know?”

“How did I know you were awake, right?” Luo Shaoheng put down his brush and walked up to him, he looked straight at him and said, “It doesn’t matter, what matters is that I like you, Shen Mucheng. Do you want to be with me?”

The small art room was filled with drawing papers, paints, brushes, plaster statues, several easels of different heights that were placed randomly, and the floor was scattered with discarded papers messily. Frankly, the scene was not romantic at all, but for Luo Shaoheng, it was more real and beautiful than any other place.

Especially when the person in front of him approached himself and took the initiative to hold his hand with his warm, dry hands and kissed himself with his head down, he felt that he was favoured by the god of love and heard a bell dangling happily inside his heart. 

— I am so happy that the person I like, happens to like me too.

However even if it was only a dream, not everything was beautiful and pure, everything had its positive and negative side. 

*

He woke up from his dream again. In this cold winter, he looked like he had just been fished out of the water. Sweat could be seen dripping down his forehead and neck. His clothes were stickily clinging to his body, making him very uncomfortable.

He stretched out his arm to withdraw his phone. It was 4:30 am. Only an hour or so had passed since he fell asleep.

In just this short one hour, the dream was like a fast playback, playing his past with Shen Mucheng again, including the images he saw in the hospital after Shen Mucheng’s accident.

“… No.” Luo Shaoheng whispered to himself, “It’s all a dream, he’s still alive, still alive.”

But no matter how many times he said this sentence, he couldn’t suppress the panic inside his heart. The trauma from those years was carved too deeply inside him. The corpse that was burnt beyond recognition had made him completely break down. It was so much so that for so many years, he could never come out from his trauma, stubbornly trapping himself in the year of Shen Mucheng’s accident.

No matter how strong he was in front of outsiders, he couldn’t deceive himself. Without this person, no matter how he forced a smile, he could only live his remaining life half-heartedly.

Without a trace of hesitation, he lifted the blanket and got off the bed. He casually picked up the coat placed beside him, put it on as he moved out. 

Shen Mucheng’s room was diagonally opposite to his. At this time, the corridor was very quiet. He walked to the door of Shen Mucheng’s room and stood there, slowly reaching out to touch the door. The devilish whisper that was carelessly stirring inside his heart finally calmed down a little.

This is the real one, he’s not dead, he’s inside. 

There’s no corpse, no morgue, no cemetery, no black and white photos.

He is real and alive, right in front of me.

Luo Shaoheng told himself silently in his heart, rested his forehead against the door and slowly closed his eyes.

If Shen Mucheng was still the same as Shen Mucheng in the past, Luo Shaoheng wouldn’t hesitate to knock on the door and embrace him with all of his strength. But he couldn’t. He wasn’t clear about what had happened. Based on how Shen Mucheng acted, he was obviously suspicious of him, and continuing to act rashly would only increase his defences.

Let’s just wait a little longer, I’ve already been waiting for so many years, right?

That night, Luo Shaoheng stood in front of the door for two hours. It was only until the day dawned slightly, that he moved his stiff body and returned to his room.

1

Da ge: Big brother.

2

xiongdi is brother.