withered lover

Shen Guiwan looked at the email, his mind went blank for a moment.

So many things happened during this time, so much that he forgot about Lu Xing who was still struggling in Yu's house, and also forgot about the things he entrusted Lu Yi to do.

Shen Guiwan originally thought well, he helped Lu Xing contact her sister, Lu Xing got rid of Yu Minggu's control, and he used Lu Yi's hand to bring Shen Lu down.

But after that rainy night, Shen Guiwan had two more scars on his body, and the person who had suffered from illness suddenly didn't know what to do.

What kind of person will he become when he grows up in what kind of environment? Shen Guiwan hated Shen Lu who forced his mother to death, but subtly changed into the frightening appearance of his biological father.

He is Shen Lu's son, and the same dirty blood he inherited from Shen Lu flows in his veins. This is the shadow that Shen Guiwan will never be able to get rid of.

He didn't know what it would be like if he escaped from Shen Lu's cage one day, without the torture and suppression of his biological father, and returned to freedom completely.

For a long time after breaking Shen Lu's head, Shen Guiwan was thinking about whether he would be like Shen Lu in the future, maliciously humiliating and hurting innocent people.

He struggled with such fear for a long time, until Du Zhinian took him out of the house and took him to see the tall Christmas tree in the shopping mall covered with decorations.

The towering tree that used to grow quietly in the forest was cut down, and it was dressed up in a ridiculous appearance and stood in the reinforced concrete jungle. It was endowed with beautiful blessings, but it could never take root here, and could only rely on human beings to give it meager nutrients to survive.

Shen Guiwan saw his own shadow on that tree. He lived in Du Zhinian's apartment and was kept in captivity by Du Zhinian. After healed his injuries, he still couldn't leave the city.

The Christmas tree was built in the warm shopping mall, it couldn't take root in the cement, but it didn't need to grow in the wind and snow, and Shen Guiwan stayed by Du Zhinian's side, so he could easily go to places that he couldn't go before. No more cold lonely nights and the pain of broken bones.

Du Zhinian satisfies his needs carefully, Shen Guiwan stays in the greenhouse, looking at the dancing fire in the fireplace day after day, the tension in his head suddenly broke one day.

He felt that as long as he could stay here, it was enough, and he didn't want to take revenge on Shen Lu, and he didn't want to make any more futile struggles.

Shen Guiwan completely lost his freedom after graduating from university. He had no money or contacts. Even if he got the evidence against Shen Lu, it would be useless. No one would believe what he said, and no one wanted to get into such a big trouble.

People who are stuck in the quagmire can't save themselves, let alone the ability to help others. Lu Xing is in such a situation, so he pins his hopes on himself.

Now that he has done it, Lu Xing sees new hope in his life, and there is no need to contact him and the Lu family sisters anymore.

He will continue to rot here, a corrupt piece of trash.

Shen Guiwan touched the scar on his palm, hung his fingers on the screen for a long time, and lightly pressed exit.

He kept staring at the phone with an overly serious expression, causing Du Zhinian, who had just entered the bedroom, to take another look.

"What's wrong?" Du Zhinian asked while wiping his hair.

Shen Guiwan pressed the lock screen button and slowly put down the phone, "It's fine."

He didn't delete Lu Yi's email, the record lay quietly in the inbox.

Unlike Shen Lu, Du Zhinian would check his cell phone and look through his chat records. Shen Guiwan didn't mention anything about Lu Yi, so Du Zhinian naturally didn't know about it.

There will be no chance to know in the future.

Shen Guiwan lay beside Du Zhinian's lap, the light in the bedroom shone into his pitch-black eyes, and his pupils shone with dots of light.

He was next to Du Zhinian, his body wrapped under the quilt trembled slightly.

Du Zhinian felt a faint tremor around his legs, lay down and held Shen Guiwan in his arms, and stretched his hands in from the hem of his pajamas.

He touched Shen Guiwan's back, the skin under his hands was warm, but kept trembling.

"Is it cold?" Du Zhinian pulled up the quilt and wrapped Shen Guiwan up.

Shen Guiwan buried her head in the quilt, and said softly, "A little bit."

Du Zhinian picked up the remote control and raised the temperature of the air conditioner by two degrees, patted his back to comfort him, "The temperature is cooling down again at night, go to bed early."

Shen Guiwan didn't answer, but leaned into Du Zhinian's arms again.

Shen Guiwan didn't sleep well, and had another dream in a daze.

In the dream, he broke through layers of barriers as thin as cicada's wings, and his body kept falling down. The constant weightlessness enveloped him, but the space below seemed endless, and he didn't feel the weight on his back for a long time. The sharp pain when he fell to the ground.

During the fall, Shen Guiwan heard a faint sound. After the sound, his body was suddenly attached to a soft object, and then he opened his eyes amidst a slight shaking.

Du Zhinian, who had been sleeping with his arms around him before, was sitting by the bed to answer the phone, listening silently, and hung up silently after a while.

He got up lightly to change his clothes, Shen Guiwan looked at it for a while, and the scene of Du Zhinian going out after answering the phone late at night appeared in his mind again.

That time when he went out late at night with Du Zhinian, he met Lu Xing.

Shen Guiwan picked up the phone, the time was displayed on the screen: 3:12, besides that, there was an unread email from Lu Yi.

He stared at the email, then raised his head to look at Du Zhinian who was picking up the medicine box. The light from the phone screen hit his face, and his skin showed a strange paleness.

Du Zhinian didn't notice that Shen Guiwan had woken up, packed up the medicine box and prepared to leave.

When he was about to open the bedroom door to leave, Shen Guiwan stopped him: "Where are you going?"

Du Zhinian was taken aback by a sudden sound behind him, his shoulders shook twice, and the medicine bottles in the medicine box collided together, making a crisp sound.

He turned his head, looked into Shen Guiwan's shining eyes, and said vaguely: "I have something to go out, you go to bed first."

Shen Guiwan looked at him without speaking, his eyes were as calm as water, but Du Zhinian inexplicably felt a guilty conscience called "I was about to go out to steal food and was caught by my lover".

He stood stiffly on the spot, Shen Guiwan spoke slowly, and asked, "Is it Yu Minggu?"

Shen Guiwan's intuition was too keen, and Du Zhinian knew he couldn't hide it, so he nodded and admitted, "Yes."

After receiving the expected answer, Shen Guiwan sat down on the bed for a while with his head down, got up and changed his clothes when Du Zhinian was hesitating whether to go out.

Du Zhinian looked at Shen Guiwan who was changing clothes, his throat moved up and down, and after a while he asked: "...Do you want to go together?"

"Go." Shen Guiwan paused, "I won't go in, I'll wait for you in the car."

Shen Guiwan sat in Du Zhinian's car, watching the scenery outside the car window gradually change from the familiar city center to a quiet villa area.

This time, Yu Minggu had greeted the security in advance, and Du Zhinian's car was unimpeded all the way until it stopped in front of Yu's villa.

Yu Minggu didn't come out to greet him like last time, Du Zhinian got out of the car with the medicine box.

He walked in a hurry, but turned back after taking two steps.

"Wait for me in the car, don't run around." Du Zhinian said to Shen Guiwan who was sitting in the co-pilot, his brows were slightly frowned, his eyes were full of worry.

Shen Guiwan responded docilely to the worried gaze, and Du Zhinian gave him a worried look before walking quickly into the villa.

Shen Guiwan watched Du Zhinian's back disappear behind the door, and stared blankly at the gate of Yu's villa.

The lights were on all night in front of the villa, and the hot bulbs continued to emit light, but the shadow of moths could no longer be seen in the cold winter night, and Shen Guiwan could not see the scene of moths flying into the flames.

He has seen it many times in the basement of Shen's house. The weak flying insects flew towards the bright light with their gray and white wings, hitting the glass lampshade, and their scorched bodies stuck to the hot inorganic matter.

The air was filled with a burnt smell, the glass lampshade was covered with moth corpses, and it shattered with a "snap", the glass shards and the wooden photo frame hit Shen Guiwan's body together, cutting open the fragile skin, Viscous blood oozes from the wound, outlining dazzling textures on the tiles, flowing towards the corner room.

The door of the room was wide open, and the mother's swollen body was lying on the cold iron bed. Lu Xing's weak cry came from the crack of the partially closed window, and the suppressed whimper was blown away by the cold wind. There is an out-of-tune ending.

Shen Guiwan heard someone calling his name, and an unfamiliar voice questioned him above his head, asking if he would continue to be an indifferent bystander and continue to watch innocent people die.

Those words stuck in Shen Guiwan's heart, he wanted to deny it, his lips opened and closed, but he couldn't make a sound.

Shen Guiwan frantically searched for the sound, the light bulb above his head flickered, then suddenly went out again.

After a long period of darkness, his vision regained light, and the scene in front of him was no longer the one that frightened him in his memory.

What Shen Guiwan saw was only those two lamps that quietly illuminated the night, and the warm light shone in through the car window, making him sting all over.

Before Du Zhinian came out, Shen Guiwan glanced at the time, and it was less than half an hour since Du Zhinian entered.

In just half an hour, he had a painful dream with his eyes wide open, and every minute and every second during this period was extremely tormenting.

Du Zhinian turned on the air conditioner fully, and the heater was blowing loudly. It was supposed to be a warm and comfortable environment, but Shen Guiwan felt his hands and feet were cold.

The chill seeped out from the depths of Shen Guiwan's body, the overheated air made him unable to breathe, and the suffocation almost took away all his consciousness.

He clutched his chest and curled up on the co-pilot, took out his phone and clicked on the unread emails he received late at night.

Shen Guiwan typed a reply on the blank page, but his fingers kept trembling, and he failed to write the simple words several times over and over again.

He breathed with his mouth wide open, touched the armrest with his fingers indiscriminately, and lowered the car window. The cold wind gushed in from the gap in the window, blowing away the hot air that was choking his throat.

Shen Guiwan struggled to reply to the email, and after the mobile phone rang the notification that the email was sent successfully, her hands dropped from her strength.

He buried his head in his knees and hugged himself tightly.

Shen Guiwan hunched his body, and the door in the distance opened with a "babble".

He raised his head and saw Du Zhinian hurried out carrying the medicine box, but there was still no sign of Yu Minggu or Lu Xing behind him.

Du Zhinian's expression was solemn, Shen Guiwan watched him getting closer and closer, quickly adjusted the expression on his face, and changed into the usual indifferent expression.

He stuffed the phone back into his pocket, then withdrew his hand, and Du Zhinian sat in the driver's seat.

Du Zhinian didn't tell Shen Guiwan what happened to Yu's house, he just started the car, held the steering wheel and reversed the car from the front of Yu's house.

The car drove all the way to Du Zhinian's apartment, the night outside the window was dark, and the street lamps tirelessly illuminated the dark road.

Shen Guiwan looked down at his palm, the light from the street lamp illuminated and flickered the scar.

"Shen Guiwan." Du Zhinian said suddenly.

Shen Guiwan raised his head in response, and saw Du Zhinian opened his mouth, as if he wanted to say something, but after waiting for a while, nothing came of it.

"What's wrong?" Shen Guiwan asked softly.

"Forget it, it's okay." Du Zhinian said a little self-destructively, "Go back to sleep, I'm sleepy."

Shen Guiwan withdrew his gaze, glanced at Du Zhinian's hand holding the steering wheel, but inadvertently caught a glimpse of the bright red on his cuff.

Du Zhinian's clothes were stained with someone's blood, the edge of the cuffs was stained with blood, and the bright red marks were like patterns embroidered on the clothes.

The bloodstain had only a very faint smell, which was almost overwhelmed by the smell of disinfectant and medicinal powder on Du Zhinian's body, but that smell got into Shen Guiwan's nasal cavity and was magnified countless times.

Shen Guiwan's stomach churned, and in his throat he could vaguely feel the stinging pain of the sour stomach juice burning his esophagus.

He tried to suppress the discomfort in his stomach, but the wheels rolled over the speed bumps, and the strong nausea reached its peak in the bumps.

"Stop!" he screamed.

Du Zhinian slammed on the brakes, the car shook violently, and then the taillights flickered on, and it slowly leaned against the side of the road.

Shen Guiwan almost scrambled and climbed out of the car, and didn't even have time to close the door.

He squatted at the mouth of the sewer, arched his back and retched.

Du Zhinian anxiously got out of the car and came around. Hearing Shen Guiwan's unbearable retching, he wanted to reach out to pat him on the back, but just as he raised his hand, he caught a glimpse of the blood on his cuff, and abruptly withdrew his hand.

Shen Guiwan retched badly, the corners of his eyes glistened with physiological tears, but he couldn't spit out anything.

Du Zhinian patted Shen Guiwan's back with his other hand that wasn't stained with blood, Shen Guiwan managed to stop his retching, and coughed a few more times.

He coughed heavily, as if he wanted to cough up all his viscera. Du Zhinian felt uncomfortable, so he took a bottle of water and antiemetics from the back seat.

Du Zhinian had just unscrewed the cap of the bottle and before he passed the water, he heard Shen Guiwan's cell phone ring in his pocket, and the trembling man who had vomited just now grabbed his wrist and stood up staggeringly.

Shen Guiwan wiped away tears, put one hand into the pocket where the phone was placed, "I'm fine, let's go back."