Just like the night wind that had breached the room, Shi Linchuan ultimately failed to stop Xie Jinghe from speaking those words, laced with two distinct tremors. Beneath his palm, the abdomen was soft and warm, rising and falling with each breath, the hidden pulse of life pulsing rhythmically against his touch.

Xie Jinghe’s heart was just a bit higher, a flutter of life that felt close enough to crush with a single, tightened grip.

Yet, Shi Linchuan only lowered his head slightly. The eyes hidden behind his lenses were fixed squarely on the person in his arms, his gaze having long surpassed “annoyance” to reach something akin to “hatred.” He looked at Xie Jinghe as if he were a festering, incurable rot—a burden he wished to carve away with a blade.

Perhaps he should go find a knife right now.

Shi Linchuan stared at the sliver of a side profile buried in his collar, struggling to maintain his usual icy composure, harboring thoughts of extreme, violent resentment.

Xie-Jing-He.

To him, this person, this name, and every trace of existence attached to them were unspeakably, blindingly offensive. At this moment, that offense had peaked to an unbearable degree.

A bizarre, desperate sense of crisis took hold, making Shi Linchuan feel an urgent, frantic need to destroy something. Anything. He had to make that constant, rhythmic trembling stop.

For once, Shi Linchuan’s thoughts were a chaotic mess, his brow twitching uncontrollably.

His face remained cold as he tried to pull his warmed hand away, but the person in his arms clamped onto his forearm, refusing to let go. Xie Jinghe even rubbed his face against the neckline of Shi Linchuan’s shirt, leaving faint, imperceptible marks, and stuttered out in a tiny voice, “It’s cold… let it warm up a bit more.”

He had clearly said “warm up,” yet to Shi Linchuan, it sounded like “hold me a bit longer.”

The clumsiness of the excuse was laughable.

Shi Linchuan wanted to mock him, to sneer, but it was as if he had lost control over his own facial muscles. He couldn’t form the sneer, and his throat felt obstructed by a foreign object, unable to release a single syllable.

Just then, the night wind, seemingly realizing it had caused a disaster, rushed out of the room after a brief, chaotic tour. Before leaving, it slammed the window crack shut with a thunderous bang.

The echo was deafening.

Afterwards, a long, heavy silence returned.

The hotel’s central air conditioning ran silently, and before long, it reclaimed the temperature it had lost. The contrast with the earlier chill made the room feel suddenly, stiflingly warm.

Xie Jinghe felt inexplicably nervous, so much so that fine beads of sweat formed on his temples. His skin was burning, and that heat climbed up from his abdomen and onto the man’s palm.

It was then that Shi Linchuan spoke.

His lips barely moved, yet the sound drifted out from between them, squeezed hard through the gaps of his teeth.

“You…”

Instantly, the head in his arms tilted up.

Xie Jinghe raised his face, shortening the distance between them until they were mere inches apart—close enough that, with the slightest movement, their dry, soft lips would brush against each other.

Their breaths tangled.

Warm. Moist. Unsynchronized.

A few seconds later, Xie Jinghe gave a tiny sniff. Traces of the marks he hadn’t managed to rub off on the man’s collar remained on his face, and the skin around his eyes was remarkably damp; as he blinked, something seemed to fly off his eyelashes.

Or perhaps it was just an illusion.

Whether he foresaw what was coming or not, he lowered his gaze, seemingly not daring to meet the man’s eyes. His ears were perked up, his breath held tight, his expression one of extreme tension and focus.

Clearly, Xie Jinghe was waiting for his response.

There was no smile on Shi Linchuan’s face. He looked cold and gloomy, his throat vibrating as he spoke, his voice carrying the ominous prelude of a coming storm.

“Xie Jinghe, you said you wanted to understand the real me.”

He paused slightly, then continued to ask:

“Do you want to know what I’m contemplating in my mind right now?”

As soon as the words fell, the person he had addressed snapped his eyes open. Deep, hollow sockets hid large shadows, but they couldn’t hide the pair of dark, bright pupils.

Moist and brilliant.

Xie Jinghe stared at him. He hadn’t said a word yet, but Shi Linchuan felt he already had the correct answer. So, he tilted his head and pressed a light kiss to the other’s cheek. His own dry lips picked up the lingering moisture on the other’s skin, making them appear lustrous under the light.

“Good. I’ll tell you.”

The next second, Shi Linchuan moved.

He stepped forward with composed grace, forcing Xie Jinghe to retreat step by step in accordance with his advance. At the same time, the hand resting on Xie Jinghe’s abdomen began to crawl upward—

Like a slow, slithering snake.

As they moved, their steps almost overlapped. Xie Jinghe offered no resistance; he was obedient to an unbelievable degree, like a young deer presenting its neck to the slaughter.

But you are not, Shi Linchuan thought.

By now, his palm prints and fingerprints were brushing against Xie Jinghe’s delicate skin, crossing over the small mound of his chest, passing the frantic beating underneath the left ribcage—

But the venomous snake didn’t pause for a second, continuing its crawl toward the destination.

When Shi Linchuan’s hands passed through the neckline of Xie Jinghe’s shirt and accurately, ruthlessly clamped down on the slender, fragile neck, the two of them had already reached the large bed in the center of the room.

Shi Linchuan did not stop.

Soon, the back of Xie Jinghe’s knees hit the edge of the mattress. Losing his balance, he fell backward!

His hands instinctively let go of Shi Linchuan’s wrists, grabbing at the fabric of the man’s waist in a panic, inadvertently pulling him down as well.

Thud.

Both of them crashed onto the bed.

Xie Jinghe fell in a disarray, half-lying on the edge, his legs dangling off the side. The hem of his low-cut sweater had bunched up from the man’s movements, pulled all the way to his collarbone by Shi Linchuan’s arm.

A vast expanse of skin was exposed, yet he didn’t feel cold.

Shi Linchuan hovered above him, one knee pressing into the edge of the bed while the other foot remained planted on the floor. His upper body leaned down, his line of sight locking vertically with Xie Jinghe’s.

The darkness of the night outside descended upon Xie Jinghe.

It was Shi Linchuan who blocked out all the light.

In the midst of their struggle, the man’s glasses had slipped from the bridge of his nose, revealing his full features—and the pair of long, narrow eyes hidden behind the lenses. He glared down at the man beneath him, his gaze as cold and sharp as ice. But the ice was cracking, revealing the boiling, molten magma that could no longer be contained.

Shi Linchuan’s eyes were bloodshot. His hands squeezed Xie Jinghe’s throat tightly, as if he were crushing the fluttering wings of a Siberian butterfly. He gritted his teeth, snarling: “Not just now—there have been countless times I’ve thought about it—”

“I’ve wanted to strangle you to death like this!”

“Do you hear me?! Are you satisfied now?!”

“…”

Shi Linchuan’s volume rose steadily. By the end, he was practically roaring. His eyes were bright red, the veins on his neck bulging prominently, as if his heart were about to explode.

He screamed it over and over, the sound of his hatred filling the entire room, acting for all the world like an enraged, completely unhinged beast, venting all his malice upon the person beneath him.

Xie Jinghe’s expression was blank, staring in shock at the scene before him.

A truly unbelievable scene.

Shi Linchuan was crying.

The man’s tears fell, drop by drop, onto his face. They burned him, causing a dizzying, ringing sensation in his ears, making it impossible to hear his own voice. He felt as though he were suspended at a great height, separated by wind, rain, and thunder, with nothing left but the sound of something shattering.

Xie Jinghe seemed to hear himself say,

“Then what do you want me to do?”

Anything. Whatever you want.

When the ringing in his ears subsided, he heard Shi Linchuan lean close to his ear, warning him with his last ounce of strength: “I want you to stop! You are forbidden to take one more step closer!”

“…”

“That is the only thing… I cannot do.”