Chapter 53: Beast

Pei Baoyuan was met with complete darkness. She was acutely aware that she was in a room where heavy curtains blocked the windows, leaving the entire space pitch-black.

Her hands and feet were bound by heavy iron chains, which clinked softly at her slightest movement.

She heard the sound of faint breathing—there was someone else in the room.

The floating live comments (bullet screens) were undoubtedly her only way to understand the current situation.

[(Lighting a cigarette) (Taking a puff) (Pondering) I’ve been thinking about this for an hour and still can't figure out why Pei Baoyuan was kidnapped from the hospital. Is the Pei family really that useless?]

[Huo Yancheng is in the room. Yuanbao, you must hold on until Ke Xianbai comes to save you! Mom is praying with you.]

[Huo Yancheng is sitting on the sofa at the foot of the bed. Yuanbao, before you woke up, he just sat there watching you the whole time. How come I never noticed the male lead might have some mental issues?]

Fortunately, the chains were long enough to allow Pei Baoyuan to prop herself up. She leaned against the headboard, remaining quiet as she looked toward the foot of the bed.

She knew that Huo Yancheng must be looking at her right now as well.

After a long while, she heard footsteps approaching her.

A sudden flash of light cut through the dark. A fiery red candle illuminated a small corner of the room. Several candles were lit, and Pei Baoyuan was finally able to see the scene inside, including the person who had abducted her.

"Hiss—"

Huo Yancheng shook his hand twice. The scorching flame had grazed his skin, and a faint smell of burning flesh seemed to linger in the air.

"I really am unlucky when hitting a critical threshold. Even lighting a candle manages to burn me." Huo Yancheng casually tossed the lighter aside and turned to look at the bound Pei Baoyuan on the bed. "Anyway, everything will be better soon."

Pei Baoyuan instantly caught the oddity in his words.

Critical threshold.

This was perhaps the reason the bullet comments mentioned that Huo Yancheng had been exceptionally unlucky lately.

Huo Yancheng sat on the edge of the bed and reached out to brush away the stray hairs on Pei Baoyuan's forehead, but she dodged away just in time.

Huo Yancheng awkwardly withdrew his hand, which remained suspended in mid-air. "Yuanyuan, why aren't you surprised at all? Other women would have completely lost control of their emotions facing something like this. Only you—you neither scream nor shout, and you even have the mood to talk back to me."

Pei Baoyuan glared at him.

Huo Yancheng suddenly chuckled. He said, "Yuanyuan, aren't you even a little curious about what I'm going to do to you next? Or is everyone in your Pei family like this?"

"Huo Yancheng, you're not Huo Yancheng, are you?"

Pei Baoyuan's sudden remark gave Huo Yancheng a start, though it lasted only for a split second.

There was no panic on his face at having his truth exposed; he maintained the composure of someone who had everything under control.

This time, he didn't let Pei Baoyuan pull away, his large hand slowly wandering upward from her ankle.

It was hard to deny that Pei Baoyuan was smarter than he had imagined. Unfortunately, smart as she was, she had still guessed wrong.

He was Huo Yancheng, yet he was also not Huo Yancheng.

Not long after Huo Yancheng was born, he had been dispatched by 011 to this world to execute a mission. In a sense, the current Huo Yancheng was indeed Huo Yancheng, because all the experiences associated with the name Huo Yancheng belonged to him.

He was the true Huo Yancheng.

"What are you saying, Yuanyuan? I am Huo Yancheng. Do you remember when we were kids—"

Finding it utterly nauseating, Pei Baoyuan spat and said, "Don't touch me with your dirty hands. It's disgusting."

Huo Yancheng's expression shifted.

"Yuanyuan, it seems you still haven't realized your current situation." He stood up and unbuttoned the top two buttons of his suit jacket. "In this place, you aren't the eldest miss of the Pei family. You're just a plaything under my control. Care to guess if your good parents, good brother, and good aunt have realized you're missing by now?"

"Huo Yancheng, do you think you can control everything? Do you think the Huo family will still have a foothold in Capital City after all of this is over?"

Huo Yancheng spread his hands and said with an innocent air, "What did I do? I didn't do anything. I just happened to find out that you were kidnapped, happened to rescue you, and became your antidote. Your Pei family should be thanking me instead."

"What do you mean?"

As soon as the words left Pei Baoyuan's mouth, she felt something wrong with her body the very next second.

Her throat was dry, her skin burned, and every inch of her body screamed with heat.

[The candle! There's something wrong with the candle!]

[When Huo Yancheng was lighting the candles just now, he dropped a small white pill into the wick.]

[Oh no, judging by Pei Baoyuan's condition, that pill must be an aphrodisiac.]

It was already too late when Pei Baoyuan realized she had been drugged. She never expected Huo Yancheng to stoop so low. With shadows blurring before her eyes, she relied on sheer willpower to inch toward the other side of the bed.

Huo Yancheng looked quite satisfied with Pei Baoyuan's reaction. "That person was right after all."

"Don't you know the relationship between Ke Xianbai and Ke Yicheng? Your aunt's death back then was inextricably linked to Ke Yicheng. By cooperating with Ke Yicheng, you are bargaining with a tiger."

At the mere mention of Ke Xianbai, Huo Yancheng flew into a sudden rage. Brushing aside how Pei Baoyuan knew that his collaborator was Ke Yicheng, he snapped angrily, "Is an older brother who digs into his own cousin's love life still a brother? Don't think I don't know that Ke Xianbai likes you. He's liked you for many years, and the two of you have long been colluding behind my back!"

"..." Pei Baoyuan didn't even have the energy to retort to this idiot.

Seriously, how on earth had she been blind enough to fall for him back then? It was absolute dark history.

"First of all, you were the one who betrayed me first. During the two years I was abroad, how you and Song Yiren hooked up and got into bed together, and how you teamed up with a bunch of people to deceive me—do I need to describe it in detail? Secondly, Ke Xianbai and I are completely innocent. We aren't as filthy as you think."

The effects of the drug surged through her body like a raging tide, and Pei Baoyuan finished speaking while gasping heavily for breath.

"Fine, fine, fine. Since that's how it is, Yuanyuan..." The candle flame flickered, casting its light into Huo Yancheng's eyes, whose bloodshot, scarlet pupils burned with a fanatical obsession. "After today, we'll start over. We'll forget the past, forget Song Yiren, and forget Ke Xianbai. We'll start anew—just the two of us, alright?"

[No.]

[No.]

[No.]

Pei Baoyuan bit her lower lip fiercely until the tender flesh broke, and a trail of scarlet blood spilled from the corner of her mouth. At this moment, only pain could keep her conscious.

"...You... keep dreaming."

Acting as if he hadn't heard her, Huo Yancheng hurried to the foot of the bed and pulled a tripod out of a black bag to begin assembling it.

With her vision blurring, Pei Baoyuan could only tell that Huo Yancheng was tinkering with something at the foot of the bed, but she couldn't make out what was in his hands.

The bullet comments, however, saw Huo Yancheng's actions with crystal clarity.

[Bastard! He's setting up a camera!]

[I object! The male lead is supposed to be with the female lead! Huo Yancheng, your female lead is Song Yiren, not Pei Baoyuan, ahhhhh! Spare the second female lead!]

[Your female lead is currently being canceled by the entire entertainment industry, and your prospective father-in-law and brother-in-law have shown up too. I think the male lead should go save his female lead first. Leave the second female lead safely to us!]

[What a beast! Put that camera down! Ahhhhh, you are not allowed to turn it on!]