The Famous Crybaby Boyfriend - Chapter 3

Chapter 3

The next day, he took leave from work and brought me to see a renowned elderly traditional Chinese medicine doctor.

The old doctor took my pulse, shaking his head again and again and sighing over and over. He said, “How can someone so young have a body this depleted?”

Then he began writing furiously, filling out a long prescription and sending us to get the medicine. He also repeatedly warned me not to eat spicy food, not to eat or drink anything iced, not to drink alcohol, and not to eat anything overly stimulating, greasy, or rich. Most importantly, I had to eat my meals on time.

Throughout the entire examination, my boyfriend was even more nervous than I was. Every time the doctor said something, he wrote it down in his notes app.

Usually, he was such a proud and confident man, dazzling in all sorts of high-end settings, speaking eloquently and answering every question with ease. Yet now, faced with the doctor’s scolding, he only nodded obediently and did not dare to argue a single word.

On the way back, it was right around rush hour. There were quite a lot of cars on the expressway, and traffic kept moving and stopping.

Dusk was sinking into twilight, and languid jazz played softly through the car speakers.

To the accompaniment of the music, my boyfriend lectured me tirelessly.

“When you get up in the morning, the porridge will be kept warm in the rice cooker. Go get yourself a bowl and drink it. You absolutely can’t forget again. From now on, I’ll remind you every day…”

His fingers were long and slender, his knuckles well-defined, and they were interlaced with mine.

“You can’t drink iced beverages anymore. When we get back, I’ll clear out everything in the fridge and give it to the neighbors. Recently, you can’t touch even a little bit of it…”

His thin lips opened and closed, the line of them perfect, the curve alluring.

“After you turn in this manuscript, take a good rest for a while. There’s no rush to start writing the next one right away. Focus on fixing your routine and taking care of your body… And don’t go out for dinner gatherings at night lately. Stay home. When I get back, I’ll make soup for you. Tonight we’ll have soup. How about… creamy crucian carp soup, or dried scallop and napa cabbage soup?”

Seeing me staring at him in a daze, he did not get angry. He only pouted childishly and squeezed my palm. “Why do you always ignore me? Do you not love me anymore?”

He was waiting for me to anxiously deny it and then say, “I love you.”

When I did not answer, he looked very aggrieved. But he still stiffened his neck, as if speaking to me or perhaps comforting himself. “It’s fine.”

The truth was, I really was someone with a very sweet tongue.

After my parents divorced, they each started new families, leaving me alone to live with my grandmother. If I hadn’t learned how to speak sweetly and be thick-skinned, there would have been no way for me to survive and drag myself into adulthood.

After enduring cold looks and mockery, after being treated as a burden and pushed back and forth, the first things I learned from life were how to please people, how to avoid the important and dwell on the trivial, and how to put on a mask.

Through relentless effort day and night, I got into graduate school in the capital. Under the crushing pressure of my studies, I worked hard to find part-time jobs to cover my living expenses. During my busiest period, I had to intern at a company during the day, tutor students at night, and take online gigs after midnight.

When I was busy, I had no time to eat. I starved through one meal after another, partly to save money, and partly to save time.

And for someone like me, it seemed that the greatest luck I had ever had was all used up on meeting my boyfriend.

We met at a friend’s gathering. That very night, he asked around until he got my WeChat.

He was the only child of a middle-class family and had never lacked money.

He was very smart, with both his bachelor’s and master’s degrees in finance from a top-two university, and he was interning at a finance company. He was only an intern, yet the tax on his monthly internship salary was already higher than my wages.

He always seemed cold. On our first date, he stood tall and straight. From the side, his features were stern, his lips pressed lightly together, wordlessly conveying a kind of chill that kept people a thousand miles away.

But when he saw me, his gaze instantly softened, burning and thick with feeling.

After all those years of scraping by, I immediately picked up on one signal: this person liked me.

He liked me unconditionally. He liked me from the first glance. He liked me so much that he put aside his pride, blushed in the face of his friends’ teasing, and insisted on getting my WeChat no matter what.

He liked me so much that he approached me carefully, not daring to cross any boundaries. It was not until we had been together for half a year that he finally stammered and asked if I wanted to move in with him.

He liked me so much that whenever he looked at me, his love seemed to bubble out from every corner of his body, wrapping me up whole like a cocoon.

“I can cook! I’m good at housework too… Your dorm is too far from your workplace… so… would you consider… moving in… with me?”

Under my surprised gaze, his ears began turning red from the very tips. A faint blush slowly seeped through his skin and climbed up his face.

He was so nervous he was practically smoking.

Being obsessed with a man’s looks did me no good whatsoever. And yet, as we leaned against each other on the soft sofa in his apartment, I still shamefully felt my heart move.

I opened my arms to him, and he immediately rubbed closer, sticking himself into my embrace.

Because his eyes were like hooks, and his hair was so soft. He hummed and nuzzled like a big purring cat, clinging to me and wanting me to stroke him.

I gently lifted his face and leaned in to take his lips between mine.

The moment our skin pressed together, his scalding heat immediately seeped into my body. I held him, as if I were embracing a great lion gone limp with affection, rolling over to show me his belly and waiting for me to pet him.