Good Puppy

Shi Junyi found it even harder to fall asleep.

Aside from the year Mother Shi had just passed away, when Shi Junyi was seven and would still knock on Shi Jiao's door at night to sleep with her, he had not shared a bed with anyone for nearly twenty years.

Even without speaking, Jiang Qiao's breathing, scent, and body heat all made his presence impossible to ignore.

Especially now, when Jiang Qiao was still rustling around nonstop beneath the covers.

Shi Junyi opened his eyes and snapped irritably, "Are you a maggot?"

Jiang Qiao said quietly, "Sorry."

Suppressing the urge to kick him out of bed, Shi Junyi turned to look at him. "What are you doing?"

"Taking off my pants," Jiang Qiao said.

Shi Junyi's eyelid twitched. "I just said you weren't allowed to take them off."

"I thought you meant I wasn't allowed to take off my clothes," Jiang Qiao said.

"Put them back on," Shi Junyi said.

Jiang Qiao looked aggrieved. "I can't sleep with them on. I won't touch you."

Shi Junyi was just about to lose his temper and tell Jiang Qiao to get out if he could not sleep.

Before the words could leave his mouth, Jiang Qiao said, "You just said you wouldn't kick me out."

Shi Junyi sneered, yanked the blanket over, tucked it beneath himself, and shifted closer to the edge of the bed.

Without the blanket shielding him, Jiang Qiao felt a draft blowing right between his legs. He muttered, "Childish."

Then he silently put his pants back on.

After a while, seeing that Shi Junyi had not moved, he cautiously scooted toward the middle and secretly tugged out a corner of the blanket to drape over himself.

Having achieved his goal, Jiang Qiao soon fell asleep and even began snoring softly in satisfaction.

Country Y had a thriving tourism industry and valued freedom. It had no death penalty, and many things expressly forbidden by the laws of other countries could be legally indulged in here.

Just behind the street where Jiang Qiao lived were several little bars that stayed open until dawn, displaying a certain kind of freedom even more vividly.

Shi Junyi lay awake, his face dark as the bottom of a pot.

Not only did he have to endure Jiang Qiao pressing closer and closer against his back, but he also had to listen to wave after wave of "sounds of freedom" drifting from the alley outside.

When Jiang Qiao hooked a leg over Shi Junyi for the third time and poked him.

Shi Junyi finally exploded.

He pulled the Glock from beneath his pillow, pressed it to Jiang Qiao's temple, and said in a low voice, "Get up."

Jiang Qiao sat bolt upright. "Someone broke in?"

Without waiting for Shi Junyi to speak, he instinctively snatched away the gun pointed at his head, aimed it at the door, and nimbly rolled out of bed to shield Shi Junyi behind him.

Looking at Jiang Qiao standing in front of him, with a tuft of hair still sticking up from his head, Shi Junyi said with aristocratic composure, "No. Someone is disturbing my sleep."

Only then did Jiang Qiao lower his guard. Letting out a long breath, he said, "Then why were you pointing a gun at me?"

Shi Junyi's gaze dropped. "You pointed a gun at me first."

Jiang Qiao looked down at himself and tugged at his sleep pants. "This is a man's most sincere tribute to the person he loves."

"Smooth talker." Shi Junyi snorted.

The person he loved—who knew how many people he had in his heart.

"Ah~"

Just then, a shrill, liberated cry outside the window interrupted their conversation.

Jiang Qiao's house stood on relatively high ground, roughly level with the second floor overlooking the alley outside.

He pushed open the window and looked out to see a man and a woman.

That liberated cry had come from the woman's mouth.

Jiang Qiao turned back and asked Shi Junyi, "Are they the ones keeping you awake, brother?"

Shi Junyi nodded.

Jiang Qiao leaned over the windowsill, stuck his head out, and shouted toward the alley.

"Come quick! Free open-air adult show! Don't miss it, folks! If you've got money, throw some cash! If you don't, come cheer them on!"

The two people below were startled. The man was so startled that he immediately went limp, and he cursed, "Are you fucking sick?"

Jiang Qiao smiled at him. "Buddy, this is beneath my house, not the African savanna. And it's not mating season for animals. Don't go into heat wherever you please. You're keeping people awake."

The woman shoved the man away, pulled down her skirt, covered her face, and ran out of the alley.

Having had his fun ruined, the man was seething. He spat on the ground, pointed at Jiang Qiao's nose, and cursed him with several incomprehensible obscenities in dialect.

Jiang Qiao only understood one sentence: "I'll fucking shoot you."

Jiang Qiao whistled, extended the gun out the window, and with a click, chambered a round. "Then we'll see whether your gun is faster or mine."

Seeing the dark muzzle aimed straight at him, the man immediately lost his nerve.

He turned and headed out of the alley, still spewing the most vicious insults. Finally, in standard Mandarin, he cursed, "You bastard whose whole family should die."

Jiang Qiao had not had family in his previous life. In this life, he had finally gained an adoptive father and an older sister, and he cherished them dearly. He hated hearing such curses.

His face darkened. Without another word, he fired at the man's heels.

The man had not expected Jiang Qiao to actually shoot. His face turned green with fright, and he ran without even looking back.

Jiang Qiao fired again, kicking up pebbles that struck the back of the man's head. The man's legs went weak on the spot, and he collapsed face-first onto the ground.

Jiang Qiao laughed loudly. "Run, bastard! If you're too slow, I'll shoot you!"

"Lunatic! Lunatic!"

Cursing loudly, the man scrambled out of the alley.

Jiang Qiao pulled his head back in, drew the curtains, and shut the window. Then he said softly to Shi Junyi, "Go to sleep, brother. It's quiet now."

Shi Junyi raised a brow at Jiang Qiao's harmless smile. "You fired a gun in the middle of the city for no reason. Aren't you afraid the police will come knocking?"

Jiang Qiao placed the gun in Shi Junyi's hand. "Brother is here. Both the gun and I are registered under your name. If the police come looking, they should look for you."

Holding the gun by the barrel, Shi Junyi lightly patted Jiang Qiao's cheek with the grip and praised him, "Very good. A puppy should learn to throw its weight around by relying on its master."

Jiang Qiao caught Shi Junyi's wrist before he could lower his hand, tilted his head, and licked the web between Shi Junyi's thumb and forefinger where it rested against the gun.

"Woof."

He looked obedient enough, but his gaze fixed on Shi Junyi was like that of a hungry wolf.

With the sounds disrupting their sleep dealt with, the late night returned to its proper silence.

Looking at Shi Junyi's now especially pronounced double eyelids, Jiang Qiao knew he had not slept well during the first half of the night and stopped bothering him.

He took a pillow, then felt Shi Junyi's forehead to make sure his fever had not returned. "Go to sleep, brother. I'll go outside."

Shi Junyi asked, "Not scared anymore?"

"I'm more afraid you won't sleep well and will get mad enough to point a gun at my head," Jiang Qiao said.

Shi Junyi waved a hand. "Get out."

After all that commotion, Jiang Qiao had completely lost any desire to sleep. He poured himself a glass of wine, returned to the screening room on the second floor, and finished the half of the movie that remained.