DABGBTF 14

After resting for a night, Xie Zheng’s mood rebounded.

The side effects of his susceptible period also followed. 

Only then did Xie Zheng remember that he had gone to sleep without injecting his suppressants last night. 

His whole person was now burning hot, starting to desperately crave something to comfort himself.

The room’s curtains weren’t drawn too tightly; thin morning light peeked through the gap, faintly illuminating Lu Lu’s face. 

The young man sleeping in the same bed was lying on his side facing Xie Zheng, sleeping very soundly. His somewhat long bangs blocked his eyes, revealing a handsome nose bridge and light-colored lips.

Xie Zheng rolled over and sat on Lu Lu, pinching Lu Lu’s chin and kissing him fiercely. Lu Lu slowly opened his eyes, still a bit confused. “…Xie…”

As soon as the words left his mouth, Lu Lu smelled the rich scent of smoked pepper emitting from Xie Zheng’s body, and felt a slight stinging sensation on his skin.

It was the susceptible period, Lu Lu quickly realized.

Xie Zheng raised his hands to take off his own clothes, then lowered his head eagerly to seek out Lu Lu’s lips.

Lu Lu’s heart began to beat faster, but he still retained some rationality.

“Uncle Xie, where did you put the suppressants?” Lu Lu’s voice sounded unsteady. “In your bag or in the car? I’ll go get them.”

“F*ck… what the hell are you babbling about?” Xie Zheng furrowed his brows. “Haven’t you already reacted?”

While Xie Zheng was speaking, his waist was still moving. Lu Lu was rubbed by him until his forehead broke out in sweat, yet he was still explaining, “Maintaining a susceptible state for a long time might be bad for your body.”

After all, an alpha couldn’t provide any help to another alpha in their susceptible period; even if Lu Lu released a ton of pheromones, he couldn’t soothe Xie Zheng.

Lu Lu was still trying to get up. “Wait…”

Xie Zheng bent over and leaned close to his ear.

“Can’t wait.” Xie Zheng’s wet breath landed on Lu Lu’s ear. “Xiao Lu, good Xiao Lu, if you make me feel good, I’ll let you mark¹Another key ABO term. It refers to a character biting the scent gland on the back of their partner’s neck to inject their pheromones, creating a deep physiological bond. me, okay?”

Xie Zheng acted as if he never knew what shyness was. His mouth had zero taboos, capable of saying absolutely anything. Lu Lu was stunned, stimulated to the point of breaking a sweat, and his hands resting on Xie Zheng’s waist suddenly squeezed tight.

He gripped Xie Zheng’s shoulders and flipped over. When he opened his mouth to speak, his voice was completely hoarse. He asked Xie Zheng, “Uncle Xie, did you know?”

Xie Zheng wrapped his arms around Lu Lu’s neck to kiss him, asking indistinctly, “Know what?”

Lu Lu said, “My phone last night, I left it at the restaurant on purpose.”

Xie Zheng’s consciousness was actually already very blurry. It took him a long while to realize what Lu Lu was saying and he laughed. “You wanted to do it with Uncle that badly, baby? Then right now you… ha…”

Before he even finished speaking, Xie Zheng suddenly let out a curse, uncontrollably throwing his head back, the muscles all over his body spasming.

Lu Lu looked at the unbearably trembling Xie Zheng and paused his movements in some surprise. He never expected Xie Zheng to be so… fast this time.

Xie Zheng, however, didn’t feel embarrassed in the slightest. He rested his leg on Lu Lu’s waist and smiled. “Continue.”

—

By the time they finished tossing about, it was already a few hours later.

The sky was fully bright, and the bed was a muddy mess.

Xie Zheng was already groggy, not knowing if he had fallen asleep or passed out. The air was entirely filled with the scent of his pheromones.

Lu Lu jumped out of bed, immediately drawing in a sharp breath of cold air. “Ah, it hurts, it hurts, it hurts—”

Saying something about letting him mark him—fake, fake. It was all to deceive people, coaxing him to the point of spinning around in circles²Used here with “哄” (to coax/deceive), meaning Lu Lu was completely lead by the nose or thoroughly fooled by Xie Zheng..

In fact, he wasn’t even able to touch Xie Zheng’s nape. Instead, it was Xie Zheng whose mouthful of teeth was very fierce. Usually, he always loves to bite people, but today, he was even more lacking in restraint—several marks on his body were so deep it was scary.

He did a round of rummaging, and only then did he find the suppressants in the compartment of Xie Zheng’s bag. He helped Xie Zheng inject it, and only then did he finally heave a sigh of relief.

When zipping up the bag, Lu Lu saw the tie in Xie Zheng’s bag—a dark red striped tie. Lu Lu thought for a moment. He then left a note to inform Xie Zheng a bit, took the tie out, and put it into his own backpack.

He still had classes today, and after ordering a breakfast for Xie Zheng, he hurriedly left.

After Song Qingyuan left, the sculpture classes were all substitute-taught by whichever teacher in the department was free. Lu Lu’s bone-version of the Venus de Milo had already been built into a rough prototype, a head taller than Lu Lu himself. Just looking at the size alone, it already had a lot of oppressive force.

Lu Lu took a photo and sent it to Song Qingyuan. Thinking for a moment, he also sent one to Xie Zheng.

[Xie]: What is this thing?

[Deer]: Venus

[Xie]: Can’t understand it, but I like it.

Pausing for a moment, Lu Lu again received a message sent by Xie Zheng.

[Xie]: Stinky brat, my tie.

Lu Lu couldn’t help but start laughing.

Xie Zheng also wasn’t truly going to fuss with Lu Lu over the matter of the tie. He pulled at the corners of his mouth and sent Lu Lu a message: You were too f*cking try-hard this morning, right? Did you eat a Hercules pill³Literally “great strength pill.” It traditionally refers to snake-oil medicines sold by street performers promising supernatural strength. In modern slang, it’s used jokingly to ask if someone has taken a sudden power-up or is overly energetic.?

[Xie]: Next time I won’t spare you.

Of course, this couldn’t entirely be blamed on Lu Lu. Xie Zheng still remembered that at the time he was hugging Lu Lu’s neck, it hurt so much his whole body went numb but he kept continuously telling him to use a little more force. Following that, from deep within his body came that kind of feeling as if something had been pried open, sour and numb, making one’s soul tremble along with it.

Just reminiscing about it, Xie Zheng even felt his waist starting to go soft again. He licked his own back molars, seeing Lu Lu ask himself: When are we meeting next time? Uncle Xie.

[Xie]: We’ll talk about it later, I’m busy during this period of time.

When Xie Zheng said he was busy, he was truly busy. Several times when Lu Lu sent him messages, Xie Zheng would always reply the next day.

With things being like this, for the May Day holiday, as well as the school anniversary after May Day, Lu Lu naturally did not successfully invite Xie Zheng.

After a full ten days of not seeing Xie Zheng, Lu Lu even gained a new hobby—outside of going to school and working part-time according to the regular routine, Lu Lu gained a new joy, which was finding Xie Zheng, whom he might run into by chance in the crowd.

It’s just that even for students of the same school living in the same dormitory building, it’s also possible that because of various reasons, they wouldn’t see each other once in several months.

Not to mention Xie Zheng only lives next to the school; wanting to run into each other by chance is actually very difficult. As long as one person among the two does not take the initiative to propose a meeting, in fact, the probability of being able to encounter each other is almost equal to zero.

As soon as May arrived, the temperature abruptly rose, and the sun radiated a roasting heat.

Today is the weekend. Lu Lu wasn’t scheduled for a shift and made an appointment with a few classmates to go to the mall to buy a few pieces of summer clothing.

The people traveling together had Alphas, Betas, and Omegas. Usually, everyone is just close as classmates and didn’t have much gender awareness, squeezing together to mutually look at clothes for each other.

Lu Lu picked two T-shirts to go try on. After coming out from the changing room, he found that there was only one person left outside.

It was a classmate from graphic design, a petite Omega boy. Seeing him, he handed the thing in his hands to Lu Lu. “This piece also suits you quite well, do you want to try it on?”

“Thanks.”

Lu Lu reached out his hand to take it, but the boy didn’t immediately let go.

Lu Lu heard the boy ask him, “Next time, do you want the two of us to go hang out together? You are also single, right?”

Lu Lu was startled for a moment, and started to laugh. “…I have someone I care about.”

The boy pursed his lips, and Lu Lu let go of his hand. “Sorry.”

This matter counted as a small interlude, and the page was quickly turned⁴Much like the English equivalent “turning the page,” it means to move past an awkward moment or let a matter drop quickly so the story/life can move on.. After the other classmates came out, no one absolutely discovered anything amiss.

Next, the classmates also talked about going to a fast food restaurant to eat a collaborated set meal. Lu Lu followed at the very back, and his phone suddenly received a message.

[Xie]: [Transfer 0.5 Yuan]

[Deer]: What’s wrong?

[Xie]: [Transfer 0.5 Yuan]

[Deer]: Uncle Xie?

[Xie]: [Transfer 0.5 Yuan]

Lu Lu: …

What’s up with this? To tease him?

Looking at the huge sum of 1.5 yuan transferred by Xie Zheng, Lu Lu felt both strange and wanted to laugh. Just as he wanted to send Xie Zheng a sticker, his back collar was suddenly yanked by someone with immense force. 

Caught off guard, Lu Lu staggered fiercely, and ended up leaning against a person’s shoulder.

Lu Lu turned his head sideways, seeing Xie Zheng’s side profile holding a cigarette between his lips. 

Having not seen him for nearly half a month, Xie Zheng still had that sharp look. He wore a black shirt stretched full by muscles, three buttons open at the collar, revealing faint tattoos.

“Long time no see, baby. Did you miss your husband?” Xie Zheng narrowed his eyes, blowing a puff of smoke onto Lu Lu’s face with a half-smile. He forcefully bit his lip again amidst the smoke.

Lu Lu looked at Xie Zheng with a blank expression. The stinging pain on his lips made him come back to his senses. 

“Uncle Xie.” Lu Lu’s eyes were sparkling. “Why are you here?”

The smile on Xie Zheng’s face was very big, and also very cold. “If I wasn’t here, how could I watch you flirt with others?”

Lu Lu was startled again, then immediately realized Xie Zheng must have seen the scene of him talking with his classmate just now. 

“No flirting.” Lu Lu explained, “I refused.”

“Laozi just felt the atmosphere wasn’t right at the time. It really was a confession? You refused?”

“Mm.”

It wasn’t until this time that Lu Lu remembered he had completely forgotten to pay attention to his classmates’ reactions. He hurriedly looked up to see, only to find that Xie Zheng had actually pulled him into a small alley in the back. It seemed separated from the main road here; no one would notice such a lightless corner.

Xie Zheng pressed Lu Lu against the wall, his hand changing from grabbing his back collar to grabbing his front collar. He rubbed Lu Lu’s collarbone with his thumb, his tone very strange. “Why doesn’t uncle believe it? Such a little O looking at you so softly, you just refused like you said you did?”

Xie Zheng should believe him. Lu Lu suddenly felt suffocated.

Xie Zheng asked him, “How did you tell him?”

Lu Lu pursed his lips, answering truthfully, “I said I have someone I care about.”

Xie Zheng raised his eyebrows, his expression suddenly turning from cloudy to clear. He finally let go of the hand grabbing Lu Lu’s collar, changing to patting his face. “Very good. Say it like this next time too.”

Next time.

Lu Lu also started to smile. He then asked Xie Zheng, “Why did Uncle Xie come here today?”

There are quite a few malls on this street, but mostly they are places students love to come to, either collaborating with anime or collaborating with celebrities—not very compatible with Xie Zheng.

“Drove by, just happened to see you.” 

Xie Zheng took a step back. He tilted his head to look Lu Lu over and sneered again. “What kind of bullsh*t stuff are you wearing? Can you add up from head to toe to more than two hundred bucks? Tell your classmates—just say you have something to do and went back first, I’ll take you to buy a few good pieces.”

—

Xie Zheng’s Diary

[Thirteen years ago]

Changed a homeroom teacher.

Sought me out to talk five times in three days.

Loves talking so much, so why not go find someone to talk a romance?⁵A playful pun in the diary entry. The teacher keeps “talking” (谈话) to him, so teenage Xie Zheng quips that if she loves “talking” so much, she should go “talk a romance” (the Chinese phrase for dating/falling in love is 谈恋爱).

Annoying.

• 1
  Another key ABO term. It refers to a character biting the scent gland on the back of their partner’s neck to inject their pheromones, creating a deep physiological bond.
• 2
  Used here with “哄” (to coax/deceive), meaning Lu Lu was completely lead by the nose or thoroughly fooled by Xie Zheng.
• 3
  Literally “great strength pill.” It traditionally refers to snake-oil medicines sold by street performers promising supernatural strength. In modern slang, it’s used jokingly to ask if someone has taken a sudden power-up or is overly energetic.
• 4
  Much like the English equivalent “turning the page,” it means to move past an awkward moment or let a matter drop quickly so the story/life can move on.
• 5
  A playful pun in the diary entry. The teacher keeps “talking” (谈话) to him, so teenage Xie Zheng quips that if she loves “talking” so much, she should go “talk a romance” (the Chinese phrase for dating/falling in love is 谈恋爱).