Chapter 19: You’re going too far!

Yu Chu continued to read quickly. There were some very ordinary things, such as the birds flying in the sky; the new table cloth on the dining table; the fried chicken drumstick made by his mother; his eighth birthday when his father came and bought him a new toy… those innocent and naive words were recorded in pieces.

The information he got from reading between the lines was that Yu Chu didn’t live on the island as a child – at least not until he was eight years old. Yu ShiQing would visit them from time to time, but Yu Chu’s mother didn’t love Yu ShiQing and was probably forced to stay with him? Or maybe it was some other reason.

The diary was thick, but most of it was filled. Yu Chu was afraid that Zhou Mu outside would suddenly come in, so he hurriedly turned toward the back. When he turned to a certain page, the color of the handwriting suddenly changed, and he stopped flipping.

The page was no longer in pencil, but in dark, black pen, with only one short line written on it.

2010.07.18 Sunny

Mom was buried yesterday, and I followed Dad to the island.

Yu Chu hurriedly backed up a page and found that the previous entry in the diary was still on April 2, 2010, and pencil was used.

2010.04.02 Light rain

Mom is lying in the hospital and has stopped eating. Dad came again and told me to leave the ward and go downstairs to play, but it was too dark downstairs, so I hid in the stairwell and didn’t go down. I heard Dad yelling at Mom to give him something. Mom didn’t have the strength to argue anymore, and I was trying to help her when the doctor went in and I saw Dad leave in a huff.

For the next three months, there was nothing in the diary, and the next entry was that his mom died and he followed his dad to the island.

The cell phone tone at the outer living room had disappeared, changing to Zhou Mu’s walking footsteps. Yu Chu sped up his flipping through the diary, glancing at the back. However, after arriving on the island, Yu Chu had lost interest in keeping a diary, and the total number of entries weren’t many.

2010.10.08

Sorry Mom, I haven’t written a diary for so long, not because I’m lazy, but because my hand hurts so much… it really hurts, I can’t hold the pen. He broke my finger, Mom, I’m so sorry. I’m so sad. I’m so sad that my heart hurts more than my finger. I’m not dying but I’m so sad.

The diary was a bit incoherent, repeating “I’m so sad”. Yu Chu’s hand shuddered as he held the diary, and both of his deformed pinkies spasmed gently for a few moments. He lifted his left hand to his eyes and stared at the pinky finger that was slightly crooked and couldn’t be aligned with the other fingers, thinking that the person who broke his finger was most likely Yu Feng.

It was unknown what Zhou Mu was doing now. The sofa was pulled by him and made a sound, so Yu Chu hurriedly continued to read.

2010.10.30

Today is Dad’s birthday. Many people came to the island. I thought I wasn’t allowed to leave the room like before, but Dad took me and Brother to stand together at the front door. Mom, I’m sorry, I’m still a little happy in my heart, so I made crafts to give him as a birthday gift. I was only allowed to like him this day.

There was a knock on the bedroom door, and Yu Chu hurriedly closed the notebook and returned it to its original position, then gently closed the glass cabinet door and turned around, getting into bed.

“What’s up?” He asked in a hoarse voice as he lay on the bed.

Although the bedroom door wasn’t closed tightly, leaving a gap, Zhou Mu didn’t push the door open, but stood outside and said, “You’ve been sleeping for almost two hours. You won’t be able to sleep at night if you sleep too much.”

“So what? Do you even want to control my naps now?”

Yu Chu continued to lie in bed with turbulent thoughts in his mind, pondering the contents of the diary, before getting up half an hour later.

The rain outside still hadn’t stopped, and Zhou Mu was half leaning on the double sofa, playing his mobile game again, when Yu Chu walked over and kicked him in the ass, “Get out of my way, this sofa is mine.”

Zhou Mu didn’t care about his childish and unreasonable behavior, only glanced at the white and tender feet, and said indifferently, “Go and put on your shoes.”

Yu Chu ignored him and sat down on the sofa, then lay down, his head about to lie in Zhou Mu’s arms.

Zhou Mu got up and went to the bedroom to take out Yu Chu’s slippers and set them in front of the sofa, then went to sit down on the single sofa next to him.

Yu Chu started watching TV. He loved watching TV dramas; the immortal ones where people could fly around, the divine dramas where two fingers could stop a bullet, young boys and girls running in the rain in their school uniforms; they were all magical to him and greatly satisfied his curiosity.

While watching, he went to ask Zhou Mu, “Where is the spiritual platform? Is there really someone who can practice until the Jindan stage? Why does he run faster than a train? Is the train so slow?”

Zhou Mu ignored him and played the game with his eyes down. Yu Chu didn’t really want him to answer, so he answered himself, “Fake, these dramas are so fake, they’re not real.”

“Dramas are fake?” Zhou Mu couldn’t stand it anymore, “If you want to see the real thing, you have to watch the news.”

“No, the news isn’t good, it’s too real.”

When it was time to go to bed at night, the storm finally stopped and Yu Chu took a bath and pushed open the bedroom door with a yawn. When he saw the quilt unfolded on the carpet, he remembered that Zhou Mu was going to sleep in the same room as him.

Zhou Mu was doing push-ups on the floor, and as he moved, his smooth, lean back was clearly outlined under his T-shirt, with strong, lean muscles from the side of his neck to his shoulders. He did it with ease, exerting no effort at all. Yu Chu leaned on the door frame and watched for a long time, then walked over and sat on his back.

Zhou Mu didn’t stop because of the sudden addition of a person’s weight on his back, still maintaining his original frequency. Yu Chu then began to count for him. When the count reached 300, Zhou Mu still didn’t show fatigue. Yu Chu’s heart felt envy, but also felt some defiance and quietly began to pile more things on Zhou Mu’s back.

First the pillow, then the cushion, blatantly stacking the quilt roll on his back as well. When he couldn’t find anything suitable to drag around him anymore, he pulled over the heavy wooden chair, only then did Zhou Mu finally stopped him, “You’re going too far.”

“It’s mostly because you’re irritating.” Yu Chu leaned against the wooden chair and smiled.

Zhou Mu rolled over and stood up and the quilts and pillows rolled off him onto the floor. His T-shirt was soaked with sweat, so he fished clean clothes out of his suitcase and went to the bathroom to take a shower.

When he came out of the shower, Yu Chu was already on the bed, and when he saw him, he lifted the covers as he did last time and patted the empty space beside him ambiguously.

Zhou Mu ignored him, lowered his eyes and made his bed on the floor, turned off the light and lay down.