Chapter 29

After coming out of the bathroom, Wen Fu instinctively caught a whiff that something was off in the air.

He looked around, spotted a blurry figure out on the balcony, walked over, and found Fei Bolin hunched over the sink scrubbing clothes like crazy.

And they were his underwear.

But he clearly remembered washing those in the bathroom already, so he couldn't figure out why Fei Bolin was grabbing them and washing them again.

Wen Fu tried to make sense of it.

Wen Fu failed.

He was silent for a moment, then asked Fei Bolin, ‘Did you get them dirty?’

Fei Bolin, who was bent over rinsing out the suds: ‘...’

Cats really shouldn't be allowed to talk. If they stay mute, they can only make your life difficult with their actions. Once they learn to speak, they start offending you both mentally and physically.

Figuring there was no point explaining when the other man wouldn't get it anyway, Fei Bolin accepted his fate and gave Wen Fu a direct order: ‘The hair dryer is in the cabinet under the sink. Dry your hair, then go sleep in the bedroom.’

Robot Wen Fu turned and left after receiving the command.

There was only one bedroom in the apartment, and it wasn't big, just enough space for a bed, a desk, and a wardrobe squeezed in at the foot of the bed.

Fei Bolin's place was tiny. Even counting the balcony, it was only around sixty square meters. Compared to the ‘base’ Wen Fu had been crashing at before, it was even barer. All the furniture was just enough to get by, and there wasn't even a TV. But Fei Bolin lived carefully and knew how to keep things in order. The place was always neat and spotless. From big things like the fridge and appliances to small things like scissors and cleaning rags, every single item was stored exactly where it seemed meant to go, without an inch of space wasted.

Small as the place was, it somehow had everything you needed to live.

So when Fei Bolin, who had a bit of a compulsive streak, went back into the bathroom and saw the hair dryer tossed on the sink after use, still plugged in, cord left in a mess, he cleaned up the disaster in dead silence, washed up with a cold face, changed with a cold face, went out to the balcony with a cold face to take Wen Fu's clothes out of the washing machine and hang them up, then walked into the bedroom and immediately found Wen Fu sprawled in the dead center of the bed, limbs stretched wide like a starfish, taking over the entire already-small mattress while staring blankly up at the ceiling.

Fei Bolin rubbed the bridge of his nose. ‘What are you doing now?’

At that, Wen Fu lifted his head and glanced at him, then suddenly scooted to the innermost spot by the wall and sat up at once. ‘The bed's warm.’

Of course Fei Bolin knew the bed was warm. He'd turned on the electric blanket while Wen Fu was showering, enough to make sure it would be nice and toasty when it was time to sleep.

‘I know,’ Fei Bolin said, sitting down by the bed. ‘I'm asking what you were doing just now.’

Wen Fu folded his legs up, shrinking his share of the bed down to the smallest possible footprint.

In his mind, where you slept was absolute private territory. He'd already invaded Fei Bolin's last bit of personal space, and he had nothing equal to offer in exchange. Really, a tiny corner should've been enough for him.

Wen Fu answered Fei Bolin's question seriously. ‘Keeping it warm.’

Somehow, Fei Bolin actually understood what Wen Fu meant.

Wen Fu didn't know why the bed was warm, but he thought the covers shouldn't go cold again before Fei Bolin came back.

And the only method he had any grasp on was warming the bed with his body.

So the whole time Fei Bolin was bathing, he'd kept that exact pose, spreading himself over as much space as possible because he thought that was the only way to keep the bed warm.

Suddenly, the whole clothes-washing chaos and hair-dryer mess didn't seem quite so infuriating anymore.

After the emotional roller coaster Fei Bolin had been on tonight, the two words ‘keeping it warm’ settled him all the way back down.

He lifted the blanket and lay down, then signaled to Wen Fu. ‘Go to sleep.’

Wen Fu tipped over toward the wall and slept in the spot farthest from Fei Bolin, his back pressed tight against the wall, eyes shut the instant he lay down.

Fei Bolin looked at the huge stretch of empty blanket between them and said helplessly, ‘You can sleep closer.’

The second Wen Fu heard that, he switched from lying on his side to lying flat on his back.

Fei Bolin's blanket smelled nice. So did his pillow. There was none of that old stale mildew-and-dust smell from the old place Wen Fu used to live in.

Eyes closed, Wen Fu pulled the blanket higher and higher until it covered his face and nose, then drifted off to sleep breathing in that faint clean scent.

Fei Bolin turned his head and yanked the blanket back down for him.

Otherwise he'd probably suffocate himself.

While he slept, Wen Fu dragged the blanket back up again.

Fei Bolin woke up in the middle of the night and pulled it back down for him again.

Not long after he pulled it down, Wen Fu hauled it back up again.

Fei Bolin pulled. Wen Fu covered himself back up.

Wen Fu pulled it up, Fei Bolin pulled it down, then Wen Fu pulled it up again.

At some point, while pulling the blanket over himself again and again, Wen Fu caught that clean scent coming from the person beside him, and in his sleep he started drowsily burrowing toward Fei Bolin.

Fei Bolin couldn't even remember which time it was when he opened his eyes from sleep and suddenly found a fluffy head in his arms, so much hair he couldn't even see a face, no clue which direction Wen Fu had buried himself in.

So Fei Bolin's task changed from tugging blankets to tugging people.

Every time Wen Fu burrowed over, he dragged him back out.

Any time Wen Fu made it into his arms, he hauled him back onto his own pillow.

After a whole night of that, Fei Bolin ended up with two huge dark circles under his eyes.

Wen Fu, meanwhile, slept like a log, totally out of it.

The next morning, the second Fei Bolin got out of bed, Wen Fu followed instinct and burrowed right into the spot where he'd been sleeping, sniffing the pillow, sniffing the blanket, and shoving his face into the bedding.

For the last time, Fei Bolin pulled the blanket down off Wen Fu, threw on his jacket, and went to the bathroom to wash up.

By the time a wave of fragrance lured Wen Fu awake, it was already eight in the morning.

Fei Bolin's body clock usually woke him at six-thirty. On weekends he'd allow himself an extra half hour. But because Wen Fu had wrecked his sleep last night, he stayed in bed till seven-thirty before getting up to make breakfast.

Since last night's late-night meal had been hijacked halfway through, Fei Bolin decisively cooked two bowls again that morning. No matter what, he was eating this bowl of noodles today.

The moment he carried the noodles out after scooping them into bowls, Fei Bolin saw Wen Fu sitting on yesterday's plastic stool. He was wearing nothing but the thermal set Fei Bolin had given him, skinny arms and legs tucked up on the stool, hair sticking out in every direction from sleep, obviously still not fully awake. He rubbed his eyes and looked at Fei Bolin in a dazed half-sleep.

More precisely, he was looking at the bowl of noodles in Fei Bolin's hands.

His brain wasn't awake yet, but his appetite was.

As long as Wen Fu had his eyes open, he absolutely refused to miss a single bite of food.

As Fei Bolin walked over, he asked, ‘Did you wash your face and brush your teeth?’

Wen Fu nodded blankly. When your nerves had been wound tight for a long time, then you suddenly got one really comfortable night's sleep, it was easy to end up even more out of it.

Fei Bolin saw that his face was clean and he really did look like he'd washed up, so he held the bowl out toward him.

Just as he was about to set it down and Wen Fu was already reaching for the chopsticks, Fei Bolin lifted the bowl back up again.

Wen Fu's head tilted up with the moving bowl.

Then the two of them locked into a long stare.

Fei Bolin seemed to be waiting for Wen Fu to do something.

Wen Fu just stared straight back at him with those dark eyes.

Fei Bolin: ‘...’

Wen Fu: ‘...’

Fei Bolin: ‘...’

Wen Fu: ‘...’

Fei Bolin: ‘...’

Wen Fu: ‘...’

Fei Bolin let out a silent sigh in his heart.

Expecting Wen Fu to take the initiative and speak first was pure fantasy.

Holding the bowl up, he taught him: ‘Say thank you.’

Wen Fu looked at the bowl, then at Fei Bolin, blinked, and said in a quiet, awkward voice, ‘Thank you.’

It didn't look like he was unwilling. He just genuinely didn't know he was supposed to do that.

Fei Bolin was just about to hand the bowl down when he lifted it slightly again. ‘Eat every bite slowly.’

Wen Fu nodded.

At last, the bowl was placed in front of Wen Fu.

He stuck his chopsticks down first and, sure enough, found a thick layer of meat topping spread underneath. Fei Bolin's topping smelled incredible. Mixed in with the browned minced meat were preserved greens and tiny bits of dried tofu, with the occasional spice piece here and there, all fried so dry that once they hit your mouth all that was left was crunch and fragrance.

After mixing the topping into the noodles, Wen Fu picked up a huge chopstickful, every strand coated in minced meat. He was just about to open his mouth wide when he remembered Fei Bolin was still watching beside him, and immediately lowered most of the noodles again, leaving himself only a small bite to put in his mouth.

Fei Bolin stood there with his arms folded and watched him take two bites. Once he saw Wen Fu really was behaving, he turned away to find him a padded jacket to throw over his shoulders, then went back to the kitchen to fry an egg.

The egg was fried in blazing hot oil. First he beat the egg, then took a big wire skimmer and held it over the pot of oil. He slowly poured the egg into the skimmer, and the egg ran through each little hole and dropped from above into the oil, bubbling the second it hit. Once all the egg had dripped through, a golden, crisp fried egg cake had formed in the pot.

It took more time, but a fried egg like that soaked up noodle broth beautifully.

Fei Bolin figured Wen Fu had probably never had one before.

Since Wen Fu was being so obedient today, rewarding him with a really good fried egg felt fair enough.

Halfway through frying it, the smell drifted from the kitchen into the living room. At the time, Wen Fu was taking advantage of Fei Bolin being gone to hunch over and shovel noodles into his mouth as fast as he could. The second he caught the scent of frying egg, he almost instinctively turned toward the kitchen, secretly swallowed, sniffed along with the smell once, then again, before finally turning back to keep eating.

Not long after, Fei Bolin came out carrying one giant fried egg and nudged it into Wen Fu's bowl with his chopsticks.

Seeing Wen Fu staring blankly at it, he taught him again: ‘Push the egg down to the bottom. Let it soak in the broth for a bit. It tastes better that way.’

Wen Fu didn't get it, so Fei Bolin just used the clean pair of chopsticks in his hand to flip the egg for him.

When Fei Bolin came back out carrying his own bowl of noodles, Wen Fu craned his neck trying to peek into it.

‘What are you looking at?’ Fei Bolin asked. ‘Not enough food?’

Wen Fu shook his head, stretched his neck out, and kept staring at Fei Bolin's bowl anyway.

Fei Bolin had been busy all morning and couldn't be bothered at this point. He lifted some noodles and gave Wen Fu another chopstickful, then ignored him and just lowered his head to eat slowly by himself.

Once Wen Fu got a clear look at the bottom of his bowl, he finally spoke. ‘Where's yours?’

‘What?’

‘The egg.’

Without even looking up, Fei Bolin said, ‘I don't want one.’

He'd already eaten a boiled egg last night, and he wasn't really in the mood for eggs this morning, so he only fried one and gave it to Wen Fu.

Wen Fu stared at the bowl, vaguely realizing that the egg in his bowl had been fried specially for him by Fei Bolin.

The last time he'd gotten treated like that was probably more than ten years ago.

Back when the person called Mom was still around.

Only, her face had long since blurred away in those ten-odd years of drifting from place to place.

Wen Fu didn't have time to search through his memories before Fei Bolin suddenly said, ‘The egg's ready to eat now.’

Wen Fu mechanically picked the egg up and took a bite, and his eyes lit up all at once.

Watching his reaction, Fei Bolin found it was exactly what he'd expected. He lowered his eyes and pressed his lips together, sneaking a little smile. Every time Wen Fu's eyes lit up like that, it looked like he was watching a cartoon.

It lasted maybe two seconds. By the time Fei Bolin finished smiling and looked up again, the entire egg had already been stuffed into Wen Fu's mouth.

Even with both cheeks bulging out, Wen Fu still didn't let a single drop of broth leak from the corner of his mouth.

Fei Bolin: ‘...’

The words ‘eat slowly’ really did go in one ear and out the other with Wen Fu.