Chapter 63

“Don’t get too excited.”

Lin Shiheng patted him, and pressed the angry and fuming Chen Hao to sit on the chair.

“Don’t worry, I have moral integrity.”

Chen Hao stared at him. Seeing how Lin Shiheng was clinging to his mobile phone with his wife’s photo on it, he snarled, “Bullsh*t. I never knew you had moral integrity. I’m telling you, brotherhood is brotherhood, but don’t you dare do anything to my wife. She’s mine! Mine!!!”

Yet, unlike Chen Hao, who was so riled up he looked ready to bounce on Lin Shiheng at any moment, Lin Shiheng was still indifferent, albeit appearing slightly melancholy. Then, he also sat on the sofa, still as elegant and beautiful as before, as he held the teapot with his slender hands and poured Chen Hao a cup of tea.

“Have a sip of tea to calm your internal heat. Don’t always be so irritable. The liver is the most important. Great anger hurts the liver, and then the body, and so on…”

“Stop!”

Chen Hao had enough of him babbling nonsense. He couldn’t stand it, reaching out and gesturing with his hand.

“Can you speak normally!?”

Lin Shiheng smiled, appearing a little embarrassed. “I had just finished ordering takeout and went into the forum of traditional Chinese medicine, and planned to learn medical skills. That was how they talked over there, and it carried over a little bit. It doesn’t matter if you don’t understand, but I can translate it to you. What I meant was being angry will hurt your liver, which is equal to hurting your body. Don’t always get angry, and be calm, just like me. Keep your mind stable, so that your fragile liver can be peaceful, and in turn, your body will be healthy. Understand?”

Chen Hao stared at him, grinding his teeth as he replied, “You’re the one coveting my wife, not me coveting your wife, of course you can be calm! I’m telling you, Lin Shiheng, if you dare to have any thoughts on my wife, forget anything about us being brothers!! Hurry up and proceed with treatment!!”

“Look at you, always so excited.” The man in the hospital gown calmly pushed the cup of tea towards his friend again, “As you know, I was affected by Yi Qing.”

“I know that you have been affected. That is the only reason I didn’t directly punch you when you said as much. You should cure this ailment quickly. Don’t be a third party between the two of us, I tell you!”

Lin Shiheng stretched out his hand and pressed it downward, making a placating gesture, before saying, “In the drama, Yi Qing’s wife is Ren Qiaoqiao, but in reality, Yi Qing is me, and I am Yi Qing. My wife and I have been together for 30 years, and you and Ren Qiaoqiao have only been married for a few years. You are the third party, no matter in terms of time or long-term understanding.”

“What??? This is just a TV drama! Even if you are really Yi Qing right now, the one who has been with you for 30 years is just Madam Yi played by Qiaoqiao. It has nothing to do with Qiaoqiao herself!”

The person sitting opposite him smiled with satisfaction, “Exactly. The person I like is Madam Yi. What does it have to do with Qiaoqiao? Is Madam Yi your wife?”

Chen Hao’s brain short circuited upon hearing Lin Shiheng’s words. He could only weakly mutter, “No, but Madam Yi was played by Qiaoqiao…”

“Look, here’s the thing,” Lin Shiheng said unhurriedly, “I have the emotion of Yi Qing, so in my eyes, my wife and I have been together for 30 years. During these 30 years, you were still the loyal dog of the lady next door, and you have nothing to do with my wife.”

Chen Hao finally understood it and immediately glared at his friend as he exclaimed, “My Qiaoqiao has nothing to do with you either!”

“It’s not that Qiaoqiao and I don’t have anything to do with each other. It’s Madam Yi and Qiaoqiao that have nothing to do with each other.” Lin Shiheng patiently continued, “I am Yi Qing, Qiaoqiao is your wife, and Madam Yi is my wife. I missed my wife when I was looking at the photo. What does it have to do with your wife? In other words, you obviously have Qiaoqiao as your wife, but you still want to covet your good brother’s wife. First of all, not to mention a friend’s wife couldn’t be targeted, just to know you said as much for a different person… How two-faced, disloyal and unrighteous. Do you have a conscience?”

Chen Hao was speechless.

“Look, you can’t even deny it. In fact, you don’t have to blame yourself for yelling at me just now. We’ve been friends for so long. I also know that you are impulsive and easily get temperamental. It doesn’t matter. I forgive you.” The man in the hospital gown, who seemed to be shining in the sunlight, extended his long, jade white hand.

“Now, can I have my wife back?”

Ren Qiaoqiao was poking her head around and thinking about whether she should go in and see what was going on inside, when she saw the door open and her husband come out with his head hanging like a defeated rooster.

“What’s the matter? Did you quarrel with Shiheng?” She quickly pulled Chen Hao over and hugged him like a child. “The last time I saw you like this, you failed an audition. What happened that hit you so hard?”

After Chen Hao was hugged by his wife, he couldn’t resist rubbing her shoulder, looking as wronged as a big dog complaining to its master.

“He has gone too far!! But I can’t talk him out of it…”

Ren Qiaoqiao had to calm her husband down for a long time before she could coax him to tell her what happened just now. After listening to it, she suddenly felt dumbfounded as well.

What the hell is going on?

“Don’t worry, since he told you directly about it, he must also know what to do. He was probably teasing you just now.”

“He is still staring at your photo!”

“I’m a child star, with countless male fans. How many people grew up staring at my photos? He’s surely not the first one.”

Chen Hao felt that the one who just returned the phone to Lin Shiheng was dumb and stupid. “No, I still have to be careful. I can’t let this boy spend any time with you alone.”

Ren Qiaoqiao still felt nothing of it, but she didn’t mind avoiding Lin Shiheng to reassure her husband.

“Okay, okay, I’ll hide from him. Don’t worry, this kind of drowning into a role method acting rarely lasts a lifetime. After all, you can see the role is quite normal on TV. When filming, there’s only a handful of scenes, and you can’t really get in too deep. Also, what he said to you just now obviously separated Madam Yi from me. In his eyes, maybe I just look the same as his wife.”

Chen Hao whined and hugged his wife. “No matter. Anyway, you are my wife, and I will never let him come into contact with you, even if he is my good brother.”

Ren Qiaoqiao’s eyes softened and she rubbed her husband’s head.

“Well, I won’t come near him. I’ll wait for him to slowly return to normal.”

Yet, even after the drama was completely released, Lin Shiheng still didn’t return to normal.

After keeping Lin Shiheng out of contact with his wife, Chen Hao’s attitude towards his friend had returned to his original care. Every time he faced Lin Shiheng, he would convince himself again, ‘This is a mental patient, a mental patient, a mental patient…’ However, as the saying goes, there is a fine line between supreme talent and madness.

At this moment, Chen Hao deeply realized what it truly meant.

Lin Shiheng actually started practicing swordsmanship. No one knows how he managed to do it, but he invited a national famous sword master. As soon as he was discharged from the hospital, he started learning and practicing hard every day. How does the saying go? Get up earlier than chickens, do more work than cows, and sleep later than dogs? Although he didn’t sleep late, he did get up early and did a lot of work.

Since he had no background in sword arts, and he was an adult, Lin Shiheng had to pay a lot more than ordinary people if he wanted to practice swordplay well. Every day, he would practice his basic skills. Every time Chen Hao went to see him, he could see that this boy, whose skin was flawless and lithe before, would have a bruise on a new spot, and sometimes even on his face.

At first, Chen Hao suspected that the sword master was too cruel and was overtraining his brother. However, one day, he found out that Lin Shiheng had set up wooden pillars in the backyard and was trying to balance on them every day as he practiced. As it turns out, it was this guy who was actually cruel to himself. By doing so, the stakes with each movement were very high, especially since each pole was rounded, with no proper footholds. If he stepped on it without proper form, he would fall off. It so happened that Lin Shiheng had also whimsically practiced on it. Every time he saw such a tragic scene, Chen Hao’s heart would swell up with deep sympathy for his brother.

Give it up, brother… Even if you practice for another 100 years, you wouldn’t be able to fly around with flying skills like those in the drama.

Fortunately, although he couldn’t fly around, the constant practice every day made Lin Shiheng a little lighter on his feet. Although he couldn’t fly to a branch at one go, he could climb a tree in one go. Overall, he was doing pretty great.

Nevertheless, every time he watched his brother diligently practice sword skills, a skill of no practical use in modern times, he would still have black lines on his face.

(TNote: black lines on face = a comical mortification, fatigue, or horror expression.)

“Brother, I know that you are now fit like Yi Qing, but this is modern society. What is the use of practicing these things?”

Hearing his brother’s question, Lin Shiheng put away the sword, incidentally performing a beautiful sword swing in front of him to sling it into its scabbard. Since he had been practising this whole while, his forehead was beaded with sweat as his face was slightly red from the blood pumping, his eyes shining.

“In order to protect the people I want to protect.”

Chen Hao listened to this cliche line spoken by almost all the male leads of major TV dramas, and hollowed out his ears.

“Protect who exactly? Why don’t you just hire some bodyguards instead?”

“Bodyguards are outsiders. It’s better to do it yourself.”

The man dressed in white patted his scabbard as he replied seriously, “I have to protect my own wife.”

Chen Hao, “…Wait, what do you mean by ‘wife’?”

Lin Shiheng pulled out the photo in response, leaving Chen Hao perplexed.

“Who the hell told you to carry my wife’s picture around with you!!!”

Lin Shiheng glanced at Chen Hao disdainfully. “How many times have I told you? This is not your wife, it’s my wife. If you can’t even tell your own wife apart, you don’t have the honor of being a self-respecting man.”

Chen Hao has long been accustomed to his brother kidding around, already thinking Lin Shiheng would be himself already. However, when it comes to the topic of ‘your wife and my wife’, he struggled to accept how Lin Shiheng changes to Yi Qing.

It’s a good thing he came prepared and would never be wound up this time. Looking at the picture in front of him, Chen Hao sneered, “Okay, let me ask you what’s your wife’s name.”

Lin Shiheng did not hesitate. “Madam Yi.”

“I meant, what is her last name? What is her age? Does she have a birthmark, and if so, where is it?”

This time Lin Shiheng couldn’t answer. In the end, although Yi Qing was a supporting lead, his wife was just a side character. Everyone called her Madam Yi, and even Yi Qing calls her Madam. Since the character didn’t have many appearances, the screenwriter probably didn’t bother to set up a detailed background for her, so she only had the title of Madam Yi. As for her birthmark, or anything else for that matter, she wore ancient Chinese clothes even when she was sleeping in bed. Lin Shiheng hadn’t seen her body, so of course he wouldn’t know.

Seeing that he couldn’t answer, Chen Hao finally had a great feeling of having the upper hand. He stepped forward and patted his brother’s shoulder sympathetically.

“Brother, don’t give up treatment. Your illness will soon be cured. I know what it’s like to fall in love with a person on paper. It’s better to wait until you have someone you really like.”

Lin Shiheng looked slightly confused, immersed in Yi Qing’s emotions, his eyebrows scrunched up. He looked down at the photo as he lamented, “I have been with her for 30 years, but I don’t even know her name and birthmark…”

“I know.” Chen Hao whistled, “She has a little love tattoo on her arm, which is the same as mine, a symbol of our love.” Saying that, he lifted up his sleeve and showed Lin Shiheng, his face was full of triumph.

Lin Shiheng looked at it silently. “You have seen my wife’s body?”

Chen Hao, “???”

Lin Shiheng drew his sword. “Beast!!!”

Chen Hao gradually began to feel something was wrong, “No, wait, brother, you’re being crazy again. I’m talking about Qiaoqiao, Ren Qiaoqiao! It’s not your wife, it’s my wife! It’s my wife that has a heart tattoo on her arm!!!”

Lin Shiheng’s gaze grew more and more contemptuous. “I can’t believe you told me, an outsider, about your wife’s birthmark on her body. Such a beast! Watch out for my sword–!”

Chen Hao’s mouth was agape hearing Lin Shiheng’s cry. He’d better run!