Chapter 158: Get Out

Chapter 158: Get Out

Song Yuqing didn't meet Qi Zhengqing's gaze, instead lowering his eyes to the alpha's hand resting on his waist.

The slightly trembling fingertips betrayed Qi Zhengqing's inner turmoil.

In the completely enclosed space, only he and Qi Zhengqing remained. Numbers flickered, and the elevator descended floor by floor, like a countdown, each second urging them to make a decision.

Feeling the pressure on his waist, Song Yuqing spoke calmly, "I will come back. Trust me."

"If I don't go, he won't let Pei Huai return alive."

Yet, Qi Zhengqing's grip didn't loosen, as if holding Song Yuqing this way—

As if holding Song Yuqing's hand could forcibly keep him there.

The alpha tried to reason with him calmly, "Even if you go, he won’t let Pei Huai return alive."

Song Yuqing understood perfectly well that even if he went, Hakimi wouldn’t simply spare Pei Huai.

But his going to find Pei Huai and confront Hakimi wasn’t solely for Pei Huai; he just needed an opportunity.

Song Yuqing looked up, meeting Qi Zhengqing's gaze in silence for a few seconds.

"I know what I'm doing," the young man stated, his light-colored lips parting, his amber eyes holding a detached calm as he spoke to the alpha.

"You care more about Pei Huai, for him, you'd do anything, wouldn't you?" For the first time, Qi Zhengqing felt an urge to cover Song Yuqing's eyes.

If he couldn’t see Song Yuqing's overly composed expression, he could pretend Song Yuqing was acting impulsively.

Song Yuqing wasn’t doing this just for Pei Huai, but Qi Zhengqing still wanted to use any reason to keep him. "If it's for Pei Huai, Pei Huai wouldn’t want you risking yourself for him."

"It’s not for him."

"Qi Zhengqing, guard what's mine for me. I will return."

"I haven’t worked this hard just to let others profit from my efforts."

Song Yuqing glanced at the floor numbers displayed in the elevator; they were nearing the ground floor.

He didn’t explain himself further to Qi Zhengqing.

He knew Qi Zhengqing understood him. There was no need for many words between them; Qi Zhengqing would comprehend.

As the numbers changed once more, Song Yuqing raised his hand, hooked his arm around the alpha’s neck, and pulled him down with undeniable force. Then, tilting his head up, his light-colored lips met the alpha’s thin, tightly-pressed ones.

In the confined space, a sudden kiss.

As if realizing he couldn’t change Song Yuqing’s decision, Qi Zhengqing wrapped his arms around Song Yuqing’s waist, almost pulling him flush against his own body.

The farewell kiss was fiery, passionate, and lingering.

"Wait for me to come back. Remember to take your medicine regularly."

Song Yuqing’s breath was slightly unsteady as he looked up at the alpha.

The light streamed down, illuminating the young man’s glistening eyes and brows, spreading a striking mix of allure and faint redness.

He understood Song Yuqing, of course.

It was because he understood Song Yuqing that, in the end, he always ended up yielding and letting him go.

Qi Zhengqing stared at Song Yuqing, each passing moment etching that face deeper into his memory.

Finally, Qi Zhengqing raised his hand and hit the button to open the elevator doors.

"No one can take what belongs to you. I’ll wait for you to return," the alpha’s voice was hoarse.

Song Yuqing turned and left. This time, the alpha didn’t stop him. Song Yuqing walked out quickly, never looking back.

Qi Zhengqing was left trapped again in that small space, still filled with lingering intensity and bottomless anxiety.

As the elevator doors were about to close slowly, Qi Zhengqing caught the doors, preventing them from shutting.

In the alpha’s dark eyes, the young man’s figure gradually disappeared until it was completely out of sight.

It seemed all he could ever do was stay behind to have Song Yuqing's back, ensuring he wouldn’t be surrounded by enemies. Even though he always wanted to keep Song Yuqing by his side, to never let him leave, he still let him go.

But at least… he could still be Song Yuqing’s backup now.

As long as he lived, he would watch over Song Yuqing.

Song Yuqing had trusted him to guard his back. He was his husband, his lover. All of this was what he was meant to do for him.

Only.

My Qingqing… will we really meet again this time?

"Qingqing," System 88 looked back over its shoulder, "Qi Zhengqing is still standing there. Aren’t you going to look back one more time?"

Song Yuqing merely lightly raised his eyes but didn’t turn around.

System 88 sensed Song Yuqing’s complicated feelings but received no response.

After a long while, 88 spoke, "Are you a little unwilling to part with him?"

Not looking back because he was afraid he might never see Qi Zhengqing alive again.

Song Yuqing replied flatly, "No, we’ll meet again."

"There’s no reluctance." Song Yuqing’s eyelashes fluttered slightly.

Once everything was over, he could calmly perform Qi Zhengqing’s surgery without worrying about Hakimi sabotaging things, getting revenge, or dragging him into it.

88 wanted to say something but ultimately held his tongue.

Forget it. His kitten didn’t like people talking back. Arguing would only upset him. If the kitten was in a bad mood, he’d just have to pamper him a bit more.

88: "Qingqing, baby, why the icy little kitty face? Come here, let me give you a kiss."

Song Yuqing: "..."

As System 88 leaned in to kiss him, Song Yuqing pressed a finger against him to push him away. "No kiss."

88 stared at Song Yuqing’s lips. That old man Qi Zhengqing got to kiss them, so what was wrong with him getting a kiss?

How infuriating!

Whatever, no kiss then.

There was no...

System 88's gaze furtively swept over Song Yuqing's pale pink lips, as if a fragrance would spill out the moment Song Yuqing opened his mouth.

System 88 surrendered—he just really wanted a kiss!

Next, System 88 performed a set of martial moves in Song Yuqing's consciousness, completely disrupting his train of thought.

Song Yuqing drove all the way out of the Central Special Zone.

In the mine below,

Su Quan stood before a pile of reagents, conducting experiments again and again.

The man Hurst had sent to supervise Su Quan watched his operations from a distance, with disdain.

In his eyes, Su Quan was nothing but a traitor who had betrayed his own country.

He didn’t deserve to have Mr. Hurst defer to him.

If he could betray Xinzhou for money and power, he could just as easily betray Sri Lanka someday.

Thinking this, the alpha stood taller, trying to see every move Su Quan made so he could report everything to Mr. Hurst.

Just as he was thinking this,

Su Quan, wearing a mask, suddenly smiled slightly and waved at him, "Come here."

The alpha: "..."

The alpha reluctantly stepped in front of Su Quan, "What do you need?"

Su Quan pointed to the potion on the table, "Drink this."

The alpha didn’t want to drink it—he had no idea what it was. If it was poison, wouldn’t he be killed by Su Quan?

Su Quan stared at the alpha, "Hurry up."

The alpha had no choice. Mr. Hurst had given him orders to fully obey Su Quan’s commands aside from monitoring him.

Following orders was something ingrained in every soldier’s bones. The alpha could only pick up the potion and drink it in one go.

Less than three minutes after drinking the potion, the alpha felt as though his head was splitting apart. Different voices seemed to whisper in his mind, repeatedly telling him:

—Su Quan is a traitor, kill him.

—Kill Su Quan, plenty of people can take his place.

—Threaten Su Quan into revealing what makes Hurst value him, then take his position.

The alpha didn’t know what was happening to him. His inner desires seemed to be magnified endlessly, and latent dark thoughts began to sprout and multiply wildly at that moment.

Finally, he acted.

The alpha reached out for Su Quan, but his vision blurred; Su Quan appeared doubled, and his hand grabbed empty air.

"Kill you!"

But Su Quan laughed like a madman, his psychic power crushing down fiercely. The alpha instantly bled from all seven orifices, his hands still outstretched toward Su Quan, unable to retract them in time.

"Hahahahaha, kill me? So, the deepest thought in your heart is to kill me." Su Quan laughed until tears streamed from the corners of his eyes, as if he still hadn’t laughed enough.

Su Quan capped the vial, still cackling wildly. The mine shaft echoed with his "hahahaha" laughter.

Pei Huai: "..."

Damn, this lunatic has gone mad.

Pei Huai felt that the most torturous thing here wasn’t the physical pain, but the mental pollution from that lunatic.

Laughing hysterically at the drop of a hat.

Pei Huai lowered his head to look at the breast pocket near his heart, "Qingqing, let me tell you, I want to kill this lunatic again."

"If you don’t know how to laugh, just shut up. Your laughter is so awful."

"Your laughter is much better. I wonder if I’ll ever get to hear you laugh again."

The alpha guarding Pei Huai: "..."

Damn, two big idiots.

Su Quan laughs hysterically every day, and Pei Huai rambles incessantly.

During meals, Pei Huai says, "Qingqing, do you remember when you fed me? I was disobedient, and you gave me two slaps. It hurt so much."

When in pain, Pei Huai says, "Qingqing, do you remember when we first met? I hit your son, and you immediately gave me two slaps."

The guarding alpha looked exasperated, almost wanting to butt in and say:

—Dude, split up. Your wife is abusive. Split up, I beg you. Otherwise, she’ll beat you to death one day.

Pei Huai kept ranting, and the alpha finally couldn’t take it anymore, "Dude, can you stop thinking about your wife? You’ve been captured. Can’t you think about how the war is turning against you?"

The alpha tried to appeal to Pei Huai’s sense of strategy.

Pei Huai: "If I think about the battle, will you let me go?"

The alpha: "No."

Pei Huai: "Then what’s the point of thinking about it?"

The alpha: "..."

He’s crazy but makes sense.

Song Yuqing stepped onto the land of the borderlands. Endless snow-capped mountains met the sky, and the cold wind swept snow with a mournful howl.

Extreme emptiness and dead silence were the main themes here. The pure white world was brutally clean, as if it could easily swallow any sound or life that didn’t belong.

Snowflakes landed on Song Yuqing’s long eyelashes and black hair. The thin snow made the young man appear even more delicate and cold.

His thin eyelids were chapped red from the cold, and his delicate features, set against the extreme cold and snow, took on a fragile yet sharp beauty.

Accented by that touch of cold-bitten red, it carried a cold yet radiant allure.

Song Yuqing received his first message.

。。。: "You came so quickly. It seems our beautiful councilman is truly eager to see his own dog."

The three "。" seemed like an amplified version of the old single "。", and Song Yuqing found it particularly irritating.

T-T: "Show yourself."