WHI – Chapter 20

Chapter 20

Plop – water, thankfully.

No, it’s water…

The water isn’t deep, it must be a private rooftop swimming pool built by the villa owner.

Not deep, not deep… it’s okay, it’s okay… Wen Lan’s rationality repeated itself endlessly.

It’s water…

How many years has it been since he’d been in water? Almost eight years. By his birthday next month, it would be exactly eight years. The heaviness water brought felt just like it did eight years ago.

Water is so heavy. When he used to swim and frolic in it, why hadn’t he realized it was so heavy?

So heavy that he had to carry a small self and a big family.

So heavy that he wished it were even heavier, enough to crush him.

But every time his parents spoke affectionately to the ‘brother’ in their newly taken photos, he felt he had a tiny reason to move forward.

Was he his own reason to move forward? Shouldn’t the one moving forward be his brother?

The pool water was heavy and fishy, now invading him without reservation. He wanted to escape, to a place where water couldn’t find him, but he was pulled down into the dark depths.

Forget it, Wen Lan thought.

He relaxed his body, letting the sinful, fishy pool water carry away the equally sinful self—

“Wen Lan!”

His consciousness was already blurring, then gradually being awakened. Wen Lan lifted his heavy eyelids a crack.

Who is it?

Before he could even ponder the question, a hand from above supported him.

The pool water was murky, like a veil over his retinas. At this moment, he could only vaguely make out a figure under the moonlight, speaking with an anxious, panicked tone. In his daze, he seemed to see himself from eight years ago.

Those hands gripped his arms tightly, pulling him out of the sinking mire with unwavering force.

The instant his body completely surfaced, Wen Lan suddenly felt much lighter, as if his very existence was being overlooked, a transcendent lightness.

Lin Ting heard Wen Lan’s half-choked cry, but it was too late. He watched as Wen Lan sank to the bottom of the water like a stone statue, his eyelids tightly shut but his face calm. Only the long red string struggled and floated up and down in the pool.

“Wen Lan!” He took off his jacket and plunged into the water.

It was late autumn. Wearing only a T-shirt and suddenly plunging into the water, Lin Ting felt a jolt. He ignored his body’s instinctual rejection, broke through the pool’s year-old layer of green algae, and dragged Wen Lan out of the water.

Wen Lan’s condition was dire, not just from drowning. Lin Ting knew very well that this pool, at most 2 meters deep, posed almost no threat to a strong, over 1.8-meter-tall man.

He had given up struggling, as if encountering some past silhouette, and had thrown himself in without restraint, locking himself back in a cage.

His closed eyes and almost serene posture proved this point.

He placed Wen Lan flat beside the pool. Green algae and moss had grown here due to the dampness. Wen Lan’s black hair, soaked in water and now tinged with green, made it look like ink, while his face was pale and desolate.

Lin Ting knelt by his side, recalling the hazy first-aid procedures in his mind. He placed two fingers of his right hand on Wen Lan’s ice-cold neck and two fingers of his left hand on his own.

Fortunately, the carotid pulse was normal.

What was next… chest compressions… right, compressions.

Lin Ting straightened his upper body, interlocking his palms and pressing them onto Wen Lan’s sternum. For a long time, his noisy heartbeat echoed with each movement.

Wen Lan showed no reaction.

“You’re such a hassle,” Lin Ting pushed himself back up with his hands, and the water dripping from his forehead fell into Wen Lan’s collar.

Lin Ting raised Wen Lan’s chin with one hand, gently pried open his mouth, and leaned in.

Wen Lan still had a faint scent of sandalwood, and perhaps something else, he couldn’t distinguish it, but it smelled good.

His chin was a little cold, and even his exhaled breath was cool.

His heartbeat was slow, but each beat reaching his ears felt so urgent and tense.

His lips…

“Cough, cough, cough…” Before he could get any closer, Wen Lan coughed out some pool water. Lin Ting immediately sat up straight.

“Resurrected?” Lin Ting asked.

Wen Lan coughed a few more times and tried to sit up. Lin Ting helped him up and patted his back a few times.

“I’m fine,” Wen Lan grabbed his arm. “I’m fine now, thanks.”

“Are you okay? You fall and almost die opening a window, and this water isn’t even 2 meters deep. Is the dignified school bully actually afraid of water?” Seeing him try to stand, Lin Ting helped him towards the small door by the pool—he couldn’t climb back up from where he fell.

The small door was unlocked. It opened with a gentle push. Lin Ting looked, and just happened to come face-to-face with the four dolls.

“Holy crap, you put these here? Wen Lan, you damn well did this on purpose, didn’t you?” Lin Ting pointed at the dolls.

The moment Wen Lan’s gaze met the dolls’, his body visibly trembled twice, then he chuckled: “If this were a horror movie, do you believe these four would stick with us forever?”

“Stick with you, fine. I didn’t touch them, don’t drag me into it.” Lin Ting tutted and helped Wen Lan to sit on the small sofa bed. “I’ll go get my jacket, you wait here.”

“Okay.”

The two of them packed their things and, guided by Lin Ting’s phone navigation, started walking back. Wen Lan was trying to turn on his waterlogged phone.

“Good thing I put my phone in my jacket pocket, otherwise you’d have to sleep with those four dolls tonight,” Lin Ting teased.

“Didn’t you remember to take your phone out before you jumped in?” Wen Lan asked.

“It happened in an instant. If I had to think about taking off my jacket, then finding my phone, then thinking about whether to take off my shoes…” Lin Ting said, shaking his soaked shoes. “You would have become the fifth doll.”

“Becoming a doll isn’t bad, better than being human.” Wen Lan put his phone back in his pocket—it looked like it wouldn’t turn on.

“Alright, if you become a doll, remember to send me a dream, and I’ll come find you.” Lin Ting glanced at his phone screen, which now showed 5% battery. “Turn right.”

Wen Lan turned into the alleyway, following Lin Ting. “This place can also resurrect you?”

“Resurrect my ass! It’s for warding off evil spirits!” Lin Ting smiled at him. “But you have to avoid water.”

Wen Lan didn’t respond to this.

Lin Ting felt the person beside him fall silent, as if he had snapped shut that metal latch again.

Tsk, he said the wrong thing.

They walked in silence. Just as the phone’s battery was about to die, they finally reached the hotel entrance. They continued in silence as they walked out of the elevator, their four wet shoes slapping against the hotel corridor carpet. Lin Ting felt a little embarrassed.

“I brought clothes.” As they neared his room, Lin Ting heard Wen Lan’s hesitant, slow voice.

“Hmm?” Lin Ting turned to look at him.

“Do you want…” Wen Lan didn’t finish his sentence.

Lin Ting paused and asked, “How many sets?”

“Two sets, just enough,” Wen Lan replied.

“Why did you bring two sets of clothes?”

“Just in case, isn’t it perfect…” Wen Lan leaned against the wall. “Do you want them or not? Stop dawdling.”

“Yes,” Lin Ting said.

As Lin Ting followed Wen Lan into the hotel room, he realized, “This is the second time we’ve stayed in a room together, isn’t it?”

“Damn it, can you not phrase it like that…” Wen Lan first hung his wet jacket on the hanger, then yanked off his wet T-shirt, revealing his lean, toned abs.

Lin Ting subtly averted his gaze. “Where are the clothes? If you give them to me, I’ll leave.”

“Stay a little longer, I might faint again soon.” Wen Lan lit a cigarette and sat at the corner of the bed. His coarse, stiff hair, even when soaked, stood upright. Water droplets rolled from his hair to his shoulders, then flowed along his muscle lines into his waistband. The long red string on his arm looked particularly glaring.

Lin Ting wrung out his clothes, twisting out water. “If you faint, I’ll bury you tomorrow. Hurry up.”

Wen Lan didn’t reply immediately. He took a deep drag of his cigarette and slowly exhaled. “I had a brother before, but he’s gone now.”

“Drowned,” Wen Lan continued.

“I… I’m sorry.” Lin Ting wished he could slap himself for what he had just said.

He watched Wen Lan hold the cigarette butt in his mouth, walk to the stack of clothes on the nightstand, rummage through them, and then walk over with a pair of gray sweatpants and a loose black top, handing them to him. “You can wash up here. I’m a little scared alone right now… Brother Lin, protect me?”

He said this with a teasing, flippant smile, but his slightly widened pupils betrayed him.

Lin Ting looked into those eyes and took the clothes. “Okay, I’ll protect you. But you have to open the window, it’s stuffy.”

The steam from the bathroom blurred Lin Ting’s vision. He stared at the red string on his wrist for a long time. He had tried to pull it off earlier, but it seemed to be tied in a knot and wouldn’t budge.

Never mind, he’d get scissors to cut it off later.

When Lin Ting came out after changing, Wen Lan was still sitting at the foot of the bed in the same position. The ashtray in front of him had several more cigarette butts.

Only when Lin Ting sat down on the other side of the bed did Wen Lan move. “Finished showering so quickly?”

“It’s been over ten minutes. Have some concept of time.” Lin Ting took the unsmoked cigarette butt from Wen Lan’s mouth. “Go wash up.”

Wen Lan froze for a moment. “I haven’t finished smoking it yet…” Then he smiled. “Alright.”

Wen Lan’s shower was quick. Lin Ting didn’t time it, nor did he look at his phone. It just felt like he showered faster than himself.

But maybe his perception was off, after all, his senses seemed to be a bit unreliable right now.

No, what was going on? Two grown men, with their own rooms, had to come to one room and take turns showering?

As Lin Ting sat on the bed waiting for Wen Lan, he even suspected if Wen Lan had drugged him recently.

It was all so inexplicable.

While he sat on the bed, spacing out and contemplating life’s philosophies, Wen Lan came out wearing only a half-body towel.

“Watch a movie?” Wen Lan rubbed his hair with one hand while reaching for the TV remote with the other.

Lin Ting noticed that he had forgotten to take off the red strings on both his hands.

“You… you put on some clothes,” Lin Ting cleared his throat, avoiding his gaze. He felt this development was becoming increasingly indescribable.

What was happening? Lin Ting, be normal! It’s normal for two grown men to be in the same room! When Old Lin was still around, didn’t you run around the house in just your underwear!

No, no, it’s still different. Old Lin is Old Lin, and Wen Lan is Wen Lan.

Wen Lan… he has a great physique and is also very good-looking.

Tsk, Lin Ting, has your brain gone swimming? Why didn’t you think of yourself like this when you looked in the mirror!