Before Xu Xilin could answer, his body had already warmed up from the familiar hug.

But at this moment, Dou Xun gently let him go, gave him a bitter smile, and said, "Don't worry."

What are you worried about?

Xu Xilin was stunned for a moment, then he reacted immediately, as if he was slapped in the face - Dou Xun was implying that there were no passers-by around, and no cameras with bad intentions... and he knew that this was outside, and he was willing to disobey his own rebelliousness, to abide by the unreasonable rules of this world for someone, and to take care of his even more unreasonable cowardice.

After Dou Xun finished speaking, he took one of Xu Xilin's arms and supported him with the other hand behind his back, half supporting and half pushing him upstairs: "Don't stand there in the cold downstairs. Which floor is your home on?"

Xu Xilin silently pressed the elevator button, his face even uglier than when he was in the cemetery.

Dou Xun walked him all the way to the door of his house, stretched out his hand to block the elevator door, and said to Xu Xilin in a flat tone: "If it is inconvenient for your family to have visitors, I can just take you here - do you really not need to go to the hospital?"

Xu Xilin felt more and more uncomfortable, the pain spreading from his stomach all the way to his back. It felt like there was a tendon running horizontally in his back, twitching wildly and making him irritated for no reason.

Dou Xun was learning to be polite, to keep a distance from him, and to respect his concerns.

But Xu Xilin did not feel relieved, only ironic.

He could even hear the resentment after a long separation in Dou Xun's calm tone, which was subtle and dense, not deep, but everywhere. It was like a blunt and soft knife, constantly scraping his bones, making the torture minute and long, not as satisfying as a quarrel like before.

Xu Xilin no longer had the interest to talk nonsense, so he opened the door. Since Dou Xun said so, he had no choice but to extend the invitation: "No, it's just a little messy, please come in."

The living room is the territory of the grey parrot. The bird had just inspected its territory. When it heard the sound, it immediately flapped its wings and flew out. Unexpectedly, it saw Dou Xun. It was a little unhappy that its territory was invaded by an alien species, so it slightly raised one leg and flapped its wings a few times in an unfriendly manner.

Then, perhaps remembering Xu Xilin's warning, it reluctantly retracted its feet, landed on the high shelf, and stared at the uninvited guest in the house vigilantly.

This was Dou Xun’s first visit to Xu Xilin’s “new home”.

The house is a small three-bedroom apartment with good lighting. When you enter the house, you will see that the windows are bright and clean. You can tell at a glance that it has just been cleaned by a part-time worker. It is so clean that there is almost no spot on.

There are three rooms surrounding the living room, and the doors of two of them were locked. I don't know why he would close the door when he was alone at home.

The only bedroom with an open door was as tidy as a model room. It looked deserted and it was obvious that no one had lived there for a long time.

Instead, there was a single pillow and quilt spread out on the sofa in the living room, allowing Dou Xun to determine the area where the owner of the house usually moved around. It was even better than living in a hotel.

Dou Xun frowned as he watched.

Xu Xilin took a look at himself and felt that it was inappropriate for Dou Xun to see this side of him, so he explained without any persuasiveness: "No one usually comes here, and I didn't clean it today..."

As he spoke, he tried to move the messy sofas to make a place for people to sit, but was stopped by Dou Xun.

Dou Xun went to the bedroom with the open door and moved a chair out.

Xu Xilin suddenly became nervous as if he was guilty of a thief and almost called out to him. Then he saw that Dou Xun just moved a chair from the door and had no interest in the other two locked rooms, so he almost swallowed his words.

Dou Xun placed a chair in the middle of the living room and sat in front of Xu Xilin. The two of them were silent for a moment. Dou Xun asked, "What's wrong with your stomach? How long have you had stomach problems? Do you have them often?"

Xu Xilin: "Maybe it's chronic gastritis? It's not a serious condition. I just didn't eat breakfast today."

Dou Xun took a breath and lowered his voice: "Maybe?"

Xu Xilin: "...maybe a little ulcer too."

He had no time to go to the hospital for these minor ailments, and he didn't take them seriously. Anyway, everyone has some ailment these days. The middle-aged and elderly men who hung out with him all day were all well-versed in health preservation. The content of their gatherings over the years had gradually shifted from eating and drinking to playing ball and fitness. Some people even pretended to run marathons, but so what?

It's still gout and the three highs.

These things are all about "life and death are determined by fate, wealth and honor are determined by God."

Dou Xun reluctantly asked, "What do you do when you feel uncomfortable? What medicine do you usually take?"

Xu Xilin: "Look up the symptoms online and prepare some common medicines."

Dou Xun: “…”

What a scientific and healthy example of committing suicide.

Dou Xun understood more deeply how thin the good skin on the surface of this rotten apple was. Seeing his careless look, he felt furious, just like Xu Xilin was angry when he found out that he was working as a medical representative.

A vein popped out on his forehead, and he lowered his head and pinched his brows a few times, trying his best to pretend to be reasonable, and sighed: "Which cup do you usually use?"

Xu Xilin glanced at the small coffee table next to the sofa.

On the teacup, I saw a laptop, two folders, a book on financial management, and half a piece of dry bread... It was really "quality and quantity" of food, clothing, housing and transportation.

Dou Xun picked up his teacup and found that the tea inside was no longer fresh. It had the dark brown color unique to overnight tea. It was impossible to tell whether the tea leaves were good or not, and they looked like a pile of floating corpses in his cup.

Dou Xun gritted his teeth and counted his breaths, then stood up, poured out the old tea, washed the quilt, and wanted to get him a cup of hot water. As soon as the water reached the bottom of the cup, Dou Xun felt something was wrong, and when he looked again, the hot water in the water dispenser was not turned on at all!

He secretly took a deep breath and felt that he was about to lose control of his anger.

Dou Xun didn't ask Xu Xilin where the medicine was, but directly opened the small drawer under the TV cabinet - the Xu family's common medicines used to be placed there, but Xu Xilin was too lazy to do it, so the new TV cabinet was exactly the same as the old one.

As expected, there was a medicine box in the drawer with two boxes of medicine opened. One box was obviously a box of painkillers that was obviously taken more often, and the other box was ordinary stomach medicine, gathering dust in the corner.

Dou Xun, with a gloomy face, pushed aside the painkillers, poured two stomach medicine tablets on a tissue, and while waiting for hot water, he flipped through the instructions on the pills. Fortunately, he took a closer look, because the medicine was a year expired.

Dou Xun: “…”

This guy is like this, and he still has the nerve to pretend that he loves life and loves being outside!

"Did you know that the medicine is expired?" Dou Xun shook the medicine box in front of Xu Xilin, then threw it into the trash can and sat down opposite Xu Xilin. Xu Xilin leaned on his simple "bed" and curled up like a shrimp.

Dou Xun glanced at him and quickly looked away, thinking angrily, "I really can't pretend anymore."

I left in accordance with your wishes, thinking that you would be free from now on, without having to fear rumors.

I came back to look for you countless times, but couldn't find you anywhere. I almost gave up. But then I thought that maybe you would be better off without me, so I accepted it with resentment and unwillingness. I tried desperately to live like a human being, thinking that if one day I met you again, you wouldn't be glad for your decision not to have me all those years ago.

Now it seems like a complete waste of emotion!

"If you die suddenly someday, no one will collect your body." Dou Xun finally couldn't help but throw away his "maturity and calmness" that was coated with a layer of foreign gold, and uttered a familiar tone in his sharp voice.

At this time, the water dispenser's water light came on. Dou Xun turned around and poured a cup of hot water, then asked unhappily, "Where is the nearest pharmacy?"

Xu Xilin stumbled: "Uh..."

"Forget it." Dou Xun angrily took out his cell phone, turned on the GPS, searched nearby, then ignored him and went downstairs to look for it himself.

Xu Xilin sat there for a while, raised one arm to cover his face, and Dou Xun slammed the door outside.

The grey parrot was so frightened by Dr. Dou's uncivilized behavior of smashing pots and bowls that it flew to the chandelier and cried out in a crisp voice: "Oh my God!"

In the past, when it said this, Xu Xilin would laugh. However, today, it barked several times to attract attention, but Xu Xilin did not react at all.

The parrot flew to the sofa, tilted its neck to look at him, thought for a while, then picked up two pistachios and put them next to his hand to please him. Seeing that he still ignored it, it diligently cracked the pistachios for Mr. Xu, but unexpectedly, it accidentally ate the pistachios itself halfway through.

It was stunned for a moment, as if it had not expected itself to be so greedy. Feeling a little guilty, it flew to a shelf one meter away and began to reflect on itself.

Dou Xun ran all the way to the drugstore and bought two boxes of medicine that Xu Xilin had taken before. The drugstore was about one bus stop away from Xu Xilin's home. Dou Xun went up and down the stairs to check the route, and the whole trip took less than ten minutes. He was sweating in the cold winter.

When he got downstairs, Dou Xun suddenly remembered that Xu Xilin had used Baidu to diagnose this thing himself, and he had no idea whether it was correct. He actually bought it back, which was ridiculous.

But apart from this, he had no right to carry that ridiculous man into the hospital, because he was not related to Xu Xilin and had no right to control him. He even had to ask a sarcastic question when entering his house.

It was obvious that she was the one who was once in his arms, but now she was only focused on pretending in front of him.

Dou Xun returned to the living room of Xu Xilin's small apartment with sweat and a cold face, and threw the medicine on the table.

Xu Xilin: "Sorry to bother you."

"You're 'trouble' me." Dou Xun gave him a sarcastic look and thought, "My man has ruined himself like this and now you're 'trouble' me."

Dou Xun wiped his face, threw the shaky "gentle and elegant" mask aside, sat on the chair with his legs crossed, glanced around Xu Xilin's living room, and said indifferently: "You are so sorry, save some money."

He turned around and stared at the parrot for a while, waiting for Xu Xilin to finish taking the medicine. He pointed at Xu Xilin and said, "Lie down first. I have something to tell you."

When Dou Xun was polite, he was a good guest. Now that he was unhappy, Xu Xilin had the illusion that he had returned to the old days.

It didn't matter in front of an "old friend", but it was not convenient to be too presumptuous in front of a guest. Xu Xilin hesitated for a moment, and Dou Xun took action directly, just like urging him to take a bath when he was a child - he flattened the upright pillow and pressed Xu Xilin down.

As a patient, Xu Xilin was unable to resist and was decisively suppressed.

The grey parrot thought Dr. Dou was bullying it, so it opened its mouth and screamed, flapping its wings in threatening and aggressive movements.

Dou Xun turned his head and said, "Shut up!"

Grey parrot: “…”

The parrot was raised by the two of them when it was young. No one knew how it grew up and it didn't learn anything good from them. In terms of "being spoiled and arrogant", it became Dou Xun, but in terms of being "cowardly", it became Xu Xilin. When it found that the enemy seemed a bit powerful, it looked at Xu Xilin eagerly, shrank its neck and dared not move.

When Dou Xun saw its familiar behavior, he was both amused and upset, and his mood suddenly became less irritable.

He sighed, stretched out his legs and sat next to Xu Xilin. He wanted to reach out and stroke his slightly sweaty hair, but he didn't know where to put his fingers, so they just hung in the air awkwardly.

"When you left me, I thought you were going to pursue a 'normal' life." Dou Xun leaned back and said softly, "From what I know, there seem to be many girls who like you. Why don't you pick one to live a normal life with? Are they not pretty? Or are they all assholes like me?"

Xu Xilin blurted out: "Bean filling..."

He forgot the word that came after that for a moment, and when this old name was called out, both of them were stunned in a trance.

After a while, Dou Xun's fingers hanging in the air fell down and sank firmly into Xu Xilin's hair scattered on the pillow: "Hmm?"

Xu Xilin: "...Don't provoke me with this."

Dou Xun finally touched the person he had been thinking about day and night. As if addicted, he kept touching Xu Xilin's hair and earlobes. He felt that his hair and face were different. Everything seemed strange. This stimulated his crazy possessiveness that had been dormant for many years. He felt both fear and anger for a moment.

Dou Xun: "What do you want?"

Xu Xilin's throat moved slightly.

Dou Xun: "You are trying to make sense to me, telling me to wait, saying that one day when you become powerful, you won't have to hide anything anymore - so are you powerful now?"

Xu Xilin: “…Not really.”

He is just one of the thousands of small private business owners. After years of entrepreneurship, he only succeeded once by chance. In the past two years, he has just made some progress, and he cannot be said to have accumulated anything. Perhaps compared with his peers, he can barely be considered excellent, but let alone those who can change the rules of society, even compared with Xu Jin and Dou Junliang who still maintain the "complete image of a nouveau riche", his small family background cannot be called a career.

But just walking here, he already felt it was difficult to move forward.

Dou Xun lowered his eyes, glanced across Xu Xilin's nose, and asked, "Then how dare you hold my hand in public now?"

Xu Xilin was speechless.

Dou Xun pointed out the problem, "Is it because no one can control you now? You have money and you can travel around the world. Your elders are gone. Even if your business fails, you can still live on renting a house. And because you are neither too old nor too young, others have to treat you like a grown-up. You start to have the final say, and you are lazy and don't get married, have no children, play around, and mess around... others still think it's forgivable. You don't have any pressure, right?"

Dou Xun reached out and touched his forehead. Xu Xilin closed his eyes and heard Dou Xun say coldly, "I knew it. Otherwise, you wouldn't dare to hang around me every day and play with old feelings."

Dou Xun knew that Xu Xilin had feelings for him, but he could never believe the depth of these feelings, so he had to ask for, test, prove, and haggle endlessly. Now, he finally blurted out this distrust, and he felt a sense of pleasure as if he had stabbed a wound with a knife.

Xu Xilin was silent for a while, then explained weakly: "I didn't."

Dou Xun waited patiently for him to speak.

Xu Xilin racked his brains and sadly found that he had nothing to say. He wanted to push open the locked door and let Dou Xun go and see for himself, but he felt that was pointless - because it looked like a show that had been planned for a long time and was overdone... It felt like the same thing as kneeling down downstairs of someone else's building with 999 flowers in his hands.

At this time, the doorbell rang.

Dou Xun let him go: "Just lie down, I'll go open the door for you."

Xu Xilin grabbed Dou Xun's hand, pulled him down, and kissed him regardless.

Dou Xun was pulled down by him and was stunned at first, but soon he turned the tables. Like an enraged beast, he pressed Xu Xilin on the narrow sofa, like holding down a long-coveted prey, biting him back.

Taking away his air, suppressing his struggle, his fingers even subconsciously moved to Xu Xilin's throat——

The annoying doorbell turned into a loud knock on the door, and the next moment, the cell phone that Xu Xilin threw on the small table also started screaming to join in the fun.