Chapter 66
That night, this young couple in their sticky-sweet phase really did begin doing some bedtime activities. They dug out the projector in the bedroom, and right across from the bed was a ready-made place to cast the screen. They could lie there comfortably and watch.
Several throw pillows were placed on the bed. Jiang Qingyu had one tucked by his hand, another under his raised calf, and his head pillowed on Fu Jingqiu’s shoulder. One leg was bent, his posture as lazy as could be, as if he could not be lifted even if someone tried.
Fu Jingqiu had one arm resting over him. Jiang Qingyu pulled it over, intentionally or unintentionally stroking the calluses in his palm while staring intently at the screen.
When he let go, Fu Jingqiu’s hand rested against his waist. This man’s shoulders really were broad. Jiang Qingyu lay entirely within the crook of one of his arms, his whole body circled in.
The fish in his arms kept changing positions, lying on his side for a while, then lying flat, one leg thrown over Fu Jingqiu as he restlessly kicked around.
Fu Jingqiu calmly held him and let him twist however he liked.
When Jiang Qingyu got excited, he could even sit up cross-legged to watch. His pajama pants were pushed up a little, revealing pale, glowing calves that were especially eye-catching in the darkness.
After sitting and watching for a while, he lay back down again, flopping into Fu Jingqiu’s arms.
Fu Jingqiu’s fingertips moved slightly, smoothing down the corner of his shirt that had rolled up, and casually touched him a couple more times.
Jiang Qingyu was already very used to this kind of touch. His head rubbed against Fu Jingqiu’s chest until his hair almost exploded, becoming a messy fluffy ball that looked like a mushroom with its cap opened.
He put the Marvel series into the watchlist, planning to watch them one by one in order. Tonight, they would watch until they fell asleep, then continue tomorrow.
After the snow stopped, there was almost only wind. Sometimes strong, sometimes weak, sometimes rising, sometimes falling. If one listened closely, it even sounded a little like the background music in a horror movie. When the wheels crushed over accumulated snow that had been frozen solid after the wind blew it around, they made creaking sounds, which were actually quite sleep-inducing.
He did not play on his phone and watched fairly attentively. By the time sleepiness came, he happened to be lying sideways in Fu Jingqiu’s arms and slipped into a dream, thinking that if the other man was still awake, he would probably tidy things up and turn off the projector.
He fell asleep to the sound of the movie. When he woke up, the protagonist’s figure was still flickering on the screen. Jiang Qingyu looked up at his side in surprise and realized that at some point, Fu Jingqiu had also fallen asleep.
Jiang Qingyu still remembered what Fu Jingqiu had looked like when he first arrived, especially the first night after he was picked up. Because the drugs had not completely metabolized out of his body, he had not been comfortable. Even in his sleep, his brows had been tightly furrowed, as if he were facing something extremely difficult. His whole state had been very heavy.
Later, after his emotions improved slightly, Jiang Qingyu getting up at night to drink water could still wake him. Such a faint sound, yet it could still pull him out of sleep.
Jiang Qingyu had never deliberately observed what Fu Jingqiu looked like asleep, but now, looking at him, his brows and eyes were relaxed, and his outline was not tense either. He was sleeping deeply, clearly in an extremely safe environment, his whole body relaxed.
Not bad, not bad. The cat Jiang Qingyu had picked up had been raised glossy and smooth, beautiful enough to stun people. The puppy he had picked up had been raised strong, clever, and lively. The person he had picked up could eat and sleep, and was his good partner, good teammate, and good boyfriend.
Truly, when he raised flowers, they became peonies; when he raised grass, it became orchids.
Very pleased with himself, Jiang Qingyu patted Fu Jingqiu’s chest muscles and found a comfortable position to continue watching the movie.
As expected, half an hour later, Jiang Qingyu fell asleep against Fu Jingqiu again.
Meimei, on the other hand, crawled out of her little nest and slowly stretched at the foot of their bed. Her tail stood high as she stepped over the legs of the two humans and found an empty spot on the inner side of the bed to sit down. Sitting very properly, she actually seemed to watch the movie in a rather convincing manner.
That night, Jiang Qingyu slept and woke, woke and slept. When he dazedly woke up again and saw Meimei lying between them watching the movie, he found it funny. He reached out to stroke her soft head and back, then whispered, “Is it that good?”
Meimei turned back and rubbed her nose against his fingers.
What he did not know was that his timing and Fu Jingqiu’s had completely missed each other. When he was asleep, Fu Jingqiu had also woken once. Seeing that the atmosphere was just right, and that Meimei was watching the movie like a little adult, although he did not know whether she understood it, he did not turn off the projector and go back to sleep. Instead, he turned his face and kissed the little fish’s forehead, then pressed his head against his and fell asleep again.
This winter night was incomparably long.
As a result, when Jiang Qingyu woke up in the morning, Fu Jingqiu was actually still lying beside him, one arm around him. His posture still looked proper, but it was obvious that he was relaxed.
Jiang Qingyu looked at the time again: eight o’clock.
Eight o’clock?!
But he felt refreshed and had no desire whatsoever to go back to sleep!!
Jiang Qingyu was stunned for a few seconds, then quietly sat up. He happened to meet Tangyuan’s eyes as the dog came into the bedroom looking for him.
When they slept, Tangyuan had always been very well-behaved. It either slept in the living room nest or came to the bedroom to sleep with them. Anyway, Jiang Qingyu had placed dog beds in both places, super soft little nests that were changed frequently. Jiang Qingyu had even set aside a washing machine and dryer specifically for Meimei and Tangyuan. Fu Jingqiu usually handled the cleaning.
Seeing Tangyuan staring at him, the dog excitedly pounced twice on the floor. Jiang Qingyu immediately made a shushing gesture at him. Tangyuan understood this and instantly sat up straight, though its tail was still wagging wildly.
So obedient. Jiang Qingyu could not help laughing. He carefully climbed over Fu Jingqiu and got out of bed, then called Meimei out, closed the door, and made breakfast for the two little ones.
Tangyuan ate quickly, while Meimei was the type to chew slowly and savor her food. Jiang Qingyu took the chance to go to the driver’s cabin and look around. The vehicle was parked beside a platform by the road. Ahead, there was a small wooden hut built by herders. It was locked from the outside and already half-buried in snow.
Jiang Qingyu thought for a moment, then went to put on his hardshell jacket and down coat. Gloves, earmuffs, scarf, snow boots—he missed nothing, wrapping himself into a round ball. Then he dressed the well-fed Tangyuan in the little outfit Fu Jingqiu had helped modify and sew, as well as self-defense gear. After confirming that there was only their vehicle around, he took Tangyuan down for a walk.
It was freezing to death!
Although he was dressed tightly, the temperature still could not be ignored. Speaking of which, there were still weather forecast reminders now. During the day, things were a little better, but at night, it could drop to around minus eighty degrees. Forget freezing a person to death; one probably would not even feel their ears freezing off.
Jiang Qingyu had previously seen online a place called Yakutsk, an extremely cold village. It was said that at its coldest, the temperature there could fall to more than minus seventy degrees. Even that was already considered the coldest city in the world. Their current situation was not much different from that.
Tangyuan truly was full of energy. Before this, Fu Jingqiu had trained it. No matter how far it ran, as long as it heard the recall command, no matter how happily it was playing at the time, it had to return to its owner’s side immediately.
So after confirming that the surrounding environment was safe, Jiang Qingyu unclipped the metal buckle of the leash and let Tangyuan run wildly for a while.
With the temperature outside, he did not dare expose his skin for too long, let alone take out his phone to play. But playing with a puppy was not boring. Jiang Qingyu had even brought out a frisbee. He threw it back and forth, and Tangyuan played with great excitement.
After about twenty minutes, Jiang Qingyu called back Tangyuan, who was sniffing everywhere. Right now, while excited, the dog probably did not feel much, but if they stayed out longer, it might get frostbite.
Holding the increasingly strong puppy, he returned to the vehicle. Tangyuan ate well, and whenever conditions allowed, its exercise volume was guaranteed. Now its limbs were sturdy, and the whole puppy was round and plump. It felt especially good to hold.
The heating inside the vehicle made Jiang Qingyu feel like he had returned to the real world. Just now, he had been in a world of ice and snow, with white stretching in every direction and all buildings and roads buried beneath snow. Standing there for too long even made it feel a little unreal.
He recovered for a moment and drank some hot milk tea. Only then did he roll up his sleeves and begin preparing today’s lunch ingredients. To be honest, in an extremely cold apocalypse, eating and sleeping were the most important things.
Today, he was craving dry pot, so he took out the ingredients to make dry pot chicken wings and shrimp.
The chicken wings and prawns were marinated in advance, then coated evenly with starch and pan-fried once, until the surface turned golden. After that, he placed them in a strainer and shook off the starchy crumbs, then used the side dishes to stir-fry the dry pot sauce, returned the ingredients to the pan, and evenly coated everything in sauce.
When he butterflied the prawns, he had cut them quite deeply, so they would absorb the flavor better. It counted as a proper main dish and did not take much effort.
There was also a dish of scrambled eggs with scallions, a super rice-friendly dish. It tasted great mixed with rice, and the scallions even had a faint sweetness when eaten, not sharp at all.
A few days ago, Jiang Qingyu had seen a lotus root meatball soup online. It was not hard to make, so today, he happened to add a soup dish. It was light, warm, and comforting, the kind of dish most comfortable to drink in this weather.
No need to say much about the meatballs. They were made from front-leg pork, the especially tender kind. He chopped lotus root into very fine cubes and mixed them in, then squeezed the meat filling into balls and dropped them into the pot one by one. He added a handful of baby greens and a small handful of goji berries. The soup was refreshing, sweet, and especially delicious.
In addition, there was braised pomfret, beef stewed with potatoes, and spinach simmered with dried shrimp. For two grown men, it was more than enough.
Of course, since the weather was cold, it was hard to control appetite. Jiang Qingyu could not say for sure either, but in any case, there was plenty of food in his space. If it was not enough, he could add more.
Fu Jingqiu woke up in a warm environment filled with the aroma of food.
The kitchen was an important place, and little cats were not allowed inside. Meimei grew bored guarding the living room, so she simply wandered into the bedroom and lay beside Fu Jingqiu, waiting for him to wake up.
This little cat liked staying with people very much. Sometimes, when Fu Jingqiu had a few seconds or a dozen seconds of awareness in the middle of the night, he could feel Meimei lying beside his arm, using her soft, warm paws to hold onto him.
The moment he sensed that Jiang Qingyu was already awake and cooking, Fu Jingqiu quickly sat up, got out of bed, put on his shoes, and hurried toward the living room. He even forgot to pick up his phone to check the time. The moment he met the person in the kitchen, his first words were, “Sorry. I woke up late.”
Jiang Qingyu was wearing a frilly apron with the words “Keeper” written on it. He turned to look at him and said very naturally, “So you woke up late. Why are you apologizing to me? It’s not like we have to send a kid to school. Are you hungry? I made dry pot chicken wings and shrimp today, the kind you like.”
“…” Fu Jingqiu’s expression, however, looked a little off. “Has Tangyuan been walked? I’ll go walk him.”
Jiang Qingyu waved his hand. “Walked him ages ago. Both little ones have eaten too. Calm down. Go wash up and wait for food.”
It was such a small thing. Why was he rushing around like he had made some mistake?
Fu Jingqiu stared at him for a few seconds, still seeming a little hesitant, wanting to come in and help with something. Jiang Qingyu found it very strange. “What are you doing? I’m already done here.”
Fu Jingqiu was silent for a few seconds, yet still did not move away from the kitchen doorway. Tall and strong, he nearly blocked the door completely. Under Jiang Qingyu’s puzzled gaze, he said apologetically, “I don’t know how I overslept today. Otherwise, I would’ve gotten up to help you tidy up.”
What? Jiang Qingyu was confused. “Is it that serious? I usually sleep until nine or ten, and if it’s more exaggerated, there are times I wake up in the afternoon. You don’t have to go to work. Why are you so harsh on yourself?”
Before, when Jiang Qingyu was living outside alone, he had also cooked and cleaned by himself. Why was Fu Jingqiu acting as if Jiang Qingyu preparing ingredients and taking care of the house was some incredible matter?
He had originally thought that Fu Jingqiu’s schedule had been brought back from the army. But now that he thought about it, who never slept in once? Why did Fu Jingqiu have to make things so hard on himself?
Even with self-discipline, one should still allow oneself moments to relax.
Could it be some kind of psychological shadow?
