Chapter 24: 24

Ye Ci lowered his eyes, shook his head which was exposed outside of the quilt, and said quietly, “No, I don’t hate . . . .”

He couldn’t lie.

When he shook his head, his cheek brushed against the prominent muscles of Huo Tinglan’s chest.

The texture was firm and tough, and the shirt material was smooth.

He felt like he had taken advantage. His eyes flickered, and his face was ridiculously red.

“You don’t hate him.” Huo Tinglan’s eyes were dark. Relying on the dimness, he stared presumptuously at those two soft, moist lips, flirting and asking in a low voice: “Do you like him?”

Like Huo-shushu – – 

The entanglement of the past few days was suddenly revealed.

A pile of dirty desire not fit to be seen was pulled to the bright side and illuminated by the sun. Ye Ci reacted as if he had been stabbed, his eyes widening in astonishment. He couldn’t hold those tears back, and they were about to fall.

He couldn’t bear to look directly at his urge to succumb to the stronger, more mature man, and dared not admit it.

Especially after just making that scene . . . .

Just now, he had almost reverted to his appearance from when he was in a state of delusion – this was clearly the face of a young man, with distinct and heroic contours, but due to the Omega pheromones, he showed a delicate, supple, and blushing look at the corners of his eyes. He hugged Huo Tinglan’s quilt, appearing clingy, confused, and unbearable to look at. He had turned into an Omega, but he was still a boy after all, so he shouldn’t be like this. He was so weird, and . . . .

So awful.

All of this was seen by Huo Tinglan.

He was extremely out of sorts, but Huo Tinglan, who was imprisoning him, was dressed neatly. His shirt was crisply ironed and washed snow white, and the slender silver collar pin was decorated with a small jadeite leaf. This close, he could smell the clean fragrance of his aftershave under the pheromones . . . .

The contrast was great. Ye Ci became increasingly afraid to answer, and pulled out his forearm from the quilt, covering his face as if it was something dirty. His body was shaking with shame and inferiority.

“Xiao Ci?” Huo Tinglan grasped Ye Ci’s wrist to pull it aside, wanting to see his face clearly. He held back his strength at first, but when he saw his stubbornness, he brazenly pried it open and pinned the arm back on the pillow.

Ye Ci’s face was exposed, and the tips of his eyes, his cheekbones, and the sides of his face were all wet and bright red. His eyes were shut as if he didn’t dare to look at anyone, and he had closed them so hard that a few tears squeezed out of the lovely fine folds at the ends of his eyes.

He only asked if he liked him or not, and he cried.

“You don’t like him,” Huo Tinglan answered for him.

“. . . .No, I don’t . . . . don’t dislike him.” It was as tiny and fragile as a gnat, almost inaudible.

“Then you like him,” Huo Tinglan answered for him again.

Like him?

Ye Ci couldn’t make a sound, and his thoughts were chaotic and confused.

The things he couldn’t figure out in his heart were too hard to stammer.

He clenched his hand until his fingertips went numb, then opened his eyes and looked at Huo Tinglan as if asking for help.

He seemed to be counting on Huo Tinglan’s keen insight, hoping that he could see through his sick heart and diagnose and treat him.

Unknown to him, that helpless and aggrieved look, overflowing with light, was saying “yes” to Huo Tinglan.

He couldn’t say it.

Huo Tinglan understood.

His chest was abruptly set on fire by this look, and his heart burned hot and painful. As if a switch had been pressed, Huo Tinglan suddenly rolled over, holding Ye Ci’s weakly writhing wrist with one hand. With the other, he drew up Ye Ci’s jaw and kissed his tear-soaked face.

Ye Ci was stunned. He drew back slightly with a hum, but his chin was grasped and there was a pillow behind his head. There was no place to shrink away, and he could only be pressed down by Huo Tinglan and kissed again.

His soft face, smooth forehead, black eyebrows . . . . those kisses deliberately avoided Ye Ci’s lips, clearly passionate and full of turmoil, but containing unexpected caution and restraint. Huo Tinglan’s shoulders arched slightly, his solid and fierce muscles tense and quivering under his forcible control, like a gentle beast. Ye Ci was numb and softened by the kisses, but also panicked and frightened,

Like or not like?

. . . . . .

He didn’t know. His chest was folded in half and all he knew was that his heart was about to break free, to jump into Huo Tinglan’s arms like a rabbit.

“Huo-shushu . . . . don’t, don’t . . . .” Ye Ci shuddered and begged for mercy.

As if awakened, Huo Tinglan sat up abruptly and let go of Ye Ci.

He controlled the violent ups and downs of his chest, adjusted his heavy breathing, and stroked the scattered hair back from his forehead.

“. . . . I apologize.”

He lowered his eyes and straightened his crooked tie, hiding his aggressive, tiger-like gaze.

He had made a rare gaffe.

The heat of Huo Tinglan’s lips still remained on Ye Ci’s cheeks.

Ye Ci seemed to be in a magnificent and absurd dream, staring at him blankly, his eyes vacant.

“I’m not forcing you to respond to me . . . . but I think I need to explain to you what I just did.” Huo Tinglan closed his eyes, and when he looked up again, he had returned to his usual mild and elegant appearance. He pondered, considering his words as usual in order to make them tactful and appropriate. But after a moment of silence, he smiled in defeat, only tossing out one sentence softly and solemnly: “Xiao Ci, I like you.”

Ye Ci’s eyes trembled fiercely, and he even held his breath.

After giving Ye Ci a few seconds to buffer, Huo Tinglan explained slowly: “After agreeing to marry you, I thought we were too different in age and wanted to be a good ‘shushu’ for you, take care of you and watch you grow up, but . . . .” Huo Tinglan laughed lightly at his age, his own frivolity, and the yearning that did not match his years. “I’m 30 years old, but I was just like you in this respect, a blank sheet of paper. So . . . . I didn’t know what was going on, but once I realized, I couldn’t help but think of you every day.” He sighed helplessly. “I was afraid of frightening you and didn’t dare let you know. If it hadn’t been for this situation today, I might never have said anything. I’m afraid you’ll think I’m very wicked and took care of you with impure motives . . . .”

Huo-shushu . . . . liked him?

Not only didn’t dislike him, but also liked him.

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Ye Ci stirred uneasily, and white steam nearly poured from the top of his head because of this series of confessions. He had really never forgotten when he first called him Huo-shushu. Grabbing the key points, he retorted: “I, I don’t think you’re wicked.”

“. . . . What about just now?” Huo Tinglan hit the snake with the stick,[1] but he said with a sincere expression of guilt, “I couldn’t help kissing your face just now, without asking for your consent. I’m sorry I offended you, I won’t do it next time.”

“I, I’m not offended, I . . . .” Ye Ci spoke to Huo Tinglan wholeheartedly, but halfway through, he suddenly felt something was wrong. He closed his mouth abruptly and almost bit his tongue.

It offended him, so he wouldn’t do it next time.

If it wasn’t offensive . . . .

There was still a next time?!

“What were you just about to say?” Huo Tinglan looked at him with a gentle and mischievous expression.

“. . . . . .”

Ye Ci pursed his lips silently, and there was a little bit of confusion and struggle in his eyes.

Huo-shushu . . . . was he a person who would set this kind of trap for people?

He was 80% sure he was thinking too much.

But whether Huo Tinglan was such a person or not, this little interlude made Ye Ci’s mood a little less devastated.

Embarrassment and terror at being caught, tears of shame and anxiety . . . . it was all gradually fading from his face.

“I’ve said all I can say.” Huo Tinglan gently scratched the clumsy little tongue in the clam shell with his words, calm and unruffled in the midst of chaos, and tried his luck at digging out a few pearls: “Is there anything you want to say to me?”

Ye Ci nodded, hesitated, and then shook his head again, his fingertips clenched white.

Huo Tinglan speculated on Ye Ci’s thoughts. After five years of marriage, he knew him too well. Linking Ye Ci’s various expressions and reactions tonight, he could make a close guess.

His guess was perhaps even clearer than what Ye Ci figured out for himself.

“You haven’t figured out what to say to me yet?” Huo Tinglan asked warmly. “Afraid that the pheromone changes during the marking period will affect your judgment?”

After a temporary marking, it was indeed easy for Alphas and Omegas to have a mirror-like yearning for each other due to the fluctuation of hormone levels, and various dramas such as “friends with benefits become true lovers” could occur. But when the temporary mark faded, the skin-deep feeling of pure physical attraction also faded immediately.

But in fact, Huo Tinglan could see that Ye Ci was not like this toward him.

Moreover, spirit and flesh, sex and love, were not separated from each other.

But there was a generation gap between the teenager and him. Perhaps in Ye Ci’s view, feelings mixed with too much desire may not necessarily be real feelings. Ye Ci had a temporary fever at the moment, and during the fever period, the physiological needs for affection and comfort from an Alpha were a tangled mess. Based on Ye Ci’s experience, of course it was all ceaseless chaos.

“. . . . En.”

Ye Ci found it difficult to speak about, and nodded slightly.

Sure enough.

He had guessed right.

If he could, Huo Tinglan didn’t want to wait even a second.

But that would be no good.

Besides . . . .

He really hadn’t expected Ye Ci to care so much about the secondary differentiation of his glands when he was 18 years old.

The current Ye Ci clearly lacked a sense of identity with the Omega gender. The Omega fever period made him ashamed, and correspondingly, it was naturally equally difficult to accept the fact that he “liked an Alpha.”

When asked, “Do you like Huo-shushu,” he suddenly cried and covered his face with his arms, likely because his “secret and unbearable” thoughts were spoken, and he was fearful and self-loathing . . . .

This problem needed to be solved.

He needed to guide Ye Ci to accept the fact that “Huo Tinglan was his Alpha.”

“I understand your concerns.” Trying to fathom Ye Ci’s thoughts, Huo Tinglan’s heart gradually softened into a mess. “We’ll have a good talk when the marking period is over……okay?”

“O – okay, Huo-shushu.” Ye Ci gazed at him, his eyes bright.

The room was silent for a moment.

The sweet, intimate smell of vanilla had been frightened away for a while, but now it became strong again.

“Your temporary fever . . . . isn’t over yet?” Huo Tinglan suddenly said with concern.

Only then did Ye Ci realize that the greedy glands were still agitated.

“Want to resolve it quickly and go back to your own room?” Huo Tinglan was simply tempting and testing his inexperienced little lover, trying to see how far he had actually softened.

Ye Ci quickly glanced at him. Those eyes were not naive, and after a moment of silence, he just blushed and whispered, “I want.”

Huo Tinglan lifted the corner of the quilt and reached in with one hand.

Ye Ci’s cold hands and feet hadn’t recovered yet from the fright of being caught.

“Skin contact can efficiently transmit pheromones, that was in the physiological knowledge book before, remember?” Huo Tinglan said in earnest, and gently grabbed Ye Ci’s hand.

It was fair and ice-cold.

Like holding a ball of snow.

[1] 打蛇随棍上: ‘Hit the snake with the stick’ basically means to see an opportunity and strive for greater benefits, or to exploit an opponent’s flaws. ⮐

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