After Being Mistaken for His Boyfriend by His Amnesiac Childhood Friend CHAPTER 7
Chapter 7
The afternoon sun was warm and comforting. The hospital bed was hard, and Jian Huaiyi had barely slept last night.
The warmth spread from his chest to his legs. He leaned against the tatami mat, his long legs crossed casually, and unknowingly fell asleep, propped up on his arm.
Liang Xun noticed he was very tired and didn’t disturb him. He quietly got up, his hands in his pockets, and wandered into the back room.
Although he wasn’t a doctor, he knew some things that could help with memory recovery.
There was a plant stand on the balcony with several pots of Eustoma.
These were high-quality Eustoma, with bright, full petals, clearly well-cared for by their owner.
A picture vaguely formed in his mind: a young man crouching in front of the plant stand, a small spray bottle in his hand, bending down to water the Eustoma.
Liang Xun stood by the balcony door, the light grazing his high nose bridge, like a serene statue.
Before today, he never imagined he’d be with a man, especially Jian Huaiyi.
An adopted son of the Jian family, and the legitimate young master of the Jian family – their identities were inherently unequal, and they were naturally at odds.
In the hospital, he hadn’t told Jian Huaiyi the truth.
He hadn’t just lost his memories from age eighteen to the present, he had almost completely lost all memories related to Jian Huaiyi from his youth.
His mind felt like it was wrapped in a black cloth, obscuring most of his memories, leaving only a few fragments.
For example, he and Jian Huaiyi slept together on his eighteenth birthday.
This fragment was unusually clear, as if it had happened recently.
He remembered Jian Huaiyi’s furrowed brows, the tears welling up in his eyelashes, and the barely suppressed whimpers escaping his lips.
Liang Xun pursed his lips. He remembered Jian Huaiyi had initiated it.
He didn’t know Jian Huaiyi well, but he knew himself.
If he hadn’t allowed it, Jian Huaiyi wouldn’t have succeeded even if he had tied him up.
And for him to allow it, there were only two possibilities: either Jian Huaiyi was his lover, or he had unrequited feelings for Jian Huaiyi.
He automatically dismissed the latter possibility. He never considered himself capable of such a foolish act as “unrequited love,” even if the object was the perpetually pursued Jian Huaiyi.
Jian Huaiyi was his boyfriend.
This possibility sounded much better.
Liang Xun pulled out a hand from his pocket and moved a pot of Eustoma from the shade into the sun. The petals, bathed in sunlight, became even brighter.
The villa was fully equipped, but only the master bedroom had bedding; the guest room was empty, seemingly unoccupied.
Jian Huaiyi had said he was busy with work, so they didn’t live together often.
Sure enough, he didn’t find anything belonging to him in this villa.
Liang Xun explored, but his memory didn’t improve.
The villa was too unfamiliar to him, probably because he hadn’t stayed here often enough; nothing felt familiar.
He attributed the unfamiliarity to the fact that his brain was still in the post-traumatic stage – in simple terms, his brain was messed up.
“Are you surveying your territory?”
Jian Huaiyi’s voice came from the living room. Having just woken from a nap, his clear voice was slightly hoarse, echoing the fragment in Liang Xun’s mind.
Liang Xun’s fingertips paused before he walked forward: “Something like that.”
Jian Huaiyi leaned against the sofa, exuding laziness, and lifted his eyelids to look at Liang Xun.
“So, what do you think of this territory?”
Having just woken up, his brain was still in a state of shutdown. His post-sleep sluggishness was habitual. He still thought Liang Xun was his good brother and chatted casually.
“Compared to Mr. Liang’s penthouse…”
Mr. Liang, penthouse.
Liang Xun picked up these keywords. It seemed he was a frequently traveling CEO before his amnesia.
From morning until now, he had considered countless possibilities, but in any of them, he felt he should be very wealthy.
Subconsciously, he believed that if he were as penniless as he was in his youth, Jian Huaiyi wouldn’t be with him.
It wasn’t about Jian Huaiyi being discriminatory, but he wouldn’t allow his lover to be a powerless adopted son.
Unable to recall Jian Huaiyi’s “penthouse,” Liang Xun changed the subject, his tone slightly unnatural.
“They’re both good. Am I staying here tonight?”
“Don’t you have a flight this afternoon?” Jian Huaiyi instinctively replied.
A moment later, his hazy eyes cleared. He patted his forehead, his expression changing.
“Yes, you’ve just had surgery, and your brain is still messed up. I suggest you suspend your work for a while.”
His tone was very polite, so polite that Liang Xun felt something strange, but he quickly suppressed it.
“Okay.”
The villa was bought hastily; his friend’s belongings weren’t fully cleared out yet.
Jian Huaiyi called the butler to deliver two sets of toiletries and a change of clothes. Liang Xun was trying to log into WeChat using the spare phone Jian Huaiyi gave him, and he lifted his face from the phone when he heard the sound.
As soon as Jian Huaiyi hung up, he met Liang Xun’s deep, meaningful black eyes, his heart inexplicably jolting.
Had his act been discovered?
Jian Huaiyi wanted Liang Xun to be suspicious so he wouldn’t have to play this “boyfriend” who would destroy their brotherhood, but he was also afraid of causing secondary damage to Liang Xun’s fragile brain.
Ultimately, reason prevailed. Suspicion would lead to the loss of a brotherly bond, but secondary injury would cause him to lose a brother.
Jian Huaiyi turned off his phone and awkwardly said, “What’s wrong, honey?”
The strange emotion in Liang Xun’s eyes instantly disappeared, and he calmly replied, “Nothing.”
Jian Huaiyi breathed a sigh of relief. He never expected to call another man such a cringe-worthy term, but Liang Xun seemed to be rather accepting. He watched Liang Xun’s expression go from suspicious to calm.
Can memory really conquer instinct?
He used to show disgust when hearing anything about same-sex relationships. Now, he could calmly listen to another man calling him that.
The water in the kitchen kettle boiled, emitting a “ding” sound.
Hopefully, Liang Xun would understand his good intentions after regaining his memory.
Forget understanding. Just don’t become enemies.
Otherwise, Zhao Yan Ting and Jiang Yue would be caught in the middle.
Time passed quickly, and by evening, the villa was tidied up.
Jian Huaiyi cooked dinner. He wasn’t a great cook, but he could make two bowls of clear soup noodles – one for him and one for Liang Xun.
He heard that eating something replenishes it, and he picked out the only two pieces of garnish in the noodles, feeling even more guilty towards Liang Xun.
Those who knew the truth knew he was helping Liang Xun recover; those who didn’t might think he was abusing him.
“Shall we eat out?” Jian Huaiyi put down his chopsticks.
Liang Xun picked up a chopstick of noodles. His thin lips were moistened by the soup, glistening with oil, their color less pale than during the day.
After a moment, he said, “Give me two minutes,” and then swallowed the noodles he had picked up.
In the next two minutes, Jian Huaiyi watched as Liang Xun ate the bland clear soup noodles, including the vegetables and soup, clean.
“Okay, let’s go.”
Jian Huaiyi sat still, his lips moving slightly as he hesitated after Liang Xun urged him.
But then he remembered that Liang Xun had spent most of his years abroad, and he might be like most returning overseas students, developing an unprecedented enthusiasm for Chinese food after returning to the country.
Even a simple bowl of clear soup noodles could hold a special taste, a taste of home.
