“Using a trick from two years ago to deal with my younger brother…”
“Do you think I look good… wait!”
Warm yellow light instantly flooded the entire suite. Shu Qiao stood at the bathroom door, dumbfounded, the sweet and soft voice he had just forced out instantly catching in his throat.
How had the person sitting on the sofa changed to someone else?!
Shu Qiao’s brain let out a “buzz,” as if struck heavily by a sledgehammer, and blood instantly rushed to the top of his head.
“Pei Jinghe!”
The man was wearing a meticulously tailored black shirt, his cuffs rolled up to his elbows, revealing a section of clean-cut, sharp forearms. He sat on the edge of the bed, his long legs casually crossed, holding Pei Du’s phone and lowering his head to swipe across the screen.
“What, very surprised? Using a trick from two years ago now to deal with my younger brother?”
Pei Jinghe stood up and walked toward Shu Qiao, stepping forward like a dangerous large carnivorous animal closing in on its prey. He was even a few centimeters taller than Pei Du, broad-shouldered and long-legged, encased in a well-fitted dark gray suit.
The overhead light cast a cold, hard shadow across his profile, creating an oppressive pressure that made Shu Qiao momentarily forget how to breathe.
“N-No… why are you here?!”
Shu Qiao subconsciously took half a step back, his foot slipping so he nearly fell, and hastily grabbed the wall to steady himself. The rabbit ears on top of his head tilted to one side from the movement, and the cotton tail behind him wagged comically.
No one could possibly maintain their composure upon discovering that the wealthy sugar daddy they were about to hook had been swapped out for their ex-boyfriend!
Shu Qiao wanted to cry without tears. What on earth was going on, ?
His thoughts pulled back to a moment before, at the academy’s mixer.
The night breeze was crisp and clear. Shu Qiao leaned against the railing, his gaze cutting through the surging crowd and locking onto the figure by the bar.
Pei Du. His finance major roommate, whose family made their fortune in import and export trade, a classic “old money” successor.
The label Shu Qiao had stuck on him was: foolish, wealthy, and easily manipulated.
The timing was about right. Seeing Pei Du flushed from drinking, Shu Qiao smoothed his wind-blown hair and walked toward his target.
“Qiaoqiao, you’re so pretty.” Pei Du squinted and smiled as soon as he saw Shu Qiao, his arm familiarly wrapping around his back, “I can’t get enough of looking at you.”
“Hey, you’ve had too much to drink.”
Shu Qiao was a head shorter than Pei Du, making it easy for him to be pulled into an embrace, exuding the gentleness and vulnerability of a harmless, domesticated small animal.
He raised his face, his tone tinged with a trace of worry, “Shall I take you upstairs to rest?”
The first floor was a restaurant booked out for the school club mixer, and the upper floors were hotel guest rooms.
“Alright, alright… I am a bit drunk… Qiaoqiao, you smell so good.”
Pei Du was too drunk to speak clearly, holding the pretty and slender boy in his arms and simply grinning stupidly.
“Be a little careful, oh.” Shu Qiao laboriously supported his arm, acting like a friendly classmate.
Only while the elevator was ascending was he pondering another matter.
Pei Du should still be useful, right?
Shu Qiao stared at the rapidly rising numbers, calculating his next steps.
They swiped the card and entered the room. Shu Qiao laid Pei Du down on the sofa, where the other let out a murmur, rolled over, and didn’t even have the strength to open his eyes.
Shu Qiao felt somewhat reassured. He tiptoed quietly out of the room, and when he returned, he was carrying a paper bag.
The hem of the ultra-short skirt barely covered the tops of his thighs, and the back featured a crisscross strap design that exposed almost his entire spine.
Shu Qiao adjusted the rabbit ear headband in front of the bathroom mirror. The lace trim of the ultra-short skirt just barely covered his upper thighs, and the fluffy white tail behind him swayed gently with his movements.
Pei Du liked role-playing, his alternative Instagram account followed a bunch of cosers. Shu Qiao found this out from Pei Du’s ex-girlfriend. That girl had been furious when they broke up and published all of Pei Du’s peculiar hobbies in a PDF file online.
Shu Qiao had memorized it word-for-word with the same spirit he used for final exam preparation, knowing it even better than his professional course key points.
He adjusted his expression in front of the mirror, his brows curved, thick and dark eyelashes curled upward, his gaze innocent and seductive, and his full, reddish lips parted slightly, vaguely revealing the pink tip of his tongue.
Shu Qiao was very satisfied, raised his hand, and pushed open the bathroom door,
The person he expected did not appear. Instead, he collided head-on with Pei Jinghe’s deep gaze.
“Drugging my brother, bringing him here, and dressing like this,” Pei Jinghe said in a low voice, his narrow eyes fixed intently on Shu Qiao, “What are you trying to do?”
Shu Qiao’s soul was practically scared out of his body, his tongue tied: “Y-You… your brother, I didn’t know, I didn’t know Pei Du was… your brother.”
“Is that so?” Pei Jinghe was calm and composed, wearing an expression of having waited here for a long time, his tone devoid of emotion, “Then did you know why Pei Du happened to get drunk tonight? Why it happened to be this room?”
Shu Qiao froze, his mind spinning rapidly.
“I asked you.” Pei Jinghe stepped forward.
“I-I really didn’t know…”
No, why did he only know two people named裴 (Pei) in his entire life, and why did they have to be brothers!
Why did heaven really treat him like its grandson to bully?
“I wasn’t trying to do anything! We’re, we’re roommates, and I’m wearing… this is normal clothing! Do you believe me, Ge, when I say there was no bad guidance…”
“Normal clothing?” Pei Jinghe raised an eyebrow, his gaze slowly sweeping from the tilted rabbit ears on Shu Qiao’s head, past his bare shoulders and taut short skirt, and finally landing on his slightly trembling, slender white legs.
“Then why don’t you wear this ‘normal clothing’, walk out that door right now, and take a lap around the hallway?”
Shu Qiao’s pupils dilated in shock.
“Otherwise,” Pei Jinghe leisurely shook his phone, “I’ll call the police and report you for plotting against my younger brother.”
“Don’t!”
Shu Qiao’s face turned pale, and he was on the verge of tears.
If he really walked out like that, he’d be on the social news tomorrow! A certain university student wears bizarre clothes in a hotel, suspected of mental abnormality, complete with high-definition unedited photos.
He could almost picture his counselor’s heartbroken expression, along with the even more ferocious attitude of his creditors should they come looking for him.
No way! Inadvertently occupying public resources.
“I…” Shu Qiao opened his mouth pitifully, “I was wrong… Mr. Pei, Brother Pei, please spare me…”
While crying pitifully, his brain spun at top speed, and as one plan failed, another was born.
“I just, I just heard Pei Du say he liked photography, so I wanted him to help me take a set of photobooks, no other meaning at all…”
In short, whatever else happened, he must not let them call the police and arrest him.
“Photobooks?” Pei Jinghe sounded as though he had heard a joke. He stood up and walked closer step by step. “Dressed like this to take them?”
“Mm!” Shu Qiao nodded with a hardened scalp, forcing his gaze to look sincere and innocent.
Pei Jinghe stopped right in front of him, close enough for Shu Qiao to smell the faint hint of perfume on him.
“Did you take a fancy to him, or did you take a fancy to his money?”
Shu Qiao’s pitiful expression paused.
“Your gambling father, running-away mother, and sick grandmother,” Pei Jinghe recited in a flat tone as if reading Shu Qiao’s specification manual, “You’ve already told people that a hundred times over. It’s been two years, and you haven’t even made up any new lines?”
Shu Qiao was left speechless.
Some parts were true, while others had been made up on the spot, he had long forgotten the specific details, never expecting the other man to remember them so clearly.
“I can’t let you corrupt my brother.” Pei Jinghe reached out, his fingertips brushing against the rabbit ears on Shu Qiao’s head.
“What’s more,” his voice suddenly dropped lower, carrying a sort of dangerous playfulness, “this little rabbit was mine to begin with.”
Shu Qiao felt as though he’d been chilled by something freezing cold, making his hair stand on end.
“So, I’ll give you two choices.”
Pei Jinghe leaned down slightly, his warm breath brushing past Shu Qiao’s ear.
“Drop out of school, or, ”
His fingers traced from the rabbit ear down to Shu Qiao’s cheek, his calloused thumb brushing away the pitiful tear tracks at the corner of Shu Qiao’s eye.
“Let me take care of you.”
Shu Qiao looked up at him, his heartbeat skipping a beat.
He was very familiar with this look.
Two years ago, during their long-distance online relationship, Pei Jinghe looked at him with that exact gaze, focused, intense, and scalp-tingling.
Only back then, separated by a screen, that kind of aggressiveness had been blurred. Standing face-to-face now, Shu Qiao clearly felt as though that gaze possessed physical substance, sliding across his skin with a burning sense of possessiveness.
Possessiveness!
Shu Qiao’s heart gave a violent leap, and he calculated rapidly.
Pei Jinghe was even wealthier than Pei Du…
Shu Qiao glanced sideways at the watch on his wrist, just that single watch could buy an apartment, while Pei Du’s allowance was petty cash in comparison.
A pie fell from the sky, and it was even gold-plated!
Almost instinctively, tears still hanging on his face, he immediately switched to an expression full of lingering attachment.
“I choose the second one…”
Shu Qiao mumbled, his fingers tentatively gripping the hem of Pei Jinghe’s trousers.
Pei Jinghe’s eyes darkened further.
Taking advantage of the momentum, Shu Qiao squeezed out two more tears. “Actually, actually I’ve never been able to forget you… I was just playing around with everyone else, you’re the only one who was real.”
He raised his face, his eye corners flushed red, his rabbit ears tilting to one side, looking thoroughly wretched and pitiful, yet emitting a deliberately crafted temptation.
Even as he said the words, he felt unsure in his heart. But Pei Jinghe seemed very receptive to it.
His fingers remained on Shu Qiao’s face, his thumb gently rubbing Shu Qiao’s lower lip.
“Is that so?” Pei Jinghe’s voice dropped a fraction lower. “Then let me see how much you missed me.”
Shu Qiao immediately had a bad premonition.
“Since you say you love me, I’ll believe you weren’t up to no good with my brother,” Pei Jinghe nonchalantly took out his phone, “And I’ll believe you two just wanted to take photobooks. Now that he’s gone, I’ll take over for him instead. Any problem?”
“…No.”
Shu Qiao nodded dryly, hearing Pei Jinghe say:
“Then let’s begin.”
“The tail. Face the camera.”
A wave of humiliation washed over him like a tide. Shu Qiao closed his eyes and buried his face into the soft carpet, the fur brushed against his cheeks with a slight itch, but even itchier was that fluffy tail behind him, swaying gently with his movements.
The hem of the pink short skirt rubbed against the dark carpet, making a faint rustling sound.
Pei Jinghe’s breathing paused imperceptibly.
The lens greedily captured every detail.
The pink flush pressed into the carpet by his knees, his slender waist glowing white under the light, and the fluffy fur of the rabbit tail shivering slightly with each tremble.
The light hit him from the side, Shu Qiao’s eyelashes were wet, and the flush at the corners of his eyes revealed a fragile, decadent beauty. Pei Jinghe stared at the screen, his Adam’s apple bobbing as his gaze grew increasingly dark.
“That’s enough.”
Shu Qiao was practically exhausted, kneeling on the floor with tearful eyes, his nose covered in cold sweat.
Pei Jinghe walked up to him and squatted down, bringing their line of sight almost level.
Shu Qiao saw himself in the other’s eyes, his hair messy, still wearing those foolish rabbit ears on his head.
Pei Jinghe stared at him for a moment before suddenly reaching out and pulling him up from the floor.
The movement wasn’t gentle, Shu Qiao stumbled, colliding into his embrace.
“Not bad performance.” Pei Jinghe reached out to pinch his chin, his thumb pressing onto wet lips. “I’m very satisfied.”
“Thank you, no wait!”
Amidst the spinning world, he was pressed down onto the sofa, the genuine leather fabric chilling his bare skin.
A kiss fell, overbearing and fierce. Shu Qiao obediently opened his mouth, his lower lip nibbled by teeth with moderate pressure, his tongue teased and entangled, saliva slowly sliding down the corners of his mouth which he was unable to close.
“Mm! Ge, lighter…”
Shu Qiao’s slightly upturned eye corners could soften anyone’s heart, his voice sounding pitiful, yet his hands proactively wrapped around Pei Jinghe’s neck.
“Who are you calling Ge?” Pei Jinghe bit his neck, his teeth finely grinding across the skin, leaving a slight stinging sensation. “When you deleted me two years ago, weren’t you pretty tough?”
“…” Shu Qiao sensibly shut his mouth and focused on cooperating.
Sleeping with someone was sleeping with someone anyway, sleeping with the older brother was a much better deal than sleeping with the younger one!
Pei Jinghe consistently maintained the ease of a controller, as if everything was within his expectations.
Shu Qiao’s rabbit ears were pulled off at some point, and his short skirt pushed up to his waist.
The next morning.
When Shu Qiao finished showering and came out, Pei Jinghe was already fully dressed, standing by the window making a phone call.
“Yeah, let him go back by himself once he sleeps off the hangover. Leave him be.”
Was he talking about Pei Du? Shu Qiao felt a bit guilty.
Pei Jinghe hung up the phone and turned to look over. Shu Qiao was wearing a loose hotel bathrobe that made him look even more slender, his damp hair clinging to his forehead, his eyes hazy like they were covered in water mist.
“This agreement,” Pei Jinghe placed a document on the coffee table, “sign it.”
Shu Qiao opened his eyes wide: “What agreement?”
“A body-selling contract.” Pei Jinghe’s tone was half-serious, half-joking. “Now that we’ve slept together, shouldn’t you take responsibility?”
Shu Qiao looked down and saw “Debt Repayment and Companion Obligation Agreement” placed on the table. Upon seeing “Debt Repayment,” his expression instantly became incomparably focused as he sat on the sofa, rubbing his lower back while flipping it open.
Most of the clauses were restrictive to him, but they were reasonable enough. After all, the sugar daddy spent money, so he had to have some privileges.
Without hesitation, he neatly signed his own name in the Party B section.