Why is This Clingy Snow Leopard Acting So Innocent? - Chapter 36

Chapter 36: Tooth Marks—Ever Been With Anyone Else?

Beep— Beep— Beep—

The second the call connected, Su Wen instinctively hung up.

Almost immediately, a chat notification popped up from his sister: — What’s wrong?

Su Wen stared at the message, falling into a long silence.

Beside him, the sleeping Yun Shu let out a whimper, likely dreaming about something. Su Wen sighed and finally replied: — Wrong number.

She didn’t press further.

Truthfully, since their parents passed away and Su Jian began managing the company, the two of them hadn’t really spoken. Looking through their chat history from the past few years, they didn’t exchange more than ten sentences a year, and it was always about work. He had spoken more to Yun Shu in these two short months than he had to her in years.

It was 7:16 AM. A whistle sounded outside; the herders’ cattle were already heading up the mountain. By all rights, everyone should be awake. Su Jian was likely already in a car bound for the office, and normally, Yun Shu would be outside preparing breakfast.

But he was too drunk. Showing no signs of waking, he’d likely be out for another two hours.

Su Wen propped his head up, silently observing him. Much of the heavy alcohol scent had dissipated. Aside from some puffiness around the eyes, he was still undeniably handsome.

Su Wen stretched his shoulders. Remembering how tightly Yun Shu had held him last night, he’d almost expected his shoulder blades to dislocate. To cry like that—if anyone had seen it, they’d think Su Wen had been bullying him. A sturdy man nearly 190cm tall, yet crying like a kitten.

Su Wen reached out, measuring Yun Shu’s face with his hand, then tilted his chin to turn his face. Yeah, the look doesn’t match the personality at all. If he cried like that in front of an enemy, they’d probably die of laughter.

Su Wen chuckled softly, but then Yun Shu’s voice from yesterday—pathetic, as if he’d been abandoned—flashed through his mind: “Why… why…?”

“Why did you forget me?”

“Why what?” Su Wen whispered, repeating the phrase. “Forget? Forget what?”

As he tried to think deeper, a sharp pain throbbed in his head. It felt like someone was violently kicking his brain every time he tried to reflect. He rubbed his temples, instinctively compartmentalizing the issue. It wasn’t that he didn’t want to think; it was that he felt it had nothing to do with him.

He opened his phone again, looking at the chat with Su Jian. He hesitated, then closed it. It’s not him. He hadn’t forgotten anything.

“Mmm… ugh…?” Yun Shu suddenly started groaning.

Su Wen looked over to see him slowly blinking. He wasn’t fully awake yet; his eyes were glazed and dazed. Su Wen turned off his screen and tossed the phone aside, resuming his playful smirk. “Awake? Drunkard.”

Yun Shu froze. He instinctively scanned the room, then looked at Su Wen, who was leaning his head and smiling at him. His eyes widened. He scrambled to feel his head—aside from messy hair, there was nothing unusual; his ears were right where they should be.

He breathed a sigh of relief and propped himself up.

“I… cough, cough, cough…” The second he opened his mouth, the burning sensation in his throat silenced him, leaving him in a coughing fit. He took the water Su Wen handed him and downed it in one go. Only then did the burning subside.

After a long pause, Yun Shu asked hoarsely, “Why am I sleeping here?”

Su Wen gave a soft huff. “You forgot everything?”

Yun Shu sensed something was off from his tone. After a while, he asked cautiously, “Forgot what?”

“Forgot what? Ha…” Su Wen almost laughed out of frustration. He pulled down his collar, revealing the tooth marks on his collarbone. He’d thought they’d fade in minutes, but after a night, they had turned red—specifically two circular imprints. “Look at how you bit me!”

The marks sat prominently against his fair skin, a clear, exclusive brand.

The fire in the stove outside was burning so fiercely that the air in the room felt parched. Yun Shu swallowed instinctively.

Memories from last night surged back: how he’d used liquid courage to press close to Su Wen, how he’d nuzzled his face and neck, what nonsense he’d babbled, and how he’d craved that embrace. It was the first time he’d ever proactively bared his soul.

He looked down. His upper body was bare. His gaze shifted further down, under the blanket. He could feel, quite clearly, the blanket slowly beginning to rise.

He swallowed again, despite his dry throat.

“Remember now?”

Yun Shu nodded. While Su Wen wasn’t looking, he tugged at the blanket, bunching it up to hide the protrusion as much as possible.

That feeling was back.

“Nothing to say?”

“I’m sorry.”

“Is ‘I’m sorry’ all I get?” Su Wen thought he’d surely take the hint to confess so they could finally be together.

Instead, Yun Shu sat there with a beet-red face and said with total sincerity, “I’m never drinking again.”

Su Wen: “…”

This is what it’s like talking to a half-witted idiot.

He knelt on the bed, grabbed a nearby pillow, and slammed it into Yun Shu, hitting him square in the head.

Yun Shu didn’t move. He sat there frozen, silent, his breathing audible. Su Wen moved the pillow aside. Yun Shu’s face was flushed; his mouth was slightly open, and he was breathing slowly, as if trying to suppress something.

Su Wen was confused. “What’s wrong with you?”

Yun Shu seemed to be enduring something. His voice came out in fragments. After a long while, he tugged the slipping blanket back up, covering himself in an obvious cover-up. “Nothing. It’s nothing.”

“Do you have a fever?”

“I really don’t.” Yun Shu gripped the blanket, moving to lie back down.

Su Wen’s gaze locked onto Yun Shu’s lower half—the part hidden by the blanket. Realization dawned. He put the pillow down.

“Really nothing?”

Yun Shu looked away. “Yeah… yeah, really nothing.”

“Oh, nothing.”

Su Wen made a move to get out of bed and leave. Behind him, Yun Shu let out a quiet sigh of relief, his grip on the blanket loosening.

Just as Su Wen’s feet touched his shoes, he spun around in a surprise maneuver. Before Yun Shu could react, the blanket was yanked away.

The room fell deathly silent. It was so quiet you could almost hear the yaks chewing grass on the mountain.

“Yun Shu,” Su Wen remained half-kneeling, his eyes instinctively fixed on him. “You…” He looked up, the words dying in his throat.

Yun Shu’s face was crimson. He wanted to explain, but the words were stuck. He spun around, grabbed the pillow Su Wen had tossed aside, and used it to cover himself.

Su Wen sat cross-legged to the side, rubbing his forehead in exasperation. “How are you even…?”

“Sigh, forget it.” He shook his head, having talked himself into understanding. “It’s normal. Completely normal. You’re not a kid anymore.”

Normal… He turned his head. Yun Shu had his head bowed, hands white-knuckled as he gripped the pillow. His face was so red it looked like it might bleed. Su Wen’s sudden awkwardness vanished, replaced by a smirk he had to struggle to keep from turning into a laugh.

Yun Shu felt like he was being stared at. He felt a hole being burned into the side of his face. Clutching the pillow, he prepared to scramble off the bed and escape.

But just as he got off the bed, before he could stand, he was yanked back by the arm. With a stumble, he was pulled back onto the mattress.

Su Wen arched an eyebrow, his smile playful. “Where do you think you’re going?”

Yun Shu suppressed the strained quality in his voice, looking at him with an innocent face. “The bathroom.”

Su Wen blinked, reaching out to graze his finger over Yun Shu’s nose. It sounded like a suggestion, but his hand was gripping him tight. “What if you don’t go?”

Yun Shu blinked slowly. He felt his human rationality slowly ebbing away; he was reverting to the state of a beast. Like a wild animal, his mind was filled with the most primal desires. He had been alive for nearly 14 years, but had spent 12 of them as a human; he had almost forgotten what a snow leopard’s instincts felt like.

All ambient noise vanished, replaced by a humming sound rising from his body. Across the bridge of civilization that separates leopard and man, he heard a voice whispering seductively in his ear: “Let me help you, okay?”

He wanted him to choose. He had handed him the power to choose, yet gave him no chance to exercise it; his lifeline was already in the other man’s grasp.

The stove outside was burning too hot. The whole room was stifling.

“It’s… it’s on fire…” he rasped, burying his head in the crook of the other man’s neck. It seemed the only way to find a hint of coolness.

Su Wen laughed. “Is it?”

“How big is it?”

“It’s burning… it’s burning up…” Yun Shu desperately tried to find some relief, but he was always just short. Coolness was right in front of him, but it felt like someone was teasing him, keeping it just out of reach. “So hot… so hot…”

The mischievous Su Wen wasn’t about to make it easy for him. He offered no relief, only teasing him until his whole body was in agony, offering no compensation.

“Really? Just how hot is it?”

Tears of physiological heat blurred Yun Shu’s vision. Controlled and unable to make a rational choice, he could only respond with instinct: “I’m burning… I’m going to burn to death…”

The whole room was on fire. The flames seemed to be leaping onto him, yet also erupting from within him. He was born in the snowy highlands and raised on these snow mountains; even after years of school in Linzhou, he had never been this hot. External heat could be brushed away by cold air, but not this. He was always on the verge of reaching that coolness, only to be thrown back into the sweltering heat again and again.

“Su Wen…” his voice trembled, a hoarse plea. “Su Wen!!”

He was like a snow leopard struggling in a desert, begging a god for a drop of cool water.

But the god was high above, perfectly calm. “What did you call me?”

“Ge… Ge-ge…” He quickly changed his tone. “Good brother, I love you, please…”

“Woof! Woof!”

In the distance, the bark of a Tibetan Mastiff rang out from the mountain, and everything in the room returned to peace.

The god returned the gift he had received from his believer. He gently patted his back, soothing the follower who was still trembling from the heat he had just escaped.

But the words he spoke weren’t quite so kind:

“Before this… did you ever do this with anyone else?”