It wasn’t his own home, nor was it a familiar room with familiar smells. In the middle of the night, Xu Yang slowly woke up, his sleepy eyes gazing at the unfamiliar room and decorations. Through the thick curtains, a faint, grayish light seeped in, and for a moment, he thought he was dreaming. It wasn’t until he heard the soft murmurs of his partner that Xu Yang remembered the wild things they had done that night.
If this had happened before, facing a room filled with the scent of passion and a naked man sleeping beside him without any guard, Xu Yang might have felt a mix of embarrassment and shame.
But for some reason, facing everything that had just happened, Xu Yang felt unusually calm at that moment. Perhaps, on the way here, in the parking garage, and as they entered the room, the various thoughts in his mind had undergone a fierce struggle and temporarily ceased.
Suddenly thinking of something, Xu Yang gently got out of bed, felt around for his phone in his pants pocket, turned on the screen, and after a moment of contemplation, looked at the sleeping closed wall and leaned in to whisper in his ear.
The faintly lit screen displayed the date and time, showing that it was less than an hour until 6 a.m. He also worried about losing his job.
He gently woke up Bi Yuan, who was frowning slightly and looking at him with sleepy eyes. Xu Yang instinctively reached out and ruffled Bi Yuan’s hair.
“Getting up so early?” Xu Yang’s gentle touch on his hair felt good to Bi Yuan, who closed his eyes again, about to fall back asleep.
“Mr. Bi, could you please take me to school later?” After speaking, Xu Yang felt a bit embarrassed. Making such a direct request seemed to be the second time since they had met, the first being the day of Xu Yue’s surgery.
“Hm?” Hearing Xu Yang’s request, Bi Yuan reluctantly opened his eyes. Originally, Bi Yuan had thought that after a night of such harmonious pleasure, a night of passionate lovemaking, they should have stayed together and slept until dawn. But when he glanced at the nightlight alarm clock on the bedside table, Bi Yuan seemed to have a case of morning grouchiness, frowning as he pondered something.
Guessing that he had disturbed Bi Yuan’s sleep, Xu Yang, seeing the man’s confused and slightly displeased expression, rarely took the initiative to pull Bi Yuan’s hand, wanting to pull the bad-tempered man up, saying, “I have to work hard to pay back the money.” Beneath his calm and gentle brows, the corners of his mouth were raised with a smile.
When Xu Yang said this, his voice was soft, as if he were trying to comfort him, or perhaps afraid that a louder voice might give him a headache. The smile lingered on Xu Yang’s face, and a sliver of light crept through the curtains, casting a soft glow over him. Such a face left the originally temperamental Bi Yuan completely defeated, with 100% effectiveness.
“I have to work hard to pay back the money.” When Xu Yang spoke these words, he didn’t know what kind of mood he was in.
Sitting up on the bed, Bi Yuan greedily stared at Xu Yang’s dimly lit face, trying to see if there were a pair of bright eyes behind his smiling lips. Unfortunately, he couldn’t see anything clearly, which made him a little frustrated. He wanted to turn on the bedside lamp to illuminate the scene, but he was afraid that the light would wash away the mysterious hues on Xu Yang’s face.
At that moment, the tiny seed that had been planted in his heart at some point began to grow, breaking through the soil. The process was a bit painful, but it was filled with strength.
“It’s not even six o’clock yet. Let’s take a shower, have breakfast, and leave early to avoid the morning rush hour.” Xu Yang exerted some effort to pull Bi Yuan away from the pillow. He had already made plans before waking Bi Yuan up. “This way, Mr. Bi can drop me off at school without worrying about traffic jams. Is that acceptable?” Seeing that Bi Yuan had already sat up and was leaning against the headboard, quietly listening to his arrangements, Xu Yang also leaned against the headboard, watching him, waiting for Bi Yuan’s response.
Xu Yang spoke quietly, and Bi Yuan listened quietly.
In his memory, it seemed like a long time ago that someone had quietly told him about such trivial arrangements in life. It had been so long that Bi Yuan could hardly remember if such a scene had ever happened.
When he heard Xu Yang suppress his voice and ask softly, with a hint of anxiety, “Is that okay?” Bi Yuan felt an urge to hold this young man tightly in his arms.
“You can write a few more songs, and that will be enough to pay back the money.”
“What?”
Without thinking, Bi Yuan embraced Xu Yang tightly. Xu Yang seemed not to have heard what Bi Yuan had said, staring blankly without responding, even a bit at a loss—after all, both of them were still naked, and Bi Yuan’s sudden passionate embrace might make the atmosphere a bit awkward.
Xu Yang wasn’t sure what this embrace meant. He guessed that perhaps he hadn’t fully woken up from his sleep. “I said that if you write more songs for the project, you’ll be able to pay off the debt.” Then he pulled him toward the small bathroom in the room.
The bathroom had no partitions, only a single piece of frosted curved glass in one corner of the room, creating a space for showering. Hot water sprayed from the showerhead, hitting both of them. Soon, the small shower stall was filled with misty white steam, stinging their eyes slightly.
Bi Yuan reached out to brush the wet hair stuck to Xu Yang’s cheek, looking at him with a complex expression as his face turned red from the heat. The other person was also looking at him with a complex expression, though theirs was more filled with confusion and doubt.
Bi Yuan knew that his reaction after waking up had been unusual, and things had felt off ever since he had forcibly dragged Xu Yang out of his house.
But Bi Yuan didn’t want to delve deeper into it.
Let that seed break through the layers of hard shell in his heart and grow inch by inch. Perhaps the process of forcing open all the distrust and pretense that had been wrapped around him for so many years would be uncomfortable, but there was no denying that the feeling of the sapling growing inch by inch was truly wonderful.
Bi Yuan savored the feeling of being whispered to with such intimacy, savored this ungreedy innocence, savored how this man had gone from initial struggle and resistance to now submission and relaxation.
Recalling the first time he had intimate contact with Xu Yang, this man’s eyes were filled with resignation to fate, but beneath that seemingly docile and humble exterior lay immense stubbornness and resistance. The contradictions in this man’s character were evident to him, yet he twisted them in his heart with resentment, always speaking harshly and aggressively.
The single-person bathroom was already small, and though the two had done that thing repeatedly, without desire driving them, standing naked, Xu Yang, with his thin skin, felt extremely uncomfortable, awkwardly pushing Cui Yuan to leave. Bi Yuan didn’t linger, roughly rinsing his hair. His expression was hard to read as he glanced at Xu Yang twice before pulling the towel and walking out barefoot.
The foggy glass obscured the view, but Xu Yang knew Bi Yuan had indeed left. He relaxed his body, and instantly something slid out from his buttocks.
Last night, the two of them had rolled around on the bed like drowning fish for a long time, like a game of breaking new ground. Afterward, they were so exhausted they didn’t even have time to clean up before falling into a deep sleep, until just now. At this moment, the thing Bi Yuan had left inside Xu Yang’s butt felt like it was asserting its presence, sliding out silently, with a hint of sneakiness, making Xu Yang incredibly nervous.
Glancing at the naked figure moving around in the room through the frosted glass, Xu Yang dared not crouch down. He bit his lip and touched the swollen area with his fingers. His mind was still thinking about what Mr. Bi had said—that if he composed a few more pieces, he could repay the money. Did that mean… Xu Yang couldn’t suppress a certain sense of pleasure in his heart.
The sound of water trickling from the bathroom could be heard. Bi Yuan found the phone that had been forgotten at the foot of the bed. The screen was pitch black; it had run out of battery. He pulled out another phone from the pocket of the suit he had worn yesterday, switched to the WeChat account, and immediately received dozens of work messages, including a meeting notice sent by Li Mu.
Recalling that before switching accounts, Li Mu had sent him three messages on his secondary WeChat account saying, “Remember to reply when you see this message.” Bi Yuan guessed that Li Mu couldn’t reach him on his work account, so he thought of leaving a message on his secondary account. He replied with a ‘Received’ and then asked Xu Yang while putting on a clean shirt, “What time do you need to be at school?” .
Xu Yang had just come out of the bathroom, walking awkwardly. Upon hearing Bi Yuan’s question, he replied, “I just need to be there by 7 o’clock. The sanitation department won’t arrive until 7 o’clock.” The sanitation department would finish cleaning up around 7 o’clock, so he had to arrive before then, otherwise no one would open the office door for him. After speaking, he looked at the wrinkled T-shirt on the bed with a troubled expression.
“Wear my shirt first, then come back to get it after you wash it.” He tossed a shirt onto the sofa and tied his tie in front of the full-length mirror. Watching Xu Yang dress neatly in the mirror, Bi Yuan thought this state of affairs was quite good.
He was sharp-eyed and could tell from the mirror that Xu Yang was off. The speed at which he was changing clothes was unusually slow. Suddenly recalling the last time he hadn’t cleaned up after ejaculating inside someone, Xu Yang had gotten an upset stomach that day and a fever the next. He took a few quick steps toward Xu Yang, grabbed the jeans from his hands, and tried to pull off the bath towel wrapped around his waist: “Where does it hurt?”
“No, I’m fine!” The voice sounded like a panicked scream, accidentally breaking into a high-pitched tone. Xu Yang hurriedly protected his bath towel, “Why suddenly…” Before he could finish speaking, the bath towel was torn off, and he was pushed onto the bed, lying on all fours.
Quickly prying open Xu Yang’s buttocks, he saw that the area that should have been wrinkled was oddly swollen into a circle. He reached out to touch it, feeling Xu Yang shiver slightly. His voice carried a hint of self-blame: “Why is it swollen?”
“It’s nothing, just apply some ointment.” With his head buried under the blanket, Xu Yang felt unbearably embarrassed, his voice muffled as it came through the pillow.
“I’ll go get you some medicine. Wait here.” After releasing Xu Yang, Bi Yuan tried to rush toward the door, but Xu Yang rolled over and pulled him back. “I’ll buy it myself. Why bother with that?”
“Do you know what medicine to buy?”
“Well…” Caught off guard by Bi Yuan’s question, Xu Yang stumbled over his words, unable to speak or swallow. His expression shifted repeatedly as the two stared at each other.
Xu Yang pursed his lips and whispered the name of the medicine: “Ma Yinglong?”
“That’s for hemorrhoids.”
“It removes rot and stasis,isn’t that exactly what we need?” After saying that, he couldn’t help but laugh, and the two of them burst into laughter. In the end, Xu Yang didn’t manage to apply the Ma Yinglong hemorrhoid ointment, but instead blushed and took the anti-inflammatory medicine that Bi Yuan had obtained from Aunt Lin. He heard Bi Yuan mutter to himself, “Next time, we should keep lubricant at home.”
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