Wang Cheng opened the red envelope. There was a full thousand yuan inside, the largest New Year’s red envelope he had received in all twenty-five years of his life. That thought was almost immediately obliterated by a text message.
The message was not from anyone he knew. It was a bank notification showing that one million yuan had just been deposited into his account.
Wang Cheng thought he had misread it. He stared at the string of zeroes on the screen with wide eyes. Seven digits. He even counted them several times before confirming that it really was one million. Someone had transferred one million yuan into his bank account. If money had vanished from his account, he could at least understand that it had been stolen. But this was the opposite. What kind of idiot accidentally transferred one million yuan into someone else’s account?
There was only one explanation. It had come from someone he knew.
Wang Cheng considered several possibilities: Father and Mother Zheng, his grandfather, and others. Somehow he overlooked one particular person. Before he could decide who it might be, his phone rang. Wang Cheng narrowed his eyes at the screen. Right. He had forgotten about this guy.
After he answered, Chu Yifeng heard no greeting and spoke first. “Why aren’t you saying anything?”
“I just received a text message. I’m still in shock.”
Wang Cheng stretched out his legs. If Chu Yifeng had been standing in front of him, he would have seen the deep malice on Wang Cheng’s face. Instinct told Chu Yifeng that whatever came next would not be pleasant, so he did not ask. Wang Cheng said it anyway. “Some idiot must have had a shaky hand and accidentally transferred a million yuan into my account. I’ve never had such a giant pie fall out of the sky before.”
Chu Yifeng laughed. He had already guessed, yet Wang Cheng still insisted on circling around just to insult him. “Finished cursing me? Feel better now?”
“Someone dumps a million yuan into my account for no reason. Who knows whether it’s stolen money? How could I possibly feel happy? Tomorrow I’ll go to the bank and have them send it back to the original account.” Since Chu Yifeng still had not admitted it, Wang Cheng continued talking nonsense.
“That idiot was me. Don’t return it,” Chu Yifeng admitted.
Wang Cheng snorted. “Why transfer me a million yuan for no reason?”
“New Year’s red envelope.”
“Are you trying to turn our relationship into mother and son?”
“…No.”
“Then pick another reason.”
Chu Yifeng actually thought about it seriously. “Startup capital?”
Wang Cheng clicked his tongue, even less satisfied now. “That’s stingy. Even a hundred million would feel too little for startup capital, and you’re only lending me one million? Boss Chu, when did you become such a miser?”
“How much do you want?” Chu Yifeng’s voice softened slightly.
Wang Cheng narrowed his eyes. “At least three hundred million.”
Chu Yifeng answered leisurely, “Three hundred million is fine. But I told you last time, I only accept seduction as payment. Can you manage that?”
Wang Cheng’s eyes turned. “If you want me to seduce you, you at least need to appear in front of me. I can’t even see your shadow right now. I don’t exactly have the conditions for seduction. What, do you want me to grab some random man off the street and seduce him instead? I have principles.”
Chu Yifeng laughed softly. “Go look out the window.”
Wang Cheng raised an eyebrow and turned toward the closed window. He walked over and looked down. His expression instantly went flat. Chu Yifeng was standing below, raising the hand holding his phone and waving at him. “The real person is here. You can seduce me now.”
“My family is downstairs. How are you supposed to come up?” Wang Cheng had never expected him to show up in the middle of the night.
“I’ll walk straight in.”
“No.” Wang Cheng rejected that immediately. His sharp-eyed eldest brother was downstairs. Chu Yifeng swaggering into the house on New Year’s Eve would practically announce that their relationship was anything but ordinary. If they were going to tell everyone, it would be later. Now was not the right time.
“Then what do you suggest?” Chu Yifeng stood with one hand in his pocket, entirely unhurried.
“I’ll come down. Happy?” Wang Cheng surrendered helplessly. Chu Yifeng clearly knew exactly what reservations he had. Wang Cheng had only just returned home and now needed another excuse to go out. He felt he was working very hard for this relationship. His parents and younger sister did not suspect anything, though Wang Ning’an gave him a doubtful glance.
The moment Wang Cheng reached Chu Yifeng, he worried someone might see them and immediately dragged him around behind the house. It was fairly dark there. Unless someone deliberately walked around back, no one would notice them. Wang Cheng still looked outside once more. Children and adults could be heard intermittently in the distance. Somehow, the whole thing carried the thrilling feeling of sneaking around.
Chu Yifeng stepped forward, pressed him against the wall, and lowered his head to kiss him when Wang Cheng turned back. Their hot lips sealed tightly together, though Chu Yifeng did not immediately push his tongue inside. The heated breath and skin-to-skin contact made their body temperatures rise quickly. Wang Cheng found the sensation increasingly difficult to bear. He parted his lips slightly to breathe, only for Chu Yifeng to bite his mouth. The wet kiss became sticky and intimate, tangled with the heat of two men’s desire until even the cold air around them seemed to warm.
A rubber ball suddenly rolled toward them and stopped two or three meters away.
“My ball.” A child’s voice came chasing after it.
Wang Cheng snapped awake. When he shoved Chu Yifeng away, their lips separated with an audible pop, an embarrassingly suggestive sound. He had no time to care. He grabbed Chu Yifeng and pulled him around the corner of the next wall. The child picked up the ball and ran off.
Wang Cheng let out a breath of relief. Then Chu Yifeng pulled the hem of his shirt loose and slid one hand underneath. The hand itself was warm, but cold air slipped in around it and made Wang Cheng shiver. In that brief moment of distraction, Chu Yifeng’s palm had already begun stroking across his body, fanning the flames.
Wang Cheng immediately stopped feeling cold. Heat flooded him from head to toe. He caught Chu Yifeng’s hand quickly. “Enough.” If this continued, he did not have the nerve to actually have sex with Chu Yifeng outside.
“Then you do it.” Chu Yifeng caught Wang Cheng’s hand instead and pressed it against the front of his trousers. Even through the fabric, the hard heat beneath was unmistakable. Wang Cheng’s scalp tingled.
Chu Yifeng leaned close to his ear. “You promised to seduce me. I’ve already lowered the requirements. You’re not planning to go back on your word, are you?”
He absolutely was.
Wang Cheng said weakly, “Boss Chu, we are outside right now. There are children and adults not far away. If something happens again like just now, maybe you can afford to lose that face, but I can’t.”
“That’s why I haven’t fucked you right here yet. I very much want to fuck you right now.” Chu Yifeng sighed against his ear, then buried his face against Wang Cheng’s neck and inhaled deeply. He slowly breathed the warm air back over Wang Cheng’s already sensitive skin and felt him tremble.
“From the way you say it, I should be thanking you.” Wang Cheng wanted to smack him in the face, but he also knew Chu Yifeng was telling the truth. The evidence was rather obvious in Wang Cheng’s hand. If their positions were reversed, he was not sure he could endure it either.
“Then hurry up. Time waits for no one.” Chu Yifeng’s method of urging him was to unbutton Wang Cheng’s trousers and pull down the zipper. “In return…”
Wang Cheng’s body jolted. “Wait.”
Chu Yifeng assumed he was trying to stall, but he stopped anyway and raised an eyebrow for him to continue.
Wang Cheng pulled out his phone and first switched his ringtone to vibrate. The last thing he wanted was for his family to call later and discover the sound of his phone ringing directly behind their own house, followed by the entire family catching them in the act. The image was too horrifying to imagine. Only after that did he send his family a message saying something had come up and he might return late. They could go to bed when they wanted and did not need to wait for him. Only then did he feel safe enough to continue.
Chu Yifeng laughed. Even at a moment like this, Wang Cheng could still think of doing that.
The children playing outside had already been called home by adults, though the streetlights remained bright. Most of New Year’s Eve had passed, but the part that truly belonged to adults was only beginning. In a place like Guanjia Village, with its own local customs, New Year’s Eve celebrations always continued very late.
There were large communal rituals, for example. At around ten, every household had to prepare offerings. People in the countryside were comparatively superstitious, and even families who had moved in from other villages tended to follow the custom.
Because Wang Cheng still had not returned, Papa Wang and Mama Wang decided not to wait for him. Once everything was prepared, they left Wang Ziyu at home to watch the house and took Wang Ning’an with them. Voices drifted past from the front of the house, some loud and some soft. No one noticed the two people hidden in the darkness behind it.
Wang Cheng clenched his teeth tightly to keep from making a sound.
Chu Yifeng lowered his head and forced Wang Cheng’s lips apart, kissing him hard. The wet sounds seemed magnified several times in the darkness, unnervingly clear in his ears. Only after the voices of Papa Wang and Mama Wang gradually faded away did Wang Cheng dare relax. The next second, Chu Yifeng thrust hard into him.
“Fuck. Weren’t we supposed to jerk each other off?”
Wang Cheng’s trousers had already been tossed aside like garbage. How had things developed this far? Even he could not explain it. By the time his mind caught up, they were already having sex.
Chu Yifeng buried his face against him. Only after a long moment did he answer, “On such a beautiful night…”
Wang Cheng had no desire to hear the rest. The ritual would not take very long. If they did not finish quickly and Papa Wang and the others came back, his family would start calling frantically to urge him home. So to make Chu Yifeng hurry, Wang Cheng stopped holding back and moved with him just as hard.
Chu Yifeng let out a muffled groan. Their movements grew more intense, but no one was paying attention to this side of the house anymore. Feeling Chu Yifeng about to come, Wang Cheng wanted to tell him not to come inside him, but the warning came too late. Chu Yifeng came inside him. Wang Cheng’s expression changed, and at last he could not hold back. He bared a row of white teeth and bit down hard on Chu Yifeng’s shoulder.