Chapter 51 No Matter What I Do, I Can’t Satisfy You

Chapter 51: No Matter What I Do, I Can Never Satisfy You

Ting Zhenxi dragged Li Wangyue into his room.

He grabbed Li Wangyue’s wrist and strode upstairs, Li Wangyue stumbled and nearly fell on the stairs as he was yanked along.

Li Ping heard the noise, came out of the master bedroom on the third floor, and asked what was wrong.

Li Wangyue instinctively tried to pull his hand free, but Ting Zhenxi only tightened his grip, refusing to let go.

Li Wangyue said in a steady voice, “It’s nothing. I just missed a step.”

Li Ping told him to be careful.

Ting Zhenxi pulled him into his bedroom.

The door slammed shut, his eyes struggled to adjust to the darkness, and he felt a dull pain on his lips, his whole body pressed against the door. The air was thick with a dangerous, arrogant vibe, as if he were being toyed with, slow and deliberate.

He tried to turn his head away, but as his eyes adjusted to the dim blue light, he saw countless monitors, surveillance feeds showing every corner of his room—even the bathroom and walk-in closet.

Li Wangyue’s eyes trembled, filling with tears.

Scared and terrified, he shoved the man away, the sting of his hand brushing against his lip.

Ting Zhenxi squinted. “Think it’s dirty?”

Li Wangyue rushed to the desk, his arms shaking as he tried to turn off those chilling screens, but he had no idea how to work them. Clumsily, he grabbed the monitors, searching for a master switch.

A hand reached over from the side and mercifully turned one off for him.

But as one went dark, countless more were still in sight.

Ting Zhenxi stood by with his arms crossed, watching him.

Li Wangyue finally gave up, lowered his head, and pressed his fists against the tabletop, barely holding back from smashing something.

“Delete the videos. I’ll do whatever you want.” His voice was weak.

“Your videos?”

“His videos.”

Ting Zhenxi raised an eyebrow. “You really care about your student, huh? Aren’t you afraid I’m lying? What if I didn’t film anything? You’d still have to agree to whatever I want.”

“It doesn’t matter anymore,” Li Wangyue said. “Do whatever you want to me. Just leave the innocent alone.”

“Not a bad bargaining chip. Deal.” Ting Zhenxi pulled out his phone and tossed it to him. “Delete them yourself.”

The phone bounced in Li Wangyue’s hands before he managed to catch it.

There was no lock screen password—he’d expected someone as guarded as Ting Zhenxi to be super careful about privacy.

He opened the gallery, found the video, and deleted it. In the thumbnails, he saw lots of other clips.

He wasn’t sure what they were, and he didn’t dare to open them. The thumbnails were blurry, but he couldn’t help wondering if they were surveillance footage.

Li Wangyue hesitated, then long-pressed and selected all, ready to delete everything. But the man beside him said, “Those are just backups.”

Li Wangyue’s breath caught. He handed the phone back.

Ting Zhenxi took it, scrolled for a moment, and tapped on one. “Want to watch together? I use the highest quality cameras.”

Li Wangyue turned his face away, about to leave, but as he brushed past, Ting Zhenxi grabbed his arm.

Ting Zhenxi hit play and turned the screen toward him.

Li Wangyue closed his eyes, trembling.

From the phone came chirping sounds, soft rustling, rising and falling—like…

He opened his eyes. A few baby birds were huddled in a nest, beaks open, begging for food.

Ting Zhenxi doubled over laughing. “Bro, your face… How did a few birds scare you that much?”

Li Wangyue snatched the phone and tapped through the thumbnails one by one. They were all surveillance feeds of breeding boxes, just videos of raising chicks. Nothing else.

“You lied to me.” Li Wangyue couldn’t hold back his intense shame and anger, throwing the phone to the floor. “How long are you going to keep tormenting me like this…”

But Ting Zhenxi ignored the question, showed the videos, and explained, “These are Zhao Bing’s. He monitors everything from the incubator to the whole breeding process in HD. He shares the videos in the group chat. I thought they were cute, so I saved them.”

Li Wangyue pushed his hand away. “Enough… Just tell me what you want. Stop messing around.”

“You seem eager for me to do something to you.” Ting Zhenxi turned off the phone.

“You don’t have any videos,” Li Wangyue suddenly said. “You’re just trying to trick me, to watch me panic and then laugh at me. You don’t actually have anything…”

“Shh.” Ting Zhenxi cupped his face. “Bro, listen carefully to my voice. Watch my lips closely.”

Li Wangyue turned his head away, but was forcefully restrained again, forced to look up, barely making out the man’s smile in the blue glow of the screens.

“I installed cameras in your room. Not one, not two—eighteen of them. They run 24/7 without stopping. Do you understand? Not five days on, two days off. Not six days on, one day off. Not some bullshit where they’re on for 8 hours during the day and mercifully turned off at night. They run 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, nonstop.”

“So, dear brother, when I fucked you, there must be recordings. Many, many of them.”

Li Wangyue broke free from his grip. “What do I have to do to make you delete them?”

“I already gave you a chance. You just didn’t want to delete them.”

“What…”

“For the past week, haven’t I called you to my room every night to sleep?” Ting Zhenxi pointed at the screens. “The master tapes are right here. If you’d come even once, you’d have had the chance to delete them all. You didn’t want to, so who’s to blame? Admit it—your pain is all your own doing.”

Li Wangyue’s gaze went blank, then he let out a bitter laugh, shaking his head desperately. “No, no… Would you really have let me delete them? This is just another one of your tricks… If I had come in, I’d only have found another set of backups and you waiting to mock me.”

“Wrong.” Ting Zhenxi’s eyes darkened. “I’m not a good person, but I respect the rules of the game. I gave you a chance. Miss it, and it’s gone.”

Li Wangyue’s eyes reddened. He lunged at the machines, but was caught around the waist and pinned to the bed.

Ting Zhenxi twisted his arm behind his back, leaning down to kiss away his tears.

“Bro, keep your voice down.”

“If you cry, your mother will worry.”

-

Li Wangyue stood outside the professor’s office for a long time, holding a withdrawal form for his transfer request.

He couldn’t face the professor who had appreciated him, but he couldn’t bear Ting Zhenxi’s increasingly insane malice any longer.

If he left, everyone around him would be in danger.

Ting Zhenxi had made it clear that if he didn’t stay himself, he’d find a way to make sure Li Wangyue couldn’t go to Wado Island either.

Ting Zhenxi didn’t get reappointed as committee chair, but to appease him, the higher-ups gave him another role—easy work, good pay, and a lot of power, letting him audit the integrity and fairness of any educational organization.

Ting Zhenxi held the materials on Yunling University, pulled out Professor Liu’s biography, crossed his long legs, lounging on the sofa, and clicked his pen.

“Bro, tell me, someone as good as Professor Liu, has he ever done anything shady in his life?” Ting Zhenxi put on a judgmental pose, thinking hard. “If I find even a hint of misconduct on his part, I’ll immediately file a request with the committee for an investigation and put him through a full-scale interrogation.”

This kind of interrogation can drag on forever, peeling the skin off a person. For hours on end, the subject would be questioned nonstop, picking apart every word they say, all recorded in the official files, open and transparent. One wrong word could get blown out of proportion and ruin their reputation.

Once, the committee investigated a small bribery case, taking turns interrogating those involved for twelve straight hours. It ended up dragging in a lot of people and uncovered a chain of academic fraud from twenty years ago.

Even if Professor Liu had a clear conscience, his body couldn’t handle hours of interrogation. Ting Zhenxi was going in specifically to dig up dirt on him, so he wouldn’t come up empty, and his reputation would take a hit either way.

Li Wangyue clutched a thin piece of paper, the same way Ting Zhenxi held his fragile life in his hands.

Professor Liu wasn’t there—just the new teaching assistant. Li Wangyue handed in his application, planning to apologize to Professor Liu in person another day.

As soon as he left campus, a message came from Li Ping, saying Ting Zhenxi had taken her somewhere.

Li Wangyue froze, then called right away, but Ting Zhenxi didn’t pick up.

Just as he was about to call again, Ting Zhenxi sent a photo without a word.

It was Li Ping at the hospital getting checked out, looking like nothing was seriously wrong.

Afraid he might freak out, Li Wangyue asked where he was and said he’d come over. The next second, a flashing number popped up on his screen.

Li Wangyue quickly answered.

“What now? It’s only been a few days, and you already miss me that much?” Ting Zhenxi’s voice was lazy and tired.

“Where’s my mom? What hospital?” Li Wangyue asked.

“She’s fine, don’t worry about it,” Ting Zhenxi said casually. “And you—your mom’s been coughing for ages, and you couldn’t even take her to the doctor? I had to do it for you. Don’t you have any shame?”

Li Wangyue was at a loss for words.

“…The address,” he forced out.

“Too far. You can’t make it.” Ting Zhenxi changed the subject. “Is your professor disappointed in you?”

He was talking about the withdrawal application.

“He wasn’t there. I had someone pass it along. Didn’t get what you wanted,” Li Wangyue said coldly.

“But you always give me what I want, don’t you?” Ting Zhenxi said. “I took your mom for a check-up, and it wasn’t cheap. How are you going to pay me back?”

“I’ll pay you back the money.”

“Mm. And the favor? How will you repay that?”

“…What do you want me to do?”

“You really think I want you to repay a favor?” Ting Zhenxi laughed in response. “Think you’re that important?”

That tone again.

Li Wangyue gripped his phone tightly. “When can my mom come back?”

“Soon. You haven’t answered my question.”

Li Wangyue was silent for a long time before asking, “Do you want the truth?”

“Go ahead.”

“I don’t know what you want, and I don’t care anymore. When I moved in, you weren’t happy. When I wanted to leave, you weren’t happy either. I can never satisfy you, and now I don’t even want to try. I can’t go to Wado Island anymore, I’ve lost my job, and my mom is in your hands. I’m just begging you to be merciful. I won’t do anything anymore. Whatever you say, I’ll accept it. Just leave everyone else alone.”

Ting Zhenxi listened quietly, then after a long pause, said, “Don’t sell yourself short. You can satisfy me pretty well. This, I’m very satisfied with.”

A video popped up.

Li Wangyue accidentally tapped it, and instantly felt that all his reasoning and rationality were futile. He couldn’t have a proper conversation with this person.

The video was aimed right at his face—his closed eyes, his tears, the blood he had bitten from his own lip.

One of Ting Zhenxi’s eighteen cameras was hidden by his pillow.

Every night, as he obsessively caressed the wall separating him from Ting Zhenxi, Ting Zhenxi saw it all.