When Chi Mo dragged Li Ran back home, Cheng Ai Mei was in the living room, locked in a staring contest with Black Cat.
She sat on the sofa while he sat on the rug.
Neither moved.
Ye Ze sipped his sweet drink nearby, watching the show—glass bottle with a straw. White Cat dozed off in her cat bed.
They didn’t disturb each other.
The silent battle intensified in the invisible standoff until Cheng Ai Mei muttered, “I just opened a can of cat food for you, and now you’ve turned on me, you ungrateful mutt.” Right then, Chi Mo yanked Li Ran through the door and rushed upstairs, practically flying low to the ground.
A wave of cold air swept through the living room in his wake. Black Cat bolted, Cheng Ai Mei patted her chest lightly, and Ye Ze fumbled to hide his sweet drink but spilled it all over himself.
“Good heavens…” The old man squeezed his eyes shut and shrank his neck, bracing for a scolding. After a long moment with no reprimand, he cracked one eye open. The stern-faced dog king was nowhere in sight.
Ye Ze said, “You scared the life out of me.”
Cheng Ai Mei asked, “Old Ye, did Chi Mo just say no one is allowed in?”
“It’s the crack of dawn and you’re already dead? No more ‘old man’ here.” Ye Ze slurped up the rest of his sweet drink through the straw in two gulps, then looked for a spot to dispose of the empty bottle without a second thought. “I didn’t hear clearly. You must’ve misheard…”
Just then, Li Ran’s first wail echoed from upstairs. It was exceptionally loud.
Cheng Ai Mei shot to her feet. “My poor baby, what’s going on? Is Chi Mo beating Little Ran? Ye Ze, go check!”
The empty bottle slipped from Ye Ze’s hand and clattered to the floor.
The wool carpet cushioned it—no breakage.
He glanced upstairs, at his wife, at the sweet drink bottle.
He had no idea what mistake that little quail, who always obeyed Chi Mo so obediently, had made to provoke the king’s wrath. Chi Mo ruled the house without question, but he was always good to kids.
Now that the kid was getting spanked, the old man sure as hell wasn’t going up to poke the bear. Ye Ze picked up the bottle, shut his ears, closed his eyes, and turned toward the door. “That damn hag thinks she can use me as a shield? I’m not going up there.”
Cheng Ai Mei stomped her foot. “You stubborn old coot!”
Amid Black Cat’s frantic dashes—trying to grab his wife’s scruff to escape the human battlefield but failing—she headed upstairs on tiptoe.
The closer she got to the study, the louder Li Ran’s cries grew, accompanied by pitiful pleas for mercy and admissions of guilt. The wails rose higher with each one, showing Chi Mo’s unrelenting resolve. Cheng Ai Mei wasn’t there to mediate peace; she didn’t want to draw fire. She immediately turned back down, pretending not to hear.
“Hang in there, Little Ran. Grandma’s sorry,” she whispered as she chased after the old man. “Grandma will come comfort you tomorrow. Slipping away, slipping away…”
As soon as she stepped out, she came face-to-face with Qi Zhi.
Twilight gathered around him, and he looked anxious. “Grandma Cheng, did my cousin just bring Li Ran home? He seemed really angry…”
Cheng Ai Mei composed her undignified expression and posture. She was certain Chi Mo had said no one was allowed in when he went upstairs. Mildly, she replied, “He seemed a bit upset, but that’s their business. Chi Mo really likes Little Ran; he won’t do anything too harsh. Head home for today, Little Qi.”
To the elderly, “like” simply meant wanting to do good for someone—no layers of complication. But in Qi Zhi’s ears, it took on a different flavor.
Chi Mo had been locked up for treatment before.
Li Ran had severe homophobia.
The Earth could explode before those two ever happened.
Right now, Li Ran desperately wished the Earth would explode.
That way, he wouldn’t have to feel the despair of his buttocks being smacked so viciously.
From the first slap Chi Mo landed, those two snowy mounds of soft flesh hadn’t stopped quivering pitifully, turning red and swollen.
From childhood to now, Li Ran had only been spanked once at age twelve by Bai Qingqing. He’d learned his lesson about humiliation and never dared do anything stupid again.
When Chi Mo pulled him over and pressed him down, Li Ran instinctively draped over his lap in a daze.
For some inexplicable reason, he flashed back to when he’d been sick with a fever as a kid. The doctor said, “An injection will make you better faster.” His mom agreed heroically.
Li Ran thought it was an IV drip—a needle in the back of his hand, just a quick sting. Though scared, he was tough, extended his arm silently, and waited for the prick.
But Bai Qingqing twisted his arm behind his back, clamped his legs with hers to pin him like a thief, and when the doctor approached, she pressed his back with one hand, yanked down his pants with the other, and squeezed her legs even tighter.
The needle plunged in, the pain indescribable. The medicine seeped steadily into his buttock muscle, making his entire leg tremble.
From then on, he feared butt injections.
Chi Mo had subdued him in much the same way—and without Bai Qingqing’s gentleness.
Li Ran’s hands were bound tight with Chi Mo’s tie; he couldn’t free them. He was forced prone over Chi Mo’s legs, unable to rise.
Chi Mo sat calmly in the chair, not bothering to mimic Bai Qingqing by using his legs as restraints. With one hand, he gripped Li Ran’s wrists bound by the tie; with the other, he delivered slap after stinging slap to teach the lesson. His palm soon reddened like the bouncing soft flesh beneath it.
“Bro, bro, I was wrong… I was wrong, bro… Don’t hit me, don’t hit me. Doesn’t your hand hurt? I bet it does, it must hurt… Bro, let me blow on it… Ah, bro, stop, stop hitting me…” Tears streamed like a river from Li Ran; he could barely catch his breath, crying fiercely and pitifully.
How embarrassing to wail so loudly as an adult. In the past, he’d die before letting out such a display; he’d just bottle it up until he got sick.
The first time Moran Technology held a team-building event, Li Ran went hiking. Coming down, his legs felt like lead. Chi Mo massaged them, and Li Ran bit his lip through the pain.
It was Chi Mo who taught him he could cry out.
He could cry.
Now, beaten so painfully, of course Li Ran cried his heart out.
“Bro, I was wrong… I know I was wrong… I really know… Sorry, I know I messed up…”
“Where did you go wrong?”
From discovering Li Ran and Qi Zhi sneaking to the Qing Bar to mercilessly landing over a dozen spanks, Chi Mo finally spoke.
His tone was harsh and cold, but it carried the familiar guidance Li Ran knew. This wasn’t an interrogation; Chi Mo knew the mistake. He wanted Li Ran to say it himself.
It was what he needed to own.
Chi Mo said, “Take your time.”
And delivered another slap.
Li Ran realized that if he confessed too slowly, the fiery palms would keep disorienting him.
“I-I should have… When I went to the Qing-the Qing Bar with my deskmate, I should have told you first.”
“Why tell me first?”
“Because you said… when I’m not with you, I have to let you know what I’m doing every day.” Li Ran’s voice broke as his barely mobile fingers intercepted Chi Mo’s palm, flirtatiously hooking his fingers to halt the blows. “If I’m going somewhere, I should tell you ahead of time, let you know where I am.”
Their knuckles tangled; Chi Mo could easily flick away Li Ran’s feeble attempt with a twitch, but he didn’t. He thought, I’ve hit pretty hard; his butt’s all swollen.
Yet no urge to soften stirred inside him.
Chi Mo twiddled his fingers, as if responding to the hook. “When did this rule start?”
“When you taught me… to message you every day.”
“Did you follow it?”
“No…” Li Ran felt heartbroken, like an idiot who couldn’t even manage this simple thing. He’d forgotten to report his location several times before, and Chi Mo had only gently reminded him without anger.
Step by step, naturally.
Last time at dinner with Li Ang, Li Ran’s phone was on silent for some reason; he missed Chi Mo’s messages and calls. When Chi Mo picked him up, he just expressed how much he cared, nothing more. Li Ran had never seen Chi Mo angry and didn’t take it seriously.
This time, he’d truly pissed off the usually even-tempered Chi Mo. Li Ran was scared. “I’ll tell you right away next time. I won’t forget again… Really, bro, believe me. I’ll remember for sure…”
Honest people could be stubborn; they backed off only after hitting a wall and were hard to teach. Chi Mo’s patience with Li Ran exceeded what he’d shown anyone else in his twenty years.
Chi Mo wanted Li Ran to improve.
To be brave, to talk to strangers, to refuse and resist, to say “yes” and “no” without shame.
Time wasn’t an issue.
They had plenty.
But when he saw Li Ran veering from the path he’d set, that was utterly intolerable.
Qi Zhi was his cousin, but to Chi Mo, he was still an outsider.
Li Ran was not.
How could his person go to a forbidden place with an outsider?
If Chi Mo hadn’t had dinner with a business partner that day and driven right by afterward, he wouldn’t have known Li Ran dared such boldness. Outrageous.
When bringing Li Ran home, the study wasn’t Chi Mo’s first thought. Passing their bedrooms sobered him instantly; such a scene in a private space would be too intimate without any real relation.
Whosever bedroom it was, disciplining Li Ran there wouldn’t do. They’d spent so many days in the study working or doing homework together; it was practically their shared living room.
In their awkward limbo, the study was perfect for this.
“Li Ran, what pisses me off most is you sneaking off with someone else. Second is not reporting it—how long have I taught you that? Can’t remember, huh?” Chi Mo raised his palm and asked, “Got it this time?”
“Got it, got it… Bro, no more hitting… I really know I was wrong.” Li Ran still teared up, twisting fearfully to eye the palm, cautiously.
The more pitiful he looked, the more addicted Chi Mo felt.
Finally, Chi Mo closed his eyes, held back, released Li Ran, and let him pull up his pants and stand aside. His custom high-end outfit was wrinkled from the ordeal, but Li Ran had no mind to smooth it, hands behind to shield his backside.
He stood in the corner like a quail, silently shedding tears.
