The "Honest" Beta Deceived Day and Night by a Twisted Obsessive - Chapter 20

Duan Huaijing’s mind was racing with a different agenda. Now that “The Eyes” had the audacity to infiltrate the heavily guarded Xie estate, there was no telling what extreme measures he might take next. Seizing the initiative, Duan Huaijing suggested they meet tomorrow at the Peony Pavilion.

“The Eyes” agreed without hesitation.

Inwardly smug, Duan Huaijing made an excuse to head to the loo. The moment the door clicked shut, his expression shifted. He whipped out his phone, created a burner account, and sent a friend request to Xie Yun, inviting him to the Peony Pavilion at the same time.

It was only thanks to the manipulative tactics “The Eyes” had used on him that he was able to come up with such a seamless plan to leak the information to Xie Yun via an alt account.

He waited, but the request remained unaccepted. Whether Xie Yun hadn’t seen it or simply dismissed it as a prank, Duan Huaijing couldn’t tell.

Panic began to set in. He gnawed at his fingernails while “The Eyes” tapped on the door from the outside, asking what was taking him so long.

“Just a second!” Duan Huaijing called out dismissively.

He refreshed the screen repeatedly until his eyes ached, yet there was still no notification from Xie Yun. He cursed inwardly: How can a man who’s never off his phone not see this? Stop acting so bloody mysterious.

Stop it, stop it, stop it! Is he trying to mess with my head?!

The minutes ticked by. He couldn’t stay in here much longer without raising suspicion. The more flustered he got, the less time he had to refine what he’d thought was a perfect plan.

In a fit of desperation, he changed the message in the friend request to: “I know where the person who ran you over is.”

The moment he hit send, regret washed over him. That sentence was far too revealing. A shrewd businessman like Xie Yun would surely spot the inconsistency.

But to his utter shock, Xie Yun accepted the request instantly.

Duan Huaijing stared at the screen, wide-eyed with the bewilderment of a country bumpkin seeing the big city for the first time. He checked several times to make sure it was really Xie Yun.

A message popped up: “Where.”

Just one word. It was so curt that Duan Huaijing could practically see Xie Yun’s cold, indifferent eyes through the screen.

Where? In the room right next to yours, obviously.

Playing the role of the all-knowing informant, Duan Huaijing adopted a different persona to avoid slipping up.

“He’ll be at the Peony Pavilion tomorrow. If you want to see him, be there. He won’t wait around.” Duan Huaijing felt like a master actor. If Xie Yun hadn’t seen through him after all this time, perhaps the man wasn’t as sharp as he’d thought.

“How do you know?” Xie Yun replied.

Duan Huaijing expected as much; if Xie Yun had simply trusted a random message, he’d have thought the account was hacked. Keeping up his mysterious front, he replied irritably: “Don’t worry about that. Go or don’t, it’s up to you.”

He chewed his lip as he refreshed the chat. He’d only sent that to provoke him, what if he actually didn’t show up?

A few seconds later, Xie Yun replied: “I’ll be there.”

If Duan Huaijing had a tail, it would be wagging at the sky right now. He felt a bit light-headed was he really this good at manipulating people? The spiteful Beta, fearing Xie Yun might go soft at the last minute, decided to stir the pot further.

“The man who hit you said you were an idiot. He wants to steal your company seal and says you deserve to die.” Duan Huaijing licked his lips, piling on every nasty insult he could conjure.

Xie Yun took the bait perfectly: “Then what do you suggest I do?”

Duan Huaijing cleared his throat and glanced around guiltily. Once certain “The Eyes” couldn’t see, he tapped out a vicious reply: “Kill him.”

Xie Yun: “?”

Duan Huaijing didn’t understand the question mark. Before he could respond, the message was deleted and replaced with a simple: “Understood.”

Feeling like he’d just pulled off a grand heist, Duan Huaijing walked out of the bathroom feeling refreshed. “The Eyes” saw him emerge and immediately stuck to him like a large, needy dog.

In the past, Duan Huaijing would have been annoyed but wouldn’t have resisted much. Now, however, he knew Xie Yun was going to move in. “The Eyes” wouldn’t be jumping around for much longer. Not wanting to waste energy on a man who was as good as dead, he slapped the man’s hand away.

As “The Eyes” tilted his head, his gaze locking onto him with dissatisfaction, Duan Huaijing’s knees went weak. He instinctively wanted to apologise, but he caught himself. “Stop touching me all the time.”

“The Eyes” stared at him for a long beat. “Then who do you want touching you?”

Duan Huaijing turned away. He didn’t want a relationship with anyone here, so he had no answer. He simply grumbled, “Just not you.”

As he tried to brush past, the man suddenly seized his wrist. The grip was so tight Duan Huaijing felt his bones might pop out of alignment.

He hissed in pain and looked up. Their eyes met. In the moonlight, the man’s eyes were bright but bottomless, like a calm pond that hid a raging tsunami beneath the surface.

“Xie Yun?”

Duan Huaijing heard the tremor beneath the man’s restrained voice. He was clearly livid.

When Duan Huaijing didn’t answer, “The Eyes” spat out another name: “Xie Ming?”

Duan Huaijing finally understood what he was implying. He turned his head, letting out a sharp, angry laugh. “You’re just.”

Seeing the reaction to Xie Ming’s name, the man tightened his grip even further. Once he was sure Duan Huaijing couldn’t escape, he grabbed a handkerchief from the table with his free hand, balled it up, and stuffed it into Duan Huaijing’s mouth.

“Since this mouth won’t say what I want to hear, it’s better if it doesn’t speak at all.”

Duan Huaijing:

Mmph… Mmph!

As if being gagged wasn’t enough, his eyes were covered in the next second. Duan Huaijing blinked, his long lashes brushing against the man’s palm. The man’s hand curled slightly, as if escaping an itch or perhaps trying to crush a butterfly in his grasp.

A familiar yet terrifying heat moved closer to his neck. Duan Huaijing shuddered, a sense of dread washing over him. Only when he felt the man’s heavy breathing against his skin did he realise he needed to run.

It was too close.

“The Eyes” pressed in. Duan Huaijing retreated as far as his neck would allow. The warmth paused for a heartbeat, but before he could sigh in relief, his smooth, glandless skin was pierced by sharp canines.

He winced, eyes squeezed shut. He could feel his blood flowing out, lapped up and swallowed by the vampire before him, before the wound was licked clean.

The bite was merciless. When the man finally let go, Duan Huaijing felt a strange sense of having survived an ordeal. He stumbled back, clutching his neck, convinced the man was utterly, irredeemably insane.

“The Eyes” pulled the handkerchief from his mouth, folded it neatly, and tucked it into his pocket. He looked up. “Before that mark fades, break off the engagement with Xie Ming yourself. Don’t make me remind you.”

With such a prominent mark on his neck, it wouldn’t matter what he wore, the fact that he’d been bitten by an Alpha would be impossible to hide.

“I hate you!” Duan Huaijing wished he could bite the man back and kill him right then and there.

“The Eyes” had a smear of blood on his lip. He licked it away a mundane action that felt obscenely erotic when he did it.

His voice was soft, but his tone was obsessive. “That’s fine. It’s enough that I love you.”

Duan Huaijing was so repulsed by those three words he nearly fainted. It was like slapping someone you despise, only for them to lick their fingers and ask, “Can I have another reward?”

“Why don’t you just die!” Duan Huaijing cried out in despair.

“The Eyes” smirked. “If I die, I’ll haunt you as a ghost.”

He moved closer, stalking his prey and invading his personal space. “You say you’ll hate me for a lifetime—how is that any different from loving me for one? You can’t forget me, and I can’t leave you.”

Duan Huaijing felt like he was losing his mind. He wanted to tell Xie Yun right now that his attacker was here and have him killed. Only one phrase echoed in his head: Die, die, die. why aren’t you dead yet!

“The Eyes” wasn’t angered by the curse. Instead, he reached out and cupped Duan Huaijing’s face, gently wiping away his tears. “I will.”

The words were so faint that Duan Huaijing, lost in his own world, didn’t even hear them.

The man’s hand slid down, his fingers tracing the bridge of his nose before coming to rest on his Adam’s apple, giving it a light scratch. Duan Huaijing couldn’t help but tilt his head back with a muffled groan.

In the next second, the mercurial man lunged and squeezed his throat. It was so sudden that Duan Huaijing couldn’t cough or breathe. He felt like a drowning man, desperate for oxygen.

His survival instinct kicked in. He clawed at the man’s hand, pleading for air. His mind began to haze over.

He heard the man say something and instinctively repeated it, knowing that playing along was his only path to fresh air.

“I’ll… I’ll only let you touch me,” Duan Huaijing stammered.

“The Eyes” wasn’t satisfied. “You aren’t allowed to get close to any of them,” he growled.

Like a schoolboy reciting a textbook, Duan Huaijing retracted his claws in order to live. “I won’t get close to anyone.”

“Good boy.” The pressure on his neck finally eased—not because the man only cared about those two things, but because Duan Huaijing was about to pass out.

“The Eyes” tried to massage the red marks he’d just left, but the moment his hand moved, Duan Huaijing flinched back.

The air around them seemed to drop several degrees. Noticing the change in the man’s mood, Duan Huaijing swallowed his irritation and forced himself to step forward.

As “The Eyes” carefully rubbed his neck, Duan Huaijing clutched the hem of his shirt, not daring to move.

The man was pleased with his obedience, unaware that Duan Huaijing was counting the minutes until tomorrow. He thought spitefully:

Tomorrow will be the end of you.

*****

The next day, as Duan Huaijing came downstairs, he saw Xie Yun and his men finalising their plans. Hearing them worry about how to lure “The Eyes” behind the rockery, Duan Huaijing quietly sent a message to the man in question.

When you come, come through the rockery at the Peony Pavilion.

Just as the message sent, Xie Yun’s phone chimed on the table. Duan Huaijing peeked over curiously, only to see Xie Yun sending a voice note to someone: “I’m on a blind date, no time.”

Just a coincidence then, he thought. Looking at Xie Yun’s back which radiated a solitary, arrogant aura, he decided that someone as cold as Xie Yun wouldn’t stoop to playing roles.

Afraid of being noticed, he crept back to his room.

He didn’t see Xie Yun look up from his phone, silently watching the direction in which he had disappeared.

****

Duan Huaijing waited until they had all left before coming back down. He checked the time repeatedly, calculating that it should all be over soon.

He sent a tentative message to “The Eyes,” but there was no reply. He must be trapped.

Duan Huaijing let out a small smile. He sat on the sofa, feeling for the first time that a few hours could feel like an eternity. Eventually, he drifted off.

CRACK—BOOM!

The branches outside began to sway like dancing demons, clawing at the windows. The howling wind and the drumming rain startled him awake.

The rain showed no sign of stopping; if anything, it was getting heavier. The house was dim, the streetlights outside casting fragmented shadows across the floor.

The relentless rain streaked down the glass. The play of light and shadow on the floor felt eerie on this damp night.

Duan Huaijing climbed up and switched on a lamp. The pool of light made the room feel a little less dark, but the hollow, fearful feeling in his chest remained. The brightness only highlighted how alone he was.

The whistling wind and the torrential downpour filled his ears. He was like a lotus leaf drifting on a river, tossed by rain and wind toward an unknown destination, lost and insecure.

He shook his head to clear his thoughts and checked his phone.

There was a notification. Praying it wasn’t just spam, he opened it.

It was a message from “The Eyes” sent five minutes ago: “Okay.”

Duan Huaijing stared at it, bewildered. He’s still alive?

Just as he was about to reply, the front door swung open.

Duan Huaijing looked over, phone in hand.

From this angle, he could only see a glimpse of a black coat. His heart hammered—he remembered “The Eyes” had a coat just like that.

Is he insane? Coming straight into the Xie house?

Duan Huaijing swallowed and gripped the sofa arm, bracing his trembling body.

He watched the door as it opened wider, revealing the figure behind it.

The streetlights were behind him, casting his face in shadow. He was tall, drenched to the bone, and every drop of water could be seen sliding off his clothes to form a puddle on the floor.

Every step he took looked like a vengeful spirit crawling back from the underworld.

Duan Huaijing’s grip tightened until his knuckles were white. He took a step back, straining to see who it was.

“Brother?” he asked tentatively.

“Mm,” the figure replied, his voice hoarse.

Relief flooded through him, and his grip on the sofa loosened.

He walked forward to turn on the living room lights, only then realising his legs were so weak his gait was awkward. Fortunately, in the darkness, no one could see his embarrassment.

“I heard you went looking for the person who hit you,” Duan Huaijing said, trying to sound casual as he looked at Xie Yun. “How did it go?”

A flash of lightning illuminated the room, casting long shadows. For a split second, the man’s features in the entryway were crystal clear.

A prominent brow, deep eyes beneath thick lashes. The man pressed his lips together, his eyes filled with an emotion Duan Huaijing couldn’t name as he stared straight at him.

His voice was soft, sounding even more chilling in the dead of night.

“He’s dead.”

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