Qiao Nan lowered his gaze, looking at the drone in his hand, his expression gradually growing solemn.
He lifted his head, for the first time meeting Pei Xu’s gaze head-on, seeing the emotion and desire within, not avoiding it at all, “When did it start?”
Pei Xu had given him the “Si Nan” when he’d just started university—had it really started that early?
“Nan Nan, don’t you remember?”
Pei Xu smiled, rubbing his earlobe.
“That night after your college entrance exam, when you played Truth or Dare at the KTV with your classmates—you got drunk that night…”
His finger traced along Qiao Nan’s jawline, pausing at his full, moist lips, “…You chose Dare, and kissed me.”
Qiao Nan had absolutely no memory of this.
He tried to search his mind, but could only recall a few scattered, blurry fragments.
“I don’t remember,” he muttered, lips pursed.
“Nan Nan always forgets things when he drinks. As long as I remember, that’s enough.”
Pei Xu chuckled, his fingertip brushing over Qiao Nan’s lips, slipping in gently, his voice turning hoarse, “It was you who pulled me in…”
Qiao Nan tilted his head back, trying to avoid his hand, but Pei Xu’s palm covered the side of his face, firmly turning him back.
Pei Xu pressed a kiss to his lips, their mouths close, his words slow and solemn, “I won’t let you go.”
Qiao Nan’s eyelashes trembled, as if something in his heart had been shattered, the tremor at his chest rippling outward layer by layer.
Looking into Pei Xu’s eyes, he saw the determination and surging passion within, like a violent tsunami, long in the making.
And he was tossed about in its midst, not knowing whether he should hold on, or how much longer he could.
It felt as if he could be swallowed up at any moment.
Pei Xu saw the confusion in his eyes, sighed softly, and leaned in to kiss him again.
He pressed Qiao Nan against the edge of the rooftop, his whole body enveloping him, overwhelming yet gentle as he delivered a deep kiss.
On the quiet rooftop, their secret feelings and desires boiled over, unseen by any other.
Qiao Nan gripped his shoulders tightly, his lashes trembling violently, but he didn’t struggle or resist.
In those beautiful birch blossom eyes, the sparkling Ursa Major constellation was reflected.
His body trembled lightly, like a lone boat tossed on the vast sea.
His body responded before his mind, rising on tiptoe to cling to Pei Xu, parting his lips to let him invade and conquer.
Pei Xu kissed him so deeply, Qiao Nan felt as if the other had reached all the way to his throat.
That intense, indescribable sensation of being possessed brought an unrivaled thrill, dragging his fragile consciousness down into another abyss, only to awaken even more longing.
Half-lidded, his breath came fast and hot, yet by instinct he still sought out Pei Xu’s lips.
Pei Xu satisfied him.
The temperature in this small space rose quickly, scorching the last of their reason away.
The two of them clung tightly together, nearly melting into one.
When they finally broke apart, both gasping for breath, Pei Xu noticed the change in him and spoke in a husky voice, “The drone hasn’t left yet, so I can’t help you today, Nan Nan.”
His thin lips soothed Qiao Nan’s face, trailing from his lashes to the tip of his nose, like a dragonfly skimming the water, even his gentleness tinged with desire.
“Be good, just bear with it for now.”
Qiao Nan snapped back to himself, hurriedly pulling away and turning his back to hide his embarrassment, stammering, “N-no need for your help.”
Even the nape of his neck that peeked out was red.
Pei Xu laughed softly, kissing his flushed neck before pulling out his phone to send a WeChat message.
After receiving the notification, the drones hovering in the air scattered like starlight.
Qiao Nan was captivated by the beautiful sight, his gaze following them for a long time.
Once the drones had left, Pei Xu wrapped his arms around him from behind, his tone thick with suggestion, “Now there’s no one around. No one will come up to the rooftop.”
Qiao Nan felt like a fish on a grill, roasted over the coals again and again.
Blushing, he wriggled free from Pei Xu’s embrace, grabbed his gift, and ran toward the stairs, “I’m going back!”
Pei Xu stood where he was, watching him, the corners of his mouth curving up slightly.
Qiao Nan still hadn’t given him an answer, but he already knew.
On the way home, the two of them remained silent, but Qiao Nan kept feeling that Pei Xu’s occasional glances at him in the rear-view mirror carried some kind of heart-thumping, blush-inducing meaning.
He sat uneasily, and as soon as they reached home, he pushed open the car door and jumped out.
Pei Xu followed behind him at a leisurely pace.
Qiao Nan went upstairs, hesitated, then turned back, awkwardly muttering, “Good night,” before darting up the stairs like a startled rabbit.
He threw himself onto the bed with the drone in his arms, rolling around irritably a few times.
The scene on the rooftop replayed in his mind, his throat feeling a little parched, as if Pei Xu’s lingering breath was still there.
He got up and gulped down a big glass of water before feeling a little better, placing the beautiful and delicate drone in front of him, his expression grave.
Before, he’d only been running away, but everything that happened on the rooftop made him realize Pei Xu’s feelings.
He had to seriously reconsider their relationship.
But no matter how he thought about it, it was just a tangled mess.
Annoyed, he poked the drone, then pulled out his phone, used a VPN, and watched a few short videos.
The videos were explicit, and the actors were really giving it their all, but Qiao Nan watched with a cold, indifferent face.
He touched his lips, thinking it still wasn’t as exciting as when Pei Xu kissed him.
Besides, this “top” looked a bit weak, wasn’t as handsome as Pei Xu, didn’t have as good a figure as Pei Xu, and definitely wasn’t as…big as Pei Xu.
That day in the kitchen, he’d only glanced over, but it was already shocking enough.
Just thinking about doing what those people in the video did with Pei Xu made Qiao Nan’s mind shut down.
No way, it felt like he’d die.
He turned off his phone, yanked the blanket over his head, and just wanted to be left alone.
Qiao Nan tried to calm down all night, but still didn’t feel calm enough.
The next day, when it was time for school, he dawdled and didn’t want to go downstairs.
He was sure Pei Xu was waiting for him downstairs.
Luckily, the first class was Art History, so it wouldn’t matter if he was a bit late. Qiao Nan dragged his feet until he really couldn’t delay any longer, then finally went downstairs—only to find Pei Xu sitting on the living room sofa, reading a magazine.
Seeing him come down, Pei Xu smiled and looked over, “Eat your breakfast. I’ll drive you to school.”
Does this guy not need to go to work anymore?
Why isn’t he at the office at this hour!
Qiao Nan shot him a subtle glare, then hurried off to eat breakfast.
On the way to school, Qiao Nan sat in the passenger seat like a proper old man.
Pei Xu fastened his seatbelt for him, but didn’t do anything out of line. Qiao Nan stayed on guard, worried Pei Xu would suddenly ambush him like last time, not relaxing his vigilance at all.
But all the way until he got out of the car, Pei Xu acted gentle and gentlemanly.
“This afternoon you only have one class, right? Things are busy at the company, so I might not have time to pick you up. I’ll have Zhao Bo get you.”
Qiao Nan gave an “oh,” waved goodbye, and went into the school.
When the afternoon class ended, Qiao Nan really did get a call from Zhao Bo.
He got in the car, only to find Zhao Bo wasn’t driving him home, but was heading toward Xu Nan Technology.
“Why are we going to Xu Nan Technology?”
As Pei Xu’s special assistant, Zhao Bo not only handled work matters, but also took care of some of Pei Xu’s personal life.
Pei Xu wasn’t all that secretive, so Zhao Bo had noticed some clues.
Worried this little ancestor might refuse to go, he explained cautiously, “President Pei said to bring you to Xu Nan first. After work, you’ll go home together.”
Qiao Nan pouted in displeasure, but didn’t object.
Only then did Zhao Bo relax a little.
He thought to himself, other people’s assistants only have to deal with either the family or the lover.
But him?
He had to deal with the boss’s most treasured little brother, who also happened to be the boss’s not-yet-official sweetheart.
It was like stacking buffs.
“President Pei is in a big meeting right now. It’ll probably be half an hour before he’s done. You can wait in the office for a bit. There’s fruit, snacks, and a PAD in the lounge. If you need anything, just call the president’s office.”
He ushered Qiao Nan into the office, then finally relaxed and sent a message to Pei Xu, who was in the meeting.
“It’s not my first time here,” Qiao Nan looked at him oddly.
“Go do your work, you don’t have to watch me. I’ll just wait here.”
It really wasn’t his first time here, but it was his first time coming as the boss’s “girlfriend!”
Zhao Bo held onto this earth-shattering secret, but couldn’t tell anyone, so he just left with a mysterious look.
Qiao Nan sat down behind the desk, planning to watch some videos on the computer, but found all sorts of documents open on the desktop.
Afraid he’d mess up Pei Xu’s files, he decided to go to the lounge and look for the iPad.
The lounge was where Pei Xu usually took short breaks.
Small, but fully equipped.
Qiao Nan didn’t treat himself badly, grabbing juice and snacks before looking for the iPad.
But after searching everywhere, he didn’t see the iPad Zhao Bo mentioned.
Too lazy to bother the president’s office over this, he noticed a bookshelf in the lounge and decided to look for a novel to read instead.
Pei Xu’s reading interests were wide-ranging. Besides finance, management, and a ton of industry books, he also read famous novels in his spare time.
Qiao Nan skipped the professional books and went straight for the fiction.
As his fingers skimmed over the spines, Qiao Nan randomly pulled out a novel, but accidentally knocked down a folder beside it.
The folder fell to the ground, its contents scattering.
Qiao Nan bent down to pick them up, but froze when he saw what was inside.
He pursed his lips, picked up the folder, and flipped through a few pages at random, confirming that it wasn’t documents inside at all, but page after page of sketches.
All of them were of him.
Some were rough sketches of body parts, others were detailed full-body drawings.
The strokes were clean and crisp, as if he’d drawn them thousands of times.
No, he really had drawn many.
Just this folder alone had over twenty sketches.
Qiao Nan flipped through them one by one, and found that one of the quick sketches was set in the Platinum Court Residence.
—He was only wearing a shirt, lying on the bed playing with his phone, with thin black chains around his wrists and ankles trailing away…
The perspective of the whole drawing was strange, a bit like the angle of a voyeur.
In the bottom right corner of the sketch paper was the date it was drawn.
Qiao Nan thought back, recalling the scene in the drawing—
At that time, Pei Xu had just moved out from home, and Qiao Nan, unhappy, used his drunkenness as an excuse to cause a fuss, so Pei Xu had to take him back to the Platinum Court Residence.
After a midnight snack, he lay on the bed playing with his phone while Pei Xu said he still had work to do and went to the study…
The master bedroom and the study in the Platinum Court Residence were only separated by a wall.
Now that he thought about it, that decorative wall was actually a bit strange.
Heh heh heh heh.
Men.
Qiao Nan pulled out his phone to take pictures, planning to keep evidence.
He’d just taken two when he heard the sound of the doorknob turning.
Nervous, he quickly closed the folder and shoved it back onto the shelf, pretending to be browsing books.
At that moment, Pei Xu, who had finished his meeting early, pushed open the door and walked in.