I want to lick

Pei Lian's attitude was clear. He was not worried at all that those people might cripple his son, because once his son was labeled defective, he would no longer be his son.

The logic was perfectly sound.

This was also what Pei Song'an and Shen Muwen had been taught since childhood.

Shen Muwen was luckier than Pei Song'an: he had a mother who doted on her children. So, in his boring life, he merely waited for the old man to die while finding amusement in making trouble for Pei Song'an.

After breakfast, Shen Muwen found a chance to slip away, while Pei Song'an stayed at the old family home to face his father's interrogation about his recent studies, work, and the progress of his projects.

Ever since he had figured out the rules of survival, Pei Song'an had stopped letting himself sink to the point where someone could hold him underwater and trample his dignity at will.

By the time he finally left the Pei residence, it was a little past four in the afternoon, and the clouds in the sky had been dyed gold by the setting sun.

At the thought of Li Shu still sleeping in his bedroom at home, he suddenly felt that the day had not been so hard to endure after all.

Li Shu had slept as though he had been laid to rest. He had not even woken naturally; having missed lunch, he was so hungry that the aroma of food woke him.

His brain had only just woken, while his body and awareness were still offline. Li Shu refused to get up, burying his fluffy head beneath the covers as he recalled sleeping in during past holidays: he would be asleep when his mother left for work in the morning, and still in bed when she came home.

Back then, Li Shu's mother had practically unleashed an upgraded dragon's roar.

"Good heavens, Li Xiaoshu! Whoever marries you someday will have the worst luck. Your wife will come home from work and find the food cold, the soup chilled, and only the bed still warm."

He had scoffed at the time and sworn to heaven that he would absolutely be a model husband who cherished his wife.

And yet.

In a certain sense, his mother had been wise after all.

At least that was the situation now: he had been out cold in bed all day, and opened his eyes to find Pei Song'an cooking outside like a fairy bride.

Ah, setting gender aside, Pei Song'an really was someone you could proudly show off.

Wait, what was he thinking?!

Did he actually think he and Pei Song'an were living as a couple?

Li Shu, oh, Li Shu, was there something special about Pei Song'an's mouth? Had his kisses made you stupid?

How could you make Hong Kong City's Crown Prince your wife???

"God! That's terrifying!" Li Shu flung off the covers in fright and jumped out of bed. Pointing at the closed bedroom door, he roared, "Cooking, cooking! Did I tell you to cook? Are we living as a couple now? All you ever do is cook, cook, cook!!!"

After a couple of impotent outbursts, Li Shu felt much better. Only once he calmed down did he realize that even his pajamas had been changed for him, and the sense of shame he had painstakingly pieced back together shattered all over the floor again.

Oh, fate. Ahaha.

He missed his mom and dad.

Ah, forget it. The food was ready anyway. Might as well eat first.

And so, a young man in teddy-bear pajamas crept out of the bedroom. The moment he saw the lavish spread of three dishes and a soup, plus a plate of fruit, he promptly forgot all about who was whose wife.

"Oh my god, is there anything you can't do?"

Pei Song'an took off his black apron and hung it to one side, his gaze settling on Li Shu's well-fitting pajamas. One undone button at the collar exposed his lovely collarbones, and his dazzlingly pale wrists rested on the dining table, quite naturally dissolving what should have been an awkward atmosphere.

"Did you sleep well?" Taking that as a compliment, Pei Song'an handed him a pair of chopsticks.

Li Shu sat obediently at the dining table. He was hungry, but even with chopsticks in hand, he did not rush to pick up any food. He could not tell whether it was an illusion caused by not being fully awake, but he kept feeling that Pei Song'an seemed subdued.

"Pretty well. You even let me sleep in your bedroom. Am I making myself a little too much at home? Oh, right, where did you sleep? The guest room?"

Pei Song'an put some food in Li Shu's bowl and watched him take a couple of bites before saying, "Mm, I slept in the guest room."

Li Shu wanted to put his chopsticks down at that, only for Pei Song'an to stuff another bite of food into his mouth. His cheeks bulging, he frowned.

"Liar! You... chew, chew, chew... haven't even changed your clothes. Chew, chew, chew... I am the emperor. You won't fool me."

Those few words from Li Shu struck Pei Song'an right in the heart. He could no longer remember the last time someone had cared about him. Never showing weakness was a creed etched into his bones.

And now, chaotic, filthy thoughts bewitched his nerves. His eyes, bloodshot from going so long without rest, watched Li Shu with almost indifferent calm, while inside him, waves were already surging.

Focused on swallowing the rice and vegetables in his mouth, Li Shu had yet to notice the danger and attempted to lecture him.

"I really have to have a word with you. You stayed up all night, then went out fooling around behind my back. Keep this up and you'll drop dead!"

"Abusing your body when you're this young-you won't even know how to cry when you're old!"

His fingers were long and lightly callused, the metal chopsticks looking somewhat narrow and small between them. As he picked up a leafy green and placed it in Li Shu's bowl, the restless agitation lodged in his chest climbed higher and higher.

"You care about me."

Li Shu vaguely sensed something was off and ventured, "Huh? Is caring wrong?"

Pei Song'an said, "It's very right. I'm very happy. Could you care about me a little more?"

?

Oh no. The conversation had accidentally turned flirtatious.

How did everything they said end up leading to this?

"Stick to dinner-table talk. I'm going to eat." Li Shu hurriedly shoveled a couple of mouthfuls of rice into his mouth, then put some vegetables in Pei Song'an's bowl in a futile attempt to ignore the situation and shut the man up. "These stir-fried greens are good. Less talking. You eat too."

Usually, after coming home from the Pei residence, Pei Song'an had virtually no appetite for anything else. But looking at the vegetables in his bowl, he picked them up and put them in his mouth as though compelled by some unseen force. As he swallowed, he found that they did not seem so difficult to get down after all.

Worried that Pei Song'an would bring the subject up again, Li Shu hurriedly grabbed a washed tomato from the bag beside him and offered it to him. The priority was keeping Pei Song'an's flirtatious mouth occupied.

"Try this. I like dipping it in white sugar."

When he was little, in his grandmother's vegetable garden, he could pick vegetables like this, rub them against his clothes, and eat them. So when Li Shu offered it to him, it never occurred to him that this young master had never eaten a tomato this way before.

Pei Song'an lowered his eyes to the well-defined fingers against the tomato's rosy skin.

Of course he understood what Li Shu was thinking. But since he had managed to kiss Li Shu's lips back then, he also knew how to warn Li Shu against playing little tricks now.

Pei Song'an did not reach out to take it. Instead, he braced both hands on the dining table, leaned down, opened his mouth, and bit into the bright red fruit in Li Shu's hand.

Before his tongue could sweep the pink juice into his mouth, it spilled between his lips, flowing over Li Shu's pale knuckles, following the veins on the back of his hand, and gathering at his snow-white wrist before dripping onto the dining table.

Li Shu cried out and hurriedly reached for a napkin with his other hand, only for Pei Song'an to pin it directly to the table, leaving him unable to move.

His fair skin was pressed against the dark tabletop, giving rise to a sense of cruel violation.

"What are you doing?"

Pei Song'an lifted his eyes to glance at him, then pressed his tomato-scented lips to Li Shu's wrist. His tongue pressed against the wrist bone, catching both the juice and the sensitive skin.

And curled hard.

Pei Daddy: You've finished eating? Then it's my turn.