AM Chapter 42

42 Re-Cohabitation

“Did I agree to you moving back?” Liang Jingren walked to the third floor, leaned against the thickest railing at the top of the stairs, crossed his arms, and looked at the person “playing” with plastic bubble wrap amidst a pile of cardboard boxes in the hallway.

Chen Mo wasn’t playing with the plastic bubble wrap; he was just checking the outer packaging of his precious keyboards to see if they had been damaged during transport.

Seeing that Liang Jingren had finally come home and immediately rushed to the third floor to see him, Chen Mo was overjoyed, but he hadn’t forgotten the excuse he had prepared in his mind. He looked up at Liang Jingren and said with reason and a smile, “Didn’t you tell me to stay for two days? Today is only the second day.”

Liang Jingren chuckled. “So, are you going to move all this stuff out again tomorrow?” As he spoke, he kicked an empty cardboard box near the stairs, almost at his feet.

“Tomorrow’s things can be dealt with tomorrow!” Chen Mo said with a grin.

Liang Jingren didn’t say anything, just stared at him, as if thinking about something.

Ever since Liang Jingren had walked up to the third floor, Chen Mo’s attention had wandered from his pile of keyboards. Liang Jingren wasn’t talking to him, and he was still holding the same keyboard with unopened bubble wrap, holding it for a long time. Until he exerted a little force and popped a cushioning bubble with a “pop” sound. Then, as if his alveoli were reacting in association, Chen Mo suddenly started coughing violently.

“Cough cough! Cough cough cough cough!! Ha—cough—”

Chen Mo pretended to lose his grip on the keyboard. He let go and immediately raised his hand to cover his mouth and cough. He tried to squeeze out a few drops of saline from the corner of his eye, using all his peripheral vision to steal glances at the person standing at the top of the stairs.

Sure enough, Liang Jingren didn’t keep his arms crossed; instead, he took a step towards him.

He had discovered yesterday that Liang Jingren did indeed feel sorry for having choked him, just as he said. Liang Jingren was very regretful, very self-reproachful, and very guilty. Therefore, in order not to waste that precious tear that had welled up in Liang Jingren’s eyes when he choked him, he had to make good use of this regret, self-reproach, and guilt.

“Does your throat hurt? Or are you feeling unwell?” Liang Jingren finally walked to his side and bent down to care for him.

As Liang Jingren put his hand on his shoulder, Chen Mo immediately closed his mouth and turned his head to give him a weak smile. Then, while clearing his throat, he used his right hand to rub the part of his neck that didn’t quite match his skin tone.

As expected, Liang Jingren’s gaze immediately focused and locked onto his neck.

Chen Mo shrank his neck, as if shy or suddenly stung. “I went to the company today and specially hung a headset around my neck, but no one noticed…”

Liang Jingren pulled away the hand he was using to touch his neck. He carefully, intently, and with a gaze as scorching as flames, stared at his neck and asked, “Does it hurt?”

Chen Mo swallowed. It didn’t hurt; it was very itchy.

He shook his head, wanting to say to Liang Jingren, who was now incredibly close to him and still holding his hand, “If you kissed me, it wouldn’t hurt anymore.”

But he still wasn’t bold enough.

He only dared to say, “If you blew on it, it wouldn’t hurt anymore.”

Of course, Liang Jingren wouldn’t blow on it; he even let go of his hand and straightened his back. “Chen Mo, I know what you’re thinking,” Liang Jingren said, narrowing his eyes as he looked at him.

Hearing this, Chen Mo was stunned.

“As long as you behave, I can let you stay,” Liang Jingren said generously.

Chen Mo was no longer stunned. He smiled and said, “Thank you, Bro Ren, for your approval.”

He had just thought that Liang Jingren had seen through his little thoughts, knowing that his mind was full of thoughts about whether he could sleep with him again tonight.

After rearranging his long-abandoned small room on the third floor in an orderly manner, Chen Mo took a comfortable shower and prepared to go to bed early.

Because the commute to work had become longer after moving back to the villa, he would have to change his schedule again in the future. He was now a little worried about whether he would be able to adapt.

Lying on the pillow almost an hour earlier than usual, Chen Mo stared blankly at the colorless ceiling, feeling a little bored.

How much he hoped that Liang Jingren would walk into his room uninvited, just like last night.

In order to fall asleep as soon as possible, Chen Mo closed his eyes.

However, not long after, he suddenly opened his eyes, thinking, “No way! My mind is full of images of Liang Jingren climbing into my bed. I can’t fall asleep like this!”

Chen Mo sat up from the bed, took a deep breath, then held his breath. He got out of bed, ran to the closet, opened it, and started rummaging through his clothes.

Liang Jingren was sitting on the bed with pillows propped behind his back, reading a book when Chen Mo knocked on the door.

Liang Jingren’s door wasn’t locked, so just like before, Chen Mo pushed the door open and entered without waiting for a response from the person inside the room.

“Do you need something?” Liang Jingren frowned and looked at the uninvited guest at the door.

Chen Mo didn’t exchange pleasantries with him. He walked straight to the bed and then raised a soft shirt tightly clutched in his right hand, saying to Liang Jingren, who looked suspicious and astonished, “Can you tie me up today?”

Liang Jingren: “…”

Chen Mo succeeded. He got what he wanted—he was tied up by Liang Jingren with the clothes he had carefully chosen. He was dragged down by his tightly bound wrists and fell onto the bed filled with Liang Jingren’s post-shower scent.

However, while he fell, Liang Jingren, who had been sitting beside him, stood up.

Lying on his side on the bed with his hands tied, Chen Mo stared blankly at the back of the room’s owner as he walked out, finally realizing something.

What the hell? Chen Mo’s eyes widened, his pupils shook, and he shouted loudly, “Bro Ren, where are you going?!”

Liang Jingren didn’t turn his head and said, “I’m going to sleep in another room.”

“Then, to my room?”

Liang Jingren finally glanced back at him, but it was with the look one gives to an idiot. He gave a cool, heart-stopping chuckle and said, “Young Master, there are plenty of rooms in the villa.”

In the following days, Chen Mo behaved well and successfully obtained a “green card” for temporary residence in the villa.

However, his and Liang Jingren’s travel and rest schedules didn’t match at all. As soon as he woke up, he had to rush out the door, while Liang Jingren was usually still asleep at this time. And when it came to meal times, Liang Jingren forbade him from entering Daxing Group. He could only obediently listen and eat by himself. Thus, although they lived in the same villa, they basically only saw each other and exchanged greetings in the evening.

If Chen Mo didn’t specifically sit in the living room waiting for Liang Jingren to come back, or lie on the stairs that Liang Jingren would inevitably pass on his way back to his room and proactively say hello, Liang Jingren probably wouldn’t even bother with him.

Although Chen Mo wanted to repeat his old trick and go to Liang Jingren’s room to chat and flirt before going to bed, on the second night, he could only stand at the doorway after knocking and pushing the door open, saying “Good night” with an embarrassed smile.

He didn’t dare to walk directly into Liang Jingren’s room and be presumptuous, because Liang Jingren had prepared a leather belt on his bedside table—

What respectable CEO would coil a belt with heavy-duty carved antique silver buckles into a mosquito coil shape and specially display it on his bedside table?

It wasn’t that Chen Mo was afraid that Liang Jingren would use that belt to tie him up; he was afraid that Liang Jingren would use the belt to whip him. After all, he wasn’t really a true ★M; light bondage could be played around with, but real “torture” was still out of the question.

The good times didn’t last long. Before Chen Mo could wait for a forty-eight-hour weekend where he could be completely in the same villa space as Liang Jingren, Liang Jingren put away the belt on the bedside table and then put away the other clothes in the closet—putting them into a huge suitcase.

Watching Liang Jingren carry his luggage downstairs, Chen Mo didn’t realize he could help at all. He stood foolishly on the second floor, holding the stair railing and looking down, asking, “Where are you going?”

“Business trip,” Liang Jingren said. “New orders have come in. We’re preparing to open a new mold and a new production line. I have to go to the factory to see it in person.”

Chen Mo breathed a sigh of relief, thinking that fortunately Liang Jingren couldn’t stand him to the point of wanting to give him the entire villa.

“Then when are you coming back?” Chen Mo walked down the stairs and asked.

Liang Jingren heavily placed the suitcase on the ground on the first floor, pulled out the handle with a “whoosh” sound, and said, “When you leave the villa.”

Chen Mo froze directly, standing in place like wood or stone, waiting to weather away.

People often say that even grass and trees will shed tears when they have feelings. Chen Mo was anxious. Tears welled up in his eyes. As soon as the petrification was lifted, he was about to run over and grab Liang Jingren’s suitcase handle.

Just as his hands were five centimeters away from the handle, Liang Jingren turned the suitcase, and his arm, which he unconsciously swung up, struck Chen Mo’s longest left middle finger with his elbow.

“Just kidding. This is my house, after all,” Liang Jingren said with a smile.

“Wuu…” Chen Mo started crying.

Liang Jingren was stunned. Then he saw Chen Mo holding his finger that had been hit, painfully furrowing his brows, the expression on his entire face contorted.

“Wuu… my finger… wuu wuu…”

He didn’t know if it was fractured or not, but it hurt, a real and unparalleled pain.

“Pfft, ha…” The damned Liang Jingren had no sympathy at all and actually laughed.

Chen Mo was so aggrieved that his mouth was almost pursed into a wave shape. Liang Jingren really couldn’t help but laugh, unable to bear to look at him. He let go of the suitcase, turned his head, and went to find the first-aid kit.

At this moment, Chen Mo had just generated a little happiness at being cared for by his beloved, but Liang Jingren was walking away, laughing louder and louder as he got farther away.

Chen Mo: Damn it!!… My finger hurts so much wuu…

Before leaving, Liang Jingren held his hand, applied bruise-relieving oil to his finger, massaged it twice, and said “Sorry” to him.

“If you feel sorry, then wait for me a little longer,” Chen Mo stood up from the sofa. Before Liang Jingren could understand what he meant and reply, he hurriedly ran upstairs.

A moment later, Chen Mo ran downstairs, tightly clutching a fist-sized gift box tied with an indigo blue gold-edged ribbon in his right hand that hadn’t been treated with the bruise-relieving oil.

As soon as Liang Jingren saw the box, he knew what was inside. That morning, when he had welcomed the cleaning company into the house, he had found it on the floor in the entryway and opened it to take a look.

He had put the box on Chen Mo’s desk, certain that Chen Mo would come back to get it.

He had glanced at it casually, not checking the price, thinking it was something Chen Mo wanted to give to his boss. Now, Chen Mo opened the box, displaying the exquisite watch that didn’t look like it cost five figures at close range in front of him. Liang Jingren felt something indescribable in his heart.

He really, really wanted Chen Mo to return it.

“Happy birthday, Bro Ren,” Chen Mo said to him with a smile.

He carefully held the box, raised a reversed orchid finger, not letting his middle finger, which was smeared with bruise-relieving oil, taint the gift.

Liang Jingren looked at the watch in the box, opened his mouth, and said, “My birthday…”

“Is tomorrow, right?” Chen Mo interrupted him.

“It doesn’t matter. As long as you’re happy, that’s all that matters~” Chen Mo said with a smile.

Liang Jingren could see the persistence in Chen Mo’s smile. He knew that if he didn’t accept this gift, Chen Mo definitely wouldn’t let him leave, or there would be other expensive gifts waiting for him later. Therefore, he accepted the first birthday gift Chen Mo had given him.

“Thank you.”

“You’re welcome~”

After he took the box containing the watch, Chen Mo’s smile became simple. His face was full of joy as he said, “Happy birthday, Bro Ren! Be careful on your trip, I’ll be waiting for you to come home!”

“Mm,” Liang Jingren replied with a smile, because Chen Mo had finally said something nice.

He really liked his last sentence.