My Chongxi Husband Is Faking His Coma novel · Chapter 20 of 24

Chapter 20: Page Two

By midnight the guests were gone, and the old house had gone silent.

The red lanterns burned down one by one in the courtyards.

Lin Zhi found his husband on a stone bench by the carp pond.

He wore a coat that was too big, with a blanket over his knees.

He sat down beside him, heavily.

Neither of them said anything for a while.

A fish rose in the dark water and went down again.

"I think I'm going to throw up," said Lin Zhi.

"Please don't. It's my grandmother's pond," said Zhaoran.

"I stood in front of three hundred people and said I loved you."

"I was there," said Zhaoran.

"I said it in a suit I rented."

"It suited you," said Zhaoran.

Lin Zhi put his head in his hands and laughed until it turned into something else.

Zhaoran did not say anything.

He put an arm around his shoulders, and waited, and was warm.

"I was so scared," said Lin Zhi, into his knees.

"For nine nights I was so scared, and I didn't tell anyone, because you can't tell a stranger that."

"I talked to you because you couldn't answer."

"I know," said Zhaoran.

"Then you answered, and I was ashamed."

"Why?" asked Zhaoran.

"Because I'd told you everything, and you hadn't told me anything. It wasn't fair."

Zhaoran was quiet.

"No," he said. "It wasn't."

He reached into the pocket of the too-big coat and took out a small black notebook with a pen clipped to the spine.

He held it out.

"What's this?"

"Page one."

Lin Zhi opened it.

The handwriting was bad, an unsteady scrawl that got better down the page, and every line began with the same phrase.

I would like.

Lin Zhi read the first line twice.

I would like to see the sea. I have never seen the sea.

"I said that," he said slowly.

"On the fourth night. You were describing your cousin's wedding," said Zhaoran.

"You said you'd never seen the sea, and you didn't think you ever would, because you couldn't swim."

"I can't," said Lin Zhi.

"I know. We'll find a shallow one."

Lin Zhi turned the page.

There were forty-one lines.

They were about a bed, and a plant, and a meal cooked for him by somebody who wanted nothing back.

He read down the whole list, with his mouth shut tight, and by the end he was not trying to hide it.

"You wrote down everything," he said.

"I listened to everything."

"Zhaoran, that's, they were just things I said."

"They were the only things anyone said to me in nineteen months that were not about money," said Zhaoran.

"I intend to pay for every line."

"You can't pay for a line," said Lin Zhi.

"Watch me."

Zhaoran stood.

It took him two tries, and a hand on the bench, but he did it on his own.

Then he bent and slid one arm under Lin Zhi's knees and the other behind his back and lifted him off the stone.

"Put me down!" said Lin Zhi.

"I'm repaying a carry," said Zhaoran.

"You're not strong enough!"

"I've been at it for a week."

He was shaking with effort, and he did not drop him.

He carried him the whole length of the garden, past the pond and the lanterns and the moon gate.

He crossed a dark courtyard and went up the steps to a door that stood open in the warm light.

← Chapter 19 · All chapters · Chapter 21 →

Want to keep talking to characters like these? Chat with AI romance characters: AI Boyfriend · AI Girlfriend · Dark Romance · Fantasy Romance · BL (Boys’ Love) · Billionaire Boyfriend · Mafia Boyfriend · Possessive Boyfriend · Hockey Boyfriend · Older Boyfriend · K-Drama Boyfriend · Anime Boyfriend · Vampire Boyfriend · Werewolf Boyfriend · Demon Boyfriend · Fae Romance · GL (Girls’ Love) · Anime Girlfriend · Goth & Alt Girlfriend · Gamer Girlfriend · Tsundere Girlfriend · Fantasy Girlfriend