Exclusive Model for the Top Painter Chapter 12

Sleeping Together Makes the Heart Tremble

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At dinner, in order to emphasise the intimacy of their relationship, Ji Xiuyuan deliberately sat next to Liang Jin and occasionally put food in his bowl.

Morgana was so touched watching this that she also offered food to Liang Jin. Before long, Liang Jin's bowl was filled with so many different kinds of meat and vegetables that he simply took another empty bowl and placed it in front of him: "There's no more room in the bowl, so you can put it here."

At this point, the frenzied food-serving competition came to an end.

Morgana said, "Vincent and I are going to the Sino-French Art Exchange tomorrow, so don't stay up too late tonight, go to bed early."

Ji Xiuyuan smiled lowly, "I have my duties."

Liang Jin chewed on his chicken leg, but he didn't understand the meaning of his words. It was only when Ji Xiuyuan's more ambiguous sentence ended that he suddenly became aware of it. He leaned closer to Ji Xiuyuan and asked in a soft voice, "So, I'm staying with you tonight?"

"Not just tonight," Ji Xiuyuan spoke as usual, "as long as she's here."

"Oh." Liang Jin pretended to be calm as he continued to eat, but in reality, his heart was in turmoil: sharing a room with Ji Xiuyuan? No way? He hadn't been to Ji Xiuyuan's room since he'd arrived, so when he thought about it, there was a hint of… expectation?

After the meal, Morgana and Ji Xiuyuan discussed tomorrow's exchange for a while. After the discussion, she sent Ji Xiuyuan and Liang Jin to their room upstairs to rest with a kind look in her eyes, while she herself stayed in the other spare room downstairs.

Ji Xiuyuan's room was a little larger than expected. The curtains were half drawn and there were some green plants on the balcony. The whole room was light and ascetic, with a soft carpet covering almost two thirds of the surface area. The remaining third was a small office area with a minimalist desk, chair and file cabinet.

Ji Xiuyuan woke up the computer on his desk and said to Liang Jin, "Go wash up first, I have some work to do."

Liang Jin was embarrassed and didn't know what to do, so when he heard these words, he immediately ran into the bathroom. Only after washing did he realise a fatal oversight: he had no clothes to wear! The clothes he had taken off and thrown in the basket were already wet with water. Did he have to run downstairs naked to get his clothes from his room? He couldn't afford to do that, in case he ran into Morgana...

While he was engaged in a heated mental debate, Ji Xiuyuan knocked on the bathroom door,

"You probably don't have any clothes to change into, so wear mine first."

Liang Jin opened the door a crack and took the clothes Ji Xiuyuan handed him, "Thank you, Ji Shen."

Ji Xiuyuan's clothes were a size larger than his, from his underwear to his shirt. As he put them on, he was suddenly enveloped in his scent, and Liang Jin was in a momentary trance.

When he left the bathroom, Ji Xiuyuan was still working.

Liang Jin found a place for himself, put in his earbuds and leaned against the wall to play a game. After playing the game for less than half an hour, he suddenly heard Ji Xiuyuan ask him, "Still not resting?"

Liang Jin moved his eyes from his cell phone screen and looked at Ji Xiuyuan, who was wearing a bathrobe. The freshly bathed skin was still slightly dripping with water, and the collar was open enough that you could faintly see the beautiful texture of his body and the outline of his abdomen...

The impact of this image was so great that Liang Jin felt his nose heat up.

Ji Xiuyuan laughed softly, took a tissue from the bedside and handed it to him, "You're bleeding."

Liang Jin flushed red with embarrassment, wiped his face and threw his cell phone away, "The game is on fire, garbage game, I'm done, I'm going to bed." He took a pillow off the bed, laid down on the carpet, and buried his whole head in the pillow.

Ji Xiuyuan kindly did not expose his clumsy lie and turned off the light: "Good night."

Before long, Liang Jin had fallen asleep.

Ji Xiuyuan gently picked him up and laid him on the bed. He lay beside him and watched him quietly.

In the deep blue of the night, the moonlight was gentle, and silvery light shone on the side of his face. It was a wonderful feeling, to sleep with a human being, to listen to his gentle breathing and the rhythm of his heartbeat, to feel such softness at the bottom of his heart.

This man was lying defenceless beside himself in his own clothes. Ji Xiuyuan suddenly had a thought, if he was completely his, from his body to his soul, belonging only to him, what would it be like?

He gently traced Liang Jin's eyebrows with his fingertips and silently placed a kiss on his forehead.

———

The next morning, when Liang Jin woke up, he found himself lying alone in bed. He wondered to himself: did Ji Shen let me sleep in the bed?

When he turned on his cell phone, there was a text message from Ji Xiuyuan: I'm attending the Sino-French Art Exchange with Morgana today and will be back in the afternoon.

He also received an email from Xinhong Advertising Group, the company responsible for filming the Bluetooth earbud advertisement. Liang Jin couldn't wait to open it, inside was a notification that he had passed the audition and he was asked to come to the company this afternoon to have a detailed discussion about it.

Liang Jin excitedly sent a text message to Ji Xiuyuan: Ji Shen, I've won the earbud advertisement!

Ji Xiuyuan: Congratulations.

Liang Jin: Aren't you in a meeting? Why did you reply so quickly?

However, Ji Xiuyuan replied with a different subject: There is milk in the fridge, remember to have breakfast.

Liang Jin ran downstairs and brought out a quilt and pillow set to lay on the carpet. He also took a change of clothes and put them next to his nest, and then got his toiletries and put them in the bathroom. It really looked as if he was living with Ji Xiuyuan. Liang Jin washed his face with cold water and warned himself: What are you thinking about, sober up.

At two o'clock in the afternoon, Liang Jin arrived at Xinhong Advertising Group at the time stated in the email, and met Song Kaicheng, the executive producer of the advertisement.

Song Kaicheng was a slim, gentle man in his thirties. After the two signed the contract, Song Kaicheng gave him a large pile of materials and instructed him, "This brand of Bluetooth earbuds cares a lot about the personal qualities of the models, especially their understanding of the brand and product characteristics. When you go back, you must carefully study the audience for this product and the cultural connotations behind it. We will have to wait for a follow-up notice on the exact time of the shoot."

In the evening, when Liang Jin returned to the villa, Morgana was cutting fruit in the kitchen.

As soon as she saw Liang Jin, she put down her knife and came out with a bowl of chopped fruit: "Xiao Jin, fresh fruit, want to try some?" She poked a piece of apple with a toothpick and handed it to Liang Jin.

Liang Jin took it, "Thank you."

"No need to be polite," Morgana put the fruit on the living room table, "Vincent is working, and I have some things to give you." She took a black bag from the sofa and mysteriously handed it over to Liang Jin: "I specially bought this today, Vincent doesn't know about it, and I always feel it's inappropriate to talk about it between him and me. But you can talk to him, and he'll be very happy."

So, what exactly was this? Liang Jin took the invoice out of the bag and was shocked when he saw the first line: Thank you for your visit to XX Adult Supply Store. He took out the bottles and jars inside and looked at them for a moment, before stuffing them all back in with lingering fear.

Morgana asked excitedly, "How is it? Isn't it great? I don't know the positions between you, but I encourage you to try more, young people should have the courage to love each other and embrace life."

A little cold sweat broke out on Liang Jin's forehead: "Mm-hmm, thank you." He returned to Ji Xiuyuan's room with this bag of things and placed it on his desk.

At night, Ji Xiuyuan found the bag and studied it with great interest.

After taking a shower, Liang Jin teased him, "This is a gift from Morgana, she was too embarrassed to give it to you directly. If she could see how hard you are studying it now, she would be very pleased."

Ji Xiuyuan asked, "You've seen everything?"

"Yeah."

"Which one do you like best?"

Liang Jin smiled, "I like simple and natural physical contact, I'm not interested in these fancy aids."

"That's not necessarily true," Ji Xiuyuan said in a low voice, "perhaps, you will be interested in it in the future."

Liang Jin burrowed into his nest, "That's not possible." He leaned back on the pillow and began to read the material on Bluetooth earbuds for a few hours, eventually falling asleep with the files in his arms.

Ji Xiuyuan carried him to the bed again and the two slept facing each other.

In the middle of the night, Liang Jin felt something pressing against his chest, making him feel stuffy. When he opened his eyes, he saw the side of Ji Xiuyuan's face.

Ji Xiuyuan had one hand over his body and had wrapped his whole body in his arms.

Liang Jin tensed up nervously, not daring to move a single inch. They were so close that he could even feel Ji Xiuyuan's warm breath.

Ji Shen was so gentle when he was asleep. Liang Jin couldn't help but move closer and carefully examine his handsome sleeping face.

He's so beautiful, Liang Jin sighed, if only he was a girl, I would have loved to marry him.

Well, even if he was a girl, he wouldn't be able to afford someone like him, would he? Liang Jin's heart was inexplicably filled with sadness. He leaned over and kissed him on the lips: let's take advantage of him secretly, no one will know anyway. This inexplicable emotion was all that remained, and when I wake up in the morning, I'll still be a pure, innocent, new-age straight man.

‿︵‿︵ʚ˚̣̣̣͙ɞ・❉・ ʚ˚̣̣̣͙ɞ‿︵‿︵

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Translator Notes

Please feel free to comment any mistakes I made so I can improve and do better as I go through the book.

Translated: April 23, 2023