How could this happen?
“Ugh!” Fang Juexia struggled desperately to free his hand from his grip, using all his strength to push him away, but it had no effect. Instead, it only made Pei Tingsong even more furious, pressing down on him completely, leaving him no room to breathe.
He wasn’t sure if he had really kissed Pei Tingsong while drunk, nor did he know how he had kissed him. But regardless, Pei Tingsong’s kiss was far from a mere peck. The more he resisted, the harder Pei Tingsong pressed, The fire fueled by alcohol and the desire to win had burned his reason to ashes. He no longer cared whether Fang Juexia was still pushing him; he simply grabbed his jaw with his hands, forcing his lips apart like prying open an iceberg.
A complete novice with no experience, he had no advanced techniques.
He kissed him with his lips and teeth, with his bones.
This fire ignited desires deep within him that he had never felt before, turning this fleeting imitation into something no longer simple.
The closed glacier shattered into drifting ice floes, forced to melt into spring water. The gradually thinning oxygen turned Fang Juexia’s resistance into a death struggle. His raised neck seemed to have lost its ability to swallow. He had truly become a prey gradually losing itself.
No, he couldn’t become prey.
His will regained a moment of clarity, and he used his last ounce of strength to bite down hard.
The enraged wolf cub, pained, released his grip and looked up, only to be struck again by Fang Juexia.
The slap echoed clearly in the midnight bedroom, reverberating repeatedly in Fang Juexia’s dazed mind. He had never struck anyone with such force before.
But he really didn’t want to be the tool for Pei Tingsong to vent his drunkenness.
Fang Juexia wiped the corner of his mouth with the back of his hand, breathing heavily. As he watched Pei Tingsong’s bath towel come loose from his struggles, he could only lift the entire blanket and cover Pei Tingsong with it.
He could feel the metallic taste of blood spreading in his mouth, from the back of his teeth to the tip of his tongue—though it wasn’t his own blood.
He had been waiting for his anger to explode, but now that Pei Tingsong was motionless, he couldn’t bring himself to say a word. After that slap, the room was eerily quiet.
Fang Juexia didn’t know what was wrong with him. At that moment, he could have just walked away. Pei Tingsong had gone crazy first, so he could just pretend he had been bitten by a dog.
You can’t bite back when you’re bitten by a dog.
This was Fang Juexia’s consistent principle in dealing with matters.
He got out of bed, grabbed a pillow, and opened the wardrobe, pulling out another blanket to prepare to leave. Even if he had to sleep on the sofa, he didn’t want to stay in the same room with this madman.
Holding the blanket, he left the bedroom. Just as he took a few steps, Fang Juexia, who had made up his mind, was stopped by a sound.
Pei Tingsong sneezed three times in a row.
In those few seconds, Fang Juexia stood in the hallway, searching his mind for every flaw he could find in Pei Tingsong, recalling all the ways he had tormented him over the past two years, and trying to remember how angry he had been, how furious, how much he had wanted to beat this madman senseless.
Several seconds passed.
Having been through so much, Fang Juexia returned to the bedroom, cursing himself as he walked back.
He was the most contradictory person in the world.
Pei Tingsong was clearly the most arrogant and immature person he had ever met, with countless flaws that justified his indifference. Yet in those few seconds, all he could think about was how Pei Tingsong had helped him escape a difficult situation, how he had followed him without hesitation on the stage at a critical moment, holding his shoulders in the darkness, staying with him all night despite not knowing how to take care of others, and secretly protecting him and giving everything he had in the game…
And he had just repeated over and over, “Fang Juexia, you’re good.”
His so-called ruthlessness was nothing but a paper tiger that could be pierced with a single stab.
“Pei Tingsong, considering how you took care of me back then, I’ll return the favor. I’ve been kind and generous to you.” He threw the blanket onto the bed, roughly laid Pei Tingsong down, and struggled to wrap him in another blanket while tilting his head. He was now the most careless sushi chef in the world, roughly rolling up a heartless seaweed rice roll.
Fang Juexia was still angry, holding him down with both hands, his tone unusually harsh. “Don’t move. If you catch a cold, I won’t take care of you.”
Pei Tingsong felt even more wronged upon hearing this, “My mouth hurts!”
“Have you only known me for a day?”
“No…” He answered honestly, then started mumbling again, his tongue still swollen, “You’re so kind to everyone else, but you’re the meanest to me. You never smile at me.”
Fang Juexia glanced at him, about to speak, but Pei Tingsong, as if afraid he would interrupt, continued complaining without taking a breath, “I… you, you kissed me that day, and I didn’t get angry. I didn’t say a word to you, and I even held you while we slept. But you? I just kissed you once, and you hit me. My dad doesn’t even dare to hit me. If he hits me, I’ll jump out the window and take his car! I’ll drive it…”
Fang Juexia’s head was pounding. He covered Pei Tingsong’s mouth with one hand and sat on top of him, who was wrapped in a blanket. “Shut up. I don’t want to know where you drove your dad’s car. Even if you went to Las Vegas, it’s none of my business.”
“Ugh!” Pei Tingsong was clearly unhappy. He couldn’t speak, and his anger grew more and more. He opened his mouth to bite him, but as soon as his teeth touched, he closed his mouth again, shaking his head in anger.
“You’re really crazy. Don’t drink anymore, and neither should we.” Fang Juexia stopped and pressed down on his head. Pei Tingsong sniffed pitifully, “You bit my hand, but I didn’t bite back.”
Fang Juexia pulled open his collar, “You bit my neck until it bled, young master, and you say you didn’t bite back?”
Pei Tingsong wouldn’t let it go, “Then you kissed me, so I kissed you back. I didn’t hit you, but you hit me.”
“I can’t argue with you.”
“You’re just…”
Fang Juexia was furious, pointing at his face with his finger. “Shut up. Did I kiss you like that? Even if I were drunk, I wouldn’t kiss you like you just did. It’s impossible.”
“That’s how you did it.” Pei Tingsong lifted his head forcefully and kissed Fang Juexia’s index finger with a smack. “That’s how you did it.”
Fang Juexia quickly withdrew his finger and couldn’t help but scold him again, “Who told you to kiss me again?”
“You asked me, you asked me!” Pei Tingsong seemed to think he was the most wronged person in the world, frantic like a worm that couldn’t turn over.
In his entire life, Fang Juexia had never dealt with such a situation. All the interpersonal skills he had accumulated over twenty-three years were useless with Pei Tingsong, leaving him exhausted.
He was becoming less and less like himself.
“Let’s call a truce, okay? Go to sleep.” Fang Juexia picked up the bath towel, rolled it diagonally, and tied him up with it. “You have class tomorrow, so just go to sleep.”
“I don’t want to go to class.” He sneezed again after saying that.
Does whether you want to go to class have anything to do with me?
Fang Juexia ignored him, hugging his own blanket and preparing to leave. If this kept up, he’d end up sacrificing half his life for Pei Tingsong.
But just as he was about to leave, Pei Tingsong started crying and wriggling, insisting on going with him.
Seeing Fang Juexia turn off the light and lie down beside him, Pei Tingsong finally calmed down, no longer making a fuss. Fang Juexia wrapped himself in his blanket and turned his back to face the wardrobe, feeling Pei Tingsong wriggling and leaning against his back.
Fang Juexia said nothing. In the darkness, he couldn’t see anything, and he didn’t want to see anything. A full day of recording had drained his energy, and he should have fallen asleep long ago. He felt like a balloon filled with air, colliding with Pei Tingsong, a cactus covered in thorns. Whether he wanted to or not, all the air escaped in one go, leaving only a soft, deflated shell.
After a while, Pei Tingsong’s voice came from behind him again, but it wasn’t as aggrieved and capricious as before. It was deep, carrying an unexpected, indescribable plea.
“Don’t turn off the light.”
Fang Juexia was puzzled. He turned his back to Pei Tingsong and said coldly, “How can I sleep without turning off the light?”
After speaking, he felt Pei Tingsong’s head press against the back of his head.
“If the lights are off, Fang Juexia won’t be able to see.”
At that moment, he realized that the aftereffects of the kiss from earlier were still lingering.
Once he closed his eyes, he would be drawn back into that drowning-like deep kiss, his heart soaked through, with no escape in sight.
Without turning around, Fang Juexia reached out, went behind him, and gently patted Pei Tingsong’s head.
“I can see. Go to sleep.”
This was strange. Pei Tingsong furrowed his brows. The next moment, an arm draped over him, feeling around the pillow for a while before finally grabbing his phone and turning it off with a long press.
He jumped in surprise, suddenly waking up. Opening his eyes and turning his head, he saw someone curled up beside him, half their face buried under the blanket. The only thing visible was the birthmark on the corner of their eye—it could only belong to Fang Juexia.
His consciousness slowly returned, and he tried to recall the previous events. He remembered that they had left the program crew’s dinner party, and then Xiao Wen had driven them back to the dormitory.
No, the dormitory door lock had been tampered with, so they should currently be in his apartment.
That’s right, which is why he ended up sleeping in the same bed as Fang Juexia.
Everything made perfect sense, and Pei Tingsong’s heart eased slightly. After a hangover, his head was pounding, and Pei Tingsong thought about getting up to drink some water, but he realized he couldn’t move at all.
He forced himself to lift his head and realized he was wrapped up, tied tightly with two bath towels knotted together. He couldn’t even move, let alone get up.
What was Fang Juexia thinking? Pei Tingsong cursed inwardly while trying to find a way to pull back the blankets and crawl out. Just as he managed to get one arm out, he realized something was wrong.
Why was he naked?
Pei Tingsong struggled to pull both hands free, pushed himself outward, then untied the bath towels binding him. Glancing under the blankets, he realized he was indeed wearing nothing at all.
How had things come to this?
His head was pounding. Pei Tingsong looked down at the floor, but there were no clothes anywhere. He had no choice but to wrap himself in the blanket and get out of bed, then open the wardrobe and randomly grab a set of pajamas to put on. When he suddenly looked at the mirror in the wardrobe, he noticed that his right cheek was swollen and slightly red.
His tongue also hurt. He opened his mouth to look and found that his tongue had been bitten.
Not only that, but there were also scratches from fingernails on his shoulders.
What had happened?
Every bone in his body ached.
He glanced back at Fang Juexia, who was still asleep. Pei Tingsong, filled with suspicion, went to the bathroom on his own. He took a shower, checked his body for any other wounds, and tried to recall what had happened last night, but his mind was in a mess, and he couldn’t remember anything.
He had thought that a hot shower would make him feel better, but the more he washed, the more his head ached, and the more difficult it was to breathe. He turned off the water and stepped out. When he emerged from the bathroom and returned to the bedroom, he discovered that the bed was empty.
Was he still dreaming?
“What are you doing blocking the way?”
A familiar, cool voice came from behind him. Pei Tingsong jumped and turned around to move out of the way.
Fang Juexia’s hair was messy on his forehead, and there were still water droplets on his hands. He held a cup of hot water and placed it on the bedside table, giving Pei Tingsong a nod. “There’s nothing in the fridge, so I can’t make a hangover soup. Just drink this.”
“Oh…” Pei Tingsong opened his mouth, only to realize his throat was hoarse, dry, and sore. He coughed a few times to clear his throat, but the coughing grew worse. He hunched over, unable to lift his head, so he walked over and sat by the bed, wanting to drink some water to ease it.
Fang Juexia watched him, afraid he might choke, so he picked up the water first, “Cough it out before you drink.”
Pei Tingsong coughed until his face turned red, looking rather pitiful. Fang Juexia could only reach out and pat him on the back. When he felt better, he handed him the water, “Take your time.”
Watching him gulp down the water, Fang Juexia stood beside him and asked, “Are you feeling unwell anywhere else?”
Pei Tingsong put down the cup and said hoarsely, “My bones hurt.”
“Anything else?”
“My tongue hurts too. I don’t know why…”
It seemed he didn’t remember last night’s events.
Fang Juexia couldn’t describe how he felt at that moment.
It was better that he didn’t remember last night’s events; neither of them would have to feel awkward. If it was truly as Pei Tingsong said, he had indeed kissed him while drunk. But when he woke up with a blackout, Pei Tingsong didn’t say a word, which meant he also felt awkward and didn’t want to bring it up.
Forgetting was the easiest thing to do.
But for some reason, he felt a little reluctant.
What was terrifying was that the past Fang Juexia had almost no connection with the word “reluctance”; he was a person who rarely showed emotions.
“My eyes are a bit swollen and painful…”
Pei Tingsong’s voice sounded off, and recalling how he had been naked and causing a commotion yesterday, sneezing and sniffling, Fang Juexia sensed something was amiss.
“Why do your eyes hurt?” he wondered, placing a pillow behind Pei Tingsong’s back. “Lie down. Do we have a thermometer at home?”
Pei Tingsong shook his head. “No, I’ve never been sick before.”
“Well, congratulations, you’re sick now.” Fang Juexia covered him with a blanket and reached out to touch his forehead, but his hands were too cold, and no matter how he touched it, it felt hot, so it wasn’t accurate.
Pei Tingsong stubbornly insisted that he wasn’t sick. Being sick in front of Fang Juexia made him feel especially embarrassed. “I’m definitely not…”
Before he could finish, Fang Juexia parted his bangs and pressed his own forehead against his.
Though the closeness was merely to measure his temperature and lasted only a few seconds, it felt like a spark that ignited something. He recalled memories he had been unable to recall. Those scenes flashed before his eyes in an instant.
Last night, he had kissed Fang Juexia.
The pain on his tongue suddenly had a source, becoming even harder to ignore. Those absurd actions reappeared under the stimulus of the pain.
Looking up, Fang Juexia’s Adam’s apple was broken, the wound red and clearly visible.
“You have a fever.” Fang Juexia seemed to have known this would happen and wasn’t surprised. He raised his hand and tucked the blanket around him. “Do you have any medicine at home?”
Fang Juexia sat on the edge of the bed, silent for a moment, then suddenly remembered that he had some ibuprofen with him. Because their schedule had been so busy these past few days, averaging only three or four hours of sleep each night, he often suffered from headaches, so he always carried some with him.
It came in handy.
Pei Tingsong watched Fang Juexia leave the room, then reached out to touch his lips, frowning as he recalled last night.
He had been clinging to Fang Juexia like a madman, talking nonstop…
But Fang Juexia acted as if nothing had happened when he woke up this morning.
Soon, Fang Juexia returned with a cup of water and a pill in his hand. “Take this to reduce your fever.”
“What time is it now?” Pei Tingsong asked after swallowing the pill.
“Nine-thirty.”
Pei Tingsong coughed. “I still have to go to class.”
“You said last night that you didn’t want to go to class.” Fang Juexia took his phone. “If it’s not an important class, call in sick. You won’t be able to concentrate if you go.”
Fang Juexia didn’t look at him, so Pei Tingsong couldn’t apologize to him. It was as if mentioning it would make Fang Juexia walk away immediately. He didn’t understand what had gotten into him yesterday to say so many useless things. He could have forgotten about it, but he remembered everything.
“I’ll go lie down outside for a while. Call me if you feel unwell.”
“Ah…” Pei Tingsong called out to him, but he didn’t know what to say after calling him back.
He felt that his drunken confession last night had failed miserably, and it would have been better if he hadn’t said anything.
Fang Juexia stopped and looked at him.
Pei Tingsong hesitated for a while, then gave up. “Nothing. You can go. The sofa is uncomfortable. You can take my car back. The keys are in the second drawer of the entryway cabinet.”
Fang Juexia stood there for a moment, thinking about the things he had said last night when he was drunk and sprawled on top of him—things he would never say when he was sober. It sounded like he was sulking, but Pei Tingsong was serious.
He heard Fang Juexia’s footsteps moving away, growing fainter, and his heart sank as he closed his eyes.
From now on, whenever he drank, he would write his name backwards.
Just as he closed his eyes, the footsteps suddenly grew closer again.
Pei Tingsong didn’t know if he turned his head or not, until Fang Juexia pulled him over, laid him down, and placed a folded, wrung-out wet towel on his forehead.
“Anyway, I don’t have work today, and going back would just mean sleeping. Xiao Wen went to Changsha with Lu Yuan, so she can’t take care of you.” Fang Juexia spread out the towel.
Pei Tingsong closed his eyes and thought, “I don’t need you to take care of me. You go to sleep. The sofa outside isn’t comfortable. I’ll go outside and you stay here. Anyway, I can’t sleep. I’m not tired at all.”
Fang Juexia pressed him down. “Pei Tingsong.”
He stopped moving.
“Didn’t you say you wanted to be friends with me?”
“It’s normal for friends to take care of each other.” Fang Juexia took the towel off the bed, put it in the basin, soaked it in water, wrung it out, and said, “Do you understand?”
It turned out that he had really said those things.
Pei Tingsong felt ashamed. He never imagined that drinking would make him act like that. With his eyes closed, Fang Juexia’s hand was pressed against his cheek, cool to the touch. Yes, that’s right, he did want to be friends with Fang Juexia. He had changed. He no longer looked at him through colored glasses like he used to. He was willing to get close to him, appreciate him, and acknowledge his charm.
He wanted to break down the barriers and become friends with Fang Juexia.
Even though that’s what he wanted, Pei Tingsong couldn’t help but think about last night’s kiss, about that soft sensation he’d never felt before.
Even the trembling heartbeat when their lips and tongues roughly entwined.
“I… what else did I do?” Pei Tingsong opened his eyes, looked at Fang Juexia, and spoke nervously, then added even more nervously, “I don’t remember.”
Fang Juexia’s expression remained calm. “You want me to praise you. I’ll praise you—you’re smart and talented.” After saying this, Fang Juexia looked at him seriously. “I’m not just saying this to placate you, Pei Tingsong. You’re truly outstanding; I just don’t know how to express it to you.”
“You might have forgotten, so I’ll repeat what I said last night. I accept your apology from last night; I know it was sincere.“ He looked into Pei Tingsong’s eyes, his gaze sincere. ”I’m also sorry for neglecting and ignoring you over the past two years. From now on, I’ll treat you like a friend.“ He took Pei Tingsong’s hand, squeezed it, and curved his lips slightly. ”The cold war is officially over; we’ve made peace.”
Pei Tingsong lowered his eyes, staring at the hand holding his, and quickly let go, so quickly that there was no time to exchange body heat.
The only thing he avoided was that kiss.
After applying a cold towel several times, it was time to change the water. Fang Juexia picked up the water and walked to the main bathroom. Pei Tingsong felt increasingly uneasy. He knew that bringing up this matter would be awkward, but since Fang Juexia didn’t mention it, he felt uncomfortable.
He had never kissed anyone before, not even his so-called first kiss, which had been taken from him by Fang Juexia without any emotion.
He had never felt this way before, as if his heart was being pulled by something.
His phone vibrated. Pei Tingsong picked it up and saw a message from Ling Yi.
[Dash: Little Pei! Are you awake? I want to eat the chocolate you bought last time! The box in Qiang Ge’s car, I opened it~]
Just as he pressed send, he thought of something else, so he forced himself to type out a long message despite his feverish weakness, then deleted and edited it repeatedly. Finally, just a few seconds before Fang Juexia returned, he panicked and clicked send, then threw the phone away.
On Ling Yi’s end, he had just torn open the packaging when the phone vibrated again.
[Kaleido’s Big Boss: I have a question for you. I have a friend who wanted to be friends with someone else, so he told him, and things were going well at first, but then he messed up. He accidentally, really accidentally, kissed him once. Now he’s really panicking and called me to ask for advice. You know I’ve never done anything stupid like that, so how can I help him? Big Brother, you know everything about socializing, so I’ll ask you for him. Do you think they can still be friends?”]
Sitting in the car, Ling Yi laughed uncontrollably, startling Cheng Qiang. “What’s so funny?”
“Pei Tingsong, that clumsy fool, accidentally kissed a guy! Isn’t that hilarious? Hahaha!”
Author’s Note: Grapevine: Please water me with nutrient solution, and I’ll quickly bend into a grapevine!
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