Don’t Be a Kept Man

ying to test it out.
He dusted off his body and quirked his lips, 

“And I won’t dig for those orbs, just to spite you.”

The tone of the system suddenly became very emotional: 

[ He’s still a high school student and you can endure the fact that he must do such horrifying acts at such a young age.
You aren’t willing to touch anything dirty, but you will let him act as your hands and cover himself in blood? Does your conscience not hurt?!!! ]

Hurt in your mother’s ass.

Pei Ran swatted the system away, thinking that it was being overdramatic.
He subconsciously looked through the window, just catching sight of Qu Yan kneeling on the ground and looking for the orb.
His wafer thin body did somehow randomly make him feel a bit guilty.

What in the flipping fuck.

 

Pei Ran pulled a clean towel out from the stack of items on the car seats and wet it with a bottle of water.
When he opened the door and stepped out of the car, he bumped right into Qu Yan who was just heading back.
He probably knew that Pei Ran was obsessed with cleanliness so the orbs were all wiped clean and held inside a tissue.
One was about the size of a peanut while the other was about the size of a red date1, which probably came from that T2 zombie.

Pei Ran nonchalantly put the orbs into his pockets.
Leaning against the car door, he lowered his head and used a wet tissue to clean his hands, his actions gentle and meticulous.
Qu Yan tilted his head, narrowing his eyes to take in how serious Pei Ran looked and then suddenly burrowed himself in the other’s embrace as if he was boneless.

Pei Ran held onto him and reached out to brush back Qu Yan’s ink black bangs.
Seeing the childish look on his face, he thought that Qu Yan was truly still a child.
He kissed Qu Yan’s face, and then sighed, 

“Were you afraid, when you were digging for the orbs?”

Pei Ran has asked too many questions no one else had ever asked before.
Qu Yan lowered his eyes and kicked at his feet.
His smile was full of wicked interest, before he shrunk back into the other’s embrace, hoarsely saying, 

“……yes.”

And then a period of awkwardness.

Seeing Qu Yan smash and dig into zombie brains with such precision, Pei Ran had thought Qu Yan would say no.
But hearing this, he fell silent and then said, 

“If you’re afraid, then it’s fine.
I’ll do it next time.”

He rarely got so decisive about something.
Seeing the darkening sky, he fixed up the car seats in front of them and said, 

“Let’s make do and sleep in the car tonight.”

Qu Yan was still thinking about what just happened, and his dark eyes shone in the blackened night, as ice cold as a coldblooded animal, 

“You really are planning to do it yourself?”

Pei Ran thought, how bad could it get, just taking off a skull, the more he did it the more familiar he would be with it.
Counting the orbs in his hand, he said without even lifting up his head,

“Hmm, I’ll do it.”

And then pulled Qu Yan up with him, reaching out to close the car door and separating them from the growing cloud of poisonous mosquitoes.

Seeing him count the orbs with such focus, Qu Yan asked, 

“Weren’t you going to use it to level up? Why aren’t you doing so now?”

Pei Ran thought, he wasn’t in a rush to cultivate, as it was more urgent to exchange orbs for a dimensional space right now, so he randomly pulled out an excuse, 

“Gotta save up a little more first.
Are you hungry? Eat something and then go to bed.
It’s quite late.”

The space inside the car wasn’t very big, and Qu Yan seemed to really like to stick to Pei Ran.
He soundlessly burrowed into the other’s embrace and quietly asked, 

“How should we sleep?”

Pei Ran gave a demonstration, lying on his back in the backseat and then pulled Qu Yan on top of his body.
He playfully raised up an eyebrow and said, 

“However you want to lie down.
The car seat, in my embrace, anywhere you want.”  

Qu Yan’s mother was a prostitute, and so there were a few things that he understood way earlier than others.
He used his fingers to undo a button on Pei Ran’s shirt, and then began to lightly draw circles on his chest.
He lowered his eyes and leaned over to try and kiss him, but he was instead pulled up by Pei Ran and pressed into his embrace.

“Don’t overthink,” 

Pei Ran’s voice was gentle and husky, as, in the end, he did care about the other, 

“just lie in my embrace and sleep.”

Qu Yan touched that uneven scar full of ridges on his face.
He opened his mouth and lightly bit down on Pei Ran’s shoulder through his shirt.
There was a bit of a twisted look in his eyes as he said, 

“Are you disgusted with me……”

Pei Ran yawned and thought that the other must be in his low self esteem phase again.
He elongated his syllables as he said,

“No I’m not, never have.
I like you so much that I can’t wait for it.
But let’s wait until you’ve fattened up a bit as you are too skinny.
Not a single ounce of fat on you.”

Pei Ran then circled an arm around Qu Yan’s overly thin waist and said, 

“Look, this tiny.
Just one snap and it’ll be broken, as if you have never eaten a full meal before.”

Qu Yan lay on top of the other’s chest, silently listening to that heartbeat, before saying, 

“I’ve never been full.”

Pei Ran cocked up his eyebrow, shocked, 

“Truly never?”

Qu Yan’s voice was a bit hazy in this night, 

“Mhmm.”

Hearing this, Pei Ran reached out to pull out a bag full of bread and then passed it over to Qu Yan and hesitantly asked, 

“Why don’t……you eat some now?”

Qu Yan hooked up his lips, as if to smile, but then pressed his head down.
He said with some humor in his voice, 

“I’m not hungry right now.”

Pei Ran pulled back his hand and embraced the other again, 

“Then sleep.”

The moon was slowly rising, hanging in the background of this silent night.
Not a single star was in sight either.
Pei Ran had used his ability quite a lot today, so before long, he was asleep.
Qu Yan was a bit uncomfortable, being stabbed by the orbs in the other’s pockets.
He poked out his head, slowly and carefully taking in all the details of Pei Ran’s sleeping face and then reached over, lightly nibbling on the other’s lips.

A blue spark flashed across his eyes, and he couldn’t hold back his light nibbling, as if he wanted, just a little bit, to swallow the person in front of him whole.
But then in the end, he stomped that urge down and silently got out of the car.

His mental ability was slowly reaching out farther and farther, forcing some unknown beings to come.
Their slow footsteps dragged on the ground, the only sound in this lonely night, and underneath the cold rays of the moon, one of them revealed a terrifying, corroded face.

Qu Yan closed his eyes slightly, the blue in his eyes growing even stronger.
Whatever he did next, those zombies began to tear each other apart, their low growls and roars followed by the chomping sounds of chewing on flesh and bone, a sound that was too horrifying to describe.

One of the zombies that had eaten its brethren dropped its head onto the ground and it rolled in a circle.
Qu Yan stepped forward, his eyes calm and unbothered, and used his knife to chop off the top of the skull, grabbing the colorful orb inside, much like an executioner, silently and emotionlessly taking people’s heads with a guillotine.

Pei Ran had been woken up by his hunger, and when he discovered that Qu Yan was missing, he subconsciously looked out the car window and who would have known that he would stumble right across this scene.

Pei Ran: ……

 

Notes:

*1 red date- for reference, a red date/jujube is this (approximately 1 to 2 inches (2.5cm to 5cm)):