I Entered the Villains’ Den While Pretending to Be a Righteous Man - Chapter 13

Winter mornings always arrive late. At six o’clock, the world was still shrouded in darkness, though the massive castles within the villa district had begun to flicker with sparse light.

Time flowed across the watch face; the hour hand was the ship and the minute hand was the oar. After an unknown amount of drifting, Wang Huanxiu slowly opened his eyes. The room was pitch black behind blackout curtains, and his chest felt heavy a head was resting right on top of him.

He couldn’t see clearly, but he could feel the airflow from the other person’s breathing. He was wearing a robe, and his collar had loosened during sleep; the direct skin contact caused the man’s dark face to twist into a frown.

His brows knit together, signaling his dissatisfaction with the situation. He reached for his phone on the nightstand, expecting it to be six o’clock the time his biological clock usually signaled him to wake but the screen lit up to show it was already eight.

Wang Huanxiu: “…”

He reached out and pushed the person lying on him aside. With a roll, Bai Shuijin went from sprawling on top of Wang Huanxiu to sleeping on his side with his back turned. Even with someone disturbing his sleep, he didn’t wake up.

The blackout curtains were opened automatically by remote control, and the floor-to-ceiling glass wall invited the brilliant, staggering morning sun into the room.

Sleeping on his side, Bai Shuijin was hit directly in the face by the light. His closed eyelids instantly turned a bright orange-yellow, and he immediately scrambled around.

Wang Huanxiu watched with wide eyes as the boy, like a fish making a final leap for life, flopped right back onto him.

“Husband-Bro…” Clearly unhappy about being dazzled by the sun, the boy muttered with his eyes still shut.

Wang Huanxiu asked coldly, “What?”

Bai Shuijin opened his mouth and let out a crude, drowsy slur: “Screw you…”

“…”

Wang Huanxiu grabbed him, tossed him to the side, threw off the covers, and headed straight for the bathroom.

He had woken up late today. Unlike his usual orderly and disciplined life, he had slept until eight. The world outside was bright, and the sunlight stung his eyes. Since childhood, he had been racing to grow and learn; he rarely woke at such an hour. For a child, it would have been a luxury, but at twenty-six, Wang Huanxiu looked upon such luxury with nothing but disdain.

Bai Shuijin woke up ten minutes later. His legs were clamped tight; he needed to use the bathroom. He scrambled out of bed using all four limbs, rolled onto the floor, and headed for the washroom, only to find the door half-ajar.

Wang Huanxiu was standing at the sink. A bottle of shampoo and a bottle of essential oil were on the counter; it looked like he was about to wash his hair. Wang Huanxiu had a habit of showering every morning to wake himself up, but since he was late today, he didn’t have enough time for a full shower and decided to just wash his hair.

Just then, the door was shoved open.

“Husband-Bro!” Bai Shuijin chirped.

That’s right, it’s me your cute and charming protagonist.

Wang Huanxiu looked at his expressionless reflection in the mirror. “…”

Bai Shuijin circled around Wang Huanxiu like a little chick, as if he couldn’t bear to be apart from him. He stepped in his slippers over to the man’s side. “Husband-Bro, are you going to wash your hair?”

Wang Huanxiu cast a sideways glance at him.

Bai Shuijin patted his chest. “I’ll help you.”

Wang Huanxiu’s left hand was injured. While he wore a waterproof finger cot for bathing, it was a hassle; having someone else help would be much faster and safer for his injured pinky.

Shuijin was eager to help, rubbing his palms together in preparation for a “professional” service. Although he’d never worked in a barbershop during his previous life, he’d had his hair washed in them many times. He figured he could do a decent job by mimicking what he’d seen.

Wang Huanxiu refused: “No need.”

But Bai Shuijin had already run to the shower and grabbed the showerhead, which was almost as big as his face.

“Come on, Husband-Bro.”

Pretend to be mindless; pretend not to hear. He was determined to wash this head today.

A minute later, they were ready. Bai Shuijin held the showerhead while the shampoo sat on a nearby shelf. “Husband-Bro, I’m starting.” As he spoke, he toggled the switch. “Don’t worry, Husband-Bro. I’ll wash your head as if it were my own.”

Getting caught up in the moment, a flash of “inspiration” hit him. “I will treat your head as if it were my own offspring.”

Wang Huanxiu: “…Then I truly thank you.”

“Don’t mention it.” Bai Shuijin held the showerhead. “Here I come, Husband-Bro.”

The words had barely left his mouth when Wang Huanxiu felt a torrent of cold-water slam onto his head. It felt like a bucket had been dumped on him; even his neck sank under the weight.

“…”

“Husband-Bro! Are you okay?!” Bai Shuijin’s eyes widened. He hadn’t expected the water pressure to be so high and hurriedly adjusted the flow and temperature.

Once the hair was wet, he began scrubbing in the shampoo, only for the suds to get into the man’s eyes during the rinse. After finishing the wash, Bai Shuijin wrapped the man’s head in a towel and bounced out like a rabbit to find the hairdryer.

Surely nothing can go wrong with drying hair, he thought. Just point it at the person. He wanted to leave a good final impression to make the man forget his earlier mistakes. It was like a major news story; you just needed an even bigger one to cover it up. After all, there was a god-awful logic in the world: a villain only needs to do one good deed to be redeemed and forgiven.

Bai Shuijin pointed the dryer at him, but because of the height difference, the nozzle slammed right into Wang Huanxiu’s head.

Thwack!

Bai Shuijin: “…”

I didn’t do a good deed; I’ve been committing crimes the whole time.

The bathroom went deathly quiet. For a moment, no one spoke. Bai Shuijin swallowed and looked at Wang Huanxiu sheepishly, whispering, “Husband-Bro?”

Wang Huanxiu stood there motionless.

Crap, did I knock him stupid?!

“Hus…”

“Bai Shuijin,” Wang Huanxiu spoke.

Bai Shuijin instinctively responded, “Hmm?”

He heard the man’s voice, hauntingly calm. “Tell me… how much is someone paying you for my life?”

“…”

Yesterday, a bunch of people were waiting for Bai Shuijin to be kicked out of the Wang family, but there was no movement from the third floor even by two or three in the morning.

Bai Shuijin hadn’t returned to the second floor. The servants stood with lowered heads once more—did he actually sleep on the third floor?

This Master Bai was truly something. When the Master returned last night, he was clearly in a bad mood, radiating a stiflingly low pressure. Asking someone to bring fruit at that time was practically an explicit order to leave. Instead, the person stayed and slept there. Even more shocking was that it was now nearly nine o’clock and Wang Huanxiu still hadn’t come down.

Usually, Wang Huanxiu was out the door by eight; he never overslept. The driver had been waiting outside for nearly an hour, so lonely he’d started talking to the birds. Everyone expected a finale where Bai Shuijin packed his bags and slunk away, yet here they were.

At 9:10 AM, Wang Huanxiu finally descended. The butler hurried to his side to check on him. He was late, and there was a hint of fatigue in his eyes.

That Bai Shuijin must have ‘ridden’ our Master! He must have! On the third floor, our Master was…

“Uncle Zhang,” Wang Huanxiu’s voice was deep.

The butler responded, “Yes, Sir?”

Wang Huanxiu was silent for a moment. “Your eyes look cloudy again.”

Butler: “…”

Normally, he would already be at the company. Furthermore, there were negotiations for a game project this afternoon. Wang Huanxiu hadn’t expected to make such a low-level mistake as waking up late. His schedule was fixed; every hour of every day was designated for a specific task. One error felt like the entire system had been disrupted.

He skipped breakfast and went straight to the foyer to leave. Just then, Bai Shuijin came running down from the stairs as if he were “climbing walls and leaping over eaves.”

“Husband-Bro!” Bai Shuijin flew to him. “You forgot your phone.”

He held out the phone. The man took it without sparing him a glance. Bai Shuijin looked at the splinted pinky on his left hand. “Husband-Bro, come home a bit earlier today, okay?”

Wang Huanxiu hadn’t returned until after ten last night. The sky was as black as spilled ink. Not only was it tiring, but he couldn’t even eat a proper meal. Having worked part-time jobs from dawn to dusk in his previous life, Shuijin understood the bitterness of not being able to eat properly.

“Come back early today. I’ll brew some bone soup for you.”

Eat what you want to fix, he thought. Even if it was medically useless, it provided psychological comfort.

“No need.” Wang Huanxiu’s refusal was immediate as he turned and left.

Going home for soup is no different than a prey jumping into a trap.

The driver had enjoyed an hour of free time that morning, but the Wang estate was so large and there was no one to chat with, so he’d targeted a bird in a nearby tree.

Sparrow: “Chirp, chirp.” Driver: “You’re up early too.”

Wang Huanxiu, walking out: “…”

Every single one of them has gone mad.

Upon arriving at the office and stepping out of the elevator on the top floor, Wang Huanxiu saw the same “cloudy” look in the eyes of his general assistant, secretaries, and the office manager.

Although he arrived late, Wang Huanxiu quickly got work back on track without delaying the afternoon’s game proposal negotiations. The proposal he used was, of course, not the one he’d used to test Bai Shuijin in the study. When he went to check the study that morning, that proposal was still lying on the desk exactly where it was left; even the angle of the pages hadn’t changed.

Bai Shuijin had no intention of taking it.

The negotiations went smoothly and the deal was finalized on the spot. After the partners left, Jiang You leaned back in his chair, feeling refreshed. He tapped his phone a few times. “There’s a dinner gathering tonight. Let’s go together it’s all friends, time to relax.”

Just then, there was a knock at the office door. Jiang You said, “Enter.”

Because there had been a meeting inside, the secretary had waited a long time before daring to come in. Wang Huanxiu looked up. “What is it?”

Secretary: “President Wang, a call came in just now.” It was about half an hour ago.

“Who?”

Secretary: “An ‘enthusiastic caller’ asking if you were coming home to drink bone soup.”

“…”

Bone soup?

What was so great about bone soup? The caller was obviously Bai Shuijin. Bai Shuijin was close to that Pei Zhiheng kid; Wang Huanxiu marrying him was no different than bringing in a little spy. It just hadn’t caused any waves yet. But even if he seemed incapable of causing trouble, a “useless” person deserved even more attention; after all, small details were often the essential screws in a machine’s operation.

Go home for soup or go to the party? The party, obviously!

Jiang You: “Does that even need asking? Would your President Wang ever go home?”

Although Bai Shuijin had many little tricks, Jiang You didn’t think Wang Huanxiu was the type to be deceived. The man was as clear-headed and cold as a robot.

Hearing Jiang You’s disdainful voice, the secretary muttered inwardly: You probably don’t know that the Master and Master Bai were doing ‘this and that’ last night, and he arrived two hours late today.

Wang Huanxiu’s expression didn’t change. He hadn’t intended to return early anyway. Bai Shuijin’s appearance had disrupted his life and triggered a sense of rejection. It was like someone was constantly throwing stones into a lake that was as still as a mirror, creating splashes and ripples.

At seven in the evening, Wang Huanxiu sat in the car, intending to go to the party. Jiang You sat beside him. Not long after the car started, a call came through to Wang Huanxiu’s phone. It was from home. He tapped “Accept.”

An anxious voice came through, filled with chaos: “Sir! Something’s wrong! Master Bai has food poisoning!”