Chapter 44

Chapter 44

The sunset at Fengquan Mountain was indeed beautiful. When it was about to set, it turned into a big red disk, sinking over the distant water. At that moment, the water would reflect a setting sun while another hung in the sky. It was said that sometimes refraction would occur on the water, creating the spectacle of three setting suns.

Jiang Cheng and the others didn’t see three setting suns, but they were plenty satisfied.

After watching the sunset, they took the cable car back down the mountain and returned to the guesthouse where they had stayed the night before.

Jiang Cheng knew Shang Zenian definitely wouldn’t let him stay at the guesthouse, so he didn’t bother trying. He informed Qin Huiru and went with Shang Zenian to the hot spring hotel.

After all, Shang Zenian had said he wouldn’t touch him again today. It cost over ten thousand a night—might as well take advantage.

Ji Ke hadn’t found a chance to talk to Jiang Cheng, and he didn’t dare message him on WeChat either, worried Jiang Cheng’s mysterious sugar daddy might see it, which frustrated him.

Fortunately, they were classmates. Although Jiang Cheng usually only hung out with Lin Mo and didn’t interact much with other guys, it should be easy to find an opportunity to talk to him.

But the night was long, and the young guy couldn’t stop thinking about Jiang Cheng at noon, when he had been cherished by his sugar daddy—his eyes tinged with red at the corners, his expression languid and satisfied, with a hint of lingering charm in his eyes. Despite having a pure face, the way he’d moaned under that guy stirred up an uncontrollable heat.

After dinner at the guesthouse, everyone sat in the yard around the stove, brewing tea. Ji Ke caught a glimpse of a figure passing by outside; it looked like Jiang Cheng.

He hesitated, thinking Jiang Cheng shouldn’t be here, but he couldn’t resist the urge. He made an excuse to get some fresh air and followed.

The guesthouse was quite remote, and it was a cold night, so there were almost no people outside. Ji Ke took a few steps and saw the silhouette—it really looked like Jiang Cheng.

He was delighted and was about to call out to him when two people suddenly emerged from a side road. Without a word, they tossed a sack over his head. Before he could even make a sound, he was dragged into a dark alley, and then a rain of punches and kicks came down on him...

......

Jiang Cheng was exhausted from climbing the day before. After he got back to the hot spring hotel, he had dinner, got close with Shang Zenian for a while, then couldn’t keep his eyes open and crashed. When he woke up, it was already the next day.

He still had to participate in group activities. Today’s plan was to visit the ancient town, with a meeting time at nine o’clock.

Jiang Cheng washed up and saw that it was still early. He wanted to let Shang Zenian sleep in since he had trouble getting up early, so he grabbed his phone to kill time.

When he opened WeChat, he found the group chat for this activity had a lot of messages from last night. He opened it and was stunned.

Ji Ke got beaten up with a sack over his head last night—literally. Going by the pictures in the group chat, he was banged up pretty bad.

According to them, the attackers had escaped, there were no surveillance cameras nearby, and even after they reported it, the cops couldn’t figure out who did it.

Jiang Cheng couldn’t help glancing at Shang Zenian, who was sound asleep...

No way, no way. Although Shang Zenian could be a bit of a jerk when he got mad, he wasn’t violent. When Jiang Cheng had deceived him like that, he didn’t lay a finger on him. Ji Ke was even less connected to him; there was no way he would hire thugs to beat him up.

Ji Ke was just downright unlucky.

Jiang Cheng quickly shook off the thought and scrolled back through the group chat.

According to the classmates’ descriptions, Ji Ke had been screaming all the way to the hospital, making everyone think he was gonna kick the bucket. But after checking him at the hospital, aside from surface wounds, it wasn’t serious. The doctor applied medicine and didn’t even require hospitalization, just prescribed anti-inflammatory and topical medications, and sent him back.

Someone in the group posted a photo. When Jiang Cheng saw the picture of Ji Ke after the beating, he almost laughed, even though it was mean.

He’d been beaten into a pig’s head—all swollen and bruised. Poor guy.

With this incident, the morning itinerary was canceled. Jiang Cheng didn’t need to rush to meet up with them. He asked Lin Mo to help store the luggage he had left at the guesthouse at the front desk, took off the clothes he’d just put on, and crawled back under the covers.

He lifted Shang Zenian’s arm and snuggled into his chest, going back to sleep.

Shang Zenian, who was "sleeping," opened his eyes, his eyes sharp and clear.

Looking at Jiang Cheng, who had buried his face in his chest, he smirked slightly, pulled him closer, and closed his eyes to continue sleeping.

Jiang Cheng didn’t think Ji Ke getting beaten had anything to do with him. However, from then on, Ji Ke never sought him out again, and whenever he saw Jiang Cheng, he would run away terrified, like he’d seen the plague, not daring to look at him twice.

Jiang Cheng was a bit baffled by it.

But he didn’t care. He just thought the guy wasn’t just a little off—he was totally screwed in the head.

......

After returning from Fengquan Mountain, Jiang Cheng clearly felt Shang Zenian’s desire for him growing stronger and stronger. The way he looked at him got more and more obvious. Often, while Jiang Cheng was cooking, Shang Zenian would come up from behind and start getting handsy.

Once, while Jiang Cheng was stir-frying, Shang Zenian came over, pulled his pants down, and... In the end, the food burnt and the kitchen was a disaster.

But Shang Zenian was never fully satisfied. After all, thighs weren’t that easy to work with, and it didn’t feel great, which made him even more frustrated.

Jiang Cheng knew this couldn’t go on. Between his studies, he decided to spend some time learning the basics and getting himself ready.

He didn’t know any gay people, so he had to find porn to watch on his own. It took a ton of work, but he finally found a foreign video. The title was pretty explicit: "Seduce the Stepfather." It looked pretty shady.

Jiang Cheng didn’t dare watch it at school or in the dorm. But now that he knew Shang Zenian’s class schedule, he picked an afternoon when Shang Zenian had class and he didn’t, and he watched it at Shang Zenian’s place.

Shang Zenian had given him a tablet. For better quality, Jiang Cheng transferred the video to the tablet and put in earplugs.

This kind of video actually had a story.

The stepson fell for his stepdad, a fitness instructor, at first sight. When the stepdad got drunk, the stepson put on a skirt and pretended to be a girl to seduce him. The stepdad, out of it, slept with him.

The young stepson, wearing a short skirt, sat on his stepfather’s lap, straddling him, kissing him passionately.

Jiang Cheng didn’t need to study kissing. He just stared wide-eyed at the stepfather’s hand as it reached under the skirt.

He thought he was about to find out the stepson was male, and his pupils widened slightly, wondering how the writer would explain the stepson being a guy.

But the stepfather didn’t realize he was a guy and kept kissing him passionately.

"This is so fake," Jiang Cheng thought.

Suddenly, the stepson let out a cry of surprise, as if the stepfather’s hand had done something. The camera, helpfully, zoomed in under the skirt, showing clearly what his hand was doing.

Jiang Cheng’s eyes grew wider and wider.

Although he had guessed a bit from the science articles he had read, seeing the actual raunchy scene was still shocking.

Especially since the stepson looked so ecstatic. Jiang Cheng almost wondered if it was all an act, because his stepfather’s... was really...

No way! He didn’t believe it!

Jiang Cheng couldn’t help but look closely at the stepson’s face. He saw him looking completely entranced, making sounds that made one blush—it didn’t seem fake.

While Jiang Cheng was off-track, wondering whether the stepson was actually faking it, he heard the sound of the door lock opening. He was startled and immediately pressed the tablet’s screen off, shoving it along with the earplugs under a sofa cushion.

Shang Zenian pushed the door open and came in, only to see Jiang Cheng looking flustered, apparently having done something bad. He was even trying to cover it up by picking up his phone and pretending to be playing with it.

Shang Zenian raised an eyebrow. He changed his shoes, walked over, and sat down next to him. First, he pulled him into a long kiss, kissing him until he was out of breath. Then, he lifted him and sat him on his lap, asking in a low voice, "What bad thing have you been up to behind my back?"

"No, nothing. I was just playing on my phone." Jiang Cheng shook his phone at him.

Shang Zenian didn’t seem intent on digging deeper. He brushed aside the stray hair covering Jiang Cheng’s eyes, and when he did, he ended up parting it in the middle like a dorky middle part.

Well, even so, he still looked gorgeous.

Shang Zenian parted Jiang Cheng's hair again, letting a few stray strands fall over his forehead like a fringe.

This instantly reminded Jiang Cheng of when he had pretended to be Chen Yin.

And this haircut of Jiang Cheng's—where did he even get it? It was truly ugly, only his face could save it.

"You don't have any plans tomorrow, right? I'll take you to get a haircut," Shang Zenian said.

With a barber tidying him up, his appearance would definitely improve by more than one level.

Jiang Cheng, preoccupied with the content on the tablet, absentmindedly ran a hand through his hair. "Is it too long? Then I'll just pop into a quick-cut shop."

Shang Zenian thought of the 15-yuan-per-cut quick-cut shops on the student street, and the corner of his mouth twitched.

"Not a quick-cut shop. I'll take you to where I usually go," Shang Zenian said, seeing Jiang Cheng about to refuse again, and immediately turned fierce, "I have a card, it's really cheap. Don't you dare say no."

"Oh..." Jiang Cheng pushed away Shang Zenian's face as it leaned in. "Go take a shower, you stink."

It was cold now, so Shang Zenian didn't sweat much after training; he always showered when he got home.

Actually, there wasn't much of a smell, and probably because he liked him, Jiang Cheng didn't find Shang Zenian's scent unpleasant—he was just making an excuse to get rid of him.

Shang Zenian hugged him and kissed him a few more times before finally letting go and heading to the shower.

Jiang Cheng pulled out his phone on purpose, pretending to mess around on it, planning to sneakily hide the tablet after Shang Zenian went into the room. But when he saw the phone screen, his fingers froze instantly.

Earlier, to cover his tracks, he had pretended to play on his phone, aimlessly scrolling through his WeChat Moments, which he hardly ever checked, swiping randomly. Now the screen happened to land on a post made three hours ago.

The post was from a neighbor aunt who lived upstairs; she was complaining about the recent temperature drop in Tingxi and the severe flu outbreak. Her grandson kept having relapses, and he was back on IV fluids. Beneath the text were several photos of her grandson receiving treatment.

Jiang Cheng spotted half a familiar figure in one of the photos—that was definitely his grandma!

He zoomed in on the photo and saw that his grandmother was also getting an IV drip!

Jiang Cheng panicked, immediately sat up straight, and video-called his grandmother.

The video wasn't answered; instead, it was declined. After a moment, his grandmother sent a message.

Grandma: I'm not free to take a video right now. What's up, Chengzi?

His grandmother hadn't had much schooling, plus she was old and had bad eyesight, so she always sent voice messages—almost never texted.

Jiang Cheng held down the voice message button: "Don't try to fool me, I saw you getting fluids at the clinic."

After sending it, Jiang Cheng figured his grandmother had listened, then called again. This time, the video wasn't rejected, but it took a while before she picked up.

Her face looked a bit worn out from being sick as it appeared on the screen. Judging by the background, she was already lying in bed at home.

"Grandma, how are you?" Jiang Cheng asked anxiously.

Her voice was thick with a stuffy nose: "I'm fine, Chengzi. It's been cold these days, and I caught the flu. I had a bit of a fever, so I went for an IV."

"And now? Has the fever gone down?"

"It's already gone. Don't worry, it's just a cold. It'll be better in a couple of days. Grandma's still strong."

Of course Jiang Cheng worried—he remembered how he felt when he had a cold last time, like he was half-dead.

Back then, Shang Zenian took care of him, but now his grandmother had no one by her side.

Jiang Cheng wished he could jump through the phone to go see her: "Have you had dinner?"

"I made some porridge. I'll get up and eat it in a bit."

Jiang Cheng didn't really believe her, so he decided to get He Jun's mom to go check on Grandma.

After talking with his grandmother for a bit more, seeing how sick she looked but still trying to sound cheerful, he told her to get some good rest and hung up.

Just as he was about to call He Jun's mom, Shang Zenian, who had just finished showering, came out upon hearing the commotion. "What's wrong? I thought I heard you talking to Grandma."

"She caught a cold, and it's bad enough. I'm asking Aunt Zhu to go over and take care of her, bring her some food."

Jiang Cheng knew his grandma—she wouldn't go get fluids unless she was really hurting. She probably had a fever that wouldn't go down with meds, so she had to get an IV.

He needed Aunt Zhu to go check on her and see what was going on, to take her to the hospital if it was serious.

An old person's health is no joke.

"Yeah, call her first."

Jiang Cheng called He Jun's mom. Aunt Zhu was really nice—when she heard what was up, she said she'd head over right then. Jiang Cheng thanked her, hung up, and anxiously waited to hear back from her.

Shang Zenian sat down beside him and put both hands on Jiang Cheng's shoulders. "Grandma's getting old. It's really inconvenient for her to live alone. How about I hire a home helper for her to handle the day-to-day stuff and meals? What do you think?"

"Grandma would never agree to that," Jiang Cheng knew his grandmother's temper. "Is there some service that can check on her every day, take care of her when she's sick, and bring her to the doctor if needed?"

Otherwise, it wasn't good to keep bugging He Jun's mom. She had her own life and family, plus her little store couldn't just be left alone.

"There is!" Shang Zenian said without hesitation. "That's basically a part-time caregiver, easy to hire."

Jiang Cheng's eyes lit up: "Where do I even find someone like that?"

Shang Zenian took out his phone. "Don't stress it. I'll take care of it."

"No, just tell me how to set it up, so I can handle it myself later."

Shang Zenian paused, temporarily turning off the phone screen, and looked into Jiang Cheng's eyes. "Why would you need to handle it later? Do you think I won't take care of it for you anymore?"

"You sure know how to pick out the important part."

"Or," Shang Zenian looked at him, a dangerous look in his eyes, "do you want to pay for it yourself because you don't want to be in my debt, like I'm handing out charity to you?"

"No, I didn't think that." At least, I hadn't thought about that part yet.

Shang Zenian pressed further: "Then what were you thinking?"

"I just... didn't want to trouble you."

"But I'm just getting someone else to do it, it's no trouble at all."

"Oh..." Jiang Cheng lowered his eyes. "Then go ahead and set it up for me."

But Shang Zenian wasn't letting him off that easy. He reached out and covered Jiang Cheng's face with his hand, his thumb pressing on Jiang Cheng's forehead, gently making him lift his head to meet his eyes.

"Babe, tell me the truth. What's really going on in your head?"

Shang Zenian's eyes were serious and sincere, like someone genuinely searching for an answer.

Jiang Cheng bit his lip, wavered for a moment, and under Shang Zenian's knowing gaze that seemed to see right through him, he braced himself and came clean.

"Because I feel like we're not gonna last. If this housekeeper ever quits and I have to find a new one, I still need to handle that kind of stuff myself."

After Jiang Cheng said this, he felt Shang Zenian was about to blow up and couldn't help ducking his head.

But to his surprise, Shang Zenian didn't blow up.

Shang Zenian's gaze fell on him, watching him steadily.

A long moment passed before he finally spoke.

"Jiang Cheng." Shang Zenian called his name, his tone calm. "Have you ever actually been into guys? Have you ever truly liked me?"

"Of course not!" Jiang Cheng said immediately. "I like you. If I didn't, why would I be dating you?"

"Because you feel guilty for bending me, intimidated by my overbearing power, and compelled to compensate me, so you force yourself to date me. After all, being intimate with someone you don't like is your specialty, isn't it?"

When you pretended to be Chen Yin, you were a total straight guy, yet you put up with me groping you and even helped me. Now that skill should be even sharper.

"No!" Jiang Cheng shook his head. "That's not it."

Shang Zenian looked at him. "Then what is it?"

"I... I just think that your feelings for me are just you shifting your love from Chen Yin onto me. Someday you'll go back to being straight..."

"So what's the difference? You're just humoring me with this relationship, waiting for the day I get sick of it and you're free. But do you know, Jiang Cheng? Not to brag, I've seen all kinds of women in my life, but I've never had feelings for any girl. I've only ever liked one person—you. Only you. How can you be so sure I'm straight?"

Jiang Cheng: "..."

Jiang Cheng had nothing to say, mainly because the idea of Shang Zenian being straight was just too deeply rooted.

Shang Zenian's tone was heavy. "Is that also why you've never been willing to go all the way with me?"

"No! I didn't want to go all the way because... because you're... too big. I wasn't ready. I was scared it would hurt."

Normally, Shang Zenian would have loved hearing a line like that.

But today, he just scoffed.

Excuses. Nothing but excuses!

Jiang Cheng had never truly wanted to be with him.

Shang Zenian's tone turned cold. "Don't say any more. I don't know how to find this kind of housekeeper for now. I'll have someone handle it and then send you the process and the contact info. You can go."

Then he couldn't help adding sarcastically, "Jiang Cheng, you're really something. You pulled the same trick on me twice."

"..." Jiang Cheng didn't know what to say. It felt like no matter what he said, Shang Zenian wouldn't believe him.

Seeing him speechless, Shang Zenian took it as confirmation. His anger festered, but he couldn't bear to take it out on Jiang Cheng. He pulled his hand back from Jiang Cheng's cheek. "Get lost. Before I change my mind."

With that, he stood up to head to his room.

Just as he took a step, someone grabbed his hand.

He looked down into Jiang Cheng's fearful, anxious eyes.

"Let go," Shang Zenian said coldly.

Jiang Cheng didn't let go. Instead, he reached out and hugged Shang Zenian's legs.

"I don't dislike you. I'm just too afraid of losing you."

"We were never on the same level from the start. If one day you realize you still prefer women, or you can't go against your parents and choose to break up, you can just walk away anytime. But what about me?"

"Shang Zenian, I'm afraid if I sink too deep, I might never get out."

"And I really wasn't deliberately stalling. I've been getting ready for us to have sex." Jiang Cheng paused, as if he'd made up his mind, then pulled a tablet from under the cushion next to him. "I was watching some instructional stuff just now."

He yanked the earphones out of the tablet's jack and turned up the volume. The unmistakable sounds of people having sex filled the living room—any guy would know what that was.

Shang Zenian: "..."

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Author's note: Shang: Oh no, I wronged my hubby. In a flash, he pulls out a durian-shaped washboard and drops to his knees in apology!