NH chapter 051

Chapter 51: Parallel Ending HE (Three)

Huo Ye took a shower when he got home, went to bed, feeling a bit overwhelmed by his emotions today, which left him immensely exhausted.

However, this exhaustion was only physical, because he finally confirmed an important matter he had long wanted to clarify but hadn’t had the courage to face. His heartbeat felt as if it had finally unloaded a burden that had lasted for a long time.

Usually a light sleeper who needed sleep aids to fall asleep, Huo Ye fell asleep quickly that night.

He slept so deeply that he heard nothing.

In the middle of the night, the door to the room was pushed open, and a tall, dark figure slipped in like a ghost.

In these past ten years, Shen Tingyu had walked this path countless times; the locks on these doors had long become mere decorations in his eyes.

Standing by the bed, Shen Tingyu lowered his eyes and greedily watched Huo Ye’s calm and peaceful sleeping face, hesitating to make a move.

It had been too long.

He couldn’t even remember the last time he dreamed of him.

Huo Ye laid flat on his back, eyes tightly closed, his eyelashes casting a slight shadow, appearing somewhat meek in contrast to his strong facial features. He still looked like a young man just over nineteen, youthful and full of spirit.

He would not grow old; in Shen Tingyu’s memory, he had always been this way, and he would never change.

Before, Huo Ye would always tease him about age, even though he was only one or two years older and insisted on Shen Tingyu calling him ‘brother’. Now, he was already over ten years older than Huo Ye, and looking at Huo Ye’s youthful face, he felt that the childlike naivety in his eyes would poke fun at his maturity.

This time, I finally grew up before you.

Shen Tingyu reached out to touch him but suddenly realized his hands were stained with blood, dirty. So he hurriedly switched to the other hand.

Like touching a long-lost white moonlight, Shen Tingyu’s fingertips trembled violently, not daring to exert any strength, learning what gentleness was. Over twelve years, his temper had still been poor, but he would never be cruel to Huo Ye again, and he was no longer used to speaking in sarcasm.

This version of me is perhaps more worthy of your affection? Jealousy burned like a raging fire; even the eighteen-year-old him was hated.

Hated for not being good enough and more for being immature and ignorant.

His hand pressed into the pillow, Shen Tingyu controlled his breathing to avoid being overly rapid and hot. A kiss as light as a feather fell on Huo Ye’s eyelid, grateful for the times he had been willing to look at him.

Shen Tingyu regarded him as faith and truth.

He believed that the one loved by Huo Ye was the luckiest in the world.

Turning to his lips, Shen Tingyu didn’t bite but gently licked them; like a cat that had been wandering for years, afraid of gulping its food when it finally got a can, it just licked once, fearing it would lose out.

Huo Ye seemed to sense something, his brow slightly furrowed.

Shen Tingyu’s heart raced, quickly pulling back, crouching down to reveal only a pair of tense eyes.

Fortunately, he didn’t wake up. — Shen Tingyu didn’t wake up either.

The next day, Huo Ye got up feeling refreshed, washed up, and absentmindedly shaved, but he noticed that his razor had been used.

Huo Ye looked puzzled, “……”

Didn’t he leave it on the sink last time?

After a moment of confusion, he accepted it quickly. It was normal to have a bad memory lately, not thinking too much, he returned it to its place after shaving.

When Huo Ye finished putting on his school uniform and stepped out, the curtains in his room were pulled open just a crack, and Shen Tingyu, looking pale, watched the figure downstairs while holding a white porcelain cup, sipping water lightly.

Oh, I forgot to mention, that was Huo Ye’s cup. Shen Tingyu would never be polite with him, even at eighty.

Huo Ye walked halfway and suddenly turned back out of nowhere.

However, the curtain had already been pulled shut a second ago.

“……”

Huo Ye revealed a puzzled expression again, hesitating before leaving.

During class breaks at school, Huo Ye was sitting and listening when suddenly he was tapped with a pencil. Shen Tingyu, with an unamused expression, said, “Try zoning out one more time, see what happens?” feigning anger.

“I won’t zone out, I won’t.”

Huo Ye innocently covered his forehead, looking honest and sincere.

After Shen Tingyu was done speaking, his mouth was dry. While drinking water, he casually added, “If you have any questions, ask quickly.”

Huo Ye gazed at his familiar profile, often imagining him as that man at the end of the alley. Without thinking, he asked, “Are you the eldest son or the second son in your family? Do you have an older brother?”

Shen Tingyu choked on his water, “Pfft! Cough cough…”

“Be careful.”

Huo Ye patted his back, still asking, “So, do you?”

“……Of course not!” After a moment’s pause, Shen Tingyu’s expression darkened, “In a family like mine, there can only be one child. Having two sons would be quite troublesome; don’t you understand?”

This made Huo Ye think of the prime-time dramas, where inheritance distribution in wealthy families was quite complicated, requiring many lawyers to manage together. The rivalry among inheritors was almost akin to the famous “Nine Sons Competing for the Crown” during the Kangxi era—

Thinking of this, Huo Ye sincerely replied, “Well, … I don’t quite understand the world of you rich people.”

Shen Tingyu tightened his grip on the pen, saying seriously, “When we get married in the future, all my wealth will be yours. If I have money, it means you have money. If we have children, we’ll only have one.”

“Ah, really?”

Huo Ye touched his stomach, looking somewhat confused as he said, “But I don’t think I can give birth.”

“……”

Shen Tingyu dropped his pen: “Damn, I forgot.”

In recent days, Huo Ye had always vaguely felt that there seemed to be traces of a second person in the house. Huo Lijun hadn’t appeared for a long time. It couldn’t be him; even if it were, he always made a lot of noise upon returning home.

Unlike now, where only subtle discrepancies were felt, making it uncertain. Where was the oddness?

Besides the inexplicably misplaced razor, there was also the mysteriously half-full cup of water that had apparently been drunk but somehow became empty in the blink of an eye; the instant noodles in the refrigerator that could be heated were also running low, though replenished timely. But more noticeably, several pieces of clothing hanging in the closet had unexpectedly disappeared.

— There was a thief in the house.

Huo Ye stood in front of the closet, thinking seriously.

But he chose not to alert the thief and pretended not to know anything, turning a blind eye to all these discrepancies.

At eleven o’clock at night, Huo Ye glanced at the time and went to bed early to cover himself with the blanket and sleep. Sure enough, about half an hour later, there were slight rustling sounds again that he could hear.

Though his eyes were closed, the darkness allowed him to sense someone approaching his bed, footsteps very light, bringing a familiar and pleasant scent. … Wait, why was it familiar?

His body reacted before his mind did.

Without warning, Huo Ye opened his eyes and turned over in the dark, grabbing that person’s wrist tightly.

The other party was evidently caught off guard and tumbled onto the bed.

Huo Ye was quick, precise, and ruthless in his moves; he twisted the person’s arm and pinned it down beneath him in a capture-like posture, his movements as fluid as a cat catching a mouse.

“— Got you.”

He said with a cold smirk, confidently.