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Indeed, the sizes of his two eyes seemed perceptibly uneven: one small, one big.

Nonetheless, the pathetic injuries were not the reason for his obvious fury and sadness, rather, his current mood was directed at the one who received Xia Yao's remark of being "exceptionally cute" earlier this morning.

Reality has it that Xuan Da Yu was far more 'sensitive' than Yuan Zong when it came to reading others' mind.

"Just take another look at how graceful you are! Forget your two-sized eyes, what about that pair of freckle-look-alike bruises on each side of your nose? Nose swollen, philtrum shortened, and jaws oddly shaped."

Xia Yao, "..."

Xuan Da Yu was determined on driving this further. "I'm here to witness your hilarious appearance, and see for yourself, after all your dedication to preserving your beauty, now every inch on that delicate face is wearing the perfect make-up."

"Do you want to see an even more hilarious thing?"

Xia Yao suddenly asked.

"Alright, why not?"

Xia Yao struggled to pull out from the drawer the skincare kit, throwing it at the other man.

"What is this?" asked Da Yu.

He stayed silent, playing with the skincare kit, feeling slightly spurred. Noticing Xia Yao's constant glare at his direction, which made averting from the situation hardly possible, the man slowly muttered.

"Why are you giving me this?"

"Why?" said Xia Yao angrily, "Go spread that shit on the wall!"

Xuan Da Yu once again fell silent.

"What do you think it's for? If not for comforting some childish 'nephew' who shouted at me for treating him like rubbish and behaving towards him in a very, very wrong way, then what else? Just to prove he's still someone worth caring to me, I skipped lunch and spent the time buying him a skincare kit. After an evening shift dealing with those damn journalists, I went bring him the kit at once. And then had an accident midway to his place... Just forget it, there's no need to force others to accept a gift. What a waste of affection."

Barely had Xia Yao stopped when Da Yu realized he had been unable to recognize a subtle change between them.

Xia Yao and him were close friends back in high school, when their relationship with each other was completely natural. If one ever looked at it from a more subjective point of view, theirs was like romantic relationship instead of inseparable brotherhood. Xuan Da Yu couldn't help but paid a thought to Peng Ze and Xia Yao. More than two decades of being on good terms with each other, isn't it funny that their relationship only stopped at several calls every now and then? But when looking at himself, it was not far from truth to say Xuan Da Yu wanted to claim Xia Yao his, to break the boundary of brotherhood - friendship to get to the entrance of a more perverted relationship. (Aiya, XDY finally admitted it to himself!)

Xia Yao gazed at the silent Xuan Da Yu, deliberately asking, "Didn't you come here to make fun of me? Cat's got your tongue?"

Upon hearing that, Da Yu smiled, but not as much at his friend's statement as for his hidden embarrassment. An awkward smile triggered as a reaction to the tension.

"That's not true, little imp, listen... actually I..."

"Say it!" Xia Yao lit a cigarette, giving him a cold smile, "I know you well enough, you're someone who can easily go bad-tempered like an old man, but also whose inner self is more like an artless fishmonger woman despite that witty facade."

Xuan Da Yu decided to churn out all the thoughts that had been bothering him from night till day.

"Let's talk about that night."

Xia Yao's pleased face suddenly turned hard, "That night?"

"That night both of us were heavily drunken, so I carried you to my home, to find us in that situation the next morning..." Xuan Da Yu went stiff with awkwardness after moving his limbs for a while, in an attempt to illustrate what had happened.

For a moment, Xia Yao's eyes glided to the door, as his face showed a noticeable expression of fear and anxiety.

"Didn't we agree not to mention that again?"

Da Yu's eyebrows twitched. "Didn't you tell me to put everything between us into words at ease?"

"You behaving like that doesn't make me feel at ease..." Xia Yao lowered his voice.

"What?"

"Nevermind." Xia Yao pointed at the door, "Go close that door."

Upon walking to the door, Da Yu thought over Xia Yao's obvious fear of being heard. There had to be something wrong here.

Right after the door had been shut, Xia Yao felt the heavy burden in his heart roll away.

"Now just say whatever you want."

Hesitating for one second, Da Yu started, "About that night, what do you think?"

"What do I think?" Xia Yao's lips twitched. "What I think has already been discussed with you, hasn't it? I you never mention this affair, I will forever pretend this never happened."

"Not like that..." Da Yu slightly stammered, "I mean... about that night, about the true meaning of it... do you have any thoughts? Have you ever tried to understand it?"

Xia Yao actually did try to understand, even more carefully than Da Yu did. He still has that "sage" as a "good friend", who occasionally gave him good advices.

"Not at all, what for?" He'd better die than admit it.

Upon noticing Xia Yao's doubtless concealment of facts, as well as remembering his friend's many times of emphasizing there were things he couldn't share with him, Da Yu started to realize some grains of truth.

"To put it another way, on that night we really did..."

"We didn't!" Xia Yao persisted on denying. Da Yu frowned, "How can you be so sure of that?"

"Because I wasn't drunk."

Xuan Da Yu freaked out, "You weren't? Did that mean you voluntarily let me tie you up?"

"..."

In a moment like this, Xia Yao's first reaction was not explaining it away immediately, but instinctively covering his mouth before turning to the other man with furiously gritted teeth, "What are you talking crap about? Who volunteered for such a thing?"

"You weren't drunk, so were you allowing me to tie you up or was it me who forced you to do so? If the latter is the truth, why did you ask me that question the next morning? Moreover, by no means could I have tied you, seeing that you could have easily thrown me to the ground with only one arm."

The further this story went, the more panicked Xia Yao became. Perhaps the best solution should be state it frankly once and for all, to prevent aftermath troubles.

"Actually, I have been hoping for a chance to discuss this with you but just cannot open my mouth. After that night, I went to see one person... to know whether I really did the thing or not by confirming some observable marks left after our night. And he told me quite a lot of information, and let me contemplate over it myself... I found out that we didn't do anything bad at all, everything was pretty ordinary. No unwanted consequences were observed, after all it was just a joke!"

Xuan Da Yu still refused to give up, "You went to see who, and ask him what?"

Xia Yao sneakily glanced at the door before answering, "I asked a "professional sage" about... of course, this affair, do I still have to explain it?"

Da Yu chuckled, "You really did find a way to make it clear?"

"If it's not Peng Ze who passes that habit to me, then who?" Xia Yao found a perfect excuse.

Da Yu asked, "Is what he said all true?"

"True? Completely true!" Xia Yao's face showed an expression of absolute faith. "Let me show you his profile, look ---- ten million followers whose bottoms got pathetically ravaged have come for his counseling! Lots of experiences! Can you see that?" ( =)))))))) )

"Fuck, that bastard "professional sage"... is truly a boasting scumbag..." Da Yu mumbled.

Xia Yao barely made his comment out, "What did you say?"

"Nevermind. As you have asked about it, now let just pretend it never happened." Da Yu seemed slightly disheartened.

Xia Yao couldn't help but asked, "Why do I feel you're behaving kinda weird?"

Despite Xia Yao's thought that Da Yu, upon hearing this, would sigh in relief, the other man just displayed the opposite reaction - a proof of unvoiced mixed feelings.

"Oh, that's so..." Da Yu scratched the back of his head, his voice much dispirited, "I'm worried that I may have ill-treated you, isn't it justified? If so... I must have the responsibility to compensate for it..."

"No no no!" Xia Yao snatched, "You've always been kind to me."

"Ha ha ha ha..." Da Yu let out an exceptionally awkward row of laughter, "If that's true, I need not take this case to heart any more... and I guess unceremoniously chatting about it is now OK? Let see, Xia the little imp almost had my little bro shove up his ass! Ha ha ha ha..."

"You motherfucker...!" Xia Yao frightfully glanced at the door before vigorously covering the other's mouth. "Fuck, will you stop talking shit?"

Having no clue of Xia Yao's unchanged obsession over their accidental intimate night, Da Yu naively interpreted Xia Yao's reaction as a fear of being made ashamed. This unfortunately made him even more into it.

"Why won't I? Aiya, I can't believe it, the little imp Xia almost lost his virginity, almost lost his virginity..."

"Fuck!", Xia Yao was close to going mad. Had he known earlier about this guy's cursed mouth, this affair would have had no chance of being brought up again.

"Shut the fuck up!" Xia Yao squeezed the other's throat, "I'm not having fun with you, no more fooling around over this, get it?"

"Why?" Da Yu stared at him intensely.

Xia Yao silently looked at the door.

Noticing Xia Yao's sneaky glances and his constant failure to concentrate on their conversation, Da Yu couldn't subdue a feeling of skepticism, "Who have you been afraid of hearing us?" (Of course his husband :v)

"Nobody!"

Xia Yao lit another cigarette to calm his nerves.

Da Yu took the cigarette from Xia Yao's hand and put it into his mouth, his playful face suddenly turning serious.

"Say, have you and that brat done it?"

"That brat?"

"Say, who else? The one who's just left." Da Yu certainly implied Yuan Ru.

Xia Yao actually wanted to say the truth but did not dare to disclose the truth seeing that Da Yu had been away for years. With countless times bidding farewell to the ones he cherished, he couldn't risk it. Moreover, as Da Yu and Yuan Zong were not so close-knitted, it was hard to tell him everything confidently. In a time like this, the key must be solving the ongoing problem.

"She's alright, not too low from my criteria." Xia Yao gave an ambiguous reply.

Da Yu's heart slightly shook. That was a real misery for him, but he didn't want to act thoughtlessly. After all Xia Yao was still a straight man, staying with a woman was nothing against what was natural, for which Da Yu had soon prepared himself for. Since Xia Yao had straightforwardly stated that, he actually had a reason to let down this burden and stop holding that skeptical view everyday.

Dismissing the fact that he was still feeling a speck of bitterness.

"What do you mean by 'not too low from your criteria'?"

Xia Yao bluntly said, "It's that... she still needs a lesson."

"So go teach her a lesson!" said Da Yu, "The brat gives off a repulsive smell of smut, and I dare say her brother is by no means better."

Xia Yao made audible his disapproval of the remark, "What does he have to do there?"

Da Yu scowled, "You never seem easy whenever I mention that man, so after all how close are you to her?"

"Whatever, as long as you won't bring up that night's event again. Our souls currently have a paper window that easily allows itself to be opened between us. Should you stick to that habit of raking over what's better to be kept to oneself, that paper boundary will turn into a steel barrier, unable to break through by any means."

Much as Xuan Da Yu was filled with annoyance, he could only obey with Xia Yao's reasoning.

"Fine, no more talking about it."

Xia Yao eventually sighed in relief. A mental burden had been erased at last.

"Bring these things along and off you go!"

Da Yu looked at the skincare kit, his lips arching into a half-hearted smile, "You gave me this to seal my mouth shut from leaking about how close your ass came to being ripped apart that night?"

"I already told you not to mention it! Fuck!", anger again took over Xia Yao.

Xuan Da Yu gave him a wicked smirk, "Oohhhh, I forgot I forgot, no more talking, no more talking."

"Get out, get out!"

Xia Yao collapsed onto his bed, buried himself in the blanket while letting out loud gasps of fury.

Xuan Da Yu pressed his hand on Xia Yao's head, and with mixed feelings of sorrow, resentment, happiness and sadness intertwined squeezing his heart and left.

***********

I'm so sorry for being away for so long. I've just read all of your messages and I really appreciate your kind words. Thank you for having faith in me for continuing the story.

Here is a quick example of what my Wattpad looks like after 2 months of being inactive

Since I'm on my summer break now, I hope to finish the book translation before the school year starts again and I'll be busy.

Love,

Ann