Zhuang Ningyu had been suffering from a poor appetite lately, feeling full after just a couple of bites of anything. Even his favorite king crab legs were eaten with little enthusiasm. Yi Ke specially called Pei Yuan about this, asking if a full physical examination was needed. Dean Pei, after listening, replied, “I think it’s just the hot weather causing a loss of appetite, which is normal. On the contrary, you should find time to come over for a check-up.”
Yi Ke: “Me?”
Pei Yuan: “Ningyu said you finished his entire week’s worth of food in one lunch a few days ago.”
Zhuang Ningyu, hugging a cushion and curled up on the sofa, raised his hand to indicate that it was indeed him who asked. Although a week’s worth was an exaggeration, Yi Ke’s appetite in the past two days had truly been excessive, and the last time this happened was before he evolved. After hanging up, Yi Ke squeezed in next to his wife and explained, “That was because you wouldn’t eat the food after it was cooked, and I didn’t want to waste it.”
Zhuang Ningyu patted his shoulder. Don’t make excuses. If you can’t finish it, put it in the fridge. I don’t need you to be a competitive eater. You were just hungry. Listen to me, come to the hospital with me this weekend.
Yi Ke didn’t want to go. On Saturday morning, even after the blanket was pulled off, he lay on the bed refusing to get up. Zhuang Ningyu tugged a couple of times but couldn’t move him, so he changed tactics, standing by the bed and articulating clearly: “I feel like I have a poor appetite and want to go to the hospital for a check-up.”
The blanket roll remained motionless, only a finger extended from inside and wagged lazily. NO, you won’t go for a check-up, I know, you just want to trick me into going out.
This scene felt familiar. Last weekend, when Zhuang Ningyu didn’t want to get up to eat, he used this same method of refusal. And how did Yi Ke solve the problem back then… Zhuang Ningyu felt he couldn’t replicate that, so he turned and went into the bathroom, brushing his teeth, washing up, and changing clothes on his own. Then he went straight to the parking lot. After waiting in the car for about ten minutes, Yi Ke indeed arrived with a box of sandwiches and a bottle of soy milk, bending over to open the driver’s door: “Go eat breakfast in the passenger seat, I’ll drive.”
Zhuang Ningyu reached out and patted his head. Good boy.
The physical examination required fasting. Yi Ke, with an empty stomach, suffered through the morning at Andao International, having seven or eight tubes of blood drawn by the young nurse. Finally, he collapsed onto his wife, weakly declaring that he couldn’t take it anymore and was about to faint.
Zhuang Ningyu cooperated and hugged him: “Okay, okay, okay, I’ll treat you to nourishing ginseng and old hen soup for lunch.”
Yi Ke asked: “Will you stew it yourself?”
Zhuang Ningyu could stew it himself, but there wasn’t enough time, and besides, he couldn’t find a fresh free-range chicken immediately. So he drove Yi Ke to the private kitchen restaurant opened by an old acquaintance in Yuhua Lane. The restaurant had been renovated recently, adding many peculiar little items. While waiting for the food, Zhuang Ningyu browsed through the fridge magnets at the front desk. Among them, a blue whale shark was exquisitely made. He took it down and looked at it against the sun. Catching a glimpse from the corner of his eye while wiping crystal glasses, the owner smiled and said, “Bought it on that island of Fu Han’s.”
“How is he doing lately?” Zhuang Ningyu asked casually.
“Recovering quite well physically,” the owner said. “He’ll probably settle in the US permanently. I see he quite likes the newly bought resort island.”
The mess of the Fu Group in the country still hadn’t been fully cleaned up. As the second son of the Fu family, Fu Han would inevitably be implicated to some extent, so in the short term… or long term, he probably wouldn’t come back.
There was a sentence printed on the back of the whale shark magnet—
I thought I would sail about a little and see the watery part of the world.
From Herman Melville’s Moby Dick, which was also the reading theme when Fu Han first attended the book club.
“It can be considered a way of healing,” the owner said. “You know, he had some personality defects to begin with. After being poisoned by Liam, he became even more… Honestly, if he hadn’t found POV4 later, I suspect sooner or later he would have dragged Liam into the Cradle Island rule zone and perished together with him.”
“Liam probably dealt with Fu Dong for too long, so he mistakenly thought Fu Han was also like Fu Dong—a foolish spendthrift easy to manipulate.” Zhuang Ningyu put the magnet back. The whale shark rested on the dark blue enamel board, looking as if it had returned to the sea, calm and free.
The ocean is indeed the best healer.
Zhuang Ningyu returned to the private room. Yi Ke had his long legs stretched out, leaning lazily on the chair, cheeks puffing as he ate preserved plums, with a neat pile of pits on his bone plate. Zhuang Ningyu confiscated the remaining half plate of plums, frowning: “Don’t eat candied fruits on an empty stomach.”
“You were out for so long.” Yi Ke reached out and pulled him to sit on his lap. “What did you chat about with the owner?”
“Talked about Fu Han.” Zhuang Ningyu didn’t hide it. “Heard he bought an island in the Indian Ocean.”
“I know.” Yi Ke continued to chew, “Top-tier resort island, and he invested in a biotechnology medical center in the US, where Nathaniel works.”
Smack.
“Why are you still staring at his family?”
“Didn’t stare, just incidental.”
Zhuang Ningyu didn’t know whether to laugh or cry. Hearing his stomach growling, he got up to hurry the food, lest this person starve. He ordered four dishes first. Given Yi Ke’s appetite over the past two days, Zhuang Ningyu felt he might need another round. But unexpectedly, the young master’s appetite suddenly plummeted. Zhuang Ningyu looked at the more than half-left dishes and the large half jar of old hen soup on the table, pondered for a moment, and leaned closer: “You’re full?”
“I’m full.”
“Really full, and not afraid that the owner of this shop will spread rumors in the circle after learning about your food intake, right?”
Yi Ke held his arms with both hands and corrected: “Wifey, first, eating a lot isn’t called being a glutton, it’s called being young, healthy, and strong. Second, I’m really full.”
Could it really be that the high consumption over the past two days was due to the heat and high-intensity training? Zhuang Ningyu was skeptical. He called the waiter to pack the remaining soup. But after bringing it home, Yi Ke didn’t eat it either. He did two sets of strength training, then washed up and went to sleep. It seemed he really wasn’t hungry. Around six in the afternoon, Yi Ke, having woken up, appeared at the study door, sticking in a slightly messy head: “Wifey, I’m not hungry tonight, so I won’t eat. Shall I cook noodles for you with the remaining chicken soup?”
Zhuang Ningyu felt like a hard-working kindergarten teacher worrying endlessly. It wasn’t okay if the child ate too much, and even more worrying if he ate nothing at all. He closed his laptop and followed into the kitchen: “You had eight tubes of blood drawn today but only ate one meal. Are you sure you’re okay?”
Yi Ke also felt his appetite had been a bit extreme these two days, but physically he seemed fine. After thinking it over, he could only attribute it to indigestion from eating too much recently.
Zhuang Ningyu still felt it was related to evolution, so he decided to go to the center the next day to find the modern-day Hua Tuo, Director Wang, for a face-to-face analysis. As a result, that night, Yi Ke developed a fever.
The bedroom at 3 AM was very quiet. Zhuang Ningyu had researched evolution before bed, so his mind was chaotic and he wasn’t sleeping deeply. In his shallow, intermittent dreams, a patch of burning sparks was suddenly blown in. The dense points of light rose and fell, quickly turning into raging flames. The world was being baked. He sat up in shock from the parched heat, his hand blindly supporting himself on the side, only to touch a temperature just like in his dream.
Yi Ke had been burning for who knew how long; his whole body was wet with sweat, brows tightly furrowed. Zhuang Ningyu placed the back of his hand on Yi Ke’s forehead to check the temperature, then hurriedly lifted the quilt to get out of bed for a cooling patch, only to have his wrist grabbed and be pulled back heavily. Hot breath landed by his ear as Yi Ke pressed on top of him, eyes bloodshot, fingers tightly gripping his thin shoulder, body tense like a large predator hunting.
Zhuang Ningyu tried to pull his wrist, immediately feeling the grip on his shoulder intensify steeply. The fingernails almost sank deep into his flesh. He groaned in pain. Yi Ke seemed to sober up a little, releasing some strength, but still didn’t let him go. The interference of the evolution period made his thoughts chaotic, but his instinctive love for his lover made him suppress part of the extreme possessiveness brought by evolution. Sweat slid down from his messy hair. After staring at Zhuang Ningyu for a long time, he leaned down, hugging him tightly with both arms, nose nuzzling messily against that slightly warm neck, emitting a wronged whimper from his throat.
“It’s okay.” Zhuang Ningyu used his free hand to hold the back of Yi Ke’s head, patting gently. “I’ll go pour you some water first, okay?”
Yi Ke shook his head, arms tightening further. The familiar warm and soft scent in his nose made his desire expand even more, his breathing becoming rapid and high-frequency. His palm rubbed forcefully over that slightly sweaty waist again and again, until the pajamas of the person in his arms were wrinkled into a ball and the buttons popped open messily.
Another wave of pain came from his shoulder; Yi Ke had bitten onto a piece of skin, grinding it with his teeth. After leaving a mark, he licked the bite with the tip of his tongue. His lover’s obedience excited him until veins popped, every muscle hard and congested with blood. He clearly knew what he wanted, but at the same time, he knew even more clearly that he didn’t seem to have the ability to contend with the emotional disorder of the evolution period. So, trembling, he pulled Zhuang Ningyu’s pajamas back together, kissed his forehead, gritted his teeth, and tried to get out of bed.
“What are you doing?” Zhuang Ningyu grabbed him.
Just the touch of skin on his wrist felt like electricity surging through his body. Yi Ke said hoarsely: “I’m going to take a cold shower.”
Zhuang Ningyu shook his head and pulled him down, exchanging a kiss. To Yi Ke right now, normal body temperature carried a snowflake-like coolness. He immediately deepened the demand obsessively. Zhuang Ningyu was pressed back onto the soft down pillow again. Cupping Yi Ke’s face with both hands, he whispered: “Don’t be afraid of your evolution period. You won’t lose control.”
“Really?” Yi Ke looked at him, voice still raspy, gaze landing on lips stained with moisture by himself. The fingers in the hair tightened, tilting his head to kiss him fiercely again. Originally intending to give a violent warning, he ultimately lost himself in his lover’s incredibly gentle comfort.
Zhuang Ningyu accepted Yi Ke’s evolution period, which was once predicted to be “highly uncontrollable and highly dangerous,” with a completely inclusive attitude. Yi Ke indeed controlled his emotions, but only his emotions. The physical changes were not within his control, nor within Zhuang Ningyu’s control—or rather, Zhuang Ningyu could control it… just in another direction he wasn’t quite able to accept.
This night was severely overloaded for Zhuang Ningyu. Although Yi Ke took care of his feelings meticulously every time, the super-high body temperature brought by the evolution period and some other overly significant changes still brought Zhuang Ningyu to the brink of collapse several times. Finally, unable to bear it any longer, he raised his hand and slapped the other person—a soft slap with no force.
It had the opposite effect.
Yi Ke looked at his snow-white body and constantly heaving chest, the darkness in his eyes deepening. In a daze, Zhuang Ningyu felt the other party seemed to have withdrawn, and he breathed a sigh of relief. But before he could recover, the bed sank again. The familiar breath covered him once more, and a cool sensation immediately came from his chest. Zhuang Ningyu opened his eyes, gaze lowering. Through wet eyelashes, he saw a patch of oily green.
“You—”
Yi Ke didn’t give him a chance to speak. His thumb rubbed heavily over the gem. The hard edges carved into the emerald scraped against the sensitive, flushed skin, instantly cutting off all of Zhuang Ningyu’s sounds.
Beautiful art should be paired with even more beautiful art.
Yi Ke took a pillow and placed it between Zhuang Ningyu’s head and the headboard, to prevent him from bumping it. Like a nesting male who always likes to use the world’s softest cotton to build a comfortable, safe, airtight little nest for his mate.
A new round of storm and gale. In the end, Zhuang Ningyu almost resigned himself to fate and fell into a heavy sleep. The dreams were still humid and swaying, until a long time later, silence finally returned. Exhaustion would take away even a dream as thin as ox hair. He felt he had never slept so deeply, as if three days and three nights had passed. When he woke up, the bedroom was still dark, with only a floor lamp on.
The phone time showed 20:02:18. Zhuang Ningyu thought for half a day before realizing he had slept for a whole day. He forced his sore body to wash his face and went downstairs to see what Yi Ke was doing. Halfway down the stairs, he saw the other party sitting cross-legged on the living room sofa, head bowed, doing needlework.
The scene was indeed a bit bizarre, so bizarre that even Zhuang Ningyu stopped in shock, wondering if he was still dreaming. He tentatively took a step down the stairs, but carelessly stepped on air, stumbling forward two steps, and was steadily caught by Yi Ke who rushed over.
“Why didn’t you call me?” Yi Ke carried him back to the sofa, palm skillfully covering the waist that shouldn’t be touched. Seeing Zhuang Ningyu’s gaze drifting to the side, he took the initiative to explain: “I tore the buttons off your pajamas last night, doing some sewing to fix them.”
On the coffee table was a brand new, huge plastic box containing seventy or eighty rolls of sewing thread alone—red, orange, yellow, green, cyan, blue, purple. Zhuang Ningyu asked: “You bought this?”
“This was the only kind available for delivery.” Yi Ke hugged him. “It doesn’t matter, we can use it later.”
Zhuang Ningyu frowned, really unable to think of any other scenario in this house where needle and thread would be needed—it seemed only when clothes were torn. So he immediately expressed that it was unnecessary. After you finish sewing the buttons, send it to a community convenience point. I can’t stand looking at this stuff.
Yi Ke laughed and bit him through the pajamas. The swelling and pain left from last night hadn’t completely subsided, earning him a justified loud slap. Zhuang Ningyu pulled his ear: “Are the test results out?”
“They’re out. Side effects brought by the evolution period.” Yi Ke answered while holding him. “Besides regular medication, Pei Yuan also suggested you prepare a box of sedatives.”
Zhuang Ningyu asked calmly: “Why prepare sedatives? So that when you lose control, I can inject myself and attain peace by not seeing anything?”
Yi Ke buried his face in his chest and laughed muffledly. After laughing enough, he looked up, rubbing his chin against him. The happy puppy who had eaten and drunk his fill looked soft and floppy, and could even sew clothes. It sounded no different from a fairy tale. Zhuang Ningyu patted his face, sighing sincerely: “You were more pleasing to the eye during the day.” Although technically it wasn’t day right now, the meaning was there.
Yi Ke nodded “Mhm mhm mhm”: “Then let’s switch to doing it during the day in the future.”
Zhuang Ningyu paused, then laughed and pushed his head away: “Get lost.”
Yi Ke: Impossible!
He pounced forward, completing on the sofa the infinitely long kiss that Zhuang Ningyu hadn’t had time to collect last night due to passing out.
“We agreed to go to your parents’ house for dinner today.” Zhuang Ningyu looked at him while lying back. “How did you explain it to your parents?”
“Just said I’m in my evolution period and it’s inconvenient to go out.” Yi Ke kissed his wife on the lips again. “But it is a pity we didn’t go today; we missed a big scene.”
“What scene?”
“Grandma came back from her world trip.”
She came back in a very unconventional way. In the afternoon, the family was happily eating at a friend’s private kitchen in a mall. Halfway through the meal, a cyberpunk Spider-Man suddenly appeared outside the window. The silver-haired grandma descended silently from the sky. Deng Zongyun looked at her hardcore mother smiling broadly outside the glass, then remembered this was the eighth floor. Her vision went black, and she almost fainted on the spot.
“Can you believe it? She’s over seventy.” Yi Ke found it hard to comprehend. “She could actually evolve from B to A.”
Zhuang Ningyu analyzed: “Then maybe your endlessly long evolution is also inherited from her. When do you plan to arrange for us to meet?”
“Grandma and Grandpa will stay in Jincheng for a long time this time, no rush.” Yi Ke pulled Zhuang Ningyu up to sit. “She likes you very much.”
Zhuang Ningyu nodded: “I know.”
“I just like your confidence.” Yi Ke stuffed a soft cushion into his arms and turned toward the kitchen. “Wait, hubby is going to cook for you.”
“Your evolution period is over?” Zhuang Ningyu looked at his back and asked.
Yi Ke waved his hand, deadly serious: “No, continuing tonight.”
A sound of wind breaking came from behind. Yi Ke alertly jogged two steps, successfully dodging his wife’s cushion attack.
soon the sound of pots and pans clashing rang out in the kitchen. Zhuang Ningyu lay on the sofa, casually picked up a book from the side, pulled out the bookmark, and continued reading the painful sadomasochistic love bound between morality and religion. After flipping two pages, he found a paragraph he loved most circled in pencil, with a line of scribbled small characters next to it—Service Hotline: followed by a colon and a familiar mobile number.
“…”
Zhuang Ningyu stood at the kitchen door in his slippers: “Spiritual imprisonment, do you understand? Spiritual level, soul pursuit, very high-class. You are not allowed to scribble in my books in the future!”
Yi Ke turned around and stuffed a purely sweet cherry tomato into his mouth: “Understood, but we can also start from the superficial physical level and gradually increase.”
Increase your caterpillar! Zhuang Ningyu kneed him. Yi Ke retreated decisively, eyes widening: “How can you murder your husband like this?”
Zhuang Ningyu signaled him to cut the crap and quickly bring over the remaining cherry tomatoes. Eating while saying: “Helping you jump straight to the spiritual level.”
Yi Ke: “Then your life will lose a lot of fun.”
Zhuang Ningyu: “It won’t. I can switch to finding new fun in your noble character, outstanding wisdom, and precious virtues.”
Yi Ke: “But I don’t have those things.”
Zhuang Ningyu stopped chewing. Aren’t you being a little too blunt?
“Wifey!” Yi Ke hugged him with a “wer” sound, burying his head in the fragrant neck. “Let’s discuss spiritual matters when we are a hundred years old!”
