HL 35

A week later, Chen Xiaomei told Xu Nanxiao that she would not be renewing her sessions, and Xu Nanxiao was stunned.

He thought he had been teaching with great care and had gotten along pleasantly with Chen Xiaomei. He had been certain that her renewal was a done deal—this caught him completely off guard.

“Alright, but can you tell me why?” Xu Nanxiao rubbed the back of his neck.

Miss Chen looked troubled. After hemming and hawing for a long while, she finally threw caution to the wind and said, “Your coach Wang here—I don’t know what got into him, but he suddenly started pursuing me aggressively. It’s awkward whether I say yes or no, and I just can’t stay here anymore.”

“Wang Heng?!” Xu Nanxiao thought to himself that the guy looked like a big, honest oaf, but he never expected him to be so embarrassing.

After apologizing to Chen Xiaomei and seeing off his student, he hauled Wang Heng over for a talk. Wang Heng wore a pained expression, hesitated, but ultimately admitted that it was true.

Coaches getting involved with students was a major taboo in the industry. Xu Nanxiao gave him a thorough verbal lashing. But Wang Heng had always performed well and was one of the earliest veterans to join him, so he couldn’t really bring himself to fire the guy.

So Xu Nanxiao docked some of Wang Heng’s pay, and the matter was quietly dropped.

Losing a quality client left Xu Nanxiao feeling a bit down.

Just as he got home, he saw Ying Yusheng fiddling with a wooden crate of red wine. He picked up a bottle and looked at it, recognizing it as a 2006 Leroy Auvenay Chevalier—one bottle worth over eighty thousand yuan. Ying Yusheng’s entire crate had to be worth over half a million.

“Good stuff,” Xu Nanxiao exclaimed.

“You know wine?” Ying Yusheng looked rather surprised.

“You think I’m some uncultured pauper? I’ve had my days of plenty too.” Xu Nanxiao snorted. “Back when rich second-generation kids invited me to their parties, this stuff was usually saved for the grand finale. Where’d you get so many?”

“A business partner of my mother’s gave them to her. Her blood pressure is high, and her family doctor won’t let her drink, so she had Uncle Zhang send them to me.” Seeing Xu Nanxiao staring fixedly at the bottles, Ying Yusheng smiled. “Want to try some together?”

Xu Nanxiao hesitated: “This wine is so expensive, and it’s not even a holiday or a birthday—are we really just going to drink it like this?”

“Wine is meant to be drunk. It’s not really about the money,” Ying Yusheng said casually.

Although Ying Yusheng rarely mentioned his family, Xu Nanxiao realized that this guy’s family background might be far more affluent than he had imagined.

The thought of such a vast gap between them made Xu Nanxiao half-lower his eyelids, staring at the bottle with an inexplicable tightness in his chest.

“What’s wrong? Not drinking?”

“…Drink!”

Back when Xu Nanxiao had money, he hadn’t skimped on himself either. Since Ying Yusheng didn’t treat money as money, there was no reason for Xu Nanxiao to save it for him—he’d just drink.

The taste of Leroy Auvenay Chevalier was that of air-dried wild berries wrapped in a subtle woody base. The initial sensation was as smooth as velvet, followed by a sharp tartness that burst across the palate, finally transforming into notes of forest earth and spice.

Xu Nanxiao and Ying Yusheng polished off two bottles in one go.

The wine had a decent alcohol content, and even someone with Xu Nanxiao’s tolerance was starting to feel dizzy by now.

He swirled the vivid red liquid in his goblet, feeling his cheeks flush and his head spin like a high fever, his thoughts churning into a thick mush.

Xu Nanxiao lowered his head and buried his forehead in his arms. Seeing him like this, Ying Yusheng reached for his glass and urged, “Stop drinking. You’ve had too much.”

“What?” Xu Nanxiao raised an eyebrow. “Now you’re getting stingy?”

“It’s not about the wine. I’m worried you’ll feel awful tomorrow.”

Ying Yusheng silently watched him for a moment, then asked out of the blue, “Drinking so much—are you in a bad mood today?”

Xu Nanxiao’s Adam’s apple bobbed slightly, but in the end, he denied it: “No.”

“Don’t lie to me, Nan Xiao.” Ying Yusheng paused, a turbulent emotion pressing beneath his eyes. “Could it be… because Miss Chen isn’t coming anymore?”

Xu Nanxiao blinked, looked up in bewilderment, and asked, “How do you even know about Chen Xiaomei?”

“When I came to pick you up, Wang Heng told me.”

“Tch. Why does he have to blab about everything.”

“And besides, you were in a good mood every time after her class. Didn’t you notice?”

“Was I…?” Xu Nanxiao asked slowly, then pressed his temples.

He was now too drunk to think clearly, so he didn’t notice the fact that “Ying Yusheng seemed to know his class schedule inside and out.”

“She’s gone, and you’re unhappy? Why?”

Xu Nanxiao didn’t answer. He just pressed his temples harder, trying to ease the discomfort in his body.

“Because Wang Heng harassed a student? Because you two got along well? Or…” Ying Yusheng put his arm around Xu Nanxiao’s shoulder and whispered softly in his ear, “Are you reluctant to let her go as a person?”

Ying Yusheng’s warm breath was all over the side of Xu Nanxiao’s neck. He instinctively tried to pull away, but the other held his shoulder firmly, leaving him no room to move.

“Reluctant?”

“Right,” Ying Yusheng said with a smile. “Isn’t she exactly the type you like—a girl with visible athletic training? If Wang Heng hadn’t pursued her, would you have wanted to?”

Xu Nanxiao fell silent. He sank limply into the sofa, his usually sharp eyes now misty with a layer of moisture, blinking dazedly, the corners of his eyes flushed an unnatural red.

Ying Yusheng thought: if Xu Nanxiao dared to say “yes,” he would hypnotize him right here and now.

If he couldn’t make him lose interest in women through psychological means, then he’d take a more direct approach—fuck him until he couldn’t get it up for women anymore. Make that useless thing, aside from thrusting into thin air, completely incapable of anything else.

Xu Nanxiao had no idea he was standing at the brink of life and death. He suddenly let out a long sigh and said in a low voice, “I would never get involved with a student! The reason I’m reluctant is that Chen Xiaomei said if the training went well, she’d introduce people from all their bases to us—that was a huge business opportunity. And now it’s all gone down the drain.”

Ying Yusheng hadn’t expected that at all; he froze.

“Damn it, we were so close. It’s all Wang Heng’s fault. Athletes from several bases—at least a few hundred! Stupid Wang Heng, I really want to kill him. So annoying!” Xu Nanxiao knocked his head against the coffee table, over and over. “I was teaching with all my heart! I really wanted to make that deal!”

By the time Ying Yusheng snapped out of it, he immediately used his hand to protect Xu Nanxiao’s forehead and pulled him upright.

“It’s okay. There will be other opportunities. Don’t get so upset with yourself. I’m sorry for doubting you earlier.” Ying Yusheng gently stroked his back. “You’ve been working too hard lately—you’re even taking students on yourself. I was worried. The club should be making a decent profit each month. Are you strapped for cash? Did you run into some trouble?”

“No, I just… wanted to earn more money for you.”

“I have plenty of money. You don’t have to—”

Xu Nanxiao lifted his red-rimmed eyes and looked straight at Ying Yusheng. His voice was still thick with drunkenness, yet every word was crystal clear:

“No, it’s not enough! No matter how much I earn, it’s never enough! The money you invested—I want to multiply it tenfold, a hundredfold, a thousandfold back to you!”

The more he spoke, the more urgent he became. He grabbed Ying Yusheng’s wrist, his grip unsteady from the alcohol.

“No matter how much the club makes, that’s just business. What I want to earn for you is my money! Xu Nanxiao’s own money!”

For once, the silver-tongued Ying Yusheng was left speechless.

After saying that, the man as proud as a leopard slowly curled himself up.

“…I’m going to prove that you didn’t make a mistake in choosing me.”

Ying Yusheng looked down at Xu Nanxiao, completely trusting and defenseless. A complex mixture of bittersweet tenderness and overwhelming satisfaction exploded violently in his heart.

If Xu Nanxiao hadn’t been drunk, he would probably never have said something like this in his entire life. It was so unlike him. So now that he himself was drunk, could he also do something unlike himself?

The next second, Ying Yusheng suddenly cupped the back of Xu Nanxiao’s neck and kissed him directly.

Xu Nanxiao froze, his eyes widening slightly, the shock instantly sobering him up by half. It wasn’t until Ying Yusheng started pushing his tongue into his mouth that Xu Nanxiao snapped out of it and, on pure reflex, bit down hard.

Though Ying Yusheng reacted quickly enough, the tip of his tongue was still cut by Xu Nanxiao’s canine. He was shoved back hard, slamming into the armrest of the sofa.

“Ow, ow, ow…” Ying Yusheng winced, rubbing the back of his head.

Then he stuck out his tongue; the wound was bleeding, and as he licked it, blood smeared onto the corner of his mouth. Pale skin against red blood—he looked like some terrifying sea monster out of a legend.

He looked up at Xu Nanxiao, his eyes behind his glasses pretending to be wounded yet carrying a hint of laughter: “That hurts so much, Nan Xiao.”

Xu Nanxiao wiped his mouth vigorously, nearly panicked: “What the hell are you doing?! Have you lost your mind from drinking?!”

What was this. Ying Yusheng gradually calmed down.

Even though he liked him this much, even though he’d already helped him get off, he still couldn’t accept kissing a man. Straight guys were truly strange.

Xu Nanxiao’s reaction was even stronger than Ying Yusheng had imagined. It wasn’t as if Ying Yusheng had kissed him—it was as if a dog had bitten him. His expression twisted like crumpled newspaper, his eyes wide, pupils contracting sharply.

His face, flushed red from the alcohol moments ago, had now drained of all color, leaving only a ghastly pallor mixed with shock and revulsion.

Ying Yusheng thought: it seemed he had misjudged. This wasn’t the right time to conquer Xu Nanxiao. Though he had already won his complete trust and dependence, accepting a man was something that needed to be taken step by step.

The best course of action now was to go along with Xu Nanxiao’s alarm and tell him he’d been drunk. He would believe it. He would immediately convince himself to accept that explanation, and then they could return to a safe, normal track.

…

But.

I don’t want to.

His blood was boiling. For the first time in Ying Yusheng’s twenty-nine years of life, rationality had completely detached from his mind.

He was tired of playing this tacit game of “one oblivious, one restrained.” He was done continuing to play the role of the ever-considerate “investor” and “friend.”

You think it’s disgusting? Then he would tear through that warm, gentle facade and force Xu Nanxiao to confront his desire head-on, even if it made him uncomfortable.

Look closely. See how I’ve been backing you into a corner step by step, leaving you with nowhere left to retreat.

Ying Yusheng clamped a hand on Xu Nanxiao’s jaw and kissed him for the second time.