There is no Redemption for A Scum Villain

Chapter 8

When Yue Qingyuan came home he could faintly hear the sound of bubbles popping coming from the bathroom. He assumed Shen Qingqiu had decided to take a bath after Yue Qingyuan had taken a little too long to come back. Yue Qingyuan smiled. He may have gotten older, but he still liked blowing bubbles in the bathtub. How cute... Yue Qingyuan stopped in his tracks and shook his head. What was he thinking again? He would probably earn himself a glare if Shen Qingqiu knew about it. At least from the normal Shen Qingqiu.

Yue Qingyuan went to his room. It was fairly late already. He had met one of his shidi on the way back and lost track of time when talking to him. He felt extremely exhausted and just wanted to change his clothes and go to bed. After exiting from behind the folding screen, where he had taken off his outer robes, he spotted something on the table. He stepped closer while he fumbled in his hair to take off his headpiece. Within the first steps he already recognized that it was a painting of ink on a white sheet of paper.

Yue Qingyuan set the headwear in his hand down on the table and knelt down. The painting featured two figures. Yue Qingyuan immediately recognized himself in one of them. That one was extremely detailed for being the result of brushwork. The other one was rather plainly drawn, as if the creator had not set much interest in making it look pretty, as if all attention had flown to the first one. That didn't stop Yue Qingyuan from also recognizing this person. It was Shen Qingqiu himself. It was different from the first picture he had drawn of them where they had both been children and the lines had looked crooked.

Yue Qingyuan had to frown at how the two of them were depicted this time. It was nothing attention worthy. Mostly that is. The two of them seemed as though peacefully asleep, Shen Qingqiu resting his head on Yue Qingyuan's chest, face obscured by his own hair. What made Yue Qingyuan frown was that for some reason he didn't wear anything on his upper body. He wondered why Shen Qingqiu had chosen to draw it like this. It did seem a little odd. Yue Qingyuan didn't remember that he had ever slept this way.

Yue Qingyuan discovered a few smudges on the paper. What a pity, he thought, he must have accidentally gotten wet ink on his hands. It must be infuriating for someone when their painting got ruined. Even though he noticed them, Yue Qingyuan totally neglected the location of the spots on the paper. He was extremely startled when suddenly from behind him, someone snatched away the painting.

"I'm sorry," Yue Qingyuan said, turning to Shen Qingqiu, "I shouldn't have looked without asking."

Shen Qingqiu didn't answer, he only clutched the paper to his chest. Yue Qingyuan saw that his face was red, but he assumed it was from bathing. When Shen Qingqiu neither looked at him nor said anything, Yue Qingyuan thought he had to say something to cheer him up. Maybe he was just afraid that the picture wasn't good, because he had smudged it?

"It looks very nice," he said and smiled, "You're getting better at this. I could immediately recognize us."

Only then did Shen Qingqiu look up. He was extremely embarrassed that Yue Qingyuan had seen that picture, but he seemed to not even have noticed anything off about the picture.

"You...like it?" Shen Qingqiu asked hesitantly and looked down on his creation. When he did, his face got even more red.

"I do. It is very detailed for being drawn with ink. It's just a shame there are smudges on it. I assume you must be disappointed..." Yue Qingyuan replied.

"Smudges?" Shen Qingqiu looked at the spots of ink he had not-so-accidentally placed on the ink-Yue Qingyuan he had drawn. "Yes...I... accidentally touched it while it was still wet," he lied. So Yue Qingyuan had noticed, but had thought them to be made by accident. Maybe it was better if he did. Shen Qingqiu didn't want Yue Qingyuan to think poorly of him. To evade further questions, he quickly brought the painting into the study and stuffed it in the pile with the others.