After getting along for a short while, everyone discovered that Jiang Chu had a quiet and shy personality, so they all consciously took extra care of him. Yang Qianqian liked Jiang Chu even more; she frequently hovered around him and joined forces with He Qing to probe into Jiang Chu’s romantic status.
Du Jinchen finished his shower and went downstairs for breakfast. Everyone had already unceremoniously dug in, leaving two empty seats at the dining table: one for Du Jinchen and the other for Jiang Chu.
Du Jinchen glanced around the table and asked, “Where is Jiang Chu?”
“He must have stayed up too late playing last night and is probably still sleeping,” Yang Qianqian replied, her mouth still stuffed with a soup dumpling so that both of her cheeks bulged out. Hearing the question, she suggested, “Jinchen, why don’t you go upstairs and wake him up?”
Du Jinchen gave a soft “Mn” and turned to head upstairs.
Jiang Chu had chosen his own room, which was the innermost one on the second floor of the guesthouse. Du Jinchen walked down the entire hallway and arrived at Jiang Chu’s door.
Du Jinchen pressed the doorbell. The person inside must have already woken up, as the door opened very quickly.
“Morning,” Du Jinchen greeted with an amused smile, seeing a fluffy head pop out through the half-open door.
“Morning.” Jiang Chu raised a hand to rub his eyes. His cheeks were still damp, his forehead bangs were slightly wet, and his long eyelashes held droplets of water. He must have just finished washing up.
Du Jinchen raised his wrist and flicked his watch toward Jiang Chu. “It is time to eat.”
Jiang Chu opened the door a bit wider so that his entire body was now visible. His brain was still not fully awake, and along with that, the aloof keep-strangers-at-a-distance aura he usually carried was hidden away, making him look like a soft cat exposing its tender belly in front of Du Jinchen.
“Okay,” Jiang Chu replied. “I will go right down. Sorry to trouble you.”
Du Jinchen lowered his gaze to look at Jiang Chu. From his height and angle, it was easy to take in Jiang Chu’s entire figure, and he noticed that Jiang Chu looked a bit different today.
Jiang Chu was wearing a low-necked white T-shirt, which exposed his slender, fair neck and delicate collarbones. The oversized T-shirt concealed his slim waist, his sleeves were half-rolled up to his shoulders, and his fair forearms were moistened by water, with droplets still dripping from his pinkish fingertips.
Du Jinchen already knew that Jiang Chu had a small, delicate black mole on his collarbone.
However, now that black mole was gone, replaced by a very small, deep red, irregularly shaped sticker. Looked at closely, it resembled a little cat head. It was not just on his collarbone; through the lowered neckline, Du Jinchen saw that his fair, bare chest also had quite a few delicate stickers pasted on it.
Looking closely, those stickers were identical to the ones on the back of Jiang Chu’s hand, looking completely lifelike. Du Jinchen took a serious look and said, “It looks nice.”
He found that the word he repeated most often when it came to Jiang Chu was nice-looking, but it was undeniable that Jiang Chu deserved it.
“Hmm?” Jiang Chu lifted his gaze in confusion.
Du Jinchen pointed vaguely toward the cat head on his collarbone, the corners of his lips curving up as he said, “I mean this sticker. It looks great.”
Only then did Jiang Chu realize what Du Jinchen was talking about, and he reached up to touch his collarbone.
Jiang Chu pulled his neckline up a bit higher and said quickly, “Thanks. You go on down first, I will be right there.”
With that, he closed the door, leaving a bewildered Du Jinchen shut out in the hallway.
Du Jinchen muttered in incomprehension, “What is wrong with him?”
After breakfast, the group set off for Haiming Park to watch the seagulls. Yang Qianqian pulled Jiang Chu along, asking him questions left and right.
Yang Qianqian asked Jiang Chu to take pictures for her. Once he finished, she took her phone back from his hands and asked, “Xiao Chu, Xiao Chu, how old are you?”
“Eighteen,” Jiang Chu answered quietly.
Yang Qianqian chimed in, “Xiao Chu, Xiao Chu, you are so pretty. Do you often hear people praising your voice?”
“Yes.” Jiang Chu lowered his eyelashes and thought for a moment. It seemed like Du Jinchen really liked praising him.
“Xiao Chu, do you have your own Alpha?” Yang Qianqian asked with starry eyes, cupping her face and leaning right up close to Jiang Chu out of curiosity.
Jiang Chu was startled, then quickly and firmly shook his head.
Hearing Jiang Chu say no, Yang Qianqian’s eyes lit up. She declared that she had an Alpha cousin who was super handsome, currently studying at a university in Jingzhou City, and offered to share his WeChat contact with Jiang Chu so the two of them could have a good chat.
Before Jiang Chu could figure out how to decline Yang Qianqian’s kind intention, a slender, strong arm thrust horizontally between them. Du Jinchen timely handed over a cup of milk tea and said in a deep voice, “Come on, let us take some geotagged photos.”
“Wow!” Yang Qianqian took the milk tea with a beaming smile. “Brother Chen is so generous!”
Holding her phone in one hand and the milk tea in the other, Yang Qianqian started taking pictures of the sea, temporarily banishing her cousin to the back of her mind.
Du Jinchen handed Jiang Chu a small bag of bread. “You feed the seagulls.”
Jiang Chu accepted the bread. Holding a small piece of soft bread between his fair, delicate fingertips, he held it high above his head and waited for a seagull’s favor.
Before long, a pure white seagull swooped down swiftly from the blue sky and snatched the bread right out of Jiang Chu’s hand.
At first, Jiang Chu was a little nervous. When the seagull’s orange-yellow beak brushed against his fingertips, his body tensed up, and even his thin spine looked stiff.
Du Jinchen spoke up to comfort Jiang Chu, “Do not be afraid. Seagulls are intelligent; they will not hurt you.”
Guided by Du Jinchen’s gentle voice, Jiang Chu relaxed bit by bit.
When a pure white seagull landed and perched right on his forearm, Jiang Chu’s eyes shone brightly. He impatiently turned his head to look at Du Jinchen, wanting to look at him as if claiming credit for an achievement.
His cat-like, damp eyes held a bright luster, fluttering like stars, crystal-clear and sparkling.
Unawares, Du Jinchen seemed to catch the scent of that water-light pheromone once again. The cool mint fragrance pierced through the moist air, soaking into his heart like an invisible droplet of water.
Du Jinchen could not help staring in a daze until the seagull flapped its wings and flew away, and Jiang Chu called his name twice in a low voice. Only then did Du Jinchen snap back to reality.
The bread in his hand had all been snatched away by the seagulls, and the bag was completely empty, but Jiang Chu still seemed a bit unsatisfied.
He had no choice but to turn back to look at Du Jinchen, his amber eyes reflecting shallow silhouettes filled entirely with Du Jinchen.
Du Jinchen’s Adam’s apple involuntarily bobbed twice. His fingers, showing faint veins, tightened around the remaining pieces of bread through the paper bag as he said in a hoarse voice, “Call me brother.”
Call me brother, and I will give it to you.
Jiang Chu was stunned, his face turning red. “Brother.”
It sounded like a piece of jade dropping into a porcelain jar, splashing out a crisp ring that softened half of Du Jinchen’s ear.
Too much.
That was too damn rule-breaking.
Du Jinchen’s gaze flickered fiercely. Over these past few days, he had noticed that Jiang Chu did not seem to be resistant to physical contact with him, which inevitably gave him more boldness. He could not help raising a hand to pinch Jiang Chu’s earlobe.
Then, flustered and hurried, he handed the rest of the bread to Jiang Chu to cover up his lapse of composure.
He then turned his head to look at the ocean view, pretending not to care, while the fingertips tucked inside his pocket unconsciously rubbed together, savoring the lingering memory of that brief, delicate touch.
Such a soft omega.