The cold wind, whenever it found its way into a narrow alley, was like a child spotting a puddle—it always wanted to run wild.
Xue Bao Tian folded his arms against the chill and stood deep in the alley, facing Zhang Chi.
Zhang Chi stepped half a pace closer. “Two Hundred, you’re going back on your word?”
Xue Bao Tian retreated two steps. “You fucking stood there and watched me get hit just now. My shoulder still hurts.”
“I got it back for you.”
Xue Bao Tian thought for a moment. “That scream when you went back at the end?”
“Mm. I vented your anger for you.”
“Quit trying to act cute.” Xue Bao Tian was unmoved. “You could’ve stopped me from taking that hit in the first place.”
Leaning against the alley wall, he scrutinized Zhang Chi. “I’ve noticed something about you. You look easygoing on the surface, but underneath you’re fucking scheming. Wasn’t all that just to force me to keep the hotel room?” The man leaning against the wall merged with his own shadow, which shrugged along with him. “Fine, I won’t cancel it. Master Xue doesn’t give a damn about a thousand yuan or so. You can stay there. Take a proper shower in a fancy hotel and wash off that stray-dog stink!”
Xue Bao Tian straightened and headed toward the mouth of the alley. His shadow slid from the wall onto the ground, followed him for two steps, then stopped.
A large hand closed around his wrist. Zhang Chi wore a faint smile. “Two Hundred, you’re trying to cheat again.”
“So what if I am?”
“I don’t like forcing things, but what I’m owed, I have to collect.” The faint smile slowly disappeared from Zhang Chi’s face. “Two Hundred, you owe me tonight.”
His wrist was suddenly pulled, and Xue Bao Tian crashed into a solid, warm chest. Zhang Chi bent close and brushed his nose beside Xue Bao Tian’s ear before murmuring, “We don’t have to go to the hotel.”
“Brother Chi!” Xue Bao Tian hurriedly patted his face. “Don’t fucking go crazy here. There’s nothing between us that can’t be talked out. Let’s discuss this like civilized people.”
Zhang Chi only held him tighter. Beneath the trench coat, a warm palm repeatedly rubbed and kneaded his waist. The faint soreness made Xue Bao Tian grit his teeth before finally making up his mind.
“Brother Chi, you’ve never properly kissed anyone before, right? How about I teach you today? Count it as paying you back.” He began coaxing him. “There’s a lot to kissing. If you don’t learn, your future little lover is going to laugh at you.”
He forcibly opened some distance between them. “How about it? You won’t lose out.”
Zhang Chi lowered his eyes and studied him as though assessing a silver-tongued con artist. Only after Xue Bao Tian swallowed nervously for the third time did he reluctantly ask, “There’s a lot to it?”
“…A lot.”
“You guarantee you’ll teach me until I learn?”
The voice opposite him hesitated briefly before grinding out, “Guaranteed.”
“Then start.”
Xue Bao Tian was pressed farther into the alley, so deep that even his shadow seemed unwilling to follow. Their breaths tangled together. Zhang Chi lifted Xue Bao Tian’s chin and urged him again, “Master Xue, start.”
If I don’t go to hell, who will? Xue Bao Tian drew a deep breath, straightened his posture, and said coldly, “Close your eyes.”
Zhang Chi obediently closed them. He felt the heated breath before him drifting closer and farther away, coming and going. At times it seemed close enough to brush the fine hairs on his skin, only to retreat again the next instant.
Zhang Chi did not hurry him. He merely stroked Xue Bao Tian’s hair gently. He felt the body in his arms stiffen for a moment, then suddenly, warmth touched his lips.
Soft—but cool. Zhang Chi’s mind went blank. His arms tightened instinctively, an aching fullness swelling in his chest as he caught Xue Bao Tian around the waist and pressed him bodily against the wall.
“Zhang Chi!” Xue Bao Tian broke away from his lips and hissed in flustered anger. “Did I tell you to move?”
Zhang Chi steadied himself, murmured, “Sorry,” and obediently closed his eyes again, looking entirely at Xue Bao Tian’s mercy.
After hesitating, Xue Bao Tian cupped Zhang Chi’s face in both hands. Silently reciting fragments of Buddhist scripture he did not even remember learning, he finally raised his head and kissed him again.
“Start with the corner of the mouth.” His voice sounded strangely soft spoken against Zhang Chi’s lips. The cool softness touched the corner of Zhang Chi’s mouth, then gradually shifted until it covered the crest of his lips. “Then move inward. Stay there a little longer.”
Despite telling him to stay longer, that touch of coolness was the first to withdraw. “Feel it out yourself for a minute. I…”
Before he could finish, Zhang Chi pulled him back. “I’ve got the feel of it. Longer.”
Warmth and coolness tangled together for a long while before Zhang Chi finally asked against Xue Bao Tian’s lips, “What’s next? Can we continue?”
“Continue your fucking ass.” Xue Bao Tian shoved Zhang Chi away and wiped his mouth with his sleeve. “Zhang Chi, if you’ve got the balls, just finish me off tonight. I’m not fucking playing house with you anymore!”
He turned his face aside, hiding the panic and flutter in his eyes. Fuck. I’ve gone too long without anyone. Now even kissing a man is enough to make my heart race.
“Two Hundred.” Zhang Chi moved closer and bent slightly to look directly into Xue Bao Tian’s eyes. His slightly reddened lips moved as a husky murmur slipped out, almost like a lover whispering. “Please. Can we keep going?”
“Fuck!” The unfamiliar rush of emotion instantly drowned out Xue Bao Tian’s reason. He grabbed Zhang Chi, pulled him closer, and bit hard into his lips. Those already flushed lips immediately deepened to crimson, making them look even more inviting.
“Does that count as continuing?” Xue Bao Tian’s angry voice trembled through the air, somehow making the night around them feel even more ambiguous.
No one answered. There was only the faint rustling sound of Xue Bao Tian being pressed against the wall again.
Zhang Chi bent over him. The instant he felt a trace of moisture against his lips, he heard a sharp command. “Open your mouth.”
The kiss burned with barely restrained intensity. At first it was still Xue Bao Tian charging ahead recklessly, but at some point Zhang Chi quietly turned the tables, putting what he had just learned to immediate use and taking control of the rhythm.
Realizing it too late, Xue Bao Tian tried to push him away, only for Zhang Chi to seize both his hands and pin them against the wall. It was an unmistakably aggressive posture—strength and weakness, invasion and compromise. Xue Bao Tian’s anger survived for barely an instant before Zhang Chi’s lips and tongue pressed in again and stole both his attention and his breath. He was kissed until his whole body weakened and his mind blurred; he forgot his resentment, forgot his embarrassment, forgot gender, forgot even the feelings he should not have been having, leaving only the instinct to respond to the man in front of him.
“Two Hundred.” Their lips were still touching, making Zhang Chi’s voice blurred and intimate between them. “Call me ‘boyfriend’ again.”
“Want to die?”
The hoarse, softened curse made Zhang Chi chuckle. His fingertips slid from the back of Xue Bao Tian’s neck down his back and toward his waist, stopping at the hem of his shirt before slipping beneath it.
By the end, there was hardly any technique left. Zhang Chi held him firmly around the waist and pressed him close. Lips that had once been cold were now burning hot, and in the winter night, the clear sound of kissing teased at something secret and hidden. With their bodies held so closely together, every change became impossible to conceal.
“Want to go to the hotel?” Zhang Chi finally pulled away from his lips, kissing from his cheek down to his earlobe as he coaxed him softly from inches away. “I’ll help you. Just help you—nothing else.”