Tian Zhu would not believe it if someone told him nothing was wrong. His head was aching as he forced his eyes open from another much too long nap that had eaten up the whole afternoon down to evening.
A glance at the clock told him it must have been three hours. And that was after sleeping ten hours last night, followed by another one hour nap near noon. It was absolutely too much, but he felt as drained as if he had run a marathon.
With a groan, he forced himself up to sit, his body swaying. His bottle of water was near untouched and his lips felt parched.
Tian Zhu breathed slowly, picking it up and setting it to his lips. He drank in tiny sips that still caused his stomach to scream out.
When had he last eaten? How much?
“I have to go see a doctor”, he whispered to himself, leaning his head into one arm and holding his rebelling stomach with the other.
Someone knocked against the door. “Tian Zhu, stop being in hibernation! Are you awake already? I’m going out, come along! You’ve slept away all day!”
Ling Xian marched into the room without waiting for a response. He was dressed for going out and in a good mood.
“I don’t feel well”, Tian Zhu carefully tried to reject but Ling Xian stopped to stand in front of him.
The other’s tone twisted a bit, as it always did whenever he was ready to force his wishes. “You’ll feel better once you’re outside. It’s because you’re doing nothing but staying indoors all week. Once you start moving around, it will be fine. Come on, we are leaving in a quarter hour.”
Ling Xian stared down at Tian Zhu.
He could feel the gaze drilling into him. Ling Xian did not consider him his brother – he had no right to disobey.
Well, nothing was stopping him from just rejecting, but his parents would be furious at him for rejecting his brother’s goodwill and the following mess of that happening was nothing Tian Zhu felt like having.
He had tested it out once, but they got the guards to bring him to his room and locked him up, then cut off all electricity in his room. He only got the food he was delivered. If they felt like it, they would even resort to violence.
Three days of that had been enough. It wasn’t worth the trouble. No one in the world would care to help him if he got into trouble.
“We will eat later”, Ling Xian declared, grabbing Tian Zhu’s arm and dragging him up. Stumbling, the younger brother made his way into the bathroom.
Not that long later, he found himself in a private room of the group’s usual favourite establishment.
We’re sorry for MTLers or people who like using reading mode, but our translations keep getting stolen by aggregators so we’re going to bring back the copy protection. If you need to MTL please retype the gibberish parts.
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“Tian Zhu, you look so thin”, Su Qi gasped. “Come and eat a bit! Wait a minute, I’ll order something for you.”
She patted his shoulder with mock-friendliness and used the panel to enter something. Tian Zhu only hummed in response – not that she cared about his opinion.
Around him, the voices were condensed into a single, mashed sound-landscape.
He didn’t know how long he was out, but the next time he opened his eyes, someone was pushing something to drink into his hands.
“Come on, take a sip. You’ll feel better.” Ling Xian’s voice was grating in his ears but he obeyed, using the straw to sip up some of the too cold drink.
He half expected to throw up – the drink was too sweet for even his usual taste, let alone when he felt unwell. Added to that was the alcohol content on an empty stomach and the temperature.
However, the more he drank, the more the haze in his head cleared.
Tian Zhu stopped drinking. His eyes flickered down to the colourful cocktail, then up to the waiter. With his foxy eyes, the man grinned broadly at him.
A somewhat familiar face he had half forgotten, if not for that pair of eyes. He remembered those well enough.
“Is it to your tastes, dear customer?”, the waiter hummed in a seductive tone and Tian Zhu felt a shudder go through his body.
“What’s the name of it?”, he asked quietly.
The waiter laughed. “A personal creation.”
Tian Zhu’s hands tightened around the drink. He didn’t need to look over to his brother to know about the satisfied look on his face.
What else do you want me to do? – That’s what he wanted to ask.
I do as you say. I don’t get in your way. I stay out of your sight and don’t compete with you.
Will you not rest before I’m dead? If so, why not show a bit of mercy and make it quick? Why do this?
Exhaustion hit again, but a different one this time. Tian Zhu merely slumped lower, hearing the waiter’s giggle. What someone from the drug-den downstairs was doing up here, he had a pretty good idea.
What was the use of it?
“I hope that you like the drink”, the Deer laughed with a lowered voice. “I’ll make it for you whenever you want. Just drop by.”
How long could he last without the drug? They must have given it to him the last time he came here – a couple of days. Enough to render him unable to eat or drink, unable to stay awake.
Two days on the regular, maybe? Three? If he forced himself to swallow some simple meals, he might be able to get by for longer, but even if he could eat, the chronic fatigue would be hard to avoid. He already tried his best to stay awake and it did not work.
If his brother let him go, he might have to take the chance to get to a doctor.
The Deer winked at him before leaving, a platter of snacks left behind on the table. The group stole some, but actually left most of it for Tian Zhu.
He could hear them talk about nonsense: the newest gossip, who got together with whom, who tried to start a new business.
Tian Zhu stuffed some food into his mouth and pulled out his phone to search for “drug addiction” results.
It wasn’t an area he cared much for, so he wasn’t too knowledgeable about it. Thankfully, the police had an official page for information about it, meaning he didn’t have to worry about wrong ones.
However, what he read only made him more depressed.
Nowadays, there were three types of drugs.
One was the legal group. They were approved by the government and had a variety of effects, such as soothing or hyping up. They were highly regulated in their efficiency and how much a single person could buy, but could be bought easily as long as you went to a store that had them.
The second one was the stronger version of the first one. The effects were enhanced, which made them a gray-scale business. Some had effects that were strong enough to render them illegal, but many were only so much stronger that the police mostly tolerated them.
The third group was distinctly different. If one had to name the most basic disparity, then it was the possibility of addiction.
The first two types were engineered to not cause an addiction. It was why people didn’t care about finding new, illegal drugs – the legal ones had the same effects but you didn’t have to worry about being dependent on them.
But the third group was engineered for that sole purpose.
There was absolutely nothing about them that had a positive effect. They were engineered and sold in black markets, causing an instant addiction with violent reactions when in withdrawal.
The symptoms depended on the drug itself, but it could be pain, hallucinations, or a slow shutdown of the body.
The mafia used them to keep their people under control. The police was after everyone using those drugs, but in the end, they were humans – corruption was everywhere. If someone wanted to keep the usage hidden, they could do it with enough money or influence.
Worse was that it was near impossible to find signs of the usage. It needed specialized tests, which, in turn, needed a reasonable base for suspicion.
A random young man declaring that he had been drugged at a club would not be able to get access to those tests. Why would someone waste such a drug on him at random?
They’d only react if he was dying. The sad thing was, his parents would be the one not reacting if he was dying. They’d not suggest such a test. Why would they open up such a drama? People could find out.
No, they’d quietly comment things like, our son had been sickly lately.
They’d let him waste away or get better, whichever was fine, and if he died, then so be it. He’d probably get a nice funeral – people were watching! – and they’d shed some tears and talk about how he was always a quiet child, that he hadn’t told them he had felt bad, that he never wanted to trouble them.
Those that didn’t know about him would pat their shoulders and give their condolences and say it wasn’t their fault.
And those that knew would turn their heads away.
Tian Zhu sank lower and lower into the seat and looked up at the bright lights on the ceiling.
It would have been nice to be born into Aspen’s family. A normal family, where he could have survived normally. In return, Aspen would have killed those that he was currently blood-related to.
What a nice thought.
Tian Zhu squinted his eyes against the blaring lights and let his head wander off into a bloody world without any actual imagery, only a scene of destruction he desperately wished for right now.
Peace.
Maybe dying wasn’t the worst option right now.
Dying in the worst possible way and leaving behind a letter so that everyone would look at his family in disgust.
QAQ
Thank you for the chapter!! ❤️❤️
Tian Zhu, are you going to snap?
Thank you for the chapter
My gods, there is abuse .. and there is this. I hope he tells Aspen because he WILL kill them all.
He sure would if he wasn’t chained in an illegal underwater prison
Ugh! His family is nauseating.
Wouldn’t it be funny, if the family was also sent into the dreams, for then to realise how screwed they were, when figuring out the true River. Not to forget Aspen. Please! just kill them for everyone’s wellbeing.
Human nature is really…
fuck these niggas
oh gosh this is so depressing. I rly rky hope he can get out of this situation!! they are terrible! worse than beasts!