Chapter 80: Master And Dog

    As they walked in, Jin Jiuchi tilted his head to look at the five-story building in front of him and breathed in the unfamiliar scent in the air. It fascinated him how every place he visited would have an uniquely distinct smell, as opposed to the asylum that was filled with a suffocating stench of medicine and disinfectant all year long.

    Jin Jiuchi was brought out of his reverie when he sensed a burning stare on his behind, and a sly grin curved on the corner of his lips. He remarked without turning around, "Nian’er, until when will you keep staring at me? I know I look amazing and all, but—"

    "Cough cough!" Shen Nianzu choked on his breath and quickly averted his gaze. He stuttered out, "W–What the hell are you saying?!" He hastened his pace and took over Jin Jiuchi to cross the apartment’s lobby and head straight to the elevator, while Jin Jiuchi easily caught up to him with his long legs.

    "Am I wrong?" He asked again on purpose as he could not bring himself to stop teasing the adorably blushing jade doll. Grinning from ear to ear, he bent down and tried to catch the jade doll’s eyes to no avail. "Were you staring at my ass? Were you, Nian’er?"

    They reached the elevator and Shen Nianzu kept jamming the button with his finger, yet the number on the panel remained unchanged. Why the hell did this stupid elevator crawl slower than a snail?! Shen Nianzu truly felt as if he was going to explode out of rage and humiliation. It was one thing to secretly check the man out, but it’s another thing to be caught red-handed by the aforementioned man! Oh God, did Jin Jiuchi have eyes behind his head or something?!

    "You—"

    "Shut. Up," Shen Nianzu shot him a murderous glare. "One more word and..."

    "And what?" Jin Jiuchi pressed closer with his silver eyes twinkling in tease, so close that he almost caged Shen Nianzu between his body and the elevator door. His voice dipped low, almost as if he was trying to lure and seduce, "I just want to tell you that you are free to look as much as you want, but it looks like Nian’er doesn’t want to accept this offer of mine?"

    Shen Nianzu swore his heart stopped beating for a few seconds when the man’s powerful presence loomed over him. They were clearly using the same body soap and shampoo, but why did he feel like Jin Jiuchi smelled particularly good today?!

    He could feel blood rushing to the top of his head, making him hot and dizzy. His spine was tingling, his knees turned as weak as jelly and he could not tear his gaze away from the intensity those silver eyes pinned him down with. Come to think of it, it seemed like Jin Jiuchi had always looked at him with such a gaze; piercing and all-consuming, it was as if he—

    The elevator suddenly slid open behind him, causing him to lose the support he had been leaning on.

    "Ah—!" A startled cry slipped off his lips when he felt himself falling backward, but before he could land on his butt and make a joke out of himself, Jin Jiuchi caught him securely by the waist and pulled him back, sparing him from the humiliation.

    "Hello," Jin Jiuchi beamed brightly to the middle-aged woman inside the elevator, all the while holding the clumsy jade doll in his arms.

    The woman was startled when she saw the two people in front of the elevator door and she could not help but sneak a few more glances to the silver-haired one, uncertain whether it was a he or she. Caught off guard by Jin Jiuchi’s friendly greeting, she shuffled out of the elevator with an embarrassed look, "H–Hello..." She glanced at the couple again as she passed by, but too bad she could not see that person’s face as it was buried into the taller man’s shoulder. But the slender stature and the fair skin alone was already enough to tell her that they must be very beautiful.

    "Such a good-looking couple..." she murmured under her breath when she was already quite a distance away. "I haven’t seen them around before. Are they new tenants?"

    Jin Jiuchi heard it loud and clear, of course. Not only that, he also shared it with the jade doll. "Nian’er, she said that we are a good-looking couple! Wait..." he tilted his head in confusion. "What is a couple?"

    "Y–You... let go of me first," Shen Nianzu fumbled to peel Jin Jiuchi’s arms off him, then turned around to enter the elevator still with his heart thundering like a drum. He tried to clutch his chest to contain it to no avail, for the memory of being caught and held against that warm embrace still lingered in his mind and skin.

    Damn it, was this the so-called suspension bridge effect?!

    On the other hand, Jin Jiuchi was still hung up on the foreign words he had just heard, "Nian’er, what is a couple?"

    Shen Nianzu pressed on the floor number, leaned his back against the cold metal wall and took a deep breath to stabilize his emotions. Looking at the oblivious man in front of him, he could not help but feel a little angry and thus he replied in a deadpan tone, "She meant that we look like a master and dog. I am the master, and you are my dog."

    "Oh..." Jin Jiuchi scratched his head, feeling like the explanation was a little strange. But he trusted the jade doll with all of his heart, so he did not even bother to question it. "But I am not a dog, though? Do I really look like a dog?"

    Shen Nianzu did not even deign to answer that. Dealing with Jin Jiuchi not only drained his patience to the extreme, but made him tired both physically and mentally from the rollercoaster of emotions the man had put him through. His expression was frosty as he stepped out of the elevator and walked down the fifth-floor empty hallway, with Jin Jiuchi trailing behind him still questioning his own appearance.

    Shen Nianzu’s feet came to a halt in front of room 507, and he rang the doorbell.

    "Who is it?" A scratchy, hoarse male voice drifted out of the intercom, sounding as if he had just woken up from sleep.

    "Nian," Shen Nianzu answered curtly.

    A minute later, the door swung open and Jin Jiuchi’s eyes went huge when he saw the person standing in front of him. "N–Nian’er!" He hurriedly hugged the jade doll to himself and retreated until his back bumped into the opposite wall. "W–What the hell is he?!

    Jin Jiuchi’s mind instantly drifted back to the spider version of Madam Liu he had met in the Cycle. Her bottom half was that of a spider, whereas the man in front of him had a life-like horse head on top of his neck! Was he another nightmare creature?!