Don’t Be a Kept Man

ve a verbal acknowledgement.
Seeing the doctor close his eyes to take a nap, he placed his outer coat lightly over Bai Yang.
He had been dizzy and sleepy when he was lying in the alleyway, but now he felt no inkling of sleep.
Only blanking out as he stared at the IV slowly dripping its liquid.

The feeling of having a fever was not a good feeling.
Feeling so stuffy and choked up, Wen Chuo’s head was dizzy and heavy, as if he wanted to vomit, but he lacked the strength to even do so.
Furrowing his eyebrows, he switched to a sitting position, and his handsome face was tinged with a paleness, looking lifeless.

It was already past midnight, and the old doctor was asleep, sounding out faint snores.

The tip of Wen Chuo’s tongue was turning bitter, and his body and mind felt numb, feeling nothing yet he was in great unbearable discomfort.
Bai Yang had woken up sometime ago and seeing Wen Chuo leaning on his chair, with a dazed expression, he reached over to test his forehead.
Only when he felt that the temperature was considerably normal did he retract his hand.

Because of his movements, the jacket on his shoulders had slipped off onto the ground.
Bai Yang picked it up and patted the dust off.
The faint rustling attracted Wen Chuo’s attention, and with a great deal of effort, Wen Chuo opened his eyes and hoarsely said, 

“Go back home first.
Go get some sleep.”

Bai Yang ignored him and tested his forehead again.
His expression was so overly serious that the usual aura of dumbfoundedness around him was faded a bit.
He asked Wen Chuo instead, 

“In pain?”

Wen Chuo originally wanted to shake his head, but for some reason, he confusedly and dazedly nodded, a bit powerless as he said, 

“My head hurts……”

Bai Yang silently looked at him and then slowly retracted his gaze.
He seemed to be thinking of something and after a long while, he knocked his head with force and said quietly, 

“Next time…..
don’t run off by yourself.”

“……”

Wen Chuo didn’t hear him and had, as he leaned on the chair, fallen asleep.
In his dreams, there was a weird separation of light, and a familiar house appeared before him.
It was decorated lavishly, and it could be said to be the top of the top of buildings to live in, a heaven that others could only admire and be jealous of.
It could be anything, but it could never be a home.

Wen Chuo had never told anyone, but in his past life, when he had lived in that ice cold, elegant and lavish “rich people” district, the memory he thought of the most was another small place that was shabby and broken.

Numerous sleepless nights, there was always one idiot occupying his mind that would never go away.

Those years in Lin Xian… were the years he had never cared about.

Yet when he left far away, and turned his head to look back…

He found that it was the only place he had truly had in his hands.

The liquid in the IV setup had already emptied and Bai Yang walked over, lightly shaking the old doctor awake.
The elder opened his eyes, smacked his lips a few times before sighing deeply and standing back up, with his chair squeaking and creaking under his movements.

Wen Chuo’s mind was off in the distance and seeing him pluck out the needle in his hand, he experimentally moved his right leg, finding that it wasn’t as painful as before.
He dug out his phone to pay, and then not letting Bai Yang carry him on his back, he used Bai Yang’s shoulders to limp away.

For the next couple of days, Wen Chuo lay at home, healing from his injuries.
He didn’t play on the computer nor on his cellphone.
Except for editing his videos, he basically cut off all internet communications, silently waiting for the headlines from the Wen family to pass over.
The most common thing he would do these days was to blank out, but later on he had been too bored out of his mind and bought a set of painting tools online.

The price was a tad bit too expensive, as just a small box of watercolors around the size of his palm cost over 300 yuan, and that didn’t include all the other items such as paper, pens, etc.
But Wen Chuo didn’t mind it, as he only wanted to find something to waste time on.

Liu Meng Meng had a blind marriage date set up for today, and Feng-shu was going to accompany her.
The restaurant would close for half a day, so Bai Yang had already come back by 1pm.
In his hands, he held a bag of rib bones, and a few potatoes, which looked as if he was going to make soup.

Wen Chuo was just opening up his delivery when Bai Yang came out of the kitchen, and he waved over at him, 

“Come over here.”

It was only when Bai Yang walked closer that he find that Wen Chuo’s computer desk had a few new potted plants, all in different arrays of color, chubby and fat succulents, which when they were in their cute little pots, they were quite likeable, quite pleasing to the eye.
Although, it looked like they were still not fully mature and looked a bit too small.

Wen Chuo said, 

“For you to play with.”

Bai Yang reached out his hand and lightly touched the plants in the pots, very slowly saying, 

“…..I don’t know how to.”

He said he couldn’t, but he still moved the pots down onto the ground, kneeling right on the floor, and tore apart bags of dirt.
He tended to each succulent as according to the instructions, and the sun shone just then with the perfect timing, shining onto a side of Bai Yang’s clear and clean face, bringing out his features and looking so ethereal as a picture.

Wen Chuo hadn’t picked up a brush in a very long time and so he was a bit rusty.
But he held onto his pencil, sketching out the shape of Bai Yang in a few strokes before  slowly detailing out his eyes.
He was in a state of seriousness so rarely seen.
When he was at Bai Yang’s waist however, he suddenly lifted his eyes and lightly knocked on the table with the end of his pencil, 

“Wear your clothes properly.”

Bai Yang’s clothes were a bit loose and when he knelt on the ground, his shirt had moved up, revealing a pale white waist.
Hearing Wen Chuo’s voice, he quickly wanted to pull on his shirt, but he spotted how his hands were a bit dirty and he slowly shook his head, 

“I’ll fix it in a bit.”

And then continued to focus his attention on the pots of plants before him.

Wen Chuo stood up from his chair and hugged Bai Yang from behind.
He then tucked his shirt into his waist before kissing him on the cheek.
Only then did he go sit back down to continue painting.

The young man in the painting looked refreshing and clean.
Especially with the multi-colored succulents on the ground, it made the impression of the artwork feel less muted and depressing.
With the sunlight shining in from the windows, showering the scene in a faint golden glow, there arose a silent gentleness in this work of art.

Wen Chuo grabbed a camera stand to stabilize his cellphone and he painted as he recorded.
He was extremely focused, with a lot of care and great detail put into the painting, repeating his drawing over and over again until it was perfect, down to the finest details.
He used a bit of technique in the blurred and faded background, so when the art was finished, it was beautiful beyond comparison.

The drawing wasn’t very big, but Wen Chuo drew for the whole afternoon, only completing it when the sky was darkening.
When he was done, he stared at his work, in an evident mood of satisfaction, before penning two words in the lower right corner.

白、杨; Bai, Yang.

There were only these two words, yet they held a meaning that was more than what precious could ever be.

The rib bone soup in the kitchen was going “gu-lu-gu-lu” and its meaty scent slowly unfurled.
Bai Yang went to set up dinner and upon seeing this, Wen Chuo started packing up the random items on the table.
Seeing that already dried watercolor painting on the table, he ended up stuffing it into a thick dictionary of Bai Yang’s.

Wen Chuo was very picky when it came to soup.
He would only drink clear soup, and there cannot be too much oil.
There cannot be soup scum and the meat must not be fatty, without that meaty stench either.
He originally wanted to grab his own bowl, but Bai Yang had already prepared one for him.
Bright clear soup with two lean rib bones and a few potatoes.
Not a lot, not too little, just perfect.

“Bai Yang……”

Wen Chuo called out to him like usual, yet his tone had suddenly brought on the tinge of arrogance and possessiveness like that of a child’s.
When Bai Yang looked over, however, he was sitting just like an old man, waving him over.

Bai Yang walked over and let Wen Chuo wrap him into his embrace as he wished.
He was kissed, hugged, pinched and caressed until finally Bai Yang patted Wen Chuo’s shoulders and said, 

“Dinner.”

Wen Chuo buried his face into Bai Yang’s chest, slowly recovering his breath silently.
Yet he somehow had the feeling that Bai Yang was just like a snail, never rushing, always slow, but when you listened closely to his words, there was an old, mature sense to their meaning.

TL Tidbit:

The chapter’s released! (＃⌒∇⌒＃)ゞ Unfortunately both Plum and I were a bit busy, so the chapter was released a bit later than usual : ) We’ve both been pretty swamped lately, and some of you may have noticed I’ve been very behind on my comments haha (trying trying!).
But I also wanted to take this time (now I am uploading a chapter for once haha – thank you Plum  – and here’s hoping I didn’t forget anything (;´Д`)/) to thank you for all your support! Plum reminded me that we’ve almost reached one year! That’s insane!!! It felt like yesterday when I wrote that we’ve reached one month, half a year… and now that I have a little time, I wanted to take a brief moment here to thank all you readers who have stuck with me through the better part of the year, especially through all the breaks and all your kind words when I needed it the most <3, and to the new ones as well! I hope you all have been enjoying the volumes (thank you to all the commentors and the likes for letting me know your thoughts (｡’▽’｡)♡), and I hope you will join me for the rest of the journey to the end! ₍՞◌′ᵕ‵ू◌₎♡ Which… we’re almost near the end, something that is pretty crazy to think about (also more than half now I believe on this volume as well). Well, in any case, I hope you all have been enjoying Wen Chuo’s journey of self realization and growth with Bai Yang, and here’s to a few more future volumes (◍˃ᗜ˂◍)ﾉ” Thanks for reading my little blurb haha, see you Monday, Galactic Judges! Oh, also one little thing about Wen Chuo’s painting: I kept Bai Yang’s name as Wen Chuo penned onto the painting as it felt … more natural? So when you see that he penned two words, he only penned his name and not the english portion : )