Ten minutes later.
There was a knock on Jiang Chiyan's bedroom door.
The corners of Jiang Chiyan's mouth curved upward. He opened the door and asked Xiao Cheng, feigning confusion, "Why are you back?"
Xiao Cheng stared straight at Jiang Chiyan. "Was this your doing?"
Jiang Chiyan looked bewildered. "What?"
Xiao Cheng asked again, "It really wasn't you?"
Jiang Chiyan narrowed his eyes and caught Xiao Cheng's chin. "Boyfriend, it's so late... barging into your man's bedroom like this. You don't want to leave, do you?"
Jiang Chiyan sounded so matter-of-fact that Xiao Cheng thought perhaps he really had misunderstood him.
Xiao Cheng scratched his head. "Could I... stay here for the night?"
After saying that, as though afraid Jiang Chiyan would get the wrong idea, he hastily added, "I'll take a guest room! Any guest room is fine."
A hint of amusement flashed in Jiang Chiyan's eyes. "No."
"Huh?" Xiao Cheng hadn't expected him to refuse.
Holding Xiao Cheng's chin, Jiang Chiyan lightly brushed his thumb over his lips. "Baby, if you want to stay the night... you'll have to stay in the master bedroom."
Xiao Cheng swallowed. His gaze landed on the sheets on the master bed, then darted away an instant later. He blushed all the way to his ears.
Jiang Chiyan tipped his chin up and pressed the back of his other hand against Xiao Cheng's cheek. "Your face is so hot. What are you thinking about, hmm?"
"N-nothing." Xiao Cheng's throat was terribly dry, and even his voice sounded a little hoarse.
Only then did Jiang Chiyan step back. He went downstairs to the kitchen and made him a cup of honey citron water. "Here."
Xiao Cheng held the cup and gulped some down.
He was flustered, and his hand trembled slightly around the glass. A few drops of water trickled down his slender neck.
They slipped over the beautifully defined prominence of his throat, then disappeared beneath his shirt collar.
Jiang Chiyan's eyes deepened. He handed Xiao Cheng his tablet. "The device password is your birthday, and the app lock password is the day you debuted. Entertain yourself for now. I have some work to take care of."
Xiao Cheng said okay.
Then Jiang Chiyan sat at the desk in the master bedroom, leafing through a textbook for the legal qualification exam.
He was a lead instructor at a well-known legal exam prep institution.
Jiang Chiyan had a livestream class that evening and needed to prepare for it.
Xiao Cheng sat on the edge of Jiang Chiyan's bed, holding the tablet and stealing glances at him from time to time.
Jiang Chiyan was mildly nearsighted. Wearing gold-rimmed glasses, a white shirt, and black trousers, he sat at the desk with a book in his hands, exuding the air of a refined scoundrel.
His shirt sleeves were rolled up to his elbows, exposing a stretch of cool, pale skin.
Jiang Chiyan's fingers around the book were fair and well-proportioned.
For a moment, Xiao Cheng was transfixed.
His thoughts even wandered a little...
He wanted to cut off Yanyan's hands and hide them away.
After Xiao Cheng had stared at him for a full twenty minutes, Jiang Chiyan looked up from his pile of legal exam books and said quietly, not quite composed, "Don't look at me like that."
Xiao Cheng: ??
Jiang Chiyan was smiling, but his voice was alarmingly hoarse. "Keep looking at me like that, and your waist won't be able to take it."
Xiao Cheng hurriedly lowered his head and played with Jiang Chiyan's tablet, pretending to be calm.
On the tablet, Jiang Chiyan's WeChat chimed.
In the quiet bedroom, the WeChat notification sounded especially clear.
Xiao Cheng stood up to bring Jiang Chiyan the tablet. "Your WeChat..."
Without even looking up, Jiang Chiyan twirled a pen in his hand and said, "Check who it's from."
Xiao Cheng said, "Oh," and casually tapped it open.
It was an ad, the kind with nothing of substance.
Just as Xiao Cheng was about to exit WeChat...
Jiang Chiyan's WeChat profile picture suddenly captured his complete and utter attention.
Xiao Cheng opened the full-sized version of Jiang Chiyan's WeChat profile picture and saw...
On a plain white background, a line had been written in wild cursive-
-[Already taken, afraid of my spouse, no flirting.]
Afraid of your spouse, my ass.
Already taken, too...
Xiao Cheng stared at Jiang Chiyan's WeChat profile picture for a few seconds, then unexpectedly heard his voice. "Like my profile picture?"
Xiao Cheng looked up at Jiang Chiyan and rolled his eyes hard.
Jiang Chiyan leaned lazily back in his chair, pulled out a blank sheet of paper, wrote a line in sweeping strokes, and handed it to Xiao Cheng.
Xiao Cheng took it in confusion and saw that it read...
-[Taken, married, no hookups.]
With a rather shameless smile, Jiang Chiyan said, "Mr. Xiao, you can take a photo of the writing on this paper with your phone, and we'll have matching couple profile pictures."
Xiao Cheng crumpled the paper into a ball and threw it straight at Jiang Chiyan's head.
Jiang Chiyan good-naturedly took the paper ball off his head and set it on the desk.
Xiao Cheng didn't want to bother with him.
So Xiao Cheng lay on Jiang Chiyan's bed with the tablet, scrolling through entertainment gossip.
Jiang Chiyan glanced at Xiao Cheng, picked up the air conditioner remote, and raised the temperature by two degrees.
Five minutes later, he raised it another two degrees.
Ten minutes later, he raised it another degree.
Xiao Cheng finally couldn't stand it anymore. He sat up in bed, sweating all over, and glanced at the air conditioner. It was already set to thirty degrees Celsius.
Xiao Cheng asked Jiang Chiyan, "Aren't you hot?"
Jiang Chiyan shook his head. "No."
Xiao Cheng wiped the sweat from his forehead, hesitated, then bit his lip and said to Jiang Chiyan, "Um... I want to take a shower."
Jiang Chiyan said, "Oh," looking quite aloof and gentlemanly.
Xiao Cheng ground his teeth. "Jiang Chiyan, I don't have a change of clothes!!"
The curve of Jiang Chiyan's lips deepened. He pushed back his chair, stood up, and opened the wardrobe. "There aren't any new clothes left. I've worn all of these, but they've all been washed. Pick whatever you like."
He had stuffed all the unopened new clothes under the bed.
Xiao Cheng averted his gaze and nodded a little awkwardly. He picked out a set of gray pajamas at random and went to the bathroom in the second bedroom next door.
Jiang Chiyan's lips curved into a captivating smile.
He glanced at his watch. It was already 7:50 p.m.
The livestream started at eight that evening.
Jiang Chiyan turned on his computer, entered his username and password, and entered the livestream room.
When other instructors at the legal exam prep institution livestreamed, only twenty or thirty thousand people attended online.
But Jiang Chiyan's livestream...
-[Online attendees: 2.85 million]
The moment Jiang Chiyan entered the livestream room, the scrolling comments exploded.
_: "Yanyan, where's Chengcheng?"
_: "Ever since Gunpowder Smoke CP got popular, the admissions cutoff for our university's law school has gone up a whole twenty points."
_: "Waiting for Lawyer Storm and The Warmth of Legal Professionals to announce their release dates."
_: "Ginger Slices and Oranges, please don't make a fuss. Yanyan is teaching a livestream class here. Leave the comments to law students who need help or have questions. They have to take the legal qualification exam."
_: "Okay, okay, I'm a Ginger Slices fan. I'll shut up."
_: "OK, OK, I'm an Oranges fan. I'll shut up too."
_: "Sorry, we just wanted to see Yanyan. We'll stay quiet and definitely won't disturb your class. Wishing all you older brothers and sisters success on the legal qualification exam!"
In the livestream room.
The casual viewers who had initially found these fans rather irritating instantly became fans themselves.
Because the individual fans and couple fans of Xiao Cheng and Jiang Chiyan really were very well-behaved.
Besides...
Nowhere else in the entire entertainment industry could individual fans and couple fans coexist peacefully.
But theirs could.
Before long, it was eight that evening.
Jiang Chiyan picked up his textbook and began teaching.
His teaching wasn't rigid. He could explain a very dry point using many vivid cases from multiple angles.
His logic was clear and his framework lucid. The students listened with keen interest and gained a great deal.
After the hour-and-a-half livestream class ended...
Jiang Chiyan interacted with the students in the livestream room as usual.
One comment asked, "Lawyer Jiang, is Gunpowder Smoke CP real?"
Jiang Chiyan smiled when he saw the comment.
Before he could speak, the master bedroom door was pushed open-
Xiao Cheng walked in wearing pajamas.
Xiao Cheng didn't notice that Jiang Chiyan was livestreaming.
As he dried his wet hair, he said to Jiang Chiyan, "Chiyan, I just searched on Baidu. You set the bedroom air conditioner to thirty degrees. If you're that sensitive to the cold, Lady Du says there might be something wrong with your kidneys. You need treatment. You can't hide your illness and avoid seeing a doctor."
Jiang Chiyan: "..."
The livestream room: "..."