Want to date?

Ji Huaijin looked as though he had just gotten home. He was still wearing a shirt and waistcoat with crisply fitted dress trousers, a fine chain draped between his chest and a button.

He stood with darkness stretching behind him, impeccably dressed, all grace and poise.

Cheng Yue's throat tightened. He stared straight at him and got right to the point. "Were you at the restaurant just now too?"

The answer was already obvious, but Cheng Yue insisted on hearing it from him.

Ji Huaijin chuckled softly, his voice as gentle as a leaf drifting through the air. "Did you like the taste of the Grange?"

He was always like this. In their handful of encounters, he had never once answered a question properly. Instead, he insisted on holding the taut thread between them firmly in his own hands, domineering and allowing no argument.

He refused to give an inch.

Cheng Yue refused to let him have his way. He strode forward, shoved him hard against the wall, and seized his collar, leaning in. "Ji Huaijin, do you have to be so damned annoying?"

Pinned against the wall, the man wore an easy smile, as though his predicament had nothing to do with him.

"Cheng Yue, want to date?"

Cheng Yue's pupils shook, his eyes flying wide. "!!"

Ji Huaijin was still smiling, looking so relaxed and unruffled that he might as well have been asking whether Cheng Yue had eaten.

The sound-activated light in the hallway abruptly went out. Barely inches apart, Cheng Yue could make out a dim gleam in those eyes through the murky light, their indifference and composure laid bare without restraint.

He was nothing like the charming gentleman beneath the light. His gentleness seemed to have been nothing but an illusion.

Fear suddenly gripped Cheng Yue, and he instinctively tried to step back.

But a second later, a hand clamped around his waist and pressed him against the wall, still warm from their bodies. The atmosphere reversed in an instant.

Their gazes met. Ji Huaijin gave an unreadable little chuckle and coaxed softly, "Want to date?"

Cheng Yue's scalp prickled. His back was pressed firmly against the wall, and he reached out to push Ji Huaijin away, but the other man did not budge.

"Sure."

Before Ji Huaijin could bend down, he added, "If you bottom."

It looked as though they would not be reaching an agreement on that.

A faint sigh sounded beside his ear, seemingly filled with regret.

Cheng Yue instantly forgot his earlier fear. He was just about to gloat when, a second later, the belated, deep kiss descended on him, swallowing him whole.

Cheng Yue had no time to react. Having lost the initiative, he could only let the other man plunder his mouth without restraint. The distinctive flavor of the Grange wound between their mouths, tangling endlessly.

Outside the window, the moonlight was silver. Its pale, silken radiance spilled over the trembling strand between them, making it gleam, clear as crystal.

Ji Huaijin's forceful advances left him no choice but to retreat step by step, until he fell onto the dark gray sofa.

At last, he found an opening. He raised his head and snapped breathlessly, "Ji Huaijin, what the hell is wrong with you? Fuck, my waist chain!"

The glittering chain wound around and around before being clenched in one hand. Cheng Yue sucked in a sharp breath, tipping his head back and exposing his beautiful Adam's apple.

"Don't..."

A liquor cabinet stood directly opposite the sofa. Beneath the dim yellow wall light, its glass doors reflected blurry, shifting shadows.

Ji Huaijin was still dressed as he had been at the beginning. Apart from a few slight wrinkles in his collar, not a single thing about him was out of place.

The black marble tabletop was unyieldingly hard. Even through his trousers, Cheng Yue could feel a dull ache.

Only then did Cheng Yue realize that the entire living room was pristine. He alone was disheveled, his clothes in disarray.

"Ji Huaijin, three times is the limit! If you actually dare, I swear you'll never hear the end of it!"

Ji Huaijin seemed not to hear his threat. He leisurely rolled up his sleeves, then bent down close to his ear.

"I just want you to demonstrate how good it feels to bottom, what makes it feel so good, and what it feels like when you're enjoying it."

What kind of bullshit was that?

"If you fucking want to play, just say so!"

Drip.

A drop of water struck the tabletop heavily, splashing into ripples.

Ji Huaijin's lips curved upward. His voice was perfectly mild, but his fingers showed no mercy. "You'd barely gotten out of my bed before running off on a blind date?"

"This is a warning. Will you remember it?"

"Cheng Yue."

The broken waist chain slipped down with a clink, no longer glittering as it once had.

Yet it left a memory etched into him.

As May arrived, the weather grew steadily hotter. Cheng Yue wandered around the residential complex under the blazing sun-no, he was on patrol.

After that blind date, Qi Su had contacted him again, hoping to give that budding connection another chance.

Instead, Cheng Yue had firmly refused and solemnly told him to stop pulling these stunts. He was not considering a relationship for the time being.

Qi Su was baffled. If he did not want to, then fine. Why get so worked up? He made it sound as though Qi Su were trying to lure him off to Myanmar.

Cheng Yue had thought that would be the end of it. Yet the day after he turned Qi Su down, he spotted Cheng Yuxuan at the entrance to the complex.

The other man was wearing a simple sweatshirt and jeans, his smile bright and open. "Hello, Cheng Yue. We meet again."

His colleague on duty watched them curiously. Cheng Yue concealed his discomfort and offered a faint, polite smile.

"Young Master Cheng, what a coincidence."

Cheng Yuxuan was candid about it. "It's not a coincidence. I came here specifically to see you."

His father was a director at a state-owned enterprise. Looking up someone's personal information was easy enough.

"It was wrong of me to drop by unannounced. I ordered some afternoon refreshments for you and your colleagues as a small apology. I hope you'll forgive my abruptness."

The pampered young master Cheng had grown up with everyone doting on him. He felt that, since he had apologized, the other man ought to stop holding it against him.

What he did not understand was that, for someone with boundaries as firm as Cheng Yue's, prying into his private information had already crossed a line.

When Cheng Yuxuan suggested exchanging contact details, Cheng Yue refused outright. "Sorry, Young Master Cheng. That meal last time was a misunderstanding. I'm not looking for a relationship right now."

Cheng Yuxuan could no longer maintain his smile, and the conversation stalled.

After a moment, he suddenly sighed helplessly. "Cheng Yue, you're so straightforward... it's hard not to like you."

Cheng Yue had imagined he might fly into a rage or lash out in humiliation. He had never expected things to turn out like this.

It was really the same old story. After hearing too much flattery from people currying favor, someone genuine and unaffected had easily piqued his interest.

Cheng Yue rubbed his brow with a headache. He wondered whether he really ought to find a temple and pray for better luck. Before that, of course, he had not forgotten the person responsible for this entire mess.

Qi Su was mercilessly blacklisted once again.

Just as he thought he was about to be dragged into more trouble, Cheng Yuxuan stopped showing up. At last, Cheng Yue could let out a long sigh of relief.

He hoped that young master would never think of him again and would let him go like a fart in the wind.

Because certain haunting memories kept replaying in his mind, surfacing now and then to remind him.

"This is a warning."