Back to My Lover at Eighteen - Chapter 2

We traveled in silence for a while.

When we arrived and I opened his door, he sank his teeth hard into the web of my hand, then turned and ran into the curtain of rain.

It hurt, but I gritted my teeth and dragged the kid back anyway. I even managed to wrap my coat around him and shield him from the rain with half my body.

He despaired and pleaded in a small, cautious voice.

“I’ll pay the money back…”

I turned to look at him. Unease clouded his eyes, and his slightly overgrown hair clung to his forehead, making him look terribly pitiful.

My heart melted completely. “I’m not one of your creditors.”

He fell silent again.

Without thinking, I rubbed the bite on my hand. It hurt.

This wasn’t a dream.

I was astonished that I had returned to the past, and overwhelmingly grateful—but the realization also brought a headache. When I thought he was merely part of a dream, I hadn’t planned to explain where I came from. But now…

If I told him I was his lover, the kid would probably think I was harassing him.

I eased him back a little and tried to negotiate patiently. “Can we get your wounds dressed first?”

That would also buy me time to invent an excuse.

Shang Shixu glanced at the hospital, then at the bite on my hand, and finally nodded in silence.

Fortunately, even when I was younger, I had carried a card with me out of habit. It wasn’t the one with my highest limit, but there was more than enough on it to cover the medical bill and support him for a while.

After paying, I went to find Shang Shixu in the treatment room, where a doctor was dressing his wounds.

“What is it with children these days? None of you know how to take care of yourselves. Any deeper and these would have needed stitches.”

Shang Shixu kept his head bowed through the scolding and said nothing. Yet, for no reason I could name, he seemed a little lost.

I stepped forward. Before I could say a word, the doctor turned the lecture on me.

“And you parents are just as bad. You don’t pay enough attention to your children, and only remember to bring them to the hospital after something happens?”

Shang Shixu opened his mouth to speak, but I smoothly accepted the blame.

“Yes, yes. Thank you for taking care of him, doctor.”

Once he had been bandaged, I led him back to the car. I watched him closely the entire way. After a few attempts, he gave up on escaping.

“Do you know how to fasten a seat belt?”

He stared at me in silence, then buckled it with the air of someone abandoning himself to his fate.

“Why are you helping me?”

He turned toward me, his gaze intense. “You can tell me now, can’t you? Who… are you?”

I opened my mouth, then hesitated.

I had already tested it. If I tried to reveal that I came from the future, no words would come out. But if I said nothing, I would have to endure the suspicion in the boy’s eyes…

I suddenly remembered the first time I met Shang Shixu in my previous life. The school administration had praised him endlessly as a model student. But because of his family circumstances, even a hardship subsidy wasn’t enough for him to live on.

The stubborn Shang Shixu in my memories overlapped with the boy before me, and a suitable excuse came to mind.

“I visited No. 1 High School before, and the principal told me about your family. Your grades are excellent. I’d like to sponsor your education.”

I repeated the words I had spoken in my previous life and watched him nervously.

The boy lowered his head and remained silent, offering no response at all.

Panic began to stir in me. I had always been a man of few words—one could fairly say I had no idea how to talk to people. If he rejected me, I truly couldn’t think of any other way to approach him.

I remembered how life had slowly faded from him in my arms. Even now, the memory of that despair made it hard to breathe.

I couldn’t bear to be separated from him again.

So I drew a breath and tried to sweeten the offer, choosing my words with almost excessive care as I persuaded him.

“I’ll help settle the matter with your father, and I’ll arrange for your mother to be admitted to the hospital. I have a friend overseas, where they have the most advanced medical resources. Once your mother’s condition is a little more stable, we can send her there… Would that be all right?”

I weighed every word and secretly observed his reaction. Then, without warning, he asked me a question.

“Have you… been to Meise before?”

Meise was a famous gay bar. A friend had dragged me there once. Unsure exactly what point in the past I had returned to, I hesitated before nodding.

Shang Shixu gave a mocking smile and murmured under his breath, “How could I forget? I knew it…”

I didn’t quite catch that. “What is it?”

For some reason, the boy who had lowered his guard a little while his wounds were treated turned cold again.

He said calmly, “Fine. I accept.”

He put deliberate emphasis on the words. We had spent years together; naturally, I knew he was in a bad mood.

I had no idea why. My experience and skill at coaxing someone out of anger were woefully limited. In the past, whenever he was angry, I would hug him or give him a tentative kiss. Then he would sigh and say helplessly, “Honestly, you…”

Now, I was completely at a loss. Had I made A-Xu angry again? Why?

I did my best to comfort him. “Don’t be angry… I…”

Despair settled over me. Even I thought my attempt was absurd.

Just as I was racking my brains for something else to say, Shang Shixu spoke.

“I’m not angry.”