Chapter 104: You Are Mine, for This Lifetime

“Shen, darling?”

Zhou Yili lowered his voice on purpose, letting it scrape softly past Shen Jixing’s ear.

A grown lion had a kind of brimming, virile sensuality about him, a languid moisture in his eyes and brows; and with the way his lips curved into a teasing smile, he was all the more beguiling.

From then on, even an emperor might forsake the morning court.

In an instant, Shen Jixing was reminded of that little lounge.

The defiant, green youth had rubbed against his shoulder with a laugh. “You’re going to be late again, big star. Do I look like little Daji?”

“…”

It seemed Shen Jixing simply could not refuse him.

His gaze swept over the rose beneath the silver chain, still half-blooming, and he still did not quite understand. “So the last hour was for the dogs?”

He had thought the night was over.

Zhou Yili, however, told him it had not even begun.

His palm lightly rubbed the cold, pale bone of Shen Jixing’s ankle. He found this man so slight of frame that he could easily hold him in his arms, and he smiled. “What sort of thing is that to say? Wasn’t I just helping you ease your longing for me?”

Shen Jixing: “?”

Zhou Yili pressed the leg ringed with silver against his waist and belly, his expression growing darker by the second. “And mine too.”

His tone was lazy and almost cute, but his eyes were fierce and dangerous.

Shen Jixing could only hear the laughter in his voice. Coming to himself, he replied coldly, “Shouldn’t it be me pinning you down…”

He was, after all, thin-skinned.

He could not bring himself to say such filthy things.

“Next time for sure,” Zhou Yili said at once.

“…”

Zhou Yili caught his ankle carelessly, folding it upward as he bent down and closed his eyes, resting his forehead against Shen Jixing’s nose. “All right? I’ll listen to you.”

Even a beast on the verge of losing control had the laws of the jungle he followed.

If Shen Jixing did not want it—

Then he would wait a little longer.

“Another five minutes?” Shen Jixing asked without the slightest courtesy.

Zhou Yili gave a muffled laugh. “More than that. I have plenty of time. All of it is yours.”

Ever since he had met this person, whether seen or discarded, it seemed he had never once stopped wanting him, never once stopped being devoted to him.

Love stretched on and on, for all that remained of life.

“Do you want all of me?”

Zhou Yili’s eyes were full of laughter as he kissed him with unmistakable attachment. “I’m terrifying, you know.”

Shen Jixing gave no answer.

Instead, he caught hold of that scalding six-pointed star and dragged this man down from the blinding light. “I want you.”

The world lurched and spun before him.

It was only after the long years that followed that Shen Jixing came to understand what every word Zhou Yili had said truly meant.

The pain that could not be put into words spread from his spine. In an instant, his eyes were filled with moisture, and the beast’s sharp teeth pressed against the pulse in his neck, so dangerous it seemed that in the next second he might be torn apart completely.

Shen Jixing had never been so disheveled in his life. His breathing turned ragged. “Zhou—”

Zhou Yili swallowed every word back down.

Not the tender comfort of warm water, but gentleness taken to the extreme.

His eyes were dark enough to frighten, and he only rubbed his lips lightly against the skin behind Shen Jixing’s ear. “Be good.”

The silver light in the room was utterly swallowed by darkness.

Shen Jixing bit his lip and could not force out a single sound.

Zhou Yili stared at him, his voice hoarse and maddening. “You really thought I was cute, did you?”

Shen Jixing opened his mouth and bit hard into his shoulder. The taste of blood flooded his mouth at once.

Zhou Yili did not even change expression. He kissed him through the dripping blood. “Shen Jixing, do you know how long I’ve been waiting for this day?”

Shen Jixing turned his face away from Zhou Yili’s lips, recoiling a little from such a bloodied kiss.

He was regretting it.

Zhou Yili was not human.

Zhou Yili caught the back of his neck and forced him to endure it, swallowing his blood together with his tears.

He wrapped the rose bracelet around Shen Jixing’s wrist and guided his hand downward.

“Can you feel me?”

“Get lost,” Shen Jixing squeezed out, on the verge of collapse.

Zhou Yili could not help laughing as he licked at him, like a beast treating the prey he cherished most.

But he was not prey. He was life itself.

Beneath Zhou Yili’s loss of control was a swelling devotion, an attachment so deep it would last beyond death.

“You’re mine now. You’ll be mine in this life.”

……

……

Shen Jixing did not wake until the following afternoon.

Heavy curtains blocked out the light. He was held in the man’s arms, his cheek pressed against Zhou Yili’s abdomen, while the sound of typing intermittently rose and fell.

“You’re awake?”

He had barely opened his eyes for a second before the man locked onto him.

Shen Jixing’s gaze drifted over the wrist extended above him; that little rosebud was resting there so obediently.

The sensor was still on his ankle.

He closed his eyes again, too lazy to speak.

Zhou Yili stopped typing and switched to a voice reply. “Mm… fine… use the second plan… wait for approval…”

In truth, Zhou Yili was the busier one.

His new album, prepared over two years, contained the hard work of too many people.

Shen Jixing listened quietly to his voice, fresh and clean like a mint leaf kissed by water.

“At my end, he’s still not awake.”

At that, Shen Jixing opened his eyes. “?”

“Oh, he’s awake,” Zhou Yili amended immediately, his fingertips lovingly rubbing at the cold corner of Shen Jixing’s eyes. “But we can’t do the reshoot. Another day.”

Sikong Xiu: “…………”

Did I look like someone especially easy to bully?

Zhou Yili ended the voice call, bent his long legs, and lowered his gaze. “Was that truly waking up, or were you only half-asleep?”

Shen Jixing: “…”

Through the haze of memory, he did indeed remember opening his eyes several times. Zhou Yili had carried him to the bath, and in the morning had even fed him a little to eat.

But his mind had been so clouded he had not even had the strength to lift a hand, leaving Zhou Yili to attend to him, and then he had been turned over and pinned to the bed to endure another round of wanton indulgence.

That bastard.

Zhou Yili half-opened the edge of the blanket, and his cool palm slid from Shen Jixing’s shoulder downward. Unable to keep pretending, Shen Jixing opened his eyes and said his first sentence, “Don’t touch me.”

His usually aloof and proud voice had become rasping in a way it never had before.

Zhou Yili froze. “Does it hurt?”

For an instant, Zhou Yili seemed to return to normal, as though last night’s madman had merely been his second self.

He warmed his hand under the blanket for a moment before resting it against Shen Jixing’s abdomen and rubbing gently. “My esteemed Mr. Shen, debtor of three million, attendee of my 2022 tour concerts, and the one and only great love of my life, speak to me, won’t you?”

Shen Jixing slowly opened his eyes to look at him.

That face, far too exquisite to be fair, was pressed against the dark fabric of his trousers, marked by the weakness and haze of someone who had been bullied.

Zhou Yili’s heart softened at once.

“Oh dear, look how wronged you are.” He gathered him up and held him against his chest, soothing him by rubbing the skin behind his ear.

Then he asked, shamelessly, “What is it?”

Shen Jixing slowly shaped a question mark with his eyes.

All his struggling had been spent on the previous night. Right now he did not even have the strength to slap him.

He only said coldly, “Are you a dog?”

Zhou Yili could not help but remember again that疯狂, blood-soaked night, utterly unlike any gentleman’s conduct.

He took Shen Jixing’s hand and pressed a kiss to his fingertips. “Maybe.”

That frank admission left Shen Jixing speechless.

Then he remembered that he had an appointment today. He averted his gaze, pulled the light blanket over himself, and tried to get out of bed.

The result of overestimating himself was immediate.

The moment his toes touched the floor, his knees gave way.

Then someone had him in their arms. Zhou Yili threw everything else aside and carried him toward the bathroom. “Next time, just call me.”

Shen Jixing glanced at him.

The six-pointed star caught the light in the air. Zhou Yili remained, as always, proud and unrestrained. “At your service.”