Droplets of still-wet water slid down the beauty’s body, tracing suggestive streaks across his clean, elegant muscle lines.
Seeing is sin, Li Zhao only glanced once before nervously looking away, and his gaze landed on the nightstand, right on the bottle of lubricant from last night, still uncapped.
***
Li Zhao hastily fled with his eyes to the nightstand on the other side.
The beauty let out a soft laugh. “We’ve already done it, and you’re still this shy. You’re adorable.”
“!” Li Zhao’s cheeks instantly flushed crimson. He swallowed, his Adam’s apple bobbing. “That… last night, we… I mean, did I…”
The beauty tilted his head, taking in all of Li Zhao’s reactions, and deliberately teased him. “You performed very well. Especially fierce.”
“…I…” Li Zhao had truly blacked out, he couldn’t remember anything about his own performance last night at all. And that wasn’t even what he wanted to ask now.
But this question was crucial. Braving the shame, Li Zhao forced himself to ask, “What I want to ask is, did I… um… mark you?”
“Oh, no, you didn’t,” the beauty replied with a smile. “We only had sex.”
With that, he leaned close and tilted his head to show Li Zhao the back of his neck. It was smooth and fair, with indeed no signs of having been bitten.
Li Zhao breathed a sigh of relief.
Marking an Omega was a matter of utmost importance to him, he certainly didn’t want to have done it while drunk.
“It’s getting late. I should go.”
The beauty rose from the bedside, walked around to the side he’d slept on, and picked up the clothes the two of them had tossed on the floor last night.
Li Zhao’s clothes he left in a pile at the foot of the bed, while he put on his own right in front of Li Zhao.
Watching him pull on a shirt and about to put on his pants, Li Zhao quickly looked away and asked, “You, you’re leaving already?”
“Mm. I have things to take care of,” the beauty answered succinctly.
“Then… then,” Li Zhao worked up his courage, “let’s exchange contact info. I… I still don’t even know your name.”
The beauty fell silent, and instead there came the rustling sounds of him getting dressed.
After waiting a good while without hearing an answer, Li Zhao could only tentatively turn to look, and caught the beauty turned sideways, head lowered as he loosely tucked the white shirt into his waistband.
From Li Zhao’s angle, the beauty’s waist was lean and full of strength, and the lines of it as he moved invited endless imagination.
The beauty finished dressing, smoothed his still-damp hair, then gave Li Zhao a deep look and answered with a smile, “Sure.”
After they exchanged phone numbers, Li Zhao gazed at the beauty expectantly. “So, um, what’s your name?”
“You slept with me and still don’t know my name, you’re so naughty,” the beauty teased him deliberately.
Li Zhao was a block of wood. He knew nothing about the flirting and bantering that went on between men, and thought the beauty was genuinely blaming him, so he hurriedly explained, “I’m sorry, I drank too much last night. I didn’t mean not to ask your name.”
The beauty laughed, reached out and took Li Zhao’s phone, and typed his name into it. When Li Zhao took it back and looked, he saw that the beauty’s name was Ouyang Pei.
“Jade wheels crushing dew dampen the round moonlight; phoenix pendants meet on the osmanthus-scented path.” Such a beautiful name, she truly lived up to it, as breathtakingly lovely as a fairy.
“Alright, I really have to go.” Ouyang Pei glanced at the time. “Li Zhao, see you around, if fate allows.”
Li Zhao had been about to get up and see her out, but Ouyang Pei seemed pressed for time, she was already out of the bedroom and nearly at the front door as she spoke so he could only sit up straight and call after her, “Okay, take care on the way. Mm, I’ll call you.”
The only answer was the sound of the door opening and closing.
The hotel room suddenly fell quiet. Li Zhao sat on the bed, and it took him several full minutes before he dared believe that everything that happened last night wasn’t a dream.
Brimming with excitement, Li Zhao stretched out his arm to grab the clothes at the foot of the bed, planning to get up, wash up, and check out.
But whether it was because he moved too abruptly or something else, Li Zhao suddenly felt a dull ache in his lower back and in a certain unspeakable spot behind making him let out a pained yelp and topple sideways onto the bed.
Li Zhao worked out regularly and was in decent shape, so it had been a long time since he’d felt this kind of bodily discomfort.
It was strange, and rather uncomfortable.
And as for the uncomfortable spot Li Zhao lay sprawled on the bed, unable to help thinking: the sore back was understandable, since, ahem, one’s back does the work during that sort of activity.
But what was with that other spot feeling off? Swollen and sore, hss but he shouldn’t have used that part last night either…
Li Zhao couldn’t figure it out no matter how he thought about it, so he decided to set it aside for now and do other things first.
And so, “disabled” in body but strong in spirit, Li Zhao got up from the bed and went to the bathroom to wash up.
Once he was ready, Li Zhao left the room with his phone in hand.
The discomfort behind him felt even more pronounced when walking, so Li Zhao had no choice but to slow his pace, inching his way into the elevator and down to the first-floor lobby.
He took his room card to the front desk. “Hello, I’d like to check out.”
“Of course, sir.” The receptionist smiled, took the card, scanned it into the computer, then said, “Sir, your room has already been paid for. I’ll just collect the room card.”
?
Li Zhao hadn’t expected Ouyang Pei to have already paid the bill. Considering the hotel looked fairly upscale, he asked, “How much was it?”
“Oh, the total was 3,568 yuan,” the receptionist answered earnestly, glancing at the screen. “The business suite was 3,199 yuan, the Zero-Distance brand Supreme Smooth lubricant was 369 yuan, and the condoms were oh, sorry, I misread. No condoms were used.”
“……………… Okay, got it!” Li Zhao lowered his voice and glanced around guiltily like a thief, but the lobby was bustling with people and no one was paying any particular attention to their corner, so he finally relaxed. “Um, thank you.”
With that, Li Zhao clutched his phone and hurried out of the hotel, head down, striding fast, gritting his teeth and bearing the pain tugging at his backside.
Fortunately, it was Sunday and Li Zhao didn’t have to work. By the time his taxi got him home, it was almost 11 a.m.
Dragging his hungover, aching body, he threw together a quick bowl of egg noodles in clear broth, and after eating, flopped onto the sofa to rest.
Li Zhao stared at Ouyang Pei’s number on his phone, hesitating over whether to call his darling beauty. After all, he had only just… ahem… with him last night, and they’d only parted ways that morning less than three hours ago, at most. Would calling so soon make him seem too clingy…
Li Zhao, who had little experience with romance, agonized over this for a long while before finally deciding to just send a text first, asking whether the beauty had finished his errands and had lunch yet.
He fussed over composing the message for ages, checked it several times for typos, and was just about to hit send when his phone suddenly rang, startling him so much his finger nearly pressed the button.
He drew a sharp breath, carefully exited the messaging screen, adjusted into a slightly more comfortable position, and only then answered the call.
“What’s up, Mo Mo?”
On the other end was Su Mo, a classmate of Li Zhao’s from the same major in university. After graduation, they had interviewed together and joined Tenglong Industrial, the largest chemical company in the country. Li Zhao had just been promoted to team leader of a project group this year, and Su Mo was one of his team members.
Su Mo was a petite, adorable Omega lively and playful by nature. Li Zhao had always treated him like a little brother and looked after him.
Since starting work, Su Mo had proven himself a smooth social operator. Beyond being Li Zhao’s team member, he had become the god of office gossip, constantly digging up company rumors from all over and sharing them with Li Zhao first thing.
Su Mo sounded half-asleep and listless as he said, “Zhao Zhao, I’ve got some tragic news for you, overtime this afternoon.”
“? I haven’t gotten any notice from Director Ge.” Li Zhao was puzzled. “And I already handed him the R&D report last Wednesday. He didn’t say there were any problems with it.”
Su Mo yawned. “I was drinking with a colleague from Quality Control yesterday. He told me old Director Qi is critically ill, the higher-ups are about to start infighting, and all in-progress projects are being suspended. Old Ge has probably caught wind of it too, so he wants to lock down this project before things get chaotic.”
This was the first Li Zhao had heard of this gossip, but judging by how well-informed Su Mo usually was, it was at least seventy percent likely to be true.
“But isn’t old Director Qi only in his sixties? He gave a speech on stage at last year’s annual party and looked pretty hale and hearty.” Li Zhao began to gossip in turn.
“Who knows? Maybe he’s overindulged and is all show, no substance.” Su Mo yawned again. “Anyway, just watch old Ge will definitely call you within the hour. That’s all for now, I need to get up and shower. I drank too much last night and went straight to bed, and my head is killing me today.”
“…”
Although Li Zhao felt exactly the same way right now, he was too embarrassed to say so, so he changed the subject. “Alright, go take care of your business. If Director Ge really does send out a notice, I’ll @ you all in the group chat.”
After hanging up, Li Zhao checked the message he’d composed for Ouyang Pei one more time, and only after confirming it was fine did he press send.
Once it was sent, Li Zhao clutched his phone, anxious yet full of anticipation, waiting for Ouyang Pei’s reply.
But before Ouyang Pei’s message arrived, there came Director Ge’s call.
Just as Su Mo had predicted, Director Ge told Li Zhao that the whole team was to come to the office that afternoon for a meeting to discuss revisions to the R&D report.
Li Zhao let out a silent wail of despair and replied, “Received.”
At 3 p.m., Li Zhao drove to the company.
When he went upstairs, most of his colleagues had already arrived. Su Mo was already sitting at his desk drinking coffee, and when he saw Li Zhao come in, he lazily greeted him.
“Mm.”
“Director Ge isn’t here yet?”
“Mm.”
“The meeting’s about to start. Pack up and head to the conference room.”
“Mm. Mm?” Su Mo’s eyes, which had been about to close, suddenly widened. He looked Li Zhao up and down with confusion and curiosity, then asked, “Did you throw out your back?”
At those words, Li Zhao’s already somewhat unnatural waist and hips instantly became even more awkward so awkward, in fact, that he could no longer pretend to walk normally. So he had no choice but to stop and lean against a desk as if by accident, saying with feigned nonchalance, “No, I didn’t. Why?”
Su Mo narrowed his eyes. “Zhao Zhao, when you lie, you wrinkle your nose, press your lips together, and touch your ear. And just now, when you said those six words, you did all three of those things almost simultaneously.”
“………………”
“So what exactly did you get up to last night?”
“I—I…” Li Zhao was so terrified he could barely get the words out. He “I”-ed for a long time without managing to come up with a story to cover his lie.
Fortunately, just as Li Zhao was getting so anxious that sweat was breaking out on his forehead, Director Ge arrived.
“Everyone, to the conference room. Let’s get the meeting started.”
Team leader Li Zhao, as if he’d heard the most beautiful sound in the world, immediately responded with utmost work enthusiasm: “Yes! Come on, everyone, let’s head to the conference room for the meeting!”
With that, he grabbed his laptop, notebook, and pen and led the way, striding briskly into the conference room first.