A self-fulfilling prophecy, this time, Li You truly woke up with a start from a nightmare.
Perhaps because of Bai Yu’s phone call last night, he had slept fitfully during the second half of the night. His dreams were filled entirely with Lin Xun, the Alpha, covered in fresh blood, had smiled as he held him, softly whispering in his ear that they could finally be together.
Li You was scared out of his wits. His heart gave a violent tug, nearly leaping out of his chest.
The moment he opened his eyes, Lin Xun was hovering right over him. Eyes bloodshot, the Alpha was staring at him without blinking. There was no telling how long he had been watching him like this, it could have been a few hours, or perhaps the entire night.
“Did you… not sleep all night?” Li You silently pulled the blanket up a bit further to cover his chin. If he weren’t afraid of angering Lin Xun, he would have loved to cover his eyes too.
Lin Xun remained silent, doing nothing but staring at him incessantly. The Beta’s gaze darted around, until finally, resigning himself to his fate, he reluctantly pulled down the blanket, poked his head out inch by inch, and placed a kiss on the Alpha’s chin.
Seeing this, Lin Xun let out a soft laugh. He cupped the back of Li You’s head, stroked the black hair at the nape of his neck, and relaxed his tone, asking, “What kind of dream did you have this time? You kept calling out my name.”
Li You didn’t dare mention it was a nightmare. His knack for making up lies on the fly had been honed purely to deal with him: “I dreamed that you were leaving again…”
Lin Xun asked with great interest, “Is that so?”
The trailing cadence of his voice was very light, carrying a hint of amusement as he patted the Beta’s back. “I won’t leave. Never.”
It sounded like a promise, yet also like a warning.
Held tightly against his chest, Li You let out a subtle sigh of relief. He had to figure out a way to find Lin Zhaoning’s whereabouts without alerting Lin Xun.
Everything had started because of him. He owed Lin Zhaoning too much; this was perhaps his only, and last, chance to do something for him.
Blind to Li You’s line of sight, the amusement in the Alpha’s eyes instantly vanished. His stark, dark-and-white eyes were bloodshot. He looked down cold and detached at the person in his arms, the grip of his arms around the Beta tightening imperceptibly.
So stupid. It was clearly a nightmare.
Otherwise, why would he cry?
If it were truly as Li You said, he would probably be waking up laughing in his sleep, how could he possibly have time to cry?
But it didn’t matter. Everything was about to come to an end.
Li You was originally nursing a headache over how to escape Lin Xun’s surveillance. Just when he was feeling utterly helpless, Lin’s parents descended out of nowhere like savior angels, their tone resolute as they issued strict commands for Lin Xun to return to the old estate immediately.
Lin Xun tossed his phone onto the table. While listening to the anger-suppressed orders of his father on the other end, he leaned down to kiss Li You. He made it so that Li You didn’t dare make a single sound; even when kissed to the point of suffocation, Li You could only desperately restrain his ragged gasps. Only when the Alpha was finally willing to spare him did he slowly pat his own chest to smooth his breathing.
Lin Xun expressed utter disdain towards the caller, letting out a soft, mocking laugh.
While the two of them were hiding on this end of the phone engaging in their illicit intimacy, Lin’s father was left on the other end lecturing endlessly. By the time his mouth was dry and his throat parched from talking, he realized he hadn’t gotten a single response from Lin Xun.
Lin’s father was trembling with rage. This rebellious son! He wasn’t dead yet, and the boy already dared to treat him like air, what insolence!
Unable to endure it any longer, Lin’s father hollered, “Did you hear me?! Come back to the old estate right now!”
Lin Xun said, “Feeding the cat. No time.”
“…You!” Lin’s father was thoroughly infuriated upon hearing this. After fuming for a long moment, he blurted out, “Throw that useless cat of yours away! Serving a beast as if it were a human, what nonsense is this?!” He then slammed down the phone in a fit of rage.
Lin Xun didn’t look the least bit rushed. Pointing at a new phone he pushed into Li You’s hands, he said, “Your old one broke and can’t be used anymore. Use this one.”
Li You obediently took it, whispering a soft, “Thank you.”
Lin Xun: “How are you going to thank me?”
Li You had originally intended it as a polite formality. Even if this phone was given to him, he wouldn’t dare use it; who knew if this unhinged Alpha had installed a tracker or surveillance bug inside it? He didn’t want to speculate about anyone with malicious intentions, but when it came to Lin Zhaoning, he had to be cautious about everything.
Li You stood on tiptoe and rubbed his lips gently against the space between the Alpha’s eyebrows. Looking straight into Lin Xun’s eyes, he asked softly, “Like this? Is this okay?”
The Beta’s lips had been kissed red by Lin Xun. Because he had been short of breath and unable to make a sound earlier, Li You’s eyelashes were still glistening wet. Just like that, he caught the Alpha completely off guard, barging into the depths of his eyes. There was no embarrassment, no reluctance, just like an ordinary, affectionate married couple giving a gentle good morning kiss to a husband.
Lin Xun froze on the spot. Unconsciously raising his hand, his thumb lightly rubbed the skin beneath Li You’s eyes. His gaze turned unfocused, yet it remained fixed solely on the Beta’s sincere and beautiful eyes, intense and searching, as if trying to drill through those pitch-black pupils straight into Li You’s heart to see who was actually inside that chest right now.
“Li You, you…”
“Hmm?” Li You looked puzzled.
He watched as the Alpha paused, then smoothed over his expression and said nonchalantly, “It’s nothing. Don’t run around aimlessly.”
Lin Xun turned around, picked up his coat, and draped it over his arm, instructing, “It’s getting cold out. Remember to put on extra clothes when going out.”
Li You was dumbfounded: “I… can go out?”
Lin Xun smiled and said, “Why not? I told you, you are free.”
Li You stood frozen on the spot, left speechless.
Just as he reached the door, Lin Xun turned back around. Leaning down near his ear, he asked, “Do you know how to date?”
Flustered, Li You nodded.
Lin Xun tapped the phone screen: “So remember to report to me. Don’t make me worry.”
He reminded him, “Li You, we are dating now. Did you keep that in mind?”
“I kept it in mind.”
Li You waited at home for about half an hour before sneaking down to the garage like a thief, not even taking his phone with him.
He didn’t dare contact Lin Zhaoning directly; he could only come to the garage to search for clues.
Sure enough, Li You discovered that the Bentley parked right in the center had a ring of fresh mud splattered across its tires. It had poured rain last night; if Lin Xun had gone out, it was very likely he drove this car.
He was currently praying that Lin Xun hadn’t reached the point of being so arrogant and lawless as to ignore everything. With Lin’s parents still alive and well, he shouldn’t pose a threat to Lin Zhaoning’s life.
Opening the door and climbing into the driver’s seat, Li You pulled out the memory card from the dashcam and sprinted frantically back upstairs to import the files into his phone. Rewinding frame by frame, he discovered that Lin Xun had gone out around midnight last night and didn’t return until three in the morning.
A little past midnight, he had just fallen asleep not long before that, which Li You remembered very clearly. Last night, Lin Xun had clung to him and made a fuss for too long; it was precisely twelve o’clock when the two of them finished taking a shower.
Li You didn’t have time to think about anything else. He fast-forwarded the video to see Lin Xun’s final destination, the car drove for a long time, and the final frame of the video froze at a remote, dilapidated nursing home.
The drizzle fell steadily. As the headlights illuminated the scene, half the paint on the sign hanging over the main gate had peeled off. A few looming words hung by a thread, battered by the wind and rain. A few seconds later, the display went completely dark, and the video ended abruptly right there.
Jing’an Nursing Home, it used to be very famous in Yun City years ago because the people sent there were all egregiously heinous psychiatric patients whose criminal behavior was appalling. Thus, rather than calling it a nursing home, it was, in a roundabout way, a prison.
However, that nursing home had been abandoned over a decade ago. Why would Lin Xun lock Lin Zhaoning up here? And why was Bai Yu there too?
Thinking up to this point, Li You hesitated: Since Bai Yu had the chance to contact the outside world, why wasn’t his first instinct to call the police, but rather to beg him for help?
“I beg you, save us…”
“You are the only one who can save us…”
The Omega’s plea for help still echoed in his ears. At first glance, there didn’t seem to be anything wrong with it, but looking closely into it, it was exceedingly strange. What appeared to be a chaotic, incoherent plea for help actually carried an extremely strong sense of purpose. Li You’s thoughts were in total disarray, filled with countless doubts; the entire affair was shrouded in mystery, and he just couldn’t figure out where the anomaly lay… Wait!
How did Bai Yu know what Lin Xun’s motive was?
Could it be that he knew about the relationship between himself and Lin Xun?
Assuming this premise held true, all the thoughts that previously seemed impossible to untangle instantly became crystal clear. A chill ran down Li You’s spine, and within a few short seconds, he broke into a cold sweat.