Chapter 48
Xie Ning was woken by being rubbed against.
He was being held face-to-face in an embrace. His slim body fit perfectly within Pei Zhi’s arms. When they held each other like this, there was almost no gap between them at all, as if they had been fitted together.
Pei Zhi was holding Xie Ning especially tightly. One arm was tucked beneath him as a pillow, while the other wrapped around his waist. Even though they were already pressed so close together, Pei Zhi still seemed dissatisfied with the distance and nudged himself even closer toward Xie Ning.
Xie Ning was still groggy when he heard a bunch of strange thoughts.
“Wife is so soft…”
“Want to fuck.”
“If I secretly touch my wife’s waist and squeeze it a little more, wife won’t notice, right?”
Xie Ning: “……”
At first, he had not noticed anything. He had been sleeping deeply, his head still fuzzy. But after hearing Pei Zhi think that, he noticed it immediately.
“Pei Zhi,” Xie Ning called.
In the early morning, his voice was a little hoarse. Though it was not loud, Pei Zhi caught it instantly.
Pei Zhi immediately froze and pretended to be asleep.
A few seconds later, he feigned a natural awakening and opened his eyes to meet Xie Ning’s gaze. “Awake, baby?”
“Give me a kiss.”
Xie Ning’s brows drew together slightly as he turned his head away. “No.”
“Did the cleanliness obsession flare up again?”
“Such a fussy little thing. But so cute… all drowsy like this. Even if I fucked him right now, wife might just think he was dreaming…”
Xie Ning’s face still carried the look of someone half asleep. He obviously had not fully woken yet, but his cleanliness obsession had already reacted first. That faintly disgusted little expression looked especially vivid on his normally cold face.
Pei Zhi pressed his face against Xie Ning’s and rubbed against him slowly, mumbling, “Cute. Hugging baby.”
Xie Ning cast him a sideways glance, completely unable to understand what exactly Pei Zhi was so excited about.
Still, he did not bother responding. He let Pei Zhi hold him and rub against him for a while. After about five or six minutes, Pei Zhi finally quieted down.
By then, Xie Ning’s drowsiness had fully faded.
“What time is it?” Xie Ning asked.
The bed curtains blocked the light completely and had been pulled tightly shut, leaving the room in total darkness. There was no way for him to judge the time from the sky outside.
Pei Zhi glanced at his phone. “Nine.”
Xie Ning lifted his lashes high. “Nine?”
He rarely got up this late.
Even when he stayed in bed, Xie Ning usually never lingered past eight. But now he had actually slept until nine… Had he been living too comfortably lately?
Then again, whenever he and Pei Zhi slept in the same bed, he always seemed more likely to sleep in.
“Do you want to get up?” Pei Zhi asked.
“Mm, I should.” Xie Ning said, “I still need to check on how my brother is doing.”
During that soft morning moment, the fact that Xie Ning’s attention was on someone else made Pei Zhi a little displeased. Still, he picked Xie Ning up in his arms.
“I’ll help you wash up. You look at your messages,” Pei Zhi said. “In case you miss anything important.”
Leaning against Pei Zhi, Xie Ning let him brush his teeth and wash his face. It was obvious Pei Zhi had never taken care of anyone before—his movements were very clumsy and inexperienced. But he did everything carefully, so Xie Ning did not feel any pain or discomfort. At most, it felt a bit slow and awkward.
White toothpaste foam spilled from his red, swollen lips. Pei Zhi stared at the corner of his mouth for a moment, then handed him water. After Xie Ning rinsed, his eyes dropped to his phone screen.
He had already sent Qi Ran several messages, but none had been answered.
He was probably still asleep.
Nine o’clock was late for people who got up early, but early for people who slept in. Qi Ran loved to have fun and often stayed up all night gaming, so it was normal for him not to be up yet—not to mention that he had been drunk.
“It’s still during breakfast service. Let’s go downstairs and eat,” Xie Ning said.
Pei Zhi hugged him from behind. “We could eat in the room.”
Room service could be sent up, or they could order individually. Pei Zhi very clearly preferred that option.
Eat in the room—how? Sitting on Pei Zhi’s lap, being fed one bite and kissed once after each one, eating like that?
If Xie Ning really agreed, things would very likely develop exactly that way.
“Downstairs,” Xie Ning said. “It’s livelier when there are more people.”
Pei Zhi had a lot of resentment about that, but when he saw how obviously and badly mistreated Xie Ning’s lips still looked, he no longer had much confidence to keep pleading. He had been the one to bully him into this state, and he was also the one still not satisfied. So it was only natural for Xie Ning to be on guard.
Still, he was very unhappy.
He would not be able to have breakfast alone with Xie Ning anymore.
As Xie Ning walked toward the door, Pei Zhi followed behind him. But suddenly, Xie Ning sharply sensed that something was wrong. Just as he stopped in front of the door, a hand caught his shoulder and pressed him against it.
A broad hand braced itself at his back, pinning him to the door. Xie Ning froze. A shadow slowly covered him as Pei Zhi bent his head down, their breaths intertwining.
The heat of Pei Zhi’s breathing washed over his skin. At close range, Pei Zhi stared at his face, and that same strong hunger returned to his features. His Adam’s apple moved as his gaze almost shamelessly traced Xie Ning’s face.
Xie Ning said calmly, “Pei Zhi, I still need to eat breakfast.”
“Can I kiss you once?” Pei Zhi asked. “Just once.”
“There wasn’t a goodnight kiss. Is there no good morning kiss either?”
When he said this, his voice was low and dejected, as though he had suffered some enormous injustice.
But all he was missing was just one kiss.
Xie Ning said nothing, so Pei Zhi buried his face in the crook of his neck and kept breathing him in. “Can I?”
Of course, if it was only one kiss, that would have been fine. The problem was that what Pei Zhi wanted was definitely not as simple as just one kiss.
And besides, Xie Ning still had to see Qi Ran later. His mouth was still a little red and swollen. If Pei Zhi lost control again and sucked at it a few more times…
“Tonight,” Xie Ning said. “Let’s eat breakfast first.”
His attitude was very firm. Pei Zhi immediately retreated and bargained for less. “Then can I hug you? No kissing. Is hugging okay?”
If even a hug was forbidden, that would have seemed too cruel. Xie Ning said, “That’s fine.”
The moment he got permission, Pei Zhi hugged him impatiently. But with the door at Xie Ning’s back, and the way Pei Zhi pressed against him face-to-face, combined with the huge size difference between them, it looked less like a hug and more like… a beast cornering a weak little animal into a dead end.
Only this beast was rather clingy.
Although Pei Zhi was tall, he bent down a great deal, seemingly so that Xie Ning would not have to stand on tiptoe. He kept burying his face in the side of Xie Ning’s neck, his straight nose and warm lips brushing over the flesh there again and again.
It tickled. Xie Ning had just lifted his hand, wanting to push Pei Zhi away, when Pei Zhi’s lips suddenly brushed his Adam’s apple. That spot was sensitive to begin with, and he immediately let out a quiet sound he could not suppress. “Mm…”
The two of them froze at the same time.
A moment later, Pei Zhi slowly stuck out his tongue and lightly traced over Xie Ning’s Adam’s apple.
Xie Ning trembled even harder.
There came a knock at the door. “Bro, I’m awake too. I was eating breakfast just now and didn’t check my phone. Are you going down to eat now? Let’s go together.”
It was Qi Ran’s voice.
The suite had good soundproofing, but a single door could not block everything. In fact, the vibration of Qi Ran’s knocking traveled through the door into Xie Ning’s back, leaving his entire body strung tight.
Xie Ning reached up, grabbed Pei Zhi by the hair, and tugged his head up a little. The corners of his eyes were already damp red. He had just parted his lips when he remembered Qi Ran was standing outside, so he closed his mouth again and shook his head slightly.
Even though he knew they were relatives, Pei Zhi was still deeply irritated by how this person always came looking for Xie Ning over every little thing. How old was he? Was he a giant baby? Why did he need his brother for everything? And it was always trivial nonsense too. Even Pei Zhi felt tired for Xie Ning.
Why was he always clinging to his wife?
Only because his wife had such a good temper.
The knocking at the door continued. “I could’ve sworn I heard you talking just now? Bro? Are you there?”
Had he heard wrong?
The moment Xie Ning opened his mouth, it was covered.
He lifted his eyes in confusion, only to meet a pair of deep black ones.
Pei Zhi pressed his lips to Xie Ning’s ear and deliberately lowered his voice. “What do we do? He’s going to hear.”
But they were not even doing anything.
Xie Ning looked at him like that, most of his face hidden behind Pei Zhi’s hand. The darker skin on the back of that hand contrasted sharply with his own, making him look even paler, more fragile.
If he showed any other emotion, it would have been less captivating than this. His clear eyes were cold and calm, like a pool of icy water without a ripple of feeling.
Pei Zhi’s breathing suddenly quickened.
As ridiculous as it was, being stared at with such a cool, detached gaze from Xie Ning was enough to excite him.
He thought his own cheapness was laughable, yet there was nothing he could do about it.
Every move Xie Ning made seemed irresistible to him.
Unable to keep meeting his eyes, Pei Zhi buried his face in his neck again and inhaled deeply. In a hoarse voice, he said, “Just a little longer. Let me hold you a bit more.”
Xie Ning remained silent and let Pei Zhi hold on to him.
A few seconds later, Pei Zhi finally lifted his head. It looked like he had managed to compose himself.
Pinching Xie Ning’s chin, Pei Zhi stared at his lips for a very long time before saying, “Okay.”
Then he went to open the door. Qi Ran stood outside with his head lowered, sending Xie Ning messages on his phone.
The moment he saw Xie Ning, he immediately put his phone away. “I knocked forever. Why didn’t you open the door?”
Xie Ning’s expression was a little unnatural. “I didn’t hear it.”
Xie Ning was not good at lying. It was always obvious when he did. Pei Zhi spotted the difference in him immediately.
But Qi Ran would never suspect Xie Ning. In his eyes, his brother was the very image of honesty. Xie Ning would never lie.
So Qi Ran thought nothing of it. Suddenly, however, his expression darkened. “Bro, did he hit you?”
“What?” Xie Ning asked.
“Your chin,” Qi Ran said. “There’s a red mark there. It looks like it was pinched.”
And Xie Ning was wrapped up especially tightly from head to toe—scarf, high-neck sweater, almost just short of a mask and hat. But the hotel had the heat running everywhere, so he had no reason to be dressed so heavily.
Qi Ran himself was only wearing a base layer and trench coat.
Watching him more carefully, Qi Ran also thought Xie Ning’s walking looked a little strange…
“No, don’t overthink it.” Once they sat down in the restaurant, Xie Ning said helplessly, “Pei Zhi is my roommate, and also my… good friend. Why would he hit me? The mark on my chin is probably just from rubbing it while I was washing my face.”
“When you were drunk last night, he was the one who brought you here. You should thank him.”
“Oh.” Qi Ran was very obedient when it came to listening to Xie Ning. He turned to Pei Zhi. “Thanks. How much was the room? I’ll transfer it to you.”
“And my brother’s room too. I’ll send that at the same time.”
“No need,” Pei Zhi said. “You’re Xie Ning’s younger brother, so that makes you my younger brother too. We’re family. No need to split things so clearly.”
Qi Ran looked at Pei Zhi suspiciously.
Who the hell are you calling your younger brother? Since when am I your little brother? If it had been anyone else, Qi Ran definitely would have said exactly that. But this was Xie Ning’s roommate and friend, and he did not want to come off as too uncivilized.
Anyway, it was not that much money. So Qi Ran let it go. Plenty of people would love a chance to treat his brother, and only because he thought Pei Zhi treated Xie Ning pretty well did he let him have this opportunity.
Still, while eating, Qi Ran kept feeling that something was off.
Pei Zhi was especially attentive to Xie Ning.
The moment Xie Ning moved as if he might get up to grab something to eat, Pei Zhi stood first and asked in a soft, gentle voice, “What do you want? I’ll get it for you.”
“Just grab some bread. I don’t want anything with filling, whole wheat if possible,” Xie Ning said.
“Mm. What about a drink? Soy milk?” Pei Zhi said. “Hot milk is fine too. The milk here tastes pretty good—it’s freshly flown in.”
“Soy milk, then. I like soy milk,” Xie Ning said.
Under the lights, even Pei Zhi’s normally sharp features softened a little. “Me too. I like it.”
After that, when Pei Zhi brought breakfast back, the moment Xie Ning lifted his hand, Pei Zhi had already handed him a hot towel to wipe it with. The moment Xie Ning put down his chopsticks, Pei Zhi was there with tissues so he could wipe his mouth.
What the hell, this is ridiculously servile, Qi Ran thought.
Frowning deeply, Qi Ran chewed his bread while his eyes moved back and forth between the two of them.
He did not know if it was only his imagination, but the atmosphere between them felt strange. They did not seem like a roommate and a good friend. They seemed more like a little couple in the middle of something ambiguous…?
Pink bubbles practically floated around them. Even the way they looked at each other felt sticky, as though there were strands between them. Sitting across from them and eating, Qi Ran felt like an enormous third wheel.
He opened his mouth, then stopped. After thinking about it, he decided to forget it.
Was he being too sensitive? Seeing every man as gay now? Just because he had realized he himself was gay did not mean he should start looking at everyone else through gay-tinted glasses.
Xie Ning wiped his mouth clean. Thankfully, he had moved quickly enough—otherwise Pei Zhi would already have reached over to wipe it for him.
He did not mind enjoying special treatment from someone who was pursuing him, but with family sitting right beside them, he still wanted to restrain things a little.
His face was thinner-skinned than he had imagined.
“Do you want some apple cider vinegar? It tastes pretty good,” Pei Zhi asked.
“That’s fine too,” Xie Ning said. “But not too much.”
“Mm. I’ll go get it for you.”
Xie Ning glanced at the phone on the table and tilted his head. “Your phone keeps lighting up.”
Pei Zhi had been too busy feeding Xie Ning, walking back and forth several times. Something that could clearly have been done in one trip, he had deliberately turned into a whole process. He said, “Help me check who it is. See if it’s anything important.”
Touching another person’s phone? Xie Ning actually disliked that, since it was private. But he was also worried that Pei Zhi might miss something important. So he asked, “What’s your passcode?”
“Your birthday,” Pei Zhi said.
Xie Ning froze.
Qi Ran stared with his mouth hanging open.
He had been trying to pretend he heard nothing, but in the end he could not help himself. “Do close friends these days really go that far? Using the other person’s birthday as their lock-screen password?”
Even if two people were dating, they would not necessarily use each other’s birthday as a phone password.
Xie Ning was surprised too, but not for the same reason Qi Ran was. What surprised him was—how did Pei Zhi even know what his birthday was? He had never once mentioned it in the dorm.
Unless Pei Zhi had seen his ID. But Pei Zhi had not. He tried entering his birthday anyway, and sure enough, the phone unlocked.
Under Qi Ran’s burning, bewildered stare, Xie Ning could not really explain either. He said, “Because we’re really close.”
Qi Ran said, “Just close?”
Xie Ning replied, “…Closer than ordinary good friends.”
They were in a relationship that was on the verge of becoming boyfriend-level. It really was more intimate than friendship. So he was not wrong.
After sitting down again, Pei Zhi leisurely added, “We’re soulmates.”
“…Soulmates?” Qi Ran rolled the word around in his mind. “You two are so clingy, I almost thought you were dating or something.”
Then Qi Ran said, “Bro, I’m going to use your birthday as my lock-screen password too.”
“Why would you use my birthday as your password?” Xie Ning felt a headache coming on. Why was this even something worth copying?
“I don’t care,” Qi Ran said. “We’re soulmates too.”
Xie Ning instinctively glanced at Pei Zhi.
Sure enough, Pei Zhi’s brows were slightly furrowed, his whole face unhappy. He looked at Xie Ning, his dark eyes holding a trace of grievance.
He looked like a big dog whose owner had patted another dog in front of him, and who now felt terribly wronged because of it.
The comparison startled Xie Ning for a moment.
Qi Ran had already finished setting the password. Tilting his head, he said to Xie Ning, “Bro, when are you planning to go over to Auntie’s place?”
“Next Saturday,” Xie Ning answered.
“Oh, I’m two days later than you. I still have some school stuff.” Qi Ran pushed something toward him. “Bro, eat this. Lately you seem… not thinner, and your complexion looks a lot better too.”
He nodded with satisfaction. “Not bad. Eat a bit more.”
“I can’t finish this much. You eat it yourself,” Xie Ning said.
Suddenly, his brow twitched. He immediately turned his head and shot Pei Zhi a warning glance.
Under the table, Pei Zhi had reached out and touched the back of Xie Ning’s hand. Xie Ning had just been about to pull away when Pei Zhi turned his palm over and trapped it. The rough pads of his fingers slowly rubbed against Xie Ning’s, then quietly slid into the spaces between them, interlocking their fingers.
Thankfully, Pei Zhi had not gone so far as to touch him elsewhere. He only left their clasped hands resting near Xie Ning’s lower abdomen and rubbed there in a slightly suggestive way.
Though… Xie Ning still thought it felt a bit strange.
He shifted his body slightly to block the view and prevent Qi Ran from seeing anything. It was only hand-holding, but the way Pei Zhi was acting really did make it feel as though they were openly having an affair under the table.
“Ah!” Qi Ran suddenly cried out.
Startled, Xie Ning’s fingers tightened. He thought Qi Ran had noticed something, and under their interlocked palms a layer of sticky sweat had already formed.
Qi Ran said, “Bro, just eat for a bit on your own. My advisor’s calling… I’m stepping out to take it.”
Xie Ning let out a breath of relief.
He had thought they’d been caught.
With a smile in his voice, Pei Zhi asked, “Are you really that afraid of your brother finding out about our illicit little affair?”
“…What illicit affair? The way you say it makes it sound like our relationship is something shameful,” Xie Ning said.
“At the moment, I really don’t have any official status. I am something shameful,” Pei Zhi said. “I’m the outside man. Mr. Xie, when are you going to bring me properly into the family and give me a legitimate title?”
Xie Ning’s fingers were being squeezed, not too hard and not too lightly. Heat gathered in his cheeks. “Compared to that, I’d rather know when you set your password.”
“Guess,” Pei Zhi said.
“Then I won’t,” Xie Ning replied.
Pei Zhi pinched lightly at the base of his fingers. “You won’t even guess. You won’t even humor me. Have you already gotten bored? Do you not like me anymore? Do you have someone else you like better?”
Xie Ning ignored Pei Zhi’s nonsense and repeated, “When did you set the password?”
“Actually, I didn’t set it specially,” Pei Zhi said.
He turned his face slightly away, looking a little evasive. “It’s just… always been this password.”
“A coincidence?” Xie Ning asked.
It had always been this password?
Was it only a coincidence?
Did Pei Zhi just happen to like this string of numbers, and it happened to be Xie Ning’s birthday? But then how had Pei Zhi known Xie Ning’s birthday in the first place…?
“Not exactly a coincidence,” Pei Zhi said.
His answer was interesting—he only answered one question and did not go further, as though trying to hide something.
“Pei Zhi.” Xie Ning looked at him seriously. “Did you know me long before this?”
Xie Ning was truly sharp.
Thinking back, he could suddenly see signs of it everywhere. He followed up quickly. “And what about your house password? What does xbnnc303 mean?”
“It’s not three-zero-three,” Pei Zhi corrected. “It’s zero-three-zero.”
Xie Ning was still wondering what difference that made when Pei Zhi leaned in and kissed him on the face. “That’s what it means.”
Xie Ning froze, his fingers slowly curling inward. There were still other people in the restaurant, yet Pei Zhi had just kissed him in front of them… His ears burned, though his face stayed calm.
He pressed on. “Then what do the letters in front mean?”
This time Pei Zhi fell silent again.
The same Pei Zhi who had just been holding Xie Ning’s hand and stealing kisses was now acting like some innocent college boy, unable even to meet Xie Ning’s eyes.
“What does the password mean?” Xie Ning turned slightly, nudging the tip of Pei Zhi’s shoe with his own, the force no more and no less than the tone of his voice. “Tell me.”
The restaurant was warm, but Pei Zhi broke out in a cold sweat. Under Xie Ning’s gaze—which seemed to see through everything—how could he possibly lie? After a long pause, he finally muttered, “Want Ningning to step on me.”
Xie Ning: “……”
He went silent.
He had imagined many possible answers, but not this one. It really was… hard to know what to say.
In just a few seconds, his expression changed several times. He stared at Pei Zhi cautiously and suspiciously. Fearing that Xie Ning would think he was some kind of deviant or had a strange fetish, Pei Zhi hurried to explain.
“I picked it randomly. That phrase was a meme online before, and I’m too lazy to remember complicated passwords, so I just used it. I really did pick it randomly. Believe me.” Pei Zhi rushed to guarantee it again. “I swear, I really didn’t think…”
Xie Ning gently interrupted with a question. “You really didn’t think about it?”
That flat, emotionless gaze and tone made Pei Zhi fall silent instantly. Staring at Xie Ning’s cold, beautiful face, he swallowed. “I did.”
After a brief pause, he asked with restrained seriousness, “Could I really?”
“Could I really? God, just imagining it makes me excited.”
“Wife’s foot is so small and pale and tender, and I’m so dark and ugly. If he stepped on it, his foot would look even whiter and smaller, wouldn’t it… No, stop thinking about it. If I keep going I’m going to drool.”
“But wife’s soles are so soft, the skin’s so thin, and his strength is so small. He’d probably step like it was all soft and gentle. I’d have to make him use more force. But if he stepped too hard, I probably still wouldn’t come—wife’s skin would break first.”
“Then wife definitely wouldn’t be happy. He’d end up sitting on my lap with watery eyes, tilting his head up to accuse me. I’d have to hold him and coax him before he’d keep stepping.”
“Could I really? That doesn’t seem good… wife’s feet are too pretty. They’re not for doing this kind of thing. And I’m not a pervert. I don’t have weird fetishes. Also this is just way too strange…”
“Wife.”
“Can I put it all on your feet?”
Xie Ning calmly withdrew his gaze. “No.”
