A hand emerged from the heap of blankets and groped around blindly before finally finding the phone ringing beside the pillow.
He snatched it up and dragged it under the covers. Xue Bao Tian’s groggy, half-asleep voice came muffled through the quilt. “Who is it? I’m sleeping… A meeting? I’m taking leave. I’m not going to any meeting… Wait. A board meeting?”
The blanket flew off. Xue Bao Tian struggled upright and said into the phone, “Wait for me. I’ll be there right away.”
His sleepy eyes had only just focused when the phone slipped from his hand. His horrified gaze traveled from the mottled pink wallpaper in front of him to the fraying dark-green curtains, then finally settled on the strong arm wrapped around his waist.
He violently threw back the other side of the blanket. Sure enough, it was that bastard Zhang Chi. The young man was sleeping soundly, his hair a mess and stubble pushing through along his jaw. His skin was not especially delicate, but in the morning light it looked firm and full of vitality, making him unexpectedly calm and handsome.
Fuck. How did I end up tangled up with this grandson again? Xue Bao Tian rubbed his aching temples and tried to dredge up last night’s memories from the sludge in his head.
“You drank too much last night.” The arm around his waist tightened, pulling Xue Bao Tian into a warm embrace. Zhang Chi never opened his eyes, yet he accurately kissed Xue Bao Tian’s temple. “Why not sleep a little longer? Does your head hurt?”
The next instant, Zhang Chi’s chest tightened as the man in his arms flipped smoothly on top of him and straddled him from above. “Zhang Chi, you’ve gotten way too used to fucking bullying me, haven’t you?” The fingers around his neck slowly tightened. “Did you hide when humanity evolved? Skipped straight over propriety, righteousness, integrity, and shame? If I don’t teach you a lesson today, you’ll really start thinking your Master Xue is someone you can push around!”
Zhang Chi opened his eyes. His thick lashes caught a dancing fleck of light in the faint dawn, soft and weightless, like some serene shot from a commercial.
He lifted both hands and closed them around Xue Bao Tian’s waist. One index finger flicked lightly against the sensitive hollow there, drawing an involuntary muffled groan. The grip around his neck loosened for an instant, and Zhang Chi seized the opening, catching Xue Bao Tian’s wrist and pressing it down as he twisted sharply to the side, catching the man who lost his balance and fell into his arms.
Supporting his back, pinning his hands, trapping his legs—Xue Bao Tian was wrapped into that broad chest and completely lost the ability to resist.
“Fuck you, Zhang Chi. Other than using brute force, what the hell do you even know how to do?”
The only thing Xue Bao Tian could move now was his mouth. Cursing was not satisfying enough, so he bit down hard on Zhang Chi’s broad shoulder. The moment he did, though, he felt it was too damn feminine, like some shrew yanking hair in a catfight. It was humiliating. He let go and spat, “Tastes like fucking dick.”
The pain in his shoulder seemed to tug on some nerve in Zhang Chi. He hugged Xue Bao Tian even tighter, one hand slipping beneath the hem of his clothes to stroke the smooth line of his back. His just-awakened voice was layered with desire, giving it a dull, heavy rasp. “Two Hundred, I didn’t touch you last night. Shouldn’t I get a reward?”
“You didn’t touch me?” Xue Bao Tian had barely begun to process this sudden outbreak of conscience when he felt, in alarm, the steadily growing heat pressing against his lower abdomen.
“Zhang Chi! Keep fucking around and I’ll snap that dick of yours in half!”
But Zhang Chi seemed to have entered that private world of his again, cutting off every sound from outside. He lowered his head and lightly bit Xue Bao Tian’s jaw a few times before slowly asking, “Two Hundred, why don’t you grow much facial hair?”
Shit. Xue Bao Tian’s heart lurched. Zhang Chi was worked up again. Cursing him was useless; begging him was useless. Nothing fucking worked once he got like this.
His gaze swept around and landed on the ashtray on the bedside table. Stretching out an arm, he hooked it over, yanked the man lying over him upward, and swung his arm down hard—
Xue Bao Tian sat on the edge of the bed with a cigarette between his lips, pulling on his trousers. “I’ve got a meeting. If I don’t go, that brother-in-law of mine will grab every advantage he can.”
“Mm. My fault. Got carried away again.” Zhang Chi wiped the blood from his temple with a tissue. “I really didn’t mean anything by it at first, but then you bit me and…”
“And you’re a fucking masochist on top of everything else.” Xue Bao Tian rose and planted one knee on the bed. “Come here. Let me see if I hit you too hard.”
Zhang Chi grabbed the smooth fabric of Xue Bao Tian’s shirt and pulled him closer, examining him carefully. “There are bite marks on your chin, and hickeys on your neck. Will that cause trouble at the meeting?”
Xue Bao Tian scoffed and patted Zhang Chi’s face twice. “Little idiot. Everyone’s used to seeing hickeys women sucked onto your Master Xue. It’s no big deal.”
He tried to get up, but Zhang Chi held him even tighter. The man’s face was no longer as mild as before, his eyes darkening by several shades.
Just as Xue Bao Tian’s guard went up, Zhang Chi released him and said quietly, “Drive carefully. You drank too much last night.”
Xue Bao Tian let out a breath of relief. Escaping Zhang Chi depended entirely on the man’s occasional scrap of conscience—and that conscience was like the thirty-first day of the month: sometimes it existed, sometimes it didn’t.
After pulling on his coat, Xue Bao Tian used his phone screen as a mirror to fix his hair and casually asked, “How the hell did I get that drunk last night?”
Zhang Chi was getting dressed too. He was still hard, so he could not pull up his zipper. “Old Xu and the others kept flattering you and toasting you, and you just kept drinking. I couldn’t stop you.”
Xue Bao Tian clicked his tongue and scrambled to recover some dignity. “Aren’t they your friends? Drinking with them was me giving you face. What kind of people usually drink with your Master Xue? Which one of them isn’t loaded? Why the hell would I bother drinking with a bunch of construction workers otherwise?”
Turning around and seeing Zhang Chi’s unabashed erection, he backed off two steps. While putting on his shoes, he glanced over again and could not resist running his mouth. “Your path of evolution is really fucking crooked—human one minute, beast the next. How come last night you managed to take one tiny step toward human civilization?”
Zhang Chi looked over with his trousers still open. Sunlight streamed from behind him, stretching a long shadow in front of him and hiding his features in deep darkness. “Master Xue, if you don’t leave now, whether I’m human or beast is going to become hard to say.”
At that, Xue Bao Tian immediately grabbed the doorknob, yanked open the door, and bolted, leaving only a muttered “Fuck” echoing down the long, shabby corridor.
After he finally calmed himself down, Zhang Chi pulled up his zipper, took a few tissues, and pressed them to the wound at his temple. The bleeding had already stopped; it only hurt a little. Xue Bao Tian had held back and had not struck him with full force.
A glint flashed at Zhang Chi’s wrist. He paused, then smiled helplessly. A black zircon bracelet circled his wrist, something Xue Bao Tian had forced onto him the night before. He had been deeply drunk then and had mistaken Zhang Chi for a woman, hugging him, kissing and nibbling at him, pouring out sweet talk and promising a pile of extravagant benefits before finally slipping the bracelet from his own wrist and putting it on Zhang Chi.
At the time, Zhang Chi had been thoroughly stirred up by all the kissing. It was the first time Xue Bao Tian had thrown himself at him so willingly, with enough enthusiasm to overwhelm him, yet a strange discomfort kept nagging at him. As Xue Bao Tian called him “baby” one moment and “sweetheart” the next, Zhang Chi gradually lost interest.
When Zhang Chi finally wrapped the eager Xue Bao Tian tightly in a blanket, he thought that sweet lies meant to coax someone were not half as pleasant to hear as filthy curses.
After leaving the room, Zhang Chi went to the front desk to settle the bill. It was the same elderly owner, adjusting the reading glasses with one broken temple. “Already paid. That guy from before paid. He even made a point of telling me you two didn’t use a condom this time because you’re just buddies.”
The tips of Zhang Chi’s ears reddened. He gave a slight nod, turned, and left the motel.
The morning air was cool. As he walked along the road, he took out his phone and dialed a number. When it connected, he asked, “While I was gone last night, did Ding Min do anything unusual?” The person on the other end spoke for a while, and Zhang Chi lowered his gaze. “That cautious… His counter-surveillance ability really is strong. I’ll head back right—”
“Easy, little thing. Don’t fucking move. Cooperate a little.” Xue Bao Tian’s cold, faintly vicious voice suddenly sounded nearby. Zhang Chi followed the sound and saw a familiar backside about ten meters away.
“I’m heading back now. We’ll talk when I get there.” He hung up.
After walking closer, Zhang Chi saw Xue Bao Tian kneeling beside the road, almost his entire upper body stretched into a drainage ditch.
It was not the rainy season, so there was only a shallow layer of sludge in the roadside ditch. Rotten leaves and scraps of garbage tangled together in it, giving off a faintly pungent smell.
Xue Bao Tian’s long, bony fingers were hooked around a piece of wire mesh, probably trash someone had thrown away, wedged across the middle of the ditch. In one torn opening, a tiny kitten had gotten its head stuck and could not pull free.
“Kitty, don’t be scared. I’m a fucking good person. Don’t move—if you struggle, those wires will stab you.”
The wire mesh was jammed against both sides of the ditch, making it difficult to get enough leverage from above. Zhang Chi saw Xue Bao Tian begin rolling up his trouser legs, apparently planning to climb down into the ditch to rescue the kitten.
“I’ll do it.” Zhang Chi pressed a hand to his shoulder and casually ruffled his hair. “You still have a meeting. Don’t get your clothes dirty.”
Xue Bao Tian turned, saw Zhang Chi, and immediately looked annoyed. “Why the fuck are you everywhere? Got that much free time? Go comb a bald man’s hair, teach a blind man to dance, and while you’re at it, go teach Americans about propriety and shame.”
Zhang Chi’s smile spread across his whole face. He brushed a hand over Xue Bao Tian’s lips. “Too much talking.”
Zhang Chi found two large stone slabs and stacked them in the ditch to make a foothold above the sludge and garbage. Balancing one foot on the stones, he carefully worked the kitten free from the wire mesh bit by bit, then lifted it by the loose skin at the back of its neck.
The kitten was tiny, letting out weak little mews as it dangled from Zhang Chi’s hand, all skin and bones and pitiful to look at.
“Let it go?” Zhang Chi asked, looking at Xue Bao Tian, who was smoking.
“Ugly as fuck.” Xue Bao Tian glanced at the kitten, then at Zhang Chi. “Stupid too. How do you even get yourself stuck in a net?”
He exhaled smoke, opened the door of his sports car, and pointed inside with disgust. “Throw it in the car. It’s so ugly it’s practically worth collecting.”
Zhang Chi did as he was told. As he brushed past Xue Bao Tian, he called softly, “Two Hundred.”
The low whisper carried a hint of lingering intimacy, but Xue Bao Tian planted five fingers on Zhang Chi’s face and shoved him away in disgust. Circling the car, he opened the driver’s door and muttered to himself, “Fucking bad luck. I keep running into things that are ugly and stupid.”
He bent down into the car and slammed the door hard enough to shake it. The engine roared and the sports car shot away. Before long, however, it reversed back. The window rolled down, and Xue Bao Tian spoke with suspicious urgency. “Check that dating app often. If someone contacts you, go meet them. With what you’ve got going for you, what the hell are you being picky for?”
Zhang Chi nodded. “Got it.” He glanced at his watch and said unhurriedly, “Two Hundred, you’re going to be late.”
“Fuck.” Xue Bao Tian floored the accelerator, and the car roared away.