He had always known how despicable he was.
Despicable for exploiting Jiang Yuanye’s love. Despicable for resorting to underhanded, manipulative tactics and emotional control to achieve what he wanted—to ensure the other man could never leave him.
He knew it was wrong. He knew it was emotional abuse, mental manipulation. Morally, it was the kind of behavior that deserved the harshest condemnation. But he still did it.
“Jiang Yuanye.”
The moment they stepped out of the bar, Zhou Chaosheng reached back and grabbed his wrist, his voice low. “I’m drunk.”
Jiang Yuanye stopped in his tracks and turned to look at him.
Maybe Jiang Yuanye had seen through his ploy from the very beginning. Right now, he was both angry and helpless, but there was nothing he could do. “I know. That’s why I came to take you home, didn’t I?”
For the past two months, he had always tolerated him without limits. No matter how excessive Zhou Chaosheng was, it always seemed to fall within Jiang Yuanye’s bounds of acceptance.
Zhou Chaosheng stepped closer, narrowing the space between them. He lowered his gaze and stared straight at him, repeating, “I’m drunk.”
Jiang Yuanye didn’t catch on right away, speaking in a coaxing tone like he was talking to a child: “Yes, yes, you’re drunk…”
So clueless. Zhou Chaosheng sighed, then leaned down slightly and whispered into his ear, “Don’t you get it? I don’t want to go home.”
Jiang Yuanye’s breath hitched.
When the meaning finally clicked, his throat tightened a bit, and his voice came out slightly hoarse: “…Then where do you want to go?”
Zhou Chaosheng pulled a keycard out of nowhere, slipped it between his fingers, and casually tucked it into the finely tailored suit pocket of the stunned Jiang Yuanye, chuckling softly: “What do you think?”
Five minutes later.
The two swiped the card and entered the room. As soon as the door shut with a click of a heel, they were practically glued together like magnets. Zhou Chaosheng pressed Jiang Yuanye against the wall and kissed him hard, sucking on his lower lip until it turned red and swollen, his hands roaming down Jiang Yuanye’s waist, pulling him in close. He kissed him until his ears flushed red and his breathing grew erratic, only then did he finally let go. But just seconds later, Jiang Yuanye yanked him back by the back of his neck and launched another round of frantic, wet kisses.
Pressed up against the wall just a moment ago, Zhou Chaosheng was now being pinned instead, as they stumbled from the entryway to the living room couch, locked in a heated struggle for dominance.
As they kissed, they tore at each other’s clothes. Their movements were impatient and urgent, clothing tossed aside piece by piece. With each layer removed, they only clung tighter.
Zhou Chaosheng bent down and kissed the trembling hollow of Jiang Yuanye’s collarbone, his tongue lightly dragging over the sensitive dip. His hands pinned the other’s wrists against the wall as their bodies pressed flush, breath mingling and increasingly ragged.
Only in moments like these would Jiang Yuanye be completely unguarded in front of him, eyes locked on no one else but him.
“You’ll always love me, right?”
Like a conqueror claiming his territory, Zhou Chaosheng kept testing, pushing, trying to confirm something eternal in the other man’s body.
Jiang Yuanye tilted his head to kiss the corner of his lips, as if soothing his unease. “Yeah, I’ll always love you.”
“I did before. I do now. And I will in the future.”
Zhou Chaosheng lowered his lashes. “What if you change your mind?”
“I won’t,” Jiang Yuanye said, gazing at him with helpless affection. “You already know that…”
“I can’t leave you.”
Zhou Chaosheng thought, I can’t leave you either.
Maybe what he was doing really was wrong.
But love itself—isn’t it just one big gamble?
He had bet everything on the table, hoping he could win it all. Otherwise, why sit down in the first place?
If he could, he would rather be the villain—willing to use any means necessary to get what he wanted. Even if it meant stripping the other person of the right to fall for anyone else.
---
The condom was already on. Zhou Chaosheng was loosened up. They were just one final thrust away from going all the way.
But the sudden ringing of a phone shattered the heated atmosphere in the room.
Neither of them paid it any mind at first, still kissing as they stumbled toward the bed, waiting for whoever it was to hang up.
Yet just as Zhou Chaosheng was about to enter, the ringtone sounded again. This was already the fourth call—the other party clearly had something urgent to tell Jiang Yuanye.
At last, Jiang Yuanye lost patience. He reached over to the pants tossed under the bed, fished out the phone that had been buzzing and ringing non-stop.
Seeing that the WeChat call was from Gao Zeming, Jiang Yuanye rolled his eyes in exasperation.
He was going to reject it, but then he noticed the dozens of messages sent beforehand. When he opened one, it read: "Help." That was enough to make him unlock the phone and answer the voice call.
“Yuanye, I’m sending you an address—can you come over?”
Gao Zeming’s voice was frantic. But Jiang Yuanye, now thoroughly annoyed that someone was interrupting them mid-sex at midnight, snapped, “I don’t have time right now. Go find someone else. I’m busy here…”
“I’m sorry, but I really don’t know who else to call. Please, Yuanye—I’m begging you…”
Jiang Yuanye glanced at Zhou Chaosheng, who was lying just as naked beside him, and hesitated. “What happened to you?”
“I—I was drinking and driving, and I hit someone. I’m at the police station right now giving a statement…”
Jiang Yuanye nearly cursed out loud. “Are you fcking—”
Hearing this, Zhou Chaosheng couldn’t help but lift his eyes, as if he were seeing the old, sharp-tongued Jiang Yuanye from before they got close.
He spaced out for a second, realizing how well Jiang Yuanye had been pretending, almost enough to make him forget that this man used to swear like a sailor.
A man who was always the wolf, now pretending to be a harmless little lamb.
“Is the person okay?”
“They’re fine. Just some scrapes. I’ve already paid for their medical fees and compensation. I just… need someone to post bail.”
Jiang Yuanye sighed and rubbed his forehead. He didn’t even bother lecturing him over the phone anymore and said directly, “Where’s your girlfriend?”
Gao Zeming: “…She’s out of town on a business trip. Bro, I seriously have no one else. I don’t want anyone else to know I fucked up this bad… I’m begging you, just come, please…”
Jiang Yuanye was speechless: "Which police station are you at?"
Gao Zeming: "Jingan, Jingan police station."
"Wait a moment." Jiang Yuanye exited the chat interface and opened the map on his phone to check how far Jingan police station was from the hotel he was staying at. If it was far, he could find an excuse to delay, but to his surprise, the police station was less than 600 meters away. Jiang Yuanye was completely speechless, "…Gao Zeming, you're really—."
Gao Zeming chuckled awkwardly a few times, not daring to speak.
Thinking of their years of friendship, Jiang Yuanye suppressed his irritation and said, "Wait there, I'll come to you now."
After hanging up the phone, Jiang Yuanye looked a little guilty as he said to Zhaou Chaosheng, "Sorry, Chaosheng, I have to go over there now. Can you wait here for half an hour?"
Normally, Zhaou Chaosheng wouldn’t mind, but for some reason, after running into Liu Huaichuan tonight, he couldn’t shake off a sense of unease.
"Why not have my bodyguard go in your place?" Zhaou Chaosheng suggested.
Jiang Yuanye was tempted, but after thinking it over, he still felt it wasn’t appropriate. "Forget it, I’ll go myself. I already promised him on the phone."
Zhaou Chaosheng: "…"
As he spoke, Jiang Yuanye bent down to pick up his pants from the floor and quickly put them on. After getting out of bed barefoot, he walked to the foot of the bed and gathered his shirt and tie, slowly restoring himself to the well-dressed image he had when he first came to pick up Zhaou Chaosheng.
"Alright then, I’ll go with you," Zhaou Chaosheng said.
Jiang Yuanye was a bit surprised: "You want to go beat him up?"
Zhaou Chaosheng: "…No, why would I beat him up?"
Jiang Yuanye: "He interrupted our fun."
Zhaou Chaosheng glanced at him, amused: "If you hadn’t softened up and agreed, it wouldn’t have been his business."
Jiang Yuanye was speechless, not about to argue back.
Zhaou Chaosheng didn’t blame him, and said gently: "Alright, toss me my clothes."
Upon hearing this, Jiang Yuanye’s gaze flickered with hesitation: "You sure you don’t want to relieve yourself a bit first?"
Zhaou Chaosheng: "…"
Ten minutes later, Jiang Yuanye used his hand in the bathroom to roughly help Zhaou Chaosheng resolve his erection, and only then did they both finish dressing and leave the room.
The hotel hallway was empty; the bodyguards weren’t waiting outside like usual. Since Zhaou Chaosheng disliked people eavesdropping while he was being intimate with Jiang Yuanye, the bodyguards usually waited in the underground parking lot. But tonight, this seemingly minor detail sparked a thread of unease in him.
At this moment, he could’ve just called the bodyguards upstairs, but he hesitated. After all, he and Jiang Yuanye were two grown men, and they were inside a hotel covered in surveillance. Calling for backup just because of a vague feeling seemed a bit ridiculous.
As they turned the corner to the elevator, Zhaou Chaosheng thought maybe he was being paranoid. How could anyone act against him in such a public place? Unless they had a death wish.
Ding the elevator arrived.
They entered. Jiang Yuanye pressed the close door button. As the doors slowly shut, the unease in Zhaou Chaosheng’s chest inexplicably surged to its peak, a gut feeling that something terrible was about to happen any second.
Watching the floor numbers drop, Zhaou Chaosheng glanced at the oblivious Jiang Yuanye beside him and couldn’t help but think—four bodyguards really weren’t enough. He needed eight, surrounding him from all sides. Even a sniper wouldn’t find an opening.
That thought gave him some peace of mind.
"What’s wrong? You’ve been staring at me. Did I get something on my face?" Jiang Yuanye turned to ask.
"Nothing." Zhaou Chaosheng shook his head.
Jiang Yuanye smiled: "I’m really good-looking, huh?"
Zhaou Chaosheng smiled too: "Yeah, so charming even little girls lose their way."
Hearing “little girls” made Jiang Yuanye remember the scene earlier of Zhaou Chaosheng being hit on. He scoffed: "Not bad, unlike some people who are always attracting bees and butterflies outside."
The jab made Zhaou Chaosheng laugh helplessly. Just as he was about to respond, the elevator suddenly jolted violently.
Zhaou Chaosheng immediately reached out to protect Jiang Yuanye, his sense of foreboding growing stronger. He looked up at the elevator screen, which showed two downward arrows. Logically, the elevator should still be descending.
But now it had stopped. They were trapped between two floors.
Holding onto the handrails, Jiang Yuanye calmly pressed the emergency button on the control panel, then pulled out his phone to check for signal. Seeing there was none, he turned to the frowning Zhaou Chaosheng and asked, "Chaosheng, check your phone to see if you have signal. Don’t worry, we’ll be fine. Right now the eleva—"
Before Jiang Yuanye could finish, the elevator suddenly plunged straight down, like a free-fall ride at an amusement park, as if the whole car was dropping into a void.
This was still not the end. When the elevator suddenly lost power, and the last ray of light disappeared from Zhou Chaoshen’s eyes, the sealed memories were like a Pandora’s box with a lock that opened by itself, countless memories suddenly rushed toward Zhou Chaoshen, dragging him into a hopeless and suffocating abyss.
A basement without a shred of daylight, nauseating vomit, utterly inhuman kidnappers, a bucket of filthy water that made it hard to breathe...
In a place where one couldn't see their hand in front of their face, he finally couldn’t control his legs, suddenly squatting down as if he’d lost all the strength in his body. He leaned against the icy metal, feeling his body temperature drain bit by bit, becoming cold and stiff, difficult to move.
Those torturous and disgusting cockroaches and bugs seemed to crawl over his body once again, densely scattered across every part of him, gnawing at his every inch of skin.
He was about to stop breathing.
Save me... Who can save me...
In the chaotic darkness, he suddenly remembered something he had deliberately forgotten—
When he was five years old, his cries for help received no response.
He fell into deep pain, desperate and inevitable.
It hurts...
It hurts it hurts it hurts it hurts it hurts it hurts it hurts it hurts it hurts it hurts it hurts it hurts it hurts it hurts it hurts it hurts it hurts it hurts it hurts it hurts
So itchy
So disgusting
I want to die
No one, not a single person.
No one could save him.
—
When all the lights in the elevator went out, the first thing Jiang Yuanye thought of was Zhou Chaosheng, and the other’s claustrophobia.
His heartbeat seemed to skip a few beats.
“Chaosheng?”
He didn’t get a response.
During the violent descent, he reached out to touch the other person, but only touched air.
Thump thump thump, thump thump thump, thump thump thump...
The loud sound of his heartbeat nearly drowned out everything else.
He hurriedly held his breath to listen for the other’s breathing.
Rapid, flustered, even carrying a clearly trembling quality.
Jiang Yuanye fumbled in the darkness, finally finding the other person in the corner. The slightly trembling body transmitted a sensation through skin and flesh straight into the depths of his heart; he seemed to feel a stabbing pain along with the other’s fear.
In his past memories, Zhou Chaosheng had always seemed capable of anything, as if nothing in the world was a big deal to him. Favorable family background and innate ability allowed him to stand at the top of the pyramid and overlook the multitudes. He was always aloof, emotionally indifferent, as if he wouldn’t feel anything too strongly—like pain or despair.
But when he felt the other’s trembling shoulders, when he touched the silent tears sliding down the other’s face, he finally realized: Zhou Chaosheng was not invincible.
The other could also be tired, could feel pain, could be afraid of the unknown darkness.
Jiang Yuanye felt his own breathing grow thin with the other’s, and an indescribable pain surged from his heart, even surpassing the fear of his own life being threatened.
He knelt halfway down, reached out and pulled the person curled in the corner tightly into his arms, gently comforting the other: “Don’t be afraid...”
“Chaosheng.”
“I’m here.”