When Chi Cheng and Wu Suowei returned to Guo Chengyu’s place, Jiang Xiaoshuai and Guo Chengyu were already eating dinner. When they saw them come in, Jiang Xiaoshuai quickly waved them over. “Come have a drink.”
“We already ate.” Wu Suowei replied cheerfully.
Remembering that Wu Suowei had visited Chi Cheng’s parents today, Jiang Xiaoshuai eagerly came over to dig for gossip. “Hey, so what happened?”
But Wu Suowei didn’t hear his question at all, he was too busy staring at the little tuft of hair tied up on top of Jiang Xiaoshuai’s head. While Xiaoshuai had been napping earlier, Guo Chengyu had artfully gathered his fluffy curls into a little ponytail that stuck up like a fountain.
“Wow! You look just like a handsome Korean boy!” Wu Suowei said with sparkling eyes.
Totally clueless, Jiang Xiaoshuai tugged at his own shirt and asked, “What? This outfit? It’s western style. How’d it turn into Korean?”
Wu Suowei was just about to reach out and point to the ponytail, but Guo Chengyu shot him a warning look from behind Jiang. Instantly, Wu Suowei let out a knowing little laugh and patted Jiang’s handsome face. “It’s good, it’s good.”
“What’s good?” Jiang asked, confused.
“Everything was good at Chi Cheng’s parents’ place,” Wu Suowei covered smoothly.
“They didn’t say anything nasty?” Jiang pressed.
Changing clothes as he spoke, Wu Suowei replied, “I’ll tell you the details later. I need to talk to Guo first, something business-related.”
“What business?”
“You wouldn’t understand even if I told you.”
He shuffled into the dining room in his slippers.
Jiang finished eating and wiped his mouth, then noticed a pair of hawk-like eyes fixed on him. Chi Cheng was leaning back on the sofa, staring at him with a sharp, almost abrasive gaze that made Jiang uncomfortable all over.
“Why are you looking at me like that?” Jiang blurted.
“You’re really seductive,” Chi said in a low voice.
Jiang’s face turned green with anger. He didn’t even know about the flirty little ponytail on his head and thought Chi’s taunt was totally unprovoked. But he didn’t dare curse at him, Chi still scared him.
After holding it in for a while, Jiang finally muttered, “Not as slutty as your precious Da Bao.”
Chi gave a wolfish grin and strode over, his imposing figure blocking half the light in the room. His jawline was sharp as a blade, and it made Jiang instinctively tense.
But Chi’s tone was unexpectedly casual. “Come sleep with me tonight.”
“What kind of joke is that?!” Jiang jumped.
Chi lazily twirled the little ponytail between his fingers, his lips quirking with it.
“I’m rougher than Guo. I’ll make you feel even better.”
Jiang flushed bright red, ready to escape, but before he could, Chi’s tiger paw clamped down on his arm, and his other hand covered Jiang’s mouth. Like a chick, he was carried into Chi’s room.
The moment he was thrown on the bed, Jiang actually panicked, thinking Chi was really going to do something. He struggled like crazy, sweating and flushed.
Seeing him wriggle just made Chi’s gaze even more dangerous. “The way you’re acting… makes me really want to fuck you.”
Leaning against the desk, Chi lit a cigarette and watched him quietly.
Jiang finally realized Chi was teasing him, sat up in annoyance, glared, and asked, “Why’d you drag me in here?”
Looking amused, Chi said, “Just wanted to chat. I want to know how you two plotted against me back then.”
“Didn’t Da Bao tell you?”
“More or less, not in detail.”
At this topic, Jiang perked up. After all, scheming to catch Chi had been one of his proudest achievements, he’d gained a precious apprentice, trained him well, and even scored himself a rich, talented husband. A turning point in his life.
“He cursed me a lot back then, didn’t he?” Chi asked.
Jiang nodded. “Yeah, every day. Called you all kinds of names. Just hearing your name made his face drop three feet.”
Chi imagined little Wu Suowei, in ragged shorts, sitting on the bed with big, angry eyes complaining about him, and couldn’t help but smile faintly.
“You don’t know, at first he was so useless. Just holding your hand made him blush like crazy. Watching you jerk off gave him a fever of 39.5°C. I thought you’d done something to him, but apparently that was it.”
Jiang didn’t realize how much Chi enjoyed hearing about those clumsy moments, it was better than an R-rated movie to him.
“When did he start liking me?” Chi finally asked the question he cared most about.
Jiang thought hard. “I’m not sure… probably pretty early. But he was too shy to admit it and kept using Yue Yue as an excuse. Why don’t you just ask Dawei yourself?”
“Why the hell would I ask him that?” Chi said flatly.
“Why can you ask me but not him?”
Chi flicked his cigarette butt into Jiang’s ponytail and threatened, “Forget asking him. And if you dare tell him about this conversation, I’ll pluck every curly hair off your body.”
Jiang instinctively clamped his legs together, cursing silently, “Clearly you care, yet you’re still acting cool. What are you pretending for? The way you look at Da Bao could make a cow nauseous…”
Just as he was thinking, Chi casually asked another question. “How did you and Da Bao meet?”
Jiang Xiaoshuai let out a cold laugh. “How do you think? He smashed his head with a brick three times, came to my clinic each time to get treated, who wouldn’t remember that?”
“All just to practice his iron head skill?” Chi asked.
At those words, Jiang’s eyes immediately narrowed, and he gave Chi a long, meaningful look.
“So you still don’t know why he was smashing his head with bricks, huh?”
Chi replied, “How would I know? He never told me.”
Ah. the perfect chance for revenge!
Jiang Xiaoshuai instantly began to embellish and dramatize the “touching” story of how Wu Suowei used to passionately risk life and limb for Yue Yue, laying down his head and his blood.
Jiang Xiaoshuai stood up, and as he did, the cigarette butt Chi had flicked at his head earlier fell to the floor. He finally remembered that. He reached up to brush the ashes from his hair, but instead he felt something strange stuck there.
His expression froze, and he rushed to the bathroom.
He stared in the mirror for a full minute, recalling the strange looks everyone had given him today, Wu Suowei’s teasing comment, Chi’s inexplicable ridicule…
And then he let out a furious, righteous roar, “Guo Chengyu. fuck you and your whole family!”
277
After being bullied by Chi Cheng, Wu Suowei stormed out of the room in a huff, just as Jiang Xiaoshuai also came charging out of his own room, face equally dark.
The two met at the entryway and shouted at the same time, “F*ck!”
“What are you f*cking for?” Wu Suowei asked Jiang Xiaoshuai.
“What do you think?!” Jiang Xiaoshuai punched Wu in the chest. “You saw Guozi braid my hair and didn’t tell me? You just stood by and watched your master walk around looking like a two-bit clown with a stupid little fountain on his head?!”
Wu Suowei snickered wickedly. “Your hair’s always sticking up all over anyway, I didn’t even notice it was braided.”
“Shut the hell up!” Jiang Xiaoshuai ground his teeth.
Wu patted Jiang’s shoulder and coaxed, “I thought it looked good, so I couldn’t bring myself to tell you.”
“Yeah, right!”
——
In Guo’s bedroom, Chi didn’t find him, so he checked the kitchen next. There he saw Guo busy at the oven.
“What’re you baking?” Chi asked casually.
Guo replied, “Vanilla pudding, chocolate muffins, coconut cream balls.”
Chi hooked his strong arm around Guo’s neck, chin digging into his shoulder, teeth grinding as he smiled. “If Da Bao had your skills, that’d be great.”
Guo sneered. “Even without these skills you’re already crazy about him. If he cooked too, you’d never let him out of your bed.”
Chi raised an eyebrow. “Crazy? You haven’t seen him when he’s being a pain.”
Guo focused on arranging the desserts on a tray, then closed the oven, picked it up and headed out. “Where’re you taking it?”
“Bedroom.”
“Why the bedroom? There’s an outlet here.”
Guo smirked faintly. “If I bake it in the bedroom, Jiang Xiaoshuai will smell it and come running back.”
Chi chuckled. “Not bad. Next time bake some for me too, I’ll stick it in my bedroom.”
Guo shot back, “So I do the sweet-talking for you too? Want me to screw him for you while I’m at it?”
Chi grinned wolfishly and swung a punch, which Guo caught in his broad palm, clenched, and with a tug, the two of them toppled onto the couch.
Chi lit a cigarette and leaned against Guo’s shoulder, exhaling heavily. “I feel suffocated.”
Guo turned his head. “What happened?”
Chi said, “I took Da Bao home today. My parents didn’t say much, but the way they looked at him… the more I think about it, the more pissed I get. There were four of us at dinner, but they only made three bowls of shark fin soup. Left him out completely.”
Guo sighed too. “Not much you can say about that. They’re your parents, and honestly, they held back more than I expected. I can’t even imagine how my parents would treat Xiaoshuai. At least your Da Bao is quiet and takes it. Xiaoshuai would climb out the window by the third sentence.”
——-
Then Wu sniffed the air. “Hey… I smell something good.”
Jiang had been distracted for quite a while already, just waiting for an excuse to go back.
So he cleared his throat, trying to act nonchalant. “Guozi’s baking his stupid pastries again. Nothing good. Let’s keep talking.”
Wu said, “We’ve been talking this whole time, I’m starving. Come on, let’s go see.”
Jiang put on a fake refusal. “If you wanna go, you go. I’m not going.”
“If you don’t come, I’m afraid Guozi won’t give me any!”
“…”
“Come on, please.”
“…”
“Master, for the sake of my poor stomach, just put down your grudges for now!”
Finally satisfied, Jiang clapped his hands on his hips and stood up. “Fine. I’ll just reluctantly go back with you.”
But the moment they stepped out, Jiang’s pace unconsciously quickened, and he was the first one to dash into the house.
Guo raised an eyebrow at Chi. “See? What’d I tell you…”
Chi stood and walked toward the door, but just a few steps away, Wu’s head also poked in.
“What the hell are you doing here?” Chi asked coldly.
Wu pouted. “I smelled it too.”
Chi feigned anger. “Smelled it? Stay back. Was this made for you? Why are you running over here?”
“What’s it to you? I want to, so I will!”
After giving Chi a sideways look, Wu happily trotted over to the oven. “Ahhh, smells amazing!”
“Wow, it tastes even better when you eat it!”
“Guozi, your skills are just amazing!”
“…”
Wu Suowei kept cracking jokes as he ate, and before he knew it, he had already scarfed down over a dozen pieces. Jiang Xiaoshuai shot him a sideways glance and softly reminded, “Hey, take it easy. Eating too many sweets at night won’t digest well.”
“Just one last piece!”
Wu said that as he reached for the oven, it looked like he took one piece, but in reality, four pieces were missing from the oven.
Jiang Xiaoshuai immediately shouted, “Hey! You really can’t stop taking advantage, huh? Eating ours isn’t enough, now you’re trying to swipe more from our house? Guozi, get over here! This little brat is sneaking our stuff again!”
Guo Chengyu deliberately stayed in the bathroom for a moment before coming out, but by then Wu Suowei had already dashed away.
Jiang Xiaoshuai huffed angrily, “He’s definitely taking it back to Chi Cheng. He sure cursed him loud enough earlier, but now he’s thinking about him more than anyone! Really, birds of a feather flock together!”