GBROTAH CH32

Xie Zhuowu, waiting by the gate of A University of Technology, received a call. It was from Xie Yuanxing.

A triumphant smile appeared on his face as he answered, “Go ahead and keep me on the blacklist, Xie Yuanxing, still haven’t grown a backbone, huh?”

On the other end of the line, a strange voice indeed sounded, “Are you at the school gate?”

Xie Zhuowu was stunned. “Who are you? Where’s Xie Yuanxing?”

“Look up.”

Xie Zhuowu subconsciously looked up. A strikingly handsome man waved the phone in his hand at him, a casual gesture, an aloof expression, and cold eyes.

This person, he couldn’t afford to offend.

The thought that instantly popped into his mind was interrupted by people who seemed to appear out of nowhere. Two young men said to him, “Xie Yuanxing was called by the teacher, so he asked us to pick you up.”

Xie Zhuowu was led to a car, and only then did he feel something was off. “Why are we getting in the car? Shouldn’t we be going into the school?”

The man in the baseball jacket shoved him roughly, but didn’t say a word, slamming the car door shut with a bang and driving off.

In another car, the burly man with a buzz cut looked at Shen Bianye, “What’s up? Beat him up?”

Shen Bianye sneered, “We’re not thugs.”

“We’ll ask him a few things in a bit, then let him go. We’ll send him back the same way he came.”

Lu Qiang nodded, “Alright, you finally found me. After this is done, shall we go racing?”

“You’ve been playing crazy for two years, racing, skydiving, diving, you’ve done it all.”

“You broke your leg skiing, how did you end up in a prestigious school acting like a good boy?”

Shen Bianye was uninterested, “No, I value my life.”

Lu Qiang: “Damn it, you used to play so crazy, broke two ribs, healed up, and still went racing. Now you’re telling me you value your life?”

“You’ve changed, what’s the point if you don’t play anymore?”

He was also a wealthy scion, born with a silver spoon. When you’re rich to a certain extent, the world becomes boring. Some people get lost in a life of debauchery, while people like Lu Qiang enjoy the thrill of life-and-death situations.

Shen Bianye said indifferently, “Really no, I’ll find you for a drink next time.”

The car stopped at its destination. Shen Bianye got out and walked in unhurriedly. His footsteps echoed in the vast, abandoned reservoir. His expression was calm, his eyes dark.

Deep inside the reservoir, Xie Zhuowu was blindfolded and tied to a chair. “Who are you?”

“Why are you kidnapping me? Let me go! What’s your relationship with Xie Yuanxing?”

Lu Qiang followed closely and asked, “What do you want to ask? By the way, who is this person?”

Shen Bianye didn’t answer, extending his hand to the bodyguards on either side. “Knife, give it to me.”

He stared at Xie Zhuowu, fiddling with the knife in his hand. With a deft flick of his well-defined fingers, the butterfly knife’s blade slid out of its sheath. “From now on, tell me everything that has happened between you and Xie Yuanxing.”

“I’ll make a small cut on your wrist. Don’t worry, it’s not big. You’d better finish speaking before you bleed out and die. I only want to hear the truth.”

He grabbed Xie Zhuowu’s struggling wrist, the sharp blade glinting coldly.

Xie Zhuowu’s wrist stung. In that instant, many thoughts raced through his mind. Perhaps Xie Yuanxing had met someone at college who was willing to help him, but these were just college students, how could they do such a thing?

He thought of what he had seen in TV dramas and loudly blustered, “You’re fucking bluffing! Do you dare?!”

“What cut? There’s no skin broken at all! You’re just trying to scare me with water, damn your whole family!!”

Shen Bianye looked coldly at the arrogant man, tore off the hood from Xie Zhuowu’s head, and with a large hand, violently pressed down on the back of his head, forcing Xie Zhuowu to look at his wrist. “Is it water?”

A small cut on Xie Zhuowu’s wrist was profusely bleeding. The moment Xie Zhuowu saw it, he was completely terrified.

The butterfly knife blade in Shen Bianye’s hand was stained with blood. He lowered his gaze, looking at Xie Zhuowu with an expression reserved for the dead, “You can continue to waste time.”

The hood was replaced on Xie Zhuowu’s head. He had never been so terrified. His covered face was streaming with tears and snot, and he trembled, not knowing where to begin.

He could start, he could start, right, he could start from when he first met Xie Yuanxing.

“Xie Yuanxing is my cousin. We, we, when we first met, he still had his mom. He looked down on me, yes, he looked down on me.”

“He thought our family was poor. He refused to perform piano in front of us. He had a plush toy, just a very ordinary one, and he wouldn’t even give it to me.”

As he spoke of this, Xie Zhuowu was filled with resentment, and even his fear retreated under this hatred. “He looked down on me, looked down on my parents. He thought they were rich so they could be arrogant. I was just a child then, and he wouldn’t even give me the plush toy.”

Shen Bianye suddenly asked, “How many years younger are you than Xie Yuanxing?”

Xie Zhuowu was startled by his sudden question. In the darkness, he couldn’t see anything, only feeling someone fiddling with his hand, and another sharp pain struck.

He was scared to death. The darkness magnified his fear. He stammered, trembling, “One, one year.”

Shen Bianye’s expression was cold, “Continue.”

Xie Zhuowu sat on the chair, but his legs were going soft. He didn’t know how much blood he had lost, so he could only speed up his speech and keep talking. “Later, his mother died in an accident. According to the law, only if we adopted him, he would live with us.”

Shen Bianye: “You abused him.”

Xie Zhuowu’s eyes under the hood suddenly widened, fear mixed with denial: “No! He was ungrateful. He couldn’t do anything right. He even dropped the bowl when getting food. We didn’t dislike him.”

Shen Bianye’s voice was cold, with a hint of ruthlessness, “I want to hear the truth, or do you want another cut on your hand?”

Xie Zhuowu’s teeth chattered, “Really no, really no. What adult doesn’t hit a child? I only occasionally scold him.”

Shen Bianye: “What about the injuries on his shoulder?”

Xie Zhuowu: “He did it himself, he did it all himself.”

“Don’t listen to what Xie Yuanxing says. He actually looks down on us. After being raised by our family for so many years, he still looks down on us.”

Based solely on the text messages he had seen, Shen Bianye knew there wasn’t a single truth in this person’s mouth.

His gaze towards Xie Zhuowu grew colder. He violently kicked Xie Zhuowu, chair and all, to the ground with his long leg.

Shen Bianye couldn’t be bothered to refute Xie Zhuowu’s lies. Instead, he simply said, “So what if Xie Yuanxing looks down on you?”

“He’s so beautiful, what’s wrong with being a little arrogant?”

Xie Zhuowu lay on the ground like a dead dog, bound to the overturned chair, frantically gasping for breath, unable to believe his ears.

Shen Bianye turned around and said indifferently, “Send him back, and contact the best lawyer for me.”

He believed that with Xie Yuanxing’s secretly mischievous personality, he wouldn’t truly have endured all these years in silence.

He likely had some evidence hidden away.

Violence wouldn’t make people cry forever. He wanted this family to lose everything.

Lu Qiang waved his hand, signaling others to handle it, and followed Shen Bianye out, clicking his tongue, “Who is that Xie Yuanxing?”

Although he knew that what the tied-up person said might not be true.

But for Shen Bianye to say such words, the favoritism was simply boundless.

Shen Bianye paused, then said casually, “Nobody, just a Beta.”

Lu Qiang: “When can I meet him? I want to see how pretty he is.”

Shen Bianye casually tossed the knife in his hand, as if unconcerned, and said, “How good-looking can a Beta be? I just said that to piss off that bastard.”

Lu Qiang was suspicious: “Really?”

Shen Bianye hummed, frowning impatiently, “Aren’t you talking a bit too much?”

Lu Qiang spread his hands, “Alright, alright, enough about that. It’s still early, seriously, not going racing with me?”

“We could fly to that new track in C City; it’s only a two-hour flight.”

“I saw that wild streak in you just now. You haven’t truly become a good boy, have you? Come on.”

Shen Bianye: “No, I’m leaving. Going back to school.”

He didn’t have many years left to live, so why tempt fate? He’d be dead before thirty at this rate.

He paused, then turned to Lu Qiang, “Do you have any inhibitors in your car?”

Lu Qiang thought for a moment, then nodded, “Yes, a box, I think.”

The two walked over to Lu Qiang’s car. Shen Bianye opened the inhibitor box, leaning against the G-Wagon behind him, and with a detached expression, injected himself in the arm, one shot after another.

Lu Qiang’s eyelids twitched. He watched, terrified, as Shen Bianye calmly injected the inhibitors.

A box of inhibitors had eight doses. As the box was nearly empty, he couldn’t help but reach out and press down on the box. “That’s enough, still injecting?”

“Do you think you’re water-injected pork? Even pork can’t handle being poked that much.”

Shen Bianye couldn’t explain or articulate the irritability in his heart.

But pheromones were the best indicator of emotions. If he didn’t suppress them with inhibitors, Xie Yuanxing would be choked by his pheromones and tear up again when he returned.

Tsk, annoying.

A Beta, so fragile that they couldn’t endure the scent of pheromones.

So pitiful, as if he were bullying someone.

Seeing Xie Zhuowu’s shameless behavior of twisting facts, he could vaguely imagine how miserable Xie Yuanxing’s life used to be.

Making Xie Yuanxing cry again would seem like his fault.

Shen Bianye discarded the empty inhibitor syringe, opened the car door, and said, “I’m taking your car. Don’t forget what I asked you to investigate. I’ll treat you to a drink next time.”

Lu Qiang, who had come out, exerted effort and even sacrificed his Mercedes-Benz G-Wagon, quietly gave him the middle finger.

In the dorm, Xie Yuanxing received his dinner from Uncle Gao, who always delivered meals. Today, there were extra appetizers before the meal, divided into three layers in an exquisite box: cherry foie gras, smoked salmon, and cantaloupe with ham and bread slices.

The plating was exquisite, and the items were delicate, each only a tiny bit, not filling but excellent for awakening the taste buds.

Xie Yuanxing pursed his lips, holding his chopsticks blankly for a long time, not moving for half a day.

He seemed not to hear the commotion from the dorm door, but his body trembled slightly.

“Why are you spacing out?” Shen Bianye walked over, reached out to touch his face, “Still so cold. I’ll turn on the air conditioning.”

Xie Yuanxing was like a docile cat at that moment, letting him touch his cheek.

Shen Bianye thought of his mother and the cat his mother used to keep. Every time his mother came home, the first thing she did was go and pet her precious cat.

He used to not understand what was so special about a cat that she had to find and pet it as soon as she entered the house, but seeing Xie Yuanxing sitting there blankly, he instinctively reached out.

Just to see if Xie Yuanxing was still cold, he thought.

Caring for a roommate was very different from petting a cat, he thought again.

Shen Bianye found the air conditioner remote, turned on the air conditioner, and the dorm slowly warmed up. He took off his coat and placed it on the back of Xie Yuanxing’s chair. “Still not eating?”

Xie Yuanxing didn’t answer. Shen Bianye immediately frowned, reached out and cupped Xie Yuanxing’s jaw, lifting his face. “Speak, Xie Yuanxing.”

“Can’t eat.” Xie Yuanxing was forced to lift his head, but his eyes were lowered, as if trying to hide himself. He repeated in a low voice, “Can’t eat.”

Betas had no glands or pheromones; their stomach was their only emotional organ.

Shen Bianye hadn’t expected Xie Zhuowu’s arrival alone to affect Xie Yuanxing so much. He turned Xie Yuanxing’s chair around.

Xie Yuanxing kept his head down, so Shen Bianye simply knelt in front of him, looking up to meet Xie Yuanxing’s eyes.

“Xie Yuanxing, today you asked me for help. You have to give me compensation.”

Xie Yuanxing hummed in a muffled voice, “What do you want?”

He knew that because of Shen Bianye’s pheromone disorder, he had an abnormal obsession with his body, especially the tear mole under his eye, which Shen Bianye always wanted to lick.

Shen Bianye paid, and he obediently let himself be bitten on the nape. Shen Bianye helped, so being licked once was nothing.

It was all about exchange between people.

Compared to what Shen Bianye did, being licked once was not considered a sacrifice.

“The compensation I want is your honesty.”

Xie Yuanxing was stunned.

Shen Bianye spoke with a serious tone, without mockery or disdain, asking him, “Do you have a way to retaliate against Xie Zhuowu’s family? Tell me.”

“Honesty, and then letting me help you, that’s all the compensation I want.”

Xie Yuanxing pursed his lips and shook his head, but Shen Bianye began counting on his fingers, “To get your cousin away from the school gate, I found my friend and sacrificed a Mercedes-Benz G-Wagon.”

“And three bodyguards, two actors, a total of five people. Their wages, a total of 5000 a day. This compensation is not excessive.”

“Don’t forget, you came to me first, asking for my help.”

Xie Yuanxing didn’t look, so he didn’t know what kind of scene Xie Zhuowu had caused at the school gate to make Shen Bianye go to so much trouble to get him away.

He vaguely regretted it; he should have gone out to meet Xie Zhuowu himself.

He fidgeted with his fingers, not knowing what to say. Apologizing would seem like shirking responsibility and too flimsy. Saying anything else, Xie Yuanxing didn’t know how to begin.

Shen Bianye saw his hesitation and said in a deep voice, “Xie Yuanxing, I was sentenced to death by doctors at fifteen. After that, I spent three years seeing doctors of all kinds, big and small, all over the world.”

“I took countless medications, tried countless treatments, was locked in completely sealed rooms, restrained like livestock waiting to be slaughtered, with people watching me 24 hours a day on screens, watching my ugly state like a maggot, observing my drug reactions.”

“But none of it worked. They couldn’t cure me. Every doctor said I wouldn’t live past thirty, so I gave up on treatment.”

“You appeared, able to save my life. Any request you make isn’t excessive.”

Xie Yuanxing listened blankly, his lips slightly parted, looking somewhat adorable.

Shen Bianye smiled. Regardless of what Xie Yuanxing might think, he at least didn’t want Xie Yuanxing to pity himself, so he said in a relaxed tone, “Actually, I couldn’t be bothered either, but you taste really damn bitter.”

“Deal with these things, and let me have a taste of something sweet, okay?”

Xie Yuanxing’s lips moved, as if he had made up his mind, and slowly said, “I, I kept some evidence to sue them. I don’t know if it’s useful.”

He got up and retrieved a cloth bag from the bottom of his closet. It was the one Xie Yuanxing brought on his first day checking into the dorm, which Shen Bianye had seen before.

Xie Yuanxing pulled out the clothes inside the cloth bag one by one, then took out a file hidden at the very bottom.

His hand held the file, his knuckles turning pale, but finally, he handed it over, only saying, “Can you not look at it in front of me?”

He was afraid of exposing his wounds to others, and also afraid of facing potentially strange looks.

Shen Bianye said okay, “I’ll take it to the lawyer in a bit. The lawyer will know if these are useful.”

He took the file from Xie Yuanxing, pulled up a stool, and sat next to Xie Yuanxing. “Now, you eat your dinner first.”

Shen Bianye took away the cold dishes. “Eat something hot, at least a little.”

Xie Yuanxing truly had no appetite. After forcing himself to eat a little, he put down his chopsticks and looked at Shen Bianye with difficulty, “I can’t eat any more.”

Shen Bianye’s gaze swept over the dishes, which looked mostly untouched except for a missing corner. He frowned deeply. Xie Yuanxing felt the uneasy apprehension of a child in kindergarten whose meal was being inspected by the teacher.

It was too strange, yet he really kept lowering his head, the same reaction as when his picky eating was discovered in kindergarten.

Fortunately, Shen Bianye didn’t criticize him like a teacher. “I’m going out to find the lawyer. You stay in the dorm, I’ll be back tomorrow.”

Xie Yuanxing watched him stride away, always feeling that something was a little strange.

Inside the top law firm in A City, Shen Bianye sat alone in an office, reaching out to open the old, discolored file.

Photos, chat records, hospital visit records, and bills all appeared on the table.

Shen Bianye reached out and picked up a photo. It seemed quite old, with yellowed edges. In the photo, a still-young Xie Yuanxing faced the camera, his face severely swollen, bruises and purplish marks making his face look somewhat grotesque and frightening. Blood still stained the corner of his lips.

On the back of the photo, a childish handwriting read, “…August 5th, Auntie said the tea given to her was too hot to drink, and I was slapped twelve times.”

The year at the beginning seemed blurred by water, making it illegible.

Shen Bianye reached out and touched the blurred spot. His hand trembled almost imperceptibly, as if scalded by a tear Xie Yuanxing shed years ago, hurting too much to dare to touch.

Each photo depicted a brutal beating. The only medical record was from a burn injury.

They beat Xie Yuanxing, didn’t take him to see a doctor, just let him heal on his own. Over the years, the wounds festered in his heart, turning Xie Yuanxing into a lifeless, gloomy figure.

Xie Yuanxing grew up in the photos. Shen Bianye looked at each one, his eyes grim, his jaw clenched so tightly that a metallic taste spread in his mouth.

When he laid these things before the lawyer, he only asked one question, “Can we send them to jail?”

The lawyer quickly reviewed the documents and gave a preliminary conclusion: “Yes, if the adoption involved property inheritance, compensation, or similar matters, the sentence would be heavier.”

Shen Bianye: “Okay, I’ll confirm and get back to you.”

It was already 8 PM when he left the law firm. Shen Bianye took out his phone and sent a message to Xie Yuanxing using another account.

X: “Baby.”

He wanted to say a lot, but didn’t know what to say.

Each identity had its own responsibilities, and X seemed to always be limited to words.

If he didn’t take inhibitors, let his pheromones run wild, let chaos fill his brain, instinct dominate his body, and desire drive his actions, he could return to the dorm and tightly embrace Xie Yuanxing.

But unfortunately…

His pheromones would make Xie Yuanxing cry.

His phone buzzed twice. He opened it to a voice message from Xie Yuanxing: “I really want to see you.”

Shen Bianye was startled. The message was quickly retracted. If it weren’t for the system notification of a retracted message, everything would have felt like his illusion.

Of course, he couldn’t see Xie Yuanxing.

What a joke, he couldn’t let Xie Yuanxing know who he was. If they met, everything would be exposed.

Why did Xie Yuanxing want to meet? Shen Bianye’s eyes darkened. He suddenly thought: He’s endured so much alone for so long, does he also want someone to comfort him?

A thought suddenly flashed through Shen Bianye’s mind: Why can’t they meet, as long as Xie Yuanxing doesn’t know who he is?

They could embrace in the dark.

Xie Yuanxing needed comfort, and X could give Xie Yuanxing comfort.

When everything was resolved, and Xie Yuanxing was no longer suffering because of that trashy family, he could taste sweetness, and X could slowly withdraw then.

No one would accept an illicit boyfriend. It would be fine once Xie Yuanxing dumped X.

After that, he and Xie Yuanxing would go their separate ways.

They would just be two pitiful souls who briefly brushed against each other’s wounds.

Now Shen Bianye needed an excuse, a reasonable excuse for X to meet Xie Yuanxing only in the dark and masked.

Shen Bianye’s brain was a little hot. The effect of the six inhibitors didn’t seem so good. He didn’t even think of a reasonable method before speaking.

The voice changer made X’s voice gentle, softly coaxing, “Baby, I heard you.”

X: “I also really want to see you, baby, but something unexpected happened on my end.”

X: “I’m afraid baby will despise me. If we meet, can it be at night, without the lights on?”

X: “Can I kiss you in the dark, baby? If baby doesn’t want to, I can wear an electric collar and put the switch in baby’s hand, okay?”

The other person’s words were strange and couldn’t withstand close scrutiny. Xie Yuanxing listened, then, after a slow blink, quietly said, “Okay.”

“No kissing, but a hug is fine.”

He spoke softly, saying, “Can I have a hug?”

Xie Yuanxing was a little nervous. X’s words about no lights and darkness had swayed him, making him agree impulsively. Now that he had said it, he vaguely regretted it.

On the other end of the phone, Shen Bianye was also unusually nervous. He even swallowed, saying, “Okay, whatever baby wants.”

“If baby is worried, you can use the electric collar to shock me.”