To Marry My Little Chestnut - Chapter 9

Yu Yan did not feel particularly cute; instead, he felt like a failure.

He had summoned the courage to hug Zheng Tingyang, but the man had only stiffened for a moment. They had sat on the sofa together for a brief embrace before Zheng Tingyang returned to his bedroom without another word. A while later, Zheng Tingyang changed into loungewear and prepared a bath for him, telling him to go in and wash up. Yu Yan entered the bathroom, his face flushed with embarrassment and his head hung low.

“I am stewing a late-night snack. Eat it when you are finished and go to bed early. I have a meeting tonight. Call me when you are done, and I will dry your hair,” Zheng Tingyang said softly, rubbing the top of Yu Yan’s head.

Yu Yan nodded. “Okay.”

Closing the bathroom door, he recalled what Xiang Qian had said on the phone that afternoon. “You are so beautiful that even if he is a Beta who cannot smell pheromones, he will still fall for you.”

“Not likely,” Yu Yan thought.

He felt like a deflated balloon. His courage was smaller than an ant. To him, a canary had no right to demand true love. Yu Yan had never dared to tell Xiang Qian about what happened in high school. Perhaps the seventeen-year-old Zheng Tingyang had truly liked him back then. However, in high school, Yu Yan had torn up the love letter Zheng Tingyang wrote to him, treading the man’s dignity into the dirt. That version of himself was certainly not someone Zheng Tingyang would like. Perhaps those feelings had vanished on that afternoon the letter was destroyed. Was this marriage now merely a forced arrangement for the sake of the child?

“But Zheng Tingyang, back then, I did not want to tear up your letter. It was my father who forbade it,” Yu Yan thought, feeling a dull ache in his chest.

He did not want to remain silent, but he was not brave enough to speak. He was terrified that mentioning the past would ruin the polite and formal decency they shared now.

“Little Fish, soak for a while longer. I will call you when the snack is ready.” Outside, Zheng Tingyang knocked on the door. He politely reached a hand in to pass a dry and warm bath towel without even looking inside.

Yu Yan gave a small affirmation, gripped the towel, and looked at himself in the mirror. The layout of the house was simple. This property had been empty before their marriage and was only renovated afterward. It was a spacious apartment with a minimalist four-bedroom structure, but the bathroom design was peculiar. A floor-to-ceiling mirror stretched from the entrance all the way to the bathtub, allowing him to see his own reflection clearly while bathing.

He used to think it was strange, but Zheng Tingyang explained that the design visually expanded the space, making it look simpler and brighter. He took off his one-piece pajamas in front of the mirror and stood barefoot, examining his reflection. Since becoming pregnant, his body had not changed much except for his gradually protruding lower abdomen. At five months along, he could still see his toes when he looked down. His delicate and fair skin was being slowly stretched. Touching his belly, he wondered if he would develop stretch marks.

“Probably not,” he thought. Zheng Tingyang applied oil to him every day. As he stroked his stomach, a softness entered his apricot-colored eyes; it was a tenderness unique to an expectant parent.

He saw his slender and thin back and the curve of his spine leading down to his waist. His pale skin had a slight pinkish tint, and he had almost no body hair. He supported his abdomen with one hand and moved the other up to his chest, thinking about how he would eventually nurse the baby. However, since he was so small there, would the baby be able to eat enough?

He pinched himself in frustration. The lingering sensitivity of his heat caused his thoughts to stray. He spoke to his reflection, “You are so pathetic!”

He gave himself a frustrated slap but then felt a sting of pain. With a crimson face, he supported his waist and slowly sat on the edge of the tub, feeling like he wanted to cry out of sheer frustration. Zheng Tingyang had not even come in to check on him; he had just handed him a towel and left.

“He is a gentleman. He is being polite. What about you? What are you thinking about? Yu Yan, can you have some self-respect? Even if you were not married, you would have to spend your heat alone with the baby, right? Stop always wanting him to help you.”

He stepped into the tub. The water supported his waist as the steam rose and the temperature climbed. Bubbles floated on the surface of the water, and a few clumps sat on top of his head like floating marshmallows. It became too hot, so he leaned toward the mirror, looking at his damp eyelashes. The water line reached his chest. He pressed his fingertips against the mirror.

Was the wall behind this mirror part of Zheng Tingyang’s bedroom? Was it where the closet was? Zheng Tingyang’s room had a large closet that must be filled with neatly arranged shirts and suits, carrying that faint scent of his body wash. Thinking of the man’s broad shoulders and powerful silhouette, Yu Yan felt a surge of desire he could not suppress. Seeing his own flushed face in the mirror, he climbed out of the bathtub.

Water splashed onto the porcelain tiles. He looked down at his belly and then at himself in the mirror, finally unable to help himself. Why was it that he could not control himself whenever he thought of Zheng Tingyang? The mirror reflected the bubbles in the tub, which had gathered into white clumps that were being popped one by one by the heat.

“Mmh.”

He had soaked too long and lost his strength. As a delicate Omega, he felt as though he had lost the ability to take care of his own needs. His pregnant belly obstructed his movements, making it impossible to finish quickly.

“Little Fish, Little Fish, hurry up.”

Drunk on the steam, he could not find release. His lips were bitten red, and his slender neck arched back. He nearly fell back into the tub as the water reached his ankles. Sitting on the counter, he tried to work harder. A thin layer of sweat broke out over his gland, and the bathroom grew thick with the scent of chestnut cake.

The mirror; behind the mirror was Tingyang’s room. When Tingyang slept at night, did he think about him as well? His fingertips left long streaks on the mirror. It was almost time; he was nearly there.

“Knock, knock!” The bathroom door sounded.

“Little Fish, the snack is ready,” Zheng Tingyang reminded him from outside.

The taut string suddenly snapped. Yu Yan lost his footing and slipped back into the tub with a loud splash. The overflowing water flowed all the way to the doorframe. He choked on the water and began to cough.

“Did I scare you?” Zheng Tingyang opened the door and pulled him out of the tub in a few quick strides. “The tub is slippery. Why were you so careless?”

Yu Yan blinked his damp and doe-like eyes at the man. His face was burning hot, and he tried to hide his arousal beneath the water, terrified of being seen. Zheng Tingyang held him steady in the water, his brow furrowed. His palm brushed over Yu Yan’s collarbone and chest. “You have soaked yourself red here.”

As the rough fingertips grazed his skin, Yu Yan grabbed the man’s hand like a fish caught on land. His shoulders trembled, and he tried to stop the man from touching further down, finally stopping at his pregnant belly. He let out a soft and muffled groan against the side of the tub, his throat filled with the lingering aftertaste of his desire.

“Ngh!” Yu Yan’s body shook uncontrollably a few times.

“Your heat is not over yet. You soaked for too long, and your body is overheated again,” Zheng Tingyang said with a helpless shake of his head as he helped rinse the bubbles off with the showerhead.

Yu Yan gave a quiet response. “It is because my body is too weak.”

His gaze drifted to a clump of thick and white fluid floating up from the bottom of the tub. His face turned bright red, and he became even more speechless. Zheng Tingyang followed his gaze, scooped the substance out, and said with a light laugh, “Little Fish, how did you manage to squeeze body wash into the water?”

The liquid dripped back into the tub through the gaps in his fingers. Yu Yan thought to himself, “That was not body wash.”

He was such a pathetic Little Fish; he felt like he was going to die of shame. At least it was only a mirror. If Tingyang had seen him like that, he would have no dignity left. He was such a shameless Omega.

By the time he snapped out of it, his hair was already being dried. Zheng Tingyang said his body was too weak and that he could not even stand steady after a short bath. Zheng Tingyang sat him on the vanity to dry his hair. Yu Yan swung his legs and suddenly noticed that Zheng Tingyang had changed his pajamas as well. Had he gotten the other ones dirty while making the snack?

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