Chapter 21
The dim courtyard was filled with the steaming white mist of the hot spring, and the air was thick with the scent of alcohol.
Soft light spread through the space. The buzz of intoxication gradually deepened. Under the slightly drunken moonlight, the wineglass reflected the faces of the two of them looking at one another.
Command. Obedience.
For those two words to come out of Pei Zhi’s mouth was like a lion personally handing over the tool that could pull out its own fangs and claws.
“Then I’ll try…” Xie Ning thought for a moment. “Sit down?”
Pei Zhi sat down at once, his unreadable eyes never leaving Xie Ning’s face.
Seeing that the water was about to cover his nose and mouth, Xie Ning hurriedly said, “That’s enough. Get up.”
After Pei Zhi got up, he stared straight at Xie Ning and asked, like he was asking for a reward, “Can I have a hug?”
He said, “I was very obedient just now.”
Did that even count as obedient? Xie Ning truly felt a little helpless. He said, “Just one?”
Pei Zhi asked, “Can it be many?”
“No.” Xie Ning was afraid that too much unobstructed contact would trigger bad consequences, like his skin hunger suddenly flaring up violently. He said, “Just one.”
Pei Zhi curled his fingers and propped his chin on one hand. When he turned to look at Xie Ning, there seemed to be a trace of laughter in his eyes. “Just one.”
He wrapped both arms around Xie Ning’s shoulders, his expression solemn and serious as he pulled him into his arms.
The lines of his muscles were tight. The moment he hugged Xie Ning, it felt as though he had just come from a long session of training, still in that stage of rushing adrenaline and engorged blood.
Pei Zhi’s frame was large, making Xie Ning look especially slim, lithe, and small by comparison. With only a casual sweep of his arms, he could gather Xie Ning fully into his embrace.
He wanted to keep holding him. A trace of struggle appeared on his face, but after only a brief hesitation, he still let go.
[My wife said I could only hug him once. Even though my wife didn’t tell me to stop, one time means one time. I can’t hug him more than that.]
[My wife feels so soft in my arms. I like it so much.]
[Fuck fuck.]
[Wife wife, my good little wife. (#^3^#)]
Pei Zhi continued staring at Xie Ning with that direct gaze. “I only hugged you once.”
That expectant expression and gaze looked exactly like… a large dog that had just finished carrying out its owner’s command, now waiting for praise and a reward.
Xie Ning gave a quiet “Mm” and said, “Very obedient.”
A signal almost like delight spread through Pei Zhi’s eyes.
Xie Ning had not been drunk before, but that hug had scattered his thoughts for a moment.
It had felt too good.
Their wet skin had pressed together with nothing in between, no clothing acting as a barrier. Xie Ning could clearly feel the body heat and heartbeat of another person. The satisfaction was countless times greater than ordinary social touching before.
If earlier touches were like eating a popsicle in the heat of summer, then that hug had been like taking a cold bath in an air-conditioned room while eating chilled watermelon and iced drinks.
They were not even in the same league.
Xie Ning was a little afraid of that kind of overwhelming satisfaction. In his view, placing himself in an environment that was too comfortable was dangerous.
Too much comfort dulled the nerves and easily made people sink into indulgence.
But the key point was… it felt far too good.
At last, Xie Ning could understand why so many people drowned themselves in alcohol and pleasure. When something could bring such intense mental delight, it really could make a person lose all restraint and forget their limits.
Ripples moved across the water as the distance between Pei Zhi and Xie Ning shortened. Bending slightly at the waist and lowering his head, Pei Zhi said seriously, “Xie Ning.”
Xie Ning said, “You’re not drunk, are you?”
“No,” Pei Zhi said. “I’m waiting for you to get drunk.”
[Then I’ll take care of you.]
Xie Ning tugged faintly at the corner of his lips. “I don’t get drunk easily.”
Pei Zhi said, “I’m very patient, and I’m very good at waiting.”
Then he asked, “What are you like when you’re drunk?”
[Will you get extra clingy?]
[Like you can’t do anything at all, can’t even shower, and need me to help?]
[Would you even need me to hold you up to go to the bathroom?]
Xie Ning cast him a light glance. “Anyway, it won’t be what you’re imagining.”
Pei Zhi said, “How do you know what I’m thinking?”
Xie Ning said, “Because I can read minds.”
“So impressive.” His tone was like someone humoring a child.
“I’m not joking.” Xie Ning was very serious. “I really can.”
Pei Zhi said, “If you really can, then I believe you.”
But his attitude did not look like belief at all.
Then again, if someone suddenly told Xie Ning they could read minds, he probably would have politely humored them on the surface too while not actually believing it.
Pei Zhi added, “Even if you couldn’t read minds, if you wanted to know what I was thinking, I would still tell you.”
“Really?” Thinking of all those messy inner thoughts, then looking at Pei Zhi’s unusually proper expression now, Xie Ning genuinely wanted to laugh. “Can those thoughts really be said out loud?”
“Of course.” Pei Zhi said, “I’m perfectly open and honest.”
Xie Ning said, “Then what are you thinking right now?”
It was probably just more strange nonsense again.
Xie Ning had long since gotten used to those wild thoughts. He also knew they were only joking nonsense. Actions mattered more than thoughts, and the mind was naturally wild and unconstrained, so there was no need to take them seriously.
“I’m thinking—”
Pei Zhi, as if deliberately building suspense, moved closer again. Trapped in the corner, Xie Ning looked a little pitiful compared to the larger-built Pei Zhi.
His inner thoughts and his real voice overlapped:
“I want to hold your hand.”
Pei Zhi’s gaze was restrained and serious. He asked softly, “Can I?”
That unexpected answer made Xie Ning pause.
Under such an earnest gaze, it was hard for him to refuse.
Xie Ning extended his hand. Pei Zhi’s rough, burning fingers first landed on the back of it, then slowly wrapped around his hand, slipping one finger after another into the spaces between his.
At the instant their fingers locked tightly together, it was like an electric shock. A subtle change flashed across both of their expressions.
His heart pounded like a drum. Pei Zhi fell into a state he could not control. His face grew hot, and it felt like his heart had been yanked upward at that very moment. He was so nervous that his whole body was trembling.
Though nervous, once Pei Zhi really succeeded in holding Xie Ning’s hand, a fierce sense of satisfaction suddenly overflowed in his chest.
Xie Ning poured himself another glass of wine to distract himself.
The alcohol content was not high, not enough to make someone drunk.
Though perhaps the two bottles Pei Zhi had drunk were stronger and had more aftereffects.
The wine left Xie Ning’s full, rosy lips glistening. Pei Zhi kept staring at them. He asked, “Is it good?”
“It’s alright.”
“I want to try.”
Their hands were still clasped together, making it inconvenient to move with only one hand. Xie Ning was just about to set down the wineglass when a hot breath brushed over the delicate skin on the back of his hand.
His hand shook slightly. The wine in the glass sloshed and tilted. Some splashed onto Pei Zhi’s face, but most of it was drunk down by him.
Pei Zhi lifted his eyes to look at Xie Ning, parted his lips, and took the rim of the glass between them, swallowing the liquid inside. In the faintly drunken mist, his dark pupils looked especially scorching.
Xie Ning said, “You’re drunk.”
“I’m not.” Pei Zhi seemed strangely reluctant to let go. Slowly, he licked the rim of the glass, but what he was looking at was Xie Ning’s lips. He said, “Yours looks better.”
Pei Zhi’s forceful presence pressed in from all directions. In the hazy light, the drifting white mist seemed to circle around them, enclosing Xie Ning in a separate world.
Their hands were still tightly entwined. Pei Zhi remained bent over, his head lowered, blocking Xie Ning into the corner like some enormous beast.
With damp hair stuck at his temples, Xie Ning tipped his head up into the light. Under his thick lashes, his eyes looked as if they held a pool of water. “Then do you like it?”
Pei Zhi asked in return, “If I like it, will it become mine?”
“It can be yours, but you’d better stop drinking.” Pei Zhi had ordered a great deal of alcohol, and most of it was already gone. Xie Ning said, “Even low-proof alcohol can’t handle this much drinking.”
“If you drink this much, be careful you won’t be able to get up tomorrow.”
That did not seem to be the answer Pei Zhi wanted. Unhappy, he rubbed the tip of his nose against Xie Ning’s fingers, a childish side surfacing in his deep-set features. “Then I won’t get up.”
“There’s a group activity tomorrow morning. Are we skipping that too?”
“But I can’t get up.”
“I’ll set more alarms, or call to wake you.”
“I won’t hear any of it.”
Xie Ning was truly helpless now. “Then what can you hear?”
Warm breaths brushed over his fingers. Pei Zhi’s straight nose kept rubbing against the back of Xie Ning’s hand. Looking up at him, Pei Zhi said, “I can hear your voice.”
Heat spread through Xie Ning’s body. Maybe it was because he had soaked in the hot spring too long, maybe it was the alcohol, or maybe it was because the things Pei Zhi said without thinking were genuinely difficult to answer.
In the dim surroundings, his senses were amplified: their contact through the water, the forceful, hormone-rich presence enveloping him.
“Xie Ning,” Pei Zhi said, “I think I drank too much.”
“My heart’s beating very fast.”
“How fast?”
Pei Zhi said, “Do you want to listen?”
It sounded like an invitation. Xie Ning met his eyes briefly, then moved through the water toward him.
Xie Ning lowered his head and pressed his face against Pei Zhi’s chest.
Through that thin layer of flesh, the heart beneath was pounding like a furious drumbeat. The forceful rhythm made Xie Ning lose himself for a moment.
It really was… very fast.
Pei Zhi wrapped an arm back around Xie Ning’s waist. Their height difference allowed him to rest his chin neatly on top of Xie Ning’s head.
He lowered his head and kept sniffing and nuzzling, so clingy he seemed to want to merge into one body with him.
The heat of Pei Zhi’s body gave Xie Ning’s skin hunger intense satisfaction.
Xie Ning placed a hand on Pei Zhi’s chest and pulled them slightly apart. His palm slowly slid upward, fingers threading into Pei Zhi’s hair, his fingertips stroking gently.
First through his hair, then over his brow bone, the corner of his eye…
Pei Zhi’s pupils tightened. His breathing abruptly became ragged, his gaze locking onto Xie Ning with a kind of heat, as though it might ignite at any moment.
He desperately wanted to do something—like hug Xie Ning back and close the distance even more—but he did not dare move recklessly, afraid even this simple caress would be taken away.
That cool pale skin had been soaked into an alluring pink by the hot water. His cold features had softened and grown damp.
Unable to stop himself, Pei Zhi said, “Xie Ning, you’re so beautiful.”
Xie Ning slowly withdrew his hand, and Pei Zhi looked immediately full of grievance.
To everyone else, he was a proud, cold, untouchable top student. But now he was like a big dog craving affection. It almost felt as if the one with skin hunger was actually Pei Zhi.
Xie Ning said, “Pei Zhi, you really are drunk.”
“I’m not.”
“Really?” Xie Ning said. “Right now, you really don’t look very clear-headed.”
Pei Zhi said, “I’m very clear-headed. I know what I’m saying, and I know what I’m doing.”
After a pause, he added, “I want to bite you.”
Xie Ning raised the corner of his eye. “Bite me?”
Pei Zhi said, “I won’t.”
Xie Ning almost wanted to laugh. Whether Pei Zhi was truly drunk or not, the Pei Zhi right now was indeed very obedient.
He lifted a hand and lightly patted Pei Zhi’s cheek. The temperature under his palm was high.
That movement seemed like some kind of reward signal. Pei Zhi pressed his face into Xie Ning’s palm. From Xie Ning’s angle, it looked as though he had buried his whole face in it.
Pei Zhi was nearly a head taller than Xie Ning, but because he had bent down and lowered his head to bury his face like this, he had to look up at him.
The angle felt strangely intimate.
Then suddenly, Xie Ning’s shoulder trembled.
There was a damp sensation in his palm, as if Pei Zhi’s lips had brushed it by accident.
The air turned hot. Inside his body, something like a dried-up riverbed suddenly longed for more moisture. That tiny patch of contact swept over him like a storm, and in the blink of an eye, triggered his skin hunger.
Xie Ning’s skin hunger had flared up again.
He shoved Pei Zhi away with one forceful push. Pei Zhi froze in shock for a moment. He wanted to reach out to grab him, but stopped halfway, not daring to continue.
He stepped forward twice, but did not dare get too close. That cautious, yielding expression once again made him look like a giant dog that had done something wrong and upset its owner.
This attack of skin hunger had come too suddenly. Just like every other time in the past, Xie Ning’s first instinct was to find a quiet place to be alone.
He forgot he was not standing on level ground. His hurried step caught, water splashed everywhere, and his vision blurred even more. A pair of strong hands clamped around his waist just in time, preventing him from falling into the water.
Because of gravity, Xie Ning instinctively leaned backward and sat down, his whole body’s weight dropping onto Pei Zhi.
When he fell into Pei Zhi’s lap, Pei Zhi seemed to let out a muffled sound. The arms around his waist slowly tightened, and a broad hand locked firmly at his side.
His eyes had gone blurry with heat and tears. Only that scorching body temperature and the tight embrace gave Xie Ning any sense of reality.
He went blank for a moment. Both of them were breathing hard.
From behind, Pei Zhi held him in an extremely intimate embrace, his arms and chest enclosing him completely. They were pressed very close together, and Pei Zhi was panting against the back of his neck.
The breath hitting the back of his neck was so hot that it gave him the illusion that Pei Zhi might bite down at any moment and leave a mark there.
Instinct drove Xie Ning to want to flee danger. Sitting back in Pei Zhi’s arms, he tried twisting his body to escape. His bare back rubbed against a firm, muscular chest, and with the movement of his struggling, his slender, supple waist swayed lightly.
“Don’t move.” A low, hoarse voice came at his ear.
One large hand covered the back of Xie Ning’s hand. The burning heat made Xie Ning’s shoulder tremble faintly. The next moment, his hand was pressed down against his own lower abdomen, while the arm around his waist pinned him back down onto Pei Zhi’s thigh.
Pei Zhi said nothing, only panted. His strong arms, like heated iron bars, stayed tightly wrapped around him, holding Xie Ning the way some giant dog would.
He kept sniffing at the back of Xie Ning’s neck, his straight nose rubbing against the soft, delicate skin there. A drop of hot sweat fell from his lashes onto Xie Ning’s shoulder, leaving behind a wet trail.
That utterly intimate embrace left Xie Ning dazed. Weakly, he moved his hand, but could only let it rest over the back of Pei Zhi’s hand where it pinned him at the stomach.
His soft fingers lightly scratched at the back of Pei Zhi’s hand. Unconsciously, he rubbed and leaned back into the embrace, wanting more bodily contact to soothe the restlessness brought on by his skin hunger.
Pei Zhi’s whole body had gone stiff. In a ragged state, he pressed his forehead against the back of Xie Ning’s neck and breathed heavily. Only after a long while did he let out a scorching breath.
“…Seriously, don’t move.”
