What on earth is going on next door?!
“What the…”
Cui Mingyao lowered his gaze, unable to help swearing despite his well-bred upbringing.
His loose bathrobe draped against his sides, and the jungle python hanging on his body had not yet woken up, but its weight was truly terrifying.
At this moment, he deeply understood what people meant by a thermos bottle.
A cylinder too thick for one hand to grip, a robustly growing giant eggplant, hanging heavily against his body.
Cui Mingyao’s mouth twitched. Is this a size a human being could possibly possess? Or could it be that this top actually had a tail, only it grew on the front instead?
With such an unfamiliar, giant chili pepper attached to his body, Cui Mingyao didn’t even dare hold it when going to the bathroom!
The tops in Korean webtoons must be monsters!
Before this, he felt his own 18 centimeters could be considered a natural gift, but…
Cui Mingyao narrowed his eyes, held his breath, and extended an index finger to cautiously poke it.
The eggplant swayed, a heavy plunging sensation struck, and the disturbed little brother seemed somewhat dissatisfied, lifting its head up.
Cui Mingyao’s worldview suffered a massive impact. All the information he had heard just a moment ago instantly turned into bubbles, drifting and scattering away.
He took a deep breath and, pretending to be utterly nonchalant, re-tied his bathrobe.
“How is it? This body is chosen by netizens as South Korea’s number one most heart-pounding must-eat list!” 007 cackled. “If it weren’t for this face, Cui Mingyao would have been cursed out of the universe long ago. It’s precisely because of this physique that standing together with Jiang Zhengze creates enough sexual tension.”
Cui Mingyao’s jaw dropped. What do you mean by a must-eat list? Stop blurting out such fierce and wild remarks every day!
“Don’t make that expression like the Earth is about to explode. If anyone sees you, you’ll be deducted 20 points for OOC.”
“I…” Cui Mingyao’s forehead was covered in black lines, and he was about to ruthlessly vent his complaints.
The moment he produced a single syllable, a sharp scream echoed from next door.
The voice was trembling with a rising tail-end, sounding as though it was an appeal for help driven by pain too excruciating to endure, or perhaps soft pants squeezed out by being bullied with no other choice, carrying a hint of allure.
Cui Mingyao was startled and turned to look toward the source of the sound. It came from the right, very close, as if separated by only a single wall.
“What kind of commotion is this?” Cui Mingyao scratched the back of his head. Undercurrents surged in the air, carrying a certain unique, clean fragrance. “What’s that smell? What are they doing next door?”
Curiosity drove him to press against the white wall to listen for a moment. Interspersed among the intermittent screams were bursts of jeering laughter.
“This sound doesn’t sound right…” Cui Mingyao’s heart skipped a beat. The sounds were mixed with the splashing of water and ambiguous smacking noises, while that jeering laughter swirled around like flies, making the screams sound all the more pitiful.
“Mm…” 007 paused, saying with a hint of hesitation, “The current plot has progressed to the latest updated chapter. Cui Mingyao invited his friends over to his house to carry out sequential markings on Jiang Zhengze.”
The nerves on Cui Mingyao’s forehead throbbed twice. He hadn’t yet had time to look over the supplementary ABO setting, and he didn’t know what marking meant, but judging by the system’s tone, it wasn’t anything good.
Given the psycho level of this super-aggressive top, could he actually be having people tag-team and abuse the guy?
“No way, those cries are too miserable.” Cui Mingyao stood up, deciding to go next door and check it out. As he walked, he tapped open the information transmitted by the system, scanning through the basic ABO worldview ten lines at a time.
“By the way, I almost forgot the most important thing,” 007 suddenly said. “The host hasn’t read the comic Cuscuta yet.”
The inbox beeped, and the comic file was transmitted to Cui Mingyao’s interface.
The cover featured a white-haired, purple-eyed boy with delicate features. He raised his right hand as deep black thorns wrapped around his limbs, leaving trails of bloody scratches across his fair skin.
His purple eyes revealed a faint sense of despair and a fragile, pitiful sense of shattering. His shoulders, arms, waist, and abdomen were covered by veins-bulging hands, forcefully restraining his body.
Behind him was a mysterious black figure. A hand reaching from behind pinched his chin, lips pressed close to the white-haired youth’s ear, corners curved in a half-smile.
Viewed this way, the person behind him was the other protagonist of the comic: Cui Mingyao.
Faint and elusive, yet the source of Jiang Zhengze’s tragic fate; seemingly casual and indifferent, but actually manipulating everything from behind the scenes.
The art style was exquisite, with a combination of light and shadow that could be called perfect. The protagonist, Jiang Zhengze, was like an anthropomorphic dodder flower, fragrant, fragile, and beautiful. The hands clinging to his body seemed to be sucking away his life force, while Cui Mingyao behind him clung like bone-eating maggots, lingering wherever he went.
It fit the comic’s title perfectly, and the height and build contrast between the dual male leads indeed gave people a reason to click in and take a closer look.
From the cover alone, it was evident that the author possessed superb artistic skills, adept at displaying the characters’ inner worlds through tone and light and shadow.
However, the pressing priority was the protagonist next door. With a wave of his hand, Cui Mingyao closed the program window, strode out of the room, and headed straight for next door.
The lighting was dim, the tightly shut windows blocking out the condensing air, and the black curtains covered the faint nocturnal light tightly and completely.
Outside, heavy snow was falling, coating everything in silver. The fluttering snowflakes landed quietly, either disappearing midway through their descent without a sound, or landing on the corpses of their companions to freeze into ice.
The fading of life was just like these snowflakes, born weak, dying in obscurity.
Jiang Zhengze closed his eyes, enduring the grueling winter night.
Tonight seemed to be Christmas Eve.
Would his Christmas ever descend?
“Sibal, what are you playing dead for? Weren’t you enjoying it just a second ago?”
“Ah…” Jiang Zhengze felt a sharp pain at the roots of his hair, physiological tears brimming at the corners of his eyes while a hoarse, painful gasp spilled from his lips and teeth. “Don’t…”
“Fuck! Rotten rag, what kind of purity are you acting like now?” The sturdy man violently grabbed his hair, forcing him to raise his head and look at him. “This damn brat crying makes him even sexier, fuck!”
“Haoyu, be a bit gentler. His body is weak and he’s timid; he can’t handle you tossing him around like this.” Another bare-chested, long-haired man sneered, resting his foot on Jiang Zhengze’s lower buttocks. Red and purple bruises marred his jade-white skin, and dried bodily fluids stained his frail body, making the entire scene erotic and heated.
“If you break him, we won’t have any toys left to play with.”
“Fuck, Jin Chengbin, you little bastard, stop acting like the good guy here.” The red-haired man named Haoyu spat, released Jiang Zhengze’s hair, picked up the chain from the floor, and stood up. “Who was it that insisted on coming in with me just now? Fuck, it’s even bleeding.”
Clenching his fist, Zheng Haoyu felt more and more displeased seeing Jiang Zhengze cowering at Jin Chengbin’s feet. He narrowed his eyes, gripped the iron chain, and deliberately jerked it upward.
“You motherfucker had a great time, didn’t you? Filthy, disgusting rotten rag.”
Jiang Zhengze couldn’t even let out a scream, instinctively using his fingers to claw at the collar around his neck.
The black leather collar was crafted using a special technique; the harder the iron chain was pulled, the tighter the collar constricted.
Before Jiang Zhengze could catch a single breath of respite, his throat tightened. The abruptly shortened chain tightly choked his neck, and his face flushed red as he involuntarily coughed and choked, “Cough, cough…”
“Hahahaha… Haoyu is getting angry again.”
The men smoking on the sofa watched the farce, letting out ill-intentioned chuckles.
“Is being gentle to omegas your persona, big star? Don’t be so rough.”
“Yeah, if this gets out, those fans are going to cry.”
“If anyone cries, it’ll be Miss Lin first. Her engagement is in a week, and her fiancé is still outside messing around with an omega.”
“Hahahaha…”
“Fuck, shut up!” Zheng Haoyu was easily triggered. Dropping the chain, he lunged forward with clenched fists to beat him.
The alpha on the sofa lazily dodged, turning the place upside down as the intense pheromones stirred an already restless atmosphere to even greater heights.
Even the alphas present found it a bit hard to bear, let alone the sole omega.
Jiang Zhengze lay flat on the ground, suffering extreme torment both physically and mentally. His injury-ridden fingers couldn’t curl inward; his body burned with heat while his heart remained ice-cold.
The loose shirt on his body had been torn into strips, draped over him simply to satisfy these alphas’ perverse sense of humor.
The discomfort of tearing pricked at his nerves. His body felt as though it had been split in two by a chainsaw, and everything below his waist no longer belonged to him, feeling merely like a corpse paralyzed on the floor.
Jiang Zhengze wept in despair, doing his best to curl his naked body into a ball.
A fuzzy, buzzing sound filled his head. He couldn’t hear the sound of snowflakes falling, nor could he hear his own weak heartbeat.
Throughout his nineteen years of life, the things that accompanied him the longest were fear, hunger, and pain.
He should have accepted his fate long ago. Someone like him, how could anyone unconditionally help him and save him from fire and water?
How could anyone embrace him, stroke his wounds, and soothe his agony?
Even the choice to end his own life had been stripped away from him; he was nothing more than a caged plaything.
Jiang Zhengze lay on his side, tears from his left eye flowing into his right eye, then converging into a more torrential stream that poured downward.
So hungry…
With trembling fingers, he stroked his slightly protruding belly, inside was the evidence of malicious intent, a pool of disgusting mud corroding his internal organs.
“Still, an inferior omega’s constitution is really convenient.” Jin Chengbin squatted beside Jiang Zhengze, brushed away the messy hair on his forehead, and smiled. “Good-looking, smells nice, and can withstand being marked by multiple alphas. Truly a body naturally suited for serving guests.”
His thumb wiped away the tears at the corner of Jiang Zhengze’s eye, only to find that his eyes were a never-ending spring, with tears continuously welling up.
Watching him, Jin Chengbin felt the urge rise again. With a chuckle, he grabbed Jiang Zhengze’s arm and dragged him up from the ground.
The latter no longer had the strength to resist. With too many wounds on his body, any movement caused them to tear anew; submission was the only way to minimize the pain.
Drooping his head, he knelt limply on the floor, letting the strong, long-haired alpha drag him forward.
“Are you insane? Jin Chengbin wants to go again?”
“Hahahaha, did this guy take drugs? Count me in for a queue too.”
“Looks like he really wants to fuck the inferior omega into pregnancy. Give it up, Jin Chengbin, you can’t do it.”
“Yeah, if he could get pregnant, he’d have carried a dozen already, hahaha…”
Ridicule, mockery, malice.
Jiang Zhengze thought his heart was already riddled with holes; verbal abuse no longer caused him pain. Perhaps numbness was the best way to escape reality.
So painful, I want to die…
He closed his eyes as he was dragged to the wall, forced to kneel facing the white wall. His two weak, limp legs could no longer support his heavy torso, uncontrollably sliding backward.
Jin Chengbin pinched the back of his neck, pressing his body tightly against the wall.
It was an inescapable posture, leaving him at the mercy of others.
It would be better to die; once dead, it wouldn’t hurt anymore…
Why was his path in life always so bumpy? Why did he have to endure inhuman abuse? Why were his tears never exhausted, and every breath filled with a heavy smell of blood?
So noisy, so tired…
His body tumbled backward.
Tumbled backward?
Jiang Zhengze froze and opened his eyes.
His vision recovered, bringing his hearing back to acuity. Stunned, he turned his head and saw Jin Chengbin’s body go flying through the air.
Holding his breath, he rolled his eyes, and within his field of vision appeared a tall figure draped in a burgundy bathrobe.
The latter stood against the light, his sharply contoured profile gilded with a layer of warm golden light, while those light brown eyes were as cold as frost, brewing an unyielding, violent storm.