Hurry up, or your husband will be back.
Sang Li was lying on the sofa, his brow furrowing as he stared at his phone. He did not know many people, and could send messages to even fewer. In total, he had only sent out three.
To his surprise, within two minutes, all three actually had replies!
“When are you divorcing Jiang Xiucheng?”
“Sorry, I do not play the third party who ruins other people’s marriages.”
“I am willing! I will take you home, I am coming over to find you right now!”
Sang Li: “!!!”
Turns out today’s Lili was still such a cute and charming villainous character!
The tug-of-war in Sang Li’s heart finally relaxed just a little. He honestly rubbed his lower back, and then looked over the coldest of the three replies once more, curling his lip in slight displeasure.
Ji Baiting was simply the most clueless person in the entire world. Starting today, Lili hated him.
A ringtone sounded, belonging to an unsaved phone number. Sang Li picked up, “Hello?”
“Why did you not reply to my message?”
A cold voice sounded from the other end of the line. Ji Baiting’s voice was full of disapproval, “You dare send a message like that and not reply, are you deliberately trying to provoke me?”
Sang Li would never admit that he had done something mischievous on a sudden whim. Unfortunately, given his intelligence, he could not think of a better excuse on the spot. After stammering for a long time, he squeezed out, “I, I sent it to the wrong person!”
The other end of the phone fell silent.
This silence felt like it had frozen over, spreading along the call and chilling Sang Li so much that he gave a little shiver. Like a young animal realizing it belatedly, he added, “I, I.”
Ji Baiting finally spoke.
He was probably enraged to the extreme, as even his tone sounded exceptionally sharp, “Besides me, there are others.”
Ji Baiting asked in a chilling voice, “Sang Li, is one or two not enough for you to consume, how many men do you actually want?”
Consume.
Sang Li did not know whether Ji Baiting’s words carried that specific meaning, but he had way too much experience, and his face instantly flushed a brilliant red.
Countless vivid scenes immediately began playing on a loop in his brain. Sang Li’s legs were still soft, and his voice trembled, “You, you are talking nonsense, I, I do not want to consume.”
The voice across the phone was like a piece of candy dangled right in front of him, visible yet out of reach, swaying back and forth to tempt Ji Baiting.
“Either me, or the others.”
The deep, low tone drifted into Sang Li’s ears, “Do not dream of having a red flag fluttering proudly at home while floating colorful flags outside.”
When discussing this kind of matter, Ji Baiting’s theme remained exceptionally clear and his content concise, like a top student demonstrating a geometry problem to a slacker.
By the end, his tone unexpectedly carried a hint of eerie gentleness, “Sang Li, with your intelligence, trying to play with several men at the same time, you will be fucked to death, do you know that?”
What kind of death.
Sang Li was completely terrified out of his wits, even his tone turning bleak, “You, you are talking nonsense.”
“Do you know what being fucked to death means?”
Ji Baiting said softly, “When I was in college, I did experiments related to white mice. Afterward, the rear end cannot close, staying open all the time to make it convenient for use, and also.”
“Do not talk anymore!”
Sang Li was already frightened to the point where his complexion looked like paper. He shook his head frantically, “I, I will not flirt with others, I, my husband is back, good, goodbye!”
The phone was hung up immediately.
In the empty doctoral advisor’s private office, only Ji Baiting sat before his desk. In the silent air, Sang Li’s soft, clinging tone and anxious breath seemed to still be echoing.
Turns out men truly all have a base root.
Or is the end of psychology truly driving people mad?
Ji Baiting let out a soft laugh. He casually tapped open his phone recording, which began playing the conversation he had just had with Sang Li.
“I, I do not want to consume.”
“Do not talk anymore!”
The man leaned back against his chair, gently closing his eyes to soothe himself. After a long while, a satisfied sigh escaped, “Sang Li.”
Lili, who was both clumsy and always messing things up, was completely oblivious to all of this.
He only knew that he had been ruthlessly attacked by Ji Baiting, scolded for being stupid, warned not to play the field, and terrorized into the bargain.
Ji Baiting was truly so hateful!
Fortunately, hearing the doorbell ring, it was most likely her husband coming back!
Sang Li decided to cast aside everything mischievous he had done earlier, pretend that nothing at all had happened, and return to sweet terms with his husband.
He was wearing the long T-shirt that Jiang Xiucheng had slipped onto him before leaving for work this morning, which was his husband’s shirt, and when he wore it, it just barely covered his bottom. Bare-legged and barefoot, he hopped happily off the sofa, pattering across the carpet, wearing an extraordinarily gorgeous and brilliant smile as he pulled open the door, “Husband.”
Eh, why is it not husband?
It is Jiang Zhi.
Sang Li’s glamorous, high-value smile could not even spare an extra second, instantly wrinkling into a frown, “What are you doing here?”
“I have figured it out, Lili, let us get married!”
Jiang Zhi must have rushed over in a hurry, as he still hadn’t had time to change out of his school basketball team jersey. Standing over six feet tall in front of Sang Li, he possessed the oppressive presence of a mountain peak, “I will take you to meet my parents, we can go get married abroad!”
Sang Li.
Sang Li instinctively glanced at his phone again, only to realize he had only read the first half of the third message.
Checking the time now, it was only about half an hour away from when her husband usually got off work and came home.
Sang Li immediately panicked. He reached out to push Jiang Zhi away, defending himself as he shoved, “I do not want to marry you, I just sent that out randomly for fun, you got it wrong, hurry up and go back.”
Jiang Zhi grabbed Sang Li’s hand in a tight grip, “Lili, is Jiang Xiucheng treating you badly?”
Sang Li: “?”
Mid-motion, Jiang Zhi reached out to pull at Sang Li’s clothes, “Did he hit you? Let me see.”
Sang Li: “!!!”
Before he could resist, Jiang Zhi held Sang Li’s arm with one hand while his other hand reached to lift the long T-shirt he was wearing.
The excessively slender Sang Li looked like a helpless kitten in front of the school basketball team captain’s solid muscles. Being hoisted up made him spin around slightly, kicking his legs with zero ability to fight back, yet unable to stop Jiang Zhi’s movements.
However, her husband strictly forbade wearing underwear at home, so she was completely bare underneath.
Sang Li was both anxious and terrified. Finally, just as Jiang Zhi’s hand was about to slip into the neckline, he bit down fiercely on Jiang Zhi’s hand.
Jiang Zhi’s movement paused.
Terrified that he would go crazy again, Sang Li didn’t let go. A row of neat, pearlescent teeth relentlessly clamped down on the web of Jiang Zhi’s thumb, his dark, round eyes opened extremely wide, blinking with wary alertness.
With the movement, Sang Li’s warm lips also pressed against the skin of Jiang Zhi’s hand bones. Because of tension, his lips were flushed red, revealing an alluring and mesmerizing vibrancy.
Gradually.
Sang Li’s tip of the tongue tasted the flavor of blood.
The blood oozing from the wound on Jiang Zhi’s hand stained Sang Li’s tender lips in sporadic dots of red, which were then fed into his mouth as his slightly parted lips moved.
Sang Li froze for a moment, instinctively letting go, and quickly absolved himself, “I did not mean to! It is your fault for insisting on pulling my clothes!”
Jiang Zhi’s gaze, however, remained fixed on the bite marks Sang Li had left on his hand.
It was bitten very deeply, the bite marks filled with blood, while the edges of the teeth marks glistened with crystal-clear moisture.
Jiang Zhi raised his hand in front of Sang Li, using his own tongue to lick the blood clean from the tooth marks bit by bit.
A suddenly rising, extremely subtle sense of being watched and violated made Sang Li feel exceptionally uncomfortable. He knitted his brows, wanting to scold Jiang Zhi for having issues.
Before he could speak.
Jiang Zhi reached out and extended his hand toward him once more, “Still want to bite?”
Jiang Zhi looked at him with a gaze full of exasperation mixed with unyielding steel, “Why must you insist on staying here? Does being kept like a pet by Jiang Xiucheng give you such a great sense of accomplishment? Sang Li, you and I are peers, we are the ones who belong together.”
The hands Sang Li had managed to free after much difficulty tightly guarded the bottom hem of the long T-shirt, and he retorted without hesitation, “You are not as rich as my husband!”
“But I am younger than him!”
Jiang Zhi grasped Sang Li’s shoulders, shouting aloud, “Look closely, I am younger than him, I have more of a future than him, and in the future, I will give you a better life just like he does!”
Sang Li would never believe such empty promises. The message sent to Jiang Zhi in the first place was only because he was running out of people to pick from when testing the waters and tapped him last.
Who knew he would be so clingy.
The increasingly pressing time left Sang Li with zero patience to keep entangling with Jiang Zhi. He took a step back, barely maintaining patience as he dismissed him, “Anyway, that text message was sent by mistake, I have already explained it to you now, in short, hurry up and go back, my husband is coming home.”
The pretty face of the person before him held no smile, no coquettishness, and no eager anticipation, which was a completely different person from the very first second he opened the door just now.
Jiang Zhi suddenly recalled the first second he opened the door and saw Sang Li a few minutes ago.
He had waited so many years, searched for so many years, yet Sang Li had never truly looked at him properly for even a single second.
The abruptly rising anger wrapped in malice rolled straight into Jiang Zhi’s motor cortex. He lowered his gaze to look at Sang Li, who while waiting for her husband to return, looked anxious, terrified, and frightened.
Jiang Zhi suddenly leaned close to his ear, his scorching breath brushing against him, “You are afraid of Xiucheng ge finding out about our relationship, right?”
The ear was naturally Sang Li’s most vulnerable spot. He trembled all over from the heat, and immediately wanted to push the person back out the door, his voice ringing out soft and angry, “Get lost, I have no relationship with you at all.”
“You are afraid of Xiucheng ge finding out that you wanted to cheat.”
Even after being pushed for a good while, Jiang Zhi’s solid frame didn’t sway an inch as he closed in with overwhelming pressure, “Right, Lili?”
“You are talking nonsense, I did not want to at all!”
Sang Li bit down hard on his lower lip, loudly defending himself, “I never wanted to cheat, I love my husband, I.”
Jiang Zhi pulled out his phone, the text message on the screen abruptly presenting itself right in front of Sang Li, “Then what is this, hm, Lili?”
[Can you be my second husband?]
The text message he had painstakingly edited for half a day was presented right before him like criminal evidence.
Sang Li’s pretty little face instantly turned ashen with fright. In eyes already swimming with unsaved tears at some point, droplets came tumbling down along his exquisitely delicate facial contours.
His slender shoulders trembled lightly, and his husband’s oversized T-shirt gave him the effect of a long dress on his body, making him look even more fragile and in need of protection.
He tried his very best to search for an excuse, but being clumsy, he never managed to find one, causing him to cry even harder, “I, I.”
It was precisely at this moment that Jiang Zhi reached out his hand, wiping the tears from Sang Li’s face, and asked softly like a good person, “Lili baby does not want her husband to know she did something wrong, right?”
The school basketball team captain had calluses and scars left from years of playing ball on his knuckles, brushing over the delicate, soft snow-white skin and stirring up an unforgettable tingling sensation.
Pity that Sang Li was too terrified to even register any of this. He obediently and honestly nodded, raising his tear-stained face, and pitifully reached out to tug at the corner of Jiang Zhi’s uniform, “I, I love my husband, do not tell my husband.”
This was the first time Sang Li had taken the initiative to reach out and touch Jiang Zhi.
The hand clutching the corner of the basketball uniform was soft and frail, its finger bones so slender they looked like they would snap with a firm press. Probably because of emotional agitation, it was tinged pink, gripping tightly in a posture of pleading.
As alluring and pretty as the hand’s owner.
Jiang Zhi felt he ought to feel happy, yet his heart was being repeatedly sliced by a dull blade amidst Sang Li’s tearful light and crying voice, hurting so badly he could barely stand, “Sang Li, do you love Jiang Xiucheng that much?”
In the past, whenever he begged with such pitifulness, everyone would pity him, sympathize with him, and grant his requests.
Yet Jiang Zhi did not.
For a moment, the imagination of being abandoned by her husband, having to pick up bottles, scavenge garbage, and beg for a living to get by filled Sang Li’s brain.
From then on, he would never be able to eat Michelin food again, never wear out-of-season designer items again, never be able to buy whatever he wanted whenever he wanted.
Lili would break.
Sang Li was driven almost to despair. In grief-stricken abandon, he threw caution to the wind, crying bitterly as he said to Jiang Zhi, “You do not understand at all! Without my husband, I will die! Lili will die!”
Grief and fear blanketed Sang Li’s stunningly gorgeous face. Crying as he spoke, “Lili wants to eat meals from the best restaurants in H City, wear the most expensive clothes, carry the most expensive bags, and go for drives in the prettiest little sports car.”
Hyperventilation made Sang Li’s articulation a bit uneven, but he still took a heavy, deep breath, stumbling, pale-faced, and intermittently telling Jiang Zhi, “I worked very hard to reach this place, I have to live a good life. I must have my husband.”
The dull blade in his heart somehow suddenly sharpened into a blade, slicing Jiang Zhi’s chest until it bled.
He thought, originally, he and Sang Li perhaps didn’t need to meet.
It was Jiang Xiucheng who donated a building and bought a degree for Sang Li to get into that school, making Sang Li appear before him.
So foolish, so clumsy.
Even a simple thing like trying to cheat couldn’t be hidden properly, blowing the cover wide open on the very same day.
That was why he could be spoiled by Jiang Xiucheng at such a tender age into being so idle, so vain, so greedy for comfort, unwilling to endure even a fraction of hardship, willing to be like a head of lettuce princess raised inside a cage.
A princess needed a fearless knight to smash open the dragon’s castle before ushering in a new life.
He wasn’t losing the fight; he had just arrived a little, little bit too late.
Jiang Zhi closed his eyes, lowered his head, and looked at Sang Li’s tear-streaked face, “The message I sent you last time didn’t reach you, did it?”
“Wh, what message?”
Sang Li’s voice was hoarse from crying, and he let out a tiny, tearful hiccup, rubbing his tear-filled eyes in confusion, “Last time?”
So the evil dragon had intercepted the knight’s letter.
Jiang Zhi said, “Give me a kiss.”
“Wh, what?”
Sang Li froze.
Jiang Zhi’s tone was gentle, “Use a kiss in exchange for me not telling Jiang Xiucheng about the bad thing you did. Isn’t that a good bargain, Lili?”
Sang Li’s round, doe-like eyes widened, “But, but, husband said no.”
“There is no one here, Lili. On the contrary, if you do not hurry up.”
Jiang Zhi tempted him, “Your husband is about to come back.”
Sang Li’s already exceptionally fragile nerves were startled once more by these words. He instinctively glanced back at the wall clock in the house, which indicated that the time until his husband’s return was getting very, very close.
But, but.
This was not right.
Yet if husband found out.
The gigantic scale tilted wildly back and forth in Sang Li’s pounding heart. He unconsciously bit down hard on his teeth, looking somewhat resistant yet somewhat compromised.
This expression of his fell into the eyes of the person opposite him, taking on a strikingly alluring allure.
At this second, Jiang Zhi had to admit that what those guys in the neighboring booth at the bar said the other day was utterly correct, even if you act as a third party at first, as long as the knight rescues the princess, there will still be a happy ending.
“Have you decided? Lili, you need to be fast.”
Jiang Zhi’s gaze was full of pity and passion, “Xiucheng ge is coming back, you.”
“I am back what?”
The master-exclusive elevator connecting the courtyard and the underground garage opened up. Jiang Xiucheng was still carrying a box of scones that looked like they had just been packaged not long ago.
The soon-to-be-setting slanting sun scattered across the water surface of the river within sight, spilling into the professionally maintained courtyard and casting shadows upon the lawn behind Jiang Xiucheng.
The custom suit jacket he had been wearing was taken off and draped casually over his arm, his tie pulled loose, making him look dashing and debonair, accentuating the already deep features of his face to make him look even more handsome.
Yet also gloomy.
Jiang Xiucheng wore a smile on his face, but his tone was cold. He walked straight past Jiang Zhi, making it starkly apparent that he was actually taller than Jiang Zhi, or rather, revealing the subtle difference between a mature man and someone still lingering in academia.
He walked into the villa, returning to his nest in the evening like a giant dragon.
“I am back.”
Amidst dead silence, Jiang Xiucheng asked once more, “And then?”