When they arrived at Bai Luo Yin’s dorm, Gu Hai smelled a gust of strange odor permeating the room the moment he entered.
“How long has it been since the room was ventilated?”
Pointing at the window, Bai Luo Yin spoke as if he was telling the truth. “Hmm, I ventilate it every day around the same time.”
Gu Hai raised a brow—being used to Bai Luo Yin’s unkempt habits, he went to open the window only to have a thick layer of dust fall onto his hands. He sighed. Since they had not seen each other for more than ten days, he didn’t have the heart to scold Bai Luo Yin right now. But he couldn’t help but to feel sad and commented to himself: My wifeeee! Can’t you make this a bit easier for me?! If you’re always like this, I won’t dare to go travel out for business trips later on.
Bai Luo Yin grabbed a large pile of dirty clothes he found beneath the blanket, pillows, and bed and shoved them into Gu Hai’s hands. “Here, I saved them all for you.”
Looking down at the clothes, Gu Hai then glanced back up at Bai Luo Yin—it was not hard to see that as his eyes swept over that handsome face, there were both love and hate dwelling in them. Then, without saying anything, Gu Hai turned around and walked into the bathroom.
The washing machine was one of the many new things that Gu Hai had purchased. Before he left, he had made sure to set everything up—the laundry detergent and fabric softener had also been poured in. All that was needed to be done was to put the clothes in, turn on the water faucet, start the machine and wait for a while; then there would be clean clothes. Such a simple process, yet Bai Luo Yin was still too incredibly lazy to do it himself.
However, that was something Gu Hai could understand. In truth, it did not matter how many clothes were left unwashed, since those kinds of things were just a type of entertainment in his perspective. When a person stared at a pile of documents or a computer all day long, that kind of physical labour would become a type of relaxation or enjoyment. Contrariwise, for someone like Bai Luo Yin who only trained every day, he would certainly not let an opportunity to be lazy simply fly by.
Luckily, the two were not in the same type of profession, which made it easier for them to tolerate and empathize with each other.
Gu Hai placed all the clothes in the washing machine and hand-washed all the underwear and socks. But before he washed them, he counted them only to discover that the number was off. He shouted out, “There’s a sock missing.”
“There shouldn’t be. I already gave you everything.”
Gu Hai counted them again, but it was still wrong. “Look for it again.”
Searching thoroughly in every spot, Bai Luo Yin finally found the missing sock in a small crack between the mattress and headboard. He walked over to where Gu Hai was and threw the sock in the hamper, but when he glanced down, all he saw was a pile of white socks!
“They’re all white socks! How did you know that one was missing?”
“Nonsense! Before I left, I bought you twenty pairs of socks and placed them in the cabinet by your bed because I was afraid you wouldn’t wash them. That way, you could wear a new pair every day. Do you think I don’t know you? As long as there are clean socks to wear, you definitely won’t wash any of the dirty ones. I left for twelve days, and there are only twenty-three socks here, doesn’t that mean there’s one sock missing?”
Bai Luo Yin laughed mischievously.
“You still have the guts to laugh at me?” Gu Hai smeared a handful of bubbles on Bai Luo Yin’s face.
Unable to avoid that, Bai Luo Yin wiped the bubbles off and lowered his head to look at Gu Hai washing the underwear and socks. Truthfully speaking, he especially loved to see Gu Hai doing manual labour; since every time he saw that, he couldn’t help but to feel a sense of displacement. Meaning, he always thought that Gu Hai was not doing housework, but rather, he was displaying—his métier, his specialty. Whenever anyone saw Gu Hai for the first time, they would always think he was enveloped by a ring of light, surrounded by a group of beautiful women and that he lived a luxurious and mind-blowing life—a person who was adored by many people.
Therefore, being able to see that kind of person cooking and doing laundry was like enjoying a performance, a performance that was disconnected from reality. Since Bai Luo Yin was the only one that could watch such a performance, no matter how disconnected it was from reality, it was still only a part of his dream while others didn’t even have the right to even fantasize about it.
“You also changed your underwear every day, right?” Gu Hai asked.
Hearing his voice, Bai Luo Yin’s spirit seemed to return back to his body. “Yeah, I changed it every day.”
Gu Hai nodded approvingly, “That’s good, don’t think of it as an inconvenience. Your underwear must be changed regularly.”
There was a pile of documents that needed to be dealt with back at the company, but Gu Hai tuned out all the public pressures and stubbornly came to regulate Bai Luo Yin’s dorm for the entire afternoon. Afterwards, instead of returning to the company, he drove directly to the supermarket. Thinking about how Bai Luo Yin had not eaten well for so many days, he made several non-vegetarian dishes and brought it to him.
But sadly, Bai Luo Yin immediately exposed a disgusted expression when the smell of cooked meat wafted into his nostrils.
“I don’t want to eat meat. You can eat it!” Bai Luo Yin quickly pushed the meat dishes that were in front of him over to Gu Hai.
Gu Hai put down his chopsticks and looked at Bai Luo Yin with astonishment.
“What’s wrong? Don’t you love eating meat?”
As the smell of the meat floated around him, Bai Luo Yin started choking but forced himself to swallow whatever wanted to come up. His expression was baked with disgust and confusion as he spoke, “My stomach has been feeling a bit uncomfortable lately.”
“What’s going on?” Gu Hai became concerned, “Did you mess up your stomach from eating something unclean again?”
Just as Gu Hai was speaking, Bai Luo Yin suddenly felt nauseated out of nowhere and ran to the bathroom to vomit. When Gu Hai stepped in, Bai Luo Yin had already started to spit out acid liquid while tears were gushing out from his eyes.
Once he was done rinsing his mouth, Bai Luo Yin went back to sit in the front of the table—looking at Gu Hai with an apologetic expression.
Although Gu Hai felt bothered, he did not say anything. He simply grabbed a piece of beef and placed it near his mouth to somehow tempt Bai Luo Yin. “Look how delicious it is.”
The second Bai Luo Yin saw Gu Hai doing that, he couldn’t help but to think of Zhou Ling Yun, and that nearly caused him to vomit again.
“Gu Hai, don’t worry about me. You can just eat it yourself.”
How could Gu Hai give up so easily?! That stomach was one of Gu Hai’s magical weapons to fasten Bai Luo Yin to him. If that trump card was actually destroyed, then it definitely won’t be effective in the future in case they argued.
As a result, Gu Hai patiently sat down beside Bai Luo Yin and covered his eyes. Then he picked up a piece of fish, took out the bones and put it near Bai Luo Yin’s mouth before he gently said, “Taste it…”
Seeing Bai Luo Yin incessantly struggled in every possible way, Gu Hai resorted to shoving the fish in his mouth. Since there was a huge disparity between the taste and texture of fish and fatty meat, Bai Luo Yin was able to accept it. Soon, Gu Hai slowly fed him some chicken, which was then followed by lamb meat. But when Gu Hai finally passed the pork meat to his mouth, Bai Luo Yin still shook his head.
“Come, look at my mouth. Don’t look at the meat and just look at my mouth.”
Since Gu Hai said it like that, Bai Luo Yin shifted all his attention to Gu Hai’s mouth.
Gu Hai bit into a piece of lean meat and immediately brought it close to Bai Luo Yin’s lips, but Bai Luo Yin evaded without hesitation. To solve that, Gu Hai first firmly sealed Bai Luo Yin’s lips with his, then used his tongue to slowly push the meat into Bai Luo Yin’s mouth before incessantly giving him some encouragement. “Just chew it for a while. It’s very savory.”
Not daring to chew it, Bai Luo Yin swallowed it all in one go.
Gu Hai picked up another piece of meat.
Seeing that, Bai Luo Yin swiftly gripped Gu Hai’s wrist while wearing an embarrassed expression—akin to that of not wanting to make it difficult for someone. “Gu Hai, don’t spoil me anymore. When I didn’t have you before, I could eat anything. When we were stationed in the desert and had to train there day in and day out, even steamed buns that were as hard as ice-shards tasted extremely good. But since you started bringing food over to me, my stomach acts up every now and then. If I eat something that’s slightly different, I immediately feel uncomfortable.”
“That’s precisely the result I wanted,” Gu Hai said with much pride and arrogance, “That way, you won’t dare to eat indiscriminately.”
“The crucial point is, there is simply no way we can live together and—you can’t always bring me food! Our squadrons are also out frequently… sometimes, we are stationed outside of the city for trainings that could last for a month or longer. I didn’t feel anything about it before, but now, just thinking about it is especially frightening.”
Hearing all those words, Gu Hai felt particularly sorrowful, however, he did not show. Instead, he tried to comfort Bai Luo Yin to the best of his ability.
“It’s alright… what you imagine now may be very painful, but when you are compelled to face it, you will definitely be able to manage it. Since there aren’t that many good days, you have to enjoy it all without delay. Or else, when a day comes where you are actually suffering, you’re definitely going to regret not having eaten a few more bites. Come on, open your mouth.”
—
When the two were taking a bath and rubbing each other’s backs, Gu Hai looked at the wound on Bai Luo Yin’s waist and couldn’t help but to ask, “How exactly did you get injured here?”
“It happened when I was training.”
Gu Hai was bewildered, “What kind of training would cause such an injury?”
“…hula hooping.”
“The military actually has that kind of training?” Gu Hai firmly grabbed Xiao Yin Zi for a moment.
Bai Luo Yin retaliated by gripping Xiao Hai Zi back. “Not only that, but we’ve also had a competition!”
Gu Hai looked carefully at the purlin-shape like bruise in Bai Luo Yin’s waist and sighed sorrowfully again. “Were there fragments of glass glued to the hula hoops that you guys use or something?”
At a loss for words, Bai Luo Yin started to mumble a series of vague answers in an attempt to dodge the topic.
“Tell me the truth, what exactly happened to your waist?” Gu Hai’s expression was completely imbued with seriousness.
Knowing that he could no longer conceal it, Bai Luo Yin told Gu Hai the truth.
“Apparently, my training wasn’t up to standard, so I was punished.”
Gu Hai’s complexion changed immediately, “What kind of punishment?”
Bai Luo Yin went silent for a long time before he finally spoke. “…using my waist to drag a jet for fifty meters.”
Once those words ended, Gu Hai took a deep breath while all the blood in his body flowed backward.
“It’s that Zhou Ling Yun again, right?”
“Don’t go looking for him!” Bai Luo Yin firmly said with emphasis. “I’ve already decided that I will surrender to him. Later on, I’ll train properly and won’t act smart or resort to petty tricks anymore. When we battled in the sky that day, it was the first time he and I actually went against each other. I realized then that there’s a huge gap between him and me. I must strive to surpass him!”
By now, Gu Hai honestly felt exhausted for Bai Luo Yin. “What do you want to achieve such a high level of achievement for?”
“Only if I’m outstanding will your father possibly accept me. Apart from that, I can’t think of anything else I can do for you.”
Gu Hai no longer said anything else, as an indescribable feeling settled heavily in his heart.