“Pei…” Min Zhuozhou stared at Pei Che, visibly stunned. “When did you…”
Pei Che watched Min Zhuozhou, waiting with endless patience to see what words he would manage to squeeze out.
Min Zhuozhou frowned and looked up, but didn’t answer the question.
Pei Che gazed down at him for a long moment, then suddenly let out a cold sneer. Without a word, he picked up Pei Laicai’s leash, preparing to lead the dog away.
Before Min Zhuozhou could even think, he quickly reached out and grabbed Pei Che’s wrist. “Mr. Pei?”
Hearing that invariably gentle and unwittingly seductive voice, a surge of annoyance shot through Pei Che’s nerves. He tried to shake off Min Zhuozhou’s hand, but the other man only gripped it tighter. Their gazes met and clashed in the damp, rain-heavy air, overlapping and tangling, like a contest of wills, yet also like an entwining embrace.
Min Zhuozhou didn’t know when Pei Che had arrived, nor how long he had been standing behind the tree, listening to how much he had overheard.
Mindful of Min Hua’s presence, he tried to keep his tone as normal as possible. “When did you get here?”
Pei Che had no intention of giving him an easy way out. He glanced down at Min Hua, his voice cold. “Send the child back. We need to talk privately.”
“This isn’t appropriate,” Min Zhuozhou said softly. “Everyone should be arriving soon. We can talk tonight. Let’s not keep the elders waiting…”
His voice cut off abruptly. A rustle of bamboo leaves sounded behind him, and Min Zhuozhou belatedly realized that Pei Che had pinned him against the bamboo. The force wasn’t great, but the uneven bamboo spikes still scraped painfully against his back.
Pei Che’s eyes were icy. His chest tightened silently, as if something was about to explode, but he still held back for the sake of the occasion, saying only, “Talk.”
Just two words, yet Min Zhuozhou felt a silent, suffocating pressure. Worried that Min Hua might get scared, he gave in to Pei Che’s demand. “Fine. Let go of me first.”
Pei Che loosened his grip. Min Zhuozhou shot him a deep look, snatched the dog leash with one hand, and took Min Hua’s hand with the other, heading toward the main hall of the Min Residence.
When adults walked fast, a child’s legs couldn’t keep up. Min Hua had been trying his best to follow, but suddenly his left foot tripped over his right, and he stumbled, losing his balance.
Min Zhuozhou snapped back to his senses, immediately stopping and crouching down to check on the boy. “What happened, little one? Where did you fall?”
“I didn’t fall,” Min Hua said, placing his small hand on Min Zhuozhou’s shoulder in a comforting pat. “Little Uncle, don’t worry.”
The child glanced back, thought for a moment, and then whispered a suggestion, “Maybe I can take the dog over by myself. Does… Uncle Pei have something urgent?”
“Yes, he does have something to attend to, but it can wait. Let’s go back to the main hall first.”
Min Zhuozhou smoothed down the boy’s wind-mussed hair. Unwilling to let him walk back alone at night, he lifted him and carried him back in his arms.
As they entered, Min Zhuozhou saw Min Zaiming returning with the two Madams. In an instant, he cleared all emotion from his face, greeting them with a relaxed, polite smile as if nothing had happened. He then handed the little one over to Min Zaiming and entrusted Pei Laicai to his own nanny.
“Eh? Pei Che isn’t with you?” Pei Yudong looked at Min Zhuozhou, who was now alone, and found it a bit strange.
“He’s still in the back garden.” Min Zhuozhou had failed to come up with a plausible excuse the entire way back, so he simply brushed it off with a casual remark. “I’ll go find him.”
“This child…” Pei Yudong sighed, his brow furrowed in confusion. “He’s becoming more and more undisciplined.”
Min Zhuozhou met his gaze with a smile.
Pei Yudong had no intention of pressing the matter. He waved Min Zhuozhou away, his tone casual as he urged them to hurry back for the meal.
Min Zhuozhou breathed a sigh of relief. He turned and returned to the backyard, where he found Pei Che still standing in the same spot, his thin lips pressed into a tight line as he stared, lost in thought, at the crisscrossing green bamboo.
The dampness in the air grew heavier, and the sound of the wind filled Min Zhuozhou’s ears. A thick mist shrouded the courtyard, blurring his vision until nothing seemed clear.
It wasn’t until he stepped closer to Pei Che that he noticed a small cut on the man’s finger, caused by a bamboo branch. A drop of crimson blood had welled up on his fingertip, refusing to clot, oozing dark red.
Min Zhuozhou’s entire focus was now fixed on that single point of red, yet his tongue remained sharp. He taunted, “Did you hurt yourself when you pinned me against the bamboo?”
Pei Che glanced at him sideways without a word. He leaned down, using the blood-stained finger to lift Min Zhuozhou’s chin from the side of his jaw. With a gesture both cold and intimate, he smeared the blood across Min Zhuozhou’s lips, moistening them with the warm, metallic-scented liquid, as if he were playing with a priceless treasure.
Min Zhuozhou let him caress him, then extended his tongue to lick the vivid red from his own lips, one spot at a time. “Weren’t you going to talk?” he asked softly. “What do you want to talk about?”
Pei Che’s voice was pressed low in his throat. “What do you think we should talk about?”
“The past, the present, the future,” Min Zhuozhou said, talking nonsense with a straight face. Then he parted his teeth, taking Pei Che’s blood-stained finger into his warm mouth. His voice became muffled and his tone casual. “Or perhaps the emotions you’re feeling right now, the ones I’ve stirred up inside you?”
“…” Pei Che’s eyes narrowed, his gaze sharpening. “You’re overestimating yourself.”
“Perhaps I’m overestimating you, Mr. Pei?”
A glimmer of unreadable emotion flickered in Min Zhuozhou’s eyes, a clarity of thought that had finally dawned after being numbed by the night wind.
Why the anger? Why the interruption? Why did you only just now decide we needed to talk privately…
Was it because hearing the words “it’s almost over” triggered a chain reaction of displeasure? Or was it simply because I was the one who said it, making you feel your authority was challenged, leaving you desperate to prove your dominance in this relationship?
What exactly are you thinking?
Pei Che’s eyes held bloodshot veins that Min Zhuozhou couldn’t decipher, while Min Zhuozhou’s eyes held a light that Pei Che couldn’t read.
They stood huddled together beneath the bamboo shadows, a storm brewing overhead. In a daze, they realized that five whole years were not forever. Before they could even allow themselves to truly fall for each other, the distant, melancholy bell tolled, signaling the end.
“If you don’t want to talk, or haven’t figured out what to say,” Min Zhuozhou let the shadows cast by his thick lashes conceal his eyes, skillfully slipping back into his usual, reasonable composure. “Shall we go back first?”
When Pei Che didn’t respond, Min Zhuozhou sighed softly. “They’ll be waiting for us.”
He brushed past Pei Che. But after a few steps, he heard the taciturn man speak from behind. “Why did you agree to this agreement back then? Was it because of Min Hua?”
Min Zhuozhou paused. He stood still for a moment on the narrow path leading to the front hall, then turned to meet Pei Che’s gaze, his smile exceptionally light. “What else? It couldn’t be that… I fell for you the moment I first saw you, Mr. Pei?”
It was a classic “Min Zhuozhou” answer. Pei Che showed no surprise, nor did he feel sorrow or pain, for that wasn’t what he had been asking.
“So, you were also looking forward to this agreement ending.”
Pei Che didn’t frame it as a question. He was simply stating a “fact” with pure objectivity.
A flicker of conflict crossed Min Zhuozhou’s brow. He thought it over seriously. Indeed, for the past five years, he had woken up every day longing for this agreement to end. It represented the possibility of regrowth for the wings that Min Xing had broken when he was seventeen. He hadn’t touched freedom in so long.
After a moment’s silence, he asked, “Do you want the truth, or something else?”
Pei Che’s jaw clenched for a fleeting second. His hand silently clenched into a fist, then steadily unfurled, plunging them once more into a suffocating silence.
Min Zhuozhou stared directly at Pei Che, knowing that no matter what feelings he harbored for the man, he could never agree to renew this contract.
“They’re truly growing impatient,” Min Zhuozhou tried to fill the fragile peace, his gaze softening as he reminded him, “Mr. Pei.”
In an instant, Pei Che’s usual aura, cold, refined, and impeccably aristocratic, returned.
He tucked his blood-stained hand into his coat pocket and walked to Min Zhuozhou’s side. With the utmost gentlemanly grace, he linked his arm with Min’s, signaling that they would present themselves to the world in the most perfect form of an arranged marriage, a cold harmony laced with an untouchable bluff.
They reached the grand entrance hall. Behind the ornate, solid wood carved doors waited the elders of their two families. As the guests of honor, they had already kept them waiting for a long time.
“Min Zhuozhou, I will give you whatever you want.”
Just before pushing open the doors, Pei Che suddenly leaned down to whisper in Min Zhuozhou’s ear. A flicker of ruthlessness crossed his cold eyes, yet beneath the frost lay an indefinable, complex emotion. “Just ask, and I will agree.”
Min Zhuozhou’s breath hitched. He heard Pei Che ask again, his voice a low murmur in his ear: What do you want?
Before he could respond, the long-awaited heavy rain suddenly broke, pouring down in a torrent.