Yu Guang couldn’t refuse at all. He restrained himself and gripped the edge of his shirt, nodding slightly towards Ye Si.

Pushing the paper and ink on his desk inward, he whispered, “Senior, please sit…”

Ye Si didn’t bother with formalities, leisurely taking a seat.

Although Chen Zhongguo was at the podium, his gaze had been on the window where Ye Si was sitting. Seeing Ye Si settle in, the calligraphy class began as usual.

Chen Zhongguo opened the projection video and demonstrated the method of writing in a lean script.

Although this semester, whether by coincidence or intentional, he had come into contact with Ye Si many times, he still felt nervous every time they met.

Ye Si’s presence was simply undeniable, and the elegant and ethereal woody scent seemed gentle as water, yet it could penetrate every pore without exception.

It was tormenting yet addictive.

Yu Guang’s nose twitched slightly, sitting straight, his eyes fixed forward as if he was attentively watching the teacher writing on the board on the platform. But in reality, he was thinking:

Senior Ye Si seemed to have sprayed a bit too much perfume today.

But it wouldn’t be unpleasant overall.

Yu Guang drifted off a bit, gazing vacantly at Chen Zhongguo.

The old voice explained the key points to note when picking up a brush, and this was the first time Yu Guang had seen him drop his usual demeanor and adopt a more teacher-like style of teaching.

Yu Guang had a vague premonition—these changes were all because of the man sitting beside him.

Ye Si was sitting in the seat to his right, only half an arm’s length away. They looked like a couple attending classes together on countless college campuses.

As soon as the thought crossed his mind, Yu Guang’s heart skipped a beat.

His right hand was resting normally on the table, pressing down on the paper, while his left hand, hidden from his sight, quietly clenched the edge of his shirt under the desk.

In his peripheral vision, Ye Si stared at his hand pressing the paper for several seconds in silence, then took away the stack of paper that Yu Guang had practiced on before and looked at it carefully.

Yu Guang didn’t dare to breathe, his lips slightly whitened as he intentionally moistened them with his tongue, giving them a faint pink and moist appearance.

“The characters are written nicely,” Ye Si said casually.

But at least it counted as praise.

Yu Guang’s mood lifted, and he quietly perked up his ears, tilting his head slightly towards Ye Si.

This action, seen by Ye Si, softened the curve of his lips slightly —

Like a slow-witted bunny, ears raised, hopping towards the wolf’s den.

But Ye Si knew full well that the little fellow in front of him was not some gentle and weak rabbit; under the pure white mask was clearly a sly and cunning fox.

With a hum of laughter, Ye Si put away the paper full of copied characters.

Deliberately, his actions grazed the edge of the paper across the back of Yu Guang’s hand.

Soft, subtle, suggestive.

Like the touch of holding hands or fingertips brushing.

As expected, Ye Si saw Yu Guang’s lowered eyelashes suddenly tremble, and his lips tightened once again.

All these small yet intimate actions were sparked by him—

For some reason, Ye Si felt satisfied.

Satisfied, a feeling he hadn’t experienced in a long time.

The unintentional emotional response seemed to be like manduca grass falling into carbonated water, boiling and erupting into a strong chemical reaction.

There seemed to be the sound of bubbles bursting in the left ventricle, which made Ye Si gaze contemplatively for a moment.

Emotions are useless.

This was one of Ye Si’s mottos, always serving as a timely correction.

Thoughts circled back to silence once more.

Those lightly floating, bursting bubbles also disappeared without a trace.

Ye Si, as usual, lightly curved his lips, his smile not reaching his eyes.

After a moment, he pointed to the character ‘避’ (avoidance) in the Song Huizong’s “Summer Day Poem Collection” that Yu Guang had copied on the paper.

“You didn’t write the bottom part properly.”

Yu Guang was stunned, and Ye Si moved closer, the woody fragrance coming off him like waves crashing against the shore.

He was adrift in the waves.

Until Ye Si’s slender fingertips lightly tapped the surface of the paper.

Yu Guang snapped back to reality, subconsciously following Ye Si’s fingertips to look at the problem with the character ‘避.’

As he looked, however, his gaze uncontrollably shifted to Ye Si’s fingertip resting on the paper.

He liked Ye Si’s hands the most, because they were truly beautiful.

Calling them beautiful wasn’t feminine; on the contrary, Ye Si’s hands were very masculine—

Wide and large knuckles, the veins on the back of his hand bulging when exerting force, resembling tendrils clinging to a tree trunk, sinuous and sensual.

In his dreams, they had intertwined countless times, like lock and key, with broken edges fitting perfectly, inseparable…

Ye Si seemed to notice him daydreaming and gave him a sidelong smile that could mean anything.

But the senior would never guess what audacious fantasies were swirling in his mind; Yu Guang silently pondered.

The beautiful hand moved away from Yu Guang’s line of sight.

Ye Si then extended his hand towards him, the perfect curve of his chin indicating the brush held in Yu Guang’s hand.

Understanding his intention, Yu Guang suddenly had a somewhat reckless idea—

He aimed the ink-dipped brush tip at himself, presented the clean brush handle obediently, and handed it over to Ye Sis palm.

As he withdrew his hand, the seemingly docile rabbit briefly bared its sharp teeth.

Yu Guang moved his pinky finger.

Gently, his fingertip trailed along the raised veins of Ye Si’s back of the hand, almost imperceptibly brushing against the knuckles.

The most comfortable sensation for humans comes from gentle physical contact with loved ones or lovers—such as holding hands, embracing, or touching faces…

Yu Guang had forgotten where he had read about such descriptions in which book and on which page, but his excellent memory for written words, honed through rigorous training, allowed him to vividly recall this passage.

But he had almost never enjoyed such a comfortable sensation.

He didn’t like intimate physical contact, nor did he consider those people connected to him by blood as relatives.

But uniquely with Ye Si, he seemed to experience the comfortable sensation described in that passage.

—Since the last time he pretended to fall into Ye Si’s embrace.

Holding hands, embracing… things he never dared to dream of, but he experienced them all during that ‘accident.’

He tasted sweetness.

He began to crave it, insatiably.

He wanted to drown in the sea-like woody fragrance every moment, hoping that the nearly imperceptible electric current when their skins touched would never dissipate…

But the impulse fueled by hormones was not long-lasting; it was a poisonous thing.

Yu Guang retrieved his rationality from the hallucinogenic sensation of being intoxicated, amidst the ringing in his ears, and looked at Ye Si again.

He actually had a premonition—Lady Luck wouldn’t favor him endlessly, last time sneakingly touching Ye Si’s palm without being discovered was already a blessing.

There wouldn’t be such good luck this time.

Ye Si noticed him; those elongated eyes, sharp as a scimitar, captured Yu Guang, then slowly glanced at his own back of the hand.

“What does this mean, Yu Guang?”

His heart pounded, pumping blood that overflowed throughout his body, nerves tensing as blood vessels constricted violently.

Yu Guang suddenly felt dry in the mouth, discreetly rolling his Adam’s apple to disguise his unease.

Ye Si lightly placed the brush on the ceramic brush rest, his movements still leisurely, elegant as if from an ancient painting.

If not for Yu Guang sneakily glancing at the dimness in the other’s eyes, he would have thought Ye Si truly had no reaction.

Before he could think too much, those hands he had longed for so much, both beautiful and not effeminate, the hands he had touched twice in secret, slowly extended towards him.

“Do you like touching them?”

The ending note slightly lifted, with a hint of a hook, itching deep into one’s heart.

Yu Guang silently responded in his heart with a ‘I do,’ but on the surface, he dared not show any expression, stiffening in place.

Very close.

Ye Si’s hands were right in front of him.

Yu Guang could even see the unique fingerprint patterns on his fingertips.

The significance of those patterns was extremely noble—they were external characteristics that distinguished an individual from others, remnants of a civilization lingering through history.

He, today, clearly traced the unique patterns belonging to Ye Si with his eyes.

Every raised point, every depression, was the absolute privacy in the world.

His throat became increasingly dry, no matter how many times he swallowed saliva, it couldn’t moisten it.

Yu Guang knew it might be because his body temperature had risen too high due to excitement, evaporating the moisture in his throat.

But he couldn’t control it.

Adrenaline surged wildly, the intense excitement continuously piled up, turning rationality into a dangerous impulse—

He suddenly bit his tongue.

The piercing pain was like knives stabbing into flesh, instantly clearing his mind, rationality returning, and he gradually calming down.

But he bit too hard just now, and the rust-like taste of blood instantly filled his throat along with his nasal cavity, greatly alleviating the dryness.

It was still uncomfortable in the end, with the sharp pain on his tongue, he could only endure and swallow the blood mixed with saliva.

But it was just enough to play the part of being pitiful.

Yu Guang raised his hand to cover his lips, took a few breaths, the inhales intermittent, looking genuinely in pain.

But as Yu Guang, with his head lowered, failed to notice Ye Si’s sudden change in expression, when he raised his tearful eyes and furrowed his brows, Ye Si had already returned to his initial expression.

“What’s wrong?” Ye Si’s voice sounded particularly hoarse, his gaze fixed on Yu Guang’s moist and crimson lips.

Yu Guang vaguely sensed the change in the other’s tone, feeling there was a reason behind it but unable to pinpoint it, so he had to give up.

The tears in his eyes were about to fall but hung on his eyelashes, he looked pitifully at Ye Si, his tongue hurting a bit too much, yet he didn’t forget to feign.

“I…bit my…tongue…sorry…” he whimpered.

Perhaps because he was concerned about the injury to his tongue, his speech was muffled and intermittent.

It didn’t even make one impatient.

The smell of the bloody sweetness spread through the air with the disturbance.

Ye Si’s nostrils flared, his tongue swirled inside his mouth, grazing against the tips of his canines.

Rarely was there some unrestrained desire, Ye Si fell silent for a moment, then directly pinched Yu Guang’s jaw, forcing him to open his mouth weakly.

The little guy’s teeth were white and neat, the soft flesh inside his mouth was rosy, a small tongue slightly exposed, the wound from the bite still oozing blood.

Before the bloody smell could dilute, it suddenly rushed towards Ye Si.

His fingertip unconsciously tightened.

Yu Guang’s eyelids trembled more violently, tears hanging on his eyelashes, falling on his face as if he couldn’t bear it.

“It hurts…” he choked out, showing weakness.

Both his tongue and jaw hurt.

But these pains were bearable, sometimes pain even came mixed with pleasure.

But Yu Guang had to cry out in pain.

He was a poor person who survived by the mercy of his senior, he had to pretend to be like an injured stray cat or dog on the roadside, to gain sympathy.

And, by the way, divert some attention—

It would be best to make the senior completely forget his overstepping behavior of touching the back of the other’s hand just now.

But the next moment, Yu Guang froze in place.

Ye Si, the senior, pressed his tongue against his palate through a handkerchief.

That was like a celestial being from the heavens…

The bleeding wound was blocked, but saliva began to be produced frantically.

His saliva soaked the dark blue handkerchief, licking onto Ye Si’s fingertips through the fibers, mixed with the bloody sweetness.

Yu Guang maintained the posture of looking up, like a fervent believer praying to the gods.

But his deity was indifferent, inserting his fingers into the disciple’s mouth expressionlessly.

Named as stopping the bleeding, but in reality…

Yu Guang didn’t know if such behavior violated the rules.

He only knew that the sound of Ye Si’s fingers manipulating the handkerchief transmitted through bone conduction into his ears was particularly special, like carving on his heart.

The pure and ethereal chanting during pilgrimage seemed to start at some point, but when Yu Guang carefully listened, there was only his own lonely heartbeat left.

He forgot to think.

In the chaos, a familiar voice seemed to come through a thin layer of membrane from a distance:

“Why do you always bleed?”

Seemingly caring, yet also hopeful.

^[1]Author’s notes:

Yu Guang: Are you really worried about my bleeding, or do you hope I bleed?

Finally finished at three in the morning, goodnight babies! Thank you for liking it!