Part 3
He turned abruptly, his gaze landing on Lin Xuan, who was standing in the middle of the hallway unsure of what to do.
“Come here.”
Lin Xuan immediately obeyed and walked over.
Jiang Zhaosheng pulled open the door to the giant walk-in closet next to the desk. Inside was a spacious area with rows of expensive menâs suits and pajamas that hadn’t even had their dry-cleaning bags removed.
“Get in.” Jiang Zhaosheng jerked his chin toward the closet.
“Huh?” Lin Xuan was completely stunned, unable to keep up with Jiang Zhaoshengâs thinking. “Teacher Jiang? This…”
“Shut up, get in.” Jiang Zhaosheng had no patience to explain, directly pressing on his shoulder and pushing him, stuffing him into the closet. “Stay inside. No matter what you hear, you are not allowed to come out or make a sound without my permission.”
Lin Xuan sat on the floor among the softly hanging fabrics, completely dazed. He looked out through the gap in the closet door at Jiang Zhaoshengâs expressionless face, his mind blank.
Was this… some new game? Or…
Jiang Zhaosheng had no time to deal with his shock because footsteps were approaching outside. He slammed the closet door shut, and almost simultaneously, the door to the suite was pushed open.
He looked back to see a tall, upright man walking in, casually taking off his mask and tossing it aside, revealing that familiar, deeply-contoured faceâonly it was thinner and colder than in his memory.
Jiang Zhaoshengâs hand was still pressed on the closet door handle. Fearing that moving too fast would arouse suspicion, he pretended to have just checked the closet and slowly turned around, putting his hands behind his back and asking in a casual tone:
“How did you lose weight?”
Samuel, wearing a dark suit, stopped in the middle of the living room, a few steps away from Jiang Zhaosheng. His gaze was greedy yet cautious, scanning the person from head to toe, as if confirming whether a long-lost treasure was still intact.
“…I finally found you.”
He had countless questions in his heart: Why are you keeping your hair long? Why did you vanish into thin air? What difficulties did you encounter back then?
Lin Xuan huddled in the closet, hearing a light “thud” outside as the mask was tossed away, nearly unable to stop himself from pushing the door and rushing out. What was even more alarming to him was that the floor of the closet seemed to be overburdened, making a slight “creak.”
Samuel pounced in front of Jiang Zhaosheng like a large dog, his arms wrapping around his waist as he rubbed his golden head against his chest.
Lin Xuan heard a low male voice coming from right outside the closet doorâ
“Stroke me.”
He was instantly filled with rage, nearly unable to restrain himself from pushing the closet door open.
Jiang Zhaosheng felt the closet door move slightly behind him and frowned unobservably, secretly curling his fingers and tapping on the closet door behind his back, sending a hidden warning.
He raised his hand and stroked the head of the man in his arms. Samuelâs golden hair was indeed a bit coarser than in his memory. His movements were not gentle, even a bit perfunctory… but Samuel seemed to have received a massive comfort, his tensed shoulders relaxing slightly as he let out a satisfied sigh like a large dog.
“Stop being like this. Go act coquettish with your mother.”
It was fine when he was young, like a Golden Retriever, but a man nearly thirty pouncing into his arms and asking for a head stroke felt a bit strange…
Samuelâs arms were wrapped around Jiang Zhaoshengâs waist, holding him very tightly, his cheek almost buried in his neck as he greedily breathed in the familiar scent that had haunted his dreams, his voice muffled:
“Mother doesn’t want me… she only wants Father.”
“Only you… I only have you.”
Anyone could tell these words were childish and not entirely true, but Samuel just loved making such declarations of lacking securityâ
This was the best shortcut he had found through multiple practices. His Stellina… was a very “maternal” and kind person.
Jiang Zhaosheng felt the hot breath against his neck, which caused his body to occasionally tense instinctively, but he still endured it and didn’t push him away.
Inside the closet, Lin Xuan bit the back of his hand hard to suppress the urge to push the door open… Who on earth was this man? What was his relationship with Teacher Jiang? This intimacy that was almost unscrupulous… and Teacher Jiangâs silent permission, all of it signaled that they were closely related and seemed to be old acquaintances.
Samuel seemed to have noticed Jiang Zhaoshengâs subtle stiffness and was even more pleasantly surprised that he hadn’t pushed him away.
The tall man slowly raised his head, the intense emotion in his eyes almost overflowing.
“You vanished for a long time,” his voice was even lower and raspy. He took Jiang Zhaoshengâs hand and rubbed the knuckles, his gaze scanning his features as if confirming this wasn’t a fragile dream. “They all said you were dead… I didn’t believe them.”
He lowered his head, his nose pressing against the back of Jiang Zhaoshengâs hand, his lips almost reverently staying on that patch of skin, as if performing a silent prayer.
After a long time, Samuelâs other hand rose, hovering over Jiang Zhaoshengâs cascading long hair:
“Why did you keep your hair long?”
“Back then, why did you…”
Seeing that the questions were about to come one after another, Jiang Zhaosheng, fearing that Lin Xuan in the closet would know too much, quickly raised a hand and covered his mouth.
He looked down at Samuel, and the pain in the other’s eyes was so real and scorching.
Jiang Zhaosheng rarely felt a trace of a guilty conscience. After a moment of silence, he lowered his hand and briefly hugged the other back.
“Ran into a bit of a problem and handled it,” he said lightly, brushing away years of life-and-death separation in a single sentence. “My hair… it grew out so I just kept it. Doesn’t look good?”
He even asked back somewhat jokingly, tilting his head slightly. The light flowed over his cascading ink-black hair, reflecting a cold silver shimmer.
Samuel immediately shook his head, expressing his feelings urgently: “It looks good!”
Jiang Zhaosheng curved his lips, appearing to be amused by this passionate and clumsy response.
That bit of slight joy was quickly replaced by practical doubts. Jiang Zhaosheng lightly pushed away Samuel, who was clinging to him like a piece of gum, and looked into those blue eyes that hadn’t yet lost their excitement and obsession.
No matter how reluctant Samuel was, he knew Jiang Zhaoshengâs patience was reaching its limit.
“Alright, I have something serious to tell you,” Jiang Zhaoshengâs tone returned to its usual coldness; his softening had been brief. “That dead Omega in the dressing roomâwhatâs going on with that? One of your men did it?”
The dependency and satisfaction on Samuelâs face vanished, replaced by pure shock. He frowned and shook his head, his eyes showing no sign of lying:
“A dead Omega? In the dressing room? I didn’t know; I only arrived at the venue a short while ago.”
He keenly captured the key point in Jiang Zhaoshengâs words: “You found a corpse? Are you okay? Were you involved?”
Samuel knew Jiang Zhaosheng was strong, but the experience of losing him once made him a bit anxious, scanning the person as if doing a meticulous visual inspection.
Jiang Zhaosheng observed his reaction and already understood.
Indeed, it wasn’t Samuel.
Although this guy was crazy enough to do anything when jealous, he indeed had no need to deal with an irrelevant Omega in such a circuitous and clumsy way, let alone acting so flawlessly before him.
“Iâm fine.”
Jiang Zhaosheng replied briefly, then recounted his experience this afternoon: from the white-masked man’s pick-up on the electric boat to the Omegaâs sticky gaze after getting off.
When he reached the point of seeing the familiar back, he used an excuse to gloss over it, jumping to what happened after he chased him in: being hit by a warm, heavy bodyâthe Omega corpse with a butterfly knife in its neck.
And the gift box with that clearly provocative and humiliating “dress” set for him.
“…I thought you were acting out because of my ‘disappearance,’ or it was some person’s low-tier provocation.”
“But now it seems itâs neither. You wouldn’t use such a loophole-filled setup, and that person wouldn’t have the guts to cause a death.”
He used “that person” to refer to Shang Yan; as an experienced person, Jiang Zhaosheng could tell at a glance that Shang Yan had never killed anyone.
Hearing this, Samuelâs face became increasingly dark, the original tenderness in his eyes replaced by cold killing intent.
He took another step forward, this time not to hug but to get close to Jiang Zhaosheng as if guarding him, pressing the back of his hand to his face, his expression more solemn than ever:
“Someone is calculating against you? From the pick-up to the deliberate lure, and then the corpse… this is a trap set for you.”
He used his cheek to rub Jiang Zhaoshengâs palm:
“That Omega was just a pawn, maybe even a sacrificial piece. The goal was to put you in a room with a corpse, create suspicion, or… have follow-up methods.”
“Mhm, but I escaped very smoothly. Maybe the mastermind found out you, the ‘host,’ arrived.”
Jiang Zhaosheng thought to himself, there couldn’t not be a follow-up, itâs just that he was baited into racing by Shang Yan, and just after getting out of the car, he was intercepted by Samuel…
Looking on the bright side, no one could escape from here, so the killer was still around.
Samuel also thought of this. He looked up abruptly, his gaze sharp as a hawkâs:
“This matter must be investigated immediately. The other party knows youâre here and might even be watching in secret. Stay here, lock the door, and Iâll go check it out.”
After Samuel finished speaking, he gave Jiang Zhaosheng a deep look and turned to stride away.
Jiang Zhaosheng watched his hurried back and felt a bit of relief. Having Samuel handle it was indeed much less trouble than doing it himself.
The room returned to temporary silence, with only the faint sounds of the banquet lingering outside. Jiang Zhaosheng remembered Lin Xuan, who was still locked in the closet, and figured the boy must be suffocating. He rubbed his temples and turned toward the giant closet, intending to let the poor temporary tool out.
However, just as his fingertips were about to touch the bronze closet handleâ
A strong, sudden, intense heat exploded from the back of his neck without any warning.
The heat was fierce and violent, as if a red-hot iron had been pressed into his skin, running down his spine and instantly igniting his limbs!
“Ugh…!”
Jiang Zhaosheng gave a muffled groan, his hand suddenly stopping in mid-air, and he instinctively covered the back of his neck with his other hand.
His body swayed uncontrollably, and he had to reach out and brace himself against the cold closet door to stabilize himself.
What was going on?
Only after he regained some clarity did he realize the throbbing sensation under the skin of his neck… it felt simply like his glands were heating up.
Inside the closet, Lin Xuan was also listening to the movement outside. Hearing that familiar, suppressed groan, he couldn’t help but push the door slightly again, the “creak” sounding like an anxious inquiry.
But Jiang Zhaosheng could no longer care about him.
The heat on the back of his neck did not fade but instead intensified, accompanied by a strange, rising weakness and restlessness, frantically striking his cold reason.
Samuel had just left, and this sudden flare-up…
Was it a coincidence?
The burning sensation was like a ghost that followed him, spreading rapidly and bringing waves of dizziness and a strange softness. Jiang Zhaosheng struggled to maintain consciousness, his brain working at an unprecedented speed, filtering every detail from the moment he entered the resort until now.
…The Omega corpse, the dressâhe had recalled everything he had touched. Was there something targeting him, with a delayed onset… a poison?
In a flash of inspiration, Jiang Zhaosheng figured out the problem.
After he dealt with the Omega corpse and before the race… he needed a new set of clothes to replace the blood-stained shirt and suit and to avoid that humiliating “dress.”
At that time, he had “coincidentally” encountered a lone male Beta waiter in the corridor whose build was similar to his.
Everything was “smooth.” He had swiftly knocked the person out, stripped off his clothes, and stuffed the waiter, who was wearing only his underwear, into a nearby cleaning closet.
At the time, the situation was urgent and he hadn’t thought deeply. Looking back now, there were cracks everywhere.
Why would a waiter be alone in that quiet corridor with a set of brand-new clothes that happened to fit his size? He thought the waiter appeared there just because the mastermind wanted someone to report the “murder.”
As a waiter, why didn’t he report it immediately after waking up? This was a matter of the venue’s safety.
And according to the time calculation, that “waiter” could have easily killed the Omega in the dressing room first, and after planting the evidence, “coincidentally” appeared in the empty corridor to become Jiang Zhaoshengâs “perfect” target.
The clothes he was wearing were the real trap.
If the dead Omega was the first smoke screen to distract him, that malicious gift box was the second.
The other party had calculated that he would deal with the blood-stained clothes and that he wouldn’t wear that exaggerated “dress.”
The drug… or some kind of strong induction agent, might be infused into the shirt he was wearing.
Through skin contact, it had seeped in quietly, not exploding until this moment.
“Cough…”
Jiang Zhaosheng gasped, fine cold sweat breaking out on his forehead, his vision darkening in waves.
Reason was struggling to maintain itself in the high temperature, and his only clear thought was that he had to immediately take off this damn shirt.
He knelt on the cold floor, his back against the closet door that gave him a trace of support, nearly crudely tearing at the silk shirt on his body.
The buttons burst and fell with a faint clatter, and the expensive fabric was pulled off his shoulders by him, catching at his elbows and exposing a large patch of fair chest and the tensed lines of his waist and abdomen.
His ink-black long hair was messily scattered, some sticking to his neck and collarbones which were covered in a thin sweat. Half-hidden and half-exposed, it instead added a sense of heart-palpitating fragility and… lust.
The closet door was pushed open roughly from the inside, and Lin Xuan nearly scrambled out, Jiang Zhaoshengâs suppressed gasping having made him burn with anxiety.
However, when he saw the scene before him, he froze in place as if hit by lightningâ
The Jiang Zhaosheng who was always composed and even a bit cold in the academy was now kneeling on the floor with his clothes in disarray, his hair messy, and his contact lenses having been removed at some point. His emerald eyes were currently clouded with water vapor, looking ahead with a loss of focus as he struggled to free his arms from the entangled shirt fabric.
This posture was not one he had never imagined… in fact, he thought about it every day and dreamed about it every night.
But after seeing it with his own eyes, he discovered the image was more startling and heart-stirring than in his dreams.
“Jiang… Zhaozhao…”
Lin Xuanâs face instantly flushed bright red, his heart thumping like a drum, and he didn’t know where to lookâat those exquisite collarbones, the slightly rising and falling chest, or that section of lean waist… He was at a loss, wanting to help but not daring to touch him.
Just thenâ
The suite door was once again pushed open from the outside without any politeness.
“Get out of the way.”
Recommended Reads
