The One Thing He Couldn't Accept

Shu Sizhuo wrapped one arm around Tong Zhao's waist and pressed his other hand against the back of his head, prying his teeth apart and kissing him deeply.

"Mmph!"

The person in his arms suddenly stiffened, and Shu Sizhuo instantly tasted blood.

The next second, Tong Zhao shoved him away.

Tong Zhao nearly fell as he stumbled backward. He clutched his waistband in terror, and the cut on his lower lip split open and bled.

"It hurts!"

Shu Sizhuo immediately pulled out a tissue, walked over, and wiped the blood from his lips. Then he carried him back to the bed. "Let me see."

"You want to look?!" Tong Zhao pushed against his shoulders with both hands, resisting in alarm. "Don't look. Actually, it doesn't hurt that much... just a little. Another two days of rest—oh, no, three—and it'll be fine."

But Shu Sizhuo insisted on examining him, while Tong Zhao clutched his waistband, determined to defend his dignity to the death.

After they struggled back and forth for a while, Shu Sizhuo's voice dropped. "Tong Zhao."

"You can't touch me right now. It really hurts! And I don't want any medicine! Don't you have work? You should go to work!" Tong Zhao kicked his legs and retreated to the head of the bed. "You've locked me up. I can't run anywhere. You don't need to stay here guarding me, watching me!"

"I'm just going to take a look."

Shu Sizhuo was firm. He remembered there hadn't been any tear yesterday, and he'd only rubbed him lightly just now. How had that brought him to tears?

"There's no need to look!" Tong Zhao struggled wildly, but Shu Sizhuo pinned his shoulder and forcibly pried his hands apart.

At the same time, a stinging pain flared across Shu Sizhuo's face.

Tong Zhao had scratched his face with a flailing cat paw.

The air fell silent.

Tong Zhao froze, staring at the blood seeping from the scratches on Shu Sizhuo's face.

Shu Sizhuo took the chance to look. Fortunately, there was nothing seriously wrong.

Then he prepared to apply medicine to Tong Zhao, warning him first, "If you keep squirming, I'll tie up your hands and your other two feet."

Tong Zhao had actually become much more obedient after scratching Shu Sizhuo.

Though he was so embarrassed he wanted to kick Shu Sizhuo away, he caught sight of the three scratches on the left side of the man's face, where the skin had been broken, and gritted his teeth and held back.

Fortunately, Shu Sizhuo didn't do anything else. He just finished applying the medicine, then held Tong Zhao down and kissed him for a while, lingering over it.

When he was done, Shu Sizhuo wiped the saliva from the corner of Tong Zhao's mouth and applied mint-flavored lip balm to the split in his lower lip. "This helps the wound heal."

Shu Sizhuo gave him a couple of lingering looks, then got up, straightened his clothes a little, and arranged for people to come in and clear the table.

Tong Zhao watched the people file in, only four words in his mind: Helping a tyrant commit evil.

After Shu Sizhuo left, Tong Zhao lay on the enormous, soft bed, staring at the ceiling in a daze for a while. Then he finally stirred and sat up.

Tong Zhao had been utterly confused ever since he woke up in this room, but he had no time to sort things out now. Escaping was the most important thing.

"'You only regret not having read enough when you need to put your knowledge to use,' system!"

The familiar, eerie silence gave Tong Zhao a bad feeling. He called out tentatively, "'You only regret not having read enough when you need to put your knowledge to use,' system?"

On the verge of a breakdown, Tong Zhao shouted again, "'You only regret not having read enough when you need to put your knowledge to use,' system 1!!!"

It had been... if he counted by his own world's time, only two or three years, and this goddamn system had bugged out yet again!

Tong Zhao wanted to cry but had no tears. How fucking long will it take to fix this time?!

As far as he knew, the General Institute had been established for fifty years. Leaving aside the minor system bugs, there had been no more than three major bugs like this, where it went completely silent. If this was the fourth, he really should go buy a Mark Six lottery ticket with that kind of luck!

Tong Zhao was genuinely feeling a little desperate.

He fell back onto the bed and stared at the ornate ceiling, his mind blank as he drifted into a daze for a while longer. Then he closed his eyes. When he opened them again, he was a little calmer and began sorting through what had happened with Shu Sizhuo.

It had started when Shu Sizhuo returned from the deck banquet and knocked him out on the beach with some kind of knockout drug.

Then he had imprisoned him.

Why had he imprisoned him?

It was because Shu Sizhuo had recognized him and hated him for deceiving his feelings eight years ago. So Shu Sizhuo had built this prison-like place and seized the opportunity to lock him up here for revenge.

Then Tong Zhao thought, No, something's not right. How could Shu Sizhuo have been so certain from the beginning that I was Tang Xu and Xia Zhen?

"So what if it's been eight years? Even if you turned to ashes, I'd recognize you."

Really? How could someone's appearance stay unchanged for sixteen years? Didn't Shu Sizhuo have the slightest doubt that he'd mistaken me for someone else? Even Mama Feng knew that if Xia Zhen were still alive, he couldn't possibly be this young.

Tong Zhao frowned.

"It's fun. Wasn't it fun for you too, barging into my world and playing with me over and over again?"

Barging into my world over and over again...

The hairs on Tong Zhao's body stood on end, and he abruptly sat up.

What did that mean?

Barging into my life, or barging into my world?

But if Shu Sizhuo had investigated thoroughly, he would have found that Tang Xu, Xia Zhen, and Tong Zhao had something in common: all three had come from orphanages—different orphanages.

Could Shu Sizhuo really have investigated and learned something?

Those who worked at the General Institute also had rules and regulations they had to obey. One of them was that they absolutely could not tell the people of a small world about any of this. They could not say where they came from or what they had come to do.

Doing so would cause panic in the small world and disrupt its order.

Tong Zhao got up and, feeling somewhat anxious, poured himself a glass of water. All he could taste was the mint from the lip balm. He frowned and put the glass down.

Tong Zhao paced restlessly around the room, but after only a few steps, the cool sensation and discomfort in that place behind him stopped him in his tracks. He braced a hand on the back of a chair, unwilling to move around.

Fine, never mind how Shu Sizhuo recognized me for now.

In any case, Shu Sizhuo recognized me, took revenge, locked me in a little black room, and XXOOed me.

Little beast!

Tong Zhao slapped the back of the chair hard.

But before he appeared, during those eight years, Shu Sizhuo had locked quite a few young men who resembled him in the Wind House to vent his anger.

"That's right. I locked them all up."

"I locked them up and tortured them, beat them, and refused to feed them. Several of them went mad."

Shu Sizhuo locked them in the Wind House, then abused them, beat them, and then... XXOOed them?

Tong Zhao felt a tightness in his chest and kicked the chair over.

As if onion fumes had rushed into his nose, Tong Zhao's eyes suddenly reddened.

He had to admit that Shu Sizhuo treating others this way was what bothered him most, the one thing he could least accept.