Chaosheng?
Chaosheng, can you hear me?
It’s okay, it’s okay, I’m here.
I’m right by your side, don’t be afraid.
Just as Zhou Chaosheng sank into that cold and suffocating subconsciousness, he heard someone speaking beside his ear. The voice was distant, as if wrapped in a vacuum, not very clear.
But he felt a trace of warmth.
As his consciousness returned, he belatedly realized that he was being held in someone’s arms. That embrace was familiar and warm, the other’s steady breath brushing against his neck, making him feel, for the first time in a long while, like he had come back to life.
He opened his eyes in the darkness, wanting to see the face in front of him clearly—or rather, he wanted to remember the other person deeply in this moment, so that in the days to come, when he recalled today and the things he had experienced in the past, what he felt would no longer be disgust, coldness, or despair etched into his bones.
At some unknown point, the elevator had stopped. After the intense thumping of his heartbeat passed, Zhou Chaosheng finally heard Jiang Yuanye exhale lightly.
He opened his mouth, wanting to say, “I’m okay,” but no matter what, he couldn’t make a sound.
His vocal cords were still trembling. The memories sealed inside Pandora’s box hadn’t completely disappeared—they were becoming clearer with time.
At this moment, Jiang Yuanye didn’t mind his silence, nor did he need him to expose the deepest fears in his heart. He simply held him even tighter, without a word.
Jiang Yuanye turned on the flashlight on his phone and placed it upside down on the floor, letting the light scatter in all directions.
“Chaosheng, are you okay?”
Zhou Chaosheng exhaled and said, “Mm, I’m okay...”
After a pause, he added, “Thank you.”
Jiang Yuanye didn’t speak. Instead, he lowered his head and kissed his forehead, then kissed away all the tears hanging from his eyes.
Zhou Chaosheng was slightly stunned, and then a hard-to-describe pounding of his heart echoed violently in his chest, even overpowering the buzzing that had previously been caused by fear.
Just as he was about to say something, the tightly closed elevator doors were forcefully pried open from the outside.
Jiang Yuanye thought the emergency button earlier had worked, and that the rescue team had come to save them.
“See? I told you it’d be fine.”
Even after just experiencing a dangerous elevator incident, Jiang Yuanye still instinctively worried about his condition.
While Zhou Chaosheng felt warmth, his sixth sense, for some reason, still couldn’t shake a faint, lingering unease deep in his heart.
The doors were forcefully pried open to both sides.
Zhou Chaosheng heard the clanging sound of iron crowbars hitting the metal doors.
Immediately after, a group of people in black clothes came into view in Zhou Chaosheng’s eyes. There were quite a few of them—at least more than ten.
Once they pried the doors open, those black-clad individuals rushed in with wooden sticks, and without a word, struck down hard from behind the unsuspecting Jiang Yuanye.
Zhou Chaosheng’s eyes suddenly widened. He quickly raised his hand to block the strike for him, but his body hadn’t fully recovered from its stress response. He was struck again with force, and for a moment, he couldn’t fight back as calmly as he used to.
By the time Jiang Yuanye sensed something was wrong, it was already too late.
Even with his skilled martial arts, he couldn’t withstand those black-clad men who had received special training—especially since they were equipped with electric batons.
Before he could do much to fight back, Jiang Yuanye was ambushed and knocked unconscious right in front of Zhou Chaosheng’s eyes.
Thud
The dull sound of Jiang Yuanye collapsing to the ground.
At the same time he fell, it also struck Zhou Chaosheng’s heart hard. For the first time since he was five years old, he again felt the kind of fear that came from someone gripping his heart tightly.
Just as one of the black-clad men raised a weapon again, intending to finish Jiang Yuanye off, Zhou Chaosheng, despite his weakened body, lunged forward and pulled him into his arms to shield him from the blow.
—
In the final second before losing consciousness, what he thought of wasn’t his own safety afterward, but regret that he had never once said to Jiang Yuanye
I love you.
---
Not knowing how long he had been unconscious, when Zhou Chaosheng opened his eyes again, he found himself in a strange and luxuriously decorated room.
As soon as he opened his eyes, what came into view—besides the intricately patterned ceiling—was Liu Huaichuan’s face, suddenly magnified.
"Chaosheng, you’re finally awake! How do you feel, is there anywhere that still hurts?"
The affectionate tone made Zhou Chaosheng feel extremely uncomfortable. The coldness and restraint around his ankle made him frown slightly. "Liu Huaichuan, do you know this is a crime?"
Liu Huaichuan smiled. "I know."
Zhou Chaosheng endured the disgust he felt and tried to sit up to negotiate a “friendly” talk.
But the other pressed his shoulder down. "Chaosheng, your body needs rest. Don’t get up yet."
Zhou Chaosheng shook off his hand and said coldly, "Don’t touch me with your filthy hands."
Liu Huaichuan froze, then really didn’t touch him again and even took a step back.
Zhou Chaosheng was still injured. Every movement sent sharp pain like an electric drill through his nerves, but he kept a straight face and pushed himself up to lean against the headboard, looking at Liu Huaichuan. "Why?"
Liu Huaichuan lowered his gaze. When he looked at Zhou Chaosheng again, there was an inexplicable obsession and madness in his eyes.
"Because I like you, Chaosheng."
Zhou Chaosheng fell silent. He suddenly recalled Liu Huaichuan’s behavior that night and thought of the last phone call Jiang Yuanye answered. He finally understood. "So the call from Gao Zeming was your setup?"
It was obvious, yet Liu Huaichuan spoke in the tone of a kindergarten teacher praising a child who just learned to talk. "As expected of Chaosheng, still so smart."
Zhou Chaosheng: "…Who are you really?"
"You don’t remember me?" Liu Huaichuan showed a hurt expression but quickly smiled again. "It’s okay, Chaosheng. Even if you don’t remember, we can get to know each other all over again."
Zhou Chaosheng: "…"
The next second, Liu Huaichuan suddenly leaned close, both hands on the blanket, trapping him at the head of the bed. "Chaosheng, do you think I look good right now?"
To be honest, Liu Huaichuan wasn’t unattractive. He had a fair face, wore a white sweater and silver-rimmed glasses that gave off a scholarly air. In a suit, he appeared refined and elegant—definitely the type to make netizens scream.
But Zhou Chaosheng said, "You’re sick."
Liu Huaichuan didn’t get angry, instead laughed more happily. "Yes, I’m sick. So sick only you can cure me."
Zhou Chaosheng: "…"
Faced with a mentally unstable lunatic, Zhou Chaosheng lost all patience. No matter how attentive or affectionate Liu Huaichuan acted afterward, Zhou Chaosheng ignored it completely.
"Chaosheng, rest well. I’ll come see you tomorrow."
After speaking, Liu Huaichuan reluctantly withdrew his gaze and left.
Watching his back, Zhou Chaosheng finally couldn’t hold back the expression of deep disgust.
The next day, meals were delivered on time. He didn’t refuse them but insisted the delivery person taste the food first. Only after confirming it was safe did he begin to eat.
During this, Liu Huaichuan asked him why he wasn’t taking a shower.
"Chaosheng, you can go to the bathroom. Don’t you have serious cleanliness issues?"
Zhou Chaosheng kept his eyes lowered, not sparing him a glance. "Shower so you can watch?"
Liu Huaichuan was surprised. "How did you know?"
Zhou Chaosheng sneered. "Liu Huaichuan, are you a pervert?"
Whatever about that statement pleased Liu Huaichuan, he ended up having the twenty-two hidden cameras in the bathroom removed.
While the cameras were being taken out, Liu Huaichuan dragged over a chair and sat beside the bed, chattering about all kinds of trivial matters—from what he ate in the morning to his years abroad. Zhou Chaosheng nodded perfunctorily, actually taking none of it in. His mind was solely focused on Jiang Yuanye.
Liu Huaichuan talked for about an hour and a half. Just like the previous night, he left again. Before leaving, he suddenly turned back with a smile. "Oh right, Chaosheng, I forgot to tell you something."
That made Zhou Chaosheng finally react. "…What?"
Liu Huaichuan’s smile turned eerie. "Ah, sorry. I forgot."
Zhou Chaosheng didn’t even bother rolling his eyes at him.
After Liu Huaichuan left, Zhou Chaosheng’s expression turned from blank to deeply worried.
He hadn’t brought up Jiang Yuanye at all in front of Liu Huaichuan, afraid this lunatic would do something horrible to him.
This lunatic’s emotions were completely unpredictable—one moment laughing, the next crying—no telling what he was doing. But the one thing Zhou Chaosheng was certain of was that Liu Huaichuan had developed a pathological obsession with him very early on. Yet no matter how he searched his memory, he couldn’t recall anyone with a similar face. What did linger in his mind, though, was a pair of eyes that reminded him of a boy from junior high—the one who had once pleasured himself in the bathroom while staring at a photo of him.
But that boy hadn’t been even a tenth as good-looking as Liu Huaichuan was now.
Whether it was because he’d grown into his looks or had undergone plastic surgery, Zhou Chaosheng didn’t care. The only thing that mattered to him was when someone would finally find this place and get him out.
He’d been trapped here for nearly two days now and still hadn’t heard a single word about Jiang Yuanye. That left him with a sense of growing anxiety from the loss of control.
Fortunately, Liu Huaichuan seemed determined to take the "slow boil" approach—thinking that spending every day with him would eventually stir up some sort of affection. While it was annoying to have the man constantly lingering nearby, it wasn’t a bad way to buy himself more time.
Zhou Chaosheng looked down at the thick, black chain wrapped around his ankle. It was heavy and solid, fixed deep into the wall, but long enough that he could still move around the room, including into the bathroom near the door.
As he stared at it, Jiang Yuanye’s figure suddenly flashed through his mind.
For just a moment, he thought he understood Liu Huaichuan’s twisted sense of love.
But even if Jiang Yuanye were locked in a cage, stripped of all freedom, Zhou Chaosheng still preferred the version of him that lived in the sunlight—free, vibrant, joyful. That Jiang Yuanye didn’t even need to do anything. Just standing there, he would draw Zhou Chaosheng’s eyes without effort.
Like the sun—blazing, dazzling, radiant.
Zhou Chaosheng let out a quiet sigh.
He missed Jiang Yuanye. So much.