Chapter 29: The Broken Shadow
This absurd role-playing game lasted a whole week in a strange balance.
During the day, Ruan Xingchen would hold Mo Xiaohan's hand and walk in the garden, teach him how to fold new candy wrapper boats, and chatter about the "yesterday" that didn't exist at all.
But when dusk falls over the palm trees, everything collapses.
When Mo Xiaohan took off his disguise and returned to his original appearance—dressed in a suit and tie, his eyes cold and fierce—and the crisp absinthe on his body could no longer mask the faint but lingering smell of blood, she would instantly turn back into the frightened captive bird, even her breathing trembling.
Ruan Xingchen's memory was split in two.
During the day, she only remembered the ten-year-old "Brother Xiaohan" from the slums.
At night, she was forced to face the 27-year-old Mo Xiaohan, who had stirred up blood and gore in the underground world of Southeast Asia.
But Mo Xiaohan never deliberately hides his true nature. He still puts on his black suit to deal with those bloody affairs, and still uses the most cruel means to deal with traitors.
On the afternoon of the eighth day, when the blood-stained report was delivered to the study, Ruan Xingchen just pushed the door open and she froze in place.
The brutality in the man's eyes had not yet faded, and there was an unextinguished cigarette between his fingers. The faint smell of blood mixed with the scent of nicotine in the air instantly tightened around her like an invisible net.
All the details reminded her that this was not her "Brother Xiaohan", this was Mo Xiaohan, the tyrant who made the whole Southeast Asia tremble in fear.
"Come here." He put out his cigarette and reached out to her, no emotion in his voice.
Ruan Xingchen's breathing became rapid. She subconsciously stepped back, her back against the door frame. The cold touch made her shiver.
Mo Xiaohan's eyes darkened instantly. He stood up and approached, his handmade leather shoes making a dull sound on the carpet. Ruan Xingchen could smell the smoke and blood on him, the smell of power and killing.
"Didn't you scream beautifully just now?" He pinched her chin and stroked her trembling lips with his thumb. "Why, you don't recognize me now?"
Ruan Xingchen's eyelashes trembled violently, but she stubbornly refused to utter a word. Her mind was protecting itself, isolating the bloody and cruel underworld emperor from the outside world, leaving only the scarred "Brother Xiaohan" from her childhood.
"What do you want from me?" Mo Xiaohan finally exploded and pressed her in front of the mirror. "If I were still the loser I was back then, I wouldn't even be able to protect you!"
The mirror reflected their overlapping figures. He pointed at the ring on her ring finger and said, "If he were still that wild dog with nothing, you would have been snatched away and torn to pieces by those jackals, tigers and leopards!"
Ruan Xingchen looked at him through the mirror, her eyes suddenly clear and shocking. "Then don't steal my spotlight!" Her voice was soft, yet filled with determination. "Pretend you're still him...even if it's only during the day."
The devil finally compromised.
The next morning, the bedroom door was gently pushed open, and "Brother Xiaohan" was standing at the door with a breakfast tray and a stethoscope hanging around his neck - that was an equipment he had deliberately imitated Dr. Ruan, even the old marks on the stethoscope earbuds were exactly the same as he remembered.
"Want some animal crackers today?" He smiled with his eyebrows curved, and the violence in his eyes was carefully hidden, as if he had really returned to seventeen years ago.
Ruan Xingchen reached out and touched his deliberately messy bangs, and asked softly, "Will you turn back into a demon at night?"
Mo Xiaohan (no, at this moment, "Brother Xiaohan") kissed her fingertips: "As long as you like, I can be a waste forever."
Outside the window, Artest silently turned off the sniper's safety bolt.
He knew that the dreaded Southeast Asian tyrant seemed to be dead at this moment, and the only one who survived was a madman who was crazy about love.
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