Chapter 10: Can We Kiss First Then

Chapter 10 Then Can We Kiss First?

Shu Hanqing squirmed beneath the weight pressing down on his waist, trying to escape from under that aggressive heat and weight.

His clothes had long since been rumpled into a mess—collar askew, hem rolled up, revealing a sliver of lean midriff that gleamed with a tempting sheen in the dim lamplight.

The lingering flush on his face mixed with the shock-induced pallor, creating an expression so ambiguous and complex it was intensely provocative.

Rong Hua's words made Shu Hanqing's face burn with embarrassment, his ears turning red-hot.

Rong Hua clambered onto his bed without hesitation, his heavy body making the mattress sink deeply. Without a moment's pause, he straddled Shu Hanqing's thighs, knees pressing on either side, pinning him firmly in place.

Shu Hanqing's thoughts scattered in a panic: What is Rong Hua doing? But his body was pinned and immobile, leaving him with nothing but a helpless glare.

"...What the hell are you doing?"

Rong Hua's Adam's apple lurched. Those eyes that always seemed stubborn and innocent now looked as deep as a dark pool, churning with a desire that could drown a man, locked tightly on Shu Hanqing as if he might devour him whole at any moment.

"Are you really asking when you already know?" He lowered his head, hot breath searing against Shu Hanqing's neck, voice low and hoarse, carrying a petulant, vindictive edge. "You've been leading me on for so long..."

Shu Hanqing felt like he'd just been splashed with gutter water on a public street—the sheer absurdity of it was overwhelming: "No, are you out of your mind?"

But those eyes sent chills down his spine. Instinct overrode everything—he tried to bend his knee to shove him off and scramble away from this dangerous situation.

This was too dangerous—this guy was definitely not right in the head!

But Rong Hua was faster. In the next second, he grabbed Shu Hanqing's ankle and yanked hard before he could protest, hauling him toward the edge of the bed. Then he shoved both hands against Shu Hanqing's knees, yanked them toward himself, and pressed down hard.

His legs were forced apart and wrapped around Rong Hua's lean, powerful waist.

The position was aggressively dangerous.

Shu Hanqing mentally screamed at the plot system: The main character's gone insane! The plot's completely derailed! Help!

Rong Hua leaned in closer, his nose almost grazing Shu Hanqing's, speaking in a whiny, hurt whisper: "...You haven't even seduced me yet—but you knew it was me, and you didn't push me away."

His fingers stroked Shu Hanqing's burning earlobe.

Shu Hanqing felt genuinely wronged. He'd thought what he'd been experiencing lately were dreams—until today, when it finally dawned on him. Those cold, clinging sensations like snakes were clearly vines. Only Rong Hua was a plant-type superpower user.

He had let a wolf into the henhouse.

The thought had hardly crossed his mind when Rong Hua's hand reached for his waistband, fingers hooking onto the elastic of his pants.

And beneath the bed, out of Shu Hanqing's sight, countless thin green vines were silently creeping upward like living serpents, crawling over the bed frame, thick and dense, as if about to swallow the entire bed in their grip.

Shu Hanqing struggled, his voice cracking: "I didn't seduce you!"

Rong Hua was convinced he was being stubborn, still not over his old flame: "What's so great about Mu Ye? Is he younger than me?"

Shu Hanqing was so stunned he forgot his current predicament. Hadn't Rong Hua liked Mu Ye too? He'd been jealous when Mu Ye kissed him before.

Rong Hua had completely lost it.

Shu Hanqing flailed and scrambled, clumsily crawling toward the edge of the bed.

But the instant he moved, something cold and slick coiled around his ankle—vines. Rong Hua barely exerted any effort; the flexible plant tendrils dragged him back, pulling him into that suffocating core of heat once more.

Shu Hanqing screamed in his head until his throat felt raw: Plot system! Help! Someone's about to force himself on me!

But the only response was dead silence.

Was the plot system offline? Or did it just not want to get involved?

It was over.

Shu Hanqing thought despairingly, he was really going to be forced by Rong Hua.

He was just a throwaway character!

Shouldn't a disposable character's fate be to quietly survive until the final episode? How did it come to this—pinned to the bed by the male lead's love interest? He felt like a bug in the running program, about to be forcibly deleted at any moment, without even a trace left behind.

Rong Hua didn't push any further. He just hauled him back and wrapped his whole body around him from behind. His arms banded around Shu Hanqing's waist, his chin resting on Shu Hanqing's shoulder, hot breath searing against his ear and neck, his voice muffled: "You'll learn to appreciate me sooner or later."

Shu Hanqing went rigid all over. He desperately tried to pry off the arm clamped around his waist like a vice, but the grip wouldn't budge. He gave up struggling, tilted his head back, and stared at the ceiling with a look of utter misery: "...We can never be together, you and I."

Fuck!

So Rong Hua had actually fallen for him.

Those words set Rong Hua off. He suddenly opened his mouth and bit down hard on the skin at the back of Shu Hanqing's neck, leaving a bite mark. Not satisfied, he turned his head and caught Shu Hanqing's burning earlobe between his teeth, worrying it, his voice low and fierce: "Don't say shit like that."

Shu Hanqing cursed Rong Hua's entire family tree in his mind, but he caved verbally right away: "...What exactly do you see in me? I'll change, alright?"

But Rong Hua thought Shu Hanqing was absolutely infuriating. Shu Hanqing had seduced him first—with those eyes, that slender waist, and that chest—and now he was playing innocent and pure?

He'd already been trying so hard to control his gaze, not looking at those tempting spots, but Shu Hanqing had to barge in anyway, like a clueless male bird displaying itself with zero self-awareness during mating season.

The more Rong Hua thought about it, the more pissed off he got. He pushed himself up and stared down at Shu Hanqing's eyes from above, his gaze burning with frustration: "What part of me can't compare to Mu Ye? I'm good-looking too, and my superpower isn't weak either. Anything he can give you, I can give you too!"

Shu Hanqing had nowhere to hide under that gaze, his eyes darting around awkwardly before finally landing on Rong Hua's shoulders planted on either side of him. They were indeed broad, with smooth, defined muscles that filled out the plain tank top nicely.

If it weren't for the plot system, Shu Hanqing had to admit, sleeping with Rong Hua wouldn't exactly be a bad deal.

Setting aside that bit of madness, Rong Hua's face was indeed easy on the eyes, and his body was the type that looked lean in clothes but was packed with muscle underneath. His usually unlikable demeanor, upon closer inspection, was actually that of a pure, inexperienced virgin.

Shu Hanqing felt that in his past life, he must have been truly blind to have gotten mixed up with a bastard like Lei Zheng, ending up with such a miserable fate.

He'd barely scraped by in this apocalypse until now.

But he was a disposable character!

And to add to that, a disposable character with an absurdly high charm stat—even the male lead's love interest had taken an interest in him. That identity alone was a high-risk liability.

If he actually had a physical relationship with Rong Hua, would he be treated like an NPC that triggered a wrong plotline, immediately flagged as redundant data and deleted?

Shu Hanqing didn't dare risk it.

The cost was too high.

He'd fought so hard to stay alive.

Shu Hanqing took a deep breath and faced reality. He couldn't win—no way in hell could he win. In this apocalypse, might made right. If you couldn't win, you had to roll over and accept it. To keep his life, to avoid being fixed like a bug, he had to calm this madman down first.

He swallowed all his resistance, turned his head, looked at Rong Hua's face so close to his, and negotiated: "...Can we not talk in this position? I prefer to take things slow."

Rong Hua stared at Shu Hanqing for a few seconds, weighed his options, and slowly sat up straight, easing up on his hold.

The vines wrapped around Shu Hanqing like skin-crawling snakes also softened and withdrew, turning into a support that helped him sit up against the bed. Shu Hanqing was freed from that humiliating, fully-controlled position.

He fumbled around nervously, feeling the vines secrete a slick, lubricating fluid.

...Shu Hanqing suspected those vines had actually been inside him before.

Rong Hua looked at him, almost shyly: "If we're taking it slow, then can we kiss first?"

Shu Hanqing was speechless: "..."