Chapter 34
While tracking the signal, they received help from a Bangkok hotel: a completely black Volkswagen. Xiang Mingqi spontaneously showed off his driver's license, boasting about passing it on his first try as a young adult. He even took credit for it to Pei Huai, saying that before the road test, the driving school teacher praised him as the best student he had ever taught.
Of course, he got no response.
The car was an automatic transmission, so Xiang Mingqi didn't need much adjustment. He picked it up quickly, steering and clutching in perfect harmony as he cornered with unstoppable force.
"By the way, brother, did you let him spray you on purpose?" At a west-to-east intersection, the car was parked within the line. Xiang Mingqi turned the steering wheel with his backhand and proposed this strange hypothesis.
Thus, he received the only eye contact from Pei Huai in the past two hours—a look that looked like he was looking at a fool.
"I'm bored?"
"Well, I'm just asking. After you tell me, I can rule out this possibility." Xiang Mingqi pouted in grievance, gripped the steering wheel tightly, and stuffed his legs back under the driver's seat.
They were now on a mountain road with little light at night, so they had to drive extremely carefully.
Seeing that his senior had no intention of bringing up the topic, he turned the radio knob to the right and said, "Come to think of it, I initially thought the commission was just to find the cat, which would take at most half the night. I didn't expect it to involve so much. Brother, have you ever been tricked into running around the world before?"
"Occasionally." Pei Huai was looking out the window.
"Why only occasionally?"
"... Could you please not speak in that tone?"
"What are you doing? It's all like that online now, and that tone just now was so endearing and cute. You really don't know what's good. So why is it 'occasionally'?"
"Think for yourself."
"You always say that, but I just can't figure out what to do." Xiang Mingqi cried out heartbrokenly, his footsteps careless as the engine rumbled forward, "Does anyone who's a little dumb or slow to react have to be shot?"
The conversation ended there, and there was no further news. Xiang Mingqi shrank nervously and stammered, "Should I really be shot?" After a while, a soft, helpless sigh came to his ears: "What do you want to ask?"
"Wow, are you going to answer me for everything today?"
"As appropriate."
"Hmph, I knew it." His fingertip pressed the song-change button in a huff. The mountain path twisted like a snake, and the Volkswagen, in the wide-angle lens, stretched into a strange, narrow-headed, long-bodied figure.
After passing the guardrail, the corner brought us to a brilliantly lit coastline, casting a shadow on the windshield like morning light. He whispered, "Brother, aren't you happy with me?"
Pei Huai glanced at him out of the corner of his eye, as if asking why he thought so.
The latter began to vent his innermost thoughts: "Every time you're with me, you look so impatient, like you're really, really annoyed with me. But actually, I'm not like that with other people. I just..." The further he spoke, the thinner his voice became, like a mosquito, "I just simply want to have a good relationship with you."
He observed the road, the greenery on either side, but he didn't dare look towards Pei Huai. All light sources were hidden under a bridge arch. A train passed overhead, making a noise as loud as a giant ship passing through shallow water.
"Xiang Mingqi." At this moment, Pei Huai finally spoke.
"hold head high?"
"I don't need you to do anything for me." He supported his chin with his right hand and looked out the window.
But was he really looking at someone? If so, why didn't his gaze fall on me?
His heart was beating violently, as if something was missing, or as if it was being grasped, causing the atria to contract and expand in revenge. He wanted to slow down, to stop the car, to let the time that belonged only to the two of them pass even more slowly, he wanted to tell him.
There will never be another person in the world who is as selfless and has no regrets as I am. Even less will there be anyone who regards that one-sided admiration as the most magnificent spring of the past twelve years.
If he still had any reason to live, then Pei Huai was that reason.
——If he couldn't get his love and his attention, he would be willing to die.
While Xiang Mingqi was stunned, the senior continued with a pointed tone: "You should be your true self." He didn't wait for Xiang Mingqi to take the lead, but said, "It's my turn to ask questions."
"Brother, do you have any questions for me today?"
"have."
"Wow what is that?"
"...Why do you like me?"
The question was so direct, so direct that there was no turning back. Xiang Mingqi's index finger twitched, and pain spread across the outside of his wrist. He then smiled, "Do you need a reason to like someone?"
Pei Huai fell silent again. The latter had no choice but to make the second best move and show an expression of admitting his mistake: "You must have thought I would say something like, 'It's because you're handsome, brother.' I'm not that cliché."
"Brother, do you know any animals that need to be euthanized?"
"Love is their lifeline, their only comfort. I can wag my tail at anyone, show kindness to anyone, and beg passers-by like an animal to take me home. But some people just come to hug me and praise me for being a good child."
"Until one day, someone opened the cage door and walked in with a card with my new name on it. Maybe he hugged me, maybe he didn't, but I knew he could save me from hell."
"—In that moment, my world was reduced to one color." He was still completely absorbed in his thoughts, not noticing the passenger window roll down. "Brother, this is how I feel about you."
When he turned his head to look at the co-pilot seat, a breeze blew past, lifting something - the slightly messy white hair that was no longer restrained by a headband.
Pei Huai spread his fingers and pulled his long hair back. He sat there, his hand resting on his hair, feeling unusually bony, its joints distinct and strong. From the wrist down, the few centimeters were neatly buttoned into his sleeve.
"You are very much like my brother." Pei Huai's lips moved slightly, "But everything that requires emotion has the same result." He looked over, and there was a surge of emptiness in the depths of his eyes.
"Xiang Mingqi, I can't give you an answer," he said. "You're twenty-two years old. Your passion, your heartbeat, will also dissipate like the wind. Don't ask others to fall in love with you casually, and don't ruin someone's life."
"—This is a price you can't afford."
-
The public soon arrived at their destination, a former factory complex. The outer areas had been mostly demolished, leaving only the inner residential area.
Pei Huai checked the surroundings before parking. Nearby was a row of old villas. Due to a land dispute, the residents and the real estate developer had finally given up negotiations, leaving the property temporarily unused—but this so-called "temporary" lay abandoned for nearly five years. Until now, no one cared about it, leaving it desolate.
The red dot's flashing intervals lengthened, disappearing for a few seconds before lighting up again, and this duration was quite long. Pei Huai judged that the target of the commission was likely in an underground space, within seven meters of the depth.
Heading to the spot where the signal last flickered, they found an abandoned house. The walls were mottled and large areas of paint had fallen off. The courtyard and general structure of the house had not been demolished, but most of the furniture had been moved out, leaving only some tables, chairs, and carpets.
"Wow, it feels like a haunted house." Xiang Mingqi opened the glass sliding door and walked in, looking around with a sigh. "Brother, are you afraid of ghosts like me? If you are, come to me quickly. Let's hold hands. If anything happens, I will protect you with all my strength."
"……No."
The floor, cabinets, tabletops, and door thresholds were all covered in dust, indicating no one had used them. The water meter read the same. But a series of messy footprints broke the silence. They led the two visitors to the left side of the first floor, a corridor far narrower than standard dimensions.
I walked straight to the end, where an iron gate blocked my way. It was not locked, and there were dotted handprints around the handle, as if it had just been pushed.
They looked at each other and turned the handle.
The door made no noise, which was a blessing in disguise.
There was no light, and for safety's sake, no flashlight was used. The descending corridor was pitch black. Before his eyes could adjust, Xiang Mingqi had no choice but to grope his way forward, not forgetting to pull his senior to the side near the handrail for protection.
The further down he went, the more Pei Huai felt something was wrong.
I reached the end of the stairs and pushed open the iron door leading to the emergency exit. Suddenly, my retinas were assaulted by a flash of white light.
He had to squint his eyes to adjust, then opened the door. He entered a long, narrow corridor, unpainted and without any signs of renovation, but with a large number of rooms on both sides.
He chose one, inspected it carefully, and then walked in.
The dimensions of the room confirmed his suspicions.
"Here." Pei Huai's eyes scanned the two corners of the room, stopping about a third of the way in. "This is the entrance." He pointed to a wall far deeper than where he was standing and said, "The basement has been expanded nearly three times, exceeding its intended size."
"Brother, what do you mean..."
He didn't rush to answer, only to focus his gaze on a nearby iron cage. Dried blood clotted inside and outside the bars. It looked like it had been roughly cleaned and then left alone.
In the corner stood hundreds of identical cages, varying in height, all equally filthy and empty. Cabinets, operating tables, pet cages, and the eerily empty space formed this bizarre scene.
Xiang Mingqi also frowned in understanding.
"It's where the cats used in the experiments are disposed of." Pei Huai said what he was thinking. "Judging from the structure, if he was just making medicine, there's no need for such a large building as a base. So, the only reason..."
——The second half of the sentence suddenly got stuck in his throat, and then, there were footsteps coming closer and closer: there was more than one person, and they were walking towards their direction.
Pei Huai just raised his eyelids and glanced towards the door, but before he could give an order, a hand grabbed his wrist from behind. He froze, and Xiang Mingqi had already opened the cabinet and hurriedly stuffed him in.
The moment the door opened, he stepped in and wrapped his arms around Pei Huai's waist. Their chests pressed together, their hips pressed together, squeezing into the narrow corner of the closet in a very uncomfortable position.
Xiang Mingqi's knee, perhaps intentionally or not, pushed into the middle of his senior's thigh.
"you……"
Continue read on readnovelmtl.com