Editor: Casey

The little master didn’t plan on waiting any longer. He tried to pull the man over by the wrist.

Despite him exerting all his strength until a light blush dusted his cheeks, the man remained where he was.

Luckily, Jiang Bieyu recovered quickly. He climbed on the bed of his own volition before Shi Qing got mad.

The maidens were both curious and worried. They wanted to ask, but they didn’t dare to.

The little master graciously answered their unspoken question. “I think my kitty likes him, so I brought him over to coax it. All of you should wait in the outer room.”

“This…”

“Qing-er, why don’t you let us stay here? That way, you can call us over quicker if something were to go wrong.”

Of course the maidens wanted to leave. There was a warm brazier in the outer room where they could rest. But the presence of an unknown element, a.k.a Jiang Bieyu, prevented them from leaving. This man wasn’t raised under their Shi family’s rules and regulations, and his appearance was also quite fierce. What if something were to happen?

But Shi Qing didn’t even give a thought to their worries. He waved his hand impatiently.

“I told all of you to leave. The outer room and the inner room aren’t far from each other anyway. You’ll be able to hear me if I call for you.”

He had a point.

The maidens put their worries aside and curtsied before retreating to the outer room.

Shi Qing only looked pleased after he watched them all leave. He reached out and lowered the bed curtains.

The light and thin bed curtains were a specialty product of Jiangnan that could keep out the wind. After being lowered, the area enclosed within immediately grew dim.

Thankfully, there was still enough light to see what was going on.

At least, that was the case for Jiang Bieyu.

Shi Qing peered outside several times like a thief with a guilty conscience before he breathed a sigh of relief. He turned around with his usual headstrong attitude.

Pointing a slender and beautiful finger at the man, he whispered.

“Give your cloud layer cake to me.”

Jiang Bieyu glanced at the pastry in his hand that already had a bite taken out of it. He quietly said with his hoarse voice, “I’ve already bitten into it.”

“I know. What are you dilly-dallying for if even a young master has no problems with it?”

The little master might be grumbling and complaining, but his soft Jiangnan accent and quiet volume made the words sound coquettish instead.

Soft and coquettish…

And he was quite mischievous as well.

When he noticed that Jiang Bieyu wasn’t budging, Shi Qing reached over himself. Unfortunately, he pulled the blanket over with him.

As a result, the Persian cat that was shivering beneath after sensing Jiang Bieyu’s presence was exposed. It panicked.

Luckily, it saw that the hand of its master was nearby. It hurried over to act cute by licking that jade-like finger before diving into Shi Qing’s arms.

The little master subconsciously hugged the cat with one arm while stroking it with the other.

The atmosphere stiffened as time went on.

Jiang Bieyu watched as Shi Qing grew more and more frustrated as his gaze alternated between the cat in his arms and the cloud layer cake in his own hand.

The little master who had been spoiled rotten until now had no reason to ever conceal his thoughts. He was obviously not very good at it either.

At least, it appeared that way to Jiang Bieyu.

Shi Qing seemed frustrated that the hand he planned on snatching the pastry with was occupied with stroking the cat.

According to his previous habits, this Shi family little master needed to wash his hand before doing anything. Since he pet his cat, he couldn’t hold the cloud layer cake anymore.

Not unless he washed his hands.

But he was the one who just deliberately dismissed those maidens.

Jiang Bieyu deduced Shi Qing’s thought process in his head. He found it a bit funny, if not a complete mockery.

In the current world, one could witness a cartful of corpses that had either starved or frozen to death be thrown out of the city everyday. Meanwhile, there were little masters like Shi Qing who lived in luxury, refusing to touch food just because their hands were dirty.

Jiang Bieyu didn’t find this particularly unfair, but it did strengthen his resolve to leave Crane City and fight his way onto a new path.

As he thought about that, Shi Qing’s soft and coquettish voice could be heard again.

“Your hands are clean, right?”

Jiang Bieyu glanced down at his hands. “I roughly cleaned them after grinding the ink.”

“Good enough.” Shi Qing opened his mouth. “Ah–”

The man didn’t move.

The little master gave him a dissatisfied look. Throwing the cat aside, he pointed at him and cursed:

“I took you in out of the goodness of my heart because you’re good-looking! Who would’ve thought you would be so dim-witted! Don’t you see I want to eat that piece of cloud layer cake?! Why aren’t you feeding me when I’ve already opened my mouth?? Keep this up and I’ll have the servants chase you out. It would serve you right if Jiang Liye tormented you to death.”

Unfortunately, his soft Jiangnan accent and the low volume he used to prevent the people outside from overhearing made his words lose all their bite.

Rather than reproachful, he sounded coquettish instead.

In the face of his haughty and overbearing words, Jiang Bieyu strangely wasn’t angry at all. On the contrary, these quiet and soft curses made him want to chuckle a bit.

Unfortunately, the little master didn’t know what he was thinking. He thought Jiang Bieyu’s silence was due to fear.

Shi Qing’s eyebrows relaxed. He ran his mouth again, his red lips opening and closing as he reprimanded the man one last time.

“Hurry up and feed me, and make sure to not get any crumbs on my bed! Your skin is at stake if they find out.”

Jiang Bieyu nodded. His right hand delivered the white pastry to the little master’s mouth while his left was cupped to catch any crumbs beneath.

Because the bed curtains were lowered, the area inside was rather dim.

And in this dim setting, the spoiled and infamously overbearing little master scooted closer to his hand.

Only now did Jiang Bieyu notice how small Shi Qing’s frame was. Up close, his outstretched neck appeared even more slender and fair.

The little master seemed to treasure this last piece of cloud layer cake due to the lengths he had to go through to obtain it. He didn’t gobble it down in a few bites like before, but instead, after taking the first bite, his eyes narrowed in pleasure again as he savoured the fragrant sweetness.

This caused his long eyelashes to appear even more voluminous. From Jiang Bieyu’s position, he could clearly see the little master’s lips quirk up as if he was very satisfied already.

Since he was only taking a tiny bite each time, the little master took quite a while to finish. Every time his mouth was empty, he smacked his lips in a dissatisfied fashion, trying to find every last morsel.

Smack smack.

Smack smack.

No matter how much he tried to draw it out, all good things had to come to an end.

The little master was visibly upset when they came to the last bit.

Jiang Bieyu found his struggle over whether to eat it or not rather cute.

He looked on with interest as Shi Qing took a deep breath like he had finally made up his mind. Licking his ruby red lips, the little master took that last little bit into his mouth.

And ate it!

Even for this last bite, the little master’s eyes still narrowed in pleasure. He smacked his lips and tried to preserve the taste for as long as possible.

Jiang Bieyu’s gaze never left him. He watched as that dainty little face shifted from satisfaction to reluctance and from reluctance to something pitiful. Finally, the throat that was just as tender and fair as the little master’s face swallowed.

He had eaten it all.

Shi Qing opened his eyes, which still had reluctance lingering within. He smacked his lips and sighed.

“It’s finished already…”

Jiang Bieyu took in his little look of disappointment. For some reason, he opened his mouth and spoke using his gravelly voice:

“I still have some in my left hand.”

“En?”

Shi Qing glanced at his left hand. There were indeed some crumbs and broken pieces of cloud layer cake there.

The little master’s eyes lit up.

Jiang Bieyu opened his mouth. “I can pour–” these in your mouth.

The rest of the words caught in his throat.

Wetness spread across his palm. A soft sensation made his entire body stiffen.

The man froze in his original position, watching Shi Qing eat the remaining pieces of cloud layer cake on his hand.

The little master treasures these pieces as much as the ones before. He ate them slowly, one by one.

Jiang Bieyu had never experienced anything like this before.

He knew that Shi Qing wasn’t doing this because they were close. He probably thought of him as just a possession.

But when he looked at the little master who was looking down and focused on eating, the man couldn’t help but think:

He wasn’t watching Shi Qing eat the cloud layer cake because he was ordered to.

Instead, he was the one in control. He was the one who ordered Shi Qing to let himself be fed.

If this spoiled and utterly lazy little master wanted to eat the sweets he craved, he had to obediently bow his head and eat them from the man’s hands.

These thoughts made the blood in his body flow faster.

The little master who finished eating his favourite food lifted his head with a bright and satisfied expression. His pink tongue darted out, licking at the crumbs sticking to his lips.

He demanded of Jiang Bieyu. “Wipe my mouth clean.”

The man silently reached out and wiped the corners of the little master’s lips with the back of his long, slender hand.

He brushed over those tender and vibrantly coloured lips.

Then he wiped at the corners that were happily upturned with satisfaction.

When he reached the pretty upper lip, Jiang Bieyu’s hand paused. He suddenly said, “There’s a piece left here.”

As he expected, the little master wouldn’t let go of any opportunity to eat cloud layer cake. He opened his mouth in a hurry, his pink tongue quickly licking across his lips to capture the tiny little piece.

He continued to eat with satisfaction and reluctance in equal measure.

He didn’t even notice that his frantic actions left the man’s fingertips wet.

Jiang Bieyu’s face didn’t change. He continued to gently and carefully clean the little master’s face.

After that, he slowly withdrew his slightly wet hand, clenching it a bit as he hid it behind his back.

The man’s eyes darkened. He shifted slightly to cover the hem of his shirt that shouldn’t have been raised.