PBMM CH31

Almost the very second the liquid drug was injected into his body, the itchiness all over him vanished. The agony and despair rising from the depths of his heart were swallowed whole. The youth’s pupils abruptly dilated. As he caught his breath, his firmly bound limbs stopped struggling and finally relaxed.

So comfortable—

So euphoric—

He Qing’s forehead was covered in sweat. Panting, he turned his head with great difficulty toward Feng Xinyang, his eyes filled with a hollow euphoria. This euphoria lingered briefly before disappearing, leaving behind only physical soreness. Looking at Feng Xinyang, he opened his mouth, his voice hoarse and strained. “What is…”

Feng Xinyang pulled out the needle, gently stroking the youth’s sweat-drenched forehead. His eyes brimmed with tenderness as he said slowly, “It’s vn.”

“vn…?” The youth’s long eyelashes fluttered, his eyes still seemingly glistening with tears. Having just been relieved of the pain, it took him a long time to remember. “It was that kidnapper… no, it was Lin Wan…”

He looked slightly bewildered, wanting to turn his head to look at the needle mark on his arm, but was unable to move because he was tied down so tightly. He Qing shifted his arm, a look of pain surfacing in his eyes. “Am I… incurable…”

At the mention of Lin Wan’s name, a glint of coldness flashed through Feng Xinyang’s eyes. Seeing the youth’s bewildered and pained appearance, he hurriedly comforted him softly. “No, A-Qing. The doctor said as long as the dosage is controlled well, you’ll be fine.”

“Ning Feng and the others refuse to give you the medicine. They tie you up and watch you suffer helplessly, but I won’t, A-Qing. I won’t watch you suffer!” Feng Xinyang said urgently, “A-Qing, come with me. Staying here will only make you suffer!”

He Qing stared blankly at the man. Thinking of the torment he had just endured, a trace of fear flashed through his eyes. The onset of vn withdrawal was truly not something a human could endure!

Catching this trace of fear, Feng Xinyang felt even more confident. The handsome man gently wiped the beads of sweat from the youth’s forehead. After the blows of the past few days, the once arrogant, childishly confident playboy now carried a hint of maturity. He gently grasped the hands that were bound so tightly by the restraint straps that they were bleeding, coaxing seductively, “A-Qing, you are in so much pain, yet Ning Feng still refuses to let you have the medicine. He doesn’t care about you at all. But I’m different. We love each other, you are my baby. I won’t let you suffer, I won’t let you be sad. Trust me, okay?”

The youth looked with reddened eyes at the man whose face was full of tenderness. He was waiting for an answer with absolute confidence, but the flamboyance and sunshine that the youth used to love were no longer visible on that face.

He parted his dry, cracked lips. Under Feng Xinyang’s expectant gaze, he squeezed out a few hoarse words from his throat. “I don’t dare…”

Feng Xinyang froze, hurriedly asking, “Don’t dare what? Are you afraid of Ning Feng? Don’t be scared, as long as you willingly leave with me, even Ning Feng can’t do anything to me!”

He Qing shook his head with slight, strained movements. Looking at the lover before him, his gaze was calm yet desolate. He said softly, “I don’t dare… trust you…”

Feng Xinyang’s determined expression faltered. He looked at the youth stiffly, almost unable to believe his ears. “A-Qing, what, what did you say?”

“You would… harm me…” the youth said laboriously, word by word. “Ning Feng… wouldn’t…”

Feng Xinyang was stunned.

“A-Qing… before, it was Yan Xizhi and Zhao He, they set a trap to deceive me. I wanted to protect you. The ones who hurt you were them!” He trembled, trying to explain. “This time, this time with your hands, it was also Yan Xizhi and Zhao He’s fault. I didn’t do anything! I am the one you should trust the most!”

“Ning Feng! What the hell is Ning Feng?! We are the lovers, A-Qing!”

Looking at the man acting like a jumping clown, He Qing’s eyes were calm. His speech became slightly smoother as he said slowly, “That night… you made me sick.”

“We haven’t been lovers for a long time—”

Feng Xinyang stood frozen in place. Deep in his heart, the pain gradually crept up. Pale-faced, he slowly stood up, leaned over, and placed a kiss on the brow of the defenseless youth. “It’s okay, A-Qing. You will return to my side again.”

He reached out, touching the youth’s icy cheek, and forced a bitter smile. “You will understand who truly loves you the most.”

Ning Feng pushed the door open, only to see the youth lying quietly on the white hospital bed with his eyes tightly closed. His heart skipped a beat. He quickly walked to the bedside and placed his slender fingers under the youth’s nose. Only when he felt the even, shallow breaths did he let go of his suspended anxiety.

Although he was asleep, his brows were tightly furrowed. Ning Feng reached out and gently smoothed them out for him. From the corner of his eye, he caught sight of the dark red on He Qing’s wrists and abruptly stopped. He looked at the sleeping youth and carefully undid the protective restraints.

The bloodstains left by the tight bindings looked shocking against the fair wrists. As the man lifted He Qing’s hands, he finally realized just how frail and thin the youth was. Those slender wrists looked as though they could be snapped with just a little force. Placed next to the heavily bandaged hands, it made one’s heart ache even more.

It was very strange. He was clearly right beside He Qing, holding his hand, yet that familiar pain swept through his entire heart. Ning Feng let out a muffled groan. Even though it hurt so much that cold sweat broke out, the hand holding the youth’s remained gentle and careful.

The person lying on the bed slowly opened his eyes, meeting the gaze of the man holding his hand. Their eyes met, and the youth revealed a slightly pale smile. “Ning Feng, you’re here.”

Thump! Thump!

His disobedient heart completely forgot the terrifying pain from before and began to beat fiercely. He parted his lips, wanting to say something, but it eventually turned into: “I brought some medicinal soup from the doctor. Your hands are hurt, I will feed you.”

He Qing docilely leaned into the man’s embrace, letting him feed him the medicinal soup spoonful by spoonful. The pain in his hands and the damage brought by vn had weakened the already not-so-healthy youth to the extreme. Like dominoes, once one fell, the rest couldn’t hold up either.

Just after finishing the meal, He Qing’s newly smoothed brows furrowed once again. He was no longer calm and peaceful as before, but began to breathe through his mouth with slight unease, his face growing agitated. He tightly closed his eyes, constantly trying to calm himself, but to no avail.

“A-Qing…” Ning Feng tightly hugged the increasingly agitated youth, placing an oxygen mask over his face. “It’s okay, it’s okay, you’ll be cured very soon…”

Feeling He Qing convulsing in his arms, fear sprouted from the bottom of Ning Feng’s heart. If A-Qing really left… No! He wouldn’t! A-Qing would definitely stay well by his side! Nothing bad would absolutely happen!

“Ugh—” Even with the oxygen mask, the youth’s face didn’t improve. The agony of suffocation was solved, but the itchiness surging from the deepest parts of his body could only be endured forcefully. He Qing thrashed violently in Ning Feng’s embrace. Completely forgetting that his hands were injured, he moved his arms, trying to scratch himself. After being stopped in time by the man, his expression became even more agitated. The youth opened his eyes, mumbling an incoherent demand to Ning Feng: “Give me the medicine…”

Ning Feng froze, holding the youth tightly to prevent him from hurting himself, still coaxing him verbally: “Be good, A-Qing, there is no medicine for this illness. As long as you push through this period, you will definitely get better…”

The youth’s last sliver of lucidity clearly knew that Ning Feng was right. He couldn’t be injected with vn again, otherwise he truly would never be able to quit. But… but it really was so unbearable…

“Ten thousand ants biting the heart” wasn’t just a figure of speech. He Qing felt as if he were currently being gnawed on by countless tiny ants. His limbs, his brain, his abdomen, even his heart—an endless itch enveloped him. Aside from letting out a few agonized cries, he could do absolutely nothing else!

Yan Xizhi hadn’t slept all night. He sought out every medical expert he could contact, exhausting all his connections, before finally getting a definitive answer from an old expert who had studied vn for quite some time.

If the patient didn’t know they had been injected with vn, but rather treated it as a short-term illness flare-up, relying on psychological factors—as long as they endured for at most a month, waiting for the physical effects of vn to be metabolized—they could completely shake off this damn vn!

This matched the doctor’s suggestion, but what was even more authoritative was that the old expert actually had patients who had recovered through psychological factors!

This wasn’t just a theory! It could actually be cured! As long as they kept it from A-Qing and endured for a month, he could gain a new lease on life!

Yan Xizhi couldn’t wait to go see A-Qing and tell him that his illness would be cured in just one more month!

Also, he had to tell Ning Feng to absolutely never inject A-Qing again. The old expert had said that if the first time was luring someone into addiction and was half-forced, by the time of the second vn injection, no matter how strong a person’s willpower was, as long as they were human, they wouldn’t be able to resist the agony that would be a hundred times more severe than before!

Thank goodness! Thank goodness their previous conclusion was not to give A-Qing the injection!

As long as A-Qing could be well, even if he had to die, he would be willing!

At this moment, the youth was amidst his agony. Uncontrollably, his mind began recalling how, after Feng Xinyang gave him the vn, the itchiness had completely vanished, leaving that euphoric, floating-in-the-clouds feeling—

The youth abruptly curled his body up, his teeth biting down hard on his lip. No! He couldn’t! If he got hooked on this stuff, he would truly be ruined!

But it was so unbearable…

So agonizing…

He might as well just die. If he died, it wouldn’t hurt anymore…

In the midst of his dazed despair, who was calling his name by his ear…

“A-Qing, endure it, be a good boy… it’s okay… it’s okay…”

“I will protect you… be good…”

Being called by such a gentle voice, the youth sobered up for a split second, but it was only for a split second. The itchiness wouldn’t subside because of Ning Feng’s voice. He curled up tightly, his lips already bitten until they bled, yet he persisted in refusing to cry out in pain.

Ning Feng had never had a moment of such panic. Even when he himself had suffered five years of agonizing heart pain, never finding a moment’s peace, he had never felt so defeated. The person he liked was being tortured, yet besides watching, he could do absolutely nothing.

The man hugged the person in his arms tightly. “A-Qing, be good A-Qing…”

“Ah!!” Unable to bear it any longer, a despairing, agonizing scream echoed through the hospital room. The youth’s face was covered in tears. He still struggled, wanting to scratch his body, but his fractured hands were wrapped so tightly he couldn’t even scratch an itch.

“It’s so unbearable!! Let me die!! Let me die!!” The young doctor was gentle no more. He thrashed and struggled desperately like a madman. And Ning Feng, terrified of hurting him, didn’t dare use too much force, actually allowing him to break free. With a clear target, he stumbled toward the window.

Yan Xizhi pushed the door open with a smile playing on his lips, but upon seeing the scene before him, the smile froze on his face.

“A-Qing!!”