He likes this kind of play. Playing hard to get, taking control…
Zuo Xingyun’s gaze lingered for a long time on Hua Sheng’s slightly protruding scent gland.
Small in size, perhaps because it had been covered by the blocker sticker for too long, it exuded a somewhat damp, rosy pink.
Hua Sheng swallowed hard. Aside from his older brother, no one had ever looked at his scent gland this closely.
It was all because he had gotten too close to Zuo Xingyun over the past few days, making his pheromones even more unstable. The moment he saw Zuo Xingyun, a strange feeling would well up inside his heart.
It felt a bit like being in heat, yet it hadn’t reached the point of completely losing his sanity.
Hua Sheng couldn’t even figure out what he wanted to do anymore.
Perhaps he wanted to take a bite out of him, or perhaps he wanted him to take a bite out of himself.
His handsome brows furrowed slightly as Zuo Xingyun lowered his eyes to ponder for a moment, then raised a hand to press against Hua Sheng’s shoulder and gently pushed him away.
Hua Sheng looked at him in disbelief, a nameless fire surging straight up to his head!
“Hua Sheng, no.” Zuo Xingyun used every ounce of his strength to suppress the rising desire.
His voice grew a bit raspy as he shook his head and said, “We can’t do this.”
“If you don’t like me…” Zuo Xingyun’s expression darkened as he said with disappointment, “then don’t lead me on. I don’t want this anymore, this hot-and-cold push-and-pull, constantly worrying about gains and losses.”
Hua Sheng clenched his fists tight.
“Lead you on?”
He viciously ground his teeth, his face flushed crimson, a full fury cocked and ready to fire.
Zuo Xingyun unassumingly sized him up, the tip of his heart itching.
Hua Sheng was about to flip out again.
A fake tiger and a real cat, this was the Hua Sheng he knew, cursing up a storm and baring his claws.
“Zuo Xingyun, you really have no shame!” Hua Sheng took a deep breath, reapplying his blocker sticker, looking slightly awkward.
“Pissing me off to death.”
“Ever since I met you, nothing good has ever happened around me. My life was originally very peaceful, and you’re the one who keeps sticking your nose into it!”
After the awkwardness came a wave of inexplicable anger. Hua Sheng angrily pulled open his school uniform, bounced up from his lap, and pointed at his face to curse, “If you came to find me today just to talk about changing the study group members, you didn’t need to notify me at all. You could have just told the head teacher directly; anyway, they’ve never respected my opinion anyway.”
“And here I thought you honor roll students were so aloof and selflessly devoted. Turns out you’re all the same, utterly hypocritical!” The more Hua Sheng thought about it, the angrier he got. “So the past few times you were just toying with me, you don’t even like me at all! Saying you like me… I think you just fucking like touching me, you damn perverted freak! Fuck!”
“When you like me you act like a dog, rubbing back and forth next to me, and when you don’t like me you push me away…” Hua Sheng angrily turned his back, his tone turning sarcastic. “That’s right, you’re taking the college entrance exam soon anyway, right? How important the college entrance exam is to you, the sole turning point that changes your life.”
Zuo Xingyun stood up. He stared at the back of Hua Sheng’s head, silently taking a few steps forward.
Hua Sheng kept on cursing endlessly. “Unwilling to hang out with trash like us for fear your grades will drop? What kind of top student are you, secretly studying for who knows how long just to maintain some kind of persona? What, can’t even score first place if you spend a little more time with me? Then your top student status isn’t all that great after all. Fine, fine, since you really hate me this much, let’s never see each other again from now on. Go find your new partner, go harass him, you’re so annoying!”
The more Hua Sheng thought about it, the angrier he got, feeling like he had made a complete fool of himself. All the moves he had just pulled on him had turned into a ridiculous seduction, and he just wanted to leave this place immediately, to escape this awkward scene.
Who would have thought that the moment he turned around, he would see Zuo Xingyun’s face.
He was standing quietly behind him, his height and build overshadowing him completely. Hua Sheng unconsciously took two steps back and shifted his gaze downward, seeing the heavily bulging pants, which made him freeze.
Zuo Xingyun curved his brows slightly, the smile in the depths of his eyes on the verge of overflowing. He had thought that after being subjected to such insults, Zuo Xingyun would fly into a rage, but who would have thought he was actually still smiling?
Hua Sheng glared fiercely at him. “What are you laughing at?”
“Hua Sheng.” Zuo Xingyun pinched his cheek and said softly, “You’ve finally experienced what I felt.”
“What feeling?”
“The feeling I had when I saw you hugging and holding onto Cui Yu the other day.” Zuo Xingyun took his hand, cradled it in both of his own, brought it to his lips and blew a puff of warm air. The deep affection within those peach-blossom eyes passed straight through his semi-rimless glasses without diminishing at all, looking straight into the depths of Hua Sheng’s eyes. “The feeling of jealousy.”
Zuo Xingyun followed Hua Sheng back home.
He discovered that Hua Sheng was someone full of rebellious bones; the more you told him not to do something, the more he would insist on doing it.
Therefore, if he wanted Hua Sheng to bring him home, he had to give a firm refusal.
Hua Sheng had been pushed to the extreme of anger, nearly driven to tears. Perhaps no one had ever rejected him like this before, so he angrily pulled on Zuo Xingyun’s sleeve and insisted on taking him home, which played right into Zuo Xingyun’s hands.
After hailing a taxi from outside the school gate and speeding for forty minutes, they finally reached Hua Sheng’s villa. During the entire trip, he hadn’t let go of Zuo Xingyun’s hemline for even a second, as if afraid he would run away.
Once out of the car, he dragged Zuo Xingyun across the spacious courtyard, heading purposefully straight for the second floor.
Zuo Xingyun didn’t have time to look around at his luxurious and imposing villa; he only noticed that the entire building was pitch-dark with no lights on, likely because no one else was home.
He remembered that when he came to Hua Sheng’s house years ago, it was the exact same, splendid yet dead silent.
No… there was sound after all.
“Woof woof woof!” A Border Collie with smooth, lustrous fur spotted a stranger and rushed toward Hua Sheng and the others from afar. Feeling as guilty as if he had been caught in the act, Hua Sheng anxiously and hurriedly pulled Zuo Xingyun behind him, leaning down to grab the charging Border Collie. “Don’t, don’t, don’t, don’t get excited. Don’t bark so loud, I’ll go…”
The Border Collie wagged its tail excitedly, its tail pattering rapidly against Hua Sheng’s shoulder as it scrambled wildly in his arms, whining while making a show of defiance. “Woof woof woof! Arf woof!”
Hua Sheng lifted his head, dodging its sturdy and powerful tail, thinking to himself: Thank goodness it wasn’t White Pig, that Labrador he had raised for over a decade.
Getting hit by that tail would leave a bruise that wouldn’t fade for days.
In fact, such an enthusiastic welcome happened every single day, so even though he lived here alone, he never felt scared. With so many dogs around, the ones who should be scared were intruders and thieves breaking in.
His older brother and sister didn’t come back often; this place was specifically bought for Hua Sheng to go to school.
He had complained countless times: You bought it specifically for me, yet it’s this far away?
Lost in thought and letting his mind wander, he didn’t snap back to reality until the Border Collie charged toward Zuo Xingyun behind him, prompting him to grab it like wrestling a pig and hold on for dear life. “Dahua, Dahua, listen to me. Don’t get excited, he’s not a bad person.”
This Border Collie named Dahua was emotionally worked up and, ignoring Hua Sheng’s obstruction, barked frantically at Zuo Xingyun, impossible to hold back.
Hua Sheng threw his whole body onto Dahua, turning his head back to shout at Zuo Xingyun, “What are you still standing there looking for? Hurry up and go, get into the room, just that room next door, quick, I can’t hold it back!”
He used his eyes to urgently signal Zuo Xingyun to get away from this danger zone quickly, worrying in his heart that this kind of barking would very likely attract White Pig.
White Pig was a Labrador in its teens; though it looked old, it was actually extremely agile. If it developed hostility toward Zuo Xingyun and lunged forward, that wouldn’t be a matter of whether Hua Sheng could hold it back or not.
Zuo Xingyun looked at the Border Collie, took a step back, and raised his hand to push the door open. Who would have thought that the moment his hand touched the doorknob, a pale-yellow, almost whitish large dog darted out from downstairs like a speeding white ball, rushing straight toward Zuo Xingyun with the speed and momentum of lightning!
Speak of the devil!
Hua Sheng cursed under his breath inwardly. Ah shit, it’s over!
With quick hands and sharp eyes, he grabbed a rope from the railing edge to loop around Dahua, then immediately crouched down to block White Pig’s charge. Seeing its master suddenly crouch, White Pig had no choice but to slam on the emergency brakes, bringing all four paws together to slide half a meter across the tile floor, clumsily slowing its momentum to crash straight into Hua Sheng’s arms.
“What are you still standing there staring for? Hurry up and hide in the room, do you really want to be bitten to death by a dog?” Hua Sheng glanced at Zuo Xingyun, growing anxious seeing him still standing frozen over there. He coaxed White Pig at the same time. “Alright, alright, Piggy, don’t stoop to his level. You’re getting up there in years, stop acting like this, stop it…”
White Pig was already 13 years old and was an old dog. Having just bolted upstairs, it had taken a lot out of it, and it was panting heavily, struggling to break free from Hua Sheng’s embrace to let out soft hums at Zuo Xingyun while its tail spun 360 degrees like helicopter blades. “Woof! Woof woof!”
Hua Sheng blinked in surprise. White Pig didn’t look hostile at all; why was it humming at Zuo Xingyun like that?
He let go of his grip with lingering doubt, and sure enough, White Pig immediately rushed over to Zuo Xingyun’s side to wag its tail, its sturdy and powerful tail beating against its own thick waist, its entire rear end wriggling with excitement.
Hua Sheng couldn’t believe his eyes. White Pig was actually reacting this strongly to a total stranger, spinning in circles around Zuo Xingyun’s body like a fawning, flattering sycophant.
Zuo Xingyun crouched down and reached out to stroke White Pig’s head.
To his surprise, White Pig looked as though it had been knocked dizzy by a wave of joyful shock, surrounded by imaginary pink bubbles. It docilely leaned against Zuo Xingyun’s calf, its tail sweeping a 270-degree arc across the floor.
Hua Sheng stared in utter shock. “Wait, Zuo Xingyun, what kind of spell did you cast on my dog, why does it like you so much?”
He looked over at Dahua, who was still standing nearby with all its fur fluffed up and its tail held high in warning, and asked in confusion. “Then why does Dahua hate you so much?”
Two dogs, two different attitudes.
Zuo Xingyun squatted down accordingly, stroking White Pig’s head from crown to tail. White Pig held its head high like a triumphant soldier, panting happily toward Zuo Xingyun with its two eyes fixed unblinkingly on him, even excitedly raising a paw to rest on the back of Zuo Xingyun’s hand.
Zuo Xingyun turned his gaze to look at him, a half-smile playing on his lips as he said, “Maybe I met it a long time ago.”
Hua Sheng frowned. Watching his own dog fawning over someone else didn’t sit well with him, so he waved at White Pig. “White Pig, come here, ignore him.”
Seeing its master calling, White Pig reflexively stood up and took a few steps toward Hua Sheng, only to turn back and glance longingly at Zuo Xingyun. For the first time, Hua Sheng saw a look of reluctance on a dog’s face.
“Holy shit, did you hypnotize him or something?” His own dog of over a dozen years was actually wagging its tail at someone else and acting all torn about it. Dissatisfied, Hua Sheng shifted all this hatred onto Zuo Xingyun and decided he was going to properly teach him a lesson.
He grabbed Zuo Xingyun’s wrist and dragged him into the room.
“Well, well, Zuo Xingyun, you actually put a spell on my dog.” Adopting the tone of a tyrannical hooligan, he increased the strength in his grip. “Get over here, see how I fix you!”
In short, “fixing” him was a lie; wanting to drag him inside and find an excuse to bully him all over again was the truth.
He locked the door from the inside, leaving only a dim light turned on as he dragged Zuo Xingyun forward with hurried steps and shoved him onto the bed.
If Zuo Xingyun didn’t want to go, his strength wouldn’t have been enough to drag him an inch.
This closet perv was clearly enjoying it immensely while putting on a fake look of helpless shock. Who was he putting on that act for?
“You’re in my territory now!” Hua Sheng unzipped his school uniform, neatly tossing it aside, hooked one corner of his mouth into an evil smirk, and put on a lewd expression. “Whatever I want to do to you next, you’ll just have to obediently take it, hmph.”
Zuo Xingyun looked at his parting and closing lips, feeling an itch in his heart, but still managed to keep his expression under control.
He liked this kind of play.