Song'an, my big brother

Song Yang had gotten nowhere. He found himself an excuse to back down and left in embarrassment.

Only Li Shu and Xue Chen remained in the food area.

"Do you know how annoying you sound?" Li Shu disliked beating around the bush and asked with genuine sincerity.

Xue Chen did not answer Li Shu directly. Instead, he picked up a pastry with a disposable fork and put it in his mouth, without a trace of pleasure in his eyes.

"You speak your mind. You're straightforward. Both the Li Family and Chen Yannan have protected you very well."

"To be honest, I'm jealous."

Li Shu spoke with complete sincerity. "Then you've got a serious jealousy problem. You should work on that."

Xue Chen smiled, but what he said was particularly out of line. "Could you stay a little farther away from Yannan?"

Chen Yannan did not make it obvious, but Xue Chen could sense it. Li Shu was anything but ordinary to Chen Yannan. Whether he could even be considered a younger brother was another question altogether.

He admitted he could not control Chen Yannan. All he could do was get rid of anyone who was an eyesore.

That was what Xue Chen had been taught growing up, and he wholeheartedly agreed with it.

Li Shu: ?

Seriously, do you even hear yourself?

Li Shu exploded. Choosing to return to the bounds of a childhood friendship himself and being forcibly pushed out with that commanding tone were two different things.

And why should he?

Are you my dad? Am I supposed to do whatever you say?

"Yannan has always treated me like a younger brother. How am I supposed to stay away? Cut him off? Don't you think what you're saying is completely ridiculous?"

"I honestly don't care what your relationship with Chen Yannan is. You don't have to keep fixating on me."

"Unbelievable. You two can do whatever you want. What does any of it have to do with me?"

Li Shu was thoroughly annoyed. He genuinely thought Xue Chen was a lunatic.

Why did he spend all day fixating on him, a Communist successor, whether he had anything better to do or not?!

If liking someone turned people into this, he was never going to date anyone in his life.

Li Shu scratched his head, his fair, clean-cut chin slightly raised. Muttering under his breath, he turned a corner and collided with a wall of a person before he could see what was there.

"Ow-"

Once he saw who it was, Li Shu stamped his foot in anger.

"Pei Song'an, one of these days you're going to scare me into wetting my pants!"

"What are you hiding here for?"

"Can't bear to be seen!?"

The man lifted his gaze and dropped the half-burned cigarette between his fingers to the ground, raising a foot to grind it out. His clothes were crisp and fresh, and the colorful lights washed over his exposed wrist, somehow making Li Shu want to linger over it and touch it irreverently.

"Someone bullied you again?"

Pei Song'an's utterly unrestrained gaze settled on Li Shu, as though inspecting him and making sure.

He had not lied last time, nor had he been deliberately trying to scare Li Shu.

The order within his rules could not be broken. Even the slightest unfamiliar scent on Li Shu made Pei Song'an feel that his boundaries had been invaded. The young man last time, who bore some resemblance to Li Shu, had managed to hit that exact nerve.

The man's scorching gaze fell on Li Shu's slowly bobbing Adam's apple, inspecting him inch by inch. Suddenly, he caught Li Shu's wrist and pulled him closer. Li Shu gave a startled cry and came to a stop in front of him, while his thumb settled naturally over Li Shu's steadily beating pulse.

"Poor little puppy."

Li Shu did not know whether it was the surroundings, but somehow, those few words sounded a little sexy coming from Pei Song'an, so suggestive it was almost unbearable.

Li Shu hastily swallowed and corrected him. "No one did. I hit right back, hard!"

Pei Song'an slipped his index finger inside Li Shu's cuff, his gaze dark as he stared at Li Shu's rosy lips and white teeth.

Li Shu's looks had been striking from the start, his sunny handsomeness absolutely unforgettable. An athletic college boy, he turned plenty of heads whether he was on campus or walking down the street.

Someone like him was like a little bird barreling recklessly about, flying straight into his arms without a care and constantly pushing his luck.

There was neither method nor calculation to it.

"Chen Yannan isn't much good. There's no way he hasn't noticed Xue Chen's little schemes. If he really had your interests at heart, he'd have found a way to put pressure on Xue Chen. But since Xue Chen could say something like that to you today, it means Chen Yannan hasn't made his position clear."

Li Shu did not understand. "What do you mean?"

When Pei Song'an looked at someone, his eyes were deep and reserved, always giving the illusion that he could see right through them.

"Your dear big brother Yannan can't bear to give up the benefits Xue Chen's family brings him, but he can't let you go either. Those two things aren't inherently in conflict, but for some reason, they can't coexist. In the end, someone is bound to be sacrificed."

The cloying address gave Li Shu goosebumps. "What do you mean, 'dear big brother Yannan'? I've never called him anything that disgusting."

"No, wait." Li Shu caught on. "So you're saying the one who ends up getting sacrificed might be me?"

Pei Song'an had absolutely no sense that he was sowing discord. He had given Li Shu a chance to leave. Since Li Shu had chosen not to, everything that followed would have to abide by his order.

"Not might. Will."

Pei Song'an's words made Li Shu's scalp prickle. After a moment's thought, he said seriously, "Then I'll have to cut Chen Yannan off."

"There's another way, actually."

As Pei Song'an said this, he was not looking at Li Shu, but at the man slowly approaching behind him.

He shifted his gaze away after just one glance. His long leg thrust brazenly between Li Shu's legs, pinning Li Shu in his arms in an intensely invasive posture. His fingertips toyed with Li Shu's rosy earlobe as though he were playing with a toy that belonged to Pei Song'an alone.

Li Shu wanted to dodge, but Pei Song'an held his hand fast and would not let him move.

"Pei Song'an, if you have a solution, just say it. Why all the buildup?"

"Don't touch me like that. It tickles."

The moment he finished speaking, Pei Song'an's breathing briefly deepened. Then, as the distance between Li Shu and the man behind him shrank, Pei Song'an lowered his head to glance at Li Shu's lips and said lightly:

"Call me something nice, and I'll tell you."

"Something nice?" Li Shu had been studying diligently lately, and his mind worked fast. "Young Master Pei? Your Highness? Kindhearted Mr. Pei!"

Pei Song'an said nothing.

Li Shu was surprised. "No? Then what do you want to hear?"

Pei Song'an smiled and tapped Li Shu's lips, his words a little suggestive. "What did you say the night you kissed me?"

Standing behind Li Shu, Chen Yannan froze when he heard those words.

Li Shu's face instantly flushed red. He could no longer spare a thought for the way Pei Song'an's hand was stroking his lips like some hooligan. Mustering all his resolve, he stammered out the words.

"B-big brother."

"Song'an, my big brother."

His finger touched the soft, hot inner edge of Li Shu's lips. Pei Song'an's voice rippled through the air, but he was looking at Chen Yannan.

"When the Li Family can't protect you, the Pei Family will."

Before Li Shu could even be stunned by that big-daddy declaration, he heard Pei Song'an continue, speaking to someone behind him.

"Yannan, Xue Chen suits you very well. He just plays too many little tricks."

Darlings, don't go thinking there's something wrong with Pei Song'an's personality just yet, okay? (Fine, there is.)

There will be some adjustment. Trust me, the one who bows his head in the end definitely won't be our Li "sunny, cheerful boy" Shu.