ALCARB Chapter 62

His heart thumped wildly, beyond his control.

Jiang Mingyi stared blankly at the man so close to him. Reflected in those deep, dark eyes was his own face—and in that moment, he felt as though Shen Xingyan saw no one else in the world. As if he was Shen Xingyan’s entire world.

It was strange.

But he could see it clearly in his gaze.

A wave of inexplicable joy suddenly surged within him.

His heartbeat lost all rhythm.

He lightly licked his lips, as if trying to calm the chaos within.

It wasn’t Shen Xingyan who was drunk—it was him. Just the smell of alcohol had left him tipsy without even drinking.

“Call me—”

“Jiang Mingyi, come play a game after you finish eating,”

The two words he’d just started to say were abruptly cut off by a light, clear voice. A third person broke into the moment, instantly shattering the tender atmosphere between them like it had never existed at all.

Jiang Mingyi swallowed the unspoken words lingering on his tongue and looked over at Yu Qing, who stood not far away, her cheeks slightly flushed and her eyes curved in a gentle smile.

She looked at him with warmth, her delicate features and sweet expression making it hard for anyone to dislike her.

Jiang Mingyi raised his head to meet her gaze and replied softly, his voice clear and pleasant with a hint of gentleness, “What game?”

Shen Xingyan’s grip on his hand tightened briefly. His eyes lowered, hiding the fleeting shadow that passed through them. When he looked up again, he had already let go of Jiang Mingyi’s hand.

The sudden absence of warmth on his hand made Jiang Mingyi instinctively glance down. As his gaze landed on Shen Xingyan’s withdrawn hand, a quiet sense of disappointment settled in his chest.

Yu Qing pointed toward the classmates already seated on the U-shaped couch. “They said they want to play the King’s Game.”

Jiang Mingyi knew how that game worked, but—

He turned to Shen Xingyan and asked, “Ge, are you going to play?”

He was actually hoping Shen Xingyan would decline, giving him an excuse for the two of them to leave early. But instead, Shen Xingyan replied directly, “It’s rare to have a chance to relax—of course I’ll play.”

Jiang Mingyi pursed his lips, left with no choice but to agree.

Nearby, a few boys gathered on the side of the couch.

“Yu Qing invited Jiang Mingyi and his brother… will this mess up the game we planned?”

“It shouldn’t be a problem. We already planned everything out. No way we’re going home empty-handed tonight.”

They looked over at Zhang Tao, who still wore a sullen expression. His face was flushed red with alcohol—clearly still drunk.

The few boys who’d been drinking all looked pretty average—plain looks, ordinary build, basic clothes. The type that would blend right into a crowd without a second glance.

Then there were the two stunning guys sitting on the other side.
Yu Qing’s friends whispered among themselves:

“Jiang Mingyi may have that spoiled rich kid vibe, but he’s really good-looking.”

“His brother’s handsome too. And rich. Where would we ever meet guys like that in our normal lives?”

“Honestly, it makes sense that Yu Qing would have a thing for Jiang Mingyi.”

“Then why were you all trying to play matchmaker for Zhang Tao?”

“Well, we owed him favors, didn’t we? Couldn’t say no.”

“Ugh, whatever. None of us are in a position to judge anyone.”

“Should we still cooperate with them during the game later?”

“Maybe we can quietly ask Yu Qing?”

The ten of them sat down on the sofa one by one. One of Yu Qing’s roommates pulled out a deck of playing cards, took out ten cards along with the Joker, placing them on the table.

“Everyone should know how to play, right? Since we’re all classmates…” As she said this, the girl stumbled over her words slightly. She didn’t dare look at Shen Xingyan and simply continued, “To avoid ruining any friendships, we’ve prepared the punishments in advance.”

She took out a small box. “There are eight punishment slips in here. It’s all up to your luck. If you draw something difficult, no blaming others.”

In reality, the punishments were ones they’d written themselves. They all knew how this game worked—the explanation was really for Jiang Mingyi and Shen Xingyan’s benefit.

Seeing that neither of them reacted, the girl announced, “The King’s Game begins now.”

The cards on the table were quickly picked up one by one. Shen Xingyan reached out with his long arm and casually selected two cards, handing one of them to Jiang Mingyi.

Jiang Mingyi carefully peeked at his own card, then leaned over to sneak a glance at Shen Xingyan’s.

The two sat side by side, their casual interaction while checking each other’s cards felt far too natural—and naturally caught everyone’s attention.

“Ahem, no peeking at each other’s cards.”

Jiang Mingyi quickly pulled his gaze back.

Whoever got the Joker would be the King. This round, the King turned out to be Yu Qing.

“Yu Qing, you’ve got good luck. Hurry and pick some numbers.”

Yu Qing’s gaze briefly swept past Jiang Mingyi. Since she didn’t know anyone’s card, she casually called out “2 and 3.”

Jiang Mingyi had just seen Shen Xingyan’s card—it was a 6. His own was an 8. The two of them were safe this round, just observers for now.

The other “safe” players all turned to look around at the rest.

The two guys who had helped Zhang Tao to the bathroom earlier slowly flipped over their cards.

“Looks like we’re taking the lead this round. You wanna draw, or should I?”

“I’ll do it.”

One of the boys reached for the punishment box, pulled out a slip, and opened it. Underneath was a string of messy, barely readable handwriting.

“Which idiot wrote this? I can’t even read it.”

He grumbled, but still managed to make it out.

“One person princess-carries the other and does ten squats. Both hold a mouthful of water and maintain eye contact.”

The guy immediately started cursing, “Who the hell came up with this? Stand up—I swear I won’t hit you.”

The moment he said that, the person who had proudly written the punishment earlier immediately shut their mouth.

No one owned up, so the two guys had no choice but to go through with it.

Shen Xingyan watched as the two bickered over who should do the squats, then turned to Jiang Mingyi and asked, “If you had to choose, would you rather carry or be carried?”

The other students were all making a ruckus. Jiang Mingyi didn’t catch what he said at first and leaned in, “What did you say?”

Under the soft lighting, Shen Xingyan’s gaze lingered on that flawless, porcelain-like face for a second before repeating himself.

After Jiang Mingyi heard it clearly, he was silent for a few seconds. “I can’t do the carrying.”

Carrying someone and then squatting? What a joke. With his skinny arms and legs, it was already a miracle if he could lift someone—never mind squatting and standing up again.

He’d probably just fall on his ass.

Let alone ten squats.

By that point, the two boys had figured out who was doing what, and one of them had picked the other up.

“You’re heavy as hell.”

“And you’re ugly as hell.”

They bickered for a bit, then each took a mouthful of water and started the squats.

They barely got through two before one of them spit the water out in a burst.

“Hahahaha…”

“You guys are so lame.”

“Only two? Are you even men?”

Everyone laughed and jeered, while the two who failed the challenge were each forced to down a full glass of red wine.

“They can just use wine to substitute? That’s a pretty light punishment,” Shen Xingyan remarked with a hint of amusement in his eyes.

Jiang Mingyi replied, “They’re classmates after all. They can’t go too far.”

Over the next few rounds, neither of them was called. Some punishments were simple, others more difficult.

The easy ones were completed quickly and smoothly.

The harder ones were skipped in favor of drinking.

Because they were all familiar classmates, the group was high in energy and excited.

The two brothers—who had mostly stayed on the sidelines—were almost forgotten, until finally, their numbers were called.

The room went quiet for a moment.

“Ah… it’s Jiang Mingyi and his brother.” The cheers that were about to erupt instantly died down.

Shen Xingyan casually set his card back on the table and gestured for Jiang Mingyi to draw the punishment.

They had seen the previous dares: aside from the squats, none had been too difficult.

Things like biting the same apple or holding a playing card between their mouths—those were more suggestive than challenging.

Jiang Mingyi figured they couldn’t possibly be unlucky enough to draw the squat one again.

At worst, they could just drink.

With that thought, he relaxed.

His slender fingers hovered over the slips, then picked one out.

As he opened the note and read the line of text, his expression froze—and even his hand holding the paper started trembling.

“What’s the punishment?” someone asked.

The others were too embarrassed to rush him, so Yu Qing spoke up gently.

Jiang Mingyi felt a chill at the back of his neck. “Can we just choose to drink instead?”

Zhang Tao let out a cold laugh. “You haven’t even told us the punishment and already want to back out? That just makes all of us who actually did our dares look like idiots.”

His gaze was dark and vicious as he stared at Jiang Mingyi.
He had written that particular punishment himself and marked it specially.
Unfortunately, after several rounds, he hadn’t gotten the chance to match with Yu Qing.

Now it had ended up being Jiang Mingyi, this spoiled rich boy, who drew the slip — he was genuinely curious to see if these so-called “fake brothers” even dared to go through with it.

He wasn’t like Yu Qing. Yu Qing didn’t believe Jiang Mingyi was gay — but he’d seen Jiang Mingyi chasing after some guy, being all fawning and attentive, more than once.

Shen Xingyan’s gaze swept over him, cold as ice. He took the slip of paper from Jiang Mingyi’s hand and read aloud: “One person lies on the sofa, the other does push-ups on top of them. On the tenth push-up, they have to feed the one lying down a grape.”

“Who wrote this? Only ten push-ups— what, was the writer’s max just ten?”

Ten was Zhang Tao’s limit. Having that called out in front of everyone, his face darkened a shade.

He clenched his fists, sneering, “What do you care how many the writer can do? Just worry about whether you two can pull it off.”

“It’s too easy. No challenge at all.” Shen Xingyan propped one leg up lazily, his eyes cool as he glanced at the other guys. “How about this — I’ll do thirty. If I manage it, each of you downs another shot. If I fail, we’ll drink a whole bottle.”

The girls were still reeling from the original dare, but now the difficulty had just skyrocketed — gasps and sharp intakes of breath spread through the room.

Jiang Mingyi hadn’t expected him to say that at all. Never mind whether thirty was even doable — just the position itself was enough to make your face burn and your heart race. And at the end, he’d have to feed him a grape?

If they messed up… wouldn’t that basically be a kiss?

There was no way he’d be the one doing the push-ups, obviously — so he could only lie down on the sofa and passively accept Shen Xingyan’s “intimate contact.”

Just imagining it made Jiang Mingyi’s cheeks flush with heat.

Bro… are you seriously doing this?

He really wanted to stop Shen Xingyan, but when he met Shen Xingyan’s gaze, he found he couldn’t get a word out.

Fine. He was serious.

In the end, he laid back on the sofa, letting Shen Xingyan hover right above him.

The two of them were so close — their breath mingled together, their pupils reflecting each other. Jiang Mingyi nervously clenched the fabric of his jeans.

“Don’t be nervous.”

The second Shen Xingyan told him not to be nervous, Jiang Mingyi just got even more flustered — especially with everyone’s eyes glued to them.

He swallowed hard, hesitating for a moment. “I’m kind of scared.”

“Scared I can’t finish?” Shen Xingyan arched a brow slightly.

Jiang Mingyi shook his head. “No.”

“Then what are you scared of?”

Jiang Mingyi pressed his lips together, too embarrassed to answer.

His eyes fell on Shen Xingyan’s thin, perfectly shaped lips.

He was afraid that when the moment came, he’d be so nervous he’d miss the grape — and end up biting Shen Xingyan’s lips instead.