CH 108

In a sense, Professor Yan was a very hard person to counter. He was a law unto himself and always had a smile on his face. Though full of faulty reasoning, he could spin the other party around in dizzying circles, forcing them to compromise in their muddledness without even realizing anything was wrong.

Alas, this was a general-use character trait he had to combat outsiders. 

It fell completely flat when it came to Gu Yan.

Yan Suizhi wanted to persuade Student Gu to give up exercising, to not recklessly join in the fray. Best, that the other allowed him to gain more muscles in peace, alone. With that in mind, while his arms and legs busied about, his mouth never took any breaks either, spewing a steady stream of spiritual contamination and interference at Gu Yan.

Lawyer Gu was unmoved.

He did the first set of exercises to its end, came down the equipment, and bent over to pick up the energy drink that was resting on the floor. 

Right as he twisted off the cap, a certain professor gave a “hey”, raising his chin at him, saying, “Let me have some. I’m a little thirsty.”

Gu Yan’s eyes darted towards the interstellar clocks on the wall. He passed the energy drink over, bumping the mouth of the bottle against the other’s lips, saying curtly, “Your mouth hasn’t stopped for half an hour. It’d be strange if you weren’t thirsty.”

Even if Yan Suizhi had a decent physical constitution, he hadn’t been in tip-top shape since regaining consciousness from the coma that lasted for a few months. As such, it wasn’t recommended for him to immediately engage in vigorous exercise. Gu Yan had been keeping an eye on intensity throughout the workout, lest he exceeded what his body could take.

Even then, the effects of this half-hour were very prominent on Professor Yan. It was fine if he didn’t stop, but once he did, sweat flowed down in long rivulets.

He supported himself on the equipment, panting heavily before taking the energy drink, sipping it bit by bit.

He was already in this state after half an hour, yet Gu Yan wasn’t even winded.

Yan Suizhi swallowed the energy drink, then attempted to wheedle again, “Look, this intensity isn’t doing anything for you at all; you haven’t even worked up a sweat. There’s no point in you exercising.”

The floor lamp was emitting warm light from a corner of the gym. The profile of his face was against the light, the shadows cast by his eyelashes were drawn deep and dark. Shrouded by shadows, his eyes glanced askance at Gu Yan, doused in mirth as he half-earnestly inspected the other from head to toe. 

As he spoke, he drank a bit more of the energy drink to moisten his throat.

Sweat dripped from his slightly inclined chin, sliding down the sinewy line of his neck, soon wetting the area.

Gu Yan stared at it for a while, then reached over to wipe away the beads of sweat on his neck.

The imprint of his thumb brushing against his skin was so vivid that Yan Suizhi’s lashes quivered, and his breathing, which he had strained to get in control, became a little heavier again. 

Perhaps exercise acted as a stimulant to the senses.

By the time Yan Suizhi came back to his senses, he was already kissing Gu Yan.

He lifted his chin slightly, gently stroking the side of Gu Yan’s face, responding to the kiss. It was a long while before he gasped for breath against the other’s lips. “You’re doing it on purpose, right?”

“What?” 

“Impeding me from exercising,” Yan Suizhi said.

“Exactly who started it?” Gu Yan asked in a low voice, then blocked the guilty mouth that leapt out to file the suit first.

This time, it didn’t take long for Yan Suizhi to turn his head away and admit his faults. “Alright, alright, I did.”

He was originally already out of breath, but because of Gu Yan, he felt as though he had been running for an hour. 

“Let me stand up first. The handle of this damn thing keeps jabbing against my back. It’s a bit uncomfortable.” Yan Suizhi’s lower back had been resting against the equipment earlier. He didn’t feel much of it earlier, but it throbbed distinctly when he bumped against it just now.

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Tjc Velhtl’r tbiv bc tlw alutafcfv. Pa kjr jqqjgfca atja atf qgfrregf vjwjuf kjr gjatfg rfglber. 

Gu Yan held his shoulders, giving him time to recover, then kissed the corner of his lips. He straightened up and said, “I’ll go get medication.”

“Isn’t that too dramatic?” Yan Suizhi said.

But Gu Yan had already walked over to the cabinets and was rummaging through the first-aid kit.

After the first-aid kit was emptied out last time, they had replenished it with a new batch of medicine, which naturally also included a skin spray. Any bruising would fade after spraying it on and massaging it in for a while. 

Yan Suizhi didn’t follow him. He had also felt the stirrings of arousal just now, and now was leaning against the equipment, catching his breath.

He watched Gu Yan’s figure in the living room, pensive.

It wouldn’t work to use the spray on sweaty skin. By now, Yan Suizhi had lost his will to exercise and went straight upstairs to take a shower.

When Gu Yan came up, he was in the middle of drying his hair. 

Yan Suizhi saw the spray in his hand. “You’re really planning to apply medication? Honestly speaking, when I see something like that, I feel like I’m getting old.”

Gu Yan ignored his drivel and swept a glance past the bed and the sofa after. “Do you want to do it on the bed or on the sofa?”

Yan Suizhi, “…”

This sentence sounded quite weird, but he only had himself to blame for getting the bruise on the small of his back. Aside from lying on his stomach, he had no other alternative. 

The esteemed Professor Yan abruptly felt that this half-hour of exercise had been done completely in vain.

With a toothache, his gaze swivelled between both options, before deciding that he might as well pick the one more comfortable for him, sprawling onto the bed.

The bed dipped; Gu Yan sat next to him. He had also taken a shower before coming up, and the light and cool scent of shower gel dispersed from the other’s warm body.

Gu Yan reached down and lifted the hem of his clothes. Due to their close proximity, the fabric of Gu Yan’s shirt touched the exposed skin around his waist. 

It might have been due to the shower; mottled green finally spread across the area that Yan Suizhi had inadvertently put pressure on, which, against his skin tone, appeared startlingly vivid.

Gu Yan fixated on it for a while, and his fingers stroked the area very gently.

Yan Suizhi shrank away.

“Does it hurt?” 

“No, it tickles.”

The medication, sprayed without warning, was icy. But Gu Yan’s fingers were already kneading it in before he could react, infusing the medication with the warmth of his body temperature, which, after a while more, even started to heat up slightly.

Yan Suizhi’s body was very stiff. In the beginning, Gu Yan was unable to increase the pressure of his ministrations, and even then it was still unbearably ticklish.

However, the other was very attentive to his subtle reactions, continually adjusting his strength accordingly, soon getting the hang of it. 

The pain slowly ebbed away into a soothing sensation.

Yan Suizhi’s body gradually relaxed, and he quietly pillowed his head on his arms for a while. All of a sudden, he spoke softly, “Gu Yan.”

“Hm?”

“Are you a little afraid of me?” 

Gu Yan’s movements paused.

Following this, Yan Suizhi felt a touch to his forehead.

“…”

He huffily caught hold of that hand, tugging it away from his forehead. “Are you going in a roundabout way to tell me that I’m talking nonsense?” 

“What makes you think that I’m afraid of you?” The low timbre of Gu Yan’s voice was too suited for the night. The heavy downpour outside was interspersed by claps of thunder, yet he remained steadfastly calm and gentle.

“I’m not referring to that kind of fear,” Yan Suizhi said, “but… that you’re being a bit careful around  me.”

With that, he flipped his body over directly, looking into Gu Yan’s eyes. “You’re smart enough to know what I mean.”

Gu Yan lapsed into silence, then uttered an “mn.” 

Somehow, this one simple syllable was stifling.

His brows creased. His gaze drifted to the floor lamp, a little unfocused, and after a moment, he spoke. “In those months after… the explosion, I had a bout of insomnia.”

This was probably the first time that he was talking about those days, and a brief spell of silence followed every sentence.

“Actually, it wasn’t quite insomnia, but that I didn’t really want to sleep,” he said. “Because during that time… I would have recurring dreams. I would dream of being at a student gathering, and Laura or someone else would tell me that they’ve gotten it wrong. The explosion didn’t take place at your hotel. You were already back at work and had taken on a new case, or you were returning to the university to give a lecture.” 

This was the way he always was. When speaking of those strong or naked emotions, his voice would always be very calm.

And yet, it evoked melancholy in the listener.

“Those dreams always felt very realistic… and sometimes I would be a bit unable to tell apart what was true and what wasn’t when I awoke. So, I kept myself busy. I would read many case files at night, including tedious case files of explosions over the years.”

“Actually, those cases weren’t very relevant; it was purely because they were explosion cases.” 

But he would always feel irreconcilable. He kept feeling that he could have missed a keyword, or perhaps that the connection was hidden in an inconspicuous corner. Otherwise… how was it possible that a person, all fine and dandy, was gone, just like that?

After another spell of silence, Gu Yan spoke, “Recently… I still have been dreaming about some things. Fitz would rush over to tell me that there was a mistake; that there wasn’t any intern or whatsoever. That those were all crazy delusions. The last news about you was still the explosion case, and the last time we talked was ten years ago.”

Yan Suizhi gazed at him for a long time, feeling a heartache that was difficult to articulate for the first time in his life.

“There was no mistake.” He reached out and touched the side of Gu Yan’s face and neck, then leaned over to hug him. “I’m alive and well. I don’t even have any wounds left on me. Because of you, I’m back at work and have accepted a new case. When this mess is sorted out, maybe I’ll go back to the university to give a lecture. Though, I think that my first lecture won’t go down very well; it’s hard to even say if there will be people passing out from shock.” 

Gu Yan’s chin pressed into the crook of his shoulders, and his voice reverberated in his ears. “I know.”

He was very rational, and he was very much awake.

He knew that those were just dreams.

Perhaps it was because reality was so surprisingly good that there were always dreams at night to remind him not to get too carried away. 

Gu Yan said quietly, “I’m adjusting.”

“Then you have to make haste,” Yan Suizhi said. “Otherwise it’ll seem as though I’ve adjusted too quickly, like a scoundrel taking advantage of his student.”

The moment these words left his mouth, he felt Gu Yan’s slightly cool nose nuzzled into his neck, then he bit him, whispering, “You might be having a bit of a misunderstanding…”

“Speak properly, don’t bite…” Yan Suizhi tilted his head away marginally, but the action was so minute that it couldn’t hide away from anything, obviously lacking the least bit of resolve in it. 

Heavy rain continued to pour outside the window, yet the thunderclaps had faded off into the distance. The remote was on the armrest of the sofa and the curtains weren’t drawn shut. Raindrops snaked down the glass in twisting trails of wetness.

It was reminiscent of another wine party he threw near his birthday many years ago. A seldom-seen rainstorm coincided with the close of the party, and the people who were making to leave retreated back in with merry laughter and noise. Everyone gathered back in the living room, huddling around and chatting about some vague subject of long ago.

At that time, Gu Yan was seated next to Yan Suizhi. His elbow was resting on the sofa armrest, propping his chin in his hand as he listened quietly. The floor lamp silhouetted his handsome profile, which exuded a cool aloofness no matter what he said or did.

So much so that an upperclassman couldn’t resist poking fun at him. “You won’t be like this when you find a girlfriend in the future, right?” 

Yan Suizhi had laughed when he heard it then.

Only, he had never imagined that ten years later, he’d be pressed down by that cold and aloof former-student into the bed, his eyes narrowed as he arched his neck, exposing a gradual flush that rose on his neck and tinged the corners of his eyes.

His long legs straightened past the edges of the quilt, but suddenly bent with the tensing of his muscles, and sweat slid down like raindrops along the curve of his knees to his calves.

“Gu Yan…” he gasped and breathed out quietly, the last syllable abruptly changing in pitch. 

“Mm?” Gu Yan uttered in a low voice. He cast his gaze down from his half-lidded eyes, sweeping across the other’s marginally parted lips, then kissing up along the lump of his throat.

Yan Suizhi raised a hand to cover his moist eyes, his heart numb—

What a fuckload of use exercise makes!