Chapter 37

Jiang Chu felt it, and at the same time, his brain short-circuited.

He almost wondered if he had fallen asleep while chatting with Qin Zui and was now dreaming.

Otherwise, why would his hand be on Qin Zui’s body?

Qin Zui felt pretty much the same way.

When he grabbed Jiang Chu’s hand, it was pure impulse, mixed with a bit of defiance.

Was it clear enough now why he didn’t want to call him big brother?

But Jiang Chu’s frozen expression in Qin Zui’s eyes became another little wildfire burning into his nerves.

Impulse has only two states: the beginning and suppression. Once it starts, and the other person doesn’t react immediately, looking completely lost, it only makes you more excited.

The essence of intrusion is testing boundaries.

This thought flashed through Qin Zui’s mind again. He stared into Jiang Chu’s eyes, leaned in closer, rubbed his nose against Jiang Chu’s ear, and pressed harder on the hand he was holding down.

This move finally snapped Jiang Chu out of it.

He recoiled as if electrocuted, slapped Qin Zui’s head, and kicked him at the same time, hissing, “What the hell, are you in heat?”

The slap sounded sharp, but it wasn’t very strong. Jiang Chu was still dazed. The kick landed on Qin Zui’s good leg.

But Qin Zui turned his head and let out a low “Ah.”

“…What’s wrong?” Jiang Chu’s heart tightened. He quickly propped himself up to look. “Does it hurt?”

Qin Zui didn’t answer, just frowned slightly.

“Did you hit the cast?” Jiang Chu was genuinely worried. He was so careful about Qin Zui’s foot, terrified that poor healing might lead to a habitual dislocation.

“No,” Qin Zui said, blocking his hand as it reached for the cast.

“What do you mean, ‘no’? Did you or didn’t you?” Jiang Chu was almost getting angry.

“I said no.” Qin Zui was a little helpless. Jiang Chu, shirtless, was touching his head and leg. He grabbed Jiang Chu’s arm and pulled him forward. “It got my eye.”

“Let me see.” Jiang Chu moved to open Qin Zui’s eyelid.

Qin Zui didn’t let him. His nose brushed against Jiang Chu’s shoulder. He decided to just bury his face in Jiang Chu’s neck.

This time, Jiang Chu didn’t dare to just slap him.

Even though, compared to before, this pose was much more normal, like seeking comfort, it still made him feel… a bit uncomfortable.

Too close. At this time of night, in this atmosphere, it was hard not to overthink.

“What are you doing?” He hesitated and gently pushed Qin Zui.

It would have been better if he hadn’t pushed. After the push, Qin Zui not only didn’t move, but he also moved the hand holding Jiang Chu’s arm slowly to his back, pressing his palm flat against it.

This position was too strange. The strength of Qin Zui’s arms around him, the temperature of his palm against his back, it was all too strange in the dark.

What was even stranger was that Jiang Chu rationally understood how strange it was, yet his heart was still arguing: It’s just two brothers hugging. A little brother got slapped by his older brother and wants a hug for comfort; there’s nothing strange about that.

“You…” Jiang Chu frowned. Should he just quickly ruffle Qin Zui’s hair and push him away now?

His hand had just landed on Qin Zui’s shoulder, before he could apply any force, Qin Zui spoke again, his voice muffled in his shoulder: “Big brother.”

The fingers Jiang Chu was about to use to push him away went slightly numb.

Here it was again.

The same feeling from that night.

Jiang Chu couldn’t tell if it was the call of “big brother” or the hair brushing against his ear, but it sent a tingle from his ear canal all the way down to his throat.

After a long moment of holding out, Jiang Chu rubbed the back of Qin Zui’s head and forced out a sentence: “Want me to get you the masturbation cup?”

Qin Zui could never have predicted Jiang Chu would say something like that.

He let out a laugh, turned his head, and bit down on Jiang Chu’s neck, then pulled back before Jiang Chu could push him away.

Jiang Chu shuddered and slapped his hand over his neck.

“What about you?” Qin Zui lifted his leg and pressed it against Jiang Chu.

Jiang Chu froze.

Qin Zui looked at him, his jaw muscle twitching slightly. He lifted his arm, wrapped it around Jiang Chu’s waist, reached down, and squeezed him through his pants.

By the time Jiang Chu reacted, his whole body was in chaos. He pushed Qin Zui away forcefully, got off the bed, and slammed the bathroom door.

Qin Zui leaned against the headboard, staring at the violently shut door for two seconds. Realizing what a lunatic thing he had just done, he lowered his eyelids and got up to go back to his room.

Jiang Chu stayed in the bathroom for almost half an hour.

He didn’t do much in there. He just smoked.

He didn’t even know how many. His mind was a mess. He desperately wanted to calm down and analyze the situation, but his thoughts kept circling back to Qin Zui’s “big brother,” accompanied by the actions and touches. He didn’t know what he was feeling, or even what he was supposed to be feeling. He just felt restless and irritated.

He didn’t even realize he had been smoking until he choked on the thick smoke in the bathroom. He coughed a couple of times, then opened the window and turned on the exhaust fan. Looking down at the pile of cigarette butts by his feet, he felt like he hadn’t even taken a few puffs.

When he returned to the bedroom, the bed was empty. Qin Zui had already gone back to his own room. He had even folded the small blanket, making the spot where he lay look as neat and tidy as if nothing had happened.

Only the half-empty bottle of water on the bedside table reminded Jiang Chu that it wasn’t a dream.

He stood by the bed, glaring at the water for a moment. He thought about going to Qin Zui’s room several times to ask him what the hell he was doing, his hand even gripping the doorknob, but he pulled it back. He opened the window and lit another cigarette.

This little shit had molested him and then fucking ran away first.

After finishing that one, Jiang Chu wanted to go drag Qin Zui out of bed and ask him what the hell he was doing again. Joking around about “trying it” and “testing it out” was one thing, but how dare he actually try it on his big brother!

Yeah, that’s what he would ask him. This bastard had gotten too bold. The fact that he had reacted too was totally Qin Zui’s fault for messing around.

But why did he react so strongly to Qin Zui?

He stood in front of the door for a long time, then gritted his teeth and quietly cursed, then threw himself face-up onto the bed.

Jiang Chu was a complete mess, and Qin Zui didn’t sleep well either.

His self-assessment was exactly what Jiang Chu thought: he had gotten too bold.

He really hadn’t expected himself to go this far. Grabbing Jiang Chu’s hand and pressing it down on him was one thing. He could have taken the slap on the head and laughed it off, and that would have been the end of it.

Even when Jiang Chu offered to get the masturbation cup, there was still room to back down.

But biting his neck, pressing his knee against him, grabbing him…

Qin Zui frowned at the ceiling, pressed his wrist against his mouth, and bit it softly, one nibble at a time.

His palm still remembered the feel of Jiang Chu’s body.

His fingers twitched unconsciously. He moved his wrist up to cover his eyes and reached his other hand down.

He really had gone crazy.

Crazy Qin Zui and spaced-out Jiang Chu didn’t cross paths the entire next day.

Jiang Chu couldn’t sleep for the first half of the night, tossing and turning until almost four in the morning before he finally dozed off. He had a messed-up dream. It started with him opening the door to find Qin Zui rolling around with Gao Xia and Du Miaomiao, and ended with Qin Zui magically rolling onto him, biting his neck, squeezing him, and hoarsely whispering “big brother” in his ear.

His leg twitched, and he opened his eyes. It was still half an hour before his alarm would go off.

Jiang Chu sat in bed for ten minutes, then threw off the covers, brushed his teeth, washed his face, and went straight to the office.

Qin Zui heard the soft click of the door closing. He picked up his phone and checked the time. Jiang Chu had left almost an hour earlier than usual.

He lay in bed with his eyes open for a while, then got up to feed the cat.

When he went to the balcony, Zhou Teng was eating happily, his face buried in his food bowl.

He had even fed the cat.

He checked the litter box. The cat poop was gone, too.

Qin Zui leaned against the doorframe, watching Zhou Teng eat for a while. Then he walked over to the coffee table, grabbed a cigarette, and lit it up.

“Chu, don’t you think this client’s proposal is messed up?” Da Ben laughed and kicked Jiang Chu’s desk. “The client’s name is bigger than the company name.”

“Ah.” Jiang Chu grunted in response, staring blankly from his swivel chair.

“What’s up with you?” He had been zoning out for half the morning. Da Ben, having laughed to himself alone for a while, scooted over and touched Jiang Chu’s forehead. “Haven’t sobered up from that little bit of alcohol yesterday?”

“I guess not.” Jiang Chu rolled his head. He had only slept about four hours in total last night, and now his head was spinning.

“I think you should just stop drinking beer altogether.” Da Ben threw a packet of hangover cure from his drawer at him. “You’re just not cut out for it.”

“I think you’re right.” Jiang Chu sighed and slowly got up to get some hot water.

He said that, but he knew in his heart it wasn’t because of the alcohol or the lack of sleep.

In their line of work, this was normal. He wasn’t old enough yet to be half-dead from just a few hours of lost sleep.

He was just upset.

He wondered what Qin Zui was doing. Was he feeling just as upset?

He also wondered how he was going to talk to Qin Zui when he got home tonight.

Just thinking about “talking” made Jiang Chu feel like his already scrambled brain was turning into soup.

They needed to talk, right?

Actually, they could just not talk. Treat it like a joke. Isn’t it normal for brothers to joke around? Du Miaomiao and his old man fought every day, but Old Du didn’t lecture him about it.

Should they really not talk about it?

No, they definitely had to talk. What happened last night was way beyond the limits of joking.

But how should he talk about it?

Talk about what? How should he start?

Ask Qin Zui why he was in heat?

Because teenagers are like that.

Why did it have to happen to him?

Because he happened to be right there.

And he was the one who kept bugging him to call him “big brother.”

Turning his little brother into a voice-activated toy, and they both got a reaction out of it.

So, putting two and two together, it was all his fault for provoking him. He knew full well what Qin Zui’s orientation was, yet he kept teasing him to call him “big brother.”

“Ah!” Jiang Chu crouched in the yard, drinking a big glass of hot water with his hangover cure. He rubbed his head and let out a low, frustrated yell.

What a fucking mess.

After crouching for another two minutes, still looking troubled, he shuffled back inside. Da Ben was just turning to call him.

“Did you see the message from Chen Linguo?” Da Ben asked.

“No.” Jiang Chu grabbed his phone and looked. There were indeed a few messages.

As he opened them, Da Ben continued: “She’s asking if you want to go see a movie tonight. She said to invite Bao Li and Fang Zi, too. She asked you, and since you didn’t reply, Bao Li asked me. I figured since there’d be a bunch of us, I said yes.”

“Mm, okay.” Jiang Chu didn’t refuse. On one hand, there was no real reason to refuse. On the other, he still hadn’t figured out how to talk to Qin Zui tonight.

They chatted in the group chat for a bit. Da Ben let out an “Eh” and asked, “Want to bring your little brother too?”

Jiang Chu’s finger, scrolling through his phone, paused. He happened to stop on Qin Zui’s WeChat profile picture. Without even looking up, he vetoed the idea: “No. He’s got a cast on. It’s inconvenient for him to get around.”