After hanging up the phone, Li You followed an online tutorial step-by-step to learn how to bake cookies. He truly had a lot of free time on his hands, but the doubts raised by those photographs had not completely dissipated. He was weighing whether he should ask Lin Xun, but on second thought, he was six years older than Lin Xun, when he graduated from university, Lin Xun was still a high school student, so where would Lin Xun even know anything about it?
He shaped the cookies into pandas. Every little panda’s facial expression and posture were slightly different, looking extraordinarily adorable, so cute that one couldn’t bear to bite into them and crunch them down.
With a “creak,” the front door was pushed open from the outside. Li You was in the middle of a flustered flurry, arranging and cooling the cookies. After seeing clearly who had walked in, he stood frozen on the spot holding a plate in his hands, “Didn’t you say it would take an hour? How much time has passed just now?”
Lin Xun held an object in his hand, covered neatly with a black velvet cloth. It didn’t look very heavy or too thick; the Alpha was able to carry it with just one hand.
Lin Xun replied to him, “It ended early.”
“Oh, okay,” Li You nodded and set down the plate in his hands, hurriedly explaining, “There’s still another tray in the oven that hasn’t been taken out yet. The ones on the table are hot, don’t touch them yet.”
He heard Lin Xun give what seemed to be a faint response, after which he plunged back into the kitchen to concentrate on baking the cookies.
Lin Xun took a ring of keys out of the study drawer and hung it from his finger. From the moment he entered the door, the object in his hand had never been set down. He walked briskly past the living room, his gaze casually sweeping over the busy figure in the kitchen, finally stopping at the extremely inconspicuous side-room doorway next to the bedroom, a room that had been locked all this time.
The key turned a few times, and the door was softly pushed open, only to be closed again a few seconds later. The sounds made throughout the entire process could almost be ignored.
Outside, the sunshine was bright and beautiful, with clear skies for ten thousand miles. Inside the narrow room, the furnishings were simple; deep black curtains blocked the sunlight, and without turning on the light, not a single speck of brightness could be seen, dark and oppressive.
Lin Xun stayed inside for over ten minutes. When he came out, Li You was sitting beside the dining table resting his chin on his hands, waiting for him, with the cooled panda cookies laid out in front of him.
“Try one. I didn’t put much sugar, so it shouldn’t be very sweet,” as he spoke, Li You’s movement of handing over the item paused. He twitched his nose slightly, feeling a little puzzled, “Did you burn incense?”
The Alpha carried a faint, subtle scent of sandalwood on his body, it was very light and not harsh at all. Lin Xun, washing his hands by the sink, said frankly, “Yeah. I just went to a funeral, caught the scent inadvertently.”
“Ah…” Li You pondered for a moment. Seeing that Lin Xun’s face was grave, making the air feel somewhat heavy, he asked, “Was it… an important person?”
Lin Xun dried his hands, turned around, and stared straight at him with those dark, calm eyes. Li You felt uncomfortable under his gaze and struggled to pull up the corners of his mouth, “I’m sorry, I’m not very good at comforting people. My… condolences.”
“It doesn’t matter,” Lin Xun walked over, lowered his head, and bit off the cookie held in Li You’s hand, evaluating, “Not bad.”
Warm lips brushed against his fingertips, sparking a sudden wave of numbness and tremor. As if he had been scalded, Li You trembled violently right there sitting on the chair.
“Don’t move.”
Lin Xun grabbed his wrist, leaned down to look straight at him, and ate the entire remaining half-piece of the cookie.
“You… hold it yourself…” Li You quietly tried to push the plate full of cookies right under his eyes. Lin Xun suddenly sucked on his fingertip, clamped his hand around his waist, and swapped their positions.
Li You knelt on his lap, his lower back pressed against the edge of the dining table, with no way to retreat even if he wanted to lean back.
Lin Xun leaned his head forward, reached both arms through the Beta’s armpits, and hoisted the person up a little higher. His nose pressed against Li You’s Adam’s apple, his arms encircling him from behind, and he suddenly kissed him without any warning.
“Hss…”
Li You let out a muffled groan, unaccustomed to this strange, intimate behavior, and unconsciously used his hands to push against the Alpha’s shoulders. Lin Xun seemed a bit impatient at being interrupted, so he simply bound those double hands that were making trouble, and kisses fell like raindrops, dense and tight, onto his collarbone, the side of his neck, and then continued upward, kissing from the corner of his mouth to the tip of his nose, and then to his forehead.
“Do you know how to kiss?”
For some reason, Lin Xun’s voice took on a few hints of hoarseness. He half-squinted his eyes and looked up to ask Li You. Li You’s entire face was red; hearing this, he shook his head at a loss.
Last night’s kiss was considered his first kiss after losing his memory, and to be more precise, it didn’t even really count; because Lin Xun was too overbearing, kissing him was like a famished wolf that had been hungry for a long time, relentlessly biting and plundering just to satisfy its own appetite.
Li You was thin and didn’t have a habit of working out, so there was always a thin layer of soft flesh on his waist and abdomen, which felt very comfortable to touch. Lin Xun pulled the person forward, his fingertips being extremely unruly as they slid slowly upward from his navel, and finally pinched Li You’s chin, saying in a low voice, “Then I’ll teach you. Remember it well.”
With Li You being a “beginner,” Teacher Lin had a perfect score in teaching ethics, being patient and meticulous in his instruction, unlike in the past where he only cared about his own pleasure. For this initial lesson, he cooperated to adapt to Li You’s rhythm, but Li You was still kissed to the point of crying by him.
“A top-three model student, how are you so useless?”
Lin Xun bent his finger joint and gently wiped away the glistening teardrop that was hanging at the corner of his eye, about to fall. Li You reached out his hand to cover Lin Xun’s eyes, emphasizing in self-deception, “I didn’t cry, it was just a lack of oxygen.”
“I learn things very quickly!”
Lin Xun paid no mind to it and continued to criticize, “Blowing up after just a couple of words, you’ve got quite a temper.”
Quite a temper.
Li You was dazed for a brief moment. This sentence, he seemed to have heard it somewhere before, with the exact same tone.
Too many similar moments flashed past, yet Li You just couldn’t remember.
Thinking of those photos, Li You blurted out, “Do you know Lin Zhaoning?”
The air went quiet for a moment. The hand Lin Xun had around him slowly lowered, and he asked back without any emotion, “Why bring him up?”
“Um…” Li You said, “I accidentally found a few photos today. The feeling that person gave me was very strange.”
Lin Xun: “Where was it strange?”
Li You raised a hand and placed it over his chest. After pondering for a long time, he spoke hesitatingly, “Seeing him, it hurts here.”
Lin Xun asked again: “Does it hurt a lot?”
Li You deliberated for a moment and nodded solemnly, “Yeah, it hurts a lot.”
As those words fell, for some reason, he felt that Lin Xun was no longer that happy, the smile at the corner of the Alpha’s mouth completely vanished, the warmth and playful banter in the depths of his eyes quietly slipped away, and his usually sharp, handsome face was covered in dark clouds, so overcast it looked like water could be squeezed out of it.
This reaction… Li You felt uneasy in his heart. Judging by this appearance, Lin Xun actually knew that person?
“Don’t misunderstand, I’m just asking. If you don’t want to say, it doesn’t matter, ”
“He is the old man who bewitched you into running away with him.”
Lin Xun spoke coldly, cutting off all of Li You’s cautious explanations.
“B-but why would I run away with him?” Li You said in bewilderment, his tone even rising by a volume.
Although Lin Xun was in the lower position, he still straightened his torso with a towering posture and said with full confidence, “You ran away with an old man and you still think you’re in the right?”
“Lin Xun, you, don’t say it like that…” Li You muttered, sizing up the Alpha’s expression, his voice growing smaller and smaller.
Lin Xun’s knuckles cracked and creaked from being clenched so hard.
Sure enough, it was like this again.
Even in his memories, this Beta was still protecting his beloved husband.
Li You attempted to hold his hand, “Listen to me, I didn’t mean it that way, ” Halfway through his sentence, Lin Xun dodged his gesture and tossed him to the floor like picking up a chick, throwing Li You into a stumble, “You just like him! You love him to death, so much that even after losing your memory, you can still recognize him at a single glance!”
“Li You, then what about me? What do you take me for? Does watching me follow behind you every day like a dog make you very happy?!” Lin Xun asked back in self-mockery, “Boyfriend? When have you ever considered me your boyfriend? Not only do you not have a single word of truth in your mouth, but you also think about wild men outside all day long!”
Li You was stunned by the Alpha’s roar. He hadn’t expected Lin Xun to have such a fierce reaction. In his panic, he said a few stumbling words in hopes of soothing him, “You’ve misunderstood, Lin Xun. I wasn’t thinking about him, I just… I just wanted to find my memories back sooner, ”
Lin Xun was completely enraged by these words. He was so angry that he even swept the cookies on the table onto the floor, sending porcelain plate fragments crashing all over the ground with a loud clash.
“To find your memories back earlier so you can fly away together with him?!”
The Alpha’s eyes turned red with fury, as if a natural barrier had spontaneously formed around his body; he couldn’t hear anyone’s words and was submerged in the world of his own imagination, unable to pull himself out.
Li You lowered his head and stopped talking; he didn’t know what to say either. Lin Xun still refused to let him off, yanking his arm and questioning him furiously, “Speak!”
Clearly just a few minutes ago, the two of them were still living a quiet and peaceful life, but now, all the sweet illusions had shattered to pieces, catching Li You completely unprepared. Lin Xun didn’t know his own strength, almost crushing his wrist. Li You struggled, “No, I’m not…” “Lin Xun, you’re hurting me!”
Seeing clearly the pain revealed in the Beta’s eyes, Lin Xun froze and released his grip.
Gaining his freedom, Li You could hardly wait, like a startled rabbit, he hurriedly backed away to open up distance between the two of them.
A gap of just a few steps felt as though it was separated by an uncrossable chasm.
Li You looked at him vigilantly, his eyelids red, likely because he had used too much force and made the person cry again.
Whether before losing his memory or after losing his memory, in front of him, Li You seemed to have only one emotion: sadness, unhappiness.
Lin Xun felt a surge of stifled rage in his chest while simultaneously feeling extremely annoyed and frustrated. Without a word, he cleaned up the mess all over the floor, set the medicine kit in front of Li You without saying anything, and then pushed open the door and left.
Although Lin Xun’s grip had been very painful, it hadn’t left an open wound, so there was no need for the medical kit at all. Seeing that he was leaving, Li You came back to his senses and hurriedly called out to him, “Lin Xun!”
The Alpha’s steps paused for a moment. Facing away from him, he said in a deep voice, “What is it.”
“Where are you going?!”
Lin Xun’s footsteps didn’t stop, his voice carrying a few hints of restraint, “Getting far away from you. You don’t want me anyway.”
“Wait!” Li You didn’t have time to correct the Alpha’s paranoid and incorrect thinking, rising from the sofa, “This is your home, if anyone is leaving, it should be me…”
“This property is registered under your name. It is now your personal property.”
Lin Xun left behind a cold sentence, completely disappearing from sight.