Chapter 115

Edited by: kapekopicoffee

Su Mingqian was due to continue his rehabilitation the day after a night’s sleep.

Li Shuoxing had been fully consulted and psychologically prepared for this back in China.

He first saw the medical staff come to the door. Li Shuoxing accompanied Su Mingqian and watched as the medical staff pushed him into the specially prepared physiotherapy room in the villa to receive some professional rehabilitation physiotherapy.

There were many large and small machines inside, which looked very complicated.

Su Mingqian was lying flat on his back on one of the huge physiotherapy beds.

He was stripped down to a thin set of underclothes, all his limbs exposed to the air.

Some instruments that Li Shuoxing couldn’t quite understand were moving over Su Mingqian’s limbs.

The instruments seemed to cause some strain on Su Mingqian. Li Shuoxing could see that the areas of his body where the instruments were moving over would tremble uncontrollably, and then, sweat would rush out from Su Mingqian’s forehead and neck.

Occasionally, when Su Mingqian’s reaction was particularly violent, the medical staff held him down to prevent him from moving.

Li Shuoxing almost wanted to go straight in at these moments.

His hands were on the door, and, by just using a little force, he could push the door open and interrupt the rehabilitation process.

The door was heavy.

Li Shuoxing’s arms were heavy, too.

The door remained well-closed until the end of this difficult physiotherapy session, and Li Shuoxing didn’t enter until after the medical staff had left the room.

He first wiped the sweat off Su Mingqian’s body, then changed him into dry clothes, and then began to massage his joints. This was the answer he got after he asked the doctor earlier:

It is best to massage the joints frequently after each phase of rehabilitation to help relieve pressure on the joints and facilitate the patient’s recovery.

He pressed Su Mingqian’s joints carefully, bearing these words in mind, but the person on the bed was already curling up with laughter after just two strokes of his hands.

Su Mingqian: “Xi, Ximu, it tickles!”

Li Shuoxing: “Then I’ll be a little lighter.”

The strength of his palms relaxed slightly, and, as soon as they did, Su Mingqian, lying on the bed, rolled over into his arms.

“Ximu, I’m a little tired…” Su Mingqian whispered.

Li Shuoxing helped him up. He placed him over his shoulders and used them to support him. “Come, lean on me.”

Su Mingqian: “I’m still feeling tired. I don’t want to do rehab.”

Li Shuoxing coaxed, “Cub, we have to listen to the doctor. You can only recover quickly by listening to the doctor. But, if you’re really tired, we could also rest for another five minutes.” He slowed down a bit and compared the length of a pinky nail. “Just for five minutes.”

Su Mingqian couldn’t help laughing, and then added, “It still hurts.”

Li Shuoxing: “Where does it hurt? Point it out to me and I’ll rub it for you, so it won’t hurt so much.”

Su Mingqian: “It hurts all over.”

Li Shuoxing first rubbed Su Mingqian’s shoulders and elbows, then rubbed his knees and ankles.

“Then I’ll rub your whole body. I’ll rub it one by one for you, so it won’t feel so uncomfortable,” he said.

The sensation of joints being rubbed really tickled.

Su Mingqian curled up again and revealed a smile. “It doesn’t really hurt that much. But, Ximu, you’ve come to me, so I feel tired and hurt.”

It was as if a needle had poked Li Shuoxing in the chest.

It didn’t really feel painful, just numb and slightly heavy, making Li Shuoxing’s fingertips a little cold.

He rubbed his fingers to warm them up before covering Su Mingqian’s body again.

He didn’t move his hands, just covered with a little force, as if to transfer the strength in his own body to the other’s, to give support, to give help.

Li Shuoxing: “I know.”

They rested on the physiotherapy bed for five minutes, not a second longer, before Su Mingqian sat up and asked Li Shuoxing to help him get to the parallel bars for walking training.

It was difficult for his newly recovered body to support walking. Every step forward felt like it exhausted all the strength in his body.

Su Mingqian’s forehead broke into a fine sweat again. His hands, holding the parallel bars, kept trembling, as if they’d collapse with just one more external force.

At that moment, Li Shuoxing did something.

He placed his hands on the parallel bars, just one step away from Su Mingqian’s position at the moment, no more, no less.

Su Mingqian would be able to grab his hand if he took just one more step forward.

Su Mingqian looked up at Li Shuoxing.

His hands didn’t seem to be shaking that much. He firmly gripped the parallel bars and moved forward again.

Su Mingqian took a step forward, and Li Shuoxing took a step back.

Their hands always remained one step apart, and, with just a little more effort, a little more persistence, they would soon be able to touch!

Su Mingqian persisted all the way to the end of the parallel bars, where Li Shuoxing’s hands were waiting, unmoving. So, he finally grabbed the hand he wanted to grab, and his legs instantly gave out as he leaned forward.

Li Shuoxing tightly hugged the man and immediately sat down on the ground, taking Su Mingqian in his arms. He rubbed Su Mingqian’s knee for a while, then suddenly said, “Cub, I don’t want to leave even more. I want to continue staying with you until you recover.”

Su Mingqian nodded, then shook his head. After that, he looked up, and said to Li Shuoxing, “Ximu, I’ll walk again. You can wait for me at the end this time.”

Li Shuoxing was a little hesitant. “Will that be too far…”

Su Mingqian: “It’s okay. Just stand there and don’t move.”

Li Shuoxing no longer argued. “Okay.”

They started all over again.

Su Mingqian stood at the beginning of the road and Li Shuoxing stood at the end.

Li Shuoxing saw that the other was walking slowly and with difficulty at first, looking up at him with each step. Gradually, he began to walk faster, dragging his feet, staggering and stumbling. He nearly fell a few times along the way, but managed to grab the railings each time and stand strong again. Until, he finally fell into Li Shuoxing’s arms.

Su Mingqian was gasping a little. He grabbed Li Shuoxing. “Ximu, you see, I’m very motivated as long as you’re standing there. I’ll think that you’re still waiting for me.”

“I promised you that I’ll overcome everything and try to come back to you, no matter where you are. So, don’t worry, I can always see you.”

Li Shuoxing didn’t say anything else.

He lowered his head and kissed Su Mingqian’s forehead.

Of course.

He’d wait for Su Mingqian no matter where he was; he’d be there for Su Mingqian no matter how he looked like.

He reached out his hand and interlocked his fingers with Su Mingqian’s.

***

His three-day visit seemed to end in the blink of an eye. Su Mingqian gave Li Shuoxing a new helmet as he was leaving, saying that it was an upgraded version of his previous helmet, and that it would allow Li Shuoxing to stay in the game for a longer time without having to frequently go in and out of it.

For some reason, as he listened to Su Mingqian’s words, Li Shuoxing constantly felt the other was wearing a smile on his face, a smile that looked a bit bad…

This expression had deep meaning.

Li Shuoxing couldn’t help asking, but, of course, didn’t get an answer. He could only hold the new version of the helmet and reluctantly say goodbye to Su Mingqian before getting on the plane home.

The long journey was very boring.

Li Shuoxing didn’t want to sleep, so he simply took out his computer to write. He had a lot of things going on recently, so he didn’t have the time to save up more drafts, and could only manage six thousand words per day… No, when I go back now, I must write well and save up more drafts, so that when Mingqian comes back from his rehabilitation, I can go around with him without having to think about updating!

Li Shuoxing secretly made that decision.

But, when he turned on his computer, the first line he wrote wasn’t the official article, but a warm mini theatre of Cunxing and Su Mingqian.

His three days in the United States brought a great deal of emotion to Li Shuoxing.

It was a feeling of having a burden on your shoulders and responsibility in your life.

It was more a feeling that no matter what you did, there was someone who’d be there for you and bear it with you.

He integrated this feeling into this mini theatre.

This was Li Shuoxing and Su Mingqian’s relationship, as well as Cunxing and Su Mingqian’s fate.

The words completely expressed Li Shuoxing’s heart.

He wrote a mini theatre that he was very satisfied with and posted it on his Weibo when he got off the plane.

Readers who followed Li Shuoxing’s Weibo saw this mini theatre in no time at all.

“I don’t know why but my eyes actually got a little warm.”

“Eunuch’s theatre is so well written. I’ll never say Cunxing and Su Mingqian are gay again. They’re the best brothers, and this is the best brotherhood in my heart!”

“Supporting each other and bearing it together, it’s so well written. It’s getting more and more difficult to be touched by characters in an article after so many years of reading novels, but this passage seems to poke into my heart. How much I wish for a friend or partner like this when I reach middle age.”

Weibo wasn’t the only place where the mini theatre was being discussed.

At that moment, a wave of female readers was crying over this Weibo mini theatre storm in a QQ group called “Cunxing Fire War Group”.

“I’m crying boohoo, I’m actually touched by their brotherhood…”

“What brotherhood, it’s love! This love is real!”

“They’re always relying on each other no matter what they encounter. This kind of feeling is really too real!”

The group was suddenly a bit quiet when these words came out.

After a few seconds of quiet, someone returned to the previous topic.

“So are they still going to be relying on each other in this Fire War…”

The full name of Fire War was “Dimensional Fire War”. It was a voting contest for fictional characters from novels, comics, anime and games, led jointly by three major video sites. The most popular male character among them was the King of Fire, and the most popular female character among them was the Queen of Moe. It was subdivided into domestic and international zones. ¹ 燃战 [rán zhàn] originates from Japan’s Saimoe (最萌). I have translated it as Fire War. 燃 means burn and 萌 means cute. In Japanese, both 燃え and 萌え are pronounced as Moe.

Popularity was calculated by fan votes.

There were two types of fan votes: true love votes and regular votes.

One true love vote = two regular votes

Once you have cast a true love vote for a character, you couldn’t cast any more votes for any other character.

Su Mingqian and Cunxing from Nine Crossings were in the running to become King of Fire in this contest’s domestic zone.

At the time of auditions, that pair of characters whose original work was a novel and who’d only gotten a comic adaptation, not even an anime, had been very unpopular. Most followers thought that they’d be eliminated after the first or second round.

Their votes surprisingly went all the way up and they became two dark horses in the field, rushing all the way to the tournament’s final eight into its final four.

But…

Cunxing was fine in this eight-to-four vote match. He held some advantage at the moment, but it was very small. Su Mingqian’s vote count was very unpromising. He was already trailing his opponent by a large number of votes and looked set to stop in the final eight.

The Fire War group leader analysed the current situation:

“Judging from the popularity analysis, the estimated number of votes for Su Mingqian’s opponent character is only 30% of the current number of votes for them. Even if that estimation is wrong, it can’t be that wrong. So, I think that the fans of the other contestants think that Su Mingqian is a threat and are using all the votes they have for Su Mingqian’s opponent, so they can get Su Mingqian out of the field and take out a dark horse early.

“So, the question is, should we use the votes that will allow Cunxing to advance to save Su Mingqian?”

This was a very simple and straightforward question.

Cunxing and Su Mingqian, one or the other, they could only choose one.

There was a short silence in the group, but soon, everyone spoke again:

“Save him. Su Mingqian is Eunuch’s main character. We should vote for him anyway.”

“And we have to consider farther in the future. Su Mingqian, as the main character, is more likely to suck in Nine Crossings fan votes than Cunxing. After we get past this battle, it’s not certain that we’ll get past the next one.”

“Eunuch’s mini theatre is so moving. Cunxing in a different book would also fight for Su Mingqian with everything he has.”

The group leader understood.

She directly decided. “@All members, this is Su Mingqian’s life and death battle. We’re going to save Su Mingqian on behalf of Cunxing. Everyone cast out all the true love votes that you have left to ensure Su Mingqian advances!”

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燃战 [rán zhàn] originates from Japan’s Saimoe (最萌). I have translated it as Fire War. 燃 means burn and 萌 means cute. In Japanese, both 燃え and 萌え are pronounced as Moe.