Qi Wei left home early and headed to the parking lot. His mind inexplicably drifted back to when they had first moved into this villa. Fresh out of university at the time, Shi Liang had purchased a villa in an area close to where they both worked.
Wanting to build his independence through hard work, Qi Wei had refused to join Shi Liang’s company. Although puzzled, Shi Liang respected his decision and agreed.
Ever since they got together, Shi Liang had always been the one taking care of and protecting him. In truth, Qi Wei had also wanted to shield Shi Liang from the storms of life.
Back then, they frequently went to work together and came home together.
In their youthful passion, unable to wait until they reached home, they would often give in to desire right there in the car.
As these fond memories washed over him, the depression and stifling gloom of the past few days dissipated.
How had the two of them ended up where they were today?
Over the years, he had been living off Shi Liang, eating his food and using his things, which left him without the confidence to express dissatisfaction toward Shi Liang, yet clueless about how to make him happy.
Back then, he only wanted to give everything to Shi Liang, but the weight of Shi Liang’s provisions weighed heavily on him. Consequently, Shi Liang misunderstood him more than once.
Amidst such misunderstandings, their relationship grew increasingly fractured, with every crack causing a fresh wound, and every wound deepening the fracture.
In reality, all Shi Liang had wanted back then was for Qi Wei to accept his kindness, but by the time Qi Wei finally understood, Shi Liang no longer wished to treat him kindly.
With moist eyes, Qi Wei blinked and looked away.
Today’s sky was as gloomy as splashed ink, thick dark clouds blocking the sunlight entirely, repressive, stifling, and carrying a hint of chill.
Would the sun come out?
Surely the sun would come out!
The sun would definitely break through the dark clouds and emerge once again.
Upon arriving at the company, he first had his secretary transferred to another department.
Sitting in his office with a stack of A4 paper at hand, Qi Wei looked at a printed image of a blue-haired man standing outside the entrance of Blue Moon Bar, his eyes seemingly brewing a storm. He suddenly pulled out his phone and began making a call. Once the other party answered, he got straight to the point: “Officer, I am anonymously reporting Blue Moon Bar for prostitution. I will mail the relevant evidence to your station, and you should receive it in the next couple of days.”
Qi Wei organized the evidence he had spent the past few days gathering regarding the blue-haired man’s involvement in prostitution, and personally handed the files over to the courier who arrived for pickup.
When Shi Liang woke up, Qi Wei was no longer by his side, making him recall what Qi Wei had promised him yesterday.
True enough, Qi Wei was indeed gone now.
Well, he had bought this villa himself anyway; if anyone was going to leave, it would be Qi Wei.
Shi Liang looked around the room properly. Qi Wei’s belongings were still here, so he would probably come back to pick them up in a couple of days.
That being said, he truly loved this villa.
Though not extravagant, the villa was brimming with romantic charm. The indoor living room was spacious and bright, the outdoor garden elegant and aesthetic, the bedroom comfortable and cozy, the furnishings exquisite, and the dining room quite luxurious. As a self-proclaimed foodie, he couldn’t be more satisfied.
Yet, after walking around the room just twice, Shi Liang found himself panting, as if he had just run five kilometers.
A wave of exhaustion rushed over him like a flood, leaving him so weak that he didn’t even have the strength to swing his arms.
Shi Liang forced himself back onto the bed.
He refused to believe he had contracted some terminal illness.
This had to be Qi Wei’s doing.
Qi Wei, he actually went back on his word!
As Shi Liang used a bit of force with his right arm while climbing up, he felt a sharp pain. Unbuttoning his shirt cuff, he gently rolled up his sleeve to reveal a needle puncture on his right arm.
Qi Wei injected him?
When did he do that?
Why didn’t he have any recollection of it? He hadn’t even felt a hint of pain until his muscles tensed up under exertion.
Yesterday, Qi Wei had tossed him around for a long time. It turned out it wasn’t just out of anger, but also to inject him with medication.
His lower back was aching fiercely now; compared to that, the tiny needle puncture was practically nothing.
Shi Liang clenched his fists, the veins on his forehead bulging.
He struggled to crawl toward the head of the bed and knocked over the glass on the nightstand.
How was there still no one coming?
What the hell? Qi Wei wasn’t even home?
He stood up, intending to make a run for it. He half-raised his body, but the moment his feet touched the ground, his legs gave out and he collapsed onto the floor.
Struggling back up, he leaned against the bed and hauled himself back onto it.
Damn it all.
His brain felt heavy and foggy, and he finally laid back down and fell asleep.
When he woke up again, Qi Wei was waking him up, holding a freshly pan-seared steak, crispy on the outside, tender on the inside, and bursting with aroma and flavor.
Looking at it, however, Shi Liang didn’t have the slightest appetite.
Thinking about the unknown drug injected into his body that left him completely strengthless, a nameless fire burned inside him.
Qi Wei placed the steak on the nightstand and sat down by the bedside. Reaching out, he stroked Shi Liang’s head and said in a gentle tone, “Babe, it’s already noon, why are you still sleeping? You must be starving, right? I seared your favorite steak. Try a bite.”
Glaring at Qi Wei with sharp eyes, Shi Liang leaned his head back to put some distance between them. “You promised to let me go yesterday. Why did you go back on your word? And why did you inject me with drugs?”
Shi Liang said each word distinctly, his tone growing increasingly disappointed.
Qi Wei replied, “I injected you with medicine because you’re sick.”
Shi Liang laughed out of pure anger. “The moment I leave you, all my illnesses will be cured.”
Looking as though he had been slapped across the face with an ashen expression, Qi Wei blinked slowly. “What do you mean by that?”
“I don’t mean anything else. I just want you to honor your previous promise and let me leave this place.”
With that, he forced his body to move toward the door.
Qi Wei grabbed Shi Liang and pinned him down. “You’re still sick. You aren’t going anywhere.”
“What kind of illness requires a treatment that leaves my whole body weak and traps me in this room?” Shi Liang demanded indignantly.
“The side effect of this medicine is precisely that, it slows down your physical movements and dulls your mind somewhat. Besides, what does it matter if you can’t leave this room? My brother once said he would never leave my side. Now that I’m keeping you with me, why are you unhappy? Is it because of that little blue-haired punk?”
His expression twisted into a ferocious scowl as he added viciously, “If it really is because of him, I think my brother should stop thinking about him. He has already vanished from this city. I originally wanted to make him disappear from this world entirely, but I didn’t do that. However, if my brother keeps pining for him, I guarantee you will never see him again.”
Qi Wei suddenly leaned in close, Shi Liang feeling his warm breath against his face as his chin was grabbed in a tight grip. “You can only be mine.”
Shi Liang tried his best to push Qi Wei away, but lacking any strength whatsoever, he couldn’t budge Qi Wei a single inch.
During the struggle, Shi Liang’s chin was pinched red.
Seeing this, Qi Wei gradually loosened his grip. Using his other hand to lock Shi Liang’s waist in place, he gazed at him with tender affection. “Brother, stop struggling. I’m only doing this for your own good. Be a good boy and treat your illness; once you’re better, I’ll send you away.”
Though he couldn’t win in a fight against the man before him, Shi Liang’s temper continued to flare.
If Qi Wei gave him an injection every day to manufacture an illness out of thin air, he would never be able to leave.
Qi Wei curled his fingers, tracing the back of his hand back and forth across Shi Liang’s face. “Don’t worry, brother, I could never bear to hurt you. The side effects will gradually fade once you stop the medication; for now, it just leaves you without strength.”
After holding him tightly for a good while until Shi Liang felt his lower back grow stiff, Qi Wei finally released him with evident reluctance.
“Eat your steak, it’s going to get cold.” Bringing the steak closer, Qi Wei gracefully sliced the meat into bite-sized pieces, picked up a piece with a fork, and held it to Shi Liang’s lips. “You didn’t eat breakfast this morning, brother, so you must be starving. Have a bite.”
Annoyed to his wits’ end by Qi Wei’s flip-flopping attitude, treating him like a dog by striking him with a palm and offering candy afterward, as if he were that cheap, Shi Liang felt his patience snap.
Qi Wei showed no awareness of his resistant attitude, gazing at him with tender affection as he held out the steak. A sudden surge of rage overtook Shi Liang, and he swung his palm across Qi Wei’s face.
A crisp, shattering sound rang out as the plate smashed to the floor, sending pieces of steak rolling everywhere.
Qi Wei’s face turned pale for a moment before his color slowly returned.
“Do you love that little blue-haired punk that much? A cheap gigolo off the streets, what on earth does he have that makes you hate me this much?” By the end, tears were streaming down Qi Wei’s face.
What did any of this have to do with the blue-haired guy?
Qi Wei handed the knife he had used to cut the steak earlier directly into Shi Liang’s hand, forced Shi Liang’s grip around it, and drove it straight into his own abdomen.
Fresh blood sprayed across Shi Liang’s face. Staring dumbfounded at the man in front of him, Shi Liang felt a sudden surge of terror. What kind of monster was this guy, being this ruthless even to himself?
Trembling from the pain, Qi Wei’s breathing hitched. “Can you forgive me now?”
Startled out of his wits, Shi Liang watched as Qi Wei prepared to stab himself again.
Panicked, Shi Liang hurled the knife away, a spark of brightness returning to Qi Wei’s eyes.
“Stop doing this. I told you I don’t love you. No matter what you do, it’s useless. Just give it up.”
The light in Qi Wei’s eyes was completely extinguished, leaving behind only an ash-like desolation.
Slowly standing up, Qi Wei looked at the mess around him, his heart feeling as though it were being tightly squeezed, making it hard for him to breathe.
He murmured, “I really thought this batch of steak was the best one I’ve ever cooked.”
Silently cleaning up the debris in the room, he retreated outside.
After an unknown length of time, Qi Wei returned carrying a bowl of noodles, placed it on the nightstand, and sat down.
“I still remember the first time I met you. You told me you liked me, but so many people had confessed to me that I just assumed you were like the rest of them. Later on, I realized you weren’t.”
“When you saw that I hadn’t been sleeping on a comfortable bed, your heart ached openly. You spent a fortune to buy me a bed and told me that whatever others had, you would make sure I had it too. During a rainstorm when I fell sick with a fever and my private doctor refused to come over, you thoughtfully took care of me, gently wiping my body with alcohol and holding me tight so I wouldn’t suffer lingering complications, practically dragging the private doctor out of his house by force. There are far too many memories like that. You treated me so well, how could you expect me to forget?”
Shi Liang believed that loving someone meant giving them the best kind of love, but what was Qi Wei doing? To keep him, the man hadn’t hesitated to inject him with unknown substances.
The stark contrast felt so ironic to Shi Liang that it mocked how worthless everything had become.
Besides, he wasn’t the original Shi Liang. Would things improve if he just came clean?
Shi Liang had long since grown utterly repulsed by the person before him. “Open your eyes and look closely, I am not your Shi Liang. I transmigrated into this book. I didn’t share any of those memories you’re clinging to, and I have never loved you.”
“Ah!” A sudden cry escaped Shi Liang’s lips.
With a shocked and wary expression, Qi Wei stared at him.
The system’s voice chimed in: “Host’s behavior has severely violated the rules. Warning penalty issued.”
Even as electric shocks coursed through him, Shi Liang pressed on: “I don’t like you at all! In my world, you’re just a 2D character. Who the hell wants to spend the rest of their life with a yandere like you?”
Such blatant disgust thoroughly enraged Qi Wei. Wiping away the spilled soup, he reached out and grabbed Shi Liang by the throat. “So what? I don’t give a damn who’s in your heart, right now, you belong to me and me alone.”
“A forced melon isn’t sweet. Why torment yourself and force me as well? Especially not someone like me.”
“Sweet or not, at least the melon is in my hands, and it’s mine.”
Shi Liang shook his head.
Arguments couldn’t solve a thing. Shi Liang didn’t want to fight anymore; besides, he was currently doubled over in pain, desperate to curl up into a safe space.
The system prompt sounded once more: “Host has severely violated the rules. Penalty procedure will now commence.”
What the hell! Who could have guessed this guy was a yandere?
Moreover, a yandere character trope was only fun to read about in novels; in real life, who in their right mind would dare spend a lifetime with one?
Suddenly, Shi Liang felt as though a steel blade was thrashing around inside his head. His heart hammered wildly against his ribs, every beat feeling like a heavy blow. The agonizing pain caused his vision to blacken, and a ringing noise drowned out every sound around him as his body pitched forward and collapsed rigidly to the floor.
Seeing the color drain completely from Shi Liang’s face until he was whiter than paper, Qi Wei leaped onto the bed, abandoning any thought of further argument.
Panicking, Qi Wei checked his face. “Brother, what’s wrong?”
Getting no response, he grew truly terrified. “What’s wrong with him?”
As Shi Liang lay completely motionless, Qi Wei panicked entirely, shaking uncontrollably from head to toe.
“To the hospital. Yes, to the hospital.” Whether he was trying to reassure Shi Liang or himself, he scooped Shi Liang up in his arms and rushed outside.
“Driver! Step on it, go to the municipal hospital!”
Sitting in the backseat, Qi Wei held Shi Liang tightly as the latter’s heartbeat grew increasingly faint.
The terrifying prospect of losing Shi Liang left him at a complete loss.
Qi Wei’s tears fell one by one, splashing against Shi Liang’s face, hair, and neck.
Yet the only response he received was the silence inside the car and the wailing sirens outside.
Clinging tightly to Shi Liang, Qi Wei pressed soft kisses to his face, the corners of his eyes, his nose, and his brow. “Driver, faster! Please, go faster.”