Two hours later.
Lin Kai heard a knock on the door. “Come in,” he said.
He turned to see Chen Huanyi standing in the doorway with a box in his arms, his big eyes shining like stars.
Lin Kai’s glasses flashed. “Speak.”
Chen Huanyi practically bounced into the office. He took a pile of printed manuscripts from the box and placed it on Lin Kai’s desk. On top, he added his thesis proposal, feasibility analysis, research plan, and a topic selection form that had been completely filled out except for the advisor’s signature.
Lin Kai looked at Chen Huanyi with his eyebrows raised. “What are you doing?”
A terrifying response suddenly popped into Chen Huanyi’s head: “Doing you.” The scene that played out in his mind almost made him laugh. But he would never dare say those two words out loud, not even if he got black-out drunk. He replied, “I want to ask you to advise my graduation thesis.”
“Does Professor Shen know?” Lin Kai asked mildly.
Chen Huanyi nodded. “I just went to his office.”
“What did he say?”
“He said he’ll find another student to do the animal protein project. Then he told me to find another master’s advisor.” In other words, if Chen Huanyi wanted to work on a different project, he could, but he needed to do his master’s under a different professor.
Chen Huanyi pointed at the box he’d placed on the floor. “I moved all of my stuff out of the lab.”
Lin Kai’s hands were folded on his desk. He leaned forward a little, coming ever so slightly closer to Chen Huanyi. Even though Chen Huanyi was standing and Lin Kai was sitting, Chen Huanyi could sense the domineering aura emanating from the other man. He remembered what Lin Kai had said that night about not liking to be looked down upon. His legs quivering, he very nearly fell to his knees.
Chen Huanyi couldn’t read the expression in Lin Kai’s long, slender eyes. He stared at Chen Huanyi for a while. “I don’t have any projects in your field right now.”
Bending down, Chen Huanyi took out a thick English volume from the box. “This is your PhD thesis. I haven’t had time to go through it yet, but I did read the abstract.”
Lin Kai glanced at the abstract page, on which the keywords “cancer” and “data analysis” were written. Then he looked back at Chen Huanyi, staring at him expressionlessly for some time. Chen Huanyi’s gaze was resolute, showing no signs of backing down or shrinking away.
After watching Chen Huanyi for a while, Lin Kai picked up the completed thesis topic selection form. After scanning it over to make sure nothing needed to be changed, he picked up the fountain pen by his hand and signed his name on the line for the research advisor.
Chen Huanyi’s brows and lips curved into a smile.
After putting down the pen, Lin Kai took out a ring of keys from a drawer and placed them on the desk. “In the first lab to the left after exiting the office, the second-to-last seat on the right side is open.”
Chen Huanyi grabbed the keys in excitement only to hear Lin Kai continue, “The second round of the graduate admissions exam is two weeks after the proposal defense. Take the exam—if you pass, you can come and take the keys. If you don’t pass, you’ll write your thesis in the library.”
Chen Huanyi sheepishly put down the keys. “…Understood.”
After Chen Huanyi closed the door to Lin Kai’s office from the outside, he hugged the box to his chest and leapt into the air. As he walked down the campus paths, carrying the box back to his dorm, the sky seemed much bluer than before. Ah—it was March, and spring was here. All living things were waking from hibernation as the days grew warmer and the flowers bloomed, filling the air with nature’s perfume.
In the language of the arts, it was the season of romance. In the language of the animal kingdom, it was the season of mating.
“There’s nothing that can stand in the way~~ Of your yearning for freedom~~” [1]
A student who was people-watching by the path muttered, “Notify public safety—there’s a lunatic walking around our school.”
As soon as Chen Huanyi returned to his dorm, he immediately dove into Lin Kai’s PhD thesis and ended up reading for several hours straight. When his roommate came back later that night to find Chen Huanyi with a thick biology dictionary in one hand and a foreign manuscript in the other, he started berating him at once. “Chen Huanyi, I’m seriously warning you—you’re seriously ruining the good vibes of harmony and freedom in our dorm! I can’t believe you brought this sort of repulsive, evil, soul-crushing English document back to the dorm—our home away from home, our happy place! I’m telling you, I absolutely, positively, do not approve of this… Are you running out of things to learn in lab?!”
Chen Huanyi was practically glowing with happiness. He started giggling vapidly before he shot back at his roommate, “What English document—this is a love letter I got…”
Speechless with anger, his roommate lay down on the ground, utterly defeated—it wasn’t that he was too weak, but rather that his enemy was too strong.
After playing dead for a while, his roommate saw that Chen Huanyi was ignoring him. He struggled into a sitting position and then peered over at Chen Huanyi, trying to see what exactly he was reading. Catching sight of “Lin Kai” on the spine of the book, he let out a yelp of surprise. “This is Lin-laoshi’s thesis? You’re doing your project with him?”
Chen Huanyi skittishly pressed the spine of the book to the table, not letting his roommate take another look. “So what?”
His roommate was dumbfounded. “Are you actually dating your research or what? You won’t even let me see the cover of this thesis? If you really got a girlfriend, surely you wouldn’t insist on pulling a sack over her head before bringing her outside?”
“…Of course not,” Chen Huanyi snorted.
After staring at Chen Huanyi with the thesis in his hands for a while, his roommate seemed to suddenly remember something. He slapped Chen Huanyi on the shoulder and said animatedly, “Did you know that there’s something special about this Associate Professor Lin Kai?”
Trying to feign disinterest, Chen Huanyi replied, “No, what’s that?”
“He’s very stuck-up about looks,” his roommate said cryptically.
Chen Huanyi was silent. Why did he have a sudden urge to check himself out in the mirror?
His roommate deliberately paused. Only after seeing that Chen Huanyi didn’t question him further did he continue. “One day, I saw him looking at the wall of honor in the lobby of the biology building—”
As his roommate relayed his story, the veil of mystery around the highly discerning Lin-laoshi was lifted.
It had been a sunny, pleasant day.
When Lin Kai passed through the lobby of the biology building, a small crowd was chattering around the wall of honor. Upon seeing him, one of the students hurriedly called out, “Hello Lin-laoshi!”
Lin Kai nodded and walked over. “What are you looking at?”
The student was rather embarrassed and didn’t know what to say. “Uh, um…”
Lin Kai raised his eyebrows and glanced at the wall of honor. He found that his photo had been scribbled over in permanent marker, becoming a solid black rectangle.
The staff member who was in charge of the wall of honor ran over. Seeing that Lin Kai was present, they spoke up right away in a solemn tone. “Lin-laoshi, we’ll look at the security footage right away. There will be grave consequences for this.”
Lin Kai coughed lightly. “Ahem, there’s no need, just use another picture.”
“No no no,” the staff member responded, “Lin-laoshi, this is no small matter. The standards of our institution will not allow for something like this to occur…”
In a tone that brooked no argument, Lin Kai said, “I found this photograph unflattering, so I scribbled it out.”
“Please don’t worry, we’ll definitely…” The staff member’s eyes flew wide open. “Y-y-you…”
Each and every onlooker’s mouth fell open.
“I’ll send you a better-looking photo soon,” Lin Kai said calmly.
The staff member was speechless.
“It’s no trouble. Bye now,” said Lin Kai. He turned on his heel and walked away.
After his roommate finished telling Chen Huanyi this story, he heaved a long sigh, and then very meaningfully launched into his conclusion. “Since that day, there’s been a saying going around the school of biological sciences—if our school were to establish a Good Looks Association [2], there’s absolutely no doubt that its first president would be none other than the man who disdains even his own photograph—the newly hired associate professor who just returned from abroad—Lin Kai-laoshi.”
Chen Huanyi didn’t respond.
“Say,” his roommate continued conspiratorially, “what do you think this Associate Professor Lin Kai was really thinking?”
Chen Huanyi felt as though the sky were about to fall.
Because the image of a permanent marker suddenly popped into his mind—he couldn’t even remember where he’d left it.
In an instant, his world came crashing down.
His roommate was still talking spiritedly. Chen Huanyi watched him with his mouth opening and closing like his family’s pet goldfish.
After rambling at length without receiving any sort of reaction, his roommate started feeling annoyed. “…Have you been listening to anything I’ve said?”
Chen Huanyi nodded. “I’m listening. I have a question.”
“Go ahead,” his roommate said eagerly.
“If someone likes you, is it possible that they would choose to not be with you and silently watch over you instead?” Chen Huanyi pensively asked.
His roommate was speechless for a moment.
“You didn’t actually listen to what I was saying at all,” he exclaimed.
Something seemed to suddenly occur to him. “I got it—are you still thinking about the person you’re allergic to?”
“You’ve got more experience—answer me,” said Chen Huanyi.
His roommate thought it over. “They like you, but they only watch over you silently—you’re probably their fall-back then, yeah?”
Chen Huanyi stared at his roommate, as if looking at his hopes in human form. “What if—if they themselves chose to silently watch over you and refused to be with you?”
His roommate pursed his lips. “Well, then they don’t have a choice. Romeo and Juliet, Liang Shanbo and Zhu Yingtai [3]—there are plenty of examples of couples who loved each other but couldn’t be together.”
Chen Huanyi didn’t say anything. In a manner of speaking, you got it right.
His roommate’s penchant for gossip had been ignited. “So the person you’re allergic to is watching over you silently and refusing to be with you?”
Chen Huanyi responded to his question with one of his own. “All things considered, do you think they might have some feelings for me?”
His roommate smiled meaningfully, rubbing his hands together. “Love is self-restraint. Haven’t you heard that before? Love is self-restraint.”
Chen Huanyi looked like he was deep in thought.
“So who is it?” his roommate scooted closer, craning his neck. “A classmate? A schoolmate? An underclassman girl?”
After thinking for a moment, Chen Huanyi said solemnly, “I’ve always felt that the soul of learning has been silently watching over me, but it won’t focus on me alone—it’s always looking around at other people too. I’m feeling pretty down about it.”
Goddammit. His roommate rolled his eyes.
“You’re unwell,” he muttered after a long silence.
“Goodbye,” he added, clearly peeved.
Chen Huanyi didn’t pay his roommate any mind. As he sat there with his thoughts in a jumble, he subconsciously picked up a pen and started doodling on his notes. He drew a box—Schrödinger’s box, inside of which was Lin-laoshi’s love for him.
That night, Chen Huanyi had a dream.
The dream was extremely realistic, as though it had been filmed in high definition and recorded in surround sound.
He dreamt that Lin Kai was sitting at his desk in the office. “How’s your literature review going?” he asked.
Chen Huanyi replied cheerfully that he was finished.
Lin Kai nodded and asked him another question. Chen Huanyi could understand every word of that question, but he didn’t know what the question meant.
Stammering, he couldn’t manage a response.
“Tsk, you’re pretty bold. Learned how to deceive people now, haven’t we.” Lin Kai’s voice was low and sly. “On your knees.”
He immediately knelt down by Lin Kai’s feet.
Lin Kai patted him on the ass. “Take off your pants.”
Blushing furiously, he did as he was told. His heart pounded out of fear that someone would walk into the office at that moment. Mortified, he pleaded with Lin Kai to lock the door.
Lin Kai’s lips curved into a devious smile. “I can’t. What will Zhang-laoshi do if he’s locked out?”
Chen Huanyi shuddered in terror, but he didn’t dare talk back.
Lin Kai pointed at the space between his seat and the desk. “Come here.”
Chen Huanyi obediently knelt down there, his nerves easing slightly—that spot was hidden from view behind the desk, so if someone came in, they wouldn’t be able to see him.
Then Lin Kai put his foot on his upper back to press down his torso and bring his ass into full view. He stroked his buttock with a hand. “Do you want it?”
“Ahh…” Chen Huanyi let out a stifled moan. “I do…”
Lin Kai’s fingers pressed into his hole, loosening him up. Once he could slide four fingers in, Lin Kai pulled down the zipper of his dress pants and thrust his large, fully erect cock deep into Chen Huanyi. As Chen Huanyi let out a whimper of pain and pleasure, Lin Kai landed a slap on his ass. “Quiet down. Do you want to be discovered?”
Chen Huanyi bit his lip, breathing heavily through his nose.
Lin Kai kept on spanking him as he fucked him. With every strike, Chen Huanyi’s hole clenched tight.
Chen Huanyi wanted to reach down and touch himself, but Lin Kai took hold of his hands and tied them behind his back with a cable. Chen Huanyi had no way of supporting his upper body—he could only put his head down and take the pounding from behind. Upon noticing that Chen Huanyi’s head was knocking against the floor, Lin Kai grabbed his arms and forced his torso up, preventing him from touching the ground again. Chen Huanyi felt like he had no leverage at all; Lin Kai was in control of his entire body. He was like a steed with his master holding his reins astride him, compelling him to do as he pleased.
As skin loudly slapped skin, Chen Huanyi couldn’t possibly get any harder. However, without being touched, he couldn’t come.
Finally, he begged Lin Kai, sobbing, “Let me come… please…”
He’d already shouted himself hoarse.
Lin Kai stopped, flipping Chen Huanyi over to see that his face was drenched with tears, his lips bitten bloody. Lin Kai pinned him beneath himself. As Lin Kai pulled out and then thrust deep into him again, he leaned down and kissed Chen Huanyi softly on the corner of his mouth.
Chen Huanyi’s eyes widened in disbelief. Licking the inner shell of his ear, Lin Kai murmured softly, “Love you.”
“Aaahhhh…” Chen Huanyi couldn’t stop himself from crying out. That was the most potent aphrodisiac, even more effective than getting whipped or fucked. His abdomen clenching, he spurted all over Lin Kai’s torso.
Raising his eyebrows slightly, Lin Kai pulled out and lifted Chen Huanyi’s chin. “Clean it up.”
Chen Huanyi moved in closer—Lin Kai’s erection hadn’t flagged. Chen Huanyi licked away every drop of his own come and then looked up at Lin Kai, as if awaiting instructions.
Lin Kai slapped his dick against Chen Huanyi’s face. “Don’t you know what to do? What are you waiting for?”
Chen Huanyi slowly took Lin Kai into his mouth, swallowing deeply until he could feel him hitting the back of his throat. He looked up slightly to watch Lin Kai’s expression as he sucked him off. Feeling him grow even harder in his mouth, Chen Huanyi redoubled his efforts, lapping against the head of Lin Kai’s cock with his tongue.
Suddenly, Chen Huanyi felt something against his dick, making him hiss in surprise. Ah—it was Lin Kai’s foot, pressing down on his balls. Chen Huanyi could feel himself getting hard again.
His mouth and tongue were getting sore, but every time his focus faltered and he let up in the slightest, that foot forcefully stepped on his scrotum.
He didn’t know how long he’d been going down on Lin Kai, but the other man was still showing no signs of coming anytime soon. On the other hand, just from being stepped on, Chen Huanyi was on the verge of orgasm again. Lin Kai reached down to pinch Chen Huanyi’s nipples, pulling on them firmly. Chen Huanyi let out a low groan through his nose. With Lin Kai’s thick cock filling his mouth, he couldn’t say a word. Just breathing was hard enough as saliva leaked from the corner of his mouth.
Amid the pleasure alternating between his nipples and his balls, Chen Huanyi came for the second time. Watching his expression as he climaxed, Lin Kai couldn’t stop himself from pulling out of Chen Huanyi’s mouth and coming all over his face.
Eyelashes trembling, Chen Huanyi clutched Lin Kai’s waist, not daring to open his eyes. “You just said that you… love me.”
Lin Kai leaned down and kissed him on the mouth without the slightest hesitation. His tongue pressed in as he deepened the kiss, as though he wanted to steal all the air from between Chen Huanyi’s lips and claim every nook and cranny as his own.
“Mm. Love you.”
[1] From the song “Blue Lotus” by Xu Wei (youtube).
[2] 外貌协会 A saying describing someone who attaches inordinate importance to outside appearances; it is a play on 外贸协会, or “Foreign Trade Association,” which shares the same pronunciation.
[3] Ill-fated lovers of legend, commonly known as the “Butterfly Lovers.”