Chapter 26
ZHANG YUWEN RESIGNED HIMSELF to his fate. Huo Sichen didn’t have a typical jealous mindset, so he wasn’t at all jealous of Zhang Yuwen’s ex; on the contrary, he was interested in knowing. He knew Zhang Yuwen was the top in his last relationship, but now that they’d defined their relationship, he was the bottom. The thought that his wife had fucked other people in the past instead of being the one getting fucked made Huo Sichen inexplicably excited.
“I guess places like the beach would be up your alley,” said Yan Jun.
“Beaches are my favorite.” Zhang Yuwen shuffled the cards. “It’s sexy to be just wearing swimming trunks, and it’s convenient to make love there, too.”
“So do you want to be seen by others, or nah? Do you find that exciting?”
“No, no,” Zhang Yuwen clarified. “We can’t be seen. I won’t do it in public. Those are two different things. I don’t want a third person watching.”
Yan Jun grinned. “I get it. It’s the thrill of potentially getting caught in the act.”
“Exactly.” Zhang Yuwen laughed. “That’s accurate. But no public exposure. It’s not the same as exhibitionism.”
“So,” Chang Jinxing asked, “do you like wearing some kind of sex toy while you’re taking the subway?”
“Uh…” Zhang Yuwen wanted to glance at Huo Sichen, but he held himself back. “If both parties are doing it, then yes, that’d be very exciting.
Like a cage or something.”
“Oh,” everyone chorused, “got it.”
Zhang Yuwen shared a little about his experience of having sex in the fire escape of a school building. Being a director, his language was expressive and precise, and his scene rendering was spot-on. By the end, everyone was blushing and had nothing to ask.
“So romantic,” Huo Sichen remarked.
Everyone else rounded on him. “Seriously?!”
Zhang Yuwen dealt the cards. “At this rate, no one can escape!”
“You can, if you keep winning,” Chen Hong said.
“When are we stopping?” asked Zheng Weize.
“When the fireworks start, I guess.” Chen Hong glanced at the time.
“Two more hours. There are fireworks at ten tonight.”
This round, Yan Jun lost. Everyone stared at the devoted dad, and Chen Hong issued a reminder. “Let me make it clear: It can’t be something like long legs or fair skin.”
Yan Jun drank some wine and thought for a moment. “My sexual preferences are similar to Yuwen’s. One is outdoor—” The rest of the guys cut him off, exclaiming that his answer was unacceptable. Zhang Yuwen, for his part, said, “Right? Doing it outdoors is exciting.”
Yan Jun went on, “I used to surf, and I only wore swimming briefs.
It was at the beach, near naked… Let me finish; there’s more!”
“Who’s near naked? You or the other guy?” Chang Jinxing asked.
“Both. You know guys—less fabric. This is only one thing; I have more. The second is… You know the kind…” Yan Jun racked his brain for the right words. “Domestic guys.”
Everyone was confused. Zhang Yuwen asked, “The kind that wears pajamas or casual wear?”
“Yeah. Kind of like a Japanese househusband. I really want to fuck them.”
“Why do you want to fuck a Japanese house?” Zheng Weize asked, not quite catching all his words.
They all howled with laughter. Yan Jun tried again. “They give off a ‘wife’ vibe. A gentle man cooking, for example…” All eyes turned to Chang Jinxing.
“No, no, not that sort,” Yan Jun said. “Ideally, he would be wearing sexy, black briefs under his pajamas and have slight abs. After work, I could hug him from behind and start fucking him right there in the kitchen.
If he had a thing for suits, even better.”
“So essentially, a wife,” said Chen Hong, summing it up for Yan Jun.
“A wife bottom, is that it?” Yan Jun said.
“Then you must like the plots in certain films.” Huo Sichen had watched AV films before. “The guy wakes up and goes to work, while the girl wears only an apron…” “Yes, exactly!” Yan Jun said. “But replace the housewife with a bottom wearing only an apron as he makes breakfast. The top steps out, having already changed into a suit. One in formal attire, the other naked, going at it on the dining table or the kitchen island. That’s exhilarating. I could even skip work and stay home, fucking all day like rabbits…” They erupted into laughter again.
“Uh… Okay.” Zhang Yuwen thought this could also be considered a kink. Yan Jun rarely spoke, but he was brimming with vitality when it came to sex. Perhaps in his sexual fantasies, the scenarios were also full of sunshine.
“Let’s see, who’s next—” They could barely hold back after Yan Jun’s description and the others’ never-ending additions. It was like a lights-out conversation in the university dorm, where everyone shared their sexual experiences without any restraint. The only difference was that all these dormmates were gay.
When Zhang Yuwen was in school, his roommates talked about girls every day. He couldn’t just keep quiet, and he didn’t want to come out to them either, so he’d had to pretend to be interested. This night filled in one of the missing pieces in his life.
It didn’t matter anymore to the three who’d already lost the game, and they began to target the other three. Soon, Chen Hong lost too.
“Guess my fetish?” he said calmly as he shuffled the cards.
They all jeered at him: “How would we know? It’s not like we’ve slept with you!”
Huo Sichen and Chen Hong were pretty familiar with one another, but Huo Sichen had to do some mental readjustment to adapt to the transition from being coach and client to their current relationship.
“I think…you told me before that you have a thing for suits?” Huo Sichen said.
“A little bit,” Chen Hong said. “Actually, I have several kinks— wait, let me finish first. I think I’m a bit of an M, and I also have a fetish for socks and shoes… A mild one.”
“Oh.” Zhang Yuwen could have guessed that. Socks were a fairly common kink for gay guys, so maybe Chen Hong’s was a little more intense. And feet were almost a universal fetish among men, gay or straight. Black stockings, fishnet stockings, high-heeled shoes—they came with inherent sexual connotations.
Everyone passed over the second thing, more curious about his masochistic tendencies. “Tell us more about this M thing.”
“Like, I have to be in the role of a top as an M. Like, you know, in some films where a macho man is tied up… Uh…” The guys began visualizing Chen Hong tied up.
“…And then I get a bottom to order me around and play with my dick. He can even step on it. If he’s a gentleman in a suit, then it’s perfect.”
“Then all your fetishes will stack together,” Yan Jun joked, sparking another round of laughter.
“Exactly!” Chen Hong wasn’t embarrassed at all. On the contrary, he was very frank about everything. “I work out, right? So I want someone to abuse me and then, after he trains me, order me to fuck him.”
“Your kink is like a straight man’s,” said Zheng Weize. “How is that different from being stepped on with high heels?” If the genders were switched around, Chen Hong would be the kind of straight guy who liked playing the submissive dog. Except his sadist partner would be an elite type instead of a queen.
“Right,” Chen Hong said. “Seems like it. I wouldn’t have realized that if you hadn’t mentioned it.”
“Do you like latex bodysuits?” Chang Jinxing asked, sizing Chen Hong up. “With your body type, I think people would drool if you wore a tight suit.”
“Never tried it before,” Chen Hong said. “Isn’t that kind of gay?!”
Seeing that the discussion was about to cool off, Zhang Yuwen tossed Chen Hong a provocative line. “Would you let someone tie you up and penetrate you with a sex machine?” Everybody roared with laughter.
“No, I wouldn’t,” Chen Hong replied. “That’s too hardcore.”
“What’s a sex machine?” Huo Sichen had too many questions.
Zhang Yuwen explained it to him briefly, then said to Chen Hong, “But you said you’ve been topped before.”
“That was with my ex,” Chen Hong explained. “I saw myself as his knight in shining armor, but he treated me like his dog. Well, not entirely a dog, but like, he taught me, trained me… Or rather…” Zhang Yuwen found the right word. “Tamed you.”
“Right! Tamed me! That was my first time. It was perverted, but I was addicted.”
“Damn.” Yan Jun was a little overwhelmed, but the matter-of-fact way Chen Hong talked about his doglike mentality was inexplicably captivating.
Huo Sichen stopped even answering his calls. He just pressed mute so he could listen attentively to Chen Hong.
“How about a dog tail butt plug?” Yan Jun asked.
Chen Hong patted Yan Jun on the head. Their relationship had always been good, so Yan Jun didn’t have to hold back on his needling. “I don’t like stuffing things into my butt.”
“Then what about a ball gag?” asked Zheng Weize.
“That’s fine with me,” Chen Hong said, “but hey, don’t start imagining it…and stop looking at me like that. Let’s keep playing cards.
Two more guys left, and we have half an hour to go.”
Zhang Yuwen glanced at Huo Sichen’s phone. “Do you have something important going on?”
“Same old crap from the company,” Huo Sichen replied. Zhang Yuwen didn’t press him further, and they resumed playing cards.
This time, Zheng Weize gave up resisting. All his roommates had been through a round of truth, and he couldn’t just nope out of it. During the round, though, Huo Sichen left to answer another call, and Chen Hong immediately signaled to Zhang Yuwen. Zhang Yuwen played for Huo Sichen, unsure whether to laugh or cry.
“It’s finally Sichen’s turn,” Chen Hong whispered.
But several seconds later, they heard Huo Sichen’s furious voice from the room. “Can’t you just let me have a vacation? What’s so important that you have to say it now? You want me to go back now and sort it out with you?”
Everyone looked at Zhang Yuwen. “His business partner,” Zhang Yuwen explained. “Sounds like a married couple, right? But that’s how business partners’ arguments go.”
“As long as you’re sure there’s no problem,” said Chang Jinxing, who was worried about Zhang Yuwen being deceived.
“I went to his house every time we had a training session,” Chen Hong added. “He’s been living alone the whole time. I can confirm that much.”
“I work myself to the bone every day for you. Even on Christmas, I had to work overtime on the plane…” Huo Sichen’s words dispelled everyone’s doubts. Soon, his voice quieted a little, and in the end, he said, “I’m turning off my phone.”
Then he stormed out, took two breaths, and composed himself. Back to his usual expression, he asked, “Whose turn?”
Zhang Yuwen was impressed. This was a self-possessed man who had not brought his anger out into the common area.
“Your turn,” Chen Hong said, once he’d observed Huo Sichen’s expression and satisfied himself that he wasn’t about to start raging.
“I helped you lose,” Zhang Yuwen chimed in. While Huo Sichen was on the phone, Zhang Yuwen had lost all his cards. Everyone laughed, and Huo Sichen looked astonished.
“Spill it!” Yan Jun said. “We’re all ears.”
“Uh…” “You have to come up with one, even if you have to make it up,” Chen Hong said. The guys doubled over with laughter.
Huo Sichen’s face turned beet red. “What if I perform something instead?”
“Nope,” Chang Jinxing said.
“Who cares about a performance?” said Zhang Yuwen. “Spill! You must have one!”
“I…I kind of want to try everything after hearing so much,” Huo Sichen said. Everyone else erupted into laughter again. “I’m serious.”
“That’s such a diplomatic answer,” Zhang Yuwen remarked.
He’d intended to let him off the hook, but Huo Sichen stammered, “I like little princes with black-rimmed glasses. I think… What’s that word?
The bottom conquering the top? Like what Chen Hong mentioned about the knight. Right, a knight who protects others. Oh, no, I just thought of one. I think I like…entering men from the back.”
“That’s what we call being gay, dude.” Zhang Yuwen really didn’t know what to do with him.
“Anal intercourse just makes me excited. It’s very stimulating because—” “Oh boy, you make it sound so clinical.” Not even Zheng Weize could bear to listen further.
“—It hurts a little? Maybe?”
“It does,” Zheng Weize said, “but it also feels good.”
“Seeing someone I like that way makes me excited. Like, very excited. I might be a bit of an S. I was shocked the first time I saw them doing it from the back in a porno, but it also opened my eyes. Oh, yeah, and there’s more.”
Chen Hong had thought about getting him to drink as a penalty, but at this point, they were all realizing that Huo Sichen might really have been straight before. What was common to gay men, like penetrating each other, was, to Huo Sichen, a perverse act. But once he learned about it, he subconsciously turned it into his kink.
Homosexuality itself was just a sexual preference.
“What else?” Zhang Yuwen grinned. “We’re listening.”
Huo Sichen looked at him. “I used to be impotent.”
“Huh?” Everyone looked flummoxed.
“What?” Zhang Yuwen had examined his goods earlier that day. He couldn’t believe his ears.
“There was a time I couldn’t get it up,” Huo Sichen insisted.
“You probably just jerk off too much,” Yan Jun said. “You’ll be fine after a break.”
“No, I rarely use my hands. It persisted for almost two years,” Huo Sichen said. Zhang Yuwen gave him a skeptical look. “But I’m fine now.
I’ve completely recovered.”
He looked at Zhang Yuwen with a gaze that said, You know what I mean.
Zhang Yuwen promptly turned to the others. “Don’t look at me! I’ve never tested it!”
“Uh-huh.” The guys nodded sympathetically.
“Could be work stress,” Chang Jinxing said.
“Maybe.” Huo Sichen thought for a moment before turning on his phone. To Zhang Yuwen, he said, “Let me show you my last diagnostic report.”
“Why would I want to see your erectile dysfunction diagnostic report?” Zhang Yuwen was laughing so hard tears were running down his face.
Red-faced, Huo Sichen explained, “Just so you know that for two full years, I basically didn’t have…didn’t… You know. It felt so terrible.”
“So if you couldn’t get an erection,” Zheng Weize asked, “did you ejaculate in your wet dreams?”
“Yeah, but not very hard. I’d just inexplicably ejaculate in my sleep, and most of the time, I wouldn’t even realize it. It wasn’t wet dreams, either.”
“Maybe you just didn’t meet someone you liked,” Yan Jun said.
“Even so, you can still get hard watching porn, right?” Chen Hong mused aloud. “And then there’s also morning wood under normal circumstances.”
“Yeah,” Huo Sichen replied. “I just realized one day that I no longer had any reaction to girls’ naked bodies, and later on, the morning wood stopped too.”
“It must be psychological,” Zhang Yuwen said. “In any case, it’s all good as long as you’re fine now.”
“Maybe you were just too busy.” Yan Jun could empathize with a fellow corporate slave.
Huo Sichen spread his hands, indicating that he was done talking. “Whose turn now?”
“Me,” Zheng Weize said. “Might as well say it. I don’t want to be left out.” Everyone looked at him, grinning. “It’s nothing special, actually.
I like being sworn at and slapped in bed.”
“Wow,” Chen Hong blurted. “You’re even more of an M than I am.”
Not embarrassed at all, Zheng Weize quirked a smile. “And I also like being choked.”
“Be careful with that, okay?” Zhang Yuwen said.
“I don’t have a partner now, anyway,” said Zheng Weize. “I think I’m a hardcore masochist. Being bullied and abused makes me excited.”
Chang Jinxing grinned at Zheng Weize, looking like he had something to say but apparently deciding against it. In this brief silence, Chen Hong glanced at his phone. “It’s time for the fireworks.”
“So what’s the tally? Who lost the most?” Yan Jun asked. “Look, it’s time for the dare.”
Flustered, Chang Jinxing tried to mix up the chips, but a sharp-eyed Chen Hong caught him by the wrist. “Hey! What are you doing? So you’re it, then.”
“Ha!” Zhang Yuwen counted the chips. The totals proved that Chang Jinxing was the one who’d lost the most, and surprisingly enough, Huo Sichen emerged as the top winner. The rule was that the winner would set a challenge for the loser. Huo Sichen hadn’t really played all that seriously, though; Zhang Yuwen was the one who’d won money for him.
Chang Jinxing made a pleading gesture to Huo Sichen, telling him not to be too hard on him. Huo Sichen thought about it and glanced at Zhang Yuwen, who said, “Don’t look at me. Our friendship is still going strong. Don’t make me come up with the dare.”
In the end, Huo Sichen said, “Choose one of us here and kiss him.”
Chang Jinxing heaved a sigh of relief, and Zhang Yuwen shot Huo Sichen a slightly reproachful look.
“How about kissing Sichen?” Chen Hong suggested, ready to stir the pot. Huo Sichen crossed his hands in a NO gesture, looking flustered.
“Oh!” Zheng Weize exclaimed. “The fireworks are starting! Look!”
The sounds of the fireworks going off—bang! bang!—echoed outside. Fireworks shot into the sky from the side of the mountain, lighting up the first night of the new year. The guys stepped out into the back garden of Crane Hall and gazed into the night sky from the deck.
Chang Jinxing whipped out his camera and took photos of them all.
When he got to Zheng Weize, the younger boy was staring at the resplendent fireworks, spellbound. Chang Jinxing snapped his fingers at him. Zheng Weize turned to him with a melancholic smile, raising a brow as he mimed taking a photo with his fingers against his face. Chang Jinxing took the photo, then leaned in and gave him a light kiss on the lips.
In that instant, fireworks bloomed, illuminating the long night and bringing the landscape below to life in a dazzling riot of colors, like a massive wish slip with everyone’s New Year wishes on it, drifting in the wind toward that unreachable dreamscape far, far away.