Everyday Life of a Dom Boyfriend

Part Twelve: Brothers (3)

—

After Ye Qia hung up, carried out the dried laundry, and told Xia Zhi about it, Xia Zhi merely offered a dumb look. “Set him up?”

“Yep.”

“With who?”

“You do the searching.”

“I do the searching?” Xia Zhi parroted, then asked, “Why me?”

“Because I helped you dodge a disaster.”

“What disaster?”

“Weren’t you about to go make Magician pay? If I hadn’t stopped you, you would’ve fallen into Magician’s trap. He was prepared and waiting for you to walk right into it.”

“…”

Xia Zhi’s brow wrinkled and he opened his mouth, wanting to say something but not quite knowing where to start.

“So this task will be left to you.”

“Hold on,” Xia Zhi said, not knowing whether to laugh or cry, “Why are you letting me set him up? Who should I introduce? And isn’t he with Bai Min?”

As if he hadn’t heard the last point, Ye Qia said, “I’m not setting him up because there’s too much overlap between our social circles. Yours is more distant. By the way, you know his requirements right?”

“Uh huh, I remember him mentioning it. He likes them lean and pale…” Coming onto this point, Xia Zhi paused and appraised Ye Qia with hostility before slowly finishing, “looking outstanding but actually being trash.”

Ye Qia raised a brow. “I certainly don’t fit the last stipulation.”

“But you fit the first several.”

“I only changed up my image recently. In the past, the tanned look was popular.”

Xia Zhi rolled his eyes and said, “Fine, but I still think this is unreasonable. What about Bai Min?”

Ye Qia sighed and came over to rest a hand on his shoulder. He looked at him and said very precisely, “Haven’t you become clever? Think carefully, Bai Min’s the real reason why you need to arrange a date for him.”

“He is?”

After Ye Qia finished speaking, he walked into the kitchen. Xia Zhi racked his brain for a while and came to a sudden realization, shouting, “Ye Qia, you’re the one who owes him a favor! You’re the one who provoked Bai Min, it has nothing to do with me! Fuck, Ye Qia, did you dig another ditch for me to jump!”

Unfortunately, no matter how Xia Zhi protested, the matter was decided just like that. Of course, he was absolutely not going to admit that the real reason he agreed was because he was fucked out of his mind that night, having felt so good he nearly wet himself.

Bright and early that weekend, Xia Zhi stood at the bathroom mirror shaving as he hollered, “In any case, it’s definitely not because your technique is too good that I’m setting him up!

“Yes, yes.” Ye Qia rubbed his face, looked dazed as he stood at the door. “Do you want me to come with you?”

“No need!” Xia Zhi rinsed his face with cold water and said without hesitation, “I’m going alone!”

Ye Qia sighed and said, “There’s no sense trying to separate us like this. We’ve been friends for so many years.”

“…I’m not.”

“Yes, yes, you’re not.” Ye Qia walked in with his head lowered, squeezing out toothpaste as he said, “Good luck on your own.”

Xia Zhi immediately asked, “Why do you say that?”

Ye Qia did not answer, but after the date, he quickly understood what Ye Qia meant by it.

The meeting place was at a quiet coffee shop, by a second floor window seat where the view was quite nice. The person Xia Zhi was introducing was the relative of a friend’s friend. Though the relation was somewhat distant, he had heard this person was “simple and clean in the streets, kinky in sheets.” He asked about BDSM and the other had expressed a willingness to try it out, so Xia Zhi brought him along without worries.

Magician was five minutes late. Wearing a smile, he was dressed rather seductively and looked quite good. The two hit it off on a positive note and just when Xia Zhi was certain that things looked promising, Magician said, “You’re really ugly.”

Xia Zhi and the person being introduced froze, staring at Magician, unable to get a word out. Taking no notice, Magician continued on, “You also don’t look like you work out. How far along are you in your pregnancy?”

Magician’s date quickly grew red in the face. After Xia Zhi got over the shock, he exclaimed, “What the hell are you saying?”

“You said I could pick however I wanted, yet you introduce this sort of garbage?”

The person being introduced could no longer stand it and a cup of coffee came hurling over. Magician seemed well-prepared, dodging it with a tilt of his head. He dusted his completely dry shoulders and said coolly, “Going so far as to pull a coffee spilling stunt like this. You’re past your prime, ma’am!”

The matchmaking ended on a sour note—describing it this way was charitable. It was more apt to say that it was like “the parting of enemies.”

After seeing the person out, Xia Zhi’s apologetic smile instantly faded. He turned and grabbed Magician by the collar, fiercely saying, “Are you looking for a beating?” Magician casually pinched Xia Zhi’s wrist and Xia Zhi immediately let out a sound like a pig being slaughtered, automatically letting go.

“I’m not His Majesty. Nothing good will come out of you laying a hand on me.” Magician picked up his coffee for a sip and said neither fast nor slow, “Take a good look at who’s in front of you before you start acting like a baby.”

“I’m not acting like a baby!” Xia Zhi roared, then saw the looks being shot their way by the other customers. He lowered his voice, “What the hell do you want?”

“Why, to be set up with someone.”

“How is this the attitude of someone being set up?”

“What else can I say when you introduce a person like that?”

“What’s wrong with someone like him?” Xia Zhi’s fury swelled like a frothing sea sponge. “Who do you think you are? You’re just a…”

The atmosphere suddenly froze over and Xia Zhi promptly shut up, but Magician had already understood him. He sneered. “A what? Rent boy? Prostitute? Someone who sells ass?” 

“I didn’t say that!” Xia Zhi’s momentum came to a steep drop. After a pause, he said, “Plus, you sell dick, not ass.”

Magician rolled his eyes, sat up straight, and said frankly, “Let’s make things clear. I don’t like you. You’re too rash and bad-tempered, and you look down on those of us in this profession. What a shame it is for Ye Qia to be with you.”

“I don’t!” Xia Zhi retorted unhappily. “Don’t make excuses, clearly it’s because you like Ye Qia!”

Sadness flitted across Magician’s expression before his lazy smile returned. “So you went and introduced someone bad to me? Don’t tell me the one you introduced is the best one there was.”

“…”

He was, in fact, not the best. From the very start, Xia Zhi hadn’t intended to introduce anyone good to Magician. No matter how he looked at it, he had no obligation to do so, right?

Magician smiled triumphantly. “Well, I’m leaving first. Keep trying. Oh, and let me just say this, you’d better find someone suitable sooner than later. It’ll benefit you, as well.”

Left by himself, Xia Zhi sat at the cafe for a long time. He drank three cups of coffee, with one of those cups being a black coffee with no sugar and 30% caffeine. He scrolled through the contacts on his phone and made several calls. After returning home, he declared to Ye Qia, “One month! I’m going to sell Magician off within a month!”

Chewing his broccoli, Ye Qia replied with a calm, “Oh.”

“If I can’t sell him off then I’ll…”

Ye Qia waited for a few minutes and after not hearing the end of that statement, he asked, “You’ll what?”

“I’ll…get fucked to death by you.”

“…”