After the car accident, my boyfriend got straight

During the May Day holiday, Jiang Shiyu had his first official competition since arriving in France. He had been busy preparing for nearly half a month and even caught a cold due to exhaustion just before the competition. He ran a low fever for several days.

He didn’t want Shen Li to worry, so he forced himself to video call him for half an hour after classes, but as soon as the call ended, he would collapse onto his bed. Leo noticed he wasn’t in good shape and asked several times if he needed to go to the hospital, but he shook his head and said he was fine. He rummaged through his suitcase, found some cold medicine, made himself a cup, drank it, and then wrapped himself in a blanket and went to sleep.

Half asleep, he thought he was back in his dorm in Jiang Hua. His throat was dry and sore, and his head hurt terribly. He whimpered and called out Shen Li’s name in frustration, but there was no response. When he woke up, he looked around at the unfamiliar surroundings and remembered he was in France.

He cocooned himself in the blanket, shrinking into the small space, pretending it was a strong fortress where he felt safe.

He tried to convince himself of this, but an inexplicable sense of grievance grew inside him, entwining every inch of his skin. People tend to be more vulnerable when they’re sick. In the past, no matter when he felt uncomfortable, Shen Li would always be the first to notice and stay by his side.

This was the first time he had to deal with it alone.

However, on the second day of the holiday, Li Muzi secretly flew from Jiang Hua to France to visit him. He had planned to surprise his good friend, but when he got lost on the foreign campus, not knowing east from west, he had to give in and call him.

Jiang Shiyu had just finished an IV drip in the infirmary, his hand swollen like a little pig’s trotter. When he answered the phone, a whining voice came from the other end.

“Shiyu, your campus is too big, and everything’s in English—I can’t understand it. Come pick me up!”

Jiang Shiyu found him under a plane tree. He was squatting by the roadside with a giant suitcase that was almost twice his size, his curious eyes darting around.

He turned his head and saw Jiang Shiyu walking toward him from across the street.

He jumped up instantly. Before Jiang Shiyu could reach the steps, he ran over and bear-hugged him.

“Shiyu, Shiyu, I’ve missed you so much.”

Jiang Shiyu was enveloped in his friend’s strong embrace, feeling a bit dazed. He had been sick for several days and was mentally drained, often dreaming that he was back in Jiang Hua, only to wake up alone in an empty room.

Today, the weather in France was quite nice. Sunlight streamed through the gaps in the trees, falling like golden foil on the ground. In the midst of this shimmering light, Li Muzi held Jiang Shiyu close, expressing his deep longing.

It wasn’t until a cyclist honked nearby that they snapped out of it.

“Oh, we’re blocking the way.” Li Muzi shrugged awkwardly and pulled Jiang Shiyu back onto the sidewalk.

“I had to beg my mom for ages before she agreed to let me come to France alone. I didn’t dare tell my dad. Hehe, I’ve actually been planning this visit for a while. Last week when we talked on the phone, I almost let it slip! It’s a good thing I held back.”

“I originally wanted to surprise you by showing up at your dorm, but your campus is too confusing, and everything’s in English. You know, I barely passed my English exams. Just now, a handsome blond guy offered to show me the way, but I was too busy staring at his face to listen to his directions…”

Li Muzi kept chattering away as if he were the one on the exchange program in France, and he had been deprived of conversation for a year.

Throughout all this, Jiang Shiyu hadn’t said a word.

He finally realized this after talking for a long time. He looked over at Jiang Shiyu, who had been preparing for his performance while dealing with his illness, and noticed how haggard he looked. His round eyes seemed even larger due to his gauntness.

“Shiyu, have you not been eating well here? You look even thinner than when you first went abroad. Didn’t Shen Li notice during your daily video calls?”

The sunlight made Jiang Shiyu squint, and he quickly closed his eyes. Then, he felt warm tears sliding down his cheeks. When he opened his eyes again, his face was streaked with tear marks.

Seeing him cry, Li Muzi’s eyes reddened too.

“Muzi,” Jiang Shiyu said in a hoarse voice, unaware that he was crying until he spoke and felt his face wet with tears.

Two “crybabies” stood on the campus sidewalk, surrounded by passing students, clinging to each other and sobbing. The white students who walked by couldn’t help but stop and stare, but none dared to approach.

They went back to the dorm together. Jiang Shiyu’s dorm in France was a four-person room, but two of his roommates rarely stayed there, and Leo had gone home for a few days, so only he was left.

Li Muzi followed him into the dorm, curiously looking around. “This dorm isn’t as nice as the ones in Jiang Hua. Look at this bed—it’s so wobbly! What if it falls apart? And you have to go outside to shower? How inconvenient! Didn’t Aunt Bai Yun say she had a house here? Why didn’t you move out?”

The two of them worked together to carry the giant suitcase upstairs. Exhausted, Jiang Shiyu collapsed onto a chair, panting.

His eyes were still red from crying. “It’s more convenient to stay in the dorm. It might take some getting used to at first, but after a while, it’s fine.”

Li Muzi looked around, criticizing everything from the ceiling to the floor tiles.

“If this were Jiang Hua, there’s no way Shen Li would let you stay in a dorm like this. Even in Jiang Hua, he would probably want to cover your bed with ten layers of down just so you wouldn’t feel a single pea.”

Jiang Shiyu was amused, a small smile tugging at the corners of his lips. “Muzi, thank you for coming all this way to see me.”

Li Muzi quickly waved it off. “Don’t get all sentimental with me. We already embarrassed ourselves enough on the street just now.”

But Jiang Shiyu was genuinely touched. He leaned over, resting his head on Li Muzi’s shoulder, and his friend’s arrival brought a sense of stability to his wavering heart.

Just like before, Li Muzi reached out and ruffled his hair.

“Aren’t you about to participate in your first competition here? You can’t go without someone to cheer you on. A Jiang Hua music student never backs down!”

“It’s a pity Shen Li isn’t here. I remember he used to say he wouldn’t miss any of your performances. Hmph, men and their promises.”

Jiang Shiyu quickly defended him, “I told him not to come.”

Li Muzi couldn’t help but laugh at how eager he was to explain.

Silly couple.

That evening, Jiang Shiyu took Li Muzi to explore the cafeteria’s “Western food.” Seeing his disgusted and horrified expression, he pulled out the instant turkey noodles and self-heating hot pot that Li Muzi had spent a fortune on shipping.

“Ah, now this is real food! That dry bread—I bet I’d have to stretch my neck a mile just to swallow a bite.”

Li Muzi slurped the turkey noodles, then noticed that Jiang Shiyu wasn’t eating much and asked, “Why aren’t you eating? Don’t tell me you’ve actually come to like the Western food here?”

Jiang Shiyu set down his spoon and shook his head.

“I’ve had a cold these past few days, and I’m still on an IV drip. The doctor told me to avoid spicy food.”

Li Muzi’s eyes widened. “A cold?”

“When did this happen? You sounded fine when we talked before I came. Have you been taking medicine? Do you feel uncomfortable anywhere? What about your chest?”

Before his heart surgery, Jiang Shiyu always had trouble whenever he caught a cold or got sick. Sometimes, he would even be bedridden for several days, unable to attend classes. Even after the surgery, though his condition improved, his body was still in recovery. A simple cold was more severe for him than it would be for an average person.

Li Muzi treated this like a serious issue, asking him about every detail of his condition.

Since Li Muzi would be staying for a few days, and Jiang Shiyu couldn’t hide his condition from him, he reluctantly explained that his cold had lasted for a week. While he was much better than before—when he had been dealing with a persistent fever and low spirits—he still had a lingering cough and occasional low-grade fevers at night.

“Does Shen Li know?” Li Muzi’s first question was after hearing all this.

Jiang Shiyu shook his head, then looked at him with pitiful, pleading eyes. “Muzi, please don’t tell him about this. I don’t want him to worry.”

Li Muzi frowned, staring intently at his somewhat sickly face. Unable to resist his friend’s pleading, he finally agreed.

“Alright, but you have to take your medicine and get your IV drips these days, and don’t stay up late or overwork yourself. I’ll be here until your competition, so if you feel uncomfortable, tell me right away.”

Jiang Shiyu nodded in agreement.

That evening, Li Muzi checked into a hotel near Jiang Shiyu’s school. Jiang Shiyu accompanied him to complete the check-in process but didn’t stay overnight. He explained that since he had a cold, it would be easy to pass it on if they stayed together. Li Muzi was convinced that his cold was due to his poorly maintained dormitory and insisted he stay with him. When Jiang Shiyu couldn’t argue anymore, he reluctantly booked a room next door.

Just as he finished checking in, his phone buzzed with an incoming video call. Jiang Shiyu checked the time—it was about the time he usually video-called Shen Li.

He accepted the video call, and the screen immediately displayed a well-defined, muscular abdomen. A loose pair of sweatpants hung around the slender yet strong waist, with beads of water still clinging to the bare skin.

Jiang Shiyu was stunned by the sight, his mind blanking for a moment. It took him a while to process what he was seeing until the camera moved, and Shen Li’s face appeared on the screen.

Facing the camera, Shen Li’s expression was dark and unreadable, with an unclear emotion flickering in his eyes.

“Little treasure,” his voice, low and husky, came through the phone.

Jiang Shiyu, still in a daze, let out a small, confused sound.

“Your nose.”

It took him a moment to understand. His mind was still occupied with the image of that well-defined, sexy abdomen. “What about my nose?”

“Your nose is bleeding.”

“Oh, it’s bleeding.” The little cat mimicked the words.

Shen Li chuckled quietly, his deep black eyes seeming to penetrate the screen, making Jiang Shiyu suddenly freeze and come to his senses.

He saw in the video that two red lines were slowly trickling down from under his nose.

“Ah!” Jiang Shiyu gasped, covering his nose as he ran away from the camera, frantically grabbing tissues from the desk to wipe his face.

“Tilt your head back, don’t lean forward,” Shen Li instructed from the other side, as the screen went dark.

Jiang Shiyu stuffed tissues up his nose and vaguely heard the sound of soft laughter coming from his phone. Right now, he wished he could crawl into a hole and never come out.

A few minutes later, the screen was still dark. Shen Li called his name a few times before hearing shuffling noises from the other end.

Jiang Shiyu hesitated before picking up the phone from the bed, flipping it over so that the screen faced the ceiling, avoiding showing himself on camera.

“You’re not in your dorm?” Shen Li asked, immediately noticing that Jiang Shiyu wasn’t in his usual place.

Jiang Shiyu, still covering his nose, sat by the phone, occasionally peeking at the screen to ensure he wouldn’t appear on it.

“Um, Muzi came to watch my competition, so we’re staying outside,” he lied, not mentioning his illness.

Shen Li had heard about Li Muzi’s trip to France from Chen Xu and had been teased for a long time. The legitimate boyfriend was prohibited from visiting, yet a good friend could fly over without warning.

“Are you two sharing a bed?”

Jiang Shiyu instinctively shook his head, realizing Shen Li couldn’t see him, so he lifted the phone’s rear camera. “Nope, we each have our own room.”

He asked him to hold up the phone and give him a tour of the hotel room. After carefully inspecting and finding nothing amiss, he instructed Jiang Shiyu to flip the camera. Jiang Shiyu held the phone, following his instructions to point it here and there. When Shen Li asked him to switch the camera, he did so without thinking.

His face, close to the phone, appeared greatly magnified on the screen—bright, shiny eyes and a nose stuffed with tissues, looking a bit like someone peering through a peephole, dazed.

He didn’t immediately realize what he had done until he sat back on the bed and noticed his silly face exposed on the screen.

He quickly tried to cover the camera, but Shen Li stopped him.

“Baby, don’t hide, let me see you.”

The boy’s deep, handsome face was framed perfectly within the small phone screen. His expression was soft, and when he called Jiang Shiyu “baby,” he found it impossible to refuse.

So, he let his silly, foolish self be exposed on camera.

“Baby, I miss you so much.”

Jiang Shiyu felt like his chest was a bottle of soda that had been suddenly shaken, with bubbles rushing to the surface, bringing a sour taste with them.

He leaned against the warm-colored wall lamp, carefully tracing every familiar detail of Shen Li’s face on the screen, holding back the sting in his nose. “I miss you too.”

The vast ocean and time difference made it feel as though they were in different worlds.

Ever since coming to France, he forced himself to become independent and strong, rarely complaining or seeking comfort from Shen Li. Most of their conversations were about small, everyday things.

The hardships of being in a foreign land didn’t need to be spoken for Shen Li to understand. He didn’t want his little cat to suffer, but he also knew that the little cat couldn’t stay sheltered forever, peering at the world through a glass window.

“Have you lost weight? Your chin looks sharper.”

When Jiang Shiyu was with Shen Li, any slight change in weight was immediately noticed. Now, even through a screen, with the slight beautification from the video call, Shen Li could still detect the subtle difference in his appearance.

His heart skipped a beat, worried that Shen Li might have noticed his illness. But when Shen Li’s voice remained uncertain, he regained his composure.

“No, I’ve been eating well and sleeping soundly, and I’ve even gained some weight.”

Shen Li smiled, his thick eyebrows slightly raised. “Really? Well, since you’re staying out alone tonight, let me check.”

He didn’t understand, his eyes widening in confusion.

But he soon realized what he meant.

On the phone, Shen Li’s voice was low and serious, each command delivered with authority, leaving no room for doubt.

“Put the phone on the table, get back on the bed, and kneel.”

Jiang Shiyu was startled by his commanding tone, his legs trembling as he obediently placed the phone on the small round table by the window. Then, he shakily returned to the bed, kneeling on the edge.

The weather was nice today, and he was wearing a white shirt and casual pants. In the dim light, the shirt seemed to reveal a slender waist, the waistline gracefully curving and swaying in the loose shirt.

He buried his head in the blanket, his upper body sprawled on the bed while the lower half was raised high.

The casual pants slipped from the shirt’s hem, hanging loosely around his legs.

“Straighten up.”

Shen Li’s voice turned cold, like it was wrapped in ice, sending a shiver down Jiang Shiyu’s spine.

His waist dropped, like a rolling hill, with the other end raised high.

Shen Li’s dark eyes grew even darker, his gaze piercing the screen as he stared intently at the scene. The little cat, back to the camera, had thin legs close together, leaving a gap in between, just enough to catch a glimpse of his face buried in the blanket. His big eyes were already dazed, his skin flushed unnaturally, his body seemingly beyond control.

His body started trembling uncontrollably as he was told to spread himself apart. His emotions were overwhelmed.

“No… no…” he protested weakly.

“Little one, don’t make me say it a second time. Spread.” 

The voice on the other end of the screen was cold and commanding, leaving no room for resistance.

Jiang Shiyu, feeling guilty because of his cold, trembled as he reached back with his hands, using all his strength.

For a moment, the only sounds in the air were two breaths interwoven together. One was rough and heavy, the other interspersed with sobs and choked whimpers.

“Baby, be good, and follow what I say next,” Shen Li continued.

Jiang Shiyu’s mind had turned into mush; he couldn’t think straight. Every nerve in his body felt like a puppet string, completely controlled by Shen Li.

In the past, Shen Li had always been the one to serve him, making sure he was comfortable in every possible way. He knew his body even better than he did himself. This was the first time he was left to do things on his own.

Shen Li stared at the screen, watching the delicate, white wrist move hesitantly, testing and then quickly pulling away after a strong sensation hit him. In no time, Jiang Shiyu was shaking and crying, saying he couldn’t take it anymore.

The tender “peaches” were already so ripe they seemed like they were about to burst, dripping continuously.

Jiang Shiyu cried for less than half a minute before Shen Li urged him to continue. He couldn’t hold on any longer, his upper body hanging off the side of the bed.

His body felt like it was being swept away in a torrent of sensations, tossed around, sometimes fast, sometimes slow, interspersed with Shen Li’s commands.

“Shen Li…” He tilted his head up, his beautiful black eyes misted over, like a newly transformed fairy.

“Shen Li, I… I… I’m about to…” His voice was slurred and unclear, his body starting to convulse.

“Not yet,” Shen Li interrupted him. “With me.”

He was on the brink of losing control, his body trembling uncontrollably. The fluid on his thighs flowed like a small stream down his legs.

“Little one, wait for me,” Shen Li’s voice grew rough, his breathing heavy. He was on the verge as well…

In the vast room, though Jiang Shiyu was the only one physically present, he felt like he was suffocating, as if he were running out of air. The hem of his shirt fluttered on his waist, and each time it brushed against the tender skin, it sent shivers down his spine.

He couldn’t take it anymore and cried out Shen Li’s name.

Shen Li responded, “Baby, little one, call me.”

“Shen Li.”

“Shen Li.”

“Call me ‘husband.'”

“Husband, ah…”

“Mm…”

Two low moans overlapped, and Jiang Shiyu slid off the bed completely, collapsing onto the floor.

The flickering shadows overlapped in his vision. He curled up on the floor like a frightened little kitten, unable to come back to his senses for a long time.

It wasn’t until he heard Shen Li’s voice calling his name from the phone that he slowly lifted his head, looking over.

“Baby, get up and lie on the bed, the floor is cold.”

It took Jiang Shiyu a while to respond. He crawled over to the small table, his face still flushed with a blush and post-passion daze. Shen Li’s Adam’s apple moved reflexively as he looked at his face.

“Baby…”

Before he could say anything, the screen suddenly went black.

The little cat had ended the video call.