Chapter 50: He’s Slept with Ji Huaizhi Too…

Lu Yuyang now got chills at the mere mention of “boyfriend.” The door to the private room swung open, and two or three burly men dragged Guo Ran inside.

“A-Yang? Darling?” Guo Ran lifted his head in a daze, only to see Lu Yuyang sitting on the sofa with a stranger. Lu Yuyang glared at him with fury in his eyes, while the young man beside him eyed him with open curiosity.

“What’s going on? What the hell is this?” Lu Yuyang demanded urgently. Guo Ran struggled to get to his side, but the burly men held his shoulders in an iron grip.

Lu Yuyang furrowed his brow, closed his eyes, and pretended to nap. Guo Ran broke down. “Yuyang? A-Yang? What’s happening here? I’m your boyfriend! I’m Guo Ran!”

Ning Shuang stood up and approached Guo Ran. “If you’re Guo Ran, then you’re exactly who we’re looking for.”

“Find… finding me? What do you mean? Who are you? Why are you with A-Yang? What did you do to him?” Guo Ran still hadn’t grasped the situation. He even thought this was some test Lu Yuyang had set up for him.

Ning Shuang cut in. “Alright, I’ll just ask a few questions.”

He pulled out his phone, opened the Matchmaking Website, and showed it to him. “You familiar with this?”

Guo Ran’s face drained of color. His cheeks, flushed with anger moments ago, turned ashen in an instant. He opened his mouth. “You… what are you getting at?”

“I know you bought a package on this site. You must’ve been shocked that he actually ended up with you, right? Did the person you dealt with give you something to make him eat?” Ning Shuang sat on the edge of the table, stretching out his long legs. His tone and demeanor radiated confidence.

Guo Ran lowered his gaze, thinking for a moment before looking up. “You… you already know everything?”

“We know everything.” Ning Shuang had only guessed this much; the rest was a bluff.

“No, that’s not right. He said it would be fine…” Guo Ran was unraveling, muttering to himself.

“I didn’t know, I swear. I just wanted to give it a shot, so I went to that website… I never meant to hurt you, A-Yang. I really do like you!” Guo Ran struggled again as he pleaded. “Listen to me explain—that stuff has no poison in it.”

“So annoying.” Lu Yuyang scowled and made a gesture with his hand.

One of the suited burly men standing in front of Guo Ran immediately raised his hand and delivered a vicious slap. The sharp crack echoed through the private room. Ning Shuang winced, his own face aching in sympathy.

The blow knocked out one of Guo Ran’s teeth, and half his face swelled visibly. Lu Yuyang pulled out his phone, typing away with his head down as he said to Ning Shuang, “Keep asking.”

The slap had stunned Guo Ran into clarity, his eyes sharpening.

“Ahem.” Ning Shuang cleared his throat strategically. “I know you met that person in person for the deal. Do you remember what he looked like? And I need all your chat records too.”

“His looks… I don’t know. He wore a mask and a hat—I couldn’t see anything. I gave him the money, and he gave me a pill. He said as long as I got the person I like to eat it, my wish would come true.” Guo Ran spilled the whole story, trembling.

They didn’t really need to ask Guo Ran for this information—the issue was that last night, Ning Shuang and the others had discovered the Matchmaking Website no longer offered in-person services. Every package came with pre-programmed dialogues, making it impossible to pinpoint the site’s operator’s IP address.

Otherwise, with Lu Yuyang’s temperament, Guo Ran would’ve been beaten last night.

“A-Yang, I really like you, truly—mmph!” A bodyguard swiftly clamped a hand over his mouth.

Lu Yuyang pinched the bridge of his nose with one hand and turned to Ning Shuang. “What do you say we do?”

Ning Shuang slid over to sit beside him, grabbing an apple slice from the fruit platter on the table and popping it into his mouth. He chewed thoughtfully. “Not sure. How about we buy a package? They must plan to slip the gu to both the customer and their crush themselves, hmm…”

He trailed off as he noticed the others in the room. Lu Yuyang instantly caught on and waved them off. “Lock him up and watch him for now. I’ll handle him personally later. Everyone out.”

As soon as he spoke, the people in the room filed out one after another.

“I figure it’s the Heart-Link Gu—dosing both people with the same love gu. But it has a downside: after a certain time, the gu’s effects fade. Whether they stay in love depends on if the target actually falls for the customer during that window.” Ning Shuang dipped a finger in some liquor and sketched on the table as he explained.

Lu Yuyang frowned. “Then why buy a package?”

Ning Shuang grinned. “To catch the gu-master, obviously. You place the order and specify me as the target. If someone tries to dose me, I’ll know right away.”

“…” Lu Yuyang gave Ning Shuang a look.

He leaned back against the sofa. “What a disgusting thing.”

“Now I get why even you Miao Frontier folk hate that stuff. Love gu is just revolting. The victim is totally innocent—I’m half tempted to kill Guo Ran myself right now.”

Ning Shuang’s eyelashes fluttered.

This was the first time he’d heard an outsider’s—someone unintentionally struck by love gu—true opinion on it.

Disgusting. Innocent disaster.

Real assessments.

Ning Shuang zoned out for a moment, naturally projecting it onto himself and Ji Huaizhi. He knew full well how they’d ended up together.

“Ning Shuang? You okay?” Lu Yuyang waited ages for a response before asking.

Ning Shuang snapped back, shaking his head to say he was fine, then asked, “Think this plan’ll work?”

Lu Yuyang smacked his lips, then nodded. “Yeah.”

He whipped out his phone and ordered the priciest package, claiming it would make his crush pursue him relentlessly within three days.

Ning Shuang watched the 88,000 vanish in a splash of payment, his eyelids twitching with phantom pain. Lu Yuyang filled in the prompted fields one by one.

“Good now?” He showed the phone to Ning Shuang.

Ning Shuang took it and checked. “Should be.”

“Alright, we’ll handle the rest later. I’m going to deal with Guo Ran first.” Lu Yuyang stood.

Ning Shuang grabbed his hand. “Murder’s illegal!”

Lu Yuyang scowled. “What’re you thinking? You take me for a psycho? I’m getting my money back from him.”

“Huh?” Ning Shuang blinked.

Lu Yuyang snorted. “We’ve been ‘dating’ three days, and he’s asked me for 160,000. Hell if I know if he was after love or my wallet.”

Ning Shuang made a “go ahead” gesture. “I support getting your money back.”

Lu Yuyang didn’t actually care about the cash—he just found the whole mess inauspicious. First the inexplicable gu, then dating someone he wouldn’t have glanced at sober. He was relieved Guo Ran had only hit him up for money without pulling any other stunts; it made settling things straightforward.

“Heading home? I can have someone drive you.” At the door, Lu Yuyang turned back to ask Ning Shuang.

Ning Shuang hadn’t expected it to wrap up so smoothly. He’d thought he’d be out late, but it was still early enough to catch Ji Huaizhi after class if he headed back to school now.

“Back to school,” Ning Shuang said.

Lu Yuyang raised a brow. “Don’t you have no classes this afternoon? Why bother?”

Ning Shuang smiled. “To pick up my boyfriend after class.”

Lu Yuyang rolled his eyes, then called someone right in front of Ning Shuang. After hanging up, he said, “Driver’s waiting at the bar entrance. He’ll take you to school.”

“Cool, thanks. I’m off then.” Ning Shuang stood too. “Don’t stay mad—this’ll sort itself out.”

“I know. Quit your babbling and go.” Lu Yuyang stepped out of the room and headed to another private booth, where the bodyguard at the door opened it for him.

Ning Shuang glanced back once, then took the elevator downstairs.

After leaving the bar, he got into Lu Yuyang’s family car and returned to school.

The timing was perfect. By the time he reached the teaching building, class was just letting out.

He messaged Ji Huaizhi: 【Darling, you out of class yet?】

Ji Huaizhi replied almost instantly: 【Just finished. You done?】

Ning Shuang settled on a bench, typing slowly: 【Wrapped up right on time. Waiting downstairs from the teaching building now—you’ll spot me as soon as you come out^^】

The reply took forever this time.

The flow of students from the building thinned out, but Ji Huaizhi neither responded nor appeared. Puzzled, Ning Shuang typed: 【Darling? Ji Huaizhi?】

About ten minutes later, Ning Shuang finally saw Ji Huaizhi emerge.

He looked like he’d just sprinted hard—hair messier than usual, fine sweat clinging bangs to his forehead, his pale skin flushed pink. He seemed terribly anxious, terribly tense.

Ning Shuang walked up and took his hand, fishing a handkerchief out of his pocket. As he wiped the sweat from Ji Huaizhi’s forehead, he asked, “What happened? You’re drenched in sweat from running?”

Ji Huaizhi was breathing heavily. He explained, “The teacher asked me to help out, so I only just got done. I wanted to see you as quickly as possible, so I ran the whole way.”

He felt his lie was utterly clumsy.

Ning Shuang gazed into his eyes, lost in thought about something.

This was the first time Ji Huaizhi had ever felt guilty. The hand not clasped in Ning Shuang’s tightened into a fist of its own accord.

He had already braced himself for an interrogation from Ning Shuang. Instead, Ning Shuang beamed and clapped him on the shoulder with genuine delight. “That’s fantastic! My dear boy is already helping out the teacher. From now on, you should get along well with the teacher’s students, got it?”

Ning Shuang had mentioned from the start that Ji Huaizhi didn’t seem close to anyone. A month and a half into the school year, and he still had zero friends—not even able to remember any of his classmates’ names.

Whenever someone tried to be friendly, Ji Huaizhi would either pretend not to notice or act like he hadn’t heard. Before long, everyone knew he was impossible to approach. Now that Ji Huaizhi was helping the teacher, he might actually start making friends. That was a good thing—at the very least, he wouldn’t have to keep orbiting Ning Shuang exclusively.

After all, the Love Gu couldn’t stay in Ji Huaizhi’s body forever.

Ning Shuang simply hadn’t figured out how to face that day when it came. Earlier today at Lu Yuyang’s place, he’d learned just how repulsive the Love Gu was to ordinary people like them.

Lu Yuyang had only held hands and shared a kiss with him, that was all.

But he and Ji Huaizhi had gone all the way to bed.

So Ning Shuang hoped Ji Huaizhi would learn to make friends. Once the Love Gu was dealt with, Ji Huaizhi would have someone to confide in, brothers to help him process it all. As for Ning Shuang himself… well, he’d beg for forgiveness first.

The more Ning Shuang thought about it, the sadder he became. That night, nothing had needed to happen at all.

It was his own greed that had turned one misstep into a cascade of mistakes.