KMYB | Chapter 42

Zhou Zeqi took the empty bowl from in front of Xi Shui. Xi Shui looked up and caught sight of Zhou Zeqi's red ears. He pressed his lips together, then belatedly said, "Are you shy?"

Zhou Zeqi gave him a glance and carried the bowl into the kitchen.

Xi Shui followed him. The kitchen door closed right in front of him. He tried to pull it open, but it wouldn't budge. Zhou Zeqi had locked it.

"You, you're shy," Xi Shui said, crouching down behind the door. "Your ears are red."

The kitchen glass had been wiped very clean. It was hot inside too, the temperature still climbing, while the air-conditioning in the living room was strong. The two sides collided, and a thin layer of mist quickly formed on the glass.

Xi Shui used his hand to wipe a small patch of glass clear again and continued, "You don't have to be shy. Is it because of what I said?"

"I should be the one who's embarrassed…"

The door in front of him was suddenly yanked open from inside. Xi Shui jumped in surprise and hurriedly stood up.

"My legs are a little sore," Xi Shui said.

"Because I kept holding your waist before."

"…"

After a moment of silence, Zhou Zeqi bent down and lifted him up in one smooth motion. He laughed softly. "You know that and you still say it?"

Xi Shui was set down on the toilet seat in the bathroom. Still not understanding, he watched Zhou Zeqi pick up a new toothbrush and start squeezing on toothpaste.

"That's your problem."

"What?" Zhou Zeqi didn't hear clearly.

"I said, if you're shy, then that's your problem. I like you, and I like the feeling of sleeping with you, so of course I should tell you. If you insist on being shy, then you'd better learn how to deal with it," Xi Shui said very seriously. "I'll still say it again in the future."

Zhou Zeqi's broken hair fell over his forehead. After squeezing out the toothpaste, he bent down in front of Xi Shui. "Open your mouth."

Xi Shui wanted to say there was no need, that he could brush his own teeth.

Before he could even raise a hand, Zhou Zeqi lifted his hand and pressed it back onto his knee.

Xi Shui could only open his mouth.

Zhou Zeqi's hand cupped his jaw, his expression serious. "Your teeth are really white, really pretty," he said all of a sudden. Xi Shui wanted to nod in agreement, but his jaw was held in place, so he could only look at Zhou Zeqi. The other man then said, "They'd look even prettier if they were holding something."

The soft bristles of the toothbrush brushed lightly across both rows of teeth, then over the tooth surfaces. It accidentally pressed against Xi Shui's tongue. Xi Shui shot Zhou Zeqi an accusing look, still wondering what he meant by holding something.

Zhou Zeqi crouched a little closer, his gaze sweeping downward.

Xi Shui understood immediately.

His face red, Xi Shui raised a hand and punched Zhou Zeqi once.

Zhou Zeqi's muscles were hard as rock. That punch was barely more than a mosquito bite.

After handing him some water to rinse his mouth, Xi Shui spat out the foam and turned back. "How can you say something like that?"

Zhou Zeqi leaned against the sink. "Why can't I? Didn't you just say something like that too?"

"You also said that if you're shy, you have to learn to get over it yourself," Zhou Zeqi leaned in and patted Xi Shui's butt. "Xi Shui, you have to learn to get over it too."

!

Xi Shui had dug the hole himself. He hurriedly washed his face. "I'm going back."

When he reached the door, Zhou Zeqi stopped him around the waist and pulled him back. "Going back to do what?"

"Sleep."

"You can sleep here too."

"…I'm going home to sleep."

Half dragging, half carrying him, Zhou Zeqi took him toward the master bedroom and spoke softly to Xi Shui as he walked. "I'm inviting you to sleep with me tonight."

Zhou Zeqi's bed was much bigger than the one on Xi Shui's side, and much more comfortable to sleep in. Zhou Zeqi had chosen this bed himself, while Xi Shui's side had a single bed that one of Li Wanzhi's friends had bought years ago.

And so Xi Shui half-pushed, half-accepted, and went along with it.

It felt different from the last time they had lain together in a tent.

For some reason, Zhou Zeqi's body temperature was incredibly high. Xi Shui was wearing a shirt and covered with a thin blanket, which was just right, but once Zhou Zeqi wrapped an arm around him from behind, it felt like a little flame had silently pressed against him.

Xi Shui turned in Zhou Zeqi's arms. "You're so hot."

"Your heartbeat is a little faster than mine too." Xi Shui pressed his palm over the place where Zhou Zeqi's heart was beating. His hand was slightly cool, and when it touched him, it felt as if he had been burned.

Zhou Zeqi gave a lazy hum. "Tomorrow's Sunday. Where do you want to go play?"

"Nowhere. I want to make up for the work I missed today. You go have fun," Xi Shui said in a very proper tone.

Zhou Zeqi pulled him up a little higher, one arm around Xi Shui's lower back. "If you're not going, what am I going to do?" It was probably already late at night, and with them lying down, Zhou Zeqi's voice carried a slight nasal sound. It sounded deeper than before, and much more languid.

"Qiqi, I want to raise a cat," Xi Shui suddenly said.

Zhou Zeqi was already used to his jumping train of thought. "If you want one, then raise one."

"…" This time, Xi Shui actually took the initiative and burrowed a little closer into Zhou Zeqi's arms, no longer minding that he was hot. "My dad won't let me keep a cat. You raise it. I'll give you money."

"Didn't you say you were out of money? How are you going to buy a cat?" Zhou Zeqi teased.

"Put it on account for now. I'll pay you back later."

"No need. My money is your money. What kind of cat do you want?"

Xi Shui immediately perked up. He shot up from the bed. "I want a white cat."

The room didn't have a main light, only a row of dim yellow wall lamps glowing from the corner. The whole room was cast in a deep tone that was both warm and vaguely intimate.

"What breed?"

"Anything is fine." The shirt Zhou Zeqi had given Xi Shui was really too big, and since the buttons weren't fully fastened, every time Xi Shui gestured, the collar would slide lower and lower.

"Long-haired, white and plump, with a tail like a mop…"

"Mm." Zhou Zeqi's gaze fell on Xi Shui's smooth shoulder. He wrapped an arm around Xi Shui's waist and pressed him back into his embrace. Xi Shui's gestures were interrupted. When he widened his eyes, he looked just like a delicate kitten caught off guard.

"You want to kiss me," Xi Shui said softly.

Zhou Zeqi said, "I didn't originally have that idea."

"!"

"You really like digging holes for yourself, baby." Zhou Zeqi pressed his lips to Xi Shui's soft ones. Unlike the fierce, storm-like kiss from the afternoon, this one was very gentle. Xi Shui quickly lost himself, gripping Zhou Zeqi's shoulder and making soft little whimpers.

Zhou Zeqi held him and made Xi Shui lie sprawled across his body. Xi Shui looked dazed. "I haven't kissed enough yet."

As soon as he said that, he felt Zhou Zeqi's hand moving down along his waist.

Xi Shui hurriedly scrambled up and lay down beside Zhou Zeqi. "Let's sleep."

Zhou Zeqi pulled him back into his arms again. "No more kissing. If you keep kissing, your butt won't be able to close up."

After saying that, Zhou Zeqi clearly felt the person in his arms stiffen into a block of stone in an instant.

He buried his face in the crook of Xi Shui's neck and laughed muffledly.

Sure enough, after a long ten-plus seconds, Xi Shui struggled hard. "How can you talk like that!"

Zhou Zeqi bit Xi Shui's cheek. "You have to learn how to get over being shy, and make peace with it."

–

The alarm went off exactly at 5:30 in the morning.

The sky outside was just beginning to lighten.

Xi Shui buried his head under the blanket.

Zhou Zeqi opened his eyes, let out a breath, switched off the alarm, and dragged Xi Shui out from under the covers. "Your morning practice should start now. After that, you can sleep again."

Xi Shui wore a bitter face, his hair all tangled. Zhou Zeqi beat him to it and ruffled it for him first.

"You go do your morning practice, I'll go for a run," Zhou Zeqi coaxed him. "I'll buy you durian."

Xi Shui thought that was weird.

Before he started dating, once the time came, he could get out of bed. Even though it was painful and annoying, now that Zhou Zeqi was coaxing him, he felt unexpectedly calm.

He hummed in agreement.

"My butt doesn't hurt anymore," he said again.

Zhou Zeqi, who was looking for clothes in the wardrobe, stiffened. He was holding a set of sportswear and slowly turned around, smiling a little dangerously. "What are you implying?"

Xi Shui understood the look in Zhou Zeqi's eyes. He pulled on his pants from the bedside table and ran.

Zhou Zeqi didn't stop him.

Xi Shui panted all the way home with his backpack in hand. He turned on the air-conditioning, changed into his practice clothes, set a one-and-a-half-hour countdown, and picked a song he liked.

Even though he loved dance, loved ballet,

that didn't mean the whole process was all glory, joy, and enjoyment.

The self-disgust from never meeting the standard in his movements, the negative emotions brought on by controlling his diet, the overly high expectations he placed on himself, every time Xi Shui was in the practice room, standing before the mirror, it felt like he could see every version of himself from each of the past more than ten years.

The same time, the different place, the same morning practice, unchanging through the ages.

Xi Shui sighed, spread his legs, and pressed his waist forward.

The next second, Zhou Zeqi's lazy speaking voice appeared by his ear.

"Don't splits also have different angles? Then practice each angle one by one?"

Sweat from the tip of Xi Shui's nose fell onto the floor. After counting down the time, he collapsed onto the floor, grabbed his phone from the little stool, and lay there like that.

Lin Xiaojin had sent him a message twenty minutes earlier.

[Didn't Jing University recently want to redo that admissions brochure? I heard from Xu Wei that he wants to recommend you for it.]

Xi Shui thought about it and replied: I heard that before, it was always those academic top students from Jing studies, and Jing Athletics and Jing Dance didn't participate.

Apart from the School of Physical Education, the School of Dance, and the School of Arts, which treated "Plucking chrysanthemums by the eastern fence, leisurely gazing at South Mountain" as its school motto and seemed as if it had retreated into monastic life, untouched by the world, all the other majors were collectively called Jing studies.

[Your opening routine in yesterday's competition went viral, so the school can use that to promote itself. Besides, Jing Dance is also one of the top dance schools in the country. It's just a pity it never became an independent university.]

Of course that was a disadvantage. The admission scores for the Dance School and the Physical Education School at Jing University were even higher than those of other specialized schools, and they were extremely hard to get into.

Last year, in a recruitment video shot by Jing University alumni, a lot of the comments underneath were:

– Cut the score by two hundred points and you'd still admit me!

– Give me another five hundred years, and I'll definitely get into Jing University!

– I want to go to Jing Athletics, but the score is way too high, almost catching up to the National Sports University.

– Same for Jing Dance.

[Oh, did you and Zhou Zeqi argue yesterday? You two really do like arguing.]

Xi Shui pulled out two sheets of toilet paper and pressed them to his forehead. "How do you know?"

[Someone was hiding in the stairwell corner smoking. They saw the two of you arguing through the crack in the door. The way you cried, all that screaming, it was embarrassing as hell.]

Xi Shui: !

Xi Shui told Lin Xiaojin that his biggest secret had been discovered by Zhou Zeqi.

Lin Xiaojin immediately sent back a voice message.

"Holy shit! I don't believe he didn't beat the hell out of you!"

Xi Shui's face was already flushed from morning practice, and now it turned even redder. He spoke softly to his phone, "No, he was very gentle. He just looks fierce."

After listening, Lin Xiaojin went stone-still for three seconds, then said in exasperation, "Is that the point?!"

"If you have a point, say it directly."

"…My point is, he really isn't angry at you? If this had been done by anyone else, I'd really think it was pretty shitty, but if it's you, I think Zhou Zeqi should just be sensible about it."

"Haha," Xi Shui laughed twice. "I've already explained it clearly to him."

No matter how absurd the start had been, he truly liked Zhou Zeqi now, and he wasn't lying.

"He believed you?"

"He did, I think?" Xi Shui had been confident before, but after Lin Xiaojin asked that, he became a little uneasy.

While eating breakfast, Lin Xiaojin said to Xi Shui, "Zhou Zeqi, even though he's extremely arrogant, his character is still solid. Otherwise Meng Kewen wouldn't be so eager to flatter him. But for something like this, you'd better confirm it carefully."

"Don't think this is a small matter. If Zhou Zeqi confessed to you, you fell for him, and then found out he was only with you to build muscle, and in his eyes you were nothing more than a tub of protein powder, how would you feel?"

Xi Shui stared at the ceiling. "I'd be really angry."

"But he really wasn't angry with me," Xi Shui sat up and listed it for Lin Xiaojin. "He slept with me, transferred me pocket money, gave me clothes to wear, made me food…"

Lin Xiaojin suddenly felt the whole wheat bread in his hand become tasteless. Tch.

"Then Zhou Zeqi really does have a pretty good temper." What Lin Xiaojin really wanted to say was that if Zhou Zeqi truly hadn't fought with Xi Shui over this, then his feelings definitely couldn't be summed up in just a few words.

A person like Zhou Zeqi, if he wanted to say something, he said it. If he wanted to do something, he did it. Rowdy and arrogant, but with the skill to back it up, the words "I never swallow my anger" were practically written in neon on his face.

And Xi Shui's actions were no different from rubbing Zhou Zeqi's face into the ground.

What did he take him for?

A tub of whole wheat bread or a miracle diet product?

And yet Zhou Zeqi had just let it go so lightly. That proved that his face, his dignity, and his pride meant nothing in front of Xi Shui.

Lin Xiaojin sighed.

Xi Shui asked him, "Why are you sighing?"

Lin Xiaojin told Xi Shui what he thought.

Xi Shui agreed too. "I'll be very good to Zhou Zeqi in the future. I'll take good care of him and worry about him."

"You're different from Zhou Zeqi," Xi Shui glanced out through the floor-to-ceiling window. "Zhou Zeqi is very tolerant. You're so petty. You even stopped liking Wu Fengyi just because he was too stupid."

"…"

"That's because Zhou Zeqi likes you more than he likes himself. It's not like I don't like Wu Fengyi anymore. I just need time to be sure, to be sure that my liking for Wu Fengyi's muscles is greater than my dislike for how stupid he is."

"I want to come over tonight to play games," Lin Xiaojin said, sounding down.

Xi Shui didn't think much of it. "Come."

–

When Zhou Zeqi came back, he happened to run into Xi Shui pressing his fingerprint at the entrance to his own home. After finishing his morning practice, Xi Shui had changed into clean clothes. Probably because he thought the air-conditioning over here would be too strong, he wore a long-sleeved dark green shirt and white knit trousers, a simple outfit that still looked very elegant.

Xi Shui had great presence. No matter what color he wore, it looked good on him.

"What did you buy?"

Zhou Zeqi was carrying a bag of groceries. "Some whiteleg shrimp, crayfish, and some vegetables and seasonings. Do you want steamed crayfish?"

"Yes, yes, yes!"

Xi Shui followed right behind Zhou Zeqi. "Can I help with anything?"

The crayfish were lively and kicking, so they had to be washed one by one. That could have been a help, but Zhou Zeqi didn't think of it. "Just wait to eat."

"Oh right, I got the money you transferred me. I don't need that much, I only kept two hundred. I transferred the rest back to you."

Zhou Zeqi had transferred it directly through Alipay, so Xi Shui didn't even need to tap accept himself. It went straight into his wallet.

One hundred thousand was transferred.

Even Li Wanzhi had never given him that much at once.

"I spend money recklessly, don't give me so much," Xi Shui repeated the same thing he had once said to his family.

Zhou Zeqi poured the whiteleg shrimp into the sink. Wearing gloves, he prepared to make shrimp porridge first, but he still had to remove the heads, tails, shells, and veins. While he was busy, he also talked to Xi Shui. "I'm not short on money. No problem supporting you."

"Really?"

Xi Shui clung to the doorframe. "I'll work hard in the future…" He suddenly stopped, because he had just thought of Zhou Zeqi's family. No matter how hard he tried to make money, he probably still couldn't compare to the loose change in Zhou Zeqi's pocket.

"What is it?" Zhou Zeqi heard Xi Shui stop talking and turned to look at him.

Xi Shui said very naively, "I feel like I'm mooching off you."

"…"

"That's not how 'mooching off someone' is used." Zhou Zeqi's hands were wet, otherwise he definitely would have gone over to pinch Xi Shui's face.

He was picking out the shrimp veins when he heard Xi Shui ask from behind him, "Do you really like me?"

Zhou Zeqi's eyelids drooped.

He rinsed the cleaned shrimp and put it into the basket, then slowly took off his gloves.

Xi Shui was still talking. "You don't seem to have said that you like me." Xi Shui had only just thought of it because of Lin Xiaojin's words.

The gloves were thrown heavily into the sink. Xi Shui watched the expressionless Zhou Zeqi walk toward him and blinked. Instinctively, he took a step back.

Zhou Zeqi pulled him into the kitchen. There was a small low cabinet against the wall. Xi Shui was lifted up and placed on it to sit.

Zhou Zeqi covered Xi Shui's eyes. He lowered his gaze, his voice a little low. "It's true."

"I like you, Xi Shui."

Xi Shui's doubt made Zhou Zeqi's heartbeat nearly stop.