Chapter 49
The slow-motion button was pressed at that moment. The dream that followed was all spongy and soft. Sometimes it detached, as if awakened by the birdsong at dawn. Sometimes it sank back in, wandering back and forth in a trench-like abyss.
This is consciousness breaking free from the control of dreams.
And the last clear realization was about the kiss: it landed on the forehead.
Pei Huai had no idea how long he'd slept, nor how long the dream had lasted. When he awoke, all he could smell was the afterglow of lust. Last night, he'd been fucked by a boy two years his junior, again—and four times.
After the male's desire for conquest is satisfied, Xiang Mingqi begins to covet more: to be praised, or to be rewarded by lips.
His mind is easy to understand. No matter how sunny and straightforward he appears to others, once he gets a taste of the flesh, he's hooked. Fluids deep within his bones begin to leak out, dissolving the surface and revealing the pure masculine greed, appetite, and sexual desire beneath.
When he opened his eyes, Xiang Mingqi had just turned around and stood up straight, hurriedly ending his morning kiss. He picked up the phone, his facial muscles twitching slightly, and lowered his voice as much as possible.
"I understand." In private, he was too lazy to even maintain a fake smile. "The intelligence fee will be transferred to your account later. Now. Get lost." Thumb hung up the phone with a sneer.
When he reached into the bed, he noticed that Pei Huai had raised his eyelids and was looking at him from below.
The emotion between his brows disappeared in an instant. He threw himself on the bed and rolled into his senior's arms, face to face.
"Brother, good morning, good morning. Judging from your expression and what you said in your sleep last night, you must have dreamed of four or five of me pulling down your pants." He slid his arm around her waist, blinked, looked at the handsome face in front of him and said with a smile, "I've put breakfast on the table. Guess what's for dinner today?"
Pei Huai raised his eyebrows.
"Are you free?"
"It's a bit busy now, but it won't be in ten minutes."
"Then get busy."
"Brother, you're so annoying. You secretly had such a hot relationship with four or five of me at night, but you turned your back on me during the day. You're such a stingy guy—wow!" He covered his forehead that was hit and pouted his lips. "I won't dare to do it anymore. I won't say anything. Oh, and remember to drink the juice. I have something to do today, so I won't be back until the afternoon. Give me a kiss and then—"
When he moved over, Pei Huai raised his palm to block it.
"password."
The fingers clasped around his waist shrank. Xiang Mingqi looked at him, pursed his lips, and his expression froze for a few seconds before softening again: "Brother, don't you want to be intimate with me for a while before you leave?"
In response, Pei Huai kicked him aside, grasped his hand from below, twisted his arm, and straddled his back. He leaned forward, his long hair falling down.
"Don't talk nonsense."
Perhaps due to his body fat, the hand pressing on the back of Xiang Mingqi's shoulder had distinct muscles and bones. As he exerted force, the capillaries were no longer hazy, but instead took on a distinct bluish-green hue. Xiang Mingqi had no choice but to swallow and answer, "The password is four digits. The first digit is one."
The grip on his wrist loosened. He smiled, finally freeing himself from the grip.
"Brother, based on your behavior just now, I have a small question: Are you in a bad mood when you wake up?" Xiang Mingqi rubbed his wrist while shrinking into the corner, holding up his chubby cheeks like a quokka who just wanted a hug, and blinking a few times.
But the result is predictable.
He had no choice but to turn around and wave his arms, drawing a large semicircle with his front feet: "Then we'll see you tonight - brother, I love you."
"To Mingqi."
"Um?"
"I dreamed about things in the past." When he said this, his tone was much softer than before.
The hand that was pushing down the door handle froze in mid-air.
"What about me?"
Pei Huai just looked at him, his chest rising and falling calmly.
"That's right. Brother, I know you never cared about me." After a long silence, the torsion spring finally turned with a "click". "The juice is in the refrigerator. It's grapefruit flavored."
When the door closed, Pei Huai frowned with a complicated expression, and put his hand in front of his lips, thinking.
He remembered Xiang Mingqi mentioning "uncle," "cousin," and "the edge of the long river." Searching his memory, he could only find the child, perhaps matching all three clues.
Could it be him?
——Could this man who tries every possible means to get close to me, please me, and even goes crazy for a little love, be the tearful little boy from before?
Thinking of this, he always felt a little stuffy in his chest.
He felt it was his responsibility.
When Pei Huai pushed the door open silently, two cameras happened to be pointed at his face, following and filming him all the way.
He walked into the bathroom as if he hadn't seen it, not stopping until he had finished tidying up his appearance. Then, with his back to the island, he brewed a pot of black coffee for breakfast and flipped the filter switch. As he turned around, he took something from the shelf and fiddled with it between his fingers.
It's a wooden butter knife.
In this house, anything potentially dangerous had been hidden away, leaving him with nothing but plastic, plush fabric, or wood.
Pei Huai turned sideways to the camera, completely unconcerned that his knife-playing was being recorded. A small camera slowly approached, alert. Then, with a flick of his wrist, a shadowy figure swooped down at breakneck speed.
The next second, the transmitted image shattered into a snowy screen.
At the last moment when the line was damaged, Pei Huai pulled up the wire and whispered a warning into the microphone.
"Watch your eyes."
-
"It's so spicy." One corner of his mouth curled up frivolously.
At the corner of the alley, a figure with a bag slung over one shoulder lowered his head and lowered the brim of his hat. He shrugged as if forewarned, put on his Bluetooth headset, and watched the street from the corner of his eye.
By hacking into the surveillance footage, he confirmed the number of private cars parked in front of the building. This was due to an invitation email Shan Li had personally sent to a Bangkok hotel. The venue was the Aser Building, a club with a sea view, French cuisine, and billiard tables.
Within five minutes, three to five cars arrived. First out came a few bodyguards from Jingshan Real Estate, then a familiar face. The last car to arrive was Zhu Zhiyang. He came alone.
Xiang Mingqi pressed the button on his headset to ensure smooth communication in the meeting room.
He had heard a bit about what had been going on these past few days. As soon as Shan Li lost contact and disappeared, Jingshan Real Estate Company, as planned, reported the Bangkok Hotel to the IRS, citing tax issues as a pretext, subjecting it to a full investigation.
Of course, this is just the first step in the annexation.
Shan Li wanted the company and wanted to clear the way. He felt threatened by the Bangkok Hotel's previous investigation. He would do this sooner or later.
When the intelligence agent told him that several people were about to have a meeting, he was quite interested in participating. So he installed a miniature camera in the socket hole three hours in advance.
After all, after disappearing from the face of the earth, these people started a city-wide search like crazy. To be more precise, they were looking for Pei Huai.
He was really curious about how interesting the first meeting between these two people would be.
"Where is he?" Zhu Zhiyang roared. Clearly, he had lost his composure the moment he entered the meeting room. "He's been missing for four days, along with your dear brother. I know you're conspiring to get close to him. Don't play tricks."
Shan Li sat upright, his hands spread out. "I'm also doing my best to track him down. But my brother's actions are unpredictable. When he wants to monopolize someone, you can almost think of him as a fierce dog guarding its food. Unless he's shot, this mad dog won't let go easily."
"Whether he lets go or not is his business. I don't care. But nothing can happen to my people." Zhu Zhiyang's face was filled with gritted teeth. "If I find even one more wound on him, I promise I won't let you off easily."
Please understand. I also want to find Mr. Pei.
[…Why did you ask me to come here? ]
"Because I want to talk about the tax audit." He thrust his chin forward, crossed his fingers, and smiled. "On the premise that I want the princess you've been overprotecting until now." After a deep breath, Xiang Mingqi harshly cut the call short.
With Dan Li's routine, he would probably throw out some unrealistic promises. He didn't care what Zhu Zhiyang would choose, but that was where his interest ended.
But before I walked out of the alley, I suddenly heard some kind of... engine humming sound from behind me, in the direction of the barbed wire.
[Puff, puff—puff, puff, okay, can you hear it now?] It was a girl's voice. It sounded familiar.
Xiang Mingqi turned around and looked at the drone hovering behind him, tilting his head in amusement.
"Su Minxian?"
Good afternoon! Let me plug in my keyboard. OK, let me adjust the resolution so I can take another look at the kidnapper's face. OK, 1080p. Did you get slapped this morning? Your face is still swollen.
"Hmm-hmm. Does it look good?"
[It's quite tasteful, but the placement is off. A more symmetrical look would be better.]
"Got it. I'll improve it next time." Xiang Mingqi bent over and stared at the platform, poking it with his hand. "Is this your little toy?"
[Compared to this, where did you hide our handsome guy?] The drone flew around him.
Xiang Mingqi adjusted the top of his hat and walked out of the alley.
[…Forget it, stingy Lululu. If I can find you, I can find him too. Humph, I'm different from those men upstairs who only know how to yell. As long as you have an electronic device in your name, I can locate it. How long do you think it will take to find your loving nest from now on?]
His peripheral vision lingered on the drone's indicator light, and he pursed his lips, his sense of confidence finally broken.
I didn't even have to do anything. I just had to tell him, "The company needs you." Just wait, he'll turn the world upside down in an hour. She said, "Kid, how powerful do you think you are, putting the leader of the wolf pack under house arrest?"
His hand clattered the aircraft's steel frame, nearly buckling. No matter how the propeller struggled, the camera kept falling until it was level with his face.
Those were a pair of hostile brown eyes, with bloodshot veins pulled up from the corneas, and the pupils constricted due to extreme anger.
"It's not your turn to interfere between him and me."
-
When checking the second bedroom, Pei Huai realized that he might have pushed open someone's door.
From the entrance to the enclosed balcony, this second bedroom has a sense of simplicity that is different from the master bedroom: apart from three huge whiteboards, an office chair and a desk, there is nothing else.
Pei Huai looked up—a photo from a bird's-eye view, frozen in the moment when his brows were slightly closed. At that moment, he still had a youthful uprightness and pride that couldn't be erased by hardship.
Magnets, winding wires, photos, connecting it to countless faces.
Looking around, he recognized some of the faces, but for the most, he couldn't quite remember them due to the passage of time. Each one was annotated with the time and place, listed in a row. Pei Huai thought these might be the dates he'd met them.
In the lower right corner of the whiteboard, a rectangular area was drawn with a wireframe. All the photos within the area were marked with red crosses. Among them were several familiar faces: Chen Ping, Yu Mingrui, and the boy he had kissed at the bar. There was a note on the right side, but the text was small and required squinting to read.
Just as he was about to take a closer look, he heard the sound of a lock being unlocked in the entrance hall.
Without waiting for a move, Xiang Mingqi rushed into the room and grabbed his wrist. He stared at him without blinking, breathing rapidly.
"Brother, we have to leave by tonight. But before that," he said, "I want to do it with a condom."
Continue read on readnovelmtl.com