For this kiss, Lu Xingyan had looked up information last night, studied the theory, and done a considerable amount of psychological preparation.
In Lu Xingyan’s imagination, Jiang Ji—who had always looked down on him—would be kissed hard, then completely conquered by Lu Xingyan’s superb technique. His breathing would tremble, his body would shake, and he would become so delirious that he no longer knew heaven from earth. Just like that, Lu Xingyan would win him over.
Reality, however, was that aside from the tiny reaction Jiang Ji had made when Lu Xingyan hurt his jaw, he barely reacted at all.
His eyes were covered and he had been pinned to the bed, technically placing him in the weaker position, yet he still carried himself like a superior officer. He breathed slowly and easily, neither annoyed nor resistant, simply allowing Lu Xingyan to do whatever he wanted.
As if he were completely convinced his little brother did not actually dare to do anything.
Lu Xingyan fumed.
Who doesn’t dare? Who are you looking down on?
All these years, Jiang Ji had always suppressed him simply because Lu Xingyan had been too good-tempered. The first step toward turning the tables and becoming the master was to show Jiang Ji exactly what he was capable of.
Lu Xingyan drew a deep breath and kissed those lips again.
When his kiss landed, Jiang Ji’s eyes were closed.
The damp towel covered half his face like some kind of warm compress, and Jiang Ji was actually becoming sleepy.
He genuinely did not think Lu Xingyan dared to do much. At most, he would put on a show by gnawing on Jiang Ji a few times, then maintain his persona by acting cute and begging, “Just date me already.”
Jiang Ji waited for him to finish the performance.
At first, exactly as Jiang Ji expected, Lu Xingyan had no technique whatsoever and simply gnawed at him chaotically until his lips went numb. The hand gripping his jaw alternated between too light and too hard, completely lacking control. His other hand braced against the bed beside Jiang Ji, deliberately leaving space between their bodies as if terrified of touching him. What part of this looked like someone trying to be intimate?
Jiang Ji wanted to laugh, but his lips were being bitten and licked so thoroughly that he could not form the curve of a smile. Probably dissatisfied with his lack of reaction, Lu Xingyan finally committed himself and shoved his tongue inside.
There was the coolness of mint, yet it was burning hot too. Lu Xingyan was trembling.
Jiang Ji noticed that the arm supporting him had started to give out. Lu Xingyan’s heavy body slowly came down against him, pressing into his thigh, his abdomen, his chest. The subtle frequency of those tremors traveled straight into Jiang Ji and betrayed their owner’s emotions.
“That nervous?” Jiang Ji asked quietly.
“No.” Lu Xingyan answered too quickly. His palm slid from Jiang Ji’s jaw to his neck and suddenly tightened.
He had not meant to do it. Lu Xingyan was simply too nervous, and his old problem of having no sense of his own strength had returned.
Jiang Ji’s throat constricted. He sucked in a breath, which Lu Xingyan mistakenly interpreted as a response of pleasure. Encouraged, the person above him doubled down, holding his throat as he deepened the kiss and leaving a distinct handprint across the taut skin.
“You…” Jiang Ji wanted to tell him to ease up and that this was enough. But his little brother, having tasted success, was already excited. He used both hands now, cupping the back of Jiang Ji’s head and handling him like a doll as he pulled him into his arms and kissed him.
It was slightly better than before. At least now it could reasonably be called a kiss.
A tingling sensation crawled across Jiang Ji’s scalp and a faint sense of danger finally emerged. Lu Xingyan, however, only became more engrossed. His naked upper body pressed against Jiang Ji, finally giving him the opportunity to show off the physique he had secretly wanted Jiang Ji to notice. He tugged open Jiang Ji’s robe, compared them face-to-face, and announced, “I think I have more abs than you.”
“…”
Jiang Ji was speechless. He pushed at him. “All right. Are you done kissing me yet?”
“Do you feel something now?” Lu Xingyan shot back.
Jiang Ji said nothing. Lu Xingyan took that as a no. Refusing to give up until he achieved his goal, he pressed down on Jiang Ji’s shoulders and prepared to prove himself again.
This kiss did not land on Jiang Ji’s lips. Through the half-damp towel, Lu Xingyan kissed his eye.
The clean scent of shampoo spread recklessly between them. Jiang Ji’s eyelid twitched and his lips parted as he let out an uncomfortable breath.
He reached up to remove the towel, but Lu Xingyan stopped him, as though it were not merely a towel but an important prop: as long as Jiang Ji’s eyes remained covered, Brother ceased to be Brother.
And if Brother was no longer Brother, then Little Brother no longer had to be Little Brother either. He could be bolder.
“Do you have no sex drive or something?” Lu Xingyan babbled. “How can I kiss you this long and you still feel nothing…”
He captured Jiang Ji’s lips again. Practice made perfect; because he was anxious, he put even more effort into it this time.
Jiang Ji did have a sex drive. He was merely better at controlling himself than most people. He felt that continuing any further might become inappropriate, but abruptly reacting by rejecting Lu Xingyan would also be strange. His little brother had only picked up the slightest bit of technique. There was no reason to take it seriously.
The calmer Jiang Ji remained, the more determined Lu Xingyan became. It turned into a contest of wills in which each of them seemed intent on forcing out a winner.
It was already late. The clock on the wall passed nine, and faint noises drifted up from downstairs. Someone had come home.
Jiang Ji did not hear it at first. Lu Xingyan was even more oblivious. He had already pulled Jiang Ji’s bathrobe open, and his hands wandered chaotically from Jiang Ji’s cheeks to his neck and shoulders, squeezing everywhere but restraining themselves from traveling farther down.
Even so, his breathing had already lost its rhythm. Almost as if taking revenge, he tried to steal Jiang Ji’s oxygen too, making every kiss deeper and more entangled.
And he kept calling out randomly, “Bro.”
“Mm?”
“Do you feel anything now?”
“…”
He never stopped asking.
Jiang Ji ignored him, but as long as he refused to nod, the kissing did not end.
When the knock finally sounded, Lu Xingyan had kissed him to a depth where both of them had nearly stopped breathing. If Lu Xingyan refused to breathe, Jiang Ji had no chance to either. As though this were the key to final victory, Lu Xingyan stubbornly refused to release him. Jiang Ji tilted his neck back to draw breath, only for his jaw to be caught again, the flush of suffocation spreading across his entire face.
Knock, knock, knock.
Three knocks sounded against the door. Jiang Ji’s entire body jolted, and his little brother pressed hard against his waist, sinking him deeply into the sheets.
“L-let go—”
“…”
Lu Xingyan meant to let go, but he discovered with acute embarrassment that he had gotten hard. An unfamiliar impulse displaced reason. He bit Jiang Ji hard, released a deep gasp that startled even himself, and pressed close to his ear. “Bro, I…”
Jiang Ji shoved him away abruptly.
Lu Xingyan fell backward onto the bed and was about to say something else when Jiang Ji raised a hand in a sharp gesture telling him to keep quiet.
Jiang Wanyi’s voice came from outside. “Son, are you asleep?”
Jiang Ji cleared his throat. “No. I’m here.”
Jiang Wanyi did not notice anything strange about his voice and said cheerfully, “Did you and Xiao Yan have dinner? I brought you some late-night food. If you’re still awake, come out and eat. You don’t have to sleep so early during the holiday. Staying up late once in a while won’t hurt.”
“Okay,” Jiang Ji said. “I’ll change clothes and come down.”
Jiang Wanyi left.
The two people on the bed fell silent together. Their joking references to “sneaking around” suddenly felt disturbingly real.
By now Lu Xingyan had completely sobered up. Instinctively, he retreated toward the edge of the bed and pulled the blanket over the visibly aroused lower half of his body, feeling somewhat guilty.
Jiang Ji’s expression had already returned to normal as well. He was calmer than Lu Xingyan, gripping the towel in one hand and staring at him without saying a word, his emotions impossible to read.
Frankly speaking, Lu Xingyan was extremely good-looking. Jiang Ji had never before viewed him as a “man” in that sense, but humans were visual creatures. If Lu Xingyan had been ugly, Jiang Ji would not have been able to kiss him either.
Tonight had been exciting, but it had gone slightly too far.
Jiang Ji tied his bathrobe securely and got off the bed. His gaze happened to catch the mirror, where he discovered that his neck was covered in handprints left by Lu Xingyan.
He still said nothing. Lu Xingyan played deaf and mute as well. The atmosphere between them had never been so delicate, as though whichever one of them spoke first would say something with decisive significance.
But in a contest of patience, Jiang Ji could unquestionably hold out longer.
Lu Xingyan had originally wanted to ask whether Jiang Ji had felt anything, but even he was not stupid enough to miss the answer anymore. Just as he had explained to Sun Cheng, when desire struck, it was only human to react. Besides, Jiang Ji liked men in the first place.
What kind of “feeling” that reaction represented, however, Lu Xingyan could not determine. Instinctively, he did not particularly want to determine it either. He yearned to know and yet was inexplicably terrified. For once, he was smart enough to choose silence when silence was appropriate.
But if he stayed silent, he would get nothing.
Jiang Ji went into the bathroom for a fresh towel and continued drying his still-damp hair. Lu Xingyan stared at him. Jiang Ji’s lips were very red and slightly swollen. There were handprints not only on his neck but along his jaw and the side of his face as well.
What was my plan again?
Lu Xingyan sat there blankly. After thinking for a long time, he realized his mood was not bad at all. His heart felt almost weightless.
Physically, he was uncomfortable. He had been interrupted right at the height of arousal and was now left hanging awkwardly, uncertain whether Jiang Ji had noticed. But somehow that “discomfort” had turned into an extended form of pleasure. He gazed at his brother, studying the face he had held between his hands for so long. Some portion of the “superior officer’s” authority had been stripped away, and Lu Xingyan’s chest burned.
What exactly was this emotion? Who knew? In any case, Lu Xingyan had gone stupid again. He could never remain intelligent for more than five minutes in front of Jiang Ji, and so he asked the question he should not have asked. “Bro, did you feel something just now?”
“…”
As expected, Jiang Ji gave him a speechless look. Since Lu Xingyan had predicted that reaction, he decided this proved he was still extremely intelligent and had everything under control.
He restrained his pleased expression and pressed on. “Why don’t you give me an answer tonight? Date me, okay?”
After enduring humiliation for so long, dawn had finally appeared before him. Lu Xingyan was so delighted that he nearly hallucinated pink sparks exploding through the air with a continuous crackle-crackle.
Unfortunately, none of his sparks reached Jiang Ji.
His brother was harder to pursue than anticipated. Expressionless, Jiang Ji finished drying his hair, sat down in the chair beside the window, and answered with almost brutal directness. “I don’t want to date you. I don’t like you.”
Lu Xingyan said, “…”
“Feeling something while kissing is a physiological reaction. Liking someone is a more advanced emotional response,” Jiang Ji said. “They’re completely different things. You can’t confuse the two.”
Lu Xingyan clenched his fist. His soaring mood was abruptly severed in midair, but just as his heart began falling, Jiang Ji suddenly said, “It’s not that I don’t like you at all.”
“…”
Lu Xingyan choked. His heavy heart was suddenly yanked high into the air again. The feeling was awful. Jiang Ji had complete control over his mood, and Lu Xingyan ought to fight back.
It was not that he did not want to. He had simply come too far already. A small amount of impatience could ruin the entire plan.
Lu Xingyan anxiously waited for the rest, but Jiang Ji stopped halfway through the sentence, sat there, and lit a cigarette.
“…”
He was going to give Lu Xingyan a heart attack.
Meeting Jiang Ji in this lifetime had to be some kind of karmic reward.
Lu Xingyan cursed him viciously inside his head and comforted himself by imagining several future scenes in which he dumped Jiang Ji and Jiang Ji cried until his heart and liver shattered. He had just reached day ten after the imaginary breakup, where Lu Xingyan coldly shut his bedroom door while Jiang Ji pitifully cried outside, when Jiang Ji finally extinguished the cigarette and walked over.
When it came to slapping someone and then feeding them a piece of candy, Jiang Ji was exceptionally skilled.
Lu Xingyan did not want his candy and watched warily. Yet the candy was shoved directly into his mouth—Jiang Ji lifted the blanket and wrapped a hand around him.
Lu Xingyan forgot to breathe and nearly exploded.
Then Jiang Ji said, “I don’t want to date, but we can have a different kind of relationship.”
“…What kind?”
The lips in front of him still bore the marks where Lu Xingyan had bitten them. Holding his breath, Lu Xingyan stared fixedly at them as they moved.
Jiang Ji bent down and gave his cheek an intimate kiss. “Sleep with me. Be my toy.”
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