Thank you so much, Yartizt & Mystic, for the ko-fis!!! :blobaww:

Zhu Ming felt like he had never been so angry in his life.

It was as if a fire was burning in his chest, and every breath he took felt hot enough to scorch his lungs.

Fueled by this anger, he took a taxi straight to District Six, arriving at Xi Xianqing’s doorstep. Ever since the day his legs had recovered, he had never moved this swiftly or decisively.

He knew full well that not seeing Xi Xianqing right now might be the best choice, but he couldn’t sit still. He felt everything seem incomprehensible. In the end, he pressed the doorbell.

The person opening the door could only be one of a few possibilities: a servant, Xi Mufei, or Xi Xianqing. Zhu Ming had already prepared for each scenario.

But what he hadn’t expected was that the first thing to meet his eyes when the door opened would be a green peac0ck, curled up quietly in the entryway.

Zhu Ming had never seen Dish Soap in such a state before—it hung its head low, curled up on the floor as if utterly devoid of security. The moment the door opened, it wearily lifted its small, beady eyes and looked at him dully.

The once proud peac0ck that used to sway its butt to flaunt its magnificent plumage now had tail feathers that looked like lifeless, withered branches, splayed weakly on the ground.

A sudden tightness gripped Zhu Ming’s chest. It took him a long moment to suppress the sour ache welling inside him before he lifted his gaze to the person standing behind the green peac0ck.

It was already evening in District Six, and only the dim entryway light was on.

Xi Xianqing stood behind the door, dressed in a thin shirt. His slightly disheveled bangs hung down, partially obscuring his sharp and handsome features.

He seemed completely unprepared for Zhu Ming to be standing there. A flicker of shock passed through his cool, dark eyes before they lit up slightly.

His Adam’s apple bobbed as he stared blankly at Zhu Ming’s face. “You—”

Under normal circumstances, a reunion between divorced partners would be at least somewhat awkward. But their current situation completely avoided that—because Zhu Ming was furious.

“Why did you give up on the assessment?”

Zhu Ming had no patience for pleasantries. He pushed the door open, striding straight to Xi Xianqing and getting straight to the point. “Why did you stop putting effort into your drawings?”

He didn’t understand why Xi Xianqing was treating the assessment with such indifference. Was it out of spite because of their divorce? Or was he just throwing a tantrum because the assessment process wasn’t going well?

Regardless of the reason, Zhu Ming couldn’t accept Xi Xianqing choosing to “give up.” He could be stubborn in District Two, he could be willful in District Four, but now that he had made it to the final step, how could he suddenly decide to quit?

After hearing Zhu Ming’s question, Xi Xianqing’s gaze darkened. His Adam’s apple moved slightly as he shifted his gaze away. After a long silence, he finally spoke in a dry, emotionless voice: “Because I don’t want to draw anymore.”

Zhu Ming had never felt such suffocating frustration in his life. His chest ached with anger, his organs seemingly twisted in pain. He couldn’t believe what he was hearing. “You don’t want to draw anymore? Why not? Do you even hear yourself right now? You—”

Xi Xianqing stared intently at his face and suddenly interrupted, “What does me giving up on the assessment have to do with you?”

“…What?”

“…We’re already divorced, aren’t we? And according to you, our relationship was always just an agreement.”

Xi Xianqing looked away, his voice dry as he continued, “So what if I give up on the assessment? So what if I don’t become a representative? What does it have to do with you? Why do you care so much?”

If earlier Zhu Ming had only hated the iron for not being steel, now he truly felt his vision darken.

“Xi Xianqing, your sister, Aunt Ye, Teacher Yang—so many people love and care about you. Have you thought about what your decision means to them? Have you considered what it means to the version of yourself who has worked so hard for this position all these years?”

His scalp tingled from the surge of anger, and he had to grip the doorframe to steady himself. “At such a crucial moment, how much longer are you going to act like a child? Do you even know that for the sake of your assessment, how much I—”

The moment he was about to blurt it out, reason abruptly yanked Zhu Ming back to cold reality.

He choked on his words, closed his eyes for a moment, then staggered back a few steps.

Xi Xianqing, however, suddenly lifted his head and looked straight at him. “For my assessment, what did you do?”

Zhu Ming froze in place, shook his head blankly, and stepped backward into the thick darkness of the night. He didn’t look at Xi Xianqing again and turned to leave.

Naturally, Xi Xianqing wasn’t about to give him that chance.

“What did you do for my assessment?”

He grabbed Zhu Ming’s wrist and yanked him inside with force, pinning him against the cold wall of the living room. His breath was rapid as he pressed on, “What do you know? Or… did someone tell you something?”

“…Let me go!”

With his wrist restrained and his back aching from the impact against the icy wall, Zhu Ming’s anger flared. He lifted his gaze and met Xi Xianqing’s eyes with a cold stare. “Xi Xianqing, you’re right. None of this has anything to do with me. Whether you take the assessment or not, whether you draw or not, I—”

His attitude only reinforced Xi Xianqing’s suspicions. He gripped Zhu Ming’s shoulders tightly, pressing him even harder against the wall. “Did you divorce me because someone told you something?”

In that instant, Zhu Ming’s body trembled under the force of Xi Xianqing’s arms caging him in.

Xi Xianqing didn’t miss even the slightest change in his expression. His voice shook as he quickly narrowed down the possibilities. “Was it Grandfather who came to you…? No—was it Aunt Ye? Did she say something to you before?”

The friction of their clothes filled the tense air, breaths growing heavier. Zhu Ming couldn’t meet his gaze, only closing his eyes briefly before forcing out a stiff, breathy response from deep in his throat. “…Of course not.”

If it were in the past, Xi Xianqing probably would have really been enraged by this provocation, thus letting Zhu Ming go. But this time, he stayed calm and finally caught the barely perceptible panic in Zhu Ming’s expression.

His chest rose and fell as he said with certainty, “You’re lying.”

“Xi Xianqing, I already made things very clear to you back then.”

Completely thrown off inside, Zhu Ming simply gave up struggling and broke the pot as well. While trying to free himself from Xi Xianqing’s grip, he deliberately made his words as cruel as possible. “I divorced you because I didn’t want to keep hiding it from my aunt, because this agreement no longer holds any value for me. Can you stop thinking of yourself as—”

Before he could say “so important,” his words were abruptly cut off by a sharp gasp of pain. His eyes widened in disbelief.

As if he could no longer bear to hear any more of these unpleasant words, Xi Xianqing’s gaze turned ice-cold. He gripped Zhu Ming’s hand tighter, forcefully pressing him against the wall. Then, without warning, his dry, thin lips crashed down like a violent storm.

It was as if he was consumed by hatred—there was no warmth in the clash of lips and teeth. He bit down on Zhu Ming’s lips with fierce urgency and aggressiveness.

It was almost laughable. Aside from that one accidental brush of lips during Old Master Xi’s birthday, this was the first time they had ever kissed without the excuse of “medication.”

Of course, this wasn’t a traditional kiss at all—there was no hesitation, no tenderness. Xi Xianqing’s tongue invaded Zhu Ming’s mouth with unrelenting aggression, anger laced with biting force as if trying to make Zhu Ming swallow back all the unpleasant words he had just uttered.

Zhu Ming’s breath grew uneven, breaking apart in his throat. He wanted to escape, but his chin was forcibly tilted up, leaving him no choice but to endure the relentless onslaught with no way out.

It was a sensation of complete domination, like being swallowed whole. The sting of pain sent a numbing shock through his scalp, reigniting the anger Zhu Ming had barely managed to suppress.

Fueled by rage and raw instinct, he didn’t hesitate—his hand shot up, yanking Xi Xianqing’s hair hard, and he tilted his head back, biting down on Xi Xianqing’s lips without a shred of mercy.

—They were similar in nature, both childish to the extreme.

Xi Xianqing must’ve been in real pain too. His pupils trembled, and his breathing turned ragged, but he refused to back down. Amid the relentless biting and the clash of lips and teeth, beneath the pain and anger, there was something else—an indescribable longing.

It had been far too long since they had last kissed. Their breaths intertwined, saliva mixing, until the faint taste of blood spread through their mouths. Only when Zhu Ming’s body silently weakened did Xi Xianqing finally release him. He lifted a hand, wrapping an arm around Zhu Ming’s back, bringing an end to this battle.

What had started as a tense, on-the-brink confrontation had now left them both panting, foreheads nearly touching, neither having the strength to continue arguing.

The air suddenly grew still.

“…Zhu Ming.” In the suffocating silence, just when time itself seemed to come to a halt, Zhu Ming heard Xi Xianqing’s hoarse voice beside his ear. “It was Aunt Ye, wasn’t it? What did she say to you?”

Those deep, ink-black eyes—Zhu Ming had seen them filled with indifference, cold and distant. He had seen them filled with frustration when Xi Xianqing contradicted himself. But he had never seen them like this—urgent, almost sorrowful, desperately seeking an answer.

He could no longer meet those eyes, nor could he continue lying.

“…Your grandfather found out about our contract marriage.” After a long silence, Zhu Ming finally parted his lips, his breathing unsteady. “He told you to choose between being the representative and getting a divorce, didn’t he?”

Xi Xianqing visibly froze for a moment.

“He did say that, but things aren’t the way you think—”

Xi Xianqing faltered, then suddenly realized something. He took a deep, pained breath, his gaze burning as he locked eyes with Zhu Ming. “Then why didn’t you come and ask me? Why did you lie to me?”

Zhu Ming looked straight into his eyes and shot back, “And what about you, Xi Xianqing? Did you ever take the initiative to tell me?”

Xi Xianqing couldn’t speak.

Zhu Ming shook his head again. “Even if I had asked, what answer could I have gotten? Would I have asked whether you wanted to choose this marriage or the position of representative? That wouldn’t be a question—it would be indirectly forcing you to choose me.”

“And besides, for me, this was never a choice to begin with.”

He let out a hurried laugh. “I could never allow myself to drag you down because your talent, your hard work, and your perseverance have brought you this far. I can’t accept… watching it all go to waste in the end.”

“Drag down.”

Xi Xianqing repeated the words hoarsely, nodding slightly. “Just because you don’t want to be a burden to others, every time you make a decision, you always cut yourself out of their lives without hesitation, thinking that’s the best choice for them. Is that it?”

Zhu Ming’s shoulders shook silently.

Xi Xianqing’s gaze burned into him as if trying to see through him. “But have you ever asked the people who love you how they feel? Have you ever asked if they wanted to be forced into a choice like this? Have you ever asked your aunt if she wanted you to sacrifice for her in this way? Have you ever asked me—”

He abruptly stopped, turning his face away as he panted. His sharp jawline tensed as if the words he was about to say were so difficult that they refused to leave his throat.

“…Have you ever asked me whether I need you or not?”

But as if making some kind of decision, he took a deep breath, looked directly at Zhu Ming, and spoke each word with unwavering certainty. “You say you’re afraid of becoming a burden and a hindrance to me. But have you ever considered that without you, I might never have made it to this final step?”

The palm of the youth in front of him was so hot that through the thin fabric, it seemed to burn through the small piece of skin on Zhu Ming’s shoulder.

Zhu Ming’s pupils trembled slightly as he stared blankly at Xi Xianqing, his breath growing unsteady.

“You say you can’t let yourself be a hindrance to my future, but have you ever thought that you were part of my future plans all along?”

“Have you ever considered that my inspiration, my ability to smoothly pass every assessment up to now, wasn’t just because of my talent—but because of your constant, inescapable presence in my life?”

His voice carried a gritted-teeth frustration, his gaze burning with resentment, yet every word he spoke was filled with deep grievance and accusation. “When I walk into the kitchen, I think of the white jade bayberries and sauce-flavored pancakes we ate together. When I see jewelry, I think of all the names you never once got right. Even—”

He suddenly stopped. His chest heaved as he panted, his gaze dropping to the green peac0ck curled up quietly on the floor.

After a brief, difficult pause, he spoke again in a hoarse voice, as if speaking to Zhu Ming, or perhaps to himself. “Even when I look at my own spiritual manifestation, all I think of is you.”

For someone like Xi Xianqing, saying all of this in one breath had already pushed past the deepest barrier in his heart.

His ears were so red they seemed about to drip blood, yet he still fixed his gaze deeply on Zhu Ming’s face. “You once said that kissing was just a temporary remedy to help me display my feathers and that finding a true cure… would take a long time.”

“But while you were gone, I already found the real cure,” he said.

Zhu Ming’s pupils shrank, “What?”

Xi Xianqing didn’t answer.

As if sensing something, the green peac0ck, which had been keeping its head down, slowly lifted it. Its tail feathers trembled slightly.

In the next moment, under Zhu Ming’s bewildered gaze, the peac0ck’s long and beautiful tail quivered, then slowly, shakily, began to spread open bit by bit—

“Kissing and other forms of intimacy don’t trigger its display because of the actions themselves.”

Xi Xianqing’s gaze flickered with a deep, unreadable light. He hesitated for a moment before finally speaking again. “It’s because all of this… was done with you.”

It took Zhu Ming a long time to grasp the meaning behind his words. “But we just—”

Xi Xianqing turned his face away and hoarsely interrupted, “But while you were gone, even without any physical contact with anyone else, it still displayed its feathers several times on its own.”

Zhu Ming couldn’t believe his ears. “What?”

“The truth is… we had already found the cure long ago. It’s just that you were too focused on finding a scientific explanation.”

A faint flush spread up Xi Xianqing’s neck as he averted his gaze and said hoarsely, “And I myself never realized it. Or rather… I just didn’t want to let myself realize it.”

“The answer was always simple,” he said. “All I have to do now is see you, or even think about you just a little bit in my mind when I can’t see you—”

As he spoke, the green peac0ck at his feet finally stopped trembling. Its magnificent emerald tail feathers unfurled before Zhu Ming’s eyes, opening up in full, healthy splendor.

Though its posture was still weak and listless, the green peac0ck lifted its legs, swayed its butt, and toddled step by step to Zhu Ming’s side. Lowering its head, it affectionately rubbed its face against the white fox’s tail.

Zhu Ming looked up in a daze, only to find Xi Xianqing staring at him unblinkingly.

The emotions in those beautiful eyes were complex—there was a barely perceptible awkwardness and shyness, a heat so intense it was impossible to meet head-on, and buried deep within his pupils, a kind of youthful yet searing determination that Zhu Ming had never seen before.

“Zhu Ming, the cure is you.” he heard Xi Xianqing say, “It has always been only you.”

Author’s notes:

Please accept the awkward yet passionate love of the big peac0ck!^_^