Physiological Stress Response

"What do you mean?" Pei Yang asked. "Aren't you always the one who films these?"

"What do you mean, I'm always the one who films them?" Yin Sufang said. "Pei Yang, we're a team. This is a two-person assignment. I'm not obligated to film for you every time, am I?"

He wasn't obligated, but filming something like this was as easy as eating or drinking for Yin Sufang. Pei Yang looked at him. "You've got enough waist-swaying videos on your phone to post for a whole year. Why make things difficult for me?"

Yin Sufang blinked and began revealing his intentions. "How about this, then? Tell me how you met your boyfriend, how you got together, whether he pursued you or you pursued him, what he does for work, whether he's a rich heir or..."

Yin Sufang counted off his questions on his fingers like he was conducting a census. Annoyed, Pei Yang simply snatched the phone. "I'll do it."

"..."

Thwarted, Yin Sufang folded his arms and said snidely, "Can you dance? Can you make thirst traps? Need me to teach you? For starters, you can't button your shirt all the way up."

There was no rule saying he had to dance. He only had to show his face.

Pei Yang opened the camera, raised the phone to a forty-five-degree angle, and casually snapped a photo of his own cold, expressionless face.

Once he had taken it, the system automatically added background music. Pei Yang tagged the company's address, added the required hashtags, and posted it.

"Done." Less than a minute had passed before he tossed the phone back to Yin Sufang.

"Done? How are you already done?" Yin Sufang took it and looked, only to be stunned by how handsome the face on the screen was.

"..." He swallowed. "You're putting in that little effort? You do know it doesn't count unless it gets ten thousand views, right?"

"Can you come find me if it doesn't?" Pei Yang said coldly. "Stop bothering me for now."

"Tch." Yin Sufang clenched his fists.

FK's headquarters was grand and ostentatious, every floor tile polished to a gleaming shine. Only top executives had access to the top floor. Feng Wanting had just come down from there in a private Executive Elevator, and the Chairman’s Office was only a few steps away.

The heavy door opened. Lu Yu had been waiting on the sofa for some time. Seeing Feng Wanting enter, she hurried to her feet. "Director Feng."

Feng Wanting sometimes truly dreaded seeing her. Rubbing his brow in helpless irritation, he said, "I don't have time today. Another day."

"Director Feng, avoidance won't solve the problem," Lu Yu said.

"Fill it in with last week's answers. I have nothing to say."

"Have you been taking the medication I prescribed on schedule?"

"Yes," Feng Wanting said without hesitation.

"Liar." Lu Yu opened the drawer beneath the desk and dumped its stash of medication onto the desktop. "You could at least hide it properly."

"Can you stop meddling?"

"No, Director Feng," Lu Yu said. "I'm here on orders. Please don't make things difficult for me."

Who's making things difficult for whom? Feng Wanting thought.

He sighed and sat down.

Satisfied, Lu Yu took out her report form and uncapped her fountain pen. Smiling, she asked, "Shall I begin?"

Feng Wanting closed his eyes, leaned back against the sofa, and gave a quiet "Mm."

"Have there been any changes in your life recently?" Lu Yu asked formally.

Feng Wanting paused. Someone's image rushed unbidden into his mind: his long, straight legs, his supple waist that could be gripped in one hand, the expression on his face when he was enjoying himself.

The vast office fell silent. When he went so long without speaking, Lu Yu knew she was about to be fobbed off again. She sighed and moved her pen, but she had barely written "None" on the report when Feng Wanting said, "Yes."

Lu Yu's eyes widened. She hurriedly tore out that page and replaced it with a fresh one, ready to listen intently. "For example?"

Feng Wanting said, "I slept with someone. A couple of days ago."

With a clatter, the fountain pen in Lu Yu's hand fell to the floor. Her hands trembled with excitement. At last, she felt all her hardship had paid off. "You, you... You're cured?"

"Not exactly."

"What do you mean, not exactly?" Lu Yu said. "Isn't being able to do it the biggest success of all?"

"It's strange," Feng Wanting said. "I can only do that with him."

Lu Yu said, "Huh?"

Feng Wanting explained, "Only with him can it happen naturally. It doesn't work with anyone else."

"..." Lu Yu thought for a moment. "Actually, that's easy enough to solve. Marry her. Once you're married, both of us can say we've done our jobs."

Feng Wanting raised one eyebrow and propped up his chin. "Can I marry a man?"

"...A m-man?" Lu Yu asked in astonishment.

"Yes," Feng Wanting confirmed. "A man."

"..."

For a moment, Lu Yu felt she had been made a fool of. After years of treating his psychological lack of sexual desire, her client was now telling her he could get hard for a man.

"So you're gay?" Lu Yu asked.

"No," Feng Wanting said. "It was just that moment, that setting, that atmosphere, that person."

Lu Yu was a little speechless. "Then have you tried with other... men?"

"There's no need to try," Feng Wanting said. "I don't feel anything."

Lu Yu frowned and noted that on her report.

Although she was still somewhat puzzled, compared with his previous perfunctory answers, the fact that her client with "low sexual desire" had had sex even once was already a major breakthrough.

Lu Yu was quietly considering the next course of treatment when something suddenly occurred to her. Struggling to get the words out, she asked, "...Director Feng, when you were with him... were you, well... how should I put this... um..."

"What?" Feng Wanting had never seen Lu Yu act so unprofessionally before. Displeased, he said, "If you have something to say, say it."

Lu Yu blurted it out in one breath. "Were you the top or the bottom?"

If he was the bottom, it wouldn't matter whether things worked down there...

Feng Wanting took a deep breath in and out, then countered, "Do I look like the one getting fucked?"

"Of course not!" Lu Yu said. "I could tell at a glance that you're a top, Director Feng. A total power top!"

Feng Wanting was already regretting telling her any of this. "Next question."

Lu Yu set down her report. "If you've already had one satisfying sexual encounter, that means the root cause of your lack of desire is psychological rather than physiological. In that case, do you think you only feel something for him because you like him?"

"You can rule that out immediately."

"Why?" Lu Yu asked. "Medically speaking, it's not impossible. It's called an attraction response, or... a physiological stress response."

"..."

Someone he had only met once, whose name he didn't even know-could merely having a physical urge toward him count as "liking" him? If so, liking someone was far too cheap.

"He was just a one-night stand. I wouldn't call it liking him."

That "one-night stand" had even mistaken him for a male escort. Sooner or later, he would return those eight bright-red banknotes.

Lu Yu smiled. "You don't have to know someone for a long time to like them."

"There's such a thing as 'love at first sight.'"

"Director Feng, please give me his contact information. I need to talk to him."

"He could be the key to treating your condition."