In the dark room, the lingering warmth had not yet faded.
Qin Guan forced himself to sit up despite the soreness in his waist and straightened his clothes again.
An arm lay brazenly across his waist, heedlessly pulling him back into an embrace and toying with his palm.
On his hand, two silver-white plain band rings clinked together, rubbing softly against each other.
A satisfied male voice sounded lazily from behind him.
“Where are you going?”
“I have a social engagement. I’ll be back soon.”
“Then don’t keep me waiting too long… otherwise…”
The man gave a soft chuckle of unclear meaning. The upward lilt at the end brought a faint blush to Qin Guan’s ears. In a vain attempt to cover it up, he buttoned his shirt all the way to the top and quickly got up to leave.
“I won’t.”
“Cheers!”
Beneath the soaring vaulted ceiling decorated with crystal chandeliers, several wine glasses were raised elegantly together. Pale yellow liquor sloshed inside them, scattering a decadent glow.
“This time, thanks to President Qin, our investment was a huge success!”
“President Qin is young and promising, truly a dragon among men!”
What the world of vanity and glamour never lacked was false sincerity. With a subtle nudge from the people around him, a pretty girl sat down beside the young man and smiled as she offered him a drink.
She was currently the hottest rising star in the entertainment industry, but when she clearly saw the man’s face on the sofa, her breath still caught slightly, and she inexplicably felt a touch of inferiority.
There was no other reason for it: he was simply too handsome, too beautiful.
Qin Guan half reclined on the sofa, faintly frowning. Even with his obvious bad mood, he could not hide the sharp, aristocratic edge in his features. His medium-length hair rested against the side of his neck, reflecting light together with his pale gray eyes, giving off a diamond-like sparkle.
The girl carefully toasted him, afraid of upsetting this big shot even more, while at the same time she could not help thinking to herself.
If someone had a face like that, and if he just happened to be one of the power brokers in this world of vanity and glamour… then perhaps…
Just thinking about it felt irreverent.
The girl swallowed nervously.
Qin Guan irritably tugged at his collar, pulling the carefully ironed custom suit into deep wrinkles.
Maybe he had been working nonstop for days without sleep. His head ached terribly, and the heavy scent of makeup made it hard for him to breathe.
Yet the brand representatives on the other side were still tactless, persistently trying to push the girl into his arms.
“President Qin, this is Little Yu. You should remember…”
Qin Guan’s patience had already run out, but he couldn’t flare up at a girl. His headache only got worse, so he simply waved a hand.
“I’m not drinking. I have to drive.”
Everyone exchanged a look. One of his drinking buddies leaned over and started winking at him.
“Hey, President Qin, it’s rare for everyone to get together today. Give us some face and have a drink. And while you’re at it… why not stay tonight? Hahaha…”
A few troublemakers burst out laughing brazenly. Just as the situation was about to get out of control, someone on the side stepped in to smooth things over.
“What are you doing? Who in the industry doesn’t know that President Qin’s fiancé keeps a tight rein on him? Aren’t you just laying a trap, trying to tempt President Qin into making a mistake?”
Hearing this, the man froze, an obvious look of confusion appearing on his face.
“Huh? Fiancé? Since when did President Qin get engaged… to a man?”
“You didn’t know? The one at his house is really… tsk tsk tsk. And their engagement was broadcast live worldwide. Every major media outlet reported it. It’d be hard to remember it wrong!”
Unexpectedly, even after hearing that, the man still looked utterly confused.
“…What are you even talking about? You must be remembering it wrong.”
The man still wanted to argue, but just as he opened his mouth, a faint red glow flashed across his eyes. His pupils shrank, and he swallowed his words back down.
“Ah, right, right, right… I mixed it up. Look at this mess. My apologies, President Qin. I’ll punish myself with three drinks!”
This time it was Qin Guan’s turn to be baffled. He pressed one hand against his throbbing head and frowned at the group.
“What nonsense are you talking about? Weren’t you all there when we held the ceremony last year? Did you forget?”
“Oh, still trying to tease us brothers? Didn’t you say yourself that you were an absolute single-minded bachelor? You even bought your own wedding rings and wore them yourself.”
The man shot him several sly, meaningful looks. Qin Guan frowned and followed his gaze, only to be shocked to find that two rings had somehow appeared on his hand.
They were two pure white plain band rings, worn side by side on his ring finger. One was badly scratched and worn on the surface, with faint traces of scorching, while the other remained intact, clean and new.
Qin Guan kept turning his palm over to look at it, somewhat unable to believe it.
The intact ring on the bottom was indeed his, but the one on top… shouldn’t it belong to his fiancé?
Why was it on his hand? And why were the signs of wear so severe?
It seemed he really did have a fever.
A crisp clinking sound came to his ears. Qin Guan subconsciously touched his ear, where three cartilage rings rested quietly, swaying gently with his movement.
His head hurt even more.
An indescribable sense of panic surged in his heart, as if something important was about to be lost.
On the tabletop, his phone buzzed softly.
In Qin Guan’s words, his fiancé was always nagging him, even demanding advance notice for business banquets like this.
Qin Guan had been annoyed with him for a long time, and the two of them had argued over it many times.
But at this moment, he felt nothing but immense relief at the call. He snatched up the phone and answered it without even looking at the caller ID.
“…Hello.”
The noisy voices around him gradually faded away. On the phone, only the man’s painful gasps were especially clear.
His throat seemed to have been soaked in some liquid. His voice was strange and fragmented, and only a few words could barely be made out.
“…Don’t come back… forget me… run…”
Qin Guan’s pupils contracted sharply!
“Hello?!”
“…”
Qin Guan took a deep breath, forcefully suppressing every bit of discomfort that surged up inside him. At this moment, his mind was frighteningly clear.
Pushing aside the people crowding around him, he kept the call connected while leaving the venue at the fastest speed possible. He ran to his car, got in, shut the door, and started the engine in one fluid motion. As he floored the accelerator, the engine let out a deep roar.
In just a few seconds, red taillights swept across the underground garage, and a blue supercar roared out in a flash, racing into the boundless night.
This rare, thrilling scene immediately drew the attention of many paparazzi, who rushed over and blocked the car while snapping wildly away.
Qin Guan yanked the steering wheel hard, skidding sideways to avoid the crowd. He swung the car around and charged toward the parking lot entrance. The sleek body shot past like a comet, violently smashing through the barrier gate!
The car’s speed soared straight to 180. Qin Guan sped through the night, the phone still connected. Though his head felt like it was splitting open, his voice was strangely calm.
“Stay put. I’ll be back right away.”
“…Filth Room &%… don’t enter ￥#… the game…”
Whether the signal was bad or something else, the man’s voice came in broken bursts, mixed with strange bursts of static. It sounded almost as if it were coming from hell.
The car merged onto the elevated highway. The screen flickered a few last times in a desperate struggle, then shut off with a snap.
Qin Guan frowned. Just as he was about to take a closer look, a cold, pale hand suddenly reached from the back seat and covered his eyes without warning.
“Guess who I am.”
A male voice, tinged with amusement, sounded.
Qin Guan’s breathing stopped. He instinctively gripped the steering wheel tighter!
But it was already too late. Through the gaps between those fingers, he vaguely saw a blinding white light tear across the night sky. A shrill horn blared from near to far, stabbing into his eardrums, and a heavy truck came barreling straight toward him!
Everything blurred.
The massive impact made him spit out a mouthful of blood on the spot. Dust, gasoline, and blood particles filled the tiny cabin, taking over his field of vision. In the midst of the searing pain, the phone that had fallen to the floor lit up again and lay there vibrating wildly.
He didn’t know where the strength came from, but his arm, which should have been shattered to pieces, miraculously lifted again, struggling toward the phone on the floor.
One inch, two inches, three inches…
With his movement, the countless wounds on his body were torn wider and wider, and blood gathered beneath him into a small lake.
Just as his fingertips were about to touch the screen, a foot suddenly stepped down on the back of his hand, gentle yet cruel, pinning him firmly in place.
Qin Guan’s arm trembled from the pain. His already shattered finger bones ground together, producing a grating, sickening crunch. In the end, he could no longer hold on and fainted.
The newcomer bent down, picked up the phone, and couldn’t help but sigh.
“So hard to kill.”