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ntranslator: baumkuchen editor: glitterypanda

nDespite everyone’s advice, a tearful Shen Changqing carried the limp Zhou Kai into the car.

nAnyone with eyes could see Shen Changqing’s extreme fear of Zhou Kai, but this was someone else’s family matter, if Shen Changqing didn’t allow them to interfere, they were unable to help, no matter how much they wanted to.

nSam asked the other guests to wait in the banquet hall for a moment, while he followed Shen Changqing downstairs.

nHe got the staff to park Zhou Kai’s car at the back door, in order to avoid gaining the attention of the reporters.

nWhen the car slowed to a stop, he helped Shen Changqing place Zhou Kai in the front seat and fastened his seatbelt for him. He also tried to advise Shen Changqing, “Mister Shen, I don’t think Mister Zhou’s state of mind is very good. How about I first contact the hospital after all……”

nZhou Kai had no strength remaining in his limbs and could only cut Sam with his glare.

nShen Changqing’s face was covered in tears. He sat down in the driver’s seat and started the car, “Mister Sam, thank you.”

n……That was a refusal.

nBut after what had happened over these few days, Sam knew that Shen Changqing wasn’t someone who didn’t know discretion.

nSo in the end, he gave up on persuading him otherwise, but also told him a fact, “Just now, as we were going downstairs, I heard someone calling the police. There might be a police officer coming to the Zhou home in a while to ask some questions. You mustn’t panic.”

nShen Changqing said, “What will they even be able to find? Yi Song will be there to handle everything.”

nUnder the deep, low roar of the engine, Shen Changqing lightly wiped off the tears on his face with the back of his hand. He glanced out of the corner of his eyes, fixing his gaze on Sam. His eyes were filled with tears, but the corners of his mouth were curled in a slight sneer.

nSam was stunned, his entire body instantly bursting into a cold sweat.

nAs the car disappeared in a cloud of dust, Sam stood in the same place, his mind a mess.

nHe carefully thought over everything that had happened that night, only to find that everything felt interlinked, as if someone had been in control of the rhythm, leading Zhou Kai’s state of mind along step by step, tempting him into that deep, bottomless pit.

nBut the person who had been controlling the rhythm wasn’t the host of this dinner party, Sam.

nHe’d been used in a plot to anger Zhou Kai, easily transformed by that person to suit his plan. Even his own jealousy and revenge was nothing but a conveniently exploitable chess piece.

nEven now, he didn’t have sufficient evidence to prove that Shen Changqing, who’d been trapped off to the side in a tiny heaven, who’d been heavily injured, and who had no way of going out, was the instigator from behind the scenes.

nRight now, Sam’s only doubt was that if this Mister Shen was really as terrifying as he imagined, then why had he been willing to be abused by Zhou Kai for a full three years?

nAfter leaving the splendid banquet, once again alone with Zhou Kai, Shen Changqing seemed to have recognised his own identity, focusing only on driving, not saying a word.

nZhou Kai’s tongue was the first thing to recover.

nHe stared at Shen Changqing, his head cocked to the side. He sneered, “Shen Changqing, you’re really quite capable, huh?”

nShen Changqing didn’t speak.

n“How long have you been fooling around with Sam? En? Could it be that he can satisfy your slutty……”

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nFollowing that, Zhou Kai used vivid and biting language to describe the organ below Shen Changqing’s waist, his words right out of the pages of a crude erotica.

nIn response to this, Shen Changqing replied, “……You’re too tired. You should have a good rest.”

nHis tone was humble and helpless, but there was a faint hint of a smile at the corner of his lips.

nThis smile immediately infuriated Zhou Kai, “What’s so funny?? Surnamed Shen, what are you smiling about?”

nShen Changqing, “I’m not smiling.”

nZhou Kai had a sinister look on his face. He pulled up his tired and powerless body, “Shen Changqing, tell me the truth, how long have you been plotting to ruin me? Where did you find people to scheme against me and Lily?”

nShen Changqing continued to deny to the end, “I didn’t.”

n“You didn’t? You dare say you don’t hate me?”

nThe hand Shen Changqing was using to grasp the steering wheel trembled slightly. Even his voice was trembling, “I wouldn’t dare, I wouldn’t dare hate you.”

n“You don’t dare?” Zhou Kai’s voice was filled with malice, “Shen Changqing, I’ve underestimated you. What don’t you dare do? Was it that I gave you too much face during this period of time, so you don’t know how to act respectably? Say, are you a natural-born cheap bitch in need of a beating?”

nShen Changqing seemed to have gone completely numb. With reddened eyes, he said in a hollow voice, “I, I am.”

nZhou Kai wrested out a little more energy, undoing the seatbelt that had been restricting his movement. He raised a shaking hand, feeling along the driver’s seat and grabbed onto the hem of Shen Changqing’s suit.

nThis strength card overdrew from the user’s pool of energy, at the expense of the user’s next two hours of strength, but they wouldn’t actually be truly paralysed, they could still move around somewhat.

nThe moment his clothes were pulled tightly, Shen Changqing immediately panicked, “……Mister Zhou, no, I’m driving.”

nZhou Kai crawled towards him little by little, moving like a short, thick boa. His cold eyes were fixed on his face. His voice was full of malice as he said, “You’re just a dog I’ve been raising, you’re my slave. I’ve raised you so kindly for so many years, what right do you have to tell me “no”? Which part of your body haven’t I given you the marks of a slave? ……Here? Or is it here?!”

nHe touched Shen Changqing’s chest, then his ribs. Running along his ribs, his hand made its way upwards.

nHaving been thoroughly discredited in front of so many people, taken as a mental case, a lunatic, a dementic, how could Zhou Kai, with that pervertedly intense ego of his, possibly bear it?

nThe veins in his eyes looked as if they were about to burst.

nHe just wanted to take revenge on that Shen Changqing who had the audacity to take him as a monkey and play around with him!

n“……That’s right, I forgot, there’s still this place.”

nUsing all the strength in his body, he grabbed Shen Changqing by the neck.

nShen Changqing cried out involuntarily, “……Mister Zhou! Zhou—— Urgh, ah……”

nProbably in order to avoid reporters, Shen Changqing had picked a long road graced only by a few occasional cars along its length as the route home.

nUpon him being recklessly lunged at like this by Zhou Kai, he immediately lost control of the car, making it swerve around wildly!

n061 saw that the situation wasn’t good. “Do you need my help?”

nChi Xiaochi did his best to force out the energy to speak as he was being choked, “Don’t we still have a strength enhancement card? We’re going to hit a wall. In a moment, use the card on me. I can’t let Shen Changqing get any more injured.”

n061 said, panicked, “The strength enhancement card works by overdrawing your own energy in exchange, it’ll harm you!”

nChi Xiaochi steadily held the steering wheel with both hands. In this desperate crisis, he tried his best to calmly drive in an S-shaped track down the wide, empty road. “I need to protect Shen Changqing.”

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n061 didn’t say anything. Chi Xiaochi took his silence as agreement, and didn’t speak any more superfluous words. He chose a heavily graffitied wall of what looked to be some abandoned factory, then pretended to have mistaken the accelerator for the brakes, flooring the accelerator and rushing straight over.

nWhen acting, one needed to play it out to the end. As they were about to run straight into the wall, he didn’t even forget to act as if he’d realised that he’d stepped on the wrong pedal, and in a panic, tried to step on the brake.

n“You just need to protect Shen Changqing,” In the ear-piercing screech of the brakes, 061’s voice suddenly sounded, filled with a firm, yet gentle strength, “I’ll protect you.”

nChi Xiaochi’s vision blurred. In the next second, code made of 1s and 0s converged before his eyes, forming a human figure, tenderly and completely wrapping him within.

nIt was a man’s embrace.

nThe feeling of that broad, warm something pressing against him was a little unfamiliar. It wasn’t an act, neither was it a courteous, social nicety, and hence was warm, and very pure.

nChi Xiaochi hadn’t been embraced like this by someone in a very long time.

nThat person pressed against his ear, and breathed out, “……Don’t be afraid, it’s me.”

n061 used himself as a second seatbelt, firmly fastening Chi Xiaochi to the driver’s seat.

nWhen the violent collision occurred, Chi Xiaochi’s back didn’t even leave the back of the driver’s seat.

nThe airbag quickly popped out, forcefully hitting 061’s back, making a heavy muffled noise.

nBut 061 didn’t move.

nThis warm seatbelt knelt on one knee between his legs. With extreme propriety, after successfully protecting him, he immediately dissipated, turning into stardust.

nChi Xiaochi instinctively reached out to grab at that dissipating figure, but his hands grasped nothing but air.

nHe suddenly felt a little panicked, “……061? Liu-laoshi?”

nLast time, he hadn’t been able to grab on……

n061’s voice was just as gentle and powerful as ever. He answered in his head, “Xiaochi. I’m here.”

nChi Xiaochi breathed out a long sigh of relief.

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nbaum: another 5k chap, so I’m splitting it as usual orz

nAnyways, even though that f*cker ZK really makes himself disgusting as usual, we get some sweetness from 061 and CXC

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