Chapter 45: Why Not Keep Pretending?
Deep, dark eyes stared at Wen Yan.
Like an evil ghost.
Wen Yan suppressed the trembling and resistance of his body, trying to reason with Pei Zhouye.
“Pei Zhouye, you have to work, I have to go to school. There are many people who need to contact me. What if important matters are delayed? Tomorrow is National Day; I have to talk to my parents on the phone, otherwise they will worry about me.”
His tone was a light negotiation, clear amber eyes looking at Pei Zhouye, wanting to seek permission from him.
He couldn’t continue being trapped.
“I already told Uncle and Auntie that you are very busy.” Pei Zhouye sat lazily, tone indifferent, expression unreadable.
“You contacted my parents?” Wen Yan realized belatedly with fear and anger. “What did you say to them?”
He had already cooperated with Pei Zhouye enough.
Pei Zhouye wanted to treat him as a pet, so he was docile and obedient, waiting for Pei Zhouye to get bored. At least coax him until he let him go home for National Day!
Wen Yan’s tone was somewhat anxious, unable to pretend anymore: “I want to go to the hospital to see my parents! How can you casually lie to my parents in my name? What will satisfy you…”
“I was wondering what being so good for so many days was for; turns out you were waiting for me here.”
Pei Zhouye sneered, grabbed Wen Yan’s kneeling legs, clasped his waist, and forced him to sit on his lap.
“To satisfy me… Wife, what you’ve done these past few days isn’t enough, right?”
Wen Yan tried to retreat in fear, but the hand on his waist pinched his lower back. The distance he had struggled to gain vanished as he fell back down.
“Sss…”
Pei Zhouye felt a pain and sucked in a cold breath.
Wen Yan looked up uneasily, crashing into those playful eyes.
“Let go!” Wen Yan struggled awkwardly, only to be pressed completely close.
Hot breath swept over the back of his neck. Wen Yan hardened his heart and bit down on Pei Zhouye’s exposed collarbone.
Pei Zhouye led his hand downwards. Wen Yan tried his best to dodge, but still couldn’t break free from his hand.
He heard a light laugh.
“Baby, why not keep pretending?”
…
Wen Yan curled himself into a ball, crying hard, several clumps of eyelashes sticking together.
He held his right hand far away, hanging off the edge of the sofa, looking so disgusted he wished he could change hands.
Pei Zhouye came back with wet wipes and saw Wen Yan like this, pulling the corners of his mouth into a helpless smile.
Clearly, he had already wiped it once with tissues.
He squatted down, wiping Wen Yan’s hand with the wet wipe.
“I didn’t say anything to Uncle and Auntie, only that you weren’t sure which day you’d go home.”
Wen Yan finally was willing to look straight at Pei Zhouye, crying with hiccups, speaking intermittently: “Did you really say that?”
“Didn’t lie to you.” Pei Zhouye wiped along the gaps between his fingers meticulously with the wet wipe. “I’ll take you there in a few days. I’ll go with you.”
Wen Yan got anxious again: “I’ll go by myself!”
Pei Zhouye would definitely talk nonsense. A rogue with no bottom line, an uncontrolled element, a pervert!
“I won’t talk nonsense. You can introduce me however you like.” Pei Zhouye didn’t even look up, seeming to guess what Wen Yan was thinking.
He finished wiping the little finger, held Wen Yan’s hand, and kissed it, without any ambiguous implication.
Wen Yan turned his head away, the grievance still hard to dissipate.
“Wen Yan, I like you. You don’t need to pretend to be anything in front of me, and I will still like you.” Pei Zhouye’s tone was casual, as if mentioning it in passing.
He asked again, seemingly asking himself: “Why don’t you believe it?”
Wen Yan heard it. He replied very softly:
“How could I possibly believe it.”
There was always someone saying this, deceiving him like this, just to get what they wanted from him.
But he couldn’t be deceived forever.
He had already tasted the bitterness of this loss once; he couldn’t be deceived a second time.
The two returned to that relationship that was neither intimate nor distant.
Wen Yan would still accompany Pei Zhouye to work in the study, though mainly watching online classes.
Pei Zhouye could see all the computer browsing content. Wen Yan didn’t search for questions on it.
After pretending to be obedient was exposed by Pei Zhouye once, Wen Yan would feel ashamed whenever he thought of it, so he simply stopped pretending.
When Pei Zhouye leaned close, Wen Yan told him to stay away, but the other party didn’t listen and always took advantage of him.
Pei Zhouye cooked a few times at first. Wen Yan ate less and less, so finally, it changed to a chef coming to cook or Pei Zhouye ordering delivery.
Nine days. Wen Yan hadn’t spoken to anyone other than Pei Zhouye.
Anyone who came to the house, if Wen Yan went up to talk, would not respond with a single word.
If he wanted to open the door, he would be stopped too.
Pei Zhouye’s control over him became heavier and heavier. The embraces at night became tighter and tighter. Even at home, it felt like eyes were always staring at him from behind.
Whenever going out or asking for the phone was mentioned, Pei Zhouye’s face would turn cold.
Wen Yan pretended not to notice anything.
He would occasionally add a few bottles of wine when ordering food.
Wen Yan could only distinguish between red wine and white wine. Not understanding the complexities of wine, and since the permission Pei Zhouye gave him was an internal system without showing any prices, he occasionally chose a few bottles when selecting meal items.
Tonight he ordered a lot of wine.
The notification arrived, and the doorbell rang once. Wen Yan trotted over to open the door.
The delivery guy pushed several tightly wrapped boxes. He didn’t say anything and was about to move them in.
“Let me do it.” Wen Yan helped receive them from below.
The other party tried to dodge, but because the wine bottles in the boxes he held were too precious, he didn’t dare make big movements and didn’t avoid Wen Yan’s assistance.
Wen Yan gave a shallow smile to him.
The other party’s gaze paused on him for a few seconds, then moved behind him, expression terrified.
Wen Yan froze for a moment and turned around.
Pei Zhouye stood at the stairs at some point. Hair covered some of his eyes. Those peach blossom eyes looked pitch black, skin illuminated cold white by the light.
“Sorry…”
The delivery guy apologized, and Wen Yan finally reacted.
There was no expression on Pei Zhouye’s face, voice cold: “You don’t need to come again.”
That person wanted to say something more. The words stalled at his lips for a few seconds, but in the end, were not spoken.
“I understand, Mr. Pei. Sorry.”
He took the box from Wen Yan’s hand and walked toward the dining room.
Until he left, Wen Yan and Pei Zhouye remained standing in place.
The moment the door closed, Wen Yan finally couldn’t bear it. He frowned, feeling both guilty and angry:
“It was me who insisted on helping. You don’t need to implicate him!”
Pei Zhouye stepped steadily toward him: “I paid him ten times the remuneration, with only one requirement: not to interact with you. If he can’t even do that, why should he stay?”
Wen Yan only felt the chill on his back getting heavier.
“What do you need so much wine for? When we return to A City, there is a wine cellar at home; I’ll go browsing with you.” Pei Zhouye held his hand, tone natural, seeming to have discovered nothing. “The wines here are temporarily delivered; there’s nothing good.”
Whatever appeared in Wen Yan’s ordering system, which one wasn’t invaluable?
To Pei Zhouye, they were just “nothing good.”
Recommended Reads





![Does A Broken Mirror Reunion Exist in Esports? [Esports]](https://beereads.space/wp-content/uploads/2026/01/esports-225x300.png)



thank you for the chapter