The Stranger’s Homeward Journey

When Shen Mucheng was contemplating if he had forgotten something, Luo Shaoheng kept pulling at his sleeve. When he couldn’t get an answer, his eyes started to intensify with longing.

He dearly yearned to be with Shen Mucheng and didn’t want to let him go no matter how meagre the possibility . His insistence made Shen Mucheng’s heart waver. He agreed to his wish and said, “Okay.”

After getting his anticipated answer, Luo Shaoheng’s eyes suddenly brightened. He loosened the corner of his shirt to hold his hand, raised a smile and said, “It’s a deal.”

–It’s a deal, you can’t regret this afterwards, okay? The next time you go on a business trip, remember to take me with you.

The words suddenly flashed through his brain for no reason, like a misnomer that starts circulating abruptly, and then disappears without a trace. Shen Mucheng’s eyes deepened. He carefully recalled, but couldn’t remember where he heard these words. He could only feel his brain aching. He frowned slightly and threw it to the back of his mind.

Soon Shen Yu brought the doctor in. Shen Mucheng wanted to get up and give his place to the doctor, but Luo Shaoheng stubbornly took his hand and refused to let go, so he could only hold his hand and sit next to him.

Luo Shaoheng seemed a little resistant towards the doctor. Although his expression was a little sickly, he still allowed the doctor to diagnose him.

After the doctor’s examination, he was given fever-reducing medicine and put on IV-drip. After the medicine had taken effect, Luo Shaoheng couldn’t hold up and wanted to sleep, but still insisted on pulling Shen Mucheng’s hand to confirm again: “Are you really not going to leave again?”

The hand that was pulling him still had a higher than average body temperature . In order to make him rest early to reduce fever, Shen Mucheng had to coax in a low tone, “No, sleep quickly.”

Luo Shaoheng looked at him carefully for half a minute, as if to confirm whether he was lying, then pulled his sleeve and said, “Come a little closer.”

Shen Mucheng thought he had something to say to himself and leaned down to put his ear over. It was followed by a soft ,warm kiss on the side of his face. He tried to avoid it reflexively and looked back at the sickly person in surprise.

Luo Shaoheng pressed his lips with his fingers, smiled like a Cheshire cat that had succeeded in swindling. He hooked his fingers around Shen Mucheng’s little finger and pulled it into the quilt.

“… Go to sleep.” Innumerable emotions swirled in Shen Mucheng’s heart, but looking at Luo Shaoheng’s dependent look, he couldn’t counter-attack him, as if he should be spoiling him like this.

Registering his thoughts, he felt unconvinced. He slightly closed his eyes and stopped himself from thinking about it. 

Luo Shaoheng forcibly opened his eyes to look at him for a while. He was finally unable to resist the side-effects of the medicine and slowly fell into a slumber. However, he still kept Shen Mucheng’s hand in a tight hold.

Shen Mucheng wordlessly looked at the sleeping person in front of him. The place he had kissed at touched him like fire burning, tingling from his face, all the way into his heart, igniting it like a small crimson flame in a big frosty lake.

This felt uncanny to him, but he didn’t feel repulsive towards it. Instead, he found it so ethereal that he couldn’t help but want to reach out his other hand to touch Luo Shaoheng’s face. However, he precipitously stopped his hand halfway and unanticipatedly retracted it. 

Shen Yun and Shen Yu, who saw this scene, consciously took two steps back. Out of sight, out of mind.

Shen Mucheng reluctantly spent some effort to part his hand from Luo Shaoheng’s reach and pressed the corner of the blanket for him, then went to the side room with the doctor to understand his condition.

The doctor was the attending doctor of the Shen family in the Swiss branch; he had decades of medical practice and was very good at both Chinese and Western treatments. He issued a diagnosis on the spot and explained Luo Shaoheng’s condition.

This time, Luo Shaoheng’s illness came rampantly. Although it was a common cold, mental illness was the underlying cause . 1

“Mental illness? What do you mean?” Shen Mucheng asked. He thought it was a normal fever.

“The patient is depressed, his pulse is disorganised, and has the appearance of having a knot in his heart that cannot be resolved. If I’m not wrong, he should have the habit of taking sedatives which might cause potential harm in the long term.” The doctor muttered to himself for a moment and explained the situation of him feeling his pulse earlier, “Although medicine can cure normal fever, it cannot cure mental illness. If this continues for a longer term…” he paused, unsure of the relationship between Luo Shaoheng and Shen Mucheng. He didn’t know if he should say the following words.

“What will happen?” Shen Mucheng asked.

“He will be short-lived.” The doctor had a serious face, this was not a trivial matter. 

Short-lived?

The moment this word came out, everyone present was stunned. Luo Shaoheng looked only thirty years old, how could he have a short life expectancy? What could be the reason for this depression and disorganised pulse?

It was easy to say the word short-lived, but it was like a heavy boulder smashing into Shen Mucheng’s heart, making it ache uncontrollably. He reflexively turned back to the direction of the bedroom and saw Luo Shaoheng on the bed with IV-drip.

He thought about how Luo Shaoheng grabbed his hand on the verge of crying and how he kissed him. He couldn’t say what the reason was, but he found it disapproving subconsciously. 

At this moment Shen Mucheng failed to notice his gloomy expression, but the others saw it clearly. They tensed their backs, and didn’t dare to breathe loudly. 

“What’s the solution?” Shen Shucheng asked in a deep voice.

“Every disease requires a different treatment. We need to know the depth of his problems in order to prescribe the right medicine. Of course, the key is in seeing whether the patient is willing to open the lock. At present, the main motive is to stabilise his condition.” The doctor couldn’t do anything without knowing the specific situation, so he could only choose to resolve the current problem.

Shen Mucheng understood the doctor’s rationale and didn’t make things difficult for him. He nodded his head and let Shen Yun continue the administrative procedure with the doctor. Afterwards, he returned to the bedroom.

In the bedroom, although Luo Shaoheng’s complexion had improved after taking medicine, but he still looked fragile in his sleep.

Shen Mucheng sat down at the bedside and reached out to touch his forehead. The temperature had not changed much.

He looked up at the IV-drip, and tucked his hand back into the blanket. As soon as he held Luo Shaoheng’s hand, he was held back by him. He thought Luo Shaoheng was awake, but he discovered that he was just instinctively holding his hand.

…

Sickness comes like a landslide, this saying was exactly right.

This time, Luo Shaoheng’s illness came flashing like a 100 watt bolt. Recoveries could not be seen in these two days. His condition started to stabilize on the third day.

As the doctor said, other than the cold, it was mainly due to his anguished heart. 

It was already hard for him to accept the fact that Shen Mucheng was dead. He had been depressed for many years, but now he suddenly uncovered that he was still alive, so he might have been too excited to bear his massive emotional fluctuations. To add on, he had been standing in front of Shen Mucheng’s room for a long time and got a cold. Both happened simultaneously, so he fell sick laboriously.

The feeling of being sick was not pain-free, but he felt that these two days were his most joyful moments in the past ten years. No cold corpse, no grey convex tombstone, and even the undead love of his life was back. 

When Luo Shaoheng finally opened his heavy eyelids. His sight was slightly fuzzy for a while, probably because he had slept too long. He raised his hand to press amidst his eyebrows. He suddenly stopped after pressing it a few times and jerked himself up as if he had remembered something. His abrupt action made his already heavy head even more drowsy, but he had no time to take it into account. He lifted his cover and got out of bed. He didn’t even bother wearing his footwear as he walked out.

Concurrently, Shen Yu entered, and they both collided against each other. Luo Shaoheng was still weak from his bedridden days, so he stumbled two steps back and nearly fell before Shen Yu steadied him.

“Mr. Luo, be careful!” Shen Yu helped him stand up. “Are you alright? I’m sorry, I didn’t notice you coming out.”

“No, it’s me who didn’t pay attention and bumped into you, sorry.” Luo Shaoheng followed suit and apologised. He was so focused on getting out that he didn’t notice anyone coming in.

“Don’t say that.” Seeing that he was in a hurry without his shoes on, he said, “Wait for me, I’ll get you a pair of shoes.”

“No need for that.” Luo Shaoheng called out to him, “Are you the only one here? Where are the others?”

Shen Yu knew what he wanted to ask about, so he said, “Go inside and put on your shoes first. You haven’t recovered yet. Don’t catch a cold again.”

Knowing that what was said was for his own good, Luo Shaoheng obediently went back to his room to put on his shoes, and right after putting them on, he asked, “Where are the others? How long have I been sleeping?”

“You’ve been sleeping for two days.” Shen Yu said while pouring a cup of warm water from the flask and handed it to him. “Drink some water, I’ll have someone bring up some porridge for you later.”

Although Luo Shaoheng was anxious about Shen Mucheng’s whereabouts, he couldn’t refuse the other party’s kindness, so he could only thank him, took the water, drank half a cup and put it back on the table. “Where are Shen Mucheng and the others?”

“Boss has an emergency so he has gone back to China…”

“What did you say?” Luo Shaoheng was as if he did not hear it clearly, his expression was blank for a few seconds.

“Boss and the others have already returned to China.” Shen Yu said.

“When?” Luo Shaoheng quickly asked.

“This morning… ” Before Shen Yu finished, Luo Shaoheng turned around,ready to leave. Shen Yu hurriedly went forward to stop him. “Mr. Luo, your body is still very… …”

“Get out of the way.” Luo Shaoheng interrupted him in a slightly cold voice. His body was still weak and he wasn’t as tall as Shen Yu, but he suddenly emitted a formidable aura as he said this.

Shen Yu had seen Luo Shaoheng being polite, weak and tearful, but he had never seen him as imposing. He stood stunned as Luo Shaoheng walked around him and exited the room. He hurriedly chased up and stopped him again. “You can’t catch up now, the plane has already taken off two hours ago.”

Luo Shaoheng’s back stiffened when he heard Shen Yu. His face turned white. He clenched his fists. Blue veins could be seen popping on the back of his pale white hand from using excess force. 

…Didn’t he clearly say that he wouldn’t leave?

The raw didn’t directly say that it’s a mental illness, it’s more like he had been worrying about something and couldn’t get it off his heart, so it became an illness.