A Dangerous Proximity

His tone was low, his thumb grazing between Li Chen’s teeth. The youth before him glared back, hands clenched into trembling fists at his sides. From the corner of his eye, Shi Ji saw Li Chen’s chest heaving violently; he seemed utterly livid.

‘Oh no,’ Shi Ji thought. He instinctively tried to withdraw his finger, but at that exact moment, Li Chen looked up. Those misty-blue eyes surged with an emotion Shi Ji couldn’t decipher. Li Chen snapped his jaw shut, biting down hard on Shi Ji’s finger so he couldn’t pull away.

The sharp canines easily punctured the soft pad of the finger. Blood instantly filled the boy’s mouth. He watched as Shi Ji’s face turned pale in a flash, pain flickering across his features. Curiously, the rage swirling in Li Chen’s chest was miraculously replaced by a sudden, jolt of excitement.

Shi Ji knit his brows tightly. He hadn’t expected Li Chen to pull such a move out of nowhere. The finger held in that death grip turned white at the joints, and dark red blood began to slide down the corner of Li Chen’s lips.

How could he have forgotten?

The Li Chen standing before him was a madman.

“I bit you.”

Li Chen spoke muffle-voiced around Shi Ji’s finger. His expression overlapped with the one from that night; for a split second, Shi Ji reflexively thought Li Chen had lost control again.

Then, Li Chen let go. Shi Ji stared at the wound and the deep teeth marks on his finger, his mind a total blank.

Li Chen arched an eyebrow, his provocation undisguised. “How are you going to punish me?”

As he finished, his gaze shifted, lingering on the wound where the blood hadn’t stopped.

Blood welled up, dripping one by one onto the floor. A faint metallic scent began to drift through the air.

This scent made Li Chen feel strangely infatuated. He felt his heart racing. After an unknown amount of time, Shi Ji finally raised his eyes to meet the boy’s.

The pain that had been on his face earlier had vanished without a trace. His charcoal-black eyes had returned to their usual state—as silent and stagnant as a dead night. He stared at Li Chen for a long time before his lips curled into a slight, faint smile.

Shi Ji spread his blood-stained palm and held it up before Li Chen. His slender finger slid across Li Chen’s cheek, leaving a startling red streak on the boy’s pale skin.

Then, his fingertip pressed against the corner of Li Chen’s mouth once more.

His pupils shifted, and the curve of his smile deepened.

However, Li Chen saw absolutely no warmth in those eyes.

Shi Ji opened his mouth and dropped a single command:

“Lick it clean.”

The vast sky was suddenly swallowed by a layer of gloom. The scorching sun hid behind grey-black drifting clouds, and the world—previously wrapped in blinding light—darkened in an instant. A wild wind swept through, making the tree branches rustle and sway.

Shi Ji’s tone was so calm it was devoid of emotion.

He stood before Li Chen, holding up his bleeding finger. Behind his glasses, his eyes didn’t blink. But if Li Chen had looked closely, he might have detected the trace of panic buried deep in Shi Ji’s gaze.

Given Li Chen’s personality, he would never actually do it.

Shi Ji was nursing a tiny hope of a lucky escape.

“What?” Seeing the other didn’t move, he let out a light huff. “Afraid now?”

Li Chen’s eyelashes fluttered. Then, his gaze moved away from Shi Ji’s finger. He saw the flicker of contempt on the man’s face. Just as Shi Ji prepared to pull his hand back, Li Chen suddenly reached out and grabbed his wrist.

The sensation of cool fingertips on his skin made Shi Ji’s pupils shrink. He stared at Li Chen, startled by the sudden grab.

The youth’s gaze was direct, staring straight into him. Seeing his own reflection in those misty-blue eyes made Shi Ji’s heart pound even harder.

Li Chen looked over with a haunting gaze, the hazy blue resembling an unyielding glacier. After just a few seconds of eye contact, Shi Ji felt frozen from head to toe.

The hope of a lucky escape crumbled the moment the boy pulled his wrist toward his lips.

He watched helplessly as Li Chen extended the tip of his tongue, cautiously licking the blood-stained finger. The warm, soft tongue curled the remaining blood into his mouth, the metallic taste spreading over his palate.

The corners of Li Chen’s eyes were tinged with a faint red flush. He kept his eyes fixed on Shi Ji, taking in every crack of collapse beneath the man’s cold mask the moment his tongue touched the finger.

At some point, he had started to enjoy seeing Shi Ji this flustered.

Like making a wrong move in a winning game of chess, Li Chen wanted to see more of him falling into disarray.

He wanted to drag the arrogant Shi Ji down into this filthy quagmire.

Li Chen’s lips quirked up imperceptibly. His nimble tongue licked from the first finger to the second. Transparent moisture belonging to the boy clung to the pale fingertips. He watched the stunned expression on Shi Ji’s face, feeling the wrist in his hand tremble slightly.

Shi Ji blinked with difficulty, his shattered thoughts slowly flowing back. His lips twitched uncontrollably.

How did… things suddenly turn out like this?!

Shi Ji’s eyes widened. He violently shook off Li Chen’s hand. In the process, his finger accidentally grazed the boy’s lip. Li Chen instinctively tilted his head, then turned back with a slight frown.

A clear red mark remained on his right cheek, and an obscure smile appeared at the corner of his mouth. He raised a hand to touch his cheek and arched an eyebrow at Shi Ji. “There is nothing I ‘don’t dare’ to do.”

After saying this, his gaze naturally fell on Shi Ji’s finger. The transparent liquid had dried, leaving only the faint, lingering scent of Iris in the air.

Shi Ji swallowed hard.

Did he… just play himself?

He had been fully prepared for Li Chen to pounce and beat him up, but he never expected the boy to completely ignore the script!

Shi Ji’s breathing quickened. He turned abruptly and rushed out of the room without looking back.

‘Scary, scary, scary…!!!’

Servants passing by the door happened to run into a pale-faced Shi Ji. They watched the Young Master’s retreating back, then peeked through the cracked door to see Li Chen inside.

“Did that ungrateful bastard provoke Young Master Shi again?” one whispered, pulling on the other’s sleeve.

The other servant nodded in agreement. “Looks like he’s definitely getting kicked out of the Shi family this time!”

The two hurried away together, eager to spread the news to the other servants.

For a while, every servant in the villa was waiting to see the “show” of Li Chen being kicked out.

However, they didn’t see that show. Instead, they saw a Shi Ji who needed Li Chen to hand him his clothes when he woke up, needed Li Chen to stand by while he ate, and even needed Li Chen to wait outside the door when he bathed.

The Young Master’s sudden inability to care for himself left the servants agape. They all felt Li Chen must have used some petty trick to secretly seduce Shi Ji.

In reality, only Li Chen sincerely felt that Shi Ji had a mental illness.

He stood outside the bathroom door holding clothes, the sound of splashing water filling his ears. Behind the frosted glass door, a naked silhouette was faintly visible.

“Li Chen.”

Shi Ji was calling him again.

Li Chen closed his eyes, his tone laced with impatience. “Yes.”

Upon hearing the reply, Shi Ji’s worried heart settled, and he continued bathing happily, leaving Li Chen outside with his fists clenched.

He didn’t understand what game Shi Ji was playing now.

It was one thing to want him nearby at all times, but even while bathing, the man had to call his name every two minutes.

It was as if he were terrified Li Chen would disappear.

Li Chen lowered his eyelashes, staring at the tips of his own toes.

He was suddenly amused by his own thought.

How could Shi Ji be afraid of him disappearing?

Didn’t the man wish he were dead?

Li Chen stretched his neck and raised a leg to leave. Just then, the bathroom door opened, and a billow of hot steam rushed out, hitting Li Chen’s back.

He paused and instinctively turned around.

Shi Ji was wearing a loose bathrobe, exposing a large patch of pale skin on his chest. Water droplets slid down his muscles and disappeared into the half-open collar.

He wasn’t wearing his glasses, making his facial features appear sharper. The image before him was slightly blurry, so Shi Ji squinted instinctively. He spoke to the stunned Li Chen: “Where are you going?”

Li Chen’s gaze was pinned to Shi Ji’s chest. It wasn’t until the other spoke that his chaotic thoughts were forced back. His expression shifted through several complex emotions before he turned his head away, gritting out four words: “Have you no shame?”

Shi Ji: “?”

He couldn’t see Li Chen’s face clearly, but he could tell from the tone that the boy seemed a bit angry.

‘How did I offend him now?!’

Shi Ji was baffled.

He grabbed his glasses from the nearby cabinet and put them on. In the real world, his vision was excellent, but here, to maintain his persona, he was forced to accept being a nearsighted man who saw only a blur without glasses.

Fortunately, the prescription wasn’t too high.

Once the world came into focus, Shi Ji glanced at Li Chen, whose back was turned… and at the boy’s slightly reddened ears.

Shi Ji looked him up and down. Perhaps because his gaze was too probing, Li Chen felt uneasy. He turned back to glare at Shi Ji and said harshly, “I’m going back first.”

“Wait.”

Before he could take a step, Shi Ji stopped him.

Li Chen held his breath and was forced to stop.

Shi Ji blinked, a water droplet from the tip of his hair falling into the hollow of his collarbone.

“Tonight… you sleep here.”