RIACMET chapter 78

 

“Ha…”

Cheng Jing chuckled when he saw Jiang Nian’s embarrassed expression.

“I never really thought about it much. Back then, I planned to pay you back after you graduated college. So, I just focused on making a lot of money.”

“…”

Jiang Nian’s brain spun.

“Were you planning to kill me with your wealth?”

Cheng Jing teased. “Perhaps, except for killing you, anything is possible, like using the rich man’s trickery on you.”

Jiang Nian: “As expected, men turn bad once they have money.”

But why did that idea make his heart beat a little faster?

Cheng Jing looked intently at his face, then changed the topic.

“I’ve made up my mind. If you were still single after graduation, I wouldn’t agree to stay broken up. If you were with someone else, then I wanted us to have a proper conversation face-to-face. I loved you so much. Even if we weren’t meant to be, I want things to end cleanly. It would have been such a pity to part on bad terms.”

The reason he forced himself not to look for anyone else was waiting until Jiang Nian graduated. As for anything beyond that, he hadn’t dared to think too much about it.

He knew he could be stubborn—sometimes even ruthless—but so what? He was only following his heart.

You could say that Jiang Nian was both the pressure weighing on him and the motivation keeping him going. With the help of his teammates and business partners, he gritted his teeth and pushed himself to become someone others envied.

To outsiders, he appeared young, capable, and promising. But only he knew this was the result of “the right time, the right place, and the right person,” mixed with a kind of near-paranoid determination.

“…”

The smile slipped from Jiang Nian’s face. Suddenly, his nose stung, and his vision blurred. He quickly lowered his head and started eating again, but a fat teardrop still fell into the bowl.

He’d just been trying to tease his boyfriend, but he hadn’t expected Cheng Jing’s straightforward words to instantly break down his defenses.

Cheng Jing reached out and gently wiped the tears from the corner of his eye.

“It’s okay. It all turned out well in the end. You came back to find me. Even if you hadn’t, I would have found you somehow, even if the world turned into this. I was too late in the last life.”

Even if they had broken up, he could never believe that he would have abandoned Jiang Nian once the apocalypse came.

There must have been something in that past life that prevented him from finding Jiang Nian in time. In the end, he’d come too late.

He couldn’t imagine what it felt like to see this person die in his arms. After learning the truth, he woke up countless nights, terrified that his lover would disappear again.

Had he spent the entire apocalypse alone in his previous life? Knowing himself, he doubted it.

Perhaps Jiang Nian’s rebirth was the world’s way of compensating him for that regret.

“Mm.”

Jiang Nian nodded earnestly and took a slow, steady breath so that he wouldn’t choke on his tears.

After they reunited, he became more and more convinced that Brother Jing had been searching for him.

Perhaps his records had been deliberately hidden. By the time Brother Jing finally found him, it was already too late.

…

After a meal spent riding waves of emotion, Cheng Jing told him to shower while he cleaned the kitchen.

“You must be exhausted from being out all day. No messing around tonight—just shower by yourself.”

“Okay, Dad. Gimme a kiss. Mua~”

Jiang Nian blew an exaggerated air kiss at him, then walked to the bathroom, rubbing his belly. He had eaten too much without meaning to, so he grabbed a few digestive tablets.

Faced with this little rascal’s antics, Cheng Jing could only shake his head helplessly. The child was so irritating. He deserved a spanking. But he couldn’t stop smiling. Let him be noisy. As long as he was lively and happy, that was fine.

However, even though they had agreed to sleep peacefully, Jiang Nian had always been the type to break his word once he was in bed.

Especially after getting so worked up emotionally, those urges sometimes grew too strong to hold back.

Cheng Jing hooked up the battery-powered AC fan so they wouldn’t overheat when the main power went out. He also placed a rechargeable, ball-shaped nightlight in the corner to provide a warm, soft light, perfect for sleeping.

But as soon as he lay down, someone scooted over and clung to him.

“Brother Jing, I want it.”

As he said this, his restless palm slid down over his lower belly.

“…”

Cheng Jing had planned to stay calm and put this troublemaker to sleep. However, when that hand moved lower, his body reacted faster than any common sense he tried to summon.

When he heard the little rascal’s triumphant giggle, he flipped them over and pinned him down.

“You deserve everything you’re about to get.”

Warm breath washed over the side of Jiang Nian’s neck. His heart pounded like a drum. He opened his mouth and panted, his hand clawing at the tense muscles of the man looming over him.

“Brother Jing…”

“Don’t leave a mark. I have to take off my clothes for practice tomorrow.”

Cheng Jing caught his wrist and pinned it firmly above his head, leaving no room for movement.

“Mmh!”

Jiang Nian really liked Brother Jing like this—saying little and being just a little rough, but always looking at him. Even when he got a little carried away and wasn’t gentle, he knew how to make him feel good.

Sometimes, Jiang Nian thought his preferences were kind of strange.

In the end, just as he’d wanted, after spending the whole day on a mission, Cheng Jing ended up working late into the night.

…

By the time he was finally done, Jiang Nian had already fallen asleep.

In the dim light, Jiang Nian was curled up beside him under a small blanket. Tear tracks were drying on his cheeks, and his pale skin was mottled with marks.

“…It happened again.”

Cheng Jing sat on the edge of the bed and watched him. He couldn’t help but raise a hand to cover his face as he remembered what they’d just done.

Truthfully, he didn’t like touching Jiang Nian when he was so emotionally unstable. The man would end up crying from the sensations and all the feelings he usually buried so deep.

That pitiful expression always filled Cheng Jing with a tangled mix of guilt and joy. He wanted to comfort Jiang Nian, but ultimately, he only made him suffer more.

He always blamed himself, but he couldn’t control it. Every time he thought about it afterward, he felt like a pervert.

Lying down again, he pulled Jiang Nian into his arms and silently promised himself for the thousandth time to be gentler next time this person started to cry.

…

Because of the commotion, Jiang Nian didn’t check on the shop renovations the next morning. Li Liang, who happened to be on duty, helped keep an eye on things and reported that everything was progressing smoothly.

The contractors all knew he was related to a rescue team, and the wages were good, so they worked hard without complaint.

Those who didn’t need to go out got up, had breakfast, and napped again until they recovered their energy.

It was almost noon when Jiang Nian poked around the balcony planter boxes and checked on the vegetable seedlings.

Cheng Jing hadn’t returned as he’d promised the day before, so Jiang Nian sent him a message reminding him to eat and not run around too much.

After spending a long time together, two people develop a kind of quiet telepathy. Jiang Nian sensed that something wasn’t right, even if it was just a feeling.

He sent another message:

“Brother Jing, are you okay?”

After a long pause, Cheng Jing finally replied:

“I’m fine. I’ll tell you everything when I get back. Just eat your lunch and behave.”

“…”

Jiang Nian jabbed at the reheated beef stew and potatoes in front of him with his chopsticks, chewing absently.

He had a hunch that Brother Jing had had an unpleasant conversation with Yang Kai, Zhou Li, and the others—maybe they had cut things off altogether.

Brother Jing finally came home after two in the afternoon, his face dark as a thundercloud, bearing unexpected news.

Besides Zhou Li, two other people had come with Yang Kai this time:

One of them was Liang Yunhao, an old comrade from Brother Jing’s security company.

The other was Xia Weiwei, that “enemy from a past life.”

Xia Weiwei already knew that he was Chen Yue and Chen Lin’s half-brother. She said that, once she confirmed it in person, she would send someone to pick up his “lover’s family” and reunite them.