Chapter 9: Xi Xingling
Li Dong’s fingertips were still cold from the sink. When he pinched Xi Xingling’s cheek, the chill made him flinch. Xi Xingling forgot to pull back. He stared, blinking hard to make sure the man in front of him was not a fantasy.
“Second Young Master, you did not leave?” If this was only in his head, it would not feel this real. Even the disdain in the man’s eyes was lifelike.
Li Dong raised a brow. “I was just about to.”
He had barely finished speaking when the person on the bed rolled over and clamped onto his thigh.
“You said you would keep me company tonight…” Xi Xingling gazed up at him, pitiful and aggrieved. In the office he had been teased to the brink, but in person Han Yubai went cool as ice. One dinner and he was ready to walk.
“You are the one who reeks of booze. What does that have to do with me?” Li Dong shook his leg. “Let go. I hate the smell.”
“That is easy,” Xi Xingling said. He sprang up, stripped, and dashed for the bathroom. “Second Young Master,” he said solemnly before going in, “you must not leave. Wait for me.”
Li Dong went quiet for a moment and sat on the edge of the bed.
A line of bright laughter trailed behind Xi Xingling as he went. He hummed as he fussed around inside. When he came out, steam was still curling off him. “Second Young Master!” Wrapped in a towel, he pounced, grinning. “Smell me. Is there any alcohol left?”
Only the scent of shower gel drifted on the air, no trace of liquor.
Pinned beneath him, Li Dong let out a lazy laugh. “Smells fine.”
At once, Xi Xingling’s face lit up. Dimples flashed. He burrowed forward like a delighted animal. “Then kiss me.”
There would be no getting out of paying the “grain tax” tonight.
Li Dong rolled them, reversing their positions in one smooth turn. With the slender youth beneath him, he said, “I am taking a shower first.”
“Hurry.” Xi Xingling loosened his hold with obvious reluctance and even followed to the foot of the bed, eyes full of loss.
Li Dong could only marvel. They were in the same room and he would be gone a few minutes. Was all this drama necessary?
Fifteen minutes later, Li Dong had the slender youth under him, and for about forty minutes the bed was a battlefield. He finally sounded the retreat.
He exhaled a long breath and lay back on the hotel pillows.
Xi Xingling was dripping with sweat, damp fringe pasted to his forehead. By the last stretch, he had been reduced to breathing.
“If you could be this quiet at the beginning too, the quality would improve by more than one grade,” Li Dong said with a wicked drawl. He reached toward the nightstand, felt out a cigarette, and lit it.
“What does that mean…” Xi Xingling’s voice was gone to gravel; he had cried out far too loudly.
In the moment, Li Dong had thought: is there any cotton, please bring two handfuls.
That said, no man truly disliked that kind of soundtrack. He had enjoyed it while it lasted.
“Reward.” He brushed the hair from Xi Xingling’s brow and planted a kiss at the center.
“Second Young Master?” Xi Xingling was overjoyed. He latched on like an octopus. “Do you like me a little now?”
Li Dong had been about to ask what gave him that illusion, but that felt cruel. He was not someone who liked to stab deep on purpose.
“There is still a ways to go before ‘like,’ but I do not dislike you,” he said instead. Sometimes he found him annoying. Very annoying.
“How far is ‘a ways’?” Xi Xingling pressed. He rested his cheek on Li Dong’s chest, sticky-sweet and clingy.
“Pretty far… maybe…” Li Dong held the cigarette in his teeth, lifted a hand to measure, and hummed, “a kilometer, two?”
“That is not far at all.” Xi Xingling laughed and tapped his arm, bursting with joy. A few minutes’ walk at most.
“Why do you care?” Li Dong took a drag. “Isn’t it my brother you like? What does it matter whether I like you?”
The entire topic was a headache. Holding someone who was in love with someone else, and postcoital talk turned to that someone else… tsk.
The moment Han Tianlin came up, Xi Xingling’s gaze dropped and he went silent. Han Yubai had told him not to mention that name.
The quiet lasted for about two minutes. Li Dong finished his cigarette, crushed it out, and said, “You lying in my arms thinking of another man might not bother you, but I cannot find that appealing.”
Xi Xingling glanced at him, then clamped down on his tongue and tightened his grip around Li Dong’s arm.
“You came after me. Whether I sleep with you or not has nothing to do with liking you. Do you understand?” Li Dong looked him straight in the eye. This could not be left unsaid. He needed to have the idea firmly in place. “To put it plainly, Xi Xingling, if you choose to label yourself a release tool, it is hard for me to see you in any higher light.”
A release tool meant you could be told to get lost after the act, or leave on your own without so much as sharing a pillow.
“Second Young Master…” Pushed aside, Xi Xingling panicked. “Where are you going?”
“Home.”
“But…” He had thought they would spend the night together. Eyes pleading, he said, “It is the weekend tomorrow. I can keep you company all day…”
“No need. It is not like I am short on people,” Li Dong said calmly. “Eat the same dish two days straight and you get sick of it, no matter how good it is.”
He dressed, pulled a stack of cash from his wallet, and dropped it on the bedside table. “Take a taxi home tomorrow. Go shopping if you want. Spend it as you please.”
It was several thousand at a glance. Xi Xingling barely saw the money. He stared at Li Dong, mind blank.
He had assumed Li Dong had a good temper and was easygoing, that persistence alone would get him what he wanted.
“Second Young Master, when will you see me again? Can I still call you?” After a stunned beat, he scrambled out of bed, grabbed Li Dong’s hand, and asked, bare, unguarded, and urgent.
“I just said I am sick of it.” Li Dong looked back, meeting his eyes. He said the words directly, clearly.
Xi Xingling blinked, bewildered. He understood the meaning, yet… “It has only been twice. I still have a lot of new tricks. Second Young Master…” His face was anxious. “What did you not like? Tell me and I will change.”
“If I liked Audrey Hepburn, could you change into her?” Li Dong’s tone was flat. “And for the record, I do not like Audrey Hepburn.” That was for aging straight guys. “I like people who are self-reliant and self-respecting. Which of those do you have?”
He had none.
Tears slid straight down Xi Xingling’s cheeks.
“At least you still know enough to cry when someone looks down on you. That means you are not completely hopeless.” Li Dong’s heart tugged. A grown man sobbing like this… But you could not feed someone candy forever. Without a hard lesson, all the kindness in the world would not stick.
He shook off the grasping hand. “Prop up your pillow and think it through properly. Come find me when you have figured it out.”
The naked youth sat on the edge of the bed, staring into space. He had liked Han Tianlin for years and had never felt this sad.
Maybe it was because Han Tianlin was out of reach, but Second Young Master had actually touched and kissed him. Being cast aside like this, so this was how it felt.
“Xiao Zhun, I was dumped…” The first person he video called was his best friend, Qian Xiaozhun.
This was the gay roommate from college. After graduating, he had not joined the workforce, opting instead, thanks to his parents’ support, to open a tiny café in town.
As a roommate, Xiaozhun knew everything about him, including how he had gradually pulled him into being gay.
Of course, he also knew Xi Xingling had an unreachable beloved. It was like a toad lusting after swan meat, too much wishful thinking.
Hearing the words “I was dumped,” Xiaozhun was genuinely shocked. “When were you ever together?” Had it not always been one-sided?
Had the pounce that day actually worked?
Tsk tsk, if it was true, that was really dog sh*t luck. Jealous. Hmph.
“Not Tianlin. I never got together with him…” The one who hurt now was not the old problem. “These past two days I was with his younger brother. Second Young Master.”
“What are you saying? Do you mean what I think you mean? Together?”
“Mm. We kissed and did it. I really like him, and he treats me well.” Xi Xingling glanced at the money Li Dong had left. In his eyes, that too was a sign of care. “But he just broke up with me…” Saying it out loud made him want to cry again.
“Hold on. Don’t you like Han Tianlin?” Xiaozhun could not make sense of it. How had this turned into sleeping with the younger brother? Then again, the younger brother was also a rich heir.
“Tianlin told me to follow Second Young Master, and he accepted me. But after only twice, he said he was sick of me.” Xi Xingling could not swallow it. “Xiao Zhun, you understand men more than I do. Is that even possible? With my looks and my body, how can he be tired of me after just two times?”
He refused to believe it. Ignoring his friend’s speechless stare, he kept talking to himself. “Before he left, he told me to prop up my pillows and think it through, then come find him. Does that mean he still expects something from me?”
“…Whether he expects anything, I cannot say,” Xiaozhun said. “What I want to know is, who is it you like: Big Young Master or Second Young Master?” Had he not been pining after the older brother for three years? How did he end up in the younger brother’s bed overnight?
That’s way too unprincipled. Bah.
“I like Big Young Master. Second Young Master knows I like him…” In the middle of that sentence, Xi Xingling froze and blinked. “Xiao Zhun, do you think Second Young Master is jealous? Whenever I bring up Big Young Master, he mocks me and gets mad.” He had even laid down a strict rule: if you mention Han Tianlin, get out.
“I do not know. I am confused. If you like the older brother, why do you care about breaking up with the younger?” Sleeping together or not was another question. Nowadays what adult doesn’t have a few f*ck buddies. Even if the pair happened to be brothers, it was not the most extreme thing in the world.
“Because Second Young Master is gentle and good to me. I am happy when I am with him,” Xi Xingling said, blinking fast.
“Then just like him instead.” What was the point of mooning after Han Tianlin? He was a rich heir too. Plenty of people hated that type.
“No. Second Young Master has someone he loves. I supposedly look like that person…” Xi Xingling touched his face, lips drooping, on the verge of tears again.
“…” As someone in the circle himself, Qian Xiaozhen really wanted to complain: Your circle is really messy.
Author’s Note:
It is impossible for the bottom to suddenly do a complete 180. He will make foolish choices. Li Dong has never loved anyone in thirty years, so he is not going to fall head over heels at the drop of a hat either. Rest assured on that.
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