Chapter 14

The sudden reversal was disorienting.

It left those who heard the revelation with a chill in their hearts.

Having just woken up, the girl had initially only been feeling a little emotional, but Yao Qi’s words drove her completely off the rails. After the erratic meltdown, she looked as if she had lost her soul.

The nurses finally rushed over into the ward, but by now, the matter was already over.

Although they were still rather confused, the onlookers were able to grasp a rough understanding of the whole situation. The girl, who was likely suffering from some mental problems, had recognised the wrong person.

The nurse who came didn’t have any idea of what had transpired, but seeing the miserable condition of the little girl, she couldn’t hold back from giving them a few reprimands before taking the girl away.

At last, Yao Qi remembered who the little girl was. He also made sure she knew that he was definitely not her older brother. Satisfied by the assumption that she would finally stop bothering him in the future, he thought he might as well take the opportunity to leave right now.

So he took Liu Lin’s hand and went out of the ward. Because Liu Lin’s legs were still a little numb, he staggered for a couple of steps as he walked. Yao Qi then told him to put his hands on his shoulders for support as they stood in place, waiting for him to recover.

When the numbness had basically subsided, Liu Lin withdrew his hand. This time, it was his turn to hold Yao Qi’s hand and lead him on their way out.

“Not in a good mood?”

“No,” after saying this, Liu Lin thought it really sounded like he was angry with Yao Qi, so he added, “I just feel like I don’t really know you at all.”

Since the moment he put up his knife against Yao Qi’s neck, they hardly ever separated.

He stayed with Yao Qi every day.

And felt that it was great.

But today, he suddenly realised that he had no idea about what Yao Qi was like before.

In other words, what Yao Qi did today had thoroughly subverted the impression Liu Lin had of him in his heart.

He felt as if he had never actually understood Yao Qi at all.

He knew that Yao Qi was a person who was gentle on the outside and incredibly tough on the inside, but this didn’t mean that Yao Qi’s gentleness was fake.

Yao Qi’s gentleness was real, like a river warmed by the summer sun, like a gentle breeze blowing in the spring, wrapping you up in a lulling comfort.

Yao Qi was a gentle person.

So unless you really provoked him, he would never take anything you did seriously.

But today’s Yao Qi was as cold and harsh as a sharp knife.

Without the slightest effort, he slashed into the girl’s deepest wound and left her desolately mangled.

Cold blooded and cold hearted.

Furthermore, it wasn’t like he chose to do such a merciless thing because he was provoked by the girl.

Liu Lin was sure that Yao Qi wouldn’t get so angry just because she slandered him.

“No, you know me,” Yao Qi squeezed his hand, “I’m also human, and I have my own selfishness—I won’t let anyone else touch my weakness.”

She hurt you, and that was more than enough to provoke my wrath.

Understanding the meaning behind Yao Qi’s words, Liu Lin froze for a moment.

“The injuries I gave her are worse,” he cautiously confessed.

Yao Qi merely smiled, “I know.”

He knew.

He knew how ruthless Liu Lin was.

He knew the little girl wouldn’t have ended up well in his hands.

He knew.

But he still remembered.

Remember how badly his Ah-Lin was injured.

It wasn’t that Liu Lin didn’t understand Yao Qi, he simply had never seen what Yao Qi would be like when his gentleness had been exhausted.

He thought the culmination of Yao Qi’s anger would at most be cold violence, but he didn’t know this treatment only applied to the people closest to him.

And Liu Lin happened to be one of those people.

After all, he hadn’t had a very long time to understand Yao Qi.

Yao Qi was a hard-hearted person.

Hearing Yao Qi’s answer, Liu Lin recovered his good mood, able to think about other things now that his mind had been cleared. “I heard you say that she’s your former patient? Tell me about it, alright.”

It wasn’t a question, because he knew Yao Qi wouldn’t refuse him.

Yao Qi was very pampering towards him.

Sure enough, Yao Qi began to softly tell him about the past.

“I used to be a psychologist.”

“I’m sure you can see it too, my family condition is good, and I’ve never been short of money.”

About this, Liu Lin would know just by looking at the way Yao Qi never cared much about the business of his flower shop despite always spending money lavishly.

“When I was young, I always thought that psychologists were amazing because they could see through so many things just by knowing a single detail. So I studied to become one. Because I have two older brothers and one older sister, my family practically never put any burden on me. They acquiesced and let me learn whatever I wanted.”

“But after I became a psychologist, I found that the pressure of the job was very heavy.”

“One time, a senior who graduated two years ahead of me complained to me. He said that rich people who committed immoral things and couldn’t get over the guilt would come to seek counselling from a psychologist. And then you, who now knew about all these dirty things, couldn’t even do anything other than to keep silent against your conscience.”

“He also said that in fact, many psychologists died because of their own patients.”

“I’ve always been a person who doesn’t like getting into trouble, so I lost my drive in doing this occupation. And I’m not lacking in money anyway, so why not choose to take things a little easier?”

“At that time, I had yet to graduate and had just found an internship—which was to help Yao Yue by doing psychological counselling with her. After spending about a month of challenging and difficult sessions, I finally got her to open up to me. But the next day, something happened in the campus. I didn’t know who his patient was, but a senior from our department jumped off the building after counselling them. After that, I immediately decided to give up on becoming a psychologist.”

“I called the orphanage to tell them about this and washed my hands off by getting another senior to take over the job for me.”

Who would’ve known that his senior would utterly fail to treat the little girl.

Who could’ve predicted that the little girl named Yao Yue would develop such a strong obsession, refusing to give up even after so many years had passed.

“It’s really been a considerably long time, four or five years ago.”

“She was only ten years old at that time.”

“So young, so thin and small,” Yao Qi gestured.

Once he recalled it, everything became clear in his mind.

“She’s actually very pitiful. Her family heavily favoured boys over girls, and because of that, her older brother had been unruly ever since he was a child. His grades weren’t good, and the school he attended was also a bad one. Everyone in the family disliked girls, and as a result, he also developed this view and habitually abused Yao Yue. Their neighbours already reported this to the police, but they said her family began to abuse her even more after that. Over time, nobody bothered to care about them anymore.”

“Later, the whole family died of burglary, and she was the only one who survived.”

Hearing the sympathy in Yao Qi’s voice, Liu Lin felt a pebble turning in his heart, “How can there be such a lucky coincidence? That girl must’ve done something.”

They were of the same kind.

As soon as he heard Yao Qi say ‘she was the only one who survived’, he knew there was something fishy behind the incident.

He instinctively reminded Yao Qi not to underestimate the little girl.

“Jealous?” Yao Qi gave him a light chuckle.

“A little,” Liu Lin admitted unabashedly. Falling into thought, he pouted his lips, “With such a big brother, that girl must have always longed for a brother like you, and then you really appeared in front of her eyes.”

“Yes. It took me a month to get her to become closer to me.” Thinking about that period of time, Yao Qi felt a little distressed.

Not the kind of compassion and tenderness he felt for Liu Lin, coming from the softest part of his heart.

But the most common sympathy that one would feel for a pitiful person.

“If it were me, I would’ve asked for something that could give me a guarantee,” Liu Lin continued to analyse, “This kind of person badly needs a sense of security.”

Just like him.

So much so that he couldn’t bear to let Yao Qi leave him even for an hour.

He was afraid that Yao Qi would run away.

So very afraid.

So afraid to the extent he wanted to kill Yao Qi just so that the man could never ever leave him.

“That’s right,” Yao Qi nodded. The little girl did ask for one, he just wasn’t aware of it. He didn’t know, because he didn’t take notice.

“Yao Yue is a good girl, right?”

The little girl nodded timidly, those big eyes fully reflecting her dependence on him.

“A good girl should go to bed by now, so, will Xiao Yue be good and go to sleep?”

She hesitantly slipped under the blanket, getting into a sleeping position, but the hand that was grabbing onto his clothes was curled so tightly it turned white.

“I’ll come tomorrow as well, don’t be afraid.”

Her eyes were wide open as she bit down hard on her lip. She wanted to shake her head, but she didn’t want to be disliked by the person in front of her. Finally, she opened her mouth and cautiously, meekly, softly asked him in a hoarse voice, “You’ll come again tomorrow, and you’ll continue to tell me stories, right?”

“Yes, I’ll come again tomorrow and tell you another story.”

“I want to call you brother—can I call you brother?” Like a starving person staring at a piece of mouthwatering bread, the little girl eagerly awaited.

“Of course.”

Small Theatre

Little girl: My name is Yao Yue, everyone has to remember it, alright? Muach!╰(*′︶`*)╯Anyway, don’t you feel sorry for me? You have to know that it was Brother who wronged me (ノ=Д=)ノ┻━┻

Ah-Lin: *glances at her* You talk too much

Yao Yue: *skilfully running away*

Ah-Lin: *feeling aggrieved* I feel like I don’t know Xiao Qi at all

Xiao Qi: *rubbing his head* You know me very well, at least no one else knows what it feels like to be fucked by me

Ah-Lin: (It’s not wrong, but…) Why does it feel like something’s not quite right…

Announcement regarding locked RAW chapters

Hello to everyone who’s reading this! First of all, I want to say thank you for following the story and I hope you’ve been enjoying the read. This novel is originally published on Doufu (豆腐阅读) and is locked behind paywall starting from chapter 16 onwards. The purchase fee is actually very cheap, only less than 10¥ to unlock the whole book, but I have to use a top-up service website to buy the Doufu coins with PayPal.

After some checking, it’ll cost about $2-3 (not sure how much PayPal is going to charge but it shouldn’t be more than 50 cents) to top up the Doufu coins and purchase all of the locked chapters, so I decided to set up a donation post on my ko-fi with a goal of $3 😂 Once the target is reached, I’ll post the proofs of purchase on my ko-fi page, so I’d greatly appreciate it if you could donate and support the book/author 🙏 Anyone who wants to give monthly tickets or red packets to the author can also indicate so through the donation, and I’ll similarly post the proofs on my ko-fi 😊