Chapter 109: Lu Jun
Without another word, Li Dong lifted the cup and brought the tea straight to his lips. His only thought was: this tea is f***ing hot… “Cough, cough.” He’d tried to look cool and ended up setting the cup down a little embarrassed.
“Are you stupid?” Lu Jun tugged at the corner of his mouth, half laughing, half crying. He roughly yanked out a few napkins and flipped them over to him with flair. “Wipe.”
How hot is freshly brewed tea, didn’t he have any basic sense?
“Thanks,” Li Dong said, taking the napkins without really looking awkward. “Alright, I’ll be your boyfriend.” He said it looking into Lu Jun’s eyes.
Lu Jun’s breath stalled. He dropped his gaze and took a sip from his own cup. The scalding tea burned his tongue. “Oh.” Painful and thrilling at once.
“Do you like me?” Li Dong kept looking at him.
“Yeah. Isn’t that obvious?” Lu Jun glanced at the man across from him, and his heart lurched hard again. He loved this feeling of being alive. “If I didn’t like you… you think I’d let you put me under?”
Not necessarily, Li Dong thought. In the original, Lu Jun didn’t seem to truly like Li Tingyi either; the vibe between them was more friends-with-benefits.
Lu Jun was pure carnivore, no meat, no joy.
“Then shouldn’t you tell me about Li Tingyi?” Li Dong said, half smiling.
“What, jealous?” Lu Jun shot him a wicked grin, cocky as anything. “It’s exactly what you’re thinking.” It was him who took Li Tingyi out, without a single wasted word.
“Tsk, tsk.” Li Dong actually looked pretty pleased.
“I’m retired now,” Lu Jun said, the smile flattening into seriousness. There was no trace of youthful greenness on his face. “If you stay with me, you’ll probably get dragged into my mess. You get that?”
Over the last four years on the job, plenty of people knew whose hand had done it.
They burned to get revenge. They just couldn’t find him.
“It’s fine.” Li Dong saw the server coming and swallowed the topic for now. When the dishes arrived, he personally plated food for Lu Jun. “Come on, eat first.”
Lu Jun watched him with shadowed eyes, happy yet worried. “I keep thinking your brain’s waterlogged…” Otherwise why would he fall for a killer and then chase him down?
So cute it made his liver quiver.
And so damn scary, what if he couldn’t protect him?
Lu Jun had never felt fear like this. From the moment he became a killer, he’d always been ready to die on some side street.
“You’re the one with a waterlogged brain…” Li Dong said as he ate.
After they finished, he wheedled and coaxed until the shou finally handed back his phone and wallet, and they added each other’s numbers.
Seeing him fuss with it so earnestly, Lu Jun felt a sour ache. “It won’t help. I change numbers all the time.” Like this one, switched a few days ago.
“Still gotta save it.” Li Dong glanced up. “At least you should have my contact. I won’t change my number. You can reach me anytime.”
Those lines rolled off his tongue like he’d said them for hundreds of years.
“As long as you’re happy.” Lu Jun squinted, full and content, like a small leopard after a meal. “Hey.” Under the table, he nudged Li Dong’s leg with his foot. “Why do you like me?”
Li Dong smiled at him. “Because you’ve got punch.”
Their gazes rippled with unspoken meaning. They both knew exactly what that meant.
Lu Jun stood, drank a mouthful of tea. “Bathroom. Wait here.” He didn’t feel at ease, and almost asked the guy to go with him, but swallowed it. Surname Pei was a grown man, not his kid. Clinging wasn’t Lu Jun’s style.
“Go on,” Li Dong nodded.
“I’ll be back fast.” Lu Jun felt like he had a toothache. Falling in love had stolen half his soul, he was constantly spaced out.
This bathroom trip took him three minutes.
“So fast?” Li Dong asked.
“Pay up. Let’s go,” Lu Jun said crisply. He pulled a wad of bills from his pocket and paid at the register.
His hand brushed the gun he’d hidden on him, and he felt a little steadier.
This fear of dying, he hadn’t felt it in a long time. He gave himself a self-mocking smile.
“Do we dare hold hands on the street?” He didn’t know what he was saying. He and Li Dong were standing very close.
“What’s there to be afraid of?” the man beside him said, and their palms tightened together.
At first it was just a normal handhold. Then, without noticing, their fingers laced.
The fresh, daring move made Lu Jun knead his chest to calm down.
He thought it was pretty great, being with this man.
“Give me a kiss.” Li Dong leaned in with a smile and pressed a few kisses to Lu Jun’s lips.
F**k…
They’d gone at it like animals that afternoon, and now he was getting riled up again.
Lu Jun despised himself, no resistance to Pei Shao’s beauty at all.
It was about nine at night. The streets were brightly lit with people coming and going.
When they turned into an alley in the old neighborhood, all that bustle was swallowed by the tall and squat old buildings.
“Mm…” Li Dong was pinned to a wall whose color he couldn’t even make out.
The little hellhound’s hands roamed up and down.
“Xiao Jun…” he called.
Lu Jun’s breath grew heavy by his ear. “Say it. Do you love me?” Like a little lion begging for attention, rubbing insistently.
“I do…” Li Dong said.
Dizzy with heat, he suddenly caught a flash of red on the wall, a laser dot. “Watch out!” He shoved Lu Jun’s head aside and pulled them both to the ground.
At the same instant, thwip, a bullet slammed into the wall where they’d just stood.
“F**k…” Lu Jun swore under his breath. His right hand snapped to his gun. “Don’t move. Stay down.”
They crouched behind a clump of plants, not daring to twitch.
If they exposed themselves and the sniper switched to spray fire, they were done.
“Do you have another gun?” Li Dong asked.
In a situation like this, Lu Jun didn’t have time to worry if his man would be scared. Still, that calm voice felt off.
This is a sniper, not CrossFire the game!
Lu Jun shot him a glare. “Stop making it worse.” In his head he made a snap decision. “Wait here. I’ll draw him off.”
“No.” Li Dong grabbed him and fished out another gun from his person. “I’ll count to three and we run west.” Going home was a bad idea; their address was very likely already burned.
“Which way’s west?” Lu Jun ground out.
“…That way.” Li Dong resignedly pointed. Great. A killer who didn’t know east from west. “One, two—”
Before he hit three, Li Dong suddenly rolled out.
“Pei—” Lu Jun’s eyes flew wide. His heart lurched. “Holy sh—” He simply wanted to kill someone!
So disobedient!
Li Dong’s movements were quick and clean.
Two bullet holes punched into the spot he’d just rolled past. He came up into a crouch and fired twice toward the origin of the shots.
The whole thing took no more than two seconds.
He’d trained for years to locate by sound.
He knew damn well whether those two shots hit.
“Move,” he said, rising. “We can’t stay.”
They’d gone only a few steps when something hard pressed between his shoulder blades. “Who exactly are you?” came Lu Jun’s cold voice from behind.
“Hey…” Li Dong felt the muzzle at his back and lifted his hands, half crying, half laughing. “Didn’t you already run a background check on me?”
When taking the job initially, he believed Lu Jun had investigated him completely.
“Your file never said you knew your way around a gun.” Lu Jun curled his lip, then lowered the weapon from Li Dong’s back. “Not the time. I’ll grill you later.”
Tsk, tsk.
His shooting was that good.
His heart seemed to settle down quite a bit.
At least when he wasn’t around… the man wouldn’t be easy prey.
“Alright.” Li Dong let out a guilty breath. “Ask me anything when the time comes, I’ll tell you.” Suddenly he didn’t want to hide those things anymore. After so many years, the pressure in his chest was stifling.
Given Lu Jun’s personality, maybe he’d be the right person to hear it.
His mental toughness meant he wouldn’t crack.
“That face says you’re hiding something big.” Lu Jun’s heart sank. He couldn’t accept this man having a wife and kids or some terminal illness. He’d better not hear anything like that.
Li Dong kept quiet. The two of them got into a cab one after the other, had it loop half the city, and ended up at a nondescript little hotel.
“I don’t care. Whatever crap you’ve got, deal with it yourself. Don’t dump it on me,” Lu Jun snapped. He headed straight for the shower as soon as they were in the room, stripping as he went.
Since the guy had agreed to be with him, he wasn’t letting go.
“Xiao Jun, where’s your head at?” Li Dong followed, amused. He thought he was a battle-hardened veteran, hard to faze, but one look at Lu Jun’s young, powerful body and his nose went hot. “I’ll join you.” His gaze darkened.
“Couldn’t ask for more.” Lu Jun sank into the kiss with his whole body.
The water poured over their heads in sheets, leaving their faces wet and shining, adding a slant of seduction to their handsome features.
Li Dong really did like Lu Jun. That surging, feral energy pounded his centuries-settled heart in all the right ways.
“Xiao Jun.” Even now, he hesitated. Should he tell him?
“Mm, old man…” Lu Jun kissed him and murmured, “What is it?”
If there were really a wife and kid, or a terminal diagnosis, he’d lose it.
“I’ll tell you in the middle of the night,” Li Dong said, hauling him out of the shower with kingly arrogance.
“Son of a—” Lu Jun was all too happy to be served, and every second after becoming officially not single felt brand new. “You mean you’re gonna screw me till midnight?”
Knees-weakening words.
“We’ll see,” Li Dong said with a roguish smile. At least before revealing the truth, he’d better wear the shou out of his mind, maybe that’d make it easier to accept?
“F**k…” Lu Jun couldn’t look at him for fear he’d get a nosebleed. “Am I stupid? Why do I trust you so much… mm…” Really like a moth to a flame, water in the brain.
But what could he do? He’d fallen in love with a man.
Tempest gathered, waves crashed.
When everything finally stilled, Li Dong pressed him down and met his eyes. “Have you ever doubted whether this world is real?”
He asked right after, while that rush was still in his blood.
“What?” Lu Jun looked at him.
“If I told you the world you live in is just a book someone else wrote, and you’re a character they made up…”
Lu Jun arched a brow and kicked the storyteller. Half angry, half amused. “That’s boring. Say something better.” Didn’t even know how to sweet-talk his boyfriend. Zero stars.
“If you don’t want to hear it, fine.” Li Dong sighed and hugged him hard. “Honestly, it doesn’t change how we live.” He muttered it, only that he felt choked up, with the strange sense they were approaching some end.
“Idiot. I love you,” Lu Jun said, cupping his face, then decided to drown him in kisses.
Author’s Note:
【Dr. Yu will appear very soon. There are five full chapters left!】
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