I'll charge you a storage fee.
Chirp chirp chirp...
The incessant, disordered calls of young birds caused a 7-year-old boy to slow down.
"Hey kid! Want to buy a chick?!" A vendor darted out from behind the green belt at the side gate of a villa area.
The boy stopped and turned his head slightly: "You've come to the wrong place. Kids here don't buy this kind of dirty and noisy stuff."
The vendor weighed the flimsy cardboard box in his arms, wiped his nose vigorously, and muttered, "I told you I've been squatting here all afternoon and haven't made a single sale..."
The boy said nothing more and continued walking towards the side door.
The vendor chased after him across the green belt, saying, "Hey, you look kind, kid. It's fate that we met. Why don't you buy one? I'll give you a discount so you can go home."
"No." The boy clutched his arm and turned away from the parallel line. "He's too small, I can't raise him."
"What are you saying?! This thing is very easy to raise! Just a few grains of millet and a cover of water, it eats little and poops little, and it can even keep you company, isn't that great!"
"...To keep you company?" The boy stopped again.
"Mmm!" Seeing an opportunity, the vendor jumped out and approached, "Layed by my own old hen, guaranteed healthy!"
The boy finally turned around. The vendor, seeing the stubborn, arrogant face with its smug expression, was taken aback. He wiped his nose and said, "Whether you buy it or not, why don't you take a look first..."
After observing for a moment, the boy slightly raised his chin and asked, "What's wrong with that one?"
"Which one? Oh!" Following the gaze, the vendor casually grabbed the target from the corner of the cardboard box. "Hey, it was fine when it came... I guess it got bullied by the strong one and is now lame. Your eyesight is pretty good. I'll throw it out later. It won't live long if I take it back anyway."
After saying that, he was about to scatter the shivering chick.
"This is it," the boy said.
The vendor, as if he couldn't understand the language of the porcelain country, paused in mid-air: "Huh?"
"I said, this is it." The boy frowned and reached into the pocket of his dusty new school uniform. "How much?"
"How can I sell you the crippled one... How about I offer you a buy-one-get-one-free deal, and I'll pick out a better one for you?" The vendor hesitantly handed over the defective product.
"No need." The boy walked away, holding the weakly chirping chick in his hand.
"Hey kid?! Why don't you take this whole box with you?" the vendor shouted at the lone figure, holding up a hundred-yuan bill.
"How do rich kids think like that...?"
...
The TV screen flickered with black and white static, and the strobe light illuminated the lifeless living room.
The thin blanket was propped up slightly, and the fabric spread out to form an irregular little tent, which was dimly lit inside, casting the silhouette of a boy.
The boy sat on the ground in the "tent," clutching a shoebox, and muttered to himself about the chicks encircled by the beam of a flashlight.
"Eat more so you can grow up. You're too weak."
"When do you think Mom and Dad will be back?"
Why aren't you eating?
The boy gently pressed the fluffy chick's head towards the soaked millet in the bottle cap with his finger. Unexpectedly, the chick staggered a few times, fell sideways, flapped its weak wings and convulsed, its short beak opening and closing, emitting a hoarse scream...
"Ah, no..." The boy pulled off the thin blanket over his head, picked up the chick, and scrambled toward the brighter television to check on it, but accidentally dropped the chick on the floor.
The screams grew increasingly shrill, and the wings flapped faster and faster.
The boy scooped up the chick and held it in his palm.
He cried helplessly for a long time, then wiped away his tears with his pajama sleeve, and clasped his hands together...
"sorry."
With a short, sharp sob, the world returned to deathly silence, leaving only the chaotic clatter of black and white snowflakes.
After that, one long night after another stretched on and on. The sound of chicks was no longer heard in the villa. There was only a thin grave in the potted plants with bare branches, where the loose soil had slightly raised.
-
As the anchor-shaped relief above the entrance of the Strange Blue Bar slowly disappeared from view with the closed car door, Jiang Songhe thought of the moment when the rear-projection color TV in his childhood home was turned off, and how the sky had darkened again.
He was led to kneel on the leather seat in the middle row of the Vito.
"Come here and pick it yourself," someone said.
He then lowered his head, wrapped his arms around the back of the man's neck, and removed the cap himself.
The car was dark, and his hands were trembling. He fiddled with the clasp of the necklace for a long time but couldn't find the way to unlock it. The person he had encircled in front of him seemed to be getting impatient, lifting one leg and crossing it over the other, probably wanting to find a more comfortable sitting position.
A faint, almost imperceptible touch brushed against him from below, and he felt like a match being lit. The unfamiliar, raging sensation he had been resisting suddenly surged forth. He held his breath, trying to suppress the raging fire within him, but still let out a muffled groan as his back slumped into the cool embrace of his neck.
As I dismantle my powerless hands, my fingertips slip into soft strands of hair, and a distant yet inexplicably familiar feeling creeps into my heart.
His neck? It looked like he could easily snap it with just a little force from one of his hands.
Unconsciously, his fingertips caressed that smooth, delicate skin, then he brought them together and tightened them.
"Ah." The man shuddered instantly.
"!" He was startled and withdrew his hand, trying to get up and run away. "...I'm sorry."
But they couldn't escape.
The man grabbed him precisely, pushed him down by the shoulder, and spun his forearm with his hand like a snake, pulling his hands over his head and pressing them against the back of the seat.
His gaze followed the swaying silver light as it fell, and as if hypnotized, he murmured in a hoarse voice with an unsteady trailing tone, "It hasn't been taken off yet."
"You haven't answered my question yet." The man freed one hand, lifted his chin, and forced their eyes to meet. "You lost your engagement ring. How did you explain that to your fiancée?"
"I don't have a fiancée." With his hands bound, he opened his mouth urgently, chasing the flashing light with his lips and teeth without regard for his image.
"Oh? So you wear it on your left middle finger, does that mean something else?" The person slipped the ring onto the tip of their thumb, pressed it against their parted lips, and gently traced its shape, as if gently questioning, "A chastity ring?"
"..." He tightened his lips in a futile internal struggle, but finally relented and said, "Mm."
The man was clearly taken aback, then burst into laughter so hard he couldn't straighten up. His long eyelashes brushed against the downy hairs on his earlobes, and he shifted his body restlessly.
“I’ve changed my mind.” The man knelt on one knee on the chair, leaned down and whispered, “I want to charge you a storage fee first.”
-
Jiang Songhe felt his lower back being firmly pressed against, and his buttocks and legs were suddenly dragged to the edge of the seat and raised.
Subconsciously sensing a sense of crisis from being provoked, he freed one hand and ripped off the mask of the person in front of him.
A crisp "click" sound, like the trigger sound to dispel hypnosis, brought Jiang Songhe back to consciousness.
He looked down and found that his belt was wide open, and his anger instantly shot to the top of his head.
"You fucking!" He hooked his hand on Jonathan's necklace, tightening his grip. "What are you doing?!"
Jonathan was choked and thrown into Jiang Songhe's arms with such force that the dull thud of bones colliding could be heard.
"You~" Jonathan winked mischievously, letting out a soft sound from his thin lips.
"I scoff." Jiang Songhe laughed angrily, wrapping the necklace around his hand again. He listened intently, silently counting down the days until this ignorant brat couldn't bear the fear and pain and begged for mercy, saying he would stay far away from him from now on.
One, still laughing?
Second, breathing has become heavier.
Third, it finally realized it was afraid and started trembling?
Fourth, if you're scared, just say you know you were wrong! You'll never dare to do it again! Say it!!
Five, five, five...
What's he afraid of?! He's probably crazy!
“The medicine I borrowed from Ryan… cough cough… isn’t working too well either~” Jonathan struggled to breathe, his face flushed, yet he still had the leisure to joke, “Your adorable way of obeying me… cough… I haven’t had enough of admiring you yet…”
Jiang Songhe's mind went blank for a moment, remembering how this brat had treated her like a dog. Enraged, she reached out and grabbed Jonathan's neck, her hand pressing against the locked necklace, her voice trembling as she said, "You fucking drugged me?!"
Jiang Songhe remained silent, only stealing Jonathan's breath.
Realizing that his life was truly in danger, Jonah instinctively tried to pry open the large hand, digging his fingertips into the gap between the skin and the necklace, but with little success.
So he went straight to the heart of the matter and threatened: "We're at the entrance of Strange Blue... you weren't wearing... a mask, I'm a public figure... if I die... it will soon be traced back to you... your brother! Jiang Songyun... is finished too..."
As expected, Jiang Songhe suddenly realized what was happening and released the force in his hands, but he didn't completely move away. He struggled, struggled, damn it, the struggle failed.
The self-restraint principle of "enduring and taking a detour" completely failed, and the mental and physical manipulation made Jiang Songhe grit his teeth in hatred.
A sinister aura grew rampant within him. Faced with this relentless madman, he wanted to hurt him deeply and teach him a lesson about fear in this matter!
"Stop saying 'you motherfucker,' I have a name." Jonathan covered his throat, unknowingly stirring up trouble. "From now on, call me Jonathan, got it?"
Jiang Songhe's eyes darkened and turned fierce, and the sound of her inhaling whistled softly through her nose.
He stopped wasting his breath and focused all his energy on his hands. He used the strength of his wrist to pull the person closer, threaded his five fingers through Jonathan's necklace, wrapped it around the back of his neck, withdrew his left hand and used his right hand to untie the necklace, and put the ring he had lost back on the middle finger of his left hand.
Completely oblivious to Jiang Songhe's surging, sinister emotions, Jonathan joked as if he'd discovered something amazing, "Hmm? Finally unlocked? Here, take the ring back, but not the necklace~"
Jiang Songhe sneered and didn't reply, instead pulling Jonathan's arms behind his back with both hands.
"So your 'fetish' is bondage..."
Jiang Songhe used the necklace to bind Jonathan's two white wrists, and Jonathan stopped laughing.
"I've worn this necklace for years, it can't withstand this kind of treatment!" Jonathan shrugged, his voice a little urgent. "Take it off quickly, you can use your tie if you like, I'm serious! Hurry up!"
The scraping sound of metal scraping, the tightening sound, and then the sound of a chain locking could still be heard from behind.
"You really are something! You can't listen to me!" With his hands held, Jonathan tried to retaliate with a headbutt, but Jiang Songhe anticipated and dodged it.
"Let go, I'm not playing anymore! I'm so pissed! You... uh!"
Jonathan took a solid blow to the stomach, trembling and arching his back. One of his long legs was then pulled away, and he fell to his knees with a thud. He asked incredulously, "What is wrong with you? Are you crazy?"
Jiang Songhe moved his broad palm along the ridges of Jonathan's cervical spine, segment by segment, to the top of his head, then tightened it, grabbing a clump of soft, damp silver hair.
Jonathan felt a hard texture brush against his occipital bone and looked up in a panic.
Jiang Songhe was staring at him with a gloomy and fierce gaze, while his own gaze was being gradually suppressed by an irresistible force.
The two words seemed to come from beyond the heavens, echoing with a terrifying force.
"Open your mouth."
Jonathan felt as if he had been transported back to his childhood body. The man looking down at him with disdain had somehow become his stepfather. He struggled to look up but to no avail; his gaze continued to descend inch by inch.
"Don't do this to me, please."
Unlike his previous cunning and playful tone, this sentence was spoken pitifully and fearfully, almost pleading, and was fragmented by the sound of him gagging in response to stress.
The goal was achieved faster than expected. Jiang Songhe released Jonathan and pushed him away, looking down at him and waiting for a natural apology and confession. However, when Jonathan raised his head in his sight, he was stunned.
The blush on Jonathan's face had not yet faded, his eyes were blank and dull, and tears flowed silently from his fox-like eyes like a stream, rolling down his cheeks. He stared at him intently, but it was as if he was not looking at the person in front of him. The flamboyant demeanor of a superstar had vanished, leaving only a numb and helpless shell.
It was so quiet; it was as if you could hear the sound of tears hitting the ground.
Jiang Songhe's Adam's apple bobbed, and his heart skipped a beat.
"Now you know fear?" Jiang Songhe broke the silence with feigned composure, picked up a tissue box from a short distance away and threw it into Jonathan's arms. "If you're scared, then don't be so reckless as to provoke us again."
Jonah seemed quite frightened by Jiang Songhe's movements and the sudden appearance of the tissue box. He awkwardly shuffled into the corner near the door with his hands behind his back, bent his legs to the side, and hid his face in the gap between the back of the front seat and his knees.
Her porcelain-white, smooth neck and wrists were rubbed raw by the necklace, and her thin body huddled into a small ball, trembling as if from the cold or the heat.
"Brother... I'm cold... Don't go..." Jonathan murmured pitifully.
Tsk, didn't we go too far?
Cold? Or maybe you've caught a fever from showing off?
No! He's good at using that damn talent to make people run wild!
Falling into the same trap repeatedly is just plain stupid and a terrible mistake!
...
Holy crap! Holy crap!! Holy crap!!
Jiang Songhe slammed his fist on the armrest of the seat. Just as his fist was about to land, he caught a glimpse of the trembling figure and stopped. In the end, there was only a dull thud.
He haphazardly fastened his belt, stiffly stood up, stepped over, and knelt down to turn Jonathan over so that he was facing him.
“You, you want to…” Jonathan asked timidly, but before he could finish, a broad hand covered his forehead.
Jiang Songhe touched his forehead again and found that Jonathan was even hotter than he was when he was drunk.
He let out a very soft "grass" from the corner of his mouth, then lifted the person onto a chair, took off his own suit jacket and covered Jonathan with it, but still couldn't speak softly.
"Where do you live? Tsk, I'll take you home."
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