Since childhood, Wang Dian loved to pick up odd and interesting trinkets to bring home. His favorite was stones, especially pebbles that were not too big or too small, round and smooth.
Even though the stone that Liang Ye gave him hit all his preferences from all aspects– ever since his father accidentally threw away the stone he had treasured for many years when he was eight, he stopped picking up stones to avoid being reminded of the past.
As a principled adult from a young age, Wang Dian felt it was beneath him to secretly hide the stone under his pillow.
But he really liked this stone.
And Liang Ye said it was for him.
Wang Dian, expressionless, tucked the stone under his pillow, then raised his arm to wrap around Liang Ye’s waist, “Where did you pick it up?”
“Forgot.” Liang Ye snuggled into his arms, “Zhen only remembers there was a river.”
Wang Dian held his shoulder, “Behave yourself.”
“It hurts.” Liang Ye, with his eyes closed, touched the bug on Wang Dian’s lower back, whimpered weakly, “You accompany Zhen.”
Wang Dian cautiously pulled away his paw. Liang Ye hadn’t urged the bug for a long time, but the terrifying pain was still fresh in his memory. He flatly refused, “No.”
“Delicate.” Liang Ye nibbled on Wang Dian’s hand, but didn’t even break the skin, just leaving a shallow bite mark.
Wang Dian knew he was in pain and couldn’t sleep. Through the thin undergarment, he vigorously rubbed his cold back. Liang Ye, lacking energy, squinted his eyes and warmed his icy hand on his stomach.
“How did you deal with unbearable pain before?” Wang Dian watched him endure it, always feeling a bit of fine pain in his own bones.
Liang Ye’s paws wandered to his lower back and caressed it, disdainfully said, “Just endure the pain, there’s no other way. Zhen is not as delicate as you.”
Wang Dian coldly said, “Then you endure it now.”
Liang Ye choked a bit, then whimpered weakly and lay in his arms, saying breathlessly, “This illness has become more domineering in recent years, Zhen can’t bear it, need you to hold Zhen to feel slightly better.”
“..…” Wang Dian twitched the corner of his mouth, not pushing him away for the sake of that stone. He knew that there was not a word of truth in Liang Ye’s mouth. He was clearly in so much pain that even his paws were trembling, yet he could still pretend to be strong with a straight face.
Pretentious.
He fell asleep in a daze, only to be awakened by the large ice cube in his arms. Half-closed eyes caught a glimpse of Liang Ye holding the thin Liuye sword, using the tip of the knife to pick at the gold thread embroidered on the collar of his sleeping robe. This guy was frowning and picking seriously, breaking only one thread at a time. If the embroiderer saw this, she would probably cry out of frustration.
Liang Ye noticed the change in his breathing, didn’t even lift his eyelids, and said discontentedly, “You’ve already slept for half an hour.”
Sleeping for so long in front of someone who couldn’t sleep due to pain was simply provocative.
“Hmm.” Wang Dian looked down at him as he broke another gold thread, trying to make conversation, “Why are you ruining this robe?”
“People won’t let Zhen ruin them.” Liang Ye drooped his eyelids, the tip of the sword in his hand slid down Wang Dian’s half-opened front, traced over his chest, and made a couple of gestures on the side of his neck. Seeing that Wang Dian didn’t even blink, he boredly played with his soft earlobe and cheekily cut off two of his hairs.
Wang Dian was extremely sleepy, but didn’t want to sleep. He reached out and touched Liang Ye’s cold wrist bone, pressed the bug hidden under his skin, and said in a low voice, “Why don’t you let it swim up a bit?”
Liang Ye lifted his eyelids to look at him, a hint of interest in his eyes.
For every bit this bug swam up, Wang Dian would feel a bit more pain. The furthest this bug had swum was just beyond his forearm. Liang Ye knew he was afraid of pain, and after promising him not to move the bug, he kept his word.
Of course, the main reason was that before he could enjoy it, Wang Dian had already fainted from the pain. It was not interesting.
“Really?” Liang Ye was eager to try.
Wang Dian took the Liuye sword from his hand and placed it on his wrist, “I can’t see clearly here, move it up a bit and I’ll try to see if I can dissect it.”
Liang Ye was silent for two seconds, buried his head in his arms and started laughing. He didn’t care that the sword in Wang Dian’s hand was already on his wrist. He was shaking badly, and Wang Dian couldn’t aim properly, so he held the sword a little further away from him.
Liang Ye’s cold hand covered his, guiding the blade in his hand to his own skin, and chuckled softly, “No need to swim, Zhen will teach you how to extract it.”
Then Wang Dian watched as the thin-as-cicada-wing blade cut through the delicate skin on Liang Ye’s wrist. The bug lurking inside twitched, then began to struggle violently as if mad, but was easily held in place by the sharp tip of the blade. Blood seeped from Liang Ye’s wrist, staining Wang Dian’s sleeve. Liang Ye, with his hand, applied a slight pressure, whispering affectionately as he nuzzled his ear, “Just a little more force…”
Wang Dian felt his hand involuntarily applying force.
“You can die with it.” Liang Ye continued in a rather good mood.
Wang Dian cursed under his breath, wanting to let go immediately, but was held by Liang Ye and couldn’t move. Their clasped hands were hidden under the blood-stained sleeve. Liang Ye was very close to him, somewhat listless, “Even if you can make Zhen’s headache a little less, it still hurts. Only Zhen is in pain, why aren’t you? Keeping you seems to be of no use, it’s not fun when having a headache, it’s meaningless…”
Wang Dian’s gaze faltered, looking at Liang Ye’s somewhat scattered eyes. It was clearly a matter of life and death, but he felt an indescribable sadness.
“If you keep looking at Zhen like this, Zhen will dig out your eyeballs for a drink.” Liang Ye frowned a little irritably.
Wang Dian ignored him, nor did he care about the bug on Liang Ye’s body that was about to be killed. He just used the sleeve of his other hand to wipe the blood off his arm, and asked an irrelevant question, “How long has it been since you ate?”
Liang Ye was stunned, the irritability and violence that was about to engulf him suddenly burst like a bubble, he furrowed his brows and thought for a while, then slowly replied, “…Don’t remember.”
“Your stomach is rumbling so loudly it hurts my ears.” Wang Dian touched his stomach, recalling how he had warmed his icy hand on his own stomach earlier, he reacted belatedly, “If you’re hungry, go eat something, don’t go crazy.”
Liang Ye frowned, hesitated between going crazy and eating for a moment, poked the dying bug with the blade in his hand, “Zhen has a headache, can’t eat.”
“Then let me have a late-night snack before I die.” Wang Dian didn’t use much force, and pushed away the small knife, sat up and wiped the blood off his sleeve.
A quarter of an hour later, Wang Dian sat at the table, leisurely drinking porridge, Liang Ye sat next to him, irritably kicking his stool leg, Wang Dian took a spoon and shoved it into his mouth.
Liang Ye glared at him for a while, reluctantly swallowing it down.
Wang Dian patiently fed him half a bowl, and the frequency of his kicking the stool gradually slowed down. He then clung to him, eagerly waiting to be fed.
“…..” Wang Dian could actually tell that he had no appetite. After all, he was in so much pain that he would rather vomit up anything he ate. But he seemed to enjoy being fed, always biting the spoon and waiting for him to pull it out before letting go.
Wang Dian didn’t feed him much more, and watched him drink a cup of warm water before putting down the spoon, saying indifferently, “Alright, kill.”
Liang Ye blinked, looked down at his bloody wrist, wiped the blood on Wang Dian, and muttered, “Zhen hasn’t eaten for three days.”
He finally remembered.
“Serves you right, why didn’t you starve to death.” Wang Dian sneered.
Liang Ye clicked his tongue, “Zhen is not hungry.”
“You’re not hungry, but you’re annoyed enough to kill.” Wang Dian scoffed, “I’ve been busy all day and still have to serve you ungratefully, and you just bite me. So, in the entire palace, I’m the only one who’s easy to bully.”
Liang Ye looked at him in shock.
He dared to say he was easy to bully when he was almost scolded like a dog?
Wang Dian took off his sleeping robe that had been cut and bloodied, threw it on the ground, found a new one to put on, saw Liang Ye still sitting at the table in a daze, ignored him and went straight to bed.
After a good while, someone slowly climbed onto the bed, poked his lower back cheekily, and whispered, “Zhen was just joking with you, that bug can’t be killed, it can only die when I die.”
“Get lost.” Wang Dian coldly spat out a word.
Liang Ye was not angry but happy at his words, hugged him warmly from behind, sighed in satisfaction, touched Wang Dian’s stomach with his icy hand, “Zhen was…indeed a bit hungry just now.”
Wang Dian couldn’t be bothered with him, but the more he ignored him, the more energetic he became. Liang Ye touched his stomach, and after a while, he asked doubtfully, “Wang Dian, have you gained weight?”
As everyone knew, Wang Dian was a CEO, but he was a diligent, disciplined, and handsome CEO. He regularly went to the gym every week. Not only was he broad-shouldered, slim-waisted, tall, and long-legged, but he also painstakingly developed six beautiful abs. Wearing a suit, he looked elegant, and without the suit, he looked vigorous.
He could accept working overtime every day and being exhausted, but he couldn’t accept his abs disappearing and becoming a pot-bellied CEO–he could be miserable, but never greasy.
The next morning, before dawn, there was an additional figure jogging in the Imperial Garden.
Liang Ye, with dark circles under his eyes, squatted on a tree, watching the person running in circles below, and let out a big yawn, saying languidly, “Just gained a little weight.”
He gestured a thin line with his thumb and index finger, “The flesh just feels a bit softer, Zhen likes it.”
“You like fart.” Wang Dian hadn’t exercised much for several months, and was slightly panting when he ran, “You also like pigs, why don’t you sleep hugging a pig?”
Liang Ye was puzzled, “How does a pig bother you?”
Wang Dian glanced at him, ran enough laps, jumped onto a tree branch of suitable height to do pull-ups. Liang Ye found it interesting, jumped onto the branch he was holding, squatted down, and asked curiously, “What are you doing now?”
Wang Dian, hanging in the air, looked at him poking his backhand with a small stick with a wooden face, exhaled a turbid breath, and said, “Strive to be able to beat you up in the future.”
At this, Liang Ye burst into laughter.
Any man who was belittled would instinctively be unhappy, let alone the other party was a scoundrel with ambiguous relations with him. Wang Dian squinted his eyes, unexpectedly grabbed Liang Ye’s ankle and pulled him down.
In theory, Liang Ye should have been able to easily break free or land gracefully.
But in reality, he was slow to react, his feet slipped, and he fell to the ground in a full-body prostration, falling into the ground. The dull thud was painful to hear.
Wang Dian, still hanging on the branch, stiffly turned his head to look at him, “I was….just joking with you.”
Liang Ye, with a face full of mud, slowly raised his head, pulling up the corners of his mouth in a gloomy smile.
