Chapter 28: The Secret Chamber

Chapter 28: The Secret Chamber

"The male lead, female lead, and the villain keep acting in ways that totally contradict their settings."

"So what about my mission? His favorability toward me is super low. How can I win him back? Is there any other way?"

"There is one."

"Then spit it out already."

"The simplest plan was given to you at the start. If it can't be completed, there are other options. As long as you destroy what the villain cares about—whether it's a thing or a person—he'll be crushed and go dark too."

"Destroy..."

Ji Huaiyu went quiet, lost in thought.

-

Given how serious this was, no one dared to act rashly.

The capital was on high alert, with people sent out in the open and in secret to find the Imperial Advisor and the Young Lord, even offering a thousand taels of gold as a reward.

No one would've guessed that Lan He and Pei Yuhuai were at Qishan on the outskirts of the capital—at Jiyuan Temple.

The temple was bustling with visitors, incense smoke curling up nonstop.

Pei Yuhuai was locked in a secret chamber in the temple, clothes a mess, out cold in Lan He's arms.

Lan He used his own leg as a pillow for him, staring down with adoration, stroking his face gently, his eyes full of obsessive infatuation and madness.

"Pei Hang, I'm a monster. Would you still love me?"

"You can only like me."

"If you dare to leave me, I'll still follow you no matter what—never stopping until death, clinging to you, life after life. Would that make you happy?"

Lan He smiled, pulled out a pill, put it in his own mouth, then leaned down to press his lips against Pei Yuhuai's dry ones.

He pushed the pill into his mouth, forcing it down his throat.

"Be good, my darling. Tonight, we're trying something different."

Lan He's lips curled up as he slowly pressed on the back of Pei Yuhuai's head, pulling him closer.

"Ugh..."

Out cold, Pei Yuhuai gagged a few times, instinctively trying to pull back, but a hand pressed hard against the back of his head, leaving him no room to escape.

It felt like something scraped his throat, making it almost impossible to breathe. Pei Yuhuai was suffocating, and within moments, he woke up.

He opened his eyes in a daze, his body reflexively telling him to close his mouth. His teeth bit down, and from above came a suppressed, trembling sigh.

"?"

Pei Yuhuai's eyes widened in slow realization, but everything stayed blurry, like a layer of mist had settled over him, leaving him unable to see or hear clearly, even his sense of smell gone.

His body was numb, leaving only pain.

He could barely make out a man next to him.

And then...

Suddenly realizing what was happening, Pei Yuhuai desperately tried to lean back, but his head wouldn't budge. His eyes reddened with panic, tears streaming down.

Help...

When that ordeal finally passed, Pei Yuhuai thought he could catch his breath, but the bastard wasn't done. He grabbed Pei Yuhuai's hands and twisted them behind his back.

Then pressed down hard.

Pei Yuhuai had no strength to fight back, collapsing onto all fours like a dog. Luckily, a blanket lay beneath him, so his face didn't scrape against the floor, but it still hurt like hell.

The world was spinning.

Pei Yuhuai thrashed with all his limbs, but the man behind him seemed to have insane strength, leaving him no room to fight back.

He was brutally violated.

Minute after minute passed, muffled sounds pounding against his eardrums, over and over, shattering his last shred of hope.

Gradually, Pei Yuhuai stopped resisting, lying still and clutching the blanket, no longer feeling the pain, like a corpse.

When the pain got unbearable, he just bit his lip in silence, trembling all over, biting until blood flowed, filling his mouth with a weird taste.

He wanted to vomit.

The secret chamber had no windows, not even a candle—the one that had been there had long gone out, leaving only endless darkness.

Pei Yuhuai felt he was done for, completely plunged into an abyss of darkness, doomed beyond saving.

He closed his eyes in despair.

Then, someone pried open his mouth. He opened his eyes in terror, shrinking back in fear.

A cloth was shoved into his mouth.

Was this to keep him from biting his own tongue off?

How absurd.

Pei Yuhuai's nose stung with grievance, and he suddenly missed Lan He, that damn monk. His only intimate encounters in this life had been with Lan He, that damn monk.

Up until now.

Except for that time in the carriage, when Lan He had no choice but to use a jade tool to detox him, all the other times it was Pei Yuhuai bullying Lan He.

That monk endured the bullying with gritted teeth, looking like he wanted it but didn't dare to ask, pitiful and endearing, yet stirring something in the heart. (False memory)

Pei Yuhuai had always been a proud, radiant moon, never humiliated like this before.

And by a stranger, of all people.

Maybe it was the murderer who killed Lan He—not satisfied with that, they'd captured him to vent their anger.

The more he thought, the angrier and more wronged he felt.

Lan He might already be dead, and maybe he'd suffered the same torment and humiliation before dying.

At the thought of that terrible possibility, Pei Yuhuai's heart ached. He couldn't even imagine how someone like Lan He could've willingly endured such disgrace.

A very long time passed.

The noise gradually died down, and the person behind him wrapped his arms around him, burying his head in his shoulder and taking a bite.

Pei Yuhuai's entire body tensed up, and he lost control...

Everything fell silent again.

Pei Yuhuai now lay like a fish forced onto the shore—parched, cut off from life, nearly dried up, lying still.

His vacant eyes stared into the pitch-black abyss, his eyelids grew so heavy they slowly shut.

He slipped back into a deep, unconscious sleep.

Lan He circled around to the front, lowered his head to kiss his cheek, and kissed away the still-damp tears, holding them close in his heart.

He was careful, devoted, and utterly obsessed.

Pei Hang would never find out.

Maybe it was the drugs.

Pei Yuhuai slept a full two days before waking up, still in that pitch-black room, so dark it was terrifying, like it could swallow all light.

In the silence, all he heard was his own ragged breathing.

In the darkness.

It felt like a thousand eyes were staring at him.

Pei Yuhuai shrank back as he crawled up, groping his way to the wall, cautiously looking around, then slowly moving his sore body.

Even though he couldn't see a thing.

He curled up in a corner, only then feeling a bit safe, a brief break from his frayed nerves.

Where the hell is this?

Is that damn monk Lan He still alive?

He's so tough—why hasn't he come to save me...

Pei Yuhuai hugged his arms, trying to shrink himself as small as he could, not daring to close his eyes even for a second, his nerves on edge.

His heart kept sinking.

Creak.

A dull creak of a door opening echoed from all around.

Pei Yuhuai's heart jumped into his throat, his palms sweating, his breathing getting shallower without him realizing it. Was he about to die?

Had that person come to kill him?

He could meet up with that damn monk in the underworld—and when he did, he absolutely couldn't let him know about his humiliation.

And his family—they surely had no idea he'd been taken. It was his own fault for being so reckless and always running around; they'd probably grown used to his absence.

By the time they noticed, maybe even his corpse would be gone.

His parents would have to bury their own child.

Pei Yuhuai roughly wiped his stinging eyes, silently knelt down, and bowed three times to the heavens, a final farewell to his parents and loved ones.

"See you in the next life..."