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With nothing but Wen Ran's pristine, zero-experience brain—and his eyes covered—he couldn't immediately register what was pressed against his lips. Not until a wet, soft tongue tip slipped between his slightly parted teeth did he dimly realize this was a kiss. He grabbed Gu Yunchi's hem without thinking and blinked under that hand.

……

A few minutes later, Gu Yunchi noticed Wen Ran was going limp from lack of oxygen. He lifted his head and let him breathe. Wen Ran, dazed, pressed his forehead to Gu Yunchi's shoulder and gasped.

Feeling his way up, Wen Ran moved his hands higher and wrapped them around Gu Yunchi's neck. Once his breathing steadied a little, he asked, 'What's wrong? Are you in a bad mood?'

'Just over a Fang Yisen—you don't even know if he's alive or dead, and you're already this wrecked.' Gu Yunchi's hand stroked through Wen Ran's hair once, his voice low. 'If it were someone more important, what would you do.'

The second half of that sentence made Wen Ran inexplicably think of Li Qingwan. In his life right now, there seemed to be only two important people left—one was the Alpha in front of him, the other was his mother, whose whereabouts were still unknown.

Wen Ran hugged Gu Yunchi a little tighter. 'They'll all be safe.'

After a moment of silence, Gu Yunchi said, 'I can't promise you that.'

'Why would you need to promise me?' Wen Ran lifted his head, cupped Gu Yunchi's face, and clumsily leaned in to lightly kiss his lower lip. 'This isn't your obligation. You—you just need to live happily, and I'll be happy for you... As for other important people, that's not something you need to promise me.'

Tears still lingered in Wen Ran's eyes, and his beauty mark was wet too. Moonlight and starlight fell into his gaze, like reflections in a lake. Gu Yunchi lowered his eyes to look at him. 'Not your obligation? Or you only think of me when you feel you need to.'

Unable to fully grasp the meaning of those words, Wen Ran could only offer the most surface-level reading. 'I think of you normally too. When I can't help it, I'll send you a message.'

'So every time you message me, it means you miss me.' Gu Yunchi calmly summarized.

Without any spare awareness to recall and confirm, Wen Ran nodded. 'You went abroad. Couldn't see you often, but I also felt bad about always messaging you to bother you. So I'd look at our chat history, even though there wasn't much in it.'

'What's there to look at.'

'It's nice to look at. The more I look, the more I think you're good. You're the best person to me.' Wen Ran went to kiss Gu Yunchi's nose tip, his cheek, the corner of his mouth, with all the sincerity in his voice. 'Gu Yunchi, you're the best to me.'

He had no intention of asking Gu Yunchi why he'd kissed him. He only knew he could be a little closer to Gu Yunchi now.

Gu Yunchi said nothing, letting him kiss all over his face for over ten seconds. Finally, he hooked an arm under Wen Ran's legs, turned his head to catch the kiss Wen Ran was about to land again, and carried him into the bedroom.

……