Being looked at by those pitch-black eyes, Jiang Shi’s heart gave an inexplicable jolt. He tightened his grip on the cup in his hand and asked Cheng Ye,
“Why are you being so good to me?”

Cheng Ye studied the expression on Jiang Shi’s face. After a pause, he spoke slowly:
“Because I want to be good to you.”

As repayment, you should look at me with your eyes, call my name with your mouth, and take your love and pain from me alone.

Maybe because the look in his eyes was too aggressive, the beautiful little bird’s lashes trembled. Its wings spread, wanting to flee from this cage that wasn’t even that luxurious.

Cheng Ye lowered his gaze, raised his hand, and poured tea into the cup that hadn’t been rinsed. He tipped it back, swallowing not just the tea but also some restless thoughts.

“Because no one’s ever been this good to me,” Cheng Ye said. His deep voice carried a trace of imperceptible bitterness. “Because of my family, no one ever played with me. When they saw me, they went out of their way to avoid me. When my mom left, she took my younger brother with her. She left me with my dad. She didn’t want me. My dad didn’t want me either.”

“No one needed me.”

He drank another cup of tea.

“But you’re different,” he said. “Jiang Shi, you’re not like them. You didn’t avoid me. You came here not knowing anything, and you needed me.”

“No one’s ever treated me this way before, so I want to treat you better too.”

Jiang Shi froze.

“I…” He opened his mouth, just about to speak, when the shop owner walked over from the kitchen carrying a tray of food. “Your dishes are ready.”

Cheng Ye slid one of the plates toward him.
“Try it, see if it tastes different from what you ate back in Jiang City.”

The owner’s cooking kept the flavor of Jiang City but blended in Lin City’s taste, making it even better than the pure Jiang style.

But Jiang Shi found it tasteless. He ate a slice of pickled cucumber and glanced at Cheng Ye, then another slice and another glance.

“Actually…” Jiang Shi said softly, “I haven’t been very nice to you.”

Jiang Shi had a bad temper, but he wasn’t stupid. His attitude toward Cheng Ye before wasn’t just “not nice”—it was downright awful. He had vented all his dissatisfaction about being in Creek Willow Village on him.

“I know.” Cheng Ye picked up a piece of beef for him. “But you didn’t avoid me like the others did.”

He watched as the boy bit down on the tips of his chopsticks, white teeth flashing, a hint of red tongue flicking across them. Then he picked up the piece of beef Cheng Ye had given him, slipped it into his moist mouth, chewed, and swallowed.

“Jiang Shi,” Cheng Ye asked, “can we be friends?”

---

Cheng Ye had learned about sex very early.

When he was in primary school, his mother left. After that, Cheng Jianbin became even more unrestrained.

At first, he just beat Cheng Ye—dragging him by the hair like a stray dog, tossing him around and hitting him.

Later, simple violence wasn’t enough.

He started gambling, and whenever he won money, he’d bring a woman home.

The Cheng house was remote; no one heard what kinds of noises came from that dilapidated wooden house at night—except Cheng Ye.

Cheng Jianbin tied him to a pillar in the main hall with a belt, forcing him to watch two bodies writhing together. White flesh rippled like waves, shrill moans rising and falling.

Afterward, he vomited for two days. Cheng Jianbin grabbed him, laughing:
“What’s wrong? Think it’s dirty? If it weren’t dirty, how would you be here? You’re a bastard dog that crawled out from under a whore. If anything’s filthy, Cheng Ye, you’re filthier than anyone.”

---

Cheng Ye truly was filthier than anyone.

But Jiang Shi was so clean. His eyes were clear and bright. His pale fingertips cupped a steaming teacup, the rising vapor tinting his skin faintly pink. His exposed neck was long and elegant.

Just sitting there, he looked even lovelier than the peach blossoms in the courtyard.

Cheng Ye thought: Not only am I dirty, I’m rotten.

I spin lies into a cage, luring an innocent lamb inside, only to smear him with the filth of my body.

But there’s no helping it. Jiang Shi provoked a hyena.

And the hyena retracts its fangs and claws, pretending to be a tame house dog, rolling over to show its belly.

---

“Jiang Shi, can we be friends?”

Jiang Shi hadn’t expected Cheng Ye to ask this.

He rarely had friends.

As a child, all his time was filled with lessons arranged by the Song family—piano, violin, painting, academics. But he was too stupid; no matter how much he studied, he never met his parents’ expectations.

Eventually, they gave up on their high demands.

His mother told him: “Song Shi, you don’t need to study anymore. You’re good-looking. Just focus on staying good-looking.”

To them, beauty was a resource, whether boy or girl.

Plenty of people hovered around Jiang Shi, trying to climb up through him to the Song family, all while secretly looking down on him. They thought they hid it well, but Jiang Shi always saw through them.

Many people had told him they wanted to be his friend, but to them, being his friend meant having access to his money.

Never had anyone laid bare all they had before Jiang Shi. Unlike those who clung like locusts to drain him, Cheng Ye welcomed Jiang Shi taking things from him.

The depth in those eyes held something Jiang Shi couldn’t understand. Unlike the greedy glints he usually saw, what Cheng Ye sought, Jiang Shi couldn’t read.

But when he asked this question, the sincerity in his eyes seemed real—like he truly just wanted to be friends.

For once, Jiang Shi felt at a loss.

Sensing it, Cheng Ye softened his tone.
“It’s fine. This is just my one-sided wish. I know I’m worthless. You have plenty of friends. If you don’t want to be mine, I understand.”

Sometimes Jiang Shi was like a hedgehog. The harder the outside force, the sharper and colder his spines. But when he softened, he pulled them all in, even pricking himself in the process.

The food tasted even more bland.

After two mouthfuls, Jiang Shi’s pale fingertips whitened from gripping the chopsticks too tightly. He awkwardly said,
“I don’t have many friends either.”

Cheng Ye’s eyes snapped up.

Perhaps because he wasn’t used to saying things like this, the tips of Jiang Shi’s ears flushed pink. His face still looked sulky as he added,
“I never said I wouldn’t be your friend.”

The shabby cage opened a crack, and the hunter coaxed the naive little bird inside with a handful of grain.

---

After dinner, as usual, Cheng Ye went to crash at Gao Xinhe’s for the night.

Jiang Shi walked him to the dormitory building. Before Cheng Ye could follow him upstairs, Jiang Shi stopped him:
“Wait here.”

Cheng Ye froze. He didn’t ask why—if Jiang Shi told him to wait, he’d wait.

Jiang Shi ran up to the third floor. His roommates were still out, the dorm empty. The evening sun streamed through the window, spreading a golden glow on the floor.

The radio was playing a song as he opened his locker.

The box lay quietly in the farthest corner, heavy.

[Memories recorded
In the language of words
Love is always the long thread in your hands
…]

Jiang Shi carried the box downstairs.

Cheng Ye was still standing exactly where he’d left him. The moment Jiang Shi appeared, his eyes snapped to him.

Catching his breath, Jiang Shi said, “Come with me.”

He led Cheng Ye around to the grass field behind the dormitory. It was quiet, the evening wind blowing softly.

Jiang Shi sat down on a clean patch of grass, tilted his head, and asked,
“How much money do you still owe?”

Cheng Ye looked at the box in his arms. For a second, his eyes darkened.
“Eighteen thousand.”

Jiang Shi opened the box, revealing two fat stacks of red bills. He’d originally planned to open an account that weekend and deposit them in the bank—but clearly, that wasn’t going to happen.

He said, “I’ll lend it to you.”

Logically, seeing so much cash should’ve made Cheng Ye excited or nervous. But he wasn’t—he didn’t even look at the money. His gaze stayed fixed on Jiang Shi’s face, on the way his lips pressed together after speaking. The little bead of flesh was squeezed and reddened, looking like it was waiting for someone to bite, to lick.

Sitting beside him, Cheng Ye spoke, his voice mixing with the wind:
“Young master, if you lend me this much, I’ll never be able to pay it back.”

Jiang Shi picked at the box with his fingertip. Hearing him drawl out the words “young master” made him irritated. He shoved the box into Cheng Ye’s arms.
“This young master has more money than I can spend. If you can’t pay it back in one year, then two. If not in two, then three.”

Cheng Ye held the box, feeling the warmth it carried from Jiang Shi’s body.
“And if I still can’t pay in three years?”

Jiang Shi: “…”

“Then I’ll just buy you,” he said.

After a pause, he decided it wasn’t a bad idea.
“Forget working in some mine. You’re tall and strong—why not be my bodyguard?”

Cheng Ye stretched out his legs beside him.
“So young master wants to buy me for life with twenty thousand?”

Jiang Shi kicked him.
“Being my bodyguard too lowly for you?”

Cheng Ye answered honestly,
“No.”

The one who was wronged was Jiang Shi.

Jiang Shi added,
“Take this, pay off your debts, and then come back and study properly.”

Cheng Ye gripped the box tighter, his throat dry.
“Why are you helping me?”

Jiang Shi couldn’t say why. Other people had been good to him too, but it wasn’t the same as Cheng Ye.

Cheng Ye said no one had treated him like Jiang Shi did. Truthfully, no one had treated Jiang Shi like Cheng Ye either.

Most importantly, the centipede coiled around Cheng Ye’s waist had been crawling in Jiang Shi’s mind for days.

Without this money, Jiang Shi would still live. But without it, Cheng Ye wouldn’t.

Of course, he’d never say that out loud. He turned and glared at Cheng Ye.
“Who’s helping you? I told you, I’m just hiring a bodyguard.”

He reached for the box.
“Do you want it or not? If not, give it back. I don’t even care to give it to you.”

Cheng Ye held the box tight.

He stared at Jiang Shi for a few seconds, then smiled.
“I’ll take it.”

The next moment, he bent close.
“But if it’s only as a bodyguard, you’re losing out. Young master, buy me. Let me do anything for you. From now on, everything I earn is yours.”

He leaned in too close. Jiang Shi could feel the heat radiating from him, the scent of grass baked in sunlight, even the sound of his heartbeat.

Uncomfortable, Jiang Shi edged back.
“Why’re you leaning in so close just to talk?”

Cheng Ye obediently leaned back, still keeping his eyes on him.
“So will you buy me, young master?”

Jiang Shi thought he was joking. He lifted an eyebrow.
“If I buy you, will you listen to me?”

“Yes.”

“Do whatever I say?”

“Mm.”

“Even work like a beast of burden?”

“Even be a dog.”

“…”

---