The Early Spring - Chapter 64

Chapter 64 - Wishing Your Luke a Thriving Growth 

Had Shang Zhitao undergone a sudden personality shift? When it was time to clock out, Luan Nian sent Shang Zhitao a message: "Come up to my car and grab your things."

"Oh."

Shang Zhitao got into the car, but Luan Nian showed no intention of handing her anything. He drove straight to her apartment building.

"Then thank you so much." Shang Zhitao reached for her seatbelt, and Luan Nian also stepped out of the car. "I'll walk you up."

...Shang Zhitao couldn't quite read Luan Nian. He blew hot and cold, unpredictable as a thunderstorm, and his moods were hardly stable.

Shang Zhitao walked to the entrance of her building unit and, seeing he had no intention of leaving, asked, "Would you like to come up for a bit?"

"Sure."

He didn't particularly want to go; he had zero interest in other people's living conditions. But remembering how Shang Zhitao had blocked him downstairs last time, and today's out-of-character reluctance to come home with him, he wanted to go inside and see what kind of damned dog she had actually raised. Her building's staircase was cramped and the steps uneven; in the middle of the night, a stray kitten darting out from the shadows could scare someone half to death.

He suddenly wondered how many times Shang Zhitao had climbed staircases like this when she worked late into the night, and how many times she must have been frightened. Yet she always went about with a cheerful smile, hiding it so no one could tell.

Shang Zhitao unlocked the door and stepped inside. Luan Nian stood at the entryway, taking in her home with a sweeping glance, and was unexpectedly surprised to find the place neat and clean. Feeling a bit self-conscious, Shang Zhitao pointed toward the sofa. "Could you wait for me here a moment? I'll pack my things and we'll leave."

"Where are we going?"

"Aren't we going to your place?" Shang Zhitao had presumed to guess Luan Nian's intentions. Since he had deigned to visit this place, what else could it be for? It was undoubtedly to let his little bird out for a stretch, but Shang Zhitao didn't want to do that here—because this was home, shared with her good friends, and she didn't want to engage in those activities here.

..."What about the dog?"

"I'm bringing it. If the dog doesn't go, I'm not going either." Shang Zhitao was truly bold beyond belief today; Luke must have given her the courage to challenge Luke time and time again.

"Fine." Luan Nian took off his overcoat and shoes, waiting for Shang Zhitao to bring him slippers. Looking apologetic, Shang Zhitao explained, "We only have Sun Yuanzhu's pair of men's slippers here..."

"It's fine."

Luan Nian stepped onto the floor in his stocking feet, walked over to the sofa, and sat down. He watched as Shang Zhitao hurried over to the balcony, opened the little door, and a fluffy white snowball came tumbling and scrambling out. It was ecstatic, spinning in circles around Shang Zhitao's ankles.

Shang Zhitao was overjoyed too, stamping her feet lightly on the floor. "Big sister is back!" She bent down to scoop it up into her arms. "Wait a second, let me pack my things, and today I'm taking you to live in a big luxury villa. How about we go leave a nice puddle in the villa district, huh?"

Is she out of her mind?

Luan Nian scoffed inwardly and turned his head away, pulling out his phone to check his messages. He received a massive volume of messages and preferred to handle them all at once. As he was replying, he felt a slight warmth against his foot. Lowering his gaze, he saw Shang Zhitao's mutt sitting right on top of his shoe, tongue hanging out as it grinned up at him.

Luan Nian let out a sharp, displeased voice: "Shang Zhitao!"

His tone was dripping with annoyance as he yanked his foot back and pulled his leg up onto the sofa. Shang Zhitao hurried over, took in Luan Nian's posture, looked down at Luke, and widened her eyes. "Are you afraid of dogs?"

"Get it away."

"Why?"

Luke had only been around for a few days, yet it had already become a celebrity in the residential compound. When she took it downstairs to pee in the middle of the night, the grandpas and grandmas out for their early morning stroll adored it—Luan Nian was the very first person who didn't like it.

"Get it away."

Luan Nian disliked dogs, especially floppy, mushy-looking ones. Now that was a breed with some kick to it—why on earth did Shang Zhitao keep such a pathetic creature? The dog looked just like her, hopelessly dimwitted and dopey. Right now, it was sitting right on her lap, its two ears drooping, rolling its round eyes back and forth until they finally landed on Luan Nian. Back when they were waiting at a red light earlier, Luan Nian had turned his head to glance at the mutt, and the mutt had held a grudge against his cold indifference, letting out a hostile little woof at him.

"What's its name?" Luan Nian asked Shang Zhitao.

"What?"

"Your stupid dog's name."

"Its name is... Dog..." Shang Zhitao flashed him a smile and patted Luke on the head. Luke hadn't gotten used to its own name yet anyway, so whatever she called it didn't matter. It clamped its little mouth onto a squeaky ball, its tiny ears bobbing up and down as it played to its heart's content.

"You're keeping a dog—what are you going to do when you travel for work?"

"My roommates can help me out."

Luan Nian tilted his head to give her a sidelong glance, and seeing the genuine warmth of contentment that crossed her face whenever she mentioned her roommates, he fell silent.

After getting out of the car, Shang Zhitao cradled Luke in her arms as they walked inside. Luan Nian asked her, "You're carrying it in? Isn't the garage enough for it to stay in?"

"Then I'll stay in the garage too. Or we can go back to the car, make it quick, and I'll leave... carrying the dog." Her expression was resolute, sworn to live and die alongside her dog.

Luan Nian was so exasperated he laughed. "Will you make it stay away from me!"

"It's just shy around strangers. It won't get close to you."

Shang Zhitao truly didn't understand her own dog. Shy around strangers, my foot—the moment they entered the living room and she set it down on the floor, it scurried straight over to Luan Nian's legs, scratched at his trousers, and then flopped flat on its back with all four paws in the air. Luan Nian froze, stared at Shang Zhitao, and asked, "This... is shy?" Glaring down at Luke, he walked away.

Shang Zhitao hurriedly stepped forward, scooped Luke up, and lectured it: "Can't you read the room? Can't you tell if someone likes you or hates you? Why are you cozying up to him? He doesn't even like you."

Those words were rather aggravating to hear, and Luan Nian shot her a gloomy, lingering look. As for her, she acted completely oblivious and continued lecturing Luke: "I'm telling you, you are not allowed to be so overly enthusiastic anymore. Push me too far and I'll spank you."

Patting Luke on the head, she set it back down on the floor to play. Finding itself in a brand-new environment, Luke thought it was the most entertaining thing ever, wandering around to sniff this and that. Deciding that wasn't quite enough, it bent its hind legs, and Shang Zhitao's voice shot up an octave in sheer panic: "Luke!"

It was too late. Luke had just christened Luan Nian's living room with a fresh puddle, marking its territory, and even kicked its back legs proud as punch once it finished. That single shout of "Luke" made everyone—human and canine alike—freeze in place.

Luke: Did you call me?

Luan Nian: Who the hell is Luke?

Shang Zhitao: Why on earth did I blurt that out?

An eerie silence fell over the room, lasting seemingly for a century.

Luan Nian looked at Luke, then looked at Shang Zhitao. "What did you say its name is?"

Shang Zhitao wished she could bite her own tongue off. She offered Luan Nian a tight smile. "Its name is... Dog."

"What did you just call it?" Luan Nian's expression was already pitch black.

Shang Zhitao lowered her head and mumbled under her breath, "Luke."

"You raised a dog and named it Luke?" Luan Nian demanded.

"I just thought the name... sounded nice." Shang Zhitao felt a chilly draft howling over the top of her head—the gates of heaven were probably swinging open right above her.

Yet after a long moment with no explosion, she raised her head to find Luan Nian already walking toward the elevator lobby. He was genuinely furious.

No matter how harshly he scolded Shang Zhitao, he had never disrespected her to this extent. By that logic, shouldn't he be allowed to go out and raise a dog named Flora?

Upstairs in the bedroom, as he was stripping off his clothes, Shang Zhitao followed him inside and cleared her throat. "Luan Nian."

"Get out." Luan Nian stripped off his shirt to change into a lounge T-shirt. Hearing no sound of her leaving, he turned around to look at Shang Zhitao. "What is it, Flora?" If he was calling her Flora, he was truly, deeply pissed off.

Shang Zhitao walked up to him and, after a long pause, confessed, "I named it Luke because the name just popped into my head when I was brainstorming, and I thought it sounded good. It was only after I decided on it that I realized why it sounded so familiar—because it sounds just like your English name. It's probably just because my head is completely full of you, so I had a sudden lapse in judgment... Should I... should I change its name? I think Alex sounds pretty nice too."

...

There was a faint ring of sincerity to her explanation, but Luan Nian couldn't be bothered to entertain her. "Call it whatever the hell it wants, what does that have to do with me?"

Behind his back, Shang Zhitao curled her lips in a little grimace, the corners of her eyes curving upward—wasn't that a smile?

"So its name is staying Luke?" Pushing her luck, Shang Zhitao turned to the puppy trotting alongside her and said, "Luke, come here, say hello to your uncle."

"You call me big sister, yet you're teaching it to call me uncle?"

"Well, you're older..."

Shang Zhitao was truly fearless today, repeatedly pushing boundaries right in front of Luan Nian. Seeing his expression shift, she actually felt a tiny spark of triumph, thinking to herself: Hmph, I'm not scared of you.

She claimed in her heart that she wasn't scared of him, but once the lights were turned off and absolute darkness descended, as his scorching breath washed over her entire body, she grew scared all over again. Whenever Luan Nian was about to head out on a long trip, things always got terrifying—he would be fiercer and much more demanding than usual. Sometimes, when Shang Zhitao was exhausted, he would murmur, "Did I give you permission to move?"

The unspoken implication was: I'm not even tired yet, what on earth are you worn out for?

Today, Shang Zhitao really had to thank Luke. Just as she was feeling anxious about how far things were going to go, Luke suddenly let out a yip from beside the bed—who knew when it had sneaked into the room? Luan Nian paused, glancing past the moonlight-drenched sheets down toward the floor, where that dimwitted puppy was sitting upright, blinking right at them!

Damn it.

Luan Nian sat up, let out a long, ragged exhale to vent the stifled frustration in his chest, and finally told Shang Zhitao, "Get your dog out of my bedroom."

"It has to sleep with me at night," Shang Zhitao replied earnestly, before climbing out of bed to carry Luke off to the guest room.

This time, it was Luan Nian who was left hanging, lying wide awake in bed and unable to fall asleep. In the dead of night, craving something cool to drink, he went downstairs to the living room to open the fridge, just as he heard the front door click open. He spotted Shang Zhitao returning wrapped in her down jacket with Luke in tow. Seeing Luan Nian looking at her suspiciously, she offered, "I was worried it might pee in your house again, and cleaning up after it is exhausting."

It was freezing cold outside in the middle of the night—what on earth was she dragging herself out of bed for just to take Luke out to pee? Luan Nian ignored her, turning away to drink his water. Then a pair of arms wrapped around him from behind, carrying a breath of chilly night air as her face pressed against his back. She murmured softly to him, "What else could I name it if not Luke? Since Luke isn't around, at least I have Luke..."

She had never known that loving someone could run this deep. Her heart felt untethered and floating, filled with jealousy over his upcoming long-distance trip with friends, unwilling to let him leave for two whole months. She thought she was utterly pathetic—he hadn't even left yet, and she was already missing him. Missing him without the right to express it, leaving her with nothing but those silent, stubborn acts of resistance and sharp retorts.

Luan Nian let her hold him like that for a long, quiet moment before finally turning around, cupping her face, and pressing a gentle kiss to her lips. Luke let out a soft hrumph nearby, causing Luan Nian to break the kiss and ask Shang Zhitao, "So, could you please make sure your Luke stays put in the guest room by itself for a little while? It feels like we're being spied on."

"Okay."

Luan Nian's restless body finally found its destination, craving nothing less than to hollow himself out completely before slowly refilling it all over again once he left her. When he lost all self-control, his teeth grazed the nape of Shang Zhitao's neck, prompting a soft, instinctive recoil: "Don't, we have to go home."

Luan Nian completely ignored her. Go home? So what if we do? Pinning her down so she couldn't move an inch, the tip of his tongue traced the curve of her neck, and he heard her catch her breath in an involuntary gasp. He knew she liked it.

He liked it too.

Shang Zhitao gave as good as she got, matching his intensity twofold.

"Would other people mind?" Shang Zhitao asked him.

"There are no other people."

"Huh?"

"There are no other people." For the very first time, Luan Nian answered her question head-on. "You must have delusions, thinking I have hookups all over the globe, don't you? I'm not an animal."

"Then how do you handle things every time you're away for so long?" Shang Zhitao sat up to look at him. The oversized T-shirt she wore draped loosely over her frame—even though he had bought her proper lounge wear, she stubbornly insisted on wearing his clothes instead.

"Want me to give you a demonstration?"

"Sure."

Luan Nian grabbed her hand, lowering his voice. "Like this."

Burning hot—Shang Zhitao swallowed hard, not daring to meet his eyes. Dissatisfied, Luan Nian commanded, "Look at me. Focus."

His lips brushed against hers, the tip of his tongue sweeping across her tongue. "Put a little more effort into it, Shang Zhitao."

Luan Nian was truly the death of her.

Shang Zhitao crammed into a shared ride and carried Luke back to her hometown. Since Luke was less than two months old, it had just embarked on the very first journey of its doggy life, racking up over two thousand kilometers round trip—a truly impressive feat for a puppy.

Old Shang and Big Zhai fell head over heels for Luke the moment they saw it, especially Old Shang, who cradled Luke on his shoulder just like an infant grandchild. "Oh, my little Luke, on New Year's Day Grandpa is taking you out to pay New Year's calls!"

"Do you know how to bow with cupped hands? Go on, learn how to make a bow so we can collect red envelopes and buy you meat to eat when we get back!"

"Hey Luke! Don't eat that meat! It's too salty! Your snow-white fur can't handle salt!"

"Where's Luke? Where's Luke? Granddad's taking you out to play, alright?"

Shang Zhitao protested, "What do you mean Granddad! Call me big sister, and call you Granddad—that completely messes up the family tree!"

"Then what should it call me?"

Shang Zhitao didn't know what it should be called either, and after racking her brain for ages, she finally blurted out, "Call him Uncle!"

On New Year's Eve, firecrackers burst and crackled outside. Shang Zhitao said to Luke, "Another year has passed, Luke."

Over in New York, Luan Nian was playing cards with a few close friends. A friend named Chen Kuannian caught sight of the two love bites on his neck and chuckled teasingly, "Things must've been pretty intense."

Luan Nian glanced at him without a word.

A moment later, he received an email from Shang Zhitao, containing just a short sentence: "Happy New Year, wishing you all the best."

"Happy New Year, wishing your Luke a thriving growth."