Old Wounds, New Growth - Chapter 6

Translator: Deyonna

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This phone call lasted for nearly three hours without any communication. Then Li Chishu's voice sounded in my Bluetooth headphones as I started making him a sandwich.

"Shen Baoshan?" he probed on the other end, as if unsure whether it was really me who had disturbed him earlier at three o'clock in the morning.

"Good morning, Li Chishu," I said. "You can sleep for another twenty minutes. You don't have to go to the cafeteria to buy breakfast today. I'll bring it to you."

"No need." His response to any sudden benefits was to refuse it. "I'll just go to the cafeteria to eat."

"But I've already had it," I said, dragging out my words as I flipped the toast in the pan, put it on a plate, and topped it with eggs and bacon. While it was still sizzling, I sprinkled some chopped kale on top. "If you don't eat it, I can only throw it away."

He let out a soft sigh on the other end. "Okay."

As I was about to hang up, he said, "Thank you."

"En." I accepted his thanks. "See you at school."

At this age, Shen Baoshan was not interested in these things. The pinnacle of my culinary skills was boiling a bowl of barely passable plain noodles. Now, my ability to move around the kitchen with ease was a skill honed from the past.

In the first few years after graduation, Li Chishu was busy with work and almost always ordered takeout for his meals. Later, during a period of illness when he was confined at home, he didn't have the energy to cook for himself and detested the food from outside. No matter how expensive the food I brought back from any restaurant was, he could only take a few bites before hastily finishing it. So, from that time on, I started learning to cook on my own. Li Chishu accepted my cooking, good or bad, and ate as much as I gave him, leaving not a single drop. However, I had very little free time, so no matter how much my cooking skills improved, he couldn't eat it regularly.

I have been learning to help him love that person named Li Chishu. In my previous life, I was a little rusty. If I can push time forward a little in this lifetime and work hard, maybe I can catch up with the speed of his withering.

I have failed many times in making latte art, but with the determination to give it one last try before leaving, I finally made a decent one. It may not be as professional as others, but it was good enough to pass. I planned to let Li Chishu peek and have him drink it immediately.

Coincidentally, the coffee cup had a matching tray that could hold the base in place. I carefully held the cup of coffee and protected it all the way. Before the morning self-study, I quietly hid behind the back door of Li Chishu's classroom and watched him.

When deeply engrossed in solving problems, Li Chishu liked to pinch his earlobe with his left hand. But this morning, he was obviously distracted and kept peeking towards the door after solving a few problems.

He was waiting for me.

I tapped the person sitting in the last row and said, "Can I trouble you to call Li Chishu for me?"

The person turned their head and shouted, "Li Chishu!" Then they pointed at me with their pen.

A glimmer of light flashed in Li Chishu's eyes, which was not easy to notice, but I still caught it. I waved at him, and he quickly stood up and came out.

There was a large balcony outside the classroom, which was nearly four meters deep. Many students would gather there to have their meals when there was no class. There weren't many people there at the moment, so I pulled Li Chishu to the side and laid out the breakfast item by item on the tiled wall.

The sandwich is still hot. Before I left, I wrapped it in greaseproof paper so that Li Chishu could eat it directly.

He must be hungry. He lowered his head and took a bite. His eyes visibly brightened. Then he went to investigate what I had wrapped in the toast.

I said, "Bacon, egg, kale, and the bread was toasted with butter."

He chewed slowly and repeated. "Kale…"

I added, "It's similar to Chinese cabbage, just crunchier."

"Did you buy it?" he asked. "Is it very expensive?"

"Not expensive, the cost is at most one and a half yuan," I lied through my teeth.

Li Chishu asked again, "Where did you buy this?"

I said, "I made it myself."

His biting action paused for a moment, then he nodded and didn't speak again. He didn't look at me either, eating very seriously, leaving only a clean white neck and a fluffy hair top for me to see.

Li Chishu wears his school uniform every day, wearing the summer uniform when it's hot and adding a winter uniform when it's cold. His collar and cuffs are always very clean, and he has the gentlest and freshest soap scent on him.

I asked him, "Li Chishu, do you still take a shower every morning?"

He shook his head, his mouth full of the breakfast I made, and said vaguely, "I haven't taken a shower in the morning. No time."

I took out a neatly folded tissue from my pocket and wiped the crumbs off the corner of his mouth. He didn't avoid it.

"Eat slowly." I casually opened the box containing the coffee. "So you shower at night, then?"

He didn't have time to speak, as he stuffed the last bite into his mouth so he could only hum. "En."

Li Chishu, in his twenties, was not like that. Since we started living together, he had always been used to getting up early and going into the bathroom on an empty stomach to wash up for half an hour. No matter how many times I told him not to, he refused to listen. At first, he said it was because he was too tired from work and had the energy to tidy up carefully in the morning, so he could take a shower and go to bed at night. Later, it was because Li Chishu, shrouded in the night, hardly had the motivation to do anything, and always liked to exhaust his energy during the day before retreating into his blanket early.

"After taking a shower at night, I also wash my school uniform." The currently healthy-looking Li Chishu explained to me. "I can dry it overnight, and then wear a clean one the next day."

"I see." I turned my face away and took out the cup of coffee that had cooled down to the perfect temperature. "Try it."

This time, Li Chishu didn't wait for me to introduce it and asked, "Is this latte art coffee?"

I put my hands back in my pockets and raised my chin slightly. "It's made by the great chef Shen Baoshan."

He whispered a "thank you," picked up the cup, and took a sip. He quickly frowned, realizing that I was watching him, and forced himself to relax his expression.

"How is it?" I asked, trying to hold back a laugh.

"En……"

Knowing his personality, he wouldn't hesitate to praise anything worthy of praise. However, Li Chishu was a person who couldn't lie. After a moment of silence, he couldn't come up with any compromising words. He could only lower his voice, trying to make it sound like I couldn't hear him. "Bitter."

The next second, he immediately tried to make up for it. "But the latte art looks great."

"Coffee is supposed to be bitter," I told him. "If you don't want to drink it, then don't. Just let me know when you want to drink it... not just coffee, but anything else, too."

I was about to reach out and take the cup from his hand when Li Chishu's gaze swept over behind me. In the next moment, he suddenly tilted his head back and gulped down the coffee in one go, drinking it all up.

He swallowed the coffee with a bit of difficulty, breathed a sigh of relief, and said to me, "Thank you."

Li Chishu had already said three "thank you" to me early in the morning.

I was about to speak when he pointed behind me and said, "Your homeroom teacher just entered the classroom. You should go back."

The balconies of my and Li Chishu's classrooms were located on opposite sides of the hallway, like two adjacent sides of a quadrilateral. Standing on the balcony, students from both classes could look across the distance and see each other.

I glanced back, but I didn't really care.

He said, "I'll wash the cup later and return it to you during the break."

I wanted to say "No need," but then I thought it would be a good opportunity to see him during the break, so I agreed, "Okay."

"You should go back." Li Chishu still held the cup with both hands. "I... I'll go in too."

Although he said that, Li Chishu's legs didn't move an inch, as if he wanted to watch me enter the classroom before leaving himself.

I couldn't resist and pinched his ear. "Then I'll go."

He was clearly taken aback, and his eyes seemed to widen for a moment. In the blink of an eye, his ears and neck turned red, and he stuttered, "Ah…… En."

I pretended not to notice and turned to leave, but I couldn't resist twisting my fingers, still warm from touching his earlobe.

Li Chishu, you've come such a long way.

—

As it turned out, you can't pretend to be someone you're not, or the heavens will find a way to expose you.

As cool as I tried to act in front of Li Chishu, I was just as clumsy when I fell asleep in class and almost fell off my chair.

The ten-minute break was not enough time for a nap, and I barely made it through the third class before Li Chishu came to return the cup. I took the cup back to my desk and then went back to Li Chishu, collapsing onto him in front of many people at the classroom door.

He lowered his voice so that only I could hear it, and there was a hint of surprise in his voice. "Shen Baoshan…"

I grabbed the hand that Li Chishu was trying to use to push me away and rested my chin on his shoulder. "Li Chishu, I'm really tired."

In fact, this kind of posture was not so unusual among ordinary male classmates, and Li Chishu noticed that no one was looking at us strangely, so he stopped resisting and waited silently for me to lean on him for a while before asking, "That, what should I do?"

I couldn't help but laugh out loud and stood up straight to look at him. "Li Chishu, do you know how to say anything other than 'What should I do?' and 'Thank you'?"

He didn't expect me to respond like that, and perhaps he found it funny himself as he lowered his head and chuckled, not saying anything in response.

I brushed aside the stray hair that was covering his forehead and said, "Can you accompany me to the playground and sit for a while?"

"En... sure," he said after a moment of thinking. "Wait for me while I go back to my classroom."

Li Chishu went back to his classroom to get a biology book before going with me to the playground.

It didn't matter to me, I just wanted to nap comfortably next to him.

So when he sat down on the grass and opened his book, I took the opportunity to rest my head on his lap. Feeling a bit uneasy, I also wrapped my arm around his bent knee to make sure he would stay by my side when I woke up - even though it was just a psychological comfort.

Li Chishu started pushing me again.

"Shen Baoshan." He pushed my shoulder like he was tickling me, looking around, afraid that someone was watching. "Don't hold on to me like this…"

I quickly took off my jacket to cover my head with it, feeling drowsy. "You cover my head, and people will think you're with your girlfriend."

He sighed, feeling helpless, and muttered above my head, "Whose girlfriend is this big……"

His words made me chuckle as I was about to fall asleep. Suddenly, I remembered something and fumbled in my school uniform pocket, taking out the eye drops I bought last night and holding them up. "If your eyes get dry, put in a couple of drops and rest for a while."

After a few seconds, he took the eye drops from my hand. "Did you buy these?"

"No, someone gave it to me."

"Who gave them?"

"......"

"Shen Baoshan?"

"......"

"......"

—

September 24th, sunny

I overslept today and the cafeteria only had steamed mandarin rolls and steamed buns. There was no congee, and I forgot to bring a water bottle. It's easy to choke on it while walking on the road.

I did homework in the classroom all day and didn't see Shen Baoshan.

—

September 24th, sunny.

Shen Baoshan brought me breakfast that he made himself, which was very big. Although I only felt a bit full when I ate it in the morning, I didn't feel hungry until noon. The bacon was very fragrant and tasted different from the meat I had eaten before. The fried eggs were also delicious. It was my first time eating kale, and Shen Baoshan said it tasted similar to Chinese cabbage, but I also thought it was very tasty. Shen Baoshan seems to be someone who knows how to choose food.

I also drank latte art coffee, which was bitter but smelled very fragrant. Shen Baoshan made it too. Shen Baoshan is really amazing, even better than me and many other people. He also has good grades and knows a lot of things that I don't. Although I can cook too, my food doesn't taste as good as his.

The eye drops he brought were also very effective, even better than the one I bought in junior high school. I don't know which pharmacy would give such good eye drops.

I'm really grateful to Shen Baoshan.

If he can't sleep next time, he can also call me.

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