Their daily life didn’t change much because of love’s first blossom, because their affections had already pervaded their lives a long time ago; the only change was in how their faint smiles and gazes now had clear definitions — amorous messages that they delivered to each other silently. The reopening of college was at hand, which meant that they would need to part once again. Shi Yan urged and exhorted He Nuo over and over again to take care of his body, even w.a.n.g Feng asked his mother to continue providing care for his buddy.

When they weren’t home, He Nuo could eat at home first if he was hungry before going to the hospital; if he wasn’t too hungry he would get his infusion first before he ate. His parents asked if he wanted them to deliver some food to him, but of course, the He Nuo who wasn’t used to causing trouble for others rejected them. But He Nuo didn’t have to suffer from hunger either, his bags would always have snacks. And after his fourth bro knew that he had to get his injections, he gave him an extra five yuan too and told him to buy some biscuits if he got hungry. He Nuo hadn’t even gotten rid of the pile of food that Shi Yan had left behind for him, so he naturally saved the money up.

On the second sat.u.r.day after Shi Yan’s college reopened, He Nuo went straight to the hospital after his cla.s.ses ended. The nurse who did his injection for him went out, and the door opened again after a while. He Nuo thought the nurse had returned. When he looked up, Shi Yan was already walking over in huge strides. Had it not been for the needle on his hand, He Nuo would have thrown himself at Shi Yan; it had only been two weeks, but this period wasn’t the same as their previous partings. Every night before he went to bed, He Nuo had to experience the ordeal of his happiness — yearning. He has always had a cool personality, yet he would turn into a boiling stream of molten lava whenever he thought of Shi Yan.

Shi Yan looked like he had just endured the hardships of travel, he opened up his arms and brought the He Nuo who had leaned over into his embrace, then lowered his head to search for that piece of softness. Their lips and teeth intertwined; their hearts connected in between their gasping breaths as this kiss changed from an eager longing to a sentimentally sweet one. After Shi Yan’s yearning had been slightly comforted, he returned He Nuo one breath, yet he still couldn’t bear to part from him as he pecked his slightly moist lips that he had wiped the frost off from.

“You missed me ba.”

He Nuo smiled, but didn’t answer him. He only looked at Shi Yan with a face full of pleasant surprise. He Nuo thought that Shi Yan came back on a car that his parents had dispatched for him, or he had hitched a ride on one of his buddies’ family cars. But what made He Nuo shocked was that Shi Yan had returned by himself on a coach — he actually sat on a coach? When He Nuo was sent to the countryside a few years ago, he had sat on a coach so he knew what it was like. While he was happy, his heart also ached for Shi Yan who had to suffer such harsh conditions on his ride back.

On the other hand, Shi Yan merely laughed and didn’t mind the fatigue on his journey, “You’ll have to take me in today, or else I’ll have to wander the streets homeless.” Shi Yan didn’t tell his family that he had returned.

Shi Yan held He Nuo’s drip bottle for him as he went to the nurse’s station to borrow a phone. He told his family that his infusion would take a longer time today, so he’ll return a bit later and asked them not to worry. After he left the hospital, the two of them found a snack bar to have a meal — but the main reason was to kill some time. They wanted to wait for He Nuo’s family to rest, then it would be more convenient for Shi Yan to sneak in.

They carefully slipped into He Nuo’s room. All their washing up was done with the water that He Nuo brought inside — Shi Yan even used He Nuo’s toothbrush to brush his teeth in the room. The thought of coming back had struck him suddenly while he was in college, so he just upped and left — how could he have thought of bringing along all these miscellaneous items? After they were done washing their faces and feet, Shi Yan asked He Nuo to get some more hot water. He Nuo was about to ask why before he suddenly understood something, so he hurriedly left under Shi Yan’s teasing gaze. While Shi Yan was cleaning himself up, He Nuo pretended to tidy up. Just listening the sound of water splashing about made his heart beat faster and a red tide stain his cheeks.

After Shi Yan told him that he was done with a snicker, He Nuo lowered his head to fetch the water. With the pair of strong and muscular legs right in front of him, He Nuo didn’t even dare to look around too much before he turned around and ran away to pour the water out. He cleaned himself up in the toilet, because he couldn’t do so in front of Shi Yan. After he went back, Shi Yan had already slid underneath the blankets and was grinning happily as he waited for him.

He Nuo, who sat on his bedside to turn off the lamp, was thrown down by Shi Yan and turned over such that he was lying on the inner part of the bed — there wasn’t even a little bit of s.p.a.ce between these two young bodies.

“The fragrance of warm jade lay in my embrace¹.” Shi Yan buried his head in He Nuo’s neck as he muttered, then inhaled deeply, “Missed you to death. I really missed you to death.”

“Turn off the lights ba.” He Nuo was already feeling shy about what would happen next, but he found out that the body that was sticking close to him was already stark naked and clean. A hard object didn’t hold itself back from poking him below.

“You,” He Nuo had never gotten used to the member that entered deep into his body, and frankly speaking it didn’t feel very good. If it wasn’t because Shi Yan liked it so much, He Nuo really wanted to reject him.

“Do I have a powerful gun?”

He Nuo fixed his eyes on him: this person was really thick-skinned, he had always ignored all humility as he boasted and showed off that object of his.

As the saying goes, a short separation was better than being newly wedded. He didn’t know if they were considered newlyweds, but they did have a short separation of two weeks. On the one hand, it was their first time tasting the flavour of love sickness as hot-blooded youngsters who were bursting with vigour and vitality; while on the other hand, their yearning for each other has been acc.u.mulating day by day. Shi Yan still remembers that He Nuo had not yet completely healed, so even though he was blazing brightly, he didn’t dare to burn up his little Nuo who was like dry wood. The sparks produced by rubbing their dry heavenly stems together had to rely on slight drizzles and wind to water it too. Their hands provided the stimulation required time and again, pulling and insertion maintained a uniform speed as well as a constant frequency (but it took longer this time, it couldn’t be helped, you’ll need to suffer a loss if you wanted a gain) and after the exercise had altered their cardiopulmonary functions, Shi Yan sheathed his sword.

He Nuo knows what Shi Yan was capable of, and also knew that his person has a really greedy appet.i.te. Ever since he started his infusions, Shi Yan had never enjoyed intimacy between the two again, and he didn’t even get any a.s.sistance from He Nuo’s “hand”. If one counts the number of days since his college reopened, then a month would have already pa.s.sed. He really couldn’t believe that Shi Yan would be satisfied with just this one liberation tonight. After he finished the follow-up work, he hugged He Nuo again, “Sleep, I’ll get up early tomorrow morning to go and eat.”

“You’ve, had enough?”

Shi Yan didn’t understand what He Nuo meant, “What have I had enough of?”

He Nuo stuck to his chest and rested his head on Shi Yan’s shoulder out of habit. He couldn’t form a complete sentence to answer him.

“Un?” Shi Yan used his chin to nudge his head, “What is it?”

“That.” He Nuo stuttered, he felt like he was going to die of embarra.s.sment.

In this situation, Shi Yan pondered for a bit before he realised what he meant. He smirked, “You still want more? That wasn’t enough?”

“Of course not.” He Nuo was annoyed and his volume suddenly increased as well.

Shi Yan quickly kissed him and patted his back. He Nuo realised that he had almost alerted his younger brothers who were next door, so he was frightened into silence as well.

“I was just teasing you ma, I just need to take a look at you and I’ll know what you’re thinking.” Shi Yan said softly, “I’m afraid your hematuria will relapse, and I can’t bear that. But once you’ve recovered, hnghng.” He turned into an obscene devil from the Jura.s.sic Period as he laughed flirtatiously.

He Nuo turned around so that his back was facing Shi Yan and ignored his c.r.a.p. Shi Yan wrapped his arms around him like he was an octopus, “Babe?”

He Nuo got a huge start, “Disgusting! That’s so corny!”

Shi Yan couldn’t help himself from laughing aloud, “Then what should I call you? Sweetheart, turn around ma.”

He Nuo was covered in gooseb.u.mps. He patted away Shi Yan’s octopus claws, “I don’t want a name that has to do with our internal organs.”

A m.u.f.fled laughter came from his back, then Shi Yan stuck back onto him, “Nuonuo.”

He Nuo was about to oppose it. Everyone has always called him ‘He Nuo’ since he was a kid, so calling him Nuonuo made him feel extremely awkward.

“That’s it then, or else you’ll have to choose one from your five internal organs.” Shi Yan immediately made his final decision.

“Overbearing.”

“Nuonuo, Nuonuo.” Shi Yan was very pleased with himself as he repeated, then kissed He Nuo. Shi Yan had already thought of this name during their separation. When he thought of He Nuo all day and night, he recalled all the bits and pieces of their memories together after their first meeting and his heart would throb time and again. Within this world that could be either frigid or warm, most of his lover’s experiences were filled with a piercing cold, and he barely had any experiences filled with warmth.

Everyone has a nickname — this name expresses the love parents have for their children, and the intimacy that siblings share. A nickname — even if it may be something like ‘son of a b.i.t.c.h’ or ‘Zhaodi²‘ — it still symbolises the transmission of love in some aspects. Even if one doesn’t have a nickname, one would usually still be automatically derived from their name with a ‘xiao’ added as a prefix: Xiaoming, Xiaoqiang…, this was a kind of cordiality, and acceptance. But Shi Yan had never heard anyone address He Nuo aside from his original name, so it was easy to imagine what He Nuo was lacking in his already scarce life.

Nuonuo, this was the name that Shi Yan gave him from the bottom of his heart. It was a name that embodied his immense love for him. Shi Yan wanted to make up for all the things that He Nuo had missed out on from now onwards. He believes that one day, He Nuo would understand how deep the feeling of love was behind the name ‘Nuonuo’.

^{1. It’s some poetic quote from a novel, which talks about how it feels like to hug someone/something(?) that has a warm fragrance and feels like a gentle/mild jade (usually referring to the feeling of holding a woman in your arms)↩}

^{2. This is a name given to a girl whose family had given birth to a lot of sons because they want a son. Zhao = call/summon, di = younger brother, so it’s kinda like “GIMME A SON NEXT PLS” ugh which is kind of disturbing. But it happens↩}