Lin Jinsen received the notification, lowered his head to look at his phone, and furrowed his brows slightly. Even so, he put away his firearms, stepped out of the indoor training ground, and walked as agreed toward the direction behind the shooting range.
Along the way, the late-spring wind swept in carrying scattered, delicate cherry blossom petals. Amidst a sea of pink and white, he paused, his gaze fixing upon the figure beneath the tree, guided by the swirling cherry blossoms.
Su Lixia’s brownish-red tousled locks were slightly ruffled by the wind, with his sunglasses resting casually on top of his head, revealing sharp and rebellious features. A grey utility jacket hung loosely over his shoulders, paired with a vintage graphic inner layer that looked effortless and untamed, while washed-blue flared jeans accentuated his tall and relaxed frame.
Scattered cherry blossoms drifted down onto his shoulders and the tips of his hair in flurries. As the wind lifted his hem, the layered delicate chains chimed and swayed gently with his movements.
He paused. He wasn’t wearing that lychee gemstone pendant from last night.
Yet, even with such a relaxed, casual street style, he had somehow managed to get inside the notoriously rigorous Hollman Military Academy.
He walked over.
“How did you get in?” Lin Jinsen asked.
Su Lixia had his hands clasped behind his back, leaning against the tree. Hearing the question, he tilted his head and smiled lightly. “I said I came to find my boyfriend.”
Lin Jinsen’s face turned icy. He suppressed his displeasure, his voice dropping a few degrees colder. “What do you want with me?”
“Don’t forget our contract. Do I need a reason to look for you?”
Su Lixia raised his eyes lazily, looking Lin Jinsen up and down. Hollman’s military academy uniforms were known for their tailored fit and exquisite details, looking handsome, authoritative, and deeply fashionable all at once. The primary color scheme leaned toward field grey, iron grey, or dark green, creating a striking contrast between the cool tones and metallic accessories that conveyed both the ruthless vibe of a battlefield and a steady, capable composure.
Even the military cap he wore possessed a sharp brim and a smooth crown arc, which only served to make his features look deeper and his presence vastly more intense once put on.
“Not bad. Today’s look is way more handsome than that waiter uniform of yours from last night.”
“Hey, how come you aren’t wearing your glasses?” Su Lixia feigned confusion. “Though if you’re nearsighted, how on earth did you pass your school’s physical exam?”
Having his bluff called, Lin Jinsen pressed his thin lips together and remained silent.
That ugly, dark pair of glasses was originally meant to block out the ill-intentioned guests at the club when necessary.
Su Lixia loved the sight of him biting back his frustration. He intentionally locked his gaze onto Lin Jinsen’s dark eyes, staring deep and long until Lin Jinsen self-consciously averted his gaze, whereupon Su Lixia immediately picked a fight with a displeased tone:
“Don’t turn your face away. Once you turn, you don’t look like him anymore.”
Lin Jinsen fell silent for two seconds, turned his head back with a blank expression, and let out a cold scoff. “Why don’t you just print out a picture and hold it to look at all day long?”
“How did you know I’ve done that?” Su Lixia held back a laugh, feigning astonishment.
Lin Jinsen felt numb.
“Are you mute? Speak!” Su Lixia furrowed his brows slightly, dissatisfied with his silent protest.
“What do you want me to say?” Lin Jinsen caught sight of a petal landing on Su Lixia’s shoulder and asked indifferently.
Su Lixia loved seeing this reluctant expression on a man who had no choice but to obey him. He took a step forward, closed the distance, and stared brightly into his eyes, their breathing tangling together.
Lin Jinsen paused, then saw Su Lixia flash him a secretive smile and heard him say:
“Just say: Brother, I’ve missed you.”
He stiffened, his nose twitching slightly as his brows locked together. He had no idea what high-end body wash this young master used, but the scent seemed baked right into him, faint yet elusive. The moment they closed the distance, it drifted into his nostrils like an uninvited ghost, carrying the exact same scent as last night’s lethal cigar.
Lin Jinsen immediately took a step back to put some distance between them, instinctively holding his breath as he shot a warning look with his eyes. “You want to try the exact same trick twice?”
“What?” Su Lixia didn’t catch his meaning, assuming he was simply too thin-skinned to say the words out loud. He urged him impatiently, “Say it.”
With a look of humiliation, Lin Jinsen stared at him and repeated word for word: “Brother, I’ve missed you.”
“Hey, brother missed you to death too.” Having successfully achieved his goal of teasing the other man, Su Lixia’s mood soared even higher. “You have to call me that from now on, understand?”
Seeing the man’s expression darken further, he grew even more emboldened to push his luck. “If you’re not used to calling me that, you can call me Brother Xia instead.”
“I’m used to it.” Swallowing down a surge of pent-up frustration, Lin Jinsen gritted his teeth and replied.
“Good.” Su Lixia said, stretching out his hand forward. “Now hold my hand.”
Lin Jinsen frowned. “We’re still at school.”
“What of it? Students at your school aren’t allowed to date?” Su Lixia let out a wicked, snorting laugh, waving his hand in front of him. “Do you know that just insuring this pair of hands costs tens of millions? Letting a kid like you hold them means you’re profiting, and you’re still not happy about it?”
Lin Jinsen endured it, reached forward, and grasped his hand in a firm grip.
To his surprise, it felt very cold.
Su Lixia had expected him to drag his feet and show reluctance so he could needle him a bit more. He hadn’t expected him to just reach out directly.
Taken aback when a warm palm covered the back of his hand, Su Lixia instinctively wanted to pull away, but forced himself to endure.
“Why is your hand so burning hot? It’s bad enough that thing feels like a poker iron, why is your hand also…” Feeling uncomfortable with the back of his hand being gripped like that, he tried to turn his palm over to take the upper hand, only for Lin Jinsen to tighten his grip, ruthlessly pressing his wrist down and leaving him with no room to flip it.
“What are you doing?” he demanded with a frown.
Wearing a smile that didn’t reach his eyes, Lin Jinsen gripped his hand and pulled him right along as he walked. “Just as you wished, holding hands.”
When Su Lixia used to date people, to put it bluntly, it was merely wearing the title of a boyfriend while tossing them a card whenever convenient. He rarely sought out physical contact, and genuinely detested it.
Cleaning him up last night was already an exception, but now, in broad daylight, the two of them walking down a cherry-blossom-lined path holding hands like this felt too wholesome and pure, making it rather awkward instead.
“Where are you taking me?” Su Lixia didn’t shake off the hand because doing so would make him look like he was afraid of the guy. Swallowing his pride, he let himself be dragged along.
After marching forward for dozens of paces while tightly holding his hand in silence, Lin Jinsen stopped and looked back at him. “That’s for you to answer.”
Seeing this suicidal expression on him, Su Lixia felt a strong urge to provoke him further. Hooking his fingers to pull him close, he leaned in and signaled with his eyes. “Don’t tell me you don’t know what this place is best used for.”
Lin Jinsen looked down at him and caught the scent of lychee again. Tilting his chin slightly to keep a distance from his face, he asked nonchalantly, “What for?”
Su Lixia suddenly stood on his tiptoes, leaned in, and planted a quick kiss on Lin Jinsen’s cheek before immediately retreating backward, looking triumphantly pleased with himself. “Stealing a kiss, of course.”
Lin Jinsen froze for a split second, his pupils constricting sharply. Looking up at him in disbelief, he reacted on pure reflex by tightening his grip on the hand he had never let go of, yanking the kiss-stealer violently back and crashing him straight against his chest.
Su Lixia was dazed by the impact, a sharp pain shooting through his right hand. “What are you doing?”
“You breached the contract.” Lin Jinsen glared with deep aversion at his lips, articulating every single word with heavy, gritted emphasis.
“Breached the contract? Ha!” Su Lixia raised an eyebrow in defiance, looking as though he had just heard a hilarious joke. “Our contract states we can’t do that, but it didn’t say anything about not doing other things!”
Lin Jinsen stalled, instantly realizing the other person was just playing word games and exploiting a loophole in the contract.
This guy was utterly shameless!
Just as their words fell, sounds of passionate kissing and wet slaps echoed loudly from the dense cherry blossom grove nearby.
Even Su Lixia, who had just been cracking jokes, felt a sudden wave of awkwardness.
To make matters worse, one of the participants in the heat of the moment cried out passionately: “Brother! Drive it into me! Pound, pound me hard…”
“Are you feeling good when brother fucks you?”
“Ah, ah, fuck, fucking amazing, brother is the king of fucks!”
Foul language drilled straight into their ears.
Worldly and experienced as Su Lixia was, remembering that he had just forced someone else to call him brother, he felt a cringe so intense his toes curled inside his shoes.
Lin Jinsen felt awkward as well, but seeing someone else even more mortified than him actually steadied his nerves. He leaned in close to the ear of Su Lixia, who had instinctively shrunk back and dared not make a sound, and asked in a low voice:
“Brother, why did your voice stop?”
The voice of a teenager past his voice-break was clear, pleasant to the ear, and carried a magnetic timbre. Sounding right next to his ear so suddenly, it sent a tingling wave of numbness through him.
Su Lixia’s ear suddenly began to itch. He stepped back, lifted his eyes, and glared viciously at him.
Subconsciously lowering his voice with a trace of bitter resentment, he offered a cold scoff. “Say what? You aren’t giving me any anyway.”
Hearing that, a dark shadow crossed Lin Jinsen’s eyes. Staring down at him, he sneered, “Since you like it so much, why don’t you go over and join them?”
Su Lixia was nearly laughed to anger. He spun around, grabbed Lin Jinsen’s uniform collar, pulled himself close to his adam’s apple, and sank his teeth straight into it without a hint of hesitation!
“Ugh!” Lin Jinsen let out a muffled groan of pain, reaching out to yank him away. He saw Su Lixia pull back with blood-stained lips, staring up at him with a smile.
“Compared to strangers, I’m much more interested in your body. If you won’t let me do it, I can only bite instead.” Su Lixia wiped the corner of his mouth with his finger.
He glanced up at Lin Jinsen’s adam’s apple, where a bleeding bite mark now sat.
When Lin Jinsen had pulled him away just now, he had deliberately flicked his tongue across the mark, clearly feeling the other’s body tense up for a fraction of a second. Having won this round back, Su Lixia curved his lips in satisfaction.
“Lunatic.” Holding a hand over his adam’s apple and seeing the blood on his fingers, Lin Jinsen furrowed his brows deeply. Looking at Su Lixia, who was smiling after biting someone, the aversion in the depths of his heart grew even stronger.
Su Lixia was indifferent to the evaluation. He simply grabbed his collar again and turned to walk out along the path by the lake.
“You’re not allowed to call me brother anymore from now on.” Walking along, the memory of what happened earlier made him give a chilled warning.
Being dragged along, Lin Jinsen had no choice but to lower his head, looking down at the arrogant person in front of him, who still had a cherry blossom petal clinging to his brownish-red tousled hair.
His brows furrowed tightly. Why did these flowers keep falling on him?
“Then I’ll keep calling you Xia Li.” Lin Jinsen said.
Hearing that fake name, Su Lixia let out a cold laugh, spun around with one hand to sharply yank down the other’s head, thrust his face right up close, and narrowed his gorgeous phoenix eyes:
“Call me Young Master.”
Forced to lower his gaze, Lin Jinsen stared down at the all-bark-and-no-bite pretty man, a flicker of a cold sneer flashing in his eyes as his thin lips parted:
“Young Master.”
Just as Su Lixia let out a breath of relief, he heard that unruly imposter ask him:
“Does that old acquaintance of yours whom I’m standing in for call you that too?”