After The Honest Person Was Discovered For Simultaneously Pursuing Three People - Chapter 5

Chapter 5: “Zhao Jingqun, I’m Hurt”

Creak.

Tao Ning opened the door. Suddenly, a dark, grimy hand grabbed his arm, and a short, skinny man pressed against him from behind, exhaling garlic-scented breath. “Ning boy, Uncle will walk you home today.”

Tao Ning was stunned. He turned his head and saw a face covered in pockmarks. This was the father of the child he had just tutored, nicknamed Pockmark Zhang. His wife had died over ten years ago, and he had been wandering around and only recently returned.

The system was furious. “Dummy, get away from him! This disgusting man is taking advantage of you!” Its host was too slow to react to men’s touch and was easily taken advantage of. But the system saw it clearly. After the pockmarked man grabbed the boy’s thin arm, he began to rub his skin with hands full of grime. The system felt sick to its stomach.

Tao Ning came to his senses and forcefully broke free from Pockmark Zhang’s grasp, leaving a red mark on his skin.

Pockmark Zhang’s eyes lit up. Two years ago, he had accidentally seen Tao Ning without his glasses on. That small face and figure were as beautiful as an immortal’s. He had never seen such a beautiful person in his life, male or female. He had committed it to memory, but at that time, the tigress Tao Yuan was next to him, so he didn’t dare to approach. He had just returned yesterday and didn’t expect this Ning boy to be tutoring his own brat. It was like a free meal delivered to his doorstep.

Pockmark Zhang swallowed, rubbing his hands together. He pretended to push the door open for Tao Ning. “Go on, go on. Don’t be a stranger. Uncle knows a shortcut to your house. Uncle will walk you back.”

Tao Ning lowered his eyes. He knew that with his strength, refusing would be useless, so he followed Pockmark Zhang out without a word. But the moment he was outside, he stood his ground and didn’t speak. Pockmark Zhang tried to grab his hand, but Tao Ning dodged him.

The houses in the mountains were far apart, and people were sparse. Once you followed someone onto a road, it would be very difficult to escape. Pockmark Zhang’s house was in a secluded area, and Tao Ning wouldn’t take his so-called shortcut. Seeing that it wasn’t completely dark yet, Pockmark Zhang didn’t dare to do anything brazenly and could only follow the original path home.

The mountains were full of trees and forests. As dusk fell, the sunlight was filtered through the leaves, slowly turning into a dim light. Frogs and owls chirped everywhere, making the endless mountain path even more eerie and secluded.

Zhao Jingqun came out of Pockmark Zhang’s house, only to learn that Tao Ning had just left. He couldn’t help but frown. He had followed the route Tao Yuan had given him, so the dummy shouldn’t have taken another way. Why hadn’t he run into him? Zhao Jingqun sent Tao Yuan a text to confirm the route and began to walk back along the original path.

As the mountain path grew darker, the branches on the ground made a crunching and crackling sound when he stepped on them. The further he walked, the more annoyed Zhao Jingqun became. That dummy might be a country bumpkin, but he was playing a new game of being gay. He didn’t hate it, but he didn’t like it either. He just didn’t want the dummy to have any ideas about him. He should have left with his suitcase this afternoon, but somehow he didn’t, and now he was out here looking for that dummy. Zhao Jingqun decided he couldn’t let this go on. He would find Tao Ning today and then leave at dawn tomorrow, taking a car straight back home. He didn’t want to play this charade of being a loving brother with his family’s old man anymore.

Halfway down the road, suddenly, there was a rustling sound in the woods nearby, accompanied by an angry shout. “You brat, it’s not like you’re going to lose a piece of meat if I touch you a few times. How dare you hit me with a rock?!”

Then came a weak, familiar voice. “Let go of me…”

Zhao Jingqun frowned and quickly ran toward the source of the sound.

In the depths of the forest, the system was cheering on Tao Ning. “Dummy! Kill this disgusting man!… Hey, hey, watch your step, don’t fall!… Hey!”

The woods had too many rocks and dead leaves. Tao Ning was trying to avoid Pockmark Zhang and run home at the same time. In his panic, Tao Ning didn’t notice a rock and accidentally fell to the ground. Luckily, the spot where he fell was relatively flat, covered only by leaves. Even so, Tao Ning’s knees were instantly bruised, and the marks were particularly jarring against his snow-white skin. The intense pain made him lose his ability to think. He gasped softly, cold sweat beading on his forehead from the pain. He couldn’t move.

Tao Ning turned his head, and Pockmark Zhang’s menacing face was already coming closer. “Damn it, let’s see where you can run to now…” His eyes were filled with a desperate, oily glint. Just as that dark hand was about to touch Tao Ning’s face, a powerful force suddenly hit him from the side.

Crack. The sound of a bone breaking and Pockmark Zhang’s pained scream echoed through the entire forest.

“Ah—!!”

Pockmark Zhang fell to the ground in pain, immediately curling into a ball like a crushed bug. But he didn’t stop cursing. “Who is it?! Who the hell dares to kick—”

Before he could finish, he was kicked to the ground again. This time, he couldn’t even curl up because a foot was stomping on his chest.

Pockmark Zhang screamed, opening his pain-filled, squinting eyes. He immediately met a pair of icy cold eyes. The man was looking down at him, a smile on his lips, but his eyes were full of brutality and indifference.

Zhao Jingqun said with a faint smile, “If your hands and feet aren’t honest, I’ll chop them off.”

“You… you…”

In an instant, Pockmark Zhang felt a deep, genuine fear. Just as he was about to beg for mercy, the man lifted him up with one hand and threw a punch at him, followed by a series of punches, each more ferocious than the last, hitting Pockmark Zhang’s body. Before long, Pockmark Zhang’s screams turned into a faint wisp of a sound, but the man didn’t stop.

He was exuding a brutal, sinister aura that made people too afraid to approach.

It wasn’t until he saw blood that the boy behind him said urgently, “Zhao Jingqun, stop…”

This was the first time the boy had called the man by his name. His voice was very soft, even gentle, yet it seemed to turn into an invisible chain that instantly wrapped around the man’s neck, forcing the man’s reason back from the edge of a violent rage.

Zhao Jingqun’s kicking motion paused. Just as he was about to kick the person on the ground twice more, he heard the boy behind him say in a low voice, “I’m hurt.”

His voice was so soft it trembled. The man didn’t turn around, but his body stiffened. He let out a light breath, raised an eyebrow, and nonchalantly took out his wallet. He pulled out a wad of cash and threw it on Pockmark Zhang’s already disfigured face.

Zhao Jingqun bent down, still smiling, but he said in a cold voice that only the two of them could hear, “If I ever see you lay a hand on him again, I’ll kill you. You understand?”

Pockmark Zhang’s entire body trembled at the sound. He nodded with all his might, his eyes filled with fear of the man who was always smiling.

Only then was Zhao Jingqun satisfied. He stood up, but when he turned around, he saw the boy leaning against a dead tree, his face covered in cold sweat and his breath coming in soft pants. He seemed to be in extreme pain.

Even though the light was already very dim, he could still see the bruises on the boy’s knees. Large patches of bruises and blood clots had gathered on his snow-white skin, an abnormal injury from a fall. Normal people would take a few hours for such a horrifying injury to form, but the boy had only taken a few minutes.

Remembering what Tao Yuan and the secretary had said about the boy’s poor health, Zhao Jingqun’s heart sank. He quickly walked over, wanting to help him up. As he got closer, he smelled a very sweet lemon scent, and this time, it was stronger than ever before. He retracted his hand, which was already halfway out.

Instead, Zhao Jingqun turned around and squatted down, offering his broad, solid back. His throat emitted a low voice. “Come here.”

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