Chapter 13 - The Many Kinds of Hand-Holding Positions

There was suddenly a knock on the door.

Qiu Yanzhi immediately tensed up.

Only then did he remember that they were still in the hospital.

--What kind of crazy sh*t had he and He Zhou done!

"W-wait! Wait a minute!" Qiu Yanzhi shouted in a panic.

He jumped out of the bed and scrambled to straighten out the wrinkles in his clothes. He was about to go open the door when he noticed that there was still a He Zhou lying on the bed!

Qiu Yanzhi quickly picked up the clothes around the bed and threw them all at He Zhou. "Hurry up! Hurry up and put it on!"

He Zhou’s movements were sluggish because he had just woken up.

The person outside the door didn't seem to hear what Qiu Yanzhi had just said and knocked again. Zhong Yabai spoke without warning.

"Yanyan, Mom is here to see you. I'm coming in!"

Qiu Yanzhi felt every nerve in his body tense. He turned his head to glare at He Zhou, indicating for him to hurry up.

He Zhou remained unhurried. "It's fine, I locked the door last night."

Qiu Yanzhi was relieved.

Wait, why would he have done that?

Had he planned to do it...from the very moment he walked in last night?

Then there was a click.

The door was pushed open.

Qiu Yanzhi stiffened and quickly pulled the blanket over He Zhou’s body.

He cursed He Zhou in his heart, “Why is this guy so useless?? He can’t even lock a door properly!”

"Yanyan!" Zhong Yabai was full of worry, "How did you get hurt again?! I heard the doctor say you twisted your back. Does it still hurt…”

Qiu Yanzhi stood up and stretched his back, laughing dryly. "Mom, I'm fine. Couldn’t be better. Weren't you guys supposed to be on vacation? How come you're back so soon?"

"We were planning to come back anyway. I called you last night and you didn't answer! I had to call He Zhou to find out you were in the hospital again, and so your father and I rushed over..."

Only then did Qiu Yanzhi realize that Zhong Yabai was followed by his father who had an unamused expression and his attending doctor.

The doctor looked at his chart. "Mr. Qiu should be fine now, but he should stay a few days more just to be safe."

Qiu Qingcang's eyebrows furrowed as he suddenly spoke, "Is there something moving on the bed?”

Qiu Yanzhi: "......"

He Zhou, you piece of trash! Can’t you even lie quietly on the bed properly?!

Just when he was at a loss about how to explain this, He Zhou suddenly pulled down the blanket and said to Yan Qingcang and Zhong Yabai, "...Dad, Mom. I was here with Yanyan the entire night, so I slept here.”

His expression and tone of voice were quite serious.

It would probably be even more convincing he didn’t have a row of neat teeth marks on his shoulders.

The doctor gave a long suffering sigh.

Zhong Yabai felt secondhand embarrassment for her son and son-in-law. She blushed as she explained to the doctor, "...This is my son's partner. They...they just got married."

"Just got married, huh. No need to say more." The doctor closed the folder in his hand with a smile on his face. "In that case, I think Mr. Qiu has indeed recovered from his injury. There’s no need to stay for further observation then. You can go.”

After the doctor left, Zhong Yabai saw that He Zhou was still lying under the blanket and her son's cheeks were also red. She decided to give them some space and left with her husband after fussing over Qiu Yanzhi a while longer.

When Qiu Qingcang was about to leave, he suddenly turned around. His eyes passed over Qiu Yanzhi to land on He Zhou. His tone was grave. “Don’t go too far.”

He Zhou didn’t seem affected at all. He calmly acknowledged the warning as Qiu Yanzhi wanted to become one with the floor.

Qiu Qingcang still had more to say, but Zhong Yabai quickly gave him a look and dragged him out.

After they left, Qiu Yanzhi breathed a long sigh of relief and laid down on the bed. He tilted his head to look at He Zhou who had finally started getting dressed. "How come I never noticed that you were so cheeky?"

He Zhou looked at Qiu Yanzhi. "I didn’t notice you were so shy last time either."

Last time? What last time? Were we caught doing this before?

Qiu Yanzhi almost asked, but fortunately he remembered and held back the words.

The last time was before they were married, when they were ‘caught red handed’ in bed.

But that was obviously different!

Nothing happened last time because it was completely staged. It was just a scenario generated by the Wedding Card. He even had a script on hand! How could what happened just now be compared to that?

He Zhou quickly cleaned himself up and stood. He turned to Qiu Yanzhi who was still lying on the bed looking at the ceiling thinking very deeply about something. He asked, "Don’t you want to go home?"

Only then did Qiu Yanzhi react and jump off the bed. "Yeah!”

As soon as Qiu Yanzhi came close to He Zhou, the other man suddenly caught his hand. "Let's go then."

Qiu Yanzhi was stunned as he looked down at their intertwined hands. He wasn’t given much time to think about what this meant before He Zhou pulled him forward.

"He Zhou?" A hesitant voice suddenly called out.

He Zhou and Qiu Yanzhi looked in unison towards the direction of the voice.

It was Meng Qikang.

Qiu Yanzhi held an unreasonable degree of animosity towards Meng Qikang. After seeing him, the corners of his mouth immediately turned downwards.

"Why are you doing here?" Qiu Yanzhi asked with a frown.

Meng Qikang smiled and pointed to the badge pinned to his shirt: "I started working here last week."

Qiu Yanzhi looked at the badge. It read: Meng Qikang, Neurosurgeon.

Qiu Yanzhi just remembered that Meng Qikang was a doctor.

"What brings you two to the hospital? Are you not feeling well anywhere?" Meng Qikang asked.

He Zhou glanced at Qiu Yanzhi before saying to Meng Qikang, "Qiu Yanzhi twisted his back, but it wasn’t anything serious. We were leaving just now.”

Meng Qikang looked at He Zhou with a faint smile still on his face. "He Zhou, it's not like you didn't know I was here. Why didn't you come and find me when you came to the hospital? I might’ve been able to help out a bit."

He Zhou said, "It was an emergency so it slipped my mind."

Qiu Yanzhi knew that He Zhou was deeply in love with Meng Qikang. Although the two now seemed unusually distant, who knew if He Zhou could continue to hold on if he kept talking? As a player who hadn’t recharged a single cent, he couldn’t take the chance of that happening.

Which was why Qiu Yanzhi wanted to end this conversation immediately. He looked up at He Zhou and said, "I'm hungry. I want to eat something."

He Zhou nodded towards Meng Qikang, "Then we'll be leaving first."

"See you then."

After He Zhou and Qiu Yanzhi left, Meng Qikang’s eyes followed their backs.

They were holding hands.

There were many kinds of hand-holding positions in the world. The ones with ten fingers interlocked, the ones with opposing hands together, and the ones that just involved the pinky fingers.

But the type in front of him was best described as He Zhou's hand almost completely enveloping Qiu Yanzhi's.

In other words...

It was He Zhou who was holding Qiu Yanzhi's hand.

"What do you want to eat?" He Zhou asked Qiu Yanzhi.

Qiu Yanzhi shook his head, "I'm actually not hungry. I just don't want to see Meng Qikang."

He Zhou turned to look at Qiu Yanzhi.

Qiu Yanzhi lowered his head and whispered, "I'm jealous of him, jealous that you like him."

He Zhou startled. Then he narrowed his eyes and pursed his lips. "I'm already married to you."

"But you still have feelings for him."

He Zhou was silent. He suddenly said, "I'll slowly let them go."

Qiu Yanzhi's entire body froze at He Zhou's words. He looked up at He Zhou, feeling like this guy had somewhat changed.

--How was this He Zhou a scum?

This was clearly a 24/7 good husband who was willing to atone for his past mistakes!

Qiu Yanzhi asked tentatively, "...In the two weeks that I left, did you have an argument with Meng Qikang?"

"No. We didn't even see each other in that time."

"Why?" Qiu Yanzhi was a bit incredulous. If he was He Zhou, he would definitely take advantage of this golden opportunity to be sticky with his white moonlight every single day.

"Because I was busy."

"Busy with what?" Qiu Yanzhi wouldn’t let him off the hook that easily.

He Zhou looked at Qiu Yanzhi and didn't say anything.

"What were you working on?" Qiu Yanzhi persisted.

"Qiu Yanzhi." He Zhou suddenly asked, "Where did you go in those 15 days?"

Qiu Yanzhi immediately became docile and obedient.

"Well... I went to an ordinary and shabby place... Um, let's not talk about that! I'm hungry again, why don’t we go eat..."

For the first time ever, he was able to enjoy a peaceful dinner with He Zhou at home.

Qiu Yanzhi was still a little uncomfortable with the sudden change in He Zhou's attitude towards him.

He put down his chopsticks.

He Zhou suddenly said to the maid, "Put another pillow in my room."

Qiu Yanzhi felt a sense of apprehension. He looked up at He Zhou.

He Zhou looked at ease. "Since we're already married, we'll sleep in the same room from now on."

Qiu Yanzhi: ??!!!

Sleeping in the same room?!

Why do we have to sleep in the same room?!

What are you trying to do?!

Whatever it is, I don't want it!!!

Qiu Yanzhi tensed up as his mind started coming up with excuses to get out of this at a breakneck pace.

Then He Zhou's phone rang.

Qiu Yanzhi silently prayed that the call would send He Zhou away.

He Zhou’s expression after he answered the phone was strange. He passed it over to Qiu Yanzhi. "It's for you."

Qiu Yanzhi was also a little confused as to why someone calling He Zhou would ask for him, but he still took it.

"Hello. My name is Shen Xingwei, I'm a friend of He Zhou's. You are Mr. Qiu Yanzhi, right? Do you know Zhang Yuxuan? When I attended the wedding I remembered that you two seemed close."

"What happened to Yuxuan? Is he in some kind of trouble?”

"He’s drinking at my bar and he seems rather down…”

"I'm on my way over."

Qiu Yanzhi jotted down the address, picked up his phone, wallet and keys and prepared to go out.

He Zhou stood up. "Should I drive you there?"

Qiu Yanzhi shook his head and jingled his keys. "I'll drive myself. You should rest first, I might not be back for a while."

When Qiu Yanzhi was led into the room by Shen Xingwei, he saw Zhang Yuxuan wearing a hot pink dress. He sat alone on the sofa drinking heavily.

Qiu Yanzhi walked up to him. "Why are you drinking alone? You could’ve called me.”

Zhang Yuxuan pouted. "I thought you were still in the hospital..."

Qiu Yanzhi knew at a glance that Zhang Yuxuan had something on his mind. "Why are you in such a bad mood?"

Zhang Yuxuan’s face crumpled as his voice choked up, "My, my senior is getting married soon…”

Qiu Yanzhi had heard Zhang Yuxuan go on about his senior countless times, but he really didn’t know much about the guy.

The tipsy Zhang Yuxuan told Qiu Yanzhi everything.

The senior only liked girls.

Zhang Yuxuan fell in love with his senior in junior high, when he was mistaken to be a girl by him because of how short he was.

That’s the reason Zhang Yuxuan wore dresses all the time.

Zhang Yuxuan has nurtured this crush in his heart for 10 years, but that guy was getting married next month.

Zhang Yuxuan was so drunk that his cheeks became flushed. His lips seemed to be smiling, but his eyes were a little watery. "Yanyan ah, do you think I should go get a sex change…? Will he like me then?"

Qiu Yanzhi was both heartbroken and angry to hear that. He wanted to slap the back of Zhang Yuxuan's head.

Qiu Yanzhi snatched Zhang Yuxuan's wine glass and hissed, "Are you trying to make me have a stroke Zhang Yuxuan?? I thought you wore dresses because you liked them, but it was actually for a f*cking man?! You’re even considering sex change surgery for him?!? If he really doesn’t have feelings for you, becoming a woman or even an alien isn’t going to change that!!!”

"Don’t go so far for a man, okay?!”

The corners of Zhang Yuxuan's mouth turned down, as if he was about to cry.

When Qiu Yanzhi looked down and saw Zhang Yuxuan's hot pink dress, he felt his eyes start to burn from the fluorescent shade. He said, "Wait for me here.

Qiu Yanzhi returned with two bags of men's clothing in his hands.

"Put them on!" Qiu Yanzhi demanded.

With a red nose and eyes, Zhang Yuxuan shook his head. In a wavering voice, he said, "I'm not changing. Senior said I was cute in a dress..."

You're still going on about your senior! You're still refusing to face reality!!

Qiu Yanzhi was going crazy with frustration. He pounced on Zhang Yuxuan to remove his dress by force. "If you’re not going to change then I’ll do it for you!”

Zhang Yuxuan was 1.93 meters tall and very muscular as well. Although this dress was custom made for him, it was still somewhat tight. When Qiu Yanzhi pulled on the zipper on the back, it barely moved at all. After a half-dozen more attempts, he ripped the dress from the collar in a fit of rage.

"AHHHH--"

Zhang Yuxuan let out a terrifying shriek.

BANG!

The door was kicked open.

Shen Xingwei hurried in. "What's wrong? What's going on? What happened--"

His voice abruptly cut off.

In the dimly lit compartment, wine bottles were scattered all over the place.

He Zhou's new wife was on top of a tall, strong man and shredding his clothes with a fierce expression.

The muscular man was wearing a torn and tattered pink dress. His flushed face was full of tears. He shrieked shrilly as he was defiled.

He Zhou's new wife...seemed to have very unique tastes.

Shen Xingwei silently took a step back and carefully said to the man beside him, "...H-He Zhou, I just remembered that I still have something to do… I’ll be going first then ."

The two men entangled on the couch just realized that something was wrong.

They both looked up towards the doorway.