“Welcome back, Little Lin.” The man was sitting in the chair with a relaxed look, resting his hands on one leg that was propped up on the other. With a fake look of sadness, he asked, “I thought you died in that ambush, I mourned you for a long time. Why didn’t you come back? I miss you very much, you know.”
Han Jue. This man was the one who raised him as a dog, stepped on his head, and told him that he wasn’t crazy enough. Yet, after Liu Lin had become truly crazy, it was this same man who gave the order to kill him. Hearing such words come out of his mouth, Liu Lin felt so repulsed he nearly vomited.
Resisting the nausea and refusing to respond, he took out a candy from his pocket, peeled off the wrapper, and threw it into his mouth.
Sweet.
Like Xiao Qi.
There was no expression on Liu Lin’s face. He flippantly stood in place like a lawless hooligan, completely disregarding everyone around him.
When he walked inside, he had indifferently swept his eyes across the room. A single glance, and then no more, his gaze seemingly saying that they weren’t worth sparing another second of attention. Naturally, he couldn’t be bothered to answer the man.
Liu Lin’s behaviour was equivalent to a slap in the face for Han Jue. He instantly dropped all façade, his voice sinking, “Don’t make me angry, Little Lin.”
These words finally made Liu Lin look at him. His lips curled into mocking sneer, turning his expressionless face into one full of provocation. “So what if I do? What are you going to do? Get someone to beat me up? Or try to kill me again?”
He scoffed at the methods Han Jue wanted to use to deal with him, because none of it could hurt him any longer. Liu Lin would never again fear the man like he did when he was a child.
Han Jue had long since been unable to hurt him.
Last time, if he hadn’t gone along with their ploy in order to trick them into thinking that he was dead, he wouldn’t have gotten injured at all. But of course, if he did that, he would probably still remain in the gang until now.
Before he ‘died’, Liu Lin had followed whatever Han Jue told him to do because the man had taken him in, letting him avoid the fate of having his limbs cut-off to work as a beggar.
But this favour was paid back in full the moment Han Jue ‘killed’ him.
Han Jue no longer had the leverage to keep him under his leash—
“You better not forget the reason you came back for,” Han Jue snorted, got up and approached him.
“You also better not forget that you’ve already used him to get one month out of me.” Let alone showing fear, Liu Lin even looked at Han Jue with murderous intent in his eyes. He bit the candy in his mouth and crushed it to pieces, as if chewing the bones of the man in front of him, “If you dare to threaten me with him again, I’ll kill you right now.”
He was not afraid of Han Jue.
Neither was he afraid of anyone in this place.
The only thing he was afraid of was not being able to protect Yao Qi should these people attack him.
But now that Yao Qi wasn’t by his side, Liu Lin would not be at a disadvantage if they were to start fighting. Even if they had guns, he wouldn’t be the first to die.
If Han Jue dared to send someone to attack Yao Qi, that crazy girl Yao Yue would be enough to handle them. Furthermore, she would immediately report the situation to him. The moment they dared to touch Yao Qi, Liu Lin would come for Han Jue.
“All the people in this room—”
However, he couldn’t rule out the possibility of someone fishing in troubled waters. One of these people might deliberately hire some thugs to attack Yao Qi to trick Liu Lin into killing Han Jue so that they could snatch Han Jue’s position.
“—If you dare to lay a finger on that person, I will kill every single one of you.”
“Just try and see what I would do.”
Han Jue had traded Yao Qi’s safety for a month of his time.
During this month, he would complete any task assigned by Han Jue and be paid for it.
Because his hands were full with the task of educating Yao Yue, he had not been able to fulfil his intention of financially supporting Yao Qi. He wanted Xiao Qi to live a better life. He felt that the amount of money in the card he gave to Yao Yue was still lacking, so he might as well use this opportunity to make a lot more.
As long as this group of people could keep their end of the deal, he would similarly keep his word and obey Han Jue’s orders for a month.
Of course, if they broke the agreement, he would definitely do as he said and spare not a single soul.
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.
All of their faces contorted at Liu Lin’s warning.
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But just because they stayed silent didn’t mean they wouldn’t resort to underhanded tactics. After all, there were a lot of dirty tricks that could drive a person into a wall.
Everyone in the room collectively shared the same thought—except for Han Jue.
As for Han Jue, he felt that Liu Lin had truly gotten out of his control this time. Once and for all, he definitely had to get someone to kill him after this month was over.
An air of hostility densely filled up the room.
Liu Lin frowned and turned around to leave.
This was why he hated rats the most.
They were simply revolting.
But as someone who grew up with this kind of people in this sort of environment, he too, was also an equally despicable rat.
He wrapped himself tighter with his clothes, feeling cold inside as he thought of Yao Qi. It was as if the man had a halo around him at all times, so bright it could even warm Liu Lin’s heart.
As long as Yao Qi was by his side, everything would be fine.
Liu Lin yearned to embrace him.
He knew he would definitely bear the brunt of Yao Qi’s wrath when he went back, but that was alright, because the most important thing was to ensure Xiao Qi’s safety.
One month later, he would kill Han Jue.
Even after they made an agreement, Han Jue might try to use Yao Qi to threaten him again, or even directly attack Yao Qi. Liu Lin didn’t want to risk it.
No one else would care if he wanted to quit the gang—they were only interested in aiming for Han Jue’s seat. Therefore, he could let them be for the time being since they wouldn’t take the initiative to provoke him. After all, none of them would dare to offend him once they saw what he would do to Han Jue.
—
“Brother Lin, from what I remember, you used to really hate sweets,” the voluptuous woman giggled as she leaned against him, her red nail polish glinting under the lights as she teasingly trailed circles across his chest with her finger.
The man expressionlessly sat like a stone statue, not even bothering to spare her a glance. His eyes were dull yet extremely cold, radiating an unnerving aura that made people eager to get away from him.
The woman internally cursed. It had been a year since she last saw him, but she didn’t understand why the man had become so lifeless. If Boss Han hadn’t offered her such a sweet payment, she would have left a long time ago. She took a deep breath, telling herself to get it over and done with, and then moved to kiss the man’s lips.
Before it could land, a wide palm roughly blocked her face and shoved it backwards.
Through the gaps of his fingers, she could see the man finally turning to glance at her, but those eyes were so empty it felt as though she was looking at a moving corpse. Aside from her reflection, there was nothing else in that pitch-dark, eerily soulless gaze.
The woman was so frightened her whole body shook, her mind going blank.
“Get lost.”
The deep voice brought her back to her senses, and the woman instantly backed away as she trembled. Stumbling down to the floor, she directly crawled on her hands and feet to rush out of the room.
It wasn’t until she scrambled past the door did Liu Lin look away.
He put his hands into his pockets, but there was nothing inside.
So he got up and walked to the bedside cupboard, squatting down to pull out a drawer. It was filled to the brim with all kinds of candies in various flavours.
Liu Lin picked up a piece at random and threw it into his mouth.
After sucking on it for a while, he unwrapped another one and ate it.
It wasn’t sweet.
So he put yet another one into his mouth.
Not sweet.
Not sweet.
Not sweet.
Not sweet.
Not sweet.
…
Liu Lin spat out the mouthful of candies into the trash can, then trotted back to the cupboard to repeat what he just did all over again.
Not sweet.
Not sweet.
Not sweet.
…
He was acting like a real nutcase, meaninglessly repeating his actions.
It went on until a lollipop somehow fell out from the drawer to the floor, catching his attention.
The lollipop was from a brand you could find anywhere, a very common one dollar candy that was sold in most department stores, but it was the last piece of candy from the bunch Liu Lin had taken with him before he left home twenty seven days ago.
Xiao Qi was the one who bought it for him.
Liu Lin sniffed the lollipop.
Sweet.
The fruity scent calmed his agitated heart. With the lollipop in his hand, he climbed onto the bed.
It was sweet.
Like Xiao Qi.
As various images of Yao Qi filled his mind, Liu Lin felt like he was teetering on the brink of collapse.
He wanted to go home.
He missed Xiao Qi.
He missed the big fox plushie.
He missed the book Xiao Qi gave him.
He wanted to hug Yao Qi, wanted to be held in his arms as the man fucked him pliant.
His mind drifting, Liu Lin tightly gripped the lollipop and closed his eyes, falling into a dream.
He dreamed about the past.
When he was still working as Han Jue’s dog.
He dreamed of the time he went halfway across the city to buy some candies, all in order to conceal his love for sweets and conform to the image of a ‘lunatic’. Because people would ridicule a lunatic with a sweet tooth.
Then he dumped all the candies into the trash because he came across someone who knew him on the way back.
He was like a walking corpse, a marionette who only moved according to someone else’s will.
When the scene changed, he was sitting on the same table as Han Jue, helping to drink the toasts meant for the man and ending up in the hospital because of alcohol poisoning. And yet at the next gathering, he continued to drink Han Jue’s toasts, downing cup after cup as though he was an alcoholic.
The bizarre and psychedelic images in the dream drove him feeling mad and murderous.
The next moment, he saw himself, who had been shot and stabbed twice, laughing like a maniac as he sank his knife into the person who attacked him. The wounds on his body were unbearably excruciating. He wanted to cry out, but he didn’t even dare to curl up in pain because other people were looking at him. He could only stand up straight and cackle loudly, continuing his act of a madman.
It was always dark all around.
He too, was engulfed in the darkness.
But suddenly, someone grabbed his hand.
After he saw that person’s face, the world seemed to light up in the blink of an eye, all the bloodstains and the darkness disappearing without a trace.
He now stood in a familiar living room. There was a big fluffy fox plushie on the sofa and a pair of couple mugs on the tea table, steam wafting from the top. A book with its pages flipped open was also lying on one side of the table.
Liu Lin finally turned his gaze to the man in front of him.
The man had picturesque looks; his eyes were full of tenderness, and the smile gracing his lips was gentle as could be.
It was his Xiao Qi.
“Good boy, don’t you want to hug me?” Yao Qi chuckled and leaned closer to him, whispering in his ear.
Liu Lin quivered, his breath getting heavy. He felt like a prisoner who had finally been pardoned, unable to suppress his desire for freedom any longer. He opened his arms to embrace Yao Qi—
But just as abruptly as he appeared, Yao Qi vanished inside his embrace and the world was plunged into darkness once again.
Right at that moment, Liu Lin woke up from his nightmare with a jolt. He was still lying on the bed, but there was no trace of sleepiness in his wide open eyes. When Yao Qi disappeared inside the dream, he even felt as though his heart had stopped beating.
Two more days left.
Endure it.
The thirtieth day would be the date of Han Jue’s death.
Small theatre
Ah-Lin mindlessly stuffs his mouth full of candies. After chewing on them non-stop, he curls up on the floor and pitifully weeps.
Dream Xiao Qi: *hugs him* What’s wrong? Don’t cry~ *kisses him*
Ah-Lin: *pouting* The candy’s not sweet *hugs him back* Xiao Qi is sweet.
Dream Xiao Qi: *kisses him again*
Ah-Lin: *wags his tail*
T/n: Each time I translate a Yao Qi-centric chapter, my blood pressure rises up. Each time I translate a Liu Lin-centric chapter, my tear glands act up. There’s really no winning orz
Aaaah, so frustrating (~_~メ)
Thank You for the new chapter ♡(ӦｖӦ｡)
I know right 🥹 please let Liu Lin be happy sobs
Thank you for reading 💖💖💖
Thank you for the update! 😆😆
Thank you for reading! 💝💝💝
OH HELL YES! Bring it on, baby! munching popcorn
Thank you for reading! 😂😂😂
My heart aches for Liu Lin. He’s such a baby in my eyes ಥ‿ಥ
You and me both 🥹 a big murderous possessive baby, but a baby nonetheless 🥹🥹🥹
Thank you so much for the update <3
Also T/N spouting facts. I can’t figure out where I stand now. I’m crawling I guess ಠ_ಠ
Lmao! The author loves to play with our feelings hhh. Thank you for reading! 😄💝💝💝