ACBAM 39: Milk

Only then did Gu Weiyang realize that Su Shijin had planned to sleep on the floor from the very start. No wonder he had agreed so quickly back then. His excitement was instantly doused as if a bucket of cold water had been poured over him, cooling him down at once.

Gu Weiyang pressed his lips together and glanced at the empty shelf above the wardrobe. “Maybe it’s been in the closet for too long, and the person who cleaned the room took it away?”

Su Shijin sighed. “Auntie wouldn’t dare touch anything in my wardrobe, unless…”

“Unless what?” Gu Weiyang asked curiously.

“Unless Grandpa told her to,” Su Shijin said.

Gu Weiyang looked a little puzzled. “Grandpa’s worried the quilt in your closet might get moldy if it’s been there too long?”

Su Shijin didn’t think that was the reason.

Su Shijin figured Grandpa had probably guessed that for them to get their marriage certificate so quickly, their relationship couldn’t be the typical post-marriage AO kind. On top of that, Gu Weiyang had mentioned earlier that he had been hospitalized due to an issue during his susceptibility period, which let Grandpa know that Gu Weiyang hadn’t marked him at that time. So, in order to push their post-marriage progress along, Grandpa had simply taken all the quilts from his wardrobe.

Maybe Grandpa wasn’t sure whether they would sleep in separate beds at night, but he could take precautions by removing all the extra quilts from his room. That way, even if they wanted to sleep on the floor separately, it would be impossible.

The old man was still the slyest of them all.

Su Shijin let out a deep sigh and looked at Gu Weiyang with a troubled expression. “Mr. Gu…”

“Mm?” Gu Weiyang tilted his head to look at him.

Su Shijin said, “I was thinking that even if we shared a room, I could just sleep on the floor so it wouldn’t bother you. But now, it seems I’ll have to trouble you to share a bed with me. The sofa outside… isn’t really suitable for sleeping.”

In that instant, Gu Weiyang was almost stunned senseless by the pie that had just fallen into his lap.

He first thanked Grandpa in his heart for the assist, then tried his best to put on an expression of “it’s fine, I don’t mind,” and smiled at Su Shijin. “It’s alright, I’m more worried I might disturb you.”

Putting on an air of casualness, he said, “Why don’t I go ask for another quilt?”

Su Shijin shook his head. “No need, let’s just leave it like this. I’ll go take a shower first, make yourself comfortable, Mr. Gu.”

Gu Weiyang nodded, watching Su Shijin leave with his pajamas in hand.

Ten seconds later.

His brain started working again, and his gaze slowly shifted to the only large bed in the room.

Su Shijin was in the shower now, and since he smelled of hotpot, he would definitely wash his hair too. It would take at least ten minutes.

Which meant, for the next ten minutes, he and this bed could get as intimate as he wanted.

Su Shijin’s bed.

Just those five words were enough to stir an almost uncontrollable excitement in Gu Weiyang.

Luckily, his susceptibility period had just passed, and with the inhibitor ring keeping things in check, Gu Weiyang quickly reined in his emotions.

With a look of reverence, he lifted the corner of the quilt and carefully slipped inside. The moment the blanket covered him, Gu Weiyang closed his eyes in bliss.

While Su Shijin was showering, Gu Weiyang didn’t touch anything, and his thoughts stayed perfectly pure. None of those things Jinjiang wouldn’t allow in writing crossed his mind.

He simply felt that he was incredibly happy right now, and even making it to this point was something he’d never dared to imagine before.

Meeting was something he never dared to imagine, dating was something he never dared to imagine, marriage was something he never dared to imagine—and sharing the same bed was something he hadn’t even dared to dream of.

And yet, all the things he had never dared to imagine had somehow become reality.

Gu Weiyang felt a little dazed, afraid that if he opened his eyes, he’d find it was all just a dream.

So, under the covers, he grabbed a fistful of his thigh and gave it a full three-hundred-and-sixty-degree twist—

“Hiss…” He instantly opened his eyes, his thigh twitching from the pain.

Not a dream. Definitely not a dream.

Gu Weiyang clutched his thigh, happiness welling in his eyes until they were misty.

Then footsteps sounded outside. Thinking it was Su Shijin done with his shower, though it felt a bit quick, he still immediately threw back the covers, jumped out of bed, and hurried to tidy the bedding back to how it was before, just in time before the person came in.

The moment he finished straightening the quilt and stood up, he turned—and met Grandpa’s gaze right at the doorway.

Gu Weiyang: “?”

Grandpa, holding two glasses of milk: “?”

“What are you standing by the bed for? Gave me a fright.” Grandpa rolled his eyes.

“Oh, I… nothing. Was just about to get in bed.” Gu Weiyang hadn’t expected Grandpa to show up now, and for a moment felt a bit foolish, just standing there like an idiot.

Noticing the two glasses of milk in Grandpa’s hands, he quickly stepped forward. “Are these for us? Thank you, Grandpa.”

Grandpa said, “No need to thank me. I prepared them for my grandson, you just get one by the way.”

Gu Weiyang thought that “by the way” was already pretty good. Back with his adoptive parents, whenever they prepared milk for his younger brother, they had never bothered to give him a glass.

After his differentiation, he had a sudden growth spurt, but his nutrition couldn’t keep up. Lacking calcium, his legs would cramp painfully in the middle of the night and wake him up. Later, it was only because a teacher, seeing how pitifully thin he was, brought him a little something to eat every day that he barely managed to get through that period.

After finishing his high school entrance exams, his good grades earned him an offer from the county’s No. 2 High School, waiving all textbook and miscellaneous fees, plus a monthly 500-yuan meal stipend, which drew him there. He boarded at No. 2 High for three years, and every winter and summer break, he found part-time jobs to earn tuition money, just barely breaking free from that parasitic household.

At the time, though, Gu Weiyang didn’t know he wasn’t their biological child. With no memories from before age three, he had always assumed his parents simply liked his younger brother more. That’s why, whenever he had the time, he still went home to see them every year.

Every time he went back, his parasitic parents would latch onto him, as if they wanted to drain him dry. Going so far as to try and take the tuition money he had earned from part-time jobs to give to his younger brother instead.

So when Gu Weiyang saw the glass of milk Grandpa had brought, all he felt was warmth.

Dr. Su had a grandfather who loved him very much.

Grandpa took one look at Gu Weiyang’s blissful expression, stepped back silently, and said with open disdain, “What are you grinning so disgustingly for?”

Gu Weiyang just smiled and said, “It’s nothing,” then reached out to take the milk from Grandpa and set it on the nightstand. “Want to sit for a bit, Grandpa?”

Grandpa waved his hand repeatedly. “No, I’m going back to my room to watch TV.”

Just as Grandpa was about to leave, he suddenly remembered something and turned back to glance at Gu Weiyang. “I don’t know what method you used to get Shijin to agree to marry you, but since you’ve already got the certificate, you’re legally recognized as husbands. Barring any accidents, you’re supposed to support each other for a lifetime.

“I can tell you truly like Shijin. Out of all the people his age, you’re the only one who’s even halfway pleasant to look at.”

“I’ve given you the opportunity to be together—whether you can make the most of it is up to you.”

With that, Grandpa didn’t wait for Gu Weiyang to respond. Hands clasped behind his back, he hummed a strangely offbeat tune as he left.

Gu Weiyang was left a bit stunned by the weight of Grandpa’s final words.

It wasn’t until Grandpa had already stepped out of the bedroom that he came to his senses and followed to see him to the door.

When Grandpa waved and his figure finally disappeared into the night, Gu Weiyang leaned against the doorframe, lost in thought.

So then, sharing a room tonight, and Su Shijin discovering the quilts in the cabinet were gone—was all that Grandpa’s doing?

No wonder, when he had suggested asking for another quilt, Su Shijin had worn that indescribable expression. Turns out he had already guessed what Grandpa was thinking.

But what a pity. Because even if the two of them slept in the same bed, Gu Weiyang still wouldn’t do anything.

After all, he had been the one to propose that agreement in the first place.

Since his susceptibility period had already affected Su Shijin once, technically breaking the terms, he couldn’t let it happen again tonight.

Gu Weiyang let out a slightly regretful sigh, feeling as though he had wasted Grandpa’s help.

—

When Su Shijin came out of the bathroom after his shower, he saw Gu Weiyang leaning against the main room’s doorway, sighing at the night sky. His steps paused slightly. “Mr. Gu?”

Gu Weiyang immediately straightened up. “Ah, you’re done?”

Su Shijin gave a quiet “mm” and walked over, carrying with him the faint scent of body wash—peach-scented.

Clearly, they had used the exact same body wash, yet to Gu Weiyang, the scent on Su Shijin seemed far better. Fresh from the shower, the omega’s face was flushed from the steam, making him seem as sweet and tempting as a ripe peach.

Gu Weiyang’s Adam’s apple bobbed involuntarily, his throat feeling a touch dry.

“Grandpa brought some milk over, just left,” he said as he followed Su Shijin into the room. Testing the temperature, he handed it to him. “It’s still warm.”

Fresh from his shower, Su Shijin happened to be a little thirsty. He sipped the milk in small mouthfuls, glancing up at Gu Weiyang.

Gu Weiyang, seemingly parched himself, downed his entire glass in one go, then wiped his mouth and lowered his gaze to meet Su Shijin’s eyes.

Su Shijin blinked, swallowed the milk in his mouth, and asked, “Do you want to get in bed and rest first?”

Gu Weiyang’s eyes caught on the white trace of milk at the corner of his lips, his thoughts straying for a moment before reason yanked them back. Almost without thinking, he replied, “I’ll wait and go to bed with you.”

The moment those ambiguously worded words left his mouth, the atmosphere turned strangely still.

Holding his cup of milk, Su Shijin’s lips moved slightly, as if he wanted to say something, yet didn’t know quite what.

In the end, seeing the slightly stiff and dazed look on Mr. Gu’s face, he decided to give him a way out. “It’s still early. How about we watch a movie together, then go to sleep?”

Gu Weiyang nodded in relief. “Alright.”

Cradling his milk, Su Shijin went to pick out a movie from beneath the TV cabinet, settling on something fairly warm and lighthearted. Once the lights were off, the glow from the screen lit up his face, and during the movie, Gu Weiyang snuck glances at him several times.

Later, realizing how focused Su Shijin was, he simply gave up on the film altogether and just kept watching him, only occasionally glancing at the screen.

The movie ran for two hours. When it ended, Su Shijin asked, “What did you think of it?”

Gu Weiyang had barely watched the movie at all, his mind had been filled entirely with Su Shijin’s face. Without thinking, he answered, “Beautiful.”

Su Shijin gave a faint smile. “That’s good. When I watched this with a friend before, he thought it was a bit boring.”

Hearing that, Gu Weiyang almost regretted letting his mind wander during the movie. Fortunately, he had remembered the title so he could watch it properly on his own when he had the time.

Once the TV was turned off, the room fell quiet again.

Since they’d just had something to eat, both of them went to the bathroom to brush their teeth.

After using the bathroom, Gu Weiyang followed Su Shijin back to the bedroom.

Su Shijin’s bed was placed against the wall. He climbed in first, settling on the inside, then patted the spot beside him. “Would you mind sleeping on the outside?”

Gu Weiyang nodded, keeping his tone deliberately calm. “I don’t mind.”

Then he lifted the quilt and lay down on the outer side.

Once the lights went out, though he couldn’t see anything, it felt as if all his other senses had been magnified infinitely.

Gu Weiyang could hear the person beside him shift lightly. There was still enough space between them for another person to lie down, but on a single bed, even the smallest movement was something the other could feel.

The slight dip of the mattress as he turned, the faint rustle of the quilt, the sound of breathing…

Gu Weiyang lay perfectly straight, his whole body tense.

It wasn’t until the steady sound of the person beside him falling asleep reached his ears that his rigid body slowly relaxed.

Gu Weiyang had thought he wouldn’t be able to sleep or that some part of him would be too worked up.

But neither happened.

The breathing beside him was soft, the peach scent faint, yet it seemed to have a lulling effect, coaxing his eyes closed bit by bit.

He slept through the night without a single dream.