PBMM CH36

The youth hid under the blanket, watching as the man initially wept silently before eventually breaking down into bitter sobs. He grew even more terrified, looking at Zhao He with panic-stricken eyes, as if the man might violently lunge at him the very next second!

“A-Qing!”

Almost the instant Feng Xinyang pushed the door open and entered, the youth—who had been forcefully holding back his cries—scrambled out of bed barefoot, tumbling and crawling. As he brushed past Zhao He, he didn’t even spare him a single glance.

Zhao He watched numbly as the youth threw himself into Feng Xinyang’s embrace like a baby swallow returning to the nest, his voice choking with sobs and full of grievance, “A-He, where did you go… I, I woke up… and couldn’t see you…”

Feng Xinyang couldn’t care less that the real Zhao He was standing right next to them. Seeing the youth crying non-stop from grievance, he hurriedly comforted him: “I’m sorry, A-Qing. It’s my fault, don’t cry…”

Although his tears continued to fall uncontrollably, the youth still choked back his sobs and nodded, answering with a nasal voice, “Mm! I won’t cry anymore…”

As he spoke, he carefully nestled himself deeper into the man’s embrace. He cast a fearful glance at the pale-faced Zhao He standing frozen in place, and whispered to Feng Xinyang, “A-He, who is he…”

Zhao He had originally thought that after the incident eight years ago, he would never give his heart to anyone again, nor would he ever be hurt again. Yet, hearing the youth call his name while looking at him with the gaze of a stranger, and seeing his small, dependent gestures toward Feng Xinyang…

The tip of Zhao He’s heart throbbed with a dull ache.

It wasn’t an intense agony, but rather like a barb-covered thorn piercing the most fragile, tender flesh. Just a slight movement brought unbearable pain.

How could it hurt this much…

When A-Qing was hurt by him, did it hurt this much too?

He even wanted to rush forward and tell A-Qing that he was the real Zhao He, but in the end, Zhao He only carefully squeezed out a smile, “I am his friend.”

His attitude was friendly enough, but the youth showed absolutely no intention of acknowledging him. He merely shrank into Feng Xinyang’s embrace, not daring to look up. The man patted his back comfortingly, sneering inwardly after catching Zhao He’s unwilling, heartbroken gaze.

Regretting it now? Too late!

As Feng Xinyang slowly tightened his arms around the youth, he suddenly heard the person in his embrace murmur in a dazed tone, as if talking in his sleep: “A-He, what about the Gundam I gave you? It’s not finished yet…”

He Qing seemed to have just remembered it. He looked up, his clear eyes gazing at the man. “Since I’m in the hospital with nothing to do anyway, bring it over so I can finish building it.”

The hands holding the youth froze slightly. Seeing that the youth, whose hands were immobilized, seemed oblivious to this, Feng Xinyang glanced at the equally frozen Zhao He and coaxed with a soft chuckle, “I put it away safely. I’ll bring it over this afternoon, okay?”

The youth nodded obediently, rubbing his eyes and saying softly, “A-He, I’m sleepy…”

Being led to the bed by the man as if he were a child, the youth was tucked in. He closed his eyes and seemed to fall into a peaceful slumber.

The two men, as if waiting for something, did not speak. They stayed in the hospital room in complete silence for over half an hour before finally leaving together.

[They should know by now.] He Qing stretched lazily under the covers and drawled: [Yan Xizhi will tell him.]

[What are you talking about?]

[I’m saying our mission is almost complete!] He Qing shrank back into the blankets and yawned: [It’s time for them to pay their debts too.]

[Debts indeed must be paid.] The system agreed.

—

“That Gundam, is it still there?” As soon as Feng Xinyang asked this, he looked at Zhao He’s consistently gloomy face and scoffed, “How could it still be there? You hated A-Qing so much, you must have destroyed it right then and there!”

Zhao He’s expression had been blank ever since earlier. He said hoarsely, “That Gundam… A-Qing saved up money for a long time to buy it. He wanted to build it secretly and give it to me as a surprise. When I found out, he started building it openly. He worked on it for a month and still wasn’t finished. I even teased him that we’d be thirty by the time it was done. Later… after he left, I smashed it…”

“Smashed into pieces, thrown into the trash bin. It can never be found again…”

His expression looked like he was crying yet not crying. He spoke in a hoarse voice practically squeezed from his throat, “A-Qing… can’t be found again either…”

He had always felt that it was A-Qing who betrayed him, dumping all the suffering he endured during that period onto A-Qing. He became withdrawn, apathetic, finding joy only in toying with others. Upon reuniting with the youth, he chose revenge without a second thought.

But after all the back-and-forth revenge, in the end, the retribution fell entirely upon himself…

“Enough! What’s done is done, who are you putting on this face for! Right now, we better figure out how to coax A-Qing back!” Even though he was in a similar state himself, Feng Xinyang’s words remained merciless. Deep down, he was insanely jealous of Zhao He. Every minute, every second, he wished he could take his place. But now, he had to rely on this very person to help him stabilize A-Qing.

“Go bring Lin Wan here.” Zhao He’s back hunched slightly with exhaustion. He looked as if he had aged ten years—not in appearance, but in aura. He closed his eyes, speaking in agony: “Eight years ago, she definitely did something to A-Qing.”

“If we want A-Qing’s mental state to recover, we have to find the root cause of his fear.”

And he was the catalyst that led Lin Wan to attack A-Qing.

Before Feng Xinyang even needed to go look, Lin Wan was already brought back by Yan Xizhi. The man, with a long, gaping wound slashed across his face, looked like an evil spirit as he shoved the bewildered woman into the room. Lin Wan stumbled and fell pathetically in front of the two men. She let out a miserable shriek, only to look up and find the gloomy man staring down at her, his eyes filled with absolute coldness.

“A-He!!” Lin Wan rushed forward and hugged Zhao He’s leg. “A-He, save me! I’ve been infected with ‘vn’! What do I do when the withdrawal hits! What should I do! I’m still young, I don’t want to die! A-He! A-He, save me!”

Zhao He looked down at this woman, who was technically still his fiancée, crying and howling in such a pathetic state. He slowly bent down. His magnetic, gloomy voice hissed like a venomous snake, sliding icily into the woman’s ears: “You are young, was A-Qing not young?”

Lin Wan froze.

She looked at Zhao He in disbelief. “Ah, A-He?”

The gaze Zhao He directed at her was full of loathing. “Lin Wan, eight years ago, what exactly did you do to A-Qing.”

Yan Xizhi circled around from behind, his tone dripping with malice: “You better tell the truth. Otherwise, what awaits you will be far worse than just ‘vn’.”

Lin Wan turned deathly pale, despairingly realizing that the three men standing before her were all looking at her with the exact same icy, disgusted gaze.

The woman slumped limply onto the floor, the needle marks on her arm clearly visible.

—

He Qing sat at the head of the bed, flipping open a book. [Every time I read these memories, I want to viciously slap that woman twice across the face.]

[You are truly merciful.]

[I mean red-hot iron slaps. No, even that isn’t enough. Lin Wan needs to experience exactly what he experienced for it to be fair.]

Eight years ago, Lin Wan became madly infatuated with Zhao He, but Zhao He was always inseparable from a certain teenage boy. That boy was named He Qing.

Lin Wan didn’t directly announce she was pursuing Zhao He; she merely had her father bring her to the Zhao family. She started getting close to Zhao He, but no matter how hard she tried, Zhao He only had He Qing in his eyes!

She didn’t dare show what she truly wanted. She simply pretended to be a normal friend, acting sweet and clever in front of Zhao He, while occasionally creating trouble for He Qing, making him witness countless scenes that sparked misunderstandings.

Until one day, when Zhao He’s family encountered a crisis. Lin Wan was practically ecstatic. She rushed to tell Zhao He that her family could help him, but it might require a marriage alliance. To her utter shock, Zhao He refused.

Just for He Qing, he rejected her.

After learning that He Qing’s father had passed away, she took advantage of the time Zhao He was running around handling his family’s affairs and lured the youth into an abandoned classroom. She couldn’t hit him, otherwise it would leave bruises and he might bite back. Finally, Lin Wan came up with a brilliant idea.

Strip He Qing naked and take photos of him begging pathetically.

As long as she had those photos, coupled with his mother’s weak heart that couldn’t handle stimulation, He Qing would definitely be obedient.

However, even Lin Wan herself didn’t expect that among the friends she brought that day, there was actually one who swung that way and liked He Qing’s type. In the end, if He Qing hadn’t resisted so fiercely, that person might have actually succeeded. And this gave Lin Wan another sudden inspiration.

What was the point of just taking photos!

She had them record a video while ordering the others to pin the teenager’s limbs down, forcing him into various obscene poses. The teenage boys and girls thought it was thrilling and fun, laughing the entire time, while the friend who had almost been kicked in the crotch groped him with lewd intent. Finally, they threw his clothes out the door and swaggered off.

From that day on, He Qing disappeared from the campus. In exchange, Lin Wan became Zhao He’s fiancée, and Zhao He’s personality drastically changed.

Eight years later, Lin Wan returned to the country. Still only a fiancée after eight years, she felt her position was in jeopardy. Right in the midst of her anxiety, she suddenly discovered that the He Qing she had driven away back then had actually reappeared by Zhao He’s side.

Almost immediately, she hatched a plan and had him kidnapped. To confirm whether Zhao He was already back together with He Qing, she informed Zhao He. Ultimately, to Lin Wan’s immense satisfaction, her fiancé didn’t show up. Thus, her original plan to silence him with death changed to injecting him with ‘vn’.

She had seen many addicts and knew what those people looked like during withdrawals. If He Qing was injected, and his ugly withdrawal state was seen by A-He…

But Lin Wan herself never anticipated that the youth, after being forced through that night, had already suffered a complete mental breakdown. Adding his crippled hands into the mix, when the ‘vn’ withdrawal hit, before he even encountered Zhao He, he had already fallen into the lake. The moment he fell into the water, he was still conscious. He knew clearly that he should struggle, that he should swim to the shore, but the ‘vn’ withdrawal wracked his entire body with excruciating pain; he couldn’t even lift his arms. In the end, after a string of bubbles floated to the lake’s surface, all returned to tranquility.

In the final scene, he was covered by filthy waterweeds, his eyes wide open, dying with remaining grievances. And right above him, Zhao He, Feng Xinyang, and Yan Xizhi laughed and joked as they walked across the bridge, discussing where to find their next target.

This was the life of Doctor He Qing.

Closing the book, He Qing quietly calculated the time, yet he still hadn’t received the final notification for Zhao He.

[Oh well.] The youth pursed his lips slightly, revealing a healing smile. [Our A-He, it seems, wants a bit more stimulation.]