Chapter 31: Psychological Trauma โ “Then you all… get buried with me”
“Tch, would a normal person react like that? I knew he was lying to you. Boyfriend? He probably doesn’t even like men.”
Qin Zhuoyu’s face was dark with sarcasm. “Don’t be foolishly deceived by others. If that happens, I’ll really have to laugh at you, Shen Yunqian.”
Shen Yunqian’s lips moved slightly, but Lu Xunye beat him to the punch with a quibble: “I’m your boyfriend, and you want me to kiss someone else? You believe such absurd and unreasonable words?”
Shen Yunqian’s gaze landed on his pitiful eyes.
Lu Xunye deliberately leaned down very close.
Shen Yunqian dodged half a step back uncomfortably, then stopped abruptly. His fingers curled, and finally, he raised his hand to touch Lu Xunye’s face, his expression earnest. “Of course I believe you. You… wouldn’t lie to me, right?”
Feeling the tingling itch on his cheek, Lu Xunye: “…” Why does it sound like he means something else?
He suppressed the doubt in his heart and threw the question back ambiguously: “If you don’t lie to me, of course I won’t lie to you.”
“What about you? Will you lie to me?”
“Damn, do you two have no shame? Flirting right in front of my face, are you sick?!” Qin Zhuoyu interrupted them frantically. “What lying or not lying, stop playing dumb!”
Shen Yunqian withdrew his hand. As he turned, his gaze lingered for a second on the tip of Lu Xunye’s tongue licking the corner of his mouth, then he left without a word.
Qin Zhuoyu watched as the two treated him like air and left inseparably. His bad deed unaccomplished, anger surged to his heart, and he stomped his foot fiercely. Instantly, severe pain struck, and his face turned white.
“Holy sh*t, seriously? You really like his boyfriend?!”
His friend observed Qin Zhuoyu’s face turning pale with anger, combined with his unusual behavior, and turned pale with shock. “How did I not know you liked men!”
To save face, Qin Zhuoyu gritted his teeth and didn’t make a sound. Having finally recovered from the pain, hearing this made him even angrier. He turned his head to see his friend clutching his chest like a chaste martyr.
“Yeah, I like men!” He spoke recklessly, deciding right then to disgust the other person. He closed his eyes and leaned in directly. “Don’t believe me? Don’t believe me, I’ll kiss you.”
The youth watched the mouth getting closer and closer right before his eyes, a struggle flashing across his face.
After experiencing a psychological construction that felt like it lasted “five years” in mere seconds, he finally gave up resistance.
A deep male voice sounded from above: “What are you doing?”
The two were startled awake. Qin Zhuoyu’s lower face was wrapped by a palm that brooked no refusal, blocking the “fragrant kiss” that died halfway.
Qin Zhuoyu looked with impatient, man-eating eyes, but upon seeing who it was, he immediately lowered his eyes like a quail.
“Uncle Qin, Little… Uncle, hello.”
Similarly, his friend’s gaze shifted between the two. After receiving a light glance from the handsomely aggressive man, his hair stood on end.
Qin Zhuoyu watched with his own eyes as he leaned the crutch tremblingly against the railing, bowed, turned, and ran awayโall in one smooth motion. “…”
Eight hundred curse words flew through his mind in an instant. Qin Zhuoyu’s eyes spewed fire.
“You’ve grown capable, daring to play with men now.”
The hand on his face was removed. Qin Zhuoyu, who hadn’t intended to kiss anyway, was self-righteous: “I wasn’t playing, I was disgusting him!”
After saying it, he felt his words lacked momentum. On second thought, it was because he wasn’t standing high enough.
So he lifted his leg and stepped up two stairs to stand on the same step as Qin Du.
Qin Zhuoyu threw his head back and straightened his waist, only to discover he still wasn’t as tall as the other. He quietly retreated down one step to save face. “Why did you come back suddenly?”
“Just got back last night,” Qin Du took in all his little actions, giving a rare explanation when he saw the other’s foot. “Your mom asked me to pick you up here.”
He paused and added, “To ask how you are doing.”
Hearing this, Qin Zhuoyu bristled. “My mom! How did my mom know I was here?! No, wait! If she knew I was injured, she wouldn’t have nagged me all night last night about not going to the cemetery.”
He remembered how his mom always seemed to know where he was even after going abroad. Every time he tried to guard against it, he was still discovered.
He had thought his mom had planted spies around him.
Now, Qin Zhuoyu suddenly realized, his heart trembling with anger. “Holy cr*p, you guys put a tracker on me!”
Qin Du frowned. “Where did you learn such foul language?”
โโโโ
Across from the hospital was a park.
The two walked slowly by the river.
On the lawn, a group of girls gathered to take photos, and several couples rubbed each other’s hands, seemingly happy about something, smiles on everyone’s faces.
It was cold; every sentence spoken was accompanied by a puff of white mist.
“Yesterday was New Year’s Day. We didn’t get to celebrate it in the hospital. Is there anything you want to eat?” Lu Xunye asked.
His ear twitched, and he suddenly turned to look at the sparse people on the road, frowning and whispering, “Illusion?”
Lu Xunye felt as if someone was following him, but without malice.
Don’t blame him for being sensitive. Anyone who had been kidnapped once and almost kidnapped another time would be cautious, even if they had no brains.
“I don’t want to eat.” After Shen Yunqian blurted it out quickly, he fell silent for a while.
Lu Xunye watched the actions of the couples around them, weighing the distance between him and the youth. He asked tentatively and puzzledly, “What do you think couples are like?”
Shen Yunqian stopped, turned his head, and answered, “Probably possession, companionship, jealousy… intimacy and…”
His words came to an abrupt halt, his senses concentrated on the hand that was taken by Lu Xunye.
Fingers interlaced tightly.
An almost scalding sensation transmitted from the palm into his body.
Lu Xunye saw his bewildered expression and found it amusing. “Is there a problem?”
Shen Yunqian looked down at their hands joined together like conjoined twins, intimately pressed against each other without separation. He looked up to meet Lu Xunye’s triumphant gaze, the corners of his straight lips hooking up. “Of course there is.”
Snowflakes silently swirled down from the sky, landing on the withered yellow lawn and melting instantly. It was the first snow of the new year.
Snowflakes drifted onto his eyelashes, adding a touch of white to his vision.
“?” Lu Xunye was dazzled by this smile and his heart panicked.
The next second, his cheek was kissed by soft lips.
His palm tightened instantly, knuckles turning white.
ใMission! Mission! Keep enduring, believe in yourself, Host!ใ
The system jumped out from somewhere to cheer him on. Lu Xunye remembered there was still a mission and suppressed the urge to push the person away.
The girls taking photos on the lawn happened to capture this scene.
Looking at the photo, they exchanged glances, covered their mouths to suppress screams of excitement, all wearing expressions of “I ship it.”
Shen Yunqian’s lips parted from him.
Lu Xunye feigned calmness. To find a reason for his abnormality, he spouted nonsense: “This is the first time you initiated a kiss with me. I’m too surprised.”
“Oh?” Shen Yunqian seemed unaware of the slip-up he exposed, looking contemplative. “Was I so unreasonable before?”
He seemed regretful of his past behavior. “Then I will be more proactive in the future.”
Lu Xunye: “…” Don’t, that’s not exactly what I meant.
Only after they left did the girls find their voices and whisper.
They looked at the two retreating figures side by side in the distance, then looked at the photo in the camera.
“They are a couple, right? Right, right?”
“Definitely. I don’t know if it’s my illusion, but I feel the tall guy seemed a bit resistant to the other kissing him?”
Another chimed in, “You think so too? Me too.”
“Do you think they are the type going through the ‘seven-year itch,’ about to break up but still maintaining decency for each other?”
“Why do I feel one of them looks familiar?”
“What familiar? Good grief, shipping them so hard and not sharing with us, are you still a friend!”
They didn’t take this episode to heart, laughing and playing together again.
โโโโ
ใHost! Host, wake up! Stop sleeping.ใ
The system’s voice sounded smaller and smaller in his ears, as if blocked by cotton.
…
From the slightly ajar door, sounds that Green River (JJWXC) wouldn’t allow to be described kept coming out.
“Nngh~ You… your son is still outside. Is it really okay not to close the door?”
A rough voice spat, and the sound of more forceful “drumming” accompanied by the creaking noise of the bed drowned out the charming cries.
“I put sleeping pills in his water; he won’t wake up. Even if he sees, if he dares to talk nonsense, I’ll beat him to death!”
“Is there anyone who beats their own son every day like you?”
The beautiful youth’s tone was coquettish, but his eyes were full of triumph. “Last time I saw that beer bottle almost pierce through your son’s thigh. You really are ruthless… Hiss~ gentle.”
The man grabbed his waist as he cooperated by sinking down. “I bought insurance for that b*tch. When she dies an ‘accidental death,’ the compensation money will be mine.”
“You’re so bad. That’s your own wife. If she knew you tricked her about losing your job and being seriously ill, and did this kind of thing with me while she was out early and late raising money for your medical bills, she’d probably die of anger.”
“Wouldn’t dying of anger be exactly what you want?” The man exerted force.
“That woman is afraid I’ll think irrationally. No matter how I beat her, she takes it and even persuades that little brat not to disobey me.”
The man sneered. “Have to say, women are stupid. That little brat said long ago he wanted to take her and run, but she refused. Why? She’s cheap!”
Outside the door
A boy was in the living room, staring with dark, sunken eyes at the empty wine bottles cluttered on the floor. His sleeves were half-rolled up; on his skinny arm was a slash wound exposing ghastly white bone.
He picked up a half-bottle of white liquor from the table and poured it onto the wound without furrowing a brow.
Muscles spasmed and trembled from the pain; his palms were pinched into a bloody mess, and his hair was soaked with sweat.
Despite this, the boy didn’t utter a single word of pain.
He glanced at the wall clock, turning a deaf ear to the indescribable sounds inside the room. He crossed out today’s date on the dilapidated calendar.
Then, his hollow gaze turned to the half-open door. He picked up half a wine bottle from the floor; the bottom was jagged glass.
He stood up and kicked open that door, smashing down hard towards the two on the bed.
From the living room to here, there was a trail of blood flowing from the boy’s leg.
As early as when he kicked the door, the two on the bed separated, frantically putting on clothes.
The boy swung wildly without technique, instantly injuring both of them.
The beautiful youth was furious. “Your son is crazy, control him!”
Just as he finished speaking, the boy’s bottle smashed down on him. Unable to dodge, his face was slashed. “I’m warning you, don’t mess around! You’ll go to jail!”
The boy spoke his first sentence: “Then you all… get buried with me.”
The youth was terrified and wanted to run but was blocked by the boy in the aisle beside the bed.
“Brat, I’m your dad! Believe it or not, I’ll beat you to death!” The other man pulled out his belt and lashed at him with all his might.
Flesh exploded on the boy’s face and body. As if oblivious to pain, he swung the wine bottle in his hand, blood splattering on his cheek.
A shrill scream resonated through the entire old apartment building. The man covered a certain part of his body, rolling weirdly on the bed.
The boy swept an emotionless glance over the two ounces of indistinguishable rotten flesh on the floor, turned his head mechanically, lifted his eyelids, and whispered like a demon: “Your turn.”
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