Hearing Du Jichen’s words, Jiang Chu was somewhat surprised. His bright, round eyes widened slightly as he looked at Du Jichen, as if trying to gauge the feasibility of that statement.
Feeling a bit embarrassed under Jiang Chu’s gaze, Du Jichen slightly raised his hand to block Jiang Chu’s line of sight. “What is it? Can’t an Alpha get tattoos too?”
Jiang Chu stroked the soft back of the white cat and said, “No, you can.”
Various stickers were placed on the coffee table by Jiang Chu. Du Jichen leaned over to pick and choose among them, his slender fingers pinching a shaped butterfly sticker. “But I don’t know how to apply them.”
The implication was that he wanted Jiang Chu to help him apply it.
Jiang Chu subconsciously curled his fingertips inward. Meeting the sticker in Du Jichen’s hand with his gaze, he had no choice but to say, “Then I will help you apply it.”
Du Jichen put the sticker back where it was, lowered his gaze to meet Jiang Chu’s, and raised the corners of his lips with a smile. “Alright.”
He withdrew his lazy demeanor, sitting back down on the sofa with his long legs casually stretched out. His right arm rested on the back of the sofa in a very handsome posture as he asked, “Where should we put it?”
His knuckle-defined hand very consciously raised, his index finger slightly pulling down the collar of his t-shirt to reveal a patch of fair chest. A silver bone-chain necklace hung around his slender neck, featuring a pendant shaped like a miniature astronaut. The youth sat lazily and freely on the sofa with his brows raised high, handsome without even realizing it.
Jiang Chu stood up, and seeing this pose of Du Jichen selling his looks rather than his talent, he reached out and pulled the collar back up to cover that patch of spring scenery. “Not here.”
He used his fingertip to tap Du Jichen’s right earlobe. The icy touch made Du Jichen’s heart skip a beat. “Right here.”
Du Jichen said nothing.
Jiang Chu rummaged through the pile of stickers and picked out a small sun sticker.
This was the first label Jiang Chu had mentally assigned to Du Jichen. Du Jichen’s personality was open and casual, and befriending him gave one a relaxed feeling. He would step in to help when Jiang Chu faced harassment from an Alpha, would share his water bottle, would genuinely understand his emotions, and would be considerate of his feelings.
Such an Alpha was like a scorching sun, a dazzling and glowing presence wherever he went.
Jiang Chu lowered his gaze slightly, carefully adding to the thought that his warm-sun pheromone was also a one-of-a-kind existence.
He asked Du Jichen to turn his head to the side, first using a wet wipe to clean Du Jichen’s earlobe.
Jiang Chu wiped with extreme care. His soft breathing puffed against the back of Du Jichen’s ear cartilage, tickling softly as if brushed gently by a dandelion.
The distance between the two of them was less than a few centimeters; Du Jichen only needed to turn his head slightly to kiss Jiang Chu’s fair cheek.
That faint, cool scent of pheromones drifted over from Jiang Chu, lingering around Du Jichen’s nose and smelling so good that it left him dazed.
Jiang Chu had initially stood beside Du Jichen, but that position wasn’t very convenient for applying the sticker. Therefore, Jiang Chu logically stepped right between Du Jichen’s legs, his knees lightly pressing against the sofa cushion as his entire body practically sank into Du Jichen’s embrace.
Du Jichen turned his head away with some difficulty, unable to help taking a breath. His heart beat wildly, and the roots of his ears turned somewhat red, whether from being wiped by Jiang Chu or from shyness, he could not tell.
This was simply a form of torture for himself.
Jiang Chu reached out to pinch Du Jichen’s jaw, his soft fingertips gently gripping it. The icy sensation made Du Jichen’s body stiffen as he heard Jiang Chu say, “Don’t move.”
Losing his usual composure, Du Jichen did not dare to move at all.
Jiang Chu turned to grab the sticker again, moistened it with water, and carefully and meticulously applied it behind Du Jichen’s earlobe. His slightly cool fingertips gently scraped and pressed behind the earlobe.
His heartbeat grew more and more violent, as if it would leap out of his chest the next second. Du Jichen felt the pleasant scent of pheromones around him grow thicker, weaving an inescapable net to trap him. He felt his gland burning with heat, and the surging pheromones were like erupting magma, about to burst forth.
Du Jichen closed his eyes for a moment, masking that scorching surge of emotion.
Those twenty seconds felt both agonizingly long and fleetingly short to Du Jichen. When Jiang Chu peeled off the transfer paper and retreated from his embrace, Du Jichen slowly opened his eyes, unsure even to himself whether the complex emotion in his gaze was relief or reluctance.
Just as Du Jichen was about to get up, Jiang Chu turned back around holding something, pressed down on Du Jichen’s shoulder, and said, “It’s not over yet.”
Du Jichen immediately relaxed his body, leaning back against the sofa in a pose that let Jiang Chu do whatever he pleased.
Jiang Chu gently pressed a tissue against the newly applied small sun to blot away the moisture. Du Jichen’s attention drifted to the two earrings on Jiang Chu’s left ear, the silver butterfly studs catching the light strikingly against that fair cartilage.
Du Jichen spoke up. “Why do you have two piercings in your ear?”
Du Jichen clearly felt Jiang Chu’s hand pause, and he immediately realized that his question had overstepped boundaries.
He had only asked casually; even if Jiang Chu didn’t want to answer, it was entirely understandable. Du Jichen quickly added, “No, I just asked casually. If you don’t want to answer, you don’t have to.”
Jiang Chu had already pulled his hand back. Du Jichen turned to look at Jiang Chu, the pretty youth sporting a head of soft pink hair. The two silver bone studs on his ear reflected a faint glint, and the tattoo sticker covered by his shirt collar added a hazy aura to the youth before him.
Du Jichen suddenly felt that he couldn’t read this Omega. A veil seemed to hang between them, and Jiang Chu looked like a mysterious elf hiding behind a white veil, impossible for Du Jichen to figure out no matter how he probed.
Jiang Chu’s lip shape was full and attractive, a tender pink that made one want to kiss it at first glance, yet it was often pressed into a tight, cool line that diluted the emotion on his face. At this moment, however, Jiang Chu slowly curved the corners of his lips, a smile that wasn’t exactly bright but was nonetheless pretty blooming across the youth’s face. It left Du Jichen staring in a daze, forgetting what he even wanted to say.
Jiang Chu curved his lips into a smile, half-jokingly saying, “It’s unique, isn’t it?”
Du Jichen’s eyes were filled entirely with Jiang Chu’s smile. He opened his mouth, but didn’t know what to reply.
He could only answer in his heart: Yes.
It was very unique.
At this time, Du Jichen still did not know what these special marks on Jiang Chu represented. It wasn’t until later that he understood they were all manifestations of Jiang Chu’s rebelliousness.
It was only after Jiang Chu bypassed Du Jichen and went upstairs that he gradually recovered his senses.
After the two girls finished applying stickers to each other, they turned to look at the sticker behind Du Jichen’s ear and praised, “As expected of Xiao Chu, he’s so good at picking stickers. This little sun suits Jichen so well!”
That sun was designed in the shape of a ball of fire, its rays transforming into tangible flames like a falling fireball, with an orange-yellow crescent moon in the middle and a few ears of rice added around it, as if it had fused into one with Du Jichen.
“Thank you,” Du Jichen smiled. “I like it too.”