WBAI Chapter 85 Extra 4

Zhou Yi had just picked up his laptop bag and stepped out of the office when he heard Professor Dai’s voice calling from behind.

“Hey, Professor Zhou.”

Zhou Yi turned around: “Professor Dai, what’s up?”

“That girl I mentioned to you before—whenever you’re free, let’s arrange a meetup. If you’re willing, we could even do it today. She lives near our campus, and tomorrow’s Saturday, so you’d both be off.”

Zhou Yi smiled and said, “No, I already have dinner plans with Professor Shi later. Can’t stand him up.”

“With Professor Shi again? You two have such a close relationship! But I’m quite curious—you’re both handsome, talented young men. At your age, how come neither of you has found a partner—”

Zhou Yi said with a smile, “I am.”

“What?” Professor Dai was taken aback. “You have a partner?”

“Yeah, we’re dating.”

“Weren’t you single last semester?”

“Got together during winter break.” Zhou Yi was in a hurry to leave and quickly bid farewell, “Then, I should get going now, Professor Dai. See you later.”

Both Shi Wuyang and Zhou Yi worked in the College of Liberal Arts, but they weren’t in the same office. Their offices were quite close, yet to avoid suspicion, they rarely left work together.

A university is a special environment, unlike other workplaces. No matter how discreet they were on campus, over time, they couldn’t guarantee that no one would notice something.

Zhou Yi hadn’t driven today. Shi Wuyang’s car was parked in the underground garage. Zhou Yi opened the door and got in, taking advantage of the empty surroundings to lean over and kiss Shi Wuyang on the lips.

Shi Wuyang glanced up at the security camera in the corner, then turned to look at Zhou Yi and said, “The camera’s watching you.”

Zhou Yi fastened his seatbelt, unconcerned. “Who’d bother checking the garage footage? I haven’t spoken to my boyfriend all day—a kiss isn’t too much, is it?”

Shi Wuyang chuckled softly but didn’t reply.

He always carried a faint scent of woody notes, even on his lips.

“What are we eating?” Zhou Yi turned to ask Shi Wuyang. “How about lobster?”

Shi Wuyang shook his head. “I don’t eat lobster. Let’s have Thai food. Sound good?”

“Sure.” Zhou Yi swiped through his phone, searching for restaurants. “Want to catch a movie after dinner? We’ve never watched one together.”

“Mhm, okay.”

“What do you want to watch?”

“You decide.”

Zhou Yi browsed the recently released films on his phone app and didn’t find anything particularly interesting. Still, he ended up picking a decently rated art film. The movie itself wasn’t the point—the important thing was experiencing something ordinary couples do with Shi Wuyang.

His previous partners had all been women, so he’d definitely done things like watching movies together. But Shi Wuyang was different—not just because the nature of their relationship was different, but it felt like many things were unlike before.

“Did you ever watch movies with your ex-boyfriends?” Zhou Yi asked a rather childish question.

Shi Wuyang glanced at Zhou Yi, then turned his gaze back to the road ahead and replied, “Yes.”

“How many boyfriends have you dated, Professor Shi?” Zhou Yi asked again.

He was delving into the relationship history now.

Shi Wuyang chuckled inwardly.

“Two,” Shi Wuyang replied, “and with you, that makes three.”

Zhou Yi didn’t press for more details, but during the movie, he forcibly made Shi Wuyang revisit the ‘past’.

Being three years younger than Shi Wuyang, Zhou Yi sometimes did show a bit of childishness.

They sat in the last row. The art film wasn’t particularly popular, so the last row was empty except for them. Zhou Yi held Shi Wuyang’s hand, his fingers sliding from the palm to the gaps between the fingers, and eventually, unable to resist, he leaned in to kiss Shi Wuyang’s lips. In a hushed voice, he asked if Shi Wuyang had ever done something like this with his exes during a movie.

Shi Wuyang wasn’t the type to take the initiative. He had always been reserved, even when pursuing someone—casual, never crossing boundaries or forcing things.

He wouldn’t do such things with anyone in a movie theater, and among the people he had dated, only Zhou Yi would dare to seize the initiative from him.

Shi Wuyang had no such ‘past’. He whispered, “No,” and raised his hand to stroke Zhou Yi’s neck, parting his lips slightly to deepen the kiss.

***

They had been together for over three months but hadn’t gone all the way. Still, aside from that, they had done almost everything else.

The sofa at Shi Wuyang’s place was large and soft, and when the two of them lay on it, embracing, their bodies almost sank into the cushions. Zhou Yi’s breathing grew increasingly rapid as he gently stroked Shi Wuyang’s waist, his nose pressed against Shi Wuyang’s, his back arched as he looked down at him.

A foreign romance film played on the TV screen. Sweat from Zhou Yi’s forehead dripped along his browbone onto Shi Wuyang’s nose bridge.

“Watching movies at home is better,” Zhou Yi said, gazing down at Shi Wuyang.

Shi Wuyang chuckled softly with his eyes closed.

“Professor Shi,” Zhou Yi’s voice was hoarse as he hooked his index finger around the frame of Shi Wuyang’s glasses, “when can we take our relationship to the next level?”

“You tell me.”

“Tonight.”

“Alright.” Shi Wuyang sat up and gently pushed Zhou Yi’s chest. “Go take a shower.”

Both of them went to shower. Zhou Yi finished quickly and put on the loungewear Shi Wuyang had prepared for him, sitting on the sofa to watch TV. Not long after, Shi Wuyang emerged from the bathroom, drying his hair and wearing a bathrobe. He had taken off his glasses, and his damp hair was brushed back with a towel, revealing his handsome features.

Shi Wuyang was a meticulous person; everything in his home, including his presence, always gave off a very comfortable feeling.

Shi Wuyang picked up his glasses from the table, put them on, and opened his phone to cast the screen. A video from his phone immediately popped up on the TV screen.

Shi Wuyang walked over and sat down beside Zhou Yi, naturally reaching out to ruffle Zhou Yi’s hair.

“Did you dry your hair already?”

Zhou Yi smiled. “I shower fast.” As he spoke, he glanced at the TV screen and realized it showed two naked men.

“Fuck,” Zhou Yi’s eyes widened, and he instinctively cursed, his eyes darting, unsure where to look.

Shi Wuyang chuckled softly, his hand caressing Zhou Yi’s cheek. “Can’t handle it?”

Zhou Yi turned to look at him, his ears turning red. “It’s not that… It’s just a bit unexpected.”

Shi Wuyang rubbed his warm ear. “Just helping you get in the mood.”

“No…” Zhou Yi was thoroughly disoriented by the ear-tugging. “If I need to get in the mood, why would I watch this? I could just look at you directly.”

Shi Wuyang leaned in to kiss Zhou Yi’s earlobe and whispered in his ear, “I’m afraid you’re not familiar with the process. You can learn while watching.”

Zhou Yi was amused, his ears tingling intensely.

Zhou Yi didn’t know what position Shi Wuyang used to take. He wrapped an arm around Shi Wuyang’s waist and asked bluntly, “Am I topping you, or are you topping me?”

He truly was different from anyone Shi Wuyang had met before.

“You’re okay with me topping?” Shi Wuyang asked him.

Zhou Yi smiled: “So, your previous position was the top?”

“Mhm, a strict top¹鐵1 (tiě): lit. iron 1..”

Zhou Yi laughed, his tone playful. “Then I’m done for—my little brother won’t have any happiness.”

“You won’t be done for.” Shi Wuyang couldn’t resist leaning in to kiss him. “You can top today.”

Zhou Yi fell silent for a moment. He knew what it meant for a strict top to be willing to bottom. He glanced at the TV screen, where the characters were already getting into the mood, their ambiguous and fragmented sounds echoing in the living room.

“Enough watching.” Zhou Yi picked up the remote and turned off the TV, then looked back at Shi Wuyang. “You teach me.”

Shi Wuyang pinched Zhou Yi’s chin, his fingers gently stroking it. “I’ll let you top this time, but we’ll take turns in the future.”

Zhou Yi nodded. “Okay, Professor Shi.”

***

Zhou Yi wanted to take a shower and asked Shi Wuyang to join him, but it was the first time Shi Wuyang had been so passive in bed. Exhausted from being thoroughly handled, he lay lazily on the bed and didn’t go with him.

When Zhou Yi returned to the room after his shower, he saw Shi Wuyang sitting on the bay window smoking, without a stitch of clothing on.

It was late at night, and not a single light was on in the building across from them. Shi Wuyang leaned against the window, usually impeccably dressed and gentle as jade²溫潤如玉 (wēn rùn rú yù): From the saying 君子如玉，人淡如竹 (jūn zǐ rú yù, rén dàn rú zhú), lit. A gentleman is like jade, a person is as quiet as bamboo. In Chinese culture, a gentleman is an ideal personality. Bamboo has upright and slender branches, is green all year round, defies frost and rain, is not afraid of severe cold, is elegant on the outside, indifferent on the inside, elegant and refined, and does not flatter the world. Therefore, people often associate bamboo with gentlemen, believing that gentlemen are like bamboo. Confucianism believes that a gentleman should be respectful on the outside and strong on the inside; be lenient to others and strict with oneself; and be restrained and not show off one’s brilliance. The qualities of jade are most similar to those of a gentleman, so the Chinese use and wear jade for moral and spiritual reasons., but now completely undressed, looking casual and incredibly sexy.

Zhou Yi had never seen Shi Wuyang smoke before. He was using an e-cigarette, and the vapor smelled fruity—sickly sweet.

“I thought you didn’t smoke,” Zhou Yi said as he walked over.

Shi Wuyang turned his head slightly. “I don’t, usually. Today’s a special case, so I’m having a little.”

Zhou Yi crouched in front of him, looking up. “What makes it so special?”

Shi Wuyang lowered his gaze and said. “A post-sex cigarette, to clear my head.”

The reason was nothing more than the fact that he and Zhou Yi were so sexually compatible—it had just been that good.

Zhou Yi gently traced the lines of Shi Wuyang’s calf muscles and asked, “What do you need to clear your head about…?”

Shi Wuyang replied candidly, “It was my first time bottoming, and it felt better than I expected.”

Zhou Yi abruptly tightened his grip on Shi Wuyang’s ankle, looking up to meet his eyes. “Really? How good was it?”

Shi Wuyang quietly said, “It was incredibly great,” and lowered his head to exhale a puff of smoke. The sweetness of the scent completely melted Zhou Yi’s bones.

The title, The Congee-Giving Couple [施粥夫夫 (shī zhōu fū fū)], literally means the couple who distributed congee. The Shi [施 (shī)] is the same Shi in Shi Wuyang, but the zhou [粥 (zhōu)] is not the Zhou [周 (Zhōu)] in Zhou Yi’s name. Same pronunciation though. There’s also an idiom with part of the title; 施粥捨飯 (shī zhōu shě fàn), to provide alms and rice (idiom); give gruel or rice to the hungry. I cannot find the reference anywhere other than from Google AI, which you know, often hallucinate, but according to Google AI, the term 施粥夫夫 is an internet slang term referring to a male same-sex couple, which implies a couple in which one or both of them often do things like “giving out porridge” to show their care for each other.

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List of Idiom in Extra 4

衣冠楚楚 (yī guān chǔ chǔ): immaculately dressed; well-groomed; dapper; be decently dressed; From the Classic of Poetry, poem 150 (《詩經·曹風·蜉蝣》): 蜉蝣之羽，衣裳楚楚。 心之憂矣，於我歸處。, The wings of the ephemera, Are robes, bright and splendid. My heart is grieved; Would they but come and abide with me!

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• 1
  鐵1 (tiě): lit. iron 1.
• 2
  溫潤如玉 (wēn rùn rú yù): From the saying 君子如玉，人淡如竹 (jūn zǐ rú yù, rén dàn rú zhú), lit. A gentleman is like jade, a person is as quiet as bamboo. In Chinese culture, a gentleman is an ideal personality. Bamboo has upright and slender branches, is green all year round, defies frost and rain, is not afraid of severe cold, is elegant on the outside, indifferent on the inside, elegant and refined, and does not flatter the world. Therefore, people often associate bamboo with gentlemen, believing that gentlemen are like bamboo. Confucianism believes that a gentleman should be respectful on the outside and strong on the inside; be lenient to others and strict with oneself; and be restrained and not show off one’s brilliance. The qualities of jade are most similar to those of a gentleman, so the Chinese use and wear jade for moral and spiritual reasons.