The Stranger’s Homeward Journey

Seeing that Luo Shaoheng was not in a good mood, Shen Mucheng thought that he was a little tired from today’s visit, so he drove back to his apartment directly after dinner, and then took him around to familiarise himself with the place.

Shen Mucheng didn’t like to be disturbed. If not for business, other than himself, only Aunty Wang who was in charge of daily meals and the aunty who came to clean once a week were in the apartment. 

The apartment was a two-story duplex. As the place was very spacious, it seemed very empty. After walking around, Luo Shaoheng suddenly missed the house that consisted of two bedrooms and one living room. Although the place was small, it felt like home. 

“This is the community door card and the key to the first floor. You can look for Shen Yun if you need anything.” Shen Mucheng took the key and door card from the drawer under the TV cabinet and handed it to Luo Shaoheng.

Luo Shaoheng took it. He rubbed his finger on the key’s tooth, then looked up and asked, “Can’t I look for you?”

Shen Mucheng locked eyes with him, perceiving the expectation in his eyes. He didn’t refuse.

Luo Shaoheng was not in a hurry. He just stood there with a light smile at the corner of his mouth, waiting for his answer.

Shen Mucheng’s gaze stilled at his smile. Such a gentle smile made him unable to refuse, “Yes.”

Having gotten the desired answer, Luo Shaoheng’s lips hooked up. He walked to Shen Mucheng and reached out to rest his hands on his shoulder. Standing on his tiptoes, he then kissed the other’s lips.

The kiss lasted for a brief moment, Luo Shaoheng then ended it with a light peck and retreated. He hooked his fingers around the keychain and held it in the palm of his hand, and said to Shen Mucheng, “Good night.”

“Good night.” Shen Mucheng nodded expressionlessly. He watched Luo Shaoheng as he went upstairs and opened the door into the room.

Reaching out to touch his lips, Shen Mucheng realised that when Luo Shaoheng kissed him earlier, he felt his heart skip a few beats.

He looked towards Luo Shaoheng’s room door and couldn’t really figure out the reason. They clearly had only met twice, but it seemed so natural for himself to do these things, as if he had done it countless times. Moreover, he didn’t like to be too close to people, yet now he didn’t feel disgust towards Luo Shaoheng’s intimacy.

This anomaly surprised him and he didn’t know how he should view it. However, since that person was also happy, he simply let him do what he wanted.

Once he thought in this way, he no longer dwelled on the matter. He turned off the lights on the first floor and went upstairs. Passing Luo Shaoheng’s door, he caught sight of the person inside through the door gap; the person who had a gentle and calm look earlier was now rolling in bed.

This contrast was really…… Shen Mucheng’s lips slightly raised, he then helped him close the door and went back to his room.

Luo Shaoheng was initially immersed in the joy of kissing Shen Mucheng, so he couldn’t help but roll around excitedly. The more he rolled, the more excited he became. Suddenly, he heard a clack sound. When he turned around and saw the locked door, he sat up straight from the bed.

“……” Seems like he got too carried away. (,,-́. -̀,,)

The next day, after Shen Mucheng got up, he went out of the room intending to go down. But while walking on the second floor’s corridor, he heard faint noises from downstairs. So he went to the side to look down and saw Luo Shaoheng chatting with Aunty Wang in the kitchen while helping her peel something.

He’s quite a natural socializer. Shen Mucheng thought to himself. He was not in a hurry to go downstairs, so he simply leaned on the handrail to listen to them chatting, and found out that the conversation was all about himself.

“Ah Cheng is rather busy, except for breakfast, I come over most of the time on weekends to cook.” Aunty Wang chatted with Luo Shaoheng while shredding potatoes. She was the one who used to serve Shen Mucheng’s mother in the Shen family. She went back home after Shen Mucheng’s parents’ death, and then she came back to take care of Shen Mucheng after his accident.

“So what does he usually do?” Luo Shaoheng asked.

“Socialising for business, or going back to the main family’s house to accompany the Old Master.” Aunty Wang finished shredding the potatoes and put them aside.

“What does Shen Mucheng love to eat?” Luo Shaoheng handed her the washed peppers. He wanted to know if Shen Mucheng’s taste had changed now.

“He eats light food. His health is not good, so he can’t eat food that tastes too heavy.” Aunty Wang finished cutting the peppers and shredded potatoes and put them aside, and went to wash the scallions.

“What’s wrong with his health?” Luo Shaoheng listened and asked.

“Nothing, just some old problems.” Aunty Wang smiled and didn’t say much on the topic, obviously she was also on guard.

She put the ingredients away, then put the pot on the stove and said, “I’m going to cook now, so quickly get out, don’t get covered in smoke.”

When Luo Shaoheng sensed her  reluctance to talk, he decided to go out and wake Shen Mucheng up since he had nothing to help with in the kitchen anyways. Once he reached the living room, he saw him leaning against the second floor corridor, looking down at him.

One was standing higher than the other, Luo Shaoheng tilted his head and waved at him, “Good morning.”

“Good morning.” Shen Mucheng replied and slowly stepped down the stairs.

After yesterday’s rainstorm, this morning’s sky was unusually bright. The dining table was near the window, and the early morning sunlight refracted in through the glass window, bringing warmth into the room.

At the table, the two sat opposite each other, Luo Shaoheng couldn’t help but laugh as he ate his breakfast. Shen Mucheng put down the cup in his hand and asked him, “What are you laughing at?”

“No, I’m in a good mood.” Luo Shaoheng took a sip of milk. Such a scene of sitting and eating breakfast together with Shen Mucheng, he didn’t even dare to think about it before.

“Are you busy later?” Luo Shaoheng asked.

“No, why?”

“Then can you come with me to buy something?” Luo Shaoheng’s eyes lit up when he heard he wasn’t busy.

His lips had a small circle of milk stains around them. His eyes were black and bright, looking at Shen Mucheng with anticipation. This kind of look warmed Shen Mucheng’s heart, he looked at him in silence and whetted his appetite before saying, “Yes.”

When he agreed, he noticed the delight blooming up in Luo Shaoheng’s eyes as expected. His heart moved and he took the initiative to ask: “Do you have any other requests?”

“Can I have half of the rooftop?” Luo Shaoheng pointed to the rooftop outside. Shen Mucheng lived on the top floor, and the house came with a large rooftop.

Shen Mucheng asked, “What do you want to do?”

“I want to use it as an art room, so that I can kill time when I’m bored.” Luo Shaoheng explained.

“An art room?” Shen Mucheng looked at the rooftop where the glass wall was installed. Although it blocked the wind, it was still cold in winter. Considering Luo Shaoheng’s health condition, he said, “Don’t bother. There is an empty room on the first floor.”

“Can I? Turning it into an art room may …… make it a bit messy.” Luo Shaoheng was a little hesitant.

“It doesn’t matter, no one lives there.”

“That’s good then.” A weight had been lifted off from Luo Shaoheng’s heart, “Thank you.”

Shen Mucheng picked up his coffee and drank a mouthful, blocking the corners of his slightly hooked up lips.

After breakfast, Shen Mucheng called Shen Yun and asked him to postpone the morning meeting to the afternoon.

Shen Yun thought he had an urgent matter and was about to ask if he needed to go over, but before he could say anything, he heard Luo Shaoheng’s voice.

“Have you packed?” Luo Shaoheng knocked on Shen Mucheng’s door, and seeing that he was on the phone, he said, “You go ahead, I’ll wait for you downstairs.”

“No, it’s okay.” Shen Mucheng hung up the phone after saying that and went downstairs with him.

On the other hand, Shen Yun held the phone for a long time. Boss clearly said yesterday that the morning meeting was quite urgent, but today it wasn’t urgent anymore. How magical is this. The secretary at the side asked, “Special Assistant Shen, what’s wrong with you?”

“Nothing. Inform the other departments that this morning’s meeting will be rescheduled to the afternoon.” Shen Yun instructed.

“Okay.” The secretary answered and left.

Shen Yun stood in place for a moment and thought of what the Boss said about investigating Luo Shaoheng before.

At that time, there were some problems with the cooperation between the company and Jiang’s family. They rushed back quickly after receiving the news. They were busy working on this matter even during the Spring Festival, so the matter of investigation was delayed. He only arranged someone to investigate these two days after things had settled. Now that Luo Shaoheng had come, he should also go to see the situation when he had time later.

The place Luo Shaoheng said he was going to was a large stationery city, Shen Mucheng was a little surprised at the place he wanted to go to.

“I want to buy some drawing tools. I didn’t bring them with me because I was in a hurry.” Luo Shaoheng explained. He only brought a few brushes when he came over this time, he still needed to buy some painting tools.

Shen Mucheng nodded and drove out with him.

When they arrived at the place, Luo Shaoheng asked about the location of the painting tools and dragged Shen Mucheng over.

As far as Shen Mucheng could remember, this was the first time he came to this kind of place. But when he looked at the paints and brushes on the shelves, they somehow felt familiar, as if he had been here before.

In front of him, Luo Shaoheng was engrossed in selecting the brushes. The salesman helped him take out the ones he liked, then he checked the softness of the hairs with his fingers.

Shen Mucheng didn’t know if it was the effect of the indoor lighting, but Luo Shaoheng’s fingers were even whiter than the white brush.

Seeing Luo Shaoheng take a basket from the side and put the brush in, he took a few steps forward and picked it up.

Luo Shaoheng’s hand paused. “Thank you.”

Shen Mucheng said “En”, and followed him with the basket. He watched him pick two more boxes of brushes and then went to another row of shelves to pick paints.

Shen Mucheng’s eyes were blurred just looking at the colourful bottles, while Luo Shaoheng was so happy while picking them. Soon, the basket was half filled.

The two of them stayed in the stationery city for more than an hour. Usually, Shen Mucheng would only feel that it was a waste of time, but now he felt that it was good to relax once in a while.

Luo Shaoheng picked a lot of things. When he placed them onto the cashier’s desk, they took up half of the table. In addition to brushes, paints, paper and other things, there were also two folded easels.

Luo Shaoheng originally wanted a wooden easel, but gave up when he considered that it was not convenient to bring it back home.

When paying, Luo Shaoheng was originally looking down to check if something was missing, so when Shen Mucheng handed over the wallet, Luo Shaoheng did not even raise his head as he took it, and only realised when the wallet was already in his hand.

Shen Mucheng looked down at his own wallet, he also did not understand how he took it out so smoothly. Seeing that Luo Shaoheng was looking at him in surprise, he was about to say something, but then he saw Luo Shaoheng skillfully open the wallet to pay in the next second.

From holding hands, kissing on the cheeks, kissing on the lips, to paying. Yes, all these were what Luo Shaoheng would do.

He silently took back the wallet and put it in his pocket.

In fact, he was completely unaware of how much surprise he had brought to Luo Shaoheng with this action. When the two of them went out to eat or buy something in the past, Shen Mucheng also handed Luo Shaoheng his wallet in this way when paying the bill. He had done this action so many times that it became a subconscious reaction.

There were two big bags full of things. Shen Mucheng reached out and lifted them up. “Let’s go.”

Luo Shaoheng only took a folded easel in his hand and walked out with him, asking as he walked, “Is it heavy? I’ll carry one.”

“No, it’s not heavy. It’s much lighter than you.” Shen Mucheng replied casually, not at all caring about the weight in his hands.

Luo Shaoheng smiled and his steps came to an abrupt stop.

This scene and conversation were too familiar to him. Although he knew that the other party was just saying it casually, it still made him, who wasn’t anticipating anything, feel so emotional to the point that he wanted to cry.

T/N: Sorry for late update, my exam just finished today. Hope you guys enjoy the chapter! Updates will continue as normal next week.