They hadn’t had time to turn on the lights inside the house. Only the motion-sensor light by the entrance remained illuminated.
Liang Lie studied Chu Xuanyi’s eyes as though he were examining something that required careful scrutiny. He continued staring at him until the sensor light finally went out. At that moment, Chu Xuanyi pressed close to him again, seized both his hands, and held them so tightly that there wasn’t even the slightest gap between their bodies. He sealed Liang Lie’s lips with another kiss.
His lips and tongue were enveloped by Chu Xuanyi’s scorching breath, but Liang Lie felt no stirrings of desire. All he felt was absurdity.
How on earth could Chu Xuanyi manage to have absolutely nothing he wanted to talk about with him, yet still come out with something like growing closer emotionally? Liang Lie couldn’t understand where exactly Chu Xuanyi’s feelings were supposed to be. Was it in his ass?
“… Chu, let me-”
Liang Lie could only force a few broken sounds through the narrow gap between their lips.
As a member of the armed police force, Liang Lie stood at a full 184 centimeters barefoot. He wasn’t short by ordinary standards, and he trained regularly, which meant his physical strength was considerably greater than that of the average person.
Yet despite struggling with all his might, he couldn’t break free from Chu Xuanyi’s restraint.
Although Chu Xuanyi was almost ten centimeters taller than him, he was merely a doctor who spent his days sitting motionless in an office, occasionally getting up to stand at the operating table. How on earth could he be so much stronger than Liang Lie? Every time Chu Xuanyi caught hold of him, it felt as though his hands had been branded onto Liang Lie’s body, leaving him completely unable to escape.
Liang Lie’s lips and tongue were burning from the relentless entanglement. At long last, Chu Xuanyi was willing to give him a brief moment to catch his breath. His kisses traveled along Liang Lie’s jaw before moving down to his Adam’s apple.
Liang Lie’s chest rose and fell vigorously as he struggled to draw in a couple of deep breaths. At last, suppressing his voice as much as he could, he managed to utter a complete sentence.
“Enough! I’m hungry. Let’s eat first.”
Chu Xuanyi’s movements paused for a moment, but he continued regardless. Only after kissing his way across Liang Lie’s neck did he finally lift his head and speak.
“No. We need to grow closer emotionally.”
“I don’t want to do it!”
Liang Lie raised his voice involuntarily. The motion-sensor light, which had gone out, was activated by his shout and lit up again.
Chu Xuanyi abruptly froze.
His gaze settled on Liang Lie, enveloping him like a net, as though he intended to trap him completely within those eyes. He said nothing at all.
Chu Xuanyi’s eyes were usually so devoid of emotion that it was almost impossible to tell what he was thinking. Yet every so often, Liang Lie would sense an indescribable feeling of oppression emanating from them, as though Chu Xuanyi had suddenly become an entirely different person.
In the next instant, that fleeting sensation seemed to have been nothing more than Liang Lie’s own mistake. Chu Xuanyi pressed against him and kissed him again, sucking so fiercely into his mouth that it felt as though he intended to swallow Liang Lie’s tongue whole. One hand then seized both of Liang Lie’s wrists and pinned them above his head, while his free hand moved to undo Liang Lie’s buttons.
By the time Liang Lie finally had an opportunity to make a sound, all that escaped his throat was a series of uncontrollable, breathless gasps.
The light went out again.
Chu Xuanyi asked him, “Do you still not want to?”
He didn’t want to do it.
Liang Lie had no idea how other people conducted their romantic relationships, but what he wanted was something entirely different. He wanted them to come home and sit down to eat together, chatting about what had happened during their respective days. He wanted them to squeeze together on the sofa and watch some boring television program, occasionally stealing a simple, innocent kiss when they thought the other wasn’t paying attention. He wanted them to complain to each other about the frustrations and pressures of their work, to share their grievances and talk about the things that hadn’t gone well.
Rather than spending every moment together in silence, relying on sex as the only way to bring them closer.
Yet throughout these four years, the only thing Chu Xuanyi had ever truly understood about him was his body. Under Chu Xuanyi’s ministrations, Liang Lie soon found himself unable to think about anything else. Unable to bear it any longer, he reached up to Chu Xuanyi’s neck and sank his teeth into it in an irritated, forceful bite before muttering, “Go… to the bedroom.”
Chu Xuanyi let out a satisfied, low chuckle and effortlessly lifted Liang Lie into his arms, despite Liang Lie being far from light.
The bedroom lights remained off. Liang Lie couldn’t see the smile curling at the corners of Chu Xuanyi’s mouth. As soon as he was placed on the bed, Chu Xuanyi immediately knelt down between his legs. Liang Lie reached out with one hand and pressed it against Chu Xuanyi’s abdominal muscles.
Chu Xuanyi was extraordinarily gifted in this regard as well. He hardly ever exercised, yet somehow possessed a body covered in firm, well-defined muscles, each one full and powerful.
Liang Lie’s palm moved lightly over the contours of those muscles through the fabric of Chu Xuanyi’s clothes. Then, in a commanding tone, he said, “Take your clothes off.”
Chu Xuanyi didn’t comply. Instead, he caught Liang Lie’s hand and guided it toward the buttons of his own shirt, making Liang Lie undo them one by one. After the final button had been undone, Chu Xuanyi pressed Liang Lie’s hand against his bare skin. His palm slowly slid downward, brushing over the rise and fall of the powerful muscles beneath it, until it was stopped at the bottom by a prominent bulge that stood in its way.
Liang Lie shivered slightly. Chu Xuanyi leaned down and whispered his name into his ear, his voice carrying a bewitching quality.
“Liang Lie.”
Almost involuntarily, Liang Lie curled his arms around Chu Xuanyi’s neck. Admitting defeat, he took the initiative to kiss him, allowing himself to sink into the tenderness Chu Xuanyi offered him.
There were many times when Liang Lie wondered whether he was simply asking for too much. Back then, he had pursued Chu Xuanyi for half a month before the latter went from being a straight man to becoming his boyfriend. At the time, Liang Lie had felt as though he had gained the entire world.
But as the passionate intensity of their early romance gradually faded into the ordinary routines of daily life, he began to realize more and more that he had never truly possessed Chu Xuanyi.
Not even though Chu Xuanyi had accepted the idea of a relationship between two men for his sake. Not even though he took such meticulous care of Liang Lie in every aspect of his life. Not even though he had braved the torrential rain to come to the station and pick him up.
Chu Xuanyi was still that moon hanging high above a cliff, distant and untouchable, far beyond Liang Lie’s reach.
Why, when Chu Xuanyi already treated him so well, couldn’t he take just one more step down from that unreachable height for his sake? Why couldn’t he try to understand him a little better, care about him a little more, and make him feel that he was more than just a carefully maintained outlet for someone else’s desires?
“What are you thinking about?”
Chu Xuanyi suddenly pressed Liang Lie down and caught his chin between his fingers.
Liang Lie licked the corner of his lips, brushing his tongue against Chu Xuanyi’s fingers. His voice trembled slightly as he spoke. “…I have to get to work early tomorrow, so we can only do it once…”
Chu Xuanyi seemed to give the matter serious consideration. After a long while, he leaned close to Liang Lie again, his warm breath falling against his ear as he answered gently, “Okay.”
However, this time, it wasn’t Liang Lie who had reached his limit. It was Chu Xuanyi.
From the bed to the bathtub, even after Chu Xuanyi insisted on helping him take a bath, the ordeal still hadn’t come to an end. Liang Lie lay sprawled in the bathtub, utterly exhausted, and kicked away Chu Xuanyi, who was trying to help wash him.
“Are you even human? Wouldn’t a normal person be completely worn out after two hours?!”
At last, the bathroom lights were switched on. Chu Xuanyi smiled as he caught Liang Lie by the ankle. Liang Lie could clearly see him lower his head and place a gentle kiss on his ankle. That face, which usually seemed as distant and untouchable as the moon hanging above a cliff, was now tinged with desire. His eyes, which ordinarily appeared uninterested in everything around him, were filled with nothing but Liang Lie.
For an instant, Liang Lie found himself bewitched all over again.
Chu Xuanyi took hold of his foot and pulled him straight toward himself, securing him against his waist.
At three in the morning, Liang Lie had finally finished bathing and was lying face-down on the bed. Chu Xuanyi sat behind him, gently drying his hair with a towel, and asked, “Do you want to eat something before you go to sleep?”
Liang Lie was exhausted and sleepy, and every part of his body felt so weak and sore that he didn’t even want to move a single finger. All he could do was curse irritably, “Get lost! If I ever believe another word you say, I’ll be a damn dog!”
Chu Xuanyi neither replied nor left. He continued drying Liang Lie’s hair in silence. Once it was dry, he quietly got out of bed and went away. A little while later, he returned carrying a bowl of congee.
“I don’t want to eat.”
Liang Lie barely lifted his eyelids to look at him. Chu Xuanyi crouched down beside the bed and deliberately brought the bowl close to Liang Lie’s nose. In the same coaxing tone one might use with a small child, he said, “Have a couple of mouthfuls. You haven’t eaten anything since noon, and going without food for so long isn’t good for your stomach.”
It was only at times like this that Chu Xuanyi seemed willing to say a few more words to him. However, this particular remark triggered Liang Lie’s professional instincts.
He had indeed rushed to the crime scene around noon and hadn’t had time to eat. When he returned, he had no appetite and hadn’t eaten dinner either.
But how did Chu Xuanyi know that?
The suspicion flashed through his mind for only an instant before disappearing again. It was much like the way he couldn’t understand how Chu Xuanyi had such perfectly defined muscles despite hardly ever exercising. He was puzzled, but he didn’t think too deeply about it.
Looking at Chu Xuanyi’s impossibly handsome face, Liang Lie was so sleepy that he could barely keep his eyes open. In a daze, he answered, “Feed me.”
“Okay.”
Chu Xuanyi lifted Liang Lie off the bed and settled him with his back resting against his chest. Then, one spoonful at a time, he fed Liang Lie the congee. Its temperature was just right.
Liang Lie didn’t notice the expression of enjoyment on Chu Xuanyi’s face. Halfway through the bowl, he suddenly asked, “Chu Xuanyi, will you always treat me this well?”
“Mm.”
Chu Xuanyi’s answer had once again become perfunctory.
Liang Lie didn’t bother asking any more questions that would only make him feel worse. He simply continued drinking the congee mechanically, accepting each spoonful Chu Xuanyi brought to his mouth.
By the time he finished the bowl, Liang Lie was so sleepy that he could barely keep his eyes open. Chu Xuanyi carefully lowered him back onto the bed, and the moment Liang Lie’s head touched the pillow, he fell completely asleep.
Chu Xuanyi set the bowl aside, then leaned over and gazed at Liang Lie without blinking. He extended a tongue that was unusually long, licked the corner of Liang Lie’s mouth where a trace of congee remained, and then slipped it between his lips. He continued kissing him until Liang Lie let out an uncomfortable whimper in his sleep. Only then did Chu Xuanyi withdraw, pressing one last kiss to the corner of his lips as he whispered, “Good night, baby.”
Liang Lie slept very poorly that night. He was plagued by one dream after another.
At first, he dreamed about the several cases they had dealt with over the past few days. The horrific scenes of death replayed in his dream with even greater intensity, far more gruesome than they had been in reality. Blood-soaked, mutilated corpses crawled out of pools of blood and seized him. Entrails and fragments of brain matter fell onto his body, one piece after another, growing more numerous until it seemed as though they were going to bury him alive.
The overwhelming stench of blood made it impossible for him to breathe. Just as he was on the verge of suffocating, a hand reached out and pulled him away.
He thought he had been rescued.
But when he turned around, he discovered that the thing behind him wasn’t a person at all. It was a gigantic monster whose true form was impossible to make out.
And what had grabbed him wasn’t a hand, either, but a pitch-black tentacle covered in fleshy spikes.
Horrified, Liang Lie tried to escape, but more and more tentacles began emerging around him. They coiled around his body, sliding over his skin and leaving behind a sticky, slimy residue wherever they passed.
He realized that he was dreaming, yet every sensation was so vivid that it felt as though everything were happening in reality. He desperately tried to force himself awake, searching for even the smallest opening through which he could break free from the dream and return to the real world. But no matter how hard he tried, he couldn’t find a way out.
Meanwhile, the tentacles wrapped around him began to change shape before his very eyes. They slipped beneath his clothes, crawling and burrowing recklessly over his body, moving wherever they pleased.
“Ahhh!”
The unfamiliar sensation of something inside him that had never been there before made him cry out in terror. However, he couldn’t break free. All he could do was tremble uncontrollably beneath those terrifying tentacles as they continued to entangle him.
Gradually, the scene before his eyes began to grow clearer. Eventually, he recognized the ceiling of his own bedroom, although it seemed to be swaying back and forth incessantly.
Confused, he spent quite some time trying to make sense of what he was seeing and feeling before his consciousness finally returned completely. Then, he saw Chu Xuanyi holding both his knees and moving against him.
Seeing that Liang Lie had awakened, Chu Xuanyi leaned forward and placed his palm on Liang Lie’s abdomen. “What’s wrong? Are you uncomfortable?”
Liang Lie couldn’t believe that Chu Xuanyi would actually do something like this even while he was asleep. The words escaped his mouth before he could stop himself. “Chu Xuanyi, have you gone insane?!”
A rare flicker of surprise appeared in Chu Xuanyi’s usually calm eyes, but Liang Lie didn’t notice it. He pulled his legs back, kicked Chu Xuanyi away, and sat up. “Is this seriously the only thing you ever think about? You might as well buy yourself a sex doll! It would be much more convenient!”
“What kind of doll? Do you want one?”
Chu Xuanyi froze beside the bed, staring intently at Liang Lie as though he were seriously considering the question. When he saw the angry expression on Liang Lie’s face, he suddenly caught him by the ankle and dragged him back toward himself. Holding Liang Lie firmly in place, he leaned down and kissed his lips before saying, “It’s only been three days since we last grew closer emotionally, and you’re already acting like this. From now on, you’re not allowed to stay away from home anymore. We have to grow closer every single day.”
Liang Lie was so exasperated that he no longer even had the energy to be angry. They had been growing closer for four whole years already, so where exactly had all that emotional intimacy gotten them?
“What are you thinking about again?”
Chu Xuanyi watched him intently while stubbornly continuing what he was doing. Liang Lie was just about to say something when Chu Xuanyi sealed his mouth with another kiss, leaving him unable to utter even a single sound.
In the next instant, Liang Lie was once again completely overwhelmed, losing all ability to resist. All he could do was let Chu Xuanyi do as he pleased.
It wasn’t until his phone began ringing that he hurriedly pressed a hand against Chu Xuanyi to stop him. “Wait! Let me answer the phone first.”
Chu Xuanyi paid no attention to his request. Liang Lie struggled to retreat, but Chu Xuanyi held him down firmly. Then, Chu Xuanyi picked up the phone, answered the call, and brought it to Liang Lie’s ear.
“Captain Liang, are you awake yet?”
The sudden sound of his colleague’s voice startled Liang Lie so badly that every nerve in his body instantly went taut. Unfortunately, this only seemed to excite Chu Xuanyi even more. Caught completely off guard, Liang Lie let out a brief gasp. He immediately clenched his teeth and glared at Chu Xuanyi.
While continuing what he was doing, Chu Xuanyi asked him in an utterly serious tone, “Changed your mind? Don’t want to answer the call anymore?”
Answer your ass!
Liang Lie couldn’t understand what on earth was going through Chu Xuanyi’s mind. He didn’t have this kind of fetish, yet Chu Xuanyi apparently saw absolutely nothing wrong with continuing their activities while answering a phone call.
“Captain Liang? Did you leave home this early? Who are you talking to?”
His colleague spoke again.
Liang Lie didn’t want to make any more noise and risk having his colleague realize what was happening. Forcing himself to suppress his voice, he answered in as steady a tone as he could manage, “What is it?”
“We’ve got a lead on the case! Captain Lian wants you to get to the station as early as possible.”
“I, I… ngh, understood…”
Chu Xuanyi was still going at it, and Liang Lie couldn’t keep his voice from trembling. His colleague immediately noticed that something sounded wrong.
“Captain Liang, are you feeling unwell? Should I ask Captain Lian to give you the day off?”
“I’m, I’m fine. That’s enough. We’ll talk when I get to the station.”
Without waiting for his colleague to respond, Liang Lie ended the call and threw the phone aside. He grabbed Chu Xuanyi by the shoulders, forced him down, and brought his forehead crashing against him.
“Chu Xuanyi, what the hell is wrong with you?!”
Chu Xuanyi, however, turned the question back on him. “Weren’t you the one who wanted to answer the phone?”
Liang Lie was absolutely furious.
He had never considered himself an especially noble or upright person. However, both his adoptive parents had been university professors, and he had grown up surrounded by their teachings and influence, learning the importance of restraint, self-control, and propriety.
He could accept Chu Xuanyi’s uninhibited behavior when they were alone in private, but he simply couldn’t accept this kind of perverted behavior that exposed their most intimate moments to other people.
“Chu Xuan, ”
Liang Lie had barely begun to speak when Chu Xuanyi suddenly thrust forward, forcing the rest of his words back down his throat. He then pinned both of Liang Lie’s hands above his head and held them tightly in place, freeing one hand to attend to the neglected side of his body. He gave Liang Lie absolutely no opportunity to speak.
When it was finally over, Chu Xuanyi held him tightly in his arms and whispered into his ear, “I’ll take you to have a bath.”
Liang Lie didn’t respond.
He waited until Chu Xuanyi moved away and a little space opened up between them. Then, in a sudden movement, he sprang up and flipped Chu Xuanyi over onto the bed beside him. Pinning Chu Xuanyi’s chest down with his knee as though he were apprehending a criminal, Liang Lie glared at him and said, “Chu Xuanyi, if there’s a next time, we’re going to, ”
He stopped there.
Chu Xuanyi waited for a long time, but Liang Lie never finished the sentence. In the end, Liang Lie released him and got to his feet. “I’ll wash myself.”
Chu Xuanyi sat up and watched Liang Lie walk toward the bathroom. His gaze remained fixed on Liang Lie’s back, following every movement without the slightest shift. His eyes, which had been devoid of emotion for so many years, gradually grew dark and profound, resembling an unfathomable abyss capable of swallowing everything whole.
The bathroom door closed.
A dark patch suddenly appeared on the floor beneath Chu Xuanyi’s feet, as though a black hole had materialized out of nowhere. From within it, a section of a bizarre tentacle emerged. Concealed beneath a layer of black mist, it stretched toward the bathroom door.
Liang Lie didn’t notice anything at all.
He quickly cleaned himself up, only to realize that he had forgotten to bring a change of clothes into the bathroom. With no other choice, he wrapped a bath towel around himself and walked out.
Chu Xuanyi was still sitting motionless on the edge of the bed. Liang Lie ignored him and walked over to pick up the clothes Chu Xuanyi had prepared for him earlier. Only after getting dressed did he speak.
“There are quite a few cases to deal with these days, so I’ll probably have to work overtime every night. You don’t need to wait for me to come home.”
Chu Xuanyi didn’t reply, and Liang Lie didn’t wait for a response either. He simply opened the door and walked out.
“Liang Lie.”
Chu Xuanyi hurried after him. “Have breakfast before you leave.”
“No need. I’ll just buy something on the way.”
Liang Lie pulled his hand free from Chu Xuanyi’s grasp and slammed the door shut behind him without even turning back.
The instant the front door closed, the entire house seemed to erupt like an explosion. Black gas surged outward, rapidly filling every corner of the space. The gas appeared almost tangible, and countless strange tentacles, their forms impossible to make out clearly, writhed and twisted wildly within it. They seemed to be teetering on the very brink of madness, ready to lash out at any moment and destroy everything in their path.
Hello! Hello! Pepper here~ We are having a brand new novel! I hope everyone enjoys it 🤗