Still Frame Chapter 49
byChapter 49 Night Talk
“Secret…” The person on the bed murmured, his delicate brows furrowed together, the corners of his eyes damp. Even his lightly trembling eyelashes were wet, like the wings of a drowned dragonfly, revealing fragility and unease. “Don’t. Don’t get married…”
Wen Jin frowned, placing the water cup aside. He grasped Zhang Liuxin’s hand and placed the back of his other hand on his forehead to check his temperature.
“Liuxin, wake up and drink some water.”
Wen Jin’s voice, damp and carrying the scent of rain from memory, reached his ears. Zhang Liuxin slowly opened his eyes.
It was too quiet. Since there were no windows, he couldn’t tell if it was day or night. Only a faint, small lamp was lit nearby. His hand was tightly held by Wen Jin, who looked down at him with a tense expression.
It must be an illusion, Zhang Liuxin thought as a fierce headache struck him. How could Wen Jin look at him with such an expression? He was clearly married… Married. In the end, he and Wen Jin got married, just like in the news. They had even been married for seven years and were now trapped in Bernlin State.
“Wen Jin… Senior,” Zhang Liuxin’s head was splitting. He opened his heavy eyelids and felt a drop of water slide down from the corner of his eye. Was it a tear? He couldn’t tell. “What time is it now?”
Wen Jin helped him sit up and fed him some water. “Three in the morning. You had a fever last night. I gave you fever reducers. Do you feel better now?”
So he was sick. No wonder the feeling of being heavy-headed and light-footed was so severe.
“A little better. My throat hurts a bit,” he drank two more sips of water. “I was only in the rain for a little while. Why did I get so sick?”
He felt a bit resentful toward his own body. Since the car accident, his physical constitution had worsened. However, being well-fed and cared for at Wenfei Terrace, he hadn’t caught a cold or fever much in the past two years.
“You were too stressed. Your nerves have been taut ever since the plane landed. That’s why you get sick easily when you catch a chill.”
He noticed that Wen Jin’s complexion was very poor, with even faint bluish marks on his chin.
“You haven’t slept at all?” It must be true. He was lying right in the middle of the bed, taking up a considerable amount of space.
Wen Jin nodded. “Your fever is down now. Take the cold medicine and get some more sleep.”
Wen Jin handed him a change of clothes. “You sweated a lot. Change your clothes.”
“Okay.”
He took off his top in front of Wen Jin. The other man’s gaze remained fixed on him, a cold and serious look like a doctor examining a patient. Still, Zhang Liuxin felt uncomfortable and quickly put on the new clothes.
“Is it still raining outside? It’s so quiet.”
“No, it stopped a long time ago.”
After taking the cold medicine and drinking water, Zhang Liuxin felt much more awake, aside from a slight dizziness. He shifted inward and said to Wen Jin, “You should get on the bed and sleep.”
Wen Jin took off his outer garment and got into bed. The already small bed became even more crowded. Zhang Liuxin’s arm brushed against Wen Jin’s. The latter moved, his fingertip sliding down Zhang Liuxin’s forearm to the spot where he could feel his pulse throbbing.
Zhang Liuxin didn’t dare to move. When Wen Jin’s fingers rested there, that patch of skin became sensitive and sticky.
“Wen Jin, you can even take a pulse.” He asked dryly.
Wen Jin was modest. “A little.”
Then he withdrew his hand. Zhang Liuxin wanted to crack a joke to break the almost oppressive silence, but then he heard Wen Jin continue, “You are very sad. You were dreaming just now. What did you dream about?”
“Did you figure that out by taking my pulse?” Zhang Liuxin looked at Wen Jin under the weak light. The expression on Wen Jin’s face was not joking.
Wen Jin said, “It’s what I want to ask.”
The air was filled with a sense of suppression. What Wen Jin had just said, and the wooden house in his memory that had isolated the pouring rain, all floated in the air like dust.
“I dreamed of Wuling,” Was it because it rained today? Zhang Liuxin felt more pain in his left leg than before, but when he recalled that experience, the physical pain automatically lessened. “I came to bring you the key on a rainy day.”
Wen Jin said, “Oh, that day. Lü Zixia acted on his own initiative. I wasn’t actually in a hurry to go back.”
“Huh?” Being sick slowed down Zhang Liuxin’s information processing speed considerably. “Acted on his own initiative, what do you mean?”
“His girlfriend at the time was sick, and he wanted to go down and personally take care of her. I knew he wouldn’t stay down overnight. It happened to be raining, so I went out for a walk. Halfway through, I realized I hadn’t brought my key, so I sent him a message asking him to come back a little earlier. I didn’t expect him to send you up with the key.”
Why would Lü Zixia ask him to bring the key up? Zhang Liuxin didn’t understand. However, Young Master Lü always acted on impulse, and it wasn’t impossible for him to have such a mischievous streak.
But more shocking than that was Lü Zixia choosing to personally take care of Miss Bai. Yet, he ultimately didn’t end up with Miss Bai. Not long after the trip to Wuling, Lü Zixia broke up with her. After marrying Wen Jin, he would occasionally see Lü Zixia, who always had different girls by his side—a complete playboy.
“Doesn’t Young Master Lü know?” Zhang Liuxin added, “About your… habit.”
Wen Jin squeezed his thumb in displeasure. “Your tone makes it sound like I have some heinous, monstrous eccentricity.”
“Of course not.”
Zhang Liuxin knew that Wen Jin simply enjoyed the feeling of losing control in the rain, as if all distracting thoughts could be washed away by the millions of falling raindrops. He was without reliance and without desire. However, rainwater wasn’t clean, and Wen Jin, who was a germaphobe, would restrain himself. He would usually sit outside for a while and then come back to wash himself clean from head to toe.
Compared to the unsavory vices of other young masters that constantly required their parents to clean up after them, Wen Jin could be said to be very civilized and hygienic.
“Only you, and perhaps Duan Chengzhi, know. But in his eyes, I have too many strange qualities, so he doesn’t think this is important.”
Zhang Liuxin was suddenly very curious about the relationship between Wen Jin and his cousin, Duan Chengzhi. However, in the current conversational atmosphere, suddenly bringing up Colonel Duan wasn’t a good choice.
“Let’s talk about you,” Wen Jin saw that his spirits had recovered and continued in that cold, serious tone of a doctor diagnosing a patient. “Why did you participate in the study tour? A blind date?”
It sounded very strange for the word “blind date” to come out of Wen Jin’s mouth.
“No, Zhang Jiming insisted that I go,” He didn’t understand how the topic had circled back to himself, and his voice gradually became smaller. “It was all to curry favor with you.”
Continuing the conversation seemed likely to bring up the brother he didn’t want to mention. Zhang Liuxin pulled back as if stopping at the edge of a cliff and said, “Why did you come to Wuling alone without even a bodyguard?”
“I had a disagreement with my parents during that time. I was hiding out for some peace and quiet.”
He hadn’t expected Wen Jin to have disagreements with his parents. He thought that any set of parents, even a perfect couple like Chairman Wen and Madam Yue, would never bear to speak harshly to a son like Wen Jin.
“So you argue with your parents too.”
“We often disagree, but usually, we’re too busy to actually argue.”
He couldn’t imagine a family of elites sitting together, arguing about something until they were red in the face. He could, however, imagine someone starting a topic only to be interrupted by various meetings.
Perhaps this was also why Wen Jin liked heavy rain—the kind of downpour that gave a feeling of release and despair.
“Then, Wen Jin, do you catch a cold when you get wet in the rain?”
Wen Jin didn’t answer. Instead, he threw out a question, identical to one from ten years ago: “So it’s only because you left school that you stopped calling me Senior.”
Wen Jin’s concern for this title exceeded his expectations. Actually, the two words “Senior” weren’t special. There were plenty of people who called him that at school, and even now, Wen Jin’s direct junior schoolmates still called him that.
“I really like this title. If you don’t like others using it, I can have them change what they call me.”
Only after Wen Jin answered did Zhang Liuxin realize that he had actually spoken his thoughts aloud.
And Wen Jin actually admitted it. This was the first time, besides the Wuling incident, that he had admitted to liking something in front of Zhang Liuxin, and he even used an intensifier, the word “really.”
Was it because he was always the son at home and Duan Chengzhi’s younger cousin that Wen Jin liked this term? Zhang Liuxin thought wildly. He couldn’t help but chuckle when this possibility popped into his head.
“Ah, no… I just thought it was a bit strange to still use it after being out of school for so long.”
“What’s strange about it? It’s just a title,” Wen Jin answered his previous question. “I only used to catch colds from the rain when I was little. Once, I went swimming in the rain. Duan Chengzhi ran to tell my mother that his little cousin had gone crazy and was trying to electrocute himself. In the end, my father came with a stun gun and said if I wanted to die, this would be quicker.”
Zhang Liuxin: “…Huh?”
“After that, I stopped catching colds. My physical examination reports have always been excellent.”
He couldn’t help but laugh out loud. His laughter shattered the unnaturalness in the room caused by mentioning the past. “So you liked it even when you were little. You’ve been so smart since you were a child. Why would you go swimming in the rain? That’s very dangerous.”
“I know,” Wen Jin paused. “I just went because I wanted to.”
His flat statement made the smile disappear from Zhang Liuxin’s lips, and he felt a little creeped out. Fortunately, he quickly remembered that the swimming pool at Wenfei Terrace was currently underground. Even if the God of Thunder descended outside, Wen Jin wouldn’t be in any danger.
After chatting for a while, perhaps the medicine was taking effect again, and Zhang Liuxin felt drowsy. Wen Jin quickly noticed and flattened his pillow. “Sleep.”
Zhang Liuxin slowly slid into the quilt. His arm touched Wen Jin’s palm; it was warm. He imitated the other man, touching the warm skin where he could feel a faint pulse.
“Wen Jin, I can take a pulse too. I can feel that you are very sleepy right now, so you should sleep too.”
A soft chuckle came from above his head, drifting low into his ear, like the middle passage of a classical piece—deep and captivating.
Wen Jin acknowledged his pulse-taking skills, holding his hand. After a while, Zhang Liuxin fell asleep. This time, there was no Wuling in his dream, no heavy rain, no fading backs of Zhang Qiannan and Wen Jin, only a soft sigh. It sounded like someone was asking him, their tone mixed with a rare sense of conflict: “Why don’t you want to get married? Is there something wrong with it…?”
Wen Jin: Why why why