KC | Chapter 65

Anyone who was told something like a confession by the person they liked could not possibly be unhappy, and Chen Xi was no exception.

He made me record his fingerprints, bought towels with little flower dogs and little rabbits, stuffed a drawer full of lubricants… objective evidence would not lie, and neither would a racing heartbeat. It was my nerves that were too fragile, too lacking in security, and I had to make him say it.

What was there to be coy about when two grown men were dating? It was a bit too pretentious to cling to him and demand a definite answer.

Better not ask.

Chen Xi lowered his head, his eyelashes fluttering fluttering, and he did not say anything the whole time. If Lin Yiran touched his chest at this moment, he would know that his heartbeat was no slower than his own.

After the high fever, Chen Xi’s body was like a lump of lead, heavy and powerless. When he had just argued with Lin Yiran, his emotions had been too intense and had drained all his strength. At this moment, his tired body’s defense system could not resist the raging fire. Everywhere on his body was burning, and his limited energy could only barely maintain his thoughts, unable to express his emotions.

Since that voice call on the moonlit night, Lin Yiran had never been stingy with expressing feelings. The way he expressed himself had always been direct, while Chen Xi had always been awkward and fidgety. If he had not repeatedly confirmed Chen Xi’s feelings, Lin Yiran might even have had the illusion that he was the one secretly in love.

Chen Xi still did not speak for a long time, and Lin Yiran thought he was judging whether his words were true, finding it a little amusing.

In all these years, he had rarely told the truth. What he had just said carried not a single bit of falsehood, but Chen Xi did not believe it.

How ironic.

Lin Yiran suddenly remembered that in the past year, whenever he asked Chen Xi about the progress of a client, Chen Xi had always been indifferent and unresponsive. He could not understand why, even though it had clearly been Chen Xi who liked him first, every time it felt like he was the one “warm face pressed against a cold butt.”

Maybe it was because Chen Xi was young and could always stir up his protective instinct.

But I was vanilla, not trying to raise a son! If I could not even get the grass, why should I protect him?

I was busy to death every day, being able to protect myself from being squeezed dry by the client was already a blessing. Why would I still squeeze out the not-so-plentiful time to protect Chen Xi?

Lin Yiran had a scale in his heart, used to measure the value of clients. He would rank clients according to conditions like contract gross profit, number of collaborations, and payment cycle. Low-margin clients who could not be signed in the short term were, in his eyes, completely worthless.

From the moment he decided to “sign” Chen Xi, he had been measuring Chen Xi by profit and loss.

Chen Xi was like an extremely unreliable key client, repeatedly breaking his bottom line. After analyzing his own feelings and not receiving the response he had imagined, Lin Yiran got up, threw away the takeout box that held the dumplings, and put the leftover beef into the fridge.

Lin Yiran had never been the kind of person who threw himself at someone and fawned over them. One reason was overconfidence, thinking he could find someone no matter what they were like; another was a strong sense of pride that did not allow him to lower himself and grovel. So he wanted Chen Xi to take the initiative to untie his pants cord, take the initiative to climb onto his bed, take the initiative to say “I want to do it.”

The fever made his mind very sluggish. After Lin Yiran finished cleaning up the leftovers, Chen Xi only then reacted, he suspected that Brother Lin might be a little unhappy.

“Brother Lin, I’m very happy.” Chen Xi rubbed his heavy eyelids and said weakly, “But I can’t show that I’m too happy, and I even feel a little unsteady on my feet. Maybe I was intimidated by your greasy speech, or more likely, I have a fever again.”

Only then did Lin Yiran realize his abnormality. He half-supported, half-carried him onto the bed, regretting that he had just been stiff and tense, to the point that he wanted to snap the damn scale in half!

I was fucking soaked in the brain before I would argue with a sick person, Chen Xi has a fever!

He had a fever!

When Lin Yiran had socialized this afternoon, he had been worrying about Chen Xi’s physical condition the whole time. He was afraid Chen Xi would feel uncomfortable, so on the way back he specially got off the elevated road early and detoured to the pharmacy to buy fever-reducing patches. When he got home, he had wanted to take good care of Chen Xi, but he had not expected that as they talked, the conversation had gone off course.

KA negotiations had clear goals and were logically organized, but reason could not control emotion. The more someone wanted to control the situation, the more easily they tended to become a slave to love.

–

“A fever is easy to recur, and emotional agitation will make it worse. I was the one who just upset you, that’s my fault.” Lin Yiran took a little rabbit fever-reducing patch and put it on Chen Xi’s forehead.

Chen Xi’s face was pale, and under his crystal-clear skin, the dilated capillaries could be seen clearly. Yesterday he had been a completely fevered bright red, today he was a pale white with a faint flush, as if he wanted to burn but did not have the strength to burn. The pink fever-reducing patch paired with the pink cheeks made him look like a cute Hachi, and Lin Yiran’s heart was almost melted.

“From now on, whatever you say is right. If I dare argue with you again, I’m a beast. If you’re still not relieved, then after your fever goes down, you can beat me up once, okay?”

Chen Xi leaned against the bed, his voice very light. “I’m not angry, you don’t need to coax me.” You were a beast to begin with.

Lin Yiran heard that tone and it did not sound like he was not angry, instead it sounded like he was angry and did not want to talk to him.

How could that do, I had to coax him properly!

That shameless scoundrel’s coaxing dirty talk came out as soon as he opened his mouth: “I’ve been secretly in love with you for a long time, but you’ve been so cold to me. In order to get close to you, I deliberately planned that night. I wanted to cook the raw rice into cooked rice, so I inlaid diamonds into my brother, although the method was a little aggressive, it successfully drew your attention. Baby, everything you said was right, this whole thing was my fault. I should not have, I must not have argued with you, although we didn’t really argue, it was just you scolding me one-sidedly…”

Chen Xi made a “stop” gesture, covering his mouth and frowning, feeling a little like throwing up.

Lin Yiran observed his expression and pretended to be shocked. “Oh my god, adding it up, this has to have been two months already! It was my diamond-inlaid brother’s momentary carelessness, I apologize to you on its behalf, just say what you want, and it will definitely be done!”

Chen Xi: …

“Can you be a little normal? I said I’m not angry, then I’m not angry. You don’t need to use the stuff you use to coax little girls on me, a man doesn’t eat that.”

“I’m not a disabled person, I have hands and feet and can make money, I won’t ask you for money or things.”

“Also, do you know that the way you speak is really greasy, and you have an especially strong daddy vibe.”

Lin Yiran was left speechless by this deadly triple hit.

Fine, the sick person came first, I won’t argue back, whatever you say is whatever it is.

Although Lin Yiran had thought that he could not let Chen Xi get angry, his rotten mouth was still fast and cheap: “I don’t mind if you call me daddy.”

Chen Xi: …

“Get lost!” Although Chen Xi said it rather fiercely, he did not look angry.

“Oh.” Seeing Chen Xi’s anger fade, Lin Dog quickly got lost.

–

Chen Xi closed his eyes to rest, and after only a short while, he fell asleep.

Lin Yiran returned to the study to deal with the piled-up CASES, his back straight and his gaze focused and deep, with not even a trace of the dog-like act from just now.

The study at night was quiet and solemn. Light spilled over the wooden desktop, and Lin Yiran’s fingers tapped quickly on the keyboard, pausing from time to time as if thinking, processing the client issues quickly and efficiently.

At 20:00 the alarm rang, and Lin Yiran got up to go to the bedroom to look at Chen Xi.

Chen Xi seemed to be asleep, but his head was still leaning against the wall, not lying flat. Lin Yiran worried he would get a stiff neck, and after laying him flat, he returned to the study again.

At 21:00 the alarm rang again. Lin Yiran gently peeled off Chen Xi’s fever-reducing patch, tucked the blanket around him, and quietly walked out of the bedroom.

At 22:00 Chen Xi’s fever went down.

At 23:00 Lin Yiran took off his outer clothes and pants, and quietly climbed into bed. Seeing that Chen Xi was sleeping soundly, he secretly kissed his face.

In the middle of the night, Chen Xi got up in a daze and asked, “What time is it?”

Lin Yiran was woken by him and glanced at the time, 2:30.

“It’s still early, sleep a bit more.”

Chen Xi said, “I want to drink water.”

Lin Yiran handed him the water cup from the bedside.

Chen Xi said, “I was fine during the day today, but by night I couldn’t make it. Last time when I got covid it was the same, fine during the day and burning up at night. I was born with a worker’s命.”

Lin Yiran rubbed his eyes to wake himself up and said, “That’s because you worked during the day and did not notice that you were forcing yourself to hold on. When you got home at night and suddenly relaxed, you found out that you had a fever. Don’t go to work tomorrow, rest properly.”

“That won’t do.” Chen Xi said unhappily, “The Pinnacle project execution has a week’s worth of piled-up work, all of it has to be handled tomorrow.”

“We’ll see how it is tomorrow morning.” Lin Yiran knew that if he directly refused, Chen Xi would definitely keep talking, so he simply cut off the topic.

Chen Xi had slept a lot during the day, and he had fallen asleep early just now, so after waking up he was a little unable to fall back asleep, flipping back and forth on the bed. Lin Yiran dragged him into his arms and told him, “Behave.”

“Don’t hold me, isn’t it hot?”

Lin Yiran let go, and Chen Xi started turning over like a salted fish again.

On the bed, two people, holding each other, Lin Yiran had never thought that when these words were put together, what happened would not be some kind of sport, but staring at the ceiling.

The two of them had spent two consecutive days under the same blanket and had not done what they should have done.

Was I a nut in the head or crazy?

Lin Yiran got out of bed, and a moment later came back with a cup of hot milk: “Drink some, it’ll help you sleep, it’s sweet.”

Chen Xi gulped down the milk. The way he drank milk was very obedient, with milk foam hanging from the corner of his lips.

Lin Yiran wanted to taste the sweet milk, so he kissed him.

It was not a dragonfly skimming the water, nor was it tongues entangled, just a very light kiss, transmitting the sweetness of the milk, the warmth of the mouth, and the scorching breath.

–

Moonlight, like water, wound around the tip of the tongue, the gentle silver white purified the impurities, leaving only purity.

Under high pressure I was very tired, but I did not mind him making me even more tired; I wanted sex and fast food, but was willing to be good to him unconditionally, respect him, and give him enough time to think; seeing him sad would make me ache, seeing him sick would make me sad, seeing him angry I could lower my pride…

Why did I stop Shen Yuesheng’s car, why did I give Chen Xi a response, why did I let him toss me around?

Because I liked him.

I really did have a problem in my head, and I really was crazy, to actually like a homosexual ten years younger than me.

I liked Chen Xi.

The tender, lingering kiss, like two winding streams merging together, had no fiery passion or earth-shaking force, and no argument or logic.

Just like when I was hungry I needed to eat, when I was thirsty I needed to drink, I wanted to kiss you tonight.

Their bodies leaned against each other until the moonlight gradually faded.

Everything that happened was so natural, so natural that Lin Yiran, without thinking, blurted out:

“You said you had been chasing after me all along, actually I had also been paying attention to you all along. I know that I’m not some good person, maybe the only contribution I’ve made to the advertising industry these years was not teaching you crookedly.”

“I really have never done anything with men before, and now or in the future, I also won’t have relations with any other same-sex person besides you. Ah no, I mean during the time we’re dating, I won’t have relations with anyone else.”

“Chen Xi, I like you.”