In his teenage years, Ji Yushi never imagined he would have a day where he experienced intimacy with someone else.

Even though he knew his sexual orientation and had no particular issues with it, after visiting a gay bar and researching how same-sex relationships worked, he didn’t think such a thing would ever happen for him. He couldn’t imagine what his other half would be like or how he would accept another person merging so seamlessly with him, sharing everything.

As a result, he always handled his needs by himself.

Heat, sweat.

The chirping of cicadas on a summer night.

The room was very quiet, with only a nightlight on.

The bed sheets were trimmed with deep blue edges, and the moonlight filtered through the wooden blinds, casting mottled shadows on the sweat-drenched, pale back.

The mattress was so soft it almost seemed to sink.

Ji Yushi was buried in the fluffy blankets, face down, forced to arch his back. He saw the pillow that had just fallen onto the carpet.

When the sensations built up, they were overwhelming. His fingers unconsciously gripped the only remaining pillow on the bed tightly, while another larger hand gripped his, the veins on the back of his hand bulging from the force.

“Don’t bite the sheets.”

Song Qinglan was pressed against his back, and the light filtering through the blinds moved onto Song Qinglan’s tanned body, where sweat gave his broad shoulders a honey-like glow.

Ji Yushi: “…”

Song Qinglan’s fingers slipped into Ji Yushi’s mouth, saving the poor, dampened sheets. He gently stroked Ji Yushi’s teeth, then caressed his lips.

“Don’t want to hear yourself?”

Ji Yushi closed his eyes, unwilling to answer, unconsciously biting his lip again.

Unlike ordinary people, he could remember all useful information and also recall every embarrassing event from childhood to now without choice. Those memories would resurface unexpectedly, making him uncomfortable. How could he allow himself to add more fodder to such memories?

“What should I do? I want to hear,” Song Qinglan chuckled mischievously. “Han Han… Let me hear you.”

Ji Yushi was hot and uncomfortable.

Already struggling to endure this torment, he wanted to crawl away, but Song Qinglan was too heavy, and Ji Yushi’s limbs were too weak to go anywhere.

“How about it?”

“I’ll let you hear mine, too.”

“Hmm…”

That deep male voice shot straight through Ji Yushi’s eardrums, piercing into the depths of his mind.

Suddenly, Ji Yushi involuntarily arched his neck, his body trembling for a long time after a brief moment of daze. When he finally turned his head, his eyes were brimming with tears.

Song Qinglan was taken aback—he had actually made Ji Yushi cry.

Then, a pillow was thrown right into Song Qinglan’s face, momentarily blinding him and almost suffocating him.

Ji Yushi’s voice was hoarse from being suppressed for so long: “Enough!”

But it wasn’t enough.

Song Qinglan, unashamed and unperturbed, had even thicker skin on the bed than off it.

He flipped Ji Yushi over and leaned down to kiss him, taking advantage of the moment to continue his just-begun conquest.

They hid under the blanket, not letting the moonlight peek in.

Ji Yushi wrapped his arms around Song Qinglan’s neck again, sinking deeper into the sea.

That night, Ji Yushi didn’t dream.

He fell into a deep sleep, much like when he had returned to the third command center of Sky Vault. His body was too exhausted to wake up. But unlike that time, he was lying in Song Qinglan’s arms, completely oblivious, and slept soundly until the next nightfall.

This was the first time Ji Yushi had experienced what it meant to oversleep.

He sat up in bed, his head a bit groggy, barely recalling that after everything last night, Song Qinglan had taken him to shower. After hastily cleaning up, he had collapsed onto the sofa and fallen asleep.

Now, he was in bed, the sheets beneath him clean and dry. Song Qinglan must have had the household robot change the sheets after the shower and then carried him back to bed.

Ji Yushi suddenly realized that this feeling was called being pampered.

After everything that had happened, his body felt a bit different.

Especially in a certain area, which made getting out of bed feel very unnatural.

But once he got up, he realized that wasn’t the worst of it. His legs and waist felt like they’d been pricked by needles, sending sharp, aching pain through his body, making it almost impossible to walk.

Ji Yushi stood still for a moment, waiting for his body to adjust before slowly making his way out of the bedroom.

Song Qinglan wasn’t in the living room.

Ji Yushi then headed to the kitchen, where he found a glass on the island and poured himself some water, downing most of it in one gulp.

The household robot followed him, trying to help him from the moment he started pouring water.

When Ji Yushi finished drinking, it attempted to take the glass from him to wash it, but Ji Yushi skillfully turned on the faucet and quickly cleaned the glass himself, placing it back in its place.

After Ji Yushi walked away, the household robot tilted its head slightly as it watched his back.

Although the soreness in his body hadn’t entirely disappeared after doing all that, it was much better.

Having practiced martial arts as a child, Ji Yushi frequently injured himself, so he had a particularly strong ability to recover after intense physical activity. As a fellow man, he saw no need to stay in bed and wait for Song Qinglan to take care of him. Besides—

He heard voices coming from the living room.

Song Qinglan was on the phone.

“Maybe next time,” he said in a gentle tone. “I’m tied up here.”

Ji Yushi stood by the door, leaning against the doorframe as he watched Song Qinglan’s back.

Song Qinglan hadn’t put on a shirt, sitting on the single-seater sofa with his bare back facing the door.

There were many marks on his evenly-toned muscles, some faintly bruised—if Ji Yushi had longer nails, Song Qinglan’s back might have been scratched bloody. In addition to those, Song Qinglan also had several kiss marks on his shoulders, which were within Ji Yushi’s reach, but one of those kiss marks bore a noticeable bite mark.

Ji Yushi discovered he had quite the talent for biting.

The harder he bit, the more intense Song Qinglan became.

So, in last night’s blissful experience, Ji Yushi could claim his fair share of credit.

This realization made his cheeks flush.

He was about to walk away when he heard Song Qinglan continue: “Yeah, I wasn’t trying to hide it from you. We haven’t been together for long.”

Ji Yushi abandoned the idea of leaving, choosing to stand there openly and listen to Song Qinglan’s conversation.

“He’s with Sky Vault,” Song Qinglan seemed to be answering some elder’s questions. “But he’s not just a colleague; we knew each other as kids.”

“He’s from Ningcheng.”

“…Ning University’s affiliated kindergarten, we were in the same class.”

“I’m not sure if you’ve seen him; you didn’t come to pick me up very often back then.”

“Yes, he’s a few months younger than me, very smart, has several degrees.”

“There’s no need to buy those things.” Song Qinglan chuckled, “He wouldn’t use them.”

“He’s a man.”

Ji Yushi’s expression changed slightly. He knew Song Qinglan would eventually tell his family, but he didn’t expect it to be so soon. After all, no matter what they had been through, to the average person, they had only known each other for a month.

Changing someone’s sexual orientation within a month and reaching a point where they would give everything without reservation was hard to believe.

Even he and Ji Minyue had tacitly agreed not to tell Professor Ji, knowing that with Song Qinglan’s public coming out, the news would soon reach Minister Lin and then trickle down to Professor Ji.

Sure enough, after Song Qinglan said that, there was a silence for several seconds.

Ji Yushi couldn’t see Song Qinglan’s face and had no idea what was being said on the other end of the line.

He had been leaning against the doorframe but unconsciously stood up straight.

“Okay.” Song Qinglan finally spoke, his tone still relaxed. “We’ll arrange for you to meet when there’s a chance.”

Song Qinglan hung up and stood, walking directly toward Ji Yushi as if he weren’t surprised to see him there.

As he got closer, he bent down and kissed Ji Yushi on the lips: “Walking like a cat, not making a sound?”

Ji Yushi asked, “Who was that on the phone?”

Song Qinglan replied, “My mom.”

Song Qinglan rarely mentioned his family, and Ji Yushi only knew that he was from a single-parent household and had attended kindergarten in Ningcheng because his parents had fought for custody after their divorce. He suddenly realized he didn’t know much about Song Qinglan, because Song Qinglan’s strong mental resilience and optimistic, straightforward attitude made it hard to associate him with anything negative.

Even in the bubble world, Song Qinglan didn’t have any particular regrets, and his life had changed very little. It seemed like he never hesitated about certain choices and lived a carefree and straightforward life.

“She works out of town, and since she was passing through Jiangcheng while I’m on vacation, she wanted to meet up,” Song Qinglan explained. “She figured out I’m seeing someone pretty quickly. How is women’s intuition so terrifying?”

Ji Yushi: “…”

Song Qinglan: “Good thing I came out quickly.”

But Ji Yushi was only concerned about one thing: “What did she say?”

Song Qinglan knew what Ji Yushi was really asking about—the issue of gender.

Knowing Ji Yushi would be nervous, he didn’t beat around the bush: “My mom is an educated woman with a high degree of acceptance. She wants to meet you. She was only upset because she originally picked out a necklace to give you, but now that she knows you won’t wear it, she’s a little disappointed.”

Ji Yushi also had his way with middle-aged women.

His foster mother, Aunt Su, was a university professor before she retired, and Ji Yushi had spent plenty of time charming her.

“We’ll buy her a gift,” Ji Yushi suggested. “Is that okay?”

This Ji Yushi was more grounded in reality.

Song Qinglan liked that.

He nodded and pulled Ji Yushi into his arms, just as he was about to say something sentimental, only to hear Ji Yushi say, “I’m so hungry.”

Song Qinglan: “…”

Ji Yushi: “What do you have to eat?”

Even after eating all that hot pot, after a night of exercise and a full day of sleep, even an iron man would be starving.

Ji Yushi urgently needed to refuel.

Song Qinglan had already prepared some food, so he wouldn’t let Ji Yushi go hungry.

But he had more to say: “It’s your home too.”

Ji Yushi: “?”

Song Qinglan continued: “Three rooms, one living room. The room on the left can be your study, the one in the middle for the cat, and the one on the right stays our bedroom. The balcony is large enough for the plants you like, and we can install a cat tree there. We’ll eat at home, so we can switch to a bigger table, and when the team comes over, we can have meals together.”

Ji Yushi stopped.

Song Qinglan’s words stirred a strange feeling in his heart.

Were they planning their future together?

“What’s wrong?” Song Qinglan released him, bending down to ask, “Getting cold feet?”

Ji Yushi: “Hold on—”

Song Qinglan pointed to the bite mark on his shoulder, speaking as naturally as if it were nothing: “After sleeping with me, you want to back out? Didn’t we agree you’d stay in Jiangcheng and become an official team member?”

Ji Yushi wasn’t trying to back out: “When did I ever—”

“Okay, okay.” Song Qinglan said, “Anyway, as long as you’re under my watch, you won’t be able to run away.”

He ushered Ji Yushi back to the dining room.

Song Qinglan produced a variety of light dishes like magic and even sat down to debone fish for him.

Ji Yushi was halfway through his meal when he suddenly remembered something.

He thought for a moment and then said seriously, “We can’t install the cat tree on the balcony. It’s too dangerous; we should put it in the cat’s room.”