Chapter 86: Let’s Pretend This Never Happened

Chapter 86: Let's Pretend This Never Happened

"Pei—wait, where are you taking me?"

Before Chu Lanting could even react to his wrist being suddenly grabbed, Pei Du, who stood before him, seized his hand and turned to head back down the path they'd just walked.

The population of Planet 207 decreased significantly every year, and the number of newborns was declining year after year. Especially in places like the slums, even the bugs in the gutters outnumbered the people living here by who knows how many times.

When someone died, their house just sat empty.

Many of the houses here stood empty—some had been vacant for just a couple weeks, others for who knows how many years.

Yanked into a weed-choked courtyard, Chu Lanting barely had time to glance at the scene before a dry, burning hand clamped onto his chin.

The familiar heat made him instinctively flinch, pulling his neck in, and then he felt the man's rough thumbpad rubbing against his jaw.

Forced to tear his gaze away, Chu Lanting could only furrow his brow and look up at the man before him. "What's wrong? Is there something you want to—mmph—"

The steady, woody scent pressed close, and then the man was eagerly catching his lips with his own, swallowing the rest of his unfinished words whole.

Like a hunter who hadn't eaten in far too long and had finally caught his prey.

Pei Du's kiss was eager and hungry, yet not without experience.

Although, after regaining his memories, his personality was the polar opposite of A Du's.

But at the core, the two of them were the same person—A Du's memories were all tucked away in Pei Du's head, along with all that experience with kissing and everything that came with it.

Chu Lanting's kissing skills, come to think of it, were all A Du's doing.

At first, they were both pretty awkward. Whether it was because of his brains or something else, A Du picked it up crazy fast, and he quickly learned to take the lead, and would get so into it that Chu Lanting was always begging him to stop by the end.

Now that Pei Du had absorbed A Du's memories, he knew exactly how to kiss him until he couldn't take it.

Unlike the first time—when he hadn't fully absorbed A Du's memories and had lost control, grabbing him and kissing him—

This was only the second time he'd kissed Pei Du since his memories came back, and as he caught his scent and those little mannerisms that only A Du had...

His eyes, which had been full of shock, gradually filled with a layer of longing and a faint mist of tears.

He didn't push him away. Instead, his hands gripped the man's arms tightly. Then he raised both hands, locked them around the man's neck, and even rose onto his tiptoes to meet him.

It wasn't until a salty, bitter taste hit the tip of his tongue that Pei Du, snapping out of his psychic meltdown, realized what he had done, and his eyes flew open.

The next instant, the hands that had been wrapped around Chu Lanting's slim waist shoved him away hard.

"I'm sorry."

The sun overhead was blinding, but the warmth it cast on his skin wasn't much.

Chu Lanting's body usually ran cool, and it only heated up when he was touching Pei Du.

Just like moments ago.

Yet the second he was pushed away, his temperature, which had been boiling, crashed back down to normal.

Even a few degrees lower than it had been to begin with.

He dug his fingernail into his thumbnail, harder than he needed to. He didn't feel a thing. Raising his eyes, still wet from the kiss, he tried to speak like he usually did, only to realize he couldn't at all.

His teeth were chattering from the cold, and he dug his nail in again. Only when the pain hit did he manage to pull himself together a little.

"I... let's just pretend this never happened, how about that?"

He tugged at his rose-pink lips, and when he spoke, his voice was hoarse as hell.

Pei Du was still breathing hard, and he still hadn't figured out how to explain what he'd just done, when he heard those words leave the other man's mouth.

His hands, still hanging in mid-air, clenched into fists. He pressed his lips into a thin line, a storm of emotions swirling in his dark eyes. Finally, a barely audible "mm" came from his throat.

"Mm."

Chu Lanting's face twitched at the sound. He took a deep breath, didn't look at him again, and only spoke once he'd turned around.

"You head back first. I'll go ask Uncle Tian if he's got any painkillers or something, and grab some food on the way back."

He left the desolate courtyard in a hurry—Chu Lanting practically ran out of there, leaving behind only a slim figure that grew smaller and smaller in Pei Du's sight.

Until it disappeared around the corner, no longer visible.

The breath he'd been holding finally came out all at once.

Pei Du stood there without moving, and it was a long while before his fists clenched even tighter.

Then, a heavy thud rang out from the courtyard.

'Let's just pretend this never happened.'

How could he pretend it never happened?

Even if his psychic energy really had been out of control at first, the moment he tasted that familiar flavor again, his mind had already snapped back to full awareness.

Pei Du had never felt so despicable in his entire life as he did right now.

He'd fallen for someone at first sight who didn't like him—who liked another 'him' instead.

And he'd even had the despicable thought of taking him away, keeping him by his side forever, making him love only him.

Even worse, knowing full well that Chu Lanting was just a good Samaritan who'd saved his life out of kindness, he'd still asked him to come with him to the capital planet for the investigation.

As Feng Xingyun had said, he could've just had his men bring over a lie detector...

Chu Lanting was so innocent—he wasn't good at lying at all. He wouldn't even have needed the lie detector.

Everything about it all just showed how despicable he was.

Pulling his fist back from the courtyard wall, Pei Du didn't even look at the shallow dent he'd punched into the mud wall. He turned and walked back toward home.

Maybe he should tell Chu Lanting the truth when he got back—tell him that whether he'd lost his memory or not, Pei Du had fallen for him at first sight.

But then again, Chu Lanting had loved A Du the whole time, not him—not Pei Du.

Whether it was his usual control over his expressions and emotions, or physical contact, every expression on Chu Lanting's face was distant and rejecting.

Even when dealing with Feng Xingyun's 'harassment,' he could brush it off lightly and talk to him in a pleasant tone.

It was only when facing him that he showed those emotions.

At this moment, Pei Du—who'd had everything go his way his whole life, who could stay calm and sharp even on the battlefield against tough enemies—had once again ended up bruised and battered over the same person.

His breathing got heavy, and he didn't even realize how awful he looked right now.

So much so that the neighbors who usually greeted him with a smile all went quiet when they saw his face, watching his back as he headed home with confused, cautious looks.