/
Chapter 21: Disguise
While kissing, all of a sudden, Ye Yingzhi carried him up and headed for the bedroom.
Chi Yan was thrown onto the bed, and with a forced smile, he raised a hand to push away the ‘man’ leaning down onto him.
‘…Yingzhi, I’m hungry, let’s eat first.’ He made himself look at Ye Yingzhi, his eyelashes trembling like the wings of a startled butterfly.
Though unsatisfied, Ye Yingzhi had no choice but to let go of him. Reaching out to pick Chi Yan up again, he noticed his clenched fist and asked, ‘Ah Yan, what are you holding in your hand?’
Chi Yan opened his fist, ‘It’s my grandmother’s jade pendant, I wanted to give it to you.’
Ye Yingzhi smiled, ‘Sure, why don’t you put it on me?’ He sat down beside Chi Yan.
Nodding, Chi Yan clasped the pendant around Ye Yingzhi’s neck, but like what he expected, the pendant had no effect on Third Master Ye. Ye Yingzhi slept nightly on his bed, with the pendant just in the drawer next to it. If the pendant had any power, it would already have taken effect.
Ye Yingzhi touched the pendant and looked at Chi Yan, ‘I think I’d better put this way. I’m afraid I might break it and you’ll be heartbroken. Since it’s something precious your grandma left you.’
Chi Yan watched Ye Yingzhi remove the pendant and replaced it back into the drawer.
Though he claimed to be hungry, looking at the tableful of food, he seemed to have lost his appetite, the food tasteless in his mouth. The only thing he could be thankful for was that while everything else was a lie, at least the food was real. He had bought the pork ribs the day before and selected each piece carefully. They tasted good, stewed with various vegetables.
He had to thank to Third Master Ye for cooking for him without complaint every day. A burst of melancholy followed this thought, but it was quickly washed away by an unyielding fear.
After dinner, Chi Yan did the dishes distractedly, wiped them dry and stood stoning in the kitchen. He then went to the living room, turned on the tv, and started flipping through the channels. His insides scrunched together, the anxiety reaching a boiling point as he watched the time go by.
It was Friday, and usually, he would not reject Ye Yingzhi’s advances.
He was afraid to let Ye Yingzhi notice anything out of the ordinary and it would be odd to say no to him.
Ye Yingzhi sat beside him, reading the news on his cellphone, occasionally throwing glances at Chi Yan. He saw how Chi Yan was curled up at the corner of the couch, his head lowered gloomily as he surfed the channels. He looked pitiful and miserable, full of troubles.
Ye Yingzhi couldn’t help but sit up and pulled him into his embrace, ‘What’s wrong baby? Let’s go to bed if you don’t want to watch tv.’
Chi Yan bit his lip, and didn’t say anything, allowing Ye Yingzhi to carry him and turn off the tv.
The house turned silent in an instant.
Ye Yingzhi stroke his back, and whispered next to his ear, ‘Nervous? Your body has become so stiff.’
Smiling, he laid Chi Yan down onto the bed, ‘How many times has it been already, you still get nervous?’
Chi Yan’s eyes twitched uncontrollably when his back touched the soft bed, his nerves were tightly strung, yet his body still habitually reacted minutely to Ye Yingzhi’s touches, embraces and moves – even though this time there was no more breaths, heartbeats or warmth.
It was crystal clear to him that the person making love to him was not human, but despite having to accept that cold hard truth, his body still instinctively became aroused and excited. Ye Yingzhi knew him too well, everything was within his control.
His eyes shut tight, Chi Yan turned away to avoid looking at the ‘person’ above him. A tear leaked out from the corner of his eye, there was no telling if it was due to fear or some other emotion.
Ye Yingzhi leaned down and kissed the tear away.
His sigh was cold.
Chi Yan shivered, and to hide that, he helplessly reached his arms around the ‘person’ intimately connected to him…
In the middle of the night, Chi Yan’s eyes opened. His gaze was calm and wide awake, without any hint of drowsiness. Carefully, he looked at Ye Yingzhi who appeared to be sleeping soundly beside him, and wrapped the blanket tighter round himself.
He didn’t know that whether Ye Yingzhi needed to sleep, or if it was just an act.
He suddenly couldn’t understand why Ye Yingzhi was doing this, putting up such an elaborate act, for what? If he’d wanted his life, Chi Yan thought that he would probably have already died a hundred times.
But none of this was important now. The thing shouldn’t have noticed yet.
And he would just have to wait, quietly, until the sun rose.
Occupied with his thoughts, Chi Yan fell asleep, even though he thought he wouldn’t be able to and woke up to the smell of fried eggs and coffee.
Speaking of which, since Ye Yingzhi came, many appliances appeared in his house, such as a coffee maker, juice extractor, yogurt maker etc. How different could two people be; even as a ghost, Third Master Ye knew how to enjoy life more than him. Chi Yan suddenly wondered how Ye Yingzhi had paid for and collected these online purchases.
A glimpse of that silhoutte stiffened Chi Yan’s body, and the fear that retreated slightly came rushing back. The gentle, handsome face that he was used to had become ghostly and frightening to him.
Carrying two plates of food, Ye Yingzhi put them down on the table, and kissed Chi Yan’s forehead like usual, ‘Morning, go wash up and come eat.’
Stiffly, Chi Yan accepted the morning kiss, and walked clumsily to the bathroom. Turning on the tap, he grasped the sides of the basin and realised that his hands were shaking.
He started to feel proud of how he had handled things yesterday. But luckily, this situation would soon end.
Giving an excuse of poor appetite, Chi Yan barely touched his breakfast, and got up to change.
Ye Yingzhi was washing up the dishes and saw Chi Yan dressed up neatly, ready to go out. He asked curiously, ‘You are going out today?’
Chi Yan lowered his head to avoid his gaze, ‘Yes, there was some issue at work and my supervisor called me back to work.’
Ye Yingzhi nodded, and didn’t pressed him, ‘Come back soon. There’s not much food left, buy what you want to eat.’
‘Alright,’ Chi Yan mumbled with his head down.
After he left, Ye Yingzhi stood at the balcony, watching Chi Yan’s car drove out of the gates.
His lips turned up slightly as if in a smile, yet his dark eyes were deadly still.
‘Liar. What a bad boy.’