Toon Chapter 12

12

As soon as they got home, Liansheng started rummaging through Zhou Lingchun’s room.

“Zhou Lingchun! Come here, where is that handkerchief I used to have?” Liansheng couldn’t find it in the money drawer and shouted toward the man outside who was parking his bicycle in the narrow alley.

After a few seconds, Zhou Lingchun came in and said, “What do you need the handkerchief for? I put it on top of the cabinet.”

Previously, when Zhou Lingchun went to the drawer for money, he found that Liansheng had turned the contents into a mess, with the neatly folded handkerchief mixed in haphazardly. Liansheng was habitually careless and didn’t like tidying up, so Zhou Lingchun simply placed it somewhere Liansheng couldn’t reach.

Liansheng pushed the man toward the cabinet: “Hurry up and get it down, I want to see it.”

Zhou Lingchun reached up and retrieved a box from the top. The box was black and square, like a jewelry case. He opened it, revealing the neatly folded handkerchief resting inside. Liansheng quickly snatched it out and spread it open to look.

The silk handkerchief hung in mid-air, the fabric a pale greenish-blue, swaying slightly like water flowing down a mountain. Liansheng quietly tilted his head, seemingly deep in thought.

Zhou Lingchun didn’t know why Liansheng suddenly remembered the handkerchief; usually, he would just glance at it and toss it aside. This was not a good sign. He felt a knot of tension inside, but his expression remained calm. He picked Liansheng up, and they sat together on the edge of the bed. He asked in a low voice what was wrong.

Had he remembered something?

The question only made things worse. Liansheng suddenly gripped the handkerchief and stood up, placing his hands on the man’s shoulders. His eyes were wide open, the pupils very dark, like a pool of water sprinkled with moonlight.

A few seconds passed.

“Someone told me today that you actually abducted me,” he said, sounding very serious.

Zhou Lingchun’s breath hitched slightly. He asked, “Who said that?”

“Just answer me, is it true or not?”

Zhou Lingchun said, “No. Have you ever seen an abducted wife treated like an ancestor enshrined on an altar?”

“You’re lying! You didn’t look me in the eye just now!” Liansheng’s voice was nasal, and his mind was spinning quickly.

The man sighed, “What is really going on? Do you feel like I don’t love you enough?”

Liansheng shook his head, standing between Zhou Lingchun’s legs. His fingers instinctively tugged at Zhou Lingchun’s clothes. After a long pause, he confessed, “I ran into someone today when I went to buy candied hawthorns. He said that when he was ferrying people in the city, someone was showing my photo around asking if anyone had seen me. He just thought I looked familiar. You… how exactly did you look for my family when you went to the city before?”

If someone was truly still looking for him now…

Zhou Lingchun remained silent.

The man’s silence was a clear sign of a guilty conscience! Liansheng waited a few seconds, his brow furrowing.

He said, “Did you really spend money to abduct me? Or… or did you not even spend a single cent, just knocked me out and carried me back?”

He was about to cry, believing the latter possibility more. His fingers traced from his clean forehead into his hair.

He was not some cheap, easy catch!

Just as Zhou Lingchun was about to speak, Liansheng instantly scrunched up his nose, and tears began to fall. He grabbed Zhou Lingchun’s hand and guided it to his head, accusing the man, “Did you hit this? You hit me so hard I lost my memory just so you wouldn’t have to spend a cent… Oh, right! Didn’t you build a new house two years ago? You must have used the money meant for marrying me to build the house instead.”

The more he spoke, the more convinced he became!

A massive, undeserved accusation landed squarely on Zhou Lingchun’s head. Cracks appeared in Zhou Lingchun’s expression; he couldn’t fathom how Liansheng had come up with this scenario.

His fingertip was forced onto the scar. His heart trembled, and he said, “You ungrateful thing. After you woke up, how many times did I carry you to Doctor Zhang in the village to change the dressing on your head wound? When your wound got infected in the winter and you needed an IV drip, I was the one warming your hands. Later, when you recovered, I wanted to send you away, but you were the one who insisted on staying with me.”

The long, snowy days, two figures, and one set of footprints on the road.

Liansheng fell silent. That… was indeed… perhaps… true. His body seemed to lose its bones, and he slumped into the man’s embrace, resting his head on his shoulder. After a few seconds, he found a loophole in the man’s words: “What do you mean I insisted on staying with you? Does sleeping in your bed for a few days count as insisting? Do you even consider me your wife?”

Two tear tracks still glistened on his pale face, and his eyes were full of resentment, like a little wife who had suffered a great injustice in her husband’s home.

Zhou Lingchun cherished him, leaning down to capture Liansheng’s lips and take a kiss, making a smacking sound. Looking at Liansheng’s face—which clearly said, ‘If you don’t coax me now, I’m going to make a scene’—he said seriously, “Whether you are or not is up to you. But I only kiss my wife.”

Liansheng curled his lips, closed his eyes, and pretended to be haughty, “Hmph, good thing you know your place. If you dare to be insincere with me, we’ll separate.”

“How will we separate?”

“First, we separate beds! This bed belongs to me. You sleep on the floor from now on.”

Zhou Lingchun smiled helplessly yet indulgently, saying, “Alright, alright.”

Nothing had been clearly resolved, yet the two of them inexplicably started kissing again. Or perhaps, it had always been this way: any mention of Liansheng’s past was always casually glossed over. One person was scatterbrained and quickly distracted, and the other kept his mouth shut, avoiding the topic whenever possible.

There was no wind in the room. Liansheng took off his jacket, revealing the close-fitting clothes underneath that outlined his slender waist. Zhou Lingchun gripped Liansheng’s waist, holding him on his lap while they kissed. His large hand seemed to have eyes, moving upward to knead the nubs on Liansheng’s chest.

Zhou Lingchun sucked and nibbled Liansheng’s soft tongue a few times, drawing the moisture from his mouth. Liansheng was kissed into a dizzy stupor, forgetting all the other things the motorcycle uncle had said, throwing them to the South Pole.

Things like going out secretly to ask around again.

Things like finding his own family.

But truthfully, Liansheng’s current memories all started after meeting Zhou Lingchun. In the midst of the intense pain when he woke up, the first person he saw was Zhou Lingchun. He represented the joy and freedom of summer, the warmth and security of winter; the care and indulgence during the day, and the passion and release at night.

When he tried hard to recall the past with his eyes closed, the darkness was filled entirely with Zhou Lingchun’s figure.

Zhou Lingchun and Grandma were already his family, and deep down, he was strangely reluctant to return to the past.

Thinking about it too much always made him anxious, which was why he usually just glanced at the handkerchief and put it aside.

In truth, he hadn’t intended to make a fuss with Zhou Lingchun, but he had been spoiled by him, so naturally, he indulged in a little tantrum.

Liansheng thought, even if others said he had a bad temper, it was Zhou Lingchun’s fault. Why else would he treat him so well and spoil him rotten?

Even if he did find his family, he would still cling to Zhou Lingchun!

He would cling to him forever!!!!

The two of them were passionately kissing and naturally tumbled onto the bed. Suddenly, a long, somewhat angry meow sounded. A soft, fluffy thing burrowed into the space between them from under the quilt. They looked down at their waists. A small orange cat with long whiskers sat perched on the quilt, primly awaiting their apology.

Zhou Lingchun pinched the cat’s scruff and lifted it up, looking sternly at Liansheng, “Didn’t I say not to let the cat on the bed?”

“Juzi” sleeping under the covers was obviously Liansheng’s doing. The kitten struggled in mid-air and let out a “Meow” directed at Liansheng.

Liansheng quickly hugged the cat to his chest, feeling protective. “Aiya, it’s still small. Why are you being so mean?”