Chapter 34

Mi Zhao was startled by Li Sipei’s words—he hadn’t expected him to have such thoughts.

“No,” he quickly explained. “I just think it’s too soon.”

Li Sipei pressed his lips together without responding.

After thinking for a moment, Mi Zhao scratched his head and said, “We’ve only known each other for a month—wouldn’t meeting the parents be a bit rushed? One of my classmates has been dating his girlfriend for almost three years, and he only recently told his parents about her.”

“Oh,” Li Sipei responded softly, keeping his gaze lowered.

It had rained that afternoon. Though the rain had stopped, the ground was still wet, and the night breeze carried a sharp chill.

Noticing that Li Sipei was only wearing a thin shirt, Mi Zhao took off his jacket and draped it over him.

Instinctively, Li Sipei started to refuse, but Mi Zhao gently pressed his hand down.

The jacket still carried the warmth of Mi Zhao’s body and his familiar scent—probably from his body wash—a fresh, pleasant citrus fragrance.

Li Sipei hesitated for a moment, his fingers gripping the edge of the jacket. Then, slowly, he let his hand drop.

“Besides, you don’t know what my parents are like. They…” Mi Zhao paused, then continued, “If they meet you once, they’ll probably keep bothering you afterward.”

When his parents were back in their hometown, things were manageable. But now that they had decided to move to A City, reaching out to Li Sipei would be as easy as making a phone call.

Li Sipei lifted his gaze to meet Mi Zhao’s, his lips parting slightly as if he wanted to say something.

Mi Zhao patiently waited.

But in the end, Li Sipei only shook his head. “I understand.”

A gust of night wind made Mi Zhao shiver. He rubbed his arms, and for some reason, a strange sense of bitterness crept into his chest.

Had Li Sipei misunderstood something?

The two of them—how could they possibly be at the stage of meeting parents?

Suppressing the discomfort growing inside him, Mi Zhao struggled to find the right words. “Actually, we…”

But as the words reached his lips, he suddenly couldn’t say them.

Li Sipei looked at him quietly.

“We…”

Just as he was about to speak again, a black car approached and slowly came to a stop beside them.

The driver’s door opened, and Li Zhixuan stepped out, walking over to Li Sipei. “Mr. Li, the purchase has been completed. Their people will arrange for it to be delivered to your home.”

Hearing this, Mi Zhao asked curiously, “What did you buy?”

Li Zhixuan glanced at Mi Zhao’s face, which looked even paler under the glow of the streetlamp. Remembering Li Sipei’s earlier instructions, he simply said, “Just something.”

Mi Zhao: “…”

What kind of useless answer was that?

After helping Li Sipei into the car, Li Zhixuan got into the driver’s seat while Mi Zhao sat in the back with him. With a third person present, their earlier conversation naturally came to a halt.

Bored, Mi Zhao scrolled through his phone.

Yan Qinting had sent him a WeChat message.

[Yan Qinting: The rumors are getting out of control. Aren’t you going to clarify?]

[mrz: Clarify what?]

[Yan Qinting: Check the group chat yourself.]

The club group chat was always flooded with messages. It took Mi Zhao a while to scroll up and find what Yan Qinting was referring to.

It was a conversation from that morning.

[Lu Yan: @everyone- Xie Yu – Wen Ting Did you guys really see Senior’s partner? What do they look like? Pretty?]

[He Zi’an: Senior, you’re being too secretive! Bringing your partner but not letting us see? No wonder you keep skipping group dinners—you’re too busy doting on them!]

[- Ming Man: @president – Lu Jie We’re having a group dinner after the event, right? Let’s have Senior bring his partner along. Everyone wants to meet them.]

[- Chen Jun: Yeah, satisfy our curiosity, please!]

A few more pages down, Xie Yu, who had been @’d, finally responded.

[ – Xie Yu: Oh, come on, stop making a fuss. Senior’s partner isn’t even from our school—what’s there to see?]

Xie Yu had been one of the girls with Li Sipei that night. Since she had said this, it pretty much confirmed that Mi Zhao had a partner.

The rest of the messages were all about encouraging the president and vice president to push Mi Zhao into bringing his “partner” to the gathering. But surprisingly, no one dared to @ him directly.

Exiting the group chat, Mi Zhao scrolled down and found a private message from the vice president.

[Vice president: Sorry, I swear I didn’t tell anyone, but things just escalated on their own.]

[Vice president: (Crying cat meme)]

Mi Zhao replied—

[mrz: It’s fine. Don’t blame yourself. This doesn’t affect my life.]

The vice president was online and responded instantly.

[Vice president: There’s something you should know. I don’t know who started it, but people are spreading some nasty rumors about you and your partner.]

Mi Zhao raised an eyebrow, already having a guess in mind.

[mrz: What are they saying?]

It seemed the vice president hesitated for a while, typing and deleting for over a minute before finally sending a message.

[Vice president: They’re saying your partner is living off you, that you’re his “Sponsor.”]

[Vice president: They’re saying you got scammed.]

[Vice president: They heard you’ve been doing part-time jobs since the semester started and even took on extra work from your professors. Now, they’re claiming you’re working yourself to death just to financially support that person.]

Reading further, a cold expression settled on Mi Zhao’s face.

If the initial rumors about him having a partner had been spread unintentionally by those girls, then these exaggerated, malicious twists were clearly the work of someone with an agenda.

As for that certain “someone”—

A vague suspicion formed in Mi Zhao’s mind.

Just then, a slightly cool hand landed on the back of his hand. He froze for a moment and looked up, meeting Li Sipei’s gaze.

Although Li Sipei was curious about who Mi Zhao was chatting with, he wasn’t in the habit of peeking at others’ phone screens. Instead, he simply observed the changes in Mi Zhao’s expression.

“What’s wrong?” Li Sipei asked. “You don’t look too good.”

Snapping out of his thoughts, Mi Zhao let out an absent-minded “Oh,” wiped his face with one hand, turned off his phone, and forced a smile. “Nothing, just club stuff.”

“Big deal or small deal?”

“Personal matters.” Mi Zhao blinked, his tone light. “Someone spread the news that I’m in a relationship, giving the people who don’t like me an opportunity to talk. They’ve been saying some unpleasant things.”

Li Sipei stared at him intently. “What kind of things?”

Instead of answering, Mi Zhao flipped his hand over and intertwined his fingers with Li Sipei’s, palm to palm.

His warmth steadily transferred through their touching skin. Feeling Li Sipei tense up, he smiled like a mischievous cat and silently leaned in closer.

The car’s interior was dim, the windows sealed tight. Only a fraction of the streetlights’ glow filtered in, flickering over them intermittently. In this shifting interplay of light and shadow, even the air seemed to grow thick and sticky.

With a firm grip, Mi Zhao turned Li Sipei’s hand over, locking their palms together. Then, as if teasing him, he exhaled lightly against his jaw.

“Are you comforting me?”

Li Sipei’s body slowly leaned back, but he couldn’t escape Mi Zhao’s persistent advances.

Something intangible spread within the car, thick and lingering.

“Try a different way to comfort me,” Mi Zhao suggested, his eyes narrowing in a lazy, feline-like smile. “I prefer actions over words.”

His voice was soft, barely above a whisper, his lips practically brushing against Li Sipei’s ear to avoid being overheard by Li Zhixuan, who was driving.

Li Sipei’s breathing hitched, his lips pressing into a tight line. The hand held by Mi Zhao twitched slightly in resistance.

Mi Zhao knew how prideful Li Sipei was—expecting him to do anything in the car would surely earn him a scolding later. But still, he couldn’t help teasing him.

Just as he braced himself for rejection, Li Sipei’s eyelashes quivered. Then, in a deliberately subdued voice, he murmured, “Okay.”

The single syllable trembled, revealing just how tense he was.

Yet that one word sent a rush of heat through Mi Zhao’s entire body. His ears buzzed, his mind blanked for several seconds.

He felt like he was about to lose control.

His heartbeat pounded wildly, threatening to leap from his throat.

The grip on Li Sipei’s hand tightened abruptly. A slightly brighter beam of light swept through the window, illuminating a pair of deep amber eyes. Perhaps due to the angle, a faint mist seemed to cloud them.

Mi Zhao noticed the flush at the corners of Li Sipei’s eyes—it looked as if he had been bullied too much.

The partition between the front and back seats slowly rose. Li Sipei’s face inched closer.

Until their lips met.

The warm, soft sensation made Mi Zhao realize—

He was being kissed. By Li Sipei.

In the entire month since they’d met, this was the first time Li Sipei had kissed him of his own accord!

Happiness hit him so suddenly that he instinctively cupped the side of Li Sipei’s face, deepening the kiss. They kissed until they were both breathless, until he had to pull back slightly, gasping for air.

Li Sipei’s gaze was a little hazy, his thin lips slightly parted. A thin layer of saliva shimmered under the light.

With his thumb, Mi Zhao wiped it away before pressing a kiss to Li Sipei’s chin, trailing lower to his neck.

As their breathing grew heavier, his lips moved further down. His free hand, as if acting on instinct, tugged at the fabric of Li Sipei’s shirt, fingers wandering toward the center—

Just as he was about to touch, Li Sipei suddenly grabbed his hand.

“Hmm?”

“Not today.”

“Why?” Mi Zhao asked in surprise. The mood was perfect—how could they stop now?

Lowering his gaze, Li Sipei didn’t answer. For some reason, he suddenly got annoyed. He leaned in and bit down hard on Mi Zhao’s lower lip.

“Hiss—” Mi Zhao sucked in a sharp breath, eyes watering from the pain.

Realizing he’d been too rough, Li Sipei switched from biting to gently sucking, his tongue flicking over the spot he’d just bitten.

Mi Zhao slapped his arm. “What are you doing?!”

Ignoring him, Li Sipei lightly kissed him again, his tongue brushing out before retreating, subtly guiding Mi Zhao to take back control.

Over half an hour later, the car pulled up outside Mi Zhao’s apartment complex.

After getting out, Mi Zhao watched as the car carrying Li Sipei drove away, disappearing into the night.

He touched the tip of his nose.

He’s mad again.

But why?

Wasn’t Li Sipei the one who kissed him first? He hadn’t even done anything after that—just asked why.

Was he not even allowed to ask why?!