No Money to Divorce
Translator: h.e.l.liot
Editor: NH
First Published on Chaleuria
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Chapter 57: Your Techniques are Bad
While saying that, Zhong Yan was just about to reach out to s.n.a.t.c.h Adrian"s terminal.
“Don"t move around, doesn"t your wound still hurt?” Adrian quickly grabbed his hands and chuckled. “Aren"t you amazing? You want to s.n.a.t.c.h something from my hands? Are you able to?”
Him being a patient aside, he was never strong to begin with. There was no way Zhong Yan could s.n.a.t.c.h something from Adrian with brute force. He quickly realized this and deflated. There was no way, so he could only plead softly. “Please delete it…Come on…”
Even Zhong Yan did not realize that he was acting cute with Adrian right now.
His tone was so soft and delicate. Adrian had not heard him sound like this before. That voice tickled his heart, he couldn"t bear it and wanted to hear it more. “I"ll delete it if you say something nice.” After thinking about it, he added, “What about this? Call me "husband". If you do, I"ll delete it.”
A light tinge of red emerged on Zhong Yan"s pale face. “Don"t mess around…How could you set that as your ringtone? What if someone else hears?”
“There"s only the two of us in here. The closest living thing around us is that rabbit in the backyard. Who"s going to hear?” Adrian twisted his words on purpose. “What"s more, so what if someone hears? Am I not your husband?”
Zhong Yan had always been thin-skinned, so it really made him flush red to hear Adrian say the word “husband” so directly. He finally realized that Adrian was teasing him deliberately, and retracted himself back into the blanket, aggrieved, and refused to show his face anymore.
“Xiao Yan? Xiao Yan, don"t be angry.” Seeing that he had gone overboard, Adrian quickly tried to coax him. “Alright, I"ll give you a spousal discount. I"ll delete it if you give me a kiss. Hm? That"s not okay either? Then let me kiss you, okay? Come on, I"m making a big loss here. If you don"t agree then the deal is off.”
Zhong Yan peeked his eyes over the blanket and blinked.
Adrian leaned down to place a soft kiss on the corner of his eye, and the person who was laying down suddenly raised his head slightly and returned his kiss with a light peck at the corner of his mouth.
Adrian touched the place that had just been touched by something warm, surprised. Zhong Yan added quietly, “Your service was good. That"s your tip.”
This was the first time he tried flirting with someone in his life, so he wasn"t very good at it. He didn"t dare to look straight at Adrian at all, and he was so embarra.s.sed that he was already blushing to his ears before he could finish speaking. Adrian was feeling light-headed from this sweet and unexpected surprise. He cupped his hands on Zhong Yan"s face like it was a precious treasure. He really didn"t know what to do. A smile could be seen at the corners of Zhong Yan"s lips as he pushed him lightly. “The ringtone.”
“Alright, alright, I"ll delete it right now,” Adrian responded. Just as he raised his wrist, his terminal alarm started ringing.
“It"s time.” Adrian shut off the alarm. He saw Zhong Yan"s confused gaze and explained, “I had a diet.i.tian write you up a healthy diet plan today. We"ll go with a mainly liquid diet until you recover. Then we"ll have to follow the diet strictly. You"ll take three meals daily on time. I"ll be supervising your meals every day from now on.”
He hadn"t even explained everything yet. There was actually an exercise plan as well, but he will implement it after Zhong Yan recovers from his injuries. Zhong Yan had always hated exercising, so it would be best to tell him when the time comes. After teetering at the edge of death, Zhong Yan"s already weak body was in even worse shape. To improve such a weak body…Adrian could actually feel how heavy this task was going to be.
He was going to head out and bring Zhong Yan"s dinner in, but he suddenly felt a slight tug on his clothes.
Zhong Yan had subconsciously grabbed onto Adrian"s clothes, but he shrunk back abruptly—He suddenly recalled, Adrian warned him last month not to touch his clothes again. He thought he was going to die yesterday. That was an emergency then, but now…He was just about to apologize before Adrian got angry, but his hand that had just shrunk back was grabbed. Adrian leaned over and asked gently, “What"s wrong? Is there anything you want to tell me?”
“You…” Zhong Yan forgot what he was just about to say in an instant, but Adrian waited patiently for him and softly urged. “Hm?”
“Come back quickly,” Zhong Yan said, embarra.s.sed. When he saw Adrian turn around as if to leave, it made him feel very unsettled. How many times had he dreamed about it at night? He dreamed of Adrian"s disappointed figure as he left during that graduation ceremony. He chased him as soon as he got off that stage, but he could not catch him. Seven years had pa.s.sed since.
But right now, Adrian was just going out to bring dinner in. Zhong Yan felt like he was being too needy and wanted to say something to save the situation, but Adrian had already started to speak. “Alright, I"ll come back quickly.”
He took Zhong Yan"s hand and kneeled down before kissing Zhong Yan solemnly on the ring on his finger.
“You saved my life with your own. From now on, I"ll be by your side for the rest of our lives. I"ll never leave no matter what happens. Forever and ever.”
……
After dinner, Adrian brought the plate out to be washed in the dishwasher. When he came back, he saw that Zhong Yan had already turned on his terminal and was looking at the news on the virtual screen.
Adrian pulled a chair over to the bed and urged him, “You still haven"t recovered yet. You should rest. I"ll handle everything, Intron is also working on things your side.”
“I should still handle it by myself. It"ll help distract me. It…” Zhong Yan"s face was even paler than usual, but he tried to put on a weak smile, “It hurts a little right now.”
If it was able to make Zhong Yan take the initiative to say it was painful, then it was definitely unbearable. Adrian instantly felt restless and he wished he could suffer the pain in his place. With some hesitation, he said, “Should I give you a dose of your painkillers now? This needle should be tomorrow"s dose, but I can call and ask Wei Lan if we can administer it earlier.”
“No need…I can still bear it.” Zhong Yan was gasping lightly as he asked Adrian, “Where are you sleeping tonight?”
“I won"t be sleeping, I"ll watch over you. If I get tired, I can just rest here by your bed for a while.”
Zhong Yan wanted to say something, but Adrian thought he wanted to persuade him to get proper sleep upstairs, so he quickly interjected, “It"s fine, I was sleeping during the day before you woke up too, so I"m not tired.”
“That"s not it…” Zhong Yan pursed his lips. He thought that saying this straight out may be too bold, but—Adrian said it before, they were already married. They were legal partners so it should be normal. He kept trying to mentally prep himself through, but he still hesitated a little when he said, “I wanted to ask whether you wanted to…uh…I mean, if you"re willing, you could share a bed with me.”
Adrian was surprised. “Really? I was worried I"d b.u.mp into you in my sleep—Oh right, since I"m going to be up watching over you anyway, can I get in now?”
Zhong Yan nodded. Adrian had always been the proactive type. He carefully moved Zhong Yan inside a little. Normally, Zhong Yan was light enough that he could easily lift one of him in each hand, but he was too afraid that moving him too quickly might open Zhong Yan"s wound again. He went back and forth, moving his head and legs slowly each time, and every time he did, he would ask him if he had hurt him. After going through this process for a few minutes, even the slowpoke Zhong Yan couldn"t stand it anymore and said, “You don"t have to be so careful, the surgical techniques these days aren"t like what they were thousands of years ago. Just a few days is enough to fully recover.”
“That"s other people, do you know how bad your physical qualities are? There"s no way you can recover in less than half a month.” While saying that, Adrian crawled in bed and helped Zhong Yan fix his blanket before holding both him and the blanket in his arms. “What"s more, of course I have to be careful. You"re my only precious baby, who am I going to cry to if I break something?”
Zhong Yan was amused. “How am I going to look at the news if you wrap my arms up in the blanket?”
“Don"t look at it anymore. I"ll help you get distracted by chatting with you.” Adrian said, “I"ll tell you anything you want to know. Oh right, I actually do have something I need to tell you. I had Wei Lan remove…the scar under your ribs.”
Zhong Yan was stunned, then his complexion changed—That"s right, his scar! All those doctors saw it when they were doing the operation…
“Don"t worry, I know the reason why you never had it removed was because you couldn"t bear to have anyone see that scar, but your wound broke up that scar yesterday so the words couldn"t be seen. I asked Wei Lan to get rid of the remnants as well…From now on, n.o.body will ever find out.” Adrian brushed his fingers through his soft hair. “Since you"ve already had your revenge, just let the past stay in the past. You have me now, we can make new memories together, and cover all the bad ones.”
Zhong Yan moved his hands from under the blanket to touch his ribs through his shirt. There once was a shameful mark there. It wasn"t as if he didn"t want to get rid of it, but he was too ashamed to let anyone see it, even if it was a surgeon. Even two days ago, the night his body merged with Adrian"s for the very first time, he felt so embarra.s.sed by that mark on his body that he didn"t even dare to take off his shirt under the lights. Right now, the brand that had followed him for half his life, forcing him to constantly recall his inferior childhood and shame was completely gone.
With his body as a shield, he saved Adrian"s life, and also gave himself a new lease in life.
“Don"t cry, don"t cry, sweetheart.” Adrian could see the corners of his eyes getting red and was worried he"d cry. Wei Lan had warned him that he shouldn"t be stimulated these two days, so he tried to tease him on purpose. “Hey, so does this mean we don"t have to turn off the lights in the future?”
As expected, he managed to make Zhong Yan laugh. “Now that you mentioned that, I"ve got questions for you too. Have your former partners never said anything to you?”
Former partners? What partners? Suddenly, Adrian recalled how he boasted to Zhong Yan that he had “tons of experience”. He wanted to explain that that was actually his first time, but he still wanted to listen to what Zhong Yan wanted to say before that. He was confident that it had to be a compliment, so he asked with pleasure, “Said what about me? That I"m big?”
Zhong Yan was stunned by his straightforward self-praise and gave Adrian a grumpy shove. “No! I"ve read the books and it"s reasonable to say if that if properly done, both parties should experience great pleasure. But that day…Well, uh…has anyone ever told you that…your techniques are bad?”