Today, Su Pu was extremely out of sorts…
Almost from the moment Li Jichuan saw him returning late at the restaurant, that thought had already taken shape.
Thinking that the little mute must have been wronged again at work, Li Jichuan changed his plans at the last minute.
Thus, what should have been a romantic dinner for two turned into a lively family gathering instead.
All he wanted was for Su Pu to be a little happier.
But he could tell—throughout the entire evening, Su Pu had been forcing a smile.
At last, Su Pu could no longer hold it in. He covered his mouth and ran to the bathroom to vomit.
And Li Jichuan could not even be the first one to rush forward and take care of him.
The other servants, quicker on their feet, had already surrounded Su Pu, all asking after him anxiously.
Li Jichuan could not even squeeze into the guest bathroom. He could only stand outside, anxiously helpless.
He hated himself like this.
The family doctor came by and concluded that Su Pu’s stomach trouble was likely caused by irregular eating habits combined with recent overwork.
Hearing this only made Li Jichuan feel even more distressed. Recently, Su Pu had been busy helping him collect questionnaire data.
From the moment this little mute moved into his house, he had been doing everything he could to please him.
At times, Li Jichuan even had the illusion that Su Pu seemed to value his affairs more than his own…
But how could that be?
They had met by chance, and Su Pu had married in his brother’s place.
Why was he treating him so well? Why did he always look at him with those moist, vulnerable eyes that were impossible to fend off?
His thoughts were in utter chaos. A little mute was proving more complicated than any problem he had ever encountered in his life.
After seeing the family doctor off, Li Jichuan returned to the bedroom and lay down beside Su Pu.
The other man was curled up tightly, the quilt forming only a small rise.
Sometimes, Li Jichuan had the terrifying illusion that Su Pu might vanish into thin air.
He feared that illusion becoming reality more than anything.
So that night, Li Jichuan decided to take advantage of the situation. He wrapped both arms around Su Pu and pulled him into his embrace.
He wanted to feel him—feel the rise and fall of his breathing, feel his existence.
And the little mute, muddled from illness, even kept burrowing deeper into his arms.
They fit together seamlessly, holding each other close.
Foolish lovers, drawing closer without a word.
…
At midnight, the little mute jolted awake.
In his dream, he had just lost Li Jichuan. He could not forget the man’s cool, detached eyes.
Li Jichuan had not slept all night. Sensing that he was awake, he lifted the arm resting on Su Pu’s waist and gently smoothed his hair.
“It’s not dawn yet. Sleep a little longer…” Li Jichuan said softly.
Still shaken, Su Pu lifted his head and saw that the one holding him was Li Jichuan. He confirmed it again and again before finally relaxing.
This kind of embrace… must be nearing its end, right?
If this is a dream, please don’t let me wake up.
Li Jichuan placed his hand on Su Pu’s forehead, confirmed that the fever had gone down, and finally let out a breath of relief.
“Did you have another nightmare?” His voice was gentle.
Listening to him, Su Pu silently nodded.
“Can you tell me what it was about?”
After thinking for a moment, Su Pu shook his head.
Li Jichuan did not press further.
He extended one hand and held it out in front of Su Pu. “Your hand.”
Su Pu stared blankly for a moment, then tentatively placed his fingertips into Li Jichuan’s palm.
In that instant, several scattered, chaotic fragments of memory began to piece themselves together—
It seemed that the last time he was drunk, they had done the same thing…
“Su Pu, you helped me collect so many questionnaires, but do you know what project those questionnaires were for?”
Su Pu honestly shook his head. It seemed… it was for a game that had not yet been released.
Li Jichuan chuckled softly. His breath brushed against Su Pu’s ear, nearly dissolving his soul.
“Same rules as always. Squeeze my finger to show your answer—one squeeze means yes, two squeezes mean no,” Li Jichuan reminded him patiently.
Su Pu answered absentmindedly. It really did feel like the same situation as when Li Jichuan had been drunk before.
But last time… what questions had Li Jichuan asked him?
Li Jichuan’s voice was steady, tinged with lazy fatigue, echoing through the bedroom at four in the morning.
“We’ve been working on this game for almost four years now. It’s called ‘Raimondo.’ Do you know what it means?”
Su Pu squeezed his finger twice.
The faint tingling made Li Jichuan laugh softly—a genuine, heartfelt kind of joy.
“Raimondo comes from the English word ‘remodel.’ Everyone’s life has regrets, so we want to help people who carry those regrets build a virtual reality and reconstruct that part of their memories…”
Li Jichuan sighed, deciding to lay bare his own scars.
“I was the one who first proposed this concept. When I was a child, an accident took both my parents away in an instant… Later, the house I grew up in was auctioned off by my aunt. I begged my grandfather to help me buy it back, but there were too many bidders, and in the end it was sold to a developer.”
“In my second year studying abroad, the house was demolished. Now the city’s largest shopping mall stands there. Ever since then, whenever I think about how so many people are walking back and forth over memories I treasured like my life, it hurts unbearably. Sometimes I even thought about going to join my parents…”
Listening to Li Jichuan calmly share wounds he could never quite let go of, Su Pu’s heart clenched in pain.
Why was it that even someone as gentle and warm as Li Jichuan had it so hard?
Was this world one where only bad people lived well?
Why? It wasn’t fair!
Sensing Su Pu’s breathing growing uneven, Li Jichuan smiled and hugged the little bellows in his arms.
“Su Pu, do you know that even though you can’t speak, I can feel all your emotions…”
Su Pu froze, then lifted his eyes to look at him.
In Li Jichuan’s eyes shimmered a confidence that brooked no doubt. Su Pu watched him silently.
The owner of these eyes might not know that they were, in fact, weapons.
Weapons that could make any living being willingly surrender, drowning themselves in that pool of tenderness.
Su Pu lowered his lashes, waiting for him to continue.
“In Raimondo, players can freely build the scene they find hardest to let go of, and then, through simulated fragments, make up for that regret.”
“That’s why I want to collect as many sincere answers as possible. I want to know what kind of scenes people’s regrets occur in, so we can create relevant materials early on and build a utopia for their inner worlds.”
As he spoke, Li Jichuan’s fingertips unconsciously tangled with Su Pu’s fingers.
Several times, the little mute tried to pull away, only to be caught again and lightly pinched in mock punishment…
Su Pu let out a soundless laugh.
This childish side of Li Jichuan might also be the last time he would ever see it…
Perhaps talking had drained his energy. As Li Jichuan spoke, his voice grew lower and lower.
At last, his eyelids sank shut, and he fell asleep.
His body still held Su Pu tightly.
Su Pu had no trace of sleepiness. Seeing that Li Jichuan was asleep, he burrowed a little deeper into his arms.
He asked himself: someone like this—could you really bear to give him up?
Could you bear to say goodbye?
What, exactly, mattered more?
When the first faint glimmer of dawn lit up the horizon, Su Pu finally made his decision.
Nothing mattered more than his beloved.
This belief had begun forming when he was sixteen, hiding in a corner and replaying a recording over and over again, and it had continued all the way to now.
Li Jichuan had said he wanted to marry him. Su Pu believed that it was his responsibility to protect the promise between the two of them!
…
The next day, Su Hui partied at nightclubs until dawn, then casually booked a hotel room.
He did not even know who his bedmate was. In any case, he slept until three-thirty in the afternoon.
When he woke up, he grabbed his phone.
As expected, the foolish mute’s message was obediently waiting in his inbox.
Not only had Su Pu agreed to go home and apologize, he had also agreed to take the blame for the bank card!
Su Hui let out a frivolous whistle. So much for backbone—he still could not bear to give up that crippled husband of his…
Well, Su Fengxian never valued him anyway. If he did not cling to his husband, who else could he cling to?
In high spirits, Su Hui took a shower and returned to the Su residence feeling refreshed.
In the evening, the doorbell rang. Su Pu had arrived.
Su Hui gestured to him, indicating that Su Fengxian was in the study, waiting to deal with him.
Su Pu looked pitiful, as if he were about to faint at any moment.
However, before he could collapse, the doorbell rang again.
A servant went to answer the door. The visitor was no ordinary guest…
The man was dressed in formal attire, seated in a wheelchair, holding a bouquet of flowers. His face was frosty, yet his bone structure was sharply handsome.
Su Hui stared at the familiar-looking face, and at the faux jade bracelet on the man’s wrist, lost in thought.
This person… was actually Li Jichuan?