Xiang Mingzhang carried Shen Ruozhen up the stairs. The heavy rain covered their steady steps. He held her in his palm and squeezed her softly, then asked, "Which room have you slept in these days?"
Shen Ruozhen couldn't remember how old he was the last time he was hugged like this. He put his arms around Xiang Mingzhang's neck and said, "The room you left in."
"Aren't you bored?" Xiang Mingzhang asked, "Didn't Manager Zhao tell you that the master bedroom is on the second floor?"
Shen Ruozhen said: "How can I have the nerve to enter your house when you, the master, are not here?"
He meant "landlord", but Xiang Mingzhang wanted to misinterpret it: "Wild cats are hard to tame. Ling Tuan'er doesn't even consider me as his master. You can comfort me on his behalf."
Unfortunately, Shen Ruozhen came from the old society. The number of servants in the Shen Mansion was as many as half the sales department. He was called "little master" and "little master" when he was still in swaddling clothes. I didn't expect that such thinking still exists in the 21st century.
He didn’t understand: “How is it defined?”
Xiang Mingzhang said: "Define what?"
When he first met Qian Hua, the other party asked him Shen Ruozhen touched Xiang Mingzhang's suit lapel and asked: "Are you a master or a slave?"
Xiang Mingzhang stopped on the steps, nudged Shen Ruozhen's chin with the tip of his nose, then quickened his pace and replied, "You'll know tonight."
The spiral staircase seemed endless. Shen Ruozhen leaned on Xiang Mingzhang's shoulder. His breath became heavier in his ears. He said, "If you are serious, let me down."
Xiang Mingzhang is good at rock climbing and fighting. Every winter during his vacation, he would go hunting in the forests of Northern Europe. His breathing was indeed unstable and his heartbeat was rapid, but it was not because he was tired.
After reaching the last step, Xiang Mingzhang carried Shen Ruozhen up to the third floor and passed through the living room. At the end of the remote west corridor, there was a living room of neither size.
The room was dark, the door was closed, Xiang Mingzhang pushed Shen Ruozhen against the door and kissed her. It was not the first time they kissed, but it was the first time Shen Ruozhen took the initiative to use the tip of his tongue, which made Xiang Mingzhang want to kill her right there.
Until Shen Ruozhen was short of breath and could no longer resist, he touched Xiang Mingzhang's neck and begged for mercy. The two of them separated slightly, but still very close. He whispered frankly: "I have never been intimate with others before."
Xiang Mingzhang said: "I know."
Before the last syllable had fallen, Xiang Mingzhang could not wait to kiss Shen Ruozhen's cheek again. He turned around and walked to the bed with him in his arms, and they fell down together. He reached out and lit the desk lamp, and a light beam of light spread out over the bedside.
We changed to a double-layer goose down blanket in winter, and the weight of two people created a depression of moderate depth.
Shen Ruozhen lay on his back, Xiang Mingzhang unbuttoned his shirt, and after unbuttoning two buttons, he habitually covered his eyebrows with the back of his hand.
Are you embarrassed even though you haven't even taken off your clothes
Xiang Mingzhang pretended that he couldn't unbutton it and fiddled with a button for a long time. Shen Ruozhen put down his hand in confusion, thinking he had fallen into the trap. He hesitated and tried to do it himself.
Xiang Mingzhang successfully grabbed his hand, pressed his fingers against the sheets, and bit back, "Don't move."
Shen Ruozhen already had the illusion that he was being controlled. He tried to distract his attention: "You rushed back from Hangzhou and haven't had dinner yet."
Xiang Mingzhang knew what was going on and said, "Well, what did you eat today?"
Shen Ruozhen hadn't eaten all day. Thinking about Xiang Mingzhang's return, he didn't feel hungry. He made up for it with yesterday's dinner: "I ate three sweet-scented osmanthus dumplings."
Xiang Mingzhang began to perfunctorily ask: "Oh, is it delicious?"
Suddenly, there was no restraint on his waist. Shen Ruozhen tried his best to remain calm: "In fact, Manager Zhao prepared a lot of dishes. He has worked hard these days."
Xiang Mingzhang said dissatisfiedly: "Why mention others? They don't work as hard as I do."
The clothes thrown at the end of the bed rustled and fell. Shen Ruozhen said, "There is a book in the study that belongs to the company. You borrowed it and haven't returned it yet."
"The company is mine. It doesn't matter if the library is closed." Xiang Mingzhang's tone was arrogant, but his movements were gentle. He lifted Shen Ruozhen's ankles and took off her cotton socks.
With his toes slightly curled, Shen Ruozhen could no longer find anything: "Which poem of Xin Qiji do you like best..."
Xiang Mingzhang suddenly leaned over, took something from the drawer of the bedside table, and said, "I like Liu Zongyuan now. Can I write a poem called "Caged Eagle" for you?"
Shen Ruozhen asked: "What did you take?"
Xiang Mingzhang thought that there was no need to answer, and he would know after using it. At this moment, he was like an eagle, with sharp teeth and claws and a hard heart. He recited with the desire to eat alive: "Shou Ran stretched his wings and snatched the fox and rabbit."
Shen Ruozhen was frightened by Xiang Mingzhang's burning gaze, his mind went blank, and his heartbeat made the same sound as the raindrops hitting the window.
"Why are you silent?" Xiang Mingzhang looked down at him and teased him maliciously, "Is it because there are too many rules in the old society that Master Shen is shy?"
Shen Ruozhen wanted to save face: "The new society is only possible with the development of civilization. The old society was much more barbaric. Otherwise, how could people in the past have three wives and four concubines?"
Xiang Mingzhang deliberately asked: "Then did you, Master Shen, marry a wife or a concubine? Did you have a mistress? Did you have an arranged marriage? Did you spend a fortune to support a male dan in private?"
Shen Ruozhen was confused by his question: "No, Mr. Xiang, maybe you have read too many novels."
As he spoke, he stretched out his hand, leaned down, and pressed his forehead against Shen Ruozhen's: "So, how old were you when you first masturbated?"
Shen Ruozhen clenched his lips and teeth in panic.
Xiang Mingzhang asked again: "Who have you fallen in love with? A gentle and elegant scholar or a shrewd and greedy profiteer?"
Shen Ruozhen couldn't help but flick her body slightly, and her face turned red.
Xiang Mingzhang was stunned. He had overestimated Shen Ruozhen. He had been rescued from the sea and stayed in the intensive care unit. He dared to jump into the river in Harbin. He could sit and stand properly after working overtime all night. However, his body was so ineffective that it could not withstand the slightest test.
Xiang Mingzhang stood up and sighed in worry: "President Shen, what are you going to do tonight?"
Shen Ruozhen said awkwardly: "...paper."
Xiang Mingzhang didn't give it to him. He got out of bed, picked up the person and carried him into the bathroom.
The sound of flowing water mixed with wind and rain, sometimes fast and sometimes slow, just enough to cover up the interlaced noises in the room. A walnut door blocked the spring light in the winter night.
There was a floor clock in the corner. The minute hand turned three times, the pendulum swayed tens of thousands of times, and the bathroom door opened again.
Xiang Mingzhang's short hair had already dried. Shen Ruozhen leaned against his shoulder, his eyes half closed, his face looking a little pale against the dark blue nightgown.
Xiang Mingzhang walked around the end of the bed, went to the window and put Shen Ruozhen down.
Walking barefoot on the carpet, Shen Ruozhen swayed slightly, and then Xiang Mingzhang held his arms to steady him. He had very little strength left and tried to lean into Xiang Mingzhang's arms to be lazy.
The result was a failure. Xiang Mingzhang grabbed him and turned him half a circle, facing the glass windows on all sides.
Shen Ruozhen lifted his red eyelids and focused his vision. He vaguely understood why Xiang Mingzhang had carried him to this room. It turned out that he could overlook the lake and the tender Metasequoia forest on the east bank.
Xiang Mingzhang hugged him from behind and said, "Did you see it?"
Shen Ruozhen nodded: "Yeah."
Xiang Mingzhang asked: "Why did you take photos in the Metasequoia forest?"
Shen Ruozhen replied: "Those Metasequoia trees are towering and I envy their vitality."
The belt of the dark blue nightgown was tied tightly. Xiang Mingzhang did not touch it and said, "I think so too, so..."
Shen Ruozhen couldn't help but turn around. Before he could say anything, he heard Xiang Mingzhang's second half of the sentence, "So if you look at the tree, will you be able to hold on longer?"
A window separated the dense forest from the view until the wind and rain stopped.
Frost fell in the second half of the night, and white crystals condensed on the glass. Shen Ruozhen supported himself on the windowsill with his right hand, and his warm left palm pressed on the window, melting to leave a mark.
I don’t know if it’s an illusion, but the color of the sky has become lighter.
Finally, Shen Ruozhen collapsed, his entire spine numb and he almost screamed, but it was hoarse, and the last syllable trembled like crying.
Xiang Mingzhang hugged him from behind, supporting him and embracing him. He only felt distressed for a third of the time, and the other half was dissatisfaction. He even pretended to be considerate: "Does your throat hurt? Can I give you a sip of water?"
There was tea set on the tray on the table next to him. Xiang Mingzhang poured half a cup, lifted Shen Ruozhen's cheeks from behind, pinched them, and poured a sip of cold tea into her.
Afraid that Shen Ruozhen’s lips and teeth would chatter and he wouldn’t be able to swallow, Xiang Mingzhang tilted his head and kissed him, moving his palm down to the other’s fragile neck.
"Woo..."
His Adam's apple rolled against his palm and he swallowed it. Xiang Mingzhang let go of his hand and hugged Shen Ruozhen tightly again.
Although he was good at counting beads and proficient in calculations, Shen Ruozhen was so exhausted that he could not recognize the numbers on the clock. He was in a daze and closed his eyes.
With every word spoken, as if speaking words of love, Xiang Mingzhang called his name at the last moment: "Shen, Ruo, Zhen..."
His left hand slipped from the window, Shen Ruozhen sobbed and fainted, missing a dawn as big as a palm print.
The author has something to say:
Supplement: The eagle cleaves thorns with its wings, and swoops down to catch foxes and rabbits. From "Caged Eagle Lyrics".
(End of this chapter)