Parasite (3): Overwhelmed

After parking the car in the parking lot, Tan Xiao took the elevator from the underground parking lot to the 19th floor where he lived. Wen Yi looked around curiously, noticing that there was no one else in the room. He felt quite satisfied; Tan Xiao hadn’t lied to him—he was indeed alone.  

While Wen Yi was looking around, Tan Xiao bent down and took out a pair of spare new slippers from the cabinet: “You can wear these. They’re new; no one has worn them.”  

There were actually quite a few disposable slippers in the cabinet, but those were for regular friends or colleagues. Wen Yi, as his boyfriend, deserved a pair of more expensive slippers.  

“Is this house too small for you?”  

Tan Xiao was actually quite satisfied with his little nest. After all, the soft furnishings were arranged according to his own preferences, and a 98-square-meter house was quite spacious for one person.  

As a busy corporate slave, he usually had very limited time to enjoy his room. Moreover, he didn’t love socializing that much, so he didn’t need to frequently invite friends over for parties.  

However, someone like Wen Yi, who could literally wear a house on his hand, would either live in a garden villa, a villa with a large swimming pool, or at least a super-large flat.  

To exaggerate a bit, Tan Xiao’s house, which was less than 100 square meters, might not even be as big as the maid’s room in someone else’s house.  

Wen Yi shook his head, “No, I think it’s just right. I don’t like living in such a big house.”  

Living alone in a big house felt too empty for him. He thought that a place where two people could live together was just right. In such a space, they could see each other’s faces within a few steps, and when they talked, they could hear each other’s voices. This kind of spatial distance made him feel particularly at ease.  

Tan Xiao glanced at the time. It was already two o’clock when they got home: “Alright, it’s very late. If you don’t sleep now, it will be dawn. Go wash up in the shower room and then go to bed.”  

His house was designed with two bathrooms. The master bedroom had its own shower bathroom, so when friends came over, two people could shower at the same time without wasting too much time.  

Wen Yi obediently nodded, behaving very cooperatively, showing not a hint of the annoying spoiled rich kid’s bad habits seen in some others.  

“Wait a moment, I’ll go get your clothes.”  

When Wen Yi came over, he definitely wouldn’t have any clothes to wear. Tan Xiao looked through the closet and didn’t find any new clothes that hadn’t been worn. As a corporate slave, he was usually too busy to regularly buy a bunch of clothes, and even if he bought them, he didn’t wear them often.  

“This is my old pajamas. I haven’t worn them much since I bought them, so don’t mind them. Actually, old pajamas are more comfortable than new ones. The underwear is new; I haven’t worn it.”  

There were a lot of new socks and new underwear at home, and quite a few disposable ones too, filling up a whole drawer. After all, he was someone who traveled for work, so these things were essential.  

Wen Yi quickly shook his head: “Not at all!” How could he possibly dislike it? He just wanted to wear clothes that carried Tan Xiao’s vibe.  

Tan Xiao looked at the handmade suit on Wen Yi: “Your suit shouldn’t go in the washing machine, right? It needs to be dry cleaned?”  

Wen Yi nodded, “It should be.”  

These were all tasks for his personal assistant, but it seemed like almost none of his clothes could go in the washing machine.  

“We don’t have the means at home, so just hold onto it for now.”  

Tan Xiao handed him a laundry basket: “Put your clothes in here. Wear pajamas today, and I’ll find you some clothes tomorrow.”  

Driving, playing the piano, eating, driving again—he was really exhausted now and just wanted to take a good shower and sleep well.  

After both of them finished showering and changing clothes, it was already three o’clock. After confirming that the other person had no issues, Tan Xiao arranged for Wen Yi to sleep on his side: “Wen Yi, good night and sweet dreams!”  

Wen Yi, as if afraid that Tan Xiao wouldn’t hear, responded loudly, “You too, good night.”  

Tan Xiao, even without taking melatonin gummies, fell back into bed after a long time, his breathing quickly becoming gentle and prolonged.  

After he fell asleep, someone who should have been quietly lying on his side started to move. The handsome young man transformed into a strange silver-gray liquid.  

But it didn’t wet the sheets like water; it was more like mercury. This liquid flowed out from the pajamas given by Tan Xiao, quietly landing on the floor, then turning into a silvery-gray puddle, and finally, it quietly flowed out through the crack under the door and into the bedroom that Tan Xiao habitually locked from the inside.  

In the master bedroom, there was an ergonomic chair and a desktop computer for gaming. Additionally, there was a glass cabinet displaying figurines, and the wardrobe and bed were custom-made, making full use of the space while appearing elegant and harmonious.  

The blackout curtains in the room were drawn, the small orange lamp was also off, the air conditioning was set to 26 degrees, and Tan Xiao was lying on his side under a thick blanket, most of his body buried in the quilt, with just half of his head sticking out.  

Corporate slaves needed better sleep, so the little orange lamp was voice-controlled. When Tan Xiao got up at night, it would light up automatically.  

There was not a single source of light in the room, and in the darkness, it was almost impossible to see one’s own hand. However, for Wen Yi, he could still see every jet-black hair of Tan Xiao’s head peeking out from under the blanket.  

The silver-gray liquid was undoubtedly very substantial. Although Tan Xiao was currently in a deep sleep, Wen Yi wasn’t sure if diving in like this would wake him up.  

He could certainly use means to make the other person faint, but that might be harmful to Tan Xiao’s body.  

Wen Yi, no matter what, did not want to hurt his newly appointed boyfriend; he just couldn’t help himself and wanted to be intimately close to him.  

So the silver-gray liquid turned into a cloud of mist, which lifted one corner of the down comforter and then directly pulled the entire comforter away in one go.  

Wen Yi transformed into a silvery-gray quilt, evenly distributing its weight across the four corners, and then lightly covering Tan Xiao’s body, wrapping him up evenly.  

Tan Xiao was forced to lose the blanket that carried warmth and couldn’t help but frown slightly. However, when a more comfortable blanket was placed over him, the frown on his forehead naturally smoothed out.  

“So fragrant, so fragrant… like it so much, like it so much…” The gray mist emitted murmurs that only it could understand.  

When Wen Yi saw Tan Xiao, he felt a liking for him. After getting close, this liking almost directly turned into infatuation, with every particle in the gray mist clamoring with fondness and desire for the person in front of him.  

Wen Yi’s entire being was engulfed by a strong desire for food; human food could not truly satisfy the monster. Intelligent life forms could quickly make him stronger.  

He wanted to devour Tan Xiao bite by bite, but reason made Wen Yi choose to suppress his instincts.  

As the most unique one in his race, he had never eaten a person before, and this was the first time he felt a strong desire to eat someone.  

But Tan Xiao was his lover. Even though he was drooling with hunger, Wen Yi forcibly suppressed his appetite and settled for a second-best choice: more intimate cuddling.  

Just simply covering Tan Xiao with a layer of mist was not enough; some of the gray mist seeped into Tan Xiao’s robe, quickly filling the gaps in the robe.  

But that was still not enough; it gently pulled off the belt of the robe, wrapping Tan Xiao in it like a perfect cocoon.  

Touching the other person’s soft, smooth, and delicate skin, Wen Yi’s appetite was effectively suppressed to a certain extent, and he finally fell asleep peacefully.  

He slept straight through to noon because he only fell asleep at 3:00 AM. As for Tan Xiao, he slept until 12:00 PM. His hungry stomach let out a loud growl, and he opened his eyes, only to be startled nearly out of his wits by someone.  

Anyone who wakes up to find a beautiful naked person next to them would be shocked.  

Tan Xiao suddenly pushed the person away, and in his panic, he didn’t notice that the other person’s body felt unusually heavy.  

“What’s wrong?” Wen Yi was startled awake by the sudden silence. At this moment, he wasn’t wearing the silver-rimmed glasses on his nose, and his light gray eyes looked even more beautiful and captivating.  

He groggily asked Tan Xiao, “What happened?”  

Seeing this familiar yet somewhat unfamiliar face, Tan Xiao remembered that this was his new boyfriend. He often got emotional at night, and he had actually met a stranger, established a romantic relationship with him on the first day, and even brought him home.  

“How did you get in?!”  

He was very sure that he hadn’t touched a drop of alcohol the night before, not even food like drunken shrimp that could potentially cause an alcohol test to exceed the limit. There was absolutely no drunken mischief.  

If the two of them had slept together the previous night, it would have been one thing, but they had slept in separate rooms.  

“I remember I locked the door last night.”  

With a sharp gaze and a smile, he fixed his eyes on Wen Yi, demanding a reasonable explanation.  

Locking the door was a habit he had developed since childhood. If he was home alone, it was fine, but if there was an outsider in the house, he would definitely lock it.  

Wen Yi flicked a silver-gray bead from his fingertip, stood up to block the line of sight of Tan Xiao, placed the bead over the locked button, pressed down, and the door went from a locked state to a normal state.  

He finally moved aside: “You might be mistaken. It’s not locked.”  

Tan Xiao said, “You think you can just come in because the door isn’t locked?”  

Wen Yi said, “I couldn’t sleep last night, so I came in, but you were already asleep, and you were sleeping so soundly.”  

He weakly said, “I was very quiet, and my movements were very light. I didn’t wake you up!”  

When he said this, Wen Yi’s tone still carried a hint of pride: he was so considerate, seeing that Tan Xiao was in a deep sleep, he couldn’t bear to wake him up.  

Tan Xiao couldn’t help but shout, “Isn’t this about not waking me up? Are you a pervert? You come in without clothes and then pin me down?!”  

Wen Yi said weakly, “If you want to pin me down, then I can let you pin me down.”  

He had transformed into that shape the previous day, so he definitely wasn’t wearing any clothes.  

The moment Tan Xiao woke up, Wen Yi’s body automatically transformed into human form, but his consciousness lagged a step behind, resulting in the current awkward situation.  

Every word Wen Yi just said came from the heart; he was very willing to be teased and laughed at.  

To be honest, this pale body in front of Tan Xiao was actually very beautiful. The color was like a creamy hue mixed on a canvas, with no excess flesh on it, and the lower abdomen was very flat.  

The two red cherry blossoms on this human-shaped cream cake were also very pink. Further down, he wasn’t… Wen Yi wasn’t even wearing underwear—it was simply unforgivable!  

A down comforter was placed over Wen Yi, and Tan Xiao, not knowing when his robe had been pulled open, tied it back up: “Hurry up and get dressed!”  

Wen Yi had no choice but to reluctantly drag the down comforter from Tan Xiao’s room and leave to change into the pajamas he had received the previous night.  

Tan Xiao noticed that the young master was barefoot, his snow-white feet directly stepping on the dark floor tiles, making his forehead throb.  

He hadn’t even had breakfast yet, and he was already filled with frustration over this guy.  

After Wen Yi entered the room, changed into his pajamas, put on his glasses and turned back into his gentlemanly elite look, Tan Xiao got up and went to the kitchen to make oatmeal.

The cereal he soaked was the instant kind, with a lot of grains and dried fruits added. Although it could be eaten dry, it tasted better when soaked with yogurt.  

“You don’t have any allergies, do you?”  

Wen Yi shook his head: “I’ll eat anything.”  

Their race indeed ate anything; although they preferred living beings with vitality, they could easily digest both dead and living matter: wood, stones, sand, oil, various rare metals found in nature, as well as human-made materials like rebar, cement, ceramics, and plastics.  

If Wen Yi was determined to consume his prey, even the most solid things could be corroded in an instant.  

However, Wen Yi could control his power very well and wouldn’t harm Tan Xiao.  

After all, humans were truly very fragile beings; with just a little bit of force, they might die.  

Among his own kind, Wen Yi was actually very weak because he was very picky, rarely directly consuming live creatures, and refused to eat humans, so he appeared so early for no reason.  

In the memory inheritance obtained by Wen Yi, his kind were very powerful beings. Once they awakened from their dormant state, they would quickly begin to invade the surrounding area, devouring all intelligent life forms.  

The higher the intelligent life forms, the greater the energy they could bring to their race. Greed, division, and the desire for power were the instincts of their race.  

It was just that Wen Yi was a bit special; he not only had the unique memories of his race but also the unique memories of humans, with parents and relatives.  

Among the same kind, they could sense each other. Wen Yi was very sure that his parents and relatives were ordinary humans.  

Tan Xiao placed the yogurt-soaked fruit and cereal in front of Wen Yi, saying, “You’ll have to wait a bit longer for lunch, so eat some of this to fill your stomach first.”  

After having breakfast, they chatted and then rinsed their mouths with mouthwash.  

Actually, the taste of cereal and yogurt in their mouths wasn’t that bad. Normally, Tan Xiao wouldn’t rinse his mouth so often, but now that he was with someone, just starting to date, he couldn’t help but be particularly concerned about his image.  

Tan Xiao spit out the mouthwash, he looked at his face in the mirror and sighed helplessly.  

Wen Yi was different from what he had expected; he was actually a pervert who liked to sleep naked and would sneak into other people’s rooms in the middle of the night without saying a word.  

But it was even worse for Tan Xiao. Knowing that the other person was such a pervert, he still couldn’t bring himself to hate Wen Yi.  

The handsome young man looked at himself in the mirror and silently mouthed, “You’re done for, Tan Xiao, you’ve fallen.”  

Love was truly a terrifying thing. It was a bright sunny day now, and he had even had a full meal.  

Tan Xiao was very sure that his brain was very clear, so he realized that he was head over heels in love.  

He changed his clothes in his master bedroom and then opened the door: “Come in and see. What do you want to wear today?”  

He hadn’t bought new clothes in a long time, so it didn’t matter which outfit he took out. He would just wear whatever he liked.  

He didn’t have many fitted clothes, and most of the clothes he wore in summer were quite loose. Although Wen Yi was a bit shorter than him, he looked about as slim as he did, so his clothes should fit him.  

“Yay.” Wen Yi cheered softly.  

He walked in and looked at the clothes hanging in the wardrobe: “Can I wear these clothes?”  

Tan Xiao nodded and said, “As long as it fits you well, it’s fine.”  

Most of the clothes in his wardrobe were bought by his mother, usually for a season. Later, he bought some himself, and those that looked old and were rarely worn were donated.  

Wen Yi sniffed, trying hard to catch the scent of Tan Xiao on his clothes.  

It was summer now, and although the company had air conditioning, Tan Xiao wouldn’t wear particularly thick clothes.  

The winter clothes had been hanging for a long time, filled with the scent of incense from the cupboard, a hint of Tan Xiao, but not much.  

Wen Yi shifted his gaze to the summer clothes, picking up a pair of loose, gray, square cotton shorts: “Can I wear this too?”  

That feeling of his forehead throbbing again came back, and Tan Xiao snatched the shorts from Wen Yi’s hands, gritting his teeth: “This is underwear. Didn’t I give you new ones yesterday?”  

Wen Yi looked innocent: “You said old clothes are more comfortable to wear than new ones.”  

“I said pajamas, pajamas!”  

Tan Xiao finally couldn’t help but ask, “Are you really not a pervert? Do you behave like this when you visit friends or relatives?”  

If that was really the case, he wouldn’t be able to accept it.  

Wen Yi quickly denied this: “How is that possible? I don’t like them!”  

Wen Yi looked at Tan Xiao with a pitiful expression and said, “I don’t have any friends, and I don’t visit other people’s homes. I’ve only been to your house.”  

Everyone else smelled bad, but for him, Tan Xiao smelled good, like a delicious, fragrant cream cake.  

Hearing this answer, Tan Xiao’s face eased a bit; after all, no one dislikes being treated differently by their lover.  

“You can’t behave like this even in your own home. You weren’t even wearing clothes, and I remember the curtains in the living room were wide open last night.”  

Wen Yi looked like the kind of pampered young master who wasn’t very good at taking care of himself. His family probably had maids and servants, and just thinking about him being seen without wearing anything made Tan Xiao feel a bit suffocated.  

“Never.” Wen Yi smiled sweetly at Tan Xiao, “I only act like this in front of you.”  

Tan Xiao felt sweet inside upon hearing these words, but he snorted coldly, “Young Master Wen seems quite skilled at this. I wonder how many people he’s said these sweet nothings to.”  

Wen Yi innocently blinked his eyes: “I haven’t said a single word like that to anyone. I don’t use sweet talk; I only speak the truth.”  

“Alright, enough of this nonsense. Pick out your clothes.”  

Tan Xiao was wearing a sweatshirt bought during high school that day. The color was a relatively bright reddish-brown, featuring a very cute gray rabbit wearing a straw hat design. Paired with light blue jeans, he looked just like a freshly graduated high school student.  

After turning 25, men start to feel that they are getting older, and their energy and recovery abilities are not what they used to be.  

At his age, he had just started dating, so naturally, he didn’t want to dress too maturely. Instead, he hoped to appear a bit younger: young, beautiful, and full of energy.  

Wen Yi rummaged through the cabinet, and Tan Xiao picked out a similar hoodie. It was a light blue hoodie with a hood, completely plain except for a large pocket in the front for holding a phone and cards.  

Since ancient times, red and blue had been a classic couple’s outfit, even if it was just barely.  

Wen Yi directly changed clothes in the Tan Xiao bedroom: “How do I look in this?”  

Tan Xiao looked at the other person wearing his clothes, unable to help but have his eyes darken, his Adam’s apple rolling: “Looks great, makes you look very young, and it also makes your skin look very fair.”  

“Let’s go. I’ll take you downstairs to eat.”  

His home was different from the office building located in the International Trade Financial Center. This street was also in the bustling city center, but it was a commercial center. Within 500 meters, there were large shopping malls and shopping streets, making it quite lively.  

Last night, although that restaurant was upscale, the portions were small, and Tan Xiao didn’t enjoy the meal.  

Tan Xiao thought for a moment and said, “Let’s go eat lamb hotpot. There’s a lamb hotpot place nearby that tastes really good. The owner’s lambs are specially transported from the grasslands, slaughtered and sold on the spot.”  

Actually, eating lamb hotpot in autumn and winter was the best, but the air conditioning in this mall was particularly strong, so having lamb hotpot in an air-conditioned room in summer offered a different experience.  

Wen Yi naturally had no objections and readily agreed, “Sure.”  

Tan Xiao first ordered three pounds of lamb, two pounds of lamb bones, and some vegetarian dishes including white radish, baby bok choy, and mushrooms.  

In summer, when eating hot pot, it is better not to make it too spicy. They could eat it a bit lighter and just drink the soup directly; it was refreshing, delicious, and not greasy.  

Tan Xiao didn’t restrain himself and ate a lot.  

Wen Yi could eat more than him, and later added four or five pounds of meat and three pounds of bones: the freshly slaughtered lamb was full of energy, and this restaurant indeed had very good food, which he seemed to really enjoy.  

Tan Xiao looked at Wen Yi’s always flat stomach with great curiosity. Although his sweatshirt was quite loose, he ate so much that his stomach was exaggeratedly bulging, leaning back in his chair, unable to move for a while.  

But looking at Wen Yi, the loose hoodie seemed to show no signs of change. He placed his hand on the other person’s stomach, and despite all that food going into Wen Yi’s mouth, the other person’s stomach was still flat, as if there were a black hole in his stomach.  

“Where did all that food go?”  

“My digestion is quite good,” Wen Yi said, not moving at all, just obediently letting Tan Xiao rub his belly, a smile unconsciously appearing on his face.  

Wen Yi discovered that compared to sticking up for himself, having Tan Xiao take the initiative to stick up for him made him feel even more delighted and excited.  

In the end, Tan Xiao still felt it was inappropriate, so the two of them, who were still outside, promptly withdrew their hands.  

After finishing lunch, the two of them went for a walk in the underground mall to help with digestion and, while they were there, bought some groceries to stock the fridge.  

When it was time to check out, Wen Yi sneakily glanced at Tan Xiao, then swept a row of small boxes off the shelf: different styles, different patterns, different flavors—all into the shopping cart.