He didn’t know whether to push him away or do something else entirely.
Xi Yu bit his lip, his neck arched back. The skin that should have been as white as jade was now covered in scattered red marks.
“Enough… enough, Zhixiao…” Xi Yu’s voice was hoarse, with a barely perceptible tremor. “Stop kissing me… Don’t… Mm…”
Before he could finish speaking, his other hand suddenly clenched the bedsheet, wrinkling the silk into deep creases.
The air in the room grew humid and sticky.
Lu Zhixing lifted his head to look at Xi Yu. He licked the corner of his mouth, his gaze dark and infatuated. He looked like a ferocious beast driven to the brink of starvation, staring intently at its prey.
The raised leg hadn’t been lowered, but at some point, Lu Zhixing’s hand had moved to Xi Yu’s ankle. He turned his head and looked at Xi Yu’s foot.
The skin was flawless and white, like a piece of exquisite jade. His toes were rounded, their tips tender and pink.
Lu Zhixing’s Adam’s apple bobbed. He lowered his head to kiss it, but before he could, the leg that had been lying limp in his palm, letting him do as he pleased, suddenly broke free and planted itself against his chest.
Xi Yu pushed himself upright, his foot braced against Lu Zhixing’s chest. With an expressionless face, he said, “Could you at least leave me one spot that’s still intact?”
Lu Zhixing stared at Xi Yu, then lowered his head to look at the foot resting against his chest. A flicker of struggle crossed his eyes, as though he were trying to use his not-particularly-sharp brain to work out what Xi Yu meant.
Xi Yu narrowed his eyes. He should have looked imposing, but his eyelashes were damp, his cheeks flushed, and his neck and collarbones were covered in a disorderly patchwork of marks. All of that greatly diminished his authority.
Rather than appearing threatening, he looked like a proud, pampered cat.
Even the foot pressed against Lu Zhixing’s chest resembled a soft, pink paw pad. Instead of intimidating anyone, it only made him look more tempting to hold in one’s arms and play with.
Perhaps Xi Yu really had run out of strength. His foot began to slip downward, sliding over Lu Zhixing’s chest toward his firm, well-defined abdominal muscles.
Lu Zhixing’s eyes widened slightly. He watched Xi Yu’s foot with eager anticipation, hoping that the foot he hadn’t managed to kiss would slide a little lower, then a little lower still…
Lu Zhixing’s heartbeat quickened. The saliva in his mouth seemed ready to evaporate beneath the heat of his boiling blood.
He was so close…
Just a little farther, and that foot would…
“Big brother!” Lu Zhixing called out plaintively.
Xi Yu pulled his foot away and casually flipped the quilt over himself, wrapping himself tightly from head to toe until only his dark, glistening eyes remained visible.
Looking at Lu Zhixing’s aggrieved expression, a faint trace of mischief rose in Xi Yu’s heart.
“Zhixiao.”
Lu Zhixing leaned over him, pressed his forehead against Xi Yu’s, and complained, “You’re a bad big brother!”
Only Xi Yu’s eyes were visible above the quilt. They shone brightly, like the moon suspended high in the night sky. As Lu Zhixing’s breath washed over his face, the mischievous impulse in Xi Yu’s heart grew bolder.
Xi Yu said, “Let me hear you bark like a dog a couple of times.”
The room fell silent for a moment. A flicker of bewilderment passed through Lu Zhixing’s dark eyes.
Xi Yu pushed the quilt down to his neck, revealing the skin covered in bite marks. He cupped Lu Zhixing’s face, his eyes sparkling with tiny flecks of light.
“Isn’t a little dog supposed to like biting people? You’ve bitten me so many times. Doesn’t that make you my little puppy?”
………………
Xi Yu’s words were soft and sticky, yet perfectly clear. They seemed to linger on the tip of his tongue before being breathed into Lu Zhixing’s ear.
They carried the fragrance of pear blossoms and an irresistible warmth.
The scent of Xi Yu’s body drove Lu Zhixing nearly wild with desire. His already sluggish mind was now filled with nothing but indecent thoughts.
“I am,” Lu Zhixing rasped. “I’m hubby’s little puppy.”
Xi Yu said, “I like puppies that know how to bark.”
“Woof~”
A soft, sweet bark.
It was as though the sweetest nectar had been squeezed from a rose and poured straight into Xi Yu’s heart.
Xi Yu hooked an arm around Lu Zhixing’s neck and kissed him, murmuring indistinctly against his lips as he praised him.
“Good puppy.”
Such an obedient, adorable puppy deserved a reward.
The night stretched on endlessly as torrential rain poured down, washing away every last shred of reason.
*
The following morning, Xi Yu was awakened by his alarm. He sat up in bed, and the arm that had been draped across his waist all night made his temples throb.
Night always seemed to weaken a person’s self-control.
Xi Yu could hardly believe that the embarrassing, face-burning things he’d said the previous night had actually come out of his own mouth.
“Get up. You still have to go to work.”
He nudged Lu Zhixing.
Before Lu Zhixing could respond, Xi Yu got out of bed first.
If he waited for Lu Zhixing to wake up properly, he might never manage to get out of bed at all.
The rain had washed the sky a brilliant blue, but the temperature had dropped sharply as well.
After washing up, Xi Yu noticed that Lu Zhixing was still asleep. Frowning slightly, he walked over and nudged his warm cheek.
“Zhix—”
Something was wrong.
Xi Yu’s expression changed. He immediately slipped his hand beneath the quilt to feel Lu Zhixing’s body.
It was warm, almost the same temperature as his own.
That was very strange.
Zhixiao’s true form was a snake. Even after taking on Lu Zhixing’s appearance, his body temperature had always been about three degrees lower than that of an ordinary person.
But now, Lu Zhixing’s temperature was actually a little higher than Xi Yu’s.
The difference was subtle, which was why Xi Yu hadn’t noticed anything amiss when he first got out of bed.
Lu Zhixing had a fever.
Xi Yu’s first reaction was to channel spiritual energy into him. But the meager spiritual energy in his palm was quickly depleted. Only then did he remember that his own powers still hadn’t returned.
Xi Yu called Luo Cheng’an, but his calls went unanswered one after another.
Luo Cheng’an was filming these days and was only home for a day or two each week. If he couldn’t be reached now, he was probably busy.
Xi Yu was frantic. Ordinary human medicine wouldn’t work on Lu Zhixing.
Just as he was at a loss for what to do, his gaze fell on the ring on his hand. With a turn of his palm, a spiritual fruit appeared.
“Zhixiao…” Xi Yu patted Lu Zhixing’s cheek. “Wake up.”
Recently, Xi Yu had been giving him one of these spiritual fruits every day as though they were ordinary fruit. They contained very little spiritual energy, just enough to nourish his soul.
Lu Zhixing’s head was splitting with pain. Even when he heard the familiar voice, he didn’t open his eyes. Instead, he caught Xi Yu’s wrist where it rested against his cheek, drew it to his lips, and kissed it before pleading sleepily, “Hubby, let me sleep a little longer.”
“You can’t sleep anymore. Get up and eat something,” Xi Yu coaxed gently. “You’re sick.”
Lu Zhixing struggled to open his heavy eyelids. His mind was sluggish. He heard Xi Yu’s words, but his brain couldn’t quite process them.
“What do you mean, sick?”
“You have a fever,” Xi Yu explained.
Immortals didn’t suffer from ordinary illnesses. When they were injured, the damage was usually confined to their meridians or souls.
But that was because they had magical powers protecting them. Now that Lu Zhixing had none, he was practically no different from a mortal. Unfortunately, ordinary human medicine still had little effect on him.
All Xi Yu could do was make him eat spiritual fruit and see whether absorbing some spiritual energy would help.
“A fever…” Lu Zhixing stared at Xi Yu in confusion.
Xi Yu held the spiritual fruit to his lips. “Eat this.”
Lu Zhixing frowned slightly. “I don’t want it.”
He wasn’t hungry. He didn’t want to eat anything. His head hurt so much.
Xi Yu coaxed him for ages, but Lu Zhixing stubbornly refused to open his mouth even once.
Getting both angry and anxious, Xi Yu let his voice turn a little colder.
“Are you going to be disobedient?”
Only then did Lu Zhixing reluctantly open his mouth and begin slowly biting into the fruit in Xi Yu’s hand.
The effect of spiritual energy was immediately apparent.
After finishing one fruit, Lu Zhixing’s body temperature dropped a little—though only a little.
Seeing that it worked, Xi Yu’s eyes lit up. He took out another fruit.
“Keep eating.”
Lu Zhixing hadn’t even swallowed the last bite of the first fruit when he saw the new, bright-red fruit. His lips puckered, and tears welled up in his eyes.
Xi Yu smiled.
“You could cry until you had no tears left today, and you’d still have to eat it.”
Lu Zhixing stared at Xi Yu. When he realized that his tears had actually stopped working, he felt as though a bolt of lightning had struck him out of a clear blue sky.
He didn’t actually cry that often. Those tears that came so readily were sometimes more like a weapon.
He had discovered that as long as he cried, he could get whatever he wanted from Xi Yu.
But now, his tears had failed him over a single spiritual fruit.
Lu Zhixing simply couldn’t accept it.
He was genuinely angry now. Whether it was because the fever had frozen his ability to think rationally or for some other reason, he raised his hand and smacked the spiritual fruit right out of Xi Yu’s grasp.
Then, with an extremely haughty air, he rolled over and presented Xi Yu with the back of his head.
Xi Yu took a moment to process this outrageous act of defiance. Then he looked at the fruit on the floor and laughed in disbelief.
Gritting his teeth, he said, “You’ve really got some nerve! Turn around and face me.”
With his back still turned, Lu Zhixing closed his eyes.
“No!”
Xi Yu didn’t have time to indulge this tantrum. He stood up and grabbed Lu Zhixing’s face, turning it back toward him.
“Your brain was already in bad shape. If you keep running a fever for a few more days, you’ll really become a little idiot.”
Whether it was because the sick man had no strength left or because Lu Zhixing hadn’t actually resisted, Xi Yu managed to turn him over without much effort.
Lu Zhixing’s face was flushed, and his lips were a little pale. But because he’d just eaten some spiritual fruit, they weren’t dry and still glistened with a little juice. He looked utterly easy to bully.
His eyes, however, told a different story. He glared fiercely at Xi Yu.
“You’re looking down on me now, aren’t you?!”
Where had that even come from?
Xi Yu looked at Lu Zhixing, his brows drawing together slightly. He began to suspect that Lu Zhixing’s brain really had been damaged by the fever.
Perhaps vulnerable people were simply more sensitive. Somehow, Lu Zhixing interpreted Xi Yu’s slightly furrowed brows and worried expression as impatience.
It was as if someone had lit the fuse of a firecracker.
Lu Zhixing exploded with anger and sat bolt upright.
Because he’d gotten up too quickly, his vision went black. His body staggered unsteadily.
Xi Yu hurriedly reached out to support him. But once Lu Zhixing recovered, his anger showed no signs of subsiding.
He stared at Xi Yu and demanded, almost unreasonably, “Why are you treating me so badly now?”
Those words landed on Xi Yu like an enormous, black pot dropped straight out of the sky and placed over his head.
“How am I treating you badly?” Xi Yu asked, bewildered.