Lai Li let out short, sharp gasps from the intense pain, his arms gripping Dai Linxuan’s shoulders with increasing force.
He didn’t want his corpse photo to make tomorrow’s headlines alongside Dai Linxuan’s name. Seizing the opportunity, he kicked up with his leg, grabbed Dai Linxuan’s shoulder and back, and flipped them over. Their positions swapped in an instant.
Lai Li knelt astride Dai Linxuan’s legs, pinning his wrists above his head.
“Bro… I’d die for you.” Lai Li’s heaving chest gradually steadied, a faint red flush lingering at the corners of his eyes from the burning pain. “But not by your hand.”
Dai Linxuan twisted to grab Lai Li’s wrists, about to exert force, when his fingertips brushed against a raised ring—Lai Li was wearing one.
Dai Linxuan suddenly calmed, half-closing his eyes. “Two years.”
Lai Li rubbed his wrist. “Tired?”
“What…” Dai Linxuan paused, a trace of gentle tenderness and faint weariness softening his features. “I can’t afford not to be.”
For the first time, Lai Li sensed a slump in Dai Linxuan’s resolve. He frowned. “Is it really necessary to push so hard? Can those messes abroad really secure your inheritance or whatever?”
Dai Linxuan lowered his eyelids, hiding a fleeting complexity.
Lai Li’s gaze seemed to carry weight, scrutinizing him from his smooth forehead downward, inch by inch. “You’ve lost a lot of weight. And you’ve changed a lot.”
“Have I?” Dai Linxuan met his eyes. “You’ve changed too.”
“Have I?”
“If we both think we haven’t changed, then what has?” Dai Linxuan tugged at his wrist. “Let go.”
“No.” Lai Li tsked lightly. “What if you bite me again?”
Dai Linxuan said something almost rogue: “I raised you— what’s a little bite?”
“…Bro.” Lai Li leaned down to sniff at Dai Linxuan’s neck hollow. “How much did you drink tonight?”
It tickled a bit. Dai Linxuan tilted his head, his lowered gaze falling on the top of Lai Li’s head, his fingertips twitching unconsciously.
He smiled faintly. “Can you smell it?”
Lai Li pulled back, answering irrelevantly. “You’ve been back in the country for almost half a month, and we haven’t had a proper talk.”
Dai Linxuan asked, “Talk about what?”
Lai Li said, “About what you’ve been busy with abroad these two years, what friends you’ve made—”
Which had suddenly made him like men.
“Who’s the big brother here, me or you?” Dai Linxuan laughed. “Shouldn’t I be the one asking you that?”
“Do I need to ask? Didn’t Li Jue report everything to you?”
Lai Li had always known Dai Linxuan had people tailing him, ever since his first kidnapping long ago.
Everyone knew how much Dai Linxuan doted on this half-brother from a different mother and father. Those thugs looking for a quick fortune naturally knew too. Even with Dai Linxuan’s tight protection, Lai Li had been kidnapped twice.
Dai Linxuan said, “Hearing it from others isn’t the same as seeing it yourself.”
“You insisted on going abroad.” Lai Li’s voice turned abruptly cold, his thumb pressing until Dai Linxuan’s wrist bruised. “I begged you to take me with you, but you refused.”
In twelve years, the requests Dai Linxuan had denied Lai Li could be counted on one hand. This was one of them.
Dai Linxuan stared at him steadily for a moment, then chuckled helplessly. “Why do you think I went abroad?”
Lai Li froze, realizing belatedly. “…Because of me?”
Dai Linxuan shoved Lai Li’s leg aside, leisurely broke free of the restraint, grabbed a nearby blanket, and threw it over Lai Li’s face. He slipped on his bathrobe, rubbed his reddened wrist, and said, “Your strength matches your age, at least.”
“You went abroad for two years just to avoid seeing me?” Lai Li sat up clutching the blanket, staring intently at Dai Linxuan. “Why?”
Dai Linxuan glanced back, his hazel eyes brimming with a million emotions, flickering in the dim yellow light.
Lai Li couldn’t make it out and flicked on the main light with a snap. When he looked again, Dai Linxuan had composed himself. “It’s late. Go take a shower first. Dr. Liao will be here in half an hour.”
Lai Li refused to back down, pressing closer. “Explain yourself. Why are you avoiding me?”
“You’re not a kid anymore. Do we really have to go through the ten thousand whys like when you were little?” Dai Linxuan quirked his lips. “You don’t expect me to give you a bath too, do you?”
Lai Li’s face lost all amusement, just staring at him.
Dai Linxuan said, “I wouldn’t mind…”
With a bang, Lai Li slammed the door shut.
“You’ve grown taller, and your temper’s gotten bigger too.” The smile faded from Dai Linxuan’s face as he murmured almost inaudibly, “Little bastard.”
When Lai Li emerged from the shower, Dr. Liao had already arrived.
Dai Linxuan sat by the bar counter, pouring himself another glass of red wine. With company present, he didn’t fill it—about a third full—and had already drunk half.
Dai Linxuan struck first. “A little drink helps with sleep.”
Lai Li sat on the sofa, silent.
Dai Linxuan smiled and said to the waiting Dr. Liao, “Take care of his neck.”
Lai Li wore a loose-collared pajama top, exposing the marks on his neck completely. The knife wound from Tang Yuanyang had turned pale, the flesh slightly everted, flanked by bruised bite marks so deep that blood nearly seeped through the skin—ghastly at first glance.
Liao De was Dai Linxuan’s high school classmate. He’d worked at a top-tier hospital for a few years but couldn’t stand the environment, so he became Dai Linxuan’s private doctor. He knew Lai Li fairly well.
Unceremonious, he tilted Lai Li’s head and tsked several times.
It was obviously a human bite.
Liao De didn’t suspect Dai Linxuan at all, jumping to his own conclusion. “You’re dating someone?”
Lai Li forced a skin-deep smile and spat out two words: “Guess.”
Liao De chuckled. “Definitely dating. Otherwise, you’d have ground them to dust by now instead of sulking here.”
Lai Li coolly lifted his eyes. “Which eye of yours sees me sulking?”
Liao De said, “My third eye.”
Lai Li snapped irritably, “Dig out all three then.”
Liao De stifled a laugh, cleaning the wound while gossiping. “Which girl is this fierce? What did you do to wrong her? Cheat? Or was it mutual brawling?”
Lai Li wanted to sew his mouth shut with needle and thread, but from the corner of his eye, he caught Dai Linxuan sipping his wine, smiling tenderly with downcast eyes.
“…” Lai Li said expressionlessly, “Do you know what patient privacy means?”
Liao De warned, “Patients want privacy? Pray your partner’s clean—human bites are worse than dog bites.”
If it had been anyone else, Lai Li would’ve shot back, “Some people are worse than dogs.” But since it was Dai Linxuan who bit him, the words wouldn’t come.
“This girl’s got good teeth, nice and even.” Liao De prattled on. “Did you get it wet in the shower? Watch it the next few days—no vigorous exercise, or sweat could cause inflammation.”
Lai Li ignored him, propping his legs on the coffee table, arm draped lazily to the side. While Liao De treated the wound, he closed his eyes and dissected every word Dai Linxuan had said that night, finally concluding with extreme displeasure—
Dai Linxuan had probably gone overseas just to avoid him.
Before this realization, everything seemed normal. But working backward from it revealed plenty of clues.
For instance, during the times Dai Linxuan had been back in the country these two years, he’d stayed in hotels rather than coming home. And in the few meetings they had—countable on two hands—they’d never been alone.
Back then, he’d thought outsiders were clueless. Now, it seemed Dai Linxuan had deliberately avoided any chance of them being alone.
Why?
Like Dai Yi said, because he wanted to sleep with him? Didn’t want to hurt him, so kept his distance?
Too pretentious, utter bullshit. Two years of distance, and the result was shoving his dick in his mouth the morning after returning?
Dai Linxuan sipped his red wine slowly, his gaze fixed on Lai Li’s hand draped over the sofa arm. The black diamond ring gleamed brilliantly under the light, eye-catching.
“All done! Dragging me out this late—it’s over half an hour back…” Liao De applied a sterile dressing to Lai Li’s wound, glanced toward the bar. “Boss Dai, mind if I crash here?”
Dai Linxuan’s gaze shifted up, nodding toward Lai Li with a smile. “Ask him. I’m just a guest.”
Liao De looked at Lai Li.
Lai Li refused without hesitation. “No.”
Liao De had expected as much; he’d been planning to leave before even asking. “So cold-hearted.” He tossed down a box of sterile dressings and huffed. “If you’re dating, don’t treat her like that, or she’ll dump you eventually.”
“Get lost already.”
Once Liao De left, the room fell quiet again. Lai Li twirled the ring on his finger, pondered for a bit, then said, “I’m sleeping with you tonight.”
Dai Linxuan replied leisurely, “I only sleep with people, not sleep myself.”
“Try it and see if I don’t tie you up.” Lai Li narrowed his eyes. “That day was only because you’d just gotten back—I held off on beating you, otherwise…”
From the first word, Dai Linxuan had stood to pour out the remaining wine in his glass and headed toward the bedroom. Passing the sofa, he flicked Lai Li’s forehead and said warmly, “Next time, maybe. I’m a bit tired tonight.”
Just closing their eyes to rest, and Dai Linxuan made it sound exhausting.
A soft bang sounded behind him as Dai Linxuan closed the door to the secondary bedroom.
Lai Li sat in the living room for a long time before returning to the master bedroom. He rarely dwelled on the past, but some things surfaced without trying—like his first ten years in the Dai Family, when he almost never slept alone. Dai Linxuan always kept him company, until two years ago when he left the country.
Two years, over seven hundred days—enough for Lai Li to get used to a solitary bedroom, and the sticky dampness, clamor, jumbled whispers, and lingering rotten stench that came when he closed his eyes.
But tonight was different.
The night deepened, two intertwining shadows cast on the wall. The midnight wind blew, curtains billowing with a whoosh, bulging as if hiding something.
Lai Li saw it clearly: an inverted human shadow.
No… the figure wasn’t inverted. He was lying on the bed, neck bitten at its most vulnerable spot, unable to move, forced to crane his head back.
The shadow parted the curtains and stepped slowly into the light. This face was identical to Dai Linxuan’s… so what was devouring his flesh atop him?
He instinctively looked down but was seized by an icy hand on his chin, forced backward. He had to tilt his chin up, meeting Dai Linxuan’s gentle, watery gaze. “Little Chestnut.”
He said, “You’re not him.”
Dai Linxuan asked, “Then who am I?”
He said, “He wouldn’t call me that.”
“I’m him, he’s me—you just never saw clearly.” Dai Linxuan pinned his hand to the bed, preventing him from embracing the other self, his tone almost hypnotic. “Do you like the pain I give you?”
The bite on his neck suddenly deepened, and Lai Li gasped raggedly, unable to finish a sentence.
Dai Linxuan leaned down, brushing his lips lightly.
The pressure on his wrist slackened. Lai Li kicked up, grabbed the shoulders above him, and flipped them over, successfully reversing positions. He seized the wrists and pinned them overhead. Light through the arm crook illuminated the face—
Two identical Dai Linxuans, like a shadow torn brutally in half.
One gave him pain, the other tenderness.
The seated Dai Linxuan said softly, “What if the rumors are true?”
The one beneath him extended his tongue, licking away the blood on his lips. “What if it’s not just rumors?”
“If your brother really is a pervert…” They spoke one after another, sighing tenderly. “What will our little Chestnut do?”
…
Lai Li jolted awake, the blurry ceiling coming into view.
Dawn was just breaking. He splayed his fingers over his eyes; morning light clashed with the black diamond on his ring, sparking a hazy glow.
Thus, the morning lost its purity.
He’d had a different dream from usual.
By normal standards, it was a nightmare.
But when he slipped his hand under the covers, past his waistband, he found it sticky.
He didn’t shower. Instead, he left the room, silently opened the door to the secondary bedroom, and sat by the window, staring fixedly at Dai Linxuan’s face in the dim light.
