HS Chapter 49

Yan Chen kissed with intensity and desperation, as if he had to make up for everything he hadn’t done during all the time they’d spent apart.

Ye Wenyu’s lips and tongue were numb. The back of his head was pressed against the wall by a wide palm, and the arm around his waist was like an iron band he couldn’t escape from.

His head was spinning. He was being dominated and devoured, struggling to breathe, yet he couldn’t resist the waves of numbness seeping into his bones and soaking in the overwhelming satisfaction. He was so overwhelmed he couldn’t open his eyes and it felt like a grand fireworks show was being held in his brain.

The hands that had tried to push Yan Chen away ended up pulling him closer. As if guided by autopilot, they wrapped tightly around the back of Yan Chen’s neck.

When they briefly separated, Ye Wenyu gasped for air, trying to catch his breath.

But when he opened his eyes and met a pair of eyes that were still burning with desire and restraint, and the red and slightly swollen lips, he was completely bewitched.

Whilst breathing unsteadily, he took the initiative to pull Yan Chen back down and kissed him again.

Such a good person was his now.

When two sincere, open hearts fall in love, the fire they ignite becomes impossible to contain. It burned through their veins beneath their skin, boiling blood filling their hearts and pulsing out to every limb.

He liked him to death, he liked him so much it was almost unbearable.

It wasn’t just the kisses. Any contact, any touch of skin made him lose control.

His fingers traced the curve of Yan Chen’s spine, from his shoulder to the side of his neck. When Yan Chen’s kisses trailed from his lips down to his ear, Ye Wenyu shivered slightly and closed his eyes, then reopened his arms to hug Yan Chen tightly.

His slippers had long since fallen to the floor. Ye Wenyu curled his toes that were resting on the back of Yan Chen’s legs, and his flushed cheek pressed against Yan Chen’s ear. He tilted his head slightly, and his lips brushed against the cool skin of his earlobe.

“Actually, I’m also very greedy.”

The quiet night amplified the hoarseness in Ye Wenyu’s voice. Every secret that darkness tried to hide was being confessed, word by word, from his own lips.

“I always want to be closer and closer to you. I’ve imagined so many times what it would be like for you to kiss me like this all over, not just because I love part of you, but because you are you. You’re Yan Chen. You’re the person I like.”

“I want all of you. And I want to give you all of me too.”

A dull pain suddenly bloomed on his neck. He barely had time to gasp before Yan Chen had already gripped his chin and kissed him hard again, cutting off his breath.

“I want the same.”

–

Chi Dongting came back into the room after his phone call on the balcony, only to find that it was completely empty. Ye Wenyu had left without even taking his phone.

Was he being too loud on the phone and annoyed his roommate into leaving?

Before he had time to wonder, the door beeped and opened. His roommate had returned.

Chi Dongting: “Wenyu, I was just wondering where you ran off to without your phone, you… huh? Did you go out for barbecue for a midnight snack? Why is your mouth so red?”

Ye Wenyu didn’t respond. He walked over, pulled out a chair, and sat down, motioning for Chi Dongting to sit too.

Chi Dongting was confused. “What’s going on?”

Ye Wenyu chose his words carefully. “Xiao Chi, I have two things to tell you.”

Chi Dongting: “Oh, okay. Go ahead.”

Ye Wenyu: “My cousin got together with the person he likes.”

Chi Dongting blinked, then exclaimed, “Finally caught them? Heh, congrats to your cousin! When did this happen, just now?”

Ye Wenyu nodded.

Chi Dongting grinned. “Great, as expected of my brother. What’s the second thing?”

Ye Wenyu: “I don’t have a cousin.”

“Oh, you don’t have a cou… huh? You don’t have a cousin?” Chi Dongting froze. “What do you mean? You just said your cousin…”

“It was me,” Ye Wenyu said. “It was always me.”

“Huh?” Chi Dongting stared blankly for a long moment. “You don’t have a cousin, and the cousin is actually you… so all that stuff about chasing and being chased was actually…”

Ye Wenyu: “All me.”

Chi Dongting: “Then just now you said your cousin and the person he likes…”

Ye Wenyu: “That was me and the person I like getting together.”

In Ye Wenyu’s worldview, being in a relationship was a good thing. Unless necessary, there was no need to hide it. Besides, Chi Dongting was his best friend at school.

So he shared all his happiness in one breath. “Xiao Chi, Yan Chen and I are together. Just now.”

Chi Dongting: “…Huh?”

Chi Dongting: “So just now you went to…?”

Ye Wenyu’s face turned red as he recalled it, but he still answered honestly. “Went to fall in love.”

Chi Dongting: “Then why did you come back so quickly?”

At that, Ye Wenyu’s eyes flickered. He cleared his throat. “Because I didn’t bring my phone. I was worried you’d be anxious.”

It wasn’t entirely a lie. That was one reason. But mostly, he couldn’t stay at Yan Chen’s place any longer. If he had, things would likely have gotten out of control.

Actually, it wouldn’t have been bad either. But they had to get up early to go back to school tomorrow, and Yan Chen had training during the day…

Realizing where his thoughts were heading, Ye Wenyu quickly stopped, touched his burning ear, and stood up. “I’m going to sleep. You should go shower, it’s late. Rest early.”

Chi Dongting nodded in a daze. After Ye Wenyu climbed into bed, he went into the bathroom, turned on the water, and let it shift from cold to hot. Only then did his mental gears finally click into place.

Staring at the water spraying from the showerhead, Classmate Xiao Chi gasped, his eyes widening in the collapse of his worldview.

Oh my God, Wenyu and Yan Chen are dating?!’

‘Yan Chen, fuck you…’

*

This kind of thing wasn’t easy to digest all at once, and after realizing he had unknowingly helped Yan Chen dig the wall…no, dig the cabbage countless times ,Chi Dongting felt suffocated.

What kind of idiot was he!

Because of this, he had insomnia for most of the night. The next morning, he dragged himself onto the bus, sat silently next to An Xue, and kept digesting in misery.

An Xue had slept in and missed breakfast at the hotel, so now she was gnawing on some bread. “What’s wrong? Did a ghost sit on your chest last night? You look like hell.”

Chi Dongting: “Not a ghost, but close enough.”

An Xue: “Remember to burn incense at Daci Temple when we get back. But why are you sitting here? You’re not going to sit with Wenyu?”

Chi Dongting glanced forward and mumbled sourly, “The empress is here, where would I sit?”

Then he realized something and his expression changed.

No, no no, what was he saying? If Yan Chen was the empress, then what was he?

He wasn’t some little concubine! He was Wenyu’s super best brother!

Let Yan Chen go be the empress by himself!

An Xue didn’t hear clearly. “What?”

“Nothing, I’m just losing it.” Chi Dongting pulled his hoodie over his head. “Don’t mind me. Let me wallow in self-pity.”

‘So weird.’

An Xue tugged at his hood brim, tilted her head, and looked toward Ye Wenyu. There were two heads, side by side, and the seat next to Wenyu was already occupied.

Chi Dongting wasn’t the only one with insomnia. Ye Wenyu had also had trouble sleeping.

Strangely, his heart wasn’t racing, and he wasn’t overly excited, but he just couldn’t fall asleep with his head on the pillow. He tossed and turned until 3 or 4 a.m. before finally dozing off.

Now it was morning, and he sat on the bus fiddling with the bunny lantern that had stopped working overnight. He yawned three or four times in two minutes.

Yan Chen took the lantern, unscrewed the base to check the wiring, and saw the small round battery inside. “It probably ran out of power.”

Ye Wenyu leaned in. “Can we buy this kind of battery?”

Yan Chen: “Yeah, the stationery store at the school gate sells them.”

“Then I’ll go buy one after we get off the bus…”

Before he finished, one side of his face was gently nudged. He turned with the motion and rested his head against Yan Chen’s shoulder.

Yan Chen said, “If you’re sleepy, sleep. I’ll wake you when we get to school.”

Two hours wasn’t enough to make up for last night’s lack of sleep. With all the stops and starts along the way, by the time they arrived, he felt even more tired.

Yan Chen walked him to the dorm building, patted his fluffy head and told him to get some rest, then went straight for the swimming hall.

Ye Wenyu slept until two in the afternoon. When he woke up, the dormitory was still empty.

It was past mealtime but he didn’t feel hungry, so he got out of bed and sat for a while to wake himself up, then quickly took his phone and left the dormitory.

It was now open practice time at the swimming pool. There were people sparsely scattered in the water and on the poolside, each doing their own thing.

Ye Wenyu walked along the poolside and his eyes quickly caught sight of a figure in the water. He stopped in place and waited for the person to swim over to his feet and emerge from the water. Then he crouched down to look at him.

Yan Chen had his arms braced against the pool’s edge. He had broad shoulders and a narrow waist, and water droplets trailed down his light tan skin along the beautiful lines of his muscles.

Ye Wenyu tilted his head, watching as the water nearly dried up. He reached out a hand to scoop up a small handful of water and poured it over Yan Chen’s shoulder, continuing to watch the droplets slide from his spine and collarbone, dissolving into the pool and rippling outward.

With damp, messy bangs sticking to his cheeks, Yan Chen looked like a large wild beast tamed by him, retracting all its claws and lying docilely beneath his hand, letting him do whatever he wanted.

“Why did you come over?” Yan Chen half-squinted his eyes, enjoying the soft, ticklish sensation of fingers brushing against his skin.

“I just woke up.” Ye Wenyu lowered his eyelids. “I didn’t see you in the dorm, so I came over.”

Waking up and immediately going to find someone was a bit childish, but on him, it didn’t seem immature, instead, it was particularly cute.

Yan Chen said to him, “Like a little kid.”

Ye Wenyu usually would’ve softly refuted this, but this time he didn’t. He was quiet for two seconds before speaking softly, “Yeah, I’m your little kid. Don’t forget to buy batteries for my little lantern.”

Yan Chen’s eyes flickered. He looked at him silently for a long time, then suddenly pushed off the poolside and climbed out, grabbing Ye Wenyu and striding toward the locker room.

This was Ye Wenyu’s second time entering the swimming pool’s locker room.

The same dim lighting, the same quiet emptiness, the same unnoticed corner. Yan Chen opened a locker, grabbed a towel, and roughly wiped the excess water from his hair, then casually tossed it over the locker door.

Yan Chen turned his head. Ye Wenyu only had time to see his half-dry bangs before his chin was held and a tidal wave of kisses crashed down.

He couldn’t fend it off and stumbled backward, his heel hitting the locker with a hollow thud.

Yan Chen’s kisses always carried an undeniable roughness, like an outpour of emotions that couldn’t be restrained. However, they were meticulous enough not to hurt Ye Wenyu, instead, they pulled him into the depths in the shortest time.

Ye Wenyu didn’t want to resist and couldn’t even if he tried. Yan Chen was a bug in his life, perfect to the point that Ye Wenyu could accept everything about him unconditionally, and his love for everything about him was almost like an addiction.

Electric tingles spread from his spine throughout his body. Footsteps approached the locker room from outside but Ye Wenyu was too dizzy to notice.

Until the locker room door was clumsily pushed open, Ye Wenyu’s jaw tightened and he subconsciously tried to push Yan Chen away, but the hand on his back pressed down even harder.

The next second, everything went dark and warm breaths were trapped in a confined space. Yan Chen had pulled down the towel from the locker and thrown it over both of them.

The person who entered stood at the door and saw Yan Chen in the shadows. He shouted, “Yan-ge, there’s no need to dry your hair, we’re doing the 500-meter drill right away, it’s going to get wet again anyway.”

Yan Chen responded with an “Mm”, and the boy left quickly after getting a reply.

The door closed again but Ye Wenyu’s heart was still thumping wildly. He clutched Yan Chen’s shoulders tightly, dazed and unable to recover.

Then his earlobe was sucked, and he gasped sharply. His lashes fluttered upward, and he heard Yan Chen’s husky voice rumble in his ear:

“Wenyu, you bit my tongue so hard it has become numb.”