The hotel room was only being held until two in the morning. When the sleepy receptionist handed them the key card, she glanced at the time: 1:55 a.m.
They did not even turn on the lights. The key card slipped from between their fingers and landed on the thick, soft carpet without a sound.
Xue Bao Tian thought he had probably gone insane. When Zhang Chi pressed eagerly toward him, he actually tilted his head up to meet him without thinking.
Zhang Chi was not exactly a good student. So far, apart from biting and nibbling, all he knew was how to take what he wanted by force. He especially liked closing his hand around Xue Bao Tian’s neck, feeling the prominent Adam’s apple beneath his palm slide up and down, sometimes slowly and sometimes quickly, and the faint trembling and appeasement of his “prey” whenever his fingers tightened.
The sharp sound of a belt coming undone jolted the prey awake.
Xue Bao Tian immediately grabbed his own trousers, fear and alarm flashing briefly through his eyes. Zhang Chi’s kisses traveled upward until they landed on his damp lashes. “I’ll only help you. I won’t do anything else.”
“You fucking said yourself that you can’t trust what a man says in bed.”
Ferocity and vulnerability tangled together in those slightly damp eyes. With Xue Bao Tian twisting his collar, Zhang Chi finally understood why he had always felt such a powerful physical attraction to this man. Normally Xue Bao Tian was cold, rough, arrogant, and overbearing, yet at certain moments he exposed a hidden helplessness, vulnerability, even a humiliating softness beneath all that aggression—and it was both intoxicating and addictive.
Now, beneath that bravado, his voice trembled and his waist had gone weak. He seemed to be supporting himself by sheer force of will, simply to keep from collapsing back into Zhang Chi’s arms.
“You’ve said more than once that a man’s words in bed can’t be trusted.”
Zhang Chi smiled faintly. “Then we won’t go to the bed.”
Lowering his eyes, he concealed the faint thrill of having the upper hand. He turned Xue Bao Tian around until the man’s back was pressed tightly against his chest.
“Two Hundred, if you behave, I’ll only help you today. I really won’t do anything else.”
“Behave your fucking—”
The hand resting around his neck abruptly shifted upward, tilting his chin to one side. Zhang Chi kissed him from behind, gentle but never loosening his control.
“There’s one way to play if you behave, and another if you misbehave. Which one does Master Xue choose?”
“Choose my ass!”
The kiss deepened. Zhang Chi brushed lightly over a sensitive spot and asked against his lips, “Which one? Hm?”
The room remained silent for a long time before a soft murmur of surrender finally came. “…Whatever you say.”
“Good.” Zhang Chi left his lips and whispered his next instruction beside Xue Bao Tian’s ear. “Brace your hands against the wall. Hold yourself up.”
The metal buckle slipped free, and the wool trousers fell around his feet. The dry warmth of Zhang Chi’s palm was like the vast Tengger Desert beneath a scorching sun, endless wind and sand reducing Xue Bao Tian to a shriveled fish stranded on dry land.
His arms could no longer support him. Xue Bao Tian leaned forward until his forehead rested against the wall and urged impatiently, “Hurry up.”
Zhang Chi kissed the sweat-damp hollow of his neck and coaxed softly, “Two Hundred, call me ‘boyfriend’ again.”
Perhaps it had become too difficult to endure, or perhaps he was already dazed. This time Xue Bao Tian did not get angry. Instead, he reached backward and hooked an arm around Zhang Chi’s neck, rubbing his cheek catlike against the man’s jaw. His hoarse voice carried an unfamiliar softness. “Help me… boyfriend.”
Zhang Chi almost wanted to crush him into his arms. He had been holding himself back through sheer willpower, and that tiny bit of coaxing from Xue Bao Tian nearly made something inside him explode. His last thread of rationality stretched taut; the slightest pull would snap it, allowing him to abandon his promise and become someone who went back on his word.
Just as his resolve began to waver, the doorbell suddenly rang. The jarring sound ripped both of them out of their sealed-off world. Xue Bao Tian immediately released Zhang Chi and shoved his head backward. “Get away from me.”
Zhang Chi did not argue. After a moment, he asked, “Who could it be this late?”
Xue Bao Tian looked irritated. “How the fuck would I know? Room service, probably. Ignore it.”
The bell rang again, followed by a measured knock. Then an excessively sweet female voice came through the door. “Brother Xue, are you there? It’s Fei Fei.”
“Fei… Fei Fei?” Xue Bao Tian stiffened in alarm. Only then did he remember that several hours earlier, while irritated, he had randomly messaged a woman he had hooked up with before and told her to come to this room.
Fuck! Xue Bao Tian cursed his own stupidity. He had somehow arranged for two “lovers” to collide—and they were not even the same gender.
Click. The room suddenly flooded with light. Xue Bao Tian heard Zhang Chi ask again, “Who is Fei Fei?”
That was the strange thing about darkness: it could effortlessly hide everything shameful, greedy, filthy, or twisted. But once those things were dragged into bright light, embarrassment and humiliation came with them, sometimes followed by anger.
Xue Bao Tian was still held in Zhang Chi’s arms, his clothes disordered and his dignity thoroughly compromised, his pleasure or discomfort completely under someone else’s control.
It was not a good feeling—at least, not now. He slapped Zhang Chi’s hand. “Let go.”
“Who is Fei Fei?” Zhang Chi did not release him. His tone remained gentle, but his words came slower now, like the final calm before a storm.
Caught awkwardly between one sensation and another, Xue Bao Tian failed to notice anything wrong. Compared with Zhang Chi’s neat clothing, his own disheveled state only irritated him further. “My girl. What about it? I told her to come. Now that she’s here, you can leave. There’s nothing else for you to do.”
The room fell silent for a moment before Zhang Chi spoke again. “Two Hundred, so while you were flirting with me here, you were calling someone else over too? You call me ‘boyfriend’ and call her your girl? And now that she’s arrived, you want to throw me out?”
He bent forward and embraced Xue Bao Tian from behind, resting his chin on his shoulder. His lips brushed faintly against the pulse in Xue Bao Tian’s neck, impossible to tell whether the next touch would be a kiss or a bite. “You said you would behave. And I told you there’s another way to play if you don’t.”
“Brother Chi!” Xue Bao Tian finally sensed the dark current beneath Zhang Chi’s calm. He placatingly stroked the man’s arm, desperately trying to salvage the situation. “It’s all a misunderstanding. I’ll send her away right now.”
The hotel door opened only a crack. The stylishly dressed woman took one look at Xue Bao Tian’s defeated expression and spoke first. “Brother Xue, sorry I’m late. When you messaged me, I was at a bar and it was too noisy. I didn’t hear my phone.”
She tried to push the door farther open but failed.
“Fei Fei, go home. I’m tired. Forget it tonight.” Every word Xue Bao Tian spoke through the crack sounded utterly lifeless.
“Brother, I rushed all the way here in the middle of the night and you won’t even let me inside?” Understanding dawned on the woman’s face. “I got here late, so you found someone else? Brother, aren’t you just messing with people?” Leaning against the doorframe, she peered inside. “Now I want to see who stole my business.”
Xue Bao Tian, still pressed against the narrow opening, was suddenly yanked backward. Then a tall man appeared in the woman’s line of sight. Zhang Chi gave her a slight nod. “I wouldn’t call it stealing. It was mine to begin with.”
He reached out and closed the door. Looking at her stunned expression, he said mildly, “It’s cold tonight. Be careful on your way home.”
Bang. The door shut. By the time the woman recovered and leaned toward it, all she heard from inside was Xue Bao Tian’s aggrieved voice. “Zhang Chi, didn’t you fucking say you wouldn’t do anything else tonight?”
“Two Hundred, that was on the condition that you behaved.”
The sounds from inside made the woman shudder. She straightened, hesitated over which direction to go, then hurried down the long corridor.
When Xue Bao Tian turned over the next morning, a pained groan escaped him. His entire body felt as though it had fallen apart, every bone aching and every muscle weak. One particularly unmentionable place made it painfully obvious what had happened the night before.
He yanked the blanket off his head. Bright sunlight stabbed straight into his eyes, forcing him to turn away until he gradually adjusted.
His whole body was weak. He shifted until he was half leaning against the headboard, his throat painfully dry. Spotting water on the bedside table, he reached for it—but the instant his arm entered his field of vision, he froze and brought his wrist closer to inspect it.
Red marks circled both wrists, stark against his pale skin. Fragments of the previous night flashed through his mind. He kicked away the blanket and raised a foot. Sure enough, there were similar marks around his ankles, even more pronounced than those on his wrists.
Pulling open his robe and looking down, Xue Bao Tian could not stop himself from cursing. “Fuck! Zhang Chi, get the hell out here!”
The room remained silent. No one answered.
Looking around, he found only a note pinned beneath the water glass, written in crooked handwriting: Two Hundred, something urgent came up, so I left first. About last night… I’m sorry. I’ll compensate you. Yan Zhang Chi.
His finger trembled as he held down the voice-message button. In the silent room, Xue Bao Tian roared, “Zhang Chi, if I don’t fucking castrate you, then I’ll take your surname for the rest of my life!”