TSBSPAAM Chapter 45

Shen Bumian had already finished dinner when he received the complaining message from Chen Si. He found it a little amusing and made a communication call to him, which was answered quickly.

“Mianmian, I was bullied.”

Listening to the low, trailing voice on the other end, Shen Bumian could imagine Chen Si deliberately pouting, looking very innocent.

Shen Bumian played along with him. “Oh? How do you want me to coax you?”

Chen Si let out a couple of low laughs from the other side. “How to coax me, huh?”

The other side seemed to genuinely ponder for a few seconds before finally saying, “Forget it. Just hearing your voice is enough to count as being coaxed.”

Shen Bumian roughly guessed Chen Si’s intentions. “Oh, then I’m hanging up.”

Chen Si immediately let out a few protests. After a few seconds of silence, he nodded, then suddenly remembered Shen Bumian couldn’t see him. “You can hang up. It’s getting late. Hurry back and get some sleep.”

Shen Bumian gave a soft “mm” and ended the call. The light from his terminal went dark, and only then did he notice Qin Luzhi staring at him, looking like he wanted to say something but was hesitating.

“W-what’s wrong?”

Qin Luzhi looked at the fallen ginkgo leaves on the roadside, his mind replaying the scene from just now.

Chen Si’s flamboyant face appeared in his mind again. “Do you guys always interact like this?”

Shen Bumian didn’t think there was anything wrong with it. He didn’t know why Qin Luzhi would suddenly ask such a question.

The three of them did indeed usually interact like this. Zhou Yizhou and Chen Si were always bickering, and Chen Si particularly loved to tease the two of them.

He was also always getting into his drama queen character. What could he and Zhou Yizhou do? They couldn’t just ignore him. If you can’t beat them, join them.

So, the two of them would play along with Chen Si’s drama every time.

He didn’t think too much about it and nodded at Qin Luzhi. But then he saw that Qin Luzhi seemed to be in low spirits. “Every time… you coax him??”

Shen Bumian thought back. Not really, but they did act out a few lines on the phone pretty much every time. “Yeah. Actually, Chen Si just looks childish.”

In reality, he is childish.

Qin Luzhi turned his head away. Shen Bumian heard him say, out of the blue, “In any case, I would never coax He Jing.”

Shen Bumian didn’t understand what he meant, wondering why the topic had suddenly shifted to He Jing. He said haltingly, “Oh, then… he’s quite mature.”

It was obvious who “he” was referring to. He Jing, far away in his dorm, would never have imagined he would be called mature in such a way. If he knew, he would definitely choose not to be.

The two fell silent again. Qin Luzhi felt that he had been a bit impulsive all day, all because of the person beside him. He sighed deeply in his heart.

His emotions had never fluctuated like this before. Indifference had always been his default state, but now he felt regret and self-blame just because the young man beside him had fallen silent.

He started to wonder, should I not have spoken like that? Will Shen Bumian grow to dislike me because of my nonsensical words? A myriad of thoughts ran through Qin Luzhi’s mind.

 

He had really, truly fallen, he thought. Fallen completely.

Shen Bumian didn’t know what Qin Luzhi was thinking. He was a bit tired from the day’s outing.

As the two of them walked, they noticed that most of the students at the military academy had gone home, so the campus was sparsely populated at this hour, making it feel inexplicably deserted.

Shen Bumian enjoyed the tranquility of the moment. Above him was a sparkling canopy of stars, with a bright moon hanging high.

An occasional breeze would blow by, and the ginkgo leaves on both sides of the road would flutter down, their soft rustling like dancing musical notes.

All the way, Shen Bumian was immersed in his own world, while Qin Luzhi was deep in self-reflection. They walked in silence.

Finally, Qin Luzhi took hold of Shen Bumian’s wrist. Shen Bumian was very slender, and his wrist bone was prominent, fitting perfectly in the space between Qin Luzhi’s thumb and forefinger.

Qin Luzhi only felt a tingling numbness at his fingertips, a desire to caress the young man’s delicate wrist, but he couldn’t.

Shen Bumian didn’t know why Qin Luzhi had suddenly grabbed him. He turned his head in confusion and saw Qin Luzhi’s deep pupils.

Shen Bumian could see it clearly—something in those cold eyes had changed. What it was exactly, he couldn’t see clearly. He blamed it on the darkness of the night.

“What’s wrong?”

Shen Bumian felt the cold touch on his wrist. He had known for a long time that Qin Luzhi had a very low body temperature.

In the already cooling weather, it was as if he had been iced by this temperature. His hand subconsciously struggled, wanting to pull back.

As if he had just realized, Qin Luzhi abruptly let go of Shen Bumian’s hand.

He looked down at the omega before him. He was so fragile. His fair skin had already turned red, with one or two fingerprints left behind.

Qin Luzhi swallowed. He clearly hadn’t used much force.

“It’s nothing. I just wanted to say good night to you.”

This was the first “good night” Qin Luzhi had said to Shen Bumian after realizing his own feelings.

His gaze was unreadable, and the two simple words were filled with deep meaning.

Shen Bumian didn’t know why his body stiffened. After numbly replying with a “good night,” he quickly walked back to the dormitory building.

His heartbeat was abnormal. The sudden rapid pounding felt very strange to Shen Bumian.

This “good night” from Qin Luzhi felt different from before. The moment he heard it, the spot on his wrist that had just been held felt like it was burning up.

After returning to the dorm, Shen Bumian took a shower. Zhou Yizhou had just come back. After confirming he was back, Shen Bumian went to his room and lay down.

Shen Bumian’s consciousness was hazy as he opened his eyes to find himself on a cruise ship.

He looked around in confusion. He had never seen a cruise ship before; he only knew of them because he had seen pictures on the star-net.

The First Interstellar was highly developed, having long surpassed the early civilizations of humanity, and was heavily steeped in technology.

But Shen Bumian was very curious about Old Blue Star, and he also loved many things from it.

Like the doll Shen Ran had given him, the preserved cuisine from Blue Star, and the sea he had never seen…

He was standing on the cruise ship now. He looked down, wanting to see what the sea looked like, but he was destined for disappointment.

He had never seen the real sea. Now, all he could see was blue, consistent with the pictures on the star-net, but Shen Bumian felt that this wasn’t it.

He realized that this must be his own dream. But why was there a sea in his dream?

“Mianmian, is it beautiful?”

An abrupt voice pulled Shen Bumian back from his thoughts. He turned towards the sound.

A tall man was leaning lazily against the railing, a cigarette held between his slender, jade-like fingers.

The man wasn’t in a hurry to smoke it, just holding it loosely in his hand. Shen Bumian looked deeply but couldn’t see the man’s face clearly.

A gray mist obscured it, but his voice was deep and pleasant. Shen Bumian thought he probably wasn’t bad-looking.

He wasn’t sure what the situation was. After pondering for a moment, he asked, “What?”

The man let out a couple of low laughs and didn’t speak for a long time. Just when Shen Bumian thought he wouldn’t answer, the man’s lazy tone sounded, “Didn’t you always want to see the sea? I brought you here.”

Shen Bumian was bewildered. Could such an illusion be called the sea?

He didn’t speak. The man spoke again, his voice tinged with pleasure. “Come here.”

Shen Bumian refused, but for some reason, his feet moved uncontrollably. He soon arrived in front of the man.

Unfortunately, Shen Bumian still couldn’t see his face clearly.

In an instant, the man wrapped an arm around his waist and pinned him underneath, their positions reversed.

A powerful pheromone exploded, and Shen Bumian’s body went limp, unable to move. His hands, trying to push away the man before him, became powerless and ended up clutching his clothes.

The familiar scent of agave. Shen Bumian’s voice was a bit weak as he raised his head, uncertain. “Qin Luzhi?”

The man didn’t speak. He looked at the omega before him, whose eyes were reddening due to the intentionally released pheromones.

He couldn’t resist roughly wiping the corner of his eye with his thumb. The omega was probably hurt; they were naturally delicate.

Tears welled up in Shen Bumian’s eyes, threatening to fall. His tightly bitten lips trembled slightly.

It made one’s destructive desires surge. Shen Bumian heard the man’s low murmur, “Why aren’t you crying?”

Shen Bumian’s body couldn’t help but tremble. He shouldn’t have been afraid.

But at this moment, he felt that the aura on the man was dangerous, and his heart couldn’t help but shudder.

Tears streamed down his cheeks. The tip of his nose was red from the pain of crying, and the color of his lips became more vivid, bewitching and decadent.

The man watched for a long time, the distance between them growing smaller and smaller.

Just as the kiss was about to land, Shen Bumian saw the man’s face clearly. It was Qin Luzhi. Shen Bumian’s eyes widened in disbelief.

The next moment, he woke up with a start from his bed, his heart pounding for a long time.

Shen Bumian couldn’t describe his feelings at this moment.

What he didn’t know was that in the Alpha dormitory, just across a small grove of trees, Qin Luzhi had woken up with a start at the very same time.

In different places, the two of them had mysteriously had the same dream.