Zhou Shiyu, go eat something good for once!

As the end of the month approached, before the May Day holiday arrived, the cultural festival that the school had been preparing for a long time finally came as scheduled.

Sheng Sui’s special school was divided into rehabilitation classes and deaf student classes. The rehabilitation classes were for children with intellectual disabilities, autism, ADHD, and similar conditions; the deaf student classes were, as the name suggested, specifically established for students with hearing impairments.

The program included but was not limited to song and dance performances, stage plays, and instrumental performances. Sheng Sui didn’t need to go on stage herself—she was mainly responsible for directing performances from below the stage and frantically taking photos and videos of her class students.

Compared to most of their peers, her students were indeed visibly immature, but the smiles on the children’s faces were all genuine.

During the performance, one child with intellectual disabilities noticed Sheng Sui’s camera lens and simply stopped dancing, standing in place grinning at her until the music ended and still refusing to come down.

Sheng Sui finally had to carry the child away with half helplessness and half indulgence, only to be surrounded by her class students as soon as they got off stage, each wanting kisses and hugs.

Having spent more time together, these children forgotten by society were actually more familiar and close to Sheng Sui.

After coaxing each child who came forward, Sheng Sui turned her head to look at Zhou Yi, who was standing alone in the corner backstage.

The handsome boy stared straight ahead, holding a familiar doll in his arms—Zhou Yi had refused to put it down even during the stage performance.

The boy looked seven or eight parts similar to Zhou Shiyu, so Sheng Sui couldn’t help but feel more tender toward him. She crouched down to actively hug him and raised her hand to wipe the fine sweat from his forehead:

“Yi Yi, can you tell the teacher who gave you the doll?”

After repeating the question three times, Zhou Yi finally shifted his gaze and said slowly: “…Brother.”

Brother? The doll was given by Zhou Shiyu?

Strangely, before they met, half of Zhou Shiyu’s reasons for marriage had been about Zhou Yi, but after marriage, she had never heard the man actively mention his younger brother.

Even during their only visit to the Zhou family, Zhou Shiyu had no eye contact whatsoever with this half-brother.

The program proceeded smoothly, and soon it was lunchtime. With two teachers present in the class, Sheng Sui, who had been busy all morning, returned to the office. Shortly after sending the morning’s photos and videos to parents, she received a video call from Zhou Shiyu.

“Have you had lunch? Are you still busy?”

Behind the man was the office’s large floor-to-ceiling windows. His warm, deep male voice carried background noise that sounded somewhat noisy, “How are you considering the May Day camping trip?”

As soon as he finished speaking, Qiu Si’s face appeared in the bottom right corner of the screen, smiling: “Teacher Sheng should come play—it’s such a rare vacation opportunity.”

“If Teacher Sheng could bring a female friend,” Qiu Si expectantly rubbed his hands together, “to introduce to everyone, that would be even better.”

Zhou Shiyu frowned slightly upon hearing this: “Qiu Si, put away your lewd expression.”

“How am I being lewd?”

Qiu Si turned back with dissatisfied eye-rolling: “What, only senior management at Cheng He is allowed to find partners while we have to stay single? Only you’re allowed to show off your ring everywhere while we single dogs can only watch helplessly? Only you get to taste the bitterness of love while we can only eat dog food—”

The consequence of too much nonsense was being “invited” out of the office by Zhou Shiyu half a minute later.

Regarding May Day camping, Zhou Shiyu had mentioned it to Sheng Sui last night. The location was in a scenic area outside the magic city, with vast open spaces and few people, adjacent to mountain streams.

She heard the trip was mainly to see peach blossoms. Sheng Sui, who hadn’t traveled far in a long time, readily agreed. Today’s inquiry was just final confirmation of the vacation time.

The floor-to-ceiling windows were wide open, letting all the warm light from the sky pour into the room, illuminating Zhou Shiyu in the black leather chair with warmth all over, his hair dancing with scattered golden light spots.

Sheng Sui secretly pressed the screenshot button, coughing lightly to cover up: “Speaking of which, Xiao Ming has mentioned several times wanting to go with me. If you don’t mind, should I ask if she wants to come?”

“Xiao Ming?”

Zhou Shiyu repeated the name in a low voice, suddenly raising his eyebrows with a hooked smile, saying in a deep voice: “Good, go ahead and ask.”

With no one else in the office, he could see the woman on the screen smile and sit up straight upon hearing this, adjusting the phone’s position, which happened to show the items on her desk.

Sheng Sui’s desktop was clean and tidy, making it convenient for Zhou Shiyu to catch a glimpse of a book with only half its blue cover visible on the desk, its title clearly visible under the camera.

—”Bipolar Disorder: What You and Your Family Need to Know”

Zhou Shiyu was all too familiar with this book: first, as a patient himself, he had read it several years ago; second, he had recently often seen Sheng Sui reading this book at home—or rather, “secretly reading” would be more accurate.

As if afraid of hurting his self-esteem, not only this book but any book related to his condition, Sheng Sui only read electronic versions at home.

When reading in the living room at night, she wouldn’t let him hold her in his arms but sat far away on the opposite side of the sofa. Whenever Zhou Shiyu came over, she would immediately flip her phone face-down on her lap.

So the physical book was at school.

“…Did you watch the video I sent you? Zhou Yi has been progressing so quickly lately. In less than two months, he can already perform on stage with his classmates…”

Sheng Sui was enthusiastically describing the cultural festival’s grand occasion when she noticed the person across hadn’t spoken for a long time. When she looked down at the screen, she first noticed the book in the corner of her eye.

She hurriedly raised her hand to adjust the camera angle again, saying as if nothing had happened: “Lin Xi called me earlier, and from her voice, it sounded like she had been crying.”

For families with special children, there were too many parents in situations similar to Lin Xi’s, often suffering and agonizing even more than the patients themselves.

They didn’t expect their children to excel, but the smallest progress—even just actively communicating with others, even just standing through an entire stage performance—was enough to bring tears to parents’ eyes.

Thinking of this, Sheng Sui couldn’t help but sigh softly: “Besides deafness, many special children’s conditions cannot be cured. Thinking this way, family members might suffer even more.”

“Mm.”

Zhou Shiyu seemed uninterested in Zhou Yi’s affairs. After changing the subject and chatting briefly about a few other things, he was called away by Secretary Chen who knocked and entered, asking him to chair a meeting.

With limited teachers and students, the cultural festival didn’t have many performances. Being the eve of May Day, all teachers and students officially began their holiday before four o’clock.

When Sheng Sui arrived home, the wall clock showed only five o’clock. She went straight to the bedroom to pack items for camping, passing several times by the study where the painting was hidden, its door still tightly closed.

To be specific, it had been several days since learning about the bipolar disorder. Sheng Sui was clear that Zhou Shiyu needed to take medication on time every day, yet she had never seen the man take medicine.

She hadn’t even seen Zhou Shiyu enter that lightproof study room again.

Aside from her playing hide-and-seek-like secret reading at home, whether Zhou Shiyu was ill or not seemed to have produced no change in this household whatsoever.

He didn’t mention the signs and management of episodes, and she didn’t dare ask what she should pay attention to normally. The book’s repeated mentions of “family members should be supportive and understanding” were mostly vague—her eyes had read them, but her brain remained confused.

Rather than life continuing as usual, Zhou Shiyu’s illness was more like an open taboo in the house—not to be discussed or touched, with both of them tacitly keeping silent about it.

Sheng Sui belatedly understood that the man had told her the truth simply because she wanted to know, so he answered her questions, but not because he wanted her to solve the problem.

After dinner, Zhou Shiyu went to shower. Halfway through, on the pretext of forgetting to bring a towel, he successfully lured Sheng Sui into the bathroom, then “accidentally” slipped and pulled her into the water-filled bathtub.

Water splashed everywhere as the man graciously helped remove her soaked clothing under the guise of kindness.

The hot water temperature was just right, the warmth soothing the skin and helping muscles relax, making it very convenient for fingers to enter.

Zhou Shiyu kissed Sheng Sui’s wet forehead, his low voice echoing in the bathroom, becoming increasingly seductive: “It seems easier in the water.”

“…The luggage isn’t packed yet.”

The crisp sound of tearing plastic rang out. Sheng Sui straddled both sides, her arms around the man’s neck, slowly sitting down, her bright eyes blinking lightly: “Quickly, okay?”

Seeing how she had become increasingly good at being coquettish lately, Zhou Shiyu smiled deeply and moved up to her lips: “Listen to you, then let’s be quick.”

“……”

Soon, Sheng Sui learned another truth: men were naturally cunning creatures skilled at deception.

The so-called “quick” she clearly meant was shortening the time, but Zhou Shiyu deliberately misinterpreted it as increasing the frequency.

Hot water entered and was immediately displaced by the man. Sheng Sui’s skin flushed red, unable to distinguish which was hotter for a moment; she could only watch helplessly as water continuously splashed out of the pool amid countless sounds of impact.

Looking at the water all over the floor, she angrily bit Zhou Shiyu’s Adam’s apple, speaking intermittently: “…You, you see everywhere is wet, what a waste of water!”

Zhou Shiyu mercifully stopped, looking down at the “crime scene” beside the bathtub, then turned to look at Sheng Sui.

The man’s wanton gaze felt substantial. When Sheng Sui sensed something was wrong, she was lifted out, wrapped in a dry, thick towel, and steadily placed on the white porcelain platform beside the bathtub.

Zhou Shiyu looked up at her from below. As Sheng Sui’s face grew redder with heat, his distinctly jointed hand lightly touched her slightly parted pink lips, raising an eyebrow: “Mm, indeed everywhere is wet.”

“……”

Sheng Sui didn’t want to deal with this person. She closed her legs to get up but was easily caught and pulled back.

“The household is struggling financially, not a drop of water can be wasted.”

In certain aspects, Zhou Shiyu was always meticulous about every detail. He separated them again and lowered his head to drink water, still shamelessly reasoning with justification:

“Mrs. Zhou’s words are the highest orders, I dare not disobey.”

“……”

Who knew the final end would come when Sheng Sui needed to take her nighttime long-acting insulin.

During this time, Zhou Shiyu coaxed and deceived her, repeatedly tormenting her, but Sheng Sui also wouldn’t let him off easy. Only when biting did she become sharp-tongued, leaving tooth marks evenly distributed on the man’s lips, earlobes, and Adam’s apple.

Even so, when Sheng Sui was wrapped tightly and carried from the bathroom to the soft chair at the vanity table, she still looked very much like a ruffled cat with no intimidating power whatsoever.

Although pleasure was necessarily a matter for two people, always losing verbal battles still left her with a belly full of anger. She glared with red, wet, bright eyes as Zhou Shiyu brought over the insulin pen, disposable needles, and alcohol swabs.

“Good girl, it’s my fault, don’t be angry.”

Seeing her huffing appearance, the smile in Zhou Shiyu’s eyes deepened. He apologized without sincerity, stroking her head in reverse to smooth her fur:

“Especially don’t get angry over men, it’s not worth it.”

Thinking about it, Sheng Sui felt he was right. She puffed her cheeks and lowered her head to inject, nestled in the soft chair watching the man dispose of the equipment, then return with a hair towel to dry her hair and massage her scalp.

Because of the illness, Sheng Sui hadn’t slept well for several days. Zhou Shiyu had somehow learned massage techniques that were surprisingly skillful.

Sheng Sui squinted comfortably under his touch, catching sight of an open small suitcase on the floor beside the bed.

She asked curiously: “What’s this suitcase for?”

“For medicine.”

Zhou Shiyu’s hands didn’t stop moving as he patiently explained: “For a two-day, one-night trip, we need to bring backup insulin and insulation boxes. Besides backup test strips and needles, there are emergency injection medications in case of low blood sugar. To be safe, we should also bring a blood oxygen meter and blood pressure monitor.”

“……”

Accustomed to the man’s thoroughness, Sheng Sui, who had originally planned to bring only her current insulin pen, two needles, and a few alcohol swabs, was speechless. She asked again:

“What about your medicine? Should we put it in here too?”

As if her question instantly interrupted the cheerful atmosphere in the room, the massage pressure on her head suddenly stopped. Zhou Shiyu was silent for a few seconds: “No need, keeping them separate is fine.”

Once the man’s answer was out, Sheng Sui again felt the weak but clearly present sense of distrust that had repeatedly appeared these past few days.

To explain it in words, it was roughly: I can handle everything myself, no need to trouble you, so please don’t interfere.

Questions came to her lips several times only to roll back. As Sheng Sui struggled mentally, her stomach was obviously more honest and straightforward, gurgling twice to clearly express its demands.

A few seconds later, low laughter predictably came from above, followed by a falling shadow blocking the light.

Zhou Shiyu bent down to meet her eyes, smiling: “Hungry? What would you like to eat? Grilled squid, crawfish, grilled beef, or vegetable barbecue?”

It must have been too much exercise earlier—just hearing the names made Sheng Sui swallow saliva.

“Anything is fine with me.” She couldn’t say she wanted everything. In her choice difficulty, Sheng Sui decided to be symbolically modest and asked back:

“What do you think tastes best? We’ll eat whichever one?”

Zhou Shiyu frowned upon hearing this, not answering for a long time under Sheng Sui’s close observation, seemingly equally troubled by the difficult question before him.

Finally, the man clicked his tongue lightly, once again suppressing the roguish smile at the corner of his mouth. He looked directly into Sheng Sui’s watery eyes, speaking methodically word by word:

“What if I said I think you taste the best?”

“……”

Sheng Sui’s face, which had just calmed down, turned red again. She grabbed the pillow beside her and without hesitation threw it directly at someone who was full of suppressed laughter, finally unable to bear it:

“Zhou Shiyu, go eat something good for once!”