His volume when speaking was not high, his pitch slightly raised at the end. It was a lazy way of speaking.

To Duan Jiayan, his question was akin to rumbling thunder and in the silent night, it had the effect of making one’s scalp tingle. 

The heater was on in his house and so the clothes Duan Jiayan wore was very thin. When his leg rubbed against the blanket, he seemed to be able to feel the other’s body under the blanket.

An alpha’s body was lean and strong, Duan Jiayan sat on him and could only feel that the other’s body was very sturdy. The fingers around his waist were also slender and strong.

His waist felt itchy.

What’s more, this was a form of attack he had never experienced before. With the other’s ever-present pheromones, he could feel his ears getting hotter. 

He was clearly in his own home but Duan Jiayan somehow felt entirely uncomfortable. He struggled for a bit and inched backwards, wanting to get off Lu Xingci’s body.

Feeling his resistance, traces of displeasure flashed across the alpha’s originally lazily-raised eyebrows.

He narrowed his eyes before cooperatively loosening his arms and letting Duan Jiayan go.

Duan Jiayan recovered from his embarrassment after he finally stepped into his slippers. He stared at Lu Xingci incredulously, “You were pretending to sleep?”

“I was sleeping at first, I woke up the moment you opened the door,” The boy laid his fingers on his forehead and casually rubbed the messed up hair on his forehead. “I wanted to see what you were going to do.”

“……”

“You sure can praise someone,” Seeing Duan Jiayan not saying anything, he smiled. “If only you didn’t call me a pig, that’ll make it even better.”

“I take back what I said,” Duan Jiayan stared at the other’s slightly curved lips and the feeling of being parched seemed to return. He unconsciously swallowed his saliva, wanting to swallow the uncomfortable feeling down. “Not only do you not recognise a bed, you also have unbelievable acting skills. How can that animal compare to you?” 

“What about you?” Lu Xingci propped himself up and lazily asked, “You’re able to recognise a bed?”

Duan Jiayan stared at him for a while.

He did not realise it but he was showing a somewhat lost and dazed expression at Lu Xingci.

“Are you not used to it?” 

The boy’s tone was mild, but he could accurately guess the reason for his insomnia.

No matter what, Fu Yuan had left today. It did indeed leave an impression on him, add on to that the fact that Lu Xingci is sleeping in his family’s living room……

Duan Jiayan hesitated for a second before nodding.

With him agreeing so obediently, even though Lu Xingci knew he meant nothing by it, Duan Jiayan’s appearance at that point in time was still especially bewildering. 

Lu Xingci looked at him for a moment before quietly sighing.

He leaned towards Duan Jiayan and laughed softly, “Want to watch a movie? You’ll fall asleep from being bored after watching it for a while.”

Duan Jiayan felt that the suggestion was not bad.

“En.” He asked, “Are you watching?” 

“Yes,” As he spoke, Lu Xingci moved to the side to make space for Duan Jiayan. “Turn on the TV and sit here.”

Duan Jiayan stared at the space that was very close to Lu Xingci. In the end he still followed the other’s instructions and turned on his television before sitting beside Lu Xingci.

Duan Jiayan swiped through the movies that were on-demand and asked, “What movie will make someone feel like sleeping?”

Lu Xingci glanced at the titles and said, “The Legend of 1900.” 

‘Is that able to hypnotise someone?”

“Yes,” Lu Xingci said. “My English teacher in middle school played it and half the class fell asleep.”

“Let’s watch that then.”

Just as Lu Xingci said, the film was just a little too profound for Duan Jiayan. 

Before long, he started to feel tired.

While half-asleep, he subconsciously tried looking for a heat source. Dua Jiayan smelled the scent of lemons, warm and light.

He could not help but lean into the scent.

The object that made him feel comfortable let him stick himself to him as the sound of piano notes drifted from the movie. 

He gradually fell into a dream.

After some time had passed, Duan Jiayan felt light shining on his eyelids.

It took him a while to realise that it was the sun.

He drifted in and out of sleep, but his body seemed to feel rather heavy. As if there was something pressing on him, stopping him from moving about. 

Duan Jiayan murmured vaguely, habitually stretching his limbs to get comfortable.

Realising he was about to roll off, Duan Jiayan opened his eyes but before he could grab onto the sofa, the arm around his waist tighten and pulled him once more back into his embrace.

After meeting the other’s dark eyes, the last bit of fatigue left Duan Jiayan. He wanted to get up and leave but their limbs were too tangled up, with the other’s calf even pressing on him.

“Lu Xingci,” Duan Jiayan muttered. “Get up, don’t press on me.” 

The latter seemed to have just woken up. After hearing his request, he lazily opened his eyelids but did not seem to have any intention of loosening his grip.

Duan Jiayan was thinking of repeating himself when the other suddenly buried his head into his nape and rubbed his soft hair against his skin.

Duan Jiayan could not help but look at him from the side.

From his angle, only a small portion of Lu Xingci’s face could be seen, the boy’s jawline looked smooth and sharp. 

He watched as the other’s throat bobbed a little.

Duan Jiayan finally realised what this person was doing.

He was scenting him. Perhaps due to feeling pleased and satisfied, even his adam’s apple was trembling slightly.

This frivolous and affectionate behavior made blood rush to Duan Jiayan’s head. He was not sure why the other person’s reaction so early in the morning would be like this. 

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He no longer cared about Lu Xingci’s prior actions As he searched for his phone, he asked, “What time is it?” 

The latter glanced at the clock on his wall, “Nine thirty.”

Both Lu Xingci and him disappeared from the self-study session last night and a major portion of their morning classes had already passed. It was impossible for the school to not have done anything.

At this point in time, Duan Jiayan managed to find his phone.

As it turned out, his screen showed various missed calls from Fu Yuan. Duan Jiayan thought of calling back before realising that Fu Yuan might be working at that moment. He hurriedly shot a message to her: [I did not spend the night outside, I stayed at home and overslept this morning. Don’t worry.] 

After sending the message, Duan Jiayan immediately got off the sofa, putting on his slippers before getting ready for school.

Lu Xingci saw him being flustered and was taken aback, “I thought you’d just choose to skip class.”

“Me not studying and me skipping classes, seems to be quite different,” Thinking about this, Duan Jiayan saw Lu Xingci’s slow and indifferent attitude and started chasing him to get ready. “Hurry up and get ready, you are rarely late right?”

After waiting for Duan Jiayan to make his way to his bedroom, Lu Xingci unlocked his phone and gave Jiang Yao a call. 

By the time they got to school, Yi Zhong’s school gate was already closed.

Duan Jiayan took a look at the security guard by the school gate and immediately turned around. As he walked, he said to Lu Xingci, “Let’s go, we’ll jump across the wall to get in.”

Lu Xingci originally intended to walk in directly since Yi Zhong’s security guard knew him. But he found Duan Jiayan’s actions that showed tons of experience rather interesting and decided to follow him to the side instead.

He casually asked, “You often jump across the wall?” 

“I used to,” Duan Jiayan said. “Though it happened much less frequently after I moved into the school. The small gate in the south has an area that is very good for jumping across, you’ll be able to go in with just a lift of a leg.”

As if feeling like his speech was not convincing enough, he added, “Even Song Yi can jump across.”

Just as Duan Jiayan said, the wall here was particularly short, and there were a few pots of honeysuckle plant lining the wall.

Duan Jiayan stepped on a pot and effortlessly jumped over with ease. Just as he landed, a familiar person suddenly stood up in front of him. 

It was not only students that knew of this good spot. The teachers who often battled wits and strength against said students, such as Director Jiang, knew to camp here to catch students.

“Hey!” Director Jiang and Duan Jiayan stared at each other. After realising it was him, and after his initial shock went away, he showed an expression that seemed to say ‘you came just in time’ and exclaimed, “I was just looking for you! You still know how to send yourself over.”

Duan Jiayan looked at him and resisted the urge to shout ‘f*ck’. He immediately turned around and shouted at Lu Xingci who had yet to jump over, “Don’t jump over! Don’t jump! It’s dangerous!”

How could Director Jiang let a fish escape just like this? He joined in Duan Jiayan’s shouting, “Which classmate is this?! I already caught Duan Jiayan, don’t you dare think of escaping, I find out who you are sooner or later!” 

Duan Jiayan, “……”

Duan Jiayan, “Run! Don’t worry, even if I have to write a 3,000 word essay, I won’t betray you.”

Director Jiang looked at him angrily and bellowed, “Duan Jiayan!”

Duan Jiayan, “Here!” 

Director Jiang never thought that he would still dare to talk back at him and got even angrier, “You!”

Duan Jiayan, “Me— F*ck?! Lu-ge!”

While the both of them were shouting, Lu Xingci had raised his hand, grabbed the wall, and jumped over.

In an instant, Duan Jiayan revealed an expression that said ‘How can you be like this?’. On the other hand, Director Jiang looked very pleased, he turned to Duan Jiayan and said, “You should learn more from others and know when to own up to your mistakes. If you dare to do it, then you should also dare to own up to it.” 

After he was done speaking, he kept his smug expression, “Why were the both of you not in the classroom last night? I was patrolling and asked your classmates who said you had asked for time off from Teacher Zhao. I specially went to check with her and it turns out Teacher Zhao knew nothing about this.”

Duan Jiayan, “……”

Duan Jiayan really never thought that after being honest for so many days, he’d be caught by Director Jiang on the one time he decided to let loose a little.

Director Jiang listed of the rules they had broken, “Skipping night self-study, skipping morning classes, even getting your students to lie to your teachers. Say, how many penalties will these have already? Are you two trying to cause a revolution?” 

He said with a sharp gaze, “Honestly tell me, where did you two go last night?”

Duan Jiayan sneaked a glance at Lu Xingci.

At times like these, he tended to look to Lu Xingci on ways to handle such situations. The latter felt Duan Jiayan’s gaze on him and after thinking about it, he just said, “Duan Jiayan and I went for a night marathon.”

Duan Jiayan immediately continued, “Recently studying has been very stressful, so we decided to go for a run.” 

Lu Xingci, “Last night during the night marathon we met Teacher He. If you don’t believe us, you can go look for him and ask him what happened.”

Duan Jiayan saw how calm he was, even bringing in Teacher He and thought that in times of need, we can always count of Lu-ge.

Just as he thought that, Director Jiang laughed in anger, “Spin your tales. Go on, spin more of it.”

He looked at Lu Xingci and sighed, “Not only can you lie to your teachers now, but you will even bring in other teachers to speak up for you.” 

Lu Xingci, “……”

Duan Jiayan, “……”

Director Jiang looked at Duan Jiayan again.

Ever since the last time he caught the both of them in the internet cafe, and the time Lu Xingci gave his reflection on the flag-raising podium, he has more or less heard about the rumours relating to the both of them. 

He initially thought that since Lu Xingci’s grades had not declined, and the fact that Duan Jiayan made such big improvement in his, he’d just close one eye to their early relationship.

Who knew that such a troublesome matter would happen.

Lu Xingci was really led astray by Duan Jiayan……

Not only is he not willing to take responsibility for it, he’s even bringing in other teachers to shoulder his responsibility. 

After thinking about it, he looked at them sternly, “I might not be able to control you, but someone can.”

He looked at Lu Xingci, “The school has already notified your parents. Your mom was the one who wanted to come down to the school to understand what happened.”

After he spoke, Lu Xingci calmly agreed to what he said.

He had already given a call to Jiang Yao previously and once she knew that he was going out with Duan Jiayan, her voice even carried a hint of ridicule. 

He presumed his mom was coming to join in on the fun.

Director Jiang saw his indifferent expression and shook his head before turning to Duan Jiayan, “And you. You’re out to make mischief now that your parents are no longer in this city? Weren’t you performing quite well recently?”

Duan Jiayan had been on the battlefield for a long time and was long used to comments like these.

He was very cooperative and simply nodded his head. 

Director Jiang saw him acting as if his advice were just going in one ear and coming out the next, and frowned, “Be a little more self-aware this afternoon, come look for me in my office.”

He shook his head and hated iron for not being able to become steel before turning and walking away.

During their English lesson in the afternoon, Duan Jiayan was mid-lesson when he was called outside by Zhao Minjun.

“Lu Xingci’s mother is here. Director Jiang is asking for Lu Xingci and you to head over.” 

Duan Jiayan looked and her and agreed.

Zhao Minjun saw him looking slightly uncomfortable and comforted him, “Don’t worry, it’s not a big matter. I promised your mother I’ll look after you so in a bit, I’ll accompany you.”

Duan Jiayan’s frowned softened a little and he nodded, “Thank you Teacher Zhao.”

‘It’s nothing.” Zhao Minjun looked towards the backdoor, “Go call Lu Xingci out, do it quietly.” 

As they were about to reach the reception room, Duan Jiayan glanced around and saw the situation inside.

In the wide reception room, Yi Zhong’s vice-principal was speaking to Jiang Yao. His demeanour while speaking to her was of a very polite one.

Duan Jiayan heard Director Jiang speaking with a smile in his voice, “This matter is actually not a big one, to trouble you to make your way down here……”

Even Duan Jiayan could tell their attitude from there. 

It seemed that once Jiang Yao came, the major problem that Director Jiang was talking about had become a small one.

Zhao Minjun pushed the door open and entered with Duan Jiayan behind her. Beside him, Lu Xingci watched as he was acting all proper and smirked, he quietly asked, “Nervous?”

Duan Jiayan nodded, then shook his head.

He was not nervous because of this. After thinking it through, the matter of Lu Xingci skipping class and being late seemed to really be tied to him. 

With that thought, this whole entire matter does seem to really be his fault.

What’s more, even Jiang Yao had come down to see them. In front of the other’s parent, it does seem like Duan Jiayan more or less felt guilty for leading her kid astray.

Director Jiang was still explaining, “When students go out for no reason, as teachers we will of course be worried for their safety. Thankfully these two did not seem to have gotten into any accident.”

The vice-principal also nodded his head, “I heard it was because of stress from studying. Recently we have gotten feedback from a few parents and the school is looking into this matter.  It might be time to reduce the students’ stress after all.” 

Hearing this, Duan Jiayan looked at Lu Xingci in shock.

Even though year two students are not as stressed as year three students, Yi Zhong was still a prestigious school in Ning City so stress from studying would always exist.

But just because Lu Xingci had casually mentioned being too stressed, regardless of whether it’s true or not, their vice-principal who would usually encourage them to bring their notes out to the canteen or flag-raising podium is actually talking about reducing the students’ stress levels?

Duan Jiayan could not resist wondering if Duan Jiayan had went gaming last night, would the vice-principal start encouraging everyone to go to internet cafes? 

Lu Xingci was not sure what he was so happy about, even his brows were curved while he was keeping himself entertained. Duan Jiayan seemed to remember where they were and tried his best to contain his laugh.

Lu Xingci also silently laughed along while watching various expression flash across his eyes.

Jiang Yao silently swept her gaze over to the both of them and raised an eyebrow.

“I’ve troubled you,” she gently said. “Regarding last night’s matter, Lu Xingci had already told me about it in advance. It was my fault for not asking more about it, I did not know he had not requested for time off from his teacher.” 

Director Jiang froze and turned to look at Lu Xingci, he understood Jiang Yao was protecting her son and quickly laughed while saying, “I was just saying, he’s usually so sensible, how could he have ran out without saying anything.”

Duan Jiayan could not help but shoot another glance at Jiang Yao.

He felt like this auntie who decided to accept responsibility for what happened without hesitation, was actually quite cool.

Lu Xingci did not think much about this. Since he was young, his mom had always been helping him, he had long gotten used to it. 

Jiang Yao nodded, “I’m also partly to blame for things become like this.”

Hearing this, the vice-principal could not help cutting in, “Ultimately, it is a matter of their studies being too stressful. Even a student with such high scores have moments when he can’t cope……”

As he was leaving the office, Duan Jiayan was still feeling a little dazed.

He originally thought he would more or less be nagged a little but from start to end, Director Jiang never opened fire on him at all. 

Duan Jiayan knew who was the reason for that. He saw Jiang Yao talking to Zhao Minjun and hesitated before taking a few steps forward, “Auntie.”

His greeting resulted in both Lu Xingci and Jiang Yao turning around to look at him.

This was not Duan Jiayan’s first time talking to her. Previously, Duan Jiayan had assumed she was just a parent of a regular student and so did not pay attention to her appearance.

Now, upon closer inspection, he realised Lu Xingci and her indeed share similar features, especially their eyes. 

Jiang Yao had phoenix eyes that looked rather sharp when she was not smiling. However, because of her gentle temperament, she did not really feel especially domineering.

“I’m sorry, auntie,” he could not help feeling uneasy in front of her. “Last night, Lu Xingci did not go home because of me, I have troubled you.”

Jiang Yao looked at him for half a beat.

Just as Lu Xingci could stand it any longer and was about to speak up, Jiang Yao opened her mouth and spoke gently, “It’s no trouble, you are a good child.” 

She looked at Duan Jiayan, who immediately became embarrassed because of her words, and added, “Auntie wants to thank you.”

As she said that, she looked at Lu Xingci once again. He shot a slight smile at her, as if pleased to hear what she had said.

Jiang Yao could not resist laughing.

He had not even caught the person and he was already being so protective. What will it be like once he managed to catch him successfully? 

“Both of you head on back to class,” she said while shooting Duan Jiayan another smile. “I’ll be leaving.”

After her figure was gone from the stairway, Duan Jiayan could not resist saying, “Your mother sure is nice.”

“It’s because she likes you,” Lu Xingci spoke slowly and in a low tone. “If she didn’t like you, you’ll definitely hate her a lot.”

“……” Duan Jiayan was speechless, “Is there anyone that will slander their own mother like you?” 

“You’re not going to ask why she likes you?”

“Why should I ask?” Duan Jiayan was very confident. “In any normal circumstance, any uncle or auntie with good eyesight will like me.”

Lu Xingci’s gaze slid downwards and he spoke gently, “It’s because I like you.”

Caught of guard by his confession, Duan Jiayan instinctively averted his gaze. 

For some reason, his first response was to look away from Lu Xingci. As if doing that will let him escape his unexplainable feelings.

His heart seemed as if it was a can of soda, continuously bubbling about in his chest.

His mood became uncontrollable and erratic.

Lu Xingci saw him unconsciously biting his lips and suddenly said, “Ah Ye.” 

Duan Jiayan whipped his head around and stared at him.

Being stared at like this, Lu Xingci did not feel guilty and straightforwardly said, “While I was looking at your photos yesterday, I noticed those two characters written on the back. Can I call you that?”

He knew that it was Duan Jiayan’s nickname. He had heard Fu Yuan calling Duan Jiayan that.

He wanted to try testing if Duan Jiayan would allow him to use that name. 

Hearing that, Duan Jiayan frowned and shot out, “Who are you calling? What else do you want to say?”

After he said that, he did not look at Lu Xingci as he turned around and sped walk back to the classroom.

Lu Xingci watched as Duan Jiayan walked away without a single glance back at him, as if he wanted to leave him here.

He looked at the other’s back and could not help reflecting on himself. His actions just now, could it have been a little too much. 

Using someone’s nickname like this, seemed as if he was picking on him lightly.

As Duan Jiayan walked away, he made sure to pay attention to the person behind him.

Unlike his show of strength just now, he actually felt more like a punctured balloon at that moment, all his defences falling to the ground with a ‘pop’.

The reason why he was not turning around was because he did not want Lu Xingci to see his foolish appearance. 

He was blushing.

Since he was young he rarely blushed. Even if he felt embarrassed, the most that will happen will be his ears turning red. It was rare of him to blush down to his neck.

It was just someone calling his nickname, what’s there to be embarrassed about?

Couldn’t he have put up more of a fight? 

F*ck, this matter can’t be blamed entirely on him.

In his eyes, only those extremely close to him would call him that. Never mind the fact that Lu Xingci had called him that, he still called him in such a…such a…

For a moment, Duan Jiayan was unable to think of a suitable adjective to describe it and only felt that the other person calling him in such an intimate tone was crossing a line.

After a long time passed, he still did not hear the sound of footsteps behind him. 

Duan Jiayan stopped and took in a long breath before turning around.

“You can call me that,” he spoke softly, not looking at Lu Xingci who was standing a distance away from him.

“But don’t call me so intimately.”

“Just now, it wasn’t that I got upset,” Duan Jiayan unconsciously fiddled with his fingers as he mumbled, “I was just a little taken aback.” 

Lu Xingci made his way to Duan Jiayan as he was speaking.

He looked at Duan Jiayan very patiently, he asked politely, “Then why not you let me know, just what is considered ‘intimate’?”

As if he thought what he said was not enough, he even added, “I’ll take note of it for next time.”

He seemed to be doing it on purpose. Purposely getting so close to Duan Jiayan, purposely placing an emphasis on the word ‘intimate’. 

Even the air around them seemed to feel flirtatious.

“……” Duan Jiayan gave in to his fate and said, “Up to you.”

Just as Duan Jiayan spoke…

“Ah Ye,” Because he was so close, the boy’s voice rose and filled his ear. 

His voice was light and deep, with the tone at the end slightly raised. Duan Jiayan’s ears felt like it was being nibbled on.

Duan Jiayan raised his head to look at him, amazed at this person’s ability to ask for a mile after being given an inch.

Lu Xingci’s smile was a little mean.

As with every teenage boy, once he had managed to tease his sweetheart, he revealed a gentle yet sly smile,  “Why is your face so red?” 

The author has something to say: You’re too mean ge.