The most common phrase Hua Sheng had heard growing up was “I like you.”
When he was little, his mom and dad would hold his hands, ask him silly questions, kiss his cheeks on both sides, and say with doting affection, “Our little Hua Sheng is so cute. We like Hua Sheng the most.”
In middle school, standing out from the crowd thanks to being foolish with money, ridiculously generous, and remarkably good-looking, he immediately captured the hearts of thousands of adolescent girls and accidentally caught the eye of the school’s local tough guy’s girlfriend.
On his way home, the neighborhood hoodlum intercepted him with a whole group of followers, pointed and cursed him out, and robbed him of all his allowance money.
Hua Sheng carried his schoolbag back home, his eyes red and brimming with tears as he sniffled all the way.
His oldest brother noticed something was off, interrogated him thoroughly, and discovered that his silly little brother had been bullied. The very next day, the brother marched straight to the school, dragged that swaggering punk out, and taught him a harsh lesson.
The fearless neighborhood hoodlum showed up later that exact same day with three or four underlings, kneeling in a neat row right in front of Hua Sheng, slapping their own faces while begging for forgiveness.
Ever since then, rumors like “Hua Sheng’s family background is extraordinary,” “Mafia young master,” and “Richest man in the country” began to spread like wildfire.
In reality, Hua Sheng’s family wasn’t nearly as mythical as the rumors claimed.
They were just the ordinary richest family in City C. It just so happened that his grandfather was a decorated veteran, his grandmother was a national-grade first-class theater actress, his dad held some clout in the political sphere, and his mom’s side of the family owned a major corporation. Hua Sheng didn’t really understand all of that; he had simply never had to worry about money for a single day since he was born.
He never lacked other people’s affection, nor did he lack their jealousy.
He treated his friends with genuine sincerity. No matter what their initial motives were, as long as they were willing to smile at him and play along with him, spending a bit of money didn’t matter at all.
Because he was rich, every group gathering always ended with him paying the bill, and whenever anyone asked him to borrow money, he always lent it out, though he had never once received a single repayment.
Hua Sheng never cared about such things. He felt that money was a worldly possession and that friendship was far more important than wealth.
However, there came a day when Hua Sheng accidentally overheard a conversation between his so-called friends.
One of them was complaining that his parents had recently confiscated his allowance and was asking what excuse he could use to get Hua Sheng to hand over a bit more cash.
Hua Sheng froze on the spot as he heard another person reply in a leisurely tone.
“Just say it’s your mom’s birthday and you want to buy her a necklace, but you’re broke, so ask him to borrow some. He’s so gullible, he’ll definitely think you’re being filial and hand it over without a second thought.”
“Ah, haha, great idea! How much do you think is appropriate to ask for?”
“Has to be around ten thousand or so, right? Getting it is pure profit, man. Besides, you don’t even have to pay it back. After a while, that idiot will completely forget about it. Plus, it’s not like he misses that pocket change anyway.”
“Hahaha, you really know your stuff!”
The very next day, true to form, he watched as his brother came up to borrow money using the exact same excuse, word for word.
Hua Sheng stared into his face for a long time, then slowly shook his head.
The guy widened his eyes in shock. “Hua Sheng, why are you doing this? I just want to show filial piety. My mom has wanted a necklace for the longest time, but you know how my dad is. He is too stingy to spend a dime on her. I had no other choice, so I had to come begging to you. I’ll pay you back! As soon as I get any money, I’ll return it.”
“Liar, I heard everything!”
Being only in the eighth grade, Hua Sheng couldn’t keep his temper in check. Hearing those words made his anger flare up instantly. “You guys just want to trick me out of my money! You’ve all been treating me like an idiot!”
“You still haven’t paid back the money from last time! I don’t remember the exact amount, but it’s at least eight hundred to a thousand, and you haven’t returned it yet.” Hua Sheng thrust his hand out fiercely. “And last time we went to the Undersea World, Happy Valley, and ate hot pot, I paid for all of it! You guys never treated me like a friend at all. You were only after my money!”
The guy froze, clearly not expecting the usual pushover Hua Sheng to blurt out such words.
He stammered for a long time, his face alternating between green and red, before finally spitting out, “You’re really petty! Fine, I’ll pay you back if that’s how it is. But I think you’re the one who never treated us like friends. I finally see your true colors now. I’m never making friends with you again. Who knows when you’ll suddenly demand your money back out of nowhere?”
Hua Sheng wore a dark expression as he picked up a chair. Seeing this, the guy panicked. “What are you doing? Thinking about hitting someone? I’m telling you, Hua Sheng, if it weren’t for the fact that you’re an idiot with deep pockets, who would even want to be friends with you? You think anyone around you actually likes you? You’re annoying as hell, can’t hold a proper conversation, and you’re completely self-centered. Screw this!”
He dodged sideways as the heavy chair crashed down onto the floor with a loud thud. “You actually threw it?! Look at you, throwing tantrums like this. Who could possibly put up with you? Fine, fine, we’re through, we are completely done! Damn it, what bad luck!”
Recalling such unpleasant memories made Hua Sheng’s eyes sting with acidity. He raised a hand to rub his eyes, and when he lowered it, the corners of his eyes retained a faint, delicate flush.
Zuo Xingyun noticed the anomaly, cupped his chin, and examined him closely. “What is it?”
Hua Sheng stiffened his neck and refused to speak, feeling rather humiliated.
“Crying again?”
“You’re the one crying!” Hua Sheng sniffled, swatting his hand away. “Get lost.”
Zuo Xingyun lowered his head, pressed his forehead against Hua Sheng’s, and gently blew a soft breath toward his eyes.
Hua Sheng instinctively closed his eyes. Zuo Xingyun’s fingers were cool to the touch, sliding down the bridge of his nose, resting on his lips, and tracing along his jawline to the back of his neck.
“Little Hua Sheng, don’t cry. It breaks my heart.” Zuo Xingyun’s voice was full of tenderness, warm and deep, like river water flowing under the warm sun through a quiet canyon, clear and pure like a mountain spring. “I won’t bully you.”
“Get lost, get lost, get lost!” Hua Sheng felt a wave of goosebumps and began shouting flusteredly, “Who’s crying? I wouldn’t cry even if you were crying! Who wants your affection, you dead, poor bookworm? You’re only after my money anyway.”
He sat on top of Zuo Xingyun, struggling frantically and twisting like a contortionist, but with the wall right behind him, he had nowhere to run.
“What kind of liking, bah! You’re just a pervert who likes men!” Hua Sheng spat out without any mercy. “I’m telling you, I hate people who covet my body the most. You’d better drop your perverted thoughts, you closet pervert.”
“Closet-pervert bespectacled nerd!”
He kept a stern face and hurled insults at Zuo Xingyun from top to bottom, inside and out, even dragging the glasses sitting nearby into the tirade.
“Normally you wear those glasses to look all deep and sophisticated, acting so proper and serious, but who would have guessed your inner thoughts are this sleazy and vulgar?” Hua Sheng’s neck turned red with fury. “Licking men, are you even normal?”
Hua Sheng had never cared much about his own sexual orientation, nor had he ever experienced the flutter of a first crush. To him, winning a video game or pulling a rare item in a gacha game gave him a much bigger thrill.
Zuo Xingyun stared at him without a word, deciding to express himself through action instead.
“What are you doing? Don’t come closer, I’m warning you.” Feeling the cold touch at his waist, Hua Sheng gave a sharp start, frantically shrinking backward. Sadly, there was nowhere left to retreat, and the distance between him and Zuo Xingyun shrank to absolute zero.
Third High’s autumn school uniforms had a standard thickness that did almost nothing to block the heat of their bodies pressing together.
Feeling awkward, Hua Sheng pushed against Zuo Xingyun’s shoulders.
“Damn it, you’re heavy as a rock. Get lost! I’m counting to three, you better get as far away from me as possible, or I’ll have my brother come deal with you! Just you wait!” Hua Sheng delivered his fierce threat with zero actual intimidation. Even though he was physically on top, he was clearly the one at the mercy of the other person.
“Three.” Hua Sheng raised his volume, his fingers gripping tightly onto Zuo Xingyun’s shoulders as his body trembled involuntarily from nervousness. “Two.”
Zuo Xingyun’s eyes brimmed with amusement as he stared at him with keen interest.
Hua Sheng’s face turned pale and blotchy. Seeing that Zuo Xingyun had no intention of backing down, a million curses jammed in his throat.
Damn it, this closet pervert had skin thicker than a brick wall. He didn’t care about being cursed at, and on top of that, he was still smiling!
“One. Mph.” Hua Sheng’s “one” was swallowed whole by a sudden kiss. Zuo Xingyun cupped his chin with one hand and pressed the back of his head with the other, his tongue slipping into Hua Sheng’s half-open mouth with gentle yet unyielding persistence.
“Mph.” Hua Sheng’s back was plastered against the wall with nowhere to dodge, forced to accept Zuo Xingyun’s passionate deep kiss. He pulled his hands back against his chest, trying his absolute best to push Zuo Xingyun away. “Mm-mph. No.”
The more they kissed, the faster his heart raced. Hua Sheng panicked and shoved his shoulders. The scent coming off this damned pervert was crisp, clean, and intoxicatingly pleasant, making his head spin.
Sharing a room with an unfamiliar alpha was terrifying enough on its own.
Luckily Hua Sheng wasn’t in his heat cycle, otherwise, given his constitution, he would have probably dropped to his knees and begged the guy to mark him.
“Mph. Mm.” Amidst the intertwining of their lips and teeth, his body grew weak and limp, and saliva began to slip down helplessly. “Mph. Ah. Stop kissing me, you pervert. This is so weird.”
Zuo Xingyun had the classic physique of someone who looked slim in clothes but ripped underneath, broad shoulders, a narrow waist, and long legs.
His arms and abdomen were packed with solid, powerful muscle. Hua Sheng had realized from their very first exchange of blows that he was no match for him.
He shivered, regretting his choices deeply.
Why on earth did he have to go and provoke him?
“Zuo Xingyun, stop this. You’re a grown man, don’t drag things out like this. Let’s just call it quits. Please let me go.” Hua Sheng stammered, reaching out to cover Zuo Xingyun’s mouth as he tried a softer approach. “Big Brother Zuo, I was wrong! What on earth do you want anyway? I’ll apologize. Can I make it up to you?”
“That business with Dazhi must have been a misunderstanding on my part. I’ll ask him later if he offended you somewhere. Oh, please let me go. I’m still young, I’m only eighteen, boohoo.” Hua Sheng surrendered instantly, his voice carrying a hint of urgency. “Just kissing and groping should be enough, right? Let me go.”
A wise man knows better than to fight when the odds are against him.
As long as he could escape from this place in one piece, what did swallowing his pride matter? Besides, there were only the two of them here anyway.
Zuo Xingyun didn’t reply. He simply looked at Hua Sheng’s constantly moving lips and the sheen of moisture he had kissed onto his pout.
He pulled back slightly and used one hand to grip Hua Sheng’s slender, fair ankle.
Thinking he was about to get away, Hua Sheng planted his palms on the floor and tried to push himself up, but before he could lift his torso, his right foot was hoisted into the air, instantly throwing him off balance. “Ah!”
Acting like a total maniac, Zuo Xingyun held his ankle with one hand and guided his sole downward toward his own face. Hua Sheng looked over in absolute panic as a wave of warmth brushed against the center of his foot. “Holy crap, you. Don’t be so perverted! Let go, let go of me, I’m going to kick you!”
He talked big, but he didn’t dare actually kick. Zuo Xingyun was full of dirty tricks, and since Hua Sheng couldn’t guess what was going through his head, what if he ended up making him even angrier?
While he was still in the middle of panicking, Zuo Xingyun grabbed his other leg as well.
“Ah, ah, ah, hey, hey, hey! Stop right there!” Hua Sheng’s face flushed a brilliant crimson as he cursed and tried to pull his legs back, but Zuo Xingyun’s hand clamped down like an iron pincer, locking both his legs securely in place. Hua Sheng kicked wildly a few times, but Zuo Xingyun only smiled back at him, gazing at him with an expression of gentle, watery affection.
Damn it, stop looking at me with that flirtatious, smiling expression! It makes me want to punch him so bad!
Hua Sheng glared at him, grinding his teeth as he cursed viciously in his mind.
Holy crap, you really don’t care about soft or hard tactics, do you? I’ve said every nice and nasty thing in the book. Zuo Xingyun, I never would’ve thought you were this kind of person!
Damn it, you creep, you total creep!
Hua Sheng had no idea how to handle this anymore. It was the first time in his life he had ever encountered such a bizarre pervert. “Where the hell did you even get this weird fetish? Fuck. Let go of me, you!”
Before Hua Sheng could finish his rant, his big toe encountered a wet and warm sensation.
The moment his toes made contact with that tongue, every hair on his body stood on end, and his voice cracked in horror. “Are you out of your mind?! Let go, let go, I haven’t even washed my feet yet!”
Washing his feet didn’t even matter at a time like this, even if he had, nobody puts someone else’s foot in their mouth! Was Zuo Xingyun actually a dog or something? The Border Collie at Hua Sheng’s house loved licking people’s feet too.
Hua Sheng’s face turned red enough to bleed, and his earlobes burned with a stinging heat. Waves of warmth kept steaming up his racing thoughts, leaving him stiff, entirely unable to move, and instantly covered in a cold sweat.
As Zuo Xingyun’s sucking motions gradually grew heavier, he felt a tingling numbness spread through his whole body while he kept up a stream of curses in his mind:
You absolute pervert, goddamn it, let go.
With a straight bridge of nose and thick, dark eyebrows, Zuo Xingyun naturally looked righteous and striking. The glasses he usually wore gave him a scholarly, gentle appearance, but now that they were removed, they revealed a textbook pair of peach-blossom eyes, decorated by long, dense eyelashes that made his features look even more striking.
No matter which circles you looked at, Zuo Xingyun’s face was top-tier.
Damn it, what is he even using that face for right now?! What a complete waste of such a good-looking face!
Hua Sheng raised a hand to cover his eyes, falling backward in absolute, seething resentment.
Zuo Xingyun caught his right foot again and licked it a few more times. Every single one of Hua Sheng’s toes was coated in Zuo Xingyun’s saliva. He had no idea how long the licking had been going on, but every second felt like a year.
Perverts had zero bottom lines. Getting mixed up with a hardcore stalker was just his terrible luck.
After about ten minutes, Zuo Xingyun finally let go. Hua Sheng scrambled up in a hurry, thinking the torture was finally over, only for Zuo Xingyun to reach out and grab his calf once again.
“Hua Sheng, a bet’s a bet.”