Tender affection

Ye Ruan felt as though all his rabbit fur was about to stand on end. The rim of his ear tingled where Gu Cheng had touched it.

"Little Bunny."

Gu Cheng put away his teasing manner.

"It's dark now. We might have to camp out tonight and look for them tomorrow."

Ye Ruan flexed his weak fingers. "I'll turn back into a rabbit in a bit and hop into the basin for a bath."

Gu Cheng sighed. "This is when being a small animal really comes in handy. I can't do that. I wouldn't fit in the basin."

"Didn't we pass a river on the way here? Jump in and swim a lap."

"I'm not Fang Ci. That husky is the one who likes jumping into rivers."

Still, Ye Ruan was very curious about what Gu Cheng's animal form looked like.

"What!" When Gu Cheng saw Little Bunny tugging his sleeve again, he knew he was about to try to wheedle something out of him.

Ye Ruan cupped Gu Cheng's face in his soft, warm palms, mischief lurking in his eyes.

"I want to see you turn into a wolf..."

"No." Gu Cheng said, "I'm afraid I'll scare you."

"I'm a ferocious giant wolf. When I was parachuted into the First Team, all those pups were so scared they started yelping."

Ye Ruan: "..."

Ye Ruan was skeptical about that claim.

So he fluttered his dewy eyes twice.

"Gu Cheng."

He was really getting into it now. Gu Cheng raised an eyebrow and leaned back in his chair, drawling:

"Then give me a kiss, ahem, and I'll let you see."

Ye Ruan was unhappy. Pouting with a wounded expression, he turned his back on him and picked at the pattern on the chair back.

"You've seen me, but you won't let me see you. It's not fair!"

Gu Cheng resisted the way the rabbit was melting his heart, wanting to see just how far he would take this act.

"No bargaining, baby."

"Bad wolf!"

Ye Ruan's cheeks puffed up like soft, white steamed buns:

"Carnivores really are all sly!"

Gu Cheng held back a laugh. "Keep going."

Ye Ruan ground his teeth in anger, then suddenly leaned over and bit his shoulder.

The man's body was like a furnace, and he wore his clothes loose every day, leaving the perfect opening for a bite.

Gu Cheng hissed and abruptly pinned him to the chair, trapping Little Bunny's slender wrists.

Their gazes collided without warning. Gu Cheng's Adam's apple bobbed twice, and he smiled.

Ye Ruan's gaze wavered. "I think... I broke the skin."

"Those little rabbit teeth of yours are pretty sharp." Gu Cheng pinched Ye Ruan's cheek.

His gaze suddenly changed, and his fingers slid from Ye Ruan's cheek to the back of his neck.

The distance between them kept shrinking.

Ye Ruan's thick lashes trembled. He was about to close his eyes when he suddenly remembered something.

In the end, the kiss barely brushed the corner of Ye Ruan's mouth before landing softly on his cheek.

The big gray wolf thought he had made himself quite clear.

But Little Bunny apparently wasn't willing.

Thinking he hadn't been clear enough, Gu Cheng leaned close to Ye Ruan's ear and said:

"Ye Ruan, I like you."

Ye Ruan's heart gave a sudden, violent flutter, and he couldn't stop it from racing.

Gu Cheng lowered his voice and continued:

"You don't have to worry that I'll hurt you. To this day, my biggest regret is that I passed you by three years ago."

"If I'd chosen to walk into the banquet hall that day, I could have met you sooner."

Gu Cheng brushed the stray hair off Ye Ruan's forehead.

"It's funny, actually. Three years ago, the day before you took the Third Team out of the country, I saw you from the dorm balcony."

The memory buried deep in his mind slowly surfaced, growing clearer.

It was the winter day when the snow had finally stopped after falling for days on end.

The day before, Gu Cheng had gotten into another argument with the Headquarters Team.

It was still over the same old aggravating issues.

Like donating that stuff.

According to the organization, she was a special person from abroad, a beautiful blonde with blue eyes.

Gu Cheng had no interest in any of it, nor did he want to end up with some unknown mixed-race kid somewhere without even knowing about it.

After leading Fang Ci and a few others into an argument with the Headquarters Team, each of them had been served a three-day helping of confinement to reflect on their behavior.

Gu Cheng was standing on the balcony smoking, bored out of his mind, when he heard footsteps approaching from the distance.

It was the Third Team.

A group of small animals who looked easy to push around, their steps cheerful and bouncy even when they were just walking.

The one at the front looked like a Blue Bay Sheepdog mixed in among the little animals. Apparently, he was pretty formidable, just a little goofy.

He seemed to be the Third Team's deputy captain.

Gu Cheng exhaled a cloud of white smoke and was about to turn back inside when he suddenly noticed a little rabbit trailing behind at the very back of the group.

He had fallen far behind and was walking backward, one hand raised, waving for a long time toward the direction they had come from.

Following his gaze, Gu Cheng saw a woman standing in the distance beneath a snow-covered pine.

Every time Little Bunny waved, the woman patiently waved back.

They were too far away, and things blocked his view, so Gu Cheng hadn't been able to see clearly.

Thinking back now, that had been Ye Ruan's mother.

And thinking more carefully, when the rabbit had finally turned around reluctantly, he had been wiping tears from his face.

He didn't dare dwell on it. The more he thought about it, the worse he felt.

It would take two packs of cigarettes to suppress that ache in his heart.

Pulling himself out of his thoughts, Gu Cheng said softly:

"If I'd known you were the person I would fall for three years later, I would have jumped down that day and hugged you before you left."

Ye Ruan had only been blushing with shyness at first, but after those words, his eyes reddened, tears hovering on the verge of falling.

"I..."

"That was the first time I saw you, wasn't it? Unfortunately, all I could see was your white hair."

Gu Cheng interrupted Ye Ruan somewhat urgently.

For no other reason than that he could still tell Ye Ruan was about to reject him.

"Sorry, now isn't the right time."

Gu Cheng ruffled Ye Ruan's hair. "I got ahead of myself. We can take our time getting to know each other. If you ever..."

Before he could finish, Ye Ruan tilted his head up and kissed Gu Cheng on the cheek.

He pulled away again before Gu Cheng could react.

Ye Ruan's fingers were tucked inside his sleeve, his fingertips touching the web between Gu Cheng's thumb and forefinger.

"Don't regret it, Gu Cheng. I'm not as good as you think I am."

Ye Ruan said softly, "I'm bad. I'll lie to you."

Gu Cheng laughed. "Have you ever seen a bad person announce it before lying to someone?"

"Besides, why would I regret it?"

"Little Bunny, you can lie to me or use me. Either is fine."

Gu Cheng said, "I only have one condition. You can't leave me behind and sneak off."

A layer of tears filled Little Bunny's eyes, making him look pitiful.

Holding back a laugh, Gu Cheng hugged Ye Ruan tightly.

"Sweet bunny, I like you so much. If this had been a few years earlier, I'd have carried you straight off in my jaws."

Looking adorably haughty, Ye Ruan gave a little huff:

"I wouldn't go!"