He Holds a Rose from the Abyss

Chi Lang: “Okay. But I think… it’s too soon… are we already going to transition to a physical relationship?”

Sheffield licked the outline of his ear, his voice low: “I want to be closer to you.”

Chi Lang felt that his heart was hit in an instant, he stretched out his hand and poked Sheffield’s face: “If… if it has to be a physical relationship, it’s not impossible…”

Sheffield seemed to stiffen for a moment, then stopped kissing him.

Sheffield stood up straight, he took out his handkerchief and slowly wiped his hands, but he kept looking at Chi Lang, the corners of his mouth raised.

Chi Lang was looked at like this and felt a little hot again. He sat up and pretended that nothing happened: “Ah, let’s pretend I didn’t say anything… Let’s skip this over and talk about something else.”

Sheffield came close to him and whispered in his ear, “Baby, are you proposing to make love?”

Chi Lang was dumbfounded, he felt a little embarrassed, and wanted to reflect on why he was so…

“The person who is proposing, shouldn’t he take the initiative himself?”

Take the initiative.

Take the initiative.

Do we have to take off our clothes first?

Ah, no, it’s still too fast.

Chi Lang buried his head, and his head became lower and lower.

Sheffield kissed Chi Lang’s forehead, but still let go of his rose.

“Go to sleep.”

Chi Lang was stunned for a moment.

Sheffield squeezed his face gently: “Or do you really want a physical relationship?”

Chi Lang thought he was going to have a very restless sleep, and spend the night stiff.

In fact, when he was struggling whether to make a quilt for two, Sheffield naturally covered him with the quilt.

“Do you sleep… so tightly dressed?” Sheffield asked him.

Chi Lang said “oh” and started to take off his clothes, but he suddenly raised his head and stared at Sheffield: “But don’t take off your clothes.”

Sheffield raised his eyebrows: “Why?”

Chi Lang covered his head with the quilt and said with great shame, “I’m afraid I won’t be able to control myself.”

Sheffield laughed for a long time, his laughter kept coming in through the quilt.

Chi Lang felt hot all over and felt that he would never be able to face Sheffield again.

He felt the quilt sag a little, and Sheffield’s hand was stroking his face through the quilt.

Then Sheffield kissed him through the quilt.

Chi Lang was a little intoxicated, until Sheffield lifted the quilt again and went to wash up, but he was still slightly drunk.

He fell asleep in this fluttering state.

When Chi Lang opened his eyes, he didn’t see Sheffield’s sleeping face. He sat up yawning and saw Sheffield leaning against the door.

Sheffield was putting on his boots. He straightened the folds on his trousers. After putting them on, he noticed Chi Lang’s gaze.

“What’s wrong? Staring at me early in the morning?”

Chi Lang nodded: “I just think…you look really good.”

Sheffield wanted to take a few steps, but Chi Lang hurriedly stretched out his hand: “Don’t come here… I, I, I think there may be eye-poop in my eyes… Let me maintain a little image.”

Sheffield:  …

“Then I’ll wait for you outside?”

Chi Lang nodded quickly.

After Chi Lang walked out of the room, he asked Sheffield, “So are we going to do anything?”

“Do you have something today?”

Chi Lang suddenly remembered that he had an appointment with the Howard boy, Berg, for a marksmanship competition.

“I think I need to compare my marksmanship with someone from the Howard family…” Chi Lang felt a little regretful, he didn’t want to leave Sheffield at all now.

He brought some anticipation: “Or do you want to go to Luth’s laboratory with me?”

Sheffield hooked his finger at him, and Chi Lang took a few steps in Sheffield’s direction.

“Look up.”

Chi Lang raised his head obediently.

Sheffield lifted his chin, kissed him, and kissed him unusually hard, even with some fierceness, and bit him on the mouth.

Chi Lang felt that the corner of his lips should have a little broken skin.

After the kiss, Sheffield hugged him again and gently stroked his hair.

“I’m sorry, was it too hard?”

Chi Lang felt very embarrassed by this question, and it took him a while to answer: “It’s okay.”

When Sheffield took Chi Lang downstairs, his expression was always light, and he couldn’t tell whether he was in a good or bad mood.

“Then after you finish your business, come and find me in the library.”

Chi Lang was a little disappointed: “You’re not coming with me?” After speaking, he reacted: “Is it because the Howard family has some way to sense you? Then you’d better not go and wait for me to come to you.”

Sheffield did not speak and looked in the other direction.

Chi Lang pulled his hand from behind: “Don’t be unhappy…Actually…Actually, I’m not disgusted by you kissing me like that.

“I like you so much, even if you are a little… rough, I still like you very much.”

Sheffield was silent for a while, then held Chi Lang’s hand and said with a smile, “Chi Lang… You’d better not say such things in the future.”

He stretched out his other hand and gently covered Chi Lang’s eyes: “Don’t look at me with such trusting eyes.”

His voice seemed distant: “I don’t have principles, so you better have principles.”

“For example, now,” he said in Chi Lang’s ear, his tone was a little frivolous, “I really want to press you on the rose bush – to make love.”

*

By the time Chi Lang arrived at Luth’s lab, Berg had already arrived.

“Why are you blushing so much?” Berg was puzzled.

Chi Lang put it off and went straight to the topic: “Don’t you want to compete in marksmanship? Come on.”

“I hope you don’t lose too badly.” Berg walked to the basement.

Chi Lang: “Can we bet on something?”

Berg stopped.

“If I win, can you tell me the origin of your family crest?”

Chi Lang felt that Sheffield was acting strangely when the Howard family was mentioned. But with the information he could access himself, there was no detailed record of the Howard family at all.

“If you lose, you will do errands for me in the Magic Research Society for half a year,” Berg agreed to the proposal.

It was still dark in the basement, with only two spots of light on the walls.

Both of them had rifled flintlocks in their hands.

“See the light point on the wall, shoot towards there, three rounds in total.”

Berg began to reload the bullets, Chi Lang watched his slow movements, hesitating that at this speed, he might not be able to finish three rounds in “mechanical time”.

“There’s no rule to shoot together? Can I shoot first?”

Berg’s movements paused, and his face was a little bad: “As you wish.”

Chi Lang was relieved, he held the gun and started “mechanical time”, and the passage of time slowed down again.

In Berg’s extremely slow reloading action, he completed his three shots ahead of others. The rifled flintlock wasn’t accurate enough, and his bullet didn’t end up hitting the spot.

But it was also very close to that spot of light.

At this time, Berg finished loading the first bullet. He aimed the gun at the wall and slowly pressed the trigger.

“I lost,” Berg said. “I’ll let you know.”

Chi Lang was stunned for a moment.

Berg still started to reload his second bullet, although his first shot was very far off from the point of light. Each of his shots was closer to the target than the previous ones, but not more than Chi Lang.

“It’s incredible,” Berg murmured.

Chi Lang suddenly felt a little guilty. If there was no “mechanical time”, he would definitely be no match for Berg.

Berg put the gun down and pointed to the emblem on his jacket: “Do you want to hear the origin of this?”

“Probably during the war, the ancestors felt that this emblem was more in line with the mental state of the warriors, so it was used like this… Although it is a bit pretentious to say this, people in our family do encourage themselves with the exuberant gesture of sunflowers…”

Chi Lang listened for a long time, but didn’t hear anything useful. He only thought that Berg seems to be not good at talking, praising their own family and praising them to the sky.

“By the way, this emblem has been changed. The family’s emblem was not like this before. It seems that it was a rose, and it was changed later.”

Rose. Chi Lang recited the word in his mind.

*

The library was filled with the smell of wood mixed with ink.

There was no one in the library at this time of day. Chi Lang could hear his heavy footsteps with every step he took.

He saw that Sheffield was taking books from the shelves.

Chi Lang walked over, hugged Sheffield, and leaned gently on his back.

Sheffield smiled: “Why so suddenly?”

“I don’t know why, but I just really want to have physical contact with you.”

“Today, I won that guy Berg, and he’s actually quite good. People from the Magic Research Society said that he’s good at everything…”

Sheffield took the books off the shelf: “Shouldn’t you be happy? Why do you look sullen?”

“Longbeard said that the most important thing in magic is the desire for knowledge. He said that although Berg has a bad temper, he can be curious about everything, so he is very powerful at a young age…”

Sheffield stopped, untied Chi Lang’s hand, and kissed his finger a few times: “You praise others so much?”

“Berg he…has the same hair color as you, and sometimes I wonder what you were like when you were his age.”

“Why are there such rambling associations?”

“The family crest of the Howard family… used to be a rose.”