Jiang Shao’s lips were cool to the touch.
Unlike the scorching heat of his body, they were just like the man himself, carrying a careless hint of teasing as he toyed with the world, yet remaining indifferent to everything.
Their lips met.
Qi Mu shivered at that coolness.
His lashes fluttered once. From impossibly close, he looked at Jiang Shao and saw that calm gaze in those pitch-black pupils, clinging to him like a bone-deep affliction.
He hurriedly closed his eyes again, not daring to look.
They had kissed many times before, but Jiang Shao had always been the one to initiate it. It had always been Jiang Shao’s one-sided plundering while he merely endured passively, telling himself that this was what he ought to pay.
He had no reason to refuse Jiang Shao.
He had treated all of it as a price.
Little by little, he had grown accustomed to Jiang Shao’s kisses, but he had never once taken the initiative to kiss Jiang Shao.
For Qi Mu, actively kissing someone, especially a man, was utterly unimaginable.
It was something he originally would never have done.
With many things, passively enduring them was often much easier than taking the initiative.
Because there was no need to summon courage, no need to cross some vast chasm, no need to struggle painfully… All he had to do was endure in silence.
He could accept everything Jiang Shao gave him without ever having to think about whether he himself actually wanted it.
He could simply let fate carry him along with the current.
It bred a kind of inertia.
Until the day he had no choice but to face what was truly in his heart…
Qi Mu lowered his head and pressed his lips to Jiang Shao’s, lightly. Yet even this simple contact had already taken more courage than he had ever mustered before.
Even his breathing slowed.
And simply stayed like that.
But more than ten seconds passed,
and Jiang Shao remained completely motionless.
He neither kissed him back as he usually did nor opened his mouth to say anything. He merely stood there quietly and patiently, as if waiting for Qi Mu to make the next move.
Qi Mu’s face flushed red, helpless and embarrassed at once.
Knowing this kiss alone would not be enough to get by so easily, he could only test the waters with extreme caution, sticking out the tip of his tongue to lick Jiang Shao’s lips.
He kept his eyes tightly shut so he would not lose his nerve, but with his sight cut off, his sense of touch only became sharper. The instant the tip of his tongue touched Jiang Shao’s lips, he startled and pulled it back.
Jiang Shao’s lips…
So this is what they feel like.
They were just as soft, only cold.
His tongue felt as if it had frozen stiff.
Qi Mu did not move for a long while.
Only after a long moment did he cautiously try to extend his tongue again.
He tried his best not to think too much. Acting purely on instinct, he copied the way Jiang Shao kissed him and licked at Jiang Shao’s lips. Gradually, the other man’s lips took on his warmth, seeming to melt together with him.
They became just as warm.
But Jiang Shao still did not react at all.
Qi Mu grew even more anxious.
He was already trying this hard, so why was Jiang Shao still not satisfied? What exactly did Jiang Shao want him to do?
At some point, the phone beside them had stopped ringing, but Qi Mu did not notice at all.
All his attention was fixed on the kiss. He was flustered, helpless, and completely without technique.
Jiang Shao lowered his gaze calmly.
Like a spectator, he watched Qi Mu kiss him clumsily.
He watched Qi Mu part his lips by a sliver, the soft red tip of his tongue tentatively emerging, only to dart back like a frightened little rabbit the instant it touched him.
Then, as if gathering his courage all over again, it struggled slowly forward.
Qi Mu was clearly the one taking the initiative, yet he was so anxious that a thin mist had gathered in his eyes, leaving him looking terribly aggrieved.
He looked painfully endearing.
Jiang Shao was nowhere near as calm inside as he appeared.
He exhausted every ounce of strength he had to restrain himself from acting like a wolf that had been starving for ages and swallowing this little rabbit whole.
He thought he had still underestimated just how much Qi Mu meant to him.
Even this tiny bit of initiative from Qi Mu was enough to nearly shatter all his restraint.
Jiang Shao felt Qi Mu’s tongue brush over him, sweeping about clumsily like a feather.
In his panic, the tip of Qi Mu’s tongue swept across the seam of his lips.
Then, after another difficult struggle, it cautiously ventured toward his teeth.
Jiang Shao could not endure it any longer.
He was like a hunter who had been lying in wait for far too long.
In an instant, he opened his mouth and bit down on the tip of the tongue that had failed to retreat in time.
He pressed a hand to the back of Qi Mu’s head.
And deepened the kiss.
Qi Mu had not expected Jiang Shao to move so suddenly. Caught completely off guard when his tongue was bitten, tears almost sprang from his eyes. Very quickly, Jiang Shao’s kiss turned fierce, surging over him like a rising tide and sweeping him away before he could escape, drowning and devouring him completely.
Soon, all he could make were low whimpers and breathless gasps.
Every thought in his head was seized by Jiang Shao.
The phone on the washbasin counter rang, stopped, then rang again.
Someone outside seemed to be cursing, demanding to know which lunatic had locked the door.
Things that ordinarily should have been enough to make him terrified and flustered could not claim even a sliver of his attention now.
All he could feel was Jiang Shao’s kiss.
Jiang Shao’s body was pressed tightly against his, while Qi Mu’s legs were wrapped around Jiang Shao’s waist.
Qi Mu had his head lowered, while Jiang Shao tilted his face upward.
It looked almost as if Qi Mu were the one kissing and entwining himself around Jiang Shao.
Mist flooded Qi Mu’s eyes, his vision gradually blurring. Even his glasses had been knocked crooked, and the only thing he could do was brace himself with both hands.
So…
Even I can do something this absurd.
Just when Qi Mu thought this boundless chaos would never end…
Jiang Shao suddenly let go of him and stepped back.
Qi Mu looked at him in confusion.
All he saw was Jiang Shao’s unusually cold, severe expression, his jaw clenched tight as if he were desperately enduring something.
Jiang Shao had no choice but to let go.
Because if he continued,
he might truly lose his reason, indulge himself, and do something that could no longer be taken back.
He gave Qi Mu a long, deep look.
Then turned his back to him.
It took Qi Mu a while to slowly come back to himself. He hurriedly climbed down from the washbasin counter, straightened his clothes in the mirror, and pretended to be calm.
He did not dare look at Jiang Shao either.
He was afraid of giving away his emotions.
The restroom was utterly silent.
Qi Mu took off his glasses and splashed cold water over his face. Only after the flush had faded enough to be less obvious did he put his glasses back on and turn around.
Jiang Shao did not turn back. As if nothing had happened, he said, “Let’s go back.”
Then he opened the door and left.
Qi Mu pursed his lips and followed him out.
The two of them returned to the table one after the other.
Xu Wei Ran was holding her phone, lost in thought.
Why did those two take so long in the restroom? This isn’t normal. This is extremely not normal!
Qi Mu didn’t just leave, did he?
But Xu Wei Ran quickly dismissed the idea. Qi Mu was absolutely not that rude and would never leave without saying goodbye. There had to be a reason he had not come back… Did he eat something bad?
But did Jiang Shao eat something bad too?
Surely not…
Xu Wei Ran had grown uneasy from waiting, so she called Qi Mu. She called three times in a row, but Qi Mu did not answer any of them…
She was almost ready to go find a restaurant employee.
Then she suddenly saw the two of them returning.
Jiang Shao came back first. Nothing could be read from his expression, which remained as indifferent as ever, except that his face looked a little colder, as though he were suppressing something.
Without saying a word, he sat down and did not even look at her.
Qi Mu returned a few steps behind him.
The instant Qi Mu came back, Xu Wei Ran sensed that something was off. Why did his lips look a little red? They were even slightly swollen, almost as if… he had been kissed.
No way!
These two didn’t sneak into the restroom to kiss, did they?!
And they made out for that long?
My god…
Qi Mu was such a refined, reserved, and shy person. Back when they dated in university, he had never even taken the initiative to hold her hand. In matters of romance, he had always been cool and aloof, like an immortal untouched by mortal life. If he ever went into cultivation, Xu Wei Ran thought the Path of Ruthlessness would suit him perfectly. One glance at him and you could tell he did not possess those kinds of worldly desires.
Yet now, that cool, abstinent, conservative, restrained Qi Mu, who never crossed a line by even half a step, had actually kissed someone in a restaurant restroom?
Was this still the Qi Mu she knew?
Xu Wei Ran was so shocked that she even forgot to ask Qi Mu why he had taken so long to come back.
Forget it. Better not ask.
Qi Mu met Xu Wei Ran’s gaze, and his face heated faintly again. Afraid she had noticed something, he forced himself to explain calmly, “Sorry. I felt a little unwell just now and kept you waiting.”
What kind of person was Xu Wei Ran?
Her high emotional intelligence was her greatest strength. She immediately smiled and tactfully said, “It’s fine. I was just playing on my phone.”
Seeing that Xu Wei Ran did not pursue the subject and acted as though she did not care at all, Qi Mu finally relaxed a little.
But because of this little episode,
the rest of the meal became rather tasteless. Qi Mu was worried Jiang Shao would get jealous, so he did not dare talk to Xu Wei Ran much more.
Xu Wei Ran did not plan to keep eating either. She had already gotten the answer she wanted today, so she could finally rest easy. There was no need to disturb this lovey-dovey little couple.
Xu Wei Ran took the initiative to end the meal, her eyes curving as she smiled. “Let’s get together again when we have the chance. I have a date tonight, so I won’t take up any more of your time.”
Qi Mu nodded. “Okay.”
After paying the bill, Xu Wei Ran left completely satisfied.
＊
Qi Mu’s mood had been complicated these past few days.
He did not know how to face Jiang Shao.
Every time he saw Jiang Shao, he would remember being held in place by him and forced to take the initiative to kiss him…
He would also remember that night in the parking garage, Jiang Shao’s fingers closing around him…
All of it made him feel unbearably tormented.
Qi Mu once again used work to numb himself. He was suddenly very grateful that he was a busy company president with endless things to do, leaving him no time to let a small personal problem occupy too much of his mind…
Romance had never been the whole of his life. It did not even rank as particularly important.
He could sweep it into an unimportant corner.
Shut it away. Lock it up.
Jiang Shao could see exactly what Qi Mu was trying to do. After all, this man had always been like this. Whenever he encountered a problem he found difficult to face, he chose to deal with it coldly and retreat like an ostrich burying its head.
Jiang Shao could have chosen to press forward step by step and leave Qi Mu no room to breathe, but in the end, he did not…
Since there was no one else in Qi Mu’s heart, and Qi Mu could not escape the palm of his hand anyway, Jiang Shao did not mind giving him a little time.
Zhan Xiao Hui felt that the atmosphere in the President’s Office had been much better lately.
For one thing, Jiang Shao was no longer gloomy all the time, wearing a murderous expression like he wanted to kill someone. Sometimes, he even smiled to himself.
That was, honestly, a little terrifying.
Zhan Xiao Hui opened the slacking-off group chat.
Xiaoxiao the Gluttonous Fish: Jiang Shao is definitely dating someone. Definitely, absolutely, one hundred percent!
Xiao Linzi: I didn’t want to believe it at first, but who acts like that besides someone in love?
Professional Slacker: Who’s he dating, President Qi?
The group fell silent for a long time.
All About Money: I don’t think it’s completely impossible. Those two seem to be together all the time lately. I’ve seen it several times. Jiang Shao follows President Qi around like a ghost stuck to his back.
Hopelessly Addicted to Gossip: Jiang Shao is way too clingy with President Qi! And I heard Auntie Zhao say he even took over delivering lunch at noon.
Handsome Guy Enthusiast: Couldn’t he just be sucking up to the boss because he wants a promotion and a raise?
Xiaoxiao the Gluttonous Fish: If it were anyone else, I’d definitely think that. But Jiang Shao? I don’t get the feeling he wants a promotion or a raise at all.
All About Money: A man with no desire for money does all this for what? The soul-searching question has arrived! wooden-fish tapping.jpg
Hopelessly Addicted to Gossip: Huh… Somehow, they’re kind of shippable.
Handsome Guy Enthusiast: …Do you people still remember our goddess? I distinctly remember you weren’t like this before. You’ve all defected already?
Xiaoxiao the Gluttonous Fish: You can’t blame us. They’re just too good to ship!
Xiao Linzi: Exactly, exactly, exactly.
Professional Slacker: Why can’t President Qi embrace one on the left and one on the right and enjoy the best of both worlds?
Hopelessly Addicted to Gossip: Our President Qi deserves it.
Qi Mu pushed open the door to the President’s Office and saw everyone jolt before immediately pretending to work hard. For some reason, they gave him the distinct impression that they were guilty of something…
Qi Mu: ?
Why are my employees acting a little strange?
The question flashed through Qi Mu’s mind, but he did not dwell on it. He walked over to Jiang Shao and said evenly, “I’m going on a business trip tomorrow. Come with me.”
It was not that Qi Mu wanted to bring Jiang Shao along. He simply knew that if he did not, Jiang Shao would definitely get angry.
Just thinking about that made Qi Mu’s head ache. Rather than wait for this menace to come looking for trouble,
he might as well take the initiative and bring him along.