After Helping the Protagonist Escape From a Madman, I Became His Target [Transmigration Novel] - Chapter 30

With Xie Weihan’s almost “cheat-like” assistance, Shen Luyang successfully became the second teacher in the office to finish grading. Without even stopping by his own place, he drove straight to Xie Weihan’s house to scavenge a meal.

By the time they left school, it was after 5:00 PM. The sky was just beginning to fade into dusk. Looking through the gaps between buildings, one could see massive stretches of crimson sunset clouds. During the drive, the red deepened, taking on a texture almost like a bruised purple, sprawling and decaying toward the horizon.

Shen Luyang parked his car and stepped out to find Xie Weihan already there, waiting for him downstairs. This wasn’t the first time he’d seen the man under the glow of streetlights, but the overhead light always lent him a sense of gentleness. Combined with his natural aura, he felt like a glass of mellow, intoxicating wine—knowing it would lead to a stupor, yet still inviting a taste.

Dangerous, yet captivating.

There were no changes to Xie Weihan’s home since his last visit. Shen Luyang was settled onto the living room sofa. He had planned to eat a feast, but he was so hungry he was seeing stars, so Xie Weihan cooked him a bowl of noodles first.

After the meal, Shen Luyang curled up on the sofa to digest. Xie Weihan poured him a glass of lemon water, brewed a cup of coffee for himself, and sat down beside him.

Shen Luyang took a lazy sip of water and fell back into his habit of making small talk. “Teacher Xie, your place is really big.”

Xie Weihan agreed. “It is a bit too large.”

Shen Luyang gave a silly laugh. Recovering from the wave of hunger and exhaustion, he suddenly remembered the purpose of his visit. Afraid that Xie Weihan would actually start a formal lecture, Shen Luyang took the initiative and pivoted to a completely unrelated topic.

Clutching his transparent glass, he made a bold request. “Teacher Xie, I didn’t get to eat your actual cooking this time. You owe me another meal next time.”

Xie Weihan took a sip of his coffee. “You’re welcome here whenever you like.”

With the warm lemon water in his stomach, Shen Luyang felt lazy and disinclined to move. His thoughts followed suit, becoming sluggish as he blurted out without thinking: “Teacher Xie, are you not dating anyone?”

Xie Weihan arched an eyebrow, looking at him with amusement. “Why do you ask?”

“Your house,” Shen Luyang paused, pointing at the shoe rack by the door and then gesturing in a circle around the room, appearing alternately clever and dim-witted. “There’s nothing here that belongs to a woman.” He blinked with a look of shared understanding. “It’s like my place—full of my own stuff. Though I don’t keep mine nearly as tidy as yours.”

Despite the somewhat intrusive topic, Xie Weihan showed no resistance. Instead, he admitted it frankly. “Indeed, there isn’t. And you, Luyang?”

“Me?” Shen Luyang leaned back, analyzing rationally. “I don’t either. But I’ve just been preoccupied. With your looks and status, Teacher Xie, being single just doesn’t add up.”

Xie Weihan lowered his eyes slightly and chuckled. “Am I really that good in your eyes?”

Shen Luyang propped his chin on his hand and studied him seriously. Xie Weihan had taken off his suit and changed into light brown loungewear. The softer color couldn’t hide his striking, intense features. His long lashes half-veiled his ink-dark pupils, and his crimson lips were curved into a perfect arc. Just sitting there, he drew the eye like the eye of a storm—calm, yet capable of making everything around him rage.

Shen Luyang swallowed and said from the bottom of his heart, “Out of all the men I’ve ever met, you are the most, most, most, most, most…” He gave a thumbs up. “Charismatic!”

Xie Weihan gripped his coffee cup, his eyes darkening with an unreadable glint as he looked at Shen Luyang. “I’m not as good as you say.”

Shen Luyang blinked.

Xie Weihan’s gaze was calm, as if discussing something trivial. His pale fingertips traced the rim of his cup. “No one is perfect. With the right disguise, anyone can become alluring.”

For the first time, Shen Luyang felt he was wrong. He corrected him solemnly. “Impossible. No one is better looking than you!”

Xie Weihan paused. Then, he turned his head and let out a soft, genuine laugh. “Alright.” The mirth reached his eyes. “Then, Luyang, between me and Teacher Shi… who do you think is better looking?”

Shen Luyang’s silly grin froze. He struggled for a long time, but his conscience wouldn’t let him lie. He managed a strained, “It’s about the same.”

Teacher Shi was like light tea, while Teacher Xie was red wine. One was clear and detached, the other rich and mellow—both capable of making you thoroughly drunk before you even realized it.

Shen Luyang loved to drink.

Xie Weihan didn’t seem to mind the answer, naturally steering the conversation onto the main track. “Regarding pursuing Teacher Shi, what is it that Luyang wants to learn?”

Shen Luyang hadn’t expected this to be an “on-demand” service. He was stumped. He’ll teach me whatever I want to learn? Teacher Xie is sacrificing way too much…

Seeing his hesitation, Xie Weihan asked considerately, “Do you know how to kiss an Alpha?”

It was a common enough topic, yet Shen Luyang felt a sudden, inexplicable heat rush over him. He told the truth. “I’ve only… kissed you.”

“Hmm…” A hint of a smile appeared in Xie Weihan’s eyes. “Then you really do need some ‘practice’.”

Shen Luyang recalled his own “biting-only” kissing technique and took a large gulp of lemon water, telling himself he had plenty of room for growth. “Kissing right at the start… isn’t that too fast?” He scratched his ear. “Is there any… contact suitable for the pursuit process?”

Something simpler, something purer. Something that wouldn’t make him lose his self-control quite so easily.

“Holding hands?”

“That… works!”

Xie Weihan set his coffee cup down and lightly rested his hand on the space between them, watching Shen Luyang’s bewildered face with interest. “Shall we try?”

Xie Weihan was personally helping him simulate the process. He’d even helped him grade papers today. He’s so good to me!

Shen Luyang didn’t hesitate. His fingers twitched on the sofa before he decisively grasped Xie Weihan’s hand. The man’s body temperature seemed naturally lower than his; holding it was like holding a piece of fine cold jade that secretly, quietly absorbed his warmth, slowly transforming it into his own and merging with him.

“Is this okay?” Shen Luyang looked at Xie Weihan like a student handing in homework, waiting nervously for the teacher’s grade.

Teacher Xie was always gentle with this particular student. Even when the answer was lacking, he only asked softly, “Is that all?”

The gentleness actually made Shen Luyang nervous. Given the atmosphere, he couldn’t tell if his nerves were from the fear of slipping up or something else entirely. Hearing Xie Weihan’s prompt, he quickly changed his approach. Following what Xie Weihan had done to him before, he slowed his breathing and gradually, slowly, used his fingertips to trace the man’s cool pads. It was a clumsy provocation, entangling their fingers. The small patches of skin became hyper-sensitive; every minute touch sent a wave of indescribable shivers through him until their fingers were fully interlocked.

Shen Luyang looked at “Teacher Xie” again. His fingertips twitched uncomfortably as he asked tentatively, “Do we have to interlock fingers when we hold hands?” When Xie Weihan did it, it looked so seductive. Why did he feel so clumsy doing it?

Xie Weihan let out a low laugh. He lifted his index finger from between Shen Luyang’s and tapped it lightly on the back of his hand. “Passing grade.”

Shen Luyang’s fingers flinched. He tugged at his collar and breathed a sigh of relief, genuinely happy to have “passed.” Like an innocent herbivore, he was completely unaware that he had walked right into a trap.

“If we go to the movies later,” Shen Luyang raised his joined hands, simulating the interlocked fingers, “we can hold hands during the most romantic parts…”

A dark glint flashed in Xie Weihan’s eyes, quickly masked by a layer of surface gentleness. “And after that?”

“After that?” Shen Luyang thought about it, taking the “test” seriously. “After that is… kissing?” His college roommates’ experience was always: see a movie, find a chance to kiss, then go back and post on social media…

Looking at the man leaning casually beside him, Shen Luyang realized belatedly what he was doing and what those words implied.

“If I were Teacher Shi,” Xie Weihan’s dark pupils seemed to swirl like wine. Shen Luyang’s mouth parted slightly. His vision was filled with nothing but those thin lips, which moved in a ghost of an arc to utter intoxicating syllables: “What would you do?”

Shen Luyang’s Adam’s apple bobbed.

To kiss.

It was fine; they had kissed several times already. He wasn’t a novice with zero experience anymore. Shen Luyang stood up and moved in front of Xie Weihan, kneeling with one knee on the sofa beside him. One hand braced against the back of the sofa, the other rested on the man’s shoulder.

Xie Weihan’s gaze was soft, filled with encouragement and indulgence. The high-angle perspective made Shen Luyang’s blood boil. His eyes traced every detail of Xie Weihan’s deep features—the bridge of his nose, the thin crimson lips. He looked like an artist’s masterpiece or a forbidden, exotic sculpture that lured the weak-willed into obsession.

Shen Luyang began to feel nervous. His throat was dry. “Is kissing like this… correct?”

Xie Weihan gave a slight nod. His eyes held a darkness that Shen Luyang couldn’t decipher, making the eyes he loved so much look like they contained a vast starry sky, easily capturing his wandering soul.

Shen Luyang’s breath hitched. His fingers curled awkwardly on Xie Weihan’s shoulder. He leaned down clumsily, inching closer. As he caught the faint scent of red wine perfume, he suddenly realized that this was the first time they were kissing without pheromones being involved.

An indescribable ambiguity coiled within their tangled breaths, like a miniature bomb detonating in the lake of Shen Luyang’s heart. Tiny ripples appeared on the surface but beneath, it was a raging storm.

The young man had handsome features and eyes that usually crinkled when he gave a carefree laugh. Now, that was replaced by panic and a hidden shyness. His hurried, shallow breaths made his chest rise and fall irregularly. His nostrils flared slightly as he tensed up like a boy on his first blind date. Despite being the one who initiated this, he looked as lost as a child hovering on the edge of a mistake. He pressed his lips tight, afraid of being offensive, and leaned in with extreme care.

Their lips met; one warm, one cool. After a clumsy attempt at licking and nipping, his breathing shattered completely. His chest heaved, and the corners of his eyes took on the crimson flush of an emotional Alpha. His heart hammered so hard his chest ached. He didn’t know why, but without the blurry glass of pheromones, even just being near Xie Weihan made his fingertips burn uncontrollably.

A flash of crimson flickered in Xie Weihan’s black pupils. Just as Shen Luyang blurted out, “I still don’t know how,” the hand on the sofa moved to the vulnerable side of his neck. A thumb pressed against his Adam’s apple. When Shen Luyang tilted his neck back from the slight pain, the man suddenly applied force and pinned him against the other side of the sofa.

The beast lurking in the dark, with its sharp claws retracted, had finally encountered a delicious prey. He tore away his gentle, harmless skin to reveal the desire engraved in his very marrow.

The hand that Shen Luyang had admired so many times pressed against the back of his head. A thumb forcefully kneaded his earlobe. He leaned down and kissed Shen Luyang’s lips. It was a meticulous kiss that broke away as soon as it touched.

Shen Luyang felt like he was sick; his heart was pounding painfully. He instinctively called for help. “Teacher Xie, I—”

The rest of his words were swallowed by the suddenly scorching lips. Amidst the hazy intoxication, a sudden pain hit his lip. Shen Luyang pressed his hand blindly against the back of Xie Weihan’s neck. He had caught the devil’s only weakness, yet he made no further move.

Xie Weihan paused for a moment, then kissed the tip of his other ear as a reward. He took it into his mouth lightly, leaving a damp trail. Meticulous kisses moved from his earlobe to his jaw, finally landing on the artery in his neck in a deep, forceful kiss.

Shen Luyang’s eyes went wide. He clutched his bright red ear. A sense of crisis finally surfaced, and he tried to back away. But there was nowhere to go.

He felt that something was wrong. Compared to the previous times, Xie Weihan’s movements were much more dominant, yet he still maintained a grip on every one of Shen Luyang’s fragile nerves, tightening and releasing them on the edge of his limit…

As the man’s teeth grazed his vulnerable Adam’s apple, Shen Luyang instinctively grabbed Xie Weihan’s shoulders and tried to push him back. The other man let go without a hint of lingering, their eyes meeting. Before he could react, he was pulled into a deep kiss on his parted lips, leaving no room for even a breath.

From the tip to the lobe, his ears were red enough to bleed. Shen Luyang felt like his entire body was on fire. His thoughts were fragmented in his melting mind, struggling to piece themselves together.

It turned out that during the previous times, Xie Weihan had been “letting him win,” even allowing him to take the lead with his terrible kissing technique. Shen Luyang was kissed until he was breathless. It wasn’t until Xie Weihan pulled away that he took a massive, desperate breath of oxygen like a drowning dog.

The “good” in “I’m not as good as you say” was referring to this.

Shen Luyang looked up at him, his gaze landing on a drop of sweat poised to fall from the man’s Adam’s apple. For the first time, a sense of “retreat” appeared on his face. He instinctively tried to scoot back.

But he was pinned to the sofa by a hand on his shoulder. Xie Weihan unbuttoned the top two buttons of his loungewear with one hand, revealing his smooth, cold, pale collarbone. The curve of his lips was like that of a beautiful vampire who had finally tasted the blood of a long-desired prey. His voice was enticing.

“Do you not want it?”

Shen Luyang heard his heart go from thump-thump-thump to thumpthumpthumpthumpthump…

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