Chapter 46 - 1#
Chapter 46: Hearing Thunder in the Silence
“Never cook.” He Hailou answered Gu Chenzhou without changing his expression, then actually took a bottle of beer from the refrigerator and shared his experience with Gu Chenzhou, “It’s quite filling, but you get hungry quickly.”
When it comes to being spoiled, whether before or after the age of five, Gu Chenzhou was also the type who didn’t do housework or touch an oil bottle. But after going abroad, sometimes when he was really tired of eating out or didn’t want to eat out, he would also cook a meal and then wash the dishes. Over time, he naturally developed the habit of making a simple breakfast and dinner at home. Someone like He Hailou, who obviously lives alone but never cooks… is he really not afraid of getting a stomach perforation from eating out?
“You drink in the daytime?” Gu Chenzhou actually just mentioned it casually.
He Hailou actually answered, and very casually: “I was joking.” Then he pulled open the kitchen cabinet—various flavors of instant noodles in bowls and ham sausages appeared in Gu Chenzhou’s sight.
“…” Gu Chenzhou sincerely thought that the difference was not that big.
He Hailou also seemed to be tired of these things. He stood in front of a cabinet of braised beef, stewed pork ribs, and old pickled cabbage, picking and choosing, unable to choose one for a long time.
Gu Chenzhou also opened the cabinet in front of him to see—not even a single green onion. It was so clean that even mice wouldn’t like to come. At this time, he finally deeply understood why He Hailou said that the monkey was particularly full of life just now. To be able to survive here like this was simply beyond what the four words ‘full of life’ could describe.
He Hailou couldn’t decide what to eat for a long time. He simply took a bag of loose ham, took two cans of beer, and walked outside, saying, “Don’t look, if you can find a leaf, I’ll take your surname…”
“I can’t afford it.” Gu Chenzhou laughed, and saw He Hailou, who had walked to the sofa, casually throw a ham sausage to the monkey.
The monkey caught it with both paws, immediately tore open the plastic packaging with its sharp claws impatiently, and wolfed it down. It choked after a few bites and desperately beat its chest with its hands.
Gu Chenzhou couldn’t help but take a few more glances.
He Hailou was very used to this situation. He casually threw another can of beer to the monkey. The monkey quickly caught it, and just as skillfully opened the pull tab, held the can with both hands, and poured it into its mouth…
Gu Chenzhou said: “So smart, you eat the same thing as it?” The key point was actually in the latter sentence.
He Hailou shook the beer in his hand—he was drinking again: “I don’t even cook for myself—do I have to cook for a monkey?”
“To be honest, this monkey should really feel honored.” Gu Chenzhou sat opposite He Hailou, looked at the monkey and then at He Hailou, and said so.
He Hailou sneered: “Theoretically! In reality—” He didn’t need to say any more. The monkey, full and drunk, was instantly resurrected on the spot. It jumped up with force, showed its claws, and rushed towards He Hailou to scratch him!
He Hailou was completely used to it. He glanced up, reached out and grabbed the monkey’s tail to lift it: “See? Never knows its place—” To emphasize his words, he deliberately shook the monkey held by the tail. But he didn’t expect that after the monkey swung like a pendulum a few times, when it got close to He Hailou, it twisted its body forward, stretched out its claws, and scratched hard!
This change was too sudden. Gu Chenzhou was so stunned that he didn’t even have time to get up. The monkey had already finished scratching He Hailou’s head and was leaning over to act like a pendulum again.
He Hailou: “…”
Gu Chenzhou: “…Are you okay?”
He Hailou suddenly hissed several times, threw the monkey in his hand and pressed his head, but moved away like lightning the moment he touched the gauze. After a few breaths, he carefully covered it again, gritted his teeth and said, “I’m fine…” Before his voice fell, his eyes looking at the monkey were already full of fierceness.
Gu Chenzhou thought to himself that he was just stunned and didn’t cry out in pain… But it must be quite painful. He looked at the red slowly seeping out of the other’s gauze, just scratching the wound, and it had split open again.
“It’s bleeding again?” He Hailou also felt that something was wrong with his head, temporarily withdrew his gaze from the monkey, and asked.
Gu Chenzhou nodded: “Go to the hospital to re-bandage it?”
“Forget it,” He Hailou’s mouth twitched, “What do I say at the hospital? Scratched by a monkey? —I have gauze here, I’ll just take it out and wrap it up.”
“Where is it? I’ll get it.” Gu Chenzhou stood up and asked. No matter what he thought in his heart, for a person who was injured and continued to be injured for himself, he still had this basic human decency—just like he agreed when He Hailou invited him over this time.
He Hailou raised his chin and pointed to the TV cabinet.
Gu Chenzhou stood up and walked to the TV, squatted down and pulled open the drawer. He was about to reach for it, but after seeing clearly what was in the cabinet, his gaze paused slightly.
Then he reached out and picked up the unopened gauze bag in the drawer. His knuckles accidentally brushed against the bottom of the drawer, wiping off a thin layer of dust.
Gu Chenzhou turned around and walked to the sofa, handing the gauze to He Hailou—He Hailou had already used scissors to untie the white gauze wrapped around his head—and asked, “Need help?”
He Hailou didn’t raise his head, tore open the gauze bag and started directly: “I’m used to it from childhood, I can do it myself.”
Gu Chenzhou nodded, walked to the monkey, wrapped the chain that tied it around the furniture a few more times, and after making sure it couldn’t run around, he walked back to the sofa, but did not sit down: “What do you want to eat?”
“Hmm?”
“Buy some breakfast,” Gu Chenzhou said, “I saw when I came up just now, there’s a breakfast shop in the community.”
He Hailou looked at Gu Chenzhou in surprise: “I’m really not used to you being so nice all of a sudden.”
“Do you want it or not?” Gu Chenzhou went straight to the point.
“Of course I do,” He Hailou laughed, “It’s rare for Young Master Gu to be in this mood, I can’t ask for it!”
Gu Chenzhou nodded, and then—took out his phone, dialed the takeout number he had memorized at a glance, and in a few words ordered a bowl of preserved egg congee and specifically told the other party to deliver it quickly.
He Hailou was a little dumbfounded: “You memorized the phone number of that shop just by looking at it?”
“It just happened to be easy to remember.” Gu Chenzhou explained.
He Hailou looked at Gu Chenzhou silently, the disappointment on his face could not be concealed.
Gu Chenzhou saw it clearly. He thought to himself, what does it represent even if I go down and buy it myself? It’s just a few steps, it’s not like I’m cooking for him… But it seems that besides Wei Xiangjin, he really hasn’t brought or cooked food for anyone…
This thought turned in Gu Chenzhou’s mind and was thrown away by its owner. Gu Chenzhou sat leisurely on the sofa, turned on the TV to the news channel, and began to catch up on the news broadcast he missed last night.
The restaurant at the bottom of the community, if nothing else, was at least fast. Not long after Gu Chenzhou turned on the TV, the delivery man rang the doorbell downstairs. He Hailou got up and opened the door. The delivery man at the door even smiled and chatted with He Hailou for a few words, obviously already familiar with him.
This was not too strange. Whether He Hailou came back once every three days or once every five days, he had to eat. Judging from the cleanliness of his kitchen where even cockroaches couldn’t find food to sustain life, He Hailou could only order takeout besides drinking beer and eating instant noodles, and the only recent takeout was the one downstairs.
Excellent geographical location. Gu Chenzhou thought idly. He Hailou had already paid and returned to the sofa. He lifted the lid of the paper cup, scooped a spoonful of congee with a plastic spoon and put it in his mouth. His brows first frowned slightly, then relaxed, and his eyes even squinted slightly unconsciously, inadvertently revealing a look of satisfaction.
I have to admit that as long as He Hailou is willing, he can easily win anyone’s favor.
Sitting in the other’s home, Gu Chenzhou originally had seven-tenths of his attention on the news and three-tenths on He Hailou. After a few words, the attention of these two became fifty-fifty. After a few more words, Gu Chenzhou had already put seven-tenths of his attention on He Hailou, with only three-tenths still paying attention to the news.
Calm, wise, and to the point.
Looking at He Hailou with a smile on his lips, and listening to the other’s few words that clearly analyzed the deep meaning behind a certain event in the news, Gu Chenzhou almost forgot the other’s bizarre behavior in another house five days ago—just almost.
He had a very pleasant conversation with He Hailou with a smile of appreciation and pleasure, opened the notebook with He Hailou’s name in his heart, and on the inner page that was already densely filled with words, he added several more lines.
Wei Xiangjin returned to the capital on December 3rd, exactly three days after Gu Chenzhou was attacked.
It was a sunny day just like when Gu Chenzhou returned from abroad, but the temperature had dropped a lot. When he returned, he wore a short-sleeved shirt. When he went again, he had already wrapped a thin scarf around his neck.
The plane slowly descended from the sky. The cabin door opened. Wei Xiangjin, mixed in the crowd, walked down from the cabin and saw Gu Chenzhou from a distance, and immediately laughed: “Still so afraid of the cold!”
This was a midnight flight. Gu Chenzhou had been waiting here since five o’clock, but it was delayed for two hours until seven o’clock, and the sun had already risen. He yawned and said, “Alright, let’s go… back to your house first.”
Wei Xiangjin nodded: “With you accompanying me, I probably won’t be scolded for the time being.”
Gu Chenzhou laughed: “You know you’ll be scolded and you still came back?”
“You’re here, how can I not come back?” Wei Xiangjin got in the car and looked at the roof, saying, “Anyway, he can always find a reason to scold me…”
Gu Chenzhou said: “You seeing Uncle Wei is really like a mouse seeing a cat. I finally understand why when I first came to your house as a child, you always wanted to drag me along for everything.”
“You just found out?” Wei Xiangjin said, “Of course it’s to avoid being scolded! You don’t know how happy I was back then. When I played games, my dad would scold me for ’losing my ambition’. When I read books, my dad would scold me for being a ‘bookworm’. When I climbed trees and caught fish, my dad would scold me again for being a ‘mud monkey’. When I went to listen to Beijing opera with my mom, my dad had something to say again, ‘it’s not a proper business’! But when you came, it was good. Playing games became ‘willing to share’, reading books was ’teaching my younger brother’, climbing trees and catching fish was ’the child is lively’, and listening to Beijing opera was ‘cultivating hobbies and sentiment’! You were my angel, alive, and touchable! You don’t know how moved I was back then, I would lie on the window every day and look at the opposite door, just waiting for you to walk out of the bushes…”