004 | (III) Being Played

The constellation Mao represents a bland, dull, and uninteresting person.

Xie Jinyu often praised him for being cautious from beginning to end, and for maintaining a quiet and prudent demeanor.

Xie Qingyan scoffed. These words sound nice, but frankly, isn't he just a person carved from wood? Dull and rigid, he neither likes to talk nor pay attention to people. Anyone who tries to talk to him is just asking for trouble and has nothing better to do.

He just stares at you with those dark, empty eyes, like a mute. All day long, apart from studying and reading, and occasionally exercising, he seems indifferent to everything, showing little interest in eating, drinking, or having fun.

I really don't know what the point of his life is.

It's been like this since I was a child.

Back then, the two were still quite young, and their families were both too busy to stay at home. One summer, Su Xingmao's parents were about to go on a business trip to Africa and were wondering which relative's house to leave Su Xingmao with for a while.

Ms. Xie Jinyu kindly suggested that since Su Xingmao is about the same size as Yan Yan, she should just bring him to her home. Not only would he be close to her own home, but he could also keep company with someone his own age.

Upon hearing this, Xie Qingyan's face fell. Of course, she was unhappy. She was like a little king who didn't want her own land to be invaded by outsiders. She pouted and firmly opposed it!

The protest was invalid.

Ms. Xie Jinyu ignored her daughter, Yan Yan, who was being naive. She had her own selfish motives. Yan Yan was a diligent student with excellent grades. It was just another mouth to feed. She let the two of them do their homework together so that her mischievous child could be influenced by what she saw and heard, and she would guide her to improve herself.

It is entirely beneficial and without any harm.

Su's mother was overjoyed and readily agreed. The two families hit it off immediately, and whenever they were busy with work, Su Xingmao would be sent to Xie Qingyan's house to stay for a few days.

They even set up a separate bedroom for Xie Qingyan across from his room, and assigned a group of housekeepers to look after the two children.

So, from then on, every wonderful holiday she enjoyed was inevitably monitored by a human surveillance camera.

One day, after being supervised and forced to finish her homework, Xie Qingyan glanced at Su Xingmao, who was sitting comfortably on the sofa, and hummed a disdainful tune. She drew a little figure cursing him on the side of the test paper, and then a plan formed in her mind. She mischievously encouraged the "good student" who had finished her homework early and was studying diligently: "I'm so bored, let's go to the arcade to play games!"

Su Xingmao didn't even raise his eyes, calmly refusing: "I'm not going."

She pouted in dissatisfaction and shouted, "Why?"

"Auntie Xie won't let you run around."

Xie Qingyan said in a muffled voice, "She's my mother, not yours! Why do you listen to her so much? If we go secretly, who will know if you don't tell and I don't tell?"

Su Xingmao still shook his head and refused, saying in a serious tone, "Aunt Xie will be angry."

"I can get angry too!" Xie Qingyan put her hands on her hips, her little face puffed up with anger, and she was a woman of her word. She started rolling around on the ground, pretending to cry and act spoiled. "I'm going to get angry right now! You're driving me crazy! Driving me crazy!"

Su Xingmao stood there like a wooden statue, silently watching Xie Qingyan roll around on the carpet, complaining incessantly: "If you don't play with me, I'm going to tell Mom you're bullying me, and I'll have her send you back home and lock you in that dark little room—"

The fingers that were turning the pages paused for a moment.

Su Xingmao stood up abruptly, his handsome face pale, his eyes dark and expressionless as he stared at her with a cold gaze. He just stared at her without saying a word, giving off a chilling and somewhat frightening feeling.

"I..." Xie Qingyan hesitated, unable to speak.

After a while, Su Xingmao lowered his eyelashes and eyes, reverting to his usual indifferent expression.

Whether he was frightened by her childish threats or simply out of helplessness, he sighed, as if he had no other choice: "What do you want to play? I'll play with you."

Worried that she would get away with it every time, he added, "This is the only time."

Xie Qingyan calmly got up from the ground, wiped his face with a grin, laughed triumphantly, grabbed his hand, kicked the door open, and with Su Xingmao as his human pass, swaggered to the door.

She lied without batting an eye, arrogantly telling the nanny, "Su Xingmao said he was going to the library to look up information."

The nanny looked at Su Xingmao with a questioning gaze, her eyes filled with suspicion, and feigned difficulty: "Ms. Xie instructed that Miss..."

Her claws viciously pinched Su Xingmao's palm, leaving several deep red crescent moons. She winked at him, her eyes wide and bulging, clearly saying, "If you dare to deny it, you're finished! I will definitely not let you go."

The boy remained calm and repeated, "Let's go to the library to look up information."

With Su Xingmao as their guarantor, the two were able to leave their home.

Xie Qingyan happily raised his chin, having already forgotten his promise of "only this once," and commanded Su Xingmao with his head held high, "From now on, you'll be my little follower. Whatever I want to do, you have to come with me."

Sunlight fell on Su Xingmao's face, blurring half of it. He murmured something as he answered.

The light was too bright, and it had been too long; I can't remember clearly.

—The lights were bright and dazzling, like the sun.

Su Xingmao's gaze was similar, seemingly so indifferent.

The heat settled heavily on her body, yet it was scalding hot, burning her from head to toe. As his fingertips danced across her skin, sparks flew, turning her entire body a lychee red, even her toes curled up.

Beads of sweat slid down his forehead.

"Why aren't you saying anything?" Her body went limp, sliding into his arms like water. Past and present overlapped. Su Xingmao, without changing his expression, pinched her wet lower body. The dampness stained her clothes, revealing a dark color. His slender fingers dug into her tender flesh through the fabric: "Do you like being played with like this?"

Like the flat tone of someone drinking water.

She felt dizzy and disoriented, as if she were in a dream.

This is too unreal.