Sissy (Niang Niang Qiang) - Chap 9
Chapter 9
Li Chengxiu waited for Shao Qun to leave. Afterwards he rubbed his stomach for a while. But the pain was so bad that he couldn’t press too hard. He was fine with waiting for it to slowly recover, anyway. His bones were not broken, so everything was going to be okay in the end.
He stayed in the nurse’s office for a while and then went back to class. Although his classmates peeked at him from time to time, no one dared to bother him anymore.
When classes were over, he was still the first one to rush out of the classroom to catch the earliest bus in order to go to his relative’s restaurant. Although he felt very uncomfortable, he couldn’t afford to take a sick day.
For several days after that, Shao Qun’s gang didn’t appear in front of him anymore. Li Chengxiu wanted to return their money and their clothes to them, as he felt that it was not a good idea to keep the things that didn’t belong to him. Who knew what kind of bad luck they would bring? But it seemed that the gang had lost their interest in him, and Li Chengxiu was also unwilling to look for them on his own initiative. He was in a sort of a dilemma.
He always carried the money with him, and kept the clothes in his desk. In case he came across those guys, he could return everything immediately.
A week later, the swelling on his face had finally disappeared, and the bruise on his stomach had significantly improved. Just when he was about to throw Shao Qun and his gang completely out of his mind, he ran into Shao Qun yet again.
Strictly speaking, Shao Qun had planned that encounter.
As usual, at noon, Li Chengxiu ran to the rooftop of the teaching building to have his lunch break – read a book, revise some exam tasks, eat something, and take a nap.
While he was reading a book and nibbling on the steamed bun filled with fermented bean curd, the big iron door on the rooftop hit the wall with a loud bang. Li Chengxiu was startled and turned around to see who it was.
Shao Qun was squinting his eyes, standing in the midday sun. When he saw Li Chengxiu, he immediately walked towards him.
Li Chengxiu, who was previously leaning against the wall in a relaxed pose, sat up nervously, looking around with some helplessness. The scorching sun had dried the concrete floor, and one could feel how crazy hot it was just by looking at it. It was the spring season, yet the high temperatures already approached the midsummer levels. There was only one small patch of shade under the water tank where Li Chengxiu was sitting. It was originally the only comfortably cool and pleasant place on the rooftop.
He wanted to run the moment he saw Shao Qun. He wanted to pretend he hadn’t seen him, turn around and head downstairs. But as Shao Qun was approaching him one step at a time, he was just too scared to move.
Shao Qun sat down beside Li Chengxiu and glanced at him: “Why do you still look so dirty? Where are the clothes I bought for you?”
Li Chengxiu looked at his wrinkled shirt: “In my desk. I…I… can give it back to you in the afternoon after school?”
Shao Qun was stunned for a moment, then he raised his voice: “Are you insane? What would I need them for? How can I wear something meant for a stunted body shape like yours? Even if I could fit in those clothes, I wouldn’t dare touch them – I’m afraid of getting your lice and fleas.”
Li Chengxiu’s face turned red, he choked up and tightly twisted the corner of his clothes with one hand. He was still holding a half-eaten steamed bun in his other hand. He lowered his head and kept quiet.
Shao Qun suddenly grabbed his chin and lifted his face up. He carefully examined his face and said: “Well, the swelling has disappeared.” Then he reached out and pressed Li Chengxiu’s cheek.
Although the swelling really had subsided, it still hurt when pressed like that. Li Chengxiu closed his eyes and hissed.
“So it still hurts.” Shao Qun took his hand away and suddenly reached out to lift up Li Chengxiu’s clothes.
Li Chengxiu was startled. He tried to block him with his hand, which was still holding the steamed bun. As a result, it fell directly onto Shao Qun’s thigh. The weather was hot, and Shao Qun was wearing shorts, so the red bean paste was rubbed all over Shao Qun’s upper leg.
This made Shao Qun really angry. It seems that every time he encounters Li Chengxiu, he always gets dirty all over. He kicked the half-eaten steamed bun away and shouted, “What the hell are you doing? I just wanted to check if your stomach is okay.”
Li Chengxiu nervously stared at Shao Qun’s thigh, turned around and searched for something to wipe him.
He was afraid that if something didn’t go Shao Qun’s way, this little delinquent would beat him up. He was always very careful, but for some reason ended up offending him every time they met.
Shao Qun looked at Li Chengxiu’s anxious appearance – the way his nostrils slightly flared, the way his long eyelashes were fluttering quickly like little brushes, and the way he was biting his lower lip with a row of small white teeth. Shao Qun suddenly felt a little hot, and he had a bunch of evil thoughts he couldn’t control anymore.
He stretched out his hand and grabbed Li Chengxiu’s ear, pretending to be calm and pointing at his thigh: “I will kindly forgive you this last time. But I can’t let it go just like that either… You have to lick it clean for me.”
Li Chengxiu’s eyes widened and then immediately filled with tears.
He didn’t expect that Shao Qun could insult him like that. Li Chengxiu had tried his best to be cautious, humble and not to give him any opportunity to embarrass him. But he had completely overlooked the main problem – this person was deliberately troubling him, and there was no way to hide from him.
Shao Qun looked at Li Chengxiu’s aggrieved expression, and an uncontrollable excitement surged up inside him. He wanted to see what his tongue looked like and whether it felt just like he imagined it – soft and velvety. He wondered what it would feel like to have his thigh licked by that tongue.
Young Master Shao grew up with an innate ability to bully people. He would vent his bad temper on anyone he didn’t like, but he had never felt this kind of… desire to manipulate towards any other people he bullied. It was an indescribable feeling – he vaguely sensed that he wanted to do something to Li Chengxiu, but he didn’t know what exactly. He wanted Li Chengxiu’s bright eyes to look at him, he wanted him to be scared of him, he wanted him to obey him, he wanted Li Chengxiu to flatter him like all other people did, and he wanted him to lick his thigh with his tongue .
He chalked it up to the fact that this boy was too much of a sissy to be treated like any other man. It was too boring to beat him up or slap him around. One just had to play something special with him.
So Shao Qun pressed Li Chengxiu’s head towards himself and forced him to lick his thigh.
Li Chengxiu cried.
He was already numb to the indifference and contempt of his classmates. To keep himself out of trouble, he isolated himself every day, ignoring all kinds of overt and covert acts of violence towards him. But that didn’t mean that he had no dignity.
Although he had no idea what the deeper meaning behind licking his male classmate’s thigh was, he was still ashamed to do that. It seemed akin to the humiliation of crawling under somebody’s crotch[31]. In the TV series he had watched as a child, this was the biggest insult to a man. As long as the hero still had the last bit of blood flowing in his veins, it was absolutely not acceptable to undergo such humiliation.
But Li Chengxiu was not a hero after all, so he didn’t dare to spit on Shao Qun’s face and tell him off with a few bold words. But even under the threat of being beaten, Li Chengxiu didn’t want to do such an embarrassing thing. So he could only cry and try to push away Shao Qun’s hand on his head.
Shao Qun had always been defiant – the more one went against him, the more he pushed the person to obey. But this time, it was somehow different. Looking at Li Chengxiu’s crying eyes, he suddenly felt a little soft.
But even though his heart softened, he still was unsatisfied.
“Don’t you fucking cry again! Why are you constantly crying?”
Li Chengxiu felt that his grip weakened, so he quickly straightened out and took a big step back. From a safe distance, he looked at Shao Qun cautiously while wiping away his tears.
Irritated, Shao Qun picked up a notebook off the ground, tore out a piece of paper from there and wiped the fermented bean paste with it.
The unsatisfied longing was still there, and he had a strong desire to do something about it.
Shao Qun approached Li Chengxiu again, grabbed him by his clothes and stopped him from moving away.
“Damn it, I’m so good to you! If you didn’t make me feel like I’m dealing with a girl and if you weren’t such a sissy, I would have fucking beaten you to death for annoying me like that!”
In the opinion of Little Master Shao, he really was “good” to Li Chengxiu. His tolerance towards him was very high, so he was extremely annoyed that Li Chengxiu was such an ungrateful animal.
He pulled at Li Chengxiu’s clothes: “I just want to see how your stomach is healing. If you don’t lift it up, I’m going to get really angry.”
Li Chengxiu was stubbornly holding onto his shirt. He choked and said, “No, don’t look.”
As soon as Shao Qun heard this, he immediately raised his hand to slap him, but seeing Li Chengxiu shrinking his neck in fear, he couldn’t go through with it. He was so angry, yet he didn’t know whether he was angry at Li Chengxiu or at himself.
The anger made him act – he suddenly threw Li Chengxiu to the ground, sat on his crotch, pressed his shoulder with one hand and pulled his clothes up with the other: “I just want to look.”
Li Chengxiu couldn’t throw him off, so he was forced to lift his clothes, revealing his thin waist.
Shao Qun put his hand on Li Chengxiu’s stomach. The skin was soft and warm to the touch, and he could feel how his stomach rose and fell with every breath.
Shao Qun couldn’t help but gently stroke it a couple of times. It wasn’t until he saw Li Chengxiu’s wide eyes staring at him when he realized that his hand was now stroking the smooth and delicate skin of his chest.
Shao Qun had never been so embarrassed before. His cheeks suddenly blushed, and he pulled his hand away as if he was burnt.
Li Chengxiu’s little face was also blushing, and his narrow chin was stretched out so far that it formed a stiff angle with his neck. What happened a couple moments ago seemed somehow abnormal – how can a normal man touch another man like that?
Young Master Shao got off Li Chengxiu and sat down next to the water tank. The atmosphere between them was awkward. Shao Qun secretly clenched his fists, in order to prevent the feeling of the soft and smooth touch from escaping.
Li Chengxiu also sat up, straightened his clothes, packed his book and his notebook back into his school bag and wanted to sneak out of Shao Qun’s sight.
Shao Qun glanced at him from the corner of his eye: “Where are you going?”
“Ah… going back.”
“Going back where?”
Li Chengxiu himself didn’t know the answer to that. Anywhere where he didn’t have to stay alone with that person was fine.
Young Master Shao pointed to the ground: “Sit down. You’re not allowed to go.”
The only thing left for Li Chengxiu was to sit down. The expression on his face was so painful as if he was forced to sit on a sharp knife.
Shao Qun puffed up his cheeks and stared at Li Chengxiu for such a long time that he could have counted all the hairs on his body.
Suddenly Shao Qun pulled up his previously discarded school bag towards himself – the shiny leather bag was mercilessly dragged all over the concrete floor. Shao Qun opened his bag and shook out a bunch of things.
Li Chengxiu looked down and saw that most of them were snacks, but there were also a few boxes of medicine and a few books inside.
Shao Qun piled the medicine in front of Li Chengxiu: “These pills are good. You will feel better soon after taking them.” Then he pointed at the snacks, “These are also for you.”
Li Chengxiu looked at him blankly.
Shao Qun opened the medicine box on his own, took out a few pills and handed them to Li Chengxiu together with a bottle of water: “Take the medicine first.”
Li Chengxiu hesitated for a while, took the pills and swallowed them with water. Afterwards he stared at the pile of snacks in front of him.
“Don’t just look! Eat some.” said Shao Qun, picked up a bulging bag and started tearing it open.
Li Chengxiu quickly pushed the bag away: “Don’t open it! I won’t eat any.”
Shao Qun shook his hand away and opened the bag anyway : “Yes, you’ll eat it! Why are you whining?”
Li Chengxiu shook his head: “I’m full.”
Shao Qun frowned: “You have no fucking balls – if I tell you to eat, you’re gonna eat. You have to be obedient when I’m angry with you, otherwise what’s the fun in it for me?”
A trace of shame flashed in Li Chengxiu’s eyes.
Shao Qun was right – he didn’t have the guts to resist, so he might as well do what Shao Qun told him to. Provoking a young master like Shao Qun, who was accustomed to obedience, won’t do him any good.
Li Chengxiu took a small orange-yellow cake from the bag. He could feel the sweet smell coming from it. He glanced at Shao Qun and lowered his head to eat it.
Shao Qun watched him cautiously handle a piece of custard pie the size of his palm – he was just like a little squirrel he had teased outside last month. What exactly did he do then? Right, he touched it’s head, and the little thing immediately jumped away in horror trying to avoid his touch. When it was far enough, it lowered its head and continued chewing.
Shao Qun stretched out his hand and lightly patted Li Chengxiu’s head. Sure enough, the boy looked up in shock. Big glossy black eyes were looking at him in a loss. His long eyelashes fluttered as he quickly blinked twice and then quietly pulled his body up, trying to avoid Shao Qun’s hand.
Shao Qun laughed.
Li Chengxiu was stunned.
It was the first time he saw Shao Qun laughing. He was a very good-looking boy, with red lips and white teeth, and a heroic look about him. It’s just that he liked to frown too much, and his actions were not so kind. Therefore, he always had a fierce expression on his face, and no one dared to approach him, no matter how handsome he was.
But when he smiled, it seemed like his whole person became brighter. The atmosphere of a vicious bully that usually surrounded him suddenly faded. This smile brought back the refreshing sunny youth that he should have been at this age. Li Chengxiu was speechless for a while, as he suddenly felt his heart skip a beat.
Shao Qun didn’t take his hand away and continued touching Li Chengxiu’s hair which was very fine and soft. It felt really nice to the touch. Before, Shao Qun had always disliked this kind of soft messy hair but turns out it had such a pleasant texture.
He felt like he was handling a small pet – it was soft and warm, and it was pleasant to stroke.
Shao Qun suddenly realized that he liked touching Li Chengxiu so much because he regarded him as a pet! Finally he had found a reasonable explanation for his behavior. He had a cat and a dog at home. He also liked to play with them. He fed them when he was happy, and kicked them when he was unhappy.
Shao Qun got a little excited. He was suddenly like a child who just received a brand new toy and was looking forward to playing with it, as well as thinking about all the ways he could make this toy even more fun.
He moved even closer to Li Chengxiu and fondled his head the same way he did to his labrador: “I’ll protect you in the future. So from now on follow me!”
