Consciousness was like a candle flicker in the wind, guttering unpredictably.
Before sinking completely into darkness, Chen Yexun’s last perceptions were a blur.
In his ears, there seemed to be the squelching sound of a sharp weapon hacking through flesh…
A cold, sharp pain came from his temple along with the hard texture of a rock…
but clearer still was a warm, sticky liquid slowly creeping across his neck and soaking into his clothes, bringing a strange, suffocating warmth.
His consciousness felt wrapped and dragged by this warm stream, slowly detaching from his body, drifting away…
*Am I going to die?* That was Chen Yexun’s last vague thought before slipping into unconsciousness.
He seemed to hear a distant, frantic female voice calling his name through tears, but the sound felt separated by a thick pane of glass, muffled and indistinct.
Yet this warm, rust-smelling fluid wrapping his body strangely and uncontrollably entwined itself with another memory of “warmth” deep in his mind…
It was inside a softly lit, luxuriously decorated private room of a hotel.
The air was filled with the steam of fine dishes and the aroma of wine—a warm atmosphere, yet inexplicably suffocating.
The table was laden with exquisite delicacies.
The laughter and conversation of adults echoed through the room, sounding warm and enthusiastic, but hiding a tacit hypocrisy underneath.
“Yexun, what are you staring at?
Come, have some fish.
The steamed fish here is a specialty,” his mother’s gentle voice sounded beside him as a piece of tender fish meat landed in his bowl.
His father smiled nearby, speaking in a tone that seemed immensely kind to outsiders: “Exactly, what are you standing on ceremony for?
Eat if you want to.
You’re so big now, still waiting for your mother to serve you?” Chen Yexun snapped out of his daze.
He glanced at the two middle-aged men sitting across the table—Uncle Wang and Uncle Zhao.
Oh, right.
Today, his father was hosting the dinner to thank these two “friends” who had helped his parents a lot in “business.” A flawless, slightly bashful smile skillfully washed over his face: “Okay, thanks, Mom.
I was just thinking about a math problem earlier and got distracted.” Seeing this, Uncle Wang laughed heartily and raised his wine glass to the father: “Old Chen, not bad!
Little Yexun really has grown up!
His demeanor is completely different now that he’s in high school.
I almost didn’t recognize him!
Quite a handsome young man!” Chen Yexun responded with a smile, his tone calibrated just right—reverent toward his elders with a hint of youthful playfulness: “Uncle Wang, Uncle Zhao, I can’t believe you still remember what I looked like in elementary school!
That’s so thoughtful.
My parents always talk about how much you two help out with the company and how they wanted to find a good time to proper thank you.
Today is perfect.
Let me raise a glass to you both…
ah, I’ll use juice instead of wine!” Saying so, he obediently picked up the glass of fruit juice on the table.
His words brought broad smiles to Uncle Wang and Uncle Zhao, who waved their hands repeatedly: “Oh, it’s nothing!
Just doing what we should, helping each other out!” His mother smiled and poured tea for Uncle Zhao.
Uncle Zhao pointed at Chen Yexun and said to his father, “Old Chen, your son is really something.
Handsome and smart.
He must be very popular with the girls at school, huh?” His father clapped a heavy hand onto Chen Yexun’s back, letting out a hearty laugh: “Hahaha, come on!
This brat is just wild.
He doesn’t stay home, he’s rowdy as hell, and needs a beating!” This drew another round of laughter from the table.
Only Chen Yexun maintained that flawless, performative smile while his stomach churned violently.
Amidst the cheerful banter, the topic inevitably drifted back to children—family discipline, grades, the future…
Even though his father had never explicitly stated it, Chen Yexun understood everything clearly.
This seemingly ordinary thank-you dinner was actually the prelude to a carefully prepared “hunt” by his father.
What his father looked for was never a business partner, but a perfect “scapegoat.” The two men opposite them appeared to be successful businessmen on the surface, but behind the scenes, they were scumbags engaged in organ trafficking.
They thought they hid it well, oblivious to the fact that their backgrounds had long been mapped out by this “model couple.” And the couple’s motive for approaching them was by no means a simple case of “dog eat dog”…
They had no idea that the warm, smiling, successful couple sitting before them—along with this polite, obedient boy—were, at their core, far darker and more terrifying entities than themselves.
The louder the laughter at the dining table grew, the more nauseated Chen Yexun felt.
The laughter felt like countless icy ants crawling over his skin.
Every polite phrase from his parents sounded like a blade scraping against his eardrums.
He felt like he was suffocating.
“Dad, Mom, Uncle Wang, Uncle Zhao, please take your time.
I’m going to the restroom,” he maintained his final shred of politeness as he stood up from the table.
The moment he stepped into the restroom and locked the door behind him, he rushed to the toilet, unable to hold it in any longer, and vomited violently!
Physiological tears welled up in his eyes.
He threw up painfully, as if he were going to vomit out his inner organs.
He couldn’t stand it!
He really couldn’t stand it anymore!
This ultimate hypocrisy, these demons wearing human skins chatting and laughing, this sickening, ubiquitous stench of blood…
even if it only existed in his imagination and memory, it was enough to drive him insane!
Just as he was shaking all over and thoroughly exhausted from vomiting— *Thud…
thud, thud…* The door to the restroom behind him was suddenly knocked on.
It was a slow, heavy, chilling knock packed with a terrifying weight.
All the blood in Chen Yexun’s body seemed to freeze instantly!
Stiffly and extremely slowly, he turned his head toward the door.
From outside came his father’s terrifyingly familiar voice, which sounded as cold as a machine: “Yexun.” “Is the food not to your taste?” In an instant, Chen Yexun felt as though his entire body had been plunged into an ice cellar.
Even his breathing stopped.
Just as extreme terror gripped his heart— He suddenly felt his consciousness violently yanked back by a massive force!
His vision went dark…
…
Chen Yexun snapped his eyes open!
A severe headache and full-body soreness returned instantly, while the wound on his temple burned with fiery pain.
His blurry vision quickly focused, and the first thing to enter his sight was Chu Yao’s face—filled with terror, worry, and dried tear tracks.
She was kneeling beside him, holding a roll of clean gauze in her hand, seemingly preparing to bandage his wound.
Seeing him suddenly open his eyes, her whole body froze, her movement suspended in midair.
Time seemed to freeze for a few seconds.
Chu Yao’s lips trembled several times before she finally found her voice.
It was dry and shaking, filled with immense uncertainty and cautiousness: “You…
you’re awake?
Does…
does your body hurt anywhere?”