TT Chapter 45. I’m Still Young

Since Pei Yiyao insisted on being jealous, there was nothing Chen Ting could do. In the end, he had no choice but to abandon Yang Shulin and elope with him once again. Their destination this time was the internet café next door to the café. They booked a small private room and played games together.

Once they were in a net café, the obvious choice was the most popular game of the moment. Battle royale. Chen Ting, a player who could turn Assassin’s Creed into QQ Farm, was an expert at clinging to strong teammates and riding on coattails. He stuck close to Pei Yiyao and scavenged supplies the whole way through.

Pei Yiyao did the killing. He did the looting. But the kill orders usually came from him.

After half a day of playing, he felt completely refreshed. During the session, he even ordered some fruit and milk tea for delivery.

Chen Ting was a good boyfriend. He would never eat alone. Even with his own mouth full, he made sure to feed a piece to the hardworking Pei Yiyao. “Here.”

Pei Yiyao looked at his fingers, which were still stained with tomato sauce, and bit down.

“Hey!” Chen Ting quickly pulled his hand back, refusing to give him another chance.

Pei Yiyao calmly chewed up the cherry tomato. Out of the corner of his eye, he caught a glimpse of a head peeking out in the upper right corner of the screen. He shifted his aim slightly and landed a clean headshot.

Chen Ting leaned over to see what the enemy had dropped. After a glance, he scoffed. “So poor.”

“I’ll get you a rich one,” Pei Yiyao said. He immediately turned his gun in a new direction and launched into another brutal round of slaughter.

Meanwhile, over at the group date, Yang Shulin’s gathering had finally wrapped up. He sent a message to Chen Ting. Out of roommate solidarity, Chen Ting asked how it went. Yang Shulin replied—

Forget a girlfriend. I think I’ve already transcended the mortal world. But I did bring you a few new CP fans.

Donghu Crab King: …Thanks a lot.

“It’s Yang Shulin again,” Pei Yiyao muttered, narrowing his eyes at the screen.

“Are you seriously still jealous?” Chen Ting laughed helplessly. The way Pei Yiyao could get jealous anytime and for any reason was truly impressive. Honestly, he should have gone into automation.

Pei Yiyao did not answer. He simply raised an eyebrow and stared at Chen Ting until he had nowhere left to hide.

Chen Ting leaned in and gave him a kiss. “Happy now?”

Pei Yiyao kept a straight face. “No.”

“Then…” Chen Ting furrowed his brow as if giving it serious thought. Then he tilted his head and rested it on Pei Yiyao’s shoulder. “What about now?”

“…Barely acceptable.” Pei Yiyao lifted his arm and wrapped it tightly around him, locking him in place.

Chen Ting gave up on resisting. Private rooms were a wonderful thing. There were very few corners on campus this well-hidden. If he wanted to cuddle, so be it.

As long as he kept his hands to himself.

“What are you doing? Let go of me!”

“I’m young.” Pei Yiyao paused, then added, “And full of hormones.”

Chen Ting was shocked, embarrassed, and furious all at once. He could not believe his boyfriend was getting more shameless by the day. In a panic, he kicked the power cord out of the socket.

The screen went black. Pei Yiyao finally settled down. He held Chen Ting on his lap, unmoving, for quite some time.

On the other side of the internet café was a motel.

Chen Ting knew that once a freshly awakened young man got a taste of the real thing, he could be as ravenous as a wolf. But he did not want to be the talk of the entire school forum the next day. In the end, he chose the coward’s path and played dead.

Pei Yiyao held him for a long time before finally letting go. But even then, the look in his eyes still made Chen Ting’s knees go weak.

Even though Aunt Ruan already knew about their relationship, Chen Ting had no plans to go home with him just yet. He was not ready for that mentally. Still, when he really thought about it, aside from those two days before the semester started, they had not had much intimate time together at all. Even the night they shared a bed at Disneyland, Pei Yiyao had held back because he knew Chen Ting was too tired.

He sneaked a glance at Pei Yiyao. Right now, he had already gone back to looking like his usual self. No—that was not quite right. He always looked like that: stoic and composed, as if even in bed he belonged to some ascetic school of restraint.

Of course, that only applied to his face.

God, what was he even thinking?

Chen Ting grabbed his head and shook it hard, trying to fling out all the smut that had invaded his brain. Pei Yiyao paused while packing and looked at him.

Ting Ting was acting a little strange today.

That blush did not look normal.

Kind of adorable.

That night, Chen Ting lay on his dorm bed, still replaying the events of the day in his head. He tossed and turned, unable to sleep. He began questioning why he was becoming less and less pure. Glancing to the side, he noticed Yang Shulin rolling around in bed too, and felt a little comforted.

If the choice was between being impure and being a single dog, then maybe impurity was the better deal.

Unable to help himself, he quietly opened his phone and started looking up hotels in the suburbs. Children’s Day was coming up, after all. They could pick a spot with nice scenery and celebrate the holiday together.

Which one should he book?

Should he go for the romantic queen room or the carved-wood king room? Both looked great. The decor was nice, the surroundings were beautiful, and there was even a mountain trail nearby…

Ding. You have a new message.

Pei Yiyao: Gao Duo lost the bet. You don’t have to work next week.

Chen Ting blinked for a second, then quickly remembered that basketball match Pei Yiyao had played with Gao Duo. Since Gao Duo lost, he had given Chen Ting a paid vacation.

Looked like Pei Yiyao had pulled the same trick again.

Donghu Crab King: Isn’t it bad to keep skipping shifts?

Pei Yiyao: A bet is a bet.

Donghu Crab King: But I wasn’t the one betting. I can still go to work. Or maybe I’ll just head to the library and get some reading done.

Pei Yiyao: No reading.

Donghu Crab King: Then what are we doing?

Pei Yiyao: Just look at me.

Pei Yiyao: I’m taking you out.

Donghu Crab King: Let me think about it.

Chen Ting was giggling under the covers, his messy hair poking up at odd angles, a clear sign of his good mood.

Meanwhile, Pei Yiyao was staring at his phone so intensely it was as if he could burn a hole through the screen. Chen Ting was a tough one to figure out, but somehow, Pei Yiyao found the challenge enjoyable.

After a long while without a reply, Pei Yiyao frowned slightly and tapped out a video call.

Chen Ting had just started typing when the incoming video request startled him. Out of reflex, he accepted the call without thinking. They had video called so many times by now that it had become second nature.

“What are you doing?” he whispered, barely audible, worried that his roommates might hear.

The lights were already out. Chen Ting was lying on his side facing the wall. With the camera on, his big face now filled two-thirds of the screen in grainy resolution. Pei Yiyao studied every inch of it before calmly asking, “So what’s your answer?”

Chen Ting glanced back at his roommates. No one seemed to notice. He whispered again, “Fine, I’ll go. But why are you video calling me?”

“To look at you,” Pei Yiyao replied simply.

You’re being so clingy.

Just then, there was a noise from Jiang Hai’s side of the room. Chen Ting tensed up. It wasn’t that he was shy. He usually talked with Pei Yiyao on the phone in the dorm without a problem. But the lights were off now. This level of clinginess in the dark felt like a bit much.

“I’m hanging up,” he muttered, then coldly ended the call. His big face vanished from the screen in an instant.

Pei Yiyao silently laughed and opened Taobao to order a giant box of liquor-filled chocolates.

Soon, the date they had set arrived. Pei Yiyao had planned a two-day, one-night trip: a countryside bed-and-breakfast with a rural leisure vibe. For Chen Ting, who had grown up near the water, the idea of “country living” didn’t hold much appeal. But the scenery was quiet and beautiful, and just spending time alone with Pei Yiyao, without any interruptions, made it worth it.

So he packed a bag and hopped into Pei Yiyao’s car.

N City was mountainous, but most of its peaks were graceful rather than grand, lacking majesty but full of delicate charm.

The place Pei Yiyao had picked was nestled at the foot of a small hill. It wasn’t too remote, surrounded by mountains and water. The local guesthouses were built in the style of private Jiangnan courtyards, and the scenery was stunning.

Of course, the room Pei Yiyao had booked was a carved-wood king room facing the lush green mountain.

Chen Ting circled the bed, reached out to touch the sheer canopy, and said, “This bed looks exactly like my grandma’s.”

Pei Yiyao said nothing.

“Uh, well, maybe not exactly. The carvings are different, and I think the color’s a little off too.”

“This one is new.”

“New? Wow, they really did a great job making it look old. It looks like it’s been around for decades. But I guess the design is pretty simple. Look, there’s even a pair of mandarin ducks carved up here. Wait… don’t tell me this is a couple’s room—hey!”

Chen Ting was still rambling as he traced the bedposts with his hand when Pei Yiyao suddenly pushed him down onto the bed. The shift in atmosphere hit him instantly. He knew something was off and quickly pressed his hands against Pei Yiyao’s shoulders. “Pei Yiyao…”

“Shh.” Pei Yiyao raised a finger to his lips. His deep eyes fixed on Chen Ting, a barely contained intensity surging from within. The look in them was enough to make Chen Ting shiver—a charge like electricity ran from the base of his spine to the top of his head, laced with a thread of unmistakable excitement.

His face flushed again, red as a boiled crab.

To Pei Yiyao, that flush was a kind of invitation. He leaned in, closer and closer. The force of his presence, laced with sharp hormones and heat, flooded straight into Chen Ting’s brain.

But just as their lips were about to meet, Pei Yiyao stopped. His breath scorched against Chen Ting’s ear as he whispered, “Can I?”

Chen Ting was both furious and flustered. His heart was pounding wildly. “Do I get to decide just because you asked?”

“I’ll do whatever you say.” Pei Yiyao’s voice was low, and the desire in his eyes was even more naked now, just as domineering and self-willed as ever.

Chen Ting had not even answered before the kiss landed. It brushed across his lips, his ear, setting fire wherever it passed.

“Is this alright, Ting Ting?”

Chen Ting wanted to kick him off the bed, but his heart was already racing too fast to hide. In the end, he gave up and let it happen, though he still doubted Pei Yiyao’s claim that the bed was new. If it really was, then why did it creak so much?

The sound was loud enough to make him too embarrassed to say anything. It was mortifying.

And somehow, Pei Yiyao actually liked that kind of setting. Of course he did. That was just how men were.

The next day, since Chen Ting’s body was “not in top condition,” the two of them stayed close to the guesthouse. Chen Ting noticed a modest fish pond about a hundred meters away and, on a whim, asked the owner for a couple of rods and a bucket.

Fishing required both skill and patience, but fortunately, both Chen Ting and Pei Yiyao had plenty of patience to spare. They sat side by side, one rod each, chatting idly in between stretches of silence, waiting as the afternoon sun slowly dipped westward. There was a quiet charm to it, a kind of peace that was hard to come by.

Once night fell, the mischief began all over again.

Being far from the city meant there were no distractions, no one to worry about. The next day, they could not even be bothered to go fishing.

Chen Ting made a weak attempt to protect his purity. He struggled to get out of bed, claiming he needed a walk. But Pei Yiyao simply reached out with one arm and pulled him right back in, locking him so tightly in his embrace that he could not move at all.

“Just stay a little longer.”

“I’m going to break.”

“I’ll take care of you.”

Chen Ting shifted a bit and, after a moment, decided to trust him one more time.

Just then, Pei Yiyao’s phone rang. He picked it up and checked the screen. It was his mom.

As soon as he answered, he heard the news. Chen Ting’s mom had arrived in N City.