Chapter 68
Qi Qianli turned his head to look at the suddenly appearing Shi Ye. Holy shit, how does he walk without making a sound? He scared the hell out of me.
Faced with Shi Ye’s mockery, Qi Qianli stuck to his usual style, arrogant as fire. “What’s it to you? Didn’t you and Xia Fengsheng break up?”
He had seen all the news online. Xia Fengsheng had broken up and was going on a dating show.
Shi Ye stared at him darkly. “We did break up.”
Qi Qianli sneered. “Then why are you still so—”
Shi Ye cut him off. “And then we got back together.”
Qi Qianli: ……
The tip of his nose suddenly turned red. His face went blank. Back together?
If people broke up, that meant they didn’t want to be together anymore. So why would they patch things up again? Who in this world invented the idea of going back to an old flame?
Was the old grass really that much sweeter?
Qi Qianli’s brain crashed. Why would Xia Fengsheng get back together with someone as fake and scheming as Shi Ye?
He still remembered exactly how Shi Ye had slandered him in front of Xia Fengsheng.
It had obviously been Shi Ye who provoked him first, and only then had he splashed water on his face. Who would have thought that the moment Xia Fengsheng appeared, Shi Ye would turn it all around and make it seem like everything was his fault?
He had been more wronged than Dou E.
Looking at Shi Ye’s hypocritical face, Qi Qianli felt an inexplicable fire rising inside him.
There was no need for the restaurant to go to the trouble of brewing tea—if they just soaked Shi Ye in water, the whole place could drink first-rate pu’er.
What was even more infuriating was that those two had already gotten back together twice, and he had not even gotten into the queue yet.
Qi Qianli was resentful, completely unaware that this was actually the third time Xia Fengsheng and Shi Ye had gotten back together.
Shi Ye sat down in his seat, glowing with springtime happiness, none of the usual dejection left in him. He was so radiant he practically blinded Qi Qianli.
Love really was the best medicine.
Qi Qianli looked at him, grinding his teeth, and deliberately jabbed at him. “Don’t be happy too soon. With your condition, sooner or later you’ll probably get dumped again.”
Shi Ye had erectile dysfunction. Sex life was one of the key factors in a relationship.
Never mind how their sex life was—there might not even be one.
A relationship without sex life would never last. That was one of the sharpest tools for deepening feelings.
Sooner or later, Xia Fengsheng would get sick of Shi Ye for being impotent.
When that day came, no matter how hard Shi Ye begged, Xia Fengsheng would never look back.
Qi Qianli was waiting for that day.
“Our relationship isn’t something you need to worry about,” Shi Ye said. Just that very morning, they had eaten breakfast together and shared a good-morning kiss. The thought of it made sweetness well up in his chest, the corners of his lips lifting. “We’re doing great.”
Qi Qianli could not imagine what someone as captivating as Xia Fengsheng was like in private when he was dating someone.
Every possibility he imagined seemed slightly off. It felt like something you could only understand by experiencing it yourself.
Qi Qianli’s jealousy made his teeth ache. He put on his sunglasses. “Great, then. Why tell me? I’m not jealous at all.”
Shi Ye said, “Take your sunglasses off.”
Qi Qianli: ……
Damn it!
Qi Qianli shot to his feet, utterly broken. “Why do you get to be with Xia Fengsheng?!”
Shi Ye glanced at him. “I’m not taking apprentices.”
Qi Qianli: ……
Qi Qianli shattered into puzzle pieces. Wearing his sunglasses, he stormed off in a fury.
After Qi Qianli left, Shi Ye and Shen Jiyan ordered their meal.
It had already been a whole morning since Shi Ye had sent Xia Fengsheng a message. While waiting for the food, he took out his phone and opened their chat.
The contact name at the top clearly read: Sweetheart.
Their chat background was a photo of the two of them together.
It was only from what Qi Qianli had said just now that Shen Jiyan learned Shi Ye and Xia Fengsheng had made up. No wonder Shi Ye looked so good today.
Seeing Shi Ye smiling foolishly at his phone, Shen Jiyan asked, “Finally made up?”
Shi Ye typed as he answered, “Yeah.”
Shen Jiyan said, “What are you chatting about? You look that happy.”
Shi Ye did not tell him the actual contents of the chat, since that was private between him and Xia Fengsheng. Instead, he mentioned what he was about to do.
“This morning I forgot to pack a drink with his lunchbox, so I’m thinking of ordering him something to drink.”
As he spoke, Shi Ye sent the message.
Shi Ye: “You there? What are you doing?”
On the other side, Xia Fengsheng was busy with Zhan Shengyao trying to get a good photo of the lunchbox. He saw the message, quickly tapped into the chat, replied in a rush, and then immediately switched back to the camera to keep taking pictures.
Sweetheart: “Cheating.”
Shi Ye: O.O
Shi Ye froze on the spot, phone in hand.
What kind of melodrama had gotten tired of its own actors and decided to drag them in for two episodes?
Shen Jiyan noticed something was wrong. “What happened?”
Just a moment ago he had been all sweet and pink bubbles over his phone. Why had all the bubbles suddenly gone bang bang bang and burst?
Shi Ye sat there completely frozen, unable to believe what he was seeing.
Shen Jiyan leaned over and took a quick look at Xia Fengsheng’s reply.
Shen Jiyan: ……
He looked awkwardly at Shi Ye, who had been glowing with happiness only seconds ago, then raised a hand and wiped the sweat from the corner of his forehead. He hadn’t expected Xia Fengsheng to be so honest that he would even tell Shi Ye he was cheating.
So what now?
Looking at Shi Ye, Shen Jiyan asked, “What do we do? Order two drinks?”
Shi Ye looked like exactly the sort of person who, even if Xia Fengsheng really cheated on him, would still choose to forgive him.
After all, he had practically wanted to die after the last breakup. Now that they were back together, even if the King of Heaven came, there was no way he would break up again.
Shi Ye stared at the message on his phone. He remembered telling Xia Fengsheng when they got back together that there could be privacy between them, but no secrets.
And now, looking at the message, Shi Ye thought: ……
Maybe you should have kept this from me after all.
The feeling of losing Xia Fengsheng was too painful. He did not want to experience it again.
Shi Ye silently deleted the “cheating” message Xia Fengsheng had sent him.
He would just act as though it had never existed.
Shi Ye: This time, I’m shutting my eyes tight. I refuse to believe I can’t be happy.
The next second, the photo Xia Fengsheng had taken of the lunchbox arrived.
Xia Fengsheng: “Eating lunch.”
After much hardship with Zhan Shengyao, the camera had finally managed to produce a shot Xia Fengsheng found satisfactory.
After sending the photo, Xia Fengsheng noticed the mistaken message he had sent earlier.
He had meant to type shooting photos, but had accidentally typed cheating.
He sent another message to explain: “The message above was sent by mistake. I meant I’m taking photos.”
The moment Shi Ye saw the correction, he came back to life.
Shi Ye: “:D”
He knew Xia Fengsheng loved him to death.
Pink bubbles instantly started popping up all around him again.
—
On the other side, after finishing the photos, Xia Fengsheng and Zhan Shengyao finally got to eat lunch.
As Xia Fengsheng ate the lunchbox Shi Ye had made, chewing away, he asked Zhan Shengyao, “Busy later?”
Zhan Shengyao, cheeks puffed out as she chewed, answered, “No. Why?”
Xia Fengsheng said, “Shi Ye ordered drinks. They’ll be delivered in a bit. He got one for you too.”
Zhan Shengyao’s eyes lit up. “Really?”
Not long after lunch, the drinks arrived in their hands. Shi Ye had specially arranged for someone to deliver them. Along with the drinks came high-end dessert gift boxes as after-meal sweets.
One box for Xia Fengsheng, one box for Zhan Shengyao. Nobody was left out.
After lunch, Shen Jiyan took a handkerchief and wiped his mouth.
“Shi Ye, there’s something I want you to know.”
Shi Ye set down his cutlery, relaxed. “What is it?”
Shen Jiyan took out his phone. “Before, when I invited Xia Fengsheng onto the dating show, he didn’t agree. Instead, he left me a message.”
As the bridge between the two of them, Shen Jiyan felt that now that they had reconciled, he himself deserved some credit too.
He handed his phone over.
In the voicemail inbox, there was clearly a message from Xia Fengsheng’s number.
Shi Ye turned the volume to the lowest setting and held it close to his ear so no one around them could hear.
“Mr. Shen, hello.”
“I am Xia Fengsheng.”
Xia Fengsheng’s quiet, spring-water voice flowed into his ear. Shi Ye listened as Xia Fengsheng described his feelings for him.
The audio played on.
Shi Ye listened with lowered eyes, his face growing redder and redder, his heart beating faster and faster.
“Every day I was with him, I felt deeply happy.”
Shi Ye’s heart went unbearably soft. Even the roots of his ears had gone numb. He wanted nothing more than to go back immediately and kiss Xia Fengsheng properly.
How could he be this good? This lovable?
The thought that he had once tried to toy with Xia Fengsheng’s feelings made Shi Ye feel like absolute trash.
After the recording ended, Shen Jiyan forwarded the audio to Shi Ye, then deleted it from his own phone.
Seeing Shi Ye’s deeply moved expression, Shen Jiyan felt sincerely happy for him too.
After seven years, they had fallen in love again.
It really had become that old saying:
Lovers finally becoming a couple.
Tch. Who would have thought that saying was actually true?
Shen Jiyan had worked on dating shows before, but a bond like the one between Shi Ye and Xia Fengsheng, stretching all the way back to youth, was the first he had ever seen.
After handing over the voice message, the two parted ways.
Shen Jiyan smiled and waved goodbye to Shi Ye.
Only after Shi Ye had completely disappeared did he suddenly remember something.
Shen Jiyan: Wait, shit!
He had forgotten to tell Shi Ye about the viral post about Xia Fengsheng from the dating-show buzz.
Shi Ye went straight back to his studio. Everyone was off taking their lunch break, so he went into his own break room as well.
He lay down on the big bed in the room and played Xia Fengsheng’s recording.
Then, by accident, the phone slipped into the gap between the bed and the wall.
The audio had been set to loop, so the voice continued playing.
Shi Ye looked at the phone that had fallen into the gap and then… happily pulled the blanket over himself.
—
That afternoon, after congratulating his senior on graduating successfully, Xia Fengsheng walked out through the school gate.
The weather was bright. It was only around two in the afternoon.
It was the season where spring and summer met. The breeze in the air was free and cool, brushing the face with a fresh softness.
The world was vivid and colorful. Sunlight lit everything brilliantly.
The trees lining both sides of the street were dense with branches and leaves. When the wind passed through them, it carried with it the natural breath of life.
Xia Fengsheng got out of the car one street away from his apartment. The road ahead was inconvenient for parking, and he did not make things difficult for the driver.
It was only about a five-minute walk anyway.
Dressed sharply in his suit, he stood at the corner waiting for the traffic light. When the light turned green, he stepped onto the crosswalk and slowly walked home.
On the way back, he passed a flower shop.
Outside the shop were all kinds of flowers in full bloom. Petals of every color overlapped in riotous beauty, giving the shop a dreamy charm.
Xia Fengsheng’s gaze was unconsciously drawn to the fiery red begonia blossoms.
The owner was a girl of about twenty-five. The shop had only recently opened for the afternoon, and she was wearing gloves, energetically carrying flowers out to the front.
Her flowers bloomed larger and more brilliantly than those of the surrounding shops—a result of the painstaking care she had devoted to them.
She was full of bright, upward-moving energy, wearing a cute apron, white cloth gloves, and golden-dyed hair, with a flower crown woven from dried blossoms on her head. When she saw a handsome man with an extraordinary aura stop in front of the shop, she broke into a radiant smile.
“Sir, the flowers are in full bloom.”
“Would you like a bouquet?”
Ten minutes later, Xia Fengsheng was standing in the elevator holding a bouquet of gorgeously blooming red begonias.
Tucked inside it was a small card he had written himself.
When the shop owner was wrapping the bouquet, she had asked him who it was for.
Xia Fengsheng had replied in a calm voice, “For my lover.”
The owner tied the wrapping paper with a bow and asked excitedly, “Then do you want to write a card?”
Cards were free at her shop.
With that, she bent down behind the register and rummaged through a drawer, pulling out a whole pile of cute, girlish cards.
“We have all kinds of shapes. Pick whichever you like.”
The cards at her shop were different from the usual ones. Other flower shops had plain square cards, or at best maybe heart-shaped ones. Hers came in all kinds of designs—bows, candies, hearts, magic wands…
Xia Fengsheng was dazzled by the selection. He had never given anyone flowers before, naturally he did not know how to pick. The owner took out a large pink heart-shaped one for him.
“How about this? If you use red, it’ll clash with the begonias. Pink is just right.”
Xia Fengsheng did not refuse.
Then came the writing part, and the owner really did everything she could to help him.
“You should write: To the loveliest person in the whole world.”
The man in front of her looked far too proper. At a glance, he clearly was not someone who knew how to say sweet things.
Xia Fengsheng held the pen for a long moment without writing. He looked up. “Do I really have to write it like that?”
They had only just gotten back together. They were not that familiar yet.
The girl nodded. “Of course! When you’re in love, you have to say sweet things.”
You had to let the other person know just how much you loved them. Love was the process of two people expressing love to each other.
Then she suddenly remembered something. “Before you, there was another handsome guy who bought a lot of flowers here. He wrote a whole bunch of cards in one go. They were so mushy I was too embarrassed to even read them. Hehe.”
Just thinking back on it, the owner could still picture how that handsome guy had looked while writing—his eyes practically dripping honey.
When he started writing, it was like inspiration burst forth. It felt like he had written a thousand words in total.
After hearing that, Xia Fengsheng understood. So other people wrote those kinds of things on cards too. If that was the case, then he would write it as well.
It was his first time doing this, thankfully with the shop owner coaching him.
“To the loveliest person in the whole world, I’ll keep loving you every day~”
After finishing, Xia Fengsheng did not dare look at it a second time. If he had still been pretending to have amnesia, he could have said words like this to Shi Ye without even blinking, while looking directly into his eyes.
But somehow now he felt shy.
After the card was written, the girl tucked it into the bouquet. “When your lover sees this, he’ll definitely love it.”
Standing at the apartment entrance, holding that fiery red bouquet, his pale skin set it off so perfectly that for a moment it was impossible to tell whether Xia Fengsheng or the flowers looked prettier.
He raised a hand, entered the password, and opened the door. The moment he stepped into the entryway, he heard footsteps inside.
Before he could even bend down to change shoes, the next second Shi Ye appeared holding a bouquet of yellow roses.
The flowers had clearly only just been taken out of their wrapping, about to be arranged. The moment Shi Ye saw Xia Fengsheng come back, he practically wagged his big tail and ran over.
And there was beautiful Xia Fengsheng, holding a brilliant bouquet of red begonias.
Shi Ye looked at the begonias in his arms, and his heart skipped a beat. A little shyly, he asked, “Are the flowers for me?”
Xia Fengsheng’s ears reddened. He gave a vague sound in reply. “Mm.”
The two of them avoided each other’s eyes. Shi Ye reached out and accepted the flowers into his arms. “Thank you. I really like them.”
Seeing the look of delighted surprise in Shi Ye’s eyes, a smile quietly appeared on Xia Fengsheng’s own face too.
But the next second, when their eyes met, both of them started getting awkward and fidgety again in the entryway.
They had clearly both planned to come home and kiss each other to death, but now that they were face to face, Shi Ye was too embarrassed to make the first move.
He was too excited. He really had not expected Xia Fengsheng to buy him flowers.
Lowering his head, he sniffed the blossoms and noticed the card tucked inside.
Once the card was discovered, Xia Fengsheng became a little at a loss. “About that, I—”
But Shi Ye did not read it immediately. Instead he said, “Wait a second,” holding the flowers, and ran off toward the room.
When he came back, a whole pile of cards landed in Xia Fengsheng’s hands.
Xia Fengsheng: O.O
With his cool, aloof expression, he looked down at the cards piled in his hands and blinked.
They stacked up like a small hill, with the clear spirit of: If you give me one drop, I’ll pay you back with a waterfall.
He had only given Shi Ye one card. He had not expected Shi Ye to return so many.
There were too many to look at comfortably in the entryway. After changing his shoes, Xia Fengsheng walked into the living room.
He had originally intended to sit on the sofa and read the cards there.
But the next moment, the living room came into view—decorated all over with brilliant flowers.
It was a harmonious riot of bright color.
Xia Fengsheng’s pupils trembled.
The floor-to-ceiling windows were wide open. Thin white curtains fluttered in the breeze. Cool gusts stirred the flowers throughout the room. Bright sunlight poured inside, reflecting off the floor onto the ceiling, making the whole place shimmer like sunlight dancing over a lake.
Bright. Warm. And most beautiful of all were the colors the flowers had brought into the living room.
Warm, comfortable, beautiful.
When he was little, Xia Fengsheng had lived in a rundown apartment building, sweltering in summer, freezing in winter. Later, it was school dormitories, rented rooms for exam prep, a few cramped square meters packed full of other people’s mockery that he was daydreaming beyond his station.
Later still, things improved. He lived in the dorms at Jing University. His dream had become reality. He had gotten into Jing University for graduate school, and life had opened a whole new chapter.
And now, before him was the apartment he had earned enough to rent after making something of himself.
The apartment was not only his—it also held his lover.
Maybe when he was a child, falling asleep counting the stars, he had never known that one day he really would live the life he used to envy.
Money. Love. No worries over survival. No confusion in love.
The storm of his life had parted. The clouds had broken open to let the light through.
Holding the heavy bundle of cards, Xia Fengsheng sat down on the sofa, his arms full of love.
Shi Ye would not let go of the begonias, loving them to death, already planning to preserve every single stem as a specimen.
He eagerly opened the card.
“To the loveliest person in the whole world, I’ll keep loving you every day~”
Ahh—Shi Ye buried his face in the flowers, his heart melting into a mess.
He hadn’t expected Xia Fengsheng to write something like that for him.
Compared to Xia Fengsheng’s card, Shi Ye’s were far mushier.
Shi Ye had his little-essay skills on full display. Every single card was crammed to the brim, not a single scrap of space left unused.
Xia Fengsheng even suspected that Shi Ye was the exact handsome guy the shop owner had been talking about—the one who had bought a giant pile of all kinds of flowers and written countless cards.
As soon as he opened them, he was hit in the face with endless sweetheart, baby, dear husband, kisses.
“I really, really love you, but if you ask me which day I love you most, I honestly don’t know, because every single day I love you more than the day before.”
“Sweetheart, how did you grow up this pretty? I like you so much I’m dying. The most invincible sweetheart in the whole world and universe.”
“Xia Fengsheng! I refuse to let anyone go against you!”
“Love you, love you, love you so much.”
Reading them made Xia Fengsheng’s scalp prickle and his toes curl against the floor in embarrassment, yet Shi Ye did not feel even the slightest shame.
He sat beside him with his chin propped in one hand, watching Xia Fengsheng’s reaction.
Of course what he wrote was mushy. He wanted Xia Fengsheng to know exactly how much he loved him.
Xia Fengsheng flipped through the cards one after another, and though he was embarrassed, he did not stop.
When he was young, he had never heard sweet words from anyone. Now Shi Ye was saying all the sweet words in the world to him.
At this moment, both of them seemed to have returned to the eighteen-year-olds they once were, before they had ever parted.
—
There were too many cards to finish reading.
Xia Fengsheng closed the one in his hand and lifted his eyes. Like a siren from the deep sea luring sailors to ruin, his fox-like gaze drifted toward Shi Ye.
His expression held an unreadable meaning, his eyes carrying a faint smile. That elegant, noble face showed clear satisfaction—the cards had pleased him.
It was the look of someone about to grant a reward.
Shi Ye hugged the begonias and stiffened all over. He swallowed hard. Was Xia Fengsheng going to kiss him?
Before Shi Ye could react, Xia Fengsheng was already leaning toward him.
His clean, delicate fragrance rushed over. Shi Ye’s eyes widened, his gaze going blank as he stared at him.
Xia Fengsheng was very sexy. He had not yet changed after coming back from work today.
Formalwear suited him perfectly. As he bent down, the clothes tightened over his body, and the exquisitely tailored trousers wrapped snugly around his thighs. Under the taut fabric, Shi Ye could see the marks left by the shirt garters hugging his legs.
Shi Ye: ><
Heat flooded his body. Embarrassed, he looked away. By then Xia Fengsheng was already right in front of him, leaning over him, his usually frosty eyes lowered as he watched him.
The distance between them was tiny. Just a little closer and they would be kissing.
For some reason, even now, when it came to kissing, Shi Ye still felt too shy to look straight at Xia Fengsheng.
Back at the mountain hotel beneath the temple, when Xia Fengsheng had been half-asleep that morning, the two of them had kissed naturally enough. But now that they were truly together, he had become awkward instead.
It was like… they had gone back to high school.
The seven years lost between them had been swept away, as though they had never separated at all. He was once again the Shi Ye who had been dating Xia Fengsheng for over two years.
Shi Ye nervously shut his eyes.
Xia Fengsheng lowered his gaze and looked at him like this.
Shi Ye: >3<
A smile curved Xia Fengsheng’s lips. He leaned in as if to kiss him, but at the last moment, just before their mouths touched, he braked sharply and stopped.
Xia Fengsheng: ……
Sure enough, people really couldn’t be too clear-headed. He felt a little too shy to actually kiss him.
Seeing Shi Ye hugging the begonias, pouting and waiting, Xia Fengsheng lifted the fringe at his forehead with his fingers, then closed his eyes and left a deep, affectionate kiss on his forehead.
Shi Ye: O.O
After kissing him, Xia Fengsheng stood straight up again. “All right. I’m going to change now.”
With that, he went into the dressing room.
Shi Ye: ???
Who was changing who?
He had kissed his forehead and run. Sitting there on the sofa hugging the flowers, Shi Ye’s face went red as his heart fluttered wildly.
What a ruthless little tease. He had gotten exactly what he wanted.
—
That night, after showering, Shi Ye returned to the master bedroom. Xia Fengsheng was leaning against the headboard reading a book, a foreign classic in full English.
When Shi Ye came back, Xia Fengsheng set the book down on the bedside cabinet. It was already ten o’clock—time to sleep.
Since Xia Fengsheng still had classes these days, he went to bed early, unlike before when he often stayed up deep into the night.
Xia Fengsheng lay on the right side of the bed, and Shi Ye naturally slid into the left.
There was only one double blanket, and the two of them shared it. Xia Fengsheng rested his head on the pillow and turned to meet Shi Ye’s gaze. For a moment, the atmosphere was awkward.
What would other couples do in a moment like this?
The two of them looked at each other in silence.
At last Xia Fengsheng said, “Let’s sleep.”
Then he closed his eyes.
Shi Ye also tried to sleep.
Very quickly, the bedroom fell silent. A dim little night-light glowed by the bed, darkness spread through the room, and everything became still.
Deep night invited thought. Outside, with people no longer moving about, the world seemed to stop, apart from the traffic lights still dutifully working.
Time passed second by second. The white moon shifted its place in the sky.
At midnight, Shi Ye suddenly opened his eyes. Slowly, he raised himself on one strong arm and carefully turned toward Xia Fengsheng, who was sleeping with his eyes closed beside him.
“Xia Fengsheng,” he called softly, testing him.
Xia Fengsheng did not react.
“Sweetheart.”
Xia Fengsheng still lay there with his eyes closed, sleeping peacefully.
Once he was sure Xia Fengsheng was really asleep, Shi Ye immediately leaned over.
Supporting himself with his arms braced on either side of Xia Fengsheng’s body, he lowered his head and stared at Xia Fengsheng’s sleeping face, then could not control himself any longer and urgently kissed him on the cheek and lips.
“How are you this pretty?” he whispered in his ear.
When Xia Fengsheng was awake, Shi Ye felt too shy, but now the person who haunted all his dreams was right there beside him, and he could not rein in his desire.
Shi Ye buried his face in the exposed hollow of Xia Fengsheng’s neck, kissing and nuzzling, rubbing his nose against that tender pale skin and breathing him in.
There was nowhere on Xia Fengsheng he did not love, nowhere that did not fit his appetite.
He pressed his lips to the place where Xia Fengsheng’s pulse beat, sucking there, and the person beneath him let out a muffled sound.
“Mm…”
Shi Ye jumped in fright and quickly wrapped his arms around that slim waist, pulling him in and soothing him.
“Careful, hubby.”
Xia Fengsheng, who was in fact fully awake: ……
Shi Ye stayed like that for a while before finally stopping his shameless sucking. In the end, he pressed one last light kiss to Xia Fengsheng’s cheek.
Then, satisfied, he closed his eyes.
Shi Ye thought: Shi Ye, I really envy you.
Shi Ye: OVO
The bed returned to quiet. The moon moved slowly across the sky.
By the time the moon had shifted to the other side, it was three in the morning.
“Shi Ye.”
Shi Ye, eyes closed, did not respond.
Xia Fengsheng propped himself up with both hands on either side of him. “Shi Ye?”
Shi Ye: ZzzZzzz
Seeing that Shi Ye did not react, Xia Fengsheng narrowed his long eyes slightly and slowly slipped his hand inside Shi Ye’s sleep shirt.
Firm lower abdomen, then the distinct ridges of his abs above that, then the strong chest and the slightly raised, full pectorals.
Xia Fengsheng’s hand moved boldly over Shi Ye’s abs, his fingertips rubbing slowly along the texture of his skin.
He had set his eyes on this body the first time Shi Ye came to his place pretending to be a pipe repairman.
That body, marked by intense training, all taut muscle and power. Because his workload was so heavy, his intake had risen too, and his physique had begun to gain that faint, perfectly handsome softness over hard muscle.
But Shi Ye kept excellent control over it. He had not let the muscle fade. Instead, he had increased the training until his body became even more perfect.
From his lower abdomen, Xia Fengsheng traced upward to his throat, toying with that prominent Adam’s apple. That richly defined face touched by mixed-blood features, paired with such a powerful body…
He swallowed.
Very sexy.
Xia Fengsheng undid two of Shi Ye’s shirt buttons and lowered his head to bite lightly at his chest twice, his teeth grazing the skin.
Then, like a cat that had just stolen fish, perfectly satisfied, he pulled the blanket over himself and went to sleep.
In broad daylight, when both of them were awake, he felt shy. At night, unable to see Shi Ye’s eyes, he felt far more natural, free to follow the pull of desire.
Closing his eyes, Xia Fengsheng thought with satisfaction that it was a good thing Shi Ye slept so heavily—he had not woken no matter what Xia Fengsheng did. With that thought, he fell asleep contentedly.
Shi Ye, who had in fact been awake the entire time with his chest pounding and one spot hurting fiercely: ……
For some reason, the two of them were unexpectedly alike when it came to sneaking around at night to do little underhanded things.
During the day, both were too shy. So they could only wait until the other seemed asleep to make their move.
—
The next morning, when Xia Fengsheng and Shi Ye woke up and saw the red marks on each other’s necks, both of them felt a guilty twinge.
Shi Ye spoke first, all innocence and a little too obvious. “It’s spring. The mosquitoes are out.”
Xia Fengsheng touched his neck. “Mm.”
While changing clothes in the dressing room, Xia Fengsheng received a message from Shen Jiyan.
“Mr. Xia, could you help me with something?”
Xia Fengsheng stood in the dressing room while Shi Ye was in the kitchen making breakfast.
He replied: “What kind of help?”
He did not pay much attention to entertainment news online, so he had no idea what was going on.
Shen Jiyan forwarded him the viral post about Xia Fengsheng from the dating-show buzz.
“Before, when we had that meal together, someone secretly took photos. A passerby mistook you for one of the male guests on my next dating show, and after posting it online, the thread exploded. It’s totally out of control now. Could I trouble you to cooperate with our team and record a short video?”
“If you mind appearing on camera, an audio clip would work too.”
On the other side, Shen Jiyan was all but kneeling and begging. The netizens were too excited, and his team truly had no way to wrap it up otherwise.
He felt like a sheep hung over a fire, only able to bleat helplessly.
Just then Shi Ye came in to call Xia Fengsheng to breakfast.
He saw Xia Fengsheng standing there in the dressing room, phone in hand, clearly thinking something over.
Xia Fengsheng was weighing whether to do audio or video. If he did video, people would probably look into his profession, which could provide some publicity for the studio.
But since he personally did not want to show his face, he finally chose audio.
“Audio is fine.”
Shen Jiyan was overjoyed, practically ready to kneel and call Xia Fengsheng “Dad.”
After all, helping him was not something Xia Fengsheng was obliged to do. And not everyone wanted fame.
Shen Jiyan asked what day would be convenient so they could set a time.
Xia Fengsheng said he was free today.
Other than one class in the morning, the rest of the day was open.
Shen Jiyan scheduled it for noon and, taking the chance, invited him to try the team’s lunch.
Xia Fengsheng looked up and asked Shi Ye, “Did you make lunchboxes?”
“Not yet.”
He had only just prepared the ingredients.
“Then don’t today. I have plans for lunch.”
He briefly explained the situation with Shen Jiyan.
The moment the explanation ended, Shi Ye started acting bashful.
Xia Fengsheng lifted a brow. “What?”
Shi Ye honestly admitted, “Actually, he and I are friends.”
Xia Fengsheng blinked.
At once, it clicked why someone from the entertainment industry had inexplicably reached out to him before. So it had all been because of Shi Ye.
At the time, when they were still broken up, Shen Jiyan had tried helping Shi Ye engineer a chance meeting—but his opening excuse had been a disaster. What was meant to be a coincidence had gone crooked, and the dating show had accidentally become the excuse instead.
Then, by some absurd chain of events, Xia Fengsheng’s post had gone viral online.
Shi Ye hooked his finger around Xia Fengsheng’s pale hand. “I already know about the recording you left in his voicemail. Thank you for saying those things about me.”
Standing there in the dressing room, the two of them looked at each other—and instantly both their faces flushed red. They quickly let go of each other’s hands and went out to eat breakfast.
What do you do when being with your lover makes you too shy?
Luckily, Shi Ye’s studio had less work than usual that day. Once Xia Fengsheng finished with Shen Jiyan, Shi Ye would be able to pick him up so they could eat lunch together.
At noon, after class ended, Xia Fengsheng went to Shen Jiyan’s company.
The dating-show team was waiting at the prepared recording set. They were already shooting the official photos of the show’s guests, planning to release them all in one wave right after Xia Fengsheng’s clarification audio about not joining the show—to strike while the iron was hot.
Shen Jiyan was supervising the progress when his assistant’s voice came from behind him.
“Boss, Mr. Xia is here.”
Shen Jiyan turned around. The assistant who had gone downstairs to receive him had already brought Xia Fengsheng up.
The moment Xia Fengsheng walked in, his cool, proud bearing instantly drew most of the eyes in the room. The true savior had arrived. Shen Jiyan hurried over to greet him.
“Mr. Xia.”
Xia Fengsheng quietly took in the surroundings. Shen Jiyan quickly led him to a sofa, where the staff clustered around.
Xia Fengsheng could see Shen Jiyan was too busy to free himself, so he cut straight to the point. “We can start recording now.”
An assistant immediately brought over the prepared script.
For some reason, whenever Xia Fengsheng spoke, people felt an instinctive urge to obey him.
He read through the script once. His execution ability was strong—whatever the task, he always handled it steadily and perfectly.
The recording script had already been written. All Xia Fengsheng had to do was read it. At the end, they would insert a few small questions about love.
After all, it was a dating show—they wanted to create a good romantic atmosphere for the audience.
Recording began.
Xia Fengsheng’s clear, mountain-spring voice flowed into the microphone.
“…Thank you all online for your affection and support. I already have a lover, so please continue to watch Love 2.”
Once the script was read, the little assistant asked the extra questions from the side.
“Mr. Xia, when did you and your boyfriend first meet?”
Xia Fengsheng answered expressionlessly, “We met in high school.”
The assistant asked, “Has your relationship always been stable?”
Xia Fengsheng replied, “We broke up once not long ago, but now we’re back together.”
The assistant asked, “Mr. Xia, do you like your lover very much?”
Xia Fengsheng answered with a short sound: “Mm.”
It sounded cool and clear, but together with the earlier script, that single “Mm” carried endless tenderness.
The moment the audio was released, hot threads exploded across the media platforms.
“The sky has fallen—rumored dating show heartthrob already has a boyfriend, not joining the show.”
“I died on the spot the moment I heard the recording.”
“Wuwuwuwu, I really wanted to see the handsome guy on the show.”
“But he’s ridiculously handsome. Even shot from such awful candid angles, his face still looked flawless.”
“Here, let me share a few photos of the handsome guy [image][image][image]…”
They were all candid shots saved from the earlier thread.
Better save them now, because there probably wouldn’t be any new photos later.
Sharp-eyed netizens quickly noticed:
“! Isn’t he S’s ex-boyfriend?”
“I thought he looked familiar too. I think he really is S’s ex.”
The moment people recognized Xia Fengsheng, they began tagging others to come see.
“It really is S’s ex-boyfriend!!”
“Hahahahaha, didn’t S say they would never get back together? Why is the handsome guy saying they already made up?”
“Every time S streams, it’s like he’s warming up to slap himself in the face.”
“S has always loved being clean, and now he’s using his own face to mop the floor.”
“No, wait—didn’t S say he liked the cute, small type? Then why get back with his ex? That guy looks like a cold-faced handsome beauty, not cute at all.”
“How big is S, and how big is the handsome guy? Even if the handsome guy is 1.8 meters, there’s still a size difference from S.”
“From S’s perspective, the handsome guy probably looks like a kitten.”
“Try imagining a cold-faced beauty tilting his head up to look at you. Wouldn’t that feel cute?”
“Ahhhhhhhh, I get it now!”
The release of the audio did not just create hot topics for the dating show. It also completely blew up the comment section of Shi Ye’s social media.
“I’m here to laugh at you. Didn’t you say you wouldn’t get back together? Hahahahaha.”
“So S has been sneaking off to be a dog again, right?”
“I knew you couldn’t bear it!”
“‘I’m definitely not getting back together~’ [Loopy sarcastic emoji]”
“S, congratulations on having such a handsome boyfriend [Yeonjin crooked-smile emoji].”
Once the recording was done, Shen Jiyan wanted to invite Xia Fengsheng to lunch.
But Shi Ye had finished work early and was coming to pick him up, so Xia Fengsheng declined. He sat on the sofa waiting for Shi Ye to arrive so they could go eat together.
There were a few scripts from Shen Jiyan’s productions on the sofa, and Shen Jiyan told him he could flip through them if he got bored.
Xia Fengsheng casually picked one up, but the plot was so absurd he couldn’t help reading a line aloud.
“That day, I personally sent my lover to prison?”
Just then Shi Ye walked in: ???
How had he ended up being sent to prison?
What was he, an accountant?
Xia Fengsheng felt that his brain had been assaulted. He put the script down and saw Shi Ye had arrived.
The two of them said goodbye to Shen Jiyan and left together.
For lunch they chose a ramen shop that Shi Ye had spent ages searching for online before finding.
Xia Fengsheng stood in front of the ramen shop in his suit, his outstanding figure making him look like a human display stand. His gaze was fixed on the ramen and the collaboration plush toy displayed in the front window.
The plush charm was a little dog holding a baseball.
He himself had no particular interest in cute things like that—but Shi Ye might like it.
Sure enough, after parking the car and coming over, Shi Ye was immediately drawn to the charm in the display window. He liked watching baseball games, and even after entering the shop, his eyes kept drifting toward it.
After they sat down, while Shi Ye was looking at the menu, Xia Fengsheng walked to the counter and asked how much the charm cost.
The clerk smiled and said, “Sir, the puppy charm is a challenge prize. If you want it, you can try our double-ramen challenge.”
“A challenge?”
“Yes. Double ramen. Finish it within twenty minutes, and not only is the meal free, you also get the charm.”
Standing at the counter, Xia Fengsheng inevitably drew a few extra glances from the clerk. She hadn’t expected someone this elegant to like cute things too.
When it came time to order, Shi Ye ordered a regular bowl of ramen. Xia Fengsheng ordered the double bowl.
Shi Ye blinked. “You’re ordering the double one?”
“Mm,” Xia Fengsheng said lightly. “I’m hungry.”
When the two bowls arrived, the clerk also brought over a timer.
The portion was huge, and she kindly reminded him that if he couldn’t finish, it was fine to leave some and not force himself.
Xia Fengsheng didn’t answer. Once the timer started, he calmly picked up his chopsticks.
Shi Ye: slurp slurp slurp.
Xia Fengsheng: slurp slurp slurp.
Seeing that massive bowl, Shi Ye truly thought Xia Fengsheng must be starving today.
Thankfully, the challenge only required finishing the noodles, not the broth. Xia Fengsheng completed it in the nineteenth minute.
The clerk came over to check. The bowl was spotless. Together with the other staff, she clapped and congratulated him on the successful challenge, then brought over the little charm.
Xia Fengsheng pinched it in his hand, stared at it for two seconds, then tossed it into Shi Ye’s palm.
“For you.”
Shi Ye looked at the charm in his hand, then at Xia Fengsheng’s empty double bowl, then back at the charm again. His head spun, sweetness rushing straight to his brain.
Xia Fengsheng had eaten the double bowl because he saw Shi Ye liked it?!
Shi Ye instantly started radiating hearts all over the place, attacking Xia Fengsheng one pink bubble after another.
Xia Fengsheng loved him so much.
Blushing, Shi Ye held the puppy charm like a treasure. Xia Fengsheng never expressed love directly in words—he always showed it through his actions.
Holding the charm, Shi Ye could hardly put it down. The smile on his face was bright as sunshine, practically blooming like a flower.
Xia Fengsheng leaned back in his chair, unable to move, his lightly muscled abdomen faintly rounded.
Looking at the lovestruck idiot expression on Shi Ye’s face, Xia Fengsheng’s malicious streak suddenly took over. He reached out, grabbed Shi Ye by the collar, and yanked him right in front of himself.
Shi Ye stumbled forward, bracing himself with both arms on either side of Xia Fengsheng, his gaze dazed.
Xia Fengsheng’s long, elegant fingers rested on his own distended stomach. His eyes narrowed like a snake’s as he lowered his voice into Shi Ye’s ear:
“I ate so much I got pregnant. What should we do?”
Shi Ye: ><
