Chapter 62

At seventeen, Zhu Zhiyang first met Pei Huai. Even before he reached adulthood, he was already handling matters related to Kensos, a city dominated by minorities and home to a mix of illegal immigrants, refugees, and criminals. Every mile from home, there was a gambling den, where drugs, human trafficking, bootleg liquor, guns, and even organs were rife. It was here that the Bangkok Hotel took root.

Growing from the mud, with roots reaching all the way to the bottom, it's not necessarily clean. This is how Zhu Zhiyang has always evaluated Bangkok hotels.

During the first three years of the bacteremia outbreak across the Atlantic, the Bangkok Hotel relied on a group of stowaways to establish itself in Kensocks. That was when he was forced into the new position. Before he took over, the previous head of the department assured him he'd found him an assistant. Fourteen years old, he was worth a fortune; he'd snapped him up at auction because he was impressed by his skills. His face was clean and delicate, and some people were already asking for his price.

He also said that the child looked like he would be a good employee.

Zhu Zhiyang reluctantly grasped the door handle - he felt that forcing a child three years younger than himself to be an employee was unpleasant, even if he just said it in his mouth - he took several deep breaths and pushed the door open.

The lights were off, and the room was so quiet that you could hear a pin drop. After a moment's focus, he finally spotted the young man pressed into the corner, his legs folded across his chest. Their gazes met, and it was Zhu Zhiyang who was startled first.

Those eyes, black as agate, were truly captivating. When he wasn't smiling, his eyelashes rested softly and quietly on his lids. He was thin, with a straight, narrow neck, resulting in pronounced ridges on the sides of his neck. When the light filtered through the glass and fell on the back of the boy's hand, where veins were faintly visible, the lack of sebum, and the resulting sculpted muscles, seemed to complement him perfectly.

Zhu Zhiyang's throat trembled, and he walked in, feeling his heart beating violently.

The boy was fiddling with something in his hands. Seeing him approach, his fingers clenched reflexively, and after a long hesitation, he relaxed and placed the object back on the ground. He lowered his head, his lips slightly pursed.

As he squatted down to take a closer look, Zhu Zhiyang realized it was a pink pig plush toy. It was a trophy he had won while playing with dolls. The director probably thought children were easy to deal with, so he just gave it to him as a toy.

"Do you like it? The edges and corners of this little pig are not well made and it's quite prickly. If you like it, I'll take you to catch it tomorrow morning." He asked tentatively, but got no answer.

The child shook his head, lowered his head, and stared at his toes. Zhu Zhiyang had no choice but to pull over a sofa cushion and sit next to him.

He didn't think much of it, simply thinking it was nice to look at the child this way. He was quiet and gentle, his back straight and perfectly straight, his shoulders straight, his body erect, his features so beautiful that even with a ruler, you couldn't find a single flaw or flaw. It was hard to pinpoint his temperament; after a long moment of contemplation, the word "good-looking" finally emerged.

So Zhu Zhiyang slowly crawled to him on his knees and looked up at him in surprise.

"Are you okay?" he asked. "How did you end up in that auction? That place is full of people obsessed with gambling, doing all sorts of dirty work. They pawn things, people, even sex, organs, and bone marrow. Buyers who go there have to have blood on their hands."

He felt that this was not a vulnerable child at all. He was just hurt.

When I get hurt, the pain can only be relieved by holding a stuffed toy.

"It's my second uncle. He lost over 300,000 yuan and couldn't make up the difference even by the due date. They offered him a hand, but he refused. He then negotiated a price with the venue and asked me to leave. He said he wanted to celebrate my birthday."

"...He lied to you like that. You wouldn't still believe him, would you?"

The child stopped talking.

Seeing him like this, Zhu Zhiyang nudged him in the waist with his elbow: "I don't blame you. If I were you, and someone suddenly said they wanted to celebrate my birthday on my fourteenth birthday, I would definitely be happy. So what if I still have doubts? Children deserve to be loved."

He hugged his knees and said nothing.

Zhu Zhiyang had no choice but to change the subject: "Speaking of which, didn't you work for a Lingang office before? The people in that area are so stingy, they'd kill them to get a penny out of their hands. How could they let you go so easily?"

"I left on my own."

"ah?"

His gaze swept out the window, and his voice was so calm, so quiet that it made one's heart twitch slightly: "I don't want to stay in the office, and I know he just wants to trick me out."

"Then why did you go to the appointment?"

"I thought..." He swallowed the rest of the words.

During an unbearable silence, Zhu Zhiyang looked at his arms, folded across his knees. The slenderness hadn't faded, a feeling of waiting to mature. His skin was fair, and the lines from shoulder to forearm were well-proportioned and compact, a childish air about him that seemed to be about to fade.

He wasn't injured, so where did it hurt?

For a long time afterwards, Zhu Zhiyang visited him, bringing toys, snacks, and new clothes. He also handed over the clerical work of the Bangkok Hotel to him. He did a great job, without any mistakes, answering questions fluently and with unique insights.

The relationship between the two gradually became closer as they got along.

When they received their month-end bonus, they drank their first sip of soju without telling anyone. Pei Huai was already drunk on the first drop, his eyes watery and his face red as if he had a fever. He drifted off to his lap. Zhu Zhiyang forced himself to drink a few more sips and asked a few questions, and the child with the soft hair spilled all his secrets.

He talked a lot. Family, studies, and his experiences at the firm. Zhu Zhiyang asked him why he hated the firm and why he would rather be deceived by his family than leave.

Pei Huai was silent for a while, then spoke. The person he once loved had their limbs broken and thrown into the sea. Because the firm thought he was incompetent and a burden. Zhu Zhiyang thought he was lying.

He hid the real reason. He wanted to forget.

But I no longer had the energy to ask further questions. My eyelids grew heavier, and the two of us just cuddled together, sleeping amidst a pile of scattered toys. Under the moonlight, the two lonely shadows seemed to embrace each other again many years from now.

Zhu Zhiyang didn't sleep well that night, as he dreamed about the past.

As an ordinary person with a humble background who lost contact with his family in high school and had to make a living on his own, none of the jobs that were willing to hire him could help but make him feel overwhelmed.

Endless bills, overtime, stomach ulcers, the occasional slap in the face, and the monthly rent, utilities, and gas bills—money was a real headache. Just when he thought his life was doomed to financial hardship, a Bangkok hotel offered him a partnership.

They wanted to outsource the finances, but the compensation wasn't good enough, so Zhu Zhiyang was naturally assigned this poor commission. In the days that followed, the original client would talk to him about the Bangkok Hotel from time to time, complaining to him about the difficulties in running the business.

He was exhausted, and even when his stomach bled, he still had no time to go to the hospital. But this relationship held a kind of magic for him. A kind of magic... like watching a dream blossom.

Until one day, the other party said.

【Would you like to join us? 】

Zhu Zhiyang forgot what he had said. Dreams always pass quickly; in the blink of an eye, reality returns. When he raised his arm, he realized Pei Huai was sleeping in his arms, breathing softly, his soft, velvety hair tumbling in disarray. He smiled helplessly.

Only at times like this would the child defenselessly crawl into someone else's arms for warmth.

In this small, square room, the two boys spent the most difficult ten years together, walking side by side through every winter and summer. He felt that fourteen-year-old Pei Huai was a secret that belonged only to him.

When he was eighteen, he kissed the birthday boy on the forehead.

Say he loves him.

-

He watched helplessly as Pei Huai's pupils widened in shock, looking at him bewilderedly. His heart suddenly ached.

But after the words left his mouth, Zhu Zhiyang just stared at him, watching him bite his lower lip and droop his head in defeat. He had never seen Pei Huai with such an expression before, like a proud little bird in the clouds with a broken claw.

He steeled his heart, grabbed the man's wrist tightly, and turned to everyone, saying, "Take that man down first, and be careful not to kill him. I'll personally interrogate the man over here."

"Zhu Zhiyang."

"Don't call me by my name. Don't think you can still rely on your affection to get unlimited indulgence. I will really torture you, Pei Huai." He grabbed the other's wrist and slammed it against the wall, whispering almost against his earring, "No matter how reluctant I am, I will not forget my duty."

"sorry."

For a moment, Zhu Zhiyang felt that there might be something wrong with his ears.

Pei Huai looked at him quietly, his eyes betraying neither weakness nor compromise. He spoke each word, his voice clear and helpless: "I promised to protect him." The next second, a terrifying force suddenly struck him from under his ribs, showing no mercy. Zhu Zhiyang doubled over in pain, and was knocked against the door by a blow from Gai's elbow.

It's not a deadly hand. If Pei Huai is really determined to kill someone, then he will be a knife that kills with one blow.

"Pei Huai!"

The young man whose name was called didn't turn around, even his soft apology vanished in the smoke. Even now, no one had been able to stop him. He put his fingers together and with two sharp strikes, he knocked down two men on either side.

Using the protruding bone of his middle finger when making a fist, he quickly dispatched several more who had surrounded him. He charged, then crouched, breaking through the fog and ducking to avoid a volley of bullets aimed overhead. Even after Zhu Zhiyang ordered them to stop, some instinctively pointed their guns at the dangerous individual. Pei Huai was dangerous; they knew it.

As colleagues, they enjoy an absolute advantage, but as enemies - I'm afraid the bullet won't even be able to reach his heels.

His leg muscles tensed instantly, and as he squatted, his shins unleashed a powerful burst of support, allowing him to instantly rush to Shan Li's side, reach out his arms, and embrace him. Seeing the man leaning forward to return the hug, Pei Huai gestured with his chin to the right.

"Jump out the window."