ehess: 015-01

015-01If you are not reading on readerfeedertranslations.blogspot.com, you are supporting theft. Please read on readerfeeder original site only.

After Li Dong’s warning, Xu Xingling was a lot more careful to keep his voice down to try and not disturb Li Dong’s sleep again.If you are not reading on readerfeedertranslations.blogspot.com, you are supporting theft. Please read on readerfeeder original site only.

When Li Dong made it back to bed, he lay there in a daze until he felt someone quietly slipping into bed beside him. The figure turned and clung to him, pasting themselves against his back. It felt really warm. Li Dong soon heard a small snore, as if it was a cat that had just approached him.If you are not reading on readerfeedertranslations.blogspot.com, you are supporting theft. Please read on readerfeeder original site only.

Li Dong thought that the snores would be too noisy to fall asleep to, but he soon found himself nodding off.

“Second Young Master…” Xu Xingling mumbled in his sleep, snuggling against Li Dong. He wiggled around a bit to find a more comfortable position, and settled down again to continue to sleep.

The next time Li Dong was awake, it was already late into the night.

Li Dong felt a bit hungry, but he didn’t know how to cook.

“Hi…” Li Dong scratched at Xu Xingling’s chin with his fingers. Li Dong gently whispered to him, “Quickly, wake up.”

The young man woke up from his shallow sleep and immediately opened his eyes. He looked up with hazy eyes at Li Dong. “Second Young Master, am I still dreaming?” Otherwise, how would I be able to wake up to your face?

This was definitely some extravagant dream!

“What dream? Get up and cook.” Li Dong patted him gently on the cheek to wake him up more. “If you still feel sleepy, go back to sleep after we eat.”

Xu Xingling was completely awake now. However, his expression immediately dropped as he said, “What about you? Are you leaving tonight after dinner?”

Xingling shot a look at Li Dong that looked like he was about to cry. Just the thought of Li Dong going back home brought him to tears.

“Don’t look at me like that.” Li Dong lifted his side of the covers. “I didn’t go home last night, so I definitely have to return tonight.” Yesterday afternoon, Wang Yun had called him to ask him to go home to have dinner together. Li Dong had refused at that time since he wasn’t sure when he would finish tossing around in bed with Xingling.

“You’re already so old, why don’t you move out and live by yourself/” Xu XIngling asked. Li Dong was only twenty-two this year, however, and it had not been long since he had graduated from college. Thus, he had not had the time to move out and establish a more independent life yet.

Second Young Master’s family was so rich, however, that it was completely possible to buy a house for himself without considering even finding a job.

“My elder brother likes living with and keeping the family together.” Li Dong was stunned. This was the first time he had unconsciously mentioned Han Tianlin in a conversation with Xingling aimlessly.

Xu Xingling was also stunned. When Li Dong spoke of the name, he found his heart would still throb. However, how it was out of fear and not happiness or excitement.

“I-I’’ll go cook.” Xingling breathed, and he rushed out of bed and fled into the kitchen.

“Alright.” Li Dong also didn’t want to say anything more. He was still thinking about Han Tianlin and his effect on Xingling. To tell the truth, he didn’t personally feel much anymore in response to such an uneven power dynamic. He was numb.

Three years can’t be compared with three months, and three months can’t be comparable to three weeks. Li Dong had only spent three full days with Xu up until now.

It is obvious, however, that Xu Xingling had redirected his obsession onto himself, Li Dong, now. It’s not out of love, but out of pure loneliness, Li Dong understands this.

“Second Young Master, do you prefer asparagus or broccoli?” About five minutes after rushing out, Xingling stuck his head back through the bedroom door to ask this, looking a bit embarrassed.

“Either is fine. I’m not picky about food.” Li Dong pulled on his coat that he had shed when going to bed and headed to the living room to make some tea for himself.

Xu XIngling made a meat dish, a vegetable dish, and also steamed an egg. He was in a hurry to cook, so he only made the three simplest of dishes in half an hour. When he finished stir-frying the dishes, the rich had coincidentally just finished cooking and was ready to serve.

As a child who had been more independent and self-reliant since childhood, Xingling’s cooking skill was not too shabby.

Li Dong thinks his food is edible, and that’s all LI Dong expects from a future partner.

The meal was eaten silently. The man who normally would be constantly chirping away about some topic or another surprised Li Dong with his current silence.

When he wasn’t speaking, XIngling could be considered to have a more quiet temperament. Just looking at him silently like this, one really could see the literary and artistic skill peaking through his personality. Completely different from the undefinable man he was when he was more talkative,

“I’m full.” Li Dong announced as he put down his chopsticks and drank the rest of his cup of tea. He was ready to start heading home.

“Second Young Master, I’ll see you off, then!” Xu Xingling offered as he anxiously stood. He followed Li Dong to the door.

“No need. It’s too cold outside. Go back and tidy up and then head back to bed. You need some more rest.” Li Dong denied Xingling’s offer to walk him out and blocked him from following him out the door.

“Second Young Master…” Xu Xingling suddenly latched onto Li Dong’s arm, hugging it tight. He stared at Li Dong with large eyes as he said, “does the previous agreement still stand?”

Li Dong tugged gently at his own arm and questioned, “What agreement?”

“Don’t mention Eldest Young Master in front of you and try my best to get over him.”

Li Dong stood there for a while in contemplation. He looked at Xu Xingling and suddenly felt like they should meet each other anew again. The first time Li Dong had seen Xu XIngling, he had seemed relatively normal, but then… Li Dong debated the matter with himself.

“Do I?” Xu Xingling lowered his face and asked again. He felt nervous because Li Dong hadn’t answered directly and couldn’t help but bite his lips in contemplation.

“Your lips are already cracked and you still bite them.” Li Dong admonished. He raised his hand to pinch at Xu Xingling’s lip and gently pry it from between his teeth, forbidding him from biting it again. “Did you bite your lip hard enough to bleed yourself, or did someone else do that to you?” Xu Xingling might not actually remember this fact as he had been so far gone due to the drug last night. Li Dong just wanted to check whether or not Xingling remembered what had happened to him.

“I bit it myself.” Xu Xingling said. “They only managed to take off my clothes. You arrived just before they could actually do anything to me.”

“So you were sober enough to remember?” Li Dong was surprised.

“No, I just have a vague impression of what had happened. I do know that they didn’t manage to do anything to me, though,” Xingling asserted. He leaned into Li Dong and said, “Second Young Master, I’m so flustered now. I don’t know why.”

He just feels a bit uneasy and a bit depressed.

“Are you sick?” Li Dong asked as he gently started pushing Xingling back through his door, preparing to leave. “Don’t think too much, just head to bed already,”

Li Dong detangled himself from Xingling. Xingling could only stand at his door and watch Li Dong walk away. Xingling found that he didn’t like watching such a scene.

It felt to him like that one time in his childhood when he visited his grandparents’ home in the countryside for summer vacation. Soon, the summer was ending and he had to head back to school. That pure, unadulterated reluctance to give summer break up was the same reluctance Xingling was feeling now.

Back in his living room, Xingling went around doing some chores before taking a bath. 

Xingling hesitated for a moment, but he couldn’t resist sending a text to Li Dong. “Second Young Master, I refrigerated the remaining dishes and washed the chopsticks and bowls already. I also took a bath just now. Now I’m sleepy and lying in bed, but my mind is still full of you.”

“...Go apply some of your ass cream.” As Li Dong was walking up the stairs to his home, he chuckled and replied to Xingling’s message humorously.

“Alright. I’ll go apply it, and I’ll even allow you to admire my tender, white ass tomorrow.”

“Who said I would see you tomorrow?”

Xu Xingling saw this and clutched his phone tighter, feeling like he might cry. Isn’t this blatant bullying? “Who doesn’t see each other every day when they’re in love?”

“Who the hell’s in love with you?”

“Well, I’m self-respecting now…. Like you said you liked…”

“That’s cute.”

“Really? I’m happy ^^”

Li Dong is questioning Xu Xingling’s thought process as of now.

“Don’t start getting clingy again. Go to bed and go to work tomorrow,” Li Dong advised.

“But I’m not sleepy at all~ I slept too long during the day.” Xu Xingling typed giddily. “It felt good to sleep in Second Young Master’s arms. I could see you as soon as I opened my eyes.”

Li Dong didn’t reply for a while since he was taking a shower. He returned to his room to see countless messages that had flooded his phone during that time. The whole homepage was full of Xu Xingling’s solo monologuing.

“Do you know that you’re being clingy?”

“Being honest, yes.”

Li Dong didn’t bother gracing that with a reply. He threw his phone away from him and went to bed, falling asleep almost immediately.

---

translator notes:

welcome back to me and all my readers. yes, updates will be this incredibly sporatic from now one; apologies in advance, but I'm premed so college is not being kind to me ^^. thanks for reading! i genuinely appreciate you guys so much. hope you all have agood day, and for those in college like me, that your spring break went well, is going well, or will be well.

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