Chapter 14 They Kiss Under the Window
"Hello, I'm her boyfriend."
"……oh."
Li Ji said "oh" without any change in his expression. After a pause, he strode into the house and casually threw his bag on the sofa, as if nothing had happened.
But Sheng Zhao knew.
He usually hangs his bag neatly on a hook instead of throwing it on the sofa in anger.
Chen Shuoxing seemed puzzled by his lack of reaction. With a wave of emotion in his eyes, he tried to speak again, "Her boyfriend."
"……Then what?"
Li Ji sneered, the corners of his lips slightly raised, a hint of mockery in his eyes, and he extended his hand, "Do you want to shake hands again?"
Chen Shuoxing seemed slightly surprised by his reaction, but soon raised the corners of his lips, his expression gentle and distant, "No need to shake hands, but why aren't you surprised?"
"If you hadn't walked up to me and shook my hand out of nowhere, I might have been surprised."
His voice was the same as always, but the ending tone was slightly prolonged, with a sarcastic tone. Li Ji looked up at the two people in front of him, his lips curled up expressionlessly, "So, what are you two doing standing here? Do you still need me to cook for you and serve you a good meal?"
"……good."
Chen Shuoxing readily agreed and nodded with a gentle smile on his face. Sheng Zhao was completely stunned.
Li Ji just wanted to use rhetorical questions to mock them as he did before, and just wanted the two of them to leave quickly and not get in his way, but he didn't expect Chen Shuoxing to agree so readily.
His face darkened instantly, and his gaze shifted to Sheng Zhao, filled with some impatience and repression as if he was going to hold someone accountable.
Sheng Zhao shrugged innocently, "You promised him that, and he's not my boyfriend..." Sheng Zhao paused, thought for a moment, and added, "His brain circuits aren't normal. Since you promised to cook for him, then cook for him. Otherwise, he'll post his location on Weibo."
"And then the fans who live nearby are going to bulldoze this house. It might even be trending on the internet tomorrow—" Sheng Zhao said in a troubled tone, sighing, "What a mess."
Chen Shuoxing nodded gently in response, his features clear and he sat upright. He even took out his cell phone and shook the screen with his slender, beautiful fingertips.
Li Ji's face turned completely dark, his eyes were a little confused, and then he looked at Sheng Zhao's expression which seemed to be real. He took a deep breath, cursed, and went to the kitchen with an apron.
To be honest, Chen Shuoxing and Sheng Zhao are really similar.
He was calm and composed, but his train of thought was just as abnormal. Li Ji didn't dare to provoke him, of course not because he was afraid of his status or anything... Since Sheng Zhao had spoken, he would really reveal the location and cause a lot of trouble.
...Her father is a psychopath.
Chen Shuoxing gave Sheng Zhao a perfect smile, the upward arc, the curvature of the eyes and the tenderness revealed - so fake.
Sheng Zhao didn't bother to look, he glanced at him, picked up an apple from the table and threw it to him, "If you really do something bad and cause me trouble, I will really make you miserable."
"Yeah?"
Chen Shuoxing did not comment, but just tilted his head slightly, with the corners of his lips slightly raised.
He seemed to be in a good mood as he looked around, then made a soft comment, "Have you always lived here?"
"Did he arrange it?"
"It doesn't seem like your style—" He paused and thought for a moment before speaking, "neat but lacking in aesthetics. You're indeed a very low-quality person."
"...He will fail." Chen Shuoxing narrowed his eyes slightly, "I can be sure that he will also be a failure."
"It's not your turn to speak, shut up."
Chen Shuoxing chuckled softly, his clear temperament seemed to ripple, his eyes held a hint of mischievous interest, but his expression didn't change, and his voice was clear.
"Does he know what you're thinking? But you should know that I'm the only one who can enjoy you."
"Will he tolerate you if he knows?"
"Will he accept being a failure?"
"Will he be able to accept being abandoned in the future? ...Just like those people you abandoned before?"
"Zhao Zhao." Chen Shuoxing's face was calm, and the expression in his eyes also subsided. He just said calmly as if it was a fact, "He won't. You should know that."
"You're more ruthless than you think."
Sheng Zhao's eyes darkened. He walked closer to Chen Shuoxing, pinched his chin, and said in a light voice, "Chen Shuoxing, I have tolerated you for a long time. I just don't want to destroy you, so please don't say such weird things."
"Okay?"
Sheng Zhao suppressed his gloomy expression, smiled slightly and tilted his head, but with a hint of oppression.
It seemed as if she was just waiting for him to say "OK."
Chen Shuoxing simply raised the corners of his lips to reveal his standard smile that was as bright as white moonlight, but there was no emotion in his eyes.
He simply reached out and held Sheng Zhao's face. When she was momentarily dazed, he gently stroked the corners of her lips with his fingertips, and said softly, "What do you think?"
Sheng Zhao shrugged nonchalantly, even curling his lips as if enjoying a show. "He will replace you anyway, Chen Shuoxing, you'd better stop being so ridiculously aloof."
"Aloof?" He murmured the word in confusion, and finally smiled. It wasn't a fake smile, but a genuine emotion. He leaned closer to Sheng Zhao and whispered in a low voice, "Then I look forward to you destroying me."
"Just like you made me like this step by step, destroying me."
His voice was obviously cold, but it sounded like deep temptation and desire, and there was a hint of sweet pleasure in his eyes.
————
After Li Ji entered the kitchen, Sheng Zhao no longer wanted to talk to Chen Shuoxing and sneaked in as well. She rubbed her hair helplessly and muttered to Li Ji as if complaining.
"Why did you agree to cook for him... He's troublesome, and I was hoping you'd come back and kick him out."
She really didn't understand why Li Ji would cook for them for no reason.
But Li Ji didn't understand their train of thought at all.
"That's not right." Li Ji said expressionlessly while cutting vegetables, "Kick you out."
Sheng Zhao was chewing a piece of carrot, but when he heard his words, he was stunned for a moment and asked him softly.
"Why did you kick me out too? I didn't do anything bad or threaten you. I was just harassed by him."
Li Ji sneered, and his long, bony fingers continued to move, but veins were slightly popping out.
"How could anyone in their right mind think I agreed to cook for him? I think you two are really crazy. The more famous you become, the crazier you become? You're absolutely insane."
"After dinner, get out with him. I don't want to get involved in your entertainment circle."
His voice was low and hoarse, filled with impatience and irritability.
"What's this about being in love with the entertainment industry?" Sheng Zhao sighed and swallowed. "I have nothing to do with him. We just worked together for a while."
“Emotionally cooperative?”
Li Ji sneered. His voice was low and hoarse, and he seemed to really like using rhetorical questions to express affirmation and ridicule. "I won't care about you."
He said this without caring about you, and spoke each word clearly. The movement of his hands cutting vegetables also increased, and the chopping board made a banging sound, which sounded a bit creepy.
Seeing that Sheng Zhao didn't respond, he frowned and repeated the sentence again, this time in a lower tone.
"I won't care about you."
"Are you angry again?"
Sheng Zhao paused, lowered his head slightly, and looked up at him as he lowered his head to cut vegetables, observing his expression.
"Why are you angry?"
"Don't answer a question with a question, my dear sir." Sheng Zhao imitated the tone he used to lecture her at that time, and said this, even imitating the ups and downs of the tone.
Li Ji was so angry that he laughed.
Before he could say anything, Li Ji suddenly shuddered, then paused and reflexively took a breath, "Hiss——"
Sheng Zhao lowered his eyes and saw that his beautiful, slender hand had a small cut on the fingertip, with blood oozing out. Li Ji frowned slightly, and his fingertips were trembling.
"You cut your hand. Was it deep?"
As she asked, she hurriedly reached into her pocket and took out a tissue. Just as she was about to wrap it around Li Ji's hand, Li Ji didn't wait for her to move. He simply lowered his head, opened his mouth slightly, and held her fingertips.
His thin lips were a faint blush, stained slightly with a drop of blood, and his tongue licked the fishy-sweet taste of his fingertips.
Li Ji opened his lips with an unchanged expression, curled up the tip of his wet tongue, and frowned as he looked at his fingertips that were oozing blood.
…The cut was too deep and the bleeding couldn’t be stopped immediately.
Sheng Zhao was momentarily dazed, and now he hurriedly grabbed his hand and wrapped the wound with paper to stop the bleeding. He said in a panic, "There's so much blood, so deep, it must be very painful, right?"
Li Ji looked at her in a hurry, paused for a moment, and his expression didn't seem to care much, even glancing away nonchalantly, "It doesn't hurt."
Hearing him say this, Sheng Zhao's expression did not change, and he gently pinched his injured finger.
"hiss----"
Hearing his groans and gasps of pain, Sheng Zhao narrowed his eyes slightly and asked him, "Doesn't it really hurt?"
"...What do you care about me?" Li Ji did not comment. He was even a little angry and wanted to pull his hand back, but she held it tightly.
She lowered her head to look at the wound, mumbling something to herself. Her eyes and brows seemed somewhat gentle from this angle, making Li Ji feel a bit bewildered. "Use paper to stop the bleeding first. I'll get you some medicine later."
"……don't want."
He glanced away and refused, "It's just a minor injury... It doesn't hurt at all."
"Are you lying again?" Sheng Zhao took off the paper, watched the bleeding stop, thought for a moment, lowered his head and blew gently on his wound, "You lied to me that you weren't angry, you lied to me that it didn't hurt, you really love to lie."
Li Ji was stunned, then pursed his lips and hissed in a hoarse voice, "Whatever you think, I am a bad person."
Sheng Zhao rummaged through the small medicine box in the kitchen, pulled out some medicine and a Band-Aid, and applied the medicine to him with a cotton swab. As he did so, he asked, "What does this have to do with being bad? You always say that. Are you a really bad person in your heart?"
"Am I not a very bad person?"
Li Ji's breathing became slightly rapid, as if he was drowning in such a scene, but his voice and words were still sarcastic and interrogative. Sheng Zhao paused and stopped talking.
The iodine felt very stinging when it was used to disinfect the wound. He shuddered slightly and wanted to pull his hand back but had to endure it.
After a moment, she looked at Sheng Zhao's serious attention to the wound before she pursed her lips and spoke lightly, "No matter what kind of injury I had in the past... there was no need to treat it so seriously. Just leave it alone, it will heal eventually, so you don't have to—"
"So good to me."
His last utterance was weak, he didn't speak it out loud, but only used his mouth shape and breath to describe it. However, Sheng Zhao remained calm and just continued to treat the wound.
After listening to what he said, she still tilted her head, looked at the bandaged wound, and said in a flat tone.
"Is bandaging your wound good for you? Being good to you should mean giving you money and buying you a sports car. If a woman really wants to be good to you, she should give you lots of money, not just cheap bandaging your wound like this."
They were so close that Li Ji could even feel her breath scented with shower gel.
Sheng Zhao seemed to be teaching him how to survive in the entertainment industry, and even pinched his fingertips again as if to teach him a lesson, this time with much greater force.
But this time, Li Ji didn't groan in pain. He just looked at Sheng Zhao with complicated eyes, without saying a word. After a long while, he sneered in a hoarse voice, "...How can I not understand what you said? I understand much more than you do."
"I dropped out of school at 17 to work. I've met people who claimed to be nice to me, but whose ultimate goal was to sleep with me. I've told my friends about my pain before, and when they found out, they rushed to be my friend. No matter how sarcastic or mocking I was, after a few words of small talk, they would always ask frivolously, 'Are you still a virgin?' 'Can I keep you?' 'Want to go to a hotel tonight?' They would even call me a hypocrite, saying, 'You're flattering me by paying me this price.'"
His words were calm, and he even imitated the visitor's tone perfectly, with a sarcastic tone at the end.
"I'm not as naive as you think. Sometimes you really think too highly of me, Sheng Zhao. I've never been naive. Ever since I escaped from that home, I haven't shown my naiveté to anyone."
"Some people gave me money to buy me cars and luxury goods, but I never accepted them... I'm not as arrogant as they say, wanting to be with a richer man or be a mistress, or a lowly and noble person. I always knew what I wanted -"
His voice was hoarse, and the look in his eyes seemed complicated, with waves and tides, and the ending tone trembled slightly.
"All I want is to stop being such a jerk. I just want to live a good life."
Sheng Zhao pursed her lips and said nothing more. She just subconsciously stroked his hand with her fingertips, and the warm touch was transmitted through her hand.
...It feels weird.
Sheng Zhao now felt that Li Ji was also very pitiful, like a fierce-looking but weak-willed cat? Or a dog?
Like a cat.
It's like a cat that disguises itself by being teasing, frivolous, indifferent, and sarcastic. In fact, it is very weak and can only protect itself in this way.
So pitiful.
Sheng Zhao was slightly distracted, still thinking.
Then a teardrop "tick-tock" hit her fingertip. The wet and cold touch instantly brought her back to her senses. She looked up blankly and saw that Li Ji's expression was calm, but tears were slowly sliding down his handsome face from the corners of his eyes, and then "tick-tock" fell on her hand.
"The wound will get wet."
Sheng Zhao said this softly, raising his fingertips to wipe away his tears.
She felt that men were very fragile and troublesome, like her brother, who was so strong but would hug her legs and sob; like Chen Shuoxing, who was ordinary but would unexpectedly do crazy things; like Li Ji, who always had that nonchalant and sarcastic expression, but at this moment he pursed his lips slightly to prevent himself from crying.
Her fingertips gently rubbed the corners of his eyes, so that his eyes turned slightly red, and she couldn't tell whether it was from the friction or from tears.
Sheng Zhao was just thinking absentmindedly.
But even though their actions were extremely ambiguous, there was still a calm trance in her eyes, so much so that she didn't even notice when Li Ji lowered his head slightly and moved closer to her.
She felt the close breathing, the warm air, and the cautious and trembling contact.
Sheng Zhao could feel as if he was being kissed.
——It’s Li Ji.
Then there was the faint smell of blood and the trembling soft touch. There was a drop of dried blood on his pale thin lips, which spread into his mouth because of the kiss.
In fact, Sheng Zhao didn't understand why he suddenly grabbed the back of his head, and as he trembled and dodged, he stretched out his tongue to stir his mouth.
She also didn't understand why Li Ji kissed her, just as she didn't understand why she took the initiative to suck his lips, regardless of his trembling dodging and gasping.
So strange.
Sheng Zhao seemed to have split into two people, one was watching the farce calmly, and the other naturally stepped into Li Ji's trap and was "seduced" by him.
The rain was still falling outside, hitting the window. There was half-cut vegetables on the chopping board.
They kissed in the hazy, cloudy sunlight through the window.
Li Ji's hands slowly wrapped around her waist, then slowly moved down, but his eyes were closed, forbearing and restrained.
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