SYU 7. Dreams

After early spring passed, the weather grew warmer by the day, and people became more prone to drowsiness. That afternoon, Chen Xiucheng didn’t have class and didn’t go out with the guys either. Instead, he sprawled out on his dorm bed for a nap.

This was the most relaxing kind of moment, with nothing to do, just lazily lying there. But once a person slows down, the mind starts to wander.

At the time, only two people were in the dorm. The other was the person sleeping diagonally across from Chen Xiucheng: Big Brick.

Big Brick was the nickname they had given to Zhuang Ming. It wasn’t just his physique that was blocky and square, even his brain seemed to operate on square logic. He was so blunt that when the mom of the guy on the bunk across from him called, he would straightforwardly tell her, “He’s not here. No idea where he went.”

That roommate was Fu Hexi, who slept in the bed right next to Chen Xiucheng. He had a notoriously strict upbringing, especially that mom of his, who called the dorm’s shared landline every other day to check on her son. She always asked if he had been studying, whether he was attending evening self-study. If she found out he was missing and hadn’t gone to class, she would blow up in rage.

Come on, they were all eighteen-year-old adults in college, living on campus. Whose mom still tracked their son’s every move like this?

Chen Xiucheng actually felt bad for Fu Hexi. He preferred to avoid unnecessary trouble, so whenever he picked up the phone, he would just tell her that Hexi had gone to evening class and had been reviewing diligently lately. Add a bit of sugar to the tone, and she would usually buy it.

That was why, when Fu Hexi told Chen Xiucheng he was short on money and asked if he knew any quick-paying part-time jobs, Chen Xiucheng immediately got the message and chivalrously helped him find one.

It was a server job at a nightclub, paid by the hour, and tips from the guests were pretty generous. But Chen Xiucheng hadn’t really thought it through. He just felt it matched Fu Hexi’s needs and sent the job listing over.

Fu Hexi actually went and took the job. But not even a month in, he ran into trouble.

Who would have thought that nightclub catered to wealthy men with a taste for college boys? The moment they saw how fresh and innocent Fu Hexi looked, they pulled out every trick they had to force him into selling his body.

Fu Hexi ended up backed into a corner. After finally managing to escape to the staff room, he called Chen Xiucheng for help.

Chen Xiucheng felt responsible for the situation, so he immediately decided to go and get him out.

And as it happened, while they were on the phone, Wu Jinshan was also in the dorm, and his second uncle had just driven to Qinhai University.

The situation was urgent, so Chen Xiucheng asked Wu Jinshan if he could borrow his second uncle’s car.

But Wu Jinshan wasn’t the kind of person to do favors easily. He and Chen Xiucheng had always been at odds, never getting along, constantly butting heads. He didn’t care how urgent the situation was. All he cared about was that the person he disliked most was now begging him for help. So he deliberately made things difficult, insisting that Chen Xiucheng agree to one condition before he’d help.

To his surprise, Chen Xiucheng didn’t hesitate at all and agreed on the spot, leaving Wu Jinshan completely stunned.

“You sure?” he asked again. “You’ll agree to anything I ask?”

All Chen Xiucheng could think about was rescuing his friend. He would have agreed to walk through fire if that’s what it took. It wasn’t like Wu Jinshan was going to eat him or anything.

The thing was, Wu Jinshan hadn’t even thought of a specific demand when he said that. He had just wanted to mess with Chen Xiucheng. Which made everything that happened afterward, from rescuing Fu Hexi to ending up in that hotel room and rolling into bed together, feel completely absurd to him in retrospect.

On the bed diagonally across from him, Big Brick was snoring like a war drum. Chen Xiucheng touched his flushed cheeks. There was no way he could fall asleep now. He reached for his phone at the head of his bed, opened his browser and started searching.

What do two guys do in bed
Does the bottom feel good
Why does being the bottom feel better

The more he searched, the more he felt something was wrong with himself. That morning, waking up to find Wu Jinshan sleeping beside him, he’d been shocked and couldn’t accept it. But thinking back now… it hadn’t been bad.

The worst part was, ever since they got back, he kept having wet dreams. Who was doing what didn’t need to be spelled out. Every time he woke up, his pants were soaked, leaving him red-faced and breathless with frustration.

He kept trying to reason with himself. Adults have needs. That was normal. It’s not like he was out messing around. He was single, after all. Living in this messed-up world, it was okay to be a bit of a mess too. No one’s more noble than the next. If he wanted to suppress desire, he might as well become a monk.

As he scrolled through those informative articles, things started to click. Maybe he wasn’t so against the idea of doing it with a guy after all. Sex was about feeling good. Why get hung up on gender?

He was deep in thought when the sound of a door opening broke through the quiet, followed by the familiar footsteps of Wu Jinshan getting closer.

Chen Xiucheng’s heart skipped a beat. Fine, maybe sex didn’t need to care about gender. But who you were doing it with still mattered!

He wanted to run. Ever since that night, he hadn’t dared to face Wu Jinshan properly. He didn’t even know why. If anyone should feel guilty, it was Wu Jinshan. Why was he the one acting all guilty?

But there was nowhere to run. Wu Jinshan had just walked in. If he suddenly got up and left, wouldn’t that look like he was scared?

Shit. This was driving him nuts. In a panic, he closed the tabs on his phone. Just as he did, the curtain around his bed was lifted, scaring the soul right out of him.

“What are you doing?” Chen Xiucheng blurted out. “Don’t you have class this afternoon? Why’d you come back so—”

His nerves were already strung tight, and he was babbling in a poor attempt to sound casual. But before he could finish, Wu Jinshan clapped a hand over his mouth and shoved him back down onto the bed.