Chapter 39: What Do You Want
Mu Feng thought to himself: There are plenty of scenarios where it could be used.
But for now, he had to keep playing the part of a pure, innocent baby who knew nothing. “I just thought it would be a ‘safe word’ for when I cross your line, Teacher. What other scenarios are there? I don’t understand.”
Liang Yuhang raised an eyebrow, watching him with a calm gaze.
Keep acting. Go on, keep acting.
Mu Feng muttered, “It’s because I felt like I made you unhappy today, but I didn’t realize it at first.”
“Mu Feng,” Liang Yuhang called his name.
The other’s eyes widened in rejection. “How can you use my name as a safe word? You can’t! Doesn’t that mean you want me to shut up all the time?”
Liang Yuhang: “…”
“I was just calling your name.”
His tone was as composed as usual. “There’s no need for a safe word. There is no ‘line’.”
Mu Feng was a bit stunned.
No line? What did that mean? Did it mean that no matter what he did, Liang Yuhang wouldn’t truly get angry?
He didn’t dare to make such an exaggerated assumption. At this moment, he truly looked like an idiot with a negative IQ, asking blankly, “I don’t understand.”
Liang Yuhang let out a short laugh. “With your amateurish nonsense, do you really think you could cross any of my lines? It’s not necessary.”
“Really?” Mu Feng still felt he held a tiny bit of a special place in the other man’s heart. “Translated, that means no matter how much I act up, you can accept it, right?”
Liang Yuhang chuckled. “Not quite. You’re overthinking it. Today, I really wanted to catch you and give you a good beating.”
“Okay,” Mu Feng replied.
Liang Yuhang: “…”
This kid was just like that lustful cat—a little pervert to the bone.
“Go to sleep,” Liang Yuhang said leisurely. “I’m not hitting you. Right now, I feel like hitting you a couple of times would just be a reward for you.”
He turned and went into his room, closing the door.
Mu Feng stood in place and sighed. Sigh, I’ve been found out.
He trudged over to the sofa and lay down. He wasn’t picky about where he slept; he had slept on floors harder than this. Compared to that, this was very soft.
He soon fell into a dream.
0717 had originally shut down for the night, but it came back out of the storage room with a small blanket, intending to cover Mu Feng.
“I… I didn’t see anything!!!” 0717 shielded its eyes. It saw that Liang Yuhang had come out silently at some point and was bending over to stare at the person on the sofa. Their faces were very close.
0717 lowered its voice, unable to hide its excitement. “So you’re the ‘tsundere’ type after all! You said he had to sleep on the sofa, but now you’ve run out to sneak a kiss from Master Mu Mu! Hehe, I ship it!”
Liang Yuhang: “…”
He simply felt a bit bad and intended to carry the person in to sleep on the bed while he took the sofa.
0717 covered its mouth, making a wheezing sound. “Don’t worry, I only secretly recorded it. I won’t tell. You can buy the footage for thirty thousand.”
Liang Yuhang couldn’t be bothered with it.
He bent down and picked Mu Feng up. The boy was very compliant, subconsciously wrapping his arms around Liang Yuhang’s neck.
An Omega carrying his pheromones.
Liang Yuhang whispered, “Really, no sense of boundaries at all.”
He placed Mu Feng back on the bedroom bed. When he went to stand up, the other clung to him tightly, refusing to let go.
“Mu Feng, let go.” Liang Yuhang’s voice was very low. “What kind of habit is this, hugging and kissing people as soon as you start dreaming?”
Perhaps hearing the scolding tone, Mu Feng, still in his sleep, quickly retracted his hands.
Liang Yuhang: “…”
How strong is his stress response? Damn it, the guilt has reached its peak.
Liang Yuhang closed the door and came out. He stood by the living room window and smoked a cigarette.
0717 slunk over. “Boss, why not go in and sleep together? I won’t peek.”
“Are you sick?” Liang Yuhang couldn’t stand it. “I’m going on a business trip tomorrow. I’m not taking you. Take good care of Mu Mu.”
“Who are you talking about?” 0717 blinked. “You want me to help you take care of your wife?”
Liang Yuhang suppressed the urge to throw it off the top floor. “My cat. It’s not convenient to bring a cat to the military district. Remember to feed him on schedule. I’ll check via video every day.”
“And what about Mu Feng? No instructions?” 0717 clasped its hands together and gestured. “I get it! You’ll video call him yourself. No need for me to pass messages. Understood, understood, understood.”
Liang Yuhang extinguished his cigarette. Video call him every day? Impossible.
An epidemic had suddenly broken out at the border. He would likely be so busy he wouldn’t even have time to eat, let alone video call.
When Mu Feng woke up and opened his eyes, he first found himself lying in Liang Yuhang’s bed. Turning around, he saw 0717 looking at him with a grin, with a fat, sweetly sleeping kitten sprawled on its body.
“I…” Mu Feng looked conflicted. “Did I… sleepwalk last night?”
He didn’t… force himself on Liang Yuhang in his sleep, did he?!
That would be so exciting, yet I have zero memory of it.
0717 tapped the electronic screen on its chest. “Please watch the recording. Don’t tell the Boss, or I’ll be beaten to death.”
Mu Feng’s expression went from calm to wide-eyed shock. “Teacher Liang carried me in.”
“Yes, the standard template of a ‘tsundere’.” 0717 twisted its body back and forth, almost wringing its neck into a pretzel. “Too bad he’s already left, otherwise I could have recorded a scene of your morning make-out session.”
Mu Feng ignored the “make-out session” part. “He’s gone? For how long? Why didn’t he tell me?”
“Usually, he won’t be back for at least half a month.” 0717 changed its tune. “But soon you can experience the ‘dry wood and raging fire’ of a reunion after a short separation. It has a special flavor!”
“Half a month…” Mu Feng calculated the time. “Then he won’t be back for my birthday.”
0717 made a mental note, deciding to plan a big surprise for him.
Since the man wasn’t there, Mu Feng finished cleaning the room, fed the cat, and went to the lab.
“Mu Bao, aren’t you happy to death?” Jiang Yu’an was beaming the moment he saw him. “The Little Instructors have all been reassigned! Why do you look half-dead? Our good days are here!!!”
Zhou Tiantian was aggressively pricking a lab mouse. “My Little Instructor is like a step-father; it makes no difference whether he’s here or not. Go to hell, Liang Jingyi.”
The lab mouse began to roll its eyes, foaming at the mouth all over the table.
“How brutal.” Jiang Yu’an was very pleased. “Ah, my brother is finally gone. Tonight, I shall go on a date with a male model.”
“I advise you to stay calm,” Mu Feng reminded him kindly. “Your brother’s eyes and ears are everywhere. Like me, for instance.”
Jiang Yu’an’s eyes widened. “Aren’t we brothers who love each other? You’re stabbing me in the back!”
“Can’t help it. He simply gives too much,” Mu Feng said, spreading his hands.
Lu Zhuo had sent him a message: [Keep an eye on Jiang Yu’an. We’ll be back as soon as possible.]
That “as soon as possible” was very telling. As a team, they would obviously return together.
Sorry, Little Jiang. I choose Liang Yuhang.
Jiang Yu’an gasped, utterly despairing. “You actually defected! Fine, fine, fine! Then don’t blame me for not taking you when I find a hot Alpha Gege. Tiantian, let’s go.”
Zhou Tiantian was still in a life-and-death struggle with the lab mouse. “I have no interest in hot Alphas. Someone help me pin this mouse down! I’m seriously fed up!!!”
Mu Feng lowered his head and sent a message to Liang Yuhang.
[M]: Thanks for letting me stay over last night. Wishing you a smooth job.
No reply. It seemed he really was busy.
With a few people gone, the lab felt quite empty, even though Liang Yuhang didn’t usually talk much.
“I’ve heard you sigh for the three hundredth time.” Jiang Yu’an looked at him. “You look like you’ve been dumped.”
“Lovesickness, probably,” Zhou Tiantian said. “If I had a Little Instructor as responsible as Liang Yuhang and he left, I’d look even more like I’d been dumped than him.”
Mu Feng: “…”
Well, once again—the logic is completely wrong, but the answer is exactly right.
Jiang Yu’an shook his head. “I don’t really get it, and I don’t want to. I don’t miss my brother at all. When he’s around, he checks my phone every day.”
“You check his phone too,” Mu Feng couldn’t help but criticize his double standards.
“Ah, mine isn’t called ‘checking’. He gives it to me voluntarily; that’s called ‘looking’.” Jiang Yu’an wagged his finger. “That’s a completely different matter from demanding an inspection.”
Mu Feng rolled his eyes hard.
It wasn’t until evening that he finally received a message from Liang Yuhang.
[Teacher Liang]: Mm, just finished.
[M]: No wonder it took you so long to reply.
His tone carried a resentment he hadn’t even noticed himself.
[Teacher Liang]: How was the experiment today?
[M]: Can we video call? I’ll show you.
Liang Yuhang paused, remembering how he had told 0717 last night that it was absolutely impossible for him to video call Mu Feng.
Then, the video call popped up.
He answered it anyway.
Mu Feng held the phone and showed the row of test tubes one by one, looking very much like he was reporting his results. “I adjusted the ratio of the Ethereal Fission original slurry a bit. So far, the results look good.”
“Mm. What else did you do?” Liang Yuhang asked casually.
“Also… I ate at the cafeteria for lunch, stopped Little Jiang from going to a bar in the evening, and then stayed in the lab until now.” Mu Feng was being very honest. He was still wearing his white lab coat, which made his skin look even paler.
Liang Yuhang was amused by his literal reporting. “Quite well-behaved. You didn’t go running around.”
“I won’t cause trouble for you.” Mu Feng asked cautiously, “So, when are you coming back?”
“0717 said August 22nd is your birthday,” Liang Yuhang said. “Were you trying to ask if I can make it back before then?”
Mu Feng nearly bit his tongue.
My god, if Liang Yuhang were to have a secret crush, he probably wouldn’t even need to keep it secret—he’d just shove the love letter in the person’s hand.
So direct.
He stuttered for a few seconds before nodding. “I was trying to ask that.”
Liang Yuhang looked at the schedule next to him. “I probably won’t be back.”
After saying that, he sensed the other’s disappointment. If Mu Feng had ears, they would probably be drooping by now.
So, his heart softened. “But I can bring you a gift. What do you want?”
Mu Feng looked up. I want you. I want to be loved by you the same way you love Mu Mu.
He couldn’t say it, so his lips moved as he said, “Anything is fine. I don’t have anything in particular I want.”
Liang Yuhang looked at him, recalling his outfit at the bar before; that was likely his preferred style.
So, he spoke softly, “How about I get you a collar?”
Recommended Reads
