Chapter 70

The sound of Kang Che and Mao Sui talking and opening the door drifted into his ears, and Jiang Chu only belatedly felt a chill crawl up his spine.

He hadn’t heard a single thing. Just a moment ago, his ears were filled with nothing but the sound of Qin Zui and himself panting.

How had they been breathing so heavily!

If Mao Sui had pushed that door open, they wouldn’t have had time to pull apart from the bedpost. They’d have been caught red-handed.

Jiang Chu cursed a string of “fucks” in his head. Fine, Qin Zui was being hormone-driven, but the bastard had infected him too.

He shot a sideways glance at Qin Zui’s crotch, spotted that dog dick still tenting his pants, and his scalp went numb. He couldn’t help kicking Qin Zui in the shin.

Qin Zui, interrupted right when he was getting heated, let out a breath from deep in his chest and frowned, a little irritated.

He grabbed Xu Bowen’s chair and dropped himself into it, bending one leg to hook his foot on the edge. After sitting, he swiveled half a turn to hide the angle.

The two of them barely got into position—like they’d been scrambling to put out a fire—when the door lock clicked open.

“Ah, you scared me!” Mao Sui pushed the door open and saw the two of them sitting across from each other in the dorm. He jumped in place. “Someone’s in here! Qin Zui, you’re back and you didn’t say anything!”

Once he realized the other person was Jiang Chu, he greeted him cheerfully. “Bro, you made it?”

“Yeah.” Jiang Chu smiled, still wrapped in an indescribable awkwardness, feeling like he was still leaning against that bedpost.

“You two eat already?” He hooked one leg over the other, ankle resting on his knee, arms crossed on the armrests, and sat up a little straighter.

“We hung the quilts out to air, grabbed a bite at the cafeteria.” Kang Che smiled.

“No wonder your dorm felt so tidy when I walked in. You moved the quilts out.” Jiang Chu looked past Mao Sui’s head, sizing up Kang Che.

Last time he’d seen Kang Che, it had only been a brief glance. Seeing someone through a video always felt a bit unreal.

Looking at him up close now, Kang Che was indeed the type who caught your eye at first sight, and the more you looked, the more you felt it.

Jiang Chu sized him up, and Kang Che looked back.

Jiang Chu didn’t know if it was just his own guilty conscience, but when he met Kang Che’s smiling gaze, he kept getting this illusion that Kang Che “knew” everything.

He even started imagining some sleazy scene where Kang Che had been crouching outside the door crack, watching every move he and Qin Zui had just made.

“Way to pick and choose,” Kang Che said, pulling off his jacket and hanging it on the back of his chair before sitting down. “Only your little brother’s bed is unmade, and you just selectively ignored it.”

“Bro, you haven’t eaten, right?” Mao Sui had a cup of soy milk hanging from his wrist. He clunked it down on Qin Zui’s desk. “Red date flavor. You can have it.”

“If you’d bought original flavor, I’d actually drink it.” Jiang Chu grinned and checked the time. “Let’s wait a bit. You two clear your stomachs, we’ll have lunch together at noon.”

“Sure.” Mao Sui was happy. He went over to Qin Zui and jabbed his shoulder. “This time I’m really not gonna be polite with you brothers.”

“When were you ever polite?” Qin Zui propped his chin on his arm, his eyes fixed in Jiang Chu’s direction.

Qin Zui’s two roommates were even chattier than him, and warm and good at reading the room.

Jiang Chu showing up out of the blue didn’t make them act distant or stiff. They talked about everything from how many days Jiang Chu was staying to where he’d sleep, whatever came up.

Mao Sui especially—he talked a lot and was a local. He gestured and explained the scenic spots to Jiang Chu, his mouth like a gate that couldn’t close once it opened. He’d already mapped out a full five-day itinerary for him.

Right before mealtime, Jiang Chu took the three kids out to eat. He didn’t go looking for a specific restaurant, just asked what they wanted. Everyone said they didn’t care.

When he asked Qin Zui again, Qin Zui never had high standards for food anyway.

Then Jiang Chu remembered Gao Xia had recommended a stone pot fish place. He nodded, and Qin Zui directly called a car. They headed straight for the stone pot fish.

“Let Gao Xia come too,” Jiang Chu said. If Qin Zui hadn’t mentioned him, Jiang Chu would’ve forgotten he went to school nearby too.

“He’s not here.” Qin Zui said.

“He went home?” Jiang Chu asked.

“Went to find Lu Yao. Last night’s flight.” Qin Zui sent him a photo. It was a picture Gao Xia had sent in the middle of the night, him and Lu Yao cuddling for a photo at the airport.

Jiang Chu opened it, looked, and laughed. “Oh.”

“Bro, you’re single?” Mao Sui asked from the back seat.

“Huh?” Jiang Chu looked at him in the rearview mirror. “You figured it out?”

“Do I even need to guess?” Mao Sui was the shortest, sandwiched between Kang Che and Qin Zui, sinking back into the seat. All Jiang Chu could see were his eyes darting around. “If you had a girlfriend, would you come visit your little brother on a holiday?”

It was just a casual joke, but Jiang Chu’s guilty conscience made his heart skip a beat.

True, yesterday they’d video-called, and today he showed up. Even if he and Qin Zui were real brothers, this was way too… enthusiastic.

“They’re two different things. Having a girlfriend doesn’t stop me from visiting my little brother.” That was the honest truth, so saying it out loud came easily.

“What about you, Kang Che?” he asked quickly, shifting the topic to Kang Che as a bit of a diversion.

“Huh?” Kang Che was on his phone. When he heard Jiang Chu ask him, he raised an eyebrow.

“Me?” He smiled at Jiang Chu’s gaze in the rearview mirror. “Let’s just say I’m working on it.”

That answer was vague. Mao Sui directly cut in with an “eh!” and interrupted: “Bro, don’t ask him. I used to think Qin Zui was the most boring, but Kang Che’s even more boring. I’ve been digging for a month and haven’t gotten anything out of him.”

“Is that so.” Jiang Chu smiled.

When his gaze swept across the rearview mirror, it met Qin Zui’s.

Qin Zui was expressionless. He glanced at Jiang Chu for a second, then turned his eyes to the window.

The stone pot fish place wasn’t far from the medical school. About a ten-minute drive.

But there were too many National Day crowds. It was a pretty big two-story place, and by the time they got there, it was almost full.

They sat down in a semi-partitioned booth by the window. Jiang Chu told them to just order by scanning the QR code, get whatever they wanted, don’t ask him.

Then he turned around and saw the waiter hauling over half a crate of beer.

“You ordered this?” He twisted his head to look at Qin Zui.

“Huh?” Qin Zui was sitting on the inside. He leaned back and glanced at the beer. “No.”

“I did, bro.” Mao Sui raised his hand, pulled out three bottles, and clunked them on the table. “Anyway, it’s the holiday. Gotta drink a little, right?”

“You guys were all wasted yesterday,” Jiang Chu said, watching this shrimp of a kid handle beer bottles with surprising attitude. He couldn’t help but laugh. “You over it?”

“That was Kang Che and Xu Bowen, not me.” Mao Sui grinned and handed Jiang Chu a bottle. “I handled it better than them. Can’t compare to Qin Zui, though. Bro, you must have a high tolerance too.”

“Not really in that department.” Jiang Chu waved his chopsticks.

“Which department?” Kang Che had gone to the bathroom. He came back, sat down, and grinned as he picked up the thread. “Can’t say stuff like that outside, bro.”

“Fuck,” Jiang Chu laughed and swore. “Haven’t even eaten yet, and you guys are already showing your true colors?”

Kang Che made another joke. Jiang Chu was about to respond when suddenly his thigh tensed. A hand slipped between his legs under the table, almost like a threat, rubbing up and down with some force.

Jiang Chu’s hand, rinsing the bowls and chopsticks, paused. He straightened up and glanced at Qin Zui out of the corner of his eye.

Qin Zui was leaning back in his chair, one hand on his phone, expression normal. Like a proper person.

That meal didn’t last long.

Boys at that age eat meat like a whirlwind sweeping through clouds. Jiang Chu had ordered a double portion of fish, and in less than an hour, they’d even scraped the soup clean. The beer was barely touched.

Kang Che knew he got dizzy when he drank, so he didn’t touch a drop.

Jiang Chu hadn’t slept well the night before and didn’t really want to drink either, but Mao Sui’s enthusiasm talked him into one and a half bottles.

Qin Zui polished off the remaining half-case like it was soda.

After eating, they took a cab back. Jiang Chu didn’t go to the dorm with them.

Qin Zui told him to get off at the intersection near the hotel and check in. He’d go to the dorm, grab his things, and bring Jiang Chu’s suitcase over.

The October afternoon sun was at its laziest. The room Qin Zui had booked this time had an even better orientation. The sofa was in front of the French window, and when you opened the door, the floor was covered in golden sunlight.

Jiang Chu stretched, propped his legs up, and lay on the sofa for a while. By the time Qin Zui came back, he was dazed and nearly asleep.

“Tired?” Qin Zui pushed the suitcase against the wall, leaned over the sofa, and folded himself over Jiang Chu, looking down at him.

“A little.” Jiang Chu opened his eyes, then got dazzled by the sun and lifted the back of his hand to press against his eyelids. “You smoked?”

“Yeah.” Qin Zui’s arm slid under Jiang Chu’s waist. He buried his face in the hollow of Jiang Chu’s shoulder, gently sucking along his neck.

“What were you doing during lunch?” Jiang Chu had been stewing over it. He wanted to grab Qin Zui by the head and yank him up to yell at him.

But when his hand landed on the back of Qin Zui’s neck, he couldn’t bring himself to squeeze.

He didn’t pull, but Qin Zui did extract a hand from under his waist, grabbed Jiang Chu’s chin, and made him open his eyes.

“Why do you have so much to say to Kang Che?” Qin Zui pressed his forehead against Jiang Chu’s and asked softly.

“Was it that much?” Jiang Chu frowned.

Qin Zui didn’t speak. They stared at each other for a moment. Then he turned his head and bit Jiang Chu on the lips.

“Fuck.” Jiang Chu was annoyed. He pushed Qin Zui away by pressing against his forehead. “Qin Zui, are you asking to get slapped?”

He hadn’t even gotten over the vague discomfort Kang Che gave him. The image of Kang Che touching Qin Zui’s back yesterday was still fresh in his mind. And now Qin Zui was getting worked up?

And for a stupid reason!

“Kang Che is like me. Don’t talk to him so much.” Qin Zui stared at Jiang Chu for another moment before speaking.

Jiang Chu froze.

“How do you know?” He remembered how when he first came to the school, Qin Zui had told him that Kang Che “knew” and it was fine.

“No need to know. It feels the same.” Qin Zui couldn’t explain it any better.

“Feels the same, and you still let him touch your back?” Jiang Chu’s voice rose a little.

He shouldn’t have drunk that one and a half bottles.

As soon as the words rushed out, Jiang Chu regretted them.

He didn’t have that messed-up “feeling” Qin Zui had. He just instinctively felt off.

And he hadn’t planned on saying that off feeling out loud. His indulgence toward Qin Zui was already wrong enough. Spitting out something like that—what exactly did he want?

Plus there was Qin Zui’s line: “You know exactly what I’ll do to you when you come here.”

Yeah. He knew. He knew Qin Zui would act like a brute. He also knew he could do nothing about Qin Zui.

But Jiang Chu, what do you actually want?

Qin Zui had been running wild like a stray dog his whole life. His life now only needed to answer to himself. He could be reckless. But you—what are you doing letting him pile on top of you like this?

The horror he’d felt in the dorm when Kang Che’s shout snapped him out of being pressed against the bedpost came rushing back.

And that vague feeling of being “seen through” when Kang Che walked in.

He hadn’t had time to think about it then. But now, the more Jiang Chu thought about it, the more unsettled he felt. And scared.

Can you handle this?

Can you?

The wave of irritation hit him out of nowhere. Jiang Chu’s head spun. He pushed at Qin Zui’s shoulder. “Get off.”

Qin Zui didn’t move.

No, that wasn’t true. He didn’t roll off like Jiang Chu told him to. Instead, he pressed down with his palm, like a little wolf full of explosive energy, and knelt up, clamping Jiang Chu’s waist between his knees.

He lifted one knee and pressed it onto Jiang Chu’s shoulder, pinning him down. Then he yanked off his shirt and tossed it over Jiang Chu’s face.

Jiang Chu froze. Everything went dark. The air was mostly cut off. Qin Zui’s scent flooded his mouth and nose.

“You—” He was about to pull the shirt down and curse, but Qin Zui’s shoulder pressed back down.

Through the thin fabric of the shirt, Qin Zui bit Jiang Chu hard on the mouth. At the same time, he grabbed Jiang Chu’s hand and pulled it to his own back, pressing Jiang Chu’s palm firmly against his taut back muscles.

“Touch me.” Qin Zui bit his nose and lips messily, grabbed his head, and knocked it against his own. “You want it, bro. Don’t look at anyone else. Don’t think about anyone else.”

Jiang Chu’s vision was blurry. The damp cloth clung to his mouth, almost suffocating him.

He curled his fingers, unable to stop himself from roughly stroking Qin Zui’s back.