Chapter 51

There was some movement under the blanket. Xu Yang didn’t know if he was cold or just not sleeping soundly, but he kept his arms wrapped around his shoulders. Bi Yuan leaned in to take a look. Seeing that his eyes were closed and he didn’t seem like he was about to wake up, he quickly pulled him into his arms, holding him tightly, his cheek pressed against the back of his head, and even straddling him with his legs.

“Yangyang, are you awake?” Bi Yuan was wide awake. He brought his nose close to Xu Yang’s neck and sniffed. Besides the scent of shower gel, there was a faint hint of alcohol fermentation. “Yangyang?” He called out softly again. Seeing that Xu Yang didn’t respond, he immediately pulled back the blanket, threw on a pair of pants, and headed downstairs.

He remembered that Aunt Lin had placed the medicine box on the cabinet in the dining room, but after searching for a while, he couldn’t find it. He made quite a bit of noise, waking Aunt Lin up: “What are you looking for, young master?”

The living room was dark, and Aunt Lin emerged from the side room on the first floor. When she raised her eyes, she met Aunt Lin’s flashlight. “Aunt Lin, did I wake you up?” He hurriedly pulled her to the dining room cabinet and asked, “Wasn’t the medicine cabinet on the cabinet before? Why is it gone?”

Upon hearing that he was looking for the first-aid kit, Aunt Lin quickly raised her hand to his forehead to check, “Are you sick?” But his forehead felt normal, and Aunt Lin was puzzled, “You don’t have a fever either…”

“No fever,” he pulled Aunt Lin’s hand off his forehead and said awkwardly, “I’m looking for the hangover medicine.”

“I told you last night I’d make you some hangover soup, but you wouldn’t listen…” Upon hearing that Bi Yuan wanted to find a hangover remedy, Aunt Lin deliberately frowned at him, then pushed aside the tall figure blocking the kitchen cabinet. She quickly tidied up the mess Bi Yuan had made, then pulled him into the living room. Holding a flashlight, she pointed to the small box on the coffee table and said: “I already put it on the coffee table for you.”

Following the light of Aunt Lin’s flashlight, he indeed saw the hangover remedy on the coffee table. Bi Yuan cupped Aunt Lin’s face and gave her a firm kiss on the forehead, then blurted out, “You’re the cutest Aunt Lin, even cuter than Yang Yang’s!” He then grabbed the medicine and ran upstairs in three strides.

“What do you mean ‘your family’ and ‘my family’? How many Aunt Lins are there? This child…”

Xu Yang was still asleep, drowsy and disoriented, and Bi Yuan didn’t bother to wake him up. He took the oral solution out of the medicine box, read the instructions under the light of his phone, placed it on the bedside cabinet, then took off his pants and lay back on the bed, using his hands and feet to wrap himself around Xu Yang.

“Yangyang…” Knowing that Xu Yang couldn’t be woken up at this moment, Bi Yuan didn’t bother and just kept talking to himself: “Can I tell you a story?”

Whether it was a murmur in his dream or he really heard Bi Yuan’s words, Xu Yang actually responded with a “mhm.”

“I’ll tell you a story about a little sheep…”

Once upon a time, there was a little lamb who lived with his father, mother, and two older sisters. The lamb’s father discovered a lake, and beside the lake was a lush oasis. They lived happily on the oasis by the lake. But one day, the sheep mother fell ill and could no longer graze on her own. Everyone was worried and didn’t know what to do. Then a lost little dog came along. To find water to drink in the oasis, she offered to take care of the sheep mother, so the sheep family kept her.

But soon, the sheep mother passed away, leaving behind the young lamb. The sheep sisters also left the oasis one after another to explore the wider world. The little lamb was very sad because he no longer had his loving mother and sisters by his side.

But the sheep father said, “You will have a new mother.”

Sure enough, the little lamb soon gained a new mother—the lost puppy. But the little lamb couldn’t be happy. He felt the lost puppy wasn’t as kind as his mother had been, and she seemed to grow colder and colder.

One day, the little lamb discovered that the lost puppy was actually a cunning fox. She had come to their oasis and secretly dug a canal by the lake, diverting all the water to other places. The little lamb was furious and wanted to tell his father to drive her away, but the lamb father was too old to move.

His mother was dead, his father was old, and his sister had left him to go to a distant place. Watching the cunning fox gradually drain their lake dry day by day, the little lamb grew anxious and furious. The once lush grass and small trees by the lake slowly withered away.

“Then what happened?” Xu Yang, who had woken up at some point, asked in a hoarse voice, his attention fully focused on the storyteller.

Xu Yang had been sleeping soundly, but in his dream, he faintly heard Bi Yuan’s voice whispering in his ear. The voice was not loud, but it was incessant, as if telling him a very long story. He heard the sadness in that voice, as if he could empathize with it, causing him to wake up from his dream with an inexplicable sense of melancholy.

He asked, “Then what happened? Did the little sheep chase the fox away?”

Knowing that the person in his arms had woken up, the wall was clearly surprised that his listener had responded, but he tightened his arms around Xu Yang, burying his face in his neck, and sighed as if trying to expel the sorrow from his chest, saying, “She chased it away.”

“He secretly blocked the ditch the fox had dug behind the lake, cutting off her retreat, then returned to the oasis alone to face the snarling fox, fiercely driving her away so she could never return.”

“But because the water from the lake had been drained, the once-lush oasis was no longer an oasis. It had turned into a desert, no longer vibrant with life or as full of vitality as before. Gradually, the little sheep grew into a big sheep. Over the years, many sheep came to his side, each one beautiful and proud. They all claimed they could make the big sheep’s desert grow grass again, but in the end, they only wanted to take his lake water.”

“Until a skinny little rabbit timidly hopped into the sheep’s oasis, saying he was thirsty and wanted to drink some water…”

Bi Yuan continued telling the story of the sheep and the rabbit. He didn’t know if Xu Yang was still listening, nor did he know if Xu Yang understood these childish and boring stories. He just kept murmuring them into his ear, conveying every emotion word by word.

“He had once thought the little rabbit would be like those beautiful sheep, approaching him only to drain the water from his lake, and one day, after drinking and eating their fill, they would leave without a second glance. But he never imagined there would be a rabbit so soft and kind, one that even brought him a magical seed. That seed had such powerful vitality that it could take root, sprout, and grow in that desert that had been barren for so long.”

Bi Yuan leaned in to look at Xu Yang, who had closed his eyes and showed no response. He looked as though he were asleep, sleeping so peacefully and relaxed.

“The seed brought by the little rabbit has already taken root and sprouted; it can’t be pulled out…” He kissed Xu Yang’s eyelids, looking at his slightly parted lips as he slept. Bi Yuan couldn’t help but kiss them again and again before reluctantly lifting his head, gazing at Xu Yang’s peaceful sleeping face and saying:

“The seeds will grow into a meadow in the desert. Then, the sheep won’t want the little rabbit to leave. He wants to live with him in the oasis, eat grass together, and stroll under the sunset. The sheep wants to be with him…”

Pulling the blanket over both of them, Bi Yuan finally lay down beside Xu Yang, no longer clinging to him with arms and legs, nor whispering stories in his ear. Instead,he lay behind him, his chest pressed against his back, his arm reaching up from his waist to wrap around his chest, his palm pressed against his heart, holding him tightly in his embrace.

Closing his eyes, Bi Yuan felt the warmth, softness, and docility of the body in his arms, unconsciously tightening his arms and whispering a rare confession.

“Yang Yang, I want to be with you…”