EPISODE 2

Cen Wu's palms were drenched in cold sweat. With so many people in the box, he was already on the verge of suffocation, and to make matters worse, Xie Guilan was staring at him with an indifferent and icy gaze. His mind went blank.

It wasn't until the heavy, carved door of the box was suddenly pushed open that the eerie silence was broken.

Xie Shangjing stood in the doorway. He wore a silver cartilage piercing in his ear, and a half-smoked cigarette dangled from his teeth. The hazy smoke curled around his handsome but dangerous face, giving off an air of menace and indolence.

"Xie," everyone rose to their feet.

Xie Shangjing didn't spare them a glance. He toyed with a lighter in his hand, the soft click echoing as he walked over and sat down on the sofa. He looked at Cen Wu and asked with a smirk, "So, have you cooled off yet?"

Tonight, they had been horse riding at the racecourse, but a sudden downpour had brought them to the clubhouse, another property of the Xie family attached to the racecourse, where only members were allowed entry.

Xie Shangjing often brought the original owner and the others here to hang out.

Just a while ago, Xie's father had called the racecourse. Xie Shangjing had stepped out for a few minutes, and by the time he returned, Cen Wu had changed.

Cen Wu was worried that Xie Shangjing would drag Xie Guilan outside for another beating. He pursed his lips and obediently nodded, "...Yes."

"Good," Xie Shangjing turned his head towards Xie Guilan and said coldly and mockingly, "The young master has forgiven you. Why don't you thank him and clean the mud off his shoes?"

Cen Wu was stunned. Only then did he notice his wet and muddy shoes, the boot tops stained and sticky.

Blood... Cen Wu's scalp tingled. It was Xie Guilan's blood.

To bully someone and then make them clean the blood off your shoes? That's sick.

You're something else, aren't you, brother?

The room burst into laughter, and someone even grabbed Xie Guilan's hair, forcing his head down to Cen Wu's feet.

"Young Master Xie is right!"

"Make him lick it! Make him lick it! Young Master, make him kneel and lick your shoes clean!"

Xie Guilan lay disheveled at Cen Wu's feet, his hot breath almost brushing against Cen Wu's ankles.

Cen Wu was so frightened that he quickly stepped back. This scene wasn't in the original novel. Could they stop piling on the enemies?

"I never said anything about licking!" Cen Wu's throat tightened. Remembering the original's tough attitude, he said angrily, "How disgusting. Let go of him. Why are you holding him down?!"

No one expected Cen Wu to suddenly lose his temper. They all stopped, bewildered, and looked up.

"Young Master Xie told you to let go," Xie Shangjing didn't insist. "Then let go."

Cen Wu breathed a slight sigh of relief.

"Indeed disgusting," Xie Shangjing glanced at Xie Guilan's blood-stained body and waved his hand at the nearby bodyguards. The mockery on his face vanished, replaced by a cold tone, "Take him away. I'll handle the rest later. Get him out of here before he ruins everything."

The bodyguards didn't dare to disobey and immediately acted, "Yes, young master!"

Cen Wu's heart sank again.

Xie Shangjing was handsome, from a prestigious family, and even ranked in the top three of his grade. He was just a month older than Xie Guilan and, like Xie Guilan and the original owner, was in his second year of high school.

The entire upper-class circle of Huai Jing regarded Xie Shangjing as a true heavenly prodigy.

But Cen Wu knew better—he had read the original novel. He knew Xie Shangjing was secretly dark, ruthless, and insane.

Whenever Xie Shijing provides medical fees, he never lets Xie Guilan off easily. Tonight was no exception.

In the original story, after everyone had left the racecourse, Xie Shijing had someone break Xie Guilan's right wrist and finger bones, and made him kneel for half the night before calling a doctor.

He even placed his riding boot on the protagonist's broken finger bones, leisurely grinding it in as he humiliated him, saying, "Since you can't control your hands, I'll do it for you."

"Aren't you interested in the medical fee?"

"Is it enough?"

Xie Guilan wasn't completely crippled, but his right hand was left with a chronic issue. Because of the injury, he missed the provincial chemistry competition.

In the original story, Xie Guilan was cold and indifferent. Even after being taken back by his wealthy parents to the Cen family, he wasn't close to them. He was like an isolated snow-covered mountain, and the only thing that made him seem human was his deep grudges—he was vengeful and repaid every slight a thousandfold.

After his hand injury, Xie Guilan often wore black gloves. Even when he became a rising business tycoon in Huai Jing, he never took them off. No one knew how much blood was stained on them.

"Wait..." Just as Xie Guilan was about to be taken away, Cen Wu's lips moved, his heartbeat quickening and thumping in his chest. He mustered the courage to speak, "Wait!"

Cen Wu's voice wasn't loud but clear and crisp, even overpowering the faint sound of the heavy rain.

The box became much quieter in an instant.

Cen Wu had given up on relying on Xie Guilan; he just wanted to gain some goodwill for a chance to escape.

"What now?" Having been stopped again, Xie Shijing's expression darkened, his eyes narrowing as he stared at him. The cigarette in his fingers burned quickly, the bluish smoke making his eyes seem deep and unpredictable.

Cen Wu didn't dare to help Xie Guilan up, fearing that Xie Shijing might sense something and stop them from leaving. After all, Xie Guilan was still considered an illegitimate child by the Xie family.

Cen Wu took a step forward. Though he wasn't an actor, after years in the circle, he had some acting skills.

He roughly grabbed Xie Guilan's collar, trying to yank him up, but couldn't budge him.

Cen Wu glanced down at his own pale, slender wrist.

"..."

Puny.

Cen Wu's face was quite deceptive. His black, messy hair framed his face, making his skin appear even whiter and his lips redder. His beautiful eyes, like mountain birds, looked cold and misty, giving off an air of misty clouds.

Without the original owner's hysteria, his expressionless face made it seem like he was genuinely angry.

Even the red-haired guy fell silent. It wasn’t until he felt a chill and met Xie Shijing’s cold gaze that he realized he had been lost in thought, staring at Cen Wu.

The red-haired guy shrank back, quickly averting his eyes, not daring to look again.

The atmosphere in the box had been tense, but at that moment, everyone fell completely silent. The youth’s icy, strikingly beautiful face was like a night-blooming flower.

Did Cen Wu always look like this?

Xie Shijing’s Adam’s apple bobbed as he flicked off the ash from his nearly burnt-out cigarette. His tone softened when he spoke again, "What is it?"

Fortunately, the protagonist of an overpowered story is hard to kill. Even after being beaten like this, Xie Guilan could still stand up on his own, though his knees wobbled from kneeling for so long.

"I find this disgusting, but... I didn’t say I’d let him off," Cen Wu grabbed Xie Guilan again, subtly shielding him. In a spoiled tone, he said to Xie Shijing, "Brother Shijing, I want him. Let me teach him a lesson."

Xie Guilan's dark eyes, hidden beneath his messy bangs, had a cold, pale complexion and an unnatural calm and gloom for someone his age. As he lowered his gaze, his eyes met the top of Cen Wu’s head.

Cen Wu’s face was a mask of icy disdain, but his pale ears, peeking out from under his dark hair, were flushed scarlet from the tremors running through him. His ears twitched backward, and the hand pressed against Xie GuiLAN's chest was also trembling.

He had no courage, just fear.

Cen Wu wondered if he had hallucinated from eating something strange before bed—why else would there be so many people around him?

His head spun, and his vision blurred.

To keep from fainting, he subtly leaned on Xie GuiLAN’s arm for support. The moment his palm touched Xie GuiLAN, the other’s arm tensed up immediately, the muscles hard to the touch.

The lighting in the compartment shifted constantly, and now only a few gilded vintage wall lamps were lit, casting a vague and dim glow.

The others were standing far away, so even though Cen Wu’s voice was strained, they didn’t notice anything amiss.

Xie GuiLAN glanced away in disgust, clearly not trusting Cen Wu’s motives. He didn’t know what tricks Cen Wu was hiding, but it certainly wasn’t to save him.

He remained silent, his face unreadable, as if the humiliation and abuse weren’t happening to him at all.

"Brother Shangjing?"

Xie Shangjing didn’t respond, and Cen Wu’s heart tightened. The male lead was too handsome, and he feared that Xie Shangjing might be jealous.

The original owner had a complicated, unresolved relationship with Xie Shangjing. Xie Shangjing was a cold-blooded snake. He might not have genuinely liked the original owner that much, but after Xie GuiLAN was brought into the Xie family, any possibility of being with the original owner vanished.

It was the unattainable that kept one yearning.

The heir of the Xie family couldn’t possibly be a homosexual. If he were the only son, it might have been different, but he was no longer Father Xie’s sole choice.

The original owner didn’t have feelings for Xie Shangjing. The Cen family was an elite family in HuaiJing, and when Guan Xingxue gave birth, the conditions in the mountainous area were poor. Coincidentally, the original owner had been sickly since childhood, and the family had always believed it was due to his premature birth, so they doted on him excessively.

No one ever suspected that the child had been switched.

If he wanted to, he could marry eight men at the same time and sleep with eight male models every night!!!

Only someone out of their mind would cater to the young master.

But he didn’t dare refuse Xie Shangjing’s advances, knowing that angering him could mean disaster. His fate would be worse than Xie GuiLAN’s if he were found out to be a fake.

After all, he couldn’t get pregnant. At worst, Xie Shangjing might sleep with him a few times. If Xie Shangjing didn’t say anything, neither would he. Who would know?

Cen Wu couldn’t understand and was greatly shocked. What kind of lunatic was this?

Even more lunatic was the fact that in the original story, Xie Shangjing and the original owner actually ended up in bed together. When the truth of the usurpation was discovered, the original owner, having no way out, decided to gamble on Xie Shangjing.

At that time, the Xie family was being retaliated against by the Cen family, and Father Xie was overwhelmed with anxiety, while Xie Shangjing was filled with pent-up anger.

He held down the original owner and began to act out of spite. The original owner, still hoping that Xie Shangjing would save him, didn’t dare to struggle and spent the entire night entangled in bitterness with Xie Shangjing, growing more resentful by the moment.

Xie Shangjing realized that his beloved was nothing more than that, not even as good as sleeping with an 18-line small star.

Xie Shangjing’s gaze was icy and menacing as he pinched the original owner’s chin and said, "I must have been blind to fall for someone like you."

The original owner, raised with utmost care, even when fallen from grace, had no awareness of serving others, and Xie Shangjing certainly wasn’t going to serve him. In short, the experience that night was extremely unpleasant.

Afterward, Xie Shangjing left the original owner without a second thought, too preoccupied with his own troubles to care, leaving him to be captured by Xie GuiLAN and fed to the sharks.

Cen Wu: "…………"

Your heart may be dead, but your mouth isn't. You still force kisses on others; how terrifying.

Fortunately, he arrived at the beginning of the original story, where nothing has happened yet. Otherwise, this dirty bottom might as well be discarded.

"Uncle Xie never acknowledged him, just a bastard," Cen Wu pinched his palm, trying hard to remain calm, "He has the nerve to take the Xie family's money. I'll cripple his hands tonight."

Stealing the villain's lines, leaving the villain with no way out.

Cen Wu had thin lips, a soft shade of red, with a misty look in his eyes. He had a delicate and weak appearance, but his words were sharp and cruel, creating an extreme contrast.

Everyone present felt a chill.

Since the little master of the Cen family dared to say such things, it definitely wasn't a joke. Xie Guiluan was as good as finished.

Originally, some people were fanning the flames, wanting to teach Xie Guiluan a lesson, but now they didn't dare to raise their heads, fearing Cen Wu's wrath.

Xie Shangjing paused.

If Cen Wu had phrased it differently, he might not have agreed. But he hadn't expected Cen Wu to align with his thoughts so perfectly, and even more, to say it outright in public.

So stupid and evil... Xie Shangjing smiled with amusement, a cigarette dangling from his lips, the crimson and cold tip still burning.

He knew Cen Wu was a fool.

But tonight, this fool was especially beautiful, and he was more than willing to indulge his little temper.

"Alright, whatever you say," Xie Shangjing agreed, "Punish him however you see fit."

***Download NovelToon to enjoy a better reading experience!***