The Sickly Beauty is Too Good at Seducing - Chapter 7

When Tu Zhizhi found Shen Congbai, the youth was hiding under a public notice board. His oversized pajamas were soaked through by the rain, clinging tightly to his frame and revealing the sharp line of his protruding spine. He was shivering uncontrollably.

Despite being so cold that his lips had turned white, Shen Congbai managed a faint smile. “Why are you here?”

Tu Zhizhi quickly pulled him into the car, handing him a dry towel as he replied, “Big Brother Shen told me to pick you up and bring you home.”

He cast a glance at Shen Congbai’s clothes clearly the wrong size and hesitated before asking, “Did Feng Yu—?”

Recalling the words Feng Yu had said when he left, Shen Congbai’s mood plummeted visibly. He shook his head. “He didn’t do anything excessive to me.”

Tu Zhizhi couldn’t help but tap the corner of the youth’s lip, his expression complicated.

Because of his poor health, Shen Congbai’s lips were usually a pale pink. But because he had just been in the rain and his skin was washed out, the several small, red bite wounds on his lips were exceptionally prominent, adding a hint of raw desire to his appearance.

Anyone could see that those lips had been ruthlessly worried by someone’s teeth.

A flash of discomfort crossed Shen Congbai’s face. He fiddled with his fingers, feeling inexplicably guilty. “This… you can’t blame him. I was the one who provoked him first.”

Tu Zhizhi’s eyes widened in disbelief. “The two of you are mixed up together again?!”

Shen Congbai’s expression darkened, his heart full of bitterness. “He said we are even now.”

Tu Zhizhi was skeptical. “He really said that?”

Shen Congbai nodded gently. Seeing this, Tu Zhizhi felt more confused than ever. “That doesn’t seem right.”

During the years Shen Congbai was abroad, Feng Yu had been relentlessly putting pressure on the Shen family, demanding that Shen Que hand him over. Even subsidiary companies collaborating with the Shens were targeted without exception. The man had acted like a literal mad dog.

Could it be that I’m overthinking it?

Tu Zhizhi shook his head and said casually, “Well, if he says so, isn’t that better? The things you were worried about when you returned are solved. Next, you can just follow me and have a few days of fun. Let’s enjoy ourselves.”

Before Shen Congbai could reply, he let out a loud sneeze. Terrified, Tu Zhizhi immediately cranked the heater up several degrees. “My dear Young Master, please don’t get sick. If Big Brother Shen comes back tomorrow and sees this, he’ll have my head.”

At the mention of Shen Que, Shen Congbai felt even worse. He gripped the towel with a sense of grievance and whispered, “He won’t care about me.”

He had forced Shen Que to clean up after him yet again; the man likely hated him by now.

Tu Zhizhi didn’t catch the mutter. “What did you say?”

Shen Congbai shoved his friend’s head away and turned to the side to rest with his eyes closed. “Nothing!”

“Young master temper… only Big Brother Shen can put up with you,” Tu Zhizhi grumbled as he dutifully drove him home. After parking, he realized Shen Congbai’s face was flushed with an unhealthy red. He reached out to check; the temperature beneath his hand was so hot it made his heart skip a beat.

Shen Congbai was in a daze. The low-grade fever didn’t make him feel terrible, but he was suddenly enveloped by a profound exhaustion radiating from deep within his body.

His consciousness slipped uncontrollably into darkness. When he opened his eyes again, he saw someone standing in front of him who looked exactly like himself.

The ‘Shen Congbai’ seemed to see him and broke into a smile, opening his arms and running toward him. At the moment they collided, he was sucked into the other’s body by a powerful force.

Shen Congbai heard himself speak: “Feng Yu, you’re finally out of class.”

His vision brightened. A younger, more youthful Feng Yu was standing in the middle of a crowd. A simple white shirt somehow looked rebellious on him. He caught Shen Congbai with a doting expression. “Why are you all sweaty? Didn’t I tell you to find a place to sit and wait for me?”

Shen Congbai puffed out his cheeks. “Today is your birthday! Of course I have to give my boyfriend a sense of ceremony.”

Feng Yu let the youth tug at his shirt, one hand protecting Shen Congbai’s waist, pulling him into an embrace with a highly possessive posture. “Then, can you tell me what surprise my boyfriend has prepared?”

“Hehe.” Shen Congbai watched as he pulled a delicate small box from his sleeve. “Brother helped me pick this out for a long time. Do you like it?”

He was half a head shorter than Feng Yu. Looking down, his dark eyes full of starlight watched the man expectantly. Feng Yu’s heart softened, and he couldn’t resist kissing the youth’s smooth forehead.

He rubbed his cheek against the boy’s soft hair. “I like it.”

Shen Congbai wasn’t satisfied, his phoenix eyes rounding. “But you haven’t even seen what it is yet!”

“As long as it’s from you, I like it.”

The Shen Congbai hidden deep within the consciousness froze. Were Feng Yu and I really this lovey-dovey once?

Feng Yu opened the box to reveal a pair of sapphire cufflinks, as deep as the ocean. Shen Congbai felt they looked familiar, but before he could think further, he was yanked out of the body by a massive force.

He heard his younger self speak: “Brother says that men who work are easily surrounded by ‘birds and flowers.’ You don’t like wearing accessories, so I could only pick cufflinks to ‘mark’ you.”

The ‘younger’ Shen Congbai took Feng Yu’s right hand and placed the cufflink on it to admire. “When you see this later, you’ll think of me. If you dare to forget, I’ll have my brother teach you a lesson.”

The voice gradually faded. Shen Congbai suddenly felt weightless, as if he had stepped into a vortex. After a period of dizziness, the image of a bloodshot-eyed Feng Yu saying he had no heart flashed before him.

Shen Congbai snapped his eyes open. His breathing was rapid, and his heart felt as if it had been struck by a hammer, the pain making his whole-body tremble.

Immediately, he was pulled into a broad, warm embrace. The steady scent of sandalwood filled his nose. It was Shen Que.

He curled up in Shen Que’s arms, his eyelids swollen from the fever. His fingertips lightly gripped Shen Que’s sleeve as he cried softly. He looked like a newborn kitten utterly pitiable.

This appearance pleased Shen Que greatly.

Shen Que picked up the sobbing youth and sat him sideways on his lap, cradling him. He patiently stroked the youth’s back as if soothing a child, gently rocking him back and forth.

Shen Congbai buried his face in the crook of the man’s neck, his scorching breath quickly dampening the skin. He gave a delicate whine and started crying again. “Uncomfortable…”

“Where does it hurt?”

When actually asked, he wouldn’t say. He just kept rubbing his nose against the man’s neck, tears threatening to fall. It was enough to make one’s teeth itch with frustration, yet impossible to let go.

Shen Que assumed the fever was making him miserable. He coaxed him in a low voice: “It will feel better soon.”

As he spoke, he used a wet towel to gently wipe behind Shen Congbai’s ears, his movements so tender it was as if he were handling a fragile treasure.

“Mmph—”

Shen Congbai gave a dazed response. He seemed to have been pulled into another dream; his grip on Shen Que’s sleeve tightened, and a small furrow appeared between his brows. He murmured, “Bad guy…”

Shen Que’s movements paused. He leaned his ear close to Shen Congbai’s lips to hear what he was saying.

The youth’s voice was soft, sounding like he was acting spoiled: “Feng… Yu… bad guy…”