Ye Ruan wanted to cry and laugh at once. He leaned close to Gu Cheng's ear and whispered:
"Could you hold me?"
Gu Cheng didn't hesitate. He scooped him into his arms and held him tight.
Though he felt the mood called for a kiss.
But his little bunny so rarely acted this sweet. He couldn't resist.
He really couldn't.
"Actually, if you gave me a little more time, I could handle it."
Ye Ruan's fingers tightened around the fabric on Gu Cheng's back, and he rubbed his cheek against his.
"I don't want you getting hurt."
"Bunny, aren't you keeping me a little too much at arm's length?"
Gu Cheng reached down to squeeze the bunny tail hidden beneath his clothes.
"I don't want to hide behind you. I want to face this with you. Every time I see you hurt, it feels like a knife slicing through my heart. It hurts like hell."
Gu Cheng's words were serious, but his hands were up to no good.
"So I'll do it with you, whether it's murder or arson. You used to face him alone. From now on, I'm here."
Ye Ruan's heart trembled hard. The words of refusal rolled around in his throat several times, but he never managed to say them.
He liked this man far too much.
He was afraid Gu Cheng would really get angry and leave.
Gu Cheng loosened his embrace and straightened up to look at him.
His little bunny's reddened eyes were impossible to hide, as was the choked voice edged with tears.
"Look at you, poor thing."
Gu Cheng took Ye Ruan's scraped hand and kissed his knuckles.
Before either could say anything else, a sudden commotion sounded nearby. Someone was coming.
Their current position was rather compromising.
Ye Ruan still had to go home to have lunch with Ye Qingman, so he wrapped his arms around Gu Cheng's neck and whispered in his ear:
"Tonight, in the staff lounge on the second floor of the library. I'll wait for you."
"To-tonight..." Gu Cheng stammered.
He seemed like a rake, but really, all he could do was talk.
His little bunny was much bolder than he was, looping his slender arms around the man's neck.
Blushing, he kissed the corner of his mouth.
That one gesture used up all his courage. Ye Ruan tugged at his own bunny ears, left him with an "I'll wait for you," and turned back into a little bunny in the blink of an eye, vanishing into the distance.
Gu Cheng felt as though he'd been driven mad with desire.
He was madly in love with Ye Ruan, too.
At the same time, he hated himself for reacting too slowly and missing the chance for a deep kiss.
Though the bunny had run off, the big bad wolf stayed rooted to the spot, his heart fluttering and a lovestruck grin on his face.
When he hurried home, Ye Qingman looked up to see her little white fluffball's flushed face. Holding back a smile, she poured him a cup of hot tea.
"Did you see your boyfriend?"
Ye Ruan froze, his face turning so red it almost gave off steam.
"Oh, you're so easily embarrassed. It's not as if I said you couldn't date."
Ye Ruan held a smile at the corners of his lips and said in a tiny, breathy voice, "I did. He wasn't angry. I'll bring him home to meet you another day."
Ye Qingman smiled. "All right. But I know that boy's temperament. When he was first parachuted into the First Team, he was a troublemaker, fierce and rebellious."
"When I saw him last year, he'd turned into such a smooth talker. He could drive your Headquarters Team half to death with anger."
Intrigued, Ye Ruan cradled his hot tea, his eyes sparkling and his bunny ears pricked up as he listened to his mother.
Ye Qingman smiled and continued:
"Gu Cheng used to be a silly little boy who couldn't even put his tail away. He was just like you as a child, cute, but a little goofy-looking."
"Back then, I thought it would be nice for you two to meet and become friends."
She recalled the day before she had taken Ye Ruan away from the base and gone abroad more than a decade ago.
Ye Qingman's face filled with regret.
"You two could have been childhood friends and grown up together. But I thought, we were about to leave the country, and back then, Nan Han held all the power."
Ye Ruan lowered his long, thick lashes. "When I was little, everything I liked died."
Ye Qingman stroked his head.
"We're divorced now. He wouldn't dare do that anymore."
Ye Ruan murmured an assent and lay his head on the table.
But those things had already left scars that would haunt him for life.
The little swallow he had rescued hadn't even recovered before Nan Han threw it out of an upstairs window.
His reason was that indulging in pets undermined ambition.
The puppies he'd raised would mysteriously disappear, too.
Some time later, a foul stench would drift from the rose bushes in the garden.
Ye Qingman murmured, "I like roses, but there must be something wrong with him. His mind is twisted. He buried the evidence of his cruelty among the roses."
"He seems to have a strong need to control us," Ye Ruan said after thinking for a long time.
"There's something I never told you. When I was pregnant with you, he was so obsessive that he wouldn't let me leave the house or speak to any other man."
A flash of hatred passed through Ye Qingman's eyes.
"That's why... I didn't dare." Ye Ruan's voice faltered, and he said no more.
That was why he hadn't dared, hadn't dared get to know the boy who played the piano.
Late that night, Ye Ruan quietly opened his bedroom door and poked his head out to look.
The house was pitch-black. His mother had already gone to bed.
Ye Qingman wasn't in good health, and whenever the weather turned cold, she went to bed early.
Wearing only white pajamas, Ye Ruan walked to the entryway and was about to grab his coat when he discovered his mother had taken it down to wash.
Not wanting to waste any more time, Ye Ruan opened the door and stepped into the cold wind, then closed it slowly, ever so slowly, like a thief.
The lock clicked into place.
Looking nervous, Ye Ruan held his breath and pressed himself against the door to listen for any movement inside.
Thankfully, he hadn't woken his mother.
Once the bunny had scampered happily away, Ye Qingman opened her bedroom door, walked to the window, and looked out, shaking her head helplessly.
"Ah... will my little bunny still come home with his innocence intact?"
The library at the special person base had three floors, and most of its books were about weapons and firearms.
There was a bar counter on the second floor, along with a warmly decorated reading area.
The third floor held books on more obscure subjects, and few people read them.
Gu Cheng reached the second floor. At this hour, the library had long since been locked. It was dim inside, with only the cold glow of the streetlights filtering through the windows.
Gu Cheng brushed off the dust he had picked up while climbing the drainpipe and walked to the end of the bookshelves.
There was a concealed door here, patterned exactly like the wallpaper. Tucked into a corner, it was known to very few people.
It had once been the lounge for the library's staff on duty, but later, hardly anyone at the base had any free time.
The library didn't even get two visitors a day, and the lounge had become a storeroom for damaged books.
When Gu Cheng pushed the door open, only a dim yellow desk lamp lit the room.
"Careful. Don't trip."
Ye Ruan switched on the flashlight on his wristwatch, and its screen lit up white.
Gu Cheng stood in the doorway without moving, waiting for his little bunny to approach him, one step at a time.
"I... tidied the place up a little."
Ye Ruan stood very close, his hand brushing past Gu Cheng's side as he locked the door behind him.
Sensing what was coming, Gu Cheng caught Ye Ruan's wrist with a teasing smile.
His skin was ice-cold. The amusement vanished from Gu Cheng's eyes, and he took off his thick, roomy coat to wrap Ye Ruan in it.
"You came out wearing just this? Don't you know you can't let yourself get chilled?"
"I ran fast. I wasn't out in the cold for long..."
Exasperated, Gu Cheng was about to scold him some more, but Ye Ruan turned his hand and covered his mouth.
His anger faded as quickly as it had flared. Gu Cheng planted several fierce kisses on Ye Ruan's palm before he finally felt appeased.
Before you continue