Chapter 67: Do You Hate Me?

Wenzhi slowly pushed himself off the bed and walked over, studying him carefully.

"Sleeping beauty?" He snapped his fingers in front of Xinyuan’s face.

Xinyuan just blinked at him silently.

Wenzhi stared for a second before scoffing in disbelief. "You are fucking sleepwalking."

Still no response.

With a heavy sigh, Wenzhi grabbed his wrist and guided him toward the bed. Xinyuan obediently sat down like a puppet with loose strings while Wenzhi remained standing in front of him.

Only then did Xinyuan finally react.

His gaze slowly focused on Wenzhi’s face. Recognition appeared bit by bit before a small smile tugged at his lips, dimples faintly showing as the tips of his ears reddened.

"Freckles..." He lifted a hand as if he wanted to touch Wenzhi’s face, but Wenzhi caught his wrist with both hands before he could.

"What is going on with you?" he asked.

Xinyuan pressed his lips together without answering.

Wenzhi leaned in instead, only to catch the faint smell of alcohol.

His eyes narrowed.

"You’re drunk?" he asked incredulously. "How did you even—"

"Why do you look so mad?"

The smile disappeared from Xinyuan’s face. He suddenly looked nervous, genuinely confused by Wenzhi’s reaction.

"I’m not..." Wenzhi stopped himself and exhaled slowly, trying to calm down.

Xinyuan looked unfairly innocent like this. His sharp features had softened completely from the alcohol, his face flushed and his ears bright red.

"I am not mad," Wenzhi corrected flatly. "I am curious why you decided drinking alcohol was a good idea."

"Beer..." Xinyuan hiccuped softly. "It was beer."

Wenzhi sighed. "That does not make it better."

"Are you always this bossy because you’re older than me?" Xinyuan looked up at Wenzhi through hooded eyes, their faces close enough that their noses were barely an inch apart.

"Or are you always this bossy because you hate me?"

Wenzhi frowned and straightened, taking a step back.

Xinyuan simply kept staring at him with those heavy-lidded eyes.

"Why are you here, Xinyuan?"

"I can’t sleep." Xinyuan sighed softly, rubbing the back of his neck before averting his eyes from Wenzhi.

"Well, you are drunk. A shower might help."

"I already..." Xinyuan went quiet again.

His eyes remained open, but Wenzhi could tell his thoughts were somewhere else entirely. Then suddenly, Xinyuan’s eyes slid shut and he simply... stopped responding, his breathing evening out softly.

Wenzhi stared at him in disbelief. "He actually fell asleep while talking."

As much as he wanted to wake him up and kick him out of the room, Wenzhi still stepped closer. He raised a hand toward Xinyuan’s forehead, fingers brushing through the damp strands of black hair while checking his temperature.

Normal.

Eventually, Wenzhi pushed him fully onto the bed and pulled the duvet over him before sitting on the edge of the other bed, silently staring at Xinyuan’s sleeping figure.

For someone who claimed he could not sleep, he had fallen unconscious suspiciously fast.

The room remained quiet for a long while.

All of a sudden, Xinyuan stirred in his sleep, brows furrowing faintly like he was searching for something instinctively. The moment he sensed Wenzhi’s wavelength nearby, he moved. Fast.

An arm wrapped around Wenzhi’s waist before Wenzhi could even react, and with terrifying strength, Xinyuan yanked him onto the bed and pulled him tightly against his chest, spooning him like some oversized body pillow.

Wenzhi froze.

His back pressed firmly against Xinyuan’s chest while warm breath ghosted against the side of his neck.

"Don’t leave..." Xinyuan mumbled sleepily.

"I am not leaving. You are literally the one trapping me right now."

Xinyuan laughed softly at that, the sound low and rough against Wenzhi’s neck. "Okay."

Almost immediately after answering, his grip loosened again and he fell quiet.

Wenzhi stayed still for several long seconds.

Slowly, curiosity got the better of him.

He turned carefully to face Xinyuan.

Xinyuan was completely asleep again.

His black hair had fallen messily across his face, his breathing slow and steady, his expression strangely peaceful in a way Wenzhi rarely ever saw while he was awake.

Wenzhi stared at him for a moment before narrowing his eyes.

He decided to test a theory.

He shifted with the intention of getting up, not even fully leaving the bed.

The moment his body lifted from Xinyuan’s arm, Xinyuan’s eyes snapped open.

For a brief second, pure fear filled them.

It caught Wenzhi completely off guard.

But the instant their eyes met, the fear dissolved into visible relief and Xinyuan moved closer again.

"I thought you said you weren’t leaving," he murmured, blinking slowly like he was already drifting back to sleep but forcing himself awake.

"I wanted to go to the bathroom," Wenzhi lied easily.

"Oh." Xinyuan’s eyes slipped halfway shut again as he shifted even closer until they were sharing the same pillow, their noses lightly brushing. "I can... come with you."

Wenzhi snorted. "Why would I let you do that?"

Xinyuan went quiet again.

His breath still carried the faint smell of beer, though barely enough for Wenzhi to think he had actually drunk much. Maybe only a few sips.

It still made him wonder why Xinyuan had even decided to drink in the first place.

"Do you hate me?"

The sudden question caught Wenzhi off guard.

That was the second time Xinyuan had asked it.

"Why do you keep asking that?" Wenzhi asked, genuinely confused now.

Xinyuan stayed silent for a while, his eyes still closed.

"You’re going through all this because of me," he said eventually, his voice slow and heavy with sleep. "Everything that happened... even from the moment you got shot. It’s my fault."

A pause. "I’m sorry."

The words sounded almost unconscious, like they slipped out before Xinyuan even realized he was saying them.

Wenzhi stared at him quietly.

Honestly, this kind of life wasn’t unfamiliar to him.

Running. Hiding. Killing. Especially the killing.

He had assassinated the president of his own country. And before that, there had been countless other things until he himself ended up dying at the hands of the person he least expected.

So did he hate Xinyuan?

Wenzhi didn’t actually know.

Hate was probably too strong a word.

Wenzhi understood enough about Xinyuan’s past to know things were not that simple.

Still, he didn’t answer.

Instead, he carefully shifted away again.

This time, Xinyuan didn’t wake up.

Wenzhi quietly slipped out of bed and left the room.

The house was much simpler than the duplex they had stayed in before.

It was smaller, quieter. Ordinary.

Wenzhi walked toward the kitchen and opened the fridge only to freeze when he spotted several cans of beer stacked neatly inside with a sticky note attached to them.

’Do not touch, Xinyuan. I’m keeping these here for whenever I visit. Xoxo, Zhaohe.’

Wenzhi stared blankly at the note for several seconds.

His eyes slowly shifted toward the kitchen table where a single opened can sat abandoned.

He walked over, picked it up, and immediately realized the can was still nearly full.

Xinyuan had barely drunk any of it.

Wenzhi looked back down at the can in disbelief. "This little got him drunk?"

Xinyuan looked completely delirious earlier.

If he had finished the entire can, he probably would have passed out on the kitchen floor.

Wenzhi snorted to himself before putting the beer back into the fridge.

"Wenzhi?"

He turned at the sound of Xinyuan’s voice.

Xinyuan stood at the kitchen entrance, rubbing at his eyes sleepily. His hair was messy, his expression unfocused, and he still looked half asleep.

Wenzhi leaned against the fridge.

"I found your beer," he said. "Which is actually Zhaohe’s beer. Why did you drink it?"

Xinyuan walked closer before stopping in front of him.

"I was curious," he admitted before hiccuping softly. "Back at the Old Blood faction, we mostly drank mineral water. I don’t think the researchers ever considered giving their prized Esper alcohol to cope with the horrors of his existence."

That actually made Wenzhi laugh.

"You were basically a child there," he said.

Xinyuan blinked at him. "What?"

"You were young," Wenzhi corrected. "Mineral water was probably better for you than beer."

A small smile tugged at Xinyuan’s lips. "What about you?"

Wenzhi frowned. "What about me?"

"Your life." Xinyuan’s voice stayed quiet and sleepy. "Most people already know about mine. I looked through your file once but there wasn’t much there."

His gaze stayed fixed on Wenzhi. "I want to know about you."

Wenzhi shrugged easily. "There’s nothing interesting to tell."

Xinyuan simply stared at him for a moment longer.

Then, without warning, his eyes slowly closed again.

He remained standing there completely still. Asleep again.

Wenzhi looked at him in disbelief. "You are ridiculous."

With another sigh, he grabbed Xinyuan by the wrist and guided him back toward the bedroom.

Xinyuan obediently laid down the moment he touched the bed.

This time, Wenzhi laid down beside him instead of leaving.

And for the first time in days, sleep came easily.