His light tea-colored eyes curved slightly, and his soft lips bore faint marks from where his teeth had gently bitten them. He looked so beautiful, but why was that smile directed at someone else—and not him?
Lu Quan lowered his eyelids. With a flick of his wrist, he casually tossed his brand-new phone onto the desk, where it landed with a loud clatter.
Liang Zhixia, in the middle of jotting down notes, flinched and smudged his writing.
As he looked up, his eyes met Lu Quan’s. He quickly shifted his gaze away, letting it fall on the phone on the desk.
Was Lu Quan in a bad mood?
His slender, pale fingers rested on the edge of the small desk. He pursed his lips, deciding he should check on his “sugar daddy” anyway.
“Brother Lu, are you okay?”
Seeing those eyes land on him made the violent thoughts churning in Lu Quan’s mind gradually fade.
“I’m fine. My hand slipped.”
Liang Zhixia let out an “oh” and was about to look down at his phone when it buzzed with a vibration. Before he could, Lu Quan spoke up. “It’s so late. Who are you chatting with?”
He paused. “A… friend.”
Lu Quan: “Oh? Have I met him?”
He gripped his phone and pursed his lips. “No, you haven’t.”
Lu Quan chuckled, his fingertip rubbing the corner of the desk. “A friend from off-campus?”
Liang Zhixia thought for a moment. That counted, so he nodded. “Yeah.”
“Oh, an off-campus friend I don’t know.”
Liang Zhixia was a little baffled by Lu Quan’s ambiguous words.
Their social circles were completely different, with no overlap at all. If the system hadn’t assigned them the wrong dorm room, he and Lu Quan wouldn’t have exchanged a single word.
After waiting a while with no further response from Lu Quan, he lowered his head and continued asking how to be a proper online boyfriend.
Watching him chat enthusiastically with someone else, Lu Quan ran his tongue over his canine tooth and silently noted it away. He would make him pay for this later.
He pushed open the balcony door and stepped out. Looking through the glass window, he suddenly spotted a large tree in the distance.
Zhizhi had told him long ago.
It was he who had been too slow to notice.
He zoomed in on the view, recreating that rainy-day leaf photo at almost a 1:1 angle.
Then he pulled up the photo he had saved and posted both to his Moments.
He had blocked Zhizhi.
Two photos from the same angle: one on a rainy day, one at night.
The streetlamp’s glow softened the lens. He flipped the camera back toward the dorm room, propped one hand on the window frame, and snapped a shot—capturing Zhizhi forever in his photo album.
On his phone, Xu Cheng sent a message.
【Xu Cheng】: Big bro! The message I sent you this morning—you’re only replying now?
【L】: Been busy lately. No time.
【Xu Cheng】: Busy with what?
【L】: Chasing someone.
【Xu Cheng】: …
Liang Zhixia, who had just finished his lesson, stretched lazily. His long neck arched gracefully, tracing a perfect curve.
His notebook was filled with densely packed key points. He murmured them aloud as he reviewed his notes.
Only when he caught sight of Lu Quan pushing the door open from the corner of his eye did he casually close the notebook and shove it under his pillow.
Lu Quan tugged at the corner of his mouth, his eyes narrowing slightly. He was treating it like a treasure, so it definitely wasn’t anything good.
What good could something related to his lover be?
His eyes gleamed black as ink under the light. His tongue pressed against the inside of his cheek, his thin lips curving faintly. His fingertip rubbed his phone over and over, feigning nonchalance, but the veins on the back of his hand stood out, and he pressed hard against the edge of the desk with his lower back—otherwise, he feared he wouldn’t be able to stop himself from snatching that damned notebook.
Even someone as oblivious as Liang Zhixia didn’t realize Lu Quan had been staring at him until he had obediently settled into bed.
His pale fingers clutched the edge of the blanket. He blinked and said, “Good night, Brother Lu.”
With that, he tugged the blanket higher, revealing a smooth stretch of arm as he yanked down the bed curtain, blocking out that intense gaze.
Being watched by Lu Quan made it hard for him to fall asleep. He kept feeling like Lu Quan might do something while he was out.
Ten minutes later, he was fast asleep.
The dorm lights had long been turned off. In the darkness, a tall, slender figure stood by his bed. The heavy curtain was pulled aside, and a sliver of moonlight from the balcony window illuminated the intruder’s profile.
Lu Quan knelt on one knee by the bed, his fingertip unerringly finding the young man’s lips.
They were so soft, just as he had imagined.
Suddenly, the young man’s lips parted slightly, drawing his fingertip inside. A jolt of electricity shot from his finger straight up his spine. He let out a low gasp and carefully probed deeper.
Under the moonlight, he leaned in close, holding his breath as Zhizhi’s warm exhales brushed his face. They smelled sweet. With his fingertip blocking them, those lips parted slightly, revealing a relaxed red tongue resting against the roof of his mouth. When the fingertip grazed it, the tip quivered sensitively, turning Lu Quan’s eyes red with desire.
After a long moment, he withdrew his damp fingertip and brushed it against the young man’s overly flushed lips.
“Good night, Zhizhi.”
Liang Zhixia slept until ten the next morning. Propped against the headboard, he fished his secret manual out from under the pillow.
According to it, he should first send his online partner a good morning message—but not just rote greetings like good morning, good afternoon, or good night.
He unlocked his phone, still groggy, and yawned widely with his eyes half-closed as he slowly typed.
By the time he looked down, the message had already sent.
【Zhizhi】: Boyfriend, good morning~ muah~
???
The sleepiness vanished from his brain in an instant. That wasn’t what he had meant to type—and he hadn’t even agreed to be L’s online boyfriend!!!
Less than two minutes had passed. He quickly held down the message and recalled it.
L hadn’t replied yet, so he probably hadn’t seen it.
He had just breathed a sigh of relief when L sent a screenshot—of the exact message he had recalled.
What drew his attention even more was L’s note for him.
—Zhizhi Baby.
An inexplicable wave of embarrassment washed over him.
L had done that on purpose, hadn’t he?
He could have just screenshotted the recalled message, but no—he had to include the note at the top.
L’s messages followed right after.
【L】: Baby, you agreed~ ^-^
【L】: I saw it. No take-backs~
Who was taking back anything!
Liang Zhixia held down the voice button and spoke in his real voice. “I’m not taking anything back. Don’t falsely accuse me.”
He paused, then added sheepishly in a small voice, “Also, change my note.”
L immediately sent a voice message back.
The man’s voice rose slightly at the end, laced with an involuntary light chuckle. His tone was cool yet tenderly indulgent.
“Baby, what note are you talking about?”
Liang Zhixia listened, covering his heating face as his pale toes curled slightly. L was playing dumb—he knew exactly what he meant.
How had he never noticed before that L was so wicked?
Was this his true nature showing?
There was no way he was saying those four words out loud.
“Hmph, do whatever you want.”
On the other end, Lu Quan listened to the young man’s petulant huff, his eye corner quirking up as he let out a soft chuckle.
How could Zhizhi be so adorable?
The sudden laugh startled the assistant who had just entered the office. He sneaked a glance upward and was shocked to see his boss’s lips curved in a genuine smile—not sarcasm, but something indulgent and doting.
He grumbled inwardly while stealing another peek at his boss’s expression—only to lock eyes with the man.
Crap.
He was done for.
Getting scolded by a boss several years younger than him always crushed his confidence.
And the man always hit right on the mark, leaving him with no face to save.
He sighed wearily in his mind, bracing for the boss’s judgment.
But after waiting a while, he heard no familiar sarcasm or criticism—only the faint tap-tap of typing.
He quietly raised his head to look, only to see his own boss with his head bowed, typing away as if chatting with someone.
Could it be the person who’d just made the boss laugh out loud?
The assistant didn’t dare say a word. He desperately tried to minimize his presence.
Finally, ten minutes later, he heard the boss call out to him.
“Notify everyone: meeting in five minutes.”
The assistant felt a flicker of confusion. He remembered the meeting not being scheduled this early today.
He muttered to himself in his mind, but to his shock, the words slipped out aloud.
His scalp tingled with dread, and he braced himself to apologize—only for the boss to say, “We’re starting early. I need to head back at noon to have lunch with my partner.”
His partner?
The boss was dating someone???
The revelation hit like a bombshell. When the assistant stepped out of the office, he was still in a daze.
Meanwhile, back in the dorm room.
Liang Zhixia set his phone down and did a few rounds of morning exercises before heading to wash up.
The moment his toothbrush touched his lips, he hissed in pain. Staring into the mirror, he noticed his lips looked a bit swollen and hurt when he touched them.
They looked like they’d been bitten by something.
But the auntie who cleaned Lu Quan’s place came every day, so there couldn’t be any bugs in the dorm.
It couldn’t be that Lu Quan had snuck a bite in the middle of the night, right?
Liang Zhixia chuckled at his own ridiculous thought. Yeah, as if.
He’d barely finished washing his face when a message came in from Xu Cheng.
【Junior, here’s Lu Quan’s contact info. Add him.】
Liang Zhixia typed back, puzzled.
【Did Senior Lu ask you to send it to me, or are you doing this on your own?】
If it was Xu Cheng taking the initiative, he wouldn’t add it.
Xu Cheng glanced at the guy using his phone to message his junior, a mocking curl to his lips. “Didn’t you say you weren’t going to add the junior’s contact? What’s this, eating your words already?”
Lu Quan didn’t even look up. After sending the message, he scrolled back through their old chat history.
Nothing beyond the usual senior-junior pleasantries.
He handed the phone back to Xu Cheng, his tone cool and detached. “Xia Xia and I don’t need you playing roommate referee. Don’t bother him if you’ve got nothing to say.”
Xu Cheng was utterly speechless, not even sure where to begin with his complaints.
Ding!
Lu Quan unlocked his phone and looked at the friend request—a stranger’s avatar with a simple note.
【Brother Lu, it’s Liang Zhixia.】
He tapped to approve.
[I approved your friend request. We can chat now.]
