Sleeping Together

The plushie was a white kitten with a black patch on its head. It looked a lot like Cen Xia's profile picture on his messaging app.

Lin Jiandu held it just as he had held Cen Xia a moment ago.

Cen Xia cleared the table and called him over to eat.

He didn't know Lin Jiandu's tastes, so he had bought some strongly seasoned dishes and some light ones, enough to cover the table.

Lin Jiandu couldn't bear to put the plushie down, even placing him on the chair beside him while he ate.

Cen Xia looked at the plushie, then at him. He seemed about to say something, but in the end, he let him be.

The two ate their meal in companionable silence.

There was still an hour left of their lunch break, and Lin Jiandu cautiously asked if he could stay and take a nap.

Cen Xia naturally had no objection. It was just a nap; he used to make a bed on the floor at his buddies' places all the time.

The sofa was large, but it still couldn't accommodate the tall, long-legged Lin Jiandu. At sixteen or seventeen, he was a teenager in the middle of a growth spurt. As a straight guy, Cen Xia didn't see anything wrong with the universal bottom in a smut novel being so tall.

"The sofa's too small to sleep on. You can sleep with me."

Cen Xia said it quite naturally. As far as he was concerned, they were both men, so sleeping together was no big deal. He had once squeezed onto the same kang with several other guys, and the smell of sweat had nearly knocked him dead. But Lin Jiandu was fair and delicate, so he probably didn't smell.

But he had forgotten that this was a danmei novel, and that the boy in front of him had only recently been rescued from another man's clutches by him.

"Sleep... sleep together?" Lin Jiandu's usually flawless expression showed a rare crack.

"The sofa's too small to sleep comfortably. Why not use the bed when it's right there?" Seeing his expression, Cen Xia seemed to realize something and hurriedly added, "Don't worry, I only changed the sheets and duvet cover yesterday. If you're a germaphobe, you can make a bed on the floor. I have new ones in my closet."

His expression was so at ease, as if he really were considering whether to find him fresh bedding.

A few seconds later, Lin Jiandu's Adam's apple bobbed, and his eyes curved slightly. "There's no need to go to so much trouble. I'll sleep with you, Cen Xia."

Was he going to show his true colors...

That would be such a shame.

The double bed had more than enough room for both of them. After a brief discussion, Cen Xia took the outside.

Cen Xia had eaten too many carbs at lunch and was feeling a little drowsy. As soon as he touched the soft bedding, his eyelids grew heavy.

Lin Jiandu lay with his eyes closed, his thoughts clear and without a trace of sleepiness.

He could clearly hear the rustle of the person beside him turning over, and breathing that seemed to be right by his ear. Before long, that breathing grew heavier.

It seemed he had fallen asleep.

His heart abruptly skipped a beat. He opened his eyes and turned his head to look. Just a palm's width away, the other man's plain, utterly unremarkable face lay before him, completely unguarded.

He really was asleep, his eyes quietly closed and his breathing long and steady.

How strange. It was such an ordinary face...

As Lin Jiandu watched him, he suddenly smiled, a smile from the bottom of his heart, with nothing to disguise it.

"So you really are different..." It was like an intimate whisper between lovers, like a secret, silent sigh in the night.

Cen Xia knew nothing of this and slept until his alarm rang.

He opened his eyes in a daze and reached to turn off the alarm. As he moved, he discovered something wrapped around his waist.

His eyes cleared a little at once, and he turned his head.

Lin Jiandu had reached around him from behind, holding him by the waist, his face buried in Cen Xia's back. His soft breaths passed through the thin fabric of Cen Xia's clothes and brushed against his skin, sending a fine, tingling sensation over it.

Cen Xia felt there was something strangely hard to describe about the position. He had never been held like this in bed before, but he didn't think much of it and gently patted the arm around his waist.

"Wake up, we're going to be late..."

"Mmm..." Lin Jiandu's lashes trembled slightly, and a watery gleam shimmered in his half-open eyes.

Without seeming to realize it, the arm around Cen Xia's waist rubbed against him slightly.

Seeing that he was awake, Cen Xia simply unwrapped his arm and turned off the phone alarm that was still ringing beside them.

"What time is it?" Lin Jiandu's voice was husky with sleep, its usual softness gone.

"Two fifteen. Get up."

Lin Jiandu propped up his upper body and watched his retreating back as he left the bedroom, his expression unreadable.

From that day on, Cen Xia and Lin Jiandu's relationship changed again. Lin Jiandu often sent him messages, sharing little things that seemed unimportant to him.

Lin Jiandu sent him a picture of an oil painting of a sunset landscape, with his long, slender fingers, stained with paint, visible in the lower right corner. The contrast of white against color gave them an indescribably striking, bony beauty.

Lin Jiandu: I'm in oil painting class. What about you? What did you pick?

Cen Xia: Go.

After sending that brief reply, he put down his phone and placed a black stone on the Go board. Out of the corner of his eye, he caught sight of Lu Mian sitting across from him, asleep.

How could anyone be this sleepy?

There were dark circles under Lu Mian's eyes, and he wasn't sleeping soundly.

Cen Xia had good reason to suspect that he had transferred to Go class just to sleep.

Lu Mian woke up once during class and stared blankly at Cen Xia playing Go by himself.

"Can you play Go against yourself?"

Cen Xia pointed to the Go book. "You can just copy the games in here."

As if he knew a damn thing about Go. He passed the time this way in every class.

"Oh." He blinked slowly, then propped up his head and fell asleep again.

Cen Xia continued setting up his game.

Class always felt long. He cleared the board and set it up again, over and over, until the four digits finally reached the end of class.

After packing up, he woke Lu Mian before leaving.

"Class is over. Go back and sleep."

Lu Mian's gaze was unfocused. "Oh, thank you." Before he had finished speaking, a phone suddenly rang, drowning out the end of his words.

The moment Lu Mian saw the incoming call, a hint of seriousness settled in his eyes, which were usually weary and indifferent to everything.

"Hello, this is Lu Mian... I'll find a way to pay the medical bills..."

Cen Xia had no interest in eavesdropping on someone's phone call. He shouldered his bag and left.

Lu Mian glanced at Cen Xia's retreating back and said to the person on the other end of the phone, "I told you, I'll find a way. Don't take it upon yourself to go to the He Family."

His tone was colder and harder than ever before. "If I find out you went behind my back and asked them for money, you know the consequences."

"Lu Xiao, don't let my words go in one ear and out the other."

Meanwhile, Cen Xia had just crossed the corridor and reached the entrance when he received a call too. It was Lin Jiandu.

"Cen Xia, can I treat you to dinner tonight?" Lin Jiandu's voice was a little distorted.

Cen Xia was surprised. "Why are you suddenly treating me to dinner?"

Lin Jiandu said, "Didn't you treat me last time? I want to return the favor."

Cen Xia had treated him to a meal in the cafeteria last time, and he assumed Lin Jiandu meant to return the favor there too, so he agreed without much hesitation.

Not until Lin Jiandu led him out through the school gates.

Cen Xia said, "...How did I get out?" What about the Disciplinary Group? Wasn't anyone checking him?

Lin Jiandu smiled sheepishly. "I know someone in the Disciplinary Group."

Got it. One of his admirers was in the Disciplinary Group. Sure enough, the charm of a heartthrob was more than an ordinary NPC could resist.

Cen Xia looked at him with a complicated expression. "Can you go anywhere you want in school?"

Lin Jiandu said nothing, his eyes curving.

It went without saying: the whole world had given him a free pass.