Can't You Sleep with Me?

"Was it soft or hard?" Su Tingbai asked with a smile, pressing down on his hand.

Su Tingbai's heart beat beneath his palm, his skin scorching hot. Shen Rui'an yanked his hand back as if shocked. A suspicious flush rose on his pale face, his ears burning as an inexplicable panic stirred in his chest. "It, it..."

Shen Rui'an's thoughts were a complete mess, his voice so quiet it was nearly a breath. "It was soft."

"What?" Su Tingbai fixed his gaze on his flustered eyes.

"I said it was soft!" Shen Rui'an snapped in embarrassment, muttering, "Novels are all lies. Abs aren't hard at all."

Su Tingbai suddenly laughed, his blazing gaze falling on the furious little kitten. "Idiot."

Shen Rui'an had sharp ears. Hearing Su Tingbai call him that, he angrily looked up, startled and aggrieved. "You called me an idiot?!"

"Idiot." Smiling, Su Tingbai couldn't resist ruffling Shen Rui'an's hair. "They only get hard when your body is tensed. Under normal circumstances, muscles are soft."

Unless someone was deliberately posing.

Shen Rui'an glanced at him, then glanced again. "Oh~ So you were really nervous just now?"

Su Tingbai looked at him helplessly. "Can't I be nervous when I'm embarrassed, Lord Shen Rui'an?"

"Hmph!" Shen Rui'an huffed, then suddenly turned back and asked sincerely, "Su Tingbai, how did you train your muscles? I want some too."

As he spoke, he raised his arm and flexed hard, but nothing changed. It was still soft flesh, unlike Su Tingbai's arm, where a distinctly raised muscle appeared whenever he flexed.

Su Tingbai pinched his arm, then calmly withdrew his hand and hid it behind his back, rubbing his fingers together. So soft, and so skinny.

"First, you need to eat more. You're too thin."

Shen Rui'an looked somewhat disappointed. "Sigh, I know."

His body just didn't absorb nutrients very well, and he couldn't exactly say he had a huge appetite. No matter how much he ate, he never gained weight.

The two chatted as they headed back, Baisui wagging his tail happily as he followed behind them.

"You can't be picky with food."

"I'm not picky. It's just that they don't taste good, so you can't blame me for being picky."

"Then I'll work hard to make them taste better."

"Okay~"

Xing Ying and the others clung to the awning and craned their necks to look. When they saw the two returning while chatting and laughing, they all breathed a sigh of relief.

"They made up again."

At that, Meng Meng and Ya-ya exchanged a glance and relaxed considerably. Thank goodness, the couple I shipped hadn't broken up.

"These two are like a little couple," Huo Heng muttered, earning a glare from Xing Ying. "Give me a break. It's still too early!"

From what he could tell, Shen Rui'an still hadn't caught on!

And Su Tingbai was too stubborn to admit anything. There was plenty more to see!

As soon as Su Tingbai and Shen Rui'an approached, everyone beneath the awning swiftly pulled their heads back and pretended to be playing cards.

Once Shen Rui'an's mood improved, his whole presence brightened. He walked a little faster, his slightly long black hair swaying with his light steps. A breeze swept through, lifting his hair and tousling the strands over his forehead, revealing his especially delicate features.

With smiling eyes, he hurried up to Su Tingbai. "Su Tingbai, what are we playing later?"

They had come camping, so they definitely had to stay outside overnight. That was how it really felt like camping!

Thinking of that, Shen Rui'an suddenly wondered what he was supposed to do about bathing that night.

He loved taking baths. Every time he bathed, it felt as though all the exhaustion had been washed away. Even in the coldest weather, he would get up to take a hot shower, and in summer, he had to wash every day.

"There's an astronomical telescope in the RV. The light pollution here is fairly low, so we might be able to see the Milky Way. I'll take it out and set it up later. You can look through it tonight." As Su Tingbai spoke, he led him into the RV and somehow found an astronomical telescope.

It was Shen Rui'an's first time in an RV. He had never needed one when traveling before, so he followed Su Tingbai inside to look around. "Su Tingbai, are we sleeping outside tonight? What about bathing?"

Hearing that, Su Tingbai pointed at the shower room in the RV. "You can bathe in here. The space is just a little small."

"Is there enough water for bathing? What about Ya-ya and the others?" Shen Rui'an was deeply concerned.

"There is. After you finish, they can come into the RV to wash up too before heading back. I filled the water tank." When Su Tingbai went camping in certain places, there were public shower rooms for everyone to use.

If they went camping somewhere without public showers, they could only bring a shower tent and water heater themselves.

But an RV was more convenient. This RV had a three-hundred-liter water tank, and he usually didn't fill it all the way because it would make the vehicle too heavy and difficult to drive. But since the campsite was close by and the road wasn't especially steep, he had filled it before setting off.

With that amount of water, as long as nobody planned on taking a bath or anything, simple showers were fine. It was enough for Shen Rui'an to shower four or five times, at least.

Shen Rui'an relaxed at that. "That's good. Camping is pretty fun, but it really is a bit troublesome."

Just thinking about everything that had to be prepared made Shen Rui'an's head ache, thoroughly dispelling his fascination with camping.

He had never camped before and had been intensely curious, but once daily life was involved, camping felt like such a hassle.

After this trip, although Shen Rui'an liked the atmosphere of camping, he had no desire to come again next time.

A daytime outing was fine, but camping overnight? Forget it.

Su Tingbai noticed a trace of tiredness between his brows and went over to make up the bed. "It's still a long time until evening. Do you want to take a nap in the RV?"

Shen Rui'an yawned and nodded.

Su Tingbai made the bed for him. "Go to sleep. I'll come wake you later."

"Mhm, mhm. Su Tingbai, you're such a nice person." Shen Rui'an changed into another set of clothes, lay down on the bed, and soon fell asleep.

Su Tingbai envied that baby-like sleep immensely.

After seeing that he was asleep, he quietly went outside.

He met up with Little Zhu and the others to set up all the tents, then gathered and bagged the trash they had made, piling it together to take away when they left.

By the time Shen Rui'an woke up, the sky was already dark.

The smell of barbecue drifted in from outside the RV. Looking through the window, he could vaguely see firelight flickering near the awning.

After Su Tingbai finished preparing dinner, he came to wake Shen Rui'an, only to find that he was already awake.

"You're awake? Perfect. Dinner's ready, and Huo Heng even set up a bonfire party. Want to go take a look?" Su Tingbai found him a light jacket and draped it over his arm, then held out his other hand.

The temperature dropped sharply at night, so it was better to bring a jacket. Shen Rui'an couldn't handle the cold.

"Okay." Shen Rui'an placed his hand in Su Tingbai's and carefully stepped down from the RV.

The mountain forest after dark was completely different from how it was during the day to Shen Rui'an. He found it a little frightening.

Fortunately, there were no large wild animals around, so it was still quite safe.

Shen Rui'an's vision wasn't very good in the dark, so he could only hold Su Tingbai's hand and slowly follow behind him.

Su Tingbai reminded him from time to time.

They were not far away, and after only a few steps, they arrived. Shen Rui'an also noticed several assembled tents near the RV. It seemed they were where Little Zhu and the others would stay that night.

"Su Tingbai, are you sleeping in a tent tonight too?" Shen Rui'an looked around, somewhat scared, and gripped Su Tingbai's sleeve tightly.

Su Tingbai pointed to the tent closest to the RV. "Yeah, I'm sleeping there. If you're scared, you can call me."

Shen Rui'an looked where he pointed. It really was close, but when he thought about staying alone in the empty RV, he was still afraid.

Shen Rui'an bit his lower lip. "Can't you sleep with me? I'm scared."

Su Tingbai's breath caught. "W-what? Sleep together...?"