The morning before summer camp, Lu Heyang drove alone to Lin Yumian’s villa.
The assistant had just finished organizing several signed contracts. He nodded at Lu Heyang, picked up the documents, and left.
After putting down her signing pen, Lin Yumian picked up her paintbrush again and began coloring the rose on the sheet of paper.
“Is this summer camp only for a month?”
“Mm. The preparatory school is starting twenty-five days early next semester.”
“Is the summer camp in S City?”
“Yes.”
Lin Yumian smiled. “It’s in the same city as the Alliance Government. That happens to make it convenient to hold your birthday banquet.”
Lu Heyang lowered his head and fed the fish without saying anything.
“How was it planned before?” Lin Yumian asked.
“Apply to Alliance University during the first semester of senior year. After being accepted, go to Alliance University early to begin studying.”
Lu Heyang calmly repeated the path that had been arranged for him from the beginning.
“Then get engaged during university, intern at the Alliance Government, enter the political system directly after graduation, get married, have children, and perhaps step into the Alliance’s core leadership before you even turn thirty.” Lin Yumian sighed. “What a perfect life.”
Perfect like a machine program, precise and error-free.
“When you were fifteen, on the day Qingmo got married, I told you that at any point in the future, whenever you made up your mind, you could live under a new name and identity. The condition was that you had to go very far away and give up everything you currently had.” Lin Yumian slowly mixed her paints. “I told Qingmo the same thing when she was in her teens, but she ultimately didn’t choose that path. I know she had her reasons.”
“But I don’t know what you’re thinking. The older you get, the less you talk, and you hardly seem happy either.” Lin Yumian stared at the rose. “Don’t you think you’re becoming more and more like him?”
“I’m not,” Lu Heyang answered.
“The further you go down this road, the harder it will be to get away. But I respect every decision you make. Maybe this life isn’t necessarily unsuitable for you.”
Lu Heyang’s gaze slowly followed the fish swimming through the water.
“I’ll talk to Dad about it during summer camp.”
Lin Yumian looked at him. “Contact me anytime if you need anything.”
“Mm.” Lu Heyang nodded. After a pause, he asked, “Is the western part of the city going to be expanded?”
“You’re concerned about that too?” Lin Yumian was somewhat puzzled, but she still answered. “The government plans to put the old docks there back into use and build another airport. It’ll be for military use only.”
“Who’s going to get the project?”
“The project is too big. It’ll be either the Gu family or the Wei family.”
“Tang Feiyi and Wei Lingzhou seem to have a pretty good relationship.” Lu Heyang remembered Xu Ze’s personal information file. It had mentioned that Tang Feiyi and Wei Lingzhou frequently appeared together.
“Tang Feiyi? He has quite a bit of influence in the western part of the city, most of it involving things that can’t be brought into the light. You know what kind of person your brother-in-law is. It’s only natural that the two of them would associate with each other.”
Lin Yumian put down her paintbrush.
“Tang Feiyi definitely wants Wei Lingzhou to get this project because it benefits him. The Gu family has a grudge against him. If the Gu family wins, Tang Feiyi won’t have an easy time.”
“Actually, this isn’t difficult to figure out. The people above haven’t touched that piece of land in the western part of the city for so many years, and now they suddenly want to expand it. It’s obvious they intend to bring the area under control. So the project will most likely go to the Gu family. In any case, there’s no way they’ll hand it to the Wei family, who have ties to Tang Feiyi.”
“Tang Feiyi has a club in the western part of the city,” Lu Heyang said.
“Just a front. Those people are getting bolder by the day. The new mayor is about to take office. It’s time for the western part of the city to undergo a change.”
The fish had eaten its fill. It slowly swished its tail and sank to the bottom of the water, releasing a string of bubbles.
Lu Heyang put the fish food aside.
“I’m going to trim the lawn.”
“When did you start enjoying this kind of work?” Lin Yumian asked with a smile. “The lawn mower is in the tool room.”
Xu Ze had just returned from the sanatorium after having lunch with Ye Yunhua.
Even though Ye Yunhua refused to eat with him every time because she thought he was a stranger, after eating alone for a few minutes, she would always forget that she had initially refused him. She would call Xu Ze the little boy sitting over there and ask whether he wanted to eat with her.
After washing his lunch box, Xu Ze walked back to his room.
Just as he reached out to open the door, he heard someone knock several times on the front door. Xu Ze stood there for a second before going to open it.
Lu Heyang was carrying a very large paper shopping bag, apparently from some brand. He smiled at Xu Ze and prepared to enter, but Xu Ze hadn’t reacted yet, so he didn’t move.
“Are you not going to let me in?” Lu Heyang asked.
Xu Ze was about to answer, “No, that’s not it,” when Lu Heyang handed him the paper bag and said, “Then I can only leave the stuff here and go.”
“No.” Xu Ze was always very easy to fool by Lu Heyang. He refused to take the bag, afraid that if he accepted it, Lu Heyang would leave. He explained, “I thought you were only going to come after you got back from summer camp…”
“I happened to have some time today, so I came over.” Lu Heyang smiled again. “I came to take a nap at your place. I’m a little tired.”
Xu Ze nodded and moved aside. After Lu Heyang entered, he reached out to close the door, but Lu Heyang was also casually closing it at the same time. It made Xu Ze look as though he were leaning toward Lu Heyang.
Lu Heyang held Xu Ze by the waist so he wouldn’t actually bump into him. He said nothing, but Xu Ze immediately took a step back on his own.
Once they entered the room, Lu Heyang placed the bag at the foot of the bed.
“I ordered the wrong clothes. They’re a little too small for me. They’re all new, and they’ve already been washed.”
“You ordered that many things wrong?” Xu Ze asked. “Can’t you return them?”
“They were washed by the nanny before I even tried them on, so they can’t be returned now.”
Lu Heyang’s expression was completely calm. It was the unhurried manner of someone who found the person in front of him so easy to fool that he didn’t even need to prepare his lies in advance.
“I used to wear this size too. Maybe I’ve gotten fatter.”
“You’ve gotten taller.” Xu Ze looked at him and answered seriously.
When Lu Heyang turned his head toward him, Xu Ze lowered his eyes and walked away, going over to the desk to turn on the fan.
“You should sleep.” Xu Ze still remembered that Lu Heyang had just said he was a little tired.
“Aren’t you going to take a nap?”
Xu Ze shook his head.
He didn’t have the habit of taking afternoon naps. Besides, if he took a nap with Lu Heyang, there was no way he would be able to fall asleep. He might even disturb Lu Heyang.
“The curtains are too thin—it’s so bright in here, you’ll probably have a hard time falling asleep.” Lu Heyang asked again, “So are you just going to stand there?”
“I… am reading.”
“What are you reading?” Lu Heyang didn’t seem to have any intention of taking a nap right away; instead, he asked Xu Ze with genuine interest as he walked toward him.
“A textbook.” Xu Ze—whether out of nervousness or something else—answered stiffly, “I’m doing my homework.”
When Lu Heyang reached him, Xu Ze stepped back and bumped into the desk. Lu Heyang moved closer, lazily resting his chin on Xu Ze’s shoulder, while one hand reached around Xu Ze’s side to flip through the homework on the desk behind him.
Xu Ze’s whole body went rigid, his hands clenched tightly around the edge of the desk. It was as if they were embracing, yet not quite—their skin pressed together through their clothes. Xu Ze could feel Lu Heyang’s heartbeat, calm and steady, unlike his own, which was racing out of control.
The wristband was set to the lowest sensitivity, yet Lu Heyang could still smell Xu Ze’s pheromones. He tilted his head and nuzzled Xu Ze’s ear with the tip of his nose, watching as it quickly turned red. Xu Ze shrugged his shoulders, his eyes wide, as if he’d been walking along the roadside and suddenly hit on the head by a droplet of water sliding off a leaf.
“Good student,” Lu Heyang said, straightening up to stand face-to-face with Xu Ze. “You’ve already done so many problems on only the second day of summer vacation.”
“I’m starting my part-time job tomorrow, so I’ve been doing a little extra these past couple of days,” Xu Ze said.
Lu Heyang raised his hand to cup Xu Ze’s chin, pressing his thumb gently against the corner of his mouth—the bruise there hadn’t faded yet. “Does it still hurt?” Lu Heyang asked.
“It doesn’t hurt.” Xu Ze turned his head slightly, his lips brushing against Lu Heyang’s fingertip, as if he’d given it a quick kiss.
Lu Heyang rubbed Xu Ze’s lower lip as he slid his finger inside. Xu Ze obediently took it into his mouth, licking and sucking awkwardly with his eyes downcast—the same expression he’d had the first time he’d given Lu Heyang a blowjob.
He made Lu Heyang’s finger very wet; when he pulled it out, Xu Ze even unconsciously reached forward a few centimeters, his mouth slightly parted, the tip of his tongue peeking out—as if begging for a kiss. Lu Heyang leaned down and kissed him.
The fan blew toward the empty bed, while Xu Ze still clung tightly to the edge of the desk, breathing heavily. While kissing Xu Ze, Lu Heyang gently pressed down on the back of his hand to help him relax.
But Xu Ze seemed unable to relax. Lu Heyang lifted him onto the desk, running his hand up from his knee and slipping it into the leg of Xu Ze’s loose athletic shorts. Xu Ze suddenly tensed his muscles, wrapped his arms around Lu Heyang’s neck, buried his face in the crook of his neck, and panted heavily.
“Where’s the bracelet?” Lu Heyang asked, brushing his cheek against Xu Ze’s burning temple.
“In… the drawer.”
…
The rustling of leaves in the wind drifted in from outside; the curtains fluttered, and sunlight streamed in in bursts, casting shifting patterns of light and shadow across the room. Xu Ze lay on his back on the bed, his T-shirt tossed aside, his heaving chest marked with several hickies. With his eyes half-closed, he stared blankly at Lu Heyang, who was kneeling between his legs, watching him adjust the bracelet’s settings. Then Lu Heyang raised his hand to take off his shirt, and the light filtering through the curtains cast a warm yellow glow over the Alpha’s perfect body.
The first time they’d done it, Lu Heyang hadn’t taken off his clothes, which made Xu Ze even more nervous today than he’d been then. He rolled over onto his stomach, burying his face in the pillow. Lu Heyang felt an inexplicable curiosity about Xu Ze’s reaction; it had been the same last time—even though Xu Ze had been nervous the whole time, he’d been very proactive about getting on the bed—it seemed as though he enjoyed being taken from behind.
Lu Heyang withdrew his fingers, pressed his hand against Xu Ze’s waist, leaned close to his ear, and asked, “Aren’t you going to turn around?”
Xu Ze couldn’t speak; he just shook his head.
This made Lu Heyang even more curious—most of Xu Ze’s thoughts were easy to guess, but Lu Heyang couldn’t figure out why he insisted on staying on his stomach.
“Don’t you want to be held? ” Lu Heyang used a tone that was part coaxing, part enticement, urging Xu Ze to turn around. “Don’t you want to kiss?”
Xu Ze shook his head again—not to say “I don’t want to,” but to deny Lu Heyang’s question—yet he still didn’t move. Lu Heyang grabbed Xu Ze’s hair, but restrained himself from pulling hard; in the end, he just ran his fingers through it and called out, “Xu Ze.”
This mix of coaxing and commanding worked perfectly. Xu Ze finally propped himself up and slowly turned around, only to immediately shield his eyes with his arm. Lu Heyang still had the presence of mind to smile at a moment like this. He leaned down and kissed Xu Ze on the corner of his mouth; just as one hand was about to lift Xu Ze’s leg, he saw Xu Ze bite his lower lip, tilt his neck back, and let out a muffled groan through his nose.
Without Lu Heyang having touched him at all, Xu Ze came.
“So that’s why?” Lu Heyang swiped a bit of the fluid from Xu Ze’s lower abdomen and asked, “Does it get you that excited from the front?”
Xu Ze wouldn’t answer that question.
After Xu Ze had a moment to catch his breath, Lu Heyang said to him before entering, “Tell me if it hurts.” Last time, for various reasons, he hadn’t been able to take care of Xu Ze in every way, so today he intended to make up for it.
“It’s okay,” Xu Ze finally said, his voice a little hoarse. “I’m not afraid of pain.”
Having fought in so many matches, it was common for him to be covered in blood and covered in wounds; his pain tolerance had been honed to such a high level that he truly wasn’t afraid of pain.
“Okay,” Lu Heyang replied.
What he didn’t tell Xu Ze was that he was actually more interested in seeing Xu Ze in pain.
…
The sunlight turned red; dusk had fallen. Lu Heyang came out of the bathroom and stood by the bed, pulling on his T-shirt. Xu Ze slowly sat up, a thin duvet draped across his waist. There were far more marks on his body than before—kiss marks intermingled with old boxing injuries—a sight that was both suggestive and pitiable.
“Is anyone living downstairs?” Lu Heyang asked, a little too late. Xu Ze’s bed had been creaking the whole time because of their movements; he didn’t know if anyone downstairs had heard it.
“Yes,” Xu Ze said. “But they’re out working all day—no one’s home.”
Lu Heyang bent down, rubbed Xu Ze’s lower abdomen, and asked, “Does it still hurt?”
During their lovemaking, he’d pressed against Xu Ze’s degenerated Alpha reproductive cavity. Lu Heyang saw Xu Ze’s eyes turn red instantly at that moment; his brow furrowed—it must have been quite painful.
Though his eyes were moist, Xu Ze wasn’t crying; it seemed he simply didn’t know how to cry.
“Just a little,” Xu Ze replied. The reason he was being so honest was that he didn’t want Lu Heyang to take his hand away from his stomach.
Sure enough, Lu Heyang rubbed his back again, then said, “Sorry for making the sheets look like this.”
In fact, Xu Ze was feeling a bit dazed; he sat blankly on the edge of the bed, looking up at Lu Heyang. He noticed that every time Lu Heyang said “sorry,” the look on his face was genuinely apologetic.
“It’s okay,” Xu Ze said hoarsely.
“Well, I’m going to head out now. Get some rest.”
Lu Heyang straightened up, and Xu Ze silently followed his gaze, looking up at him. Lu Heyang smiled with a hint of resignation, gently stroked Xu Ze’s cheek, then bent down again to kiss him on the lips.
The wind blew the curtains open, carrying the scent of gardenias into the room. The golden-red afterglow of the setting sun spilled onto the bed, and the lingering tears in Xu Ze’s eyes glistened faintly.
“Goodbye,” Xu Ze said. “Have fun at summer camp.”