Pei Zhiwen pulled a rose-embossed silver Zippo from his pocket and toyed with it in the palm of his hand. Hearing Lu Jiayan’s reply, he arched a brow slightly, lifting his eyelids to gaze at the other man.
For a long time, his expression turned somewhat peculiar. Curling the corner of his lips, he said, “Baby, do you think you have a choice?”
The answer was self-evident.
No.
Seeing Lu Jiayan dragging his feet and refusing to move, a “click” sound echoed through the cramped space, and a wisp of flame sprang forth. Pei Zhiwen stared at him through the firelight, his tone flat and devoid of the slightest emotional ripple.
“If you do not take it off, I will do it myself.”
The number of times the two of them had seen each other completely bare was too high to count; they were already intimately familiar with each other’s bodies. Lu Jiayan did not feel that undressing in front of Pei Zhiwen was anything worth blushing over.
Moving slowly, he took off his jacket.
Pei Zhiwen’s pitch-black eyes stared unblinkingly at the obedient Lu Jiayan, his expression betraying neither joy nor anger.
Lu Jiayan was wearing a white shirt underneath. His slender, evenly jointed fingers rested on the buttons, undoing them one by one from top to bottom. His straight, hollowed-line collarbones were exposed to the air, bathed in the warm cast of the lights.
Pei Zhiwen’s burning gaze traced a path from Lu Jiayan’s smooth jawline and prominent Adam’s apple down to his tight, narrow waist. He had a thin layer of abdominal muscles with not an ounce of excess fat.
His figure was tall and upright, and his skin was dazzlingly fair.
Pei Zhiwen’s gaze was exceptionally intense, meticulously inspecting Lu Jiayan’s body for any lingering traces of ambiguity.
Lu Jiayan was not stupid; he knew the reason why the other man had asked him to strip.
Pei Zhiwen’s possessiveness would not allow his belongings to be tainted, even after a separation of three years.
Therefore, Lu Jiayan possessed a conditioned reflex to obey orders.
Numbly and earnestly, he did as the other told him.
He did not want Pei Zhiwen to start a dispute in the middle of the night in this poorly soundproofed house, nor did he want to drag his friend into crossing paths with a grudge-holding madman because of him.
Pei Zhiwen stood up, took a stride right up to Lu Jiayan, and reached out, naturally touching the other’s waist.
The chilly touch made Lu Jiayan’s body shudder with sensitivity.
After a moment, he heard Pei Zhiwen say:
“You have lost weight.”
“Have you dated anyone else in the past few years?”
Lu Jiayan picked up his shirt, put it back on, and lowered his gaze. “I have.”
“Lift your chin.”
Lu Jiayan raised his head, looking at Pei Zhiwen standing before him. The other man’s brows were tightly locked, his tone rising upward. “How many did you date?”
“Two.”
A muffled, ambiguous chuckle spilled from Pei Zhiwen’s nasal cavity, as though he saw right through Lu Jiayan’s lie, yet a chilling intent was lodged deep within his pitch-black eyes.
There was a ten-centimeter height difference between the two.
Looking down from his superior height, Pei Zhiwen cast a sideways glance and used his thumb to lightly brush and press against Lu Jiayan’s lower lip. “You have grown quite bold.”
Lu Jiayan pulled away. “Dirty.”
Pei Zhiwen’s hand missed its mark. Hearing that, he immediately reached out again to pinch Lu Jiayan’s chin, forcing the other to meet his gaze. Clenching his teeth slightly, his thin lips spat out a single word.
“Dirty?”
His figure slowly leaned in, shortening the distance between them.
A slight pain radiated from Lu Jiayan’s chin, and amidst his breathing, he caught the faint scent of tobacco mixed with men’s cologne coming from Pei Zhiwen.
Mysteriously comforting, and pleasant to smell.
Pei Zhiwen’s pitch-black eyes were bottomless, his voice carrying an air of danger. “Lu Jiayan, I have not dated anyone, and I have only ever slept with you.”
“You have no right to call me dirty.”
Lu Jiayan desperately wanted to ask about the fiancée.
Ultimately, however, the words stalled on the tip of his tongue and went unspoken.
A man’s words could not be trusted.
Especially a madman with an overwhelmingly strong desire for control like Pei Zhiwen; every single word he uttered deserved a healthy dose of skepticism.
Exhausted, Lu Jiayan lowered his eyelashes and resignedly called out.
“Pei Zhiwen.”
“You are going to get married in the future.”
“Just what will it take for you to be willing to break up with me on good terms?”
Pei Zhiwen stared fixedly at him.
The two remained locked in a stalemate for dozens of seconds.
Abruptly, Pei Zhiwen let out a short, muffled chuckle, devoid of any languidness, carrying instead a trace of mockery and cold detachment. He had originally intended to offer a brief explanation, but the words that slipped out of his mouth instead became:
“Yanyan.”
“You were the first one to provoke me.”
“How could wanting to break up on good terms possibly be that easy?”
“Unless you want to try.”
Pei Zhiwen released his grip on Lu Jiayan’s chin, extended his fingertip, and lightly touched the eyelids of the person before him. His airy tone carried the intimate murmur of a lover:
“You become a bit more ruthless and let me die directly in a car crash, then I will not pester you anymore in the future.”
Hearing that final sentence caused the usually impassive Lu Jiayan’s face to turn deathly pale. His body swayed slightly, and bad memories occupied his mind, gradually swallowing up all of his consciousness as a dense, aching soreness gripped his heart.
Pei Zhiwen pulled back the distance between them.
Lu Jiayan pressed his lips together, his tense body instantly relaxing.
Pei Zhiwen raised his head to glance at the vintage pendulum clock hanging on the wall; the hour hand pointed to the number 3.
Unawares, half an hour had slipped away.
“It is getting late.”
With that, he pulled his phone out from his trench coat, opened WeChat, pulled up the QR code, and handed it out right in front of the other man.
“Let us add each other on contact apps?”
Even though it was phrased as a question, it left no room for refusal.
Lu Jiayan wanted to refuse, but unexpectedly heard Pei Zhiwen say: “If you do not give it to me, I will not leave; if you give it, I will leave immediately.”
This time, Lu Jiayan did not hesitate. He took out his phone and scanned the QR code in front of him. With a beep sound, it jumped to the contact addition profile interface.
Pei Zhiwen’s profile picture was a photo of two cats.
His online name was no longer a simple symbol, but rather a string of English letters.
Insomnia.
Translated into Chinese, it meant insomnia.
Under Pei Zhiwen’s gaze, Lu Jiayan sent the friend request verification.
Lifting his eyelids, he issued an eviction notice. “Can you leave now?”
The corners of Pei Zhiwen’s lips curved upward. “Goodnight, baby.”
When he left, the sound of the door closing was very soft, and the entire apartment seemed to fall completely quiet in that single instant.
Lu Jiayan walked over to the sofa, slumped down onto it, tilted his head back, and stared blankly at the ceiling with lifeless eyes.
He had a strange sense that seeing Pei Zhiwen tonight was something that had happened in a dream rather than in reality, a wave of lingering trance and confusion, much like the hallucinations one experiences when drunk.
Ding-dong.
Someone sent a message on WeChat.
Lu Jiayan resumed a normal sitting posture, picked up his phone, and saw that the contact named insomnia had sent him a message.
By the way, I forgot just now, there is something good I want to show you.
Following that, Pei Zhiwen sent a video a full minute long.
Lu Jiayan’s blood froze solid. Staring at the two familiar faces inside the video content, his fingers trembled so much that he did not dare click play.
y: Threatening me?
insomnia: I am just sharing it with you purely. After all, you recorded the video yourself, did you not?
Lu Jiayan closed his eyes and opened them again.
It was true that he had recorded the video, but he had deleted it clean when he chose to leave.
He had no idea what methods Pei Zhiwen used to recover photos that had been deleted a second time.
y: Delete it.
insomnia: Not deleting it.
y: What on earth do you want to do?
insomnia: Do you, baby.
insomnia: I want to do it with you.
Lu Jiayan was so exasperated by Pei Zhiwen’s city-wall-thick shamelessness that he could not be bothered to reply anymore.
He turned off the phone screen and tossed it aside.
Feeling very uncomfortable from the smell of alcohol all over his body, Lu Jiayan got up to look for clothes in the wardrobe so he could take a shower.