The elongated black vehicle sped through the night. The dirty water left after the snow melted splashed up beneath the wheels, and the small puddle would only settle back to stillness long after the car had passed.
The mottled light from the streetlamps scattered like stars, and the rapidly receding scenery flashed past the car window.
The man in the driver’s seat was sweating from his forehead, his gaze fixed intently on the desolate road in the early-morning, not daring to glance around.
The front and back seats were completely separated for privacy. When he lifted his eyes to look into the rearview mirror, all he could see was the dark partition.
Even so, ambiguous noises could still be heard from the back seat. They were muffled and indistinct through the divider, but precisely because of this, it made those faint, soft moans even more tantalizing and stirring.
The Wei family driver’s expression became increasingly awkward, even revealing unease.
How was he supposed to explain to the Wei family’s eldest young master, Wei Xian, that after following orders to drive the second young master home, the latter had suddenly carried a guide into the car?
When he saw the tall sentinel emerge from the darkness, forcefully carrying a young man, the driver hadn’t gotten a clear look at the face and had almost called the police. Only when they got closer did he realize it was the second young master, Wei Zhuo, who directly got into the car and gave an address in a flat voice.
That villa area was home to only high-level sentinels and guides, so the driver guessed it must be the young man’s home.
From the back came a stifled moan of pain, like a cat trying to suppress a whimper.
It also sounded like syrupy honey was oozing out from between the cracks of one’s bones.
It was hard to describe…just listening made it feel like the electricity was running through the whole body, the scalp went dumb, and goosebumps broke out all over.
The driver shuddered. His palms were sweating so much that his grip on the steering wheel nearly slipped.
He had never heard that the second young master had a boyfriend. What’s more, he had thought from the start that the young man in Wei Zhuo’s arms looked familiar. Upon careful reflection just now, a lightbulb went off in his head…wasn’t that the guide Major General who had appeared on screen earlier?!
Thinking of this, and then considering the relationships between He Botian, Xin Hexue, and Wei Zhuo, the driver started sweating profusely.
Worried that the second young master had gone too far and might end up being dragged into court for forcibly taking a guide, the driver cautiously reminded, “Second young master…”
From the back came Wei Zhuo’s cold yet hoarse voice. “It’s fine. Just drive.”
The driver’s hands trembled. “…Yes, sir.”
It was as if another partition had risen up, one that fully blocked off sound between the front and back seats.
………
But the scene in the back seat wasn’t quite what outsiders might have imagined.
The medicine box lay open, set to the side.
Light blue veins spread like flower branches over the top of the foot, a kind of indescribable beauty, but it still unmistakably belonged to a man.
Wei Zhuo carefully held the foot, avoiding the injured area.
Fortunately, there were ice packs in the car’s fridge. He placed one against Xin Hexue’s sprained ankle.
Almost the instant the cold hit, Xin Hexue couldn’t suppress a cry of pain from his throat, which he then forced into a muffled groan.
Wei Zhuo examined the ankle from both sides without moving it. “Does it hurt a lot?”
Xin Hexue’s eyelashes drooped and trembled. “…Mm.”
Honestly, it was a little embarrassing. He just hadn’t wanted a drunk, out-of-control Wei Zhuo to lick him.
But in the process of pushing him away and running off, he twisted his ankle.
It had scared Wei Zhuo sober on the spot.
Now the two of them sat in silence in the back of the car.
The air flowed quietly between them.
Wei Zhuo’s large hand supported Xin Hexue’s ankle. The bottom side was warm, while the ice pack on the side pressed coldly against it, and Xin Hexue shivered.
His skin was delicate and soft, sinking deeper into Wei Zhuo’s palm. The moment he instinctively tried to pull away, Wei Zhuo used the pad of his finger to rub against his Achilles tendon in warning.
The sentinel’s tone grew heavier, his brows knitting into a knot. “Don’t move. The ice will bring the swelling down.”
Xin Hexue’s skin was too delicate, and his physical constitution was poor. The sprain hadn’t actually been that serious, but now it looked like it might swell badly. After Wei Zhuo applied the ice and sprayed a cold mist, the situation seemed to improve slightly.
Xin Hexue pursed his lips and said, “Thank you.”
“What I said earlier…I meant it,” Wei Zhuo said, eyes lowered so that Xin Hexue couldn’t see the emotion in them. “I wasn’t joking.”
Wei Zhuo’s heartbreak value had already climbed to seventy after he and Yan Ji got together.
Xin Hexue seemed to deliberately ignore his words. The condensation on the outside of the ice pack had turned into water droplets, which dripped onto the leather seat, glimmering faintly under the cabin lights.
“Sorry. It seems I made a mess in your car.”
He looked toward the open medicine box. The lid was flung open, and its contents had spilled out in a scattered mess.
Wei Zhuo could no longer tolerate the young man’s seemingly evasive attitude. He spoke bluntly, without reservation anymore. “Break up with Yan Ji. Whether it’s mental guidance or anything else, whatever he can do…I can do too. And I’ll do it better.”
Wei Zhuo had no confidence in fully replacing He Botian’s place in Xin Hexue’s heart. But as for replacing a fake, he didn’t give it a second thought.
But the young man’s reaction was beyond his expectations. He looked at him in surprise and confusion. “But…”
“How could that be?”
“Between us…”
The other party seemed completely unable to understand how Wei Zhuo’s feelings for him had come about, or how they had built up to this point.
Being questioned by the person he loved made Wei Zhuo freeze, his gaze lingering on Xin Hexue for a long time.
The young man didn’t seem to realize how heartbreaking his words were, and continued to advise gently and tolerantly, “You’re just drunk, that’s why you’re talking nonsense. Was it the previous mental guidance that made you develop a dependency?”
Still speculating, he added, “Maybe it’s that dependency that caused a misplacement of emotions, which is not good…”
Compared to being directly rejected, having finally broken through all barriers to confess and still not having his feelings accepted or even acknowledged was clearly a deeper kind of pain.
Wei Zhuo felt as if every vertebra in his spine had been pierced by invisible, sharp nails, each driving a hole into him. Cold wind passed through those holes, and he truly felt what it meant to be frozen to the bone.
His heart had been ripped open.
Xin Hexue saw the usual calm expression on Wei Zhuo’s face crack faintly, revealing unspeakable fragility and sorrow.
[Wei Zhuo’s heartbreak value +10]
‘Am I being a little too cruel?’ Xin Hexue thought to himself in silence.
He was used to deploying cruel tricks that kill people and strike their hearts.
Naturally, he also had to accept the consequences of the other party’s mental collapse and the storm that might follow in a moment of impulsive breakdown.
The ice pack suddenly slipped to the floor. Wei Zhuo lunged like a mad dog, a red fury suppressed in his eyes as he forcefully pinned the fragile guide down on the back seat.
He loomed over Xin Hexue, his posture overwhelming. His arched shoulders blocked the overhead light, and his shadow resembled a beast poised to strike. His left hand still gripped Xin Hexue’s calf. They were close, so close that…
It felt like he would thrust in without any regard for consequences.
“It’s not because of mental guidance, and it’s not some damned emotional misplacement either.” The suffocating aura of domination pouring off Wei Zhuo was overwhelming. His eyes, which were usually like stagnant water, churned with a thousand complex emotions. His voice was squeezed through clenched teeth. “Can you feel it?”
Xin Hexue could indeed feel the hard iron, already pressed firmly against the base of his thigh.
His fingers instinctively curled up, but even that small movement was caught and pinned between the sentinel’s fingers, not even a sliver of space left between them.
He shrank back slightly and nodded, like he was bowing his head only because of the overwhelming pressure and the physical strength gap between sentinel and guide.
Wei Zhuo’s heart felt like it was soaking in water, aching and sore beyond words. He buried his head in the crook of Xin Hexue’s neck.
“A long time ago, there were so many chances where I could’ve kissed you.”
There was no fabric covering the side of Xin Hexue’s neck, and when their skin touched, even the sentinel’s breath made him tremble all over.
Xin Hexue: “What…?”
Wei Zhuo’s voice was low and hoarse.
“When you fell asleep on the sofa.”
“When you got injured and I carried you all the way from the training hall back to your dorm bed.”
“When you were in the dorm bathroom without clothes and called me to bring them over.”
“Xin Hexue.” Wei Zhuo turned his head and kissed the flushed pink earlobe. “Are you really that at ease with me?”
“Every time…every time I come in contact with you, I get so hard it hurts. Even if we don’t speak, just being in the same space as you…”
“I was afraid you’d think I was a pervert, so every time I avoided it.”
Even just within social distance, as long as he could smell that faint cool fragrance from the young man’s body…
At night, that delicate and lingering scent, so light it seemed it would vanish with a breeze, would wind endlessly through his dark dreams.
He felt self-loathing so many times because of this filthy desire that came from instinctive impulses, and thus avoided any opportunity to come into contact with Xin Hexue.
Until the distance between them grew greater and greater. Until another sentinel came to stand between them.
Wei Zhuo: “Xin Hexue.”
Wei Zhuo: “I was wrong.”
He split open the past feelings buried in his gut and laid them bare for Xin Hexue to see.
The more Wei Zhuo confessed, the calmer his voice became. Until he sensed the weak young man beneath him trembling, he leaned in so close it was like their temples touched, and said in a cold, deliberate tone: “Every time. Every single time. I should’ve fucked you.”
He said every word with such ferocity it was as if each syllable would dig deeply into Xin Hexue’s body.
Until the young man flushed red from head to toe. Until even his soft strands of hair were trembling.
A storm of frenzied kisses had already left Xin Hexue whimpering in a daze, “Stop…”
The tongue piercing twisted between their lips and tongues, the metal embedded in flesh, heating up steadily with their rising body temperatures.
Perhaps the piercing still hadn’t healed completely, there was a metallic taste in the kiss, like the scent of blood from a sentinel cornered into desperate combat, spreading in the air.
This time, the pin-buckle belt was completely undone.
The meticulously pressed dress pants crumpled and fell to the car’s blanket-covered floor, picking up a layer of dust.
Trapped in the narrow space and unable to turn over, Xin Hexue lay on his back, his eyes toward the ceiling light slightly dazed.
His long, snow white legs swung lightly, and the previously injured ankle was now wrapped and secured with bandages like a brace. His toes pressed against the sentinel’s shoulders, curling uncontrollably.
The sentinel was still wearing the formal suit he had put on for the banquet, but it could no longer hide the taut lines of muscle exerting force underneath. Supporting himself up with both arms, his lips wet and gleaming, he leaned in and murmured beside Xin Hexue’s cheek, the thin lips moving slightly.
The short sentence was like a bomb being dropped.
Xin Hexue’s eyes instantly went wide like a startled cat’s. The car shook slightly, and he let out a brief cry, “No..no, you can’t…ah!”
His whole body shuddered. Then his voice broke off and tears welled up uncontrollably, sliding down into the hollow of his neck as he could only tilt his head back.
Wei Zhuo’s large hand, hot to the point of burning, rested on the young man’s trembling waist and abdomen.
No wonder those nobles were so enthusiastic with penile beading just for bedroom affairs.
Wei Zhuo lowered his gaze, a mix of calmness and madness coexisting in his eyes.
At some point, the scenery outside the window had stopped moving.
The driver had rolled down the window, smoking one cigarette after another in frustration. As the sky began to lighten with a fish-belly glow, he simply got out of the car.
A sentinel came charging straight toward the vehicle. The driver didn’t have time to stop him. “Sir, wait!”
“Bang bang bang!”
The young sentinel slammed his fists against the car window in fury, shouting like a madman.
“Wei Zhuo! Get the hell out here! What are you doing to Xin Hexue?!”
“You shameless homewrecker!”
—
Author’s note:
Little cat’s death retreat countdown.
