Chapter 4: The Bathhouse

After class, Ye Yao returned to the dormitory to do his homework when Xiao Pang, lying on his bed, slapped his thighs together with a loud snap.

Xiao Pang poked his head out of bed and excitedly shared the gossip he had just learned: "Damn, there are two guys over at the mechanical school who got caught whoring around and now they're going to be expelled! All the campus groups are going crazy!"

"There's still such a thing?" Wen Ke, who was swiping a short video on the other side of the room, perked up and opened the blocked campus group, "It's true, the announcement was sent out. Tsk, tsk, tsk, they know the law, they deserve it! They've disgraced their family, haven't they?"

Ye Yao twirled his pen, and instead of pulling out his phone to watch the action, he continued to look at the book on his desk. Usually, his attention is not distracted when he studies, unless ......

Out of the corner of his eye, Ye Yao sees a crack in the bathroom door, a white mist pouring out of it, and Lu Xun's voice appearing.

"Help me with my clothes, I forgot to take them." Lu Xun shouted from the bathroom.

Although not specified, everyone else in the hostel knew who Lu Xun was shouting at.

Ye Yao put down his pen, got up and opened Lu Xun's wardrobe, grabbed the whole set of clothes and underwear without changing his face, and headed for the bathroom.

The bathroom door remained open a small crack, seemingly reserved for him to pass his clothes.

A steady stream of hot air rises from the bathroom, a door away from Lu Xun.

The heat hit Ye Yao's face and tinged his face with a little bit of heat. Ye Yao turned his head to the other side to make sure he didn't see anything he wasn't supposed to, and said to Lu Xun, "Here are your clothes, take them."

The clothes on his hands were light and Ye Yao was about to pull his hand back when the next second a large, wet, burning hand took his whole hand in its grip.

"Why are you in such a hurry to leave?" Lu Xun said with a smile in his voice, "A thousand miles to send clothes, a gift is light, I have to give you a back rub to thank you?"

"No, I have my own hands." Ye Yao refused without hesitation and was about to pull his hand out.

But Lu Xun's strength was greater than he expected, and between the tugs and pulls, Ye Yao not only failed to pull his hand back, but allowed the bathroom door, which had been left open, to open from the inside -

The vapour pours in, and with it, the Lu Xun that Ye Yao had been avoiding seeing.

Ye Yao doesn't know how he looks. He seems to have met Lu Xun's eyes, but he doesn't. It's as if he's hallucinating.

In a flash of lightning, Ye Yao drew back his hand, while his other hand snapped the door shut, keeping everything behind it.

Heart beating like a drum, Ye Yao clenched his fist with a calm expression.

No good, he's reacting too much.

Will Lu Xun find something?

As he pondered this, the closed bathroom door was opened again through a small gap and Lu Xun stuck his head out.

The schoolboy, who was handsome even when his hair was wet and messy and without any style to speak of, said to Ye Yao with a smile in his dark, deep eyes, " Ye Yao, why are you still so shy after all these years?"

Very well, Lu Xun found nothing.

"Cut the crap and get dressed." Ye Yao turned around with his face as normal, "Don't be a hooligan in broad daylight, let's go."

Sitting alone at his desk, Ye Yao lets out a long breath.

He pulled out a tissue and wiped away the sweat from his hands, or the liquid from the water Lu Xun had stained him with.

Nerves in his brain recalled the images he had just seen against the will of their owner, Ye Yao picked up his pen and redirected his eyes to the Criminal Law on his desk, trying to exorcise the impure thoughts from his mind with professional force.

With a click, the bathroom door opened and Lu Xun stepped out of it.

Ye Yao didn't turn his head, trying to keep all his thoughts on his book, intending to wait until he was in shape before facing Lu Xun.

The sound of footsteps coming from the bathroom came closer and closer, stopping only when they reached behind him.

The person holding the back of the computer chair Ye Yao was sitting on with one hand, and with a little force, Ye Yao turned his whole body with the chair and came face to face with the person standing behind him.

Ye Yao had just had time to see Lu Xun's bad smile before his whole face was pushed into Lu Xun's arms.

"What are Ye students reading, what book is better than me?" Lu Xun sounded sultry, "I'm jealous."

Ye Yao :"......"

Ye Yao doesn't even care what Lu Xun is talking about now.

Lu Xun still smells fresh from his shower, his favourite body wash, which he has been using for a long time and hasn't changed.

Apparently, although he brought Lu Xun a full outfit ......, Lu Xun wasn't wearing a top at all!

"......" Ye Yao felt the veins on his head popping, "Didn't I get you a bodysuit?"

"Yeah, you're going to wear it when you get it?" Lu Xun looked lazy, his arm around Ye Yao's shoulders, and said with a smile, "How can I be a jerk with you if I wear it?"

Ye Yao felt the pen in his hand shatter, and the temperature of his face against Lu Xun's body was rising out of his control.

Calm down, Lu Xun is a straight man with no sense of self-awareness, it's all normal straight man stuff.

Lu Xun did the same thing to him before his friendship went sour.

Ye Yao calmly analyzed the situation and pushed Lu Xun away with his hand against his abs, took a few deep breaths of fresh air and preemptively said, "You want to suffocate me, you don't want to live this life anymore, so you plan to murder me?"

Ye Yao's expression was the same as usual when he said this, but his complexion had changed. His skin was already thin and white, and a little redness would have been noticeable on his face.

Lu Xun quieted down, he looked at Ye Yao's flushed face for a moment, and then smiled a smile that did not match innocence in any way.

Ye Yao kept his face calm: "What are you laughing at?"

Lu Xun still thought his blush was strange and noticed something was wrong?

"What hold your breath, I think Ye students are blushing because they are fascinated by my body." Lu Xun said.

Ye Yao's heart thudded.

"As a courtesy, you've seen mine and I'll see yours." Lu Xun continued.

Ye Yao :"......"

His earlier concern was really idiotic fucking opening the door to an idiot, idiotic to the core.

Lu Xun, a practical man, was about to make a move, but Ye Yao was quick to hold him down.

"You're being unreasonable," Lu Xun said at length, "you don't want to go to the bathhouse for a bath, you don't want a back rub alone, how are we going to bond like this?"

Ye Yao is from the south and has a natural awe of the big bathhouses in the north. When he and Lu Xun came to the city to go to university, they never went to a bathhouse either, as there were separate bathrooms in each dormitory.

At first, he refused Lu Xun's invitation to go to the bathhouse with him because he couldn't fit in. Later on, when his friendship turned sour, it became even more impossible for him to go to the bathhouse with Lu Xun.

Ye Yao found little logic in Lu Xun's comment and frowned in confusion, "What does this have to do with enhancing relationships, I think we have a pretty good one already."

"How is it not relevant?" Lu Xun raised an eyebrow, "You're asking people to comment, is that right?"

Xiao Pang, who was lying on the bed eating a melon, stuck his head out and actively encouraged, "No way, no way, Ye Yao, you've never been to the bathhouse with Brother Lu? Don't be shy Ye Yao, washing in a bathhouse is really cleaner than washing by yourself."

Wen Ke nodded along, "It's good to be open and honest with each other."

Ye Yao: "......"

He was afraid that if he couldn't control the situation, the friendship would go up in smoke.

"It's fine if you don't go, at least give a reason." Lu Xun said.

Ye Yao Yao replied cautiously, "Too many people, not comfortable with it, don't want to go."

Lu Xun clasped his arms, "You mean you're willing to go if no one else can see you?"

No one else can see it?

Ye Yao frowned, thinking, with his misconceptions about bathhouses, that Lu Xun was referring to bathhouses with many single cubicles.

It didn't matter if he went to that single cubicle, as long as he didn't have to face Lu Xun directly. Even if Lu Xun had to come in the middle of his wash, he would only see his back. He can face the wall three times, so he can keep his eyes out of sight.

Ye Yao thought so and nodded.

............

Ye Yao is about to crack.

Why hadn't anyone told him that there were double rooms in the bathhouse?

Ye Yao took a step straight backwards and crashed into Lu Xun who was behind him.

Lu Xun took him by the shoulders and his dark, narrow eyes were full of laughter: "So excited? There's no rush, let's take our time."

"I thought we agreed that there was no one else?" Ye Yao asked.

"Yeah, there's no one else." Lu Xun nodded, his face all taken for granted, "It's not like I'm your someone else."

Ye Yao :"......"

This ill-timed confidence sometimes makes him want to punch Lu Xun in the face.

Lu Xun leads a stiff Ye Yao inside and stops in front of the small bath.

Ye Yao looked down at the water while Lu Xun finally did say something human: "Relax, I'm not going to laugh at you ...... or are you afraid I'll force you to do something like those perverts on the internet?"

Lu Xun paused and whispered, "Don't be afraid, it won't happen."

Ye Yao looked at Lu Xun for a moment and thought to himself that Lu Xun couldn't see which one of them was the pervert.

It would be strange to dilly-dally any further when the conversation has come to this.

Ye Yao looked around the double bath and tugged at his shirt, pulling it off his body with ease. His dark, thick eyelashes lifted as he looked at Lu Xun, who was standing still and staring at him.

"What are you looking at, why aren't you moving, not taking a bath?" Ye Yao asked.

Lu Xun slowly began to move after Ye Yao's reminder, and while Lu Xun was gathering himself, Ye Yao got out of the water in a hurry, closing his eyes and pretending to rest.

Properly pretending to be blind is good for the longevity of the friendship.

He waits until Lu Xun is in the water before opening his eyes, so that only the upper half of Lu Xun's body above the water is clearly visible and he does not lose his composure at the sight of Lu Xun's body.

Ye Yao was in the middle of a mental calculation when his cheek was caught in a pair of large hands.

Those hands rubbed the flesh of Ye Yao's cheeks in circles and tried to press inward, making Ye Yao's lips pucker with the force.

There was no way Ye Yao could pretend to be blind in this situation, so he opened his eyes with a question mark and saw Lu Xun standing next to the bath, leaning down and reaching out to rub his face.

Ye Yao felt that he was not a law school student at this moment, but a talented actor in the acting department.

Of course, Lu Xun's hand, which presses his face and makes his expression twist straight away, also helps him immensely.

Ye Yao frowned in a hushed voice, "What are you doing?"

Lu Xun gave a laugh.

"Don't you always say that I'm a rogue," Lu Xun, the high-flying god of men to outsiders, winked at Ye Yao with an impish look on his face, "and don't take this opportunity to come back and take revenge by being a rogue to me?"