TBS Chapter 41

Xie Ge lay beside Xu Miao for a long time — so long that he was almost able to count every one of Xu Miao’s eyelashes — but Xu Miao still showed no signs of waking. In the end, Xie Ge had to swallow back all the words he still wanted to say.

Although Xie Ge guessed there was only a small chance those things had actually happened and a large chance they were just a dream — because if they really *had* happened, Xu Miao probably wouldn’t have married him — he still felt an urgent need to ask. He wanted Xu Miao to tell him clearly, to give him an answer, so he’d know whether those events in his dream had truly taken place or were only imagined.

He wanted peace of mind, but didn’t want to wake Xu Miao out of impatience.

So he stayed quietly by his side. Before long, Xu Miao suddenly reached out and hugged him tightly, gently patting his back and mumbling a few words that Xie Ge couldn’t make out.

Pressed together, they quickly became warm — too warm. Xie Ge’s only explanation was that the heater had been turned up too high, making him sweat. When Xu Miao finally let go, Xie Ge fled from the room.

Xu Miao knew nothing of this. He had gone to bed late the night before and didn’t wake until nearly noon.

His mind was mostly awake, but his eyes didn’t want to open yet, so he let himself doze for a few more minutes before dragging his heavy head upright.

The curtains that hadn’t been drawn last night were now completely closed, with no gap at all, blocking out any sunlight and leaving the room dim.

The place where Xie Ge had been lying was empty. Xu Miao reached into the blankets — they were cold now, with no trace of body warmth left.

Xie Ge must have gotten up long ago.

His phone lay on the bedside table. After turning on the light, Xu Miao reached out to get it, but the back of his hand accidentally brushed against the cup placed beside it.

*Warm?*

How could water left out overnight still be warm?

He looked at the cup, thinking perhaps the heater had been too strong and his senses were mistaken. To confirm, he set the phone down and picked up the cup.

The warmth came through the surface into his palm — it really was hot water. But Xu Miao didn’t intend to drink it; he wasn’t in the habit of drinking water first thing in the morning, so he set it back down.

“Still hot? I thought you’d sleep a little longer before waking.”

A sudden voice came from behind. Xu Miao turned to see Xie Ge enter, pushing the door open, shirtless, his hair still damp like he had just showered.

Even though Xu Miao knew Xie Ge’s body so well he could not be more familiar with it, seeing him now still stirred temptation, reminding him of what Xie Ge had said the night before.

Xie Ge’s physique was indeed excellent — the muscle lines were beautiful, and even the mole on the left side of his lower abdomen was perfectly placed and endearingly so, something Xu Miao had admired with his lips many times.

Xu Miao licked his lips and stared at him intently.

Normally this was nothing unusual — Xie Ge often went shirtless at home, and Xu Miao often looked. Sometimes they’d get carried away and roll around in bed for an hour or two before getting up.

But Xu Miao forgot — the Xie Ge before him was the one from years ago, still thin-skinned and easily flustered.

Even though the night before he had bragged confidently about his body, that had been nonsense spoken in a muddled state.

Under Xu Miao’s gaze, Xie Ge grew uncomfortable, hastily throwing on the shirt in his hands as he explained, “I accidentally broke the hairdryer, so I had to use a towel. But even after toweling, my hair drips and wets my clothes, so I didn’t wear the shirt. Don’t look at me.”

Xu Miao smiled, telling a blatant lie: “I wasn’t looking at you.”

Xie Ge asked, “Then what were you looking at?”

Xu Miao pointed. “At your pants — those are my pajamas.”

Xie Ge wasn’t sure which was more embarrassing — mistakenly thinking Xu Miao had been staring at him, or realizing he had put on Xu Miao’s pajama pants. He muttered weakly, “I thought they were mine.”

“It’s fine,” Xu Miao said.

Xie Ge thought the next words would be something like, *Just don’t mix them up next time,* but instead Xu Miao surprised him: “You can just take them off now and give them back to me.”

Xie Ge froze. “Is this a joke?”

It was a fair question — Xu Miao liked to tease him.

“Of course not. If you take something that isn’t yours, shouldn’t you return it immediately?” Xu Miao’s smile deepened, his eyes almost curving shut with amusement. He patted his chest. “The owner is right here. I think you’d want the pajama pants returned to me as soon as possible.”

Yet minutes passed and Xie Ge remained rooted to the spot, so Xu Miao continued, “We’re both men, and besides, it’s not like you’re not wearing anything underneath. Just taking off the outer pants — no big deal, right?”

The words sounded both reasonable and unreasonable. Xie Ge nearly let himself be persuaded, but stopped short.

He didn’t like that Xu Miao always used *we’re both men* as a way to justify certain things. A little irritated, he said, “If it’s no big deal, why don’t you take yours off?”

Xu Miao chuckled. “I think it’s no big deal. Do you want me to take off my shirt or my pants?”

Without waiting for a reply, he crossed his hands, grabbed the hem of his shirt, and swiftly pulled it off.

He tossed it carelessly onto the bed, his hair slightly messy, and looked at Xie Ge as if silently saying: *Was that really so hard?*

Keeping the shirt on would have been fine, but once it was off, everything — the should-see and shouldn’t-see — was now visible to Xie Ge.

What had been mild irritation turned into outright displeasure. He reflexively assumed the stance of Xu Miao’s legal spouse and asked, “What are those on your body?”

Xu Miao looked down.

What else could they be? If Xie Ge had been gentler with his mouth, those marks wouldn’t still be there.

Xu Miao blinked. “Don’t know, mosquito bites maybe.”

*Lie!*

Xie Ge strode up to him in two quick steps, pointing at his ribs, his lower abdomen, and his waist. “Here, here, and here — do mosquitoes have this many teeth? Two rows of them?”

Xu Miao followed his finger and said, “Maybe it’s a mutant species, I’m not sure.”

Utter nonsense, thought Xie Ge.

Xu Miao’s skin was pale, making any mark stand out clearly. Aside from a few bite marks, there were many irregular small patches of light red trailing from his chest downward without break until disappearing beneath his waistband.

There were surely more on his lower body.

Thinking this, Xie Ge found the sight of Xu Miao’s pants increasingly irritating. Heat rose to his head, shame abandoned, and he said, “You asked if I wanted to see you take off your shirt or pants. I didn’t answer, but you took off your shirt yourself, so that doesn’t count. Now I’ll answer — I want to see you take off your pants.”

Xu Miao replied readily, “Okay.”

Then quickly added, “But on one condition — you take yours off first, then I’ll take mine off.”