After The Honest Person Was Discovered For Simultaneously Pursuing Three People - Chapter 88

Chapter 88: Shura Field

While sleeping that night, perhaps because Zhao Jingqun’s arm wrapped around his waist was too scalding, Tao Ning had that strange dream again. Only this time, he wasn’t in the house surrounded by containers holding “himself.” Instead, he saw a person’s chin, and his limbs were immobilized.

This perspective was very strange. According to the previous nightmare, those dense containers held him as a young boy. If this dream continued the last nightmare, then he should also have the physique of a young boy now.

Normally, when one opens their eyes and sees a person’s chin, there is a high probability that they are being held in that person’s arms. But having the body of a boy, Tao Ning couldn’t figure out what posture he was being held in.

If it were a bridal carry, the first thing he would see should be the person’s face.

Not until the scene spun around did Tao Ning finally figure out the position he was being held in—through the huge display screen and the arc of light reflected from the glass, he saw that he had become an infant.

And the person holding him was the man who smiled at him in the last nightmare.

The sheer horror of seeing himself turned into a baby and being held in someone’s arms was immense. But Tao Ning couldn’t move or make a sound. He was like an observer of this dream, hearing the voice above his head say, “Do you see? That’s where you’ll be living from now on.”

A hand with clearly defined knuckles reached out from behind, pointing to a spot behind the display screen. Tao Ning finally came to his senses and looked in the direction the man was pointing. When he saw what was behind the screen, that spine-chilling feeling returned.

He initially thought it was just a huge piece of glass, but it was pitch black. The glass clearly reflected the face of the person behind him. The man was smiling faintly. After his words fell, a massive, azure blue sphere suddenly appeared in the originally pitch-black area, seemingly within arm’s reach.

Tao Ning knew that it was Earth…

And he, at this moment, was inside something resembling a space station, looking at the colossal Earth from space, all from the perspective of an infant.

Everything seemed incredibly bizarre, even frighteningly absurd. Tao Ning was jolted awake by the nightmare. The moment he struggled, the hand on his waist tightened even more. In the darkness, dry lips kissed his forehead, accompanied by muffled, indistinct words: “What’s wrong… I’m here…”

As soon as Zhao Jingqun’s voice came out, Tao Ning’s nearly terrified heart instantly settled back into his chest. He hesitated, and the hand that had been pressed against Zhao Jingqun’s chest to prevent him from getting closer slowly lowered. For the first time in days, he hugged Zhao Jingqun back.

No matter what these two nightmares were trying to remind him of, at least this person was still by his side. In the dark room, Tao Ning nestled in Zhao Jingqun’s arms, softly “Mmm’ed,” and closed his eyes.

But the next day, Tao Ning found himself uncontrollably angry again.

It started when Zhao Jingqun took him to the bathroom. Passing the wall full of photos, Tao Ning glanced at one photo—he didn’t know whether Zhao Jingqun’s random scribbling on the photos of Song Yucong and Xu Jun was unconscious or subconscious, but on one photo, a black turtle was drawn on someone’s face.

This black turtle was particularly jarring among the graffiti.

So, Tao Ning couldn’t help but take another look. Yet, with just this one glance, Zhao Jingqun’s cold face twisted again. He rushed over, tore off that photo, ripped it to shreds in a few quick motions, grabbed Tao Ning’s shoulder, and loudly questioned him in his ear: “Is that wild dog Song Yucong so attractive to you? You have to sneak a peek even when going to the bathroom?”

What did he look at?

Tao Ning was stunned by the sudden accusation.

But that wasn’t the end of it. Zhao Jingqun suddenly remembered something else. He pushed him away and said coldly, “You must hate me, Tao Ning. I lock you up here, humiliate you in various ways, force you to do things you don’t like. I clearly know that all you think and crave are those two bastards, yet I force you to compromise and say you love me. You must feel so disgusted…”

Although Tao Ning didn’t know what Zhao Jingqun was thinking, throughout these days, except for the times when Zhao Jingqun said something too outrageous that caused him to lose his temper, he could be said to have let Zhao Jingqun take and do whatever he wanted, both in and out of bed. Only occasionally, when Zhao Jingqun’s actions were too shameful, would Tao Ning struggle a bit.

But even after all this, in Zhao Jingqun’s mind, he was “compromising”? Was that the right way to use the word “compromise”? If he truly was unwilling, he would rather die than do anything extra. That would be real humiliation.

Tao Ning was so angry that he didn’t know what to say. He opened his mouth to explain, but Zhao Jingqun wouldn’t listen at all. Blood vessels slowly crept into his eyes again. He glared at him, his voice hoarse: “I know you hate me and are disgusted by me, but I don’t care anymore, and I won’t let you go… Never.”

Zhao Jingqun was very tall, standing out in a crowd. Others would keep their distance due to his intimidating aura. Tao Ning had also witnessed his brutal ferocity when he beat people up.

Yet, this was the person who always spoke to him with a smile. He never needed to look up to talk to Zhao Jingqun because Zhao Jingqun would bend his back and lower his head. But now, Zhao Jingqun was visibly thinner, with stubble growing on his chin, completely lacking the high-spirited demeanor he once had.

His heart started to ache uncontrollably. The small flame of anger instantly dissipated. Tao Ning sighed almost inaudibly. He walked over and hugged the man who was a whole size bigger than him.

Tao Ning felt him struggle slightly. In fact, he wasn’t using much force, but after struggling for a while, Zhao Jingqun remained stiff like a block of wood, still being held by him.

“Hugging me… don’t you feel disgusted?”

Knowing that Zhao Jingqun’s strange thoughts had started again, Tao Ning said helplessly, “I never said that. Why did you think I was thinking about Song Yucong just now?” He only glanced at the turtle.

Unexpectedly, a cold laugh came from above. Zhao Jingqun pushed him away without hesitation, his face gloomy. “You really were thinking about that wild dog Song Yucong. It must be hard on you, Tao Ning, forcing yourself to hug me despite your disgust for him.”

Tao Ning: “…You misunderstood.”

Zhao Jingqun’s face was momentarily contorted. “Still lying to me, Tao Ning. Aren’t you tired of this? I’m tired for you… What kind of look is that? I see. You’re disgusted even looking at me now. If I had known I was this kind of person, you…”

Bang, bang, bang! Before Tao Ning could explain, there was an urgent knock on the door. Zhao Jingqun’s face changed. He grabbed Tao Ning’s hand and tried to push him back into the room. Because the system had said that Xu Jun and Song Yucong would know his location today, Tao Ning knew who had arrived. And if Zhao Jingqun locked him in the room, he wouldn’t be able to see the situation and couldn’t possibly imagine the consequences of the three of them meeting.

He quickly shouted, “Zhao Jingqun! If you dare to lock me up now, I will truly hate you!” Taking advantage of Zhao Jingqun’s momentary stun, Tao Ning used his hand to brace against the door frame. If Zhao Jingqun insisted on closing the door, the thick wooden door would crush his hand.

He did this only because he didn’t want to see irreparable consequences. He used his own body to block the door frame. But Tao Ning looked up and met Zhao Jingqun’s bloodshot eyes, and he couldn’t help but tremble all over.

A lump formed in Tao Ning’s throat. He had hurt Zhao Jingqun again. Because the sadness and grievance in those eyes were about to overflow.

With a tremendous bang!

The door was actually kicked open. The people outside looked in. Tao Ning held his breath. It was Xu Jun. His gaze lingered on Tao Ning and Zhao Jingqun until he saw Tao Ning’s half-open sleepwear, and the dense, dark hickeys from his neck down to his chest, extending further below.

These hickeys seemed to mock the foolishness of the newcomers. Xu Jun’s body froze. As his gaze moved down, he saw the chains on Tao Ning’s snow-white ankles. The golden chains were linked together, clearly a deeply humiliating object, yet the ankles wearing this string of golden chains were so slender and pale that they added a few touches of eroticism to the scene.

There was no image of Tao Ning’s painful struggles and despair from Xu Jun’s nightmare, only a scene filled with an air of intimacy and sexual play. The sight before him confirmed how foolish his anxiety and panic had been all this time.

Xu Jun closed his eyes briefly to keep from losing his composure, for he knew that this scene was a different kind of despair for him. A panting sound came from behind him. Upon receiving the message about Tao Ning’s location, Song Yucong rushed to this apartment in the city center immediately.

Neither of them had expected that Tao Ning was hidden only a few hundred meters from Ockstent.

“Why is it you again? Xu Jun, are you a damned ghost…” Song Yucong had run up the stairs. He couldn’t wait another second to see Tao Ning; he had to see him immediately. So, seeing the elevator moving slowly, he ran up ten flights of stairs in one go, following the message.

After pushing Xu Jun aside, Song Yucong was equally stunned into silence by the scene before him. “You… you guys…”

The two gazes were impossible to ignore. Tao Ning felt his upper body and ankles burning. Because Zhao Jingqun’s actions had been so ridiculous these days, and Tao Ning had let him be, he sometimes didn’t wear clothes for an entire day, so his sense of shame regarding this revealing sleepwear was already very faint.

But this didn’t mean he could calmly appear in front of three people wearing clothes with hardly any fabric.

Tao Ning’s cheeks were flushed crimson. He tried to use his hand to cover the unsightly hickeys on his collarbone, but when he raised his arm, he found hickeys on his arm and elbow too. “…” That jerk Zhao Jingqun!

Just as Tao Ning’s shame was about to explode, he felt a warmth on his body. Zhao Jingqun had put a piece of clothing on him. A large trench coat covered his body completely. Except for his face, no other part was exposed.

Zhao Jingqun didn’t say a word throughout the entire process, and his face was expressionless. Tao Ning couldn’t discern his inner thoughts, but his throat tightened. He felt the terrifying, impending low pressure radiating from the man in front of him.

The atmosphere in the living room immediately became tense. No one spoke. Tao Ning felt like he was suspended on a high-voltage wire. Say one wrong word, and a thunderclap wouldn’t be enough; he would fall into an abyss of eternal damnation. He had never expected that the stupid system would choose to send them the message while Zhao Jingqun was present.

Now… now what should he do? Before Tao Ning could think of a solution, the person who broke the dead silence was Song Yucong, with an exasperated shriek: “What are you doing? —What are you doing?!”

Song Yucong’s expression looked like it was shattering piece by piece. He clutched his hair, as if unable to believe the scene he was seeing, and his breathing became increasingly rapid.

Tao Ning had seen him when he had an episode, and it was just like this. Worried that something would happen to Song Yucong, he took a small step forward. The golden chains rattled. When he was on the bed, Tao Ning only felt extreme shame and anguish, but now it was like a death knell, terrifying him.

But what surprised Tao Ning was that Zhao Jingqun didn’t seem angry at all. Instead, a smile was squeezed onto his face. His lips moved, and he intimately wrapped an arm around Tao Ning’s shoulder, chuckling, “Baby, who are these two people? Why are they barging into our home?”

This shouldn’t have been his reaction. Zhao Jingqun’s tone was too calm, completely lacking the aggressiveness he had just moments ago. It was as if he had only seen two ordinary friends of Tao Ning’s, not the love rivals he hated so deeply. But precisely because he was too calm, Tao Ning felt a chill down his spine.

“They… they are…”

As soon as Tao Ning spoke, Song Yucong exploded like a fuse-lit bomb, roaring furiously, “What are you pretending for, you dog?! Tao Ning, didn’t you say he was just your cousin?! Do you know he has a wife? He told me himself that he has a wife!!”

Zhao Jingqun’s expression didn’t change. He smiled and said, “Oh, I forgot to tell you, my wife is Tao Ning.” Then the curve of his pulled-up lips widened. “Why are you so concerned about my wife? Could it be that you’re my wife’s lover outside? Haha.”

Before Song Yucong could speak, he laughed a few more times and continued, “Did you sleep with her? How many times? My wife is very soft, isn’t she? Look, if you weren’t thinking about her, how would you have found your way here? It’s a shame I don’t have anything good to entertain you with here. How about this? I’ll kill you, and then I’ll fuck my wife on your corpses. How does that sound?”

Tao Ning’s eyes widened. Only then did he realize that Zhao Jingqun’s smile was eerie, even terrifying. His lips were indeed stretched into a smile, but his eyes were cold and devoid of emotion, without the slightest fluctuation.

This was indeed a sign of an impending storm. Tao Ning shouted, “Leave now!”

But the two people at the doorway didn’t move. Xu Jun only frowned slightly and pulled out his phone from his pocket. At that very instant, with a bang, a bullet went through the phone screen. The phone instantly shattered, and blood dripped onto the floor from Xu Jun’s palm. The words Song Yucong was about to say were caught in his throat. “…Are you crazy?”

It wasn’t a warning shot; it was a real gun with live ammunition! Tao Ning was also stunned by the gunshot. He suddenly grabbed the sleeve of the person in front of him, his voice trembling: “Zhao Jingqun, you can’t do this, you can’t do this! You said you wanted to be with me forever. If you kill them, you’ll go to jail, and you’ll die! …Who will be with me forever then?”

Never had he spoken with such intensity. Tao Ning was truly scared. Zhao Jingqun wasn’t pretending to be crazy to threaten or frighten him; he really was an utterly reckless lunatic. If he had missed his shot by even a fraction just now, Xu Jun’s life would have been over.

He was truly a lunatic!!

Zhao Jingqun still wore a smiling face, but this time, there was a touch of genuine emotion in that eerie smile. Holding the live gun that could go off at any moment, he turned and hugged Tao Ning, suddenly saying excitedly, “So you want to be with me forever. That’s great. That’s really great, Tao Ning.”

“Yes… I want to be with you forever…” Tao Ning felt no warmth in this embrace; it was like being held by the god of death. He spoke in the gentlest, mildest voice he had ever used in his life, though his voice wavered slightly at the end: “So, so can you put the gun down, please?”

Zhao Jingqun buried his head in his shoulder and neck, his voice slightly muffled. “Are you telling the truth?”

“Yes… it’s the truth…”

“You won’t lie to me?”

“…I won’t.”

The atmosphere was silent for a moment. Zhao Jingqun suddenly looked up at Tao Ning, raised the gun with one hand and pointed it toward the doorway, smiling somewhat sarcastically, “What if I insist on killing them?”

With that, he put a finger on the trigger. Tao Ning’s pupils contracted. He instantly lunged forward, letting out a heart-wrenching sound: “No!!!”

Tao Ning instantly tackled Zhao Jingqun to the floor. Following a gunshot from behind, his neck stiffened as if petrified. Tao Ning violently twisted his head around, and the air and time seemed to stand still with his movement.

His heart nearly stopped beating until both people at the door were standing there unharmed, and a bullet hole was left in the wall next to them. Only then did Tao Ning’s soul return to his body, and he heavily sighed with relief.

He snatched the gun from Zhao Jingqun’s hand. Xu Jun from behind shouted, “Be careful! Don’t touch that gun!” But nothing happened. Tao Ning looked at the person beneath him, meeting a pair of calm eyes.

“There were only two bullets inside.” Zhao Jingqun lay on the floor, with no smile and no expression, quietly looking at Tao Ning. “They were meant for killing them, and the last one was for me to kill myself.”

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