When Yu Baihua woke up, there was no one beside him in bed, though the residual warmth lingering on the mattress remained palpable. Sitting up in a daze for a brief moment, he realized he had already been dressed in a crisp shirt, its slightly disheveled collar exposing a scattering of mottled marks all over his skin.
Lowering his head, he inspected himself in slow motion for a long while as his memories began flooding back. The clothing had been put back on him by Yu Sui while fussing over him after their final bath, and as for why it was the final one…
Covering his eyes with his hand, Yu Baihua felt that his behavior the previous night had been utterly idiotic; mere recollection alone was enough to make him burn with shame. Yet Yu Sui…
That particular version of Yu Sui possessed a flavor that was truly, exceptionally extraordinary.
Rolling out of bed and stepping onto the carpet, his knees wobbled slightly upon impact, nearly causing him to pitch forward onto his knees before he caught himself against the furniture and adjusted to his current physical state. He wasn’t experiencing any acute discomfort, but the sheer terror of that complete, utter surrender to another’s control lingered vividly in his mind…
Sauntering slowly down the stairs while anxiously hunting for Yu Sui’s figure, he finally spotted him already seated at the dining table, partaking in breakfast. Walking over to cast a glance at him, Yu Baihua pulled out a chair; the meal had evidently been prepared by Yu Sui’s own hands, with the custard buns maliciously and playfully shaped into little bunnies.
Casually rolling a pastry roll around with his chopsticks, Yu Sui let his long hair fall lazily to obscure the bite marks and hickeys decorating the back of his neck, though the faint red claw marks lingering beside his wrist and the impressions near his collarbone remained glaringly obvious. Having thoroughly enjoyed a deliciously lavish dinner the night before, Yu Sui’s affectionate eyes curved into an expression of profound contentment. In contrast, the mere sight of Yu Sui sitting there in such a state caused a fresh wave of crimson heat to surge up across Yu Baihua’s face.
Lifting his eyes toward him, Yu Sui asked with a smiling tilt of his head: “Do I look good?”
“…” After staring for a good long while, Yu Baihua managed a quiet “Mhm,” imbuing the simple affirmative with surprising conviction.
Taking a bite of the custard bun Yu Sui had made, he found the molten filling intensely sweet and rich, pairing exquisitely with the flaky pastry to instantly stimulate his appetite. Licking the corner of his lip, Yu Baihua deliberately tacked on an extra instruction:
“From now on, you’re staying right here like this. You aren’t going anywhere.”
Yu Sui thought to himself that this fellow was already beginning to push his luck, but wasn’t turning the tables his absolute specialty? Instantly drooping his eyelids into an expression of heartbroken dismay, he laced his tone with an unnoticeable thread of grievance: “So you never actually intended to take me out with you at all.”
Drawing a swift, absolute conclusion, he declared: “You don’t like me at all, Yu Baihua. You find me burdensome.”
Yu Baihua froze, looking utterly incapable of defending himself. Eloquent and sharp-tongued across boardroom negotiation tables, he found himself stripped of a single coherent syllable when faced with Yu Sui.
What kind of warped logic was this from Yu Sui? Exactly who was finding whom burdensome here?
Watching Yu Sui gear up to plunge even deeper into wounded grievance, Yu Baihua finally snapped: “If I didn’t like you, would I let you… let you play with me like that?”
Blinking his eyes, Yu Sui seemingly weighed the statement for a moment before adopting an even more righteous air: “So you admit you just have a thing for my body.”
Dumping his bowl onto the table, Yu Baihua sprang up with a sharp clatter, marched straight over to Yu Sui in a fit of exasperated fury, and glowered down at the man’s masterfully performed tea-drinking, pitiable act, grinding out through clenched teeth: “Stay. By. My. Side. Understand?”
“That’s more like it.” Bounding back to sunshine and clear skies in an instant, Yu Sui rose to his feet in high spirits, pressed a quick kiss to Yu Baihua’s cheek, and hauled his empty bowl back into the kitchen.
The spot where Yu Sui’s lips had landed radiated a scorching heat. Before Yu Baihua could process it truly, ever since crossing paths with Yu Sui again, he always seemed perpetually half a beat behind in his reactions.
I’m not dreaming this time, am I?
It had to be real… he had genuinely been kissed.
“By the way, President Yu,” Yu Sui poked his head out from the kitchen doorway to inquire, “are you genuinely certain you don’t need to head into the office today?”
Narrowing his eyes at him, Yu Baihua issued a thinly veiled threat: “In such a rush to chase me out?”
“If you aren’t going, how about you accompany me out for a stroll instead?” Yu Sui suggested. “After lying down for so long and then getting thrown around by you last night, all my bones feel like they’ve come unhinged.”
Pausing in thought, he amended: “Though going to the office works too. How about I tag along as your secretary? I’ve never tried hanging around an office environment…”
“That’s quite enough…!” Yu Baihua hastily cut him off. “A stroll it is. Whatever you say.”
Suiting actions to words, the pair swiftly bundled up and headed straight out the door.
With the ambient temperature plummeting steadily, Yu Sui casually looped a scarf around Yu Baihua’s gray trench coat-clad frame upon departure. As he closed the distance, the moisture-laden vapor of his breath drifted across to dust Yu Baihua’s cheeks with a faint, damp warmth. Averting his gaze with uncharacteristic awkwardness, Yu Baihua watched a stray lock of hair drift onto his shoulder, right before Yu Sui’s fingertips lightly brushed against the edge of his cheek.
“You’re blushing,” Yu Sui noted with deliberate pointedness.
Fluttering his eyelashes, Yu Baihua fought down his rising embarrassment, reached out to haul Yu Sui closer with a commanding grip, and traded him a warm, lingering kiss against the biting chill of winter. Yu Sui offered zero resistance, permitting him to indulge as he pleased; after letting Yu Baihua kiss him until the man grew hopelessly flustered and flushed pink right down to his neck, Yu Sui finally crooked his finger to push him back gently, tapping him on the head with a mock sigh of sentiment: “Ah, beauty truly ruins a nation; I really am a femme fatale.”
Glancing sideways at him, Yu Baihua self-consciously pulled his scarf upward and muttered frostily, “You’ve got some nerve saying things like that.”
A cunning smile bloomed across Yu Sui’s face. “It’s all the more convincing when you say it without blushing.”
Offering no rebuttal, Yu Baihua simply reached out to weave his fingers firmly into Yu Sui’s, tucking his hand straight into his coat pocket. The fellow himself had stepped out wearing nothing more than a black turtleneck sweater and a pair of light blue jeans, completely impervious to the freezing weather as he chatted and laughed away in the teeth of the biting gale.
In truth, Yu Sui’s hands were perpetually freezing no matter the season, a fact Yu Baihua had noted long ago. Hesitating for a fraction of a second, he slid his fingers deeper until they locked securely between Yu Sui’s.
Hand in hand, the two of them strolled at a leisurely, unhurried pace down the grand avenue. Whenever they encountered a dessert shop, they would duck inside to purchase a pudding and share it between them. The riverside path seemed stretched out into an infinite horizon, inviting them to walk on forever.
If time possessed the power to freeze, one would wish for it to halt permanently along this exact stretch of road.
Unawares, their footsteps carried them toward the Binjiang Riverside. Halting in his tracks, Yu Baihua stared out at the eternally rushing waters, feeling a sudden surge of surreal detachment.
It was precisely along this very riverside that stormy night when Yu Sui had walked out of his life. Every ounce of gentleness and concession he had experienced prior to that moment had been personally verified by Yu Baihua, rendering that final, merciless abandonment all the more excruciating.
Closing his eyes in a spasm of quiet pain, he sought to block out the memory, only to find himself intercepted by a warm, encompassing embrace.
Yu Sui folded him securely into his arms, gazing abstractedly at the churning river currents thus flow the waters, unceasing day and night. For Yu Baihua, those years represented two distinct lifetimes of rebirth; for Yu Sui, it was a reunion after several hundred years of separation.
Offering no hollow explanations, he leaned in and murmured close to Yu Baihua’s ear, carrying a hint of deliberate malice: “Yu Baihua, are you terrified?”
Terrified of being deceived and wounded by me once again?
Hearing those words, Yu Baihua leaned against his chest as though utterly drained of strength, gripping tightly onto Yu Sui’s shirt hem while keeping his lips tightly sealed in silence. Just as Yu Sui sighed and prepared to offer words of comfort, Yu Baihua finally spoke.
“Yu Sui…” Though his voice lacked volume, it carried unyielding conviction as he began cataloging his own worth: “The entire Yu family belongs to me status, wealth, power. Give me another five years and I can double every single asset they hold. If… if you wish to continue staging your magic performances, I can accompany you anywhere you like…”
“Yu Sui…” The wealthiest, most exalted man in this metropolis tilted his head upward, gazing at him with naked supplication: “I am immensely useful now. Please… can you lie to me for the rest of my life?”
Yu Sui leaned down to kiss him, offering an act of comfort wrapped in a solemn vow.
“I’m not lying to you this time.” Touching the tips of Yu Baihua’s eyelashes, Yu Sui spoke softly: “I’m not leaving.”
He said, I’m not leaving.
Thank you for steadfastly, unshakeably choosing me; battered and scarred though you were, you still willingly held out your sincere heart for my sake.
Yu Sui was utterly incapable of uttering such vulnerable, soul-baring sentiments aloud; his entire repertoire relied on deceit and illusion to capture his audience’s gaze. Thus, he kissed Yu Baihua instead, whispering:
“You are the most satisfying magic trick I’ve ever performed.”
I will never tire of telling you, a thousand times over: I truly, genuinely love you.
Leisurely holidays inevitably draw to a close, even for corporate overlords of Yu Baihua’s caliber. Especially not when he had spent his time at home distracted by a male fox spirit actively sabotaging his commercial empire Yu Baihua had now personally experienced the true meaning behind the adage rulers abandoning morning court, though he happened to be the one being “abandoned.”
Determined to return to corporate headquarters today to tackle pending business, Yu Baihua came downstairs to find Yu Sui already sporting a sharply secured high ponytail, with a pair of sunglasses hooked casually across his collar, stretching out his long legs as he awaited his esteemed presence.
A red alert flashed ten times over in Yu Baihua’s mind at the sight, warning him that lingering on the spectacle a moment longer would thoroughly derail today’s office attendance. Adopting a frosty expression, he led Yu Sui down to the subterranean garage.
Since Yu Sui had whimsically declared yesterday that he wanted to ride a heavy motorcycle out today, Yu Baihua hadn’t bothered keeping the driver waiting downstairs.
As it happened, back when Yu Baihua was still a reckless young master, he had constantly hounded Yu Sui to accompany him to various racing tracks. Yu Sui had always met him with utter indifference, deeming it a sign of exceptional benevolence whenever he deigned to sit in the passenger seat or ride on the back of a motorcycle though it was precisely because of Yu Sui’s stabilizing presence that Yu Baihua’s death-seeking stunts had steadily declined until they hit absolute zero.
Catching the helmet tossed across by Yu Baihua, Yu Sui gestured for him to pick out whichever heavy cruiser caught his fancy in the garage. Tilting his head with an innocent air, Yu Sui declared with supreme confidence: “I don’t know how to ride one.”
Straddling a Kawasaki H2, Yu Baihua paused, staring at him in sheer disbelief. “You don’t know how?”
Then why on earth had he insisted on traveling this way yesterday?
“Did you seriously fail to realize I was angling to sit on the passenger seat behind you—?”
Naturally sliding his arms around Yu Baihua’s waist from behind, Yu Sui towered slightly above him. Bending forward, he plastered his frame so tightly against Yu Baihua that every contour of his waist and shoulder blades locked flush against him, leaving zero space between them.
“President Yu, your waist is genuinely slender.” Yu Sui curved his eyes into a smile to tease him.
A wave of electrical numbness surged from the crown of Yu Baihua’s head down to his toes. He had ten thousand retorts lined up on the tip of his tongue, yet not a single syllable managed to escape his lips. Yu Sui’s physical presence was entirely too overwhelming, especially those excessively long, slender hands banded across his midsection; they felt chillingly cold against his skin, gripping his waist with a firmness that bordered on confinement, accompanied by the inescapable cadence of another’s breathing brushing against his ear.
Yu Sui appeared utterly oblivious to the hazardous distance between them.
…Whatever. With a disgruntled click of his tongue inside his helmet, Yu Baihua muttered a clipped “Hold on tight,” before rocketing out of the garage like a jet slicing across the tarmac.
Yu Sui’s long ponytail whipped wildly in the slipstream. Leaning lazily against Yu Baihua’s shoulder, he let out a few casual laughs carried away by the rushing wind, embedding themselves unforgettably deep within someone’s heart.