WC ⋆ Chapter 33

Qi Lin rarely cried. He often felt that his emotional threshold had been stretched very high, and many things no longer moved him easily.

But hearing Jiang Yishen’s words just now, he suddenly didn’t know what expression to put on. He blinked, and a round, fat teardrop fell with a plop, landing on his fluffy clothes.

“Hey!” Jiang Yishen was startled by him, raised both hands to cup his face, and racked his brain trying to think of something to say. “What’s wrong?”

Qi Lin blinked another tear loose, then leaned in on his own initiative and pressed his lips against Jiang Yishen’s.

Jiang Yishen was caught off guard by the kiss and lost his footing, toppling backward. The two of them tangled together and fell onto the sofa. Qi Lin knocked his lip again and winced, reaching up to touch it.

“Did you hit it?” Jiang Yishen lay on his back on the sofa, still distracted enough to reach over and pull away the hand hovering near Qi Lin’s lips.

“No.” Qi Lin’s voice was hoarse. The tears had already retreated; aside from his damp lashes, there was no trace left of having cried a moment ago.

Jiang Yishen pushed at him to sit up, but Qi Lin was relentless. He raised his arms and draped them around Jiang Yishen’s neck, burying his face in the hollow of his throat and going still.

He pressed in very close. His sleeve slid down, baring his slender wrist, which lay crossed and draped across the back of Jiang Yishen’s neck.

Jiang Yishen felt something stir in his chest. He turned his face to look at him, his breath falling heavy against Qi Lin’s ear, but he got no response.

It was subtle, an unspoken sexual signal between them. Even after so much time, so much had happened, breaking up and getting back together, the sensory reflex still existed. Certain places had been conditioned into something like a Pavlovian sensitivity, a secret that belonged only to the two of them.

He gathered the person in his arms and walked toward the bedroom.

They fell into the bed, sinking into a small hollow. Jiang Yishen had long thought Qi Lin’s mattress was absurdly soft and that sleeping on it too long would make his neck ache, but right now neither of them had any attention to spare for that. Qi Lin got buried in the pillow and struggled at length to push himself up, only to be pressed back down by a hand at his nape, followed immediately by dense, burning kisses.

Jiang Yishen had a quirk: he disliked taking clothes off, or more precisely, he disliked being completely bare and tangled together. No matter what, he always had to leave one piece on. This had once caused an argument between them, because every time that piece of clothing ended up soaked.

Later, Qi Lin conceded to him on this point, and in these moments would change into a thin button-down shirt, light and easy to wash and durable.

What Qi Lin didn’t know was that Jiang Yishen simply liked watching him wear a thin button-down shirt. After a shower, water droplets still clung to his body, soaking the shirt, clinging to his skin in a semi-transparent film, tracing the line of his collarbone all the way down, outlining a beautiful silhouette.

But Qi Lin, for his part, liked watching Jiang Yishen take his clothes off. The lean muscle built from regular exercise was just right, and when he exerted himself you could clearly see every muscle flex, the veins running along his forearms standing out in relief, a blunt and visceral image.

This time, however, neither of them got what they wanted. Qi Lin’s sweater had to come off, which meant only Jiang Yishen’s piece was left.

From that moment on, things spiraled beyond control.

It was only today that Qi Lin realized they could also be called reunited after a long separation. For a while before this, he had placed all his attention on the “reunion” part, while his body was clearly far more preoccupied with the “long separation.”

Jiang Yishen was strong to begin with, to say nothing of when he lost control. He didn’t stop moving, couldn’t help bowing his head again and again to kiss him, every kiss messy and sloppy, a wet blur, until by the end it was impossible to tell sweat from tears, and only the sound of ragged breathing echoed in the room.

When he moved his hand away he saw the palm-shaped marks he had left, spreading from the hipbone up to the waist and chest. But Qi Lin said nothing, only squeezed his unfocused eyes shut hard when Jiang Yishen looked over at him. Then Jiang Yishen suddenly noticed he had bitten the corner of Qi Lin’s lip open.

“What do we do,” he said, rubbing it with his thumb. The rough callus grazed across it, and Qi Lin involuntarily drew his teeth back, the tip of his tongue pushing against Jiang Yishen’s finger, nudging it away in protest.

“Nothing to do,” Qi Lin said, muffled.

They knew each other far too well. Jiang Yishen controlled the rhythm with deliberate cruelty, watching Qi Lin’s face intently, and the moment an expression of unbearable need appeared, he stopped abruptly and leaned down to ask: “Is there something you still haven’t told me?”

Qi Lin tilted his head back, jaw clenched, and said nothing.

“You’re hiding things from me again, baby.” Jiang Yishen increased the force, dissatisfied.

Neither of them held anything back emotionally, moving as if venting something. This time it ended faster than usual. Jiang Yishen bent down to kiss him, and Qi Lin was breathless, the kiss making his head swim.

Then a jarring ringtone cut through the air without warning. Both of them startled. The next second, Qi Lin shoved Jiang Yishen aside in one motion. It was too forceful and he choked himself in the process, clutching the pillow and coughing for a long time.

“Can’t kiss anymore…” Qi Lin finished coughing and flopped down weakly, hugging the pillow. “It’s midnight.”

Jiang Yishen was furious but helpless. He lay on the bed and recovered for a while before saying: “What were you hiding from me?”

After physical intimacy there was an indescribable sense of closeness, and Qi Lin felt that many things had become less difficult to say aloud. But this looked an awful lot like being coerced and bribed, so he said quietly: “Can’t you just ask me directly? Why does it have to be like this?”

“If I asked you directly, would you have told me?”

Qi Lin shifted a little, settling into a more comfortable position. There was some cooling liquid moving across his lower abdomen. He propped himself up to look, then sighed and lay back down.

“How did you figure it out?”

Jiang Yishen rolled over to face him, staring until Qi Lin’s spine prickled. After a long moment he gave a small laugh. “Every time you have something you’re not telling me, I can always tell. I just never asked before.”

That answer surprised Qi Lin. He had always teased Jiang Yishen about carrying burdens alone, and yet he only ever asked Jiang Yishen to talk more, without once considering whether he himself should share more too.

“It’s…” Qi Lin had just made up his mind, but the words stuck in his throat. “Bringing this up now feels a bit ill-timed.”

“Just say it.” Jiang Yishen leaned in and kissed his cheek.

Qi Lin said: “Then don’t get angry.”

“I won’t get angry with you.”

Qi Lin hesitated. “Don’t get angry at anyone else either.”

Jiang Yishen sensed something off: “What does it matter if I get angry at someone else? It’s not like I’d be angry at you.”

“Right now it’s just the two of us. If you get angry you’ll take it out on me.” As he said that, another thing came to mind first. Thinking he’d forget it if he didn’t say it now, he made an effort to sit up. “Can you not make a mess everywhere? We’ll have to wash the sheets later.”

“I did not make a mess everywhere!” Jiang Yishen widened his eyes. “Don’t slander me. Some of this is clearly yours too.”

“You also pinched me.” Qi Lin pointed it out to him. “Can you find somewhere with more flesh to pinch? Bone really hurts.”

He shouldn’t have brought it up, because the moment he did, Jiang Yishen remembered some old grievances of his own and immediately started digging them up. “You’re disgusted with me! You never said any of this the first time we did it.”

Qi Lin was stunned by his logic. “That was how long ago! If you want to go there, you’re more embarrassing than me. The first time you were the one I had to use my mouth to…”

Jiang Yishen clapped a hand over his mouth, the force of it pressing him flat. He pinned Qi Lin beneath him, nose to nose. “Can you please speak with some decency!”

Qi Lin pried his hand away. “You have the nerve to do it but not to…”

Jiang Yishen used his other hand to cover his mouth again.

Qi Lin gave up, fixing him with a speechless and irritated stare.

“Stop changing the subject! What did you say you were hiding from me?”

Qi Lin said: “I wasn’t hiding anything. Can you get off me first?”

“No.” Jiang Yishen was absolute.

They held their standoff in this indecent position. Qi Lin conceded defeat, throwing caution to the wind. “Fine, I’ll tell you properly. We ran into Yu Jiaming at school. He was the one who said those things to my mom.”

He regretted it the moment the words were out. Jiang Yishen was visibly, rapidly growing furious. His brows pressed down, the anger in his eyes settling and condensing into a pool of boiling water, bearing down with overwhelming force.

“You said you wouldn’t get angry.” Qi Lin said quickly. “I’m fine. My mom gave him a good scolding.”

Jiang Yishen ground his back teeth together, silently regulating his breathing, fingers clenched tight around the bedsheet. Qi Lin watched out of the corner of his eye, half afraid Jiang Yishen would tear a hole in it.

“I need to beat him up. Otherwise I can’t let this go.” Jiang Yishen said.

His tone was the kind of calm that came only after extreme restraint. Qi Lin heard it and couldn’t bear it, so he sat up and hugged him, patting his head. “There’s no need to get yourself in trouble over this. I’m not going to let it go either. Give it a couple of days and I’ll think of something.”

Jiang Yishen wasn’t having it this time. He pulled free of Qi Lin’s embrace. “And you, why weren’t you planning to tell me?”

“I was afraid you’d…” Qi Lin didn’t want to say the truth, but this step had to be taken eventually. If he didn’t say it now, he’d never open this door. “I was afraid you’d overthink it. After all, the grudge was started because of you.”

Jiang Yishen kept a cold expression and said nothing. After a long moment he squeezed out a few words from between his teeth: “If you don’t tell me, and I find out by accident later, I’ll think even more.”

He got up quickly, pulled the curtains shut, turned off the bedroom light, leaving only the small night lamp by the bed. The room fell dim at once. The night lamp’s glow was narrow, casting an intimate warmth over the corner of the bed.

Qi Lin immediately sensed trouble and shrank to one side. “You said you weren’t angry!”

“I’m not angry.” Jiang Yishen’s tone was level, level to the point of being cold and hard. He pulled Qi Lin back beside him, pinned him firmly into the corner, straightened his upper body, and used the liquid on his abdomen and thighs to slick things up roughly.

He took Qi Lin’s hand and guided it downward. Jiang Yishen felt Qi Lin’s fingers trembling. He watched for a few seconds, then bent down to kiss his neck, his voice coaxing: “Put it in, baby.”

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