AS THOUGH HE'D TOUCHED something disgusting, Mo Xi's dark eyes widened like a cat whose tail had been stepped on. He tried to slam the book shut in shame and anger, but Gu Mang, cackling himself silly, wrapped his arms mischievously around him. Not only did he refuse to let Mo Xi close the booklet, he snatched it from him and held it open, forcing Mo Xi to look at those wrinkled pages.
Mo Xi didn't want to get into a real fight with Gu Mang, so the two tumbled around on the bed for a long time, one drunkenly snickering while the other quietly berated him. In the midst of the chaos, the book landed wide open on Mo Xi's face with an audible slap.
All his hair stood on end at the obscene images pressed right into his face. Mo Xi sprang up from the bed as if he'd been showered in sewage and pushed Gu Mang aside, his usually elegant and reserved face bright red. He didn't want to look at Gu Mang, and he wanted to touch that booklet even less. Chest heaving, Mo Xi turned away. He swallowed and fixed his collar. "Don't joke like that with me."
This was a warning. Unfortunately, Gu Mang was already too far gone to heed it. His mind was so addled he thought his little shidi was only pouting in embarrassment. It was his own fault for not reading the man right. Underneath it all, Mo Xi was a savage and unbridled carnivore, but his deceptively cool, proper facade had tricked Gu Mang into thinking he was an ethereal red-crowned crane who would remain untouchably aloof no matter how he was provoked.
In hindsight, the mess Mo Xi fucked him into was of his own making. Under the influence of the wine, the oblivious Gu Mang found Mo Xi's icy awkwardness indescribably funny, and he couldn't bear to let him off the hook. He retrieved the booklet that Mo Xi had cruelly tossed aside and offered him a tipsy smile.
"You're sure you don't want it?"
Mo Xi said nothing.
"If you don't want it, I'll read it myself." With that, he lay back on Mo Xi's bed and began to flip through it, oohing and aahing with a wide grin.
Mo Xi's ears were bloodred. He closed his eyes and tried to endure this indignity in silence, but his traitorous heart seemed to beat as loud as a drum in that quiet tent. After a short moment, he rose and said in muted tones, "I'll go clean up."
Gu Mang's smiling face peeped out from behind his book, eyes gleaming with intoxication. "You're running away?"
Mo Xi ignored him. He focused on tidying up and went outside to wash the bowls and chopsticks.
Gu Mang had no idea know how long his shidi spent out in the wind trying to calm himself down; he only thought that Mo Xi was awfully cute and funny. How did such a naive alpine flower sprout from the ranks of those noble scions? Twenty years old and still blushing red to the tips of his ears after merely touching a book of erotica.
So silly.
Gu Mang thought that this wouldn't do at all. Mo Xi was already all grown up; in a few years, he might even be married. Yet, at his age, he couldn't handle something as banal as sex? Such excessive shyness was a disease—it needed to be thoroughly cured. Otherwise, what would he do as a newlywed? Would he push the poor bride away and coldly intone, My apologies, I must abstain from such obscenities?
Gu Mang was really too drunk; his mind wandered without logic or restraint. The more he thought, the funnier it all became. He grew convinced that he was truly the perfect shixiong, fussing over his shidi like a mother hen.
He carelessly flipped through the booklet as he pondered. The images before his eyes were all indecently lewd and over the top. As he turned the pages, he became quite engrossed in it. He thought nothing of the spark he'd set off in Mo Xi or whatever profound reflections on life the youth was having in the cold wind outside. He was blissfully relaxed, his habitually tense muscles loosened by the pear-blossom white wine. He was enjoying this coming-of-age present that Mo Xi had so disliked.
The more he read, the more he suspected that this rascal Mo Xi had no taste. If Lu Zhanxing were here, he would already be tucked right next to him, appreciating this excellent work. The two of them would chatter away about which position was the best and which girl was the prettiest, leers on both of their faces.
At least, that's what normal men did. Was there something wrong with Mo Xi?
Gu Mang's imagination ran wild; his thoughts trailed off as the drawings lit a blaze in his heart. Each of those meticulously detailed paintings was more arousing than the last. As he perused them, he felt his mouth go dry. His inebriated body was too easily set alight by the flame of desire, to the point that even his blood burned hot.
In truth, he hadn't done anything sexual in a long time. When he and his brothers went out to brothels, he might get handsy with the ladies and enjoy their giggling conversation, but he'd never managed to take that final step. Even Gu Mang himself couldn't quite explain why. Perhaps it was because he thought sex without love wouldn't be as satisfying. Perhaps it was because he had grown up a lost orphan, and had always, from the bottom of his heart, longed for steady companionship that would last a lifetime.
Or perhaps none of those excuses were true; perhaps they were all a front. He just thought that the girls he'd held all felt too delicate, like fragile porcelain. He certainly admired their beauty, but he'd never felt much desire. For instance, in the painting before him, the women were fair and alluring, but he preferred to look at the men having sex with them, at those strapping, powerful, unshakable physiques—
At this thought, Gu Mang felt that there was probably something wrong with him.
He kept flipping through the book. Although he'd skimmed it previously, he hadn't looked closely at every picture. Now, one page in particular stopped him in his tracks. Blood roared through Gu Mang's ears, making his muddled head ring. Yet he hadn't even registered why his blood had surged like that—it was an instinctive reaction to what was on the page. Only after the shock had passed did he realize that this painting wasn't quite like the others.
The artist had probably wanted to paint something provocative and felt that heterosexual pairings alone weren't novel enough, so they'd gotten creative and produced a very daring scene. Naturally, these erotic pictures all featured women, and the woman in this painting was lying on her back with her hair in disarray and her slender neck arched, legs spread for the man plundering her fair and trembling body. But that wasn't the point. The part that made Gu Mang's heart pound and set his body aflame was that there was yet another man behind the first, his arms wrapped around him from the back, and he was...
With a single glance at that picture, Gu Mang's face, normally thick as a city wall, flushed red in an instant. He felt dizzy, like the answer to a question that had puzzled him for a long time had burst out of the water to stir up a maelstrom in his heart. All the blood in his body rushed south—he was instantly so hard it hurt.
Gu Mang was so dazed and drunk that he stared blankly at this picture for many minutes and didn't even notice when Mo Xi returned. Mo Xi, having contemplated the meaning of life at length outside, walked over to the bedside. Only then did Gu Mang dimly react and turn his head in his stupor.
He saw a handsome visage left pale as porcelain by the freezing wind outside. Mo Xi's lashes were very long, his slightly pursed lips thin yet sensual. He stared down at Gu Mang, eyes deep and dark. They seemed to be filled with some indescribable emotion. Gu Mang had never noticed a look like this in Mo Xi's eyes before. He couldn't identify it; all he knew was that it made his heart blaze with yearning.
Mo Xi appeared to have figured out what he wanted to say to Gu Mang while he was outside. However, he'd barely gotten a word out before Gu Mang yanked him down. He didn't hear at all what Mo Xi had said, nor could he have understood it if he had. He just had a vague conviction that good things should be enjoyed with his good brothers. He rashly redoubled his efforts. Drunkenly ignoring Mo Xi's efforts, he persisted in trying to show him the porn booklet. "You have something to tell me, and I have something to show you. First, look at these with me, and then I'll listen to what you have to say. Fair trade."
Mo Xi must've been truly exasperated by his pestering, to the point that his temper had been snuffed out. Or perhaps it was because he'd made up his mind that tonight, he would confess the feelings that had been building in his heart for a long time. Whatever it was, Mo Xi finally capitulated—he lay down next to Gu Mang and read the damn book with him.
Even noble-born foot soldiers didn't get wide camp beds. It inevitably felt a little cramped with two men squeezed together. Mo Xi lay on his side behind Gu Mang and looked at the erotic booklet with him. Or—more accurately—was extorted into looking at the erotic booklet with him.
Gu Mang turned his head to peek at Mo Xi from time to time. "You've closed your eyes again!" he admonished. "Open them up!"
Mo Xi said nothing.
"It doesn't count if your eyes are closed. Your gege is teaching you how to hook up with girls. You'd better pay attention."
Silence. Mo Xi had seen people get wildly drunk, but he'd never before seen a wild drunk force his brothers to read porn with him.
Gu Mang had no plans to show him the most exciting picture right away, instead flipping through the pages one by one. Every once in a while, he turned his head to check that Mo Xi hadn't looked away. The tent was very quiet. Gu Mang knew that page was coming ever closer. He didn't know if it was because of his penchant for teasing this icy beauty, or for some other reason, but his heart was racing.
Mo Xi's breathing also roughened, likely in response to Gu Mang's own agitated state. With each exhale, his searing breath brushed across Gu Mang's temple and his firm chest pressed against his back, as if shoring up for a storm that neither of them could control.
So warm. So hot.
They slowly made their way through the book. Gu Mang knew exactly how many pages were left before that picture of two men entwined. At first, he had been in a rush to reach that page and share the enjoyment of it with Mo Xi. But the atmosphere between the two of them gradually grew more strange—there seemed to be an invisible stream of heat passing between them where their bodies nestled together. All of a sudden, that daring jokester had second thoughts.
"Why don't we stop here?"
"Weren't you trying to show me something special?"
They spoke at almost the same time. Gu Mang turned his face, the tip of his nose almost brushing Mo Xi's cheek.
It was like the air in the tent had thickened, becoming too hot to flow and too dense to dissipate. Gu Mang sensed danger, like he'd fallen into a trap of his own making, like he'd burned himself playing with fire. He parted his lips in an attempt to speak, but he couldn't make a sound.
Mo Xi narrowed his eyes, watching him from mere inches away. "You were, weren't you?"
"How special could it be? Ah ha ha." The next page was that page. Gu Mang swallowed, half-wanting to slam the book shut then and there.
But Mo Xi, who had previously loathed the little booklet like nothing else, had scented a subtle change in the air. He snatched the book away with his elegant, powerful hand, and his long fingers reached out to turn the page. Gu Mang closed his eyes with a sense of impending doom.
It was silent. Neither of them moved, neither made a sound. After a few moments, Gu Mang couldn't bear the suspense. He cracked his eyelids to sneak a quick peek. He saw Mo Xi wearing an inscrutable, complicated expression as he examined the painting of one man fucking another man. His eyes flickered.
The aura emanating from Mo Xi was too strange. Even drunk, Gu Mang still shivered at the sight of him. He summoned up a forced smile and made to get up. "Um, Shidi, congratulations on coming of age. It's gotten late. Gege's going to go back now, I—"
He hadn't finished the sentence when Mo Xi pinned him back down. As before, Gu Mang was lying on his side, Mo Xi against his back. However, Mo Xi had intentionally left some distance between them earlier. His chest had been pressed to Gu Mang's back, but they hadn't been touching anywhere else.
Right now, Mo Xi had basically pulled Gu Mang flush against his body. Gu Mang immediately felt something very large and hard push against him and even thrust forward.
"Mngh..." Gu Mang let out a muffled gasp. The alcohol, the new sensation, the terrifying taboo, and his accumulated lust all combined to make him incredibly sensitive. A humid, fiery voice rumbled against his ear, the rough, deep desire audible within making his wine-softened body tremble all over. Somehow, he didn't know that voice at all. Mo Xi panted raggedly into his ear. "Was this what Shige wanted me to see so badly?"
"No...l...ah..."
Gu Mang only managed a handful of words before his earlobe was captured by a warm mouth, soon followed by a rough tongue licking around and into his ear. Gu Mang was instantly sapped of strength, the unfamiliar sensations drawing a moan from his lips. "Ah..."
This cry seemed to give the newly adult young man behind him a tremendous dose of courage. Mo Xi drew him into a snug embrace, his strong hands wrapping around Gu Mang's waist as he pulled him close. He was holding himself back, but he'd been doing so for so long that, given this small outlet, his desire rushed forth messily. He sucked Gu Mang's earlobe with increasing force and passion.
"I didn't... Mo Xi...that's not what I meant... I..."
But Mo Xi wouldn't hear a thing he said anymore. He held Gu Mang from behind with one hand as he ran his other over his entire body. When he felt Gu Mang's own burgeoning reaction, his fervency only increased. He grabbed Gu Mang by the chin and stared into his eyes under the candlelight. He suddenly leaned down and kissed him. Like a parched man, he captured Gu Mang's lips almost violently, forcibly licking into his mouth.
This kiss was frankly too intense—the sound of it was soft and sticky, and it entwined with the sounds of Gu Mang panting and struggling. The noises Gu Mang made seemed to hit Mo Xi like an aphrodisiac. He took hold of Gu Mang, who was attempting to turn around, and clutched him close, caging him tightly in his arms. Mo Xi tilted Gu Mang's face toward his own and kissed him passionately while pushing up against Gu Mang's ass through their clothes.
Mo Xi kissed Gu Mang's lips until they were red and glossy. As they separated, he panted for breath, his eyes indescribably dark. His voice was so rough there could've been smoke when he spoke. "Shixiong said he would accompany me tonight as I changed from a little brat to a grown man. Go ahead, then."
Gu Mang wanted to throttle his loudmouthed self of a few hours ago. "This is not what I fucking meant!" he wailed.
"Too late." Mo Xi pulled himself up, then turned Gu Mang over and shoved him beneath his own body. His lapels were loose and open, revealing a chest that was as fine as jade but tremendously sturdy. "I gave you your chance to leave. It was you who refused."
Gu Mang, for once, couldn't muster a response.
Mo Xi tossed the booklet aside, gripped Gu Mang's chin, and lifted his face. Those delicate and elegant eyes watched him in a daze. "Mo Xi, you're...being ridiculous..."
Mo Xi's throat bobbed as he reached out to untie Gu Mang's sash. "Mm-hmm," he said softly. "Ridiculous is what Shixiong knows best." His eyes were terrifyingly dark as they raked over the sight of Gu Mang beneath him, skin flushed and burning with desire.
Finally, he bent down and murmured, "Teach me, Shixiong."