Chapter 10: Burning
The night was already very deep. The fog was so thick it couldn’t be wiped away. The heavy clouds that had been gloomy for several days finally dispersed in the night. The cool moonlight broke through the mist, casting a cold and desolate light.
His bare back was exposed to the air, as if it had been coated with a layer of silver wax. The trickling water slid down the protruding vertebrae of his slender waist and back, as smooth as cream.
“I’ll do it myself. You get out…”
Su Yu lowered his head, his knees curled up to his chest. His whole body was sitting in the bathtub. His earlobes were burning red. The ends of his dark hair were soaked with water, making them curled and soft. The water droplets, carrying his body temperature, slid down the curve of his hair, leaving a watery trail on his neck, and falling into the hollow of his collarbone.
His voice trembled, hoarse and blurry with shame. He didn’t even care about the girl’s moody temper. The words that came out of his mouth were filled with a deep malice. “You’re such a shameless woman… I really underestimated you. Get out.”
“Who… who cares to look at you? Have you forgotten how you’ve been going to the bathroom these past few days? I’ve already seen everything. Why are you still pretending to be so noble? Besides… with your current body, can you even hold the shower head? How can you wash yourself alone?”
“Then… you can’t…” Su Yu was speechless for a moment. He blushed and retorted, “Isn’t it enough to just wipe your body like before? Why go to all this trouble?”
“That won’t do. I like you, but I don’t want to do… that kind of thing with a dirty person.” She paused for a few seconds, not wanting to lose her momentum. She pretended to be very knowledgeable and continued to stammer, “Do that kind of thing. I find you dirty.”
“You can’t say three sentences without mentioning those things. Is your mind only filled with such things? Disgusting.”
“Then… what are you covering? Aren’t you also thinking about those dirty things? Otherwise, how could you not help but…”
A moment of silence. Su Yu’s clear and moist voice was mixed with a hoarse sound that he was trying his best to suppress. The girl’s words had hit the nail on the head of his current predicament. His desire had not diminished. Instead, it had become even more fiery with the rising shame.
“You! You’re unreasonable.”
“What you? We’re all the same. Stop pretending to be so noble.” Su Xi was a little aggrieved by the boy’s scolding. She had clearly just wanted to wash the boy clean. She had no other thoughts. How could he scold her like this? But she was in a good mood. Otherwise, she would have definitely made this reckless guy suffer. “How can you say that to a girl? Forget it… I’m in a good mood. I won’t argue with you.”
The towel in her hand was rubbing the boy’s back seriously. His fair skin was flushed red, a little dazzling. The feeling of being in such close contact with the boy made her feel very satisfied. The warmth of the other party’s body was transmitted through her fingertips, as if she had been electrocuted, and there was even a hint of excitement.
She shifted her attention to the dark mark on the boy’s left shoulder blade, a maple-leaf-shaped burn. It was the thing she had been searching for for more than a decade, and now the owner of the mark was right in front of her.
She couldn’t help but reach out and touch it. Along the slight protrusion of his left shoulder blade, her moist fingertips gently traced the outline of the dark mark. A maple leaf, half the size of her palm, yet she traced it for a long time.
“What are you doing?”
Su Yu couldn’t suppress the itch in his throat and let out a low gasp. The girl’s slender fingers were on his back, which had become a little sensitive after being washed, gently and softly drawing some incomprehensible lines.
The tickling sensation crawled up the blood vessels under his skin and into his heart, as if a small brush with fine hairs were caressing the tip of his heart. But he couldn’t scratch it. He almost wanted to cut open his chest to stop this intermittent itch.
“Zhiyan… don’t you think I’m very lucky?” The girl, as if she hadn’t heard his protest, continued to speak to herself.
“Just when I needed you the most, I happened to meet you. Even though we hadn’t seen each other for more than a decade, we still met here. I can always meet you when I’m at my most desperate. It’s so good. This is so good.”
“I don’t understand what you’re talking about. Zhiyan, despair, I don’t understand any of it. Including your pain… how can I, someone who has just met you, sympathize with you? You’re clearly not willing to tell me anything, just using me as a tool for catharsis.”
Su Yu deeply felt this powerless pain. He couldn’t even clench his fists to bring about a pain that would clear his mind. The girl’s seemingly unintentional caress was like a flirtation, pulling at his reason.
“You’re so selfish, Su Xi.”
“No, I’m not!” Su Xi loudly denied, biting her lip. “Zhiyan, you don’t need to understand any of this. I’m doing this for your own good. I would never share my pain with the person I love.”
“Then don’t say it. Let me get up. I’m tired… I want to go back to sleep.”
“Alright. I’ll dry you off. Otherwise, you’ll catch a cold.”
Su Xi wrung out the towel by the sink, the sound of trickling water splashing on the floor. She drained the warm water from the bathtub. The boy, with the help of the buoyancy, tried to cover himself, but some parts were exposed, a slight heat leaking into the air.
The temperature in the enclosed bathroom was faintly rising, but Su Xi, as if she hadn’t noticed, was diligently wiping the water from the boy’s body, starting from his wet hair and moving down.
Su Xi wiped the boy’s back clean, then rinsed the towel and went straight for his lower abdomen. The moment she touched him, he arched his back like a cooked shrimp.
“What are you hiding? It’s not like I haven’t seen it before. You’ll catch a cold if you sleep with a wet body…”
“N-No. It’s fine like this. Don’t touch me. I’m not afraid of catching a cold.”
“That won’t do. I’ve already said, I won’t do anything to you now. Tomorrow is my birthday…” Su Xi tilted her head and looked at him, her eyes pure and innocent. She didn’t understand what the boy was resisting. “Are you trying to catch a cold so that I won’t dare to touch you tomorrow?”
Su Yu looked up and glared at the girl, his eyes bloodshot. He really couldn’t figure out if the girl was deliberately pretending or if she really didn’t know anything. She clearly had such an obsessive desire for him, but now she was terrifyingly pure.
“In short, don’t touch me. Let me go back.” Su Yu’s tone became more and more rushed. He was afraid he wouldn’t be able to hold back his panting, so he had to speak in a hoarse voice. To the other party’s ears, it became a low, scolding roar.
“Why should I listen to you? You’re just my plaything.” Su Xi was provoked by the boy’s arrogant tone. She had clearly just been discussing with him in a soft and gentle voice… but in the end, he had to shout at her. Did he really think she was easy to bully? Su Xi pulled away the boy’s insignificant strength. “I’m not going to do as you wish today.”
Su Yu couldn’t hold it in anymore, and a hoarse and unbearable gasp escaped his lips.
It was a suppressed gasp.
Hoarse, enduring, and fragile.
The temperature in the bathroom suddenly soared, the heat burning his skin. Su Xi stared blankly for a moment, shocked, as if she had vaguely understood something. So the boy had been avoiding this all along.
Her breathing, for some reason, also became a little chaotic. The ends of her linen-colored hair were wet, and a strand fell and stuck to the corner of her mouth. She accidentally took it in, and the speed at which saliva was secreted in her mouth was frightening. As soon as the hair fell into her mouth, it was wet and sticky.
Su Xi had a bad feeling. She hadn’t planned on doing this now… she shook her head and lightly bit the tip of her tongue. The short and sharp pain made her gradually slipping reason stop.
She hadn’t thought of these things before. Now, she was a little led astray by the boy’s resistance. She suddenly remembered the documentary she had been learning from online a few days ago because she didn’t want to be embarrassed that day, but had turned off because she was too embarrassed. The scenes that should have been forgotten flashed in her mind like a movie, all of them scenes that made one blush, and she couldn’t get rid of them.
Something in her body seemed to be melting, turning into a sticky liquid, slowly enveloping her entire body, as if it were blocking all her pores, and seeping in through the most secret crevices.
Su Xi was in a daze for a moment. The towel in her hand, which was half-suspended, fell to the floor with a plop. She barely managed to come back to her senses, but she was startled by the warm, sticky mess below her. When did she…
Her cheeks flushed red, and she cursed herself in her heart. Su Xi… you’re just as shameless as the boy said. How many times have you changed your clothes these past few days? She tried her best to deny that her character was inclined towards such turbidity, but the sour and swelling feeling still made her uncomfortable. She deeply understood… that endurance was really a painful thing.
And besides, she had never been able to endure her desires for the boy, let alone… the culprit was the boy himself!
“What’s wrong?”
Su Yu noticed that Su Xi’s lowered eyebrows were a little off. She seemed to be enduring something, and a whimper was suppressed deep in her throat, seeping out a little.
“Zhiyan… I’m a little uncomfortable.”
Su Xi slowly raised her head. Her once-clear and clean eyes had instantly turned into a turbid pool of desire. She held Su Yu’s face, her voice full of a deep pleading. “Help me, okay…”
“Su Xi, you… didn’t you say you would only do it on your birthday…”
Su Yu wanted to refuse, but even his tone was so pale and weak. Who was to blame for him being the one to ignite the spark in the first place? “You can’t. You promised me. Are you going to break your promise?”
“I don’t care about those things. It’s all because of you, Zhiyan…”
The girl shook her head and leaned against his ear. The hot air rushed into his wet ear canal, as if adding a handful of firewood to the soaring desire. He was also in unbearable pain, his reason pushed to the edge of a cliff.
“And I didn’t lie to you…”
Su Xi’s eyes were upturned, full of an ambiguous and charming look. Combined with her innocent and cute girlish face, it had a strong sense of dislocation, like a flower that had been forced to grow, blooming with its youthful beauty ahead of time, which was even more alluring and sinful. Desire climbed and grew with the darkness.
“It’s already past twelve o’clock. It’s tomorrow. I didn’t lie to you. Zhiyan, I want to… open my birthday gift early. So…”
“I’m sorry. Forgive me.”
