I Entered the Villains’ Den While Pretending to Be a Righteous Man - Chapter 14

Jiang You watched Wang Huanxiu answer a phone call, though he didn’t know who was on the other end. Half a minute later, the call ended.

“Get out of the car.”

Jiang You was stunned. “If the driver gets out, how are we supposed to get there? Do I drive?”

“I told you to get out of the car.”

Jiang You: “…”

Do you even hear yourself? You’re giving me a minus-fifty-degree response in a city that’s already minus-five.

“We aren’t going to the party?”

“No. Something came up.”

A few minutes later, Jiang You stood bewildered in the freezing wind, watching the black Bentley drive off into the distance.

What could Wang Huanxiu possibly have to do? The most critical task over the past three days had been the game proposal, and that had been officially settled this afternoon. They should have been free as birds to go enjoy the party.

A ridiculous thought popped into his head: He couldn’t be going home to drink that bone soup Bai Shuijin brewed, could he?

Jiang You laughed at his own thought. Impossible. But halfway through the laugh, his expression froze. Often, the more impossible the scenario, the more likely it was the truth.

Jiang You: “…”

No way! With Bai Shuijin’s cooking ‘talent,’ Wang Huanxiu is actually that into it? Jiang You shuddered in horror. Wang Huanxiu really is a pervert.

The black luxury car pulled into the hospital parking lot. Even at night, the flow of people in the hospital was constant, with people coming and going.

The pungent smell of disinfectant saturated the air, evoking that childhood fear of seeing a needle wanting to run, but having nowhere to go.

Bai Shuijin looked like a little sprout that had lost its water. His eyes were drooping, and he didn’t even have the energy to brush away the bangs that were blurring his vision; he’d been drained of everything overnight. His abdomen still felt the discomfort following his vomiting, with waves of twitching pain.

At five o’clock this evening, in order to make sure Wang Huanxiu had bone soup when he got home, Bai Shuijin had rolled up his sleeves and prepared to show off his skills in the kitchen.

Seeing him preparing to cook, Mama Li stepped forward to persuade him. “Master Bai, how about we just skip making this meal?”

She hadn’t forgotten Wang Huanxiu’s instructions; he had told her that morning not to let Bai Shuijin cook or prepare lunch boxes anymore. Mama Li was timid and didn’t dare disobey, so she went to advise him the moment he appeared.

Bai Shuijin held the soup ladle. “Mama Li, I’m just making a soup.”

It’s freezing outside, he thought. It’ll be so happy to come home to a warm bowl of soup.

Mama Li looked conflicted, but she didn’t hesitate for long. After all, Wang Huanxiu had left her with another message. If Bai Shuijin insists on doing it, let him taste it himself.

Mama Li relayed the words exactly: “The Master said that if Master Bai insists on cooking, he must taste it himself before it leaves the pot.”

Bai Shuijin nodded. “Okay.”

He then began a high-heat brewing process. Just before the soup was ready, Bai Shuijin scooped a small spoonful into a saucer and took a sip.

Bai Shuijin shuddered from head to toe.

God! This is awful!

He had never tasted anything so foul in his life. It was so bad he felt his entire being was failing. Not long after drinking it, his stomach began to feel uncomfortable. He hobbled over to the sofa and flopped down, frantically stuffing spicy strips into his mouth in an attempt to use them to push the soup down.

As a result, ten minutes after “pushing it down,” he began vomiting and having diarrhea. In the end, he was forcibly sent to the hospital for food poisoning.

Summary: I poisoned myself.

He hadn’t expected the soup he made to not only taste malicious but nearly take him out for good.

It was easy to go from rags to riches, but hard to go back. If this were his previous life, Bai Shuijin wouldn’t have given this kind of pain a second thought; he would have endured it and continued his life as a corporate “ox and horse.”

But things were different now. He had no financial worries, and he wasn’t alone. If he had collapsed at his post in his previous life, no one would have cared. Coworkers were strangers, after all; they had no obligation to care for your emotions, and helping someone usually just meant creating trouble for oneself.

That was the mindset of most people struggling to survive; a money-first society created that trend. If I take care of you, I’ll miss work and might even have to front your medical bills; no matter how you calculate it, it’s a loss. Humans were creatures that considered themselves first; it was instinct.

But now, it was different. Bai Shuijin lay in the ward, not having to worry about medical bills or tomorrow’s shift. Because it was the emergency department, there were two other patients in the room, but the beds were separated by curtains, and Bai Shuijin lay in the middle.

His right hand, currently as weak as a boneless sprout, was hooked up to an IV drip. In his previous life, he wouldn’t have enjoyed a life where people discovered his illness and sent him to the hospital, let alone cared for him. The servants at home had noticed his discomfort immediately.

Bai Shuijin felt they were like “Uloveit” milk tea warm in the palm of his hand. He had no family in his previous life; even through high school graduation, university, and illness, he had always been alone. No one had ever cheered for him during the important milestones of his life.

The person staying to accompany him at the hospital had gone to pay the bills and would likely be back soon. He lay on the bed, turning his head left and right at the blue-green curtains on either side.

A wave of abdominal pain hit him again. Bai Shuijin wanted to cry but had no tears; he was never cooking again.

Just then, the curtain on the right was pulled open by an aged, withered hand. While Bai Shuijin was whimpering on the bed without the strength to move, the old lady in the next bed started a conversation out of boredom.

“Young man, are you all alone?”

Bai Shuijin looked at the old lady and shook his head. “No, the person who brought me went to pay the bills. My Husband-Bro is also coming to see me in a bit.”

In the ambulance, while his stomach was aching, he had heard someone calling Wang Huanxiu. He felt his Husband-Bro would come; after all, they were married they were family.

Hearing the term “Husband-Bro,” the old lady was taken aback. “You look so young, yet you’re already married?”

Bai Shuijin nodded.

“How old are you this year?”

“I’m twenty.”

Twenty the age for being in school. The old lady sighed again. “Married so young?”

Bai Shuijin nodded and asked back, “Grandma, when did you get married?”

“Me? I was nineteen.”

“…”

Wasn’t that even earlier…

Bai Shuijin looked at the old lady, who was hooked up to the same kind of IV. “Do you have food poisoning too?”

“Yes. The green beans weren’t cooked through, so I got poisoned.” The old lady lay on the bed, looking at Bai Shuijin. “I really envy you. Your husband is coming to take care of you even while you’re sick.”

Hearing the longing and envy in her voice, Bai Shuijin blinked. Did the old lady’s husband treat her poorly? If life is bad, just get a divorce!

“Then why isn’t he here to take care of you?”

“Oh, he’s lying in the bed on the other side of you.”

Bai Shuijin: “…”

He swallowed his advice for divorce. He thought it was a case of a bad man’s “cold violence,” but it turned out the husband had been poisoned right along with her.

On the other side, the Wang family employee finished paying at the window and headed back to the ward. They had planned to upgrade to a private VIP room, but Bai Shuijin didn’t want to move; even the thought of being pushed made him feel nauseous, like motion sickness. He just weakly shook his head and said he wanted to stay put. The plan to move was abandoned.

On the way back, the employee encountered Wang Huanxiu, who had just arrived.

He was tall and long-legged, standing out in the crowd like a crane among chickens. His black, custom-tailored suit perfectly accentuated his superior proportions. His aura was powerful and his appearance extraordinary; people in the crowd turned back to look at him.

The servant went to meet him and led him to Bai Shuijin’s ward. Seeing three people in one room, Wang Huanxiu’s brow furrowed subtly.

“No private rooms?” In his world, hospital stays didn’t involve sharing with others.

Bai Shuijin’s food poisoning had been sudden and the symptoms severe, so they had called 120 and gone straight to the nearest emergency room.

Servant: “Master Bai said staying here was fine; he said moving his body made him feel unwell.”

Wang Huanxiu let out a cold snort. “He certainly is delicate.” If he didn’t want to move, he wouldn’t move. Since he was the one suffering, Wang Huanxiu didn’t want to meddle.

When he walked into the second cubicle, a withered Bai Shuijin spotted him. His eyes were downcast, devoid of his usual life and energy. Upon seeing Wang Huanxiu, Bai Shuijin’s mouth puckered, and the corners of his lips pulled down uncontrollably. “Husband-Bro.”

Wang Huanxiu stood coldly two meters away. That cry of “Husband-Bro” was as reliant as it could possibly be. Wang Huanxiu was the first person he had met in this world and the one he had spent the most time with. When people are vulnerable, they want to grab onto a life-saving straw.

Clearly, Wang Huanxiu was that straw right now.

Bai Shuijin’s mouth drooped, his voice weak. “Husband-Bro, I’m sick.”

Wang Huanxiu stood by the bed for a few seconds before sitting in a chair. “I can see that.”

Seeing him made Bai Shuijin talkative. “Husband-Bro, my feet are a bit cold.”

“And?”

“Can I put them on your abs to warm them up?”

“…”

In the end, Wang Huanxiu had someone buy him a hot water bottle. The driver took the job and bought a rechargeable hand warmer. Once fully charged, the plush texture of the warmer was almost too hot to touch. Wang Huanxiu lifted the covers and tucked it at the boy’s feet. The bed was instantly warm.

Bai Shuijin: “Husband-Bro, you’re so good.”

Before Wang Huanxiu arrived, the old lady had chatted a bit before pulling her curtain to sleep. But Shuijin couldn’t sleep because of the lingering discomfort of the poisoning.

Wang Huanxiu ignored him, his gaze landing on Bai Shuijin’s left hand, which was covered with a band-aid. The band-aid was on his finger. There weren’t many sharp objects at home, but he had heard about the cause of the poisoning and the “near-death experience” in the kitchen. He’d cut his finger while using the knife on the bones.

Bai Shuijin lay on his side, facing Wang Huanxiu. Seeing him reminded him of the lunch boxes he’d made before.

“Husband-Bro, did you eat the lunch boxes I made for you?”

Wang Huanxiu stared at the band-aid on his finger. After a few seconds of silence, he replied, “No.” Cold and decisive. He had never given a second thought to the lunch boxes the boy had spent so much effort on.

“That’s great then.”

Wang Huanxiu’s fingers curled.

The heavy stone in Bai Shuijin’s heart fell. “Husband-Bro, it’s a good thing you didn’t eat them, or you’d be sick too.”

“I could never bear that.”