Antidote - - - Chapter 15

Chapter 15

Jiang Yuduo has experienced countless sleepless nights, in which he basically looks at the darkness alone, while sitting or lying down. He sometimes would also call up some buddies to find a place to drink.

Although that’s rare, insomnia is not only as simple as being unable to sleep, but also experiencing all types of pain, fatigueness, headaches, numbness and pain all over the body. Which is why being alone when encountering insomnia is the best way.

He has never experienced sitting and talking with someone at his house on this sleepless night.

Moreover, this is a person who is completely different from him, a person whose origin is unknown.

He feels that he can believe him sometimes, but is also suspicious of him too :Trash Master.

What is there to talk about?

Can’t really think of a topic.

“Is there any wine?” Cheng Ke asked.

“What kind would you like to drink?” Jiang Yuduo asked.

“You only have one glass,” Cheng Ke said. “In this case, can the wine still be picked?”

Jiang Yuduo didn’t speak. He walked to the cabinet by the window with a cigarette in his mouth, opened the cabinet door, and looked back at him: “Come and pick.”

Cheng Ke was stunned. He got up and walked to the cabinet, looking at the various wines lined up like a wall, unable to mutter a single word.

“I use that glass for everything,” Jiang Yuduo leaned against the wall, “I drink wine, not the glass.”

“Oh.” Cheng Ke nodded.

“But there isn’t any good wine,” Jiang Yuduo said, “all of them are brought by my underlings during the holidays.”

“I don’t have any knowledge on wine.. I can’t even tell it if it’s good or not.” Cheng Ke looked at a white porcelain bottle with nothing stuck on it’s glass through the faint light coming through the curtain. The bottle looked old.. He took it down curiously, “What is this? Can I turn on the light?”

“Have you finished crying?” Jiang Yuduo asked.

Cheng Ke didn’t speak, as he thought about wanting to hit Jiang Yuduo with the bottle into amnesia.

Jiang Yuduo turned on the light, and the room lit up suddenly.

Cheng Ke can see clearly that the bottle in his hand was indeed an ordinary white porcelain bottle, with a small piece of cotton cloth tied to the seal, which has become gray.

He smelled it, then turned to look at Jiang Yuduo: “This will do, it smells very…”

He didn’t feel anything before, but now as he turned his head and saw Jiang Yuduo, who was wearing only a pair of underwear under the bright light. He suddenly didn’t know where to look.

“Let’s just…turn off the lights,” he said.

“You playing with me?” Jiang Yuduo looked at him.

“Please just put on some clothes,” Cheng Ke said. “Aren’t you cold?”

“Nope,” Jiang Yuduo slowly walked over and turned off the light, “I have no problem washing in cold water these days.”

After the light was off, Cheng Ke relaxed for a bit, and put the wine on the table: “Is this wine fermentated by yourself?

“Chen Qing brought it,” Jiang Yuduo went to the kitchen and took out two bowls.

“When his mother was pregnant, his father wanted a girl, and when it is confirmed, he buried the wine and said that when she turns 18, he would dig it out to drink.

Cheng Ke smiled: “That’s not bad, the wine has been buried for more than ten years.”

“No,when a guy is borned instead, the wine was dug out on the same day,” Jiang Yuduo took out a sealed box from the refrigerator, “It was placed in the kitchen alongside with a jar of pickles, but It’s also been more than ten years.”

“Have you drank it before?” Cheng Ke asked.

“Yeah, both of us drank it when we brought it over last month.” Jiang Yuduo opened the bottle, filled two bowls, and pushed one to Cheng Ke.

“How is it?” Cheng Ke leaned over and smelled it, which was very fragrant.

“After more than ten years,” Jiang Yuduo said, “Even a bottle of horse urine will smell nice.”

Cheng Ke glanced at him and sensed that his temper is good right now, and he was not unhappy.

Jiang Yuduo opened the sealed box and pushed it in front of him: “Smell this.”

Cheng Ke sniffed: “Dried beef?”

“Mhm,” Jiang Yuduo nodded, “What do you think?”

“It’s good.” Cheng Ke grabbed a piece without thinking and put it directly into his mouth, chewing hard twice.

From noon until now, he only ate a piece of cake.Just as he thought that he had endured the starviness, when he chewed the beef, he realized that he was probably starving so bad to the point where he couldn’t sleep.

The stomach screamed with tears.

Jiang Yuduo, who was holding another bowl of wine in front of him, stopped suddenly.

“What’s wrong?” Cheng Ke was a little embarrassed.

“I heard the sound.” Jiang Yuduo said softly.

He couldn’t see his expression in the darkness, but Cheng Ke could sense the alertness on his face when he listened to him.

“My,” Cheng Ke cleared his throat, “My stomach growled…”

Before he finished speaking, his stomach growled again as if to corroborate his words, and he suddenly wanted to lie down on the table in embarrassment.

“You…” Jiang Yuduo was relieved at first, and then a little surprised, “Even if it has gone bad, you couldn’t have a stomach ache right after eating it, right?”

“I’m hungry.” Cheng Ke said.

“Fuck sake, you should just say it if you’re hungry to this extent,” Jiang Yuduo took the phone. “If you want to eat, I will ask someone to bring it. But if you want to eat high-end young master-like supper, it might be a bit difficult. We only have barbecues at this hour.”

Cheng Ke didn’t speak. The situation where a face is suddenly lit up in the darkness should have been scary, but not knowing why, Jiang Yuduo’s not so astonishingly handsome face, can actually resist the pale light shining from the button of his face.

Just as Jiang Yuduo began to dial, he recovered, and quickly reached out his hand and covered the screen: “No! Beef jerky is enough!”

“There’s no need?” Jiang Yuduo looked at him.

“It’s not necessary. By the time they bring it here, I will be full with beef jerky.”

Cheng Ke is glad that he is not just temporarily polite at this moment, as he has a good reason.

“All right.” Jiang Yuduo put the phone aside, picked up the bowl and clacked the bowl in front of him, taking a sip of wine.

Cheng Ke doesn’t care about his image anymore, he only stopped after chewing four pieces of beef jerky to take a gulp of his wine..

The wine was indeed good, and it slid into his stomach warmly. He leaned back on the chair and let out a sigh of relief.

Jiang Yuduo sat opposite him, holding a piece of beef jerky and slowly tearing it apart.

Because he couldn’t see his expression clearly, couldn’t meet gaze with his eyes, and he couldn’t bear to see Jiang Yuduo’s body with only a pair of underwear.

Cheng Ke didn’t feel any discomfort for being silent like this.

Jiang Yuduo tore up a piece of beef jerky, and after drinking half a bowl of wine, he asked: “Aren’t we going to chat? What are we gonna talk about?”

Yeah, what are we talking about?

Cheng Ke originally thought that there should be a lot of things he wanted to say, and no matter what he said to someone who was unfamiliar and impossible to come into contact with before, he would feel a sense of presumptuous security.

He was going to just talk and say whatever he thinks of, but when Jiang Yuduo suddenly asked him like that, as if he was ready to start, he didn’t know how to speak.

“Do you have anything you want to talk about?” he asked.

“It’s you who want to chat in the middle of the night, and now you’re asking me?”

Jiang Yuduo said, “but I can talk if you want.”

“Yeah.” Cheng Ke looked at him, only to see the faint light on the bridge of his nose, which was straight.

“I really want to talk about,” Jiang Yuduo took a sip of wine and leaned forward on the table, “what are you doing here?”

This sentence again.

Cheng Ke didn’t even want to sigh in anger: “What do you think I’m here for?”

“Who did you just see?” Jiang Yuduo was still lying on the table, his low voice with a hoarseness that put people in a trance.

To be honest, Jiang Yuduo’s voice is pretty good. If it weren’t for his current topic, Cheng Ke would like to praise it.

“Just now?” Cheng Ke asked.

“You were standing across the street,” Jiang Yuduo said, “Who is the person you just saw?”

“The person that I saw?” Cheng Ke suddenly felt horrified, and his back was suddenly chilled. He couldn’t help but scratch his hands on his back twice.

“Don’t even think about pretending,” Jiang Yuduo said, “I’ve been watching you in the house.”

“I didn’t see anything, what do you mean by people on the street?” Cheng Ke was persistent..

Jiang Yuduo didn’t say a word. He stood up after a while, turned on the light in the living room, turned around and walked to his side, bending over and stared at his face.

This scene is so bizarre that Cheng Ke had to stretch out his hand to push Jiang Yuduo’s shoulder away: “I really didn’t see anyone. Now I feel a little scared when you say that.”

“Scared my ass, If i were to say that you are my friend. No one would dare to touch you.” Jiang Yuduo stood up straight, turned off the light and sat back across the table, “Do you want to get your watch back?”

“…No,” Cheng Ke was stunned, then sighed, “If you didn’t tell me that, I would have forgotten about it.”

“Hmm.” Jiang Yuduo replied, “You can’t take it back, I won’t give it to you.”

“You take it.” Cheng Ke took a sip of wine.

Disappointment.

It’s just a watch, and it’s not commemorative. If it’s worth three hundred thousand dollars, he might still consider it.

His disappointment came from Jiang Yuduo’s sentence “I really want to say that you are my friend”.

Jiang Yuduo did not regard him as a friend.

Of course, it’s no surprise that he didn’t regard him as a friend. He himself has always only defined Jiang Yuduo as a “landlord”, someone he didn’t know very well.

But he doesn’t know why he’s still a bit disappointed.

Perhaps his friends came too easily. According to the past, his relationship with Jiang Yuduo could already be called “friends”.

Or maybe it was because his friends left too easily, and then they were all gone. He was a little uncomfortable with his empty life right now, and wanted to catch any

“friend”.

“I thought…” Cheng Ke still couldn’t hold back his words, but he stopped immediately after speaking. When did he get to the point where he needed to be depressed about such a thing?

It’s just Jiang Yuduo, does it matter that they are friends? He had never been friends with such a person before, even the most hypocritical kind of friend.

“I don’t make friends casually,” Jiang Yuduo said. “Us on the streets are different from you young masters. Friends over here…”

Jiang Yuduo poked on the desktop: “Are very important.”

“I can’t relate,” Cheng Ke said, “I have no friends.”

He took a sip of wine, took a piece of beef jerky and slowly gnawed two bites. He had to admit that he admired Jiang Yuduo’s sharpness.

Although this sharpness is often used in weird situations.

“It’s nothing strange to have no friends,” Jiang Yuduo said. “According to my standards, it is not easy to have a few friends in this lifespan.”

“Like you and Chen Qing?” Cheng Ke asked.

“He is an idiot,” Jiang Yuduo said, “I want to kill him every day.”

Cheng Ke laughed. That’s a friend.

“Actually, Xu Ding, the one who ate with you that day.” Jiang Yuduo helped him fill the bowl of wine. “Is he counted as your friend?”

“I didn’t know him before,” Cheng Ke said, “I never ate with him alone outside of cooperation.”

“Oh,” Jiang Yuduo nodded, leaning on the back of the chair and swaying gently,

“What is your ‘before’ like?”

“…I don’t know how to say it,” Cheng Ke took a sip of wine and smiled bitterly. “Just figure out why I call you all day long.”

“You won’t know if you have never done any housework. There are many people like this,” Jiang Yuduo said. “It’s not just you.”

“It’s not the same.” Cheng Ke took out the squashed cigarette case from his pocket and lit one up, “I don’t even know what I should do next.”

“Next?” Jiang Yuduo took the bowl and knocked on his bowl. “Drink and eat meat.”

“I’ve grown up, so I’m just messing around. I haven’t thought about what I should do or what I want to do,” Cheng Ke smiled and lightly flicked his finger on the bowl: “I was driven out of the house by my dad.”

Jiang Yuduo’s drinking action paused, then drank two sips and leaned back in his chair: “I thought you were driven out of the house by your brother.”

Cheng Ke didn’t say a word, picked up the bowl towards Jiang Yuduo, raised his head and drank half of the bowl.

“Zhong Jie said you are an artist,” Jiang Yuduo said, “What kind of art do you do?”

“…Do you really believe what he said?” Cheng Ke laughed.

“Usually he exaggerates it, but won’t make up too many stories. You still have something to make him exaggerate,” Jiang Yuduo said, “What is it?”

Cheng Ke sighed: “He asked me what I did. I couldn’t say that I was unemployed, so I just said sand painting.”

“What is sand painting?” Jiang Yuduo asked.

“Drawing something with sand,” Cheng Ke gestured on the table, and explained with Jiang Yuduo with more understandable words, “Just…sprinkle a few handfuls of sand and draw with your hands and fingers.”

“Oh.” Jiang Yuduo stared at him with a cigarette in his mouth.

After staring for a while, Jiang Yuduo stood up, turned and went into the kitchen.

Cheng Ke pinched his cigarette, took a sip of wine, leaned back in his chair and raised his head.

This wine is pretty good. He would definitely be uncomfortable now if he had to drink it twice in a row, but now he has no other discomfort except a little dizzy.

When he looked up, the feeling of floating in the air and the slight shaking made him feel relaxed and peaceful.

Jiang Yuduo came out of the kitchen again and threw a bag on the table.

Cheng Ke squeezed his eyebrows, trying to see what he was taking out again, but in the weak light, he realized that the bag that was thrown on the table was unopened, and it looked like…

“Draw one for me.” Jiang Yuduo said.

“Draw what?” Cheng Ke was stunned.

“Sand paintings,” Jiang Yuduo pointed to the bag, “this is salt.”

“…You let me paint sand paintings with salt?” Cheng Ke stretched out his hand and squeezed it through the bag. It was really salt, a big grain of sea salt.

“Isn’t it the same as sand?” Jiang Yuduo said.

“The kind painted with salt is called salt painting,” Cheng Ke tried to explain, “the two are different, and your salt particles are bigger…”

Jiang Yuduo said nothing, turned around and went into the kitchen again.

Cheng Ke sighed on the table, “Jiang Yuduo…No, third brother, can you not torture me?”

When Jiang Yuduo came out of the kitchen again, he threw three more bags of salt on the table, right in front of his nose.

Cheng Ke stretched out his hand and squeezed, this time it was fine salt.

“Why do you buy so much salt?” he asked helplessly.

“Waiting for a sand painting artist to paint for me someday.” Jiang Yuduo sat down.

“Another time,” Cheng Ke said, “I don’t want to paint now, I’m a little dizzy.”

“No,” Jiang Yuduo replied simply, “Do it now.”

“Why?” Cheng Ke looked up at him, but couldn’t see the expression on his face.

“Just because,” Jiang Yuduo tapped twice on the table, “I don’t believe it.”

“Huh?” Cheng Ke still looked at him.

“Don’t make up nonsense to fool me, paint now,” Jiang Yuduo’s voice was a little cold, “Don’t think of leaving from this door if you can’t paint, don’t even think about going out if you don’t paint.”

Cheng Ke was no longer shocked by Jiang Yuduo’s hot and cold attitude, and his mind was a little dizzy at the moment, he was just unhappy.

It’s not that Jiang Yuduo forced him to paint sand paintings in the middle of the night without even the basic courtesy, but Jiang Yuduo didn’t believe he could paint sand paintings.

Although the family didn’t bother, they thought he was just playing with this stuff and had no level of skill, but he knew where his level was, otherwise Xu Ding would not ask Liu Tiancheng to invite him.

This was the only bright spot in his wasteful life, the only bright spot that prevented him from finally falling into a worthless waste, even if he himself had never taken it seriously.

“Turn on the light.” Cheng Ke stood up and touched the table, which was quite smooth.

Jiang Yuduo got up and turned on the light.

The sudden lighting made Cheng Ke feel confused for a moment. Before this matter was put aside, he just laughed. Even if he’s useless, he will not be angry because of a man who couldn’t hit eight or sixty-four poles’s denial.

Maybe it’s because of the two drinks today.

He glanced at Jiang Yuduo, “Put on clothes.”

“You can just paint, why do you care whether I wear clothes or not?” Jiang Yuduo stood still, wringing his eyebrows.

“This is the minimum respect,” Cheng Ke put his arms on the table, seeing that he was still standing still, raised his voice and shouted again, “Are you gonna fucking wear it or not!”

“Fuck!” Jiang Yuduo was taken aback by the roar of his coming out, pointing at him to stare for a long time before turning into the bedroom, “If i put it on and you can’t draw it, I will take off my pants immediately and fuck you!”

“What if I draw it?” Cheng Ke felt that through the drunkness, he didn’t care about Jiang Yuduo’s habit.. He slowly picked up a bag of salt and tore it open, and squeezed it a bit. He took some out and rubbed his fingertips.

“You are exempt from three months’ rent.” Jiang Yuduo said in the bedroom.

“I don’t lack any money.” Cheng Ke put everything on the table on the coffee table.

The table is black glass, which is quite suitable.

“Quite an attitude.” Jiang Yuduo said.

“Nonsense, you’re gonna fuck me if I can’t draw it,” Cheng Ke said, “And I will be free of three months’ rent if I draw it? Isn’t it too unfair?”

“All right,” Jiang Yuduo slowly walked out wearing a pair of sweatpants, “Since you want to fuck me so badly, then go ahead.”

Cheng Ke smiled and said nothing.

He actually didn’t need any bets, especially this kind of stupid bet that he and Liu Tiancheng could suggets two hundred and fifty kinds in one night.

“What do you want me to draw?” Cheng Ke grabbed a handful of salt from the salt bag and sprinkled it lightly on the table. The black table was soon evenly covered with a layer of white.

“Me.” Jiang Yuduo knew from Cheng Ke’s action of spreading salt that he was not lying.

For Cheng Ke’s uselessness in housework, even pouring the water will make people think whether he used the wrong hand, but these few salt-spreading actions are skilled and cool. This smoothness can be seen at a glance, even for someone that doesn’t know how to do sand painting, he has at least three years of experience in this.

“You?” Cheng Ke looked up at him.

“What’s wrong,” Jiang Yuduo also looked at him, “Can’t draw my complicated handsomeness?”

“I will draw a cat first, I haven’t touched any for more than a month,” Cheng Ke lowered his head and tapped a finger on the salt spread on the table, and then drew an arc around his finger. “The hand is a little bit stiff.”

“Ok.” Jiang Yuduo replied, staring at his fingertips.

After the first arc, Cheng Ke paused for a while, followed by the second and the third. Jiang Yuduo was a little surprised to find that after a few strokes of his finger, he could already see that it was a cat.

Cheng Ke pinched some salt with his fingers again and twisted it gently on the cat’s head, and a small dot appeared in the middle of a circle. He didn’t even see how the salt fell from Cheng Ke’s fingertips.

The next “process” can’t be called a process for him, because he can’t see quite clearly. The only thing he can see is that Cheng Ke pinches salt from the salt bag, and the blank space where his fingertips are erased. Or a white line passing by.

Cat’s appearance was revealed under Cheng Ke’s fingertips little by little. Although it’s only black and white and the lines are simplistic, the cat looks very similar. He can’t tell why, but he can recognize it at a glance. It’s exactly just like a cat.

Cheng Ke clapped his hands once after finishing the last stroke of the cat whisker and looked up at him: “Is this counted as good?”

“Yeah.” Jiang Yuduo nodded.

“All right,” Cheng Ke lit a cigarette and spit out a puff of cigarette, “Should I fuck you now?”

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