Bo Jin’s hand firmly encircled Xie Ruan’s waist, a startling warmth radiating through the thin fabric to his skin, which was growing hotter and more uneven in rhythm.
And Bo Jin, as usual, leaned close to speak into his ear, making Xie Ruan feel a tingling warmth run through his entire body. His throat felt dry, and despite himself, he swallowed, his body responding instinctively.
“Baby,” Bo Jin chuckled softly, his hand sliding down along Xie Ruan’s waistline. “A bit too excited, aren’t you? How long has it been?”
Xie Ruan was mortified, silently cursing himself. Why couldn’t he just keep a steady heart and stay unruffled, like a modern-day gentleman?
“Feeling shy?” Bo Jin pulled his soft, flustered boyfriend into his arms, teasing him. “Why so quiet?”
What was there to say!
Xie Ruan shot him a glare.
They were both men here—who wouldn’t feel something after all this? If not, he’d be a eunuch, not a regular guy.
“Hmm?”
Meeting Bo Jin’s mischievous gaze, a spark of defiance took over, and without thinking, Xie Ruan pressed his hand down. “And you’re—”
Xie Ruan pulled his hand back instantly as if he’d touched something hot.
Good grief, is this really the size of a high schooler?
Although they’d had close calls before, Bo Jin’s strong self-control had always stopped things from going further. This was the first time Xie Ruan had fully grasped the difference between them.
Xie Ruan gulped nervously. “I—I just remembered I have another worksheet to do.”
He tried to push Bo Jin away and get up to leave.
The moment he moved, Bo Jin grabbed him by the waist and pulled him back.
“Trying to run after teasing me…” Bo Jin laughed, pinning him in his arms. “You’re too used to getting away with it.”
Xie Ruan’s scalp tingled, and after a few attempts to break free, he finally panted, “D*mn it… I didn’t do it on purpose.”
“Is that so?” Bo Jin replied casually, enjoying the feel of Xie Ruan under his hand. Only after a few moments did he finally relent. “Alright then, we’ll say it wasn’t on purpose.”
Xie Ruan, completely unaware of the impending trouble, muttered a shaky “Mm.”
Bo Jin chuckled, “Not on purpose…” He glanced down, his voice low and husky. “So how long did it take to accidentally do that? I never would have guessed, Little Ruan.”
Despite being completely at Bo Jin’s mercy, Xie Ruan kept up a defiant front. “Get lost! Who’s thinking about you?”
“Oh?” Bo Jin narrowed his eyes, pausing. “Then what were you thinking about?”
With heat coursing through him and his nerves on edge, Xie Ruan found himself caught in a place where he couldn’t get the release he needed. He couldn’t help but call out, “Bo Jin…”
“Mm.” Bo Jin watched him, the smile never leaving his face.
Xie Ruan clenched his teeth. After a long pause, he closed his eyes and barely whispered, “…You.”
Bo Jin showed no shame, leaning in close to his ear and continuing, “And what were you thinking about me doing?”
With Bo Jin’s warm breath on his ear, Xie Ruan’s eyelashes trembled, and he finally gave in. “Brother…”
“Poor thing,” Bo Jin sighed, placing a kiss on Xie Ruan’s eyelids, though his excitement only grew. Taking Xie Ruan’s hand, he murmured, “Let me fulfill your wish.”
At some point, the dorm lights went out, and the hallway was silent, with only soft, suppressed breaths filling the room.
After a long while, Xie Ruan pushed Bo Jin away, glaring at his disheveled state. “Are you part dog?”
He’d said not to get him all messed up… What was this, marking his territory?
Absolute lunatic!
Bo Jin turned on the bedside lamp, his handsome face carrying a hint of satisfaction. He reached out and poked Xie Ruan’s puffed-up cheek, coaxing, “I’ll wash your clothes for you.”
Xie Ruan scowled, pulling back. “Keep your hands off me.”
“I wiped it off,” Bo Jin chuckled. “With your own stuff, anyway.”
Xie Ruan, expressionless, grabbed a pillow and stuffed it against his mouth, shutting him up. He didn’t want to hear another word of his nonsense and got out of bed to shower.
When he finished, the bed was neatly tidied. The sheets, duvet cover, and pillowcases had all been changed, and the room aired out.
“Just sleep here tonight,” Bo Jin said as he opened the closet to find clean pajamas. “Otherwise, it’ll be hard to explain to the dorm supervisor if she sees you leaving.”
“Mhm,” Xie Ruan replied. He hadn’t intended on going back anyway—not because of the dorm supervisor, but mostly to avoid Song Xinghe’s teasing.
Bo Jin showered quickly, finishing in just ten minutes. It was late, and the dorms were silent. He didn’t want to draw attention by turning on the hair dryer, so he just towel-dried his hair and headed to bed. Anyway, with his short hair, it would dry soon enough.
The dorm’s spring mattress was small, and the two of them, both tall, had to keep their limbs close together. But rather than being inconvenient, it actually created a rare, intimate closeness for the couple.
Bo Jin touched Xie Ruan’s face. “Sleepy?”
Xie Ruan gave a half-lidded yawn. “Mhm.”
He had been cramming during the day and was exhausted. Even though he was at the peak of his energy at his age, he was worn out.
“Then sleep.” Bo Jin put his hand down and pulled the blanket up over him. “Good night.”
“Good night.”
The next day, seeing Xie Ruan come out of Bo Jin’s dorm room was nothing new to Sun Haoxiang and the others. Given Xie Ruan’s reputation as a study fanatic, they assumed he was there purely for studying purposes. In a way, it was a good thing.
“Hey, Little Xie, just you by yourself? Isn’t Brother Bo coming?” Sun Haoxiang looked around curiously.
Xie Ruan, annoyed, pressed down a tuft of unruly hair. “No, he’s busy today.”
“What’s he so busy with lately?” He Mingjie came over, carrying a few cups of soy milk and handing them out. “The math competition? But he’s already done one before.”
With Bo Jin’s laid-back attitude, he didn’t seem like the kind to take studying seriously.
“No.” Xie Ruan finished his soy milk in a few quick gulps and tossed the cup into the trash. “He’s been dealing with some issues with work.”
Xie Ruan didn’t understand the details, but he had glimpsed Bo Jin’s computer, and it was clearly work-related.
“Ohhh,” they all chorused.
The group knew Bo Jin worked on the side; otherwise, even with the Shijia scholarship, he wouldn’t be able to live quite so comfortably.
“What’re you all worrying about him for?” Pan Yu pulled a vocabulary book from his pocket, studying as they walked. “Exams are soon—how’s everyone doing with the key points we covered?”
With that, they all straightened up a bit. Even Sun Haoxiang, the self-proclaimed “king of slackers,” picked up the pace, heading to the classroom for some last-minute studying.
While they were in the classroom, heads down and working hard, Bo Jin was in the dorm, doing a final check of all his data. Once he was certain everything was in order, he sent it to Wen Yong and the company’s tech director.
In under two minutes, Wen Yong called.
“Didn’t you say it’d take a while? How did you finish so quickly?”
Leaning against the desk, Bo Jin replied with a smirk, “Weren’t you the one in a hurry? Nothing else is as important as this.”
Bo Jin had initially planned to make Wen Yong wait—not a year, but at least a couple of months. However, Shen Xingyun had provoked Xie Ruan, and that changed things.
The Shen Corporation originally thrived in the download software industry, dominating the field about a decade ago. But with the rapid rise of internet companies in China, Shen Corporation began to falter. They missed the browser trend, and their attempts in video software and live streaming made little impact.
Eventually, they decided to go all in on facial recognition, investing nearly everything.
With the download software industry waning, Shen’s main profit stream was drying up. If their facial recognition system also failed to keep up…
Bo Jin’s smile deepened slightly.
Wen Yong paused, then laughed. “I knew raising you was worth it. With this module in place, our facial recognition system will be far ahead of other companies.”
Bo Jin didn’t respond directly, only saying, “Apply it to real scenarios as soon as possible.”
In the past, Bo Jin only provided technical support and never concerned himself with implementation. But today was different.
Wen Yong raised an eyebrow. “Need some extra cash?”
“Yeah.” Bo Jin hadn’t told the truth to Wen Yong in a long time. “The orphanage could use a renovation.”
Since he started earning money, Bo Jin had been donating to the orphanage regularly. Taking him at his word, Wen Yong didn’t press further, exchanging a few more words before hanging up.
Wen Yong lit a cigarette, standing by his office’s floor-to-ceiling window, phone in hand, expression inscrutable.
On the one hand, he was pleased—this project would push the company to new heights. But that satisfaction was brief, replaced quickly by another emotion.
Taking a drag, Wen Yong felt jealousy gnaw at his heart, like ants chewing away at him.
Some people’s talents just couldn’t be hidden, even in an orphanage. From a young age, he had always been trying to catch up with Bo Jin. He’d exhausted himself, working harder than anyone could imagine. And yet, every time he looked up, he saw Bo Jin, effortlessly ahead of him.
Instead of closing, the gap between them only seemed to grow….
Wen Yong’s grip tightened on his phone until his knuckles turned white.
Clearly there was him already, why did there have to be someone like Bo Jin?
If only Bo Jin didn’t exist…
He closed his eyes briefly, then opened the Shijia High forum, obsessively tracking updates about Bo Jin.
With exams around the corner, the forum was buzzing with posts about Bo Jin and Xie Ruan. The posts about Bo Jin were mostly praise or requests for good luck in exams, while those about Xie Ruan speculated on how well he’d score this time.
Wen Yong frowned, uninterested in seeing any info about this Xie Ruan, and was about to mute related keywords when a post caught his eye—
“OMG, Xie Ruan actually came out of Bo Jin’s dorm this morning! What’s their relationship?”
“What?? Are they already close enough to sleep together?”
“Seems like it. They’ve been going in and out together a lot since last semester.”
“Everyone knows Xie Ruan likes guys…”
“No way! Would Bo Jin be into him? I don’t believe it!”
“Nah, they’re just friends. I’ve seen Sun Haoxiang and the others come out of God Bo’s dorm before too.”
“Ugh, I wish I could sleep in God Bos room before exams too! Borrowing a pen is one thing, but to really score, sleeping there would be better!”
“??? What’s wrong with you?”
“All I ask is to sleep in God Bo’s room!”
“Anyone know if sleeping in God Bo’s room works better than borrowing a pen?”
“Well, let’s see how Xie Ruan does on the test!”
“+1 to seeing how Xie Ruan scores!”
“+2!”
…
Wen Yong pondered for a moment. He wasn’t sure what kind of relationship Xie Ruan had with Bo Jin, but it had to be close. Bo Jin was notoriously particular. Back at the orphanage, he wouldn’t even let anyone sit on his bed, let alone sleep on it.
If this post was true, then Xie Ruan must mean something special to him.
Wen Yong set his phone down, mentally noting the name.
Meanwhile, the eye-catching “slept in God Bo’s room” post was blowing up, and the number of comments kept snowballing. With it appearing repeatedly on the forum’s front page, more people began to find out…
Xie Ruan felt as if everyone was looking at him no matter where he went. Normally, people would glance his way due to his looks or his connection to Shen Xingyun, but today, the intensity of the stares felt different.
…Did something happen that he wasn’t aware of?
Puzzled, Xie Ruan checked the mirror five times but couldn’t figure it out.
Finally, when he passed by some trees, he accidentally overheard a few people whispering.
“Is that him?”
“Yep, that’s definitely him.”
“The guy who slept in God Bo’s luck!”
Slept. God Bo!
Xie Ruan’s head thudded against a tree in shock.
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