Blazing fire is hard to extinguish chapter 56
Confession Night
Is it okay?
Lin Chi was also unsettled by this question.
Li Tingyan had been in Chiang Mai for five days. The summer in Chiang Mai was always too humid, raining frequently, which had made his mood muddy as well.
From the very first moment on the street when he reunited with Li Tingyan, he wanted to strip Li Tingyan bare.
He wanted to pin Li Tingyan under him, leaving fierce marks on Li Tingyan’s body. He would be like the most savage warrior, making Li Tingyan bow and submit, marking him with his own sign.
He had never had such deep possessiveness towards anyone before.
People around him came and went, admiring his looks, liking his flamboyance, and being enchanted by his gaze.
Yet, he only offered a bit of ambiguous flirtation.
Only Li Tingyan was different.
Li Tingyan was different.
Leaving him with intense pain and missing him so much when apart.
Lin Chi’s hand rested lightly on Li Tingyan’s shoulder, not pressing hard. He took a deep breath, feeling a bit irritable, but suppressing it.
He asked Li Tingyan, “Are your wounds… healed?”
When he asked this, his eyes were fixed on Li Tingyan, not avoiding the question.
Li Tingyan was stunned.
He didn’t expect Lin Chi to know.
His ribs had indeed been broken, and they were only barely healed now.
This injury, you could say, was a monument in his tumultuous love life.
It was after he took control of the Changhe Group that he came home and clearly came out to his grandfather, who beat him with a cane.
He didn’t remember how many hits he took, but he didn’t resist at all. He endured it because coming out was not up for discussion but an announcement.
Whether his grandfather agreed or not, he wasn’t going to change his mind.
That’s why Li Zhengtao was so angry.
But he had never considered telling Lin Chi.
Coming out for the one he loved, getting injured, might be seen as heroic in many eyes, a medal to be rewarded by the lover.
But he didn’t see it that way.
It was his own decision, his own choice, something he had to do for Lin Chi.
He did it willingly.
Lin Chi never asked him for anything, and he didn’t think this could be used to seek reward.
So now, he pressed his lips together, not immediately answering Lin Chi’s question, but calmly countered, “What wound?”
Lin Chi nearly rolled his eyes.
Here we go again.
He knew Li Tingyan’s personality too well. He knew this person clung to their demeanor, and when something major happened, was unwilling to show any sign of defeat, distress, or pity to seek sympathy.
“Stop pretending,” he said bluntly, “You think I don’t know about your broken ribs?”
This was confirmed when he asked Xi Ziwen.
Yu Nian only heard a bit of gossip. If it weren’t for Lin Chi’s involvement, he wouldn’t be interested. So, the message Lin Chi received was vague.
But Xi Ziwen’s family had more frequent interactions with the Li family.
Others might not know, but Xi Ziwen’s brother and Li Tingyan’s cousin were close, though they didn’t have much contact publicly. Xi Ziwen admitted with a smirk that Li Tingyan came out, mocking him for being such a romantic.
Anyway, Li Tingyan had already come out publicly within the family. Xi Ziwen was happy to watch the drama.
In his words, “The Li family hasn’t had such a neurotic person in decades.”
Lin Chi wasn’t foolish. When these time points and events were connected, not only he but even Xi Ziwen vaguely sensed something was wrong.
The two were silent on their phones for a long time. Xi Ziwen wanted to curse but didn’t know where to start, eventually just grumbling that they were really annoying, and sulkily didn’t ask more.
Li Tingyan frowned.
He ran through Lin Chi’s circle of friends in his mind. Lacking key information, he didn’t think of Xi Ziwen, instead suspecting Yu Nian.
But he hadn’t had time to think it through when Lin Chi nudged him, “Answer my question.”
Lin Chi stared at him directly.
Not allowing him to evade.
Li Tingyan lowered his eyes, with no retreat.
He softly said, “It’s healed a long time ago.”
He took Lin Chi’s hand and placed it on his chest.
His heart was beating strongly, pounding against Lin Chi’s palm.
Since Lin Chi already knew, he had no need to hide anymore.
He said, “I followed the doctor’s advice, used all methods to heal quickly, just to appear safely in front of you.”
He still had a bit of pride.
He hoped that when he appeared in front of Lin Chi, it would be perfect, presentable, flawless, so that Lin Chi would fall for him at first sight.
.
In the end, Li Tingyan still gained the privilege to enter Lin Chi’s room.
Even if it was just a hotel room.
Even if that night’s manor was funded by Li Tingyan himself.
The two of them stumbled onto the bed.
Their lips were pressed together, soft clothes scattered all over the floor. Because of their reckless movements, several buttons fell off, like raindrops scattered around.
But that day was a rare sunny day.
Chiang Mai was often rainy.
Yet that night was calm and tranquil.
Lin Chi lay on the bed, kicking off his pants, and then coiled around like a snake.
He wasn’t the slender, fragile kind of snake.
He was a rare python, beautiful in scales yet full of strength.
If he wanted, he could suffocate the person he locked in an instant.
He roughly left a mark on Li Tingyan’s fragile neck.
And Li Tingyan let him.
Li Tingyan gently stroked his hair.
But after Lin Chi vented his anger and restlessness, the two looked at each other, and there was a faint touch of red on Lin Chi’s lips.
Their eyes met, and this scene overlapped with countless nights of the past.
Li Tingyan suddenly shed his restraints and became a dangerous man again.
He pressed Lin Chi down.
The positions reversed.
Lin Chi looked up at him from below.
Li Tingyan’s fingers stroked Lin Chi’s hair.
Compared to when they were apart, Lin Chi’s hair had grown a lot.
After washing, it almost reached his shoulders.
He looked very much like the protagonist of a lavishly drawn comic from the last century.
Li Tingyan said, “In the six months we were apart, I wanted to find you countless times.”
He kissed Lin Chi’s brow.
“Every time you moved, I actually knew. I knew you briefly rented an apartment in April, there was a flower shop downstairs, and a bakery around the corner where you always bought baguettes.”
He kissed Lin Chi’s nose.
“I watched the streets you walked countless times, sometimes I couldn’t help but imagine, imagine breaking into your room at night. No one would find out. Maybe not even you would know who I was. I could tie you up, kiss you, caress you, do all the things I fantasized about. Maybe you wouldn’t be able to stand it and would cry out in pain, but I would never let you go.”
He spoke of his sinful fantasies with a calm expression.
Lin Chi’s eyes widened.
What the hell!
Does your family know you’re this perverted?
But before he could protest, Li Tingyan blocked his lips.
The night outside was quiet and peaceful, and maybe everyone in the manor was happy today.
Chiang Mai was a city of carefree joy, the flowers by the city wall blooming brilliantly, the reflections in the water showing pairs of lovers, and the girls’ skirts as beautiful as kingfisher feathers.
Li Tingyan and Lin Chi embraced each other.
This was the first time they had been this close since that night in Helsinki.
From winter to summer.
The harsh cold of Finland was melted by Chiang Mai’s scorching sun.
They were finally together again.
…
Afterwards, Lin Chi lay on the pillow, too tired to lift a finger.
Lovers reuniting after a long separation tend to be entangled unto death, especially since Li Tingyan was such a monster in bed.
He turned his head to look at Li Tingyan, who had pushed open a window a bit, his upper body naked, with a light sweat on his face and body, a refined and noble face, but a body that was quite the opposite, eyes still filled with unsatisfied desire, exuding a sexy contrast.
Lin Chi couldn’t help but lick his lips again, the corners of his eyes filled with a lingering desire.
When Li Tingyan returned to the bed, Lin Chi extended his finger, gently brushing across Li Tingyan’s ribcage.
“Does it hurt?”
He asked.
It sounded like he was asking about an injury, yet it also seemed like he was asking something else.
Li Tingyan shook his head, “It doesn’t hurt.”
He wasn’t trying to be tough, he said, “You know, I was in a car accident when I was twenty, that was serious, I felt like half my body was shattered, I almost thought I wouldn’t recover, so since then, many injuries don’t seem to hurt anymore.”
Lin Chi didn’t ask further.
Li Tingyan’s twenties, that was a past he couldn’t be a part of.
But that car accident, which almost cost Li Tingyan an eye, he didn’t need to think to know how serious it was.
He had also broken bones on set, for them, it really wasn’t considered a terrible injury.
But he played with Li Tingyan’s fingers, hesitated for a moment, then softly said.
“So what’s your family’s attitude towards you now? It escalated to the point of breaking your ribs, yet you still came to find me. Don’t they have any objections?”
This was the first time Lin Chi clearly asked about Li Tingyan’s family.
When they were just friends with benefits, he didn’t care much about Li Tingyan, let alone his family.
Later, when he started to care, Li Tingyan’s family background was too prominent and complex, their relationship was also unstable, without a definite result, so he didn’t want to trouble himself.
But now it was different.
Lin Chi thought, now it’s different, even though he hadn’t given Li Tingyan a title yet.
But Li Tingyan was his.
This point would never change, like an inscription on bronze, enduring through wind and rain.
Li Tingyan turned around and grasped Lin Chi’s fingers, holding them in his palm, rubbing the fingertips.
He said, “No one in my family can oppose me anymore, my grandpa is probably still angry, but he understands he can’t control me anymore.”
He felt a slight guilt towards the old man, but after so many years, he knew Li Zhengtao well, so he calmly thought his grandpa would eventually come around.
He told Lin Chi, “I guess you might have seen some tabloid news about my family. I really fought hard with them these past six months, but I won. So no one can stop me anymore, Lin Chi.”
He gazed at Lin Chi without blinking, he didn’t know if Lin Chi still cared.
Cared about the conversation they had in the study the night before they separated, which he regretted the most in his life, making Lin Chi face his selfish and unfeeling side.
Even if he hadn’t seen his own heart clearly at the time.
But he didn’t intend to make excuses for himself.
He spoke softly, “I’m not trying to commend myself. I just want you to know that I’ve already announced to everyone in my family that I will not marry any woman who matches our social status, no matter how much her identity and status could help me. I was born liking men, but in this world, with so many people coming and going, there is only one person I want to spend my life with.”
“That person is right in front of me.”
He squeezed Lin Chi’s hand.
After all this time, after all the ups and downs, after parting at the airport, he finally understood himself.
But actually, as early as the morning Lin Chi left, when he heard Lin Chi’s slight gasp on the phone, he regretted it.
When he heard Lin Chi say, “We’re done,” at that moment, no words could describe the tsunami-like pain and regret that destroyed him.
He had irrationally thought about capturing Lin Chi, about keeping him by his side forever. He had the power to make Lin Chi only look at him forever.
Fortunately, he didn’t do that.
And they were still together.
Lin Chi blinked his eyes, wondering if it was because after such tender moments, as a sensual person, he always found it easier to be soft-hearted.
Hearing Li Tingyan speak like this, his eyes inexplicably felt a bit sour.
Of course, he understood what Li Tingyan meant. Li Tingyan was confessing, promising, and also waiting for his response.
This time, if he agreed, there would be no more vague, ambiguous relationship. They would be completely lovers, understanding and committing to each other, never wavering in this life.
Before Li Tingyan, he had never loved anyone, nor believed he could love anyone.
But tonight.
In the foreign land of Chiang Mai, this lush ancient city, humid and hot, it seemed like they could abandon everything and just stay with the one they loved.
He withdrew his fingers, but his cheek leaned into Li Tingyan’s palm.
He looked at Li Tingyan and said softly, “I know.”
He smiled at Li Tingyan, a hint of melancholy and nostalgia in his eyes.
“In Helsinki, I already knew, you only wanted me.”
When Li Tingyan appeared in Helsinki that night, he knew Li Tingyan’s choice.
Before leaving the airport, he told Li Tingyan, “If one day you find yourself madly in love with me, you can come find me.”
And then Li Tingyan came.
On a snowy night in Helsinki, he silently watched him from downstairs.
They embraced and kissed in the ice and snow, and Li Tingyan held him as if to carve him into his body.
Li Tingyan said, begging him to wait a little longer.
At that moment, what else was there to not understand?
He fell in love with Li Tingyan precisely because he understood him.
He didn’t know what Li Tingyan looked like in the eyes of others, but in his eyes, Li Tingyan was a perfect lover, one in a million.
If Li Tingyan asked him to wait, he certainly wouldn’t let his wish go unfulfilled.
Lin Chi straightened up, sat on Li Tingyan’s lap, and kissed him again.
Perhaps their reunion was still too short, as if no matter how much they kissed, it wasn’t enough.
The humid and hot wind gently blew in from outside, while the air conditioner was on inside.
The night brought a hint of floral fragrance.
The fountain in the manor was still tirelessly gurgling.
Lin Chi looked at Li Tingyan, his eyes bright. He asked softly, “If, I mean if, you go home but fail to fight back, what will you do?”
For the past six months, he had been thinking about this question, often taking out his little notebook to calculate his savings.
Wondering if he could afford to support Li Tingyan.
But he was too embarrassed to bring it up.
Giving someone money and support, if Huo Yuning knew, she would definitely scold him for being love-struck.
But now, playing with Li Tingyan’s hair, he couldn’t help but ask this question.
Li Tingyan chuckled.
Even though he didn’t think he would fail, he had indeed thought about this question.
He said, “If that happens, I would buy a bouquet of flowers on the streets of Paris and invite you to elope with me.”
“I have a private estate in Australia, some land. Maybe you’d like to live a pastoral life with me.”
He had really thought about this.
He had once been the sharpest thorn in the field of fame and fortune.
But after meeting Lin Chi, he felt that as long as Lin Chi was by his side, any path would lead to a happy ending.
He gazed into Lin Chi’s eyes, “May I ask, Mr. Lin, are you willing to elope with me now?”
Would he?
Lin Chi smiled.
He looked at Li Tingyan, smiling, and leaned in to kiss him again.
“Guess.”
….
A dreamy night passed, and everyone had to wake up from last night’s revelry.
Gu Yiyuan’s movie had to continue shooting.
And Li Tingyan had to return to the country. He had a pile of work waiting for him.
Chasing to Thailand for these few days was already a squeezed-out holiday. His several secretaries back home were about to hang themselves.
Li Tingyan was deeply regretful and, for the first time, irresponsibly wanted to retire.
Lin Chi, however, was calm.
Facing the separation, he wasn’t sad.
Because now he was sore all over, he couldn’t imagine what expression the makeup artist would have when she saw the mess of marks on his body back in the crew.
From this point of view…
It’s good that Li Tingyan was leaving.
Li Tingyan also saw the iron heart of the person in front of him.
He sighed helplessly and kissed Lin Chi’s lips again in the car.
“When will you return to the country?” he asked.
“In about half a month.”
Lin Chi answered casually, “But I still have a lot of work abroad afterward.”
Although he couldn’t compare to Li Tingyan in terms of handling countless affairs daily, as a rising star model, he was quite busy as well.
Li Tingyan felt even more regretful.
But he looked at Lin Chi and asked again, “So, when we meet again, can I have a chance for promotion?”
He was still brooding over his invitation to Lin Chi to elope last night, which went unanswered.
Lin Chi chuckled silently.
He thought that he had already given Li Tingyan the answer, starting from the moment they reunited.
But this answer needed to be uncovered by Li Tingyan himself.
So, he casually tilted Li Tingyan’s chin, bit his lower lip, and mumbled, “You’ll find out when we meet.”