Chapter 88

Chapter 88

At the sound of that familiar voice, Qiao Yu’s bent leg slowly lowered.

At the same time, his long, raven-feather lashes stirred, easily betraying the faint weariness in his eyes. His trailing tone sounded lazy and languid.

“Seducing you.”

The hand on his shoulder abruptly tightened. The spreading pain instantly drove away Qiao Yu’s drowsiness.

The unique, clean scent of the other man’s body wash drifted through his breath, and a smile seemed hidden between his words. “You succeeded.”

Qiao Yu rolled his eyes inwardly. Just as he was about to wriggle out of Shang Yan’s arms, a different, bloody smell swept over him.

His arms, which had been hanging at his sides, lifted quickly and reached toward the person in front of him.

The next second, a warm, sticky sensation spread across his palm. Qiao Yu’s hand froze in midair, his voice trembling slightly. “You’re hurt?”

“A little injury.” Shang Yan’s other hand wasn’t idle either; he gripped Qiao Yu’s wrist hard, stopping him from feeling around.

Their nearness let his scorching breath circle by Qiao Yu’s ear, as if it could penetrate his skin.

Qiao Yu was silent for a few seconds, trying hard to suppress the anger in his chest. “What do you mean, a little injury?”

“Are you worried about me?”

That completely unconcerned attitude nearly made Qiao Yu explode with rage.

No. This bastard really deserved a beating!

Qiao Yu clenched his fist, but after his rebirth, this body was ridiculously weak. Even with the other man injured, he still couldn’t break free of the hand pinning him in place.

After struggling for a long while without success, Qiao Yu could only press his lips together and try to make his request as calmly as possible. “How did you get hurt? Let me see.”

“I was in a hurry to see you.” Shang Yan spoke at an unhurried pace, but he still didn’t release Qiao Yu’s wrist. Instead, with great interest, he used the faint moonlight spilling in through the window behind him to study the side of Qiao Yu’s face.

After a long moment, he said, “Qiao Xiaoyu, have I ever told you you’re beautiful?”

Qiao Yu: ??

If you’re going to compliment me, call me handsome. If you dare call me beautiful, I’ll end you!

As if he had read the dangerous message in Qiao Yu’s eyes, Shang Yan chuckled softly. In the end, he didn’t keep dancing on the high-voltage line.

Just as Qiao Yu was racking his brain for a way to drag him out of the stall and check his wound, his shoulder suddenly sank.

The grip restraining his wrist had clearly grown weak.

“I’m so tired…”

Qiao Yu.

Shang Yan’s forehead was burning hot, so hot it felt as if it could scorch Qiao Yu’s shoulder through the fabric of his clothes. Qiao Yu wanted to reach out and wrap his arms around the man in front of him, but the motion froze in midair because of what Shang Yan said next.

“Do you know? When I first entered the Live Stream Room, I tried to stay away from you…”

Qiao Yu closed his eyes, his voice a little hoarse. “Do you absolutely have to pick this moment to tell me this?”

As soon as he finished speaking, the person slumped against his shoulder began to tremble, laughing like a lunatic. “If I say it now, won’t you be a little less hard on me, considering I’m injured?”

“In your dreams.”

Shang Yan didn’t argue with him again. He simply continued on his own. “But I failed. Back then, I selfishly thought… I might as well drag you in too. Rather than wait until I died and have to watch from underground as you got together with someone else, it would be better for you to die with me. We’d be a pair of doomed little spouses.”

Expressionless, Qiao Yu looked at the person hidden in the shadows and gave a smile that didn’t reach his eyes. “Who are you calling your spouse, you ex-boy-mmph!”

The rest of his words were blocked by the thin lips that suddenly covered his.

In the silent, deserted stairwell landing, even the air seemed to turn humid and scorching.

Qiao Yu’s chin tilted up, forced to reveal his slender, pale neck. That patch of white seemed to be coated in a luminous sheen by the moon, especially striking in the gaps between light and shadow.

It was impossible to tell whose breathing quickened first. His barren heart seemed to ignite with a raging blaze.

The fire burned hotter and hotter. The lake water was seared dry by the flames, and the hazy steam turned into banks of cloud, then finally into fine drops of rain that slid slowly down from his forehead.

It felt as if an entire century had passed before Qiao Yu finally couldn’t hold on and was defeated. In the instant his knees bent and he was about to slide down, a pair of strong arms dragged him back up again.
Qiao Yu hurriedly turned his head away, his voice shaking beyond recognition. “Why are you kissing me again out of nowhere?”

Then came a soft scoff. The breath brushing past his ear seemed to burn even hotter. “If I ever hear those three words from you again, I’ll make sure you learn your lesson.”

Qiao Yu looked away and curled the corner of his mouth, utterly unconcerned.

Perhaps Shang Yan had seen the rebellious streak beneath that heartless expression. His eyes narrowed, and he lowered his gaze to the pale neck before him, biting down-not too hard, not too gently. “Qiao Xiaoyu, don’t think that just because I dote on you, I won’t have the heart to force you. Push me too far… and you’ll find out.”

Qiao Yu shuddered instinctively. Then, as if trying to save himself some face, he stated a fact in a voice utterly devoid of inflection. “…Stop talking. You’re about to bleed out.”

Very quickly, Qiao Yu’s words seemed to be proven true. The person in front of him swayed and leaned into him, instantly dotting his pristine white nurse’s uniform with bright red blossoms like plum flowers.

Gritting his teeth, Qiao Yu helped the dazed man out of the stall and pressed the elevator button.

By the elevator light, Qiao Yu finally saw the mass of crimson beneath Shang Yan’s ribs. The ghastly wound had split open, flesh turned outward, as if it had been ripped apart by a sharp dagger.

Almost instantly, his eyes reddened. His trembling hand slowly moved toward the injury, unable to stop himself from wanting to cover the very source of that ache in his eyes.

“I wanted to go find you…”

As the elevator ascended, the other man’s blurred murmur drifted to his ear. Qiao Yu’s fingers trembled slightly, and he asked unconsciously, “What?”

“That day, I wanted to go find you, but I was caught and put into quarantine. When I finally got out, what I saw was… your tombstone.”

Qiao Yu withdrew his hand. His long lashes fluttered a few times, and he lowered his eyes, at a loss as he stared at the floor.

“Qiao Yu… are you really back?”

In that moment, the high wall built from unwilling resentment came crashing down. Long-lost sunlight spilled once more across the lake of his heart, sending ripples spreading outward.

Qiao Yu was silent for a moment, then nodded. “Mm. I’m back.”

The elevator dinged at just the right time, and Qiao Yu’s voice was buried into the dust in the blink of an eye…

Supporting the one-meter-ninety Shang Yan, he struggled out of the elevator. Those few steps were practically an ordeal.

After that, he unceremoniously kicked open the empty ward at the very end, helped Shang Yan onto the bed, then efficiently grabbed gauze, iodine, and other medical supplies.

Fortunately, he at least knew how to do simple disinfection.

And precisely because all his attention was on the man in the bed, he did not see the barrage of comments flashing rapidly through the Live Stream Room.

-Why did the screen go black again the second they got into the elevator? I’m done!

-Standard procedure. That guy does this all the time. I’m already grateful he didn’t lock the streamer’s Live Stream Room indefinitely. (bitter smile.jpg)

-By the way, anyone here just got back from the Black Name League Live Stream Room?

-Me, me, me! My poor little heart nearly jumped out of my chest.

-That guy is seriously insane! Didn’t he used to follow the Live Stream Room rules the most? Why did he suddenly go berserk this time?

-No idea. Maybe he was in a hurry to see his wife??

-Confirmed. Upstairs is a CP fan.

-It’s not that we want to ship them. The actual couple is grabbing our heads and forcing us to ship it!!!

-I get it. He could’ve healed just by eating a Muscle Regeneration Pill, but no, he had to run over to the streamer and act like a sickly beauty to win sympathy. What a scheming man.

-Aaaah, I’m so greedy for the streamer’s body, but I don’t dare do anything reckless. Painful~

-@Lewd Ghost, bro, you exposed yourself.

-Li Xiaoqin: Good thing I’m just an ordinary passerby fan. Blessings.

-Sadako: Good thing I’m not a girlfriend fan. Blessings.

-Painted Skin: What the hell are you all blindly giving blessings for?! QY baby is only focused on that stinky man now and isn’t interacting with us in the Live Stream Room at all. As expected, a bestie’s boyfriend is the most detestable creature in the world!!!

-I’m so jealous of those three upstairs. With this connection as his “bride’s family ghosts,” they won’t have to worry about friendly fire in the next Black Name League.

-Painted Skin: Get lost~ QY baby shines alone. This old lady would rather perish together with him!