The young man cradled in his arms trembled all over, perched on the bedside table with his knees hooked over the edge—a posture that left him desperate to flee but utterly trapped.
Huo Cheng’s tone betrayed no trace of emotion, and it was precisely this eerie calm that sent a chill through him.
He pressed the back of his hand to Luo Li’s forehead. That soft, delicate skin now burned almost too hot to touch, and the ragged breaths echoing in his ears were chaotic and unsteady.
In this state, he had still wanted to whisk someone away.
Just a short while ago, Luo Li’s stumbling footsteps had betrayed him completely as Huo Cheng had tugged him by the arm toward the door. His cheek had pressed against Huo Cheng’s arm, his feverish exhales threatening to soak through the fabric of his suit.
“Didn’t I tell you not to drink from anyone else’s glass?” Huo Cheng said.
Luo Li knew he was cornered. He simply clamped his mouth shut and played mute.
Huo Cheng’s thumb lingered on Luo Li’s slick lips. He fell silent for a moment, then let out a cold laugh.
“You didn’t even realize you’d been drugged.”
Drugged?
What did that mean?
Huo Cheng released his waist. “Who gave you the drink?”
Luo Li mumbled in his haze, “…Bern.”
Though his vision swam, Luo Li could sense the utter fury twisting Huo Cheng’s features. The man’s breaths came slow and heavy now as he pondered in silence, wrestling down the rage boiling in his chest.
But this time, he failed. Every word Luo Li had uttered replayed endlessly in his mind.
He had actually tried to run off with that foreign bastard Bern.
If the drugs clouding his judgment hadn’t taken hold—if he hadn’t been so disoriented—it wouldn’t have been Huo Cheng pinning him down in this suite.
That deviant foreigner would have treated a pretty boy like Luo Li no differently than a mere tool for slaking his lust.
And Luo Li’s body was far from ordinary.
It didn’t take much imagination to guess what the man would have done.
Only this foolish boy remained blissfully unaware.
“You stay right here and sleep it off,” Huo Cheng commanded. “Don’t set foot anywhere until I get back.”
He pocketed the room key.
Luo Li’s wits were addled, but his mission lingered in his mind. “Are you… going after Bern?”
“What’s the matter? Don’t want me to?”
Luo Li was too dense to catch the venom lacing those words. “You can’t go.”
Huo Cheng whirled around, his voice a low, oppressive growl. “He drugged you, and you’re still defending him?”
He paused. “Or is it that you see him taking control of those assets? Eager to latch onto a new branch already?”
The level-headed Eldest Young Master was always as serene as a still pond. This aggressive edge was utterly unprecedented.
Yet even now, his tone carried little overt threat or bluster—still calm, but laced with a hoarse, barely contained fury.
Luo Li deflated instantly, the man’s terrifying aura stealing his breath.
When he found his voice again, it quavered with the threat of tears.
“It’s not like that…”
“I just feel so uncomfortable…”
“I’m scared of the dark. I don’t want to be alone.”
As the words tumbled out, tears welled up unbidden. He rubbed at his fingertips, crying in aggrieved little sobs.
His chest heaved with each shaky breath, his nose twitching, his soft gasps coming in fits and starts.
Huo Cheng said nothing.
At long last, without warning: “Where does it hurt?”
Luo Li’s ears burned. He clamped his thighs together on instinct.
“Down there.”
“It feels so hot.”
Huo Cheng hesitated for a long beat. “If it’s hot, take off your pants.”
Luo Li squirmed in embarrassment, refusing to budge. Huo Cheng added, “It’s pitch black in here. I can’t see a thing. What are you afraid of?”
It did make a certain sense.
Gritting his teeth against the shame, Luo Li kicked off his shoes first. Then, fumbling slowly with the buttons, he let his slender legs dangle and kick in the air until his trousers pooled on the floor.
“I still… don’t feel right.”
Impatience crept into Huo Cheng’s voice. “Then handle it yourself. Didn’t my father teach you how?”
Luo Li wasn’t ready to give up. He rubbed at his eyes, sniffling softly as he spun another lie. “Master dotes on me so much. Whenever I feel bad, he always coaxes me. I don’t know how to do it myself…”
Huo Cheng remained unmoved. “Just coaxing? And then what?”
Luo Li’s grasp on experience and common sense was sorely lacking, but even he couldn’t stretch his fibs any further.
“And then… and then…”
And then what?
What was he supposed to do now?
In a fit of frustration, he lashed out at Huo Cheng. “You’re older than me—you should know more than I do. If you don’t know anything, what’s the point of you…?”
Luo Li guiltily curled his fingers into his soft palm, but his mouth ran on mercilessly. “Useless old virgin.”
Huo Cheng’s gaze dropped. To Luo Li’s surprise, he let out a low chuckle.
“Then how about I drag Bern here to get you the antidote?”
He was still going after Bern? That would ruin the mission!
Luo Li desperately pinged 007. The system stayed eerily silent for ages before finally responding.
“Kiss him.”
Luo Li blinked in confusion. Huh?
“Data analysis indicates,” 007 replied, “that kissing him now will make him abandon the pursuit of Bern.”
The AI’s voice remained its usual icy monotone, then added, “Of course, you can also forfeit the mission. Failure carries no penalty.”
As if to say it was no big deal either way.
But this timid, bumbling little boss proved surprisingly stubborn.
After only a brief hesitation, he reached up and tugged at Huo Cheng’s sleeve.
Huo Cheng halted mid-stride. “What—”
The word died as soft, damp lips pressed against his chin.
Too short to reach properly—and blind in the dark besides—Luo Li had missed his mark.
He tilted his head experimentally, straining to arch his back and try again.
Hot, humid breaths seeped through the seam of Huo Cheng’s lips, carrying Luo Li’s unique sweet scent. The boy’s drunken pants came heavy and labored.
In a clumsy, piteous effort, he craned his neck to kiss him.
Luo Li sensed the man’s body go rigid. Before he could make sense of it, a firm hand clamped down on the back of his neck.
Wordless, Huo Cheng seemed to unleash some inner dam. He yanked Luo Li into his arms and swooped down, claiming his lips.
Guided by that intoxicating fragrance, he captured Luo Li’s mouth fully.
Their tongues brushed—soft and scorching—and he paused for a split second before diving in heedless, holding his breath for a deep, devouring kiss.
This wasn’t Luo Li’s first kiss, but this one felt… different.
The wine’s lingering effects hit like a tide just as Huo Cheng’s lips met his, scattering his thoughts.
He sat there in a daze for half a moment before lifting his arms to loop around Huo Cheng’s neck.
Pressing himself deeper into the man’s chest.
Huo Cheng’s mind flashed to that day in the cave. Had Luo Li been like this with Huo Lan?
Had he tugged at his sleeve, wrapped arms around his neck, and thrust out his tongue, begging eagerly for a sloppy kiss?
A sharp pang twisted in Huo Cheng’s chest. Abruptly, he seized Luo Li’s arms from his shoulders and pinned his hands to the bedside table.
Freed for an instant, Luo Li whimpered softly, “Eldest Young Master…”
“What’s this ‘Eldest Young Master’?”
Huo Cheng’s voice sounded alien, almost unrecognizable. “Huo Jieqi is dead. I’m the head of the Huo Family now. There’s no Eldest Young Master here.”
He latched onto the boy’s drenched lips once more.
“Call me Master.”
…
Events were spiraling far beyond his control.
Huo Cheng knew Bern was cunning as a fox. Even one more minute’s delay, and the man would vanish without a trace.
But right now, his mind was blank.
All he could do was murmur hotly against Luo Li’s ear, nipping densely at the tender lobe, coercing him to say it.
“Master.”
Luo Li burned scarlet all over, shame choking the word in his throat.
Huo Cheng tsked in dissatisfaction. His tongue teased Luo Li’s lips as he murmured playfully, “You’re awfully practiced at kissing.”
Truth be told, it was just average—though compared to his raw innocence elsewhere, Luo Li seemed almost adept here.
Meanwhile, Huo Cheng’s own wrists grazed the boy’s fevered skin with every move, stirring his focus during their kisses into wild distraction.
What flooded his mind instead was the memory of buckling those trousers that day.
That slim, porcelain waist vanishing perfectly into the fabric; the gaping fly revealing the soft, flat plane of his abdomen.
Once the buttons were done up, a deep cleft formed between his thighs.
Evoking the shape of a camel toe.
The stray thought thickened his breaths. Kissing alone no longer sufficed.
Slowly, Huo Cheng drew back from Luo Li.
“The drug in your system won’t wear off anytime soon.”
“Either we get the antidote, or find someone to help you through it.”
Luo Li’s voice came out drenched in need. “How… do you help?”
He truly had no idea.
In that instant, the room’s lights flickered on. Darkness fled the suite in a rush.
Power was restored.
Luo Li finally saw Huo Cheng’s face—those sharply chiseled, handsome features slick with sweat, his lips glistening with the remnants of their fervent kiss.
Under Luo Li’s bewildered stare, Huo Cheng’s eyes slowly lowered.
Luo Li didn’t grasp the depth in that gaze. Before he could process it, Huo Cheng seized his forearm.
“Go to the bathroom.”
Veins bulged along the young man’s neck. He had exhausted untold reserves of willpower just to keep his voice hoarse and steady. “There’s water inside. Take a cold bath, and you’ll feel better.”
Luo Li balked at once. “I don’t want to! I’m not going…”
“Go—now!”
Without another word, Huo Cheng scooped him down from the bedside table, shrugged off his own coat, and wrapped it around the boy’s slender frame.
In a few quick moves, he shut Luo Li in the bathroom.
Luo Li scratched furiously at the door from inside. Huo Cheng locked it with a decisive click and stood there outside, drawing deep breaths for a long while to steady himself. He tuned out the teenager’s blustering sobs and pleas from beyond the door.
He considered stepping over to the window for a smoke to calm his nerves, but after fumbling repeatedly in his pocket, he couldn’t retrieve the lighter. Face darkening, Huo Cheng tossed the cigarette aside.
A faint sweet fragrance permeated the room—the scent unique to Luo Li’s body.
He had smelled it plenty of times before.
Yet for some reason, at this moment, it seemed thicker, more intoxicating.
Huo Cheng leaned against the bathroom door and peered through the narrow crack. He saw the boy clutching the coat sleeve tightly in his fists, his pale, tender legs crossed beneath the hem.
A lock of hair fell aside, revealing an earlobe flushed a vivid red. The boy’s petite body trembled without cease.
From behind the door came a soft, pleading whine. “Huo Cheng…”
Huo Cheng squeezed his eyes shut. “If you’re still feeling rough, I’ll call a doctor.”
“N-no, that’s not it…”
Luo Li bit down hard on his lower lip, his cheeks burning crimson. The words stuck in his throat now more than ever.
“I… I need to pee…”
