Chapter 7: I Saw You Kissing Him

Chapter 7: I Saw You Kiss Him

Shu Hanqing only had to think about that image and felt his face go hot.

Who was that? Mu Ye, of all people? Usually so rigorous and upright in his conduct, he was the school's famously abstinent heartthrob, like some solemn, majestic shrine. Would he really do something that wanton?

His wild imagination, stacked on top of the fruit's effects, surged like molten lava—wave after wave rushing to his head.

Shu Hanqing's eyes grew wet, chaotic thoughts crashing around in his mind. *You crave it. You want to hold one of them—not do anything, just hug. They have what you need.*

But the last shred of reason told him no.

The vines around his legs kept tightening, rough stems slipping into his pant legs, pressing against his skin and creeping up his inner thighs. Shu Hanqing trembled all over from the itch. He tried to speak but couldn't get the words out—every time he opened his mouth, all that came out were suppressed low moans, broken and sticky.

Rong Hua stared at him intently, something dark shifting in his eyes, as if he'd finally gotten a response. The vines suddenly went crazy, pressing toward his private parts, trying to pry open that gap—

That was when Mu Ye opened his eyes.

He didn't even fully sit up—just raised a hand. A ball of crimson-gold flame exploded out of nowhere, shooting straight at Rong Hua's face. Rong Hua's attention was entirely on Shu Hanqing, so he took the hit square in the face. He went flying backward and slammed into the stone wall. There was a dull thud, and he slid limply to the ground, blood seeping from his forehead.

The vines withered and let go instantly. Shu Hanqing collapsed onto the ground, his legs too weak to stand. He blinked, staring at the unconscious Rong Hua not far away, his throat dry.

Shu Hanqing: "...Is he..."

Mu Ye: "He was too noisy. Too many little tricks. I warned him."

Shu Hanqing looked at Mu Ye's inviolable, unapproachable demeanor and thought, *He's your lover, you know. He just touched me with a vine, and you went this hard on him.* He backed away slightly. "He came at me first. I'm innocent."

The Plot God: "...Are those two really together?"

"...How would I know?" Shu Hanqing gritted his teeth internally. "Damn it, I can't take this anymore."

The Plot God told him to calm down. "If you do anything now, you'll break the plot line. There are consequences."

Shu Hanqing couldn't calm down. That fruit was an aphrodisiac—the strongest kind. And as for chastity, he'd lost that long ago.

He vaguely wondered what the punishment would be. Anyway, sleeping with someone once didn't mean they were together.

Mu Ye's gaze landed on his flushed face. "Is it because of that fruit earlier?"

Shu Hanqing looked away, playing dumb. "...Maybe. I don't know."

Mu Ye let out a very soft sigh. He told Shu Hanqing to regulate his breathing, his tone as relaxed as if he hadn't just swallowed the male fruit himself. "Take it slow. Don't rush."

Shu Hanqing obediently followed his rhythm, breathing in and out. But his gaze stayed glued to Mu Ye's face—that stretch of neck, the protruding Adam's apple, the sharply defined jawline. By the time he realized what he was doing, his arms were already looped around Mu Ye's neck, his whole body pressed against him.

Mu Ye's scorching body heat seeped through the fabric, burning him enough to make him shiver.

After a moment, Shu Hanqing buried his burning face in the crook of Mu Ye's neck, his voice muffled almost to the point of being inaudible. "...Senior brother, I feel awful."

Mu Ye's entire body went rigid. In the place Shu Hanqing couldn't see, the hand hanging at his side had bulging veins on the back, yet the motion of stroking Shu Hanqing's back was incredibly gentle, tracing along his spine one vertebra at a time.

"It's alright, Hanqing." Mu Ye's voice was low and steady. "You need to stay calm. Don't let these worldly desires get the better of you."

Shu Hanqing heard those words and felt a surge of wicked fire rush straight to his brain.

What the hell did he mean, *worldly desires*?

Mu Ye hadn't shaved his head and become an actual monk. Damn it—before he actually went and did that, could he at least let Shu Hanqing sleep with him once? Consider it settling all those years of unspoken longing, better than being left hanging like this, stuck in limbo.

The thought had barely surfaced before his body moved on its own. He kissed Mu Ye fiercely, urgently, violently—as if trying to squeeze something out of those tightly pressed thin lips, to tear open that eternally calm, unruffled facade.

His tongue pressed against Mu Ye's teeth, pushing inward, completely without technique—pure instinct-driven plunder.

He sank into Mu Ye's embrace, tilting his head up, licking at the sealed seam of those lips over and over. His hands weren't idle either, slipping under Mu Ye's immaculately tucked shirt, his burning palm pressing against the taut stomach. The muscles there instantly tensed, the heat searing through the skin to his hand.

He kneaded without restraint, with a force bordering on vindictive, leaving a trail of dangerous heat in his wake.

But Mu Ye's lips remained sealed. Shu Hanqing grew frantic, the corners of his eyes turning red. He pulled away in a fit of desperation, instead taking Mu Ye's protruding Adam's apple into his mouth, grinding it with his teeth, licking it with his tongue. He heard a stifled gasp from above.

"...Hanqing," Mu Ye's voice was hoarse, that last bit of reason still fighting. His hand pressed against Shu Hanqing's shoulder, trying to push him away. "Don't be impulsive..."

Shu Hanqing didn't answer, responding with even harder suction. Mu Ye suddenly stopped looking at him. His solid arms locked around Shu Hanqing's waist, and with one forceful motion, pressed him down against his body, restraining his flailing hands and feet.

Caught off guard, Shu Hanqing lifted his head and bit down on Mu Ye's chin, leaving a teeth mark.

Mu Ye finally looked down at him.

Shu Hanqing tilted his face up, his eyes veiled with a layer of wet mist. Mu Ye's face was so close—close enough to see every individual eyelash—yet Shu Hanqing felt he was still like a painting hanging behind distant water in the clouds. Such fine features, eyes like cold stars, thin lips. Even when he smiled at Shu Hanqing in daily life, there was a kind of moist softness, but the bone-deep aloofness still radiated through—untouchable, ungraspable, distant.

That inexplicable thirst in his heart, now infinitely amplified by the drug's effects, burned his throat until it ached.

Shu Hanqing wanted to see. He wanted to see this eternally clear, breeze-like moon dragged down into the mud, completely losing its composure. Once this thought arose, it could no longer be suppressed.

Shu Hanqing tilted his head up and kissed him again.

A long moment passed. Or perhaps just a few seconds.

Mu Ye sighed, as if finally conceding. He lowered his thin eyelids and began to shallowly return the kiss.

Slow and restrained. When Mu Ye pulled back, he brushed past Shu Hanqing's cheek, finally stopping by his earlobe. Expressionless, Mu Ye said something in a breathy whisper barely audible.

Shu Hanqing: "..."

He heard it clearly.

Mu Ye was chanting sutras for him—a passage from some Buddhist scripture—hammering into his buzzing ears.

Among the ruins and rubble, the tall man held the other tightly in his embrace, comforting him. Every inch of muscle in his body was taut like a drawn bowstring, his arms locked deathly tight, yet the tone of his chanting remained gentle to the point of near-uncanniness.

...

Shu Hanqing didn't know how they got out.

The door was broken open by force. After the loud crash came chaotic footsteps and light.

Someone supported him and fed him a mouthful of water. The cold liquid slid down his throat, startling him awake. Yun Ying's face was close, full of surprise: "Brother Shu! You're awake? Still feeling awful?"

Shu Hanqing pushed himself up on his arms and sat up. They were already in an open area outside the botanical garden.

*Damn, I can't—* his ears still seemed to carry the lingering low, rhythmic chanting, buzzing around him. He instinctively raised a hand to touch his lips—slightly swollen, with the faint stinging sensation of being repeatedly pressed and worked over.

He stared at a spot on the ground, spacing out for a while.

"How long was I out?"

"About... half an hour?" Yun Ying checked the time.

Shu Hanqing looked up, glancing into the distance. Some people were frequently entering and exiting the broken gate of the botanical garden, wearing uniform dark combat gear, movements crisp and disciplined.

"Who are those people?"

"They're from the military," Yun Ying said in a hushed voice. "I just sent a distress signal to the base, but I didn't expect them to send a military team directly. They already cleared out all the zombies inside, and now they've taken over the mission."

Shu Hanqing's temples were pounding.

The military.

He hadn't understood why before, but after reading that book, he found out Rong Hua was the son of an old friend of Lei Zheng's, and his father was a high-ranking military official. Turns out Rong Hua was a total military brat.

Because Rong Hua looked too much like his mother.

Though it was pretty rare for a military brat like Rong Hua to end up crashing in a newspaper shack.

Shu Hanqing's first instinct was to hide, but then remembered that at this point in the timeline, Lei Zheng shouldn't know him yet.

Yun Ying suddenly said, still shaken, "Brother Shu, good thing you didn't let me eat that fruit, or there'd have been no one left to call for backup."

Shu Hanqing just shook his head at Yun Ying and finally said, "Forget it."

Yun Ying lowered her voice and said mysteriously, "You don't know, the other guys I was with were all over each other like they were possessed, all lovey-dovey, it was hard to watch. I snuck back and grabbed a few more of those fruits. Next time someone ticks me off, I'm slipping one into their food."

Shu Hanqing: "..."

Have some decency.

Yun Ying leaned in with a sly grin, her eyes sparkling with mischief. "Speaking of which, with just the three of you locked in there... someone as upstanding and pure as the captain—would he ever lose it?"

Clearly not.

"I can recite the 'Heart-Cleansing Mantra' in my sleep now," Shu Hanqing said with a wry twist of his lips. "What do you think?"

Yun Ying's face immediately fell in disappointment. She clicked her tongue and slung an arm around Shu Hanqing's shoulders.

She was more than a head shorter than him, but she insisted on going up on her tiptoes to drape most of her weight on him. "When we burst in, we saw Rong Hua lying on the side, and the captain holding you so tightly—we thought you two had already gone all the way. Turns out the captain was just trying to save your immortal soul?"

"Shoo, shoo." Shu Hanqing shoved her off, annoyed.

As he moved, he felt a faint sting on the back of his hand. Shu Hanqing looked down and noticed that someone had wrapped his wound in a white bandage, tied in a knot that wasn't much to look at but held firm.

He raised his eyes, his gaze cutting through the shifting crowd, and happened to spot someone stepping out of the underground lab entrance not far off.

The man in front was just as tall as Mu Ye, and with his broad shoulders and long legs, he cut an even more imposing figure in the twilight. His hair was buzzed close to his scalp, his features sharp as a drawn sword, expressionless, radiating a "stay the hell away" vibe. His black military uniform was immaculate, highlighting his narrow waist and ridiculously long legs.

He raised his hand, his knuckles sharp as he took off his cap, revealing a broad forehead and sharp brow bone.

Shu Hanqing's breath hitched. He shrank back, trying to disappear into the crowd's shadows.

But the next second, Lei Zheng's hawk-like eyes had already zeroed in on him, his gaze lingering on his face for a good two or three seconds, undisguised scrutiny in his eyes—the look of someone used to being in charge. His sharp jawline was clenched tight, and then his gaze shifted away indifferently before turning to murmur something to his adjutant.

Those two looks were enough to make Shu Hanqing's back break out in a cold sweat.

He was genuinely afraid of this man. Not just because of the fatal blow in his past life, but because this man never showed mercy, his methods ruthless and merciless.

His thing with Lei Zheng had happened after he'd completely burned bridges with Mu Ye and had nowhere left to turn. Lei Zheng had tossed him a lifeline, and he'd grabbed it. It started bluntly—pure physical, nothing more. In bed, Lei Zheng could wreck him until he was crying and begging for mercy; out of bed, clothes back on, they'd act like total strangers. It was the definition of messed up.

Shu Hanqing thought he couldn't stay outside any longer. He bolted into the back seat of their assigned off-roader, slumping heavily into the seat, too wiped to even lift a finger.

Not long after, the door was pulled open again.

A wave of low pressure rushed in—Rong Hua climbed in and sat across from him.

The wound on his temple from where Mu Ye had knocked him had been hastily treated, covered with gauze. His lips were pressed into a thin line, his eyes dark enough to drip water.

Rong Hua had assaulted him under the influence of the drug, and Shu Hanqing didn't want to be in a confined space with him. He immediately tried to get up and change seats.

"I saw it."

Rong Hua's voice sounded in the cramped vehicle.

Shu Hanqing turned to look at him, his expression baffled.

Rong Hua raised his eyes, staring straight at him, grinding his teeth: "I saw it. I saw you kiss him."

Shu Hanqing hadn't wanted to acknowledge him, but being called out like that, he didn't show much embarrassment on his face either. He deliberately deflected: "That crystal core you gave me earlier—I'll return it to you when we get back."

Rong Hua didn't want to hear any of that. His Adam's apple rolled heavily, the desire churning in his eyes dark and terrifying. The expression on his face—a mix of unspent anger and obsessive heat—made the hairs on the back of Shu Hanqing's neck stand up instantly. Dangerous.

He made a judgment almost immediately and reached for the door handle.

This guy's drug effect hadn't worn off yet.

But Rong Hua seemed to have anticipated his reaction. A dark green vine silently slithered out from the gap in the seat, wrapping around Shu Hanqing's waist like lightning and yanking him backward.

Caught off guard, Shu Hanqing was pulled backward by the force, tumbling heavily into the corner. Rong Hua immediately pressed down on him, using his body and arms to trap him in the narrow triangular space between the seat and the door.

Rong Hua's hot breath sprayed against his ear, his voice hoarse beyond recognition: "I touched you once, and you told me to get lost."

He stared into Shu Hanqing's eyes, every word squeezed out through clenched teeth: "But you took the initiative to kiss him. What's so good about Mu Ye, huh?"

"Let go of me!" Shu Hanqing frowned, pushing hard against his chest.

Rong Hua simply lowered his head and sealed his mouth.

It wasn't a kiss—it was a punishing bite.

Shu Hanqing was caught off guard. Sharp pain shot through his lips, bringing tears to his eyes instantly. He let out a muffled groan and pushed harder at the person on top of him: "Let go!"

Rong Hua's handsome face was taut, breathing low and ragged, savoring the futile struggle beneath him. He extended his tongue and licked the broken lip of Shu Hanqing, tasting a faint hint of metallic rust.

Shu Hanqing whimpered and twisted, but Rong Hua immediately grabbed his waist and pressed him down hard, growling, "Don't move."

His jaw was seized by fingers with slight calluses, forced open.

The supple vines seemed to come alive, like Rong Hua's third hand, slipping under the hem of his clothes, cold and slippery against his skin as they traveled, finally stopping at his chest.

Shu Hanqing had never felt such torment—his body firmly restrained, filled entirely with another man's domineering presence.

A strange pleasure made Rong Hua's spine tingle. It was hard to describe the feeling—he instinctively tangled with the soft tongue trying to dodge, as if trying to plunder every breath from his mouth.

How could Shu Hanqing be this sweet?

He only wanted to torment him more recklessly, make him cry, make him beg with red-rimmed eyes like he'd seen that day.

Shu Hanqing panted painfully, nearly suffocating.

Rong Hua lowered his head, his burning lips leaving the swollen mouth he'd ravaged, moving to bite down on his red earlobe. Then, without warning, he sank his teeth hard into the skin of his neck.

"Hiss!" Shu Hanqing trembled in pain, tears finally falling. "Are you insane?!"

Rong Hua let out a low chuckle, letting go with his teeth, and looked at the rapidly reddening bite mark. He extended his thumb...

His tone had a hint of complaint as he sighed, his hot breath washing over Shu Hanqing's feverishly flushed skin: "Your tongue... it's so soft."

Shu Hanqing's lower abdomen was bound by the vines, aching and weak, an uncontrollable tremor creeping up from his tailbone and coiling around his spine.

His face was flushed, his breathing growing heavier, and he could only bite down hard on the inside of his lower lip, biting back any strange sounds.

His tongue instinctively tried to push it away.

But he caught a fleeting, triumphant smile flash across Rong Hua's face. Then, he lowered his head once more, crushing his lips against Shu Hanqing's, kissing him deeper and harder.

Shu Hanqing was furious, his whole body trembling all over from the lingering effects of the drug. When would that damned fruit's effects finally wear off?

Just as his mind started to go hazy.

A soft "click" sounded.

The tightly shut car door was suddenly pulled open from outside.

The cool evening breeze rushed in, and what came into view were two tall figures standing outside the car.

Mu Ye and Lei Zheng.