(Still three chapters; the next two will be posted at noon.)
The moment Qiguan Yuan kissed his forehead, Pei Yubai's mind went blank, and his whole body trembled as though an electric shock had run through him.
No one in the living room spoke.
Shen Yuzhou's mouth hung open. He had forgotten to close it.
A little slow on the uptake, he realized that something seemed off between Pei Yubai and Qiguan Yuan.
So...
Did something being off mean those two could gang up on him in Fight the Landlord?
There was no justice.
Cheng Yanqiu held her glass to her lips, forgetting to drink. A little water spilled over the rim and dripped onto her pants.
She raised her eyebrows meaningfully.
Oho, what an innocent movie star.
Lin Yanru's eyes were fixed on Pei Yubai and Qiguan Yuan. The corners of her mouth kept curling upward, so high that she couldn't force them down no matter how she tried.
Ji Shiyu and Jiang Wantang reacted much the same way.
The bullet comments froze completely for those few seconds.
In fact, there were so many comments that they had caused the feed to lag.
Millions of people typed in the same second, and millions of bullet comments flooded the server at once. The words piled on top of one another on the screen until not a single character was legible, leaving only a densely packed mass.
Pei Yubai straightened up.
That trace of coolness still lingered on his forehead. The sensation was still there.
He looked at Qiguan Yuan, and Qiguan Yuan looked back at him.
"Snap out of it," Qiguan Yuan said, his voice so quiet that only Pei Yubai could hear.
Pei Yubai returned to his spot and sat down.
That was, if one ignored his gaze, which had wandered who knew where.
Lin Yanru finally managed to rein in her smile a little. "Keep going, keep going."
Shen Yuzhou cleared his throat and was about to reach out to spin the bottle.
Qiguan Yuan spoke up. "That's enough. It's about time to turn in."
Everyone checked the time. It really wasn't that early anymore.
In truth, they weren't particularly keen to continue either, despite the seemingly flirtatious interlude between Pei Yubai and Qiguan Yuan toward the end.
What had happened with Ji Shiyu still left them unable to help worrying about him.
Naturally, Qiguan Yuan had noticed their distraction too. Besides, it really was almost bedtime, so he spoke up to end things.
Cheng Yanqiu nodded. "It really is late. Let's head back, then," she said to Lin Yanru and Jiang Wantang.
After the three female guests left, Ji Shiyu and Shen Yuzhou said their goodbyes and returned to their respective rooms too.
Only Pei Yubai and Qiguan Yuan remained in the living room.
The livestream had already ended by then. Qiguan Yuan's gaze settled on Pei Yubai, who stood there silently.
He asked him, "Aren't you going back to the room?"
Pei Yubai said, "I... am sleeping in the living room."
Qiguan Yuan stood and walked over to him. "Do I eat people? Why are you avoiding me like this?"
Pei Yubai shook his head. "I'm afraid having someone there will make it uncomfortable for you to sleep."
Qiguan Yuan raised a hand and rubbed his lower back lightly, then lowered it. "Pei Yubai, I don't want to keep repeating the same thing to you over and over. If you really insist on avoiding me like this, suit yourself."
With that, Qiguan Yuan turned and went back to the room.
Pei Yubai instinctively moved to follow.
Qiguan Yuan entered the room without closing the door.
He sat on the edge of the bed, took off his shoes and placed them at the foot of the bed, then shifted the pillow and settled back against the headboard.
He didn't lie down. The lights in the room were off, and a gap remained between the curtains. Moonlight filtered in from outside in a long, narrow strip that fell across the floor, reaching just beside his feet.
He didn't look at that patch of moonlight, instead shifting his gaze to the doorway.
The door was open. With no lights on, the hallway was pitch-black.
There was no sound outside, and Qiguan Yuan said nothing either.
He untied the red string around his wrist and wound it around his fingers, loop after loop. When he reached his little finger, he ran out of string and began winding it back the other way.
Then he heard an extremely faint footstep.
The footsteps paused in the living room, then started again.
Qiguan Yuan's fingers paused briefly.
The footsteps had moved into the hallway.
From the living room to the hallway, from the hallway to the bedroom door, one step at a time, with several seconds between each step.
When they reached the doorway, the footsteps stopped.
Qiguan Yuan didn't look up. He continued winding the red string. After another two loops, the visitor finally appeared. It was Pei Yubai.
Pei Yubai stood in the doorway, backlit, his face indistinct.
"The door isn't closed, Pei Yubai," Qiguan Yuan said.
Pei Yubai didn't reply.
He walked in with such light steps that they were almost inaudible against the floor.
Qiguan Yuan felt the mattress dip slightly beside him. Pei Yubai had sat down next to him, leaving enough space for one person between them.
Qiguan Yuan wound the red string back around his wrist and tugged it so that it lay snug against his skin.
He turned his head to glance at Pei Yubai. Pei Yubai was looking down at his own hands, which rested on his knees with his fingers slightly curled.
Before he could say anything, Pei Yubai spoke first. "Yuanyuan... does your back hurt?"
Qiguan Yuan hadn't joined them for Truth or Dare after dinner.
One reason was that he really wasn't interested in it. The other was that his lower back hurt, and he didn't want to move.
"Didn't you say you were going to sleep in the living room?" Qiguan Yuan asked.
Pei Yubai's fingers twitched. "I don't want to sleep on the couch. It's uncomfortable."
Qiguan Yuan looked at his profile.
After watching him for a moment, Qiguan Yuan looked away. He could have guessed that Pei Yubai definitely wouldn't go sleep on the couch.
But his back hurt now, so he stopped teasing him.
He lay down and rolled onto his side, his back to Pei Yubai. "Get some sleep."
But Pei Yubai asked again, "Yuanyuan, does your back hurt?"
Qiguan Yuan turned around. "It does. Are you going to massage it for me, Pei Yubai?"
Pei Yubai nodded.
Qiguan Yuan looked at him with amusement, then rolled onto his stomach and propped up his chin on his hands. "Then give me a massage. If I'm not satisfied, you can go sleep on your couch. How's that? There has to be some punishment for your insistence on getting to the bottom of it, doesn't there?"
Pei Yubai nodded without much hesitation.
Qiguan Yuan lowered his hands and rested his chin on his arms. "Come on up."
Pei Yubai climbed onto the bed and moved closer to Qiguan Yuan. Looking at his lower back, he raised a hand and laid it there.
Pei Yubai's movements were actually very unpracticed, and there wasn't much technique to his massage.
Qiguan Yuan could clearly feel his hands slowly kneading his lower back.
The pain in his lower back slowly faded under Pei Yubai's pressure.
In a daze, Qiguan Yuan thought of the past again. Back then, the slightest furrow of his brow had been enough for Yun Yin to know his back hurt. He had always massaged it for him right away.
He had already forgotten the warmth of Yun Yin's hands.
Now, after so many years, when his hands once again kneaded his lower back, the memories buried in his body brought it all back so easily.
His technique was still just as terrible. No matter how many times he did it, it never got much better.
Yet that terrible technique always managed to ease his back pain so easily.
Qiguan Yuan was getting sleepy. He yawned and, half asleep, said, "Yun Yin, I'm sleepy. I'm going to sleep now."