Don’t Be a Kept Man

Chapter 150: Tease

Humans are social animals, beings that like to group up, but the more there are, the easier it is to get into disputes and infighting. However, the smaller the group, the more an inexplicable fear would begin to grow among them.

Even though Pei Ran was on the same level as trash in Zhou Cang Ming’s eyes, it did mean that with him and Feng Tang leaving, this would break their small group up.

Zhou Cang Ming coldly watched as Pei Ran packed up. His eyes then switched over to Qu Yan beside him, and the expression in his eyes turned colder and colder, more and more ruthless. When Qu Yan noticed this, his lips twitched, as if to smile, but also as if he did not. He slowly backed up, leaning his skinny, weak body against Pei Ran. With his head lowered and not speaking a word, he did look a bit pitiful—-

He seemed to be quite happy playing these kinds of games.

When Pei Ran finished packing up his bag, he holstered it up onto his back. Then, upon seeing this scene, he reached out to push Qu Yan behind him, blocking that frightening stare. He thought that Zhou Cang Ming’s pair of eyes, glasses and all, were not that big but his glower was quite top notch.

“If you can’t stay here, then head south. There might be a survivor base.”

When Pei Ran said these words, he was looking at Zhi Zhi and his tone sounded as if he didn’t care what everyone else’s reactions were. He then pulled Qu Yan with him to head out of this dark warehouse that obscured the sun.

When they reached the light outside, Pei Ran realized that the red sun had faded away, and the now grey sky looked gloomy and depressing, as if signalling an incoming onslaught of harsh rain and stormy weather. However, a very bright sun was hooked up on the sky, shining down bright and piercing rays, soundlessly baking the earth.

This kind of color and weather was not a good sign; the more one was living under it, the more agitated they would feel. But compared to the blood red skies from days previous, it was already much, much better.

Fuck.

Pei Ran thought, the zombies had probably already completed their evolution.

Away from the dark and gloomy corner he used to reside in, Qu Yan’s facade seemed to be slowly dropping off. He lifted his head, his eyes taking in the scenery outside before him inch by inch. His pale white fingers slowly pushed back his bangs, clearly revealing a pair of pure black eyes. 

With a hoarse voice and a tone that sounded a bit lazy and slow, he asked, 

“How are we going to leave?”

Pei Ran was not a sensitive person. It could even be said that he doesn’t pay attention to the details, so he did not sense any change in Qu Yan. Seeing no zombies nearby, he pulled Qu Yan over towards an empty building and explained,

“There’s a car over here with the gas tank quite full.”

Just as he said, there was a silver sports car parked quietly behind the empty building. Even though there was a heavy layer of dust sitting on top, it could clearly be seen that it must have been an expensive model before the apocalypse descended.

Qu Yan slightly lifted his eyebrows, 

“How do you know the tank is full?”

Pei Ran grabbed a key out of his bag as if he was a magician. He grinned, extremely pleased with himself, 

“Because this is my car!”

When the apocalypse began, he and Feng Tang were driving this car. But when they hid in the storage warehouse, this car was left sitting here eating dust, never used once afterwards. Pei Ran had kept the key hidden in the deepest compartment of his bag so it was quite easy to find it.

He didn’t get into the car but, instead, went over to the passenger side and opened the door. 

A complete gentleman, he said to Qu Yan,

“Please.”

When Pei Ran was willing to treat someone well, no one could find any fault in him. When Qu Yan was getting into the car, Pei Ran was even super gentlemanly and held a hand over the other’s head. It was only after he saw Qu Yan sit down did he go to the driver’s seat and start the car.

One of Qu Yan’s fingers began to lightly tap his knee. Qu Yan tilted his head and silently leaned against the car seat as his eyes scanned over Pei Ran’s face. He said, 

“How long until we reach the southern base?”

Pei Ran turned the car onto the highway as he responded, 

“Not sure. If it goes smoothly, a few days, but if it doesn’t, then can’t say.”

Compared to his nonexistent plan, Qu Yan held a lot more details as if he had already been planning this, 

“Head to the gas station from yesterday. There are still some provisions we need to get.”

Their food would not last even a few days; not even a set of clean clothes was left. As much as Pei Ran had some psychological trauma towards that place, he couldn’t not say that it was not the best place to get supplies right now.

“Alright, since it’s on the way anyway.”

On the drive, Pei Ran suddenly thought of something and called out to the system, 

“You really don’t have a dimensional space?”

System: [ My dear beloved host, this system is only responsible for enforcing the rule of being self-reliant and self-sufficient for my host. All other questions are not within the services of this system ~ Some other abilities may need to be activated when encountered. ]

Pei Ran: “I want a dimensional space.”

System: [ My dear beloved host, this…… ]

Pei Ran: “I want a dimensional space.”

System: [ My dear beloved ho….. ]

Pei Ran: “I want a dimensional space.”

System: [ My dear…… ]

Pei Ran: “I want a dimensional space.”

Without any annoyance from repeating his words, Pei Ran did so over and over again, more than a hundred times before the system finally got annoyed.

[ Go kill zombies, go kill zombies! Smash their brains! Take off their skulls! Use your own hands to snatch that orb inside the fluid and mush that is their brains! One crystal orb can be exchanged for one square meter of dimensional space, but you can only exchange every ten orbs! ]

The system was probably super annoyed, so much so that its volume was even higher than usual. After it said all that, it gave a “hmph” before disappearing, not making another sound.

Although Pei Ran got the answer that he wanted, he wasn’t any happier. He didn’t even dare to kill a zombie, so how could he smash their brains? In this society of laws and morals, who would do these kinds of things except for the insane and sick minded killers?!!

But the issue was that this was now the apocalypse so if he wanted a dimensional space, he must exchange crystal orbs for it. Even with his ability, he had to use those orbs to cultivate it, to level it up, so there was no way to avoid it.

He was getting anxious and hasty, subconsciously driving faster and faster. What was usually a half hour ride suddenly became a fifteen minute trip. They had encountered a few zombies on the way, but Pei Ran didn’t even think nor want to face any, so he just stepped on the pedal as fast as he could to leave them in the dust.

The car stopped quietly in front of the gas station, and looking through the windows, they found two zombies walking back and forth. One of them was the one that had scratched a wound on Pei Ran and the other was wearing a school uniform with his hair dyed red.

They were both familiar faces.

Pei Ran had not tested his ability yet and he had originally planned to test it out from far far away. But after their level up, those two zombies were much stronger than what could be imagined. The moment they caught the scent of a living human being, they immediately roared, turned around, and began to run towards them.

Pei Ran rolled down the car window. One hand held tight onto the wheel and the other began to gather up electrical energy and sent it over in a blink. He had planned to run if it didn’t go well, but he did not expect that with just two bursts of electricity, he heard a racket of zaps and the zombies were then fried up.

Pei Ran: “……”

As expected of the strongest attacking ability, the electric type. He has humbly learned.

After he did all that, he subconsciously looked over at Qu Yan, but he found that Qu Yan was also looking at him. Black hair and pale white skin, his expression was so obedient that Pei Ran couldn’t help but reach out and lightly drop a hand onto his head.

Pei Ran’s hands were trembling a bit, but he didn’t know if it was from fear or something else.

Seeing this, Qu Yan closed his eyes slightly, nuzzling at his palm just like a lazy little cat. He was enjoying this kind of intimate action a bit, but the next second, Pei Ran retracted his hand and urged, 

“Go go go. Let’s get out of the car and grab supplies. We’ll be dead if other zombies come later.”

Using an ability took quite a toll, so given one more zombie and this man that’s useless in battle would definitely not win any more fights.

“……”

Seeing Pei Ran run out of the car as if a fire was lit behind him, Qu Yan slightly tilted his head. He recalled those movements and the energy that Pei Ran used to release his ability and used his mental ability to copy it slowly, bit by bit. The next second, a flash of electricity soundlessly appeared right in the middle of his palm. Only its shape was just a bit small, so it did not look as threatening as Pei Ran’s.

Qu Yan closed his hand, chuckled lightly under his breath, and then opened the door to get out, following Pei Ran’s footsteps.

The shelves were already pretty much empty, leaving only the storage area. Pei Ran counted roughly and found quite a bit of stock left. Adding up all the food and water, there were about ten boxes, but since their car couldn’t fit so many, they could maybe only grab a quarter of that.

They still need more space.

Now that supplies were rare, if they missed this opportunity, who knew if they would even have any other place to restock.

Pei Ran looked over to Qu Yan, asking for his opinion, 

“Why don’t we stay here for tonight?”

He thought that as long as he got ten crystal orbs, then he could exchange for a dimensional space and stock up a bit more on provisions.

Qu Yan didn’t ask him why, only nodding his head as he said, 

“That’s fine by me.”

Pei Ran thought more and more that this teammate of his was truly a 10/10. Didn’t drag anyone down, didn’t speak a lot. He explained quietly as he packed some essentials along with some food into the trunk, 

“Zombies have this orb thing in their brains. After you get your ability, these could be used to cultivate and level up.”

He could also level up on his own, but it wasn’t as fast as what an orb could give him.

As Pei Ran said so, he grabbed a sharp blade from the trunk, about the length of an arm, and then walked over to the two fried zombies. One of them had already rotted down to the bone, leaving only a black blob thing after getting electrocuted, so it was not that terrifying. Within one or two slashes, he could easily take out the crystal orb from its brain.

But the other one, the redhead wearing a school uniform, Pei Ran had fought with him before, so it could be said that they knew each other. With one sleeve held against his nose and mouth, he used the other hand with the blade to slice open the fried black flesh —–

And then some colorful liquid flowed from the cut.

Pei Ran froze, feeling his eyes cringe from the sight, but he did not lose his composure and throw up. However he could not continue on and so he turned around and walked a few steps away, silently leaning on a tree to calm his sloshing stomach that was threatening to vomit.

“Ga-cha—-“

It was at this time that there was the slight sound of bones breaking coming from behind him. Pei Ran thought that an incoming zombie was about to attack but when he instinctively turned his head, he found Qu Yan standing right behind him.

His left hand was holding that blade, a bit of that bloody red liquid following the blade tip, dripping down drop by drop. His right hand was holding a clump of tissue paper where a shining colorful orb laid inside. Paired with Qu Yan’s expressionless face, it was quite a frightening sight.

At this time, normal people should be frightened enough to pee themselves.

“Here.”

As if Qu Yan did not know how frightening his actions were, he passed the orb to Pei Ran. A smile tinted his eyes, as if he was a kid waiting to be praised and at the same time, the blade slowly drew a circle in the air……

“Did you dig that out?”

From youth until now, besides using it to hook up with girls, Pei Ran’s intelligence has never really gone online. He accepted the orb from Qu Yan’s hands, and he was not only unafraid but quite happy, as if something he had been worried about and fretting over was suddenly dealt with by someone else.

Qu Yan smiled and nodded his head, the pointy part of his knife still waving in the air, circling.

Pei Ran slipped the orb into his pants pocket, 

“We have two now. Once we have ten, we can leave. Let’s go. Let’s wait in the car first.”

His smile reached his eyes, which made his already good looking face seem even brighter and more handsome. Pei Ran was internally planning out what he should do to make Qu Yan continue digging the orbs out for him. He was very eager and hung his arm around the other’s shoulders, stuffing the both of them into the back seat.

“Are you hungry? Come, come, come. Eat something.”

Pei Ran pulled out a bag of red date cakes1 that were close to expiring, and then ripped it open, passing it over to Qu Yan. He also opened a small box of milk, 

“Drink up, so you can grow.”

He was quite detailed in his doting, even poking the straw in for him, like a parent taking care of their own child.

Qu Yan stared at him, not moving, 

“You’re not eating?”

Pei Ran said, 

“Eat up. My biological clock is all over the place, so I don’t generally eat when normal people do.”

Qu Yan didn’t ask anything else after that and ate what he was given. But after eating the red date cake, he did not take a sip of the milk.

Seeing this, Pei Ran grabbed a bottle of water and passed it to him, 

“If you don’t like to drink milk, then have some water.”

It was not that he didn’t like drinking milk, but he could recall a time when someone had poured ink into a milk box, shoving it down his throat, so he had no such appetite for it.

Qu Yan accepted the water. His hand was so very skinny, so white as it slowly opened the blue cap and revealed a very good looking wrist, with a clear bone structure that looked so long and beautiful.

Pei Ran did not have a hand fetish, but for whatever reason, he kept looking, entranced. After Qu Yan finished drinking, he couldn’t help himself but lightly hold onto Qu Yan’s wrist. It was as he imagined, extremely small and delicate, and his fingers also couldn’t help but rub the other’s wrist over and over.

His actions carried an air of flirtatiousness with it. Qu Yan paused, and when he lifted his head, he could see Pei Ran staring at him the entire time. His pair of gentle eyes, a pair of eyes that was like the summer night sky, so dark and calming, so much so that the more you looked, it could suck people into its trance.

Qu Yan didn’t retract his wrist and threw the bottle of water aside instead. He then leaned over, slowly getting closer to Pei Ran and imperceptibly examined him. The tone in his voice made it a bit hard to tell whether he was being sincere or asking out of a simple minded innocence, 

“Why do you have to hold onto my hand?”

As if he was back in control, having regained his mastery in the art of love and relationships, Pei Ran smiled fakely and said 

“Young child, have you never been in love before when you were in school?”

Qu Yan tilted his head and lightly asked him, 

“And?”

This young man, his aura overly gloomy and mysterious, forever not allowing other people to understand, much like a poison that would draw blood and make you unable to talk. Pei Ran could see none of this, and he somehow wanted to get closer to Qu Yan, wanting to drink a poison to quench his thirst thinking that it was only water.

Pei Ran stared at his entire face, where one side was so elegantly defined versus the other side which was quite horrifying. There was such a dichotomy that somehow seemed to fit so well together, 

“Has anyone tried to chase you before?”

Qu Yan said, 

“No.”

Pei Ran felt quite good after hearing that and he smiled with his eyes closed, 

“Then can I chase after you?”

He has said this numerous times since middle school; like bread and butter, it was habit. To Pei Ran, just feeling even a hint of like towards someone could be enough to cause him to publicly chase after them. If they fit together, then they’ll be together; if they were not, they’ll split up. There wasn’t much to it.

But he did not know, there were some people that, once gotten, he would never be able to get rid of in this lifetime.

Compared to Pei Ran’s open honesty, Qu Yan was still in an ambiguous mood, 

“Why do you want to chase after me?”

They rarely asked each other any questions, only repeatedly asking for an answer they wanted to hear.

Pei Ran said, 

“Because I like you. I like you so I want to chase you.”

Qu Yan didn’t respond to that, but perhaps it was because he didn’t know what to say. After a moment, there was a flash of light across his dark, heavy eyes, like a faint firework exploding high above the sky, and he asked Pei Ran, 

“You like me?”

No one had ever said these words to him before.

Pei Ran smiled with his eyes squinted as he nodded his head. He did quite like Qu Yan.

Speaking of which, the last time he was moved like this… it was a couple days ago. The hottest beauty of the music department sounded so sweet and beautiful, but unfortunately he had not been able to get her before transmigrating into the apocalypse.

Qu Yan didn’t know what Pei Ran was thinking about, or otherwise, he definitely would have kicked him out to feed the zombies.

In Qu Yan’s heart right now, there was a feeling he couldn’t explain, that was filling up his lungs and his chest, a bit bloating but also a bit curious and a bit confusing. He lowered his voice and hesitatingly asked, 

“……then how do you want to chase me?”

“Who asks these types of questions?”

Pei Ran thought that Qu Yan was a bit dumb, so dumb that it made him want to bully him even more. He was happier than ever, fulfilling the stereotype of a Casanova. Grabbing at Qu Yan’s hands with a bit of strength so that the other would fall into his embrace, he intertwined their breathing spaces, in a way that was unable to separate the two.

To Qu Yan, this embrace would always have a hypnotizing magic, and along with those words, he leaned against Pei Ran’s shoulders as his heart raced. Comfort and anxiety intertwined with each other in a complicated tangle, along with his soul being split between the two states, trembling.

This was the first time that Pei Ran so seriously embraced Qu Yan. He could only feel how Qu Yan was truly so skinny, so skinny his bones were almost stabbing him. He held onto Qu Yan’s right hand, rubbing over all the painful scars on his palm, and brought it up to his lips, dropping a kiss onto all those old wounds.

There was a smile in Pei Ran’s eyes, a perverted gleam hiding in them, 

“Weren’t you asking how I want to chase you? How about I don’t want anyone to bully you anymore.”

That serious tone, along with that light and comforting smile, even if he knew that those words were fake, it was hard to steel his heart against them.

Qu Yan didn’t speak, only nuzzling in his embrace. Closing his eyes, he allowed himself to get drunk on this fantasy. He reached out to wrap his arms around Pei Ran’s neck, like a shapeless snake, slowly tightening his hold. But to Pei Ran, he could only think back to that dumb little cat of his that went overboard on sniffing catnip, just as entranced and drunk as Qu Yan.

Getting someone so fast, without much of a chase, was probably a breaking record in Prince Pei’s love history.

“Why do you have so many scars on your body?”

Pei Ran was slowly starting to enjoy taking care of his catch, but then he found that there was no patch of unscarred skin along the two arms of Qu Yan. He lowered his head, pressing his warm lips lightly on each of the scarred wounds, eliciting a slight ticklish feeling.

“Give a guess?”

A faint red was beginning to tint the corner of Qu Yan’s eyes. He lightly breathed out, grabbed Pei Ran’s hand, and guided it inside his clothes slowly bit by bit, letting him touch all those small interlaced scars. He chuckled as he quietly said,

“This is caused by a cigarette burn. This is by a drawing compass. This one sliced by a knife, this one by whip……”

They were all wounds from long ago, but Qu Yan could still remember the cause of each scar quite clearly. Pei Ran’s hand was a bit stiff from shock, 

“Who tortured you?”

He used every ounce of the manners he was taught and still practiced, however miniscule it was, to swallow up all the curses and swears he wanted to say down his throat.

“It’s not important anymore.”

Because all those people, have already died……

Wearing Pei Ran’s shirt, he smiled as he undid the buttons, revealing a very slim collarbone, displaying all the horrifying scars to Pei Ran. And then like a snake, he held onto Pei Ran, his eyes displaying a kind of madness that didn’t seem to belong to a normal human being.

Pei Ran had never seen such things before. He lowered his head, lightly brushing over these old wounds, and that little sliver of “like” resonated in pain with Qu Yan’s suffering, 

“Does it hurt?”

Motherfucker, if he knew who did this, he’ll call at least 200 of his brothers, each with a blade in hand, to stab that fucking sb2 until they cried for their mommy or daddy.

Qu Yan pressed his body flush against Pei Ran and reached out to hold onto Pei Ran’s neck. He then whispered, 

“Kiss here. If you kiss it, it won’t hurt anymore.”

With these kinds of things, Pei Ran had absolute control. He reversed the hold, flipping them around so that Qu Yan was lying beneath him. From high above he scanned over the other and then obediently followed his request, kissing each of those scars. His tongue lightly licked each one, wet but bringing in a warmth.

Qu Yan moaned, his eyes dazed. His fingers grasped Pei Ran’s shoulders tightly and he hoarsely said, 

“Come kiss me…… quick…… kiss me……”

In the back of his mind, Pei Ran realized that Qu Yan may, possibly, have a bit of a mental issue.

Seeing him not move, Qu Yan’s eyes darkened. He suddenly rose up, viciously biting down onto Pei Ran’s earlobe.

Pei Ran: Pain pain pain!

He widened his eyes, a bit unable to believe what just happened. He felt a bit wronged, but Qu Yan did not look like he would loosen up his hold on his earlobe. Qu Yan’s voice had a sickly but icy tone, 

“Do you think I’m ugly?”

He could still remember that Pei Ran had overtly and discretely said he was ugly.

Pei Ran did not understand why the obedient and innocent Qu Yan could suddenly turn so vicious and he hastily said, 

“It hurts, it hurts, it hurts! I don’t think you’re ugly, so let go quick, let go!”

Qu Yan let go of his throbbing red ear. He lowered his eyes, hoarsely saying, 

“Kiss me.”

Pei Ran thought that Qu Yan most probably had low self esteem. Even though he was such a warm and handsome gentleman, it was normal to feel some pressure. With one hand held against his ear, he leaned over and kissed Qu Yan.

First it was the lips, and then it was the already scabbed wound on his face. Pei Ran did not think it was grotesque and like a dragonfly touching water, he kissed it all.

Qu Yan was subconsciously melting into a puddle. He hugged onto Pei Ran tight, as if a ripened fruit wanting to be picked, and lightly licked the earlobe he had just bitten down on. He was gentle and dainty, bringing on a suffocating closeness.

Pei Ran held onto Qu Yan as he kissed him all over, kissed him until their tongues were numb and they were out of breath. He let the other sit on his legs and while he did not reprimand him, he did quietly and gently say, 

“Don’t just randomly bite people next time.”

A layer of water was covering Qu Yan’s eyes, a sign of his desire. He held onto Pei Ran tightly, leaning against his embrace and sinking into this new and curious experience, unable to pull himself out. His eyelids were too lazy to even lift up at Pei Ran’s words and he lazily acknowledged, 

“Mhmm……”

His voice was husky and so seductive, the sound of it reverberating over and over in Pei Ran’s ear, arousing the other and forcing him to tighten up his muscles.

The more Pei Ran thought about it, the more he believed that he and Qu Yan were truly made for each other. In the future, one of them can kill zombies while the other can dig up the orbs. They were a pair of perfectly matched partners.