The Hangover

Chapter 4

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I was thinking that Pokerface didn’t seem to be able to stand these filthy clothing staying a second longer either on me or on him. That was why his anger decreased by half when he got rid of his. Thus, I didn’t make any delays and just stood there compliantly as he took off my pants along with my belt and dropped it on the floor with a clank.

But I could no longer stay quiet once he started to pull on my underwear.

“Erm, Xiaoge?” I grabbed his wrist alarmingly and asked nervously. What was he doing?

He still kept a straight face while tugging on the waistband with a finger. “You want to shower with it on?”

Ohhh. A shower! I see now! I must be really out of it right now.

I couldn’t help reprimanding myself in my head.

Wu Xie, oh Wu Xie, why were you measuring his corn with your bushel? Why was I so nervous just now and why am I so relieved now?

We were just two fellows so it wasn’t a big deal to show a little skin. Also, it wasn’t like we hadn’t before—we did in the undersea grave, although we didn’t show nearly as much as this time. Therefore, I still pushed on his hand, indicating that I could do it myself. I held on to his shoulder with one hand and clumsily pulled my underwear down my leg to my ankles with my other before kicking it aside.

I was completely naked by the time I stood up straight again. I had no idea what to do with my hands and where to look, but Pokerface didn’t waste any time. He turned me around and led me to step in the tub.

I felt like he was my own designated handicap railing, standing there for me to hold on to while I cautiously stuck out my feet one at a time and stepped into the tub.

The surface was a bit wet and the pools of moisture were cool to the touch. I had just found my footing in the tub when my mind split into two. I tried to reach for the shower head with one hand while turning to look at Pokerface because I was wondering why he was still standing outside. Through this pull and push, my body started tilting in a weird angle. My feet slipped—bam!

For a moment, the world was black. When light returned to my eyes, what I saw were the light bulbs attached to the ceiling flashing and twinkling, while I was on my b.u.t.t in the tub and my spine ached immensely.

My first reaction was to turn to look at Pokerface. I saw him ma.s.saging his temples, seemingly at his limit. I thought, if I were him I probably would have butchered me. I mean what a troublesome person!

I struggled to get up but Pokerface lowered his hands and took his briefs off without hesitation. Next, he stepped into tub and looked down from above.

The view was quite, uh, majestic.

While my mind was wandering, Pokerface had already hauled me up. I came up too quickly which made me feel lightheaded and lose my centre of gravity so I fell on him.

He held me up with one arm and did something else behind me with the other. I heard the shower head being picked up and placed into its holder that was screwed into the wall.

The shower was turned on too—splash—and water started pouring out onto us.

“Stand properly,” he commanded.

I had been leaning lazily on him but once I heard him, I quickly straightened my posture as though every cell in my body felt danger, and became stiff like a plank even though I was still feeling extremely dizzy.

My hair soaked up the water very quickly and hung down in front of my face. I watched Pokerface through them. His face was covered by strands of hair too. Water droplets hung off of the ends and made him look not angry but as if he was saying ‘What am I going to do with you?’.

He reached under my arm with one arm to work on something. I glanced over to find that his hand was full of shampoo and it came back to rub the shampoo into my hair.

I had thought that the shampoo was for him so I didn’t expect him to wash my hair first. Habitually, I closed my eyes, if not it would have hurt a lot if the water and lather went into my eyes.

Pokerface began to ma.s.sage my scalp with such even pressure I almost fell asleep. However, his hands moved down towards my temples. He applied a bit more pressure and drew circles around them. A very soothing feeling washed over my mind and helped to sober me up.

As he ma.s.saged me, I thought to myself, from what I have seen through our interactions, he doesn’t seem like the type to know how to care for others. At least he doesn’t know how to take care of himself, does he?

My thoughts started to wander and for some reason I thought back to the carca.s.s cave. I recalled that after we had left the cave, Big Kui had fainted from fright while Pokerface had, too, from the blood loss. I changed his bandage once while he had been unconscious and when I had seen the wound I was stunned. The cut was so deep that I could see the fat layer! He had been so reckless that it seemed as though he had not been cutting himself but some other person. I wondered whether he would even treat the injury or just let it flow freely and get infected while being completely oblivious if no one had been there to look after him.

My head was hanging low. I blinked my eyes a few times and several drops of water got shaken off, allowing me to see what was in front of me: Pokerface’s collarbone. There was a distinct dip where the bone connected to his sternum.

A confusing image flashed through my head. This area had once been dyed red with blood and also had a tattoo of what might have been an animal. Although the tattoo hadn’t appeared for long, it had left such a striking impression that I couldn’t forget about it even if I tried to.

“Xiaoge,” I leaned my head against the fair surface that had nothing on it so far. “Where’s theqilin?”

His hands stopped moving. “What?”

The water was still running. It streamed through my hair and onto him, leaving lots of white lather.

Huh, what did I just say?

Drunk people had horrible memory and would forget what was just said a second ago.

“Qi…Ki. Lin.” Cream?

I was fairly sure that I was spouting nonsense. My linguistic capacities were a complete mess. But after I said it, I discovered that Pokerface’s skin was indeed very smooth, kind of like cream. I nuzzled my face in his neck and the fact that I was just being a nuisance did not even occur to me.

Clunk. The water stopped coming from behind. I felt Pokerface placing his hand on my waist after turning the tap off.

Why? Why has he turned the water off? Is he leaving?

He held me by the waist with one hand and put the other up in front of my face, sticking a few fingers up. “How many fingers, Wu Xie?”

I squinted at his slender, long fingers, pressing my face closer and then drawing it back. They became a few shadowy outlines in my dilated pupils. It looked like there were four…or maybe only three? Then I blinked my eyes and it became five, six, seven, eight…

This made me even more confused, so I impatiently let out a ‘tsk’ and tackled his hand.

“Kylin.” Okay, I finally got it right.

That was not what I had wanted to say but it was what I wanted to say then. Qilin, cream, Kylin—I wondered if he ever noticed that his name sounded like a lot of things.

With his hand in grasp, I moved it downwards towards my stomach where my manhood was just starting to awaken.

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