The Sickly Beauty is Too Good at Seducing - Chapter 17

Jiang Yan’s fingertips idly toyed with the two bells shackling the butterfly wings. With every movement, the bells emitted a crisp ting-a-ling, which, when mingled with Shen Congbai’s slightly hurried breathing, sounded exceptionally suggestive.

Shen Congbai flinched as those ice-cold fingertips brushed against him, leaving his rounded, snowy-white toes exposed for all to see. Jiang Yan’s eyes lowered slightly as he remarked, “Let me guess: was this a gift from your ex-boyfriend, or from that ‘extraordinarily close’ brother of yours?”

Shen Congbai’s face stiffened. He tried to pull his foot back, but Jiang Yan held his calf in a firm grip.

The anklet was suddenly ripped off, leaving a faint indentation on Shen Congbai’s ankle. Shen Congbai let out a cry of pain. Losing control of his strength, he actually managed to wrench his leg free and kicked Jiang Yan squarely in the chest.

Beneath his foot, Shen Congbai could feel Jiang Yan’s heart beating at a rapid frequency. He puffed out his cheeks and snapped, “You… you broke my chain!”

If Shen Que found out, he would be in trouble again.

“Ugh…” Jiang Yan let out a muffled groan. He lifted his gaze from the boy’s ankle, his eyes as dark as ink and seemingly bottomless.

Shen Congbai felt a chill down his spine from that single look. Jiang Yan was truly Shen Que’s biological brother; the way his eyes looked when filled with desire was strikingly similar.

In a daze, Shen Congbai remembered the time he was pinned by the shoulders and lectured by Shen Que. His foot, still resting on Jiang Yan, couldn’t help but curl inward.

He knew this look all too well. In this situation, he couldn’t admit another man had given it to him, or he would surely be punished severely again.

His voice dropped low. “I bought it myself.”

Jiang Yan gave a non-committal hum, stroking the indentation left on the skin with slow, deliberate motions. “Didn’t the Young Master say before that you hated wearing anklets the most?”

Shen Congbai paused. “Did I say that?”

Jiang Yan gave him a long, heavy look before suddenly letting out a laugh. “True. The Young Master is so high and mighty; how could you possibly remember the affairs of someone like me?”

He had once given Shen Congbai an anklet as well, studded with small diamonds. It was made of rose gold, a color far more vibrant than platinum. When he saw it draped loosely on a model’s foot in a picture, he had already begun fantasizing about how it would look on Shen Congbai.

A flash of obsession crossed Jiang Yan’s eyes. If it were the one I chose, it would surely look a hundred times better than this one.

With the Young Master’s delicate, snowy skin set against a vibrant gold chain, he would look like a bird locked in a cage so fragile he could only spread his legs and wait for his keeper to feed him.

Shen Congbai frowned. “My memory wasn’t great back then. I wasn’t intentionally targeting you; I was like that with everyone.”

“With everyone?” Jiang Yan slowly reached for the button on the boy’s waistband, gently undoing the first one. “So, after the Young Master threw me away, you took in others as well?”

Was it that Feng Yu? That man looked crude and stupid; how could he be even half as attentive as Jiang Yan? How was he worthy of Shen Congbai’s attention?

Shen Congbai felt goosebumps rising from the sheer awkwardness of his words. “Don’t talk like that.”

He suddenly fell silent, a trace of unease crossing his face. Those words… seemed to be things he himself had said in the past.

Shen Congbai was only seventeen when he first met Jiang Yan, the age where “Middle School Syndrome” is at its peak. Because he found Jiang Yan an eyesore, he had imitated a TV drama and “taken him in” as a lackey to serve him.

Calling him a “lackey” was a nice way of putting it; in reality, Jiang Yan was a servant who waited on him at school. He served tea and water every day, and even washed Shen Congbai’s underwear and feet in the dorm. When Shen Congbai was in a bad mood, making Jiang Yan eat leftovers was a common occurrence.

It wasn’t until later, nearing graduation, that Shen Que discovered these misdeeds and gave him a scolding, finally forcing him to let Jiang Yan go.

Back then, Shen Congbai valued his pride above all else. To prevent others from knowing he was releasing Jiang Yan due to Shen Que’s pressure, he had intentionally poured wine over Jiang Yan’s head at the graduation party. He humiliated him severely in front of everyone and locked Jiang Yan in a dark room for an entire night, just to silence the prying eyes of the onlookers.

He added uncomfortably, “Don’t talk like that in the future. What do you mean by ‘throwing away’? You’re a person, not an object. You shouldn’t describe yourself with that word.”

Shen Congbai puffed out his cheeks, looking somewhat angry on Jiang Yan’s behalf.

Jiang Yan stiffened abruptly. He spoke slowly: “But I have never once been treated as a person.”

He hung his head, his somewhat long hair falling to the side of his neck, firmly masking his expression. “Young Master, that woman died of illness when I was three. Two years later, that so-called father died of excessive drinking. No one ever treated me as a human being. I was a burden; even if I were thrown into a trash can, no one would want me.”

Shen Congbai’s fingertips trembled, his eyes turning red. “You… don’t be like this.”

Jiang Yan looked up and smiled at him, turning the tables to comfort him instead. “It’s okay. It’s all in the past.”

Most of the people who had wronged him had already been taught a lesson. Those who belittled or beat him had all received their comeuppance from him in kind.

Seeing Jiang Yan like this made Shen Congbai lose his voice; his throat felt parched and painful.

Shen Congbai lowered his eyes, gazing silently at Jiang Yan. He suddenly realized that the “madman” he now feared had been pushed to this point, step by step, by his own hand.

Jiang Yan should have been a favored child of heaven like Shen Que or Feng Yu. And he, Shen Congbai, was the one who should have been the mire crushed under others’ feet. Yet, due to a single misguided thought from his mother, Jiang Yan had suffered those years of hardship in his place.

He placed his palm gently against Jiang Yan’s face. The latter was stunned; his dark eyes searched Shen Congbai’s expression intently. Once he confirmed there was no hidden motive, he leaned in and affectionately rubbed his face against the palm.

Shen Congbai closed his eyes and asked the question he had wanted to ask for a long time: “That night… when you were locked in there, what were you thinking?”

Were you thinking of how to cut me into a thousand pieces, or were you calling out for help in despair? In that long, dark night, were you resenting why you had to endure so much inequality?

Jiang Yan thought for a long time, but he couldn’t dredge up his exact mood from that night. He only remembered a voice deep in his heart, constantly inciting him: Catch him. Lock him up. Make it so he can never leave you again, so he can never think of throwing you away again.

Jiang Yan looked at him with an earnest gaze. “I was wondering… what exactly I did wrong.”

Why would he not want me? That entire night, he had replayed every detail of their interactions, from the moment they met until the “breakup.” He wondered if his tone was too harsh when coaxing Shen Congbai in the morning, or if there was a wrinkle in a shirt he hadn’t ironed properly. He even wondered if he had told one minute less of a bedtime story, preventing Shen Congbai from sleeping peacefully.

Finally, as he watched the sun rising outside the window, he realized the most important thing ah, he had been thrown away.

Shen Congbai’s hand slowly traced the corner of his eye, his heart aching. “You didn’t do anything wrong. It was all my fault.”

“It was so dark in there. Was it very scary?”

Jiang Yan shook his head. “I don’t remember.” Back then, his mind was filled only with Shen Congbai; how could he find the effort to remember such trivialities?

Shen Congbai simply assumed he was too heartbroken to speak of it, and his guilt deepened. He whispered, “I’m sorry.”

He had been too arrogant and pampered back then, never considering how much damage his actions would cause Jiang Yan. Even after learning he had stolen decades of Jiang Yan’s life as a young master, he had shamelessly tried to continue hogging Shen Que, forbidding Shen Que from having even a shred of interaction with him.

The corner of Jiang Yan’s mouth, hidden in the shadows, curled up slightly. His eyes actually reddened a bit. “So… why did the Young Master discard me back then?”

Seeing his reddened eyes made Shen Congbai’s heart tighten. “At that time, Brother discovered the bad things I was doing to you. He told me not to bully you, so I…”

“Pretending to be good,” Jiang Yan spat out the words with a face full of cold indifference.

Shen Congbai was stunned, not reacting immediately. “What?”

Jiang Yan looked up at him. “Didn’t the Young Master know? It was Big Brother who arranged for me to get close to you. He was the first to discover our true identities.”