CTS 5

Without Ji Mingxuan, he would either be dead by now or in a state worse than death.

Shen Mo had no way to repay him, so all he could offer was himself. Unfortunately, offering himself was a skill in itself, and he wasn’t exactly up to par. He was often mocked by Ji Mingxuan for being like a dead fish in bed.

Tonight, as usual, Ji Mingxuan stayed out late.

Before going to sleep, Shen Mo seriously reflected on things and thought that he really should improve his skills.

He rarely had nightmares. When he did, it was always the same scene. He stood alone in the silence of the dark, desperately trying to make a phone call. The number was burned into his mind, so familiar it was second nature.

But he couldn’t get through.

He had made so many calls in the past when they were in love, hearing sweet words until his ears felt numb. Yet on this day, no matter how hard he tried, he could never get through. He dialed over and over again, but the line was always dead.

Shen Mo was terrified. His finger trembled slightly as he dialed the number.
Suddenly, in the darkness, a hand shot out and gripped his ankle tightly….

Shen Mo was woken up by the alarm clock in the morning. He blinked, glanced at the time, and remembered that today was Monday, which meant he had to go to work.
His job was arranged by Ji Mingxuan, at a small company under the Ji family, where he was responsible for organizing data.
The job was easy, and he spent most of his days doing nothing, just going through the motions.

His coworkers often said Shen Mo had a good temper, going with the flow and doing whatever was asked of him. Sometimes they would assign him all kinds of random tasks, and he would complete them one by one.

During lunch break that day, the department manager came to find him, asking if he could help design a promotional image.

Shen Mo shook his head and said, “I can’t draw.”

“But didn’t you study art in university?”

Shen Mo simply replied, “I really can’t.”

The manager didn’t insist, just nodded and left.

By the afternoon, Shen Mo overheard some gossip about himself in the breakroom.

“Who would’ve thought, that Shen Mo seems pretty proud.”

“You didn’t know? He has connections behind him.”

“Who does he know?”

“You know, that one…”

“Mr. Ji? No way, wasn’t he rumored to be with that movie star recently?”

“Rich people… How could they only have one lover?”

Shen Mo let the words go in one ear and out the other, pretending he didn’t hear.
After returning to his office, he grabbed a pen and started drawing on a piece of paper. But his right hand was shaking terribly, just like the day he desperately dialed that phone number. The lines came out crooked and messy, not resembling anything at all.

He stared at the paper for a long time before crumpling it up and throwing it into the wastebasket.

Shen Mo hadn’t drawn anything in three years.

His family had never been well-off. While in university, he worked hard to support himself, drawing portraits for people in the square. Sometimes, he’d sit for hours without a single customer. Zhou Yang would come over and pose for him, and those were the happiest days of his life.

Later, he went to several hospitals.
Doctors told him that the injury to his right hand had healed and had no impact on daily life. They couldn’t find any physical reason why he couldn’t hold a paintbrush anymore. It must have been a psychological barrier.

Shen Mo stopped the treatment after that.
After all, once he started following Ji Mingxuan, he no longer had to rely on painting to make a living. Everything from before became nothing but memories, and it was better to forget it all.

After work, Shen Mo walked home.
As he was leaving the company building, his phone rang. He was just about to check who it was when he suddenly heard someone call out his name.

“Shen Mo!”

He turned around to see a black car slowly pulling up to the curb. The window rolled down halfway, and Zhou Yang sat in the driver’s seat. He said simply, “Get in.”

He was still the same. Brief and to the point, not wasting a single word. But Shen Mo was no longer the same Shen Mo.

He stood there, frozen, not moving.

Zhou Yang said, “I’m just asking you to have dinner with me.”

“What about Miss Ji?”

Zhou Yang frowned and said, “What does that have to do with her?”

“If it’s just the two of us alone, it might not be appropriate.”

“Even if we broke up, we’re still high school classmates, right? Can’t we have a meal together?”

It was the time of sunset, the warm light outlining Zhou Yang’s side profile, making him look even more handsome. He looked at Shen Mo and said “Xiao Mo, get in the car.”

Shen Mo remembered the many past evenings. He would sit in the corner of the classroom, drawing Zhou Yang’s face over and over again on paper. He closed his eyes for a moment, and finally, he opened the car door and got in.