In the dimly lit, enclosed room, only a desk lamp was on, with the curtains drawn, making it impossible to tell if it was day or night.
Ji Yuchen heard footsteps approaching. A man leaned over and patted his cheek, speaking in a light, airy tone: “Hey, little brother, you’re awake?”
It was the man he met in front of the temple. The once kind face was now shrouded in a sinister yellow, looking eerie and ferocious.
He sat by the bed, lighting a cigarette. The smoke blurred the view, and the smell of nicotine mixed with tar invaded Ji Yuchen’s nostrils, making him cough a few times.
Ji Yuchen couldn’t stand the smell of smoke, so he was also repulsed by others smoking.
The man chuckled softly and leaned closer: “Oh, can’t stand the smell, huh…”
He blew smoke onto Ji Yuchen’s porcelain-like face, seemingly deriving pleasure from it, causing Ji Yuchen to cough repeatedly. Ji Yuchen tried to move his fingers, realizing his body felt weak, and even lifting his arm was a luxury.
The surroundings were similar to his own room, just a bit more spacious, with the bed arrangement changed from two beds to a large one in the center.
Ji Yuchen moved his lips: “Where is this… why did you bring me here…”
The man sneered, thinking to himself what a rare find this was. If he were into this, the old geezer wouldn’t stand a chance.
Although he had done plenty of unethical and illegal things, he wasn’t into men. Imagining Ji Yuchen as a woman, he traced his fingers over Ji Yuchen’s bone-china-like skin, taking a satisfied breath.
“Save your energy, there’s more to come…”
Wedding banquet hall.
Xu Chuang followed the groom through the final run-through of the process but didn’t see Jiu’er in the crowd. He grabbed Xiang Chun to ask where he was.
Xiang Chun said, “He went upstairs to get the bride’s earrings.”
Xu Chuang asked her, “How long has he been up there?”
Xiang Chun thought for a moment, “About an hour…”
After saying that, she also felt something was off, noticing Xu Chuang’s tense expression, she explained nervously, “We couldn’t leave earlier, so we asked him to go upstairs to get them because we need to return them to the makeup artist later…”
Xu Chuang asked concisely, “Did he come back down afterward? Have you seen him again?”
…
The banquet hall was noisy, and Xiang Chun looked around hesitantly, shaking her head.
Xu Chuang felt a bad premonition, urgently heading upstairs to find him, but was stopped by someone grabbing his arm. A girl said, “The wedding is about to start, aren’t you staying to watch?”
Xu Chuang told her not to worry about him and to focus on attending the wedding.
Every second in the ascending elevator was torture. Xu Chuang swiped open the room door to find it empty, then searched the hotel’s public areas, finally running to the front desk to ask if anyone had seen the person in the photo.
He held a photo of Jiu’er taken in a jasmine field, where he was smiling brightly, his eyes squinting into little bridges.
He asked the front desk manager, “Did this person leave through the main entrance?”
The manager looked at the photo for a long time, shaking his head, “I don’t think so…”
He suggested Xu Chuang call the person in the photo, but Jiu’er didn’t have a phone. Xu Chuang felt it was all his fault; he should have left a phone with him in the morning, especially since he was unfamiliar with the place.
He wanted to check the hotel surveillance. The manager contacted the control center and took him to the back room, saying the hotel only had surveillance in the lobby and elevator entrances.
There wasn’t much footage to review. Xu Chuang found Jiu’er in the elevator surveillance, along with a thin, buzz-cut man—the man who asked for directions at the temple entrance. He recognized him immediately.
His heart, already in his throat, suddenly dropped a notch, and Xu Chuang felt an inexplicable fear, making him anxious and uneasy.
He pointed at the man in the video and asked, “Who is this person? Is he a guest at your hotel? What’s his name? Which room is he staying in?”
The manager stammered, “I’m sorry, sir, that’s guest privacy, we can’t disclose that…”
He seemed to recognize the man in the video but was unwilling to reveal it for some reason.
Xu Chuang’s voice instantly rose by eight octaves, almost shouting, “Can’t you see he’s talking to Jiu’er? Jiu’er disappeared afterward! I’m asking you, where is he?”
He suddenly grabbed the manager by the collar, lifting him off the ground with such force that only his toes touched the floor, making it hard to maintain balance.
The manager, panicked and trembling, pleaded, “I’ll help you check… I’ll help you check… please… please put me down…”
He was put back on the ground, scurrying to the front desk to start checking guest registration information.
But without facial recognition for hotel check-ins, it was quite difficult to trace. The manager called several receptionists to help, and they rummaged through the records in a chaotic mess.
Xu Chuang couldn’t wait any longer and started searching room by room upstairs. At this time, there weren’t many people in their rooms, but he knocked on every door with any sound inside, and if that didn’t work, he would break in, causing dissatisfaction among the occupants.
When he reached the 7th floor, a staff member came up to stop him, anxiously saying, “Sir, you can’t do this, it will disturb other guests…”
Xu Chuang’s eyes were bloodshot, his voice fiery, “Haven’t you found him yet? Why is it taking so long?!”
His emotions were on the verge of collapse, thinking about the way that man looked at Jiu’er, eager and with ill intentions: it was the same at the bus station. When he saw himself, he seemed startled, visibly nervous.
Xu Chuang shook off the person and continued forward. Suddenly, he stepped on something hard. Looking down, he saw a string of beads on the red and yellow short-pile carpet: not very noticeable in the same color scheme, but it was the one he had given to Jiu’er, and Xu Chuang recognized it.
The beads were dropped at the room entrance, silently indicating: its owner was inside.
Xu Chuang raised his hand to knock on the door. The front desk glanced at the room number and suddenly grabbed Xu Chuang’s arm, pleading miserably:
“Oh brother! Brother! You’ve got the wrong room, you can’t knock on this one… can’t knock…”
Xu Chuang didn’t listen to him, pounding on the door loudly. The small front desk guy hanging on Xu Chuang’s arm was of no use, instead giving him a hint: there must be something fishy inside.
A voice came from inside, cursing angrily, pulling the front desk in with a yank, almost making him fall inside.
He quickly let go of Xu Chuang’s arm, nodding and bowing to greet the person inside, “Mr. Zhang… Mr. Zhang… are you resting…”
The tone was obviously flattering, seemingly having offended someone not to be trifled with, unclear if it was the boss or a guest.
The person inside frowned slightly, squeezing a few folds on his fleshy face, spitting in dissatisfaction:
“What are you doing? Making such a racket…”
The front desk kept trembling, explaining shakily, “This guest is looking for someone… he…”
Before he could finish, Xu Chuang squeezed past him into the room. The man stumbled back a few steps, and in an instant, Xu Chuang had already passed the entrance, striding into the room.
Inside was a suite, with a sofa, coffee table, and TV cabinet in the outer room, and a small bar near the entrance. Xu Chuang pushed open the door to the inner room, seeing a boy sleeping quietly on the bed, undisturbed by the noise.
Ji Yuchen’s shirt was already half off, revealing the fair skin underneath, his hands obediently placed in front…
In an instant, Xu Chuang’s blood boiled, the anger surging through him made him want to kill the person in front of him, and in fact, he did just that, without considering the consequences…
He landed a heavy punch on the man’s face, near the temple. The man, caught off guard, his whole body of fat trembling, fell onto the bar, shattering a glass on the floor.
The front desk guy outside heard the commotion and rushed in, seeing the man lying on the ground in an unseemly manner, clutching his head and shouting, “Security! Call security!”
He didn’t know who he was shouting to, realizing he was the one supposed to help, hurriedly pulling out his walkie-talkie, only to have it kicked to the ground by Xu Chuang, who then grabbed him by the collar and threw him behind the sofa.
Xu Chuang knelt on the man, pinning his legs down, his fists landing on various parts of the man’s body. The man, beaten to a bloody pulp, picked up a glass shard and stabbed it into Xu Chuang’s arm, but the person on top seemed unfazed, only increasing the force, punching the man’s face, brow bone, and forehead…
The pitiful wailing lasted for over ten minutes, the man clutching his head, threatening to kill him.
Xu Chuang, seeing red, found even the most vicious threats to be like fuel to the fire, a catalyst for his rage. He punched the man’s mouth, something inside seemed to break, the man on the ground moved his jaw, spitting out a tooth. Xu Chuang pressed the bloodied tooth back into his mouth, then lifted his chin upward, causing the man to cough violently.
The room, once filled with the scent of alcohol and body wash, was now heavy with the smell of blood. The front desk guy, crouched by the sofa, dared not move, unsure if he was waiting for a chance to escape or trying to save the man.
He glanced up slightly, seeing Xu Chuang, somewhat exhausted, get up, his steps unsteady as he walked into the inner room.
He quickly came out again, carrying someone in his arms, a slender ankle exposed, pale and white, the face completely hidden.
The man had wrapped the person tightly in a suit jacket, and as he left, he stepped on his own walkie-talkie, the sound of the casing cracking echoing.
Xu Chuang couldn’t remember how he left the hotel, his mind replaying the image of Jiu’er lying on the bed. By the time he came to his senses, he was already standing in front of a small inn on a nearby street.
He asked the innkeeper to open a room, the owner curiously glancing at the person in his arms several times. Xu Chuang pulled the jacket tighter, only putting the person on the bed once inside the room.
Ji Yuchen was already showing signs of waking, tossing and turning restlessly. Xu Chuang cupped his face, softly calling his name, but the little guy seemed oblivious, only letting out soft hums, making it hard to tell what he was complaining about.
He helped him wrap up in the blanket, only to be kicked away. Jiu’er seemed to feel hot, kicking off the blanket and starting to pull at his clothes, his fair skin turning a bright pink, like a cooked shrimp.
In the cold room, the atmosphere grew ambiguous, Xu Chuang uneasily loosening his collar.
He admitted to having inappropriate thoughts about Jiu’er. He didn’t know when it started, but having this person cuddle him to sleep at night would make him react, especially in the morning, as any man would.
Sometimes, Jiu’er would even invade his dreams, never announcing his arrival, then teasing him in various ways, only to beg for mercy with tearful eyes, calling him “Brother Chuang.”
Xu Chuang’s breathing quickened, his blood rushing, his ears burning. He wanted to wash his face to calm down, but as he got up, his wrist was grabbed. Jiu’er’s thin, soft fingers hooked onto his, his weak voice trembling:
“Don’t go… don’t go…”
[Author’s Note]
No matter what, maxed out combat power, but fighting is not good, don’t learn from this…