To be a kept canary to the extent he had reached, his life was practically finished.
Lian Jue furrowed his brows slightly. Deciding against pulling on Chen Xingjian’s sleeve this time, he muttered with reluctant displeasure, “Thank you for the reward, sir.”
Chen Xingjian didn’t reply, which irritated Lian Jue a bit.
He had already said thank you—what more did Chen Xingjian want?
Raising his head, just as he was about to muster the courage to negotiate further with Chen Xingjian, a brilliant flash of light directly dazzled and blinded his eyes.
Chen Xingjian was casually toying with a small diamond between his fingertips. The diamond spun a full circle before finally landing back in his palm.
The diamond wasn’t particularly large, but seen with the naked eye, its clarity and quality were exceptionally fine. Unfortunately, it wasn’t a colored diamond.
The accessories he loved most in this life were, without a doubt, diamonds.
His reasoning was equally vulgar: they were sparkly, bright, and had a wide range of uses.
His anger evaporated like charcoal dying down under a hiss of gas, and Lian Jue was back in business.
“Sir—” Lian Jue fixed his gaze squarely on the small diamond, his voice soft, sweet, and clinging. “Please grant me another reward.”
To speak the truth, Chen Xingjian was quite receptive to this.
Lian Jue possessed a wonderful voice. When he put on that sweet, coquettish tone to speak, it felt soft enough to melt a person’s bones into a puddle and submerge them in a pool of spring water.
His obedient, tender, and delicate face was plastered with eager longing, leaving only a single focus in his field of vision. Like a trapped beast in a cage, he could only beg for mercy and favor.
So what if he liked to pull little scheming tricks?
Chen Xingjian thought to himself with casual indifference.
As long as there was something he craved, even if he had a weakness, he remained within a controllable range.
The other end of the leash was firmly secured in the palm of his hand.
“Open your mouth.”
Lian Jue paused for a split second, then obediently parted his lips.
Wrapped in knuckles, the diamond was shoved unceremoniously into his mouth, feeling like a stray grain of sand that accidentally slips into one’s mouth while eating—so tiny it was nearly imperceptible.
“Hold it until we get home, and it’s yours.”
Chen Xingjian stared at Lian Jue’s red lips, which shimmered with a trace of moisture, his gaze growing heavy.
A very pretty little canary—he had a few tricks up his sleeve, but not enough to be annoying.
In his heart, Lian Jue unleashed an unreserved, furious torrent of curses:
You scumbag dog, you really know how to play dirty.
“Thank you, sir.” Lian Jue instinctively wedged the diamond in place with the tip of his tongue, his speech turning slightly muffled. “I need to use the washroom.”
The corners of Lian Jue’s mouth, which had lifted the moment he stepped out of the private room, instantly drooped downward. He walked into the restroom with a freezing expression on his face, causing even the cleaning staff to give him a wide berth of at least three paces.
He had been standing too far away earlier, so he hadn’t been able to make out the diamond’s specific details.
The diamond looked so transparent; if it turned out to be a lab-grown synthetic diamond, he would be completely screwed. The effort he put into collecting it wouldn’t even cover its depreciation.
Being as pretty as he was, and possessing such top-tier self-awareness as a canary, naturally only a natural diamond could possibly do him justice.
Lian Jue knitted his brows, flicked his tongue upward, and a bright arc cut through the air as the diamond dropped neatly into his palm.
“Where’d you get a diamond? A piece this size isn’t worth anything, even if it is natural, is it?”
A squeak echoed from the washroom door, and a familiar figure flashed into Lian Jue’s line of sight, making his expression grow a few shades darker.
This club must be cursed; the feng shui was truly abysmal to keep running into garbage people everywhere he went.
“Lian Jue, I’m talking to you!”
“You wouldn’t actually think that latching onto Chen Xingjian puts you a cut above me, would you? It’s still up in the air whether the Chen family will ever give you a proper title or not what are you acting so high and mighty for right now?”
Lian Cheng wore a look of utter disdain, looking as though he wanted to tear Lian Jue apart alive. He had convinced himself that Chen Xingjian must have lost his mind under some kind of seduction last night.
He really was someone from some backwater small town; even the tricks he pulled were utterly unpresentable.
The Chen family was wealthy and powerful; how could they ever let the son of a hostess climb up to the top?
“Lian Jue, if you kneel down and beg me right now, maybe once Chen Xingjian dumps you, I’ll put in a good word or two for you.”
At that moment, Lian Jue was reminded of some unpleasant memories—for instance, a certain sugar daddy who was exceptionally skilled at tormenting people. They had slept together, he had played the obedient, gentle, and considerate role to perfection, yet the man refused to grant him even a shred of a title.
“You motherfucking piece of…” Sporting his soft, innocent face, Lian Jue opened his mouth to hurl a fierce curse, every single word crisp and clear.
A flash of ruthless hostility crossed his brows and eyes, and the look he shot Lian Cheng turned icy and piercing.
“Come to think of it, I’ve been far too nice-tempered in front of you.”
“What?”
Lian Cheng looked incredulous. Before he even had time to react, a sharp, stabbing pain erupted across his scalp.
Lian Jue grabbed a handful of his hair and dragged him toward the sink as if he were hauling a dead dog. Lian Cheng’s leather shoes were forced to scrape against the floor, producing a teeth-grinding screech, while his nostrils were instantly flooded with the heavy, pungent scent of the chlorine used in tap water.
Water splashed wildly across his face, stinging his eyes shut while cutting off his oxygen supply. The water rushed frantically into his nasal passages, forcing him into a fit of uncontrollable coughing.
“Lian Jue! Lian Jue! I’m your brother!”
“Have you lost your mind?!”
A mocking smile tugged at the corners of Lian Jue’s lips. Now he suddenly remembered he was his brother?
He forced Lian Cheng’s head down by the back of his neck, making a sharp pivot, and shoved him straight into a sink basin filled to the brim with water.
His breath was ruthlessly stolen away, and his lungs screamed in desperate protest as a scorching pain flared up inside his chest.
A cascade of bubbles rose to the surface of the basin. Lian Jue finally loosened his grip and casually tossed him sprawling onto the floor tiles.
Lian Cheng collapsed onto the floor like a drowned rat, a wave of post-disaster relief washing over him.
“If you can’t beat me, why do you keep crawling back to ask for it? What’s wrong with you?”
Lian Jue stood before the mirror, smoothing down the bangs that had been dampened by the water to ensure every single strand fell back precisely where it belonged. Then, turning his gaze back to Lian Jue sprawled helplessly across the floor, a viciously wicked smile curved his lips.
“In a couple of days, Xingjian and I will be heading back together. Do make sure to remind Dad to treat us well.”
Weren’t they disgusted by the idea of him, an illegitimate son, climbing over their heads? Then their whole family better open their eyes wide and watch closely as he used Chen Xingjian’s power to throw his weight around.
Lian Jue dabbed a few drops of water at the outer corners of his eyes, rubbing them until his eye rims turned red and inflamed.
He didn’t have many special skills, but if he could genuinely use this face to coax a bit of heartache out of Chen Xingjian, it wouldn’t be a bad deal at all.
Inside the private room, everyone else had completely dispersed, leaving only Chen Xingjian sitting alone at the head of the table, looking down at his phone.
Hearing the sound at the door, Chen Xingjian looked up and chuckled softly. “How did you manage to get yourself into such a mess?”
Lian Jue looked thoroughly defeated, stepping into the room with tear-swelled, reddened eye rims. Pitiful droplets of water still clung damply to his cheeks, and even the carefully styled hairdo from that morning was gone; his hair was damp and bedraggled, drooping miserably against the back of his head.
Closing the door behind him, Lian Jue crept over pathetically to the side of Chen Xingjian’s lap.
“Someone bullied me?” Chen Xingjian guessed casually.
Not asking would have been fine, but the moment he asked, Lian Jue looked even more wretched. Tears began dripping one by one from his eyes, and he hiccuped and sobbed so hard he couldn’t even finish a sentence.
Chen Xingjian patted his thigh. Lian Jue braced himself with his hands against the chair, slowly climbed onto his lap, and buried his face straight into his chest.
“S-someone bullied me.”
“How did they bully you?”
Lian Jue raised a tear-streaked face, gazing up at him with aggrieved, heart-wrenching vulnerability. “It was my older brother. He said I’m not good enough for you, and that I don’t deserve to be by your side.”
Chen Xingjian didn’t react much at all, merely resting a hand on Lian Jue’s lower back and pressing rhythmically against his tailbone.
Lian Jue’s voice remained soft and sweet, speaking in gentle, tender tones meant entirely for Chen Xingjian’s ears.
“I didn’t stay with you for any other reason. I genuinely like you, and no one has ever treated me this well before.”
“The longer I stay by your side, the more I feel how hard-won our relationship is, and the more I want to cherish it. I want to have a good ending with you, and I want a forever with you. But after what my brother said, I’m just so anxious… I feel like I’m not good enough for you…”
Wait, what was the second half of this script again?
Lian Jue frowned and let out a small choke.
His professional skill set was truly getting rusty.
Chen Xingjian didn’t respond. His palm suddenly slid up to Lian Jue’s fingertips, leisurely wrapping around his finger bones to knead and press them with meticulous care, showing not a shred of annoyance.
Lian Jue’s heart tightened, his fingertips shivering as a bone-deep chill washed over him.
Crap. This act just bombed.
With a slow, unhurried cadence, Chen Xingjian spoke, his voice completely devoid of any discernible anger or joy: “Lian Jue, has anyone ever told you that whenever you tell a lie, you speak just a little bit faster than usual?”