"Ge, don't talk nonsense." He Yu pressed a finger to his lips before immediately curving it and dropping his hand. He smiled faintly with his eyes lowered. "It was just a few glasses of liquor. What drugs are you talking about? Besides, no one forced you to drink. You drank it all of your own volition. Why are you blaming me for your intoxication?"
Xie Qingcheng grew even more furious. "You're unbelievable… He Yu, this is absurd, how could you…"
He Yu smiled quietly, maintaining that same gentle mien as before. However, the facade only persisted for a few seconds before collapsing, as Xie Qingcheng's last sentence tipped his temper past a critical threshold. He didn't want to pretend anymore. His face changed as he struck back before anyone could react, grabbing Xie Qingcheng's hair and ruthlessly shoving him to the floor.
Bang!
The back of Xie Qingcheng's head crashed down on the edge of the marble table. Xie Qingcheng, whose body was weak from the effect of the liquor, let out a low gasp of pain as blood immediately gushed out of the wound.
"Aaah!" Some of the timider girls couldn't help but shriek out of fear that a serious fight was going to break out, like birds startling at the twang of a bow.
He Yu rose to his feet and looked down indifferently at Xie Qingcheng.
The injury was only superficial—it looked scary, but it wouldn't kill him—but the metallic scent of blood stoked He Yu's madness. His expression was glacial, but a twisted fire seemed to burn within his dark eyes.
"Listen, Xie Qingcheng. You'd better stop lecturing me." Grabbing a fistful of Xie Qingcheng's hair, He Yu yanked his head up, forcing him to look at him. Then, he slid his hand down to run his thumb ever so slowly over Xie Qingcheng's lips as he whispered, "You don't have the right to teach me a lesson, nor do you have the status or authority."
The man's lips were cold as ice, while the youth's thumb was hot enough to burn. But it wasn't hot enough to thaw that ice; no pleasant words could be dragged from Xie Qingcheng's lips.
He Yu and Xie Qingcheng stared at each other.
He Yu's temper suddenly flared, like a spark bursting into flames. He straightened up and kicked Xie Qingcheng squarely in the chest, hard enough to make the tea table skid across the floor along with him. Wine glasses shattered all over the floor with a great crash.
The girls scattered in fright, then huddled together in the corner like a flock of startled birds as they watched these two guests who had suddenly come to furious blows.
He Yu gazed at the man lying on the floor, his eyes filling with the bitter hatred he had finally unleashed. "What I really can't stand is when you lecture me with a mouth full of lies. Your legs are too weak to even stand up right now, so you should learn to kneel and prostrate yourself—and shut your mouth. That's how you should behave."
He lowered his almond eyes and elegantly straightened out his shirt with no expression on his face, then sat back down onto the leather sofa.
Xie Qingcheng was half-leaning against the tea table, coughing softly. He hadn't often been hit before. When he was younger, he was usually the one dishing out the beatings, and when he got older and settled down, he no longer needed to resort to violence to solve his problems. This was the first time someone had smashed his head down and kicked him to the ground. Not only that, but his opponent was just a kid, still in school.
Xie Qingcheng didn't even register the pain—when he pressed his hand to the wound at the side of his head and came away with a palm full of blood, he only felt an overwhelming rage flood through him, making the scene in front of him swim before his eyes. But what was even more terrifying was the restless arousal coursing through his body, growing fiercer by the second.
He had never experienced a feeling like this before. He barely ever reacted to desire; that was just the kind of person he'd always been. But he had drunk too much of that drugged liquor, and its cumulative effect was igniting practically all of the compounds in his body with a chemically induced fire. He forced his eyes shut, trying to suppress that terrifying tremble within him, but it was no use. Even his breathing had become abnormally heavy, and his clothes were a hot layer around him. It was like his entire body was about to be swept away by lust powerful enough to burn him up alive.
"He Yu… Fuck you…"
"You still have the energy to cuss me out? Did this shady nightclub water down the liquor or what?"
He Yu carelessly shoved the girl beside him, who was trembling from head to toe.
"You. Go help our guest up."
Even though the girl was terrified out of her mind, she had no choice but to approach Xie Qingcheng, her small face deathly pale, and lean down to help him up.
As Xie Qingcheng got a whiff of that soft, cloying sweetness, the effect of Plum Fragrance 59 seemed to intensify. Panting, he fiercely pushed the girl away.
"Get away… I told you to get away from me!"
Frightened to the point of breaking down, the girl scrambled backward with a quiet sob, as if she wanted to hide in a corner of the room.
But He Yu intercepted her.
With his eyes fixed on Xie Qingcheng, He Yu pulled the girl toward him and gestured for her to kneel beside him. He carelessly stroked her hair with one hand as she curled up by his feet, as if he was petting a cat or a dog.
"Xie Qingcheng," He Yu said. "You've been married before. How are you still so awful at showing favor to the fairer sex?"
Xie Qingcheng raised his thoroughly bloodshot eyes. The young man gazing down his nose at him from high above was alarmingly unfamiliar.
All these years, even though He Yu had been an evil dragon hidden in a rocky cave complete with horns, fangs, and a vicious tail, he could always see the subtle emotions on the faces of humans. He knew that he had to sheathe his piercing talons before he touched the cheek of a human with his sharp claws, that he mustn't incite people's terror.
But he didn't want to disguise himself any longer.
He took in all of Xie Qingcheng's resentment, but his heart was perfectly calm. He'd always been such a cruel and unfeeling person, hadn't he?
He Yu gently but insistently poured a glass of red wine for the petrified girl beside him, forcing her to choke down its contents even as she held back tears, all the while stroking a faultlessly considerate hand over her back. "Don't worry, everything's fine."
Then he said to Xie Qingcheng, "Just look at how badly you've scared her. If she's not to your liking, you should just tell me. I'll find someone else to attend to you. I'll keep swapping them out until you're satisfied."
Xie Qingcheng rested his forehead in a shaking hand without a word. The drug had already stoked the heat within him to the point of madness. His mind began to blur, making him feel as though his very blood had caught on fire. He leaned back against the tea table, gasping for breath, his eyes suffused with red as he shuddered uncontrollably from head to toe. Humans were fundamentally weak in the face of such primal desire. Even such a cool-headed and self-disciplined man had no way of staving off the fervent lust that this drug stirred up inside him.
He Yu wound his fingers through the young woman's long hair repeatedly as he gestured toward another girl. "Your turn now. Go serve him properly. Be smart about it now."
"Stay away," groaned Xie Qingcheng.
The girl paused, stuck between a rock and a hard place.
He Yu said mildly, "Just do as I say."
Steeling herself, the hostess pulled Xie Qingcheng upright and tried her best to bring him over to the sofa. But she wasn't very strong to begin with, and Xie Qingcheng was heavy; in the process, the woman inadvertently landed in Xie Qingcheng's arms.
She cried out softly, "Aiya…"
Xie Qingcheng's scalp went numb. It had indeed been ages since he last slept with anyone. He had never been enthusiastic about sex when he was with Li Ruoqiu, and after they broke up, he had basically been celibate. He rarely even took care of things by himself. With the drugged liquor fanning the flames and heating up the lust in his body to its boiling point, he found himself reacting against his will when that supple body leaned into him, even though he was so furious he wished he were dead.
As it turned out, Xie Qingcheng happened to be just this woman's type—handsome and tall with an especially masculine aura, so ascetic and self-controlled even as his body burned with lust and gave off a man's uniquely male hormones. Emboldened, she wrapped her arms around him and enthusiastically pressed closer.
Xie Qingcheng abruptly ducked away from her. He said in an extremely hoarse voice, "Get away from me…"
"Ge…"
Xie Qingcheng bellowed harshly, "Are you deaf? I told you to get away from me!"
He Yu looked on coolly from across the room. This man was really fucking good at acting and restraint, he thought. Even at this point he could still control himself, remaining solemn and composed, unwilling to even touch a woman who had thrown herself at him. He'd spent so long masquerading as a respectable person that he didn't want to remove his mask anymore, did he?
Just as there were those among the hostesses who were meek, there were also some who were more daring. One of the girls, seeing the way Xie Qingcheng never spared a single glance at her or her fellow hostesses, was suddenly struck by an idea. Hoping to win He Yu's favor with an unconventional gambit, she assumed the role of a bumbling advisor and whispered to him, "Young Master He, about this friend of yours… Could it be that he's…"
He Yu didn't catch her drift. His face cold, he asked, "He's what?"
Instead of saying it outright, the girl said, "Young Master He, we also have some very handsome male hosts here…"
It took three seconds for He Yu to figure out what she meant.
"He's not. That won't be necessary."
Xie Qingcheng was as straight as an arrow. He'd be disgusted to no end by the attention of those girly little homos.
The girl, however, had a look on her face that said, Well, it's not like you'd necessarily know whether he's gay or not. Given the people who patronized this establishment, what kinds of outlandish clientele and acts of absurdity hadn't these hostesses seen? Young Master He really was too young and lacking in imagination.
Of course, this disrespectful thought had to be kept to herself. Since Young Master He had vetoed her suggestion, she couldn't insist any further. But for some reason, the girl's words made He Yu think back to Neverland and the guestbook he had seen.
There had indeed been a lot of bottoms who had written in the guestbook, all of them thirsting after Xie Qingcheng, saying he was so manly, that he was the ideal top. And what about himself? He was the one who kept getting harassed by men in the past, and those blind bastards in that guestbook had even said that they wanted to top him.
He Yu got mad just thinking about it. To outsiders, he was always weaker than Xie Qingcheng. Even in this aspect, he was inferior to Xie Qingcheng.
But now, who was the one who was helpless before the other? He looked down at Xie Qingcheng's flushed skin and the silent endurance etched into his features. He actually seemed a bit fragile.
He ought to let those damn gays who called Xie Qingcheng "ge" and thought he was invincible see him now—this was the ideal top of their dreams? Such a lustful, wretched appearance, burning under the influence of alcohol yet still unwilling to touch those women.
Now, if he were the one being topped—that would be more like it!
The idea made He Yu's heart skip a beat, although he didn't know why. The very thought of Xie Qingcheng getting fucked sent a subtle thrill through his cerebral cortex, as if some nerve had been struck with a jolt of electricity.
A crash snapped He Yu out of his daze.
The girls were just as shocked. Xie Qingcheng's body was enduring such unbearable torment that he'd abruptly crushed the thick, branch shaped glass lampstand near the tea table into pieces. He curled up on the ground in pain, the veins on his hands bulging as his body trembled.
The girls who could help relieve his torment were right next to him, yet he would rather endure it all the way through, unwilling to touch or look at them, even if he tortured himself to death.
These girls had seen their share of nasty perverts and usually spent their time rejecting and pushing them away. This was the first time they'd met such a gentleman, and even in their confusion, they felt somewhat bad for him.
Finally, the lead hostess spoke up. "Y-Young Master He, why don't we try to resolve this a different way… If you have any resentment or grudges, you can resolve it in private in the future. But let's just leave it at this for today, okay?"
She had a conscience, after all, and didn't lack guts. Besides, there was a limit to the service offered in this establishment. If they really crossed the line, there wouldn't be enough tea at the police station to go around. She saw how bad Xie Qingcheng's condition was and how hard he was struggling, and even as her heart pounded in terror, she gathered her courage and lowered her head to try to talk He Yu around.
"We're just a small business; we can't cross certain lines. Otherwise, we couldn't bear the liability and continue with our work. Thank you for your understanding, but…"
He Yu didn't respond, still staring at Xie Qingcheng. He tightened his hold on his glass, the veins on the back of his hand protruding one after another.
Had this man taken his disguise to such extremes that it had become genuine?
Rather than being forced into giving a shameful performance before these women, Xie Qingcheng had turned the tables and caused He Yu to lose control of the situation. The leader, those hostesses… When they looked at Xie Qingcheng, their eyes were filled with admiration and pity.
He Yu rose to his feet and slowly walked over to Xie Qingcheng. After a few beats of silence, he said mildly, "Forget it. This is just between him and me. You can all leave."
Overwhelmed with relief, the girls' only thought was that if things continued like this, there was no imagining the kind of trouble these two nutcases would stir up tonight. With Young Master He's permission, they streamed from the room and made a hasty escape. A couple of girls even looked at Xie Qingcheng rather woefully before they left, hoping that nothing bad was going to happen to him.
Now it was only the two of them inside the private room.
He Yu gazed down at Xie Qingcheng, who was struggling in pain on the floor…
In the end, he was still the loser, wasn't he? He was still the fool, while Xie Qingcheng was still the immaculately dressed, righteous gentleman.
Was there no way for him to force the ugly side of Xie Qingcheng out and make him plead for mercy?
In the hazy lighting that brimmed with desire, He Yu swept his eyes over Xie Qingcheng's broad forehead, the stark line of his jaw, and further down, to the bob of his throat, the honest reactions of his body… He had been driven to this point, yet not a single button of his shirt had been undone.
This person's masculine willpower and pride were just that strong.
Though he trembled as he burned in the flames of desire, Xie Qingcheng was still aware of what had happened. He slowly looked up and said to the young man before him, "Are you done…messing around? If you're done, you should come back with me. He Yu, you've lost. You…"
It seemed like Xie Qingcheng had more to say, but another wave of lust swept over him and he snapped his eyes shut, bloodied fingers clenching tightly on the edge of the tea table. It was too unbearable…
Every second of every minute was torture. He had to use all his self control to prevent himself from doing something an elder shouldn't in front of He Yu.
He had to keep himself under control.
He couldn't…
Swollen beads of sweat dripped down his flushed face, the jut of his throat bobbing continuously as he swallowed.
He Yu's eyes followed the up-and-down movements of Xie Qingcheng's Adam's apple before lifting back up to meet his gaze. Beneath those long, trembling lashes, his peach-blossom eyes brimmed with moisture. The plum liquor had melted them into twin pools of water, yet when he looked into He Yu's eyes, they were still so calm.
He Yu felt that roiling flame in his chest bare its teeth and claw through his heart. Would he really fail to penetrate deep beneath this man's armor, touch the softest parts of him, and find his true face?
No… He had to make Xie Qingcheng pay the price.
Because Xie Qingcheng was a liar.
A liar…
A liar!
His rage surged. Sneering, He Yu suddenly picked up a glass of wine. With a slight tilt of the cup, wine began to pour like a trail of blood, seeping into Xie Qingcheng's slightly gaped collar.
Xie Qingcheng was trying to provoke him, to toy with him. Well then. Wasn't Xie Qingcheng the one who kept refusing? Wasn't he the one who wanted to let those women go? In that case, He Yu would like to see just how this man planned on enduring his desire! Could he really endure it to death?!
The trail of icy-cold wine wound its way down Xie Qingcheng's scalding skin like a snake. He trembled at its touch, unable to prevent a gasp from leaving his lips. But when he met He Yu's eyes, he cut that inhalation off halfway, biting it between his teeth.
The red wine quickly soaked through the weave of Xie Qingcheng's white shirt like a flower painted onto his chest—or perhaps it was a pool of blood. Drop by drop, the entire glass of wine was spilled until the whole thing had been poured onto Xie Qingcheng's body, filling the air with the bitter and astringent scent of tannins.
Incandescently furious, He Yu grabbed Xie Qingcheng by the neck and stared down at him. "Pretend! Keep pretending! How much longer are you planning to keep this up?!"
Xie Qingcheng's body temperature was soaring, and He Yu's palm tingled from the heat.
"Give it up," said Xie Qingcheng. "I'm a man…not a beast. Don't you know…the biggest difference between humans and animals?" His lips trembled as he spoke, and his eyes were filled with extreme disappointment as he looked at He Yu. "Humans can control themselves."
These words, along with Xie Qingcheng's gaze, made He Yu feel as if he'd been ruthlessly scalded. Xie Qingcheng was lying beneath him, looking up at him, but at this moment, He Yu knew—Xie Qingcheng had reclaimed his former position. He was once again superior to He Yu.
Provoked to absolute fury, the resentful anger that had just erupted within him revived itself in an instant, surging into his heart at full force in a raging torrent. He was driven to the verge of madness, to death, and only Xie Qingcheng's misery and loss of control, only Xie Qingcheng's fresh blood and utter breakdown could save him.
But how could he force Xie Qingcheng into such a miserable state? How could he make Xie Qingcheng lose control?! Even after pouring all that liquor down his throat, those women couldn't entice him.
The thought of those women still pissed He Yu off. Other than serving wine, they couldn't do anything that crossed the line, so how could their indirect seduction possibly be enough? Moreover, they'd lost their courage the moment Xie Qingcheng yelled at them.
They were all trash.
Useless!
If He Yu wanted to achieve his goal, he could only rely on himself.
Rely on himself.
Rely on himself…
"We also have some very handsome male hosts here."
"Xie Qingcheng is a total manly man, an ideal top."
"Young Master He is an ideal bottom. I totally want to fuck him…"
The messages from the guestbook twisted together with the hostesses' words in He Yu's mind. He Yu raged to himself. Why did everyone always think that Xie Qingcheng was stronger than him? Even in this respect, they assumed that He Yu would be weaker.
But now, Xie Qingcheng was the one collapsed in front of him with no ability to fight back. He Yu could fuck him if he wanted! "Total manly man," his ass. The "ideal top?" Wouldn't he be no different from a woman once he got fucked? Then those idiots would realize, just like he had, that everything about Xie Qingcheng was an act! Xie Qingcheng would be nothing more than a "total manly man" who'd been fucked by another man…
The moment this thought popped into his head, He Yu was immediately and thoroughly disgusted by himself.
Absurd. Far too absurd. How could that have crossed his mind?
They were both men—straight men. He couldn't do such a thing. Men were all disgusting… The bodies of his own sex…
But…
But was he supposed to just accept defeat and bow down to Xie Qingcheng with a downcast look on his face? He had spent so much time and effort pouring a whole bottle of Plum Fragrance 59 down Xie Qingcheng's throat, yet he was still going to lose to Xie Qingcheng?
If he did, he would be nothing more than a dog to Xie Qingcheng for the rest of his life, unable to raise his head ever again. He was in too deep now. He didn't expect that making Xie Qingcheng drink would be so easy, but that making him lose his composure would be so hard.
He Yu strode over to him and looked at this unsalvageable farce of a situation.
Xie Qingcheng was feeling extremely unwell. It was impossible for him not to give in to his desires tonight. But he was such a tough person that he'd rather be tortured to death himself than bully those pitiful women.
He Yu looked at his dazed face, his eyes clouded with lust, his parted, panting lips.
He Yu didn't like men's bodies, of course. But he was contemplating the only path left open to him, a path that might possibly end with Xie Qingcheng showing him weakness. Gazing at Xie Qingcheng's current appearance, he realized that through this sequence of coincidences, he had found the answer to a question that had long plagued him.
What did Xie Qingcheng look like in bed?
This question had popped into his head in the past when he saw Li Ruoqiu and Xie Qingcheng's marriage bed.
He Yu had never realized this himself, but no man who was genuinely as straight as an arrow would have wondered what another man would look like lost in the throes of passion. But he had wondered. Many, many times.
He thought that Xie Qingcheng was too cold, too stiff, too abstinent, so he couldn't even imagine what he would look like intertwined with a woman.
It was only now that he finally got his answer. Now he could see Xie Qingcheng's face, up close and personal, as he was tormented by desire, as his body was burned by aphrodisiac liquor. That was when he realized that, even though he found other men's bodies repulsive…Xie Qingcheng was different, somehow, from what he assumed married men would be like. He was just too abstinent and restrained.
Sinful, yet alluring. Like a deity ensnared by a snake.
He Yu looked at this familiar-yet-unfamiliar body, at this man who had once been so imposing to him, and mulled numbly over his complicated emotions. He found that, more than anything else, he was filled to the brim with excitement at the novelty, and a sort of wild, vengeful exhilaration.
He had truly gone insane tonight. He had lost all reason. Everything in his past had been destroyed: Xie Xue was fake. The contract period was fake. Xie Qingcheng's words were fake. Everything he thought he knew had been turned completely upside down.
In the past, He Yu might have held firm that, no matter what, men were not to be touched. Not for any reason.
But tonight…
Xie Qingcheng had destroyed eleven fucking years of his faith.
His whole world had been overturned.
What was the big deal?
What did sex matter?
He'd come here to cut loose. He was planning to do something that he never would've done before, something scandalous and shocking, to destroy the foolish He Yu that he had been before.
So, what would be more perverse than sleeping with women in a nightclub? The answer was already on the tip of his tongue.
The more He Yu thought about it, the stronger the thrill running through him became. This was the thrill of rejecting his past self, the thrill of destroying who he used to be.
He wanted to destroy himself.
And at the same time, he wanted to destroy the Xie Qingcheng who had deceived him and left him in such a miserable state.
As his eyes sought out Xie Qingcheng's face, lust-filled yet restrained, the nature of his gaze began to shift, ever so slowly…
He Yu knew that it was disgusting for a man to fuck another man, but if he was the aggressor, that would make it different from the way he had been harassed by those men in the past… He would still be the one abiding by male instinct.
But Xie Qingcheng?
As a straight man, even if Xie Qingcheng had been unable to hold back and slept with a woman, he would have only been a little bothered and embarrassed by it. But if Xie Qingcheng really did get fucked by He Yu…
Then… Putting himself in the other's shoes, to a manly man like Xie Qingcheng, wasn't that a much greater blow?
Having come to this decision, He Yu felt enlightened. He had been foolish before. He was a freak, so, moving forward, he would become a freak through and through. It made perfect sense for him to resort to the most excessive, cruel means to destroy both himself and the target of his hatred. Why in the world should he settle for the well-traveled path of female temptation?
Xie Qingcheng was already engulfed by lust anyway.
If, during the process, he could arouse Xie Qingcheng, that would be even more hilarious—the mere idea of Xie Qingcheng wanting him, Xie Qingcheng wanting him with no regard for his own dignity… If word got out, it might even kill him!
He Yu had truly gone insane. So insane he trembled with it, so insane he would stop at nothing, so insane he disregarded the very idea of consequences.
With a slap of skin against skin, He Yu grabbed the wrist of the still dazed Xie Qingcheng.
In the dimly lit private room, Xie Qingcheng heard He Yu's low voice as the young man faced him with his back to the light, his figure tall and straight, his aura unspeakably, terrifyingly domineering.
"It's too early for you to say whether I've lost right now." He Yu leaned in, his breath gently brushing across Xie Qingcheng's carotid artery as he murmured like a snake, dangerous yet enticing. "As for you and me, Xie-ge, let's see where we stand after tonight."