Chapter 31: Truth or Dare

Translator: Mukyuu
Editor: Mikyuu

For a second, He Congsheng didn’t know who he was, where he was, or what he was supposed to be doing! 

He took a few deep breaths and said in a pained voice, “Ning Yan, you—when did you become more familiar with him than with me? Didn’t you always not see eye—” 

Ning Yan, who had just been basking in the sweet moment, was startled. He immediately rushed to interrupt He Congsheng, “What? What? What!” 

Then he peeked cautiously at Lin Rong.

A hint of confusion flashed across the other man’s eyes. 

Ning Yan said self-consciously, “You be quiet. Go away and play. Go, go!” 

As he said those words, he walked over to push He Congsheng from behind. 

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Before, Ning Yan would have never believed, not in a thousand years, that one day he’d act like a little girl and feel his legs weakening just from the sound of a man’s voice. 

He lowered his head and blushed. Strange thoughts kept circling around in his head. He had felt like a ferocious tiger just a few seconds before and he had now turned into a tamed housecat. He answered obediently, “… Oh.” 

Oh. 

He said it so softly, like anyone could push him over nilly-willy. 

Lin Rong’s eyes curved with his smile. 

Then he coughed lightly. Though his face looked serious, his ears turned bright red as he turned around with Ning Yan. 

He Congsheng, “…”

Do the two of them think he is a corpse?!

He gritted his teeth and insisted on following. “You can’t leave! Whatever you two are planning on saying, you can say it in front of me!” 

“You’re so annoying!” Just as the bubble of love surrounded them, it was once again popped. Ning Yan turned around and snarled at He Congsheng. 

Lin Rong accidentally caught sight of it and an image of the white puppy snarling flashed across his mind. Something flickered in his eyes. 

He Congsheng pouted, “Ning Yan, you’ve really changed. Tell me, are you with this guy?!” 

Ning Yan jumped. In that second, he clearly felt the other man’s grip tighten on his wrist. At the same time, Ning Yan’s heart started thundering. 

This, this is—

If Ning Yan had fur, it’d be sticking up. This is wrong! He wants a confession but not one that’s been forced by He Congsheng!

Just then, Li Xingwen’s voice rang out, “Hey, what are you three doing? Planning on fighting at my pre-wedding party?” 

The sound of girls laughing accompanied her voice. 

The three of them looked over. Li Xingwen had just come out of the pool and draped a white robe over herself so that it covered up her sexy black bikini. She hooked a finger at them and called out, “Come here and play with us.” 

Her group of best friends leaned out, over the lip of the pool. The sexy ones, the cute ones, and the delicate looking ones… they all smiled and called out, “Come on over. Come play with us.” 

He Congsheng, Ning Yan, and Lin Rong all felt like they had entered the sirens’ lair¹ 盘丝洞 (Pansi Cave or The Cave of Silken Web) is a reference to The Journey of the West, during which a monk becomes trapped in the Pansi Cave with seven female spider demons who turn themselves into pretty women. .

This was Li Xingwen’s pre-wedding party; of course she had the final say. 

So, ten minutes later they sat down obediently at a table across from the pool. 

Li Xingwen had someone bring over some barbeque and then poured wine for everyone. Lin Rong was driving, so he drank juice. Ning Yan didn’t have a choice; Li Xingwen poured a full glass of red wine for him. 

Lin Rong and He Congsheng sat on either side of Ning Yan. Lin Rong furrowed his brow slightly when he saw what Li Xingwen had done and murmured quietly to Ning Yan, “Don’t drink too much.” 

“Ning Yan can hold his alcohol! Who are you to worry!” He Congsheng immediately stuck his head out from the other side and retorted. 

Ning Yan took a deep breath and felt his fist itching to punch something. 

He Congsheng immediately ducked back and asked cautiously, “What are you doing? This is your Li Sis’s pre-wedding party!”

“You know it’s my pre-wedding party?” Li Xingwen said with a smile that didn’t reach her eyes. “I think if this continues, we can just watch you two have a boxing fight.” 

“Hahahaha!” Her besties and the few men who were nearby all laughed. 

Ning Yan glared at He Congsheng. 

He Congsheng pouted. 

Ning Yan gestured again at He Congsheng with his fist and only turned around to look at the man on his other side when He Congsheng had finally admitted defeat and shifted a miniscule amount away from him. 

The man had lowered his gaze at some point without a word. He seemed a little quiet. 

Ning Yan’s heart tightened and he blamed himself for getting into it with He Congsheng. He quickly scooted closer and whispered, “I’ll be careful.”

Lin Rong glanced over, the gaze in his eyes unfathomable. 

Ning Yang thought… Love is so strange. 

When he’d meet Lin Rong’s gaze before, the most he’d feel was his heart getting pinched. Now the man looked at him and Ning Yan felt like someone held his heart in a fist and was squeezing the life out of it. 

He promised in a quiet voice, “I’ll only drink half!” 

Lin Rong kept looking at him. A few seconds later, the corners of his lips finally swung upwards again. 

Ning Yan breathed a sigh of relief. 

Come to think of it… when he first stepped out, he had been consumed with the thought of demanding the big pervert explain himself about the female dog. Now he doesn’t feel like he has any ground to stand on. 

Lin Rong smiled and asked gently, “Did you get to see Sese?” 

“Hmm, ye-yes. He’s playing with Pengpeng.” Ning Yan’s eyes looked everywhere but at Lin Rong. He said guiltily, “Thank you for taking care of him for me.” 

“As long as I can help you.” 

The mood between them finally turned intimate again. Ning Yan pinched his lips shut and tried to control his expression. Lin Rong’s gaze wandered and finally settled on carefully observing the youth sitting next to him, up close and personal. 

The warm light glittered on the youth’s profile and added a feeling of gentleness and adorableness to the young man. 

Lin Rong suddenly called out contemplatively, “Yanyan.” 

“Yeah?” Ning Yan felt like he was floating on clouds. 

The man tenderly stated, “You’ve gained some weight.” 

Ning Yan was speechless. 

He gripped the wine glass in his hand so hard that it almost shattered. 

He remembered the first thing that Ning Yue said to him when he had just woken up. Ning Yue had said emotionlessly, “Looks like you’ve been eating well at Lin Rong’s.” 

Ning Yan had refused to believe it and examined himself in the mirror—His face is just a bit rounder! Just a tiny bit!

Is everyone examining him with a magnifying glass?I

Ning Yan forced a smile. “Really? I don’t feel it!” 

The man continued thoughtfully, “Your face is a bit rounder.” 

Ning Yan continued to grit his teeth and smile, “You’re imagining things!” 

The man shook his head. 

As Ning Yan’s smile started to freeze on his face, the man stared at him and said, “I can misremember a lot of things, but not what you look like.” 

The evening breeze brushed past them. 

In the silence, Ning Yan blushed and lowered his head. 

What? This-does this count as sweet talking? It is so unexpected!

Lin Rong watched the youth next to him and thought back carefully. When he had held the white puppy in his arms and moved around, he could feel that the puppy had gained weight. Maybe about one or two kilograms. 

One or two kilograms. 

He looked again at the young man’s little round face. 

Lin Rong once again became ensnared by his strange and conflicting hypothesis. 

Across from them, Li Xingwen finished setting everything up, gave them a glance, and then smiled meaningfully as she tossed down a deck of cards. 

“It’s no fun to play this again!”

“Don’t you worry, we’ll add some excitement to it!” 

“Everyone promise to play no matter what!” 

The crowd made a lot of noise. Ning Yan was distracted as he and the man next to him snuck glances at each other. They both knew the other was doing it. So when Ning Yan turned his attention back to the crowd, the game had already begun and everyone was choosing their cards. 

Truth or Dare was meant to be thrilling, which was why in the first few rounds, there were some who unhesitantly chose dare. The ideas that got tossed out were pretty wild. Thankfully Ning Yan wasn’t really close with anyone, so they didn’t get him involved. 

But in one of the later rounds—He Congsheng was about to be pushed over and forcefully kissed by one of Li Xingwen’s best friends. As he struggled, he called out, “Sis, I’m gay! I’m gay!” 

“Damn, look at He Congsheng coming out!” 

“For real?” 

“This better not be a lie to get out of the game!” 

“It’s real! It’s definitely real! Sis, look at my goosebumps!” He Congsheng shouted hoarsely. 

The girl remained calm and got up after hearing this. She released him, raised an eyebrow, and demanded, “Let me look at your goosebumps.” 

He Congsheng shoved his arm forwards and the bumps were clearly visible. The girl smacked the arm unhappily. 

He Congsheng yelped and then rubbed his arm. He pleaded, “Sis, pick someone else!” 

The girl immediately turned her gaze to Ning Yan. 

Ning Yan froze. 

He Congsheng froze.

Lin Rong froze. 

The girl immediately sensed that something wasn’t right and looked between the three of them. Slowly, her face darkened. 

She took a deep breath and looked at her best friend Li Xingwen with a disbelieving gaze. Li Xingwen looked like she was having the time of her life. 

“Well I’ll be damned.” The girl got confirmation. She smoothed her hand over her chest and said quietly, “Looks like I’ve landed in a nest of gays.” 

With that, she scooted back three meters. 

Nobody else heard what she had said but He Congsheng, Ning Yan, and Lin Rong all fell silent. 

Ning Yan lowered his head even more and blushed furiously. 

Lin Rong quietly looked away but his ears also turned red. 

He Congsheng pouted. 

Li Xingwen had her fun and called out, “Come, come, come. Let’s continue!” 

Everyone drew their cards again. 

Ning Yan grabbed a random card. Since he had never once gotten the joker card, he felt calm as though he were blessed by the gods. After he drew his card, he glanced down to make sure that it wasn’t the joker. Then he sighed in relief. 

He actually wasn’t good at these kinds of games. He was here purely because he hadn’t been aware of what was happening. By the time he realized it, the game had already begun and he would have felt bad for ruining Li Xingwen’s fun. 

He heard Li Xingwen ask, “Who has the joker this time?” 

Nobody responded and everyone glanced at each other. 

When Ning Yan realized what was happening, he whipped his head around to look at Lin Rong. The man’s expression turned grave and he slowly put down the card in his hand. 

He had the joker. 

All of a sudden, everyone fell silent. 

And then— 

“Hot damn!” 

“Hahahahaha f*ck me!” 

“Lin Rong! Lin Rong! Lin Rong!” 

The crowd started chanting. 

Li Xingwen watched gleefully, “So will it be truth or dare for Little Lin?” 

“Dare. Dare!” 

“No, I want to hear a truth!” 

To outsiders, Lin Rong had always seemed cold and distant. 

Everyone had almost fallen over in astonishment at the sight of him letting Li Xingwen pull him into such a daring game. Now that someone who was normally so restrained had drawn the joker, everyone was even more excited. Some of the guys even screeched. 

If he chose truth, it was easy to tell what everyone would ask. 

Ning Yan’s heart thumped. 

Though it hadn’t been him who had pulled the card, he got nervous and gulped. 

“Little Lin, hurry and choose?” Li Xingwen asked with a smile. 

Lin Rong thought for a second and then glanced at Ning Yan like he wanted to say something but couldn’t bring himself to do it. 

Ning Yan was a bit embarrassed and didn’t know what to do with himself. 

Lin Rong withdrew his gaze, thought for a moment, and then said quietly, “Dare.” 

Everyone screamed. 

Li Xingwen continued to smile. “That’s fine. A dare. Then this time, you’ll have to do what I say—” 

Ning Yan was just about to breathe a sigh of relief when a sense of foreboding came upon him at Li Xingwen’s tone. 

Though everyone looked exhilarated, they probably wouldn’t have done anything too extreme since it was Lin Rong doing the dare. But Li Xingwen was different. She had never been scared of anything— 

“Little Lin, pick someone from the crowd,” Li Xingwen elegantly picked up a cherry from the fruit plate on the table and continued nonchalantly, “and eat this cherry together, with your lips pressed against each other. How’s that?”