Wolf's Temptation (狼的爱恋) Chinese BL Translation by: 巫哲

There's Another Wolf

There's Another Wolf

With the window shattered, Xu Bei and Qiao Qian were trembling from the cold inside the car, words unbecoming to them, they remained in mutual silence. Contrariwise, Lang Jiu was unperturbed. He sat quietly beside the broken window, leaning his head back against the chair and looking outside, giving Xu Bei a profile of his face.

It was already dark outside, it seemed to have already started to snow, he had not the slightest clue what it was that he was looking at.

"Xiao Bei," Qiao Qian pulled at his collar, covering half of his face, and said with a muffled voice from underneath the collar, "You can't stay with this child."

Lang Jiu's gaze whipped away from the window at the speed of light and swept over Qiao Qian's face. Whatever was in his gaze was even more bone-chilling than the freezing cold wind blowing in from outside. Qiao Qian leaned backward, his back broke out into a slight cold sweat: "Fuck, put a leash on it..."

"Cut that out," Xu Bei gave Lang Jiu a shove, "We can't chitter-chatter all day long and we didn't say we'd sell you."

Lang Jiu once again insisted upon looking at Qiao Qian for another dozen or so seconds before lowering his eyelids and letting his head fall forward: "En."

"Xiao Bei, listen to me," Qiao Qian glanced at Lang Jiu, hesitated, and then hid behind the car seat. "Being a wolf one minute and a man the next is too conspicuous, an accident is bound to happen given time. Ban Datong is still looking for you."

"So what's to be done, are you saying I should toss him back to Beiling or sell him to a human trafficker..." Xu Bei massages his temples, "This whole thing made me get fucked one hundred times over, who could have imagined that I would run face-first into it."

"Where do you live now." Qiao Qian lit up a cigarette and pulled his legs up to his chest, wrapping his arms around them in the driver's seat.

"I can't tell you that."

"Alrighty," Qiao Qian laughed, "It's Spider Lane, is it not? I can just pretend not to know, you got any cash on you?"

"Yep, don't worry about it." Xu Bei was not at all surprised that Qiao Qian could guess where he was hiding. They were too close, knowing each other's habits and even quirks inside and out. For example, the matter of Qiao Qian, a grown-ass man, still having to hug a body pillow and such to fall asleep...

"It's still a little too unbelievable to think about," Qiao Qian aimed a glance at Lang Jiu with a cigarette in his hand, Lang Jiu was frozen like a statue, only staring at the backrest of the passenger seat as if spellbound, "Why not take him to Minmin's place to examine his body and see if we can fully find out what's going on?

"After the Chinese New Year passes, a few days later, I'll be super busy in the days before the New Year."

"Where are you celebrating this year?"

"Back home."

"Back home?" Qiao Qian was a little shocked. From what he could recall, Xu Bei hadn't gone back home in years.

"Xu Ling said that old bastard would be at home during the New Year," Xu Bei gritted his teeth, "The score between us has yet to be settled."

Qiao Qian's head was pounding and his thoughts were in a whirl by the time he came home. Today's events really made him skeptical of whether he really was hungover and still in a drunken slumber. He might wake up tomorrow morning and find that this was all because he watched "X-Men" too much and began dreaming.

He had originally planned to have a meal with Xu Bei, but Xu Bei was worried that halfway through the meal, Lang Jiu would turn back into a wolf, making it so they would be on the front page of tomorrow's newspaper, smack dab on the headline, so Qiao Qian ultimately had to go home and boil some noodles for himself.

To be precise, they went their own separate ways from the farmhouse. His cries to see Xu Bei back to the urban area fell on deaf ears. Xu Bei was quite cautious and said that walking for a bit and calling for a car to go back worked just fine.

It was not a matter of choice that Xu Bei was so cautious, the injuries on his body, half of which were bestowed upon him by Ban Datong forced his hand.

Sometimes, Qiao Qian finds himself unable to understand whether Ban Datong's whole cat and mouse schtick is because it's amusing or something else. In his view, apart from training Xu Bei's reverse stalking and escaping ability to grow more and more extraordinary, it doesn't impact anything else.

As Qiao Qian bewilderedly walked into his hallway, a black car slowly drove past him.

"The guy surnamed Qiao went out with the Tobacco Bureau to investigate illicit cigarettes yesterday at midnight," the henchman sitting in the passenger side turned around and lit a cigarette for Ban Datong, "But the unit who went with him came back in the morning..."

"So what you're saying is that you dumb fuckers haven't got the slightest bit of usefulness, Qiao Qian clearly fucking went to go meet up with Xu Bei," Ban Datong drew a mouthful of smoke and jabbed a few fingers at his subordinate, "So it seems that not a single person was aware of where he went. Not one single person fucking saw wherever Xu Bei went!"

"Would you like to get Qiao Qian himself..." That henchman grit his teeth as he pushed the suggestion forth.

"Fucking goddamn brainless piece of shit!" Ban Datong sneered, "I said this kid can't be made use of."

"Isn't he just the Office Secretary of the Tobacco Bureau... he doesn't have an outstanding background..." The man slightly failed to understand and muttered his complaints in a low voice.

Ban Datong raised his hand and shouted at him followed by a resound slap: "So you are a brainless piece of shit, you don't understand shit!"

"They're all trash. Don't forget about the New Year. Isn't Xu Guangrong going to show up, Xu Bei will go looking for him," Lin Rui said, holding a knee in the back seat, insipidly saying, "Let's go back now, I'm hungry."

"You're saying," Ban Datong grabbed Lin Rui's shoulders and drew closer to his ear, "Is it with Xu Bei or Xu Guangrong?"

Lin Rui smiled and looked at Ban Datong, a gleam of light flickered in his eyes, leaving as quickly as it came: "It's most certainly not with Xu Bei."

After being turned into a naked man in front of Qiao Qian and scaring the living daylights out of him, Xu Bei hadn't taken the little wolf out since then, day after day, he holed himself away and fell into a monotonous routine of eating and sleeping on the second floor.

Within that interval, Chen Xiaoyu came up several times, bringing her hope and anticipation astride, she strongly demanded for Xu Bei to take the newly arrived young handsome guy down for dinner. But the result was the same every time. Xu Bei stood at the door, holding the door with one hand, and barring her entrance with the other propped against the wall. All the while, the young handsome guy was passed out on the bed with his head covered, not moving a single inch.

Ultimately, Chen Xiaoyu began pressing: "Xiao Bei-ge, what's the deal between the two of you, ah. Whenever I come the two of you are both in the bed..."

"What?" Xu Bei froze for a moment.

"Are you..." Chen Xiaoyu pursed her lips, "Forget it, I won't say it so you don't scold me."

"Hold on now, just say it anyway," Xu Bei turned to look back at the little wolf who he had covered with a quilt on the bed, and went out of the room to hold the door closed, "When have I ever scolded you before?"

"It's really nothing," Chen Xiaoyu aimed a glance at him, turned and hopped downstairs step by step and after getting halfway down the staircase, she then turned around and asked, "Xiao Bei-ge, are you into guys, ah?"

Xu Bei has always treated Chen Xiaoyu as a silly little girl, so the words Chen Xiaoyu spoke to him were never tactful or subtle, but when such words fell from her lips, even Xu Bei nearly choked on his own saliva.

"I say, little girl," Xu Bei looked at the smug face Chen Xiaoyu mirthfully sent his way, and switched out his previous expression to one of a despicable lecher, "Wanna come see for yourself?"

Chen Xiaoyu's smile stiffened, and within the span of a few seconds, her face erupted in red. Frozen and at a loss for words, she lowered her head and scurried downstairs.

Xu Bei went back inside the room and lifted the quilt. The little wolf jumped down from the bed and fell down on the floor. Xu Bei laid down on the bed and proceeded to fall asleep.

In all actuality, he had no need to sleep, he was just idly resting his eyes, there was nothing of any entertainment value in this room. In Qiao Qian's words, there was nothing more to do than sleep and count your fingers and toes in this kind of place.

Bored to death, he tuned his ears to the old man's radio playing downstairs. Unfortunately, the old man held a great interest in channel surfing through the weather forecast broadcastings from regions all over the country.

In the past few days, he discovered one thing, that is, the little wolf is much more resistant to boredom than he is.

Before, this little guy would bug him every waking hour. After he scolded it a few times, it exercised much more restraint and his endurance gradually came to a head.

The little wolf can lie on the floor all day long without sleeping or moving, just simply swiveling its ears from time to time, seemingly picking up the various little sounds coming from the alley outside.

When Xu Bei was still very young, Mr. Zhao Zhongxiang, his teacher, taught that wolves were animals with amazing patience and concentration. For the purpose of hunting, they could lie dormant for a few days without eating, drinking, or moving.

At that time, Xu Bei was at the age where he was blind-sighted into having dreams, so his dream at that time was to become a wolf-like killer.

But more than ten years have gone by now since then. If he were to still speak of dreams, then that dream would have been his desire for Ban Datong not to have a wolf-like killer under his command.

"Son, tomorrow is New Year's Eve," Xu Bei lay on the bed, his hands dangling from the edge of the bed and stroking the little wolf's fur. "I'll take you out to play in the afternoon, then the two of us will come back the next day."

The little wolf stared at the corner of the room without expressing its thoughts.

"I had originally wanted to go out again at night, but I was afraid that Chen Xiaoyu would ask me to go to her house for New Year's Eve family dinner. There are too many people in her family, and all of the old men gather together as soon as the New Year comes..." Xu Bei's fingers draw through the little wolf's fur. His hands are very nice-looking and slender with no highly prominent knuckles. As an old auntie had said before, the hands of this child were made for playing the piano in the future.

The old auntie was half right. He did indeed make a living with his hands, but it in of itself was millions and millions of miles away from the beautiful fantasy of playing the piano.

He took pretty good care of these hands, no scars, no calluses, just to maintain the sensitivity of his fingertips, for the split-second judgment he had when he first reaches into someone's pocket.

Xu Bei smiled and flicked his finger on the little wolf's head: "You know, I hate places with a lot of people."

On the New Year's Eve, Xu Bei woke up just before noon but was still awakened by the boiling cauldron of voices downstairs. When he opened his eyes, the little wolf was stationed beside the door on high alert. Spider Lane is very quiet following the arrival of winter. The only time during the year it grows lively is the annual Spring Festival. The little wolf seems to be off-put and probably feels disturbed by the people.

Mr. Zhao said that a wolf's territorial awareness is quite strong. Xu Bei appropriately added onto this sentence, a wolf's possessiveness was quite strong as well.

"Let's go, you're coming out with me." Xu Bei peeled a few pieces of chocolate and handed it over to the little wolf. After some consideration, he put the rest in his pocket to avoid any incidents while they were out and about.

Since finding out that the little wolf would transform when this thing was eaten, Xu Bei just doesn't eat chocolate anymore. Chocolate has become a sacred object in his eyes. He fears that he himself will turn into a wolf from eating chocolate.

The length of time the wolf transformed after eating chocolate was not consistent. The only consistency was that it had to hide every time. Xu Bei was quite interested in the process of its transformation, he always wanted to see it, but he never once succeeded.

Today he originally wanted to lock the kitchen door and put the quilt in the cabinet to lock it away, so that when the little wolf wanted to hide it would have no place to go. Yet when all was said and done, he did not put his plan to action, he was afraid that the little wolf would break through the window and expose its fully naked form to the old man's gathered family downstairs.

But curiosity is nevertheless a very powerful thing, especially when his body itched senseless day by day from boredom. So when the little wolf rushed to the kitchen, Xu Bei fell to the ground as fast as his body would allow and with the forces of inertia on his side, slid the distance up to the kitchen door.

He pressed his face to the ground and looked through the crack underneath the door.

Only the four paws of the little wolf could be seen, and it seemed to circle indiscriminately about restlessly.

Xu Bei then noticed that there seemed to be a fog rolling in the kitchen, and the little wolf's claws became a little indistinct. He rubbed his eyes and squinted, inching forward, trying to see what had happened.

But the fog laid in heavier and heavier, and the only thing you could see was the paws shrouded in the fog. The time it took for the little wolf to enter the fog was in mere seconds, and soon the little wolf's paws disappeared in the white fog.

By the time the fog began to dissipate, what started to appear was already a pair of human feet.

Xu Bei was a little disappointed, and he could hardly see anything from such a narrow slit to begin with. He laid down on the floor and thought up of a plan, next time he would take the wolf to a place where no one was around, and then...

Then the door suddenly opened. Just as Xu Bei was giddily planning the forced viewing plan, Lang Jiu opened the kitchen door.

Xu Bei was a little embarrassed. It should be said that it was very embarrassing. Lang Jiu's bare legs were nearly taking up his whole vision.

He has been tirelessly teaching Lang Jiu not to walk around naked everywhere, but he himself is now peeping on the floor in such an unseemly posture at a time when he is naked, even if he peeped, he was still caught red-handed.

"I was just..." Xu Bei quickly shot up from the ground, tidied up his clothes, and patted imaginary dust off of his pants again, "I wanted to see what was going on with you."

Lang Jiu stood still, and after a pause, he said: "Don't look."

"You think Laozi wants to look. ah" Xu Bei was a little upset and threw his clothes one by one to Lang Jiu. "If it were not for you hiding all the time, I wouldn't go out of my way to look at you... Besides, if I really wanted to see something special, I could just look right at a mirror for however long I want. I could even touch it."

"Touch me?" Lang Jiu suddenly stopped putting on his clothes.

"Get out!" Xu Bei was a little dumbfounded. "Who wants to touch yours, Laozi touches his own!"

"Okay."

"...fuck off."

As they departed, Lang Jiu suddenly handed something to Xu Bei. Xu Bei glanced down to find a mask. He was stunned for a moment, he did not expect Lang Jiu to remember such a thing.

Xu Bei took the mask and gave it a once-over. Lang Jiu didn't know how to read characters, but he had a good memory and remembered which one he wore last time.

Although Xu Bei had always felt that the attack character looked more formidable, with his options running dry as Lang Jiu had already put on his mask, he had to bite his tongue and walk out the door with the receive character.

As soon as they went downstairs, they ran into Chen Xiaoyu and her cousin. The two girls were playing around and taking pictures with the front camera on their phones at the door. Hearing the thudding coming from the staircase, Chen Xiaoyu quickly raised her head and called out Xiao Bei-ge, and then seemed to freeze for a moment, her eyes going as wide as saucer plates.

"Having fun I see." Xu Bei didn't dilly-dally much and walked away with a single utterance. Lang Jiu followed behind him, only showing his eyes. When passing by Chen Xiaoyu, he lowered his head and sneezed into the mask.

"So high-profile?" Chen Xiaoyu's cousin's voice was nearly a whisper, but Xu Bei still heard it.

"It's still the Lunar New Year, ah.." Chen Xiaoyu also spoke in a hushed tone and sighed.

Xu Bei mulled over those two sentences, and finally stopped at the alleyway entrance, he pulled the mask back off on Lang Jiu's face: "Fuck, this character is definitely nothing good, don't wear it!"

Lang Jiu didn't move, his face was a little complex, frowning.

"What's wrong?"

"There's..." Lang Jiu hesitated and turned his head to look around, the expression on his face was somewhat blank.

"What is it?" Xu Bei looked all around, not even the slightest trace of another being.

"A wolf."