Min Zhuozhou felt a touch as he drifted between sleep and wakefulness. The pressure wasn’t gentle, it was the touch of someone stroking a piece of porcelain, fingertips tracing his cheek. The autumn night had grown colder, and the icy touch against his skin made him frown and let out a soft grunt. He instinctively turned his face away, burying himself deeper into the soft, warm blankets.
“You’re back?” Min Zhuozhou greeted after a moment, his voice still thick with drowsiness. He remained obediently tucked under the covers, refusing to look up, keeping his back to Pei Che.
“Yeah,” Pei Che said, sitting on the edge of the bed. In the warm glow of the nightlight, his gaze traced the figure on the bed. “I told you I’d try to make it back.”
Min Zhuozhou gave a slow, noncommittal hum. His will to talk was low, and he continued to curl up on the unfamiliar, oversized bed he could never quite get used to, as if trying to prevent his hard-won sleepiness from slipping away.
Pei Che looked down at him. The restlessness from his frantic drive back had vanished, but another emotion now churned in his chest, threatening to burst forth. Dissatisfied with Min Zhuozhou’s turned back, he stepped onto the bed in his slippers, leaned over, and wrapped his arms around Min Zhuozhou’s waist from behind, burying his face in the small of his back.
Pei Che’s familiar, crisp scent enveloped him, and Min Zhuozhou’s shallow breath hitched. He opened his eyes silently beneath the covers, a flicker of complex emotion crossing his gaze.
“Zhuozhou.” Pei Che murmured his name in the quiet room, without reason or purpose.
“Mmm,” Min Zhuozhou closed his eyes again. His hand moved down to touch Pei Che’s hand resting on his lower abdomen. He helped him unfasten his watch, which he hadn’t yet taken off, and fumbled to place it on the nightstand. “Are you going to sleep, Mr. Pei?”
Min Zhuozhou’s voice held the impatience of being woken up, but because he habitually adopted a gentle and warm tone, it lacked any real threat. Instead, it carried an indescribable tenderness.
Pei Che didn’t know why he couldn’t let go after touching Min Zhuozhou, like a child with a favorite toy. He hugged him tighter, making no move to get up.
Min Zhuozhou was utterly exhausted, so he simply let himself be held, until Pei Che’s hand, whether intentionally or not, found the button of his shirt. He toyed with it like a precious gem, then flicked it open with his long fingers, slipping his hand inside the shirt.
The cool touch sent a jolt through Min Zhuozhou, making him flinch. He reached out to pin the hand in place, his voice a soft accusation. “Are you ever going to stop?”
Pei Che said nothing, merely scratching the palm of Min Zhuozhou’s hand in a soothing gesture.
Under the warm, orange glow of the lamp, Min Zhuozhou’s brow furrowed. His voice was as flat as lukewarm water, yet the words he spoke froze the man embracing him from behind.
“Mr. Pei, I don’t want to do it right now.”
“What?” Pei Che’s brow twitched, asking for clarification as if he hadn’t understood.
“I said I don’t want to do it right now.” Min Zhuozhou turned around with a steady composure, finally meeting Pei Che’s gaze. The softness in his eyes was paper-thin, replaced by a faint, chilling coldness. “Isn’t this the only reason you came back, Mr. Pei?”
Pei Che’s expression froze. He stared at Min Zhuozhou in disbelief, only then registering the carefully suppressed low-pressure aura radiating from the other man.
“That’s not, ” Pei Che struggled to find the words to explain.
“Then go to sleep. Do you know what time it is?” Min Zhuozhou hummed a noncommittal “Mm,” ignoring whether Pei Che’s answer was “yes” or “no.” He reached out and tugged the blanket, wrapping himself back inside it.
The perfunctory gesture of Min Zhuozhou pulling the brocade quilt over himself sent Pei Che’s heart plummeting. All the anticipation he’d felt on the way home, the desperate longing to see Min Zhuozhou, was shattered by a few dismissive words. An indescribable sense of resentment rose in his cold, dark eyes.
The very thing Min Zhuozhou had hoped to avoid now sparked Pei Che’s defiance. He gripped Min Zhuozhou’s waist with an unyielding hold and suddenly leaned down to kiss him with forceful intensity.
Min Zhuozhou had no time to dodge. He was forced to surrender his breath inch by inch, his defenses utterly overrun. Only the sound of faint, embarrassing gasps filled the silent room.
“Mr. Pei… Pei Che!” A sharp, piercing pain shot through Min Zhuozhou’s waist as he realized Pei Che had pressed down hard on his old injury. His face went pale, his elegant brows furrowing in pain. He shoved Pei Che away with all his strength and met his gaze with a hard, defiant stare. “I said I don’t want to do this.”
Pei Che’s expression turned abruptly cold as he was pushed away. He stared at Min Zhuozhou, the resistance in the other man’s gaze fueling his frustration. Yet, he refused to show a hint of awkwardness, instead looming over him and snapping, “What? Wasn’t this what you promised me?”
“It was,” Min Zhuozhou replied, his fingers unconsciously clutching the bedsheet. He used the brief pause to catch his breath and steady his emotions. When he spoke again, his voice was level. “I’m taking it back now. Don’t touch me.”
The words “Don’t touch me” stung Pei Che. He narrowed his eyes, the faint light in his pupils vanishing beneath the shadow of his deep-set brow, making his aura even more menacing. He curled his lips into a cold smirk. “You certainly have a remarkable sense of honor.”
Min Zhuozhou fell silent. He tidied his shirt, which Pei Che had left in a mess, fastening the buttons one by one. He got off the bed, intending to spend the night in the guest room next door.
But Pei Che had no intention of letting him leave. With lightning speed, he seized Min Zhuozhou’s wrist and pulled him back into his embrace. His cold fingers pressed against Min Zhuozhou’s Adam’s apple, but he ultimately refused to hurt him. His grip loosened, and when he finally spoke, his tone held a hint of condescension, as if he were granting a favor. “Why are you being so difficult with me?”
Min Zhuozhou’s eyes were weary, but more so filled with an unreadable emptiness. He stared into Pei Che’s pupils with an inscrutable gaze for a long moment, before a faint, forced smile escaped his throat. “What am I being difficult about… Mr. Pei, you’re about to get into bed with me while wearing someone else’s perfume, yet you have the nerve to ask me what I’m being difficult about?”
Pei Che’s expression froze. He suddenly remembered the faint, lingering scent of woody sandalwood from Ji Subai’s home. Before he could even begin to explain, Min Zhuozhou spoke in a voice that was utterly calm. “Even if this is just a marriage of convenience… Mr. Pei, at the very least, show me some dignity in bed.”
“I didn’t,” Pei Che said, gripping Min Zhuozhou’s hand tightly, as if the force of his hold could prove his innocence. “This scent is, ”
Min Zhuozhou gently but firmly pulled his hand away. “Pei Che, I don’t want to know whose scent this is or where it came from. I…”
His voice trailed off, as if the words he was about to say were too difficult to utter and too hurtful to bear. He clamped them shut behind his teeth, letting them slice through his inner lip like a blade, yet he still forced himself to endure it.
But Pei Che refused to let him off. His gaze fixed on Min Zhuozhou, as if he were determined to break the pot and ask to the end, dragging out the words Min Zhuozhou had so painstakingly suppressed, only to whip their corpse. He pressed his question in a low voice, “What were you going to say?”
A suffocating silence stretched between them.
“There are only four months left on our agreement. Perhaps it would be better for us to part ways amicably.”
After a long silence, Min Zhuozhou finally gave Pei Che what he wanted, speaking the entire sentence with a calm, detached, and even completely unbothered tone.
Pei Che had a faint sense of dread the moment he asked the question, but when he heard Min Zhuozhou speak those words with such a calm, detached, and even completely unbothered tone, he felt his blood ignite. An indescribable rage, mixed with a grievance he himself had not even realized, surged through his entire body, brewing into a silent storm.
Part ways amicially? Fuck an amicable parting.
By the time he regained his senses, he had already pinned Min Zhuozhou to the bed with all his might. His shirt, which he had buttoned up one by one, was now completely defeated, hanging in a disastrous mess against Min Zhuozhou’s pale skin. The man beneath him seemed to have given up resisting, meeting his gaze with an expression that was both gentle and utterly cold.
Caught completely off guard, Pei Che felt scorched by that gaze. Even his soul, buried deep within his body, trembled involuntarily.
Pei Che’s brow furrowed tightly. His usually calm and composed mind failed to analyze his current emotions, leaving him in a state of mental chaos, able only to identify a purely physiological discomfort. A massive, sour lump seemed to choke his throat, rendering him speechless before Min Zhuozhou. The cultivated, cool demeanor he had always maintained forbade him from showing any panic or timidity, yet his trembling fingers betrayed him.
Stop talking. Take those words back.
He had rushed back in such a hurry just to hear Min Zhuozhou define their relationship, to find out if Min Zhuozhou felt anything for him beyond the black-and-white terms of their marriage contract.
So Min Zhuozhou played along, stating their relationship in clear words and a steady tone, strangling the fragile, dreamlike fantasy in Pei Che’s heart before it could even take root.
Pei Che felt his temples throb. Facing this Min Zhuozhou, who seemed to belong to someone else entirely, he was seized by an impulse to tear him apart, to break him.
“Four months is actually enough.”
After a long, silent standoff, Pei Che tilted Min Zhuozhou’s chin up from his position above. His thumb traced the blood-flushed lips in a silent caress. Then, with deliberate, even malicious intent, he lowered his head to kiss the eyes whose lashes trembled. The kiss was gentle and lingering, a stark contrast to the fierce, possessive way he held Min Zhuozhou’s body. “If you cooperate obediently, it’ll be enough for me to grow tired of you, Zhuozhou.”
Min Zhuozhou gritted his teeth in silence. As the faint scent of sandalwood from Pei Che’s body wafted around his nose, and as the man’s kisses fell densely and softly upon his eyelids, his mind filled with Ji Subai’s gentle voice calling him “A-Che” and her words, “Our eyes are so similar.”
Who was Pei Che kissing… Did he even know whose eyes he was kissing?
Min Zhuozhou turned his head away, dodging Pei Che’s kiss as their frantic breaths mingled. He sat up and bit down hard on Pei Che’s prominent collarbone, his composure and “magnanimity” finally shattering.
“Pei Che, look closely,” he snarled. “I am not Ji, ”
“I know you’re not.”
Pei Che’s gaze was dark and intense. He knew he had succeeded in making Min Zhuozhou suffer as much as he was, but aside from a fleeting, twisted sense of satisfaction, he felt no relief.
He gripped Min Zhuozhou’s chin, forcing it up with a harsh, imperious strength. “No one else could degrade me like this…” he said coldly. Degrade the feelings between us…
Who was degrading whom?
Min Zhuozhou let out a fragile, broken sob as he was thrust into a sudden storm of passion. He immediately clamped his lips shut, refusing to let the other man see a single tear.
The facade of their relationship, meticulously maintained for nearly five years, finally cracked open that night.