Chapter 46 — Can I Give You a Kiss

“Damn, how could this photo exist?!”

Zhou Ziyi was shocked, staring straight at Yan Xiuzhi’s phone screen. The corridor in the photo was dimly lit, with Sheffield’s back to the camera, pressing someone against the wall. Although the person’s face against the wall wasn’t clear, judging from the attire, it was Zhou Ziyi!

“…Sheffield!” Zhou Ziyi’s gaze was cold, “He’s messing with me?!”

At this moment, many thoughts raced through Zhou Ziyi’s mind. He wondered if Sheffield deliberately had someone take the photo, wondered if he had been too gentle when beating someone before, wondered what the person who sent the photo to Yan Xiuzhi was up to… His brows furrowed, and the anger that had just subsided surged back, making him agitated.

“So, it really is you.” Yan Xiuzhi retrieved his phone, his tone even colder than before. “I think you owe me an explanation.”

“Do you need an explanation? This beast forced me!” Zhou Ziyi was so angry, “This lunatic jumped up to kiss me, and I kicked him away immediately! Didn’t you ask me how I got hurt? It was from fighting with him!”

Yan Xiuzhi frowned, “Why did he force a kiss on you? Is he your ex-lover?”

“Bah! It’s just him?!” Zhou Ziyi was so angry that he felt disgusted and angry when talking about Sheffield, “He is just a bastard! An insulting scum! He told a bunch of people that he was going to offer money to sleep with me. Now, everyone in that circle knows he wants to sleep with me. This beast even dares to mention it to my face during the class reunion! This piece of trash makes me feel sick just looking at it!”

Yan Xiuzhi’s brow furrowed even tighter: “Why didn’t you tell me?”

“I feel disgusted just mentioning this kind of cockroach! Besides, what’s the point of telling you this kind of nonsense?” Zhou Ziyi sneered, “That day, didn’t I score 147 points? It’s because of this trash that he insisted on taking me to play pool, so I was going to slap him in the face. He lost nearly 100,000 dollars to me, and he losing face completely. It’s not surprising that he wants to mess with me.”

Upon hearing this, Yan Xiuzhi realized why Zhou Ziyi achieved such good results that day, but he was still not very happy.

To vent his anger from being insulted, even if the anger is released, his heart may not necessarily feel completely relieved.

Yan Xiuzhi asked again, “So, was it his doing today?”

“I don’t know, maybe.” Zhou Ziyi himself was very irritated., “He wasn’t among the people I was drinking with before. I happened to meet him outside, he stopped me and said a few words, then suddenly attacked me. I originally thought it was a coincidence, but now it seems that he might have set me up.”

Yan Xiuzhi said, “If he intentionally targeted you, then there must be an insider among your so-called ‘friends’.”

“Yan Xiuzhi, can you stop bothering me? Do you think I can’t figure this out myself? Do I need you to tell me?” Zhou Ziyi couldn’t hold back his frustration when he heard him keep questioning, “I know I should have been more cautious. I’ve embarrassed you, can I apologize to you? Can I just not go out in the future? Is it okay if I stay at home and never go out?”

Yan Xiuzhi, feeling that he was not getting to the point, also became a little annoyed, “I’m not trying to stop you from going out, I just want you to be more careful! Do you think these photos that were sent to me are only targeting you? Also, if you still have such crazy pursuers, it’s best to be honest with me in advance.”

“He’s just a damn pursuer!” Zhou Ziyi said, “I used to have pursuers lined up from here to France! Do I have to report each of their names to you? You’re being too nosy, President Yan!”

“This is the consequence you didn’t mention,” Yan Xiuzhi said, “Being forcefully kissed, and the photo was even sent to me!”

“Even if I tell you, what can you do? Are you going to stand up for me, suppress Sheffield? Don’t be ridiculous, I have some self-awareness!”
Zhou Ziyi found it laughable. “Just because a guy touched me, does it mean I lose a piece of flesh? When he recover from the two ounces of flesh he lost in the lower abdomen, that’s another story. Am I supposed to just passively accept being nibbled by him?!”

Yan Xiuzhi said coldly, “So you’re okay with being forcibly kissed? If I hadn’t asked, you were planning to completely… huh?!”
Zhou Ziyi grabbed the man’s collar and fiercely kissed him! Lip to lip, right in the middle. It was more like a collision of mouths than a kiss, a collision that almost caused both of them to bite their lips.”

The collision left Yan Xiuzhi completely frozen, his mind went blank, and he could only stare in shock at the young man who was too close.

At that moment, the scent of alcohol from the young man seemed to have reached Yan Xiuzhi’s nose. Temperature, touch, sight, smell, everything vividly reminded Yan Xiuzhi—he had been kissed.

Again.

Zhou Ziyi forcefully pressed his lips against his for three seconds, then abruptly pulled away, his angry voice tinged with hoarseness: “I just forcibly kissed you now, don’t you want to live?”

With that, Zhou Ziyi turned and walked away. A few seconds later, he rushed into his own room, and the door slammed shut with a deafening ‘bang’.

Yan Xiuzhi watched the direction the young man was leaving in, stunned, and didn’t move for a long time.

After some time passed, the man slowly raised his hand and touched his lips.

Uncontrollably, his mind recalled that morning, when the young man, reeking of alcohol, clung to him and hugged him tightly. Then, just before releasing him, the young man suddenly lifted his head and planted a loud kiss on his cheek.

“Ge, you are really the best, the very best!”

The words of the slightly intoxicated young man lingered in Yan Xiuzhi’s ears, and only then did he realize that he even remembered Zhou Ziyi’s expression at that time.

He still remembered his slightly curved, sparkling eyes at that time.

Suddenly, a thought popped into Yan Xiuzhi’s mind.

— This time, he will surely remember it.

*
Zhou Ziyi slammed the door, leaned against the door, and suddenly collapsed to the ground as if all the strength had been drained from his body.

“Oh my god…!”

He covered his eyes, feeling like his whole body was burning up, and his heart was pounding: “What the hell did I do!!!”

Just now, Yan Xiuzhi’s words made Zhou Ziyi inexplicably feel that this guy was talking without considering the consequences. He always said ‘tell him, tell him, tell him’ what’s the use of telling him? Would he really influence his own work for someone who got married because of a contract?
Besides, Zhou Ziyi was already desperately trying to forget that disgusting forced kiss from Sheffield, but Yan Xiuzhi kept bringing it up, which made Zhou Ziyi unable to hold back.

— Fine, since you keep saying that, let you also taste what it’s like to be forcefully kissed by a man!

This thought suddenly exploded in Zhou Ziyi’s mind, and then impulsively, faster than reason, he kissed Yan Xiuzhi.

At the 2nd second of the kiss, some rationality suddenly returned. Zhou Ziyi’s mind was filled with a huge ‘!!!’, and then he instinctively pushed away.

In order not to lose face, he reluctantly threw out a harsh remark and then hurried back to the room.

As soon as the door was closed, his true nature was revealed.

“I must be crazy!” The young man scratched his messy hair in frustration, covering his head. “What is all this mess!”

Now, after forcefully kissing Yan Xiuzhi, the forced scene with Sheffield was basically eliminated, and his mind kept replaying Yan Xiuzhi’s scene! It’s an endless loop that he can’t stop even if he want to!

While Zhou Ziyi ordered himself, “Don’t think about it! Don’t think about it!”, an idea occasionally popped up – Yan Xiuzhi actually has pretty eyes when you look at him up close, and he smells pretty good too…

“Aahhhhh!!!”

Zhou Ziyi fell to the ground, feeling that his brain was becoming more and more uncontrollable, and his heart was getting more and more desperate. A certain ominous premonition was lingering in his heart.

The most desperate thing was that scene kept repeating in his mind, and he surprisingly didn’t feel sick!

The disgust and anger felt from the forced kiss by Sheffield previously, vanished completely in front of Yan Xiuzhi!

“Darn it…” Zhou Ziyi felt that it must have been because he had compared Yan Xiuzhi to Sheffield too many times before. When he made the comparison, he would involuntarily think, “Instead of being with Sheffield, I’d rather be with Yan Xiuzhi,” especially when he remembered Sheffield saying he wanted to sleep with him. Yes, it must be because of this, that he now felt that it wasn’t disgusting to be intimate with Yan Xiuzhi!

It’s all Sheffield’s fault!

Zhou Ziyi crouched on the ground and thought for several seconds, suddenly realizing that he could hear his own heartbeat.

Thump thump, thump thump, thump thump, heavy and rapid. But at this moment, compared to the previous anger and impatience, it was mixed with other complex emotions. Zhou Ziyi consciously controlled his breathing rhythm, trying to relax, only to discover that he had just been so nervous that he was almost breathless.

His true emotion was actually nervous.

He was nervous when he suddenly came to his senses after kissing Yan Xiuzhi forcefully; nervous when he tried to maintain his momentum and speak harshly to him; and even now, alone in the room, recalling that scene still made him nervous.

Zhou Ziyi unconsciously raised his hand, touched his lips, and then recoiled as if he had touched something hot.

Just like when Yan Xiuzhi forcefully kissed by him and suddenly bounced away.

He touched his face again and pinched his earlobes, finding them both burning hot. If he were to look in the mirror right now, he would surely see a version of himself resembling a boiled crab.

“No way…”

A sudden thought flashed through Zhou Ziyi’s mind, seeming unbelievable yet somehow fitting. This thought uncontrollably brought to mind every little detail of his interactions with Yan Xiuzhi, from bickering to tacit cooperation and unexpected turnarounds. There were also memories of Yan Xiuzhi coming to pick him up on their wedding day, and asked Yan Xiuzhi, “Do you think I’m a complete failure?” And the first thing he saw when he opened his eyes after being rescued from drowning was Yan Xiuzhi.

Every scene seemed to highlight Yan Xiuzhi’s virtues, and Zhou Ziyi always seemed to receive help tinged with a warm touch. While despising himself, he wondered if it had been too long since he had felt human care, and a little sunshine would make him warmth. Yet, at the same time, he realized that after being cared for, he would pay attention to the rare person who showed concern for him, which seemed entirely normal.

The picture in his mind was finally fixed at the end of the wedding ceremony, where Yan Xiuzhi suddenly surprised Zhou Ziyi and kissed him with a slight smile on his face.

A certain ominous premonition seemed about to become a reality.

Zhou Ziyi lay back, collapsed near the door, staring blankly at the ceiling. After a long while, he once again covered his eyes and muttered almost inaudibly.

“I’m finished…”