Truth or Dare
Pei Tingsong especially liked the process of cleaning up with Fang Juexia in his arms afterwards. He also found giving him a bath a pleasure.
During this kind of time, Fang Juexia was totally dependent on him.
“Waist is sore.” Fang Juexia was lying on the inner side, at the edge of the bathtub, and his voice was very light and lazy, giving Pei Tingsong the illusion of being flirted with.
“I was a little too fierce just now.”
“You even know that ah.” Fang Juexia looked up at him. His eyelashes were long, and under the bathroom’s light, every single lash stood out distinctly. He possessed a face that made people want to both violate him and protect him, which was also the reason why Pei Tingsong was always so contradictory.
“I’m sorry ah.” Right now, he was like a big dog who had made a mistake, and was pleading for forgiveness from his master. He sat obediently by the bathtub and wiped his hair.
Fang Juexia grabbed his hand. “I didn’t say that I didn’t like it…” As he spoke, he happened to see the tiny mark on Pei Tingsong’s hand, the one he had left after the drunken bite. The scab had fallen off long ago, but there were still some light traces left. When he thought of how Pei Tingsong had been forced to take care of him when he hadn’t even liked him yet, he found it very cute, so he couldn’t help kissing him.
“Really?” Pei Tingsong’s eyes brightened. “That means you like it!”
Of course, he liked it. Otherwise, how could he let himself be grasped and pinched that tightly?
Fang Juexia actually felt a little embarrassed when being questioned by him like this. He changed his tone and said that he didn’t know, and that Pei Tingsong was not allowed to ask anymore. Pei Tingsong knew that he was shy, so he didn’t continue to tease him. “How about going to the hot springs now?” Pei Tingsong brushed away the bangs on Fang Juexia’s forehead and kissed him on the cheek. Only after Fang Juexia nodded did he pick him up.
In the beginning, Fang Juexia wasn’t used to being carried to other places by Pei Tingsong. Their age gap caused him to maintain the stubborn dignity of being an elder brother in some respects, but now, he had gotten used to being taken care of, and he even kind of enjoyed it.
The waters of the hot spring in the courtyard were milky white, dense with hot steam, and very warm, and once a body was immersed in it, it felt that every inch of one’s muscles would stretch on and on.
“So nice.” Pei Tingsong leaned on the edge of the hot spring and propped his head on a bluestone slab. “I’ll also get a hot spring made at home in the future. After it’s done…”
Fang Juexia couldn’t bear to hear the rest of it, so he put his hand over Pei Tingsong’s mouth and said, “Shut up, do you think you can just say you want a hot spring and then get one? It’s not like the swimming pool you used to kill fish in.”
Pei Tingsong’s covered mouth quirked up into a silly smile. He kissed Fang Juexia’s soft palm several times, and then stretched out his hand to pull Fang Juexia into his arms. The two people in the pool shared a lingering kiss, and then hugged each other, chest against chest, face to face. Pei Tingsong’s hand started massaging Fang Juexia’s waist underwater.
Fang Juexia didn’t know why, but he always got a sense of security when he stuck against Pei Tingsong. He really liked this feeling, so he went further, putting his chin on Pei Tingsong’s shoulder, leaning his whole body against him, and closed his eyes.
“Have you lost weight again?” Pei Tingsong’s massage technique was gentle, and his voice was even gentler. “It’s all because of everything that happened before.”
“No,” Fang Juexia tilted his head and spoke with his lips pressed against the side of his neck. “I’ve always been like this.”
Pei Tingsong retorted, “Who said that? Can’t I tell if you got skinnier or not by just feeling you a bit? You’re a lot lighter, I don’t even feel anything when I pick you up.”
Fang Juexia couldn’t help laughing and joked, “Don’t brag…” As soon as he said that, Pei Tingsong pressed a sore spot, and his last few words changed in tone, now a little soft. “….It’s really sore here.”
That voice carried Pei Tingsong’s soul away. Carrying a beauty in his arms made it really difficult for him to do his job.
He had to be an emotionless massage tool.
“Does it feel good like this?” Pei Tingsong asked.
“En…” Fang Juexia hugged him lazily, behaving like a boneless koala soaking in a hot spring. “Have you trained how to do this? So professional.”
It obviously should be. Since he had learned that Fang Juexia’s waist wasn’t good, he had searched online for massage videos every day and practiced his massage technique using a pillow many times, until it had reached this level. He had been afraid that he would cause Fang Juexia to feel bad otherwise.
“No, you have to train for this? Geniuses don’t have to train,” Pei Tingsong said.
Soaking in the waters of the hot spring, Fang Juexia grew softer and softer, just like a sticky rice cake soaking in red bean soup. He was in a lazy trance, and was very sleepy. He heard Pei Tingsong say that when he had seen him in the evening, he was so beautiful, looking just like a person in a drawing. Fang Juexia wanted to refute him, but he was too lazy to talk, so he just kept listening with a smile. Pei Tingsong’s voice, which was very deep, stuck against his chest, as every word of his resonated within him.
“I used to like that kind of high-tech and simple interior design style, the kind with black, white, and gray tones, and I always felt that less is more. Today, when I saw you standing at the gate of the courtyard, I suddenly realized that that style wasn’t good at all.” Pei Tingsong gently stroked his back. “Only the most beautiful place is worthy of you. If one day, we retire and get to live a retired life ahead of time, I will invite the best designer to decorate our house beautifully, filling it with all kinds of plants.”
He looked up at the huge ginkgo tree beside the hot spring pool. “Ginkgo looks nice, maples are also good, also camellia, oh yes, and the kind of rose on a vine that crawls all over a wall, and it’d be best if we also had a field of eustoma…”
Fang Juexia faintly smiled, in a very drowsy way.
Do you want to open a greenhouse, silly boy?
“I can imagine you standing amidst the flowers right now.” Pei Tingsong grew distracted, going silent for a while. An autumn wind rose, and a few ginkgo leaves fell off their branches, one of them randomly falling onto Fang Juexia’s snow-white shoulder.
Only upon seeing this did Pei Tingsong return to his senses, then gently remove the leaf off his shoulder, while laughing at himself.
“Can you imagine? I even used to hate flowers.”
Fang Juexia, who was too tired by now, fell asleep in his arms. Only after not getting a response for a long while did Pei Tingsong realize that this guy had already drifted off.
“You can even fall asleep like this ah.”
Fearing that he would catch a chill, Pei Tingsong hurriedly carried him out, wrapped him in a bath towel, went into the room, put him on the bed, covered him with a quilt, and let him sleep soundly.
There was a faint flowery scent coming from the head of the bed. Pei Tingsong turned on the light, only to discover that there was a special pot of flowers with dark red petals arranged there. He didn’t know why, but one of the best flowers had fallen outside the pot. Pei Tingsong picked it up in his hand, twirled it around with his fingers, then sniffed it.
Finally, he pinned it next to Fang Juexia’s ear.
When asleep, Fang Juexia had a kind of peaceful beauty. The crimson petals set off the soft birthmark at the corner of his eyes.
He was so beautiful that Pei Tingsong couldn’t help but secretly take a picture.
Although the other party hadn’t listened closely to his future blueprint for their house, Pei Tingsong was still very satisfied. In the past, he had no sense of the word ‘home.’ Ever since his grandfather had passed away, he had always regarded ‘home’ as a cage.
But now, Pei Tingsong was eager to share a home with the person in front of him.
He loved him even more than he had thought.
Only upon waking up did Fang Juexia realize that he was in bed. The light at the head of the bed was on, and there was a glass of water at the bedside table. This was Pei Tingsong’s habit.
He reached his hand out of the quilt, then lazily drew back and called out to Pei Tingsong. With that, he scrunched himself up in the quilt again, only to suddenly find a dark red flower beside the pillow.
It wasn’t long before the other party came over, adorned in the black bathrobe he had been wearing when he had come over to his villa. “Awake?” He reached out and touched Fang Juexia’s warm face.
“How long did I sleep for?” Fang Juexia looked like a cat as he squinted his eyes.
“Two hours. It’s eleven o’clock now.” Pei Tingsong brought the glass of water from the bedside table to his mouth.
Fang Juexia held the glass to drink the water and showed him the flower he had found.
“Is it pretty?” Pei Tingsong pointed to the potted plant on the bedside table. “This—I don’t know what flower it is.”
“Camellia.” His mama had planted camellias before, and it was very easy to recognize this flower. The type with this color was even more special. Fang Juexia handed the glass back to him. “This variety seems to be…” Thinking about it, he suddenly laughed and said, “What a coincidence ah.”
Pei Tingsong’s expression showed a little confusion.
“Black Knight.” Fang Juexia stuck the flower into the neckline of Pei Tingsong’s bathrobe and said with a smile, “An unusual variety.”
Black Knight. Pei Tingsong repeated the name several times in his heart.
The reason why people were so reluctant to part from life was because there were so many kinds of beautiful coincidences hidden within it.
“I’ve decided, and not discussing the rest now, but Fang Juexia and Pei Tingsong’s house must have black knights and white eustomas. These two cannot be missed.” As he announced his decision childishly, he took out the flower, put it on the table, and rubbed Fang Juexia’s hair. The switch between boy and man was always instantaneous. “Perfect timing, I just ordered some food. Get up and eat something.”
After drinking the water, Fang Juexia rolled himself up in the quilt, turned his back to him, and said, “I still want to sleep.”
“Eat first.” Pei Tingsong got up and left. When he heard some movement, Fang Juexia turned his head to quietly glance over. It turned out that Pei Tingsong had gotten a small table and put it on the bed.
The dishes were also very exquisite. All were in small dishes, and there were about six or seven of them.
“Quickly eat ba.”
Taking the chopsticks he handed over, Fang Juexia suddenly discovered that there was a red mark on his hand, it seemed as if he had been scalded. “What’s going on here?” He took the chopsticks and pointed at it, “Did you get scalded? Did you flush it with cold water?”
“Oh, just now…” Pei Tingsong couldn’t think of a good excuse within this short time, so he simply said, “Originally, I was cooking noodles for you, and I got splashed by the noodle soup a bit. But I didn’t think I made the noodles very well, so I ordered a meal, and it came very quickly.”
Staring at the small red mark, Fang Juexia suddenly insisted, “But I want to eat noodles.”
“Ah?”
Fang Juexia nodded at him. “I just really want to eat noodles. Go and help me carry them in.”
“They’re really not good, and there are so many delicious things here.”
“But I want to eat them ah. Quickly go, quickly go, don’t burn your hand this time.”
Unable to out-stubborn him, Pei Tingsong had no choice but to mutter and carry into the room his failed work, “Eat less of this, eat more of the dishes.”
Fang Juexia’s appetite wasn’t very good, but he found these noodles to be especially delicious. Pei Tingsong kept putting food from some of the dishes into his bowl for him to eat with the noodles.
“The noodles you cooked are very delicious.” Fang Juexia said seriously, “The ones you made during my birthday were also very delicious. Will you cook them again for me in the future?”
Pei Tingsong chuckled.
He really was a good Gege.
As Fang Juexia was eating, his cellphone vibrated again. Pei Tingsong glanced at him. “Your roommate is here again. This guy is really sticky.”
“You’re even drinking Yiyi’s vinegar?” The corners of Fang Juexia’s mouth quirked up, and he looked at the message.
“Who said I was drinking vinegar?” Pei Tingsong didn’t admit it. “His vinegar is apple vinegar at best. Drinking it as a drink is boring.”
What kind of messy metaphor was this? Fang Juexia put down his cellphone. “He said they were playing games in Lu Yuan’s room and asked us if we wanted to come over.”
Pei Tingsong could see through Fang Juexia’s thoughts in a glance, and knew that he sort of wanted to go. He used the meal as an exchange offer, as if he were coaxing a child. “We’ll go after you finish this egg soup.”
By the time he finished the egg soup, it was even later at night. Fortunately, Pei Tingsong’s stuff was all in Fang Juexia’s suitcase. Both of them changed into more solid clothes and went over to Lu Yuan’s place. As soon as they entered the yard, they heard laughter. There was a little breeze in Lu Yuan’s room. When they pulled open the door, Fang Juexia almost didn’t recognize Ling Yi; his face had been painted into that of a calico cat.
“How did you turn into this?” Fang Juexia reached out and rubbed his face twice, but he couldn’t rub it off. He even got some on his own hand.
“They’re bullying me!” Ling Yi rushed into Fang Juexia’s arms, to which Pei Tingsong retaliated by dragging him away by holding his collar.
Lu Yuan, sitting cross-legged on the ground, raised his neck and said, “You guys be careful ah, this guy has just had a drink. Be careful of him wildly kissing people.”
“Did I kiss you?” Ling Yi retorted with a red face, “I just drank a little.”
Lu Yuan snorted. “Have you not kissed enough people? Your mouth is like a sucker, and you’ve drunk enough to turn your neck completely red.”
He Ziyan mercilessly sized up the situation. “Be careful, if you get photographed, they’ll say you’ve been messing around with someone.”
“That’s right. Laozi will die in a frameup.”
Fang Juexia rubbed his neck reflexively, lowered his head, and glanced over his body, examining whether there were obvious traces with a guilty heart.
“Come and sit down ah.” Jiang Miao pulled over two tatami cushions and asked casually, “Is the movie over?”
“Ah? En…”
Lu Yuan also chimed in, “Just now, Ling Yi and I went to pick you up since we were afraid you wouldn’t be able to come over once it was dark. We didn’t expect you to have gone to the cinema.” But then he suddenly remembered something, “Wait a minute, when we went over there at six o’clock, your cellphone was still on the bed. How come when we called you later, you were at the cinema?”
This bad lie was unravelling in front of his face, making Fang Juexia have the urge to expose everything himself at this very moment.
He might as well just expose everything himself.
“Actually…”
“You’re stupid ah.” Ling Yi pushed Lu Yuan directly onto He Ziyan. “It was definitely that he didn’t take his cellphone, so he went back to get it bei. How can you do without your cellphone ah?”
Pei Tingsong almost started laughing.
Ling Yi really was a fucking immortal bandmate.
He Ziyan secretly opened a bag of bugle chips brought over by Ling Yi. “What movie did you guys go see?”
Fang Juexia froze. He glanced at Pei Tingsong, and after thinking that he wouldn’t say anything, randomly thought of one.
“Pulp Fiction.” / “La La Land.”
They both replied simultaneously, but they possessed no tacit understanding when it came to their answer.
Sure enough, their lie was yet again exposed. Looking at the subtle expressions of his bandmates, Fang Juexia’s smile froze on his face.
What to do? How should he explain?
“Ah!” Ling Yi, half-drunk, clapped his hand like a little seal. “So it turns out you guys weren’t in the same theater ah. I thought you watched a movie together.”
Pei Tingsong was surprised by Ling Yi’s ability to mend the holes in his own brain.
The other people didn’t poke holes in this, so Fang Juexia could only laugh and conveniently change the topic. “What were you guys playing just now? Is it fun?”
Jiang Miao pushed the cards next to his hand aside. “They were playing ‘Fight the Landlord,’ but Ling Yi kept losing, so he won’t let us play it anymore. We were just getting ready to play Truth and Dare when you guys came over.”
He Ziyan stretched. “Yeah, we haven’t played that in a long time.”
In the past, when they had just debuted, they were very obscure and didn’t have much work to do, so they often chatted and played until midnight on weekends, their time spent just like the boys in a college male dormitory would.
“Then we’ll spin a bottle ba, it’s simple and convenient.” Lu Yuan took out an empty bottle and put it on the ground. He called everyone to sit in a circle around it and prepared to spin the bottle. “Here we go ah.”
The first spin, the bottle stopped while pointing at He Ziyan, and he chose the truth. Lu Yuan pushed over the two punishment boxes that had been prepared beforehand, one for truth and the other for dare, and inside each were four pieces of paper written by all of them. He Ziyan drew out a slip and read, “Your love orientation is…”
He didn’t quite understand it, and thought it was about sexual orientation. “Oh, I’m pansexual.”
“What messy things are you talking about?” This slip had been penned by Lu Yuan. “What I meant was your orientation when you are in love, just what kind of person you like.”
“Jackpot.” Pei Tingsong raised his eyebrows. “You’re explosively revealing your own orientation, we should start up a livestream.”
“Oh, that’s what it meant ah.” He Ziyan then casually said, “Someone good-looking, with long legs, and a considerate and caring personality.”
“You’re so boring.” Pei Tingsong said, “If we didn’t know better, all of us would think you were recording something for a program.”
“What, you want to listen to my orientation in bed ah?”
Fang Juexia’s ears were red.
Pei Tingsong clicked his tongue. “Who wants to know your orientation in bed, pervert.”
“Definitely not as perverted as you,” He Ziyan snarked back.
“Cough.” Fang Juexia couldn’t help clearing his throat. He saw everyone looking at him, and so spoke with a hollow laugh, “The bugle chips are a little salty…”
Coincidentally, during the second round, the bottle spun and stopped to point at Fang Juexia. He was entangled for a while, ready to choose dare, but Ling Yi, who was propped on his shoulder, said there were many perverted things in the dare box, so he changed his words and said ‘truth.’
He drew one out, held it in front of him to look at it, and his face immediately turned red.
“Let me see what it is?” Jiang Miao took the slip from his hand and chuckled. “This must have been written by Ziyan – how old were you when you had your first sexual experience?”
“Oops.” Lu Yuan immediately began to coax, looking at Fang Juexia’s red ears, “Juexia, you shouldn’t have still never done that ba…”
Why can’t he just go along with Lu Yuan’s words and lie ba?
“Don’t try to lie ah!” Ling Yi pointed to the crotch of his pants. “If you lie, your nose will grow longer!”
“Where exactly is your nose ah?” Pei Tingsong slapped his hand aside and started sweating for Fang Juexia. However, he still felt that Fang Juexia would definitely not say anything. His skin was thinner than the skin of a peach.
“En…” Fang Juexia squeezed out a few words from between his teeth, “22 years old…”
“Damn!” Lu Yuan’s mouth opened wide in surprise, “He-he actually—?”
“Wow, and isn’t that not too long ago?” He Ziyan tutted a few times and exchanged a look with Jiang Miao. “An experience with yourself doesn’t count ah.”
Fang Juexia didn’t say a word. His whole person was akin to a small kettle that was boiling over.
Ling Yi was so surprised that he fell back, and then, when he got up again, he burst out, “With who ah?! Juexia, you! Which girl did you do it with?!”
“Hey, it doesn’t come with follow-up questions ah.” Pei Tingsong, a demon who protected his wife, moved to urge Lu Yuan to continue spinning the bottle.
The third round resulted in Lu Yuan’s turn. He immediately drew from the truth box. As a result, the question was, “When was your last kiss?”
“Shit.” He threw the note away. “Half an hour ago, Ling Yi kissed me.”
“Hahahahahaha!”
“That’s so terrible.”
“How glorious it is to be kissed by me ah!”
Lu Yuan pushed Ling Yi away and continued to spin the bottle. As soon as he released his hand, the glass bottle spun quickly and continued spinning for a long time. Ling Yi couldn’t help swearing, “Why did you spin it so hard ah? My eyes are starting to blur.”
Fang Juexia couldn’t help laughing. Unexpectedly, Ling Yi stretched out his hand and pressed it against the bottle, with the bottle pointing right at Pei Tingsong.
“Holy crap, you did that on purpose ba?” Pei Tingsong almost stood up to beat him. “It doesn’t count.”
Ling Yi really didn’t let it go. “Why doesn’t it count?!”
“I can’t reason with you, a drunk.” Pei Tingsong looked at the others. “It can’t count ah.”
“Alright, alright, alright.” The group bully and a drunk, the lesser of the two evils had to be opposed. Lu Yuan pulled Ling Yi’s hand away. “Xiao Pei, spin it yourself. I’ll hold down his hand for you, so that should be good ba.”
Pei Tingsong was satisfied only after this was done, and then he smartly spun the bottle. The bottle spun around quickly, with Ling Yi crazily chanting Pei Tingsong’s name all the while. They didn’t know if it was because his idea was too persistent, but this bottle actually wobbled to a stop….once again pointing at Pei Tingsong.
“This is too weird!”
Fang Juexia, who was holding a pillow, laughed to the point he was about to bury his head down into it. He Ziyan, with his fingers stuck into the bugle chips, pointed at him with his “claws,” and said, “You’d better accept your fate, maknae.”
Jiang Miao didn’t help him either. “Truth or dare?”
Although all of Pei Tingsong’s hopes had been dashed, he thought that while truth might still trip him up, choosing dare would come with the condition of none of his secrets being revealed, so he said with an extremely uncooperative expression, “Dare.” Then he obediently drew out a piece of paper from the box handed to him by their group leader before angrily throwing it at He Ziyan.
“Let me see what Xiao Pei drew ah.” He Ziyan narrowed his eyes and said with much disappointment, “Oh, it’s not very exciting.” After that, he unfolded the note, put it on the ground, and read out the contents aloud. “Show everyone the last picture you took on your phone.”
Fuck.
Pei Tingsong knew that his hands were unlucky, but he hadn’t expected them to be this unlucky.
Five pairs of eyes bored into him, and Pei Tingsong’s Adam’s apple bobbed.
“No way ba, you’re dawdling so much over a picture.” Lu Yuan took the small note to swat at him. “It can’t be a nude of you ba.”
Ling Yi and He Ziyan followed suit in coaxing him. Fang Juexia faintly felt that something was off, and he started to have some misgivings.
It couldn’t be that Pei Tingsong had secretly taken a nude picture of him ba…
Finished, finished, definitely don’t be that.
Under their provocation, Pei Tingsong could only take out his cellphone, and then he scrolled to the second to last picture, prepared to cheat, and then took it out to give them a look at falsehood. “Here, I took a picture of the horse.”
Yet, as a result, Ling Yi snatched away his cellphone. Pei Tingsong quickly reached out to grab it back, and after shoving it around, the cellphone eventually fell to the ground. The last picture displayed on the screen was the picture he had taken not long ago.
Camellias and Fang Juexia’s sleeping face.
“……”
There was an awkward silence.
Fang Juexia didn’t know what possessed him, but he pressed his pillow against the cellphone in an instant, acting just like a pervert who sought to kill in a moment of desperation in a TV drama, suffocating an innocent victim with their pillow.
One picture gave rise to different ideas in the minds of all six boys, and none of them uttered a word.
Finally, Ling Yi broke the silence. “Burp.” He pointed to the cellphone under the pillow. “Who is that person ah, how-how does he look that much like Juexia ah?”
Fang Juexia understood for the first time in his life what it felt like to die of shame and indignation.
Lu Yuan only felt his head ache. He held his head in his hands and said, “Wait a minute, let me straighten things out a bit, I feel faint.” He looked at Pei Tingsong and asked, “So the last picture on your cellphone is of Juexia sleeping….Why? No, what’s going on?! Shit, it’s true! I’m not dreaming?? Who’s going to pinch me!”
This night, which continuously saw gaping holes being created in their story, finally wiped out the last of Fang Juexia’s fight.
“The truth.” He picked up the ramune bottle and pointed it at himself. Then he simply raised it up like a microphone and said, “You guys…” Fang Juexia swallowed a few times. “Don’t pass out from shock after hearing this, if anyone can’t accept it, you can just say it directly, that’s fine.”
Pei Tingsong was stunned. He felt that his werewolf bandmate was about to explosively reveal himself, and he felt a bit flustered. “Hey, no, you…”
“Xiao Pei and I are in love.” Fang Juexia dropped his eyes and finally said what he had been holding back for a long time.
Once again, everyone fell into a silence.
This was terrible, they definitely couldn’t accept it. Fang Juexia’s fingers gripped the glass bottle tightly.
Of course, if anyone else had been saying it, who would be able to accept it ah? His bandmates, with whom he lived day and night, were carrying out a secret love affair under his very nose—if it was him, he also wouldn’t be able to accept it ah.
“It’s okay…” Fang Juexia said in a low voice, “To begin with, we were the ones in the wrong regarding this matter. From the beginning, we’ve kept it a secret…”
“Holy shit! I won!” He Ziyan jumped up, and the bugle chips on his fingers fell off. He excitedly kicked Lu Yuan’s shoulder with his foot. “Hurry up, hurry up, 100 yuan, take it out, if you’re willing to bet, you’re willing to lose!”
His reaction was already enough to surprise Fang Juexia, yet, as a result, Ling Yi let out a “wah” cry, which made him and Pei Tingsong tremble simultaneously.
“Wuwuwu, Juexia! How could you really let yourself be picked up by him?! How can you….Burp! Ah, wuwuwuwu…”
He Ziyan threw a pillow at Ling Yi’s head. “You also need to give me money, hurry up!”
After getting hit by the pillow, Ling Yi forgot to cry and started hiccuping instead, but then began crying again while groping around for his phone, while imitating an AI’s voice. “Alipay payment made, 100 yuan.”
“No, wait.” This chaotic scene of coming out of the closet was completely unlike what he had imagined, and so Pei Tingsong grabbed at He Ziyan’s calf. “What are you guys doing?”
“Just some time ago, you two would often stick together. We originally thought it was just to sell fanservice as a CP, but then, you two couldn’t even be separated in private, and you both even went to your apartment together, so I thought something was off.” He Ziyan sat down. “So, we made a bet then. Lu Yuan and Ling Yi said that you guys were just friends, and it couldn’t possibly be real. Three Water and I thought it was possible; even if it was impossible now, it was possible in the future, and then we all made a bet bei.”
After that, he took another bite of his “manicure” and said sarcastically, “Your closet door is even crispier than my bugle chips, it shatters at just a touch.”
Lu Yuan wiped at the corners of his eyes, while wearing an old mother’s expression on his face. “200 yuan exchanged for something real, I feel at ease handing this money over.”
After listening to the story behind everything, Pei Tingsong’s first reaction was— “No, I’m only worth 100 yuan?”
“Is that the main point…” Fang Juexia, who had mustered up all of his courage to confess, only wanted to go offline upon seeing the situation taking place in this casino.
“Yes ah, the main point is, we won.” Jiang Miao reminded everyone with a smile, “There’s also my share, don’t forget to give it.”
“Miao Ge, how can you take the lead in gambling?” Pei Tingsong couldn’t believe his own eyes.
Jiang Miao contentedly received the WeChat red envelopes. “How can you call a guaranteed win situation, gambling?”
“I give up, what kind of group is this?”
The maknae had started dating their group’s face behind the other four Gege’s backs, while the remaining four gambled over whether the fanservice was real or fake behind the two little lovers’ backs.
Ling Yi was still immersed in the sadness of losing his beautiful roommate and was still crying while getting ready to snuggle into Fang Juexia’s arms. Pei Tingsong immediately pulled him away. “Laozi has endured you for a long time, and now, even after you know, you still dare to hold him?”
“I’m just going to hold him! You little brute, you’ve stolen my Juexia away!”
Fang Juexia awkwardly wiped Ling Yi’s tears away, but then Pei Tingsong pulled the tissue out of his hand and threw it at Ling Yi’s head instead. “You’re the brute.”
Lu Yuan suddenly had a flash of inspiration. He slapped his forehead and said, “Fuck.”
He pulled over the lamp at the table, aimed it at the suspects Fang Juexia and Pei Tingsong, and opened the four-person joint trial mode.
“So what exactly were you guys doing when you were gone?”
—
Truth or Dare
Pei Tingsong especially liked the process of cleaning up with Fang Juexia in his arms afterwards. He also found giving him a bath a pleasure.
During this kind of time, Fang Juexia was totally dependent on him.
“Waist is sore.” Fang Juexia was lying on the inner side, at the edge of the bathtub, and his voice was very light and lazy, giving Pei Tingsong the illusion of being flirted with.
“I was a little too fierce just now.”
“You even know that ah.” Fang Juexia looked up at him. His eyelashes were long, and under the bathroom’s light, every single lash stood out distinctly. He possessed a face that made people want to both violate him and protect him, which was also the reason why Pei Tingsong was always so contradictory.
“I’m sorry ah.” Right now, he was like a big dog who had made a mistake, and was pleading for forgiveness from his master. He sat obediently by the bathtub and wiped his hair.
Fang Juexia grabbed his hand. “I didn’t say that I didn’t like it…” As he spoke, he happened to see the tiny mark on Pei Tingsong’s hand, the one he had left after the drunken bite. The scab had fallen off long ago, but there were still some light traces left. When he thought of how Pei Tingsong had been forced to take care of him when he hadn’t even liked him yet, he found it very cute, so he couldn’t help kissing him.
“Really?” Pei Tingsong’s eyes brightened. “That means you like it!”
Of course, he liked it. Otherwise, how could he let himself be grasped and pinched that tightly?
Fang Juexia actually felt a little embarrassed when being questioned by him like this. He changed his tone and said that he didn’t know, and that Pei Tingsong was not allowed to ask anymore. Pei Tingsong knew that he was shy, so he didn’t continue to tease him. “How about going to the hot springs now?” Pei Tingsong brushed away the bangs on Fang Juexia’s forehead and kissed him on the cheek. Only after Fang Juexia nodded did he pick him up.
In the beginning, Fang Juexia wasn’t used to being carried to other places by Pei Tingsong. Their age gap caused him to maintain the stubborn dignity of being an elder brother in some respects, but now, he had gotten used to being taken care of, and he even kind of enjoyed it.
The waters of the hot spring in the courtyard were milky white, dense with hot steam, and very warm, and once a body was immersed in it, it felt that every inch of one’s muscles would stretch on and on.
“So nice.” Pei Tingsong leaned on the edge of the hot spring and propped his head on a bluestone slab. “I’ll also get a hot spring made at home in the future. After it’s done…”
Fang Juexia couldn’t bear to hear the rest of it, so he put his hand over Pei Tingsong’s mouth and said, “Shut up, do you think you can just say you want a hot spring and then get one? It’s not like the swimming pool you used to kill fish in.”
Pei Tingsong’s covered mouth quirked up into a silly smile. He kissed Fang Juexia’s soft palm several times, and then stretched out his hand to pull Fang Juexia into his arms. The two people in the pool shared a lingering kiss, and then hugged each other, chest against chest, face to face. Pei Tingsong’s hand started massaging Fang Juexia’s waist underwater.
Fang Juexia didn’t know why, but he always got a sense of security when he stuck against Pei Tingsong. He really liked this feeling, so he went further, putting his chin on Pei Tingsong’s shoulder, leaning his whole body against him, and closed his eyes.
“Have you lost weight again?” Pei Tingsong’s massage technique was gentle, and his voice was even gentler. “It’s all because of everything that happened before.”
“No,” Fang Juexia tilted his head and spoke with his lips pressed against the side of his neck. “I’ve always been like this.”
Pei Tingsong retorted, “Who said that? Can’t I tell if you got skinnier or not by just feeling you a bit? You’re a lot lighter, I don’t even feel anything when I pick you up.”
Fang Juexia couldn’t help laughing and joked, “Don’t brag…” As soon as he said that, Pei Tingsong pressed a sore spot, and his last few words changed in tone, now a little soft. “….It’s really sore here.”
That voice carried Pei Tingsong’s soul away. Carrying a beauty in his arms made it really difficult for him to do his job.
He had to be an emotionless massage tool.
“Does it feel good like this?” Pei Tingsong asked.
“En…” Fang Juexia hugged him lazily, behaving like a boneless koala soaking in a hot spring. “Have you trained how to do this? So professional.”
It obviously should be. Since he had learned that Fang Juexia’s waist wasn’t good, he had searched online for massage videos every day and practiced his massage technique using a pillow many times, until it had reached this level. He had been afraid that he would cause Fang Juexia to feel bad otherwise.
“No, you have to train for this? Geniuses don’t have to train,” Pei Tingsong said.
Soaking in the waters of the hot spring, Fang Juexia grew softer and softer, just like a sticky rice cake soaking in red bean soup. He was in a lazy trance, and was very sleepy. He heard Pei Tingsong say that when he had seen him in the evening, he was so beautiful, looking just like a person in a drawing. Fang Juexia wanted to refute him, but he was too lazy to talk, so he just kept listening with a smile. Pei Tingsong’s voice, which was very deep, stuck against his chest, as every word of his resonated within him.
“I used to like that kind of high-tech and simple interior design style, the kind with black, white, and gray tones, and I always felt that less is more. Today, when I saw you standing at the gate of the courtyard, I suddenly realized that that style wasn’t good at all.” Pei Tingsong gently stroked his back. “Only the most beautiful place is worthy of you. If one day, we retire and get to live a retired life ahead of time, I will invite the best designer to decorate our house beautifully, filling it with all kinds of plants.”
He looked up at the huge ginkgo tree beside the hot spring pool. “Ginkgo looks nice, maples are also good, also camellia, oh yes, and the kind of rose on a vine that crawls all over a wall, and it’d be best if we also had a field of eustoma…”
Fang Juexia faintly smiled, in a very drowsy way.
Do you want to open a greenhouse, silly boy?
“I can imagine you standing amidst the flowers right now.” Pei Tingsong grew distracted, going silent for a while. An autumn wind rose, and a few ginkgo leaves fell off their branches, one of them randomly falling onto Fang Juexia’s snow-white shoulder.
Only upon seeing this did Pei Tingsong return to his senses, then gently remove the leaf off his shoulder, while laughing at himself.
“Can you imagine? I even used to hate flowers.”
Fang Juexia, who was too tired by now, fell asleep in his arms. Only after not getting a response for a long while did Pei Tingsong realize that this guy had already drifted off.
“You can even fall asleep like this ah.”
Fearing that he would catch a chill, Pei Tingsong hurriedly carried him out, wrapped him in a bath towel, went into the room, put him on the bed, covered him with a quilt, and let him sleep soundly.
There was a faint flowery scent coming from the head of the bed. Pei Tingsong turned on the light, only to discover that there was a special pot of flowers with dark red petals arranged there. He didn’t know why, but one of the best flowers had fallen outside the pot. Pei Tingsong picked it up in his hand, twirled it around with his fingers, then sniffed it.
Finally, he pinned it next to Fang Juexia’s ear.
When asleep, Fang Juexia had a kind of peaceful beauty. The crimson petals set off the soft birthmark at the corner of his eyes.
He was so beautiful that Pei Tingsong couldn’t help but secretly take a picture.
Although the other party hadn’t listened closely to his future blueprint for their house, Pei Tingsong was still very satisfied. In the past, he had no sense of the word ‘home.’ Ever since his grandfather had passed away, he had always regarded ‘home’ as a cage.
But now, Pei Tingsong was eager to share a home with the person in front of him.
He loved him even more than he had thought.
Only upon waking up did Fang Juexia realize that he was in bed. The light at the head of the bed was on, and there was a glass of water at the bedside table. This was Pei Tingsong’s habit.
He reached his hand out of the quilt, then lazily drew back and called out to Pei Tingsong. With that, he scrunched himself up in the quilt again, only to suddenly find a dark red flower beside the pillow.
It wasn’t long before the other party came over, adorned in the black bathrobe he had been wearing when he had come over to his villa. “Awake?” He reached out and touched Fang Juexia’s warm face.
“How long did I sleep for?” Fang Juexia looked like a cat as he squinted his eyes.
“Two hours. It’s eleven o’clock now.” Pei Tingsong brought the glass of water from the bedside table to his mouth.
Fang Juexia held the glass to drink the water and showed him the flower he had found.
“Is it pretty?” Pei Tingsong pointed to the potted plant on the bedside table. “This—I don’t know what flower it is.”
“Camellia.” His mama had planted camellias before, and it was very easy to recognize this flower. The type with this color was even more special. Fang Juexia handed the glass back to him. “This variety seems to be…” Thinking about it, he suddenly laughed and said, “What a coincidence ah.”
Pei Tingsong’s expression showed a little confusion.
“Black Knight.” Fang Juexia stuck the flower into the neckline of Pei Tingsong’s bathrobe and said with a smile, “An unusual variety.”
Black Knight. Pei Tingsong repeated the name several times in his heart.
The reason why people were so reluctant to part from life was because there were so many kinds of beautiful coincidences hidden within it.
“I’ve decided, and not discussing the rest now, but Fang Juexia and Pei Tingsong’s house must have black knights and white eustomas. These two cannot be missed.” As he announced his decision childishly, he took out the flower, put it on the table, and rubbed Fang Juexia’s hair. The switch between boy and man was always instantaneous. “Perfect timing, I just ordered some food. Get up and eat something.”
After drinking the water, Fang Juexia rolled himself up in the quilt, turned his back to him, and said, “I still want to sleep.”
“Eat first.” Pei Tingsong got up and left. When he heard some movement, Fang Juexia turned his head to quietly glance over. It turned out that Pei Tingsong had gotten a small table and put it on the bed.
The dishes were also very exquisite. All were in small dishes, and there were about six or seven of them.
“Quickly eat ba.”
Taking the chopsticks he handed over, Fang Juexia suddenly discovered that there was a red mark on his hand, it seemed as if he had been scalded. “What’s going on here?” He took the chopsticks and pointed at it, “Did you get scalded? Did you flush it with cold water?”
“Oh, just now…” Pei Tingsong couldn’t think of a good excuse within this short time, so he simply said, “Originally, I was cooking noodles for you, and I got splashed by the noodle soup a bit. But I didn’t think I made the noodles very well, so I ordered a meal, and it came very quickly.”
Staring at the small red mark, Fang Juexia suddenly insisted, “But I want to eat noodles.”
“Ah?”
Fang Juexia nodded at him. “I just really want to eat noodles. Go and help me carry them in.”
“They’re really not good, and there are so many delicious things here.”
“But I want to eat them ah. Quickly go, quickly go, don’t burn your hand this time.”
Unable to out-stubborn him, Pei Tingsong had no choice but to mutter and carry into the room his failed work, “Eat less of this, eat more of the dishes.”
Fang Juexia’s appetite wasn’t very good, but he found these noodles to be especially delicious. Pei Tingsong kept putting food from some of the dishes into his bowl for him to eat with the noodles.
“The noodles you cooked are very delicious.” Fang Juexia said seriously, “The ones you made during my birthday were also very delicious. Will you cook them again for me in the future?”
Pei Tingsong chuckled.
He really was a good Gege.
As Fang Juexia was eating, his cellphone vibrated again. Pei Tingsong glanced at him. “Your roommate is here again. This guy is really sticky.”
“You’re even drinking Yiyi’s vinegar?” The corners of Fang Juexia’s mouth quirked up, and he looked at the message.
“Who said I was drinking vinegar?” Pei Tingsong didn’t admit it. “His vinegar is apple vinegar at best. Drinking it as a drink is boring.”
What kind of messy metaphor was this? Fang Juexia put down his cellphone. “He said they were playing games in Lu Yuan’s room and asked us if we wanted to come over.”
Pei Tingsong could see through Fang Juexia’s thoughts in a glance, and knew that he sort of wanted to go. He used the meal as an exchange offer, as if he were coaxing a child. “We’ll go after you finish this egg soup.”
By the time he finished the egg soup, it was even later at night. Fortunately, Pei Tingsong’s stuff was all in Fang Juexia’s suitcase. Both of them changed into more solid clothes and went over to Lu Yuan’s place. As soon as they entered the yard, they heard laughter. There was a little breeze in Lu Yuan’s room. When they pulled open the door, Fang Juexia almost didn’t recognize Ling Yi; his face had been painted into that of a calico cat.
“How did you turn into this?” Fang Juexia reached out and rubbed his face twice, but he couldn’t rub it off. He even got some on his own hand.
“They’re bullying me!” Ling Yi rushed into Fang Juexia’s arms, to which Pei Tingsong retaliated by dragging him away by holding his collar.
Lu Yuan, sitting cross-legged on the ground, raised his neck and said, “You guys be careful ah, this guy has just had a drink. Be careful of him wildly kissing people.”
“Did I kiss you?” Ling Yi retorted with a red face, “I just drank a little.”
Lu Yuan snorted. “Have you not kissed enough people? Your mouth is like a sucker, and you’ve drunk enough to turn your neck completely red.”
He Ziyan mercilessly sized up the situation. “Be careful, if you get photographed, they’ll say you’ve been messing around with someone.”
“That’s right. Laozi will die in a frameup.”
Fang Juexia rubbed his neck reflexively, lowered his head, and glanced over his body, examining whether there were obvious traces with a guilty heart.
“Come and sit down ah.” Jiang Miao pulled over two tatami cushions and asked casually, “Is the movie over?”
“Ah? En…”
Lu Yuan also chimed in, “Just now, Ling Yi and I went to pick you up since we were afraid you wouldn’t be able to come over once it was dark. We didn’t expect you to have gone to the cinema.” But then he suddenly remembered something, “Wait a minute, when we went over there at six o’clock, your cellphone was still on the bed. How come when we called you later, you were at the cinema?”
This bad lie was unravelling in front of his face, making Fang Juexia have the urge to expose everything himself at this very moment.
He might as well just expose everything himself.
“Actually…”
“You’re stupid ah.” Ling Yi pushed Lu Yuan directly onto He Ziyan. “It was definitely that he didn’t take his cellphone, so he went back to get it bei. How can you do without your cellphone ah?”
Pei Tingsong almost started laughing.
Ling Yi really was a fucking immortal bandmate.
He Ziyan secretly opened a bag of bugle chips brought over by Ling Yi. “What movie did you guys go see?”
Fang Juexia froze. He glanced at Pei Tingsong, and after thinking that he wouldn’t say anything, randomly thought of one.
“Pulp Fiction.” / “La La Land.”
They both replied simultaneously, but they possessed no tacit understanding when it came to their answer.
Sure enough, their lie was yet again exposed. Looking at the subtle expressions of his bandmates, Fang Juexia’s smile froze on his face.
What to do? How should he explain?
“Ah!” Ling Yi, half-drunk, clapped his hand like a little seal. “So it turns out you guys weren’t in the same theater ah. I thought you watched a movie together.”
Pei Tingsong was surprised by Ling Yi’s ability to mend the holes in his own brain.
The other people didn’t poke holes in this, so Fang Juexia could only laugh and conveniently change the topic. “What were you guys playing just now? Is it fun?”
Jiang Miao pushed the cards next to his hand aside. “They were playing ‘Fight the Landlord,’ but Ling Yi kept losing, so he won’t let us play it anymore. We were just getting ready to play Truth and Dare when you guys came over.”
He Ziyan stretched. “Yeah, we haven’t played that in a long time.”
In the past, when they had just debuted, they were very obscure and didn’t have much work to do, so they often chatted and played until midnight on weekends, their time spent just like the boys in a college male dormitory would.
“Then we’ll spin a bottle ba, it’s simple and convenient.” Lu Yuan took out an empty bottle and put it on the ground. He called everyone to sit in a circle around it and prepared to spin the bottle. “Here we go ah.”
The first spin, the bottle stopped while pointing at He Ziyan, and he chose the truth. Lu Yuan pushed over the two punishment boxes that had been prepared beforehand, one for truth and the other for dare, and inside each were four pieces of paper written by all of them. He Ziyan drew out a slip and read, “Your love orientation is…”
He didn’t quite understand it, and thought it was about sexual orientation. “Oh, I’m pansexual.”
“What messy things are you talking about?” This slip had been penned by Lu Yuan. “What I meant was your orientation when you are in love, just what kind of person you like.”
“Jackpot.” Pei Tingsong raised his eyebrows. “You’re explosively revealing your own orientation, we should start up a livestream.”
“Oh, that’s what it meant ah.” He Ziyan then casually said, “Someone good-looking, with long legs, and a considerate and caring personality.”
“You’re so boring.” Pei Tingsong said, “If we didn’t know better, all of us would think you were recording something for a program.”
“What, you want to listen to my orientation in bed ah?”
Fang Juexia’s ears were red.
Pei Tingsong clicked his tongue. “Who wants to know your orientation in bed, pervert.”
“Definitely not as perverted as you,” He Ziyan snarked back.
“Cough.” Fang Juexia couldn’t help clearing his throat. He saw everyone looking at him, and so spoke with a hollow laugh, “The bugle chips are a little salty…”
Coincidentally, during the second round, the bottle spun and stopped to point at Fang Juexia. He was entangled for a while, ready to choose dare, but Ling Yi, who was propped on his shoulder, said there were many perverted things in the dare box, so he changed his words and said ‘truth.’
He drew one out, held it in front of him to look at it, and his face immediately turned red.
“Let me see what it is?” Jiang Miao took the slip from his hand and chuckled. “This must have been written by Ziyan – how old were you when you had your first sexual experience?”
“Oops.” Lu Yuan immediately began to coax, looking at Fang Juexia’s red ears, “Juexia, you shouldn’t have still never done that ba…”
Why can’t he just go along with Lu Yuan’s words and lie ba?
“Don’t try to lie ah!” Ling Yi pointed to the crotch of his pants. “If you lie, your nose will grow longer!”
“Where exactly is your nose ah?” Pei Tingsong slapped his hand aside and started sweating for Fang Juexia. However, he still felt that Fang Juexia would definitely not say anything. His skin was thinner than the skin of a peach.
“En…” Fang Juexia squeezed out a few words from between his teeth, “22 years old…”
“Damn!” Lu Yuan’s mouth opened wide in surprise, “He-he actually—?”
“Wow, and isn’t that not too long ago?” He Ziyan tutted a few times and exchanged a look with Jiang Miao. “An experience with yourself doesn’t count ah.”
Fang Juexia didn’t say a word. His whole person was akin to a small kettle that was boiling over.
Ling Yi was so surprised that he fell back, and then, when he got up again, he burst out, “With who ah?! Juexia, you! Which girl did you do it with?!”
“Hey, it doesn’t come with follow-up questions ah.” Pei Tingsong, a demon who protected his wife, moved to urge Lu Yuan to continue spinning the bottle.
The third round resulted in Lu Yuan’s turn. He immediately drew from the truth box. As a result, the question was, “When was your last kiss?”
“Shit.” He threw the note away. “Half an hour ago, Ling Yi kissed me.”
“Hahahahahaha!”
“That’s so terrible.”
“How glorious it is to be kissed by me ah!”
Lu Yuan pushed Ling Yi away and continued to spin the bottle. As soon as he released his hand, the glass bottle spun quickly and continued spinning for a long time. Ling Yi couldn’t help swearing, “Why did you spin it so hard ah? My eyes are starting to blur.”
Fang Juexia couldn’t help laughing. Unexpectedly, Ling Yi stretched out his hand and pressed it against the bottle, with the bottle pointing right at Pei Tingsong.
“Holy crap, you did that on purpose ba?” Pei Tingsong almost stood up to beat him. “It doesn’t count.”
Ling Yi really didn’t let it go. “Why doesn’t it count?!”
“I can’t reason with you, a drunk.” Pei Tingsong looked at the others. “It can’t count ah.”
“Alright, alright, alright.” The group bully and a drunk, the lesser of the two evils had to be opposed. Lu Yuan pulled Ling Yi’s hand away. “Xiao Pei, spin it yourself. I’ll hold down his hand for you, so that should be good ba.”
Pei Tingsong was satisfied only after this was done, and then he smartly spun the bottle. The bottle spun around quickly, with Ling Yi crazily chanting Pei Tingsong’s name all the while. They didn’t know if it was because his idea was too persistent, but this bottle actually wobbled to a stop….once again pointing at Pei Tingsong.
“This is too weird!”
Fang Juexia, who was holding a pillow, laughed to the point he was about to bury his head down into it. He Ziyan, with his fingers stuck into the bugle chips, pointed at him with his “claws,” and said, “You’d better accept your fate, maknae.”
Jiang Miao didn’t help him either. “Truth or dare?”
Although all of Pei Tingsong’s hopes had been dashed, he thought that while truth might still trip him up, choosing dare would come with the condition of none of his secrets being revealed, so he said with an extremely uncooperative expression, “Dare.” Then he obediently drew out a piece of paper from the box handed to him by their group leader before angrily throwing it at He Ziyan.
“Let me see what Xiao Pei drew ah.” He Ziyan narrowed his eyes and said with much disappointment, “Oh, it’s not very exciting.” After that, he unfolded the note, put it on the ground, and read out the contents aloud. “Show everyone the last picture you took on your phone.”
Fuck.
Pei Tingsong knew that his hands were unlucky, but he hadn’t expected them to be this unlucky.
Five pairs of eyes bored into him, and Pei Tingsong’s Adam’s apple bobbed.
“No way ba, you’re dawdling so much over a picture.” Lu Yuan took the small note to swat at him. “It can’t be a nude of you ba.”
Ling Yi and He Ziyan followed suit in coaxing him. Fang Juexia faintly felt that something was off, and he started to have some misgivings.
It couldn’t be that Pei Tingsong had secretly taken a nude picture of him ba…
Finished, finished, definitely don’t be that.
Under their provocation, Pei Tingsong could only take out his cellphone, and then he scrolled to the second to last picture, prepared to cheat, and then took it out to give them a look at falsehood. “Here, I took a picture of the horse.”
Yet, as a result, Ling Yi snatched away his cellphone. Pei Tingsong quickly reached out to grab it back, and after shoving it around, the cellphone eventually fell to the ground. The last picture displayed on the screen was the picture he had taken not long ago.
Camellias and Fang Juexia’s sleeping face.
“……”
There was an awkward silence.
Fang Juexia didn’t know what possessed him, but he pressed his pillow against the cellphone in an instant, acting just like a pervert who sought to kill in a moment of desperation in a TV drama, suffocating an innocent victim with their pillow.
One picture gave rise to different ideas in the minds of all six boys, and none of them uttered a word.
Finally, Ling Yi broke the silence. “Burp.” He pointed to the cellphone under the pillow. “Who is that person ah, how-how does he look that much like Juexia ah?”
Fang Juexia understood for the first time in his life what it felt like to die of shame and indignation.
Lu Yuan only felt his head ache. He held his head in his hands and said, “Wait a minute, let me straighten things out a bit, I feel faint.” He looked at Pei Tingsong and asked, “So the last picture on your cellphone is of Juexia sleeping….Why? No, what’s going on?! Shit, it’s true! I’m not dreaming?? Who’s going to pinch me!”
This night, which continuously saw gaping holes being created in their story, finally wiped out the last of Fang Juexia’s fight.
“The truth.” He picked up the ramune bottle and pointed it at himself. Then he simply raised it up like a microphone and said, “You guys…” Fang Juexia swallowed a few times. “Don’t pass out from shock after hearing this, if anyone can’t accept it, you can just say it directly, that’s fine.”
Pei Tingsong was stunned. He felt that his werewolf bandmate was about to explosively reveal himself, and he felt a bit flustered. “Hey, no, you…”
“Xiao Pei and I are in love.” Fang Juexia dropped his eyes and finally said what he had been holding back for a long time.
Once again, everyone fell into a silence.
This was terrible, they definitely couldn’t accept it. Fang Juexia’s fingers gripped the glass bottle tightly.
Of course, if anyone else had been saying it, who would be able to accept it ah? His bandmates, with whom he lived day and night, were carrying out a secret love affair under his very nose—if it was him, he also wouldn’t be able to accept it ah.
“It’s okay…” Fang Juexia said in a low voice, “To begin with, we were the ones in the wrong regarding this matter. From the beginning, we’ve kept it a secret…”
“Holy shit! I won!” He Ziyan jumped up, and the bugle chips on his fingers fell off. He excitedly kicked Lu Yuan’s shoulder with his foot. “Hurry up, hurry up, 100 yuan, take it out, if you’re willing to bet, you’re willing to lose!”
His reaction was already enough to surprise Fang Juexia, yet, as a result, Ling Yi let out a “wah” cry, which made him and Pei Tingsong tremble simultaneously.
“Wuwuwu, Juexia! How could you really let yourself be picked up by him?! How can you….Burp! Ah, wuwuwuwu…”
He Ziyan threw a pillow at Ling Yi’s head. “You also need to give me money, hurry up!”
After getting hit by the pillow, Ling Yi forgot to cry and started hiccuping instead, but then began crying again while groping around for his phone, while imitating an AI’s voice. “Alipay payment made, 100 yuan.”
“No, wait.” This chaotic scene of coming out of the closet was completely unlike what he had imagined, and so Pei Tingsong grabbed at He Ziyan’s calf. “What are you guys doing?”
“Just some time ago, you two would often stick together. We originally thought it was just to sell fanservice as a CP, but then, you two couldn’t even be separated in private, and you both even went to your apartment together, so I thought something was off.” He Ziyan sat down. “So, we made a bet then. Lu Yuan and Ling Yi said that you guys were just friends, and it couldn’t possibly be real. Three Water and I thought it was possible; even if it was impossible now, it was possible in the future, and then we all made a bet bei.”
After that, he took another bite of his “manicure” and said sarcastically, “Your closet door is even crispier than my bugle chips, it shatters at just a touch.”
Lu Yuan wiped at the corners of his eyes, while wearing an old mother’s expression on his face. “200 yuan exchanged for something real, I feel at ease handing this money over.”
After listening to the story behind everything, Pei Tingsong’s first reaction was— “No, I’m only worth 100 yuan?”
“Is that the main point…” Fang Juexia, who had mustered up all of his courage to confess, only wanted to go offline upon seeing the situation taking place in this casino.
“Yes ah, the main point is, we won.” Jiang Miao reminded everyone with a smile, “There’s also my share, don’t forget to give it.”
“Miao Ge, how can you take the lead in gambling?” Pei Tingsong couldn’t believe his own eyes.
Jiang Miao contentedly received the WeChat red envelopes. “How can you call a guaranteed win situation, gambling?”
“I give up, what kind of group is this?”
The maknae had started dating their group’s face behind the other four Gege’s backs, while the remaining four gambled over whether the fanservice was real or fake behind the two little lovers’ backs.
Ling Yi was still immersed in the sadness of losing his beautiful roommate and was still crying while getting ready to snuggle into Fang Juexia’s arms. Pei Tingsong immediately pulled him away. “Laozi has endured you for a long time, and now, even after you know, you still dare to hold him?”
“I’m just going to hold him! You little brute, you’ve stolen my Juexia away!”
Fang Juexia awkwardly wiped Ling Yi’s tears away, but then Pei Tingsong pulled the tissue out of his hand and threw it at Ling Yi’s head instead. “You’re the brute.”
Lu Yuan suddenly had a flash of inspiration. He slapped his forehead and said, “Fuck.”
He pulled over the lamp at the table, aimed it at the suspects Fang Juexia and Pei Tingsong, and opened the four-person joint trial mode.
“So what exactly were you guys doing when you were gone?”
—
