Always There to Back You Up

Morning sunlight streamed through the gap in the curtains, and the person lying in bed slowly began to stir.

Shen Zeyu opened his eyes groggily. He was about to stretch as usual when his hand brushed something warm, startling him considerably more awake.

He immediately spotted Lu Cizhou sleeping beside him and marveled inwardly. The sun must have risen in the west—Lu Cizhou actually hadn't gone to work yet.

Before he could think much more about it, the sight of the still-sleeping Lu Cizhou stirred his mischievous impulses again.

Shen Zeyu studied Lu Cizhou to make sure he was still asleep, then slowly reached out to touch his face, tracing his forehead, eyes, and nose before moving down to his lips. Afraid of waking him, Shen Zeyu made a point of keeping his touch light.

Looking at Lu Cizhou's lips, Shen Zeyu felt an urge well up inside him. Remembering their last accidental kiss, he licked his lips but still suppressed the impulse.

Shen Zeyu, you're such a coward, he silently berated himself.

Lu Cizhou, who had just woken up, was speechless. Curious to see what else Shen Zeyu would do, he decided to pretend to be asleep.

Even after touching his face to his heart's content, Shen Zeyu wasn't satisfied. He slowly slipped his hand under the covers and lifted Lu Cizhou's pajama top. Just as he was about to succeed, Lu Cizhou's voice sounded above his head.

"What are you doing?"

Shen Zeyu calmly withdrew his hand and looked at Lu Cizhou with an innocent expression. "I wanted to put my hands in there to warm them up."

Lu Cizhou sounded slightly puzzled. "Does warming your hands require lifting my pajama top?"

"Sorry, I wasn't thinking straight. My hand slipped."

Of all the times he could've woken up, he had to pick now.

Lu Cizhou smiled. "Does your head hurt?"

Shen Zeyu instinctively protested, "Why would my head hurt?"

He hadn't really noticed it before, but now that Lu Cizhou had mentioned it, Shen Zeyu felt his head begin to ache. Still, having just denied it, how could he admit it now?

Lu Cizhou could tell Shen Zeyu was putting on a brave face, but he didn't call him out. Wearing a faint, unreadable smile, he said, "I'd really like to know why someone who said he was at home yesterday turned up at a bar."

The words hit Shen Zeyu like a bolt from the blue. How did Lu Cizhou know? "Wait, how did I get home yesterday?"

Shen Zeyu thought hard. Then he went utterly still.

He remembered the things he'd said while cursing Lu Cizhou last night. More importantly, how could he have asked Lu Cizhou to help him bathe?

I've never gotten drunk before. How did I end up like this? Aaaah!

After hearing that and seeing Shen Zeyu freeze, Lu Cizhou considerately said, "I'll go wash up first. Afterward, I think we need to talk."

With that, he got out of bed first.

When Shen Zeyu went downstairs, he saw Lu Cizhou sitting at the dining table, apparently waiting to have breakfast with him.

Shen Zeyu had long since stopped eating breakfast. "You go ahead. I'll wait beside you."

Lu Cizhou showed little reaction and began eating. Shen Zeyu wouldn't admit his head hurt, and now he wouldn't eat breakfast either. He needed to learn a lesson.

As Shen Zeyu waited beside him, his headache grew worse and worse, but he kept toughing it out.

He entered the study once again, but this time felt completely different from the last.

Lu Cizhou spoke first. "Do you know what you did wrong?"

Shen Zeyu said quietly, "I shouldn't have gone to the bar behind your back."

"What else?"

"I shouldn't have lied and said I was exercising, either."

When Lu Cizhou still said nothing, Shen Zeyu cautiously raised his head. "I shouldn't have cursed at you, and I shouldn't have fought."

"Why shouldn't you have fought?"

"Because I can't afford to pay for anything I break in a fight."

After all that, Shen Zeyu still hadn't mentioned the most important point. Lu Cizhou rubbed his temple and kept his voice restrained. "Do you never assess who you're up against before you fight?"

"What?"

"Why did you charge in without even knowing how many people they had? When something like that happened, why didn't you contact me first?"

"I knew I could beat them. That's why I went in."

Lu Cizhou had been suppressing his anger since the conversation began. Hearing Shen Zeyu still argue back made it flare up. "Shen Zeyu, if I hadn't come out at just the right moment yesterday, that club would have hit you in the head."

Shen Zeyu knew perfectly well that Lu Cizhou had his best interests at heart, but with his head aching, he was struggling to control his emotions too. His voice sounded aggrieved. "I told you I could beat them."

"Fine. Even if you could beat them, there were clearly better ways to handle this. Why did you have to choose the most dangerous one?"

"What ways?" Whenever something like this had happened before, Shen Zeyu had known that fists settled things. As long as he won, that was enough.

"You could have simply told them you were part of the Lu Family. Why didn't you?"

Shen Zeyu said nothing. Whenever he'd run into something like this before, he'd always fought back on his own. It had become a habit. It had never occurred to him that someone might back him up.

Because no one would ever back me up.

Sensing Shen Zeyu's sadness, Lu Cizhou said solemnly, "Remember this: no matter what trouble you get into out there, the Lu Family will always be there to back you up."

Hearing that, Shen Zeyu blurted out before he knew what he was thinking, "Will you be there too?"

Will you back me up too?

Shen Zeyu regretted it as soon as he said it.

Aaaah, why would I ask something like that? This is so embarrassing.

At Shen Zeyu's question, Lu Cizhou smiled and said firmly, "Of course. We're in this together, aren't we? No matter what happens, I'll always back you up."

As he watched Lu Cizhou speak to him with such sincerity, Shen Zeyu's heartbeat suddenly quickened for reasons he couldn't explain. Uncontainable joy spread across his face.

He stammered, "I—I understand. I won't be so impulsive again."

"I was wrong." This time, his apology was sincere.

Shen Zeyu thought that apologizing would settle everything, but to his surprise, Lu Cizhou continued, "That's settled. There's still another matter."

"What else is there?" Hadn't they already resolved everything?

Why isn't this over yet? My head hurts. I want to sleep.

Hearing that, Lu Cizhou changed the question he'd been about to ask. "Does your head still hurt?"

Shen Zeyu answered immediately, "No."

Lu Cizhou's demeanor instantly darkened. "Tell the truth."

After a while, Shen Zeyu finally admitted haltingly, "Okay, it hurts a little."

"Only a little?" Lu Cizhou kept pressing.

"It hurts a lot."

Only then did Lu Cizhou's voice soften a little. "If it hurts, say so. Don't try to tough it out."

Shen Zeyu meekly accepted the advice. "Got it."

Ah, I still couldn't hold out, Lu Cizhou sighed inwardly.

Then Lu Cizhou handed Shen Zeyu the hangover soup sitting off to the side. "Drink this. It'll help you feel better."

Shen Zeyu looked delighted. "You already had it ready?"

"No, the butler prepared it. It just happened to be here." He certainly hadn't told anyone to make it.

Shen Zeyu didn't call him out, either, and happily drank the hangover soup.

A little while later, Shen Zeyu said cheerfully, "I finished it. My head feels a bit better."

Seeing Shen Zeyu's undisguised happiness, Lu Cizhou finally asked the question he'd originally intended to ask.

"What's with the contact name you gave me? Do you hate me that much? Are you that unhappy with me?"

Shen Zeyu's smile froze. He'd forgotten about that.

Hearing the danger in Lu Cizhou's tone, Shen Zeyu hurriedly said, "Of course not."

"Then who said all those things last night?"

"I was drunk, and my speech was slurred. I was talking about someone I used to know, an old geezer. He used to bully me all the time. He was the one I was cursing last night."

"Do you think I'm that easy to fool?"

"How could you be easy to fool? Who would dare lie to you? That's why I'm telling the truth." Shen Zeyu gazed earnestly at him with wide eyes, every bit of his expression radiating sincerity.

After enjoying Shen Zeyu's attempt to look composed for long enough, Lu Cizhou finally said unhurriedly, "Then I must have misheard." It was only a nickname. He could let it go after hearing it; he mostly just wanted to tease Shen Zeyu.

Hearing that Lu Cizhou believed him, Shen Zeyu let out a sigh of relief.

That was close, so close. At least I managed to bluff my way through. Wouldn't it be even worse if he found out that's his contact name on my WeChat too? Hahaha, good thing he'll never know about that.

Lu Cizhou thought, Very good!