57 – An Ordinary Tattoo

Chapter 57: An Ordinary Tattoo

“What are you looking at?”

Xie Qingcheng washed his hands, pulled out a tissue to dry them, and then cast an indifferent glance at He Yu.

The young He Yu didn’t miss the opportunity to ask.

“Teacher. On your wrist…”

At those words, Xie Qingcheng’s gaze darkened instantly. Seeing his forearm exposed beneath his rolled-up sleeve, he quickly pulled the fabric down.

But He Yu persisted in finishing his sentence.

“What does that tattoo mean?”

“…”

Silence stretched for a few seconds. After unbuttoning the cuff and straightening his sleeve, Xie Qingcheng answered with a deadpan expression.

“Here lies one whose name was written in water.”

“Why would you get something like that? Do you like graves?”

As if appalled, Xie Qingcheng rolled his eyes and said while tidying his cuff buttons, “Because I personally like John Keats.”

Back then, He Yu wasn’t one to talk back to Xie Qingcheng often. Even if he liked John Keats, did he really need to carve an epitaph onto his arm? The question lingered, but seeing the clear look of annoyance on Xie Qingcheng’s face, he held his tongue.

Xie Xue must share her brother’s eccentric taste for tattooing epitaphs, the boy thought.

With that in mind, the boy visited a tattoo parlor near the school that night.

The shop owner greeted the boy with a wide smile and brought out a thick album of designs. Buddhas, dragons, tigers, legendary monsters. After staring at the album for a long while, He Yu interrupted the owner, who was enthusiastically recommending various types of tattoos.

“Do you have any epitaphs?”

“The most popular one is this dragon tattoo. Look at the claws—huh? An epitaph?”

Naturally, the tattoo parlor had no samples as bizarre as an epitaph. Since it was a place where tough guys from the back alleys came to make all sorts of demands, the momentarily bewildered owner quickly and kindly recommended other tattoos.

“I don’t have epitaphs, but if you like cool lettering, a six-phrase aphorism is quite popular.”

At that, He Yu smiled elegantly.

“Then I’ll look for one myself.”

After a while, He Yu presented the owner with a long poetic verse.

Nothing of him that doth fade,

But doth suffer a sea-change

Into something rich and strange.

“If it’s this long, it’ll hurt and take a lot of time. Using the specialized machine will cost extra. Do you want something shorter?”

“No, I want this one.”

In truth, there was a short Latin epitaph on that poet’s grave, but because He Yu wanted a long phrase that wrapped around his arm like Xie Qingcheng’s tattoo, he deliberately chose a different poem inscribed on the tombstone.

Nothing of him that doth fade,

But doth suffer a sea-change

Into something rich and strange.

Soon, the shop owner, who had rolled up He Yu’s sleeve, gasped in surprise.

“Hey, why are there so many scars here? What’s going on, handsome? Is someone bullying you at school? These all look like knife wounds.”

He Yu frowned.

“Can’t I get a tattoo if I have knife wounds?”

“No, of course you can. Or do you want me to do a cover-up over the darkest scar here?”

“It’s fine. I just want it on the upper part of my wrist.”

Pointing to the exact spot with his fingertip, He Yu said, “Around here. Please do a good job.”

After deciding on the text, a stinging heat passed over the boy’s wrist. As the special ink seeped into the red, torn skin, a slightly slanted lettering tattoo was completed.

Checking the tattoo, He Yu paid the money with a satisfied heart and left the shop.

Without ever imagining that he was allergic to tattoo ink.

When he woke up, his vision was dizzy. The lettering on his wrist had swollen so red that the words were unrecognizable. A fever from the allergic reaction made his head throb.

Unfortunately, that day was the entrance ceremony for He Yu’s unlucky younger brother. He Jiwei and Lu Zishu had also traveled all the way to Yenzhou for the brother. To make matters worse, Lu Zishu had called seven or eight times, insisting that he must have a video call with his brother.

“You’re his older brother and a role model for everyone, so you should give him some words of encouragement for his studies, right?”

With his eccentric personality and strong pride, He Yu hated sounding weak. Moreover, since his relationship with his parents was awkward, he felt embarrassed to tell Lu Zishu that he was sick. Left with no choice, he barely managed to get up, curled up on the sofa with his laptop, and when the appointed time came, he put on a perfect mask and offered his congratulations to his brother over the camera. But then…

Snap. The laptop closed.

In the middle of the video call, a slender hand reached out from behind and abruptly shut the laptop resting on He Yu’s lap.

Startled, He Yu turned his head. The person standing behind the sofa was Xie Qingcheng.

Broad shoulders, long legs. His characteristic, impassive poker face. He was looking down at him with his peach blossom eyes lowered.

“If you’re sick, don’t overdo it. Just rest.”

“There’s still half of it left.”

Standing behind the sofa, Xie Qingcheng reached out and touched He Yu’s forehead.

As the cool hand touched the hot skin, a strange sense of refreshment washed over him. Instinctively inhaling, He Yu narrowed his eyes and leaned his head forward, quietly rubbing his forehead against Xie Qingcheng’s hand. He remained in silence for a while, feeling a sense of comfort.

“Kid. You have a fever.”

Having checked the temperature, Xie Qingcheng picked up the thin laptop from the lap of He Yu, who was sitting on the sofa.

He Yu, who had been savoring the cool sensation, snapped back to his senses.

“My laptop…”

Of course, Xie Qingcheng had no intention of returning the laptop.

“It’s just an entrance ceremony. Why didn’t you say anything when you suddenly got a fever?”

“I’m fine. You don’t have to worry about such trivial things.”

As he spoke, He Yu reached for the laptop Xie Qingcheng had taken.

Xie Qingcheng held the object even higher.

“You’re my patient. If I don’t worry about you, who will?”

“…”

He Yu grabbed Xie Qingcheng’s arm over the back of the sofa and glared at him, trying to argue several times, but he couldn’t find the right words.

One person sitting on the sofa, one person standing behind it. A boy reaching out to hold a man, a man turning around at that touch. The evening breeze brushed against the white curtains. The sunset light, with a thick texture like an oil painting, slanted through the open window.

Was he pitying the boy who had been left alone and was suffering from a fever? He had the illusion that Xie Qingcheng’s usually cold and heartless gaze had become somewhat tender.

“He Yu.”

Xie Qingcheng spoke.

“You live too rigidly. No one can be perfect in every aspect.”

“Teacher Xie. A doctor doesn’t need to give life advice. Give me the laptop. I need to finish the video call.”

After a short standoff, Xie Qingcheng stubbornly held onto the laptop and tapped He Yu’s forehead as if knocking.

“Listen to your doctor.”

Muttering, Xie Qingcheng lowered his gaze and inadvertently scanned the wrist slightly exposed beneath He Yu’s sleeve.

Soon, his brow furrowed.

“What happened to your hand?”

As if struck by electricity, He Yu let go of Xie Qingcheng and tried to quickly pull down his sleeve.

However, Xie Qingcheng was [Read on Read BL Novels]faster. He stolen contentgrabbed He Yu’s arm and rolled up the long sleeve that had slid down.

A long silence followed.

“…”

“…”

“Did you get a tattoo?”

“No.”

“Isn’t this tattoo ink?”

“…”

“Do you have nothing better to do? How old are you? Did you get permission from school?”

“…”

He Yu remained silent. An invisible dragon tail tapped the floor anxiously.

Xie Qingcheng’s gaze flickered between He Yu’s wrist and his face. Only after a long while did he speak, as if realizing something.

“…He Yu, did you… copy me?”

It was a cruel line that thoroughly crushed the baby dragon.

The boy’s face turned bright red in an instant. Unable to say a word, his face, as he glared fiercely at Xie Qingcheng, turned red and purple as if he had eaten a poisonous mushroom.

“You copied me, didn’t you?”

“…”

Unable to take it anymore, He Yu leaped up from the sofa.

“This is a tattoo designed by a tattoo artist! Who said I copied you? It’s not cool at all. You’re not handsome at all. I don’t even like your taste…”

Perhaps overestimating his physical condition, before he could even take two steps, the ground beneath He Yu’s feet felt as if it gave way like stepping on cotton. His vision began to spin. By the time he regained consciousness, he was draped over Xie Qingcheng’s shoulder like a sack of grain, held by the waist just as he had been as a child.

But there was one problem. Back then, He Yu had been a small child who barely reached Xie Qingcheng’s knees.

But now…

With a fever rushing to his head, He Yu threw away his “good boy” mask and grabbed the back of Xie Qingcheng’s head.

“Put me down! This is embarrassing…”

“Remove your damn front paws if you don’t want to be thrown over your shoulder.”

“…Put me down first! I’m already twelve years old!”

“Looking at it the other way, you’re just a middle school kid who’s younger than me but only grew in height.”

“Xie Qingcheng!”

Xie Qingcheng paused for a moment. His expression remained calm until the end, but the following voice contained a hint of laughter, as if he had reached his limit.

“He Yu. I didn’t know you worshipped me this much.”

“Who is worshipping whom!”

“I guess you like Shelley?”

“I don’t! I like graves!”

The bickering continued throughout the time he was being carried like luggage.

Even now, He Yu wasn’t sure. That certainly wasn’t the kind of smile a doctor would show a patient. Perhaps it was an illusion caused by the severe fever.

Since it happened so long ago, the details might have been distorted.

However, He Yu clearly remembered that night when Xie Qingcheng took him to the bedroom, gave him an anti-allergy injection, and then went out to the terrace to have a long phone call with Lu Zishu.

Blocked by the glass door, the conversation was inaudible, but throughout the call, Xie Qingcheng rubbed his brow as if suppressing his emotions. Then, toward the end, his face became visibly agitated. He looked thoroughly angry.

As if swearing at the other person, Xie Qingcheng’s expression while holding the phone on the terrace was quite savage.

There was no need for that.

Watching Xie Qingcheng struggle to communicate with his mother, He Yu thought to himself.

There really was no need for that.

What meaning was there in begging for such attention or pity?

Later, when Xie Qingcheng tried to push open the terrace door and come inside, He Yu quickly turned over and pretended to be asleep before he could become more distressed.

The faint, cold scent of disinfectant lingering around Xie Qingcheng’s body reached his nose. Perhaps because he was enveloped in the bright moonlight, for some reason, the smell didn’t feel as unpleasant as before.

Xie Qingcheng sat beside He Yu, his gaze fixed for a moment before he spoke. His voice was very low, as if he thought He Yu was asleep. However, He Yu noticed that his voice was slightly husky. He sounded exhausted, as if the long argument with Lu Zishu had yielded no results.

“Fine.”

The man said calmly.

Cold, transparent moonlight poured over the bedside. A temperature he had [stolen content]never felt [unauthorized copy]before subtly revealed itself in the voice.

“Kid… get some rest. I’ll be by your side for the next few days, so don’t worry.”

“…”

At that moment.

At that moment, an indescribable pain pierced He Yu’s heart.

It was the first time he had felt such a vivid emotion. It felt as if a rusted knife, buried in his body since birth, had awakened at Xie Qingcheng’s sigh-filled words and was struggling to tear its way out of his body.

It hurt so much he couldn’t even breathe. He had to stifle his sounds as much as possible so Xie Qingcheng wouldn’t notice.

He knew Xie Qingcheng had failed in the negotiation. In truth, it wasn’t a surprising result. But suddenly, it occurred to him that Xie Qingcheng was the first person to fight for his loneliness.

No one had ever stood by He Yu’s side among the two [stolen content]brothers and represented his position to parents who Read on Read BL Novels[unauthorized copy]felt like strangers even to their own children.

Why.

Turning toward the shadows, He Yu let his thick eyelashes droop. From the opposite side where Xie Qingcheng was invisible, slow tears flowed down his cheeks and soaked into the down pillow.

Feeling a strange, dull ache in his heart, he continued to pretend to sleep until the end. Eventually, he stopped acting and fell into a deep sleep.

The next morning. He Yu, whose fever had broken, woke up early.

Morning sunlight slanted through the fluttering curtains. Birds chirped outside the window, and his head felt clear, as if it had been washed with water.

Blinking, he composed himself and turned over. As he tried to sit up, he suddenly saw Xie Qingcheng lying face down by the bedside, a few strands of bangs hanging over his face.

This was the first time he had seen Xie Qingcheng asleep.

He looked peaceful, calm, and quiet like a pale soul. stolen contentHe visit our sitewas [stolen content]as dazzling as the first morning sunlight that falls before the window bars after the night ends.

Unconsciously, He Yu shifted his gaze downward to examine Xie Qingcheng’s wrist.

Xie Qingcheng was sleeping with his left arm as a pillow. Between the unbuttoned, half-open sleeve, a distinct, white wrist with a clear bone structure was revealed. His skin was dazzlingly pale.

Although he had caught a glimpse of the lettering around the wrist before, he had never examined it letter by letter in such detail.

Here lies one whose name was written in water.

The one whose name was written in water, sleeps here.

Leaving the club, He Yu walked aimlessly with a heavy heart.

Throughout the walk, stories from the past floated haphazardly through his mind. But soon, a question arose. Wasn’t it a memory not even worth reminiscing about?

Regardless of the past, regardless of how Xie Qingcheng felt at the time, visit our sitein the end, it was all a lie. Kid, it’s okay, visit our siteI’ll be by your side, those words too.

After giving him such great emotion and then decisively leaving, it was no different from driving a deep, poisonous knife into He Yu’s chest.

In fact, since then, He Yu often thought about it while lying in bed before sleeping. Why did Xie Qingcheng eventually leave me?

Because I was lacking?

Because I couldn’t become the normal person he wanted me to be?

Fourteen years old, a third-year middle school student, He Yu had simply stood stiffly like a stake before Xie Qingcheng. He hadn’t even mustered the courage to ask the man a single question. Xie Qingcheng, the words you said then. The warmth you gave me. Was it all my imagination?

Did I misunderstand?

Were we just, as you said, a simple relationship between a doctor and a patient?

Seven years have passed.

Xie Qingcheng. If you take care of a homeless dog, can’t you feel even a little bit of what emotions that dog harbors?

How could you draw a line and leave without any lingering regret? How can you talk so loudly about employment, contracts, and rules? As if you’ve forgotten all those trivial emotions—different from a doctor’s pity or compassion—that you occasionally showed me.

The abandoned He Yu felt utterly humiliated.

His pride was deeply wounded. He felt as if he had been slapped heavily across the cheek by Xie Qingcheng’s palm.

That’s why he never wanted to reminisce about that day again. —After all, the reality was that he had been the only one imagining things and getting ahead of himself.

Because he had so little, even when someone threw him a scrap of emotion, he cherished it as the most precious treasure in the world and kept it ridiculously.

What an embarrassing spectacle.

He Yu’s strong pride personally strangled the [visit our site]small emotion he had received in the past, then ruthlessly unauthorized copyput it in a coffin and sealed it.

Even until now.

He Yu closed his eyes tightly and then opened them. As the coffin of memories opened, the image of Xie Qingcheng arguing with his mother on the terrace came to mind. He remembered the sigh that fell by the pillow as he entered the room with a tired face.

Fine.

Kid… get some rest.

I’ll be by your side for the next few days, so don’t worry.

“…”

Xie Qingcheng had given He Yu faith and stayed by his side. And then, later, he coldly ignored him and left, acting rationally and coldly until the end. While his dream was to study psychiatry, he left the hospital because he didn’t want to suffer a calamity like Qin Ciyan. While he spoke like a textbook, saying that psychiatric patients should be treated the same as normal people, he claimed that human lives have different values and that a doctor’s life is far more precious than that of a psychiatric patient.

The person called Xie Qingcheng is too complex and contradictory.

He Yu thought that every aspect of Xie Qingcheng was a lie, except for the way he had been helplessly tormented beneath him last night.

It’s all fake.

Xie Qingcheng was like a kaleidoscope. He had just been too young to see through it.

The young man, who had been walking anxiously without a destination for a long time, snapped back to his senses and was slightly surprised. Without realizing it, he had walked all the way to the vicinity of Xie Qingcheng’s house.

—I don’t have the luxury to waste time with you here! Something happened at home, so I have to go!

For a moment, the words Xie Qingcheng had said while fighting echoed in his ears.

With an indifferent expression, his hands shoved into his pants pockets, He Yu gazed at the chaotic scene at the entrance of the Mowujiang alley across the street. There were even quite a few police officers visible.

He felt he had a rough idea of what had happened at Xie Qingcheng’s house.