After Escaping Chapter 16

XV. Nightmare

The sky was bright, but the small rented room remained dim. The curtains were tightly drawn, occasionally letting through a few ambiguous sounds.

Two long, fair legs were lifted high, rising and falling with the rhythm of the man above them, the calves tensing into attractive lines.

The purplish-red phallus moved in and out of the back entrance, pushing past the tight, hot, and slick inner walls. Each powerful thrust was accompanied by the sound of passionate, lingering moisture.

After an unknown period, the creaking bed frame finally ceased its unbearable squealing. Only the rough, intertwined breathing of the two people remained in the air.

Pei Shuyun had only recently recovered from his illness, so Gu Yu dared not be too rough. After finishing once, he carried the man to the bathroom for cleaning.

The bathroom in the rented room was very narrow. Barely accommodating two people, they had to stand pressed flesh-to-flesh.

Pei Shuyun leaned limply in Gu Yu’s arms, allowing the man’s long fingers to swirl inside his back entrance, guiding out the cloudy fluid. When the thick calluses on his fingers brushed against sensitive spots, he let out soft moans.

Since Pei Shuyun fell ill, Gu Yu had been restraining himself, only daring to hold him once every few days to satisfy his craving.

Even so, the illness had caused Pei Shuyun to lose weight quickly, making him look like a delicate porcelain beauty that required careful handling.

Wrapping him in a bath towel, Gu Yu carried him back to bed. Pei Shuyun’s eyelids immediately began to droop. Gu Yu had no choice but to let him continue sleeping while he went downstairs to buy some porridge.

Lately, Pei Shuyun had been like this: sleepless night after night, yet groggy and unable to wake up during the day. Doctors couldn’t diagnose anything conclusive, so they could only prescribe tonics and soups to nourish his body.

The sound of raindrops hitting the window came through, pattering incessantly.

In the dim environment, Pei Shuyun’s sleep was restless. In a daze, he seemed to return to that dark street corner, sitting at a small wooden table, listening to the rain patter onto the awning above his head.

His childhood was spent on this Old Street. The mother he remembered was a gentle yet strong woman. Fresh out of university, she met Father Pei, who was handsome and successful in his career. After quickly falling in love, the young woman, who had achieved both career and love, was full of hope for life.

But reality rarely unfolds like a fairy tale. Not long after giving birth to Pei Shuyun, a phone call shattered her dream. Unable to accept that the lover she spent every day with already had a wife and child, Pei’s mother refused the man’s suggestion that she become his mistress. She resolutely took her month-old son and moved back to the Old Street.

It was incredibly difficult for a newly graduated single mother to raise a child. After hitting dead ends trying to find work, Pei’s mother looked at her hungry, crying son, gritted her teeth, and set up a street stall.

Initially, she sold paintings. Business was slow, but fortunately, the girl’s vibrant and energetic style always attracted attention, providing just enough income to scrape by. As Pei Shuyun grew older and started school, Pei’s mother changed the small stall into a pancake stand.

From then on, every day after school, Pei Shuyun would carry his small backpack to the pancake stand to help his mother. When the stall wasn’t too busy, Pei’s mother would light a dim yellow lamp. Pei Shuyun would lie on the counter doing his homework while his mother sat beside him painting.

The noisy, chaotic human sounds settled into the mud and sand of the street corner over time. Not far away, a sprinkler truck slowly crawled across the road, sweeping away the dust from the lower areas, continuing its journey along this winding Old Street lined with low residential buildings.

Mother…

Pei Shuyun frowned, clutching the corner of the wrinkled quilt tightly.

How long had it been since he dreamed of his mother? He had promised her on her sickbed that he would live well. If his mother knew that he had become another man’s plaything on the bed, shamelessly submitting beneath someone else, would she be disappointed in him?

His brow furrowed deeper and deeper. Pei Shuyun closed his eyes tightly in distress. He wanted to break free, but he was trapped in the nightmare, unable to move.

He was back in that rainy night again, the raindrops hitting the ground with a continuous clatter.

Suddenly, city management officers arrived on the street and began dispersing the vendors. Pei’s mother frantically tried to pack up her stall. Unfortunately, her movements were limited, and under the men’s rough shoving, the items on the stall rolled onto the ground.

The awning was overturned. Pei Shuyun, supporting his mother, fell into a puddle. His mother’s painful groans after being injured, and the men’s fierce curses, were firmly imprinted in Pei Shuyun’s mind, returning to him repeatedly in his restless midnight dreams.

Drenched in cold sweat, Pei Shuyun suddenly woke up, meeting a pair of eyes filled with worry.

“Did you have a nightmare again?”

Pei Shuyun didn’t answer. He leaned against the headboard and closed his eyes to rest.

Gu Yu paced around the room irritably a few times, then pulled back the curtains and stood by the window to call Dr. Shen.

On the other end of the line, Shen Yuanqing looked helpless. Gu Yu called him every few days for the sake of his precious darling. But after several visits, while the man’s body was weak, there were no major problems. It was clearly a psychological illness brought on by Gu Yu suppressing him for too long.

But he dared not say this directly to Gu Yu. He could only cautiously probe: “Constant insomnia at night is very damaging to the body. How about I prescribe some sleeping pills to try?”

Sleeping pills were harmful, and Gu Yu had always disagreed before. But looking at the bloodshot eyes of Pei Shuyun, he clenched his fist and finally agreed.