“I thought you didn’t want to bring it up.” Liang Ye’s gaze fell on his long, upturned neck, stepping past the display cabinets on both sides, his black pupils fixed directly on Wang Dian’s face. “Just like I thought you didn’t like bones at all.”
“I can’t say I like them or not.” Wang Dian raised his hand to tug at his already messy collar, feeling Liang Ye’s breath gradually approaching, the faint scent of begonia on him also gradually becoming more intense. He rolled the smoke in his mouth somewhat irritably, inhaling it roughly into his lungs, then exhaled some thin smoke, “My mind was a mess recently. One moment I felt I was Liang Ye, the next I felt I was Wang Dian. I missed you terribly but didn’t dare take medication, fearing I might forget something.”
Liang Ye stopped in front of him in his leather shoes, glancing at the empty bottles. “Been drinking again?”
“This morning you told me you were going out alone—” Wang Dian removed the cigarette from his mouth, his fingers loosely holding it to the side, not letting the smoke choke him. He swallowed all the smoke in his mouth, looked up at Liang Ye and said, “I almost wanted to kill you and make you into a specimen to display here.”
“You’d need to have that ability first.” Liang Ye looked down at him from above, raising his hand to wipe off some ash that had fallen on his collar.
“The trackers weren’t enough, far from enough.” Wang Dian turned his neck nervously, lowering his eyes and said, “I knew you went to find Yu Zetian. I wanted to follow you, tie you up, and chain you here… After all, you’re not familiar with modern society at all, there’s no need for you to integrate. I could make sure no one would discover you. No matter how good your martial arts are, the Maple Frost Fall has been dissolved. Any drug I know of could easily make you defenseless.”
“Then why didn’t you follow me and tie me up?” Liang Ye knelt between his legs, raising his hand to touch his tense neck.
Wang Dian lifted his eyelids to stare at him, remained silent for a long time. The hand holding the cigarette covered the small of Liang Ye’s back, methodically pressing along the thin fabric of his shirt, inch by inch over his spine, until his slightly cool palm stopped at the position of his nape, applying some pressure to pull him closer.
Their noses were almost touching; neither was willing to move closer, nor to step back.
Wang Dian blew a perfect smoke ring at him.
The white mist mixed with the faint smell of tobacco swirled between them, their breaths intertwining stickily.
“I f*cking couldn’t bear to.” Wang Dian caressed his nape with his fingertips, his eyes carrying self-mocking laughter. “When I thought about you being unhappy about it, I didn’t dare. But sometimes I can’t control myself. Hurting you gives me an uncontrollable sense of satisfaction. You have no idea what kind of thing I really am.”
Liang Ye blinked slowly. “You’re not a thing.”
“F*ck.” Wang Dian laughed and cursed.
Liang Ye lowered his head and gently nuzzled his nose against Wang Dian’s, saying smugly, “You can’t bear to hurt Zhen, you love Zhen uncontrollably. Zhen is your heaven. You don’t even dare to make Zhen unhappy, how could you dare to hurt Zhen? Your assumption doesn’t stand.”
“Feudal rubbish.” Wang Dian was afraid the cigarette ash would singe him, so he moved his hand outward a bit, but unwilling to let him leave, he hooked his wrist on the back of Liang Ye’s neck, looking into his eyes and said in a deep voice, “All these bones were collected by me.”
Liang Ye wanted to turn his head to look, but Wang Dian domineeringly held his neck, not letting him move or look in the mirror, only allowing him to look at himself.
“I found a bone while camping when I was eight, and became obsessed from then on.” Wang Dian brushed against his lips. “My father threw them away many times, scolded and beat me, but it was useless. At first, they were just animal bones. I felt it wasn’t enough, so I started collecting complete animal skeletons. Still not enough, so I learned to make specimens. Initially with corpses, then later hunting live animals. But still not enough, so I started collecting human bones, then gradually skeletons. My parents strictly prohibited it. They thought someday I would want to make living people into specimens. In high school, I started receiving psychological intervention and treatment, but it had no effect whatsoever. But my mother was afraid, so to reassure her, I forcibly suppressed my increasingly developing hobby.”
“The first time we were assassinated in the bathhouse, you don’t know how excited I was.” Wang Dian narrowed his eyes, unconsciously swallowing. “You look so damn beautiful when you kill.”
“You killed eighteen assassins.” Liang Ye suddenly realized. “Zhen knew an ordinary person couldn’t possibly be so calm.”
Wang Dian tugged at the corner of his mouth. “Morality can hardly restrain my desires, but my parents can. I love them very much and wouldn’t do things they dislike. But this puts a lot of pressure on me. Gradually I became unwilling to see them, and then they went abroad to settle down… Someone like me, cold and selfish, is usually called a psychopath around here. Human intuition can sometimes be very keen. If I don’t hide it well, no one would dare approach me.”
Liang Ye leaned in to lick the corner of his mouth, imperceptibly relieved. “That’s really great.”
No one dared to approach Wang Dian, which meant Wang Dian would depend on him even more.
Wang Dian saw through Liang Ye’s thoughts at a glance, narrowing his eyes and saying, “I know what you’re thinking. After all, you’re not a good person either.”
Liang Ye looked innocent and said, “Since coming here, Zhen has been very kind, not even stepping on an ant.”
“I’m really not as—” Wang Dian frowned, trying to find a descriptive word, “kind as you think.”
Liang Ye looked at him with some shock. “When Zhen was away at war, you wiped out over forty thousand Black Armor Guard remnants of the noble families in the capital without leaving a single survivor. How dare you call yourself kind?”
“…” Wang Dian remained silent for a long time. “Pretend to be good long enough and you’ll believe it seventy or eighty percent yourself.”
Liang Ye licked his canine teeth, wanting to lean in to kiss him, but was grabbed by the nape, and the falling ash from the cigarette scalded him, making him tilt his neck.
Wang Dian lowered his eyes, wiped away the cigarette ash with his thumb, rubbed the slightly reddened skin a couple of times, and said in a deep voice, “But I am also Liang Ye, do you understand?”
Liang Ye dissatisfiedly tightened his jaw, furrowed his brows, and reached out to touch his nape.
“Master and the others could definitely tell, so Martial Uncle has been persuading me.” When Liang Ye touched his nape, Wang Dian instinctively stiffened, fighting the urge to kick Liang Ye away, forcing himself to lower his head slightly so that Liang Ye could touch more comfortably, his eyes full of murderous intent. “In my previous life, I should have had a bright path ahead, but instead met a miserable end. I died with too much resentment, my obsession undiminished. Wen Heshen got my cervical vertebra but couldn’t use it. I made him watch Cui Qi die even more miserably than me, forcing him to commit suicide, but I was still not content.”
He looked up at Liang Ye grimly, just like his countless previous accusations in nightmares, full of resentment. “Why did I have to be the one to die?”
Liang Ye felt as if his heart was being squeezed tight, uncontrollably becoming resentful. His gaze fell on Wang Dian’s chest, and he said coldly, “It shouldn’t have been you.”
“But it was me.” Wang Dian stared at him intently, his voice gradually becoming urgent and harsh. “Even though I used the immortal bone to come to this completely unrelated world and chose parents who looked exactly like Wang Xusui and Liang Hua, I’m still not content!”
Liang Ye hugged him tightly, slowly stroking his nape over and over. “Wang Dian, it’s all in the past now.”
“I can’t get over it.” Wang Dian held him forcefully in his arms and said coldly, “I’m not content. After I died, I came to this world with that bone. Even without my memories, I knew where it was buried. I found it very early on but couldn’t remember. Last year in the hospital, I finally remembered, and I decided to use it to return to Northern Liang and start over. I had originally planned to go this spring, after arranging everything here, but those damn drugs were like the White Jade Soup, confusing my memories so I couldn’t remember things clearly. In the end, I could only send people to investigate that fool Yu Zetian, but fortunately, after going around in circles, I still went back—”
He raised his head, smiled at Liang Ye sinisterly. “Rather than going to ask Yu Zetian, you might as well ask me directly. I’ll explain everything clearly to you…
What else do you want to know? My previous life? I can tell you everything one by one, when I was Liang Ye, when I was Wang Dian. I can give you whatever you want.”
“As long as you honestly stay by my side.”
The cigarette was almost burned out. Wang Dian extinguished the last bit of smoldering red, tossed the butt onto his suit, grabbed Liang Ye’s hair forcing him to look up at himself, and flashed him a neurotic smile. “You were so heartbroken after I died, so you’ll stay with me forever, right?”
Liang Ye, his neck tilted back by the hair pulling, had excitement and anticipation written all over his face. “Sure, in exchange, you must also stay with Zhen forever.”
Wang Dian snorted with laughter. “You can’t escape even if you don’t agree.”
“Zhen has finally found you, why would Zhen run?” Liang Ye grinned, tugging at his arm to kiss him. The burning light in his eyes seemed as if it would consume him whole. His hands started to misbehave, unbuttoning Wang Dian’s shirt. “Why tell Zhen all this?”
“Because I want to settle accounts with you, of course.” Wang Dian suddenly pressed his wrist forcefully against Liang Ye’s neck, his eyes cold and glinting. “Does my neck smell good?”
Liang Ye wasn’t afraid at all, staring at his pale white neck and swallowing, but still cautiously answered honestly, “Yes, it smells good.”
“What does it smell like?” Wang Dian slowly caressed his nape.
“Begonia after rain.” Liang Ye’s hand was already on his suit pants, his gaze sweeping across the wall of mirrors, suddenly brightening. “Why don’t we face the mirror while we—”
“In my previous life, my neck bone was carved out while I was still alive in the Suixue Garden. When Master found me, even my corpse couldn’t be pieced together, and my gathered soul couldn’t stand. He casually broke off a begonia flower from the courtyard to complete me. I could never smell the begonia fragrance myself, only you could smell it.” Wang Dian’s smile grew increasingly radiant, but his voice grew colder, “But since the snow capped mountain, I could smell the fragrance from your neck, though it was somewhat faint—”
“Liang Ye, where is your third cervical vertebra?”
