23. Lunatic

Xie Hou’s aluminum alloy deposit box fell to the ground, and he heard screams below. The sharp car alarm hadn’t stopped yet when Xie Hou entered the house.

He didn’t bring in the suitcases piled outside; they were left like a heap of discarded paper, rejected at the door.

There was a slightly intoxicating smell of alcohol in the apartment. An empty beer can rolled on the floor and reached Xie Hou’s feet. As it rolled by, pale yellow beer stains leaked out, forming a small mountain of frothy liquid that quickly turned into a messy lump.

Xie Hou bent down, picked it up, and tossed it into the trash can in the hallway. He took off the tactical jacket, went shirtless into the living room, and then grabbed a black T-shirt from the standing clothes rack.

There was one more person in the house.

He lowered his eyes, looking at the casually discarded leather shoes and suit jacket on the floor.

Shen Cizhu entered the apartment earlier than him, watching his subordinates humiliate him by taking money from a high vantage point.

Shen Cizhu was indifferent and even opened a can of beer to sip slowly. He hadn’t drunk this kind of bitter and inferior beer before, probably out of curiosity, so he drank a lot.

The beer can was already empty.

Unfortunately, his tolerance for alcohol was as poor as ever. He was already drunk on the sofa after just one can of beer. His body leaned slightly, his snow-white cheek pressed against the sofa, and his drunken eyes opened slightly, looking at Xie Hou as he walked over.

He looked like a cat that had casually adopted this place. Clearly, it wasn’t his home, but he lay on the sofa in an intimate manner, even secretly opening a bottle of beer to drink.

“Why did you come to my house?” Xie Hou sat on the sofa and poured a glass of water for Shen Cizhu.

“Just wanted to see how you’d react after getting this money.” Shen Cizhu was still lying down, holding the handle of the water glass, tilting his head, and taking small sips.

His tongue licked the surface of the lukewarm water, and droplets clung to his lower lip.

“Satisfied?”

“I’m very disappointed.” Shen Cizhu sat up, his long hair winding on the dark gray sofa, resembling numerous black snakes on a hunt.

Placing the water glass on the coffee table, Shen Cizhu spoke softly, slightly slurring his words, his tongue touching his lips. After a moment of contemplation, he said to Xie Hou, “You’ve paid off the debt for your beloved mother. Why aren’t you happy? With no more debts, shouldn’t your life become happy again? You have a job now, and your brother is by your side.”

When Xie Hou heard the word “brother,” his fingers silently clenched.

“Isn’t the purpose of this money to repay the debt? Is there another purpose?” Shen Cizhu turned his face to the side, his gaze fixed on Xie Hou.

Xie Hou’s gaze was indifferent. He looked at Shen Cizhu’s lips. Shen Cizhu’s lips were feminine, with classical and petite lines. Even now, when a mocking smile pulled the corners of his lips sideways, they resembled vibrant rose petals.

“Xie Hou, tell me, are you hiding something from me?” Shen Cizhu was always this clever.

Xie Hou thought.

“Are you suspecting me, Mr. Shen?” Xie Hou’s cold fingers, illuminated by the moonlight outside the window, created a faint, ghostly reflection, like layers of indistinct clouds.

“I, of course, believe in you.” Shen Cizhu tilted his head, and his eye corners had teardrop-like liquid, stimulated by the alcohol filling his skin.

“So,” he revealed a crystalline glimpse of teeth between his lips, “is our cooperation coming to an end? Now that the board’s control has been handed over to me by my father, I’ll soon have the Shen family, and you have cleared your debt. You’re back to the research institute to resume the research you left unfinished a year ago.”

“I don’t care about your research, and I don’t care who your biological father is. I’m just curious about what kind of beauty your mother was. Was she a hermaphrodite, giving birth to a healthy boy like you?” Shen Cizhu leaned forward, wearing only a shirt and suit pants, without even socks. Slowly, he crawled towards Xie Hou.

“My father fell ill last night, running a fever and chanting the name ‘Huang Chuan Die.’ You told me earlier that my father has no connection with Huang Chuan Die. Is that true? If what you said is true, then my father shouldn’t know Huang Chuan Die. Is Huang Chuan Die a whore? A temptress who led my father to cheat?”

“I didn’t lie. My mother doesn’t know your father.” Xie Hou’s peripheral vision glanced at the corner of the living room, then mechanically turned back.

The living room had a perfect geometric structure that adhered to aesthetic standards, with silver-gray walls resembling a frigid, aloof patient. Shen Cizhu didn’t fit in here. He always carried an unreserved seduction and hypocritical tenderness. Pressing his palms against the sofa, he almost knelt, looking at Xie Hou with a posture that was incongruent.

His gaze carried scrutiny and suspicion, and the slightly narrow pupils turned a more intense green in the dimly lit room.

“Even if you lie about this matter, your mother killed the father of Xie Yan. You’re the child of a murderer, inheriting the genes of a killer. If you want, you can embrace it.” Shen Cizhu’s nose rubbed against Xie Hou’s neck, and his tongue lightly licked the red mole.

He stared at the red mole, as if confirming something.

“Do you know about inheriting genes?” Shen Cizhu said.

“The antisocial genes of a murderer can be passed on to the next generation, and then the next generation will also become murderers. Of course, this requires the upbringing of a teacher. A good teacher can tame an untamed genius into an unparalleled and most fearsome criminal. I look forward to the appearance of such a teacher.”

Xie Hou pinched Shen Cizhu’s chin and said lightly, “Stop trying to provoke me. I will not become a murderer.”

“But look at yourself now, like a powerless mouse, fleeing everywhere. Once exposed to the sunlight, you will be caught and eaten by a cat. It’s so pitiful, isn’t it? You shouldn’t have to endure all this,” Shen Cizhu said.

“Don’t think about using me to do those things, Shen Cizhu.” Xie Hou raised his hand to block Shen Cizhu’s forehead, keeping this beauty away from himself.

“You hurt me.” The beauty frowned, expressing both grievance and annoyance.

Xie Hou loosened his hand covering Shen Cizhu’s forehead.

There was a nearly decadent smell of alcohol on Shen Cizhu’s face, both fragrant and charming. His upper and lower lips slightly parted, then he raised his hand. The slightly warm fingertips rubbed Xie Hou’s lips, spreading the scent of alcohol on them.

Xie Hou felt his lips involuntarily parting.

That night was the same. After listening to the tender and touching conversation between Shen Cizhu and his brother in the hospital, like lovers reuniting after a broken mirror, Xie Hou came to the hospital parking lot. He covered Shen Cizhu’s eyes, then used two fingers to open Shen Cizhu’s lips and play with the most hypocritical and deceptive tongue. Everything that night overlapped perfectly with that night.

Shen Cizhu imitated Xie Hou’s actions from that night, using two fingers on each side to open Xie Hou’s cold and restrained lips.

“Xie Hou, is it comfortable when you kiss me?” Shen Cizhu raised his eyes, his butterfly-like long lashes trembling, and a watery redness spread.

“You know,” he replied calmly.

“The strap wasn’t so tight. Later, when you bit my neck, I saw the mole on your neck, so, was it comfortable?”

“Xie Hou, your tongue was too hot when you kissed me.” His voice gently entered Xie Hou’s ears.

Xie Hou’s breath slightly stagnated. His chin was pinched by Shen Cizhu, who lowered it in a commanding manner. Only in this position, with both knees kneeling in front of him like a snake, could Shen Cizhu see his eyes.

He didn’t like being so close to Shen Cizhu. His rationality told him that this was a dangerous sign. After all, he was still young and didn’t know how to perfectly follow reason.

So sometimes, he would look at Shen Cizhu with the gaze of studying an experimental subject. Whenever Shen Cizhu got drunk, he became dull and followed his malicious instincts. That night at the Golden Club, after getting drunk, he went back to the shabby rental house with Xie Hou. That night, he said to Xie Hou, “Je veux te baiser.” Xie Hou understood that he would forget, so he replied with a flirtatious and dirty phrase.

Shen Cizhu didn’t remember that night.

But Xie Hou did.

What Shen Cizhu said that night, “Je veux te baiser,” was a lie, but Xie Hou’s response was real.

“Do you know why my mother died? Because of jealousy and sorrow. She felt that her husband didn’t love her, so she went mad. Before she died, she told me that it was Chou Chuan Die who took away her husband’s love.” Shen Cizhu’s hand pressed against Xie Hou’s tongue. He raised his head, and the curve of his neck tilted gracefully.

“My mother was too naive, trapped by a man’s love all her life. I am different from her. I like to control others with love. They all like my tender side. They say I have a compassionate heart, that I am likable.”

Shen Cizhu kissed Xie Hou’s lips, with a bewitching allure.

It should have been a fleeting kiss, but Shen Cizhu changed his mind.

“My tenderness is a lure. I like to see others being discarded by me and then going crazy. Xie Hou, will you be that pitiful? Will you kneel on the ground and beg me over and over again?”

“What about my brother? Why didn’t you abandon him? That day at the hospital, he didn’t beg you. Why did you soften your heart?” Xie Hou grabbed Shen Cizhu’s wrist, his phoenix eyes cold. He closed his eyes, then opened them again, with a snowy and cold edge.

“Do you love him?” Xie Hou’s five fingers tightened, and Shen Cizhu’s wrist began to tremble.

“He is an exception.” Shen Cizhu answered provocatively, satisfied only when he saw the veins on Xie Hou’s neck that appeared due to patience.

Then he lifted his beautiful face, like a snake in the Garden of Eden, looking up, respecting, and worshiping the most juicy and red apple on the tree.

“Xie Hou, you are a more exceptional existence than him. I can’t see through you.”

I am more exceptional than my brother.

So Xie Hou directly embraced Shen Cizhu’s waist, flipped him over, and pressed his chest against Shen Cizhu’s back.

Shen Cizhu’s butterfly bones were almost translucent under the slightly transparent shirt, and there was a small mole on his lower back, as black as an abyss.

Shen Cizhu took a breath, turned his head, and under his disheveled black hair, those snake eyes hooked a drunk and smiling expression.

“Come.”

When Xie Yan received Xie Hou’s call, his brother’s voice was a bit hoarse. Through the receiver, Xie Yan even heard a sticky sound, and a faint sound like the light collision of skin.

He thought Xie Hou had just finished bathing.

“Gege, he got drunk at my place. Come pick him up. He’s calling your name.”

Xie Yan heard Xie Hou say that.

When Xie Yan arrived, he found countless banknotes outside the door and a door slit that was accidentally left open. He pushed open the door and heard Shen Cizhu’s pleading voice with a crying tone.

Shen Cizhu’s ankle was grabbed by the person behind him and then dragged back to the sofa.

A black T-shirt and a suit shirt were thrown on the floor.

Xie Yan leaned down, picked up the shirt, and then looked up. His throat trembled, unable to say a word.

Shen Cizhu’s long hair was trapped between Xie Hou’s bone-chilling five fingers. He bent down to kiss Shen Cizhu’s face.

But at this moment, Shen Cizhu half-woke up and turned his head, meeting Xie Yan who was standing in front of him.

“Why did you come!” Shen Cizhu suddenly woke up, his face turning pale in an instant. He wanted to get up and push Xie Hou off him.

“Zhu Zhu.” Xie Yan smiled bitterly at this moment, like an abandoned dog whimpering. “Is it so comfortable to be… to do it with my brother like this?”

Comfortable enough to end up like this now.

TN:
This little sh*t Xie Hou did that on purpose! Xie Yan doesn’t deserve this sh*t. They’re both so unhinged ah!