Since returning to modern times, Wang Dian had rarely slept so well, and seeing Liang Ye when he woke up put him in an extremely good mood.
Liang Ye was woken up when his nose was pinched, staring at him with sleepy eyes for a while, “Wang Dian, are you taking revenge on Zhen?”
Wang Dian stretched comfortably, “You deserve it.”
Liang Ye reached out to pinch his nose, Wang Dian raised his hand to block it, they went back and forth and actually managed to exchange a few moves, until Wang Dian grew tired and released his strength, allowing Liang Ye to grab his wrist and pin it above his head.
“You still remember these?” Liang Ye stared at him with interest.
“Mmm.” Wang Dian responded ambiguously.
“Master taught these moves when Zhen was only ten years old.” Liang Ye freed one hand to poke his face, suddenly looking unfriendly as he thought of something, “When you were Liang Ye, did you ever take any consorts?”
Wang Dian curled his lips and smiled lazily, “If you go back in time now, I might consider it.”
Liang Ye was barely satisfied, “Zhen would only be an empress.”
Wang Dian hugged him and laughed, “You could even be emperor in my place.”
Liang Ye immediately became smug upon hearing this.
Wang Dian didn’t actually like to mention things from his previous life, perhaps because he had recounted them to various psychologists too many times, only to have them used as evidence of his condition, or perhaps because with Liang Ye here, those unresolvable pains and obsessions became irrelevant.
Wang Dian thoroughly enjoyed teaching Liang Ye about everything in modern society, watching him progress from curious confusion to skilled mastery and even asking imaginative questions, his occasional amazement always seemed particularly adorable.
There were also moments that weren’t so adorable.
“Start the car first.” Wang Dian unbuckled his seatbelt and got out, “Did you remember everything I demonstrated earlier?”
Liang Ye laughed scornfully, “Get in.”
“No.” Wang Dian rationally refused his invitation, “I’ll watch from the side, first release the clutch——“
Bang!
Wang Dian rubbed his temples vigorously, took a deep breath, ignored the smoking, twisted, deformed front of the car that had crashed into a pillar, and leaned on the car window to say grimly to Liang Ye, who was being squeezed by the airbag. “Can we practice with a different car?”
Liang Ye had ruined five of his supercars in three days. They had very consistent taste, so this guy always picked his favorites.
“The others are too ugly.” Liang Ye righteously rejected him.
Seeing the smile on his lips, Wang Dian reasonably suspected he was doing it deliberately. The motive was probably because he had casually mentioned loving his cars like he loved his spouse. To prevent his entire collection from being destroyed, Wang Dian decisively chose to take him back to China.
“The cars at home are more beautiful.” Wang Dian glanced expressionlessly at the tiny scratch on Liang Ye’s pinky finger, watching him clutch his hand as if his arm was broken, his face contorted in pain, and said woodenly, “That little injury doesn’t need a band-aid.”
“It hurts so much.” Liang Ye brought his hand closer to his eyes, saying weakly, “Zhen wants the one with cat ears.”
“……” Wang Dian stared at the ashtray on the coffee table, hesitating for three seconds between smashing his paw and biting off his finger, then roughly put a cartoon cat band-aid on it.
Liang Ye skillfully took out his phone to take a photo as a memento, and insisted on putting these photos in a folder labeled “2”.
Wang Dian snickered, but after a moment couldn’t help himself and took several photos of them together to add to the folder.
F*ck, crazy.
The day they returned to China was close to New Year’s Eve. Liang Ye was somewhat downcast after being refused permission to try flying the plane. He fiddled with his phone the entire journey. When they disembarked, Wang Dian checked his phone and found it full of photos Liang Ye had taken of him sleeping on the plane, most deliberately showing hickeys and bite marks, looking strangely erotic.
“You don’t have anything clean in your head.” Wang Dian evaluated honestly.
Liang Ye humbly accepted this assessment, put both their phones in his pocket, and gracefully got off the plane.
When Bai Gaoyang saw Wang Dian coming out, he quickly waved to him.
His boss looked more fashionable and flamboyant than usual, wearing an impressive black coat, a crisp and exquisite suit, stepping in expensive leather shoes, his long legs particularly eye-catching. People might have mistaken him for a celebrity on a catwalk.
“Director Wang, over here!” Bai Gaoyang called out when he saw him ignoring him.
The man heard him and lowered his sunglasses, squinting as he looked over.
“Director Wang!” Bai Gaoyang waved excitedly, striving for his year-end bonus by flattering, “Your long hair looks so cool! Real men wear high ponytails!”
Liang Ye gave him a gentle smile, “Give me the car keys.”
Bai Gaoyang hurriedly tried to hand them over, but the next second he heard an equally familiar voice, “Don’t give them to him.”
Bai Gaoyang was shocked to see Wang Dian walking out pushing luggage, then looked at Liang Ye’s face, “Di-Director Wang!? Then you are——“
“He’s my partner, Liang Ye.” Wang Dian gestured for him to take the luggage, reached into Liang Ye’s pocket for his own phone, and said with a dark face, “Are you trying to get lost on purpose?”
“You’d find me anyway.” Liang Ye said confidently.
“There are so many people here——” Wang Dian stopped abruptly mid-sentence, staring at him with deep eyes, “What?”
Liang Ye waved his wrist watch, then pointed to the earring on his earlobe, “These all have that thing you call a tracker in them, you can monitor me in real time on your phone.”
Wang Dian’s expression cooled slightly, “Don’t like it?”
“Zhen is unfamiliar with this place and completely powerless to resist.” Liang Ye sighed helplessly, suppressing the gleam in his eyes.
Wang Dian tugged at the corner of his mouth and grabbed his hand, “Then just put up with it.”
“Can Zhen install cameras on you?” Liang Ye politely asked him, “That might make Zhen a little happier.”
“……No.” Wang Dian said coldly, “Cameras are very inconvenient.”
Liang Ye sighed in disappointment, “Then trackers it is.”
Wang Dian had walked a few steps with him before belatedly reacting, turning to stare at him, “Did you put one on me?”
Liang Ye gave him an innocent smile.
Wang Dian’s home in China was larger than the one abroad. Liang Ye looked at the villa complex in front of him, “Are all these houses and land yours?”
“……No.” Wang Dian pulled him toward one of the villas, “They used to all be mine, but now most have been sold. I only have a few left.”
Liang Ye asked dissatisfied, “Where’s the money?”
“Used to buy other land.” Wang Dian briefly explained to him, “After we get married, half of all my assets will be yours.”
“Tsk.” Liang Ye raised an eyebrow.
“You can have my salary card.” Wang Dian thought for a moment, opening the door, “We don’t need to sign a prenuptial agreement, everything can be yours.”
“What about that piece of land in the east of the city?” Liang Ye recalled, “Is that mine too?”
“……That land was taken by someone else.” Wang Dian said woodenly.
“Who took it? Zhen will kill them for you.” Liang Ye said forcefully.
Wang Dian looked at him warningly, “We live in a society governed by law here, killing people is illegal.”
“Of course killing is illegal.” Liang Ye looked at him puzzled, “There are hundreds of laws about killing in Great Liang’s legal code.”
“I’ll explain it to you slowly later, but absolutely no killing.” Wang Dian pulled him in, not feeling reassured, and said solemnly, “Obeying the law is the most basic requirement for surviving in this society, and also the most convenient.”
Liang Ye pondered his last sentence with some amusement, “The most convenient?”
Wang Dian smiled slightly, “Yes.”
****
“Wang Dian’s need for control is too strong, I still feel a bit uneasy.” Zhong Qianyan sat on the sofa looking at Liang Ye’s identity documents, which had clearly been arranged by Wang Dian. It was an identity with no blood relation to himself, “This Liang Ye has a mysterious background, no social connections, and now everything is in Wang Dian’s hands……”
Wang Huainan patted the back of her hand, “You should have more faith in our son. He has the ability to control his behavior and will take responsibility for his actions.”
Zhong Qianyan sighed, “It’s not that I don’t have faith in him, but don’t you know what he’s like better than I do?”
He always pretended to be gentle and kind on the surface. If they hadn’t restrained him all these years, with intervention therapy and psychological comfort, he would have done many inconceivable things, although fortunately there hadn’t been any mishaps in recent years.
“You’re just scared of him. Those kidnappers abroad were vicious, and he was just protecting you. Besides, the court ruled him innocent.” Wang Huainan squeezed her shoulder, “He’s just been too busy with work lately and under too much psychological pressure. Look, now that he’s in a relationship and taking some time to recuperate, there shouldn’t be any major problems.”
Zhong Qianyan nodded.
But in her mind, she still flashed back to the kidnapping incident abroad, where Wang Dian expressionlessly chopped off the kidnapper’s arm in front of her, carefully removing the bone. The blood-covered youth handed her the bone, smiling at her blankly and innocently.
[Mom, for you.]
She hadn’t told anyone, but at that time Wang Dian hadn’t intended to chop off just an arm. If she hadn’t called out……
Such incidents had shown signs from when Wang Dian was very young. Heaven knows her greatest wish was for her son to be a law-abiding person. Fortunately, as he grew older, Wang Dian became more and more “normal”——or at least he was trying very hard to behave the way they wanted him to.
She found it really difficult to imagine what kind of person could tolerate Wang Dian’s terrifying need for control and his twisted expressions of emotion.
“I hope so.”
****
In an elegantly decorated private dining room, Yu Zetian smiled broadly as the man entered, going up to shake his hand, “Director Wang! Long time no see!”
Liang Ye smiled and shook his hand, his gaze sweeping over the other’s beer belly with slight disgust, “Chairman Yu, long time no see.”
After several rounds of drinks, Yu Zetian finally got to the main topic, “……Look at what I’ve done, the auction house was your own, and I was offering flowers borrowed from the master himself. But I must say, that bone you collected was beautiful, oh my, I fell in love with it at first sight……but why were you willing to put it up for auction?”
Although he had bought that bone initially, he wasn’t planning to use it as a gift but rather to cultivate an interest so he could have something in common with a psychopath like Wang Dian. But after buying it, he was followed and investigated for a long time, everything went badly, which made him want to get rid of it. The bone stayed with him for nearly a year before he found the opportunity to give it to Wang Dian.
Liang Ye looked at Yu Zetian in front of him, “So you’re saying that I put this bone up for auction a year ago for someone to buy?”
“Huh?” Yu Zetian was confused by him, “Ah? Yes……I guess.”
Liang Ye’s index finger tapped the table rhythmically.
A year ago, Wang Dian fell into a coma and “dreamed” he was Liang Ye, then found his cervical vertebra somehow, put it up for auction, and had people track the buyer……but later he forgot about it due to taking too many medications. A year later, Yu Zetian gave the bone as a gift to Wang Dian, and then Wang Dian used this bone to return to Northern Liang.
Did he really forget? Or was it because he discovered there was no one in his world that he wanted to take revenge on?
But without a doubt, Wang Dian must have known exactly where the bone came from before.
The car stopped in front of the villa.
Liang Ye opened the door and called out. “Wang Dian, Zhen is back.”
There was no response.
Liang Ye took out his phone, where the tracker showed Wang Dian was in this villa, with the little red dot not moving at all.
But he searched every room in the villa, even standing directly on top of the red dot, and couldn’t find Wang Dian.
“Wang Dian!” Liang Ye became a bit panicked, frowning as he called his name loudly, “Wang Dian!!”
His phone vibrated just then, he stared at Wang Dian’s name on it and answered.
“Basement.” Wang Dian’s slightly distorted voice came through the phone.
Before Liang Ye could ask where the basement was, Wang Dian hung up.
He stared at the little red dot on his phone for a while, then walked toward the storage room on the first floor.
A few minutes later, Liang Ye looked at the eerie corridor in front of him and the various lifelike animals hanging on the walls, clicking his tongue in some surprise.
After all, in his impression, although Wang Dian was cunning and clever, he had always seemed proper and kind. Even after recovering memories from his previous life, he had only become a bit more like Liang Ye, which Liang Ye not only didn’t dislike but actually welcomed. This change strengthened the connection between them and brought new excitement. He enjoyed discovering traces of himself in Wang Dian bit by bit, even though Wang Dian was deliberately avoiding it.
He would be considerate enough not to point it out to Wang Dian, but not too considerate. Each probe accurately hit Wang Dian’s nerves——he wanted to unreasonably dispel the shadows of Wang Dian’s previous life, to trample Wang Dian’s pain and resentment under his feet, and make Wang Dian remember only to like the present Liang Ye.
Tap, tap, tap.
The sound of leather shoes on the floor echoed in the empty corridor.
Creak.
The heavy security door was pulled open from the outside, revealing the owner’s treasured collection of many years.
Countless white bones gleamed coldly in transparent display cases under the lights. Liang Ye paused, his gaze sweeping over these scattered bones, accurately locating Wang Dian.
In front of a huge mirror covering an entire wall, the suited man sat lazily on the floor with his back against the mirror. His suit jacket was thrown aside with several empty wine bottles on it, two buttons of his shirt collar had been impatiently torn off, and his once-crisp trousers had many folds due to his bent knees, casting many shadows under the harsh white light.
Wang Dian’s arms rested casually on his knees as he leaned his head back against the cold mirror surface, looking up at Liang Ye from below. Their eyes met as his canine teeth slowly ground against a cigarette butt. He exhaled a cloud of white smoke and gave him a cold smile.
“Yu Zetian doesn’t know shit. Why didn’t you just ask me directly?”
