DABGBTF 11

After turning the corner of the corridor, Xie Zheng and Lu Lu separated—one to the left and one to the right.

Lu Lu remembered something. He chased two steps and asked, “Are you going over tonight?”

“No need. I have things to do tonight.”

Lu Lu acknowledged with a sound.

Xie Zheng: “Not going to ask what it is?”

Lu Lu cooperatively asked, “What does Uncle have to do tonight?”

Xie Zheng chuckled. “Going to drink flower wine¹A slang/historical idiom meaning to go drink at a brothel, a hostess bar, or to drink with female companions for entertainment..”

Actually, there wasn’t any wine to drink. Tonight’s arrangement was to go back to Song Qingyuan’s place, holding a laptop for meetings. Just thinking about it made his whole body wither.

However, teasing the stupid deer was still quite interesting. “But those omegas are not as likable as you.”

Lu Lu also knew that Xie Zheng was joking. “Thank you.”

Xie Zheng let out a scoff, the smile on his face somehow fading a little.

Lu Lu was very sensitive to emotions. “What’s wrong?”

What’s wrong?

What’s wrong??

An alpha being attracted to another alpha. Lu Lu didn’t think it was a big deal and accepted it very quickly, which was very good.

Xie Zheng was also happy to accept the fact that compared to O, he preferred A.

However, behind this fact hid some other messy things, like food entangled with hair in a sewer—sticky and damp, emitting a rotten smell, making one irritated.

Xie Zheng pulled out a cigarette and lit it, squinting his eyes and exhaling a puff towards Lu Lu.

This bad mood lasted until the end of the drinking session. While in the car, his younger cousin Xie Li called again, “Ge! You are my real ge! Can you just go home?!”

“Are my parents still bothering you?”

Xie Li: “Not really. It’s just that since you aren’t here, Aunt can only look for my mom to go shopping. I’m responsible for carrying the bags.”

“That’s perfect.” Xie Zheng said, “Don’t you like older people?”

Xie Li: “…”

He was so disgusted by Xie Zheng that he didn’t speak for a long time.

Xie Li hesitated. “But there’s no need for you to run away from home. Are you still angry, because Aunt and Uncle…”

Xie Zheng and this cousin grew up together since they were young. The moment Xie Li raised his tail, Xie Zheng knew what kind of fart he was going to let out.²A very colorful, earthy Chinese idiom. It means you know someone so completely (usually because you grew up together) that you can predict their exact thoughts or actions before they even do anything.

He interrupted Xie Li, “Who told you I ran away from home? Haven’t I gotten the Yuanqi deal that you’ve always wanted?”

Xie Li was stunned, and from the receiver came his increasingly heavy breathing. “…You snatched it?! Are you in Linyuan right now??”

Xie Zheng bluffed him. “Guess if I am there right now?”

Xie Li: “…Are you playing me for a monkey³An idiom meaning to make a fool out of someone, to toy with them, or to treat them like a joke.?”

After saying that, without waiting for Xie Zheng to say anything more, he angrily hung up their call.

Xie Zheng smiled, indifferently putting away his phone.

His companies were all in Chen’an. Of course he would go back, just not right now.

—

For the next week, Xie Zheng was very busy again.

The price of being busy was the successful landing of a project he had been following for a long time, as well as astonishing profits.

A celebration banquet was held at the company. Xie Zheng was unable to attend, so he adopted the most unadorned way to celebrate—giving every employee in the project team a large, generous bonus.

He was in a good mood and went to the fridge to grab a glass of beer. His body, relaxing from a tense state, very clearly felt the restlessness of his susceptible period.

He popped a voice call to Lu Lu.

Half a minute later, Lu Lu answered, the background noise a bit loud. “Hello.”

Xie Zheng laid lazily on the sofa, even his voice becoming lazy. “Missed you, baby.”

Lu Lu smiled gently.

The breathing sound carrying a smile was simply as healing as a cat purring, and Xie Zheng’s lower abdomen grew burning hot.

Lu Lu asked, “Should I go to the hotel then? However, I am outside right now and it’s hard to call a car here. I might be a little late going over.”

“No need then.” Xie Zheng blew a breath toward the microphone. “Just say whatever.”

Lu Lu was stunned for a moment before realizing Xie Zheng’s meaning. “You—”

Through the receiver, the boy’s clear voice sounded a bit unfamiliar. Xie Zheng clamped the earphone with his shoulder and unbuckled his belt with one hand. His hand gripped downwards, while his other hand was still holding the icy cold beer can.

Sounds of walking came from Lu Lu’s side, followed by the sound of a door opening and closing, and then Lu Lu’s side became much quieter.

“Where did you hide?”

“The utility room.”

This was an empty classroom on the second floor, usually used by the art department teachers as a place to pile up past years’ students’ old artworks and materials. The air was filled with the strong mixed smell of acrylic and oil paints. Piled up in front of Lu Lu were sketchbooks belonging to who knows who, with a thick layer of dust settled on the covers.

In the Bluetooth earphones was Xie Zheng’s undisguised panting sound.

What should he say?

Lu Lu put himself in his shoes and thought for a moment. Actually, if he were the person with the need, Xie Zheng could say anything.

However, it would be best if it was about Xie Zheng’s past. Talk about Xie Zheng’s life in middle school, high school, or college—those things he had heard before but never paid attention to.

Lu Lu used his hand to draw a smiley face in the dust on the sketchbook. “I always got sick when I was little, and I even stayed in the hospital once when I was four.”

Before his voice even fell, Xie Zheng interrupted Lu Lu, “F*ck! Stupid deer, shut the hell up for laozi! I asked you to talk, not to talk about things from when you were the size of a booger⁴A very colloquial, slightly vulgar, and humorous exaggeration meaning “incredibly tiny” or “a little speck.” Xie Zheng uses it to mock how young Lu Lu was in the story he was trying to tell.! It’s not like I’m a pedophile!”

Lu Lu blinked and couldn’t help but laugh. His drawing finger didn’t stop, and he drew a cartoon apple next to the smiley face.

He could hear that Xie Zheng should be in a lying posture right now, his voice sounding hoarse and even gentle because of lust. Coming through the receiver, accompanied by the inevitable distortion, it sounded like intimate chitchat between lovers.

After getting out of bed, Xie Zheng actually wouldn’t say much to him. Lu Lu inexplicably really liked this atmosphere of the two of them talking quietly. He unconsciously also lowered his voice, his vocal cords like soft silk. “Then, what should I talk about?”

“Aren’t you pretty good at panting in bed?”

Xie Zheng’s needs were very clear, so Lu Lu didn’t act coy, and forcefully panted twice.

However, Xie Zheng swore again. “Stop it quickly, just like a fucking patient with a severe cold.”

Lu Lu couldn’t hold back a laugh: “Pfft—”

Being messed with like this, Xie Zheng completely withered. The restlessness from just now calmed down in a very bizarre way. “Forget it for today. We will talk about it tomorrow.”

“Tomorrow… Uncle Xie, I want to ask for a leave.” Lu Lu’s tone for asking for leave was as if he were really Xie Zheng’s employee and not just a lover with only a physical relationship. “Our school is organizing a sketching trip⁵A common term in art schools referring to drawing or painting directly from nature/real life outdoors, rather than from imagination or photos in a studio. to the mountains. It starts tomorrow, for three days in total.”

“Mashi Mountain?” Near Linyuan, this was the only mountain whose name could be called out. Xie Zheng remembered that when he was in school, there were classmates who ran to the mountain every other day, saying the scenery was good. Xie Zheng didn’t understand people who liked mountain climbing back then, and he still doesn’t understand now.

“Mm-ha.”

Xie Zheng had no reaction. “Got it.”

Lu Lu asked, “Is Uncle Xie free—want to go together?”

Xie Zheng had zero interest. “No.”

Lu Lu patted the dust off his hands and found another discarded paint box. He poked the long-dried paint inside. “Mashi Mountain has been developing its tourism industry these past few years, transforming the foot of the mountain into a town. Once night falls, it’s brightly lit—it’s very fun.”

Perhaps because he was still a student, Xie Zheng found that Lu Lu always had a sort of excessive, actively optimistic naivety about him, as if he really thought that by speaking to Xie Zheng in such an enticing tone, Xie Zheng would be able to accompany him to climb the mountain tomorrow.

“So stupid.” Xie Zheng cursed at him with a smile. “Hanging up.”

The next evening, Xie Zheng received a picture sent by Lu Lu. Clicking it open, it was a selfie. The boy had colorful strings tied in his hair with a smile full of joy on his face.

Another day later, Xie Zheng received his photo again. It was a picture of a painting he drew himself; on the drawing paper were green mountains and clear waters, the colors bright and vivid.

On the third day, Xie Zheng once again received Lu Lu’s selfie, with a piece of pastry bitten in his mouth.

Xie Zheng looked at Lu Lu’s beautiful lip shape in the photo, and his eyes darkened.

Perhaps because his body had already tasted the flavor of another, Xie Zheng taking care of himself⁶This is a colloquial and indirect way of referring to masturbation (literally “doing it oneself”). these past few days felt a bit dull and tasteless. He asked Lu Lu: When are you coming back?

[Stupid Deer]: Leaving at 3 PM.

There were still three and a half hours from now, so Xie Zheng opened a map app and calculated the route: I’ll go pick you up.

Lao Tian went out on business today, so Xie Zheng drove himself to Mashi Mountain.

Xie Zheng took the highway all the way, and when he arrived, the time was 2:30. Lu Lu was already waiting for him in the parking lot at the foot of the mountain. He was stunned for a moment when he saw Xie Zheng.

Before coming out, Xie Zheng had been working out, wearing a simple black tracksuit with a black baseball cap pulled down. His whole person looked cool and young, like a sports major student.

After Lu Lu got in, Xie Zheng grabbed his face and kissed him. “Did you miss your husband?”

Lu Lu smiled obediently and let him kiss him, sucking on Xie Zheng’s warm tongue tip, feeling very happy.

The space inside the car was large. Xie Zheng reclined the passenger seat, took a step with his long legs, and straddled Lu Lu all the way from the driver’s seat. “Hmm? I’m asking you a question.”

Lu Lu answered with curved eyes, “I missed you.”

Xie Zheng rolled up the hem of Lu Lu’s T-shirt and stuffed it into the boy’s mouth. “Bite it.”

With an expression wanting to laugh and an indistinct voice, Lu Lu said, “I’ve only seen this kind of description in novels.”

“You also love reading novels? What genres do you read?”

Xie Zheng’s hand traced across Lu Lu’s waist. That hand had calluses, making Lu Lu want to laugh even more. He continued to speak in a muffled voice. “I read a little bit of everything.”

Lu Lu was wearing sweatpants. Xie Zheng untied the drawstring on his waist, clearly noticing the changes in the other’s body.

He asked Lu Lu, “Do you still remember what I said to you at the hotel last time?”

“What?”

He stared into Lu Lu’s eyes like a wolf. “I said I was going to f*ck you to death.”

Only then did Lu Lu remember that there seemed to be such a thing. 

He was too excited back then, and after Xie Zheng was irritated, he indeed said such a sentence.

“Uncle Xie.” Lu Lu spat out the clothes in his mouth. “I’m afraid of pain, really.”

“…What bullsh*t⁷Literally translates to “fart words.” It means nonsense, rubbish, or bullshit..”

Xie Zheng patted Lu Lu’s face. “Could it be that if you’re afraid of the dark, you just don’t sleep? Am I the boss or are you the boss?”

“Don’t make me angry.” Xie Zheng’s expression was gloomy. “If you don’t let me fuck you, there are plenty of people willing to be fucked by me.”

Lu Lu’s expression suddenly went blank.

The bright smile on his face disappeared, without any expression at all. Xie Zheng suddenly realized that he actually couldn’t understand what Lu Lu was thinking.

“Who then?” Lu Lu gently asked, “Those people in the club? Other students? Or other omegas? Other alphas?”

“…Is that the point?”

Lu Lu looked at Xie Zheng with those light-colored eyes. “Didn’t you say there wouldn’t be anyone else for the time being?”

• 1
  A slang/historical idiom meaning to go drink at a brothel, a hostess bar, or to drink with female companions for entertainment.
• 2
  A very colorful, earthy Chinese idiom. It means you know someone so completely (usually because you grew up together) that you can predict their exact thoughts or actions before they even do anything.
• 3
  An idiom meaning to make a fool out of someone, to toy with them, or to treat them like a joke.
• 4
  A very colloquial, slightly vulgar, and humorous exaggeration meaning “incredibly tiny” or “a little speck.” Xie Zheng uses it to mock how young Lu Lu was in the story he was trying to tell.
• 5
  A common term in art schools referring to drawing or painting directly from nature/real life outdoors, rather than from imagination or photos in a studio.
• 6
  This is a colloquial and indirect way of referring to masturbation (literally “doing it oneself”).
• 7
  Literally translates to “fart words.” It means nonsense, rubbish, or bullshit.