The man handed the removed mask to Lena, who approached, giving it a brief glance.

Lena’s gaze was still fixed on Yu Guang in his arms. He raised an eyebrow and chuckled, “Are you very worried?”

With a gentle upward inflection, Lena shivered involuntarily.

She knew it wasn’t good. In a panic, she withdrew her gaze and hurriedly bowed, intending to retreat.

“Hold on,” the man called out to her. “Go and get his backpack for me.”

Swiping the card to enter the room, the man placed Yu Guang from his arms onto the bed.

This time, he prepared a much smaller dose of medicine than last time. Yu Guang had not completely lost his consciousness. He slept quietly with his eyes closed, his cheek slightly pressed into the soft pillow.

Like a docile house cat.

Calm, obedient, gentle, and harmless.

His collar was wide open, and the white shirt draped over him halfway.

The fair and delicate neck faintly revealed blue veins, and the graceful clavicle lines of the shadow… All the spring colors were on full display.

The man’s gaze measured inch by inch, his expression indiscernible as he hooked his lips into a smile.

His handsome face became even more profound and mysterious under the play of light and shadow, and the curve of his thin lips was ambiguous, seductive without reason.

Just like in the bar booth, the man only used his nails to graze.

He skipped over Yu Guang’s neck skin that had been kissed and pierced by fangs last time, where blue veins flowed beneath.

Back and forth, he was in no hurry. After a while, he reached out and took off the skull earring clipped to Yu Guang’s earlobe.

The little guy’s earlobe was slightly red from being squeezed, round and rosy.

It would be even prettier with pierced ears – this thought popped into his mind again.

Pausing for a moment, the man’s fingertips moved slightly, kneading Yu Guang’s soft and delicate earlobe.

The glass of the hotel window reflected a grayish color.

Like a frame from a vintage black and white film, the scenes inside and outside the window merged together, birds flapping their wings, making it difficult to distinguish between reality and illusion.

In the picture, the man got up and rummaged through Yu Guang’s backpack, finding a half pack of cigarettes and a lighter.

The flame ignited the scarlet cigarette tip, suddenly illuminating a corner of the world.

The man held an Italian lady’s cigarette in his hand.

A slender cigarette with a strawberry-flavored bursting bead filter.

He remembered that the last time he found cigarettes in Yu Guang’s bag, they were not this brand, nor did they have strawberry-flavored bursting beads.

Staring for a moment, as if recalling something, the man hooked his lips into a smile, lit a cigarette, and put it in his mouth.

Biting through the bursting bead wrapped in the filter, the sweet strawberry flavor spread in the smoke, also spreading on his lips and teeth…

Similar to the taste of strawberry hard candy.

Yu Guang had not completely lost consciousness. He seemed to be dreaming, yet also felt present in reality.

He really couldn’t tell.

It was as if someone had set off an unextinguished firework in his mind. He felt dazed and couldn’t feel the burning, but he could be immersed in the warmth.

After the warmth, he suddenly plunged into an icy cave, where icy water entwined around his body like vines, wrapping around him.

Especially his neck, as if someone were strangling him, sucking out his blood.

He thought, maybe there really are gods under the sea.

And he was the living sacrifice offered to the sea god by the villagers – about to be eaten.

The sea god had a pair of hands molded from soft seawater, cold and penetrating, swimming over every inch of his skin.

Trembling, shivering.

Yu Guang made a final attempt to see the sea god’s eyes before being strangled, but all he saw was a plunge into cold misty water.

He woke up.

Unlike the last time, where he was completely unaware, Yu Guang gasped for breath, soaked through, as if he had truly escaped death at sea.

He wanted to wipe his face, but found that his body was unusually weak, unable to lift his arms.

Especially his neck and earlobes, as painful as last time, like needles piercing. He touched them, but there was no abnormal feeling.

The darkness around him was like an abyss, and dawn had not yet arrived – it seemed that this time the man had shown mercy. The dosage of the drug wasn’t enough to make him sleep until sunrise the next day.

But the situation wasn’t much better than last time, even worse.

He didn’t know what the masked man had done to him.

His temples throbbed, his vision flashed with golden stars, and even though he lay still, he felt like the whole world was spinning.

Burying himself in the blanket, Yu Guang groaned a few times and cursed, “Freak.”

Unexpectedly, a light laughter came from beside him –

Strangely familiar.

But Yu Guang was still so scared that he shuddered all over, almost afraid to lift the blanket to check.

The hot gas exhaled accumulated in the thin blanket, and the oxygen needed to survive became thinner, causing suffocating discomfort to surge, mixing with the dizziness in his mind, making it even more uncomfortable.

But Yu Guang’s blocked mind could still think, and the suppressed anger and deeper curiosity suddenly burst out, giving him strength from an unknown source.

He lifted the thin blanket.

Cold air rushed in, accompanied by a burst of strawberry-scented smoke.

The man had lit a cigarette when he burrowed into the blanket, and the faint light of the crimson cigarette tip was the only color in this small world besides black.

The man’s figure blended into the darkness, his silhouette not very distinct. If it weren’t for the lit cigarette, Yu Guang wouldn’t be able to see this person at all.

He seemed to merge with the night.

“I treated you to a drink.” The man pressed the screen, waving his phone towards him. “How’s the taste?”

The phone screen was too bright, stinging Yu Guang’s eyes, and tears welled up in his eyes.

But he still strained to squint towards the man, not looking at the content on the phone at first sight, but the man’s face.

Unfortunately, his wish was in vain.

The man put on the gold-plated Sanskrit mask again, illuminated by the crimson glow of the cigarette butt, which made the edge shine slightly.

Yu Guang could still only see the narrow, slightly curved eyes under the mask, which seemed somewhat familiar.

“Was that ‘freak’ just now directed at me?” the man interrupted Yu Guang’s thoughts.

This time, Yu Guang remembered that his muttered curse when he buried his head in the blanket had been heard by the man.

Yu Guang: “…”

He moved his gaze away from the mask of the person in front of him and glanced at the still lit screen of the phone.

It was the familiar messaging interface, but the sender was not him, but that 【unknown number】.

Sure enough, the person in front of him was the rat who had been spying on him in secret.

And also… his kind.

The strange feeling in Yu Guang’s heart didn’t last long. Instead, there was a somewhat untimely joy, like bubbles bubbling up in boiling water, constantly surging.

He quietly moved his arm under the thin blanket. His strength seemed to have recovered somewhat, and he subtly assessed the distance between the two people and the vase on the bedside table.

Calculating everything, Yu Guang suddenly smirked at the man.

“It was indeed directed at you. Don’t like it?” His tone slightly lifted at the end, like a subtly poisoned hook, very enticing.

When the man seemed slightly distracted –

Yu Guang suddenly sat up, swiftly grabbed the artistic vase on the bedside table, and smashed it towards the man’s head…