The next day, Zhou Yu was miserable. Her waist and back were covered in red marks from being pressed against hard surfaces, and her buttocks bore handprints. When the hot water hit her, it hurt like hell! Last night they were both too exhausted to bother washing.
She was in the middle of showering when Sun Jingcheng came in, pulled down his underwear, aimed at the toilet, and urinated. After finishing, he started brushing his teeth and washing his face, urging her to hurry up so she could drive him to the company first. His car was restricted today due to license plate number regulations.
“Can’t you use the guest bathroom?” Zhou Yu chided him.
“Too lazy.”
Once they were both ready and in the car, Sun Jingcheng peeled a hard-boiled egg and asked, “Does your body hurt?”
…
“You didn’t forget about last night, did you?”
“If you have something to say, just say it.” Zhou Yu’s face flushed.
“You’re really something—put on your skirt and act like you don’t know me!” Sun Jingcheng said while eating the egg. “When you were enjoying yourself, you were urging me to go faster…”
“Who urged you!”
“You nearly squeezed me to death.”
“Beast!” Zhou Yu cursed at him, her face burning red.
“I am a beast.” Sun Jingcheng peeled another egg, broke it open, ate the yolk, and fed Zhou Yu the white.
“What are you embarrassed about? I’m not embarrassed at all.”
Zhou Yu ignored him.
Sun Jingcheng busied himself replying to messages and said nothing more.
Zhou Yu guessed he had seen her on the balcony last night. After thinking it over, she tried to explain—the school had been especially busy lately, and there were many matters at the clinic and family compound. There was the issue with her sister-in-law, her father’s affairs, and yesterday Grandma had snuck out while Mom was sleeping, finally being brought back by the police station…
Originally she had intended to brush it off in a few words, but as she spoke, she ended up saying a great deal. As a daughter, as a wife, as a daughter-in-law, as a granddaughter, as a teacher… the different responsibilities each role demanded. She had to be dutiful and responsible at work, while in life she was entangled in trivial matters. Every day brought endless, boundless chores. Most of them weren’t even worth mentioning, too insignificant to share with outsiders.
Her tone was calm, without complaint, recounting it all with the equanimity of watching flowers bloom and fade. Initially she wanted him to understand why she had been naked on the balcony secretly smoking, but as they talked, she suddenly didn’t care anymore. So what if she couldn’t sleep and went to the balcony to smoke? The wind felt amazing, so she took off her clothes.
Just like how Sun Jingcheng had thrust into her so forcefully, treating her that way—she would never admit it verbally, but the dark, withered grass in her heart grew wildly. She wanted him to do it, desperately craved him to do it, wanted him to be like a beast, using his undeniable masculine attributes to possess her fiercely, again and again, to conquer her!
In that moment, when they both shed their pretenses and became beasts, she willingly looked up to him. Because he was Sun Jingcheng, her husband, her man!
He could bear her darkness, indulge her darkness, satisfy her darkness, conquer her darkness. In that moment of ultimate pleasure, he became one with her darkness.
This was the man she wanted!
When Sun Jingcheng treated her that way, she didn’t feel the slightest bit offended or humiliated. On the contrary, she received the highest respect and understanding.
She had only realized all this just now while talking with him. Perhaps everything last night was his unconscious behavior, just seeking carnal pleasure, but from the moment he first degraded himself as a beast to please her, he had been demonstrating through action that he had her back, letting her indulge herself without restraint.
Sun Jingcheng hadn’t expected that in the time it took him to peel an egg, she would think so much. The scene of Zhou Yu on the balcony had startled him—he had no other thoughts except that it was too bold and reckless. When he said he was a beast, it wasn’t for any other reason—that was just his honest thought.
As for the positions, he didn’t feel ashamed at all. The Creator gave humans the seven emotions and six desires, and required humans to copulate in this manner to obtain pleasure. No matter how noble a person, it was all the same—nothing to be ashamed of.
He understood clearly that what Zhou Yu was saying wasn’t complaining, nor making excuses for last night—it was simply sharing. Because this was life, compacted solid by endless trivial matters, from the small matters of daily sustenance to the great matters of life and death, one thing after another.
He too, in the past year, having experienced a marriage crisis, midlife crisis, and the pain of bereavement, had gradually come to understand that no matter who you are, one day you’ll find yourself in this life of endless waves, vast as the ocean. No choice, no escape.
He had thought his company would surely collapse—it had already encountered three financial crises, but unexpectedly… it gradually improved.
This was good! In the future he could study medicine with his teacher more at ease. His uncle had originally wanted to find him a prestigious master teacher, but he hadn’t agreed. It wasn’t until ten days ago when Zhou Yu suggested he study with his own father that he reconsidered. Besides, Sun Youping had the qualifications to be an instructor. He seized the opportunity and sent Sun Youping a message that very night.
It wasn’t until just before bed that he received Sun Youping’s message—simple and straightforward, two words: “Okay.”
Then the father and son gathered all the necessary documents and went to the relevant departments to complete the procedures. Traditional Chinese medicine apprenticeship is very lengthy—first requiring several years of regular study and clinical observation with the teacher, then taking various examinations, and finally obtaining a medical practice license. The best path after getting the license is to open a clinic like his father. Trying to practice at a major hospital… basically no chance, and he didn’t aspire to that anyway. Healing and saving people is the same anywhere. Fortunately, the apprenticeship schedule was flexible. If he could adjust things in advance, it wouldn’t significantly impact his career.
On the seventh day after his eldest brother’s passing, the clinic reopened. Sun Youping fumbled at the consultation desk and pulled out an old medical book to give him, saying it would help. It was from that point on that the father-son relationship truly eased. At the same time, Sun Jingcheng felt overwhelming guilt, recognizing for the first time his own immaturity and childishness.
Afterward he told Zhou Yu about it. Zhou Yu said that fathers, after all, have lived several decades longer than us, so naturally their hearts are broader than ours.
Sun Jingcheng discovered that since his brother’s death, perhaps influenced by Zhou Yu, he had begun to become more attentive, learning to observe and listen more, to put himself in others’ shoes. Like when Sun Yuyi came back during the short holiday—he and Zhou Yu invited the siblings to visit the new district, and Zhou Yu cooked Western food for them; like how he would send his mother a bouquet of flowers on Mother’s Day. Sun’s mother complained verbally about wasting money, but her face showed great joy; and like now—he had deliberately bought an ashtray and placed it prominently on the coffee table. He had also cleaned the cigarette butts from the large flowerpot… twenty-four of them, then changed the soil and fertilized the plant.
He knew why his plant was looking more and more wilted!
Yes, all of the above—was what he considered and understood as thoughtfulness.
He also felt he was becoming softer, learning like his wife to care for others naturally, smoothly, without making a show of it.
It was already seven o’clock and his wife still hadn’t returned home. He was starving. He messaged her: “Where are you?”
Zhou Yu replied: “Working overtime.”
He asked: “What time will you be back?”
Zhou Yu replied: “Don’t bother me.”
He had his answer—she wouldn’t be back before ten. Then he grabbed his keys and went downstairs, riding his electric scooter along the small path back to the clinic. Upstairs, Sun Jingfei was there too, mooching food again. The two children sat on the sofa watching cartoons, while his sister-in-law came out of the bathroom with freshly washed clothes draped over her arm.
Sun Jingcheng made a round in the kitchen and asked where Mom was. His sister-in-law finished hanging the clothes and came back to heat up food for him. “Mom went downstairs to chat with neighbors.”
Sun Jingcheng sat down at the dining table and looked at Sun Jingfei. “Mooching food at Mom’s again?”
“Can’t stand it?” Sun Jingfei shot back at him.
Sun Jingcheng turned his head away without a word.
His sister-in-law brought out a bowl of rice for him. Sun Jingfei looked at him. “At your house, does Zhou Yu also bring food to the table for you?”
“Can’t you stand it?” Sun Jingcheng returned her question.