Toon Chapter 34
byExtra Chapter 4: City Trip Part 2
Liansheng had originally planned to watch TV until Zhou Lingchun returned.
He hadn’t expected the drama to be so captivating, so interesting. As the actors performed within the small square frame, Liansheng became completely engrossed, failing to even hear the knock at the door when dinner was delivered.
It took several knocks before he finally reacted, rushing to open the door and accept the evening meal.
Zhou Lingchun had ordered him a serving of wontons. Liansheng sat on the edge of the bed, hunched over the container of wontons, his eyes glued to the protagonists on the screen.
The drama was called “Spring’s Little Grass.” It told the story of a boy named Little Grass who was abducted by human traffickers at a young age. He suffered hunger and cold, forced to beg on the streets. All the money he collected was stolen by his adoptive father. If he failed to act pitifully enough one day and didn’t earn enough sympathy money, he would be beaten and denied food upon returning home.
As Little Grass cried pitifully, Liansheng also began to weep, feeling as if he truly were Little Grass.
When Little Grass grew a little older, he planned to secretly return to find his parents. He chose a dark, windy night to sneak away. The traffickers soon discovered his absence and immediately went after him.
Just as the trafficker caught up to Little Grass and was about to grab him—Liansheng’s heart leaped into his throat—the TV screen suddenly went black.
Liansheng jumped up in a panic, fiddling with the TV and trying to change the channel, but nothing worked. He tried another method: turning the power switch off and then back on, but it still didn’t work.
Finally, he patted the screen, sat on the floor, and pressed the remote control repeatedly in vain. He accepted the fact that the television was truly broken.
Liansheng was devastated.
He knew Zhou Lingchun didn’t want him to go downstairs alone, but he was a grown man; going down for a moment wouldn’t hurt. He went down to the front desk to ask for help with the repair, but the desk was empty. The person wasn’t there. It was only eight o’clock, and he guessed the receptionist had gone out to eat.
But the TV still wasn’t fixed. Liansheng stood by the front desk, intending to wait for the receptionist to return. He didn’t want to sleep at all right now; he only wanted to watch Little Grass.
When he came down, he was only focused on finding someone to fix the TV and forgot to put on a jacket. He was only wearing a long-sleeved shirt, and the wind blowing in from the doorway was chilly. Liansheng hugged his arms, hoping the receptionist would return soon.
His pitiful yet beautiful appearance was too eye-catching. Before the receptionist returned, a kind gentleman approached him.
The stranger was well-dressed. He looked Liansheng up and down, and his heart stirred. He walked closer and politely asked, “Excuse me… Miss? Have you run into some trouble?”
Liansheng didn’t mind the way the man addressed him. He answered honestly, “The TV in my room is broken. I’m waiting for someone to fix it.”
“Why don’t I go up and take a look for you?” the man offered.
Liansheng hesitated, unsure how long he would have to wait here. He nodded slightly.
After going upstairs, the stranger couldn’t find the problem either. Seeing that he couldn’t fix it, Liansheng decided to drop the matter, saying, “Never mind, forget it.” He sat on the edge of the bed and twisted open a bottle of water for the man. However, the man didn’t leave. He sat a short distance from Liansheng and began trying to strike up a conversation.
Through scattered chatting, the two introduced themselves. Liansheng accepted the business card the man handed him and learned the man’s name was Cheng Shu, a clothing designer.
“Are you saying I’m suitable to be a model?” Liansheng asked. “But I’ve never done it before, and I don’t know how to walk the runway.”
“Hmm… experience isn’t necessarily required,” Cheng Shu said. “With your looks, simply standing there might be the perfect complement to the clothes. We would take photos of you, and the compensation you receive would not be small.”
Liansheng was tempted by the mention of compensation. After thinking for a moment, he asked, “Since you’re a designer, your clothes must not be ordinary. Why are you looking for me? Perhaps professionals would be better.”
“No, you… you look different from them,” Cheng Shu tried to explain. “You possess a unique aura.”
An aura that made people unable to forget him after one glance, as if he had stepped out of a wealthy villa, untouched by the world.
Even though Liansheng’s voice wasn’t as soft as a woman’s, and his appearance wasn’t entirely feminine, Cheng Shu didn’t overthink it. Liansheng never explained himself, and Cheng Shu simply needed a suitable model. Cheng Shu laid out the condition: “However, some of my clothes can be quite… revealing. Would you be able to accept that?”
Cheng Shu took out a somewhat revealing photograph from his bag and showed it to Liansheng.
Liansheng took one look, his eyes widening. “Forget it, forget it. I don’t think I can do that.”
Whether he could or not was one thing, but if Zhou Lingchun saw that, he would surely be consumed by jealousy.
But Cheng Shu wasn’t giving up. He had encountered many people who were initially resistant. He changed his approach, appealing to Liansheng’s interest: “My room is right by the staircase. If you want to watch TV, you can come watch it in my room. I also brought some clothes with me to Xianghua City today. If you like them, I can give them to you. Wearing them would certainly be worthwhile.”
Liansheng’s eyes lit up at the mention of watching TV. He looked Cheng Shu up and down again. Cheng Shu was wearing expensive clothes and looked decent. He readily agreed, but then hesitated. “But… my companion hasn’t returned yet.”
“…It’s fine. My room is by the staircase. You can leave the door ajar and return when you see him come back.” Cheng Shu was pulling out all the stops, desperate to get closer to Liansheng and make him consider his offer.
Liansheng, the TV fanatic, happily followed him.
But heartbreakingly, only two episodes of Little Grass aired every night! By the time Liansheng tuned to that channel, other late-night news programs were playing. Cheng Shu panicked, afraid Liansheng would leave. He took out the clothes hanging in his closet, about to introduce them, but Liansheng had already switched the channel to watch another drama.
Cheng Shu silently hung the clothes back up and sat by the window, sketching designs while watching Liansheng.
His gaze slid from the slender eyelashes down to the upturned nose.
Not long after, the drama ended. Liansheng switched the channel again, landing on a fashion runway show.
“Look at this person, the clothes he’s wearing,” Cheng Shu pointed to the model staring expressionlessly at the camera. “He’s wearing clothes designed by a friend of mine. Doesn’t it add a certain flair to the person?”
Liansheng nodded, thinking the model was quite handsome, but still not as handsome as Zhou Lingchun.
He sincerely complimented, “I think your designs must be excellent too.”
Cheng Shu was excited. He wanted to show Liansheng his rough drafts, but Liansheng wanted to watch Little Grass and switched the channel again. Cheng Shu had no choice but to give up, deciding to finish the sketches completely before showing them to him. By then, Liansheng might be even more tempted.
Liansheng was multitasking, keeping an ear out for any movement in the stairwell, waiting for Zhou Lingchun to return.
Soon after, Cheng Shu suddenly received a phone call. A friend invited him out. He looked at Liansheng, who was engrossed in another drama, and told him he had to leave for a while. Liansheng could stay there and watch TV until his companion returned, and he reminded Liansheng to be careful.
As he walked out, he saw the wide-open door and Liansheng’s face, slightly pale in the TV light. He gently closed the door a little before confidently leaving.
When Liansheng finally snapped out of his trance and looked at the clock, he gasped. It was past eleven! He hurriedly turned off the TV and went out, hearing Zhou Lingchun’s voice downstairs.
Zhou Lingchun was at the front desk, asking if anyone had seen a person fitting a certain description, using his hands to gesture and meticulously describing Liansheng’s appearance.
Liansheng stood at the top of the stairs and called out, “Zhou Lingchun! I’m here!”
Zhou Lingchun quickly came up, his face grim, and carried the errant Liansheng back to the room like a chick.
“Wuu… don’t be mad. I didn’t mean to. I was planning to see you as soon as you got back,” Liansheng coaxed, sitting on Zhou Lingchun’s lap and kissing the man’s chin.
“Do you know how dangerous that was?” Zhou Lingchun pinched Liansheng’s chin, refusing to be placated. “Are you a three-year-old child?”
Liansheng lowered his eyelashes pitifully. “I thought about it for a long time. I didn’t think he looked like a bad person, and he left halfway through and didn’t bother me.” He pulled a business card from his pocket. “Look, he actually wanted to talk business with me, but I figured you wouldn’t agree to this kind of work.”
Liansheng explained, “Sometimes I might have to wear very revealing clothes in front of the camera. I knew you definitely wouldn’t agree.”
“Don’t even think about it.” Zhou Lingchun grabbed Liansheng’s wrist and bit him on the neck. The fact that Liansheng would follow a man he had just met without any caution, simply to watch TV, made him feel both angry and jealous. Moreover, Liansheng still kept the man’s business card. He said in a deep voice, “Didn’t I tell you not to wander off? What if he was a bad person in disguise? Is TV really that good?”
Liansheng whined and twisted Zhou Lingchun’s arm. He always pinched Zhou Lingchun, whether he was happy or upset. Zhou Lingchun’s muscles felt like a toy in his hands. How could Zhou Lingchun know that the signal was poor at home, often unable to pick up channels, and what he saw in the city was different from what he saw at home?
Liansheng blinked his eyes, shedding crocodile tears. “I’m scared thinking about it now, too. All you do is scold me; you don’t even comfort me.”
Zhou Lingchun always hated seeing Liansheng cry, yet Liansheng’s tears flowed most frequently in front of him. It was hard to tell which were real and which were fake, but few were born of genuine sadness; they were almost all spoiled demands.
Seeing his pitiful expression, Zhou Lingchun felt his tone had been too harsh.
“Don’t cry,” the man said.
Seeing Zhou Lingchun’s softened expression, Liansheng quickly turned the tables. “Besides, you said you’d only be gone for two or three hours, but you were gone for so long. If you had come back earlier to fix the TV for me, maybe I wouldn’t have made a mistake.”
“…”
“You have the nerve to be jealous, and I’m not even angry. I even apologized to you.”
Zhou Lingchun was speechless.
However, his actions that night were much rougher than usual. Liansheng was positioned with his legs spread wide by Zhou Lingchun, crying out as the man’s hardness moved in and out of him. He felt like he was being screwed to death.
The man lifted Liansheng’s waist and flipped him over, covering Liansheng’s uncontrollably loud mouth, feeling like everyone nearby could hear them.
The shaft entered from behind again. The tight, tender flesh wrapped around the man’s length. The man exhaled and asked Liansheng if he would dare to wander off alone again next time.
Liansheng made muffled sounds, twisting his hips, trying to escape. This was the first time he had seen Zhou Lingchun so petty, holding onto such a small matter. He knew he was usually pampered by Zhou Lingchun; he shouldn’t be treated so roughly.
Liansheng wanted to say: I won’t dare, I won’t dare, please stop. But with his mouth covered, he couldn’t speak a word. The thick, long shaft was fully buried in the narrow feminine passage, stretching it to its maximum capacity. The thrusting continued even after Liansheng trembled and spurted, leaving him unable to move his tongue, drooling all over the man’s hand.
It was clear he had truly displeased Zhou Lingchun.
After three or four consecutive rounds, Liansheng’s belly was distended into an arc. He lay on the bed like a little frog. Seeing that Zhou Lingchun intended to continue, he quickly begged for mercy. “I truly know I was wrong, Husband.” He pulled the man’s hand onto his stomach. “It hurts here, it’s so full… Don’t you love me anymore?”
The rough, large hand pressed and rubbed Liansheng’s abdomen. Zhou Lingchun looked at Liansheng’s normally pale skin, now flushed with heat, his eyelashes clumped together with moisture. He felt that this person was never loved enough, and it would be best if he could take him everywhere he went. He had only been gone for a short while, and already someone had been drawn to Liansheng’s looks.
In the bathroom, Zhou Lingchun helped Liansheng clean up. Seeing Liansheng’s pitiful expression, full of suppressed anger, he couldn’t resist lifting Liansheng’s legs onto his shoulders and licking the clean, tender red passage. Liansheng’s eyes turned red from the licking, and he cried and screamed, gripping the man’s hair.
It wasn’t until dawn that Liansheng finally hit the pillow and fell asleep almost instantly.
When he woke up that afternoon, Liansheng threw a tantrum, biting and scratching Zhou Lingchun, complaining that he was too weak to get out of bed and couldn’t go out to play. However, Zhou Lingchun had someone fix the TV for him, so Liansheng obediently leaned against the pillows, watching Little Grass while enjoying Zhou Lingchun’s massage. Occasionally, when he was happy, he would eat some fruit and share a kiss, living more comfortably than an emperor.
Soon, Liansheng was no longer angry and forgot all about the previous night’s events. That evening, Zhou Lingchun took him out again and bought him many things, including a necklace that cost a thousand yuan.
A thousand yuan was not a small amount back then, nearly several months’ income for some people.
Liansheng stood motionless, his eyes reflecting the soft light. After Zhou Lingchun fastened it around his neck, he looked down at the beautiful pendant, hesitantly pinching the charm. “Maybe we should return it.”
He still wore the Fish-Startle Stone Zhou Lingchun had polished for him on his wrist, along with the bracelet his grandmother had given him, and he rarely had nightmares anymore.
“You don’t like it?”
“I like it…” The silver chain shimmered delicately on Liansheng’s neck. He whispered, “But it’s too expensive. Aren’t we here for business… What if we spend all the money and can’t go home?”
He hadn’t realized that his man was becoming increasingly capable. The contract they were about to sign, if successful, could ensure he lived comfortably for the rest of his life.
And a few years later, he would transform into a famous designer’s model, though, because he had a powerful backer, the clothes he wore had to be screened layer by layer.
Zhou Lingchun tucked the sparkling pendant inside Liansheng’s shirt. “As long as you like it, there’s no need to return it. We have enough money.”
“Zhou Lingchun, you’re so good.” Liansheng smiled, his eyes crinkling. He took the pendant out and wore it outside his shirt, saying it looked better that way, which Zhou Lingchun didn’t understand.
The pendant shimmered softly under the night lights. He happily and contentedly held the man’s hand and continued following him to the lantern festival.
——————–
I was originally going to post this during the day, but! I slept all day today!
Thank you for your companionship.