Your clothes have already been washed, dried, and hung outside your room. Come downstairs for breakfast after you wake up.
After Xu Ze woke up, he picked up his phone to check the time. The first thing he saw was this message on the screen. He immediately sat up in bed, only to suck in a breath because of the pain.
He sat there dazed for a while. Xu Ze felt like someone suffering from a hangover. He had woken up naked in an unfamiliar bed, his thoughts sluggish and his memories disordered. Yesterday, Lu Heyang had taken his clothes along with him when he left, while Xu Ze had originally planned to wash and dry them himself in the bathroom.
He slowly climbed out of bed, picked up the bath towel, and wrapped it around himself. He opened the door a crack and brought the clothes inside. Even walking was somewhat difficult for Xu Ze. It was not until he had finished washing up and walked around the room twice that he gradually became a little more accustomed to it.
Xu Ze straightened the bedding, opened the door, and went downstairs. Lu Heyang’s house was large, spacious, and quiet. The nanny was waiting for him at the staircase and raised a hand to guide him toward the dining room. Xu Ze was extremely unused to this. He bowed and nodded to the nanny several times, quietly saying, “Thank you.”
Breakfast had already been laid out. Lu Heyang seemed to have only just started eating as well. When Xu Ze entered the dining room, he merely looked up once and showed no other reaction.
Xu Ze lowered his head and sat down across from him, silently beginning breakfast. The nanny stood about two meters away, quietly waiting for them to finish eating.
It was the most elaborate breakfast Xu Ze had ever eaten, but he seemed unable to taste any of it. From beginning to end, he never once raised his head.
Suddenly, the tips of their feet bumped.
Xu Ze’s hand holding the spoon paused. Thinking that he had stretched his leg too far, he was about to pull it back when he felt Lu Heyang slowly brush against his foot, move around to his heel, and press his calf against Xu Ze’s. The two pairs of legs silently became entwined beneath the table.
The tablecloth at both ends of the table was very long, almost reaching the floor, perfectly concealing what was happening underneath.
Xu Ze stared blankly at his bowl, his entire body tense. With the injuries still visible on his face, he looked as though he had simply been beaten senseless while sitting there.
Lu Heyang set down his spoon and took a sip of milk. “What’s wrong?”
Xu Ze looked up. Lu Heyang’s expression appeared completely normal, as though the leg beneath the table did not belong to him.
“Nothing.” Xu Ze shook his head awkwardly and continued eating breakfast.
After breakfast, Lu Heyang went upstairs with Xu Ze, and they each returned to their own rooms.
Xu Ze rinsed his mouth and planned to wash the bath towel. He carefully examined the various bottles and containers in the bathroom, trying to find one that could be used to wash clothes.
While he was searching, there were two knocks on the door.
Xu Ze went to open it.
Lu Heyang walked in carrying a small plate of sliced oranges, closing the door behind him. He placed the fruit on the table, picked up a piece of orange, and handed it to Xu Ze.
“Resting?”
“I wanted to wash the bath towel.” Xu Ze kept his eyes lowered and did not look at him. He took the orange and mechanically bit into it. “I was looking for laundry detergent.”
“There isn’t any in the room. It’s all in the laundry room downstairs,” Lu Heyang said. “The nanny will take it down to wash later.”
Xu Ze could only nod.
Then he heard Lu Heyang ask, “Does it hurt?”
The question made Xu Ze’s gaze become even more evasive. He unconsciously licked the orange juice from the corner of his mouth.
“No… It doesn’t hurt much.”
“Did you manage to clean yourself up afterward?” Lu Heyang didn’t know whether he was genuinely concerned or something else, but either way, he asked another question that was difficult for Xu Ze to answer.
“…Mm.” Xu Ze’s face grew hot, his embarrassment and unease obvious. Yesterday, on the way to the bathroom, the itchy sensation of something flowing down from behind and sliding over his thighs had lingered on his skin, refusing to disappear.
At that moment, Lu Heyang moved closer to him. The tips of their noses were barely half a centimeter apart. Looking at him, Lu Heyang said, “I haven’t tasted one yet. I don’t know if today’s oranges are sweet.”
“They’re sweet,” Xu Ze answered softly.
His breathing was a little hurried, and an illusion arose in his mind—I can kiss Lu Heyang now.
Perhaps it really was only an illusion, but Xu Ze still leaned forward and kissed Lu Heyang lightly on the lips.
He only dared to give him such a fleeting kiss, but Lu Heyang wrapped an arm around his waist and did not let him retreat. He kissed him more deeply, sucking gently on Xu Ze’s lower lip, his tongue pressing forward until Xu Ze, a few beats slow, opened his mouth and began to respond to the kiss, still very inexperienced.
The inexperienced Xu Ze was the real Xu Ze.
Lu Heyang thought Xu Ze could stay inexperienced forever. He didn’t need to become skilled.
They kissed briefly for several minutes. Xu Ze was panting afterward, wondering whether there might actually be alcohol in Lu Heyang’s pheromones. Otherwise, why did they make him feel so dazed and drunk?
“Were you unhappy that I didn’t stay with you a little longer yesterday?” Lu Heyang asked.
“No.” Xu Ze’s eyes were hazy. He hadn’t been unhappy, only a little empty inside. But if Lu Heyang had stayed, perhaps his embarrassment would have lasted even longer. Maybe he would have spent the entire night with his face buried in the pillow.
“I’m usually with my friends in the living room. It was your first time here, so it wouldn’t have been appropriate for me to stay in your room for too long.” Lu Heyang stroked the side of Xu Ze’s waist as he explained.
Xu Ze had also seen the surveillance cameras around the house. He thought having cameras installed at home was normal and necessary for Lu Heyang and the others. But after hearing Lu Heyang say this, Xu Ze suddenly became concerned.
He couldn’t quite remember how long Lu Heyang had stayed yesterday. It should have been less than an hour. He didn’t know whether that counted as a long time.
“What about now?” Xu Ze asked worriedly. “Would this be too long?”
It had been less than five minutes since Lu Heyang entered.
Lu Heyang answered, “Maybe.”
Xu Ze became even more worried.
“I’m going to a summer camp in a couple of days,” Lu Heyang said. “I’ll be there for a month.”
“…” Xu Ze was stunned for a moment. He stood there blankly for several seconds before answering, “Then I hope you have fun.”
“I’ll try.” Lu Heyang smiled.
Xu Ze lowered his eyelashes and fell silent, seeming to hesitate. In the end, he still asked, “When the summer camp is over, will you come back?”
“I will.” Lu Heyang pinched the back of Xu Ze’s neck and lifted his head slightly, looking into his eyes. “When I come back, I’ll go to your place to find you.”
Xu Ze felt a little more at ease. He nodded, trusting Lu Heyang’s words completely.
“Mm.”
“Finish your orange. The driver will take you home. I have something to do later, so I can’t take you myself.”
“Okay.”
Lu Heyang released him. “Then I’ll go out first.”
He walked toward the door. As he did, he heard slow footsteps coming from behind him. He turned around, and Xu Ze was indeed following him.
“What’s wrong?” Lu Heyang asked, pretending not to know.
Xu Ze wasn’t good at expressing reluctance. He couldn’t say it out loud. He pressed his lips together, glanced at Lu Heyang, then looked down at the floor.
“Can I kiss you one more time?” Xu Ze asked quietly.
Lu Heyang heard him, but still asked, “What?”
“I want to kiss you one more time.” Xu Ze gathered his courage and repeated himself.
Lu Heyang did not answer the question. Instead, he asked Xu Ze, “When are you going to start your part-time job?”
Thinking that Lu Heyang was subtly rejecting him by changing the subject, Xu Ze became even more embarrassed and found it increasingly difficult to look directly at him.
“The day after tomorrow.”
“I know.”
Lu Heyang picked up the wristband from the bedside table and put it on Xu Ze, adjusting its setting.
The areas on Xu Ze’s wrist that had been burned by cigarettes had already scabbed over, leaving behind several overlapping scars. They were still slightly uneven to the touch. Lu Heyang’s gaze lingered there for a moment before moving away.
He pulled Xu Ze a small step closer to himself and asked, “Before you do something, do you usually tell someone in advance, ‘I’m about to do something that will make you happy’?”
Xu Ze was completely confused. He felt that he had never done anything that could make someone happy, let alone announced it beforehand.
“No.”
“Then don’t ask me if you can kiss me again in the future.” There was a smile in Lu Heyang’s eyes.
It was somewhat roundabout, but the usually slow-to-understand Xu Ze grasped the meaning surprisingly quickly this time.
He tentatively reached out and slowly held Lu Heyang’s hand back. His ears turned red with nervousness.
“Is this something that makes you happy?” he asked.
“Yes.” Lu Heyang looked at him. “Everything you do does.”
For an instant, Xu Ze’s heart began beating incredibly fast, so hard that his chest felt swollen with it.
He had deliberately avoided thinking about why Lu Heyang had done what he did yesterday. Even if he allowed himself to wonder, at most he only dared guess that Lu Heyang had acted out of sympathy or because he had been touched—although Xu Ze didn’t think receiving a small silver pendant was enough to move Lu Heyang.
If anyone had reason to be touched, it should have been Xu Ze himself.
Lu Heyang had given him so much, things he had expected and things he had never even imagined. It had gone far beyond what Xu Ze had anticipated. More than once, Xu Ze had been astonished and uneasy at Lu Heyang’s generosity.
He had never known that the things he did could make Lu Heyang happy.
That realization was more precious to Xu Ze than everything Lu Heyang had ever given him. For him, it was already enough.
He was someone who had never even dared to expect a single piece of candy, yet now he had been given an entire roomful.
Xu Ze pressed his lips together again, wearing a faint smile. A little light appeared in his deep gray eyes.
He seemed to have no idea what to say anymore. He was even so content that he no longer needed to kiss Lu Heyang. This one answer alone was enough to give him peace throughout the month or even longer that Lu Heyang would be away.
“Don’t give the wristband back to me again.” Lu Heyang squeezed his palm gently. “Just keep wearing it.”
Xu Ze looked at him and nodded seriously.