Jiang Yumo slowly raised his head. Even with his eyes covered, he could see the boy’s face full of helplessness and fear. The boy seemed to have heard footsteps and his rounded shoulders slightly shrank. “Who… who’s there?”
He didn’t hear a sound. Gradually, his face showed a terrified, pleading expression. His pale pink lips were bitten raw, streaked with blood. “Please… don’t hurt me! I, I have money! Just don’t hurt me, I’ll give you everything!”
Gu Yu still didn’t speak. His gaze swept across the various tools hanging on the wall beside the boy.
The dim red light cast over the pale skin created a charged, ambiguous atmosphere. The air conditioning overhead gently blew scented air through the vents.
Gu Yu hadn’t really studied this circle before, and seeing the dense array of implements now, he only slightly raised an eyebrow.
The oppressive quiet quickly made the boy’s face fill with suspicion, fear, and panic from the unknown.
He trembled slightly, wondering to himself: the first two times, they had grabbed his neck. Now, he was being brought here willingly, what would Gu Yu do this time?
The sticky, sweet scent in the air made his head spin. Footsteps slowly approached, heavy, low breathing so close it seemed to brush past him. Jiang Yumo felt like a frightened lamb, pressing his lips together, struggling to breathe.
Without warning, a rough thumb pressed against the boy’s tender lips, while the other fingers cupped his cheeks, pressing just enough to sink into the collagen-rich skin.
As the sweet scent filled his lungs, Gu Yu’s brow twitched violently.
A voice appeared in his mind, hissing like a snake:
—All this chaos is Jiang Yumo’s fault! Once he disappears, none of it would have happened! Now is the perfect moment!
Veins bulged at Gu Yu’s temple, and fine webs of blood crept along the whites of his eyes. No, he hadn’t done any of those things yet.
He was still innocent.
—But you’ve been reborn, and you know those things are bound to happen! You’ve already verified it these past few days. Those weren’t dreams, they really happened. You were reborn to stop them, weren’t you?
—Without Jiang Yumo, none of the things that caused you pain and guilt would ever occur! You wouldn’t come home to face that row of cold, lifeless ancestral tablets!
Gu Yu’s expression went vacant. He felt as if the eyes in the black-and-white photos of his parents and siblings were staring straight at him, questioning: Why? Why haven’t you avenged us? Were you just hoping we’d die a tragic death?!
The silence around him was suffocating.
Jiang Yumo was wondering what exactly Gu Yu intended to do when he heard a faint sound from above. Curiously, he tilted his head, and the next second a leather hood suddenly descended from above, covering his head completely. A large hand clamped firmly around the opening at his neck, veins protruding in bluish patterns running up the back of the hand onto the cold, pale arm.
Jiang Yumo froze. His instinctive thrashing of head and body was immediately suppressed by the man’s strength. Heat pressed through the leather at his mouth and nose, pressing against his skin.
“Mm mm mm…” A faint whimper escaped, weak and pitiful, like a newborn kitten.
“Ugh, it’s blocked so tightly, you can’t even see what he’s doing!” Qian Xin complained, tossing his phone onto the glass table.
On the phone screen, the man’s tall, imposing body completely obscured the boy. Only the boy’s two slender, pale legs peeked suggestively from the navy trousers of the man.
Qian Xin had thought they might catch Gu Yu’s weaknesses. They had even deliberately increased the scent in the air-conditioning to heighten desire, but this was all they got?
“Since he came here, he’s not leaving that easily. There’ll be plenty of opportunities later,” Qian Sheng said, drawing in a deep drag from his cigarette, resting his hand on the shoulder of the woman beneath him, listening to her screams as his face twisted into a cruel grin.
Suddenly, the phone vibrated violently. Qian Sheng beckoned, and the bodyguard brought the phone from the sofa to him.
Qian Sheng saw the incoming call, it was his father.
“Dad, you—”
Before he could finish, his father’s furious roar cut him off. “Dad, dad! I think it’s me who should call you dad! What the hell are you and Qian Xin up to?!”
Qian Sheng: “Huh? Dad, what are you talking about?”
“I don’t care what’s going on between you two! If you don’t handle this properly, pack your things and get out of the company!”
He hung up, and then Elder Qian called. “Brat! I’m going to die of anger at you! Hurry back and take your punishment!”
Qian Sheng was dumbfounded, still trying to figure out what was happening, when one of his usually reliable friends called.
“Sheng, is the news on the trending list real? I mean, even if it’s true love with your brother, you’ve got to be discreet! Seriously… sigh…”
Qian Sheng cut him off: “What exactly happened?”
“You haven’t heard? Your bed photos with your brother just hit #1 on the trending list! Didn’t expect you two play this big! Totally scandalous! To be honest, it feels so—”
After hanging up, Qian Sheng immediately checked the news.
Qian Xin, seeing his brother’s face turn ashen, leaned over curiously and immediately swore, “Damn it, which idiot… Jiang Yumo! Holy crap! How dare he!”
On the screen was a newly registered account that had only been active a short time. It posted a few brief words: “Never thought the two big bosses of Xingsheng would be in this kind of relationship 【shocked.jpg】【gossip.jpg】.”
Below was a nine-grid collage of photos, showing Qian Sheng from every angle while Qian Xin pressed him down.
“Jiang! Yumo!” Qian Xin ground his teeth in rage.
They had deliberately let Jiang Yumo appear calm all these days to make Qian Sheng think they had given up, but he didn’t expect Jiang Yumo to be so cautious!
They had underestimated him.
After that, Qian Sheng ignored all phone calls, busy negotiating with officials to pay for the removal of the trending news.
Meanwhile, in the room, the boy’s head was trapped in a perfectly tight, airtight hood. His body twitched and jerked from lack of air.
‘Damn it! I’m dying!’
Jiang Yumo’s killing intent surged. Even though everything was following the system’s storyline, in that moment he genuinely wanted to kill him.
The monitoring system detected the malicious intent again; electricity coursed through the skin, a needle-like sting jolting like a wake-up bell piercing the soul. Gu Yu snapped awake, shocked to see the boy’s head resting limply on his hand, seemingly already fainted from suffocation.
Gu Yu quickly removed the leather hood and patted the boy’s cheeks.
“Uhh… huff huff!”
The boy’s breathing was rapid; tears soaked the blindfold, his cheeks flushed pink, mouth open greedily gasping for fresh air.
Gu Yu flung the hood aside, but inadvertently caught his own reflection in the mirror, his eyes bloodshot, fierce, almost predatory.
He pressed his lips together. A quick strike brushed Jiang Yumo’s ear against the wall, making the boy’s suspended body jerk in fright.
The boy tried to curl up and lean back to hide, but had nowhere to go. His pitiful, helpless posture reminded Gu Yu of a tiny kitten he had found on a rainy night long ago, curling up in a worn cardboard box.
But the sympathy barely surfaced before Gu Yu suppressed it.
Ding dong!
Gu Yu took out his phone.
Assistant: Link
Assistant: Mr. Gu, a new account just posted a scandal about the two bosses of Xingsheng Group online. Should we capitalize on the momentum and follow up?
Gu Yu first glanced at the trending news, posted just a few minutes ago, it had already gone viral.
The text was long and detailed, but the focus was on the nine-grid photos at the bottom. One man was on top, the other below, appearing to engage in some kind of activity. The crucial areas were censored, but their faces were clearly visible, eyes closed, seeming to enjoy themselves.
Gu Yu switched back to the messaging app and instructed his assistant on what needed to be done. Only then did he notice a patch of snow-white skin at the neckline of Jiang Yumo’s clothing. The faint pink at the edge of the collar was minimal, almost unnoticeable, yet drew attention.
Footsteps slowly faded away, the door closed. After a short while, someone else came in. Jiang Yumo, startled, pressed himself against the wall, expecting the same inhumane treatment as before. To his surprise, this time, his bound hands were untied.
He had been tied for a while and felt weak. As soon as his toes touched the ground, his legs went limp and his body instinctively fell forward into the man’s embrace.
Jiang Yumo’s cheek rested against the man’s chest, hearing the steady, rapid heartbeat. Tears streaked his face, giving the appearance of someone thoroughly bullied.
Yet inwardly, he felt a perverse sense of satisfaction: this was already how many times someone had tried to kill me? If he really wanted to, he could have. How could he still be the male lead? Isn’t it possible to replace him?
【Impossible!】
System, exhausted: 【If the male lead acts like this, isn’t it exactly what the host wants?】
Jiang Yumo: ‘How could you think that? I literally haven’t done anything!’
The system, frustrated, went silent. Sob sob sob, his gentle male lead is about to be ruined by the host! The host truly is evil!
After this, Gu Yu cleared his mind.
Rationally, he knew he couldn’t place events that hadn’t yet occurred onto Jiang Yumo. Although in the previous life those actions were his doing, now none of it had happened.
Emotionally, however, he still hated him. If he could, he would resolve it once and for all, eliminating the future threat permanently.
If Jiang Yumo could just behave like he does now, obediently, it would be fine.
No matter what he wanted, Gu Yu could give it to him, as long as he didn’t do anything else.
Gu Yu’s eyes flickered, as if a layer of heavy fog in his mind had lifted.
He untied the black cloth covering the boy’s eyes.
Jiang Yumo blinked rapidly under the bright lights, struggling for a moment to adjust. At first, he was startled by his surroundings.
When he finally looked at the person in front of him, his slender arms gripped the fabric on the man’s back tightly. Tears spilled from his eyes, and the boy pressed his lips together in grievance, sniffing as streams of tears ran from his chin onto the man’s clothes.
It was the first time Gu Yu had been held like this, and it was by the person he was currently most wary of. His body stiffened like stone.
Putting everything else aside, Jiang Yumo had just come of age. It was normal for him to be frightened in a situation like this.
He couldn’t let Jiang Yumo sense anything unusual.
Gu Yu coaxed himself, gently rubbing the top of the boy’s head, his tone soft and soothing: “It’s okay now.”
After a while, once Jiang Yumo’s emotions had settled somewhat, Gu Yu asked, “How did you end up here?”
At this, the boy seemed full of indignation. “I don’t know. I just got into a ride-hailing car, and then they knocked me out… and when I woke up, I was here.”
Jiang Yumo suddenly looked around in alarm. “Wait, did you see anyone when you came in? Just now, they put a hood over my head, I almost suffocated! And with all this stuff in the room… I think that person must be a shameless pervert!”