Shuangmu Entertainment had arranged dorms near the office for its less-established artists. Lin Luoting skipped work early and went upstairs with Lu Chengyi to pack his things.
More accurately, he watched Lu Chengyi pack.
The dorm had two bedrooms, a living room, and a kitchen and bathroom. It wasn’t very big. Two pieces of clothing lay in a heap on the fabric sofa. Lin Luoting asked, “Yours?”
“No,” Lu Chengyi said.
He went into the bedroom, and Lin Luoting wandered over to the corner and opened the fridge. The fresh-food compartment held only a few bottles of mineral water and drinks. Oh, and a half-open package of instant noodle toppings.
Once he’d had his fill of looking around, Lin Luoting finally went into Lu Chengyi’s room.
The room was simply furnished, with almost no personal belongings. It was obvious that whoever lived here treated it as little more than a place to stop over.
He braced a hand on the bed and sat at its edge. At the wardrobe, Lu Chengyi had taken off his jacket and was wearing only a white T-shirt. As he reached up, the fabric pulled taut, outlining the handsome muscles in his back. His build was lean, but powerful.
The fingertip of the hand braced on the bed twitched.
When Lu Chengyi warmed his bed, Lin Luoting thought as they got into the car after packing, he’d have to make Lu Chengyi take his clothes off.
He’d had Lu Chengyi’s room set up next to his own. After showering before bed, he came out of the bathroom to find Lu Chengyi, who’d showered in the adjoining room, standing by the bed. When he saw Lin Luoting, he hesitated and furrowed his brow.
“You just want me to warm your bed?” Lu Chengyi asked quietly, his brows drawn together.
Lin Luoting could add another blanket, or turn up the heat. If he got cold, there were plenty of better ways to deal with it. What kind of bizarre fixation was this, insisting on having someone warm his bed?
At this point, Lu Chengyi couldn’t be bothered to ask why.
Lin Luoting took a book from the bedside table. Lu Chengyi didn’t ask any more questions. He took the book, then lifted the covers, ready to get into bed.
“Take your clothes off,” Lin Luoting said.
Lu Chengyi turned sharply, his gaze icy. His voice dropped, and he stressed each word through clenched teeth. “I told you, I won’t have sex with you.”
Lin Luoting said nothing. He walked around the foot of the bed, climbed in on the far side, and pulled up the covers. With a satisfied sigh, he rubbed his cheek against the pillow.
He lay on his side, the soft covers bunched beneath his chin, and looked leisurely toward the man standing by the bed. “I’m only asking you to take your clothes off.”
“Or are you afraid I’ll do something to you?” His voice rose slightly.
“What could you do to me?” Lu Chengyi scoffed. If it came down to a fight, he could take on ten people as “frail” as Lin Luoting.
But there was no way he could casually take his clothes off in front of another man, not in a situation like this.
“Hurry up,” Lin Luoting urged.
Lu Chengyi stared at him. An absurd feeling rose in his chest, as if he’d somehow fallen into a trap. After a long pause, he took off the T-shirt he’d been using as sleepwear and got into bed wearing only his boxer briefs.
The man leaned against the headboard. His slightly prominent collarbones were sharply defined, and a thin layer of taut muscle covered his chest and lower abdomen. His contours were beautiful, seeming to glow softly in the warm lamplight.
Lin Luoting rolled toward him, naturally reaching out to touch him.
The feeling beneath his hand was fascinating. At first, it seemed hard, but after a closer rub, he could feel a resilient softness beneath the firmness. The human’s unique warmth passed through their skin where they touched, and kept rising.
The hand wandering over Lu Chengyi’s lower abdomen was quickly seized by the wrist. The grip was strong.
Lin Luoting’s light brown eyes glanced up.
The man stared coldly at him, lips pressed into a thin line. The sharp angles of his profile looked like a blade that could cut.
“Easy. You’re hurting me.”
Lu Chengyi gritted his teeth, but in the end, he let go.
“We’ll continue next time,” Lin Luoting said with a smile. He knew when to quit and didn’t try anything else.
A red mark had appeared around his wrist. It didn’t hurt, but the splash of red against his pale skin was a little distracting.
He drew his hand back, rested his forehead against the man’s waist, and burrowed into the covers. “Read to me. You can leave once I’m asleep.”
Lu Chengyi closed his eyes to calm himself. Ignoring the warm, gentle breath against his side, he opened the book and paused over the words on the page.
Then his deep, seductive voice filled the room:
“…The fox said, ‘To me, you are just a little boy, like a hundred thousand other little boys. I don’t need you. And you don’t need me. To you, I’m just a fox, no different from a hundred thousand other foxes.’”
“‘But if you tame me, we’ll need each other. To me, you’ll be the only one in the world. And to you, I’ll be the only one in your world…’”
His slow voice was like a glass of crisp liquor, or an old gramophone playing. The last rays of sunset fell into its golden horn, lending even his voice a quiet warmth.
Two pages turned. The person curled up on the bed was fast asleep.
Setting the book down, Lu Chengyi glanced at the person beside him.
The sleeper was tucked tightly beneath the covers, with only half his face showing. His skin was very pale, and his long, curled lashes fluttered with each breath, like those of a frail butterfly.
But Lin Luoting was nothing like a frail person.
Strangely enough, when Lin Luoting was awake, Lu Chengyi found himself on guard and resistant at every word, every look, every movement. Once Lin Luoting fell asleep, those unnecessary feelings seemed to fade away.
He got out of bed, picked up his T-shirt, and pulled it on in a couple of quick motions. Then he left the room.
The next day, he left very early. By the time Lin Luoting got up, Lu Chengyi had already gone to the office.
Wearing black silk pajamas, Lin Luoting pinched the bridge of his nose as he went downstairs. A housekeeper saw him and promptly brought breakfast to the table. Lin Luoting sat down and asked, “He didn’t eat breakfast?”
“Mr. Lu already ate,” the housekeeper said quietly, setting a glass of juice to Lin Luoting’s right.
Overnight, all the housekeepers in the house had learned about Lu Chengyi.
Lin Luoting nodded and took a bite of toast spread with jam. The housekeeper tactfully withdrew, and Han Meimei, now in work mode, came over to ask, “Mr. Lin, are you going to the office today?”
“…No.” Lin Luoting frowned as he gave his two-word answer.
He’d worked hard all afternoon yesterday. Today, he deserved a day off.
Han Meimei took out her newly replaced notebook, which definitely contained nothing inappropriate. “I’ve arranged for workers to clear out the greenhouse this morning. The potted plants have been sold to a flower shop. This afternoon, we can choose varieties of roses. Does that sound all right?”
“Mm.”
“Then I’ll arrange for them to bring samples by this afternoon for you to look over.”
After the workers had cleared out the greenhouse, Lin Luoting went in to take a look.
The glass greenhouse had originally been more for decoration. It didn’t have many kinds of plants, just pots of various sizes arranged throughout.
Now that the potted plants had been moved out, the whole greenhouse looked bright and spacious.
“Leave a path down the middle, and pull up the paving stones on both sides,” Lin Luoting said.
Was he not going to use pots? Was he going to plant the flowers directly in the ground?
“All right,” Han Meimei said, then went to talk it over with the workers.
Lin Luoting, who only had to give orders, strolled off at an unhurried pace. He pulled out his phone and messaged the human he was keeping.
【Lin Luoting: Come back this afternoon and read poetry to me.】
He didn’t get a definite reply until nearly noon.
He knew Lu Chengyi would eat lunch before coming back if he asked him to, and that was exactly what happened.
Lu Chengyi did come back after lunch, and after reading poetry to Lin Luoting, he left again. He seemed not to want to stay a second longer.
Lin Luoting only smiled.
No rush. There was plenty of time.
That afternoon, the samples Han Meimei had ordered arrived. Roses and garden roses of every color filled the extra space in front of the house.
The rich floral scent spread through the air as Lin Luoting strolled among them.
Han Meimei explained, “Roses only bloom once a year, so I took the liberty of adding some varieties of garden roses. Only this little patch is garden roses. They look a lot like regular roses.”
Lin Luoting glanced at them. He didn’t mind whether they were roses or garden roses. He’d said roses yesterday only because the castle was full of them and he was used to it.
Whenever the blood clan fell into slumber, it was usually for years at a time. So each time the old butler woke him, it happened to be rose season. Humans slept for a day at most. By the time they woke up, not even a leaf might have grown.
Thinking of this, he picked out a few red varieties at random, both roses and garden roses.
Han Meimei made a note of his choices.
Lin Luoting let her deal with the rest of the flowers as she saw fit. Han Meimei selected the ones that looked best and had the housekeepers arrange them in vases throughout the rooms. The rest, along with the potted plants from the greenhouse, were sold to the flower shop at a low price as a bundle.
When Lu Chengyi came home that evening, he was greeted by the scent of flowers throughout the house, and by someone propping his chin beside a vase, idly playing with a petal.
“I’ve changed the flowers in the greenhouse. Come plant them with me in a few days.”
The person turned to him and spoke softly. His fingers were slender and pale, the blossoms were red as fire, and his lips were as vivid as the petals.
Lu Chengyi nodded indifferently. “Mm.” Then he walked away.
A few days passed in the blink of an eye.
Lu Chengyi left early and came home late every day. He only came back in the afternoons to read when Lin Luoting asked, and warmed the bed before sleeping. He’d practically turned this place into a second company dorm.
Lin Luoting let him be. He worked for three days, then loafed around for five.
The two of them maintained a kept-lover arrangement that seemed extremely tense to the “insiders” like Han Meimei.
They had to worry about the boss losing patience and blowing up, and about Lu Chengyi reaching his limit and turning on the boss. This job was exhausting.
But in reality, as the days went by, Lu Chengyi grew more and more relaxed. At least when Lin Luoting wasn’t speaking, he could treat him like a polite roommate.
After spending some time together, Lu Chengyi realized that Lin Luoting really did like only his face and body, just as he’d said. Perhaps his voice, too.
Lin Luoting was a complete face-and-voice addict, treating him like a perfect tool. Thinking of it that way made it a little easier to be around him.
Only a little.
A few days later, the greenhouse’s renovation was complete, and the soil in the beds had been replaced. Lin Luoting asked Lu Chengyi to help him plant the flowers.
The weather was unusually good that day, with a clear sky and bright sunshine.
The plants, their stems and leaves trimmed, were arranged in baskets off to one side. The two of them changed into work clothes they wouldn’t mind getting dirty.
After surveying the greenhouse, with its winding path and beds of soil on either side, Lu Chengyi said, “I’ll take the left, you take the right.”
Then he grabbed a small trowel and went to the left side of the path.
He said nothing, just kept his head down and worked, digging holes, planting stems, and filling in the soil. Soon, a fine sheen of sweat appeared on his forehead, making his rugged features look even more irresistibly handsome.
He’d just dug another hole and was about to reach for a plant when a green stem was held out in front of him. He paused, then turned around, his brows sharp.
Lin Luoting stood just behind him, his face smudged with dirt. He was staring at Lu Chengyi’s face. When Lu Chengyi turned, Lin Luoting looked puzzled. “Mm?”
“…Need something?” Lu Chengyi asked.
“No.”
Then why come over to his side?
Brr, brr. The phone in Lu Chengyi’s pocket vibrated.
He stood up and stepped aside to answer. On the other end, Zhou Miao spoke, doing his best to contain his excitement. “Chengyi, I have the best news to tell you!”
“I’m at your company dorm right now. Get over here, quick!”
“Hey, what’s going on? Where’s all the stuff in your room?”
His gaze lowered. “Brother Shui, I moved out of the dorm,” Lu Chengyi said.
“You moved out?” Zhou Miao sounded surprised, but didn’t think much of it. He asked casually, “Where’d you move to?”
“Lu Chengyi,” Lin Luoting said suddenly behind him. “I’m tired.”
His voice was cool, lazy, and matter-of-fact.
“???” After a few seconds of silence, Zhou Miao asked in a peculiar tone, “Chengyi, where exactly did you move to?”