“He humiliated me! He toyed with me! He rubbed my face into the ground! And he even put on that innocent act… Do you have any idea how he just played me?!
Xiao Yi Xingran patted down the collar that had been rumpled from the scuffle. Su Letong clung to his arm with a tense, worried expression, while at their feet lay the late night meal he had just bought, knocked over onto the ground.
Oh, what a terrible line. Unfortunately, Yi Xingran could not understand a word of it.
In that 1v1, Yi Xingran had deliberately not destroyed the crystal. At the time, Park Seokho had gone pale and slumped helplessly in his chair but after being killed for the fifth time, he suddenly erupted in fury, yanked out Yi Xingran’s power cable, grabbed him by the collar and hauled him straight up from his seat.
What was he doing? He hadn’t had enough of playing yet. Just because he couldn’t beat him, did he really have to take it offline and settle things for real?
Yi Xingran’s lips moved slightly. With a faint smile, he asked in return, “Are you sure you want to solo like this?”
“& (& ¥#% ¥……..!”
Park Seokho raised his fist high. Instead of panicking, Yi Xingran actually smiled, casually rolling his wrist and loosening it up.
It had been a long time since he had gotten into a fight. Last time, he had been restricted by his plaster cast and hadn’t been able to properly show what he could do but today, this guy had practically delivered himself to his doorstep. It was just the right opportunity to loosen up his muscles.
Just as the fist was about to smash into the side of his face, its fierce momentum tore through the air, making the strands of pink hair sticking up at his temple tremble faintly in the breeze.
Yi Xingran lifted his eyes, his gaze bright with anticipation. He was just about to raise one leg,
But before his leg could even come up, someone suddenly caught his wrist and pulled him a step backward. In that brief fraction of a second, the fist that had been coming down with such force was caught and stopped firmly in midair by a strong hand.
“Ahhh, Brother Xiao Xing! Are you okay?!”
Su Letong arrived late but he arrived nonetheless, charging over like a little train going choo choo. He immediately threw aside the late night food in his hands and asked anxiously, his voice trembling, “Hao! How can you hit someone?!”
Pei Du stood beside the two of them. His usually calm, emotionless eyes now carried a distinct chill as he forcefully pressed that raised fist back down. The look he gave the other man was stern, heavy with authority and pressure.
“Explain.”
It was Korean and the question was directed at Park Seokho. Yi Xingran straightened his collar and, keeping his eyes lowered and his face carefully neutral, looked up at the ceiling instead.
The league had rules. If players got into a physical altercation with each other, it was a serious matter. At best, there would be a fine; at worst, a suspension. Even if the incident was not reported to the league, the team itself took this kind of thing extremely seriously and the punishment would be severe. Otherwise, there would be no way to keep things under control.
He absolutely did not want to get suspended before he had even stepped onto the stage!
Park Seokho babbled away in Korean, apparently saying something else. Yi Xingran did not bother talking back. Instead, he looked rather regretfully at the food scattered across the floor, fragrant rice noodles in a bubbling clay pot.
The rich broth had spilled everywhere and the spicy, savory aroma rushed straight into his nose. Yi Xingran wrinkled the tip of his nose, his appetite practically being dragged out of hiding.
He hadn’t noticed it earlier because all his attention had been focused on the game but now that everything had come to a stop, his stomach, which had been empty all night, suddenly decided to protest.
“Gurgle.”
The sound was not particularly loud but Pei Du, who was in the middle of dealing with the dispute, subtly turned his head toward him.
Yi Xingran: “?”
Su Letong thought the captain was about to reprimand the newcomer, so he hurriedly tried to defend him. “The moment I came through the door, I saw Hao trying to hit Brother Xiao Xing! Even if Brother Xiao Xing did something that made him unhappy, we can’t just listen to his side of the story… We should at least hear what Brother Xiao Xing has to say too, wuwuwu!”
Pei Du’s gaze traveled from the man’s flat lower abdomen upward, pausing for a moment at his slightly trembling Adam’s apple. It swept over his moist, glistening lips before finally settling on those clear, bright peach blossom eyes.
“Is that so?”
Yi Xingran finally pulled his gaze away from the clay pot rice noodles. He blinked twice, then nodded.
“Yeah.”
Pei Du pressed down slightly at the corner of his lips. “The specific punishment will be decided tomorrow, after the coaching staff reviews the surveillance footage. That’s all for today. It’s getting late, so go back and get some rest first.”
Park Seokho was still filled with indignation. He shot Yi Xingran a vicious glare before leaving.
Yi Xingran, meanwhile, had lowered his head and was seriously contemplating whether the clay pot rice noodles, which had only had their broth spilled out, could still be salvaged and eaten…
“Come on. I know a Hong Kong style café that’s still open. They serve until three in the morning.”
Park Seokho had already left. Yi Xingran froze for a moment before lifting his head, the pink hair at his temple springing even higher with the movement.
“Ah?”
Pei Du lowered his eyes and looked down at him, the faintest trace of a smile playing at the corners of his lips.
“Aren’t you hungry?”
…..
Shrimp dumplings, chicken feet, char siu buns, steamed ribs, roast goose, stir fried rice noodles…
Yi Xingran took one bite of a black and gold salted egg custard bun, only to have the scalding salted egg yolk filling burn his tongue. There was still a glistening bead of moisture clinging to the corner of his lips. He sucked in a sharp breath of air, stubbornly enduring the heat without letting out even a single cry of “Hot!”
Only, his soft, pink tongue slipped out slightly. He breathed out little puffs of air, quietly panting as tears brought on by the burn filled his eyes, trembling on the verge of falling.
Pei Du glanced sideways at him.
“Did you burn yourself?”
Yi Xingran’s eye sockets were already red from the heat yet he still waved his hand in denial.
“No! How could I be that stupid?”
The tip of his tongue had been scalded until it was a vivid red, looking agile and soft. His mouth, however, remained stubbornly hard.
Pei Du raised his hand and called over a server, asking for some ice water.
With tears still glistening in his eyes, making them look even more clear and watery, Yi Xingran wrapped both hands around the frosted mint and lemon water and gulped down several mouthfuls.
His burning mouth finally received some relief from the cold. Yi Xingran unconsciously leaned back, rubbed his now thoroughly satisfied stomach, narrowed his eyes and let out a contented sigh.
“Ah!!! that’s refreshing!”
His originally upturned peach blossom eyes were now half lidded, the moisture at their corners not yet completely dispersed, leaving behind a faint flush beneath his eyes.
His slightly protruding Adam’s apple moved gently. His soft lips parted and closed, while his tongue, alternately warmed by the lingering heat and cooled by the icy water, remained hidden behind his pearly white teeth, appearing and disappearing in fleeting glimpses.
His fair, slender fingers rested against his abdomen, tracing the outline of that narrow waist through the loose fabric of his clothes.
Yi Xingran had never been particularly graceful when it came to sitting. His thin, slender body slowly slid downward as though it had no bones at all, until he rested the back of his head against the seatback. He tipped his face up toward the ceiling, wearing an utterly satisfied expression.
Pei Du’s gaze dropped, then moved upward again. In an even tone, he said, “Already full? You just added the ribs and you haven’t taken a single bite yet.”
Whenever Yi Xingran got full, he immediately became sleepy. His round head swayed back and forth at irregular intervals as he mumbled, “I can’t anymore. I really can’t eat another bite. My stomach feels like it’s going to burst.”
Pei Du said nothing.
Seeing that Su Letong was still fighting his way through the food, Yi Xingran waved his hand. He didn’t want to waste anything, so he simply instructed, “Give it to him.”
Su Letong’s cheeks were stuffed so full that they bulged out and he hurriedly nodded.
“Mmph, mmph, mmph! Brother Xiao Xing, you’re so good to me!”
Yi Xingran couldn’t help laughing. The person actually paying for the meal was Pei Du yet somehow, he had become the good guy in the story.
His gaze shifted. The generous captain, Pei Du, was washing his hands. A soft white towel moved carefully over each individual finger, while he kept his eyes lowered and his expression calm and indifferent. His movements were unhurried and meticulous, not even the joints of his fingers being overlooked.
Yi Xingran watched for a while and noticed that Pei Du’s fingers were very long, with clearly defined knuckles. As the warm towel wrapped around them and passed over each finger, a few faint traces of moisture remained around the bases of his fingers.
Tsk. He was really particular. Even wiping his hands had to be done with such painstaking attention to detail. What was he trying to accomplish by getting himself so ridiculously clean?
After carefully wiping all ten fingers, Pei Du caught, from the corner of his eye, that pale pink round head had already been staring at him for several minutes.
What was that look about?
Yi Xingran watched as Pei Du finished drying his hands and then, without missing a beat, folded the white towel into a neat square. He genuinely couldn’t hold back his astonishment anymore,
How could this person be such a…
Such a fussy perfectionist.
The way he carried himself was more exaggerated than anything Yi Xingran had ever seen on television. Long limbs, dressed in a perfectly tailored suit, not a single strand of hair out of place. He was so elegant and immaculate that it looked as though there were cameras set up right in front of him, filming a carefully staged scene.
“Is there something on my face?”
“?”
Yi Xingran was in the middle of a full blown mental debate, although, admittedly, with a face like that, looking at him for a little longer really was rather pleasing to the eyes,
when the man who looked as though he had been meticulously carved suddenly turned his head. He lowered his eyes and looked directly at Yi Xingran, making the latter’s heart give an abrupt little jump.
The man’s voice was cool and indifferent, his tone almost casual.
“You’ve been looking at me for three minutes and seventeen seconds.”
Yi Xingran’s pupils involuntarily widened.
What the hell was wrong with him? When had he started timing it?!
“Heh heh heh.” He let out two awkward little laughs and casually patted his stomach. “I was just looking because you seem pretty big.”
Pei Du stopped what he was doing. He maintained the composed, dignified posture he had been holding a moment ago, though his gaze narrowed slightly.
“Pretty big?”
“Ah!” Yi Xingran wriggled and struggled upright in his seat, his thin body inching upward a little as he spread open the palm that had been resting against his abdomen. “I didn’t think you were that much taller than me either. So how come your hand looks so much bigger than mine?”
Pei Du stared at him for a moment before lowering his eyelids.
Yi Xingran refused to believe it. He wriggled himself a little farther upward, then eagerly extended his hand.
“Come on, come on. Let’s compare.”
The unfinished mint and lemon water on the table was completely drained by then. Pei Du set down his glass and only then gave a faint smile.
“What are we comparing? Height?”
Yi Xingran lifted his eyes and glared at him.
“I said hands, hands! I know you’re taller than me, all right? You don’t have to make it sound like I’m the one who didn’t grow properly…”
The moment the words left his mouth, Yi Xingran suddenly remembered his previous life. According to the medical examination report from three years later, he really wouldn’t grow much taller than he was now.
…How could it be like this?!
“I’m not comparing anymore!”
Before the words had even completely fallen, Pei Du had already opened his palm and reached it toward him. His warm fingers came down, gently tapping against the back of Yi Xingran’s hand where it rested over his lower abdomen.
Dry fingertips brushed slowly across his skin, sending back the delicate sensation of their fine texture. His complexion was cool and fair, while the flesh beneath it was firm yet smooth and resilient.
The instant he touched him, there was a crisp slap.
Yi Xingran reacted quickly, swinging his palm over without hesitation and smacking Pei Du’s hand away, sending it straight against his own stomach.
A subtle pause spread through the air.
Pei Du raised an eyebrow.
“Are you a cat or something?”
Yi Xingran’s hand was pressed over Pei Du’s, their palms overlapping. The warmth belonging entirely to another person was now pressed against his lower abdomen and through the thin layer of fabric, heat continuously radiated from the other man’s palm.
That slap had been purely instinctive. His hand had moved faster than his brain. It was only after he had knocked away that suddenly approaching dog paw that he realized what he had done. He unconsciously wrinkled the tip of his nose.
“Who’s a cat? I’m a sheep, okay?”
“Oh. I thought…”
“You thought what?”
Taking advantage of the position, Yi Xingran turned Pei Du’s palm over. His fingertip slowly slid upward from the base of the other man’s fingers and an indescribable sensation of friction traveled back from every point where their skin touched, until their palms were completely pressed together.
Pei Du’s fingertips lifted slightly, then flattened again. He did not move them any further.
“I thought I had triggered some kind of underlying mechanism. The cat’s paw has to be on top.”
Yi Xingran stretched his fingers as far as he possibly could but he could barely reach the first joint of Pei Du’s fingers. His pair of peach blossom eyes widened in disbelief as he grabbed the hand resting against his abdomen and repeatedly compared it against his own for quite some time.
The back of the hand slid over his soft stomach, occasionally pressing down with a little more weight, almost as though it were kneading and rubbing against him.
Pei Du allowed him to manipulate his hand however he pleased. Seeing Yi Xingran become increasingly dissatisfied the more he compared them, he narrowed his eyes and couldn’t resist teasing him.
“You were the one who wanted to compare. You lost and now you’re angry?”
Yi Xingran was extremely dissatisfied. He practically wanted to throw that paw straight back at him but after already grabbing hold of those fingers and rubbing them against his palm for quite a while, he finally managed to suppress the impulse to simply fling the hand away.
It didn’t matter what it was, where it was, or when it happened. As long as he didn’t win the comparison, he would be thoroughly annoyed!
But height and the length of one’s limbs were not things human effort could simply change. Yi Xingran sulked for a long while before finally complaining unhappily,
“They always say that even at twenty three, you can still have another growth spurt! Just you wait. I’ll definitely grow taller than you by then!”
The smile at the corners of Pei Du’s lips gradually faded. The look in his eyes as he gazed at Yi Xingran also took on an indescribable, difficult to define meaning.
In his previous life, Yi Xingran’s life had come to an end when he was twenty two.
Pei Du paused for a moment. Then, turning his hand over, he gently squeezed Yi Xingran’s palm.
“Go to bed early and get up early. Exercise, take calcium and maintain a balanced diet. Maybe you’ll grow taller.”
They had been talking for so long, so why were they still holding hands?
Yi Xingran finally came back to his senses and immediately let go. He instinctively covered his stomach, which had been warmed by the other man’s palm.
“What do you mean? Are you looking down on me or something?”
Pei Du withdrew his hand, his fingertips unconsciously rubbing against each other. At his words, he raised his eyes.
“Wasn’t I comforting you?”
Yi Xingran’s eyebrows shot up, his entire face filled with disbelief.
“Wasn’t that a provocation?”
Since he belonged to the Sheep zodiac, even the little strands of hair sticking up at his temples looked like tiny sheep horns. With his small face scrunched up, he looked as though he might charge over and butt Pei Du with his head at any moment.
Pei Du showed little expression. He stared at him for a long while before finally saying blandly,
“If you say so, then I suppose that’s what it was.”
Yi Xingran: “?”
He really was provoking him!
Su Letong, who had eaten until he was completely full, was happily cradling his round, stuffed belly. Yi Xingran walked outside with both hands tucked into his pockets, unable to resist sizing up Pei Du’s height again. The more he looked at that tall, broad shouldered figure with a narrow waist from behind, the more displeased he became.
Looking at him was irritating. Better to keep his eyes elsewhere.
Yi Xingran shifted his gaze away but Pei Du, who had been walking ahead of them, suddenly turned around.
Yi Xingran’s head was lowered and he hadn’t been watching where he was going. By the time he realized what was happening, it was already too late to stop himself. The foot he had just stepped forward with was about to land directly on Pei Du’s polished leather shoe.
Yi Xingran hurriedly took a large step and barely managed to stop right in front of him. His forehead almost collided with Pei Du’s chin.
Pei Du reached out and steadied him, waiting until he had regained his balance before leaning back slightly, avoiding the possibility of being headbutted by this little sheep.
“Don’t you watch where you’re going when you walk?”
Yi Xingran stared at him in shock.
“Seriously, bro? You always do this. Have you never gotten beaten up for it before?”
Pei Du lowered his eyes. That pink head was practically within arm’s reach, the little strands of hair sticking up from it brushing lightly against the side of his face.
“What do I always do?”
“It’s obviously because you suddenly- ”
Yi Xingran suddenly caught sight of the driver’s door of the car opening behind Pei Du. He abruptly fell silent halfway through his sentence.
Pei Du narrowed his eyes slightly.
“What’s wrong, President Ran? You’re following me this closely. Are you planning to drive without a license?”
“I was just…”
Pei Du watched as Yi Xingran helplessly ruffled his entire head of pink hair into an even messier state. He gave a faint smile.
“Friendly reminder: in a rear end collision, the following vehicle bears full responsibility. What you’re doing is failing to maintain an appropriate safe distance from me. When you grow up and take the written driving test, remember not to get that question wrong.”
Fuck!
He was being sarcastic while talking in circles at the same time. Every single time Yi Xingran talked to this man, it felt like several million brain cells died in the process!
Annoyed and frustrated, Yi Xingran turned around. Su Letong, who had already climbed into the back seat, happily waved at him.
Behind him, Pei Du’s cool voice, carrying that faint trace of amusement, sounded once again from above his head.
“Both of you are sitting in the back? Are you treating me as your personal chauffeur?”
Yi Xingran’s pink hair practically looked ready to explode. He slammed the car door shut, walked all the way around the vehicle and finally yanked open the front passenger door before climbing in with an unmistakably fierce expression. “Is this good enough now?! There are so many rules…”
“No.”
“?”
Was he seriously not done provoking him yet? Yi Xingran really wanted to give him a good smack!
Yi Xingran whipped around, completely caught off guard when he suddenly found Pei Du’s face so close to his own.
His usually cool, indifferent eyes reflected Yi Xingran’s own figure. They were far too close. Close enough that it seemed as though even their breaths had begun to mingle.
The individual lashes before Pei Du’s eyes suddenly became incredibly clear. Like a startled cat, Yi Xingran’s eyes went round, his pupils widening in surprise.
“You…!”
“Seat belt.”
Yi Xingran’s fists had already clenched but the moment he heard those words, his eyes instantly became clear and innocent again. The hand that had been suspended awkwardly in midair had nowhere to go, so in the end, he simply ran it messily through his own hair.
He looked even more like one now. Whenever he didn’t know what to say, the cat’s underlying programming automatically activated, since things had already reached this point, he might as well groom himself first.
His fluffy, tousled hair bobbed up and down over his round head as Yi Xingran lowered his head and fiddled with the seat belt.
Pei Du retreated, lowering his eyes to look at those fair, delicate ear tips. They seemed to have been dyed faintly red by the pink hair brushing against them.
For some reason, no matter how many times Yi Xingran tried to fit the buckle together, he simply couldn’t get it aligned properly. He worked at it until his forehead was covered in sweat. Finally, he heard a crisp click and only then did he let out a long sigh of relief.
“Phew, finally got it in! Is there anything else you’d like to order, Captain Pei?”
Pei Du was momentarily distracted. He raised his eyes and met Yi Xingran’s face, which had been flushed a delicate red from the heat. The words escaped his mouth before he could think better of them.
“Insert what?”
“?”
Yi Xingran gave him a strange look. “What do you mean, ‘insert what’? What else could I be inserting? Me?”
Pei Du said nothing.
Yi Xingran suddenly found it amusing. Unable to resist, he leaned closer and teased him with a cheerful grin, the corners of his upturned eyes practically radiating mischief.
“What exactly were you thinking about inserting just now, Captain Pei?”
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Fleurveil
[Translator]
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← PreviousNext →
ChaptersChapter 1 · Fire the hole!Chapter 2 · Dude, I’m here to save youChapter 3 · Plaster HeadChapter 4 · I’m well behaved, I don’t talk muchChapter 5 · It’s what Cross needsChapter 6 · What are you barking like a dog?Chapter 7 · “Ah! It’s so… so damn cold~”Chapter 8 · What are you looking at, you pervert!Chapter 9 · The cat I bought for free got dirty.Chapter 10 · Oh no! I forgot to switch to a smaller account!Chapter 11 · It’s my turn to performChapter 12 · Insults? That’s slander! This is slander!Chapter 13 · He’s a very nice personChapter 14 · Hunting TimeChapter 15 · A straight man sells himselfChapter 16 · The number one person who doesn’t eat stressChapter 17 · He is so vividChapter 18 · War! War! War! Kill! Kill!Chapter 19 Part 1 · What’s wrong with guys rubbing against each other?Chapter 19 Part 2 · What’s wrong with guys rubbing against each other?