Staying at the hospital for over two months, Fei Du had more or less made up for a whole lifetime of lost sleep; he'd really slept rather too much. Today he'd scraped up some sleepiness because of the soft pillow, but then he'd gone through a session of mental and emotional turmoil; once he lay down, it was somewhat hard to calm his state of mind—especially with his partner in turmoil sleeping very innocently next to him.
He could only arrange himself into a comparatively comfortable position and close his eyes, thoughts turning through his mind like a revolving horse lantern. He thought of what he was pursuing, thought of what his next step should be, thought of what he'd revealed to Luo Wenzhou, and what he was still concealing…and so on.
The suddenly appearing bomb on Zheng Kaifeng's truck had not only made Fei Du take a turn at the border between life and death, it had also upset his plans quite a bit.
For example, because of his hospital stay, the Picture Album Project had had to temporarily change to a different contact person. The new contact person had evidently only accepted the assignment for course credit, not going to the City Bureau at all aside from going over to go through the procedures to get materials; also, because of the Zhou family case, the City Bureau was frantically busy during this period, so all the work of setting up the 'Picture Album' was basically at a standstill.
For another example, with the Zhou Clan's case coming out, those people had without warning shown their fox's tail in public view. Though in the end they'd used a very crude method to murder and silence, managing to cover things up and make the City Bureau pin together some evidence to wind up the case, those who were paying attention would all have their own suspicions and guesses.
Of course, from Fei Du's point of view, this wasn't necessarily a bad thing.
But now that the public authorities had been alerted, it meant that the degree of difficulty of his original plan to dispose of those people without anyone being the wiser had become much, much higher.
And then…
And then there was Luo Wenzhou.
Yes. Leaving aside his numerous and complicated middle- and long-term plans for the moment, there was still an extremely urgent "trivial matter" in front of him, forcing Fei Du to make a difficult choice—today he'd bewilderingly ended up staying at Luo Wenzhou's house; what should he do tomorrow?
Should he stay on here in a muddle, or make a quick cut, take his leave, and go?
Fei Du was by nature capable of living alone, and later he'd learned how to fool around, but no one had ever taught him what a long-term, stable relationship looked like.
Thinking of all the inconveniences involved and the huge uncertainty in the future, Fei Du felt an inexplicable restlessness and anxiety; he simply couldn't understand why he didn't pry open the handcuff, jump barefoot out the window, and run away.
But fortunately, while Fei Du was being tormented by a thousand unbearable thoughts, his wounded shoulder and chest sudden flared up, the pain interrupting his numerous and disorderly thoughts.
For a moment Fei Du couldn't quite catch his breath. He quietly pulled aside the quilt covering him a little, then habitually rolled over and lay flat, drawing his breathing out long and slow, using the pain as a sleep aid.
Not only did Fei Du not make a sound, he was secretly relieved—he had a warm love for indisposition. For him, bodily pain was sometimes like a strong sedative; while he was focused on resisting pain, he could often get rid of distracting thoughts, his desire for control attainting the greatest release; it was a very addictive business.
In the midst of this half-stifling ache, Fei Du finally ceased the torment he'd been subjecting himself to half the night. His body, covered in cold sweat, gradually relaxed, and he began to feel slightly sleepy.
Unfortunately, when he was just about to vanquish insomnia, Luo Wenzhou made him fail at the last minute—this bit of goods, perhaps afraid he wasn't sleeping well, got out of bed, thinking he was being quiet, and opened Fei Du's handcuff. The metal clicked, uncommonly ear-splitting in the silence, stabbing like a needle through the sleepiness Fei Du had with difficulty gathered up.
Fei Du: "…"
He really was too grateful for Luo-shixiong's "thoughtfulness."
Luo Wenzhou also seemed to be upset by his own somewhat loud movements. He held his breath in the dark, cautiously watching Fei Du's movements.
Fei Du, keeping his eyes closed, pretended to be asleep. But the more he pretended to sleep, the more his nerves acted up; they were ready to jump up and do the tango.
After a while, Luo Wenzhou finally finished watching and gingerly got back in bed. The mattress shook slightly. At last he'd calmed down; Fei Du breathed a sigh of relief. He relaxed his tense limbs, ramblingly thinking that sleeping in the same bed had its bad points. It was all right when you could close your eyes and sleep after some "exercise," but if you were having a touch of insomnia, the person next to you breathing and turning over was disturbing, especially someone like Luo Wenzhou, with his presence…
Luo Wenzhou of the powerful presence rustled once again, annoyingly turning over and showing signs of getting up.
At a loss, Fei Du truly had a slight collapse, wishing to take a hammer and knock out Luo Wenzhou and then himself.
Luo Wenzhou had absolutely no idea that he was disturbing his pure dreams. He propped both hands on the mattress, half rose, and looked over to study Fei Du's "sleeping countenance" by the faint light of night. He looked for a while, then he really couldn't help himself; he leaned close and kissed Fei Du lightly, then gently pulled him into his arms—he could only do these things by stealth while Fei Du was sleeping, or else the joker would probably climb all over him.
Fei Du: "…"
Like a corpse, he let Luo Wenzhou move him around; the breathing he'd thought was bothersome was now right at the base of his ear, and the rising and falling chest was pressed closely to his back. One of the quilts had been set aside unused. It was a particularly crowded position.
Fei Du helplessly thought, "Forget it."
The words "forget it" seemed to be a magic spell; the results were instant. As soon as he thought them, all the bothersome details around him settled, and Fei Du actually slept through the night.
However, while his sleep had been calm, he was scared awake.
At six in the morning, Luo Yiguo woke punctually from its first sleep, feeling that something was missing. Thereupon Master Cat gave a big stretch, teeth bared and claws extended. Then, shaking its head and waving its tail, it trembled, resettling all of its bristling fur, and went to patrol its "fiefdom," in the end squeezing through the crack in the door into the master bedroom, which was two degrees higher than everywhere else.
Luo Yiguo stretched itself out, standing on its hind legs and grabbing the edge of the bed, curiously smelling left and right. Then, gathering up its courage, it meowed and leapt vigorously onto the bed, lowering its head to sniff Fei Du's hand, lying outside the covers.
Halfway between sleeping and waking, Fei Du felt a ball of fur rub against his hand and subconsciously reached out to touch it, touching a soft and warm little living creature.
First he froze. Then he moved entirely from sleepiness to stress. Fei Du sat up at once, his pupils instantly contracting, all the blood in his body pushed out to his limbs by his sharply rising blood pressure. His hands and feet went numb, and his neck seemed to be squeezed by an imaginary metal ring, making his breath stop involuntarily.
Luo Yiguo had been seriously identifying the strange smell; it was startled into a jump by Fei Du's sudden corpse-like rise, all the fur on its body bristling, back leg missing a step on the edge of the bed, sending it tumbling down.
Still badly shaken, the human and the cat stared at each other helplessly for a moment, finally disturbing the master of the house. Luo Wenzhou blearily took Fei Du into his arms, gently slapping his waist. "Don't mess around… It's still dark out."
Fei Du only then pulled himself together, slowly letting out the breath caught in his throat, fully waking up.
Luo Yiguo had ducked under the little rattan chair by the bedside, showing only its head, gingerly resting on its front paws, its two sharp ears laying flat, staring at him like a rabbit.
Fei Du returned its gaze for a moment, then slowly moved Luo Wenzhou's arms aside, noiselessly got out of bed, and left the bedroom.
Luo Yiguo stared at his back in alarm. Suspecting that the litter-scooping idiot had been killed by the "bad guy," it hurriedly jumped onto the bed to investigate. It circled Luo Wenzhou twice, finding to its gratification that the litter box attendant was still breathing. It then relaxed and stepped on him without any mercy, ran out of the bedroom, and continued to scout out the enemy situation.
But the "enemy" hadn't stormed and captured its scratching post; nor had he looted its bed. He was only staring vacantly at the floor-to-ceiling window of the balcony. Luo Yiguo was still afraid of him and wavered in place, not daring to go over, filled with misgiving and beginning involuntarily to chase its own tail. By the time it caught itself, it found that Fei Du had been staring at it for a while. Luo Yiguo hurriedly put on the brakes, opening its large eyes wide and stiffening into a museum exhibit.
Fei Du still remembered what this cat had looked like when it had been small. Back then, it had still been a tottering kitten with its tail stuck up, with down like a chick's on its head, looking like its head was too big for its body, its expression moronically confused.
On Tao Ran's account, he'd reluctantly brought the little cat back to the apartment in the city. Aside from giving it food and water every day, he'd basically turned a blind eye to the cat. The kitten had been naturally clingy. Despite being ignored over and over, it still wouldn't let him off, coming over to cuddle. If he didn't pay attention to it, it would cry out, making so much noise Fei Du couldn't stand it.
One day, the kitten reached out a paw towards him, its claws hooking onto his pant leg; then it flopped on the ground, shamelessly demanding attention. Fei Du's patience finally ran out. As he frowned, staring coldly at the cat, deliberating who he should give it to, Fei Chengyu suddenly arrived.
The moment he heard the sound of the keys, Fei Du grabbed the cat hanging off his pant leg, breaking off the kitten's claws. The kitten's weak cry hadn't yet come out when its voice was cut off by the boy squeezing its neck. Then it was roughly thrown into a drawer.
When the drawer had just been closed, the man opened the door and came in. Fei Du, a book in his hands, walked calmly out of the study, as if he'd just been disturbed by the sound of the door opening.
Fei Chengyu still found the cat food and litter box in the apartment. Fortunately, he'd just cleaned the litter box and hadn't yet poured out the cat food.
Fei Chengyu asked, "What pet have you been keeping?"
"A cat." With an absent-minded look, Fei Du, who wasn't yet fifteen at the time, seemingly casually said, "That busy-body policeman gave it to me."
Fei Chengyu turned to look at him in great interest. "The little cop knows how to amuse children. Where is the cat? Let me see it."
Fei Du looked at him, gave a strange and cold laugh, then spread his hands towards him. There were a few bloody cat hairs on his palms. "Here it is."
After he'd seen this, Fei Chengyu didn't say anything about it, only calmly lectured him, ordering him to buy another cat that was about the same and give it back; if he could get a little closer to the police officer at a suitable time, there would be benefits for the future. Without looking up, Fei Du listened indolently, perhaps hearing some of it. At the same time, in front of Fei Chengyu's face, he cleverly wove together some of the cat hairs from his palms, soundlessly blowing them towards the man's back when he turned to leave—
Having finished inspecting his "favorite work," Fei Chengyu had left in satisfaction.
That had been Fei Du's first rebellion, his first deception, his first time knowing that no one on earth was omnipotent, and even a demon could be easily tricked by his own excessive self-confidence.
Though that kitten from back then had now grown into a very large cat, supposedly of an eccentric disposition, and it shed—
Fei Du averted the gaze that was making Luo Yiguo nervous, slowly walking by it, filling its bowl with cat food.
Luo Wenzhou usually got to work at eighty-thirty. If he could get out of bed at 8:10, it was already good. Each morning it was like fighting a battle. But today he opened his eyes before eight, reaching out a hand to feel around. Feeling emptiness, he gave a start, rolled over, and got up. He stared blankly at the already cold half of the bed for a good while, then charged out, almost frightened.
Luo Wenzhou only relaxed somewhat when he saw Fei Du sitting out on the balcony, drinking coffee.
Heated up sandwiches and another cup of coffee were laid out on the little table in the dining room. Fei Du must have gone down first thing in the morning to buy them. Luo Yiguo's bowl was still half full of cat food. The asshole cat, whose loyalty lay with whoever fed it, was crouching on the couch, licking its paws, evidently having eaten and drunk its fill, having no intention of acknowledging its has-been litter box attendant.
"So early," Luo Wenzhou whispered. Then, frowning, he walked over and snatched away Fei Du's coffee. "Who told you to drink this? Go to the kitchen and get the milk from the left-hand cabinet."
Fei Du tapped his watch. "You'll be late."
Luo Wenzhou didn't deign to wrangle with him, planning to let him see what a "tornado of a man" was like.
But when he'd finished washing up and was thoroughly awake, Luo Wenzhou looked at Fei Du's tidy outfit and involuntarily felt alarmed.
He bit off half a sandwich at once. In between nearly choking to death, he asked, feigning indifference, "Where are you going today?"
When he heard this, Fei Du put down the milk, his expression somewhat awkward.
Like a student who'd just input his university entrance exam ID and was waiting to see his results, Luo Wenzhou's heart went to his throat, having a tragic collision with the breakfast he'd just swallowed. He was afraid that Fei Du was going to say, "I've thought it over, and I'd better take my leave."
Fei Du said, "You don't have an extra parking spot here, do you?"
Luo Wenzhou's suspended heart smashed back down into his chest, his budding good mood bursting into full bloom as it fell. He really couldn't cover it up, smiling involuntarily.
Looking at his expression, Fei Du was very taken aback, thinking, "I didn't think this crummy estate would have adequate parking."
Then he heard Luo Wenzhou joyously tell him, "Haha, you're right, there isn't one."
Fei Du: "…"
What was his problem!
Luo Wenzhou efficiently put back his breakfast and tossed him his keys, not asking where he was going. "For the next few days, drive my car when you go out. Come the weekend, I'll think of a way to get you a spot… One at most, don't drive your 'imperial harem' over here."
Fei Du said, "What about you?"
Luo Wenzhou waved at him with great vigor, ran into the basement, and carried out the big bike. Moving like a mad dog, he rode it away with a clatter, giving the bicycle a rocket's momentum, dashing towards the City Bureau like a flare.