A familiar voice suddenly rang out from behind him. Jiang Ruobai shivered involuntarily, looking back in terror and disbelief.
Pei Sichen leaned leisurely against the car body, lit a cigarette, and exhaled a white smoke ring. It blurred his outline, making it even harder for the exhausted Jiang Ruobai to see the man clearly before him.
“You really do prefer the hard way,” Pei Sichen sneered, looking down condescendingly at the disheveled Jiang Ruobai.
The hunting dogs whined as if seeking praise from their master, their tails wagging incessantly.
“Well done. You will get an extra meal when we get back.”
After the two hounds barked twice as if they understood, they were led away by the bodyguards.
“You lost this game,” Pei Sichen said, announcing the final result with near cruelty.
Jiang Ruobai sat paralyzed on the ground in despair, unable to recover for a long time. He stared blankly into the distance until the last glimmer of light in his eyes faded away completely.
“I… lost,” he uttered with a bitter smile, a tear slipping silently from the corner of his eye.
Pei Sichen gave a cold laugh, dark tides surging in his eyes. He approached step by step. The subtle sound of his soles grinding against the gravel was infinitely amplified in the dead of the night, as if tapping directly onto Jiang Ruobai’s strained nerves.
In the next second, Pei Sichen’s leather shoe pressed down onto his chest.
“Why did you run?”
Pei Sichen’s voice betrayed no emotion, yet it was more terrifying than any stern reprimand.
Jiang Ruobai was stunned by the sudden accusation for a moment. He struggled to lift his head, looking at that blurred face backlit by the light, his voice intermittent due to the pressure. “I… I did not intend to run away. I just… I just wanted to go home and check on things.”
“Ugh!”
Before he could finish, the foot pressing on his chest lifted abruptly, then kicked him hard in the abdomen with even greater force.
Jiang Ruobai did not even have time to see the movement before he was sent flying. A sharp pain exploded from his stomach, and it felt as if his internal organs had been kicked out of place.
He curled up in pain, clutching his stomach as he spasmed on the ground, struggling to breathe.
Pei Sichen looked down at his painful struggle with icy eyes. He crouched down slowly and grabbed Jiang Ruobai by the hair, forcing him to look up.
“Since you were going home, why did you not answer the phone?”
Pei Sichen recalled that as soon as he returned this afternoon, the housekeeper informed him that Jiang Ruobai had fled. When he called, no one answered. It was only after the boss of “Darkness” sent him Jiang Ruobai’s address that he brought his bodyguards to this godforsaken, dilapidated place.
He did not know where Jiang Ruobai had found this crumbling building, where the corridor was too narrow even for a car to enter.
Jiang Ruobai would rather live in a dump like this than in the same house with him; it showed how little he cared for him.
“You say you did not want to escape, yet you ran to a place like this. You did not answer the phone. Jiang Ruobai, I think your nerve is truly growing.”
“I only… only went home to pack some things. I did not… ignore the phone. Today… you… you did not call me!” Jiang Ruobai explained intermittently.
Pei Sichen laughed in anger. “Take out your phone!”
Jiang Ruobai trembled as he reached for his pocket, only to find nothing there; he had left his phone on the coffee table at home.
“I really did not receive any calls. The phone is at home. Let me go get it and show you.”
Seeing that Jiang Ruobai would not give up until he hit a wall, he gestured to two of his men. “Go, bring me his phone!”
“Yes.”
…
Ten minutes later.
The bodyguards retrieved the phone from Jiang Ruobai’s home and handed it to Pei Sichen.
Pei Sichen sat inside the car, while Jiang Ruobai leaned against a crooked tree in the wasteland, looking quite pitiful.
Jiang Ruobai’s phone had no password. He opened the interface with ease, and indeed, there were no missed calls displayed.
Pei Sichen frowned slightly. He glanced at Jiang Ruobai under the tree and then shifted his gaze back to the phone.
The people at “Darkness” would not dare to deceive him, but upon reflection, Jiang Ruobai did not seem to be lying either.
Pei Sichen pondered for a while, then used Jiang Ruobai’s phone to dial his own number.
“I am sorry, your balance is insufficient.”
Pei Sichen: “…”
Pei Sichen furrowed his brows and sat in the car for a long time. Then, with a cold expression, he used his own phone to call his house.
“Hello, sir, is there anything you need?”
“Go and top up the credit on Jiang Ruobai’s phone.”
The housekeeper: “…Very well, sir. How much would you like to top up for Mr. Jiang’s phone?”
Pei Sichen’s face turned grim. “Top up ten thousand!”
After a few seconds of silence on the other end, the housekeeper’s steady voice replied, “Understood, sir.”
Pei Sichen hung up the phone, stepped out, and slammed the car door shut. The massive sound was exceptionally jarring in the quiet countryside.
He walked a few steps to the crooked tree, his tall figure almost completely obscuring the faint light.
Feeling the chill, Jiang Ruobai shivered instinctively. Enduring the severe pain in his abdomen, he opened his eyes groggily, his pale face filled with fear and lingering anguish.
Watching Pei Sichen’s face, which was so grim it seemed about to drip ink, his heart pounded with palpitations; he did not know what awaited him next.
Pei Sichen stood less than half a meter away from him, gripping the old, damaged phone so tightly that it seemed as if he might crush it.
He threw the phone at him. Jiang Ruobai scrambled to catch it. The screen lit up, showing a clean interface without any notifications of missed calls.
He looked up, a trace of relief at surviving a disaster in his eyes.
Pei Sichen looked at his pitiful appearance, and his expression grew even uglier.
He had gone to such great lengths, made such a spectacle, even releasing dogs to hunt someone down, only to find it was because of phone credit insufficiency!
This absurd reason made him feel like a fool who had been played by a joke.
He leaned over abruptly, bracing his arms against the tree trunk, trapping Jiang Ruobai completely within his shadow. His cold rum-scented pheromones mixed with his lingering anger washed over him.
Jiang Ruobai was so scared that he held his breath, not daring to even blink.
“Phone credit insufficient,” Pei Sichen squeezed the words through his teeth, filled with pressure and danger. “Did you not know to top it up?”
Jiang Ruobai shook, murmuring softly, “I am sorry. I… I did not notice. I usually… do not use it often.” His voice grew smaller and smaller until it completely vanished under Pei Sichen’s predatory gaze.
“Do not use it?” Pei Sichen sneered, his anger intensifying. “Then what about when I try to find you?”
“…I am sorry, it will not happen again.” Jiang Ruobai lowered his head, looking like a well-behaved child who had done something wrong.
Seeing him like this, the nameless fire in Pei Sichen’s heart burned even brighter.
He let go irritably, straightened his body, and tugged at his tie, as if that were the only way to breathe properly.
“Idiot,” he cursed through gritted teeth, unsure if he was swearing at Jiang Ruobai or at himself for losing his temper over such a foolish matter.
“Come back with me!”
Jiang Ruobai’s eyes were conflicted, but his body remained motionless.
Pei Sichen asked impatiently, “What, do you want me to carry you?”
“No… that is not it.”
Jiang Ruobai had grievances he could not voice. He was already suffering from an unsubsiding high fever, and after being tossed around like this, he had no strength left. But he dared not disobey Pei Sichen’s command. In the end, he could only carefully prop himself up, relying on the tree trunk for support to stand up, little by little.
Pei Sichen ignored him and strode forward. Only halfway there did he realize Jiang Ruobai had not caught up.
He stood still for a moment, and finally, he simply walked into the car.