Amidst the playful teasing, Lin Jingsen rushed into the luxury restroom of the VIP box and quickly locked the door from the inside, cutting off the cheering and clamor outside.
He braced his hands against the cool sink, raised his head, and stared fixedly at himself in the mirror. His face was abnormally flushed, red all the way down to his neck, looking like a dog about to go into heat.
The dry, scorching itch crawled through his veins like ants.
He detested himself for being so out of control. He pulled a folding utility knife from his body, opened it, and lowered his head, slicing a cut into his palm without a moment’s hesitation.
Drip. Drip. Drip.
Blood from his palm dripped onto the floor. He put the knife away, tightened his jaw, and felt the pain temporarily suppress that wave of heat.
A few minutes later, a good amount of blood had been let, but the results were less than stellar.
Lin Jingsen took a deep breath, gave up on this method, and turned around to find a tie casually discarded on the sink.
He hesitated for a moment, but quickly grabbed it to briefly bandage himself and tied a knot.
After doing all this, Lin Jingsen turned around and backed against the bathroom wall, pressing his burning skin against the cool marble tiles. The glasses on his face also fogged up due to his increasingly rapid breathing.
His cranial nerves throbbed faintly, and dizziness and a bursting pain swept over and eroded his reason and body.
He forced the back of his head to slam backward against the wall.
Painful, but useless.
He immediately took a step forward, felt his way to the sink, took off his glasses, turned on the faucet, lowered his head, and blasted his face with cold water before reaching out to wipe the water off. He raised his eyes to look at his disheveled self in the mirror, lifted both hands, and fiercely slapped both sides of his face twice.
He had been set up.
Step by step, it was all calculated.
The fire in Lin Jingsen’s chest was like a gas leak, instantly filling the empty restroom and nearing the limit of explosion. And his physical body was no less affected. His muscles were tense, and the capillaries across every inch of his flushed skin were on the verge of static electricity, sparking with a deadly fire.
He breathed with a tremble and took a few steps forward, wanting to turn on the showerhead, only to find there was no switch at all. He groped around and twisted a screw-like thing similar to a mixing valve, but still, there was no water.
Damn it! Damn it! Damn it!
He turned around, leaned his head back against the cool wall once more, closed his eyes, took a deep breath, and plunged into endless, surging endurance.
By the time he was enduring to the point of nearly exploding, he was already somewhat out of his mind. He pulled out that same dagger again, looked down at his own little buddy against the cold white light of the restroom, and just as the cold touch was about to brush against it, a knock sounded at the door, startling him into instant sobriety.
“It’s been almost half an hour, what’s your situation? Are you in there cutting diamonds?” Su Lixia’s impatient and snide voice penetrated through the door panel.
“I can’t come out right now.” Lin Jingsen kept a deadpan face, immediately stepped forward, turned on the faucet again, and doused his head with cold water.
With his wet hair and eyes closed, he said in a muffled voice, “Sorry, I can’t come out just yet.”
Cut your damn self!
Lin Jingsen held the dagger, aimed it at the empty space beneath the shadow of the man outside the door, raised his hand to make a slashing motion into the void, and then leaned back limply, walking over to stand beside the bathtub as he coldly unbuckled his belt.
Su Lixia asked offhandedly, changed direction, switched to another restroom to let the water run, and walked back. Whatever foxes, rabbits, or little wolf dogs there were, he had them all dismissed along with Xue Pi, who was left speechless and hesitant.
He took off his leather shoes and went barefoot all by himself, leaning against the sofa backrest, tilting his head up to casually call out into the empty air.
“9526, get me a substitute contract. Party A shall be called Xia Li, and Party B is Lin Jingsen. Half a year, with Party B providing substitute services to pay off a three-million-dollar debt.”
A simulated chibi blue-haired mini robot, which had been on silent standby and stood only as high as his calf, slid out of its standby bay in the corner on a self-balancing scooter.
“Young Master, this kind of contract is not protected by federal law, and you did not use your real name.”
Su Lixia lowered his head and cast a sidelong glance at it. “One more word of nonsense, and I’ll throw you back to the Su family to watch the dogs.”
9526’s eyes instantly turned into dynamic, flashing beaded-pouch eyes as it hurriedly rolled back a step in a respectful manner. “Understood, Young Master. The electronic version of the contract has been sent to your phone.”
He received the electronic agreement, took a look, and edited a few spots with meticulous pickiness until even 9526’s electronic voice was rendered speechless, finally changing it back to the first version.
Su Lixia asked about the time, and upon hearing that another ten-plus minutes had passed, his brow furrowed deeply. “At this rate, his skin is going to peel off, right? I knew that money-obsessed half-baked medical student who only knows how to flirt with men couldn’t be relied upon.”
With a cold face, he stood up, walked back to the restroom door, and kicked it with his foot.
“Hey, what’s your situation? Should I call a doctor for you?”
Lin Jingsen’s voice, muffled through a layer of water vapor, drifted out. “No need, I can handle it myself.”
“Huh? So that means you cannot?” Su Lixia took out his phone. “I’m calling a doctor.”
Before his voice faded, the door was suddenly flung open violently from the inside. A half-naked, dripping wet figure gazed at him coldly, and underneath, the lower garments covered… Holy shit!
Su Lixia almost dropped his phone. Was this a pink diamond? This must be a glowing red poker iron by now!
Lin Jingsen, Lin, Jing, Sen. With five woods and one fire in this name, it certainly wasn’t given in vain.
Why call him Lin Jingsen? Just call him Fire Poker instead.
“No need.” Lin Jingsen still had droplets of water clinging to his tightly furrowed brow, his upper body drenched with a shirt plastered against his skin, faintly revealing that despite looking rather thin, he actually had muscles.
Su Lixia smoothly put away his phone, looked up at him, and a quirky smile floated on his face. “Then what are you going to use?”
When Lin Jingsen lowered his head, his gaze unconsciously fixed on a mole on Su Lixia’s right collarbone. His head felt dizzy and heavy, and his throat tightened when he opened his mouth, as if scorched by sparks across a vast, barren wilderness.
Su Lixia only now realized that the other man was a few centimeters taller than his own height of over one meter eighty. The man looked down at him slightly, with wet, messy black hair, eyes that lacked focus after taking off his glasses and stared blankly at him, and then his gaze drifted downward to those crimson, wet, thin lips.
He looked quite smart, yet right now his IQ seemed offline, and even after being asked a question, he didn’t make a sound for a long time.
“I’m asking you, Lin Jingsen.”
The other man suddenly turned around stiffly, turning his back to him as he walked inward. “You, you leave first.”
“Leave? Leave for where?” Su Lixia frowned. “I live here.”
The other man marched inward head-down like a short-circuited AI robot, completely acting as if he couldn’t hear a word he said.
“Lin Jingsen!” He shouted his name again, irritated.
Only to discover that the guy actually walked over to the sink, felt around for his glasses to put them back on, and then started putting on his coat and zipping his pants, his earlobes already burned red down to his neck. “Then I’ll leave.”
So he did hear him.
Turns out he was just putting up a brave front.
“No wait, I haven’t even said anything yet, and you’re the one throwing a temper tantrum at me.” Su Lixia reached out to press down on the hand pulling up his pants, chuckling as he lowered his head to take a look. “Did you forget what kind of place this is? If you just swagger out like this, aren’t you afraid of being pinned against a wall and played with by whoever’s going wild out there?”
Lin Jingsen frowned. “Impossible.” He uttered a denial, yet a rare trace of doubt appeared on his face.
Su Lixia was so amused by this expression that he couldn’t help laughing. He stepped forward and leaned directly down close to his lips, so close that he could perceive Lin Jingsen’s abruptly halted breathing.
So close it was as if he might kiss him.
Lin Jingsen turned his head away by reflex. Su Lixia, who had originally just wanted to tease him, cast a displeased glance at him with a half-smile.
“Isn’t this quite effortless? Tch.”
Lin Jingsen suddenly stiffened, his expression turning quite ugly. He quickly clenched Su Lixia’s hand, lowered his gaze, and glared at him with a cold warning.
Su Lixia’s eyes held a smile, not taking the other’s glare seriously at all. Even though his hand was being gripped tightly, the smile in the depths of his eyes remained thoroughly provocative.
He leaned in closer on purpose, laughing in a low voice. “In this setting and scenario, I’d like to compose a poem.”
Lin Jingsen looked at his dark, bright, smiling eyes, and the fire poker being gripped by someone gave a twitch.
Su Lixia looked slightly surprised, then the corners of his mouth hooked up slightly as he lowered his already pleasing voice.
“The trees of fire blend with silver flowers; the iron locks of the star-bridge open wide.”
Lin Jingsen was startled, not understanding what he meant, when he heard his voice slip into his ear like a little hook. “You are that fire tree, and I am that silver flower. Who knows, in a moment, every single path of yours will be accessible, and all the iron locks will swing wide open for me to come…”
This remark was far too full of subtle metaphors and imagery. Given that Lin Jingsen’s body was already exceptionally sensitive right now, he instantly realized what kind of obscene talk this was. He felt both angry and annoyed, forcing himself to suppress his bodily reactions as he raised his eyes to glare fixedly at him, gritting his teeth.
“What on earth did you slip into my drink?”
“Good stuff, of course.” Su Lixia rode the wave, threw another log on the fire, raised an eyebrow, and smiled. “What do you think it could be?”
Lin Jingsen’s handsome face instantly darkened, and he grabbed the reverse of Su Lixia’s hand. “The antidote.”
Knowing that Lin Jingsen had misunderstood, Su Lixia decided to play along and smiled mischievously. “How could there be an antidote for this kind of thing? Just sleep it off.”
“Besides, didn’t I personally make you feel comfortable? If you didn’t look like him, you wouldn’t have this kind of treatment.” He suddenly remembered the substitute act and deliberately dropped the provocative remark.
Lin Jingsen abruptly raised his head, his dark-as-pitch eyes gazing at him, a gloomy fire swaying within the pupils behind his glasses.
Su Lixia was taken aback for a moment, his hand unconsciously exerting force.
Lin Jingsen let out an involuntary muffled grunt, already unable to stop. Slowly, he tilted his head back, his bobbing Adam’s apple facing Su Lixia’s face.
Soon, a layer of white mist clouded Lin Jingsen’s glasses once more, his body instinctively moving forward and backward following Su Lixia’s rhythm, over and over, advancing and retreating, crossing the tense, straight-male dividing line inside his heart.
Su Lixia wasn’t really all that deep in the grips of lust. Amidst the hot steam, his smiling eyes gradually turned cold and distant as he calmly observed, watching every single detailed expression of Lin Jingsen, watching him suppress his muffled groans while clumsily stumbling forward and backward like a block of wood.
Real, vibrant, and burning, poles apart from him, as different as day and night.
Su Lixia’s fingertips were slightly damp. Realizing that he had indeed actually used his hand to help him out, a trace of surprise flashed across the bottom of his heart.
“Seeing that you enjoyed it so much, care to make it for real?” he asked casually, the corners of his mouth still holding a smile.
Lin Jingsen wore only a pair of fogged-up glasses, feeling it still wasn’t enough. He closed his eyes, tilted his head back and away, his whole body reeking of gloom. After a long while, with a hoarse voice, he asked, “You smoked that cigarette too, why are you fine?”
Hearing this, Su Lixia smiled and said, “Smoked too much of it, don’t feel a thing anymore. Unlike you, a sensitive virgin.”
Just as Su Lixia finished speaking, he noticed the fire poker was sensitive again.
Speechless, he stepped forward, freed one hand, and casually flicked the shower switch. A large sheet of bone-chilling cold water instantly cascaded from overhead, dousing Lin Jingsen right on top of his head.
Su Lixia sacrificed a thousand of his own men to destroy eight hundred of the enemy, and his 188,000-dollar suit was written off on the spot.
The white mist on Lin Jingsen’s glasses was washed away by the cold water, his vision gradually clearing up as he saw the man before him clearly.
Without giving him time to react, Su Lixia stepped forward, pinned Lin Jingsen against the wall, pressed right against his glasses, and forcefully kissed his lips.
Lin Jingsen froze instantly, then raised his eyes to see the other man deliberately sticking out the tip of his tongue to lick around his lips with a sly smile.
“Contract established, effective immediately.”
“Lin Jingsen, you’re my person now.”
Lin Jingsen stood frozen in place, his lips stinging and tingling slightly, while his subconscious told him it was already too late.