Chapter 24: Another Peach Blossom
A knocking sound—dong, dong, dong—rang out. The person in the room was woken up, rubbing eyes that were somewhat red and swollen.
“Brother Yu, Zhouyue, we’re planning to leave. Are you coming with us?”
Shen Zhouyue was exhausted; even his fingers felt sore and weak. He only wanted to rest right now, hearing the voice outside the door in a daze.
He only felt someone beside him get up and walk toward the door.
A rustling sound followed, and then the mattress beside him dipped, clearly indicating someone had gotten back into bed.
Shen Zhouyue mumbled something and fell into a deep sleep.
When he woke up again, it was already the afternoon of the next day.
Shen Zhouyue opened his eyes; there was no sign of Yu Tingzhou beside him.
He slowly sat up, his body emitting a series of creaking sounds, like an old machine rebooting.
A set of clean clothes lay on the bedside table. Shen Zhouyue glanced at them; the size seemed right.
He slowly dragged his body toward the bathroom.
The hot water hit his body, washing away the fatigue. Shen Zhouyue wrapped a towel around himself, walked out, and changed into the clean clothes from the bedside table.
But the clothes had a low collar, completely failing to cover the bite mark and hickeys on Shen Zhouyue’s neck.
If he went out looking like this, he would definitely be teased again…
Shen Zhouyue’s teeth itched with hatred. He rummaged through the room, trying to see if there was anything that could cover the marks on his neck.
The room door opened. Shen Zhouyue didn’t notice the subtle movement at all.
“What are you doing?”
Shen Zhouyue snapped back to reality and saw Yu Tingzhou standing at the door with a look of surprise.
“You have the nerve to ask?”
Shen Zhouyue walked up to Yu Tingzhou, puffing his cheeks in anger, pointed at the marks on his neck, and questioned, “Did you forget the good deeds you did yourself?”
Yu Tingzhou’s gaze landed on Shen Zhouyue’s slender neck. The slightly indented bite mark carried a crimson hue, looking very obvious against the fair skin.
He looked away uncomfortably. The memories of last night hadn’t disappeared from his mind; instead, after a night, they had become even more vivid.
“Sorry!”
“I’ll go find a band-aid for you. If you stick it over the wound, no one will know.”
Shen Zhouyue thought that was a decent idea. He nodded in agreement but still gave Yu Tingzhou a disgruntled glare.
After the band-aid was retrieved, Shen Zhouyue tried to apply it to the wound.
However, the wound was on the back of his neck. While he could see it clearly by tilting his head in the mirror, sticking the band-aid on himself was difficult.
Yu Tingzhou watched as Shen Zhouyue repeatedly stuck the band-aid on and peeled it off, pulling up a small corner of the scab on the wound, causing faint blood to seep out. Frowning, he grabbed Shen Zhouyue’s hand.
Shen Zhouyue furrowed his brows and asked in an impatient tone, “What are you doing? Let go of me!”
“If you keep messing with it yourself, it’s going to bleed.”
Yu Tingzhou snatched the band-aid from Shen Zhouyue’s hand and used the padded part to cover the bite mark.
“Done.”
Shen Zhouyue looked carefully in the mirror. The bite mark was indeed covered, but the hickeys were still there.
Because the position was awkward, it wasn’t convenient for Shen Zhouyue to do it himself, so he handed another band-aid to Yu Tingzhou. “Help me cover the other mark too!”
Yu Tingzhou looked at Shen Zhouyue’s appearance with a helpless expression, but he still took the band-aid and carefully covered the hickey on his neck.
Confirming there were no other visible traces of what happened last night, Shen Zhouyue finally breathed a sigh of relief.
“Next time, don’t leave marks. It’s troublesome!”
Yu Tingzhou coughed awkwardly and changed the subject. “It’s getting late. We should go. I’ve already told Auntie.”
Shen Zhouyue snapped back to reality and felt a bit awkward too. By tacit agreement, they ignored the previous topic. He nodded and left the estate with Yu Tingzhou.
On the way back, Yu Tingzhou suddenly said, “Mom gave me two tickets to an art exhibition and asked me to go with you.”
“I don’t have time. Here are the tickets. You can ask a friend or go by yourself.”
Art exhibition?
Shen Zhouyue was a little confused.
He didn’t recall any news about an art exhibition being held recently.
He took the tickets from Yu Tingzhou and realized it must be a private exhibition not open to the public.
The artist was a somewhat famous painter named Wen Qiusheng.
Shen Zhouyue had seen a few of his paintings before. The style was unique and gave people a healing feeling.
Anticipation suddenly rose in Shen Zhouyue’s heart. This was one of his few hobbies outside of raising his cub.
He glanced at Yu Tingzhou and whispered, “Thank you!”
He knew very well that without Yu Tingzhou, he wouldn’t have been able to get tickets to such a private exhibition.
The exhibition was held three days later at a private estate.
The estate wasn’t large, at least not as big as the one where the birthday party was held.
Shen Zhouyue was driven to the estate by Yu Tingzhou’s assistant.
As soon as he got out of the car, he saw a man standing at the entrance.
The man had a pair of round almond eyes, and his gaze was very gentle.
His rosy lips curved up slightly, giving people a feeling like bathing in a refreshing spring breeze.
Shen Zhouyue walked somewhat reservedly to the man’s side and handed him the ticket.
When the man saw Shen Zhouyue, he was surprised. “My exhibition isn’t open to the public. Your ticket is…?”
So he is Wen Qiusheng!
Indeed, only such a gentle person could paint such healing pictures…
Looking at Wen Qiusheng in front of him, Shen Zhouyue couldn’t help but zone out.
“Hello?”
A trace of impatience flashed in Wen Qiusheng’s eyes, but it vanished quickly.
Shen Zhouyue didn’t notice Wen Qiusheng’s peculiarity. He lowered his head embarrassedly and explained, “My friend gave this to me.”
“There were two tickets in total, but I didn’t have a friend who could come to the exhibition with me, so I came alone.”
Most of Wen Qiusheng’s exhibition tickets were given to his own friends and family. He asked confusedly, “Who gave you the ticket?”
“Don’t misunderstand, I’ve received threatening letters from others before, so I’m a bit concerned about this.”
Shen Zhouyue smiled shyly. “Indeed, one should be careful.”
“Tingzhou gave it to me. Yu Tingzhou.”
What is his relationship with Tingzhou?
Wen Qiusheng maintained his gentle facade, but inside, his emotions were already churning like overturning seas and rivers.
“So that’s how it is!”
“Are you and Tingzhou friends?”
Wen Qiusheng acted overly familiar, taking Shen Zhouyue’s hand and leading him into the house.
Shen Zhouyue felt constrained and wanted to move Wen Qiusheng’s hand away, but felt it would be impolite, so he pretended not to notice.
Soon, he entered the house with Wen Qiusheng.
There weren’t many people inside, but there were plenty of paintings.
Some were ones Shen Zhouyue had seen before, while others were clearly new.
The style still looked very heartwarming. Shen Zhouyue’s gaze drifted away, following the paintings on the wall.
“You like my paintings very much?”
Shen Zhouyue nodded. “Your paintings look very warm.”
“If you like them, I can give you one!”
Shen Zhouyue froze for a moment, and a look of joy immediately appeared on his face. “Really?”
“But I heard you don’t like giving paintings to others…”
Shen Zhouyue was hesitant, worried about putting Wen Qiusheng in a difficult position.
“You are Tingzhou’s friend, and my relationship with Tingzhou is also very good. It’s just a painting; it’s nothing.”
“However, when I contacted Tingzhou yesterday, he didn’t tell me he gave the ticket to someone else. I thought he would come to my exhibition today!”
Shen Zhouyue frowned as he looked at Wen Qiusheng. He felt that whenever Wen Qiusheng mentioned Yu Tingzhou, his tone was a bit strange.
“Does your relationship with him seem very good?”
Wen Qiusheng smiled even more gently. “En, Tingzhou and I have known each other since childhood.”
“My health has never been very good, and the surrounding kids always bullied me because of it. Only Tingzhou would stand up for me and chase away those kids who bullied me.”
“It’s just that later, something happened in my family, and we moved away from Tingzhou’s neighborhood. It wasn’t until a few years ago that we reunited at a school abroad. He recognized me at a glance.”
Speaking of these things, Wen Qiusheng wore a sweet smile on his face, just like a young girl in love mentioning her sweetheart.
Great, just another one of Yu Tingzhou’s peach blossoms!
Shen Zhouyue had a headache. Fortunately, he was only back to borrow genes; otherwise, he would be depressed to death by these admirers throwing themselves at Yu Tingzhou…
“So that’s how it is!”
“Mr. Yu seems to care about you quite a bit; otherwise, he wouldn’t have recognized Mr. Wen at a glance in the crowd after so long.”
Shen Zhouyue silently changed his address for Yu Tingzhou.
Wen Qiusheng naturally noticed this, and the smile at the corner of his lips became more pronounced.
“En, I think so too.”
“I heard Auntie has been pressuring Tingzhou to get married. I originally planned to help persuade Auntie, but I’ve been busy with the exhibition lately and haven’t gotten around to it.”
Shen Zhouyue had originally planned to look at the exhibition, but Wen Qiusheng kept holding onto him, chattering on about matters concerning him and Yu Tingzhou.
He felt Wen Qiusheng was doing it on purpose.
If I knew this earlier, I wouldn’t have come today…
Shen Zhouyue rubbed his brow with a headache.
Suddenly, he saw a familiar figure in the crowd.
Isn’t that Chris?
Why is he here?
“You’re interested in Chris?”
Shen Zhouyue’s gaze was obvious, and Wen Qiusheng naturally noticed it.
He followed Shen Zhouyue’s gaze and teased with a smile, “Chris is a romantic playboy. Many people like him. Are you interested in him?”
Shen Zhouyue waved his hands frantically. “No… no, I met him abroad before. I didn’t expect you guys to know each other too. I just thought it was a coincidence.”
He absolutely did not have that kind of idea.
“Oh… you know Chris too? That’s quite a coincidence. Let’s go say hello!”
Saying that, he didn’t give Shen Zhouyue a chance to refuse and dragged him directly toward Chris.
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