WP 28

Early the next morning, Si Shaorong sent a message to his editor. He remembered that the young editor had once worked with Jiang Yibai’s former editor. This industry was neither too big nor too small, and if you really wanted to know something, chances were someone nearby would have the answer.

The editor quickly replied, “His old editor left a while ago. I think she’s working on rights over at another platform now. Want her contact? I’ll check if she changed her number.”

Si Shaorong set his phone down and pulled out his little blue notebook, jotting down the key points from the past few days.

His thoughts were scattered, and as he wrote, he found himself scribbling “Jiang Yibai” again and again. He was still caught in a tangle of emotions when a knock sounded at the door.

Si Shaorong had already told him he didn’t need to knock, but Jiang Yibai never could break the habit. After the soft knock, the door opened. Seeing that Si Shaorong was already up, Jiang Yibai smiled and asked, “What do you want for breakfast?”

Si Shaorong quickly closed the notebook, pressing his fist against his lips with a light cough, pretending to be casual. “Anything is fine.”

“Porridge, maybe?” Jiang Yibai looked far too eager for someone who had just woken up, clearly here to charm his man first thing in the morning.

Si Shaorong looked over and saw Jiang Yibai wearing only an apron over his bare upper body. Lean but firm, his figure was well-toned. With a smile, Jiang Yibai turned his back and said, “Help me tie it?”

Si Shaorong’s throat moved. Jiang Yibai had nothing on below but white boxer briefs and a pair of house slippers. As he stood with his back to him, the smooth line of his spine and the firm curve of his backside were fully visible. And that was not all. He had the nerve to sway his hips a little while moving closer, as if begging to be grabbed.

Si Shaorong hesitated for less than a second before stepping in. When it came to Jiang Yibai, his self-restraint barely existed.

He tied the apron quickly, then slipped his hand inside to brush over Jiang Yibai’s chest. Jiang Yibai squirmed and let out a breathy laugh, just about to say something when he found himself pulled backward, landing in Si Shaorong’s lap.

“Hey, the pot’s still hot,” Jiang Yibai protested, turning to grab his hand. But Si Shaorong was staring at him with an unreadable look in his eyes.

“What?” Jiang Yibai blinked.

Si Shaorong said nothing. He kissed him instead. One hand lifted the apron and slipped down to grab his waistband, pulling it down.

Jiang Yibai was sitting on Si Shaorong’s lap. The way the man looked at him and touched him made his knees weak. Rather than resist, he simply gave in, playing along with whatever his boyfriend wanted.

Si Shaorong’s phone chimed with a new message from his editor. Worried that Jiang Yibai might notice, he kept kissing while reaching out to slide his notebook over the screen.

Jiang Yibai straddled him face-to-face, arms wrapped around his neck. His tongue moved like it carried a hook, teasing Si Shaorong until his face flushed red and his eyes turned hazy with heat.

He really loved it when the man lost control like this. Watching him unravel only made Jiang Yibai more eager, and the two of them tangled together, neither willing to back down, igniting sparks in each other’s hearts.

…….

“Lust clouded my mind!” After they were done, Jiang Yibai pulled up his pants and bolted into the kitchen to turn off the stove. He hopped around barefoot, yelling, “Si Shaorong! Look what you’ve done!”

Si Shaorong washed up in the bathroom, then used a cotton towel to quickly dry his face. When he heard Jiang Yibai calling his full name from the kitchen, the remnants of lust in his eyes softened into fondness. He leaned against the kitchen doorframe and said, “That’s the first time you’ve called me by name.”

Jiang Yibai blinked and turned to look at him.

Si Shaorong held up his fingers and started counting, “Great Master, ge, boyfriend. That’s usually how you address me.”

Jiang Yibai grinned wide and came over to steal a kiss. “What about sweetheart, darling, wifey?”

Si Shaorong’s ears turned slightly red. Remembering the way Jiang Yibai had acted earlier, he couldn’t help but swallow hard. The sound was loud. Jiang Yibai burst out laughing. This was his favorite part, teasing his bashful boyfriend.

While Jiang Yibai went to prepare breakfast, Si Shaorong returned to the bedroom to check his phone.

The editor had sent him a phone number and told him the person would reach out first. After their fooling around, the message had already come through.

Si Shaorong accepted the request, and the new contact greeted him cheerfully. “Hello, Great Master! I’m one of your fans!”

Si Shaorong sent a voice message in response. “Hello. Are you Jiang Luanyu’s former editor? May I ask how to address you?”

“No need to be so formal,” the person replied, also in a voice message. The voice was a young man’s, cheerful and friendly. “You can call me Xiao Chen. I worked with Jiang Luanyu for several years before switching to a different role.”

Si Shaorong thought, Jiang Yibai’s former editor is actually a man?

He glanced again at the contact profile. The listed gender was female, and the avatar was a cute cat. Apparently even his own editor had no idea the person was male.

Considering the kind of racy content Jiang Yibai wrote, Xiao Chen must have known everything. They probably even discussed explicit details. Then… was there something else between them? More than just writer and editor?

The more he realized how little he truly knew about Jiang Yibai, the more uneasy he felt. Without noticing it, his voice turned a little cold. “How much do you know about Jiang Luanyu? Do you know when he first started writing?”

Xiao Chen, though no longer in the position, had once been on friendly terms with Jiang Yibai. He chuckled and replied, “He started back in college, just before graduation. As for the rest… well, his personal life wasn’t really something I had the right to ask about. I don’t know much.”

Xiao Chen was eager to build a connection with Si Shaorong. After only a few lines of small talk, he quickly shifted the topic, launching into a pitch about his current platform’s resources and perks. He was clearly hoping to land the rights to Si Shaorong’s work. After all, it was rare for anyone to get in direct contact with him. Normally, they would have to go through his assistant, Zhen Zhen.

Si Shaorong twirled a pen between his fingers and said, “I want to know a few personal things about him.”

Xiao Chen’s enthusiastic chatter came to a halt. After a short pause, he gave a polite laugh. “Great Master, do you know Jiang Luanyu personally?”

“I do,” Si Shaorong replied.

“In that case,” Xiao Chen said, “wouldn’t it be easier to ask him directly? As an outsider, it feels inappropriate for me to speak on someone else’s private matters.”

Si Shaorong narrowed his eyes slightly and leaned back into his chair, gazing out through the floor-to-ceiling window at the bright morning sun. Light fell across his features in broken shadows, casting a cool gloom over his deep-set eyes and accentuating the sharp lines of his nose.

He looked like a figure caught in a still moment on a canvas, an oil painting too difficult to interpret. After a long silence, he finally said, “It’s not convenient for me to ask him myself.”

His relationship with Jiang Yibai was still in that ambiguous phase. Both of them were aware that certain things could not be crossed, that some lines had to remain unspoken.

Xiao Chen sighed. “Great Master, I really don’t know much about his personal life. Back then I had hundreds of authors to manage. He wasn’t the most successful, and he wasn’t the most hardworking either…”

Before he could finish, Si Shaorong interrupted, “Was your relationship with him purely author and editor?”

Xiao Chen froze for a second. Something seemed to dawn on him, and he hesitated. “You and him… are you two…?”

After a moment of thought, Si Shaorong answered, “I want to pursue him. I want to understand him better.”

The revelation hit Xiao Chen like a bombshell. He sat stunned, completely thrown off, and after several seconds finally stammered, “You—you want—you what? Hold on, give me a second to process that…”

Si Shaorong had no patience for anything unrelated to Jiang Yibai. His voice turned cold. “If you don’t want to talk, that’s fine. Sorry for bothering you.”

Xiao Chen panicked. There was no way he would let this hard-earned connection be cut off just like that. What if Si Shaorong got upset and blocked him?

Xiao Chen quickly said, “Wait. Um… Great Master, are you serious?”

Si Shaorong glanced at the time. It was just about time for breakfast, so he replied directly, “Whether I’m serious or not is none of your concern. If you don’t want to talk, that’s fine.”

He set his phone down and stepped out of the bedroom. Jiang Yibai was already setting breakfast on the table.

They chatted as they ate, and Si Shaorong changed expressions like flipping a page in a book. In front of Jiang Yibai, he wore a gentle smile. The furrow in his brow had relaxed, and his tone was warm and pleasant. He seemed like a completely different person from the one who had just spoken in that cold voice.

After breakfast, Si Shaorong offered to help wash the dishes. But after a previous incident in which he broke a plate trying to help, Jiang Yibai immediately shooed him out of the kitchen.

Si Shaorong lingered at the doorway for a moment, then walked over again and asked for a kiss.

Jiang Yibai leaned in with a smile, eyes narrowed sweetly, his soft curls tousled. As he kissed him, Si Shaorong felt an indescribable emotion swell in his chest. It was like cradling the sun in his hands, so bright it left him disoriented, so hot it made his whole body ache, yet still he could not bear to let it go.

He traced the curve of Jiang Yibai’s lips with his tongue. Jiang Yibai cupped his cheek with a wet hand and said, half laughing, “Don’t tempt me like that. I’m still a red-blooded man.”

Si Shaorong’s heart pounded furiously as he met Jiang Yibai’s gaze for a long moment. Jiang Yibai winced and asked, “What’s gotten into you today?”

A battle raged in Si Shaorong’s mind. He did not really want to learn about Jiang Yibai from someone else. If possible, he would rather hear it directly, face to face. But he also did not want to risk breaking this delicate balance. He loved what they had now, the teasing, the tension, the warmth that lingered between them.

His mind buzzed. Words crowded his tongue, nearly bursting forth, when a knock at the door suddenly shattered the moment.

Jiang Yibai looked up, puzzled. “I don’t have class this morning.”

He wiped his hands, turned off the water, and walked to the living room. When he saw who it was through the door, he let out a surprised “Whoa.”

“Chen Yi? What are you doing here?”

Chen Yi, who had been skipping class for weeks, stood there in a T-shirt and jeans, a bag in hand and bruises on his face and arms. He looked listless as he mumbled, “Old Jiang, I got kicked out.”

Jiang Yibai smacked him on the head. “Who are you calling ‘Old Jiang’? Serves you right.”

Chen Yi said nothing.