"Your adoptive father sold you to me," he said. "Sign the contract."
The young man pinched the edge of the paper, his lowered lashes trembling slightly, as though he was not particularly surprised by what his adoptive father had done.
Pei Guangji had read the information his assistant compiled. From Xin Hexue's upbringing, it was easy to tell that he was the sort of person who put up with whatever came his way. He was even extraordinarily tolerant of his scumbag adoptive father.
Perhaps he was indecisive and unable to sever his relationship with his adoptive father, or perhaps, after enduring violence throughout his childhood, he had lost the instinct to resist.
Whatever the reason, Pei Guangji did not particularly care.
He had only one goal: to have Xin Hexue deal with his troublesome rut. Everything else was none of his concern, as long as it could not get in the way of that goal.
Born at the top of the pyramid in the Federation Core District, this heir to the Pei Corporation lacked an ordinary person's capacity for empathy and was arrogant, conceited, and cold-hearted.
Just as Pei Guangji expected him to sign obediently—
"Mr. Pei."
His voice was clear and gentle, though his illness left it soft and husky.
Pei Guangji saw Xin Hexue give him a faint smile and heard him say, "Human trafficking is illegal."
How naive.
Pei Guangji thought.
"Your adoptive father owes Black Snake a million star coins," Pei Guangji said. "Xin Bao has no assets in his name to repay the debt. A son pays his father's debts, so he handed you over to Black Snake as repayment, at a discount."
To an underground organization like Black Snake, Federation law was just words on paper. Its leader could even demonstrate how to shred Federation law in a small paper shredder outside the district government offices without suffering any adverse consequences.
Pei Guangji said, "I repaid Xin Bao's debt. Now you're mine."
He paused, as though unsure what noun to add at the end to define Xin Hexue's position.
"Sorry, I can't sign."
Xin Hexue spoke softly and slowly.
Pei Guangji frowned, his patience exhausted. "You have no right to refuse. Otherwise, I'll hand Xin Bao over to Black Snake to deal with."
That would be wonderful.
Of course, Xin Hexue would not say what he was thinking.
He raised his hand, revealing the large purple bruise on the back of his right hand to Pei Guangji.
His voice soft and low, Xin Hexue explained why he could not sign. "My hand hurts."
Both his hands were long and beautiful, like fine, carefully nurtured white jade. Beneath his thin skin, even the pale blue veins gave off a fragile impression, as though they could not withstand being bent.
The bruising, caused by the improper removal of an indwelling needle, looked particularly severe.
[Pei Guangji's affection value +2]
?
Xin Hexue was baffled. He met Pei Guangji's gaze.
Chapter 4: Face Blindness (4)
His ink-dark eyes were unreadable.
The curtains in the private hospital room were drawn tight, and the light was too dim for Xin Hexue to see clearly enough to judge the emotion in Pei Guangji's eyes.
Xin Hexue vaguely felt that the look he had just glimpsed in Pei Guangji's eyes was oddly familiar, as though someone had looked at him that way before.
But before he could recall it, the look in the other man's eyes vanished.
The special assistant knocked on the hospital room door and came in after receiving permission.
He carried a portable insulated food container. "Young Master, what you ordered..."
The special assistant had not finished saying "nutritious meals" before Pei Guangji cut him off. "Put it down."
The special assistant did as he was told, setting the container on the table beside the bed. Then he dutifully asked the patient, "It's a little dark in here, Mr. Xin. Would you like me to open the curtains?"
Xin Hexue was still somewhat surprised.
He's asking me?
Given the protagonist gong's temperament, Xin Hexue had assumed the people around him would take orders only from Pei Guangji and treat him with utmost deference.
It struck Xin Hexue as strange that the special assistant had gone past Pei Guangji to ask for his opinion.
He nodded and said softly, "Thank you."
Pei Guangji said nothing. The special assistant breathed a sigh of relief, knowing he had done the right thing.
Following Xin Hexue's wishes, he adjusted the electric curtain controls, and the floor-length sheers slid quietly along their tracks to the far ends of the walls on either side.
The special assistant said respectfully, "Young Master, I'll take my leave now."
Pei Guangji spoke. "Tell the person in charge of the West City Pharmaceutical Factory to bring me the investigation results tomorrow. If they can't, replace them."
"Yes," the special assistant said. "Young Master, is there anything else?"
Pei Guangji's gaze fell on Xin Hexue. The bruise on the back of his hand was an eyesore. "Send another doctor over to treat the injury."
The special assistant asked worriedly, "Young Master, your injury...?"
Pei Guangji interrupted him. "Not mine."
He did not want to hear the special assistant ask any more unnecessary questions, so he ordered bluntly, "Go."
After leaving the room and closing the door behind him, the special assistant took several deep breaths, feeling his heart thunder in his chest.
It was not because of his superior's intimidating presence. He had worked for Pei Guangji for several years and was very familiar with the job.
It was because the young man he had just met was somewhat...
The special assistant had always thought it would be strange to describe a Beta as "too beautiful," especially when the person in question was a young man.
Now he found that nothing could be more fitting.
He had been the one responsible for compiling this man's information and delivering it to the young master.
In person, he was far more stunning than in the flat photographs.
The special assistant had drafted the contract and found a chef at a private restaurant in West City to prepare nutritious meals especially for the patient, all on Pei Guangji's orders.
Now he also had to send a doctor over for the patient. No matter how one looked at it, the young master's behavior showed that he was paying extraordinary attention to this young man named Xin Hexue.
But...
The special assistant recalled the contents of the contract he had drafted on Pei Guangji's orders and found himself unable to make sense of it again.
The doctor hurried over and looked awkwardly at the injury on the back of Xin Hexue's hand, which would have healed on its own in a few days.
But because of Pei Guangji's attitude, the doctor had no choice but to nervously apply medicated oil to reduce the bruising and swelling, then wrap the hand in so much gauze that it looked like a zongzi.
Xin Hexue: "..."
What's this supposed to mean? Is Pei Guangji planning to make me sign with my left hand?
Pei Guangji stood up. The Alpha was tall and upright, and as he looked down at the patient in bed, he gave off an unmistakable, invisible pressure.
His features were sharply defined, and when his face was set, his expression was cold and stern.
"You can take your time reading the contract."
"One year of fulfilling your obligations in exchange for Xin Bao's life. I think that's a good deal."
Before leaving, Pei Guangji added one last sentence. "I'll give you half a day to think it over."
Once he was gone, the spacious hospital room suddenly felt empty.
Only then did Xin Hexue quickly skim the contract.
It was not much different from the lover's contract in the plot.
It was a contract requiring Party B to be unconditionally and completely dependent on Party A, both physically and mentally.
Party B had to obey all of Party A's arrangements, be available whenever summoned, and was obligated to soothe Party A through his rut by any effective means.
Finally, after the contract automatically terminated at the end of one year, Party B had to "leave with nothing." Party B was forbidden from developing any unnecessary personal feelings for Party A and using them as a reason to pester him.
Xin Hexue unconsciously rubbed his knuckles against the paper.
The celestial dragon's arrogance displayed in the contract was also within his expectations.
The only discrepancy was probably that the script provided by the system had not mentioned a one-year limit.
In the version provided by the system, "Xin Hexue" was ultimately spurned and driven away by Pei Guangji after being exploited to the fullest by Alphas including Pei Guangji and his childhood friends.
Taking the later course of the plot into account...
K noticed a sly smile flit across Xin Hexue's lips, but he could not guess what his host was plotting.
A cat's thoughts were always hard to guess.
K was not discouraged by this.
Xin Hexue set the contract aside and opened the insulated food container the special assistant had brought. Presumably because he did not know what Xin Hexue liked to eat, he had even arranged for two kinds of soup: chicken soup with morels and abalone, and pigeon soup with astragalus. When Xin Hexue lifted the lids, the broth rippled, releasing a rich, mellow aroma.
Xin Hexue suddenly remembered something and asked the system, [Did that person just mention Pei Guangji's injury?]
K: [When the protagonist gong went to inspect the West City Pharmaceutical Factory today, a fire happened to break out there. Part of a burned-through beam fell and scalded him.]
That explained why Pei Guangji had been at the West City Second Hospital. He surely had not come specifically to see him; he had merely sought treatment nearby.
Xin Hexue concluded.
Still, there had been no sign in Pei Guangji's condition just now that he had been caught in a fire.
K answered his question. [Pei Guangji's genes are different from ordinary people's.]
The Pei Corporation controlled the Shennong Pharmaceutical Company. The gene-modification drugs sold on the market in large quantities were certainly not the highest-quality or most effective batches. Presumably, the truly more effective products, obtained directly from laboratories, had already been used internally by the Pei family and the other financial powers in the Core District.
In the human body, highly enhanced genes offered the advantage of allowing wounds to heal extremely quickly.
Holding a spoon in his left hand, Xin Hexue carefully fished a piece of chicken stewed until it was tender and falling off the bone out of the soup, thinking with interest that, compared with the Alphas of the Core District, he was only an "inferior pure-blooded human." His citizen ID even said [D-class-Beta], and his physique could not withstand the intense side effects of gene-modification drugs.
With a plop, the chicken fell from the spoon back into the soup.
Golden droplets of oil splashed up, making Xin Hexue knit his brows in distaste.
He looked at his predicament: on one side was his right hand, wrapped like a zongzi; on the other was his somewhat clumsy left hand.