Chapter 116
T HEY COULD NEVER TIRE of barbecue. Even though he had the same old things every time he went, Jiang Cheng seemed very content.
Gu Fei watched as Jiang Cheng held up his plates and hovered exclusively between the pork belly, fatty veal, and lamb slices.
This was also the reason why Jiang Cheng had no qualms about putting up with Gu Fei’s shoddy cooking for so long—his only requirement was meat.
Of course, it’d be nice if it also tasted delicious, but even if it didn’t, he was satisfied as long as he was eating meat.
When Jiang Cheng turned and glanced back at the table, Gu Fei waved at him.
Jiang Cheng said something Gu Fei couldn’t hear and pointed at their table.
Gu Fei looked down and realized that while he’d been busy ogling Jiang Cheng, some of the meat on the grill had burned.
What amazing eyesight. Gu Fei smiled and picked the meat off the grill. For a guy who practically lived at the library and worked his eyes all day long, Jiang Cheng had amazing vision.
“I don’t need you to get the food, but how can you get distracted just sitting here and minding the meat?” Jiang Cheng walked over with three stacked plates in one hand and a jug of fruit juice in the other.
“Not like I was staring at anyone else.” Gu Fei picked up slices of cooked meat and neatly placed them onto Jiang Cheng’s plate. “I was looking at you.”
“Oh, please.” Jiang Cheng tutted and put his head down to eat.
Gu Fei continued grilling the meat for him. “Your ass is especially attractive.”
“Fuck.” Jiang Cheng choked, gave Gu Fei a look, and stuffed another piece of meat in his mouth.
“Eat, eat away. Then when we go back, you can get a good night’s sleep first,” said Gu Fei.
“First?” Jiang Cheng looked at him.
“So you can rest and recharge.”
“And then what?” Jiang Cheng asked.
“What do you think?” Gu Fei narrowed his eyes. “Since you no longer have any great aspirations, I’ll have to finish dreaming your dream for you.”
With meat still hanging from his mouth, Jiang Cheng’s eyes swiftly and nimbly darted around and scanned their surroundings.
“No need to get nervous—no one can hear us. They wouldn’t understand, anyway.” Gu Fei started laughing. Jiang Cheng’s incredible combination of arrogance and dorkiness never failed to delight him.
“Whatever.” Jiang Cheng chewed and swallowed the meat in his mouth. “Honestly, I really am down for whatever at this point. Do with me what you will.”
“Okay.” Gu Fei nodded with a smile.
***
When Jiang Cheng said “do with me what you will,” Gu Fei hadn’t really thought about what he was going to do.
But after the meal, when they put the bike back and were about to take a stroll outside as per their usual post-meal routine, Gu Fei’s mind was flooded with images of all the possibilities.
He must have been infected by Jiang Cheng’s horny gremlin energy.
Jiang Cheng, on the other hand, couldn’t stop yawning the whole time they were out walking.
By Gu Fei’s rough estimation, he’d yawned eleven times at the very least. He figured Jiang Cheng hadn’t slept very well in the days leading up to the break, so he had no choice but to bundle up his own wicked thoughts and keep them to himself.
“You should go back and sleep for a while.” Gu Fei kissed Jiang Cheng’s cheek under the cover of shadow.
“Yeah.” Jiang Cheng nodded, then patted his belly. “It’s pretty much all digested now… I’ve realized that I have no self-control at all when it comes to meat.”
“Eat away—I won’t resent you if you get fat,” said Gu Fei.
“I’ll resent myself , ” Jiang Cheng said, then glanced at him. “And I’ll resent you if you get fat. I’ll dump you right away. We shallow bitches are cold like that.”
“Uh-huh,” Gu Fei laughed. “We herbivores don’t gain weight as easily as you carnivores.”
***
Back at the apartment, Jiang Cheng washed up briefly and flopped onto the bed. Gu Fei leaned against the headboard and chatted with him for less than ten minutes before Jiang Cheng went quiet.
Gu Fei glanced down to find him fast asleep. He reached down and pressed his finger to the tip of Jiang Cheng’s nose, but it elicited no response. Jiang Cheng didn’t even react with his usual reflexive slap at being touched in his sleep.
Gu Fei tried calling out to him. “Cheng-ge?”
There was no reaction.
“Go ahead and sleep, then.” Gu Fei checked the time on his phone. “I’ll give you…one hour.”
He wondered if Jiang Cheng could hear him in his dreams—or perhaps he hadn’t started dreaming yet.
Gu Fei picked up his phone but realized he didn’t have much to do. Though he wasn’t in the mood to play games when Jiang Cheng wasn’t here, he didn’t feel like playing when he was, either—he only wanted to sit there quietly beside him.
Despite everything, Jiang Cheng’s mood had been affected by Gu Miao’s reaction today; he had looked a little fatigued since before the meal.
If he were his usual self, he wouldn’t have slept upon coming back; he would’ve been so pumped with energy that you could mistake him for a stallion that mounts the world, regardless of whether he was the one mounting or being mounted.
Gu Fei hadn’t expected things to turn out this way.
Forget Jiang Cheng, even he was blindsided by Gu Miao’s reaction.
Just two days ago, Gu Miao had tried to trace Jiang Cheng’s name on paper, and though she’d filled four whole pages without managing to learn how to write it, Gu Fei knew it was a sign that she missed Jiang Cheng very much.
The moment she saw Jiang Cheng today, though, her anxiety and unease got the upper hand. Gu Fei was all too familiar with that stiff posture and those cold eyes.
“Wait till you see what Cheng-ge can do.”
Hearing Jiang Cheng say that from behind his shoulder had touched Gu Fei and filled him with warmth—as always, Jiang Cheng charged bravely ahead with an indomitable, almost naive resilience. But now that they’d settled down, Gu Fei began to feel a creeping unease.
He’d always appreciated this innocent conviction from Jiang Cheng; it was something he didn’t have. Sometimes he felt like he had never been innocent in his life.
And precisely because he didn’t have that innocence, he felt uneasy.
No matter how much he wanted to be like Jiang Cheng—fearless, looking only at the path he was walking on—he had to admit how difficult that was for him.
He didn’t know what Jiang Cheng was thinking, or exactly what Cheng-ge could do, but he was terrified that Jiang Cheng would pick Gu Miao up as his own load to bear. If that happened, Jiang Cheng would really be weighed down.
He wanted Jiang Cheng to enjoy himself in this relationship, to have fun with no reservations, like Wang Xu or Pan Zhi. He wanted him to act like other people their age when they were in love, where the only thing to think about was love itself.
It didn’t matter that Jiang Cheng was Li Baoguo’s son, or that he’d been born here.
Almost twenty years of growing up in an entirely different environment had ensured he didn’t belong in this place.
Nothing in this town, whether decaying or flourishing, happy or sad, was ever supposed to have anything to do with him.
Yet he’d been flung back here. Gu Fei knew better than anyone just how Jiang Cheng had struggled through those initial days of disorientation and volatility in order to arrive at his ironclad conviction by the end.
Long-distance was a common form of relationship. Some people persisted, others gave up—it was all normal. But having to carry the weight of his boyfriend’s family at the same time as the weight of long-distance yearning…
Gu Fei was still spacing out when Jiang Cheng’s hand crept over his belly, startling him. When he glanced over, he realized that Jiang Cheng hadn’t woken up but had reached over out of sheer habit.
“Cheng-ge.” Gu Fei might have been feeling a little low, but this gesture from Jiang Cheng was undeniably provocative to someone who had been abstinent for the better part of a month. “Are you trying to test me right now?”
Jiang Cheng was blissfully unaware. Gu Fei didn’t try to keep his voice down, yet Jiang Cheng just pushed his face deeper into the pillow and then stopped moving again.
Gu Fei hesitated only for a moment before he gently moved Jiang Cheng’s hand away. Then he got out of bed and went to the bathroom to retrieve the necessary tools for the crime.
“Cheng-ge.” Gu Fei took off his shirt, leaned over the bed, and stared into Jiang Cheng’s face. “This dog-fucker is about to fuck the dog. Do you plan on sleeping through it?”
Frowning, Jiang Cheng let out a muffled groan. Gu Fei flung back the covers and pulled off Jiang Cheng’s pants in one swift movement, then climbed on top of him.
“…Mm?” Jiang Cheng groggily opened his eyes a narrow slit.
“Mm.” Gu Fei kissed him on the cheek, then reached his hand down.
Despite being dazed from sleep, Jiang Cheng was still at an age when one day away felt like three autumns apart, and one missed tryst felt like three years of unquenched thirst. Jiang Cheng’s desire rose just as quickly as he woke up.
Gu Fei thought the way Jiang Cheng looked at the moment—dazed but increasingly excited—was more tempting than anything he’d ever seen, from his breathing all the way to the tips of his hair.
When Gu Fei finally entered, his hands pressing against Jiang Cheng’s lower back, Jiang Cheng let out a very low moan. He reached back to grab Gu Fei’s leg, but Gu Fei took his hand and pinned it down onto the bed.
***
“This bed’s gonna break soon,” Jiang Cheng said, holding the pillow. His breathing had slowly returned to normal. “Fess up, Gu Fei.”
“What?” As Gu Fei got out of bed, he pulled the covers over Jiang Cheng’s body.
“You brought someone else up here for a tumble, didn’t you?” Jiang Cheng’s gaze focused on him from the corner of his eye. “This bed is practically falling apart. It squeaks every time I move a muscle.”
Gu Fei shot him a glance, but didn’t say anything.