Hearing You Say Love chapter 64

Cream

Su Ming had plans to visit a speech therapy center that day. Ling Shanshan sent him the contact information of a friend who worked there.

Ling Shanshan: [Cheng Jianyun, Deputy Director of the center. Just contact him when you arrive.]

Su Ming: [Thanks.]

Su Ming: [Don’t tell Zou Beiyuan yet. I haven’t decided if I’ll go through with it.]

Ling Shanshan: [Got it. Let him know when you’re ready.]

Su Ming’s car was restricted from driving, and the rehabilitation center was nearly 30 kilometers from his home. After checking the map, he decided to take the subway.

The morning rush hour had passed, so the subway wasn’t crowded. Su Ming found a corner to stand in and opened the Jam Comics app.  

After uploading the update last night, Su Ming had been exhausted. He sent a quick message to Zou Beiyuan before going straight to bed and hadn’t opened the app since.  

Honestly, he didn’t want to check it because he knew the comment section would be filled with birthday wishes.  

For him, birthdays weren’t something worth celebrating.  

He just wanted to quietly get through an ordinary day. His birth wasn’t something to be congratulated for—he’d prefer it if no one brought it up at all.  

As soon as he opened the app, he received numerous notifications about rewards. Among them were two significant ones from User 7115464.  

The first was for 100 fruit baskets, without a message. The second included a “Happy Birthday” message and… 520 fruit baskets?  

Su Ming: …  

He didn’t know how to react. He’d told that user multiple times not to send him rewards.  

The first 100 fruit baskets were likely sent immediately upon opening the app. The additional 520 must have been prompted by the birthday wishes in the comments.  

This suggested that the user wasn’t actually a diehard fan of his. So, why was this person spending so much money on him?  

Su Ming even began to suspect that the person might know him in real life and have some personal interest in him.  

But for so long, they had only talked about comics and nothing else. It was truly baffling.  

Too tired to vent to Chen Muchao again, Su Ming directly sent a private message to this generous sponsor through the app:  

[I received your birthday wishes, thank you. But please don’t send me any more rewards. It really troubles me.]

After sending the message, he skimmed through a few comments discussing the storyline, but the generous sponsor hadn’t responded yet.  

He closed the comics app and opened WeChat to message Director Cheng at the rehabilitation center, informing him that he’d arrive in 40 minutes.  

Director Cheng responded warmly:  

[Great, let me know when you get off the subway, and I’ll meet you at the entrance.]

Su Ming thanked him and casually checked Director Cheng’s WeChat Moments.  

Director Cheng’s posts were mostly about speech therapy, along with some shared international research updates. It seemed very professional and official.  

Su Ming imagined that Director Cheng was likely a middle-aged man in his 40s or 50s. So, when he saw a youthful, clean-cut young man at the rehabilitation center’s entrance, he automatically excluded him as a possibility.  

Standing under the eaves of the security room, Su Ming sent a message saying he had arrived. The young man approached and extended his right hand, saying, “Su Ming, hello, I’m Cheng Jianyun.”  

….

Meanwhile, Zou Beiyuan’s flight landed at Rong City Airport at 9:30 AM.

After leaving the airport, he took a taxi to a downtown bakery to pick up a custom-made birthday cake, expedited at great expense. Then he took another taxi back to Tianhe Mansion, arriving close to 11:30 AM.  

Su Ming wasn’t home. Zou Beiyuan placed the cake in the fridge and called his grandmother.  

“Did Su Ming visit you?” he asked.  

“No,” Song Zhixian replied on the phone. “Xiao Zhang had the day off, so Xiao Zhang delivered my meals. Why? Didn’t you go to Ninggang? Are you back?”  

“No,” Zou Beiyuan lied, “I’m still in Ninggang. I just needed to find Su Ming for something.”  

“Oh,” Song Zhixian said. “He hasn’t come by. I told him he didn’t need to visit today.”  

After ending the call, Zou Beiyuan tried contacting Chen Muchao.  

Chen Muchao had gone to the studio early that morning and wasn’t aware that Su Ming had plans to visit the rehabilitation center with Ling Shanshan.  

“Su Ming isn’t home? Maybe he went out to buy something. I don’t know where he is,” Chen Muchao said.  

Feeling disappointed, Zou Beiyuan replied, “I’ll message him again.”  

He had already texted Su Ming after leaving the bakery, but Su Ming hadn’t responded. Calls also went unanswered. It was unclear where he had gone.  

The car keys were still on the entryway shelf, so Su Ming hadn’t driven. He couldn’t have gone far.  

Sitting in a single-seater armchair by the floor-to-ceiling window, Zou Beiyuan decided to wait.  

Su Ming had said he would quit smoking, and indeed, the house no longer smelled of smoke. Instead, it carried Su Ming’s pleasant citrus scent.  

The ashtrays that once sat on the work desk and coffee table were now gone.  

Although he had been irritated by Su Ming’s absence, noticing these small changes reassured him that Su Ming cared about him, gradually easing his mood.  

Running his fingers slowly along the armrest of the chair, he recalled Su Ming teasing him with his legs draped over the armrest. Zou Beiyuan realized just how much he missed Su Ming and how desperate he was to see him.  

When he had first returned to the country, he never imagined that one day he’d do something so irrational—abandoning a pile of matters in Ninggang just to deliver a birthday cake.  

But the matters in Ninggang still lingered, and his phone kept ringing.

Zou Beiyuan had been on the phone for a long time on the single sofa, and when he finally hung up, his phone was down to one bar of battery. He suddenly remembered that he had left his charger in Ninggang and didn’t have a spare here.  

Since Su Ming’s phone wasn’t the same brand, their chargers weren’t compatible.  

Zou Beiyuan stood up, intending to rent a shared charger at the convenience store near the apartment complex’s gate.  

…

Rong City’s autumn weather was unusually beautiful that day.

The sky was high and blue, with sunlight gleaming off the wide roads.  

As Zou Beiyuan exited the convenience store, he noticed a white Volkswagen parked by the complex gate. Su Ming stepped out of the passenger seat.  

Moments later, the driver’s side door opened, and a young man whom Zou Beiyuan didn’t recognize got out.  

Su Ming stood by the car, conversing with the man using sign language for a while. Then the man retrieved a paper file from the trunk and handed it to Su Ming.  

Su Ming didn’t leave immediately but continued chatting with the man.  

The man appeared fluent in sign language, and Su Ming’s movements were particularly quick when communicating with him. Zou Beiyuan couldn’t make out what they were saying but noted that Su Ming seemed in a good mood, smiling brightly at the man.  

Zou Beiyuan held his phone and charger in his hand and walked over quickly.

As Cheng Jianyun was speaking, Su Ming caught a glimpse of a tall figure walking towards them from the corner of his eye. His heart skipped a beat as he thought it might be Zou Beiyuan, but he knew it couldn’t be, so he didn’t turn his head to look. It wasn’t until the figure got closer and finally stopped next to him that he realized.

“Su Ming.”

The familiar voice interrupted Cheng Jianyun’s words. Su Ming turned his face, stunned for a moment, then immediately showed a delighted smile, signing with his hands: Why did you come back?

Zou Beiyuan looked at Su Ming for a few seconds and said slowly, “I had something to do.”

Su Ming was so happy that the air around him seemed to be bubbling with joy. He signed again, showing his excitement: I missed you so much!

Afterward, he couldn’t resist giving Zou Beiyuan a hug.

The gesture wasn’t overly intimate—such actions were normal between friends or brothers—but it surprised Cheng Jianyun, who had previously thought that Su Ming was an aloof and reserved person.

Su Ming’s smile was clearly different from before. When he had been talking to Cheng Jianyun, his smile had been polite and distant, but now it was incredibly lively.

Su Ming signed to Cheng Jianyun: Thank you for today.

Cheng Jianyun replied, “I’ll leave now. If you need anything later, feel free to contact me.”

Su Ming signed: Okay.

Watching the Volkswagen drive away, Zou Beiyuan glanced at Su Ming. “Did you eat with him?”

Su Ming nodded.

Zou Beiyuan was silent for a moment, his face cold. “Why didn’t you reply to my messages?”

It seemed like Su Ming just remembered. He quickly took out his phone and, as expected, saw many unread messages. He apologized and signed: I had it on silent.

Zou Beiyuan didn’t say anything. He grabbed Su Ming’s wrist and pulled him back.

He used some force, and Su Ming felt pain from the pull, but noticing Zou Beiyuan was upset, he endured the pain and let him drag him. Once they were inside, he asked, What’s wrong? Is the matter in Ninggang settled? Was it not going well?

“It’s not settled. I still have to go back,” Zou Beiyuan checked the time. “My flight is at four this afternoon.”

Su Ming: Then why did you come back?

“It’s nothing,” Zou Beiyuan paused for a moment, then asked, “Where did you go for lunch?”

Su Ming answered with sign language: The cafeteria.

The term touched on a blind spot in Zou Beiyuan’s sign language knowledge, and he didn’t understand it. He frowned and asked, “What does it mean?”

Seeing Zou Beiyuan’s clueless expression, Su Ming guessed he might have misunderstood something. He handed him the file folder: Take a look.

Inside the folder was a patient information registration form from the speech therapy center.

After reading the words on it, Zou Beiyuan’s tightly furrowed brows slowly relaxed, and his tone became less cold. “You went there this morning?”

Su Ming nodded, walked to the dining table, and wrote in his spiral notebook: The person earlier is the deputy director of the therapy center, named Cheng Jianyun. He’s a friend of Ling Shanshan.

Then he wrote another line: I ate lunch in their cafeteria.

One more line: Anything else you want to ask?

“Oh,” Zou Beiyuan looked away, holding the forms and studying them for a moment. “Are you planning to go for speech training?”

Actually, after visiting the speech center, Su Ming noticed that all the patients receiving treatment there were children, and he really didn’t want to go.

But at that moment, he thought that if he said he would go, Zou Beiyuan might be happy, so he asked Zou Beiyuan: Do you want me to go?

Zou Beiyuan raised his hand and gently touched Su Ming’s face. “Of course I want you to go.”

Su Ming signed: Then I’ll go.

He placed the notebook and the forms on the dining table and asked him, Have you eaten? I’ll make you something to eat.

“I don’t want to eat,” Zou Beiyuan pulled Su Ming into his arms. “Just a hug, and then I’ll leave.”

Su Ming broke free and signed: How can I let you go hungry? It’s still early. I’ll cook some noodles for you.

After saying that, he went to the fridge to get the ingredients, and then was surprised to see a cake box inside the fridge.

Su Ming: ??????

He turned to look at Zou Beiyuan, who smiled and said, “Take it out and have a look.”

A very beautiful strawberry cake, with plump and cute strawberries arranged on white cream, and a line of small words written with chocolate sauce underneath: “For my baby Su Ming.”

Su Ming understood; the little wolf had come back specially to celebrate his birthday with him.

“They ordered it too late, so they could only rush out this ordinary design,” Zou Beiyuan said as he hugged him from behind, “Next year, I’ll order a better one for your birthday.”

Su Ming placed the cake on the dining table, took it out of the box and looked at it for a moment. He felt his eyes sting slightly, then turned around, tiptoed, and kissed Zou Beiyuan’s lips. Zou Beiyuan kissed him back.

Su Ming was lifted and sat on the dining table by Zou Beiyuan. His legs naturally hung to the sides of Zou Beiyuan, their breathing and bodies intimately entwined.

Su Ming was kissed so much that he kept leaning backward, losing his balance a bit. His hands instinctively reached for the dining table to support himself, and his right hand accidentally touched the cake, getting cream on his fingers.

He turned his face away to catch his breath and pushed on Zou Beiyuan’s chest, wanting to go wash his hands.

But Zou Beiyuan lowered his gaze and glanced at his hand, then grabbed his fingers, spreading the cream onto his lips, and leaned down to kiss him again.

The cream was slowly stirred, and the sweetness spread in their mouths. As their lips and tongues intertwined, Su Ming unconsciously closed his legs around Zou Beiyuan, wanting him to hold him tighter.

“Perhaps it was the sweetness of the cream that made their kiss gradually become more intense, and the temperature of their bodies gradually rose.

Zou Beiyuan’s fingers slipped under Su Ming’s shirt hem, gripping his waist, then moving downwards along his waist. Su Ming could no longer breathe properly, only able to lightly gasp against Zou Beiyuan’s lips.”

He really had no resistance to Zou Beiyuan’s fingers, and he became hard almost the moment Zou Beiyuan touched his sensitive spot.

Feeling that Zou Beiyuan had the same reaction, Su Ming untied the drawstring of Zou Beiyuan’s sweatpants and slowly reached his hand inside.

They kissed for a long time. Su Ming’s restless hands made Zou Beiyuan lose some control as well. Zou Beiyuan’s breathing became heavy as he asked, “The strawberry-flavored one… is used up… did you buy a new one?”

Su Ming shook his head, his hands never stopping. He closed his eyes and kissed Zou Beiyuan’s chin and Adam’s apple, lightly biting his neck.

Zou Beiyuan’s fingers traced down Su Ming’s spine and slipped inside his waistband. His voice was husky as he asked, “What should we do… should I go buy one now?”

Su Ming opened his eyes, his face flushed. He shook his head while panting heavily. Under Zou Beiyuan’s gaze, he took a piece of cream from the cake and spread it on the top of Zou Beiyuan’s beautifully shaped member.