Chapter 32
Unsurprisingly, they successfully infiltrated the Centipede Girls.
Xiang Mingqi believed the main reason wasn't the kiss, but Pei Huai himself. He possessed a strange persuasiveness, perhaps a quality bestowed by his striking appearance and unsmiling demeanor.
It's very special. Just by looking at him, a person will naturally lose the ability to refute.
You will naturally fall into the confusion of those eyes.
The bar's interior was more respectable than the clubs they'd been to before; it was a lively place. From the moment they entered, scanning beams and lasers alternated, landing on their retinas and then dimming. In the center of the dance floor, the crowd undulated, shadows interwoven into a picture on the soundtrack.
Spotlights swept across the crowd, triggering screams. As soon as he entered the noisy area, Pei Huai immediately made a gesture for action.
A community leader like Xiang Mingqi would naturally ask for details about couples' competitions and bars. He did a good job, infiltrating a small group with a few words and using a few drinks to start a conversation.
Some of them did know about the disappearance of stray cats in the area, but from indirect inquiries, it seemed that they were not aware of the connection between the cat catcher and the bar. They just whispered to each other mysteriously, saying that the bar had some interesting new arrivals.
What exactly was that thing? Several people looked at each other and smiled, but didn't say anything.
Then, we talked about the competition. A guy in a baseball cap explained that the competition changes every year, so he wasn't sure what this time was like. He could only vaguely provide the judging criteria: while the judges didn't require contestants to strip naked and have sex on the spot, it was necessary to say that these people weren't going to be swayed by just a pretty face.
"Are you sure?" When he finished the last sentence, he was greeted with a look of mixed doubt and belief from Xiang Mingqi.
"Why should I be unsure? Last year, there was this little girl with pink hair and a lovely, innocent face. But when she got on stage, the judges just sat there, jotting down a few words on paper whenever they remembered something." The boy shrugged, feeling deeply regretful. "Let me tell you, that little girl was moaning and groaning as she rode, her waist practically twisted, she was so coquettish, but the judges didn't react at all. The look in their eyes was like they were judging the freshness of pork. I almost started to wonder if impotence was airborne."
As he finished speaking, someone else joined in: "Yeah, yeah, yeah. I remember a guy who was very involved and got very low scores. Be careful if you want to compete. He had brown hair and always wore an old shirt." He pushed his hands from his chin to his ears twice. "He had a beard there. He was the judge with the most say. For years, he had no worldly desires at all."
"Uh, are you talking about that guy?" Xiang Mingqi raised his index finger and poked at the bar, a hint of uncertainty in his voice. The young people gathered in a circle, unable to conceal their surprise, looked over.
"It's him." The boy who spoke first froze, "But why would he...?"
The DJ spun the discs, pushing the melody even more intensely towards the high notes. The beat grew crowded, like a shackle, pulling the crowd apart towards the sides of the dance floor.
At this moment, the only light still lingered at the bar was a dim beam. The warm yellow outlined Pei Huai's fingers caressing the wall of the glass, his fingertips trembling and turning white—because his patience had reached its limit.
Ever since he separated from Xiang Mingqi, he'd been haunted by a brown-haired man. His outdated cropped shirt, jeans, and stubble on his chin only added to his otherwise composed image.
The other person sat down beside him and, smiling, pushed a cocktail towards him. The small pieces of mint on the ice were a refreshing green.
"Good evening, little wildcat."
Pei Huai sipped the whiskey in his glass. The skin on his wrist was so thin that the veins could be seen. He stared straight ahead at the wine cabinet, his fingers not moving.
"Don't you like talking? Or do you want something stronger?" He leaned closer without giving up, his legs moving off the kickstand. "Forgive me, I know I'm being rude. But you hardly see people like you here." He placed his hand on the back of Pei Huai's hand with ambiguity, "I'm a little... I can't help myself."
Pei Huai's eyebrows twitched, and he reminded him with his peripheral vision: "I have a boyfriend."
"Isn't it more fun to have a boyfriend?" The man chuckled softly. He leaned closer, his words tinged with desire and licking, his fingers digging into Pei Huai's. "I like your hands. They're so strong, with the tension of someone who's played the piano. You have hands like that. Can you give me a chance too?"
Pei Huai only looked at him out of the corner of his eye.
"What? Are you a wife fetishist?" A force pushed the two shoulders apart, and then a smiling face rested on Pei Huai's shoulder - the corners of the mouth were perfectly curved, the eyes were narrowed, everything was so perfect that it was creepy. "If you want to do something big, why don't you get my permission first?"
The result is not difficult to imagine: the man who came to chat up ran away in a panic, but when he brushed past Xiang Mingqi, the latter grabbed his arm and sneered.
"What the hell are you doing?" The man was furious and tried to shake off the hand that was restraining him, but he was too weak.
Xiang Mingqi didn't care about the other party's resistance. He leaned over and pressed his ear, grinning and said, "You touched my brother's hand, and you just left like that. Is that appropriate?"
"……you!"
The smile forced by his facial muscles suddenly collapsed. His gaze was cast downward, gloomy as a wolfhound whose food and owner had been snatched away. "I will remember your face, every detail of your encounter with him." He gritted his teeth fiercely, his voice low. "Right hand. First, the index finger, middle finger, and ring finger, then the palm, and finally your wrist. I know the order. So, get lost."
——He urged: "Get out, you wild dog."
Every word was pronounced with such ferocity that it sent chills down one's spine. The man cursed back as he stumbled back into the crowd.
Pei Huai didn't care about the content of their argument; the drumbeats around him were so strong that they drowned out the noise. He finished his last sip of wine without even glancing at Xiang Mingqi, who had come to sit next to him.
Having driven away a certain uncertain factor, the latter stretched happily, one arm deliberately hanging on the senior's shoulder.
"Brother, you are not trying to slack off here, even I..." and then he was brushed away.
"Ah, you hit me, you hit me and you ignored me!" Then, Xiang Mingqi's arm reached out again, unconvinced. He shook it off—came closer—and shook it off again—until Pei Huai could no longer bear it.
"Don't touch me." He stepped on me.
Xiang Mingqi finally calmed down. Before ordering drinks, he carefully examined the small badges on each other's chests: acrylic, cheaply made, but a symbol of pairing. The number 19 was engraved on the back, indicating the order of their appearance on stage.
Because they were a couple, Pei Huai couldn't refuse and could only raise his elbow to press against his chest to keep his distance.
But this made Xiang Mingqi want to get closer to him even more - and of course, he did so.
"Why, why do you always reject me? It seems that no matter how hard I try, you are not optimistic. Is it because you don't like men?" His lips were so close that he seemed to be pinching the senior's ear bone.
Xiang Mingqi waved his hand and asked the waiter at the bar for a glass of rum. He didn't drink it, but just shook the square-necked glass, enjoying the clinking of the ice cubes.
He didn't even get a glance.
As expected.
"I've observed your attitude towards other people. Whether it's our boss or Shan Li, you don't want to waste time with them. But when you faced that high school boy last time, your attitude changed."
While listening to his analysis and speculation, Pei Huai beckoned for a small cup of sake to taste.
Xiang Mingqi didn't care whether he was his audience or not: "Of course it's not just him. Remember that girl in the cat cafe? When you treat the opposite sex, or younger people of the same sex, you always have a kind of... very special concern. Brother, why? Do you like men or women?"
He was still getting closer. The distance was so close that it felt like an embrace, and the posture of the two people at this moment also looked like they were kissing.
Pei Huai put down the cup holder and pressed his thumb on the junior's lower lip to avoid further contact.
"Isn't it childish to define a person by his sexual orientation?" He said in a calm tone, without any emotion.
Xiang Mingqi never expected that he would give such an answer.
"So, brother, are you bisexual?" His Adam's apple moved up and down. "But I always feel that you are indifferent to the same sex around you. On my first day at the company, you..."
"Because I know what you want." This time, the answer was clear and firm. His cold profile was unclear under the light. "This is a rejection."
This answer made Xiang Mingqi stunned.
Pei Huai still didn't look at him, his lips moving vaguely like whispers: "My orientation has nothing to do with my attitude towards others. Xiang Mingqi, I have no intention of developing a relationship with you - any of you."
"I……"
"You want me to like you, don't you?" he asked.
How many times today had he been stunned? Xiang Mingqi didn't know, and couldn't count. He nodded subconsciously.
“…but unfortunately.”
The expected answer, the expected feeling of suffocation, he never thought that just a few light lines of words could shatter all his fantasies.
Yes, it was a fantasy. He always thought he was closest to Pei Huai, thinking this was a way to provoke and show off to his rival. But in Pei Huai's eyes, he was no different from everyone else. Xiang Mingqi felt as if a hand had gripped his heart fiercely, causing his heart to spasm with pain.
Even if Pei Huai just sat quietly, stroking the wall of the cup, he would express his inner thoughts.
——He always feels very sad.
I wanted my brother to like me, to notice me, and to care about me, even if it was just a little bit. But I couldn't even get this little bit of "like".
He thought, perhaps to Pei Huai, he was just an ordinary passerby.
But in the next second, Pei Huai pulled up his collar and brought it close to his neck, then to his ear. Xiang Mingqi could feel the warmth of his breath, so warm that it seemed to blow away his pulverized soul.
"If you don't want to give up, you might as well give it a try." He whispered in a daze, "I'll accompany you."
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