Qin Shun was doing it on purpose.
He liked teasing his uncle far too much, holding this timid man in the palm of his hand, playing with him over and over again, never growing tired of it.
What he loved most was leaning close to his ear and calling him “Uncle… you.” Every single time, Lin Yansheng would react and that response brought him an incomparable kind of physical and emotional satisfaction.
A year ago, when his uncle had come to him,
He had thought that as long as his uncle didn’t resist, that would be enough. As for anything more, he hadn’t dared to hope.
Someone as stubborn and shy as his uncle, being able to take even that step had already been incredibly difficult.
Though he himself was never easily satisfied, if he pushed too hard, he feared his uncle would run away. After all, even a rabbit will bite when cornered. His uncle was too soft hearted to bite but when it came to avoiding things, he was unmatched.
He had repeatedly said he wanted to kiss him, to touch him but it had only been teasing, nothing more.
He had never expected that his uncle would actually kiss him.
It was a very light kiss.
Not sensual.
At most, it was just a soft, damp press of lips against lips, as if done out of mild impatience, or perhaps, just perhaps, there was the faintest trace of affection in it.
And yet, he felt as though he had been struck by a spell, freezing in place. In an instant, his entire body burned.
He felt a sudden heat in his nose.
Then warm blood began to flow.
Lin Yansheng stared at his face, startled. “A’Shun, you’re bleeding from your nose.” He tried to get up to fetch tissues but his waist felt numb and his legs were weak. Worse still, Qin Shun held him firmly in place, gripping him so he couldn’t move.
“Don’t go, Uncle,” he said urgently.
“What’s wrong with you…” Lin Yansheng sensed something, enduring it with difficulty, his face flushing red with embarrassment. “You’re already bleeding, shouldn’t you stop?”
For once, he spoke with a bit of an elder’s authority. “This must be because you indulge yourself too much. I told you long ago, you should restrain yourself.”
Qin Shun glanced at the blood smeared on his fingertips, bright red and said, “No. This is probably emotional epistaxis. I’m just… too excited.”
Lin Yansheng asked, “Excited about what? My English isn’t very good.”
“It means, I’m too happy. Because you kissed me.” Qin Shun seemed almost dazed, bending forward, pressing closer to him, his heart pounding wildly. “Kiss me again, Uncle. Just once more, alright?”
Like a large beast, he kept pressing against him, seeking closeness, affectionate yet dangerous.
He got so happy from a single kiss that he started bleeding from his nose?
Did he really like him that much?
Lin Yansheng wondered.
A’Shun’s words and attitude were always improper but everything he did spoke of a good heart. When Lin Yansheng went to New York to seek medical treatment, Qin Shun had been deeply worried. Overnight, he had prepared an entire notebook of everyday phrases for communication, mapped out all the roads and buildings near the hospital in advance and even arranged for bodyguards to accompany him whenever he went out.
It was as if he treated him like a priceless treasure, afraid that even the slightest mishap might occur.
Even after doing all that, Qin Shun still couldn’t rest easy, he insisted on calling him every two or three hours.
Both amused and exasperated, Lin Yansheng had said, “I’m not a three year old child. Have you forgotten? I grew up in Kowloon Walled City, I’m not that fragile.”
“Then I’ll admit I’m foolish,” Qin Shun said shamelessly. “Uncle, for these past few months, I haven’t been apart from you at all. I feel anxious.”
“Anxious about what? Before this, didn’t you go to work every day?”
“I endured it until I got off work. All day long, all I could think about was coming home to see you.”
As the saying goes, one day apart feels like three years.
Lin Yansheng had only ever read about such things in books. Now that it was happening to him, he didn’t know how to respond. He muttered, “What is there to see about me?”
“Everything about you looks good,” Qin Shun replied.
Was he flirting?
Lin Yansheng felt confused.
“Before this, we went five years without seeing each other and we were perfectly fine.”
“How was that fine? I had to take sleeping pills just to fall asleep. Otherwise, my mind was filled with thoughts of you, I’d laugh one moment, cry the next. They said I’d gone mad.”
He could actually say such unrestrained, almost unhinged words so casually!
For a long while, Lin Yansheng didn’t know how to respond.
His ears grew warm.
When he came back to his senses and looked down, he realized that at some point, he had twisted the telephone cord into a tangled mess.
So… A’Shun really liked him this much?
He didn’t know.
If love were a subject to be studied, then he would undoubtedly be a poor student, held back year after year, still utterly failing at it even at his age.
A man already well into his thirties yet stirred so easily by someone barely in his twenties.
Who wouldn’t be moved by being loved?
In all his life, up to this point, he had never been cherished or adored like this.
He knew he shouldn’t. He really shouldn’t.
The relationship between him and Qin Shun was something that could not bear the light of day, something that would harm both of them.
But then again… no one knew about it now.
So let him sink into it, if only for a moment.
A man as ordinary and unremarkable as him yet somewhere in this world, there was someone who loved him.
Fireworks flared again and again, lighting up the room in fleeting bursts.
They were tightly entwined with one another.
Qin Shun was overwhelmed with excitement.
To be honest, being with his uncle had already felt good enough, he had thought there could be nothing more wonderful in the world.
But that wasn’t true.
It turned out that being loved while being so close to someone was what truly seeped into the bones, utterly intoxicating.
He recalled his youth, when he would lie awake thinking of his sleeping uncle, listening to the faint dripping of pipes from somewhere within the walls, tap… tap tap… like the ceaseless rhythm of his own feelings.
Lin Yansheng leaned in and kissed him again.
Qin Shun felt as though his mind was about to burn out.
“Is that enough?”
“Not enough, Uncle,” he said, almost foolishly. “I still want to kiss you.”
Lin Yansheng was unusually accommodating today, agreeing to everything.
Perhaps it was a kind of resignation.
Or perhaps he should have thought this way long ago.
If he simply followed Qin Shun’s wishes, went along with whatever he wanted, then perhaps the young man would grow tired of it sooner.
He had already decided, once his mother passed away, he would leave.
He couldn’t truly let himself delay Qin Shun’s future.
Staying for a year or so didn’t matter.
Qin Shun was still young, he could afford the time.
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← PreviousNext →
ChaptersChapter 1 · UncleChapter 2 · Ran AwayChapter 3 · TimidChapter 4 · DeceasedChapter 5 · Grow upChapter 6 · CharmChapter 7 · EndureChapter 8 · Biological FatherChapter 9 · ContestChapter 10 · MisunderstoodChapter 11 · BreakChapter 12 · ReunionChapter 13 · MeetChapter 14 · To clearChapter 15 · InstructionsChapter 16 · RegretChapter 17 · SecretChapter 18 · Subtle SophistryChapter 19 · GuestChapter 20 · KissingChapter 21 · Extra 1Chapter 22 · Extra 2Chapter 23 · Extra 3Chapter 24 · Extra 4Chapter 25 · Extra 5Chapter 26 · Extra 6Chapter 27 · Extra 7Chapter 28 · Extra 8