Translator: Xena
Editor: tart
The shameful haunting feeling in his heart was ruthlessly exposed by its instigator.
Regardless of the consequences, Jiang Yao picked up a car pillow and pressed it towards Duan Zhuxian’s harsh mouth. When he was about to hit the target, he encountered a strong resistance.
The pillow slipped out of his hand and fell to his feet.
The next second, his wrist was clutched.
Duan Zhuxian stared at him while pressing his fingertips on his pulse, stroking it.
It was very light, but to Jiang Yao, it felt like some kind of provocation.
Jiang Yao was stunned for half a second, then all the blood in his body rushed to his head at once. He exploded and threw a punch at Duan Zhuxian’s chest but was caught accurately by Duan Zhuxian’s other hand, as easily as catching a kitten.
Because of an accident during his childhood, Jiang Yao was sent by his parents to learn martial arts for several years. His punches were famously fast and fierce, causing those aggressive and violent second-generation rich kids to take a detour when they see him.
Since then, he had never lost a fight, even when he was at a disadvantage. What more in a small space such as this where the two of them were equally restrained and miscalculations were made one after another.
He was unable to accept this completely disadvantageous situation for a moment. He looked carefully among the chaos and found that Duan Zhuxian had unbuckled his seat belt at some point. His tall body leaned out of the seat, covering him in his own seat at an oppressive angle.
No wonder every move was so easy, it turned out he was cheating.
“Duan Zhuxian, aren’t you being unreasonable?”
Jiang Yao questioned loudly.
Duan Zhuxian said nothing and just raised his eyebrows.
Jiang Yao was so angry as he struggled in vain to try to kick Duan Zhuxian with his feet. Due to the double restraints of the safety belt and Duan Zhuxian, he missed several kicks until his legs were pinned by Duan Zhuxian.
“Stop making trouble, or you’ll be the one who gets tired.”
A deep, slow voice came to his ears. Jiang Yao paused and raised his head. He met Duan Zhuxian’s drooping eyes and felt that there was a strong sense of ridicule in them.
All past events flashed through his mind.
The evil fire in Jiang Yao’s chest suddenly burned even more vigorously. He pulled his hand with all his strength and almost broke free from the restraints.
Duan Zhuxian simply put his wrists together, held them with one hand, raised them above his head and pushed them towards the back of the chair.
The back of his head hit the soft and delicate leather. Jiang Yao was stunned for a moment.
That night, Duan Zhuxian also used this same position to hold him down until the back of his head was deeply buried in the pillow. Then he pulled out his tie and tied him up when he was not paying attention.
All the tricks used were shady and had no martial ethics at all.
Bad memories and premonitions flooded into Jiang Yao’s mind, causing his scalp to go numb.
In the blink of an eye, Duan Zhuxian raised his free hand and his fingertips fell on his tie.
Jiang Yao’s hair stood on end, and he shouted in response, “Let me go if you can, let’s have a fair fight outside!”
“You said that I’m unreasonable.”
Duan Zhuxian lowered his eyes and looked at the young man who was gritting his teeth while curled up under him. He lightly touched his necktie with his fingers and slowly leaned on the armrest beside the other person.
Jiang Yao’s chest suddenly heaved violently as he breathed a sigh of relief.
Duan Zhuxian didn’t want to repeat the same trick and just wanted to straighten his messed up tie.
Just like a beast in human clothing; after revealing its savagery, it must immediately take care of its own skin in order to maintain its hypocrisy.
The car suddenly fell silent, even quieter than the night outside. The two of them just paused there facing each other, one above and one below.
One clamped the other’s wrists while the latter was ready to fight back at any time. As their heavy breathing entangled together, the few short seconds seemed longer than eternity.
After a moment, Jiang Yao twisted his hand with difficulty, turned his face to the side, and lowered his eyes until his eyelashes just covered the small flames under his eyes.
He moved his lips, “It hurts.”
The droopy face and displeased tone, coupled with that heart-thumpingly beautiful face, seemed to have a strange effect, like a furry cat’s paw scratching at Duan Zhuxian’s heart.
From beginning to the end, he didn’t put in too much strength. He just made use of the spatial advantage and psychological tactics to avoid causing too much pain to the man.
Besides, Jiang Yao’s skin was too white and delicate. If he pressed with his fingers for a while, it would leave red marks. He had just experienced this a few days ago, and didn’t want to leave rough marks on it all the time.
It was rare for him to see Jiang Yao surrender to him, so his heart softened. He slowly loosened his fingertips on the other’s pulse, and then released his fingers that were circling the wrist bones.
Three seconds later, there was a “bang”.
Jiang Yao picked up the pillow and covered Duan Zhuxian’s face with it without holding back any strength.
Assistant Lin returned to the roadside carrying a briefcase and happened to see this scene through the car window.
He remembered that a few days ago, President Duan reminded him that Mr. Jiang had a bad temper.
Now it seemed that Mr. Jiang’s temper was probably only directed at President Duan.
After figuring this out, Assistant Lin broke out in a hot sweat, as if he had discovered some shocking secret. From now on, he would keep it a secret and dare not think about it anymore.
After the noise in the car died down, he quietly got into the driver’s seat and started the car like an invisible man.
The dispute was unilaterally provoked by Jiang Yao, and was also unilaterally ended by Jiang Yao, leaving only the cold back of his head to people. Even the red highlights at the ends of his hair exuded a strong sense of dissatisfaction.
Duan Zhuxian tilted his head slightly, his dark gaze skillfully falling on the back that he had sketched countless times before, then slowly moved up from the slender waist, all the way along the cold-white neck, and stopping at the end of the hair.
Jiang Yao’s hair was as soft as he had imagined over the years.
That night, he held the back of Jiang Yao’s head one-handedly from behind, rubbed the scalp with his fingertips, and buried his fingers in that warm hair which he’d never touched before until his fingers were completely filled with the strands.
Whenever he came to a critical moment, Jiang Yao would raise his neck as if dying, while cursing in dissatisfaction. However, the back of his head would unconsciously move closer to his palm, falling into the trap again and again.
A lock of red hair would slip out from between his fingers, and as he would tighten his hold, it would curl up and tremble, like the most beautiful feathers of a peacock or the proud tail of a red fox.
Jiang Yao was completely unaware of the almost explicit gaze behind him as he concentrated on sulking.
In fact, as early as when they first met and his entire attention was caught by this perfect rival, he’d keenly realized that Duan Zhuxian was not as gentle as he seemed.
But at that time, he admired Duan Zhuxian and felt that Duan Zhuxian was a person worthy of his in-depth exploration, so every time he interacted with Duan Zhuxian, he was full of infinite expectations.
Even accidentally touching that dark line of sight could inspire him to feel the pleasure of digging for minerals along a deep passage.
But now, he simply thought of Duan Zhuxian as a beast in human skin.
If one peeled off that layer of skin, there was nothing but perversion.
*
Jiang Yao took off his shoes after arriving at the Jiang family’s. As soon as he entered the house, he said to the housekeeper, “Don’t let any strangers in.”
After saying that, he walked straight to the island in the kitchen and took a few big gulps of water. When he turned around, he found that someone had been invited into the house by the housekeeper and was respectfully served a cup of tea.
Jiang Yao frowned. “I told you not to let anyone in.”
The housekeeper was stunned. “Isn’t this Mr. Son-in-law?”
Jiang Yao was shocked and looked extremely uncomfortable. He glanced at Duan Zhuxian. “Son-in-law my ass. You haven’t even passed the door yet1He meant they weren’t married yet..”
The housekeeper obviously didn’t expect the situation to develop like this. She felt a little awkward standing between the two of them and turned to Duan Zhuxian for help.
Duan Zhuxian sat on the sofa and took a sip of tea, then said calmly, “It doesn’t matter. Since our future relationship is already set in stone, this title will belong to me sooner or later.”
Jiang Yao was speechless, slightly shocked by Duan Zhuxian’s shamelessness.
Then, he recalled the moment when Duan Zhuxian casually refused to give him the title of “friend” outside their high school. He was in a state of panic, with countless negative emotions such as surprise, embarrassment, disappointment, and so on strangling his throat.
“Yeah, you know it’s in the future.”
With a sudden desire for revenge, Jiang Yao put on a stern face and glanced at the man on the sofa from the corner of his eyes.
“So why should I give you this status in advance?”
Seeing Duan Zhuxian’s calm expression freeze for a moment, Jiang Yao continued to maintain his aloof attitude and left the living room with brisk steps.
After returning to his room, the noble and cold expression on Jiang Yao’s face melted instantly, and Duan Zhuxian’s sudden strange expression replayed in his mind over and over again.
The corners of his lips couldn’t help but curl. He put on his boxing gloves, punched the sandbag several times, and raised his hands high.
“Contestant Jiang Yao, K.O.!”
Then he struck a victory pose and walked half a circle around the room.
In fact, Jiang Yao was a very generous person and wasn’t someone who held grudges.
However, Duan Zhuxian was an exception.
Over the years, he had beaten Duan Zhuxian countless times in his heart, and now he finally had the chance to take revenge.
It felt a bit refreshing.
But it wasn’t completely satisfying.
After all, what Duan Zhuxian really cared about was business interests, and he was not too interested in things like “status”.
Nevertheless,he sincerely wanted to be accepted and recognized by Duan Zhuxian ten years ago.
Jiang Yao slowly bit open his boxing gloves.
Somehow, his heart felt a little uncomfortable again after just a few blows.
Before packing his luggage, Jiang Yao called his parents who were on a business trip and told them about his cohabitation with Duan Zhuxian.
Yuan Li seemed to be unaware of this and only said with a hint of relief, “Seeing you two get along so well, I feel relieved.”
Jiang Yao, who had just had a fight with someone, was choked by the word “get along” and finally understood what it meant to “suffer in silence”.
Yuan Li was very busy, so she told him to take good care of himself while living outside and told him that no matter what choice he made, his family would support him unconditionally.
After hanging up the phone, Jiang Yao completely suppressed his remaining rebellious spirit.
Ever since he was a kid, his mother and father never pushed him to do anything, always saying “we won’t make decisions about your life”.
But the more open-minded he became, the more he didn’t want to disappoint them. It was hard to explain what kind of reverse psychology it was.
Half an hour later, Jiang Yao packed several pieces of clothes and daily necessities into his suitcase. Instead of going downstairs immediately, he lay down on the bed and turned on the record player on the bedside table. He planned to listen to some music before leaving, and at the same time, to vent his anger on a certain someone who always knew how to make him angry.
Unexpectedly, he fell asleep to the melodious guqin music. When he woke up, an hour had passed and no one had come to call him.
Duan Zhuxian should have left.
After all, according to rumors, President Duan’s time was charged in seconds. There was no way he would use it to wait for a rival he doesn’t see eye to eye with.
Jiang Yao stretched lazily and staggered out of the bedroom, but then unexpectedly saw Duan Zhuxian sitting on the sofa in the living room.
He was still drinking tea, looking indescribably relaxed.
Tsk, someone is really good at pretending…
The surprised Jiang Yao thought to himself.
So he deliberately ridiculed, “I didn’t expect Mr. Duan to be so patient.”
Duan Zhuxian put down his teacup and spoke slowly, “Just a little more than you.”
Jiang Yao’s first reaction was that Duan Zhuxian was comparing his feelings for Shen Tang with his. He raised his eyebrows and curled the corners of his lips sarcastically. “Then I really can’t match President Duan’s perseverance of hitting the south wall2From the idiom “Don’t turn around until you hit the south wall”. It means ‘to stubbornly insist on one’s own ideas’.”
Duan Zhuxian replied, “Although you’re not good at Chinese, I still take this as a compliment.”
Jiang Yao: “…”
His fist hit cotton and was even ridiculed at the same time.
He gritted his teeth and secretly made up his mind.
One day, a certain someone’s hypocritical face would reveal an expression of losing control.
Together with the housekeeper and Assistant Lin, Jiang Yao lifted four heavy suitcases into the car. As he watched his home gradually recede from outside the car window, he constantly had the feeling that something was amiss, but he couldn’t figure out why.
It couldn’t be that Duan Zhuxian wanted to live with him, so he deliberately moved Old Man Duan out and was in a hurry for him to move out late at night, right?
Jiang Yao pinched his eyebrows and almost made himself laugh.
He stole a glance to the side.
A face hidden among light and shadow was resting with eyes closed, looking as if he didn’t care much about the future.
It was as if him being there or not wouldn’t have any impact on Duan Zhuxian’s private life.
【 The Author has something to say】
It won’t have much of an impact, it’s just partying every night (random shipping version)3I’m sorry if I can’t interpret this right. in the sentence, I think author is talking about the impact Jiang Yao will have on Duan Zhuxian’s life being extravagance and debauchery. Not just partying every night, more like indulgence on pleasures (夜夜笙歌罢). As for the phrase in the parenthesis, (乱嗑乱讲版) I researched and I think it has something to do with shipping a CP that one likes? The very literal translation would be ‘random eating and talking nonsense version’, which doesn’t make sense to me.
