TF01 65

Shi Yi had forgotten when someone once told him, people who always seem calm and rational tend to fall apart faster than anyone else once they lose control. At the time, the logic had struck him as something like “the dog that bites doesn’t bark.” It barely left an impression.

And yet now, for no reason, that exact line came back to him.

The thought flashed across his mind and was quickly replaced by the present moment, by Ying Ming yanking open his shirt. The buttons had probably popped off. He looked like a complete mess.

The face in front of him was the same one he knew better than anyone. Everything around him was wrapped in that scent. The press of lips, the heat of skin, even the hand that had already slipped into his pants.

He let out a muffled groan.

Ying Ming grabbed him right then and there, not even giving him a chance to catch his breath before he started working him over.

“Goddamn it…” Shi Yi cursed through gritted teeth. He was sure this was payback.

Ying Ming’s lips trailed along his neck, biting softly in random places. Shi Yi wanted to tell him not to leave marks, but just as he opened his mouth, a surge of pleasure hit from below and made him suck in a sharp breath.

Outside, the faucet was still running loudly. The bathroom stall wasn’t exactly flimsy, but it sure as hell wasn’t soundproof. As the two of them tangled together, the partition behind Shi Yi started creaking in a way that sounded far too much like something else.

He instinctively grabbed hold of Ying Ming’s wrist. Head tilted back, he could not tell if the sensation was painful or just overwhelming. His voice was low, thick with tension he could barely contain.

“Are you really going to do this here?”

Ying Ming did not even look up. Shi Yi could feel teeth sink lightly into the hollow above his collarbone. It was not hard enough to hurt, but it sent a jolt through his body like it had been waiting for the spark.

A return bite. Just like the one earlier. Afterward, Ying Ming even dragged his tongue across the spot, like he was trying to make it worse. Shi Yi had no choice but to clamp a hand on his shoulder.

“Ying Ming, don’t push it too far.”

If they actually did it in a place like this, there would be no salvaging the fallout.

This wasn’t the privacy of Ying Ming’s warehouse. It was a public restroom in a KTV. If something really happened, the number of bystanders would be far more than just that one smoke circle.

Thinking of that cat that clearly hated him, Shi Yi frowned.

Ying Ming’s hand, still inside his pants, didn’t stop for a second. He only lifted his head lazily after hearing that warning.

“Who came looking for trouble in the first place, you know damn well. Once the fire’s lit, it’s not so easy to put it out. Shi Yi, did you really think I was the kind of guy who plays nice?”

The last few words carried a flicker of heat. As soon as they landed, the pressure from his hand increased. The man he was holding, with all his self-control gone, let out another rough sound. It wasn’t even clear if it was a protest or a plea.

There was a fire in Ying Ming’s eyes, one that burned through him and dragged Shi Yi down with it.

But really, Shi Yi had brought this all on himself.

Most of what he had done today carried a hint of deliberate intent. From the moment he got Kou Jing’s call to right now, he had been fully aware that every step he took was dragging him closer to a point of no return. And yet, with something twisted and stubborn pulling at him from the inside, he had still kept going. It was like watching someone else’s movie as he walked right into it himself. There was a kind of masochistic thrill in it. All the frustration, contradictions, and struggle from the past several days had knotted together into a single mess, and it wasn’t until the moment he kissed Ying Ming that he finally, completely, fucking let go.

All his life, what he was best at was figuring out what he did not want.

The things others would fight tooth and nail for, things they might never reach, were laid out in front of him like a spread of options. And when he had too many options, his first instinct was to eliminate, not to choose.

This was the first time he had ever been so sure of what he actually wanted.

Ying Ming.

What he wanted was to touch this man. To burn with him in a place as ridiculous as this. To see that heat in his eyes. To feel him lose all that calm and self-control for his sake. That ability to tear through Ying Ming’s logic, to provoke something so primal and unfiltered from him, gave Shi Yi a sense of satisfaction that surpassed anything else he had ever achieved in more than twenty years of living.

The most exhilarating thing in this world wasn’t how much money you could make, or how many people you could trample underfoot while looking down at them with smug amusement.

It was when you were going crazy wanting to see someone, and that person was right there with you in a tight, cramped stall, kissing you, touching you, pouring every bit of desire back into you with just as much heat. Even if the world ended the next second, none of it would matter.

The restroom was cold, but both Shi Yi and Ying Ming were soaked in sweat.

From where Shi Yi was positioned, he could just see the back of the man’s neck in front of him. Just a faint sheen, barely noticeable, but impossible to ignore.

He reached out, wanting to lift Ying Ming’s shirt.

But Ying Ming caught his hand and stopped him.

The two of them were pressed so close that every line of their bodies seemed to be locked tightly together. Ying Ming narrowed his eyes slightly. “Wait till we’re back.”

Even as he said it, his hand didn’t stop.

In a space this narrow, the heat between them was impossible to contain. Shi Yi stopped moving after his hand was caught. The raw stimulation drowned out everything else, crashing over his thoughts and sweeping away the self-control he prided himself on.

His lips moved, trying to say something. But before he could make a sound, voices came from outside. They grew closer, followed by the harsh sound of the door opening and scraping against the floor. The spell hanging over them shattered in an instant. Both Shi Yi and Ying Ming froze.

The sound of running water finally shut off. Outside the stall, two men started chatting. Their conversation jumped casually from work to family, from news to gossip. All the heat that had been rising in the air between the two of them now felt boxed in by these four walls, locked in place with nowhere to go. Ying Ming looked up at Shi Yi, who was half-reclining with narrowed eyes, a trace of impatience in his brow. The fire that had been lit inside him was now left hanging. It felt unbearable.

And yet the two men outside were still talking like they had no plans to leave.

Shi Yi silently mouthed a curse. Ying Ming raised an eyebrow, just about to react, when he suddenly felt Shi Yi’s hand undoing his belt.

He didn’t stop him. His brows drew together slightly, but it was more out of reflex than resistance. That tightly reined-in desire, held back only by rationality, snapped loose without warning. Ying Ming tilted his head back just a little, staring at Shi Yi’s faintly smiling face, and then tightened grip on Shi Yi’s length.

The sharp inhale that followed sounded right beside his ear and made him feel just a little more satisfied. Their bodies pressed together with frantic friction, grinding into each other with a desperation that left no room to think. The air around them kept getting hotter. With that thick scent of lust wrapping around them, it was impossible to say whether it could still be contained. The muffled sounds pressed down in their throats had to be silenced with kisses. Their position was uncomfortable for both of them, but at that moment, neither of them cared in the slightest.

The risk of getting caught made everything more sensitive. It tore at the gap between instinct and consciousness, twisting everything out of shape. Ying Ming tried to keep his attention on the noises outside, but at the same time, he was being dragged under by a tide of desire he couldn’t suppress. Every sensation in his body transmitted itself through instinct, and the man pressed flush against him could feel it all. There was not even a sliver of space left between them. Their unsteady breathing and pounding heartbeats were tangled together like two drowning men clinging to each other.

By the time they finally came, neither of them had the strength to care whether they had managed to keep quiet.

Reality and memory blurred. When Shi Yi looked at Ying Ming, all he could think about was that wild night. Every look, every sound Ying Ming had made back then felt burned into him. He could not shake it. He could not escape it. Right now was nothing more than a drop of water to a man dying of thirst. It did not quench him. It only made that craving burn hotter, more out of control.

Shi Yi started to think he might actually be turning into a pervert.

He even caught himself wanting to fuck Ying Ming right here, no matter who was outside.

The thought was absurd, and yet the thrill of it still got to him. He looked at the mess on his hand, let out a low laugh, and raised it, suddenly wanting to wipe it across Ying Ming’s face.

He could not explain why. He just wanted to see that face right now.

Twenty-some years of life, and he had never known he had something so dark and twisted buried in him. Now, he was sure. Men really did have something cruel in their bones. That cruel edge had only ever surfaced when it came to Ying Ming, and each time it reappeared, it was stronger than the last.

But what he had forgotten was that the man in front of him had everything he had, and more. As if reading his thoughts, Ying Ming moved quickly, snatching Shi Yi’s shirt and wiping his hand clean with it before he could touch him.

The shift was so fast it left Shi Yi stunned for a moment. Then, realizing what just happened, his expression changed and he cursed.

“Fuck!”

The shirt he wore today was dark-colored. Ying Ming had wiped everything across the lower hem, where it was impossible to miss.

Ying Ming only gave a cold twitch of the lips. He fastened his pants in silence and, without even bothering to help Shi Yi close his, turned and walked out of the stall.

Luckily, the two men from earlier had already left.

Maybe it was because of what had just happened, but even the dim lighting in the restroom now felt a little unreal. Ying Ming washed his hands, watching out of the corner of his eye as Shi Yi stared at the stain on his shirt with a deep frown. As he stepped out, he sighed.

“Forget it. I’ll head home first and change.”

If Kou Jing or Wang Yiqi saw this, there was no telling what they would say.

They were all men. There was no way this kind of thing could be explained away.

Ying Ming let out a small, mean-spirited laugh, but didn’t say a word.

After washing his hands, Ying Ming flicked the water off and looked up, only to meet Shi Yi’s eyes again. That gaze still carried a kind of heat, and it made him instinctively look away just a little. He took out a cigarette and lit it.

“You still going back in?”

From the way Ying Ming was acting, he clearly had no intention of walking in there with him.

The man with the cigarette laughed. “I’m not the one who fucked up my shirt. Why wouldn’t I go back?”

That was exactly it. People on the outside always got to watch the show. The ones inside didn’t have that luxury. But those words happened to hit right where Shi Yi had been barely holding it together. The moment Ying Ming said it and turned to leave, Shi Yi grabbed him hard by the arm.

“You really think we can go back?”

He stared at the side of Ying Ming’s face.

“Do you honestly think the two of us can still go back?”

What happened had already happened. After what just went down in here, how the fuck were they supposed to go back? That line had already been crossed. If they fell now, they’d fall together. There was no turning back.

Once you crossed that line, all that talk of just one night, all that talk of being brothers, was nothing but a lie you told yourself.

Ying Ming’s expression tightened. The cigarette still hung from his lips, and the arm Shi Yi had grabbed was going sore and numb. The pressure tugged at something deeper, something that hurt.