PBMM CH33

Feng Xinyang’s arm was still wrapped around the youth. He could feel He Qing’s incredibly dependent posture, and…

He stared blankly at the youth. He Qing’s face was still pale, but the love and dependence in his eyes could be seen clearly. Seeing Feng Xinyang just looking at him without speaking, the youth tilted his head in confusion, his gentle eyes perfectly clear. “A-He? What’s wrong?”

Filled with some worry, he wanted to reach out and touch the face of the person in front of him. But as he extended his hand, he realized both of his hands were wrapped in gauze. The youth looked confused. He tried to move his hands, and the next moment, agonizing pain swept over him. He let out a muffled groan. Feng Xinyang hurriedly put his hands down. “A-Qing, don’t…”

“It hurts so much…” He Qing leaned fragilely in the man’s embrace, grievance and bewilderment in his eyes. “A-He, what happened to my hands?”

Every time he opened his mouth, the two words “A-He” that slipped out were like sharp swords viciously stabbing into Feng Xinyang’s heart. He didn’t dare to stimulate the youth, so he could only carefully force a smile. “A-Qing, don’t you recognize me? I’m Xinyang…”

Facing the man full of expectation, He Qing frowned in confusion. “A-He, what are you talking about? What Xinyang?”

What Xinyang…

Feng Xinyang couldn’t even manage to put on a bitter smile. A-Qing… had he completely erased his existence?

He Qing didn’t know what the man was thinking. He looked around and suddenly sat up straight. “Mom is still waiting for me at home! I have to hurry back!”

With that said, the still weak youth, his face pale, tried to get out of bed. Feng Xinyang didn’t have time to overthink and hurriedly stopped him. “A-Qing, A-Qing, look closely! I am not Zhao He, I am Feng Xinyang, your boyfriend!” His eyes were full of hope as he looked at He Qing almost pleadingly, “Look at me, look at me!”

The youth’s movements paused. The clarity in his eyes gradually turned into a dawning realization as he looked at Feng Xinyang. “You are… Feng Xinyang?” He Qing looked down at himself, seeing his heavily scarred hands and his arm with needle marks. He blankly raised his arm, looking at the puncture marks on it. The despair revealed in his eyes made the man’s heart ache. “I… I’ve been infected with vn…”

Feng Xinyang clenched his fists tightly. The pain from his palms couldn’t match the agonizing pain deep in his heart. A-Qing being this fragile… was all because of him…

If he hadn’t injected the vn to make A-Qing depend on him, if he hadn’t told A-Qing he had vn poisoning, A-Qing… should have been able to be cured…

Even though he knew the truth, looking at the deathly pale youth staring blankly downwards, Feng Xinyang squeezed out a smile. “A-Qing, it can be cured. The doctor said, as long as you don’t inject it for a month, your body will…”

“It’s no use.” The youth raised his numb face, his eyes staring dead at the man, entirely ashen. “I won’t be able to resist it. When the withdrawal hits, I will use every possible method to find vn.”

The expression on Feng Xinyang’s face froze.

Having experienced the nightmare-like withdrawal process, He Qing knew clearly that it was completely impossible for him to resist the effects of the vn drug. He could entirely foresee his ugly appearance, crazily begging people for an injection when the withdrawal hit.

He Qing didn’t want to turn into that ghostly appearance. Even if he had to die, he wanted to die quietly, without drawing attention.

He looked at Feng Xinyang, this man who had single-handedly pushed him into hell, his expression frighteningly calm. “How long do I have to live?”

Reason told Feng Xinyang that he should tell A-Qing right now that he could live, live for a very, very long time. But meeting those eyes that seemed to have seen through everything, his dry lips parted slightly, and he hoarsely told him the time limit Yan Xizhi had mentioned: “Three years…”

“Three years, huh…” the youth repeated blankly. There wasn’t a single spot on his body that didn’t hurt. Even his most fragile heart was occasionally throbbing in pain because of the drug’s effects. This agony would accompany him for three years, and ultimately, he would die a painful death.

He suddenly raised his eyes to look at the man. Tears seemed to shimmer in his eyes, yet his gaze was incomparably firm. “Euthanize me.”

————

“A-He!!” A woman wearing slender high heels threw open the door in a panic and rushed in, charging straight in front of Zhao He, who was handling contracts.

Taking off his gold-rimmed glasses, Zhao He looked up coldly at his fiancée. “Lin Wan, don’t you understand the basic manners of knocking before entering?”

“A-He!” Lin Wan was in no mood to be angry at her fiancé’s cold attitude. She was crying, her face covered in tears, her exquisite makeup smudged, looking both pitiful and ridiculous. “My family is being targeted by Ning Feng! My dad said, he said our family has already been attacked by Ning Feng, the Lin family is bankrupt!”

“They even want to take my dad away! They said he broke the law! What kind of breaking the law is that! Those things… who in business hasn’t done them! Why are they only arresting my dad!” Lin Wan had originally put on beautiful makeup today, intending to find Zhao He for a meal. Hearing this terrible news, she only felt that the sky was falling. She reached out, trying to grab Zhao He’s hand. “A-He, you have to save my dad! And our Lin family! You have to save us!”

Zhao He withdrew his hand without hesitation, not letting Lin Wan reach it. He frowned, looking at the woman crying like rain on pear blossoms in front of him. “You say Ning Feng attacked your family? The reason?”

“How would I know! Our family has never had any grudges or enmity with him, who knows why he would do this! And that Yan Xizhi! He actually interfered too! A-He! Aren’t you friends with them? Go put in a good word for me, please? If our family is finished, my whole life is finished!”

Ning Feng attacking the Lin family was one thing, but Yan Xizhi… didn’t he always hate getting involved in these kinds of things? For some reason, Zhao He felt a faint sense of unease in his heart. He looked at the woman kneeling and begging on the floor. “Why did Yan Xizhi make a move, do you know?”

Hearing this sentence, a trace of guilt flashed through Lin Wan’s eyes, but this guilt was fleeting.

Yes! She had given the order to have He Qing injected with vn. But who was Yan Xizhi? Who in the entire capital didn’t know he was a playboy? Embracing a woman today, changing to a man tomorrow—how could he possibly truly care about that slut He Qing!

Thus, Lin Wan, who should have had reservations, made her move without hesitation precisely because of Yan Xizhi’s past debauched lifestyle.

Although she didn’t feel she had done anything wrong, she wasn’t stupid enough to bring up that man in front of Zhao He. Lin Wan wiped her tears and said with an air of grievance, “Maybe he saw Ning Feng swallowing up our Lin family and wanted to come get a piece of the pie. A-He, I am your fiancée, I can also be considered their sister-in-law. By doing this, they are trampling your face into the dirt, A-He!”

Hearing Lin Wan’s words, Zhao He frowned sharply. Before he could speak, Yan Xizhi’s flippant voice drifted in from outside the door. “Yeah, I am trampling Zhao He’s face into the dirt, so what?”

Zhao He stood up, watching the man with a hideous wound on his face walk in. “Yan Xizhi? Your face?”

“My face…” Yan Xizhi pulled up a cold sneer, pointing to the mangled right half of his face. “Thanks to you.”

“What nonsense are you talking about!” Before Zhao He could inquire clearly, Lin Wan had already screamed and hid behind him, desperately tugging at the clothes on his back. Zhao He resisted the urge to push the person away. After all, Lin Wan had waited for him for eight years. Even though he was disgusted by physical contact with her, at least on the surface, she was still his fiancée. Since she was his fiancée, he couldn’t let others bully her right in front of his face.

Looking at Lin Wan hiding behind Zhao He in terror, a savage grin appeared on Yan Xizhi’s mangled face. Half exquisite, half ruined, it looked incredibly bizarre. “Zhao He, hand over that woman behind you.”

“I won’t leave!!” Before Zhao He could open his mouth, Lin Wan had already shrieked hoarsely. At this point, looking at Yan Xizhi’s hate-filled gaze, even if she were stupider, she would know that this person was coming for her!

Thinking of He Qing, whose hands she had ordered broken and who had been injected with vn, Lin Wan trembled all over in fear. She desperately clung to Zhao He, the only one who could protect her. “A-He, A-He, quickly help me!”

“Yan Xizhi!” No matter how much he disliked this fiancée, their Zhao family had relied on the Lin family to survive back then. Zhao He couldn’t just stand by and watch. He looked coldly at his former friend. “What did Lin Wan do to make you go so crazy!”

“What did she do? Aren’t you perfectly clear?” The half of Yan Xizhi’s face throbbed with pain, but he acted as if he couldn’t feel it. He looked mockingly at the man shielding Lin Wan. “A murderer. I’m just sending her where she belongs.”

Zhao He’s expression slightly blanked. He turned to look at Lin Wan. “You killed someone?”

“I didn’t!” Lin Wan screamed in reply. “I didn’t kill anyone!”

Her expression was far too guilty. Watching her, Zhao He silently accepted in his heart that Yan Xizhi was telling the truth. It was just that, thinking of the engagement cancellation he had been handling recently, and Lin Wan’s eight years of complaint-less waiting, he shielded Lin Wan and turned sideways to look at the beautiful man with a half-ruined face. “Even if Lin Wan really killed someone, it shouldn’t be you taking her away. I will handle this matter. You can leave.”

“That’s right!” The originally shivering woman realized Zhao He was going to protect her and immediately energized. “Not to mention I didn’t kill anyone! Even if I really did kill someone! We should go through legal channels, what business is it of yours, Yan Xizhi!”

“Legal channels!” Yan Xizhi laughed out of sheer anger, his gaze toward the woman full of murderous intent. “When you attacked A-Qing, why didn’t you talk about legal channels?”

Hearing the name ‘A-Qing’, the calm and collected expression on Zhao He’s face instantly changed. He abruptly looked at Yan Xizhi: “What did you say!”

It would have been fine if he didn’t speak, but the moment he did, Yan Xizhi grew even more furious. He looked at Zhao He with hatred. “And you! When you ordered A-Qing’s hands to be broken, fracturing both his hands so he could never be a doctor again, why didn’t you talk about legal channels!”

“You! Lin Wan! None of you can escape!”

The man with half a disfigured face seemed to have crawled up from the depths of hell. His dark eyes glared at them, the hatred and animosity within them practically overflowing. “When you injected A-Qing with vn! Why didn’t you talk about legal channels!!”

Zhao He’s face instantly turned deathly pale. “What are you talking about! What happened to A-Qing?! What fractures, what vn!” He was almost panicking as he processed Yan Xizhi’s words. He dropped the hand shielding Lin Wan, and the man rushed in front of Yan Xizhi. “A-Qing! What exactly happened to A-Qing?!”

“You don’t know?” Yan Xizhi laughed so hard the wound on his face twisted. His smile was filled with manic mockery, and his hands trembled as he pointed at the desperately eager Zhao He, as if he had just seen the biggest joke in the world. “You actually say you don’t know!!”