Bone resetting was no children’s game. Even with Ren Xubai’s physical constitution, beads of cold sweat broke out and covered his forehead.
Under the beam of the flashlight, they looked sparkling and bright.
His mind worked quickly; the moment he sensed something was amiss, he allowed himself to stumble and sprain his ankle. He was exceptionally skilled at going with the flow, using a negligible, minor injury to defuse the atmosphere. Sure enough, Xu Qingnan’s expression immediately softened.
As for the “this type of person” Xu Qingnan had mentioned, Ren Xubai guessed it must be an ex. Given Xu Qingnan’s age, it was completely normal for him to have dated before. Moreover, judging by Xu Qingnan’s reaction, it didn’t look like lingering feelings for an old flame, meaning there was nothing to worry about.
When Xu Qingnan also mentioned that Ren Xubai resembled that ex, could it be that this ex was someone who, like him, was rather dogged and persistent?
This blind cat ran right into a dead mouse and accidentally opened the answer key!
A flash of delight swept through Ren Xubai’s eyes, completely missing the fact that Xu Qingnan’s expression was growing increasingly cold.
Inside his mind, he was still reviewing the situation at lightning speed.
Since Xu Qingnan disliked that approach, he would do the exact opposite, deliberately cultivating a sensible and considerate persona resolutely refusing to be a nuisance or dead weight, handling his own trouble when it arose, and letting Xu Qingnan see that he was different from the ex. Then, he would be—
“What kind of pitiful act are you putting on?” Xu Qingnan mercilessly batted Ren Xubai’s hand away, shattering Ren Xubai’s half-formed fantasies of romance along with it. Xu Qingnan’s voice was even colder than before. “Wasn’t this trouble manufactured by yourself?”
Ren Xubai was taken aback; Xu Qingnan’s reaction completely exceeded his expectations, and he instinctively argued, “I didn’t!”
“It’s also my fault for being foolish not to have realized it right away,” Xu Qingnan scoffed, tapping the wooden stick in his hand none too gently against the ankle Ren Xubai had just reset. “You’re so practiced at self-treating, yet you couldn’t avoid it when you stepped down?”
Having that much experience with self-treatment and handling it with such ease meant that the moment his foot landed, he should have realized a solid step would result in a sprain.
Given Ren Xubai’s physical caliber, it was impossible for him not to have avoided it.
Ren Xubai fell unusually silent.
After a long beat, he opened his mouth, bringing his upper and lower teeth together to flash an exceptionally awkward smile, attempting to muddle his way through: “Ah, well~ You guessed it! What kind of reward do you want?”
Xu Qingnan said no more, simply resuming his walk forward.
“Well, I made you mad, didn’t I?” Panic fluttering in his chest, Ren Xubai limped after him. Although his ankle had been reset, he couldn’t walk normally just yet, and he anxiously and pitifully explained, “I’m punishing myself, hoping it would let you vent your anger.”
Xu Qingnan let out a cold laugh.
He utterly detested this sort of tactic as if the moment the other person suffered an injury and played the pitiful card, responsibility would naturally shift onto him, regardless of whether he caused it or not. If he refused to forgive or agree to whatever was demanded, he would instantly become public enemy number one.
Framed as a plea for reconciliation, it was actually a threat.
This exact trick had once been played to absolute perfection by someone else.
Xu Qingnan also acknowledged that the responsibility forced upon him back then had once served as a lifeline pulling him out of the abyss.
Only, once he reached the shore, that rope wrapped itself tightly around his neck.
Xu Qingnan had suffered through a very long period of torment, repeatedly pulled back and forth between gratitude and powerlessness, until he finally managed to shed that moral cage.
Yet just moments ago, upon watching Ren Xubai perform that self-inflicted bone resetting, he had still instinctively felt worried.
His heart simply wasn’t hard enough.
That was why he allowed this type of person to exploit an opening once again.
Halting his steps, Xu Qingnan leveled a sharp question at him, “What makes you think that your self-torture would make me vent my anger? Do you think I’m some pervert who enjoys watching other people suffer, or are you attempting a bitter-cult play to emotionally blackmail me?”
“In the eyes of people like you, am I just ungrateful and cold-blooded the moment I refuse to act according to your script?”
How did he become part of “these kinds of people” again?
Just who on earth was this ex?!
Why was nothing working, whether he tried playing it straight or reverse?
His mind blanking out entirely, Ren Xubai stammered, “I—I didn’t mean that.”
“Logically speaking, your approach should have been to let yourself sprain the ankle, then act spoiled and play the pitiful card to beg for care, just like when your back was injured,” Xu Qingnan interrupted with a cold, detached tone. “Doing a complete 150-degree about-face now—is it because you realized that routine doesn’t work on me?”
Ren Xubai blinked frantically. He knew he ought to say something, yet he despairingly knew that every word Xu Qingnan spoke was the absolute truth, stripping away even his original intentions down to the bare bones. In the end, he could only offer a dry, hollow, “I’m sorry.”
“You catch on fast,” Xu Qingnan said coldly. “Changed your tactics?”
Crap, trust hasn’t even been established yet, and now there’s a trust crisis!
Alarm bells blared wildly in Ren Xubai’s head, throwing all caution to the wind. “No, I really was wrong! I just wanted you to stop being mad at me, I wanted you to like me, too—”
Xu Qingnan didn’t care about that final sentence in the slightest, merely repeating, “You want me to stop being mad?”
The little bit of inborn ease in Ren Xubai’s heart had been doused clean away by a basin of ice water, leaving behind a hollow chill in his chest. Abandoning all pretense of playbooks and strategies, he just wanted Xu Qingnan to stop being angry. “I’ll listen to you from now on. As long as it makes you drop your anger, you can make me do anything.”
Hearing this, Xu Qingnan’s expression suddenly softened entirely. Paradoxically, this favorable sign sent a jolt of alarm straight through Ren Xubai.
“Ever since we entered the mountain forest, your mouth hasn’t stopped for a second, and the distance between you and me hasn’t exceeded thirty centimeters,” Xu Qingnan summarized briefly before delivering his conclusion. “You’re afraid of the dark, aren’t you?”
Without waiting for Ren Xubai to reply, Xu Qingnan glanced around the surroundings and stated casually, “Then you can stay right here. Someone will come back to pick you up later.”
Ren Xubai’s face shifted. Looking around, the thick night turned the daytime lush foliage into a nest of clawing, grasping shadows. He attempted to bargain, “Come on, don’t—”
“Looks like I guessed right,” Xu Qingnan closed in, stepping forward firmly and solidly with every pace, forcing Ren Xubai to back away involuntarily. “You said you’d do anything, and now you’re backing out of your word?”
“No!” While instinctively retreating under Xu Qingnan’s oppressive aura, Ren Xubai waved his hands in denial, completely shedding his usual composed veneer as he whispered defensively, “I got lost when I was a kid, it was pathetic, can we pick something else?”
This time, his words didn’t sound like a lie.
Only, Xu Qingnan had run out of patience.
Without giving him a taste of consequences, Ren Xubai would only follow him step by step, deploying these annoying, endless tactics right in front of his eyes.
Until Ren Xubai backed up until he had nowhere left to go, his back pressing against the rough texture of the tree bark, Xu Qingnan propped one hand against the tree trunk behind Ren Xubai. Parting his thin lips, he whispered like a whispering demon, “What, didn’t you think torturing yourself would let me vent my anger?”
Raising an eyebrow, Xu Qingnan’s voice seemed dipped in ice as it mercilessly pierced Ren Xubai’s eardrums. “Show some sincerity, don’t you think?”
Ren Xubai licked his dry lips, wanting to say something, but his ankle accidentally brushed against the thorny roots of a stem by the tree trunk. The needle-like sting caused him to drop straight into a squat.
The atmosphere, which had grown exceptionally heavy from the confrontation, was completely shattered.
Xu Qingnan straightened up as well, taking two steps back with an air of unhurried composure. “If you can do it, do it. If you can’t, stop coming around to provoke me. You’re annoying.”
With that, Xu Qingnan turned around and continued walking forward.
He paid no heed to the dazed gaze Ren Xubai cast after him, nor did he notice the slight bob of Ren Xubai’s Adam’s apple.
The man carried an immense, overwhelming pressure as he stood less than ten centimeters away from him, his striking facial features magnified right before his eyes close enough that in the pitch darkness, he could clearly make out the man’s wine-red hair and even feel the heat of his breath.
Ren Xubai had never imagined he would turn out like this one day.
The other person was actively chewing him out, yet he couldn’t summon a single shred of annoyance. Instead, alongside the sheer terror that the other person might grow even angrier, he actually found the man incredibly sexy?!
Ren Xubai figured he must have lost his mind.
Yet his physical reactions couldn’t lie.
His heart hammered heavily and erratically, completely out of rhythm. Ren Xubai didn’t even dare open his mouth for fear the man right in front of him would hear it. A terrifying thrill seeped into his bloodstream, rushing through his entire body—
It didn’t even trigger the instinctive repulsion an Alpha should feel when provoked like this by a same-sex individual.
This unfamiliar yet overwhelming thrill made Ren Xubai feel a long-lost shiver of fear, making him realize for the very first time that Xu Qingnan’s impact on him might be far greater than he had ever imagined.
Should I just retreat?
Actually, does it really have to be him?
The beam of the flashlight belonging to Xu Qingnan had already vanished from view, and the dark night quickly swallowed him whole.
Ren Xubai couldn’t even see his own palm, causing him to tremble twice on pure instinct.
Looking toward the path leading to a sliver of light, Ren Xubai knew perfectly well that if he simply scrambled out along it, everything would be fine.
Yet in the end, he genuinely, obediently settled down against the tree trunk.
Pulling his cap down, he curled into a tight ball with his arms around his knees, closing his eyes shut and burying his head in the crook of his arm.
Amidst his chaotic mind filled with all sorts of terrifying fantasies, a single thought floated past:
Could it be that I actually have some kind of weird fetish?
Realizing that no footsteps followed behind him, Xu Qingnan felt no emotional ripple whatsoever.
To be fair, it wasn’t quite anger; seeing a similar tactic materialize before his eyes had simply triggered a slight stress reaction. But since so much time had passed, this outburst was driven more by a desire to use a ruthless, unyielding conflict to force Ren Xubai into retreating from sheer difficulty.
Arriving at the spot Ren Xubai had mentioned as his resting place with Deng You, he promptly discovered a patch of chaotic footprints. Having gone hunting on the mountains near his home during childhood, Xu Qingnan easily identified the direction the stray game had headed, and within twenty meters, bumped right into Deng You face-to-face.
The other person looked an absolute mess, entirely devoid of his previous refined neatness. His white tactical windbreaker was smeared with a bunch of tiny insects some dead, some alive and his face was etched with raw frustration.
Deng You felt today was sheer unmitigated bad luck. First, he was lumped into a group with Ren Xubai, followed immediately by scraping his wrist against a waist-high plant by the trail. Then he lost his wristband; when he turned back to look for it, he ended up getting lost. As the sky grew darker and darker, he had sent a distress signal to the production crew, only to wait ages without seeing a soul.
Finally catching sight of a human figure, Deng You furrowed his brow, his expression exceedingly ugly. “What kind of lousy place did your production crew pick, and why are you taking so long to show up? Tell your director to get over here. If something happens to me, which one of you is going to take responsi—”
His voice cut off abruptly.
His angry expression suffered a distinct blank-out the moment he laid eyes on Xu Qingnan, his hand instinctively reaching out to rub his eyes.
Xu Qingnan barked a warning, “Don’t move.”
“Qingnan?” Deng You obediently halted his movement, the irritation on his face instantly wiped clean as a surging wave of surprise bloomed, and he hurried over to Xu Qingnan in two or three strides. “Did you come looking for me? Why is it just you?”
Xu Qingnan pulled out a packet of tissues and handed them to Deng You, looking him up and down to confirm he was uninjured. “It’s a task assigned by the production crew two people were supposed to come, decided by drawing lots.”
“They certainly know how to shake things up. But how come it’s just you? Didn’t they say there were two?” Deng You blinked, accepting the tissues and wiping away the grime on his clothes while muttering, “I don’t know why, but these bugs keep hurling themselves at me, it’s so filthy.”
“Ren Xubai sprained his ankle, he’s waiting back at the spot,” having found the person, Xu Qingnan turned around to head back. “You’re wearing colors that are far too bright.”
Deng You let out an “ah” sound, his eyes curving into crescents. “Is that a compliment?”
“No,” Xu Qingnan denied it flatly. “Let’s go, time to head back.”
Deng You hurriedly fell into step behind him. “Sorry, did I cause trouble? I thought I remembered the way, but while coming in was smooth sailing, I managed to get completely turned around going out.”
Xu Qingnan said flatly, “No need to apologize.”
“Because apologies are useless?” Deng You had already managed to untangle a bit of Xu Qingnan’s logic, pondering for a moment before saying, “Then let me think how to make up for it. Aren’t we having a barbecue later? How about I handle your portion?”
“Can you do it?”
“Of course I can, though I’ve never waited on anyone before. You’ll be the very first,” Deng You tripped slightly on his stride, instinctively grabbing onto Xu Qingnan’s sleeve. Seeing that the other didn’t brush him off, he simply kept his hold. “Don’t you feel deeply honored?”
Not shaking off Deng You’s grip, Xu Qingnan shifted the flashlight into the hand Deng You was holding onto. “We’ll talk once I actually get to eat it.”