"President Yuan... come on, move a little." A breathless plea escaped Shen Yi as he draped Yuan Chen's left arm over his shoulder and struggled forward, one step at a time.
A drunken body seemed several times heavier. The fifty meters from the gate to the entrance now stretched endlessly before him. Beneath the weight of Yuan Chen's 190-centimeter frame, Shen Yi's legs kept trembling.
With every step, Yuan Chen listed to one side, throwing off his balance and making Shen Yi stumble along with him.
Had he known it would be like this, he would have asked the driver to help. "Hauling" Yuan Chen all by himself was truly a miserable job.
There was not a breath of wind on that midsummer night. The heat was suffocating, and the sweat on Shen Yi's neck had already soaked his collar.
By the time he finally climbed the stone steps to the entrance, he was panting as though he had reached a mountain summit. His chest heaved, his ragged breaths painfully clear in the silence.
Shen Yi hastily kicked off his shoes and helped Yuan Chen inside. There was no way he could make it to the bedroom, so he barely managed to settle him on the spacious living room sofa and lay him down.
"This is killing me..."
Drained of all strength, Shen Yi collapsed onto the floor. He wiped his sweaty face and took off his stifling jacket.
After all that exertion on such a sweltering night, heat steamed inside his jacket, and his soaked shirt clung stickily to his skin.
He heard the rustle of someone turning over beside him.
When he looked around, Yuan Chen was shifting slightly on the sofa, apparently uncomfortable in his sleep.
After a moment's hesitation, Shen Yi resigned himself to getting up