For work convenience, Pei Xu currently lived in Botting Mansion in Changnan District, just a road away from his company.
Botting Mansion was a high-end residential area in the core of the first ring road, with one apartment per floor, excellent security, and privacy.
After Pei Xu parked the car, he didn’t need to worry about being seen and causing misunderstandings, directly carrying the drunk man into the elevator.
The elevator stopped on the twenty-fifth floor.
Pei Xu opened the door, carried him into the house, and placed him on the sofa.
With one hand, he unbuttoned two buttons of his shirt and looked down at him, “Still pretending?”
The person feigning drunkenness stirred, burying his face in a sofa cushion, grumbling softly without a sound.
Pei Xu chuckled, then asked him, “Are you hungry? I can make you a bowl of noodles.”
Qiao Nan, whenever he drank with his mischievous friends, never ate properly.
Pei Xu mentioning it made Qiao Nan’s stomach rumble.
He covered his stomach, thinking, he really was a bit hungry.
And he hadn’t had his brother’s late-night snack in a long time.
Qiao Nan squirmed on the sofa, his face still buried in the cushion, softly humming, “I’m hungry.”
“Still tomato beef noodles?”
Pei Xu said, rolling up his sleeves to his forearms and checking the ingredients in the refrigerator.
The Qiao family had a cook, but the cook also needed rest at night.
Qiao Nan, during his adolescence, often got hungry due to growth spurts and didn’t want to wake the cook up for a late-night snack, so he would order takeout.
But he had a sensitive stomach and often got upset from takeout.
After Pei Xu found out, he started learning to cook from the family’s cook.
Qiao Nan loved his tomato beef noodles the most.
He took out the ingredients and put the beef in the microwave to thaw.
Seeing that he had been found out, Qiao Nan stopped pretending, jumped off the sofa, and scurried into the kitchen.
He leaned on Pei Xu’s back and made a request, “Add a soft-boiled egg!”
Pei Xu was half a head taller than him, and due to years of fitness and exercise, his physique was much more robust.
Qiao Nan had to stand on tiptoes to lean on his back, almost entirely hanging on him.
Under the pressure of their weight, their bodies were pressed very closely together.
Pei Xu’s movements subtly paused, then he patted Qiao Nan’s hand.
“Go play for a bit first.”
“Then I’ll go take a shower first.”
Qiao Nan happily let go of him, sniffed himself, and said disdainfully, “I smell entirely of alcohol, I stink.”
Pei Xu’s eyes changed.
He lowered his head and rinsed the tomatoes under the faucet, his face hidden in the back-lit shadows, making his expression unclear.
Only his voice remained gentle, “Go ahead.”
Qiao Nan didn’t notice, and he unreservedly went into Pei Xu’s bedroom.
Pei Xu’s bedroom still maintained its minimalist black, white, and gray color scheme, and its layout and furnishings were not much different from when he was at the Qiao family home. \
Qiao Nan skillfully rummaged through to find a new bath towel and underwear but couldn’t find any pajamas.
“He didn’t even prepare pajamas for me.”
Realizing that Pei Xu was genuinely planning to live here alone, Qiao Nan quietly grumbled unhappily.
Then, he picked out the most expensive shirt from Pei Xu’s wardrobe and went into the bathroom.
It wasn’t that he intentionally wanted to use Pei Xu’s shirt as pajamas.
It was all his fault for not preparing earlier!
***
Pei Xu distractedly blanched and peeled the tomatoes.
The faint sound of running water traveled through the living room and into the kitchen, occasionally accompanied by Qiao Nan’s cheerful singing.
The sounds were so clear that Pei Xu was almost certain Qiao Nan hadn’t closed the bedroom door.
He never treated him as an outsider and had no sense of avoiding suspicion; at home, he would always just come out wrapped in a bath towel.
If he went in now, Qiao Nan would have nowhere to hide.
And this wasn’t the Qiao family home; he could be uninhibited…
Images of pressing Qiao Nan against the wall flashed in his mind.
Pei Xu’s expression flickered until a dull pain in his finger brought him back to reality.
The index finger of his left hand had a cut on the pad of his thumb from the kitchen knife.
Blood welled up and dripped onto the countertop.
Pei Xu emotionlessly stared at the wound on his fingertip, turned on the faucet, and self-abusively placed the wound under the stream of water.
The gushing water sound masked the noises coming from the master bedroom.
Only when the wound turned white and no more blood oozed out did Pei Xu withdraw his hand, take out the thawed beef, and continue to cut it into pieces.
Qiao Nan came out of the shower feeling refreshed.
His wet hair hadn’t been dried yet, clinging haphazardly to his cheeks.
Water droplets slid down his slender neck, quickly dampening a small patch of fabric.
“Why are the sleeves so long?”
Qiao Nan laboriously rolled up the sleeves haphazardly and found a hairdryer to blow his hair dry.
When Pei Xu came out with the noodles, he saw Qiao Nan wearing his shirt, head bowed, back to him, standing in the living room blowing his hair.
Qiao Nan was shorter than him and had a slender frame.
His shirt looked very loose and baggy on him, just long enough to cover his hips, revealing his straight, slender legs.
He didn’t exercise much and had almost no muscle definition; his fair, soft skin was evenly distributed, giving his long legs an indescribable sensuousness that invited more thoughts.
Pei Xu gazed fixedly, then, after a long while, bit hard on the soft flesh inside his cheek, painstakingly tearing his gaze away.
He placed the noodle bowl on the dining table and called Qiao Nan to eat.
Qiao Nan, halfway through drying his hair, excitedly scurried to the dining table.
He looked at the one and only bowl of noodles.
“Brother, aren’t you eating?”
“I already had dinner.”
Placing the warmed milk beside Qiao Nan’s hand, Pei Xu sat down beside him.
His gaze was fixed on Qiao Nan.
His injured hand was placed under the table, his thumb pressing hard on the wound, using the dull pain in his body to remind himself.
“Was Zhong Shiyi also at the Xiao family’s dinner today?”
He found a topic to distract himself.
“Yeah.”
Qiao Nan slurped some noodles, feeling a bit annoyed as he thought of that scoundrel.
“He even said bad things about you!”
Pei Xu’s expression subtly changed.
“What did he say?”
Qiao Nan repeated Zhong Shiyi’s words, unable to help but roll his eyes.
“So inexplicable. If he ever provokes me again, I’ll break his other leg.”
He said this while fiercely slurping another mouthful of noodles.
Pei Xu’s expression softened slightly.
He pulled out a tissue to wipe the soup from Qiao Nan’s lips and, smiling, said, “Okay.”
A bowl of noodles was quickly devoured, and Qiao Nan let out a burp before heading to the restroom to brush his teeth.
Pei Xu cleared the dishes and went to the second bedroom to wash up.
***
When he returned to the master bedroom, he saw Qiao Nan already lying on his bed.
Seeing him enter, Qiao Nan rolled to the side and patted the spot next to him, his beautiful eyes curving into a smile.
“Brother, come quickly!”
It looked just like an invitation.
Pei Xu’s footsteps paused, his narrow eyes slightly narrowed, emitting a dangerous signal.
Qiao Nan, however, was completely unaware.
Pei Xu suddenly reached out and turned off the master bedroom light.
The bedroom immediately darkened, with only the bedside wall lamp emitting a soft glow.
He was completely hidden in the darkness, his gaze brazenly locked on Qiao Nan, but his voice showed no abnormality.
“You sleep first; I still have work to finish.”
Qiao Nan rolled around on the bed, sat up, and felt as if he had previously misunderstood him.
Even his voice carried a hint of guilt.
“Are you really that busy, bro?”
Pei Xu hummed in affirmation, then backed out and slowly pulled the door shut.
His voice came through the gap in the door, “I’m going to the study. It’s getting late, you should go to bed early.”
In reality, there was no work that needed to be done.
Pei Xu was always efficient with his work and didn’t have a habit of bringing work home.
Entering the study, he didn’t turn on the lights.
He sat at the desk, illuminated only by the dim neon lights from outside the window, completely enveloped in darkness.
His fingers rested on the desk, lightly tapping, making a muffled “thump-thump” sound.
After a long time, as if he had finally made a decision, he opened the drawer on his right side, took out a remote control, and gently pressed it.
On the wall opposite the desk, as the decorative blinds slowly rose, the large bed in the master bedroom, and Qiao Nan on it, appeared before his eyes.
—The study was adjacent to the master bedroom.
For convenience in working, this wall was originally going to be opened up to create a partition.
But later, when the design plan was finalized, he, as if by some strange impulse, had them install a one-way visible glass wall here.
Before, he rarely stayed here, and this glass wall had always been covered by decorative blinds, never opened.
This was the first time.
Qiao Nan was completely oblivious to this.
He didn’t take Pei Xu’s admonition to sleep early to heart at all.
He was lying on the bed, playing on his phone, with the thin blanket casually draped over his waist.
His calves were playfully swinging, his insteps curving beautifully, looking dazzlingly white in the dim light.
Pei Xu’s gaze lingered repeatedly, savoring every inch of him in detail, self-destructively indulging in this moment of immersion.
After gazing fixedly for a long time, he took out his sketchbook and pencil and began to draw in the dim light.
Drawing Qiao Nan was second nature to him.
The lines flowed smoothly, quickly outlining the rough contours.
Pei Xu, facing the unwitting model behind the glass wall, filled in the details little by little.
The black soft-padded large bed, gray sheets, the slender young man wearing only a white shirt…
Everything was exactly as it was before his eyes.
Except for the four chains extending from the young man’s wrists and ankles to the head and foot of the bed.
Pei Xu lowered his eyes, his pen meticulously drawing the thumb-thick black chains, trying his best to make every detail realistic, as if this way, he could unleash the dark thoughts hidden in his heart.
He put down the pencil, looking at the young man locked in the middle of the bed by four chains, his fingertips gently caressing his eyebrows and eyes, recalling Dr. Chen’s advice.
“Everyone has dark thoughts they cannot speak of, but they may not have the opportunity or ability to realize them. But you are different; you have both the opportunity and the ability to realize them. If you don’t want to harm him, it’s best to maintain a safe distance from him.”
Best to maintain a safe distance from him.
Pei Xu closed his eyes, revealing a bitter smile.
He had hardened his heart and stayed far enough away, but Qiao Nan always managed to stumble back into his embrace.
Truly… completely unsuspecting, and completely unaware of the danger.
Pei Xu gently caressed the body of the person in the drawing, his fingertips pressing hard, cruelly crumpling the drawing paper little by little.
After a long time, he lowered the blinds and turned on the lights.
Carefully flattening the crumpled drawing paper, he walked to the innermost bookshelf and took out a thick file folder, sorted by date.
The file folder was spread open on the desk.
Pei Xu turned to the blank pages at the back and carefully slipped in the newly added drawing.
He closed the folder, put it back in the cabinet, put on his glasses, and the expression on his face returned to its usual gentleness.
It was as if he had locked the beast in his heart into a cage as well.
He pushed open the door of the adjacent bedroom and lay down beside Qiao Nan, who was pretending to sleep under the covers.
“No more playing on your phone. Go to sleep properly.”
“How did you even know that…”
Qiao Nan, who had failed at pretending to be asleep, mumbled as he crawled out from under the covers and placed his phone on the bedside table.
Pei Xu rubbed his head, smiling softly.
“Go to sleep. Goodnight.”