Pei Yan and Zhuang Xiao slipped out of the costume room one after the other.
Under his shirt, Pei Yan’s shoulders and chest were covered in bitten love marks, and the insides of his thighs had been squeezed. Zhuang Xiao had bite marks on his chest too. They had been careful not to plant any “strawberries” where other people might see them.
Zhang Shaochi was still sitting on the sofa in the lobby. Xing Rong had long since escaped.
Zhang Shaochi had not actually intended to go any further with him. Even if he wanted that kind of thing, he found Xing Rong almost too thin to touch, with no strength to resist at all. He would not be much fun to tumble around with in bed. He just gave Xing Rong’s backside a slap. “All right, look at you shaking all over. Go on, then. Off you go.”
Xing Rong sprang up as though granted a pardon, thanked President Zhang, and hurried off.
Pei Yan shot Zhang Shaochi a look. What the hell was wrong with him?
Zhang Shaochi narrowed his eyes at Pei Yan. Did he think the boss did not know what he had been up to?
Pei Yan was not afraid of his company president in the slightest. So what if you know? After the things you’ve done, you’ve got the nerve to lecture me?
He wrinkled his nose at President Zhang.
Zhang Shaochi took the cigarette he was holding, crushed it between his fingers into a scattering of tobacco, and blew the crumbs away. He very much wanted to smack that little monkey on the backside.
Just outside the studio’s floor-to-ceiling windows, a car arrived to pick someone up, and someone climbed in. Wasn’t that President Du from last night, here again?
Pei Yan saw him and instantly flared up. He shouted “Du Mingju!” through the glass and pointed straight at him.
Du Mingjun turned and saw him too. Even from half a street away, a shiver went down his spine.
Pei Yan grabbed something like a selfie stick from a studio table. Whatever it was, it was long, hard, and rigid. He started toward the door, intending to have a word with President Du. “This thing is for you, President Du! Come and take it!”
Du Mingjun was genuinely a little afraid of the young madman and did not dare provoke him. He gave Pei Yan a dainty wave with his little finger raised, managed an awkward half-smile, then jumped into the car and sped away.
Pei Yan yanked the telescoping selfie stick out and back with a few sharp snaps. He was still seething.
“Tsk. No manners…” Zhang Shaochi frowned and let out a disdainful snort at him.
Du Mingjun had come to deliver wrap gifts for the film’s principal cast and crew. He too had invested part of the money in the production.
Beautifully packaged gifts sat on the table, each carefully labeled with its recipient’s name. Some had already been collected. The two for Pei Yan and Zhuang Xiao were still there, side by side.
Zhuang Xiao gave his box a squeeze. Out of habit, he hefted it to judge the weight.
Light. Very light.
Almost without thinking, he squeezed Pei Yan’s box too. That one was quite heavy, the weight he would have expected.
“Hey, let me see yours. Are they the same?” Pei Yan reached for it.
“Exactly the same. Look at your own.” Zhuang Xiao swiftly took his own gift away.
Pei Yan unwrapped his present. Inside was a gold medal, creatively shaped like a waist badge and engraved with the Chinese title of Dragon Battles Heaven’s Pass. The workmanship was exquisite. It was solid gold, meant as a commemorative gift for everyone involved. That old chrysanthemum really did have money to burn.
Zhuang Xiao touched Mr. Pei lightly at the waist and signaled, “I’m leaving. See you.”
Pei Yan said, “Oh… Sure. Let’s eat together sometime.”
Zhuang Xiao nodded. “All right. We’ll be in touch.”
There were plenty of people nearby. Their gazes brushed very lightly, and they said goodbye.
Zhuang Xiao turned the corner of the street and strode toward the parking lot. As he walked, he ripped open his gift. After nearly twenty years in the entertainment industry, he had seen enough of the world to know what he was likely to find.
The box was packed with high-quality soft paper dusted with gold powder, wrapped in layer after layer so the metal inside could not rattle around. When he opened the innermost layer, he found three copper bullets.
He supposed he owed that old President Du a debt of three films, after all. They had certainly kept count.
Du Mingjun was really quite subtle. These men were seasoned players in both business and seduction, a whole pack of smiling tigers. They could send somebody bullets as casually as giving out candy, then turn around and smile warmly at the cameras.
In the restroom of Jiahuang’s club the night before, President Du had already hinted that some things could be used to settle a debt. The intoxicating thrill of beautiful, healthy, polished flesh meeting in a moment of desire was something money could never buy. And then? Zhuang Xiao had let that old chrysanthemum embrace a urinal. He could get his thrills from the porcelain!
Zhuang Xiao crumpled the wrapping paper and dropped it, together with the gift box, into a roadside trash bin.
* * *
Pei Yan was still wandering around the big studio instead of leaving. He had something on his mind too.
As soon as President Zhang went into an inner room to change clothes, Pei Yan followed him in.
Someone immediately made a snide remark behind him. “Well, you’ve got to lick President Zhang nice and good if you want him to keep spoiling you…”
Zhang Shaochi was rummaging through a rack, choosing something to wear before heading out to see people. He casually asked the man behind him, “Which color looks better? This brown one?”
Pei Yan frowned. “Too old-fashioned.”
“What about the purple?”
“Gay purple.”
Zhang Shaochi gave a cold laugh. “Oh? Perhaps you ought to wear this one, then.”
“Sure, I could wear it. I’m young and bright. On you it’d look like a great big eggplant!”
Pei Yan leaned against the doorway with his whole body bent into a deliberately obnoxious slouch, looking infuriatingly smug.
Jiahuang’s big boss kept himself in excellent shape. He was tall and cool, every inch the imposing executive, definitely no eggplant. Zhang Shaochi turned and cursed him. “That’s enough out of you! Shut your mouth for once and give me some peace!”
Zhang Shaochi stripped off his jacket and shirt, exposing the firm, well-maintained body underneath. He habitually wore a close-fitting white athletic undershirt, the old sleeveless kind popular in the seventies and eighties, the sort of thing mechanics and market vendors wore on the street. People often mocked him behind his back for being a peasant at heart, a complete bumpkin.
Yet the capital’s entertainment world was in the hands of bumpkins like these. Zhang Shaochi came from a family raised in a high-ranking residential compound. His family had lived at a government department’s compound on Yuquan Road. He was born near the end of a turbulent era and had not suffered much hardship, but he carried the distinctive manner of people raised in that environment. Growing up in a close-knit community of street fighting, chasing girls, and causing trouble had given them both aggression and fighting spirit. They knew the world and knew how to make things happen. Outsiders could not imitate that particular brand of swagger.
Zhang Shaochi later left the military and went into business, where he made his fortune.
Within the compound’s walls, the people who grew up around its open-air cinema, swimming pool, barbershop, and cooperative store formed a network of connections that became an invaluable business resource. Children of those families watched out for one another, made money together, and kept the best opportunities among themselves.
That was why Zhang Shaochi worked with people like Du Mingjun from the old Du family in the same compound, starting companies and doing business with them. He did not particularly admire Du Mingjun’s despicable character, but they had known each other for years and knew one another inside and out. They came from the same crowd.
It was also why he had known the Pei family for a very long time. Pei Yan’s mother had grown up in the same compound. Her maternal family lived in that building too, and her elders had once held posts senior to the Zhang family’s.
Most people in the company did not know these things. They spread all sorts of gossip about why Zhang Shaochi gave the little bald-headed Pei so much special treatment.
It certainly did not look like the two of them had slept together. It was more as though President Zhang kept a pet cat close at hand, one that refused to obey and was forever scratching him. Somehow, he had raised a house cat into a wildcat.
Pei Yan’s own maternal uncle had been the “sworn older brother” who watched over Zhang Shaochi and protected him in fights when they lived in the compound. Their bond had been close.
Even now, when Xu Qishang met Zhang Shaochi privately at dinner, she still called him “Big Monkey,” while referring to Pei Yan as “Little Monkey.” Who in the old compound did not know the background of Big Monkey Zhang?
That was what a circle meant. People remembered old ties. Connections like these, rooted in family origins, could not be severed no matter how rich someone became. But the circle also had a high wall between insiders and outsiders. Without the right credentials or a powerful ticket of admission, an outsider could not easily get through the door and share in the profits.
Pei Yan had followed his boss inside for one reason. “President Zhang, could you look after Ah Xiao?”
What sort of background did Zhuang Xiao have? His “admission ticket” was Pei Yan.
Zhang Shaochi put on a silk shirt and purple Western-style jacket and glared at him. “Protecting you isn’t enough? For Dragon Battles Heaven’s Pass, you insisted I cast Zhuang Xiao as the second male lead. Didn’t I agree? I kicked out another actor we’d already chosen just to get Zhuang Xiao into the production!”
“I don’t need you looking after me,” Pei Yan muttered.
“You ungrateful little bastard! If I hadn’t protected you, do you think you’d be where you are? Could you get away with acting so crazy?”
“Oh, all riiight.” Pei Yan knew the truth of that much. He smiled, then shamelessly pressed for even more. “Let the two of us act together in Bloodshadow Wanderer.”
He meant the urban supernatural-abilities picture he was scheduled to begin filming next year.
Zhang Shaochi flatly refused. “The casting is settled. There’s no room to squeeze anybody into the main parts.”
“Even a major guest appearance would be fine!”
Zhang Shaochi looked at him. “Guest appearance as what?”
“Uh, guest appearance…” Pei Yan scratched his head. “Not a villain. I don’t want him playing a villain… How about the scientist? The god-of-war general? Leader of humanity?”
Zhang Shaochi cursed under his breath. “Did I open this fucking company just for you?”
“I’m not exaggerating my own worth here. Ah Xiao has box-office appeal. Even if he only appears for a cameo, shows off his muscles by taking off his shirt, or dances a tango for twenty seconds, fans will buy out entire screenings! That’s how movies are made nowadays. Get a popular young actor to appear for twenty seconds, completely unrelated to the plot, like sticking a decorative flower into the film, just for the publicity.”
Zhang Shaochi snorted. There he goes again.
Pei Yan had used exactly this argument when desperately persuading him to bring Zhuang Xiao into Dragon Battles Heaven’s Pass.
Of course, Zhang Shaochi agreed with the business logic. That was the main reason he had approved it in the first place. Businesspeople chased profits. Actors differed not only in the fees they commanded but in their entire level of prestige. A top-tier star was a top-tier star. The name alone could bring audiences into cinemas.
After considering it, Zhang Shaochi said, “What about arranging a joint brand endorsement for you two?”
Pei Yan replied, “I’m not trying to puff myself up, but neither of us charges a small endorsement fee, do we? What brand wants to pay that much to hire us both at once?”
“Listen to you boasting!” Zhang Shaochi said. “There are plenty of international brands that can afford those fees. Luxury off-road SUVs, watches that can take a beating and survive water, men’s jewelry. All of those would suit the two of you.”
“Great.” Pei Yan grinned and agreed.
He had achieved what he came for and immediately turned to leave. He could not be bothered with flattery or polite thanks. Too much trouble.
“Stay there, Little Monkey. I’ve got something else to ask you.” Zhang Shaochi looked back, not ready to let him escape.
“Ask away.” Pei Yan thought, You old monkey. Great big ape. Red-assed baboon.
Zhang Shaochi took an age fastening his belt and buttons without looking up. “Where’s your brother?”
“Who?” Pei Yan had not heard clearly.
“Your brother.” Zhang Shaochi still did not raise his eyes.
“What?” Pei Yan tilted his head. “I haven’t got a brother. I’m an only child. Don’t you know that?”
“You know who I mean.” Zhang Shaochi’s voice was no longer steady. “Don’t try to fool me. Where is he…?”
There it was, that reservoir of bitterness accumulated over who knew how many years. He sounded like a man looking for somebody to fuck with a tripod leg. Here was a powerful boss who could summon the wind and rain, whose company was filled with beauties and temptation. He could pick a different bedmate every night for half a year without repetition. What could he possibly be so unhappy about?
“How long has he been gone? Where is he?… Has he ever come back?” Zhang Shaochi asked.
“I don’t know who you mean. My mom and dad only had me. I really don’t have a brother.” Pei Yan’s voice grew small. “I honestly don’t know.”
Fine. Not one honest word out of him.
A shaft of light shone through the costume room’s only small window and fell across Zhang Shaochi. His face sank halfway into shadow, and he was silent for a long time. The room was crowded with beautiful clothes: elegant men’s tailcoats and great sweeping women’s skirts. At that moment, everything seemed swallowed by the gloom, dulled to gray and beneath notice…
“How far have you and Zhuang Xiao gone?” Zhang Shaochi suddenly asked, returning to himself.
“You’re just like those CP fans, believing all the nonsense people say online,” Pei Yan scoffed.
Zhang Shaochi strolled slowly toward him, then struck without warning, seizing the front of his shirt and yanking it open across his chest!
Pei Yan reacted quickly and tried to block the hand. President Zhang was fast too. He had served in the military, and even at forty still had some fighting ability and considerable strength. Several shirt buttons sprang open.
Beneath Pei Yan’s collarbone were several vivid love bites, complete with fresh teeth marks. They were unmistakably made by a man.
Zhang Shaochi shook his head. “Somebody’s eaten you up.”
Pei Yan bit his lower lip and fastened his collar again. He did not intend to argue and had no desire to talk.
“You… You only pretend to be clever. When something really matters, you’re particularly stupid,” Zhang Shaochi said.
“How am I stupid?” Pei Yan asked, irritated. The words sounded familiar. Zhuang Xiao had said the very same thing about him, that he could be stupid.
“Yanyan, the movie’s wrapped and you’ve eaten the farewell dinner. Time to rein in your feelings,” Zhang Shaochi said. “How old are you this year? You haven’t even reached your second zodiac birth-year cycle. You’ve barely eaten a few meals or traveled a few miles. And already you’ve thrown caution away and started doing whatever you like. What, are you famous enough now? Earned enough money? Don’t want to stay in this business anymore?”
“I’m doing fine,” Pei Yan said quietly. “My contract never said I couldn’t make friends or have a relationship. My mom and dad never forbade it either…”
“I’m not saying it’s forbidden. I’m saying this man isn’t suitable. He’ll block your future and drag you down. He’s the same kind of actor as you. He’ll compete with you for scenes, steal the attention, fight you for roles, and go after the same resources.”
Pei Yan could scarcely be bothered arguing. Zhuang Xiao would compete with him for resources? Or was it the other way around?
“Yanyan, are you sure he wants to make another film with you? Does he even want to keep developing his career here? What matters more, your future or him? You’re so young, you do everything on three days of passion. A year or half a year from now, look back and see whether you’re still so passionately in love.
“Zhuang Xiao won’t stay here. He’s finished filming. He’ll be going back to America very soon.”
That was what Zhang Shaochi said.
“Who says he’s going back to America?”
Pei Yan looked up at him.
“Who told you? Did he say so himself?”
“…”
After that, Pei Yan did not see Zhuang Xiao all afternoon and had no idea where he had gone.
Much of the time, their telephone calls lasted only a few words, and Zhuang Xiao rarely replied promptly on WeChat. Pei Yan had become used to the man’s manner: sometimes close, sometimes distant, cool and reserved.
Maybe he was just afraid of being clung to.
Two men could not cling to each other too closely or become too sickeningly affectionate. That really would not do.
In the evening, Zhuang Xiao sent him a voice message. “I went to the hospital this afternoon, so I didn’t get back to you. Didn’t want to drag you along or interfere with your work.”
Pei Yan immediately called him. “What are you doing tomorrow, then?”
“Aren’t you going to Hong Kong for work tomorrow? I’m going to see my dad.”
“Oh… All right.” Pei Yan asked another question. “Hey, know what I’m doing right now?”
Zhuang Xiao snorted. “What else would you be doing? Fucking yourself? Playing both top and bottom?”
“Fuck off. Mine isn’t long enough to bend around like that. I can’t top and bottom myself,” Pei Yan laughed. “I’m revisiting scenes from a movie.”
“What movie?”
“The one we just finished, Dragon Battles Heaven’s Pass.”
As soon as Pei Yan said that, Zhuang Xiao knew exactly which scene he was watching. Heh.
Pei Yan spoke softly into the phone. “It’s so exciting, and it’s filmed so beautifully… You look almost naked. Everything’s showing. I keep touching you, over and over, pinching your nipples and stroking your thighs.”
“Enough,” Zhuang Xiao said.
“I’m just trying to see exactly how you got hard back then. Those silky trousers were so thin. I think you really did get hard.”
“…”
“Want to act that scene out again? Just for the two of us?”
Zhuang Xiao did not answer, but the way his breathing grew heavier down the line said enough.
Pei Yan immediately added, “Or if you want me to play the part, that’s fine too. Come over, and I’ll perform it for you.”
In the darkness, inside white-walled rooms, in the empty space of beds without their lovers, both men fell silent for a long time. Their breathing was hurried.
“Miss me?” Pei Yan asked.
“Of course,” Zhuang Xiao replied without thinking.
Pei Yan wondered, If you miss me, can you really bear to leave me?
Zhuang Xiao thought, I can’t bear it. I want to stay beside you forever. I want somebody to keep loving me this much.
Then Zhuang Xiao remembered a small thing. “Last time I went to your house, the gifts I bought for your parents… I think I left them at your place?”
“Yeah, you did. Save them for next time.”
“Could you give them the gifts for me? And apologize to your parents.”
“Why don’t you give them yourself next time you see them? Why should I give them on your behalf?”
“Please give them for me,” Zhuang Xiao repeated.
Zhuang Xiao went to visit his father again. Since he was in Beijing for only a short time, he should at least keep the lonely old man company.
The sun rose and then set again.
Day after day, in this same city, some people lived to savor each day and others simply endured. Every household had its own taste of life.
The blood-red sun sank toward the horizon, broken into pieces by the buildings on the city’s outskirts. Its rays were shredded and scattered. In a damp, forgotten corner of a plain old apartment building, father and son sat facing each other at a rare moment of peace, resting after another fight.
Zhuang Xiao had brought his father some food and necessities, including vacuum-packed provisions with long shelf lives and a pile of health supplements purchased in America. They were not prescription medicines and would not cure any illness. Taking them was really an expensive form of psychological reassurance.
Zhuang Wenlong sat dully at the table, gazed at the bottles and jars, and grunted. “What good are these? You think they’ll make my crippled leg work again?”
“They might make you feel better,” Zhuang Xiao said.
“How are they supposed to make me feel better?”
“Because I bought them for you. When you’re upset, grab a handful and chew them up. Just imagine you’re chewing me!”
Zhuang Wenlong gave a rather desolate laugh. Why would I want to chew you up?
Zhuang Xiao turned to clear a space amid the junk in the living room, then filled a basin with warm water and carried it to his father’s feet. “Let me wash your feet.”
Zhuang Wenlong stared at him in surprise. “What’s all this about?”
“I’m leaving in a couple of days,” Zhuang Xiao said.
His father was silent for a moment, looking deeply disappointed. “Have you… Have you done something bad and hidden it from me?”
“No.”
“Did you sign a contract with Jiahuang and that Du fellow? Sell yourself to them?”
“No.” Zhuang Xiao shook his head. “I won’t sign anything.”
Zhuang Wenlong tried another question. “Last time I saw you with that boy surnamed Pei… Pei something. You two were shooting a film together, weren’t you?”
Zhuang Xiao’s voice suddenly turned hoarse. “Filming is finished. We wrapped. It’s over.”
He crouched and tested the water in the basin. Suddenly his father slapped a hand onto his shoulder and gripped him, five fingers digging almost painfully into the flesh. “Son, I… I slapped you a couple of times, but I never really hurt you. I never hit you that hard… I’m old and useless now…”
The old man’s emotions were erratic, lucid one day and confused the next. Today happened to be one of his clearer spells.
Zhuang Xiao said nothing. He removed his father’s shoes and lowered the feet into the water. The obvious aftermath of the old injury was exposed before him. He could not help feeling miserable at the sight.
“Who says your blows couldn’t hurt me? You never hit me hard?”
The room was quiet. There was only the faint sound of water as Zhuang Xiao crouched on the floor. Suddenly he let his resentment slip out.
Once again, he could not hold it back.
It was the knot in his heart, the unhealed wound.
“…”
The old man fell silent too, not saying anything for a long time. Perhaps he realized that being lucid was worse than being muddled and forgetful. When he was clearheaded, he had to answer his son’s accusations. Zhuang Xiao was turning the tables and reopening the accounts of their years as father and son.
“Am I really that impossible to hurt?
“Do you think I can’t feel pain?
“Am I an idiot? Am I stupid? Have I somehow lost all my senses and stopped feeling anything?”
Zhuang Xiao asked his father each question in turn without raising his eyes.
What was the point of going over all of it? Was he trying to force someone to admit fault? Everyone experienced injustices during their lifetime and sometimes passed the anger on to innocent people. Afterward, nobody wanted to admit the mistakes they had made in the heat of youth. Everybody remembered how others had wronged them, kept careful accounts of other people’s faults. Who went out of their way to remember their own wrongs toward the people closest to them? Who would admit to being wrong?
Knowing it was pointless, Zhuang Xiao still could not help needling his father. The wounds of his adolescence had never healed. Certain memories had been branded into his bones and blood, scorching his very soul, nearly distorting the way he felt and understood the world. That had lasted until he met Mr. Pei. The feeling of stepping into the warmth of human life had been wonderful.
Yet the feeling of suffocation was hardly any better than before. Those shackles seemed to tighten more painfully than ever.
Pei Yan gave him too much warmth. When such heat touched his cold veins, it made him tremble with fear, hesitation, and unfamiliarity. Hot and cold did not blend easily. Pei Yan was a ball of fire, burning him, driving him almost into a corner.
There were two flames right there in the young man’s name.
And beside those flames, a fine piece of jade, hard and clear to its core.
Elio’s Notes: Pei Yan’s given-name character 琰 combines the jade element 玉/王 with 炎 (“flames,” itself written with two 火 characters). It also denotes fine jade. Zhuang Xiao’s thoughts play on the character’s visual components, not on Pei Yan’s surname. See Taiwan Ministry of Education’s Dictionary of Chinese Character Variants, entry 琰: https://dict.variants.moe.edu.tw/dictView.jsp?educode=B02630.
Zhuang Xiao was terribly afraid of ruining something so beautiful and affectionate. The other man was so lovable. Zhuang Xiao always felt unworthy of him.
“Would you like to go to America for treatment?” Zhuang Xiao asked his father. “They have more specialized treatment for alcoholism and neurological disorders there.”
It was not the first time they had discussed this. They had talked about it many times.
Zhuang Wenlong stared at him. “What would I go there for? To be a huge burden on you? I’m a pile of rotten bones. I’m not going, and I’m not dragging you down.”
“Get treatment, then I’ll find you a peaceful nursing home so you can spend your old age in comfort.”
His father stubbornly refused again. “No! You go. If I’m going to die, I’ll die on my own doorstep. This place is fine. Get out!”
Zhuang Xiao dried his father’s feet and stood up. “Don’t worry. I’ll get out soon enough, in a couple of days.”
Zhuang Wenlong hesitated, then asked hoarsely, “Are you going alone?”
Zhuang Xiao stood in the middle of the room, light striking him from the side. “Who else would I be going with? I’ve always been alone. I’m used to coming and going freely without depending on anybody or becoming anyone else’s burden.”
He emptied the basin, wiped his hands, and wiped down the table and chairs. Just as he prepared to leave, another thought surfaced from the soggy mess of his father’s alcoholic brain. “Last time… that cake last time was pretty good. Go buy me another one.”
Zhuang Xiao was puzzled. “What cake?”
“The one you two brought the last time. That cake… Sweet. I’d never had anything like it. It was good.”
“Oh. Mr. Pei bought it.” Zhuang Xiao asked, “Do you still have the box?”
The cake was long gone and its box had already been thrown away.
What brand was it? Which shop? Neither of them remembered or knew. But he wanted to eat it again. What were they supposed to do?
What a pathetic father-and-son pair they were. Had neither of them really lived in all these years? An expensive sweet cake, and neither rough man had tasted anything like it before. They had never even seen the shop. One little slice had left them longing for more.
Soft, warm, sweet things could become addictive too.
It was rare for his father to show an appetite for anything besides alcohol. Of course Zhuang Xiao had to get it for him right away. He took out his phone and messaged Pei Yan: [That cake you brought my dad last time. The old fellow actually says it was delicious and wants more. Where did you buy it?]
Looking at the line of words he had typed on the screen, Zhuang Xiao was overcome with mixed feelings. He stared at the message for a long time, his eyes growing hot.
Pei Yan always replied to his messages almost instantly. [Sure! If he likes it, I’ll buy him another. The shop’s not far from his place.]
Zhuang Xiao replied: [Send me the shop name. I’ll go buy it myself.]
Pei Yan immediately sent the shop’s location on a map, delighted. [He likes it that much? Well, my taste has always been excellent. Everything I like to eat is delicious.]
[Yes. Thank you, Young Master,] Zhuang Xiao replied.
Pei Yan was in Hong Kong for an event, but he happily neglected his business to bombard Zhuang Xiao with messages. [I like eating you. You taste pretty good too.]
Zhuang Xiao smiled at the screen and typed something he meant from the bottom of his heart. [How are you even sweeter than cake?]