Addicted: Book Two – Chapter 68

What I can do for you

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When they arrived at Bai Luoyin’s dorm, Gu Hai smelled a gust of strange odor permeating the room the moment he entered.

“How long has it been since the room was ventilated?”

Pointing at the window, Bai Luoyin spoke as if he was telling the truth. “Hmm, I ventilate it every day around the same time.”

Gu Hai raised a brow—being used to Bai Luoyin’s unkempt habits, he went to open the window only to have a thick layer of dust fall onto his hands. He sighed. Since they had not seen each other for more than ten days, he did not have the heart to scold Bai Luoyin right now. But he could not help but feel sad and commented to himself: My wifeeee! Can’t you make this a bit easier for me?! If you’re always like this, I won’t dare to go travel out for business trips later on.

Bai Luoyin grabbed a large pile of dirty clothes he found beneath the blanket, pillows, and bed and shoved them into Gu Hai’s hands. “Here, I saved them all for you.”

Looking down at the clothes, Gu Hai then glanced back up at Bai Luoyin. It was not hard to see that as his eyes swept over that handsome face, there was both love and hate dwelling in them. Then without saying anything, Gu Hai turned around and walked into the bathroom.

The washing machine was one of the many new things that Gu Hai had purchased. Before he left, he had made sure to set everything up; the laundry detergent and fabric softener had also been poured in. All that was needed to be done was to put the clothes in, turn on the water faucet, start the machine and wait for a while; then there would be clean clothes. Such a simple process, yet Bai Luoyin was still too incredibly lazy to do it himself.

However, that was something Gu Hai could understand. In truth, it did not matter how many clothes were left unwashed since those kinds of things were just a type of entertainment in his perspective. When a person stared at a pile of documents or a computer all day long, that kind of physical labor would become a type of relaxation or enjoyment. Contrariwise, for someone like Bai Luoyin who only trained every day, he would not let an opportunity to be lazy simply fly by.

Luckily, the two were not in the same type of profession, which made it easier for them to tolerate and empathize with each other.

Gu Hai placed all the clothes in the washing machine and hand-washed all the underwear and socks. But before he washed them, he counted them only to discover that the number was off. He shouted out, “There’s a sock missing.”

“There shouldn’t be. I already gave you everything.”

Gu Hai counted them again, but it was still wrong. “Look for it again.”

Searching thoroughly in every spot, Bai Luoyin finally found the missing sock in a small crack between the mattress and headboard. He walked over to where Gu Hai was and threw the sock in the hamper, but when he glanced down, all he saw was a pile of white socks!

“They’re all white socks! How did you know that one was missing?”

“Nonsense! Before I left, I bought you twenty pairs of socks and placed them in the cabinet by your bed because I was afraid you wouldn’t wash them. That way, you could wear a new pair every day. Do you think I don’t know you? As long as there are clean socks to wear, you definitely won’t wash any of the dirty ones. I left for twelve days, and there are only twenty-three socks here, doesn’t that mean there’s one sock missing?”

Bai Luoyin laughed mischievously.

“You still have the guts to laugh at me?” Gu Hai smeared a handful of bubbles on Bai Luoyin’s face.  

Unable to avoid that, Bai Luoyin wiped the bubbles off and lowered his head to look at Gu Hai washing the underwear and socks. Truthfully speaking, he especially loved to see Gu Hai doing manual labor since every time he saw that, he could not help but feel a sense of displacement. Meaning, he always thought that Gu Hai was not doing housework, but rather, he was displaying his métier, his specialty. Whenever anyone saw Gu Hai for the first time, they would always think he was enveloped by a ring of light, surrounded by a group of beautiful women, and that he lived a luxurious and mind-blowing life—a person who was adored by many people.

Therefore, being able to see that kind of person cooking and doing laundry was like enjoying a performance, a performance that was disconnected from reality. Since Bai Luoyin was the only one that could watch such a performance, no matter how disconnected it was from reality, it was still only a part of his dream while others didn’t even have the right to even fantasize about it.

“You also changed your underwear every day, right?” Gu Hai asked.

Hearing his voice, Bai Luoyin’s spirit seemed to return to his body. “Yeah, I changed it every day.”

Gu Hai nodded approvingly, “That’s good, don’t think of it as an inconvenience. Your underwear must be changed regularly.”

There was a pile of documents that needed to be dealt with back at the company, but Gu Hai tuned out all the public pressures and stubbornly came to regulate Bai Luoyin’s dorm for the entire afternoon. Afterward, instead of returning to the company, he drove directly to the supermarket. Thinking about how Bai Luoyin had not eaten well for so many days, he made several non-vegetarian dishes and brought it to him.

But sadly, Bai Luoyin immediately exposed a disgusted expression when the smell of cooked meat wafted into his nostrils.  

“I don’t want to eat meat. You can eat it!” Bai Luoyin quickly pushed the meat dishes that were in front of him over to Gu Hai.

Gu Hai put down his chopsticks and looked at Bai Luoyin with astonishment.

“What’s wrong? Don’t you love eating meat?”

As the smell of the meat floated around him, Bai Luoyin started choking but forced himself to swallow whatever wanted to come up. His expression was baked with disgust and confusion as he spoke, “My stomach has been feeling a bit uncomfortable lately.”

“What’s going on?” Gu Hai became concerned, “Did you mess up your stomach from eating something unclean again?”

Just as Gu Hai was speaking, Bai Luoyin suddenly felt nauseated out of nowhere and ran to the bathroom to vomit. When Gu Hai stepped in, Bai Luoyin had already started to spit out acid liquid while tears were gushing out from his eyes.

Once he was done rinsing his mouth, Bai Luoyin went back to sit in the front of the table and looked at Gu Hai with an apologetic expression.

Although Gu Hai felt bothered, he did not say anything. He simply grabbed a piece of beef and placed it near his mouth to somehow tempt Bai Luoyin. “Look how delicious it is.”

The second Bai Luoyin saw Gu Hai doing that, he could not help but think of Zhou Lingyun, and that nearly caused him to vomit again.

“Gu Hai, don’t worry about me. You can just eat it yourself.”

How could Gu Hai give up so easily?! That stomach was one of Gu Hai’s magical weapons to fasten Bai Luoyin to him. If that trump card was actually destroyed, then it definitely won’t be effective in the future in case they argued.  

As a result, Gu Hai patiently sat next to Bai Luoyin and covered his eyes. He picked up a piece of fish, took out the bones and put it near Bai Luoyin’s mouth then gently said: “Taste it…”

Seeing Bai Luoyin struggled in every possible way, Gu Hai resorted to shoving the fish in his mouth. Since there was a huge disparity between the taste and texture of fish and fatty meat, Bai Luoyin was able to accept it. Soon, Gu Hai slowly fed him some chicken, which was then followed by lamb meat. But when Gu Hai finally passed the pork meat to his mouth, Bai Luoyin still shook his head.

“Come, look at my mouth. Don’t look at the meat and just look at my mouth.”

Since Gu Hai said it like that, Bai Luoyin shifted all his attention to Gu Hai’s mouth.

Gu Hai bit into a piece of lean meat and immediately brought it close to Bai Luoyin’s lips, but Bai Luoyin evaded without hesitation. To solve that, Gu Hai first firmly sealed Bai Luoyin’s lips with his, then used his tongue to slowly push the meat into Bai Luoyin’s mouth before incessantly giving him some encouragement. “Just chew it for a while. It’s very savory.”

Not daring to chew it, Bai Luoyin swallowed it all in one go.

Gu Hai picked up another piece of meat.

Seeing that, Bai Luoyin swiftly gripped Gu Hai’s wrist while wearing an embarrassed expression, akin to that of not wanting to make it difficult for someone. “Gu Hai, don’t spoil me anymore. When I didn’t have you before, I could eat anything. When we were stationed in the desert and had to train there day in and day out, even steamed buns that were as hard as ice-shards tasted extremely good. But since you started bringing food over to me, my stomach acts up every now and then. If I eat something that’s slightly different, I immediately feel uncomfortable.”

“That’s precisely the result I wanted,” Gu Hai said with much pride and arrogance, “That way, you won’t dare to eat indiscriminately.”  

“The crucial point is, there is simply no way we can live together and—you can’t always bring me food! Our squadrons are also out frequently… sometimes, we are stationed outside of the city for training that could last for a month or longer. I didn’t feel anything about it before, but now, just thinking about it is especially frightening.”

Hearing all those words, Gu Hai felt particularly sorrowful, however, he did not show. Instead, he tried to comfort Bai Luoyin to the best of his ability.

“It’s alright… what you imagine now may be very painful, but when you are compelled to face it, you will definitely be able to manage it. Since there aren’t that many good days, you have to enjoy it all without delay. Or else, when a day comes where you are actually suffering, you’re definitely going to regret not having eaten a few more bites. Come on, open your mouth.”

When the two were taking a bath and rubbing each other’s backs, Gu Hai looked at the wound on Bai Luoyin’s waist and couldn’t help but ask, “How exactly did you get injured here?”

“It happened when I was training.”

Gu Hai was bewildered, “What kind of training would cause such an injury?”

“…hula hooping.”

“The military actually has that kind of training?” Gu Hai firmly grabbed Xiao Yin Zi.

Bai Luoyin retaliated by gripping Xiao Hai Zi back. “Not only that, but we’ve also had a competition!”

Gu Hai looked carefully at the purlin-shape-like bruise on Bai Luoyin’s waist and sighed again. “Were there fragments of glass glued to the hula hoops that you guys use or something?”

At a loss for words, Bai Luoyin started to mumble a series of vague answers in an attempt to dodge the topic.

“Tell me the truth, what exactly happened to your waist?” Gu Hai’s expression was completely imbued with seriousness.

Knowing that he could no longer conceal it, Bai Luoyin told Gu Hai the truth.

“Apparently, my training wasn’t up to standard, so I was punished.”

Gu Hai’s complexion changed immediately, “What kind of punishment?”

Bai Luoyin went silent for a long time before he finally spoke. “…using my waist to drag a jet for fifty meters.”

At those words, Gu Hai took a deep breath; all the blood in his body flowed backward.

“It’s that Zhou Lingyun again, right?”

“Don’t go looking for him!” Bai Luoyin firmly said with emphasis. “I’ve already decided that I will surrender to him. Later on, I’ll train properly and won’t act smart or resort to petty tricks. When we battled in the sky that day, it was the first time he and I actually went against each other. I realized then that there’s a huge gap between him and me. I must strive to surpass him!”

By now, Gu Hai honestly felt exhausted for Bai Luoyin. “What do you want to achieve such a high level of achievement for?”

“Only if I’m outstanding will your father possibly accept me. Apart from that, I can’t think of anything else I can do for you.”

Gu Hai no longer said anything else, as an indescribable feeling settled heavily in his heart.

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