Chapter 32

Chapter 32

Shang Huoyong's hand gripped the lace of the knee-high sock, sliding it down from Su Tinghe's calf. Shang Huoyong looked at Su Tinghe's still slightly swollen ankle and said, "Wearing these kinds of socks isn't good for healing wounds. Don't wear them again in the future."

"Why?" Su Tinghe didn't quite understand how wearing socks could hinder wound recovery.

"Your ankle is still swollen. Wearing such tight socks restricts blood circulation. Do you want to keep your foot?" As he spoke, Shang Huoyong reached out to remove the sock from Su Tinghe's other calf.

"This leg is fine, it's not injured," Su Tinghe raised his leg, trying to pull his foot away, interrupting Shang Huoyong's attempt to remove the sock.

Shang Huoyong held onto Su Tinghe's calf firmly, "Even if it's not injured, don't wear them. These socks look uncomfortable to wear."

Su Tinghe muttered softly, "I wanted to wear them to show you how nice they look. This dress also has a very long train. When I can stand and walk again, I'll wear it for you, okay?"

Shang Huoyong: "We'll see when your foot is better."

Su Tinghe was unhappy, "You're so distant."

Shang Huoyong: "I clearly complimented you on how nice you look. How is that distant?"

"But you didn't smile, your expression was very serious. You don't like how I'm dressed at all." Su Tinghe struggled fiercely, trying to shake off Shang Huoyong's grip, but Shang Huoyong's strength was too great. Su Tinghe's leg couldn't move at all. Su Tinghe, furious, yelled at Shang Huoyong, "Let go of my leg!"

Shang Huoyong didn't let go, calmly watching Su Tinghe's futile struggle. Only when Su Tinghe was about to get really angry did he suddenly release his grip.

Su Tinghe lost his balance and fell backward, quickly reaching out to support himself to avoid falling.

During the struggle, the veil fell over his face. Su Tinghe, angrily, tried to pull the veil off his head, but the more he pulled, the more tangled it became.

Shang Huoyong stood up, intending to hold Su Tinghe's hands, but having squatted for too long, his legs went numb, and he lost his balance, falling onto Su Tinghe. Fortunately, Shang Huoyong reacted quickly, using his arms to support himself on the bed, preventing himself from actually falling on Su Tinghe.

Su Tinghe stopped tugging at the veil and quickly asked Shang Huoyong what happened.

"My legs are numb," Shang Huoyong said, supporting himself on the bed as he got up, helping Su Tinghe, who was almost crushed by him, to sit up properly.

Su Tinghe, in pain and anger, blurted out, "Serves you right." Then, pointing towards the door, he said forcefully, "Get out, I need to take this dress off."

Shang Huoyong sat beside Su Tinghe without moving, casually saying, "If I leave, I'm afraid someone might start crying."

Su Tinghe's cheeks puffed up in anger, and he said forcefully, "I won't cry. If you don't think I look good, there are others who do."

"Who are these others, Aunt Qin and your friend?" Shang Huoyong asked indifferently.

Su Tinghe was extremely proud, his eyes sly like a cat that had stolen some fish, "Not just them, many people say I look good."

Shang Huoyong guessed, "Many people? The family chef, the maid, and the gardener?"

"Not them," Su Tinghe corrected seriously, "I posted it online, and people online all said I look good. I don't know them."

"Online." Shang Huoyong's expression darkened as he tapped on the phone a few times, directly deleting the post, and warned Su Tinghe, "Don't post these kinds of photos online again. The people complimenting you have ulterior motives."

When Su Tinghe first learned to use the internet, he often saw all sorts of flirtatious comments. Su Tinghe frowned, thinking how shameless people online were. But after browsing more, Su Tinghe gradually realized that the netizens didn't mean any harm; their words were just too straightforward, but they were expressing affection.

Seeing Shang Huoyong delete the post, Su Tinghe hurriedly explained, "Why did you delete it? They didn't mean any harm."

After deleting the post, Shang Huoyong returned the phone to Su Tinghe, earnestly educating him, "You can't judge a book by its cover. Respectable people wouldn't just call someone 'wife.' Don't go posting anything online."

Shang Huoyong found that the comments under the post Su Tinghe had made in the afternoon were filled with remarks like "so beautiful," "stunning," "baby," "wife," and "the feud over stealing my wife is unforgivable."

Su Tinghe nodded absentmindedly, recalling that when he had previously clicked into the profiles of users in the comment section, he often saw them calling others “wife” and “baby.” Online, some people, despite their young age, seemed to have a harem of three thousand, really fickle, just as Shang Huoyong had said—clearly not the most upstanding folks.

After all that, Su Tinghe forgot that he had just been angry with Shang Huoyong and let Shang Huoyong use a therapy device on him for his ankle.

That night before bed, Shang Huoyong logged into his account on his phone and found a group he didn’t recognize with over 99 messages. Upon entering, he realized it was Su Tinghe’s fan group. Some were wondering why Su Tinghe had suddenly deleted his photos, some were relieved they had saved the pictures in time, and others were enthusiastically editing, zooming in on parts of the pictures Su Tinghe had posted, with a group of people below gushing.

Shang Huoyong, seeing Su Tinghe’s calves wrapped in white stockings and his slender waist being cropped and enlarged, gripped his phone angrily and fired off a message in the group: [The internet is not a lawless place. Spreading obscene content is potentially illegal. Please delete it immediately.]

Many in the group quickly replied: [What’s wrong with you?] [Are you some obsessed fan?] [So scary] [Are you fantasizing about being his husband?] [So disgusting]

Shang Huoyong: [I am. Now delete it immediately.]

Group replies: [LOL, you’re seriously delusional] [This guy’s nuts] [Should’ve seen this coming from someone who went off on people last time.]

The next second, Shang Huoyong was kicked out of the group.

Shang Huoyong’s eyes widened. In all the groups he had joined in his life, the members were all polite and decent people. No one had ever dared to kick him out.

Su Tinghe, dead tired, urged Shang Huoyong to turn off the lights and sleep. Shang Huoyong, furious, tossed his phone aside and pulled Su Tinghe close. Su Tinghe, half-asleep, felt that Shang Huoyong was different from usual, but as sleepiness took over, he adjusted his position in Shang Huoyong’s arms and fell asleep without further thought.

Later, Su Tinghe saw a private message on his personal account, warning him to be careful of a certain user, possibly an obsessed fan with mental issues.

Su Tinghe, still a little freaked out, mentioned this to Shang Huoyong: “Honey, you were right yesterday. There are many bad people online. Today, someone messaged me about an obsessed fan, telling me to be careful.”

Shang Huoyong's heart skipped a beat and asked, “Which person?”

Su Tinghe: “User 57689095. I blocked him.”

Shang Huoyong, looking at the phone screen Su Tinghe showed him, first thought the ID looked familiar. Then he realized—it was himself!

Shang Huoyong spoke with difficulty: “This person actually meant well.”

Su Tinghe: “But his comments were too strange. I figured better safe than sorry.”

Shang Huoyong, unable to explain, for the first time felt the bitterness of a boomerang hitting himself.

Earlier that day, Shen Shixi had called Su Tinghe, asking how Shang Huoyong had evaluated the dress he designed.

Su Tinghe pondered: “It’s complicated.”

Shen Shixi on the other end of the phone became interested: “Elaborate.”

Su Tinghe replied: “He said it looked good, but he didn’t seem happy about it. When he saw that I had posted the photos you took of me online, he got very angry, not only deleted them but also told me not to post randomly in the future.”

Thinking that Shen Shixi was, after all, the designer of the dress, Su Tinghe added: “It’s not your problem. Your design is very beautiful. It must be my problem.”

Shen Shixi laughed heartily, unable to stop for a while, and only after a long time did he calm down and say: “You’re even more clueless than before, but now you’re clearly cuter. Your husband likes it, and probably loves it a lot.”

Hearing Shen Shixi mention the past, Su Tinghe’s heart tightened, almost holding his breath, but then he thought that Shen Shixi wasn’t in front of him, they were just communicating via phone, and half of his heart settled down, asking him: “How can you tell?”

“Think about it yourself,” Shen Shixi didn’t answer Su Tinghe, instead saying sadly, “I have to leave today, won’t have time to see you again. I’ll see you when I come back on vacation.”

Su Tinghe was very happy, instantly the other half of his heart settled down, but he said he looked forward to seeing him next time.

In the days when Shen Shixi was not around, Su Tinghe's ankle ligament injury gradually improved. During this time, Zhang Shijing, whom he hadn't contacted for a long time, suddenly told him that the TV series "Yu Lin Ling" was missing an opening and ending song, and asked if Su Tinghe could find a way to solve it.

Su Tinghe immediately thought of Ruan Xiting. Their band could write lyrics, compose, and sing, which was perfect.

After discussing with the band members, Ruan Xiting was very willing to take on this task, but the difficulty was that "Yu Lin Ling" was a period drama, and they had never tried a traditional style before, let alone writing lyrics.

Su Tinghe volunteered to take on the task of writing the lyrics. Once the lyrics were done, Ruan Xiting and the band members attempted to compose the music but ran into issues with the accompaniment. The instruments commonly used in the band were clearly not suitable for traditional Chinese music.

However, Su Tinghe happened to know a little about the konghou, pipa, guqin, sheng, and xiao. The four members of the band had also learned various instruments before forming the band, including many classical instruments.

As for singing, both the band's lead singer and Meng Meng could handle it.

In the end, a group of amateurs managed to record both the opening and ending theme songs for the TV series.

After sending the music to Zhang Shijing, Zhang was thrilled, calling it perfect, and pleaded with Su Tinghe to create more OSTs.

After Su Tinghe completed the OSTs, the TV series had already finished filming and entered the post-production phase. By then, Su Tinghe's ankle was almost fully healed. He had initially planned to visit Bai Hua's adoptive father when he suddenly found out that Bai Hua's biological parents had located him.