Chapter 82: “This Time It’s Not Therapy”
Xie Shibai subconsciously took half a step back. Lu Ciheng seized this opportunity to squeeze in. The bathroom instantly became very crowded, accommodating two grown men.
Lu Ciheng didn’t give him a chance to react. With a sweep of his arm, he pulled Xie Shibai into his embrace. He lowered his head, resting his chin on Xie Shibai’s shoulder, his nose greedily inhaling the sweet fragrance. A second later, his lips pressed against and ground into the soft skin.
Xie Shibai tilted his head, feeling the scorching breath sweeping over his neck. Lu Ciheng’s nose rubbed back and forth against the skin below Xie Shibai’s ear.
Xie Shibai felt that his neck was both itchy and uncomfortable. He reached out to push him. “Get out. Why are you squeezing in here?”
Lu Ciheng held him and wouldn’t let go. His pitch-black eyes were deep as he drawled, “Xie-laoshi, you’re too mean. You deliberately played with me again. You ran away right after teasing me.”
He had been teased into a daze, only for the other to turn around and run.
Xie Shibai pursed his lips, his palm against Lu Ciheng’s chest. “You were the one overthinking. Let go, don’t hold me so tight.”
Lu Ciheng’s gaze was glued to Xie Shibai.
Cats were just like this; they wouldn’t admit to the bad things they did. After teasing someone, they would just pat their butt and run away.
He spoke slowly, rubbing against Xie Shibai’s neck. His lips curled as he spoke unreasonably, “What can I do? I’m already thinking it. Xie-laoshi, you should compensate me a bit.”
Xie Shibai: “?”
The sensation on his neck was too obvious. His fair skin was becoming a bit itchy from the rubbing. He reached out and grabbed Lu Ciheng’s hair, forcefully dragging the man acting like a rogue out from the crook of his neck.
“Know when to stop!”
Lu Ciheng didn’t feel pain even as his hair was pulled. Playing up his “clingy plaster” attribute, he stared at Xie Shibai for a few seconds. With a surge of strength in his arms, he lifted the person up and sat him on the vanity. His hands braced on either side of Xie’s body, firmly trapping Xie Shibai between his body and the mirror, his abdomen pressing in.
The muscles in his arms bulged, looking very sturdy as they braced on both sides. Under the light, his skin tone looked somewhat dark, which conversely made Xie Shibai look even fairer and more delicate. That lithe waist being encircled looked as if it could be easily snapped.
Xie Shibai’s fingers curled slightly. His knees subconsciously clamped around Lu Ciheng’s waist. His hands braced against Lu Ciheng’s shoulders as he stared at him. “What are you trying to do?”
Lu Ciheng lowered his eyes to glance at his waist. Xie Shibai’s soft loungewear pants had rolled up a bit, revealing fair, long legs rubbing against his waist as if they were supporting his own body. If not for the vanity, Xie would have had to cling to him pitifully.
Lu Ciheng’s Adam’s apple rolled. Just a tiny thought crossing his mind made his dark eyes flash with hyperactive light.
“Xie-laoshi, aren’t you curious why I stayed in the shower for so long?”
Sitting on the vanity, Xie Shibai’s pale fingertips tightened, gripping Lu Ciheng’s clothes. He stared into those dark eyes, as if he could guess what Lu Ciheng wanted to hear.
He deliberately didn’t want to follow the script. Catching the keyword, his lips curled with a hint of nonchalance. “Was it long?”
He had forgotten how long Lu Ciheng had stayed in the shower, but it didn’t affect anything.
Lu Ciheng paused for a few seconds. A dangerous dark light flashed in his eyes. His lips curled as a muffled laugh escaped his throat. “Xie-laoshi doesn’t remember the time? Then let’s reminisce together.”
Xie Shibai went still for a second. He watched as Lu Ciheng, without even bothering to pretend, lifted the hem of his shirt in front of him, revealing firm abdominal muscles. Bulging veins, like the roots of a great tree, traced downward, disappearing beneath his dark pants.
Lu Ciheng’s hand continued downward.
Xie Shibai pushed Lu Ciheng hard, gritting his teeth. “Lu Ciheng, do you have no shame?”
Lu Ciheng’s dark eyes looked innocent. “Doesn’t Xie-laoshi want to see?”
Xie Shibai: “…”
He looked away. “I don’t. Do you think everyone is a pervert like you?”
Lu Ciheng looked a bit disappointed. He took hold of Xie Shibai’s hand, his thumb grinding against the base of his fingers with a certain suggestion. “Really not going to touch? I practice every night; the feel is even better than before.”
Xie Shibai: “…”
Has Lu Ciheng always been this ‘thirsty’?
He didn’t even need to reminisce carefully to recall Lu Ciheng’s past actions.
Nothing had changed compared to now, except that being “subtly thirsty” had turned into “overtly thirsty.”
Xie Shibai: “I’m not touching. Get lost.”
Lu Ciheng licked his lips, his eyes dark and bright. “Since you won’t touch, then give me a kiss.”
Xie Shibai looked into Lu Ciheng’s eyes. He was almost made speechless by this “take everything you can get” attitude. His knee bent to brace against Lu Ciheng’s abdomen. Just as he was about to use force to kick the man away, he felt a certain spot. It was somewhat hot, and hard.
His kicking motion froze.
Lu Ciheng let out a muffled groan. His panting was hot against Xie Shibai’s ear. He pecked and kissed Xie Shibai’s earlobe, then followed through to give Xie Shibai a restrained kiss on the lips, not going deep as if afraid he would lose control.
Xie Shibai held his breath, his heart beating a bit fast.
Lu Ciheng whispered in his ear.
“This time, it’s not therapy.”
For the first time, the camera in the room wasn’t turned off early. Netizens in the livestream held their breath, terrified that Lu Ciheng would remember there was still a lens he hadn’t shut and turn it off.
They were screaming silently even just seeing Lu Ciheng tirelessly coaxing Xie Shibai to call him ‘Gege.’
[Call him ‘Gege’! Ahhh!]
[Lu-gou is acting like such a pup, but is he actually the older one?]
[The encyclopedia says Lu-gou is one year younger than Xie-laoshi.]
[Oh ho! ‘A younger one doesn’t call you Brother, because he has wild thoughts in his heart.’]
[Forget about Lu-gou not calling him ‘Brother,’ he actually coaxed Xie-laoshi to call him ‘Gege.’ Have some shame!]
[Xie-laoshi said it casually and Lu-gou already felt amazing. How is his luck so good!]
[Why go to the bathroom! Just do it right here for us to see!]
[Leopard-leopard and Kitten-kitten, you went to the bathroom to do it and left us behind!]
Just as the netizens in the livestream were wailing one after another, the bathroom door opened. Xie Shibai walked out, his expression as usual. He went to the balcony to let the wind blow for a bit, then remembered something and headed straight for the camera.
[I have a bad feeling about this.]
[Xie-laoshi, ahhh, don’t!]
[Wait a second, why does it look like Xie-laoshi’s face is a bit red?]
In the next second, the lens was covered, and the screen turned black.
Aside from the wails, someone said quietly:
[Did you guys feel like Xie-laoshi’s face was red?]
[Yes! It was pinkish and so pretty!]
[Just a reminder, Lu-gou didn’t come out of the bathroom.]
[Could it be!]
[They probably didn’t ‘do it’ in such a short time. Maybe it was manual labor, hehe.]
[Ahhh, Director Tan! You have to install cameras in the bathroom too!]
The Xie family declared bankruptcy.
Starting from Old Master Xie’s car accident and temporary withdrawal, a great building had rapidly tilted. There was no external force; it relied entirely on the “brilliant” minds of the Xie family.
Internal strife, wrong decisions—one after another, they completely smashed the building’s load-bearing beams.
It was faster than expected.
But declaring bankruptcy was only the Xie family’s attempt at self-rescue at the last moment. Even with bankruptcy, the life of the Xie family would still be a hundred times superior to that of ordinary people. This was not what Xie Shibai wanted to see.
The “chosen wage slave” Chen Qisheng was about to start working overtime again.
The boss was far away in a foreign country and could only command remotely; the actual operations had to be done by him.
Fortunately, the opponent was relatively stupid.
This was the stupidest opponent Chen Qisheng had encountered since switching jobs. The only one with a bit of scheming was the boss’s stepmother, but it wasn’t a big problem; he could solve it easily.
The filming of the new episode wasn’t limited to one place. From the beginning, the production team’s positioning for this episode was a “honeymoon trip.” Because the popularity of this episode was unprecedentedly high, they even arranged a cruise ship to travel to another destination.
As soon as the production team announced it, the netizens in the livestream were shocked by this show of wealth.
[Are they actually this rich?]
[Were they stingy before just to save up for something big this time?]
[I feel like they won’t be this generous.]
[+1 to the person above.]
Mu Zhenzhen was shocked. “Since we were this rich from the start, why did you only give us that small amount of living expenses?”
The production team cleared their throats. “The budget for the show is actually limited. We had to save earlier to have this ‘economy tour.'”
Su Xingran: “Economy tour?!”
He knew the production team wouldn’t be so kind as to give them some luxury tour.
Li Lechi sighed. What kind of suffering was this? He had originally joined the show to give Lu Ciheng a hard time and prevent him from being so comfortable. In the end, Lu Ciheng was as comfortable as he could be, while he was about to be broken by the production team.
Mi Qiran rarely joined in the conversation. He just glanced at Qiao Jiayi; it looked like something had happened.
Xu Xiangming comforted everyone, “Economy class is also very good.”
Not having to catch a plane and having a cruise ship was already quite good.
[Knew the production team wouldn’t be so kind…]
[Let’s see the ship first. Some ‘economy’ ships are actually quite good.]
[I feel like everyone has a miserable life.]
[Lu-gou, what is your hand doing!]
[Does anyone else feel like LCH is even clingier to XSB? The atmosphere between the two of them fits the honeymoon theme so well. It’s like they just started dating.]
[Weren’t they always like this? The honeymoon period is like this.]
Xie Shibai was worried Potato the puppy wouldn’t adjust, so he took it to a small yacht early to experience it.
The puppy wasn’t seasick at all. Gifted with a high tolerance for boats, it accepted them easily. The production team equipped it with an action camera, and the unique perspective of the livestream saw its popularity soar.
Just a while after the broadcast started, the livestream was already packed with netizens, all sharing one tacit thought:
To experience the feeling of being gently petted by Xie Shibai.
Lu Ciheng was responsible for packing the luggage and didn’t let Xie Shibai do anything. Xie Shibai had no chance to intervene in the luggage packing and was only responsible for feeding Potato the medicine nearby.
Although Potato wasn’t seasick, after consulting a vet, they still decided to give it some space to adjust.
When feeding the medicine, the puppy’s action camera dutifully recorded it all.
Netizens commented one after another:
[Experienced what it’s like to be Xie-laoshi’s dog.]
[So this is what it feels like to be a dog. No wonder Lu-gou feels so amazing!]
[Xie-laoshi is so gentle, werwerwerwerwerwerwer.]
[I want to be Xie-laoshi’s dog!]
Although the production team called it an economy tour, they didn’t choose a bad cruise ship for them. The ship’s overall facilities were very complete, much better than a general economy tour, and there weren’t many tourists.
The pairs went through security and placed their luggage in order. The most troublesome part was the application documents for Potato to board the ship.
When Lu Ciheng was being serious, he was very reliable. He handled the luggage and the application documents. Xie Shibai followed along without even having to use his brain; Lu handled everything by himself. He was a very worry-free travel partner.
Xie Shibai couldn’t help but recall the kiss in the bathroom.
He felt like calling Chen Yi for a “telephone therapy” session.
Xie Shibai merely kept his eyes on Lu Ciheng for a little longer, but it was as if Lu Ciheng had eyes on his back. He immediately turned around, his eyes shining as he looked at him.
Lu Ciheng said with a grin, “Xie-laoshi, we were only apart for half an hour. Do you miss me already?”
Xie Shibai: “…”
His reliability was all an illusion.
Translator’s Note:
A few terms to clarify:
- “-laoshi” (老师): Literally means “teacher,” but in the C-entertainment industry, it’s a standard respectful honorific for colleagues or those with experience (like “Xie-laoshi”).
- “Lu-gou” (陆狗): “Gou” means dog. Fans call him this affectionately/teasingly because of his “loyal, clingy, but sometimes annoying” dog-like personality.
- “Gege” (哥哥): Means older brother. In a romantic context, it’s a flirty way for a younger partner to address the older one—or in Lu Ciheng’s case, he’s trying to get the older Xie Shibai to call him that to satisfy his ego!
- “Economy Tour” (经济游): The production team is being “frugal” again. It’s a running gag in Chinese variety shows where they make celebrities live on a tight budget for comedy.
See you in the next update! Have a great day~
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