NH chapter 044

Chapter 44 A Kiss

In the chaotic town-and-village area, unfamiliar faces come and go, and you have no idea who lives next door.

Old, broken, small, dirty, and chaotic; poor public security, almost synonymous with this place. Cheap rent, narrow streets littered with garbage, and changing neighbors three times a year…

Someone like Shen Tingyu, dressed head to toe in designer clothes, wearing limited-edition new sneakers, with a clearly expensive watch on his wrist, and boasting a beautiful face that screams privilege and grace, suggests a level of danger that’s easy to imagine.

There are more than just Huo Lijun among the gamblers here. Including tonight’s unforeseen peril, Huo Ye certainly understands what desperate people might do.

Therefore, if it weren’t absolutely necessary, he could never let Shen Tingyu know his home address.

In the end, he sent a location of a nearby park, having silently calculated that he and Shen Tingyu would leave at the same time, estimating he would arrive a few minutes earlier.

Fortunately, Shen Tingyu did not ask for details. After all, he doesn’t care where they meet, as long as he can see Huo Ye anywhere.

At 10:50 PM, Shen Tingyu arrived at the park. He spotted Huo Ye squatting in a secluded corner, head down, seemingly holding something, with faint cat mewing coming from a distance.

Shen Tingyu strode over, but Huo Ye, hearing him approach, didn’t raise his head and softly said, “Shen Tingyu, look, a kitten.”

A small, ordinary orange tabby cat, probably just two or three months old, was very well-behaved and didn’t run away, though its eyes were full of timidity.

It seemed to sense that Huo Ye wouldn’t harm it, so it kept its claws tucked in, gently kneading its soft, pink paws against Huo Ye’s chest, staring at him with an almost soulful look.

Huo Ye has always had a knack for attracting cats; wherever he goes, they appear from all directions.

So when he “ran away from home” as a child and slept in the park, he never felt lonely; a few stray cats would gather around him to keep warm.

A slender hand reached over and picked the kitten up by the scruff in front of Huo Ye. Shen Tingyu grimaced disdainfully, saying, “Tsk, it’s dirty. What if it has fleas?”

The small cat’s limbs went limp, hanging down like noodles. Hearing this, it let out a pitiful meow.

“It doesn’t have fleas; I’ve been feeding it since it was born.” Huo Ye replied sternly in defense of the kitten, “If you say that, it’ll be sad.”

Shen Tingyu dismissed it, “So what?”

“Apologize to it.”

Shen Tingyu: “… Can you say that again?”

“Please apologize to it, Young Master.”

Shen Tingyu: “.”

Seeing how Huo Ye was polite and humble yet had a resolute, firm expression, Shen Tingyu felt a complex and inexplicable annoyance swelling in his heart.

After a few seconds of silence, Shen Tingyu reluctantly coldly told the kitten, “I’m sorry.” Then he asked Huo Ye, “Is that okay?”

The kitten suddenly squirmed a bit, seemingly uncomfortable being held by Shen Tingyu, and yowled a little louder.

Huo Ye said, “You’re too rough. You shouldn’t hold it like that. You should cradle it like I did just now.”

“What? Are you crazy? It’s just a little animal.” Shen Tingyu couldn’t accept being scolded by Huo Ye over a cat. He was worried about the fleas or some other unsanitary issue, so he had been so contemptuous as to hold the cat at arm’s length, yet Huo Ye dared to be ungrateful.

“I raised it, so how is it not my child? I was right there when its mother gave birth.”

Huo Ye said calmly, with reason and evidence: “Don’t say it, even the mother cat that gave birth to it, I raised from the time she was this small. That mother cat was hit by a car when she was just two months old. I picked her up and took her home secretly.”

Shen Tingyu suddenly froze, taking another look at the little orange kitten in his hand, and the more he looked, the more it struck a familiar chord.

Years of forgotten memories stirred, like a long-lost book being opened by an unexpected wind, rustling and clearing away the dust of neglect.

He swallowed, his voice low, “When did you find that mother cat who was accidentally hit by a car?”

“Ah, a long time ago.”

Huo Ye thought for a moment and answered, “About five or six years ago.”

Five or six years ago, Huo Ye had just started middle school, while Shen Tingyu was still in elementary school. He had once gone to school with Li Luoyin and encountered a small cat that had been hit by a car and was dying.

He still remembered that at just eleven years old, Shen Tingyu had considered taking it home and told Li Luoyin, “It’s not dirty.”

But at what point had he become like Li Luoyin, whom he had hated in his childhood, where his first response wasn’t to think the kitten was cute but to coldly state—“It’s just a little animal”?

Fate intertwines mysteriously; who could have predicted that the small cat Shen Tingyu had longed to take home while pressed against the car window would be carefully taken in and nurtured by the middle school Huo Ye, who, just minutes later, showed up wearing a school uniform and saved the childhood innocence?

His heart raced as if awakening from a dream. Shen Tingyu unconsciously dropped his earlier disdainful demeanor and obediently cradled the small orange cat in his arms.

He couldn’t help but ask again, “What about that mother cat?”

“Not long ago, she was taken to be spayed. Honestly, it had been overdue for quite a while, but I never had the time. When I finally did, I couldn’t find her anywhere.” Huo Ye replied.

“After so many years, did no one ever want to adopt her?”

Huo Ye shook his head, explaining, “She has a broken leg, and one of her eyes is blind. Many people take a look and just leave.”

The small orange cat suddenly mewed.

“Oh, this little one does have a home.” Huo Ye recalled something.

“Just bring it over when the time comes, and I’ll raise it.” Shen Tingyu said, gripping the kitten’s paw with a seemingly firm resolve.

Huo Ye looked up in surprise.

He couldn’t believe it. After all, Shen Tingyu had just shown such disdain; how could he have such a sudden change of heart?

Shen Tingyu lowered his eyes to meet his gaze, just as he was about to speak when he abruptly fixed his stare, “What happened to your face?”

Huo Ye responded in an absentminded tone, his mind still scrambling. Shen Tingyu had already set the cat down and pulled him to his feet.

As Shen Tingyu’s fingertips grazed a spot on Huo Ye’s cheek, he winced suddenly, feeling a sting. Shen Tingyu’s expression darkened, “You have an injury on your face. Who did this? Did you get into a fight?”

Huo Ye reflexively tried to jerk away, but Shen Tingyu gripped the back of his neck and brought him back, holding Huo Ye’s chin to examine closely.

Confirming the bruise on his cheekbone, Shen Tingyu continued to check further, lifting his shirt, rolling up his sleeves, and even tugging his pant legs to take a look—

Huo Ye helplessly let him manipulate him, repeatedly trying and failing to speak up.

Besides the bruise on his cheekbone, Shen Tingyu discovered a shallow cut on Huo Ye’s palm, as if it had been sliced by some sharp object. Though not deep, the wound stretched three or four centimeters long.

Huo Ye stared blankly at the bleeding cut on his palm, feeling a bit dazed, as he hadn’t even registered the pain.

It was as if the sensation of pain had detached from his body, needing someone to inform him of the injury. When he finally paused to look down, he realized he was already bleeding profusely; otherwise, he would have continued running until he exhausted the last ounce of life in him.

Does it hurt? It actually does.

It’s just that he had become so accustomed to the pain that he had forgotten it was painful.

He recalled that it must have been from a fight tonight where he had used his bare hands to disarm someone, and in the process, he hadn’t noticed being cut.

Thinking back, it was truly “grabbing a knife with empty hands.”

Shen Tingyu’s face turned cold as he glanced at him, ultimately failing to press further for details. He simply threw out the words, “Stand still,” before turning to leave.

A moment later, Shen Tingyu quickly returned, a clear plastic bag from the pharmacy in his hand containing some gauze, bandages, and iodine.

Adhering to the principle of sitting whenever possible, Huo Ye obediently settled down on a bench in the park, occasionally reaching out with his uninjured right hand to pet the small orange cat beside him.

Noticing Shen Tingyu approaching, Huo Ye looked up, hesitating briefly before managing a smile as if to charm him.

Shen Tingyu wore a blank expression.

He watched Huo Ye imitate the small orange cat by retracting his claws.

“I’ll do it myself, thanks.” Huo Ye took the bag, readily extracting its contents, not wanting to bother Shen Tingyu.

He was considerate toward others but always quite harsh toward himself. He applied some iodine carelessly to the wound and began roughly covering it with gauze and bandages.

The bruise on his cheekbone turned an ugly purple against the darkness of the night, making his skin appear whiter, his brows and eyes more cold and fierce, exuding a slight sense of gloom or indifferent angst. With one hand being less handy, Huo Ye bit down on one end of the bandage with his teeth, trying to bandage his own cut.

It was a bit cumbersome, but he didn’t want Shen Tingyu to notice, so he continued stubbornly and awkwardly.

Unable to bear watching, Shen Tingyu suddenly grabbed his wrist firmly. His dark eyes pierced through Huo Ye, causing his heart to skip a beat.

After glaring at him for a while with an intense frustration, Shen Tingyu finally swiped the bandage from him, personally tending to Huo Ye’s injury, the seriousness of his demeanor unprecedented.

In the end, he tied a bow on the bandage he wrapped around Huo Ye’s injury, then unexpectedly lowered his head—

Huo Ye stared in shock and didn’t move, feeling something warm brush against his palm.

It was lips.

Shen Tingyu placed a gentle kiss on his wound.

Huo Ye was taken aback, emotion surging within him as he suddenly asked, “Do you have a lighter?”

Shen Tingyu didn’t smoke, nor did he like the smell of cigarettes, but he indeed had a lighter specifically for Huo Ye.

Huo Ye had a slight smoking habit, not too extreme, just within acceptable limits. Every time he smoked, it basically indicated that he was feeling stressed or irritable, and Shen Tingyu typically wouldn’t stop him too much.

He often forgot to bring a lighter, and when he wanted to smoke, he would have to borrow from others. But Zhao Jiayan and the others didn’t smoke either, so he had to go all the way to the East District to find Xiong Ying. Shen Tingyu, annoyed by him needing to find someone else, had gotten used to bringing him a lighter.

So the two of them sat side by side in a quiet corner of the park, like lonely wolves apart from the world, while Huo Ye, all beaten up, maintained a laid-back demeanor as if the pain didn’t concern him.

With a click, Shen Tingyu pressed down on the lighter, the action of lighting Huo Ye’s cigarette in the night felt like a coronation, or perhaps submission.

There was no moon tonight; only black clouds in the sky, not even a star was visible, making it impossible to tell if tomorrow would be clear.

The atmosphere was quiet.

Huo Ye silently inhaled and exhaled smoke.

“Actually, I kind of hate you,” Shen Tingyu suddenly said.

His fingers trembled, ashes falling to the ground and revealing the red tip of the flame. Huo Ye held the cigarette without speaking, simply replying with an “mm.”

As if he completely understood that.

He had never expected to hear “hate” before eagerly awaiting Shen Tingyu to say “I love you.”

“Shut up.”

Shen Tingyu said: “You always do this, smiling on the outside, but cold inside. No one knows what you are thinking, not even me.”

“You’re the one who led me on, yet it seems like you’re the most innocent person in the world. My emotions are always tied to you; you can make me angry when you wish, and you can soothe me when you want. I used to hate being passive and shouldn’t have let my emotions dictate my reason.”

“You charm me into giving you everything; my past and future, all for you, but today I realized, when it comes to you, I actually know nothing. You made such a grand entrance into my life but hid everything about yourself. It’s not fair.”

“Huo Ye.”

“That’s not how love is meant to be talked about.”

Huo Ye stared at the scattered ashes on the ground, managing a forced smile before saying, “You must have misunderstood something; we’re not in a relationship.”

Shen Tingyu abruptly turned his gaze toward him.

Huo Ye didn’t dare to look back, attempting to relax his body; his wrapped hand had already soaked with blood. He felt strangely numb.

His mouth turned unexpectedly bitter.

For the first time, Huo Ye found it difficult to smoke.

Until a cigarette was almost burnt out, Shen Tingyu hadn’t spoken another word. Huo Ye could clearly sense that Shen Tingyu was angry.

After putting the cigarette out, he stealthily turned his head to sneak a peek, only to unexpectedly collide with Shen Tingyu’s unwavering gaze.

Huo Ye was momentarily stunned.

The person who had said “hate” looked angry, resentful, composed yet seemingly on the verge of breaking down; there was undeniable reluctance burning in his eyes.

Suddenly, Huo Ye had an epiphany.

Often, isn’t “hate” just a form of “love”?

Shen Tingyu’s eyes were fervent as he looked at him for a while, his breath unstable as his chest heaved rapidly, making it seem like he was about to cry.

“… You bastard.”

His voice was hoarse, even the emotions of hatred felt submerged.

Huo Ye momentarily lost his words, unable to speak. Though he had acknowledged it previously, today felt the worst—how could he, in just one day, make Aunt Zhang cry, make Huo Yan cry, and now make the proud Shen Tingyu cry as well?

“I’m sorry, I…” Huo Ye reached out, wanting to touch Shen Tingyu’s face, the one who was usually the best at comforting now felt utterly lost.

They locked eyes, love and hate intricately intertwined, those simmering emotions long suppressed surged wildly beneath their calm façades.

Suddenly, both moved at the same time.

Shen Tingyu pulled Huo Ye harshly toward him.

His lip was split, but no one cried out in pain.

They shared a kiss in the dark night void of a moon, tasting of blood.