Qiao Yan stared at that friend request, his finger hovering over the screen, frozen for a long time.
Guang Guang Duo Duo—wasn’t that Qiao Yunguang’s game ID?
How could he possibly know Xiao Taotao’s Moyu ID?
Qiao Yan’s heart skipped a beat, filled with an ominous presentiment.
He hesitated for a few seconds but approved the request anyway.
The other party replied incredibly fast.
Guang Guang Duo Duo: Xiao Taotao?
Guang Guang Duo Duo: No, wait, I should call you Brother Qiao Yan instead~
Qiao Yan’s pupils contracted, and his fingers trembled so much his phone almost slipped to the ground.
Xiao Tao Bites Super Hard: What nonsense are you talking about?
Guang Guang Duo Duo: Stop pretending, Brother. Cen Zihao told me everything. He said you’ve recently hooked up with He Yanzhou and even completely crippled a few of his thugs. Connecting the dots backward with the in-game IDs and your interactions made it all crystal clear~
Qiao Yan still wanted to put up a struggle.
Xiao Tao Bites Super Hard: What are you talking about? Xiao Taotao doesn’t understand~
Guang Guang Duo Duo: It doesn’t matter if you don’t understand.
Guang Guang Duo Duo: Either way, tomorrow night at eight o’clock, this place—be there or be square.
Attached below was an address. Qiao Yan tapped to open it and saw that it was a very famous gay bar in Ningcheng called Night Desires.
Qiao Yan’s scalp went numb.
Xiao Tao Bites Super Hard: I’m not going.
Guang Guang Duo Duo: Not going? Then I’ll just have to package our chat logs along with the real identity behind your game account and send them straight to CEO He~
Guang Guang Duo Duo: Say, if he finds out that the little girlfriend he spent so much money pampering is actually the fake young master of the Qiao family whom he despises the most, wouldn’t he find it absolutely disgusting?
Sitting cross-legged on the sofa, Qiao Yan treated a throw pillow as Qiao Yunguang’s face and pummeled it frantically.
Xiao Tao Bites Super Hard: Go ahead and send it! If you send it, I’ll tell He Yanzhou that you pretend to be a girl online to fish for men too. Let’s see who loses more face!
The other side went quiet for a few seconds.
Guang Guang Duo Duo: Brother, you’re so fierce. But He Yanzhou has known for ages that I play on Moyu, and he even praised me for being cute.
Guang Guang Duo Duo: What about you? If he finds out Xiao Taotao is a guy, will he still pay attention to you?
How do you know he won’t pay attention to me?!!!
This was an absolute humiliation to the peerless catfish master, Xiao Taotao!
Qiao Yan’s face distorted with rage. He knew exactly why Qiao Yunguang wanted to lure him to a gay bar—it was obviously to use his secret as leverage to humiliate him.
He could let He Yanzhou know that Xiao Taotao was a guy, or even know that Xiao Taotao was there to scam him out of money. The only thing he couldn’t let him know was that Xiao Taotao was Qiao Yan.
If that happened, He Yanzhou would have a concrete target for revenge, and crushing him would be as easy as stepping on an ant.
If Qiao Yunguang got caught, he could still offer up his own body as compensation. But what about him, Qiao Yan? What was he supposed to do?
Qiao Yan buried his face into the pillow, feeling so aggrieved he wanted to cry. He just wanted to get some revenge on that dog of a couple, why did it have to be this hard?!
Suddenly, a spark of inspiration flashed through his mind. He slowly lifted his head from the pillow and sent a message to Jiang Cai.
At the exact same time, Qiao Yunguang turned off his phone, a smug smile spreading across his face.
He was sitting in his own room inside the Qiao family villa. The room was exquisitely and luxuriously decorated, with every detail highlighting his status as the young master.
But as Qiao Yunguang looked at that pitifully innocent face in the mirror, his heart was a barren wasteland of coldness.
Why?
Why did Qiao Yan get to live a life of luxury, pampered by everyone for the first twenty years of his life, making it seem like moving from a rented apartment into a school dorm was some monumental grievance?
Meanwhile, in that wretched village, he had been called a son of a whore, had rocks thrown at him by kids his age, never had enough to eat or wear, and still had to take care of that sickly mother of his while being told to keep his mouth shut.
Even up until her death, his mother had gripped his hand tightly, her eyes wide open as she gasped, “Son, you have to go back… back to the Qiao family… that’s yours… your…”
She drew her last breath before she could finish.
Kneeling on the damp mud back then, watching his mother’s body gradually stiffen, a fierce hatred sprouted in his heart for the first time.
He hated the nanny who swapped the babies, he hated the biological father he had never met, and he hated Qiao Yan even more for occupying his life for twenty years.
So he returned. He acted obedient, played the victim, and pushed Qiao Yan out of the Qiao family step by step. Watching Qiao Yan fall from a high-and-mighty young master to a stray dog who couldn’t even afford a rented apartment gave him a twisted sense of pleasure.
But it still wasn’t enough.
Qiao Yan had actually managed to latch onto He Yanzhou? A man that even he had to rack his brains to get close to—what right did Qiao Yan have?
Just because of that face?
Qiao Yunguang curled his lips at the mirror. Fine. Since you like relying on your face so much, I’ll let you make good use of it.
In a gay bar, a straight male college student with Qiao Yan’s looks was like a little white rabbit falling into a wolf’s den. Those playboys who were used to fooling around loved this type the most—innocent, easy to handle, and willing to do anything if you gave them a little scare.
Qiao Yunguang had already contacted a few of the wealthy playboys he usually hung out with. Tomorrow night, they would give Qiao Yan a proper “welcome.”
He wanted Qiao Yan to return everything he owed him, piece by piece.
So, they would start with his dignity.
At 7:30 the next evening, Qiao Yan stood at the entrance of the bar, his legs feeling a bit weak.
The bar’s storefront was low-key, with only neon lights outlining the name on a black signboard. But even with the muffled music and ambiguous lighting filtering from inside—and despite having a backup plan prepared—his heart was still pounding like a drum.
Today, he had intentionally worn a high-necked sweater with a thick coat over it, wrapping himself up tightly out of fear that someone might notice something.
His phone vibrated. It was a message from Qiao Yunguang.
Guang Guang Duo Duo: Are you here? Second floor, VIP Private Room 202.
Qiao Yan stared at the message and took a deep breath. He didn’t reply, choosing instead to switch over to his chat with Jiang Cai first.
QY: Cai, I’m at the entrance. Are the people you hired here yet? You promised me an emergency rescue!!??
Cai Cai Cai: They’re here, they’re here! See that white minivan behind you? The three bodyguards are hiding inside. Don’t worry, the moment something goes wrong, I’ll have them barge right in!
QY: Love you!!! I’ll treat you to ten massive feasts later!!!
Qiao Yan felt a bit more grounded. Last night, on a stroke of genius, he had asked Jiang Cai for help. The moment Jiang Cai heard that Qiao Yunguang was trying to bully him, she was so furious she wanted to call and scold him on the spot, but Qiao Yan stopped her.
However, Qiao Yan couldn’t let Jiang Cai get too deeply involved. After all, He Yanzhou was her older brother, and it wouldn’t look good for a girl to hang around the entrance of a gay bar anyway. So, Qiao Yan simply asked her to hire some people to wait outside.
In the end, the two agreed that the bodyguards would act as backup outside, ready to rush in and fish him out if things took a turn for the worse.
Though he was still a little scared, at least he wasn’t facing this single-handedly.
Tucking his phone away, he pushed open the bar doors and walked in.
Deafening music and a cocktail of perfumes instantly engulfed him. Shadows swayed on the dance floor under flashing, sultry lights.
Uncomfortable, Qiao Yan frowned, keeping his head down as he quickly wove through the crowd toward the stairs.
Two waiters stood at the foot of the stairs. They glanced at him but didn’t stop him. Qiao Yan made his way up to the second floor smoothly and located Room 202. Standing before the door, he didn’t knock immediately, instead pressing his ear close to catch the commotion inside.
He could faintly hear laughter and chatter—there was more than one person.
Qiao Yan took a deep breath and raised his hand to knock.
The door opened.
The lighting inside the private room was even dimmer than outside, and smoke drifted through the air. Four or five young men were sitting on the sofa, all dressed in a way that screamed wealthy backgrounds.
Qiao Yunguang sat right in the center. Today, he wore a cream-white knit sweater, looking pure and harmless, and was currently staring over with a beaming smile.
“Brother is here?” his voice sounded soft. “Come on in, we’ve been waiting ages for you.”
Qiao Yan walked inside, and the waiter gently closed the door behind him. Only then did he get a clear look at the faces of the others. A few looked familiar—they were notorious playboys in Ningcheng who usually ran in the same circles as Qiao Yunguang.
Cen Zihao was there too, sitting right next to Qiao Yunguang. Seeing Qiao Yan walk in, a flash of discomfort crossed his face, and he averted his eyes.
“Yo, so this is Yunguang’s fake young master brother?” a guy with dyed silver-gray hair spoke up first. He sat with his legs crossed, sizing Qiao Yan up with a disdainful gaze. “He really does look quite nice…”
Qiao Yan pressed his lips tight and didn’t answer, his eyes darting toward the exit.
“Why aren’t you saying anything?” another guy in a floral shirt chimed in with a laugh. He stood up, walked over to Qiao Yan, and reached out to pat his shoulder. “Don’t be nervous, we’re just making friends today.”
Qiao Yan glanced at him and dodged to the side, avoiding his hand.
The floral-shirt guy’s hand met empty air, and his expression darkened. “What’s the meaning of this? Not giving me face?”
“Young Master Li, don’t be angry,” Qiao Yunguang smoothly intervened to smooth things over. He picked up a glass of wine and walked over. “My brother is a bit shy around strangers. Brother, come, drink this glass first as an apology to everyone, and to calm your nerves.”
He offered a glass of amber liquid with a slice of lemon perched on the rim.
Qiao Yan stared at the drink and didn’t take it. He didn’t know what might have been slipped inside, so he didn’t dare drink it.
“Not drinking?” Young Master Li with the silver-gray hair also stood up. The two men stood on his left and right, faintly trapping Qiao Yan between them. “Yunguang, this brother of yours isn’t very tactful. Inviting him here is giving him face. What, do we have to beg him to drink?”
Qiao Yan’s back tensed slightly, his fingers quietly slipping toward the phone in his pocket.
Jiang Cai had said to send the signal if things looked bad.
“Brother,” Qiao Yunguang’s voice grew a fraction colder as he pushed the glass a bit closer. “I suggest you behave and listen. It’s just a glass of wine; everything will be fine once you drink it. Otherwise, if I get into a bad mood and my hand slips, I might just accidentally send out something that shouldn’t be sent~”
Qiao Yan stared at the glass, then at Qiao Yunguang’s face, which feigned innocence while harboring implicit threats. He knew he had to drink this; Qiao Yunguang wouldn’t let it slide otherwise.
He reached out and took the glass, his fingers gripping it tightly.
“That’s more like it,” the floral-shirt guy smirked. “But just drinking it like that is too boring. How about this: drink it on your knees, and we’ll pretend none of that just happened. Sound good?”
Qiao Yan snapped his head up. “What did you say?”
“I said, drink. On. Your. Knees.” The floral-shirt guy enunciated each word, his tone laced with mockery and malice. “What, not willing? Then forget it. Yunguang, looks like your brother doesn’t have much sincerity after all…”
Qiao Yan shook all over with rage, his eyes instantly brimming with red. Half of it was humiliation, half was fury. He bit his lower lip so hard that the skin turned pale.
The room fell silent as everyone stared at him, their eyes filled with amusement, contempt, and the excitement of watching a drama unfold.
Sitting on the sofa, Cen Zihao looked at Qiao Yan standing there with a deathly pale face. He pursed his lips, looking hesitant.
He parted his mouth, wanting to say “forget it,” but was glared back into silence by a chilling look from Qiao Yunguang.
The hand Qiao Yan used to hold the glass was trembling. He couldn’t kneel. If he knelt now, he would never be able to stand tall in front of Qiao Yunguang again.
But if he didn’t kneel, Qiao Yunguang really would blow the whistle to He Yanzhou. If that happened, he would be completely finished.
Just as he was locked in a fierce internal struggle, his fingers secretly pressing the preset emergency signal on his phone’s side button—
Bang!
The private room door was suddenly kicked open from the outside rather rudely, hitting the wall with a dull thud.
A tall man in a black leather jacket leaned lazily against the doorframe, dangling a half-empty bottle of beer in his hand.
His gaze swept across the dimly lit room, finally landing on Qiao Yan, who was trapped by the two men. He raised an eyebrow.
“Whoa, so lively in here?” Lin Lang took a swig of his beer and spoke casually. “A whole crowd gathered around… what are we playing? Room for one more?”