TA •Chapter 70

This kiss would be different somehow, but Cheng Ke himself did not know what exactly. He only knew that he badly wanted to kiss Jiang Yuduo, not the kind of touch and go, a quick brush, a perfunctory dab.

He wanted a kiss that stormed the walls, passionate as fire, sweeping everything away, fierce as a fight, the kind that left him breathless, a kiss he had never felt before.

Jiang Yuduo’s lips were a little cool, but his breath was hot.

Once that warm breath brushed Cheng Ke’s face, he lost all reason. The last shred of sense that had fluttered away with a wave made him feel like a suddenly unleashed one-armed lecher.

He dragged Jiang Yuduo into the room, slammed him against the wall, then hauled him into the living room, knocking over a chair and bumping into the table. After all that, the world seemed blank, nothing was clear, and all he could hear was his own ragged breathing. In the chaos, he could not even tell whether Jiang Yuduo had responded.

It was incredibly satisfying, except his right hand was in a cast and couldn’t help, and Jiang Yuduo kept holding that hand the entire time.

Still, he had one left hand, and that left hand was doing its job very conscientiously.

Touching, rubbing, and groping all the way, until at last it landed on Jiang Yuduo’s ass.

Jiang Yuduo paused, then raised an arm and directly flipped him onto the sofa.

It was only when Cat leaped down from the back of the sofa, stepped on his face, and bounded off that Cheng Ke finally came back to his senses a little.

He had grabbed Third Brother’s ass.

Grabbed Third Brother’s ass while still not even knowing what he himself was thinking or wanting.

He was probably about to get hit by reflex.

But Jiang Yuduo did not hit him. After standing beside the sofa for one second, he pounced.

Cheng Ke figured Jiang Yuduo must have used fight experience. His right hand in the cast was pinned above his head by Jiang Yuduo, then Jiang Yuduo straddled him and pressed a knee straight down on his left wrist.

"Did you fucking bite me?" Jiang Yuduo was a little out of breath. Riding him, he looked down and asked.

"No idea," Cheng Ke was breathing hard too. "I thought I’d already ripped you apart."

Jiang Yuduo panted for a while, then suddenly lowered his head and kissed him.

For a moment, Cheng Ke thought Third Brother was going to smash his forehead into his nose.

Then his mind was left with only four words.

A storm of wind and rain.

How long they had kissed, and how they had kissed.

What else he had thought about.

Who knew.

When Jiang Yuduo let him go and straightened up, Cheng Ke heard his phone ringing.

Neither of them moved or spoke.

All Cheng Ke felt was a buzzing in his ears.

At last, the phone stopped ringing.

"Why did it stop?" Cheng Ke looked at Jiang Yuduo. Because he was still unsteady, his voice sounded a little floaty.

"What?" Jiang Yuduo asked. "The phone? It stopped on its own because you didn’t answer it."

"You fucking turned into Chen Qing or something!" Cheng Ke was utterly speechless. "I asked you why it stopped!"

Jiang Yuduo froze. He did not answer.

"What’s wrong?" Cheng Ke struggled to pull his hand out from under Jiang Yuduo’s knee and lightly patted his face. "Hm?"

"Nothing." Jiang Yuduo’s voice was muffled.

After a little while, he suddenly pounced downward and lay on top of Cheng Ke without moving, his face buried in the crook of Cheng Ke’s shoulder.

"…Fuck." Cheng Ke held his breath. Jiang Yuduo’s sudden weight nearly knocked the air out of him.

Jiang Yuduo still did not move or make a sound, just kept his head buried there.

Cheng Ke could feel his warm breath against his neck. He reached up and rubbed his back again. "It’s fine, this was just… impulse."

"No." Jiang Yuduo said into his shoulder.

"You… got hard, didn’t you?" Cheng Ke could feel something. In the middle of such an excited, heated moment, he really did not know why he wanted to laugh a little.

"Aren’t you the same?" Jiang Yuduo was still muffled.

"Yeah," Cheng Ke slid his hand under Jiang Yuduo’s shirt and rubbed his back. He could feel several raised scars on that smooth skin. "But I didn’t stop either."

"That’s not why." Jiang Yuduo said.

"Then what is it?" Cheng Ke asked. "Scared by the phone ring?"

"You’re the one who’d get scared by a phone ring," Jiang Yuduo clicked his tongue. After a pause, he let out a sigh. "I just… didn’t know what to do anymore."

"What?" Cheng Ke was stunned for two seconds, then suddenly could not quite control the urge to laugh. He gritted his teeth to hold it in and gently shoved Jiang Yuduo.

Jiang Yuduo turned his face, brows knotting. "It’s not that I didn’t know what to do. I knew what to do… it’s just, anyway… not very familiar."

"I get it, I get it." Cheng Ke rubbed his back.

"What do you get?" Jiang Yuduo propped himself up on an arm and looked at him.

"…I was just talking casually." Cheng Ke said. His brain was not working all that well right now, and he really had not understood what Jiang Yuduo meant.

Jiang Yuduo got up, pushed his legs inward a little, sat down on the sofa, and lit a cigarette.

Cheng Ke tugged on his sleeve and used a little force to sit up too, leaning against the armrest. "Did you sit on the spot where Cat took a dump?"

"I’m not used to it either…" Jiang Yuduo held the cigarette between his lips and thought for a long time. At last, as if making up his mind, he clenched his jaw and turned to look at him. "I guess I was thinking about what came next, and then I suddenly didn’t know what to do."

Cheng Ke said nothing. It took a long while before he finally reacted to what Jiang Yuduo meant.

Jiang Yuduo held the cigarette in his mouth, and because the smoke drifted upward, he narrowed his eyes. He looked all arrogant and swaggering, and Cheng Ke really could not connect that expression with what he was trying to say.

"So it’s not that you didn’t know what to do," Cheng Ke said. "You didn’t know how to do it."

"…Fuck off." Jiang Yuduo glared at him and turned his head away.

Cheng Ke thought that in a situation like this, where the passion had been cut off abruptly but still lingered and should really be savored a little longer, if he suddenly broke into uncontrollable laughter, it would be extremely ruining, a complete mood killer.

But he still could not hold it in.

He turned his head and laughed into the back of the sofa, unable to control himself.

Jiang Yuduo looked back at him. After staring for several seconds, he cursed, "Fuck!"

After Cheng Ke laughed himself out, he felt like he had no thoughts left at all. The passion and excitement from before had been swept clean away, and his mind was empty.

Jiang Yuduo went into the bathroom to wash his face. When he came back out, he still looked pissed off.

"I’m a little hungry," Cheng Ke said. "Is there still dinner to eat at this hour?"

Jiang Yuduo gave him a side-eye. "Go eat shit."

Cheng Ke’s crazy laughter, which had already settled down, immediately flared back to life from the ashes. He hugged Cat, laughed again for a long time, and did not even know what kind of medicine he had taken wrong.

"I’ll let it slide today because it’s your birthday," Jiang Yuduo pointed at him. "And because you’re hurt."

"Otherwise what?" Cheng Ke asked with a smile.

"I’d hit you." Jiang Yuduo took his jacket and put it on. "Come on, let’s go eat dinner."

"Is there even anywhere open now?" Cheng Ke looked at his phone. It was already three o’clock.

"Yes," Jiang Yuduo said. "But I’m not taking you to find it, you definitely won’t be able to."

"Then let’s go." Cheng Ke set Cat down and stood up.

Life as an injured patient had brought back a little of his old young-master feeling. As soon as he reached out, the jacket came over.

But that fleeting thought made him feel a little annoyed.

"Will Chen Qing come looking for you tomorrow?" Cheng Ke asked after they left the house.

"He will." Jiang Yuduo sighed. "You… don’t need to care what he thinks. No matter what he thinks, he won’t do anything to you."

"He probably won’t be able to accept it," Cheng Ke said. "How are you planning to tell him?"

"Don’t worry about it," Jiang Yuduo said. "Me and Chen Qing, there’s nothing we can’t sort out. If we really can’t, one beating and he’ll be convinced."

"Actually, you don’t necessarily have to say you’re my…" Cheng Ke hesitated.

"I know what you mean," Jiang Yuduo interrupted him. "I’ll think it through. I just… need to figure out what kind of liking it is when I like you."

"Mm." Cheng Ke smiled.

Jiang Yuduo took him through several alleys, turning east and west until they reached a tiny street Cheng Ke had never walked down before.

Its style was about the same as the little street where Jiang Yuduo lived, except that a few small storefronts along the road were still open.

"Did the barbecue places close by now too?" Cheng Ke asked. "What kind of shop is this?"

"A barbecue place." Jiang Yuduo said.

Cheng Ke froze, then burst out laughing again.

Jiang Yuduo frowned at him. "Did Cheng Yi hit you on the head today?"

"He didn’t even get the chance to make a move." Cheng Ke said between laughs.

"You’re twenty-eight, Young Master," Jiang Yuduo said. "And you laugh like an idiot."

"None of your business." Cheng Ke said.

"Go in." Jiang Yuduo shoved him toward a small shop beside them.

The shop was tiny. Four small tables filled it up. At the table farther inside sat a young couple, speaking softly while eating barbecue.

The two of them sat down by the table near the door. The boss was a young man with a big beard. He brought over a pot of tea and greeted Jiang Yuduo, "Third Brother."

"Just grill me something random," Jiang Yuduo said. "And bring two bottles of alcohol."

"Sure thing." The bearded man answered.

After he walked off, Jiang Yuduo asked quietly, "Who called you just now?"

Only then did Cheng Ke remember that his phone had rung earlier.

"Don’t know. This late at night," he took out his phone and glanced at it. Frowning, he saw two missed calls, one from Cheng Yi and one from Liu Tiancheng. He put the phone back in his pocket. "Ignore it."

"Cheng Yi?" Jiang Yuduo asked.

"Yeah, probably dragged someone out to drink," Cheng Ke said. "Then he’ll complain a bit and call to make up. My old friends would follow along and come over to talk me into it, saying I wronged Cheng Yi or something."

"What a pain." Jiang Yuduo clicked his tongue.

"I guess I’m used to it," Cheng Ke said. Then he looked at Jiang Yuduo. "The shop I told you about today, do you want to go see it?"

"What would I be looking at that for?" Jiang Yuduo took the bottle the老板 handed over, twisted off the cap, drank a mouthful, and then passed it to him.

"I’ll drink later, I can’t drink on an empty stomach," Cheng Ke took the bottle and set it on the table. "That place is a bar, more of a quiet lounge. With Cheng Yi’s hand in it, it should be pretty good. Do you… have any interest in it…"

"No." Jiang Yuduo answered flatly.

"Are you afraid you don’t have experience?" Cheng Ke asked. "You can learn slowly. If you want to do something, that shop is better than your carpentry thing, right?"

"Is my carpentry work that bad?" Jiang Yuduo smiled a little.

"Very good." Cheng Ke said.

"Don’t keep that shop," Jiang Yuduo said. "This whole thing is making Cheng Yi lose face. As long as you don’t sell the shop, he won’t let you have any peace."

Cheng Ke said nothing. Jiang Yuduo sometimes thought quite a lot.

"Don’t have any more dealings with him." Jiang Yuduo said.

Cheng Ke hesitated for a while, then nodded. "Okay."

After they finished the barbecue and drank the alcohol, Cheng Ke felt like the sky had almost brightened by the time they walked out of the shop.

"Sleepy?" Jiang Yuduo asked.

"As long as I close my eyes," Cheng Ke put an arm around his shoulder, "I could drop dead asleep on the spot."

Jiang Yuduo glanced behind him, then wrapped one arm around his waist, very lightly.

But he did not seem steady about it. His hand moved upward for a while, as if that was not appropriate, then slid down a bit, then shifted upward again.

"Stop groping randomly, can’t you pick a proper place?" Cheng Ke asked.

Jiang Yuduo let out a sigh, tightened his arm, and did not move his hand anymore.

When they got home, Cheng Ke went to the back courtyard again. The lamp Jiang Yuduo had made was still lit, and the yard was washed in a warm yellow glow, looking several degrees warmer than outside.

"This lamp could be hung in the bedroom," Cheng Ke said. "My room, actually. I think the wall lamp in there feels uncomfortable to use, it could be replaced with this."

"You don’t need to give me that much face," Jiang Yuduo said with a smile. "Wouldn’t it look awful hanging there?"

"It wouldn’t be ugly." Cheng Ke said.

"Suit yourself. But it still needs some tung oil, there wasn’t enough time today," Jiang Yuduo walked over to the lamp and lightly flicked it with his fingers. The lamp spun, and all kinds of different light spots and shadows swayed across the courtyard. "Should I put a string of colored lights inside it?"

"No! Absolutely not!" Cheng Ke hurriedly said. "Please, I beg you, stick to your current aesthetic."

"Oh." Jiang Yuduo answered.

Cheng Ke yawned. "Let’s sleep. I’m exhausted."

"Mm." Jiang Yuduo came over and stopped in front of him, hesitating for several seconds. "Where am I sleeping?"

Cheng Ke looked at him. "Sleeping in my arms."

"Fuck!" Jiang Yuduo stared at him.

"Come here and hug me." Cheng Ke spread his arms.

"Just two taels of alcohol," Jiang Yuduo still glared at him. "And you’re already like this?"

"Come hug me!" Cheng Ke shouted louder.

"You bastard!" Jiang Yuduo was forced back a step by his shout. "Are you fucking stupid?"

Cheng Ke said nothing. His arms were still open. He did not know what was wrong with him either, whether it was the alcohol or the fight or the kiss or the goodbye to the past, but anyway, even though he was sleepy as hell, he was also a little too excited to control himself.

Jiang Yuduo stared at him twice, then came over and hugged him.

"I’m exhausted," Cheng Ke said, tightening his left arm around him and resting his chin on Jiang Yuduo’s shoulder. He closed his eyes and immediately felt like he could not stand properly anymore.

"Don’t tell me to carry you in," Jiang Yuduo warned at once. "It’s not that I dislike you, I just really don’t dare to carry your height. I’m afraid I’ll drop you."

Cheng Ke laughed. He let go of him, turned and went back inside, washed his face, then entered the bedroom and collapsed onto the bed. "I’m exhausted."

The moment he said that, he felt as if he had lost consciousness. The speed at which he fell asleep made him extremely annoyed, and he did not even have time to wait for Jiang Yuduo to lie down.

When he came to again, it was already broad daylight, but Cheng Ke did not know the exact time.

There was only him on the bed. He did not know whether Jiang Yuduo had already gotten up or, like last time, had not slept at all.

Cheng Ke reached for his phone to check the time, only to find that his right arm did not seem to move very well. He looked down and saw his casted right hand beside the pillow, but it took him about thirty seconds to understand what he was seeing. A rope had been tied around the cast, and the other end of the rope was fastened to the bedpost.

"Jiang Yuduo!" Cheng Ke shouted in shock.

"Heyyyy!" Jiang Yuduo’s voice came from the living room, and then he ran in. "Coming, coming, coming. I’ll untie you."

"What the hell are you doing?" Cheng Ke looked at him, then suddenly his eyes went wide. "Fuck! What did you do!"

"What?" Jiang Yuduo asked as he untied the rope, also glancing at him.

Cheng Ke froze, then suddenly threw off the blanket and looked himself over.

"Fuck your uncle!" Jiang Yuduo reacted, springing up and pointing at him. "Fuck! Cheng Ke, what the hell are you thinking!"

Cheng Ke thought about it and felt a little embarrassed too, but Jiang Yuduo’s reaction made him want to laugh a bit. He held it in for a long time, then finally blurted out, "Can’t you even understand what I meant?"

"Of course I can!" Jiang Yuduo said. "You can understand it just by watching a few clips."

"Oh." Cheng Ke laughed.

"Get up!" Jiang Yuduo said. "Cheng Yi has called three times, and Xu Ding called twice."

Cheng Ke frowned. "What time is it?"

"Almost eleven," Jiang Yuduo said. "Xu Ding called me too."

"What did he say?" Cheng Ke sat up and got out of bed.

"Just asked if I knew why you weren’t answering your phone. I said you were sleeping," Jiang Yuduo said. "Then he hung up. He didn’t say what it was about either."

"What else could it be," Cheng Ke said as he stood up, "the shop sale, of course… they even had to drag Xu Ding into it."

"Xu Ding was the only person from your old circle who’s still willing to help you," Jiang Yuduo said. "Of course he’d get dragged in."

As Cheng Ke was walking toward the bathroom, Jiang Yuduo followed too. "Xu Ding, is he…"

"Hm?" Cheng Ke turned back.

Jiang Yuduo frowned. "If he doesn’t have a problem, then helping you like this is…"

"Are you jealous?" Cheng Ke asked.