DABGBTF 22

In the end, the two still didn’t manage to do it. Lu Lu guarded against Xie Zheng like guarding against a wolf¹A “wolf” is common slang for a pervert or sexual predator. Lu Lu is actively protecting Xie Zheng from sex because of his stomach pains.. Xie Zheng, seeing him clutching his chest, felt as if he was forcing a decent person into prostitution, and forcefully went limp.

This apartment of Xie Zheng’s had quite a few rooms, but normally no one would come so they weren’t tidied up. He simply decided to do as they did before when staying in a hotel, with the two of them sleeping in the same large bed.

Xie Zheng had always disliked physical contact, but Lu Lu’s sleeping posture was very well-behaved. He wouldn’t snore or make noise so he didn’t resist sleeping together with Lu Lu.

His apartment’s renovation was a plan he decided on himself, with a few assistants taking turns supervising. The final effect presented was incomparably luxurious.

Lu Lu didn’t have time to look earlier, but now he simply went around for a tour, his expression of admiration unconcealed.

“Uncle Xie.” Lu Lu said, “You’re so amazing.”

He had already taken a shower and was leaning against the headboard replying to messages. Hearing Lu Lu speak, he looked up at the boy.

Thinking about it carefully, Xie Zheng hadn’t heard such a pure and straightforward compliment in a long time. Hearing it like this, he actually felt in a good mood, and chuckled low twice.

While Lu Lu was showering, Xie Zheng had already brewed his sleepiness, sprawling out with his limbs spread in all directions and falling asleep.

The slight sound of water stopped at some unknown time. After Lu Lu came out of the bathroom, he turned off the bright main light, crouched by the side of the bed while drying his hair, and helped cover Xie Zheng with the blanket.

After covering him with the blanket, Lu Lu’s hand didn’t move away. He hesitated for a moment, his palm covering Xie Zheng’s firm lower abdomen, and rubbed twice.

Xie Zheng woke up from his sleep. He clicked his tongue and swatted his hand away. “If we’re not doing it, don’t get handsy.”

Lu Lu started laughing. He rubbed Xie Zheng’s abdomen and asked him, “Why does Uncle still have stomach aches? Do you always forget to eat?”

“F*ck…” Xie Zheng cursed. “In the middle of the night, either do it with me or obediently lie down and sleep—can you stop with the nonsense?”

Lu Lu stopped speaking.

He remained squatting by the bed, looking at Xie Zheng’s wickedly handsome face. A feeling hovered in his chest between extreme satisfaction and extreme emptiness.

Do you miss me?

I missed you.

Lu Lu lowered his head, touched his lips to Xie Zheng’s thin lips, and finally turned off the lamp and climbed into bed.

When he woke up again, Lu Lu actually felt it should be around six or seven o’clock right now, but it was still very dim inside the room, with the sound of raindrops hitting the glass.

He simply washed up, and almost at the exact same time he returned to the bedroom, Xie Zheng also woke up.

Xie Zheng slept very satisfyingly this time; perhaps enticed by Lu Lu’s pomelo scent, he had been having that kind of dream the whole time.

He reached out his hand, using a voice that hadn’t fully woken up to call Lu Lu. “Come here.”

Lu Lu thought Xie Zheng wanted help getting his clothes. 

He came to the front of the bed and bent over to look, but Xie Zheng raised his hand, his slightly rough thumb pressing on the corner of Lu Lu’s eyebrow, caressing the young Alpha’s fine skin bit by bit.

To make it convenient for Xie Zheng, Lu Lu tilted his head slightly, pressing his cheek against the palm of Xie Zheng’s hand. “It’s raining outside.”

Xie Zheng’s finger moved down, his thumb pressing on the corner of Lu Lu’s mouth again.

Lu Lu asked, “What do you want to eat for breakfast? Or should I make it? … But I feel like Uncle, your house probably won’t have any food…”

When Lu Lu spoke, he would take Xie Zheng’s fingertips into his mouth a little. Xie Zheng felt his thumb become wet.

Xie Zheng didn’t answer, lazily opened his mouth, and stuck the tip of his tongue out towards Lu Lu.

Lu Lu was stunned for a moment, as if a bit surprised that Xie Zheng could be so bold and confident even when demanding a kiss.

He leaned in and smacked a kiss on Xie Zheng’s mouth. Just as he was about to retreat, Xie Zheng’s hand forcefully pressed the back of his head, deepening this kiss.

Both of them had just woken up, their physical strength hadn’t recovered yet. The air mixed with the sound of rain made people even lazier, causing even their movements to become sluggish and tepid.

Xie Zheng had a bedsheet draped over his body, kneeling on the balcony; Lu Lu embraced him from behind. It took some effort to enter, but all the movements afterwards were very gentle and slow.

Xie Zheng grunted softly twice, unexpectedly feeling that this kind of slow pace was also quite interesting.

He took a breath and asked Lu Lu, “…Baby, have you found a job?”

“…Not yet.” Lu Lu’s voice sounded lower than usual, with a bit more of a nasal tone. While moving slowly, he answered, “I actually thought the one we looked at yesterday was fine, but my classmate felt the foreman was unreliable, and wanted to look at others.”

“You guys are looking for jobs together? Short on money?”

Lu Lu’s hand gently covered Xie Zheng’s lower abdomen, his palm able to clearly feel the throbbing of the muscles. He thought about it and answered, “For them, it’s mostly for fun, I guess.”

“And you? Because you want to earn money?”

Lu Lu lowered his head and kissed the ink-colored tattoo on Xie Zheng’s shoulder, giving an “mm.”

“You guys—ugh—f*ck…”

Xie Zheng’s lower abdomen suddenly tightened and his waist was arched. After that wave of numbness passed, he continued, “…Phew, how many of you are there in total? Just come work at my company for a month or two.”

Lu Lu’s movements paused for a moment, then he suddenly brought his face next to Xie Zheng’s face very childishly, with a very joyful tone. “Really?”

“F*ck… can you not suddenly move around?” Xie Zheng stumbled forward a bit, his forehead almost hitting the glass window. Moreover, because of this, he even saw the pedestrians hurrying along downstairs.

Lu Lu sincerely apologized, “Sorry, sorry.” He then asked again, “Really, Uncle Xie?”

“Really. I’m exactly short of people over there.”

This is one of the drawbacks of emerging industries: the more capable ones all want to lead their own teams, unwilling to be kept under someone else; the inexperienced ones don’t know how to enter the industry, or get scared away after a few days; the several project teams under him wail every day about being short-handed, so they are exactly lacking some obedient, clear-eyed interns who don’t know the sinister nature of society.

Lu Lu indeed became joyfully happy with very clear naivety. “It doesn’t matter even if the major doesn’t match? Then I’ll ask them.”

“When the time comes, you just follow me. Be my personal close-fitting little secretary²“贴身” means right next to the body or intimate. While it can just mean a personal aide, Xie Zheng heavily leans into the double-entendre to tease Lu Lu with the trope of the naughty office secretary.… Do you know what a personal secretary means?” Xie Zheng teased the kid, “When the boss wants to kiss, you have to feed your tongue over, when the boss has needs, you have to take off your pants…”

Xie Zheng was originally just joking, but his mind couldn’t help but fantasize about Lu Lu being ordered around by him. His breathing suddenly grew heavier, causing his waist to sway a few times along with it.

He took deep breaths, pressing his face against the ice-cold window to cool down. The fingers pressing on the windowsill turned white from exertion, yet his waist was sinking downward.

In the rainy light, his solid body appeared very alluring and also very well-behaved.

Lu Lu’s breathing grew somewhat heavy. He suddenly increased his force, earning a low curse from Xie Zheng. “You f*cking…”

Lu Lu gently kissed Xie Zheng on the shoulder.

Do you miss me?

I missed you.

Do you like me?

…

On the way to the company, Lu Lu relayed Xie Zheng’s words to the classmates who came with him.

By the time they got out of the car, his several classmates were already waiting at the bottom of the building.

There were a total of three people who came to Chen’an with Lu Lu. Xie Zheng had some impression of one of them, Cui Songbai, who was Lu Lu’s roommate. In addition, there was one Beta and one Omega, whose personalities both seemed pretty good, cheerful and honest.

The few kids were all quite excited, expressing their gratitude to Xie Zheng clumsily and exaggeratedly.

Xie Zheng smiled faintly. “No need.”

Who comes out to work and doesn’t end up hating the boss—who knows if when the summer vacation ends, these few kids will still be this grateful to him.

The 14th and 15th floors of the building were both Xie Zheng’s place. While going up the elevator, Cui Songbai nudged Lu Lu with his elbow. “You kid, you’re quite something, you kid! Amazing!”

Finance registered the few kids and bundled them off to the projects. Lu Lu, on the other hand, came directly to Xie Zheng’s office, led by an assistant to help Xie Zheng handle some daily trivial matters.

Over the whole day, Xie Zheng held several meetings back-to-back, lost his temper slightly twice, and also met with a business partner.

Xie Zheng had long been accustomed to high-pressure work, and Lu Lu was actually able to keep up. Relaying messages, handling emails, and taking memos—compared to the assistants Xie Zheng was long used to, he wasn’t much worse.

At dinner time, he finally had some free time. Xie Zheng pressed his temples and rested his eyes for a few minutes. As soon as he opened his eyes, he saw Lu Lu sitting to the side, looking at him with curving, smiling eyes.

“What’s wrong?”

Lu Lu’s face was full of good mood. “Uncle Xie, you look very handsome when you’re working.”

Xie Zheng scoffed. “Your husband has always been very handsome.”

The smile on Lu Lu’s face expanded a bit more.

Xie Zheng’s state when working was completely different from his daily life, very handsome and majestic. The employees were all very afraid of Xie Zheng; Lu Lu wasn’t afraid, but rather happy.

Xie Zheng couldn’t quite handle Lu Lu’s well-behaved yet playful smile like this. He hooked his finger at him and tapped his own lips.

Lu Lu knew what Xie Zheng meant—”When the boss wants to kiss, you have to feed your tongue over.”

He walked towards his boss, propped both hands on the sides of the boss’s office chair, and bent down to kiss the boss.

The boss’s powerful hand pressed the back of his head, but he suddenly grabbed his collar and pulled him a distance away.

Lu Lu was stunned for a moment, and looking at Xie Zheng again, he was slightly frowning.

“Stomach ache again?”

Xie Zheng nodded almost imperceptibly.

Lu Lu reached out and rubbed in circles for Xie Zheng a few times. “You’re hungry, right? I just heated up some food in the microwave. Do you want to have a few bites to pad your stomach first?”

Xie Zheng didn’t answer immediately. After staying silent like this for about half a minute, his brows relaxed and his complexion also looked a bit better. Lu Lu guessed that the bout of pain must have passed.

Lu Lu said, “Did you go to the hospital for a checkup? Do you want to go get it looked at?”

Calling it a stomach ache, it was actually more like something twisting his internal organs together—not exactly painful, but not comfortable either. Every time, the duration was very short and it hadn’t reached the point of affecting his life. Precisely because of this, Xie Zheng couldn’t be bothered to make a special trip to the hospital, just waiting to casually get it checked during his medical exam in a couple of days.

Xie Zheng shook his head. Before he could speak, the phone placed face-down on the desk rang.

Xie Zheng picked it up and saw the caller: Meng Haiying.

“Mom.”

“Are you free this weekend? Your dad caught a lot of fish at the reservoir.” Mrs. Meng’s voice sounded full of zest. “I said we would invite Xiao Li and the others over then to taste my cooking.”

She paused, then added, “There’s also Lao Xu and his family. Mom has already made arrangements with them, so you really must come back then, okay?”

Xie Zheng understood. Meng Haiying was setting up another blind date for him. His originally fairly relaxed mood took a massive nosedive. “…”

He said indifferently, “We will see when the time comes.”

“When the time comes, until what time? In a few more months you will be thirty-two. How can you let people feel at ease like this? Or is it to say—”

Meng Haiying asked, “Do you still like Alphas? Xie Zheng?”

Xie Zheng paused and laughed. “Nothing of the sort.”

“That’s good. Don’t forget how miserable you were back then. Seeing it, even I, as a mother, felt my heart ache.”

“Let’s stop talking for now.”

Hanging up the phone, Xie Zheng’s stomach, which had just relaxed, started twitching again. He subconsciously reached out to feel for a cigarette, and saw Lu Lu looking at him with a concerned gaze.

—

Xie Zheng’s Diary

[Twelve years ago]

Presented as an Alpha… hurt me to death.

Found a puppy, I plan to name it Mi Tuan.

• 1
  A “wolf” is common slang for a pervert or sexual predator. Lu Lu is actively protecting Xie Zheng from sex because of his stomach pains.
• 2
  “贴身” means right next to the body or intimate. While it can just mean a personal aide, Xie Zheng heavily leans into the double-entendre to tease Lu Lu with the trope of the naughty office secretary.