Chapter 68: Young Master, Do You Want to Kiss?

The apartment Cheng Ye rented was located between the two universities. It was not a very spacious two-bedroom, but its location and transportation were very convenient.

On the way back, he bought some vegetables and fruit.

He had long understood Jiang Shi’s laziness. There were many things he wouldn’t eat, not because he disliked them, but because he found them troublesome. Peeling them was a hassle, and getting juice on his hands and having to wash them was also a hassle. To get him to eat more, Cheng Ye would always peel the fruit, remove the pits, cut it into small pieces, stick toothpicks in them, and place it in front of him.

As soon as the little ancestor returned home, he turned on the air conditioner and lay down on the sofa. His slightly longer hair drooped, looking as listless as its owner.

Cheng Ye took the fruit and vegetables to the kitchen.

He was tall, and the kitchen was not very spacious. When his long legs and broad shoulders stood there, he blocked most of the light.

Cheng Ye cut the watermelon, peeled a pomegranate, and also peeled the grapes, putting the flesh in with the pomegranate seeds.

Jiang Shi squinted his eyes, feeling drowsy from the cool air.

A shadow fell over him, and then a hand lifted the bangs from his forehead. Only then did he open his eyes and see Cheng Ye’s thick, long fingers awkwardly holding a small strawberry hair clip. Under his gaze, it clicked into place, holding his bangs back.

His vision suddenly cleared. Jiang Shi froze for two seconds, then reached up to touch his head, feeling the two small leaves dangling beneath the strawberry.

“What is this?”

Cheng Ye said, “A hair clip.”

Of course, Jiang Shi knew it was a hair clip. “Where did you get it?”

And it was this kind of cute strawberry hair clip.

“I bought it,” Cheng Ye said. “Yesterday, I saw you kept pushing your hair back while eating. It was probably getting in your eyes because you were sweating. I bought it on the way when I went out to get breakfast this morning.”

His own hair was coarse and stiff, just like him, unlike Jiang Shi’s, which was very soft. It would only have a few disobedient strands sticking up when he didn’t sleep well.

With his hair held back by the clip, it lay obediently on his head. The face below looked a little dazed, the blush from the sun on his cheeks not yet faded.

“It’s very cute,” he commented.

No boy likes to be described as cute. Jiang Shi threw a pillow at Cheng Ye.

Cheng Ye caught the pillow, stood up, and placed it back under his head. “What do you want to eat tonight?”

Jiang Shi rolled over, his sharp chin digging into the pillow. “I don’t want to eat. I have no appetite.”

“Alright,” Cheng Ye said. “Then I’ll make a beef stew and stir-fry a few vegetables.”

“…”

The apartment had good lighting. It was already five in the afternoon, but the sun hadn’t set yet, and the living room was bright.

Jiang Shi wriggled over like a boneless cat, propping his head up to watch Cheng Ye cook.

In fact, Cheng Ye didn’t know how to cook many dishes. He didn’t have the means back in Xiliu Village. Usually, he ate whatever was available. Sometimes, the family didn’t even have cooking oil; they would just boil things in water and make a dipping sauce.

But he would never let Jiang Shi suffer.

If he didn’t know how to cook, he would buy a cookbook, try it out himself first, and only when he thought it was edible would he cook it for Jiang Shi.

Just by looking at him, Jiang Shi found it hard to imagine that his cooking would be good. But a top student was a top student. Except for the beginning when he had trouble controlling the ratio of seasonings, he had become quite decent at it. His cooking was much better than Jiang Xue’s.

He held a spatula in one hand and the wok in the other. With a flick of his wrist, he easily tossed the food in the wok.

Jiang Shi watched for a while and asked him, “Do you need my help?”

At home, he would at least help Jiang Xue clear the table. But after just a few days with Cheng Ye, he was close to being raised as a useless person.

“I do,” Cheng Ye said. “Help me eat the fruit on the coffee table.”

“…”

Fine. Jiang Shi leaned over and picked up a piece of watermelon.

After dinner, Cheng Ye washed the dishes, mopped the floor, took off his apron, and put on his jacket. He said to Jiang Shi, who was playing games on the sofa, “I’m going to a meeting. I don’t know when I’ll be back. Go to sleep at eleven, don’t stay up late. I’ll go with you to the shoot tomorrow.”

Jiang Shi looked up from his phone screen. “You have a meeting this late?”

It wasn’t that the meeting was this late; he had moved it to the evening to accompany Jiang Shi.

“It’s not late. If I get back early, I’ll bring you some barbecue from downstairs.”

Jiang Shi saw how busy Cheng Ye was. It was just a magazine shoot; he could go by himself. There was no need for someone to accompany him.

“You do your thing. I can go by myself tomorrow.”

Obviously, Cheng Ye wouldn’t listen to Jiang Shi on this matter. He bent down to change his shoes by the door, his gaze sweeping inward. The boy’s T-shirt had ridden up a bit, revealing a sliver of his thin waist.

His movements paused.

Jiang Shi waited for a moment but didn’t hear the door open. He turned his head, and his chin was gripped by two fingers. His face was turned, and lips and a tongue pushed their way in.

His shirt was lifted, and a honey-colored hand pressed against his pale, glowing waist. The bones in the fingers dug into Jiang Shi’s flesh, causing a pang of pain.

He twisted his waist, trying to get away from the hand, but only managed to push himself further into the other’s arms.

Cheng Ye released him and took a step back, the breath he exhaled was hot. “Don’t grind against me. If you do, I won’t be able to leave.”

Jiang Shi, who was being wrongfully blamed, wiped his mouth. “Cheng Ye, what’s wrong with you? Why did you kiss me out of nowhere?”

“You were seducing me just now.”

Jiang Shi: “???”

Give me a break.

Jiang Shi didn’t know what time Cheng Ye’s meeting ended. The man wasn’t back when he fell asleep, and when he woke up, he was already making breakfast.

After the college entrance exams, Jiang Shi had been sleeping in every day. Waking up so early all of a sudden left him feeling dazed.

He was still out of it when he arrived at the studio and was pulled away to get his makeup done.

The makeup artist was a young woman. She studied Jiang Shi’s face and sighed, “I don’t even know what I should put on this perfect face of yours.”

Li Na pushed the door open. “Give him a more mature look. His face looks too youthful.”

Jiang Shi didn’t hear anything. He closed his eyes and let the makeup artist pat and dab things on his face.

Outside, the staff was setting up the set. Sun Tianyu was running back and forth, his voice hoarse from shouting. He turned to look for water and saw Cheng Ye standing at the door of the makeup room.

Even with such a short haircut, he didn’t look ugly at all. His features remained deep-set. Broad shoulders, a narrow waist, and long legs. Different from Jiang Shi’s delicacy, Cheng Ye had a strong, wild aura, carrying a certain沉淀过的氣質.

It was very charming, and also very dangerous.

Sun Tianyu paused, holding a cup of water as he stood next to Cheng Ye.

He took a sip of water and said, “Little brother, are you from an ethnic minority?”

Cheng Ye didn’t look at him, his gaze fixed on the shooting area not far away, where a staff member was carefully walking in with a huge bouquet of narcissus flowers.

“Yes.”

“No wonder,” Sun Tianyu chuckled. “Your features look different from Han Chinese.”

He turned sideways to size up Cheng Ye.

The bag he was carrying looked like a designer brand, but he himself was wearing a set of old clothes that looked like they had been worn for a long time. His shoes were the same; the mesh was slightly deformed, and upon closer inspection, it was a knockoff.

“With your height and looks, you’re very suitable to be a model. Don’t look down on this industry; it’s more profitable than you think. I haven’t seen your style before. You might really become popular in the future. Are you sure you don’t want to consider it?”

“No,” Cheng Ye said flatly. “My family won’t allow it.”

Sun Tianyu was stunned. “They won’t allow it?”

“I’m conservative. I have to uphold male virtue. I can’t do a job like modeling that requires showing my face.”

Sun Tianyu: “…”

The corner of his mouth twitched. He was about to say something more when the door behind him creaked open.

Cheng Ye turned around. Jiang Shi emerged from the door, backlit by the light.

He had a very thin layer of foundation on, and eyeliner was drawn, weakening his original youthful air. He instantly seemed more distant. The lipstick color was also very light, but since he had never worn it, he kept pressing his lips together self-consciously.

Cheng Ye’s gaze slid over his full lips before he saw the clothes he was wearing.

It was a white shirt, the fabric very thin and light. He couldn’t understand the design or style of the clothes; he only saw Jiang Shi’s collarbones exposed by the open collar, his waist that was faintly visible in the light and shadow, and his pale wrists extending from the sleeves, his ulna tinted with a hint of pink.

A staff member brought over a wind machine and plugged it in. The wind blew up the clothes on Jiang Shi’s body, making them as light as a fluttering butterfly.

Cheng Ye reached out his hand, only to touch a corner of the shirt before the butterfly was pulled away by Li Na.

The photographer was Li Na’s husband, a foreigner who spoke Chinese very well.

His eyes lit up when he saw Jiang Shi. Compared to the more reserved Chinese, they were always generous with their praise for beautiful things and people.

“So beautiful. You were born for this outfit.”

Cheng Ye and Sun Tianyu moved closer to the set. The bouquet of pure white narcissus was held in Jiang Shi’s arms. The young man lowered his eyes, as if there was a clear spring before him, reflecting his face. He reached out to touch it, and the reflection scattered, making the melancholy in his eyes even stronger.

Sun Tianyu was surprised by Jiang Shi’s expressive ability. “Sister Na’s design inspiration comes from the Greek myth of Narcissus, a man who fell in love with his own reflection in the water, couldn’t touch it, and eventually died of sorrow. So the person who wears it must be beautiful, and also proud and cold, as if no one in the world is worthy of his attention besides himself.”

“Look, doesn’t he look like the white narcissus in his arms?”

“He doesn’t,” Cheng Ye said. “He looks like a butterfly.”

Sun Tianyu turned to look at him, but Cheng Ye said nothing more in the end.

The most difficult part of the shoot was the first outfit. The rest was much simpler, but with all the miscellaneous tasks, it was already past six in the evening by the time they finished.

Apart from his cold expression at the beginning, Jiang Shi had to smile for the rest of the shoot. After smiling for a whole day, the corners of his mouth were stiff. He sighed internally, thinking that no job was truly easy.

As he was leaving, Li Na called out to him. “Normally, all the clothes from a shoot have to be collected, but this shirt suits you very well. Consider it a reward for a pleasant collaboration. It’s yours.”

Jiang Shi looked at the bag she handed him, stunned for a moment, before reaching out to take it. “Thank you.”

Sun Tianyu walked them out. He said to Jiang Shi, “I hope we have the chance to work together in the future.”

Although he was tired, Jiang Shi didn’t dislike the shoot, and the money was much easier to earn than manual labor. He didn’t refuse Sun Tianyu’s invitation. “I’ll take you up on that good omen.”

They had hot pot for dinner. Jiang Shi’s forehead was beaded with sweat from the spice. He kept hissing and drinking water, his eyes sparkling. “I think it was quite fun.”

Cheng Ye, having found the strawberry hair clip from who-knows-where, clipped back Jiang Shi’s bangs and looked at his flushed face. “You liked it?”

“It was alright,” Jiang Shi blinked. “I didn’t hate it, anyway.”

“I understand,” Cheng Ye said.

“What do you understand now?”

Cheng Ye didn’t speak. He squeezed the somewhat thick stack of cash in Jiang Shi’s backpack. “Is this meal on you, Young Master?”

Jiang Shi, having earned money for the first time, waved his hand magnanimously. “Of course.”

After dinner, Jiang Shi washed away the day’s fatigue. When he came out, Cheng Ye was on the balcony, on the phone.

He dried his hair, his gaze shifting to the bag placed on the sofa.

Jiang Shi walked over, took out the white shirt, and shook it. The light fabric billowed in the air, the white silk reflecting a pearl-like luster under the lights.

After shooting for half a day, he hadn’t actually seen what he looked like in this outfit.

Jiang Shi paused, then turned his head. Cheng Ye was still on the phone with his back to him. So he quickly pulled off his T-shirt and put on the shirt.

When he turned back, Cheng Ye had hung up and was leaning against the balcony door.

He didn’t speak. His gaze was almost tangible as it scraped over Jiang Shi’s body inch by inch, bringing with it a tingling numbness.

Jiang Shi’s hand, clutching the hem of the shirt, tightened, a futile attempt to cover up. “I was just trying to see if it fits.”

Cheng Ye walked over, freed the fabric from his hand, stood in front of him, and lowered his eyes to straighten his collar.

“It’s beautiful,” his voice was hoarse. “It suits you. Like a butterfly.”

What the hell is with the butterfly…

The look in his eyes was too fiery. Jiang Shi felt a little uncomfortable and looked away. “Move, I need to go to the bathroom.”

Cheng Ye didn’t speak. He wrapped an arm around Jiang Shi’s waist, held him with one arm, opened the bathroom door, and sat him on the washstand.

He held Jiang Shi’s face, making him look at himself in the mirror. “I wasn’t lying. The Young Master is indeed very beautiful.”

Jiang Shi’s eyelashes trembled. He saw himself in the mirror.

There was none of the melancholy and coldness the photographer had spoken of. His eyes were misty, and his chin was pink from where Cheng Ye’s hand had rubbed it.

Another face drew close, black and white meeting in the mirror.

Jiang Shi turned his head. Cheng Ye stared at him, his gaze dark, and whispered something in the Yi language.

“…&%.”

He was stunned. “What did you say?”

“I said…”

“Young Master, do you want to kiss?”

Jiang Shi, I want you.