Chapter 10

Chapter 10

1

In the dead of night, silence reigned supreme.

The agitated and impatient emotions had settled into a profound calm.

Yet, the lingering scent of smoke still permeated the air, carrying a faint, bitter trace.

The creature, seated in the darkness, slowly raised its head.

A gnawing hunger, almost emptying him, consumed him, but he had long grown accustomed to this near-numb pain.

Countless days and nights had passed in this manner; the expectations he once held had blurred with the passage of time, and his dulled mind had transformed his body into a mere shell.

But now, he felt his heart beating once more.

Though faint, it was undeniably present.

He was alive!

He had waited, and it had come!

His trembling shoulders seemed to contain either joy or agony; like a mute devoid of limbs, his hollowed-out frame could offer no response.

He had waited too long.

So long that he had lost the capacity for heart-wrenching pain.

So long that he was on the verge of death.

As he lowered his head, a clear tear, illuminated by the moonlight, fell upon the sleeping Pei Chang's face.

Meanwhile, the hand hanging by his side was pierced through its palm by sharp claws, dark crimson blood dripping from the wound.

——

Pei Chang drifted into dreaming again.

It was a dream unlike any he'd had before, one he had never experienced in all these years. If not for the summer breeze carrying the familiar scent of gardenias, he would have believed he had forgotten this scene entirely.

"Pei Chang."

A gentle, radiant youth stood tall before him, holding flowers in his hands, his bright eyes gleaming like precious jewels.

Pei Chang stood still, gazing at the other's face, yet unable to discern its features clearly.

He tried to step forward, but his body felt as heavy as a thousand pounds.

"Pei Chang, do you like gardenias?"

The youth's bright, cheerful laughter rang out.

The once sweet yet painful emotions now felt numb. Pei Chang stopped in his tracks, his gaze gradually growing calm.

He heard his own voice.

"No, I don’t."

"But I saw you using gardenias as bookmarks." The other's voice grew quiet as he slowly lowered his eyes.

"But I like them now."

The youth suddenly looked up, the light in his eyes reignited.

Pei Chang stared expressionlessly at the blurred face opposite him, his own voice ringing clearly in his ears.

He stood alongside his eighteen-year-old self, yet divided between now and then.

What was more cruel was that he was completely lucid now.

So he knew this was no fairytale; there would be no perfect ending.

His first love would, like everything else he had lost before, plunge into an abyss!

Pei Chang had experienced two innocent attachments in his life.

One was when he took in a stray dog at the age of eight, the other was his first love at eighteen.

Both had ended in the cruelest manner at the time he had most anticipated them!

The pure, beautiful youth would disappear just like that stray dog he had rescued.

Pei Chang didn’t know where the other had gone. A helpless orphan was no different from a stray dog; in the eyes of those people, both were mere ants that could be crushed in an instant!

He didn’t ask Grandpa Pei. As long as some things remained unspoken, there was still hope—just as that stray dog had simply moved on to a better place, and the other was living a bright future somewhere unknown to him.

But just as Grandpa Pei had said, all of this was the cost he must bear for his powerlessness during his growth.

Those cold, harsh words now rumbled in his ears like thunder.

—"Emotions are the most useless thing in this world."

"Pei Chang, I like you."

He watched as the summer wind turned into a blade's edge, shattering this illusion of beauty.

Pei Chang opened his eyes from the dream and turned to look at the small, narrow window.

The rising sun broke through the clouds, as if myriad golden strands filled with hope and compassion shone upon the earth. The bright, piercing light streamed through the narrow window, magnificent and stunning.

He looked at the monster sitting before him, meeting its fixed stare. Smiling, yet with calm eyes, he said hoarsely, "Morning, darling."

Nothing could change, yet the sun would still rise.

——

That day, Pei Chang didn't go to work.

Not only because of the injuries on his face, but also because he had come down with a high fever after waking up.

When he first woke in the morning, he didn’t feel it much, but when Pei Chang tried to stand, he stumbled and fell, dizzy and unsteady.

It should have been an awkward fall, but a hand steadied him.

"Huh?"

Pei Chang gazed blearily at the face shrouded by hair, raised an eyebrow, and said, "So fierce just a few days ago, why so obedient today?"

A feverish Pei Chang looked no different than if he were drunk.

He braced himself against the other’s bare chest, staggering to his feet, and murmured softly, "Too thin."

The monster didn't respond, only drew in its sharp claws and supported his body with cold but surprisingly soft palms.

Pei Chang’s wrinkled shirt had hiked up, exposing a section of his waist. Several buttons at the collar were undone, exposing everything from his collarbone down to his chest. Only his tie still clung stubbornly to his collar.

Pei Chang, who was always clean-cut and dignified, rarely found himself in such a disheveled state.

He tried to stand upright, but a wave of dizziness hit him. A strong nausea turned his face pale, and chills racked his body one after another.

If not for the hand supporting his lower back, he would likely have collapsed to the ground.

After several attempts, Pei Chang grew progressively weaker and dizzier.

Leaning on the other’s chest, his body swayed precariously, but the hand around his waist held him firmly, providing a sense of safety.

A crushing fatigue washed over Pei Chang. Whether speaking to himself or not, he muttered hoarsely, "Never mind."

Gradually, he relaxed his strength, experiencing the sensation of weightlessness, as if he'd stood countless times at the cliff's edge with no one to pull him back. He let his body go.

This time, still, no one pulled him back, but a pair of hands caught him.

The solid feeling of landing was far more reassuring than the pull he'd hoped for.

Pei Chang huddled in the other’s arms like a tattered doll.

That body was cold and thin, yet it brought Pei Chang unexpected warmth.

A deepening lethargy clouded his mind, and he let out an involuntary sigh. "God, I’m so tired."

Anyone is entitled to feel vulnerable when they’re sick.

Even Pei Chang.

The arms around Pei Chang slowly tightened their hold, as if encircling a treasure.

A long time later, those cold lips brushed cautiously against Pei Chang’s forehead.

——

When Pei Chang woke again, he was in his own bedroom.

He was hooked up to an IV, still wearing the same clothes.

Seeing him awake, the butler entering the room averted his eyes and said, "Mr. Pei, would you like to have your meal in the bedroom?"

Pei Chang glanced at the nearly finished IV and pulled out the needle. "No need."

"Yes."

The butler began backing away.

"Did you go up to the attic?"

Pei Chang’s voice, even and emotionless, sounded from behind.

Though it sounded ordinary, the butler detected an icy tone in it.

He quickly lowered his head and said, "No, it was the cleaning staff who found you unconscious in the hallway on the second floor."

Pei Chang said dismissively, "You may go."

"Yes." The butler let out a soft sigh of relief.

Pei Chang got out of bed, gathered his clothes, and headed to the bathroom.

Standing under the warm water, Pei Chang closed his eyes.

The scenes from his dream gradually blurred and faded amid his numb, calm state.

Pei Chang felt no grief over it, nor did he have the capacity for heart-wrenching pain.

To him now, it was merely a minor flutter from his youth, a past that should stay buried.

Yes.

That was all.

Pei Chang’s clenched hand relaxed, thin trails of blood disappearing with the flow of water.

He opened his eyes, his amber pupils as cool and detached as always.

Whether it was last night’s debauchery and despair or this morning’s vulnerability and melancholy, all had melted into indifference.

Only the suckling marks on his neck grew clearer under the water droplets, a testament to last night’s unforgettable passion.

——

Watching Pei Chang step out of the bathroom and coldly, impartially handle his work, 7008 grew restless and began shaking its leg.

Locked up for a week without food or water, it would really die if this continued!

But looking at Pei Chang’s fever-flushed face, it conflictedly turned its hands over.

Both sides were equally important.

It couldn’t bear to starve the treasure upstairs.

Yet it equally didn’t dare speak up to Pei Chang now.

Yes, didn’t dare.

7008 took a melancholic breath of air.

"Your breathing is bothering me," Pei Chang said indifferently.

7008 immediately straightened up, looking so solemn it nearly saluted.

"Yes, I’ll correct it right away!"

7008 promptly played dead, lying stiffly on the floor like a corpse.

Sigh.

No one said the human world was full of lunatics when it came out on missions.

Not to mention how busy Assistant Jin and Special Assistant Sun were with Pei Chang absent from the company, even the executives and security guards within the group grew anxious and uneasy.

After all, even the tiniest matters used to be taken care of by Pei Chang.

Although he could make people feel like a waste of space with just a sentence or two, he indeed resolved every problem.

However, all this uneasiness was cured after Pei Chang chewed them out.

Even through a screen, with just text and voice, they could feel that familiar sense of suffocation.

Well, after being scolded, everyone once again felt much better.

President Pei hasn’t been assassinated, the Pei Group hasn’t gone bankrupt, and the year-end bonuses are still on track.

The company's internal operations returned to their usual orderly state.

Pei Chang got so absorbed in work he lost track of time, and only when he subconsciously reached for the cup beside him did he just realize it was empty.

He glanced at the time—it was already one in the afternoon.

"President Pei, lunch is ready," the house manager stood at the study door, keeping his eyes demurely lowered.

These were all people he'd handpicked—intelligence and reading the room were basic requirements.

He raised his hand to touch the bite mark on his throat and glanced expressionlessly at the butler. "No one is allowed on the second floor without my orders."

"Yes."

The house manager immediately retreated right away with the meal-serving staff.

Faced with an array of dishes, Pei Chang only took a bowl of fried rice from the cart and went up to the attic.

Pushing the door open, the outside light spread out ahead.

Pei Chang, dressed in loungewear, dragged a chair over and placed the four-legged broken operating bed on it to serve as a table.

Without ceremony, he sat cross-legged on the floor and tossed the creature’s meal over.

The operating bed, balanced on the chair, wobbled but didn’t fall.

The "creature" sitting in the shadows watched Pei Chang through its hair for a long while before finally slowly moving over to sit.

The operating bed was long, and balanced on the chair, it resembled a large table.

They sat on opposite ends, with measured two meters between them.

Pei Chang took a bite of rice with a spoon, glanced at the monster across from him, took another bite, and looked at the monster again.

The monster, which should have been ravenously devouring the blood bag, grew inexplicably restrained under Pei Chang’s gaze, its movements becoming more delicate.

Pei Chang let out a sudden laugh.

The pair of black eyes hidden behind strands of hair looked at the creature in confusion, as if unsure what he was laughing at.

But as the creature watched Pei Chang, illuminated by the sunlight from the small window, it gradually got lost in that smile.

It slowly tried to smile back, but cut its lips on its own sharp teeth.

Oh, it had forgotten the way to smile.