The air suddenly fell silent for a moment.
The most noticeable thing was Xie Yi’s slightly heavy breathing. The air exchanger in the gym was running at maximum speed, its humming sound like some kind of white noise.
Su Zhi watched as a drop of sweat slid down Xie Yi’s side neck, along the veins, and fell to his chest.
The owner of the heaving chest didn’t speak for quite a while.
Su Zhi rarely saw Xie Yi’s dazed reaction, but this time he did.
The man’s dark eyes still lingered in a kind of suppressed darkness, suddenly flooded with a sense of confusion, looking surprisingly a bit like a dumb dog.
Usually very fierce, but now, a bit silly.
When Su Zhi spoke, he was somewhat annoyed, fearing that being too kind would make Xie Yi act even more excessively. This person’s character was too vile to be viewed with common sense.
Most normal people, treated kindly for a while, if not completely changing for the better, would at least somewhat restrain themselves.
But obviously Xie Yi wouldn’t; he would only become worse.
However, after actually speaking out, Su Zhi didn’t feel any regret.
He still didn’t want to let someone take the blame for something they didn’t do, even if that person was Xie Yi.
Su Zhi’s moral conscience wouldn’t allow him to do such a thing.
He thought, even if Xie Yi was very bad, it didn’t mean that all bad things were his doing.
Su Zhi breathed a sigh of relief.
Without waiting for Xie Yi to speak, he tapped the man’s chest with his phone, watching as the blood-filled muscle beneath the phone’s edge was pressed down, his eye twitching.
Although he had seen it many times before, it seemed like this was the first time he so clearly realized that this guy’s chest was too…
They were both men, how could there be such a big difference?
It’s impossible not to feel a bit envious. In all those moments when he was overpowered in fights, Su Zhi often thought, if he had Xie Yi’s physique, wouldn’t he have beaten this dog man into the ground?
But he was just naturally this slightly slender build, and lazy too.
Achieving a beautifully muscular body required hard work and sweat, a fair thing for everyone.
But Su Zhi had never been associated with the word “diligence” in his past life.
Most of his stubbornness and toughness was spent butting heads with Xie Yi.
“…”
Su Zhi’s gaze unconsciously lingered there for a moment, somehow making his throat tighten slightly.
He had seen Xie Yi without clothes many times, but to be honest, he had never played around voluntarily.
…?
Strange, what was he thinking?
He couldn’t think any more!
He almost forcefully shoved the phone into Xie Yi’s arms, saying, “You look at it yourself.”
“…Mm.” Xie Yi took the phone and continued to look down.
He had only glanced briefly before; this time, he carefully looked at those few photos again.
Su Zhi controlled his gaze not to fall too low, only to the man’s shoulders: “Take a look, see if you want to contact them to delete the post.”
Xie Yi was quite well covered, and his face wasn’t directly shown, but if someone was really familiar with him, they might still recognize some details; such demeanor and features weren’t common.
Su Zhi couldn’t say if someone particularly sharp-eyed would recognize him.
Would it affect the company?
Although he instinctively felt Xie Yi probably wouldn’t care about such impacts, he still couldn’t help but worry.
Xie Yi looked at it for a while, his breathing gradually calming down.
When he spoke again, his voice was much steadier and cooler, though still slightly hoarse. He didn’t answer Su Zhi’s question, but asked him instead, “Do you want to delete it?”
Su Zhi: “…”
Su Zhi: “I, I don’t care.”
Under the man’s deep gaze, he said:
“I don’t mind, before there was a post with my photos on the forum, it’s been a long time.”
Su Zhi: “They’re just posting for fun, school forums don’t have much traffic…”
Su Zhi didn’t know why he explained a few more sentences.
He didn’t know if he was explaining to Xie Yi or convincing himself.
Xie Yi: “Then leave it.”
He turned off the phone and handed it back to Su Zhi.
Su Zhi reached out to take it, but as soon as he held the phone, another hand covered his.
The man’s warm palm covered his hand, hot like a branding iron because he had just finished exercising. The veins in his wrist bulged, running over a faint blue vein that extended up his forearm, intertwining with the muscle above.
We’re sorry for MTLers or people who like using reading mode, but our translations keep getting stolen by aggregators so we’re going to bring back the copy protection. If you need to MTL please retype the gibberish parts.
Rba bnfgis fzjuufgjafv, Wlf Tl’r wermif rlhf kjr pera gluta.
Dea ralii, la kjr raglxlcu.
Ktfs kfgf delaf mibrf, jcv Ve Itl mbeiv rwfii tlw.
C ojlca rkfja rwfii, cba ragbcu, wjlcis j mbbi wlca rmfca. Ve Itl rbwfalwfr mbeivc’a afii lo la kjr yfmjerf Wlf Tl boafc erfv atlr xlcv bo rtbkfg ufi bg lo la tjv yfmbwf tlr bkc rmfca.
In his stereotype, sweaty guys always smelled bad, making people want to cover their noses in disgust.
When Su Zhi was in college, he was taken by a friend to the sports team’s area, the chaotic and stinky smell made him never want to see sports students again.
But Xie Yi always smelled fresh, even when sweating, there was no extra odor, not unpleasant.
In fact, just looking at Xie Yi’s hygiene habits, he was quite clean and particular.
So Su Zhi couldn’t understand why he had such unclean hobbies, always liking to lick people.
This was a person, not a dog!
Su Zhi got distracted thinking about other things.
The man’s dark eyes stared at him, asking, “Do you want to work out together for a while? Did you eat too much at dinner?”
“…”
Indeed, to solve the excessive dinner, Su Zhi had tried to eat as much as he could, he had tried very hard.
He should tell the aunt tomorrow not to make so much.
However, Su Zhi still refused: “No, too tired.”
With his small stomach capacity, natural digestion would suffice, Su Zhi knew his limits.
He refused to tire himself out!
Moreover, he was a bit worried that Xie Yi might try something here.
He just felt the atmosphere was a bit off.
Su Zhi clutched his phone tightly, recalling some past events.
In his previous life, during the only period when he tried to work out, once when his personal trainer wasn’t there, he did a workout on his own and was utterly exhausted, too lazy to stretch. It was Xie Yi who couldn’t stand it, came over and pulled him up, half-forcing him to finish a set of relaxation stretches.
So that he wouldn’t complain about being sore the next day.
At that time, Su Zhi was so tired from over-exercising that his brain was a bit dull and sluggish. He didn’t sense the danger and even dumbly said to Xie Yi, “Thanks.”
After finishing the stretches, he wanted to shake off the man and go shower.
But he hadn’t walked a few steps before a big hand pulled him back, and a hot body pressed close.
Su Zhi usually couldn’t beat him, and at that moment, like a weak shrimp, he had no ability to resist, being pinned down like a small turtle, barely able to move, and in just a few moves, his clothes were pulled open.
The man leaned down close to his spine, his breath hot enough to almost ignite.
In Su Zhi’s hoarse, trembling, incredulous scolding, he kissed the sweat on the slight hollow of his back.
…
Remembering this scene, Su Zhi’s heart felt like it was being gripped, slightly tight.
Too much.
He could only describe some of Xie Yi’s actions as “unsightly”.
Thinking of this past incident, he was even more determined not to stay.
He straightened his back alertly, ready to bolt if Xie Yi dared to try anything.
Xie Yi didn’t force him to stay.
Seeing his refusal, he just responded with a “Mm,” his dark eyes fixed on him for a while before releasing his wrist.
It was as if he had just casually asked, not minding if the answer was no.
Su Zhi grabbed his phone and quickly ran off, not daring to stay a second longer.
When he closed the door, he felt the spot on his wrist where he had been held was slightly hot.
He looked down; there seemed to be a faint red mark, his skin being so sensitive that even a light pinch would leave a mark.
It might also have been caused by the heat.
Xie Yi’s hands were so hot, it felt like the heat was still lingering there.
But such a mark would probably disappear in a few minutes.
Su Zhi stopped thinking about it and continued to watch gaming videos on his phone.
He wasn’t great at playing games, but he loved watching others play.
He didn’t see that after he left, Xie Yi stared at the door for a good ten minutes, not moving a step, his long eyelashes casting deep shadows under his eyes.
It was a long time before he licked his teeth with the tip of his tongue, wiped the thin sweat from his body with a clean towel nearby, and continued his remaining training.
—
Xie Xingzhou was browsing the forum posts.
Earlier on the phone, his informant, Xu Fu, who was placed by Su Zhi’s side, stammered for some reason, not saying much.
After hanging up, the informant sent him the forum account for A University, asking him to check it out personally.
Xie Xingzhou’s phone had been on the forum post page for half an hour.
The post wasn’t long. Even though Su Zhi was a forum celebrity, the traffic on this kind of internal school forum couldn’t compare to public ones, very niche. Two to three hundred replies in a day was already impressive.
Xie Xingzhou finished reading in a few minutes, then fell into a long silence.
His expression darkened as he looked at the photo of the two holding hands.
—That soft, slightly intoxicated atmosphere, anyone with eyes could see it was a couple in love.
He wasn’t blind to that extent.
Xie Xingzhou couldn’t understand, just couldn’t.
Su Zhi and Xie Yi had recently been in a stiff and intense conflict; this was an indisputable fact with plenty of evidence to support it.
But their current harmonious relationship seemed to be a fact too.
He thought of many reasons but couldn’t figure out what made these two, who had been unpleasant for two years, suddenly act like a normal couple in such a short time.
Human nature is complex and steadfast; he didn’t believe in sudden awakenings.
So he could only look for external reasons.
Think of the variables—
Could it be that his intervention caused some change between the two?
Although it was just a guess, Xie Xingzhou’s mood instantly hit rock bottom.
Xie Xingzhou frowned deeply, his expression beyond unpleasant.
It was like a storm cloud, as if the next second he would angrily rush up and cut someone down.
He could calmly face Xie Yi’s suppression of the Xie family, bearing immense pressure to support this struggling family.
But he couldn’t accept that he might have inadvertently helped Xie Yi.
This made him more uncomfortable than the Xie family going bankrupt.
Xie Xingzhou’s mood was twisted.
It didn’t matter if he was doing poorly, as long as Xie Yi was also doing poorly, he could always find some twisted comfort in it.
He didn’t know how many times he looked at those intelligence reports, thinking of his cousin’s unfulfilled, ugly look, his heart filled with a sense of superiority.
Perhaps some kind of blood intuition, or a shared understanding as villains, he could, to some extent, understand Xie Yi.
Not only did they look alike, but in some things, he could also accurately guess Xie Yi’s mind.
No matter how glorious Xie Yi seemed, in matters of emotion, he was a complete failure.
In the dead of night, Xie Yi wouldn’t feel more comfortable than the Xie family members.
But now, now—
With a “bang,” his phone was rudely slammed onto the coffee table, cracking one corner.
The gentle mask he had worn for so long finally completely collapsed.
He sat on the sofa, looking like a demon, even more terrifying than his irritable and arrogant father.
The hourly worker who came to clean the house heard the noise and walked out from the side room, startled by his fierce expression.
The tool in her hand fell to the ground, making a series of clanging sounds.
The worker hurriedly squatted down to pick it up.
After picking everything up, she didn’t dare stay and quickly left with her things.
Xie Xingzhou took a deep breath, barely managing to control his expression.
He closed his eyes and rested on the sofa for a few minutes, then got up and picked up his phone, which now had a cracked screen, and turned it on.
The shattered screen was like a spider web, dividing the whole screen into colorful small fragments, with pixels distorted along the cracks, resembling a doomsday scene.
His fingertip was cut by the cracks, and blood flowed out, staining the already shattered screen.
In that instant, he felt that this dirty scene was very much like the current Xie family and himself.
Like a clown.
With a blank expression, Xie Xingzhou, with blood-stained fingers, opened a certain contact.
Just as when he was a child, he could bypass all the adults and realize that the watch his mother gave him was the most important thing to Xie Yi.
Now, he knew this was still a scar that Xie Yi couldn’t get over.
Although he didn’t know why that little canary didn’t follow the expected script and fight with Xie Yi.
But he would still make Xie Yi taste the bitterness of waking up from a dream.
—
Late at night.
In the mountaintop villa.
Su Zhi had already gone to sleep.
Xie Yi stayed in the gym until almost eleven o’clock.
After training for too long, even though he had just showered, his body still radiated a lingering heat.
When Xie Yi walked into the bedroom, Su Zhi had already washed up and was lying in bed, asleep.
He must have just fallen asleep a few minutes ago; half-awake, he lifted his eyelids and looked at Xie Yi dumbly for a few seconds, muttering, “Go to sleep,” and quickly closed his eyes again.
Xie Yi climbed into bed and hugged him, but really just to sleep, not doing anything else.
After three consecutive days, they really couldn’t do it again. Yesterday, at the end, Su Zhi was only producing clear fluid.
The bedroom was dark, and Su Zhi soon fell into a deep sleep.
This time, when Xie Yi got up, Su Zhi didn’t notice the movement, still sleeping soundly in the quilt, though his eyebrows moved slightly as the space beside him became empty.
Xie Yi walked to the bedroom balcony, quietly closing the sliding door.
The balcony was open, and the mountain air at night was very cool, with a gentle breeze.
But it couldn’t cool the heat in Xie Yi’s mind.
He remembered that post from the day.
After Su Zhi left the gym, he had someone get him an account for A University and looked at the post again.
When Su Zhi explained to him earlier that he hadn’t misunderstood that the post was made by him, Xie Yi had found it hard to believe.
He had a pretty clear self-awareness, knowing that in Su Zhi’s eyes, he should be seen as a terrible figure, so it wouldn’t be surprising to be blamed for something that seemed to fit his character.
But his little bird earnestly told him that he knew it wasn’t him.
Even though he was very angry at being bullied the day before, he still kindly and seriously explained.
Later, Su Zhi said he didn’t mind the obviously ambiguous photo that had been taken, which threw a boiling stone into Xie Yi’s heart.
For a moment, he almost lost all sense of everything.
In his eyes, there was only Su Zhi’s opening and closing lips and somewhat evasive gaze.
At that time, Su Zhi’s premonition was indeed correct; if he hadn’t run away in time, he would definitely have been caught and teased.
Sometimes, Xie Yi thought that he was indeed like how Su Zhi scolded him, like a beast.
A hungry, inflated beast. Drooling over Su Zhi.
Would hold the soft little bird in his mouth, suck his taste, wetting every feather, making him stay only in the beast’s nest.
He was overwhelmed by an excessive sense of satisfaction.
All along, didn’t his evil desire stem from wanting others to know that Su Zhi belonged to him?
Last night, he couldn’t help but go back to that post again.
Saved all the photos, and even had the leisure to scroll through the comments.
But the more he scrolled, the darker his face became.
There were too many comments expressing affection for Su Zhi, interspersed among the discussions about their relationship, making his brows furrow gradually.
Especially when he exited that gossip post and returned to the homepage.
He saw the old post with the photo taken years ago that Su Zhi mentioned.
The comments there almost made him crush his phone.
Calling him “hubby,” “wife,” and all sorts of messy nicknames took up almost 90% of the comments.
His face turned as black as the bottom of a pot.
These people, how could they be so undisciplined?
Calling someone else’s wife such names? Is this the quality of today’s college students?
Not long ago, he had felt his heart swell with happiness when Su Zhi agreed to stay, which was akin to coming out.
But soon, this heart turned sour and poisonous, miserly wanting to hide his little bird from everyone, deleting all those posts.
—
Xie Yi stayed on the balcony for nearly an hour in the cool breeze before returning to the bedroom.
His body was enveloped in cold air, and the night on the mountain was damp. After getting back into bed, he didn’t immediately hug Su Zhi, even though it was summer, fearing to chill him.
He watched Su Zhi’s features in the darkness from a person’s width away.
Suddenly, as Su Zhi slept soundly, he frowned slightly, moved his head as if looking for something, and reached out to feel around on the empty sheet.
He touched Xie Yi’s clothes.
Immediately, like finding his lost large pillow, his body naturally leaned closer.
Subconsciously wondering why today’s pillow was a bit cool, he still habitually snuggled into the human-shaped pillow.
Not knowing what he dreamed of, his mouth smacked, and his head nudged against the pillow’s chest.
For no reason at all, I’d like to know the details of that pillow’s chest../j 👁️👁️
+1
+1 👁️👁️
I think it’s time Xie Yi destroys that psychopath.
Lol the vinegar pot is angry.
Thank you for the chapter!
not you going through all the stages of saying Xie Yi drank vinegar and settling on directly calling him a vinegar pot…lol
I guess psychopathic runs in the Xie family. The cousin is even more of a beast than xie yi is.. Too bad the canary is willingly staying by xie yi’s side uwu
This is my favorite arc so far… i gotta resist the MTL