Trust me

Could someone save him?

That was the only thought left in his mind.

He had almost no memory of where he had gone in his previous life. His mind had been too muddled, and he had even believed all along that it had been Li Hanwen.

When he woke up the next morning, he was already home. His parents told him that Li Hanwen had brought him back.

Li Hanwen told him that he had somehow stumbled into his room. Something that clearly deserved closer scrutiny had, for some reason, never been investigated.

Looking back now, everything about it seemed strange.

Who would have thought that Li Hanwen had never found him either? He himself had no idea where he had gone, or who had...

He did not want this to happen again. He did not want anyone.

He seemed to hear Li Hanwen's vicious voice behind him, just like the last thing he had heard in his previous life. He could barely tell whether this was a hallucination or reality.

Overwhelming terror engulfed him. Tears streamed down his face as he frantically pounded on those tightly shut doors.

In reality, though, his blows had almost no strength behind them.

It was unimaginable. His mental defenses had completely crumbled. He strained to force a sound out of his throat, but he had no idea what he was babbling.

He was falling apart.

Everything before his eyes suddenly went dark, just like the darkness that had enveloped him in his previous life.

Someone pulled him inside with a forceful tug.

The door slammed shut, but he could no longer react to it.

...Who was it?

"It's me, Bo Xi."

The room was pitch-black. He felt himself held tightly in someone's arms. The man's eyes were bright, gazing at him tenderly, as though he were some precious treasure.

For no reason he could explain, it made him feel safe.

The man soothed him softly. "Don't be scared. Don't be scared, Star."

For the first time, he found an embrace so scorching that it sent his heart racing.

It had to...

It had to be the drug.

The man gently picked him up and carried him to the sofa, intending to put him down. But he had no control over his limbs at all and clambered right back onto him like an octopus.

The man froze, then sat down with him in his arms and switched on the small night-light on the table.

Even in the faint glow, the man was still devastatingly handsome. His thick lashes lowered as he bowed his head slightly, his gaze intent as he used a tissue to wipe the face he had cried into a grubby little kitten's.

The dim light did nothing to diminish his good looks. The shadows gave his high nose bridge even sharper definition, and his tightly pressed thin lips looked utterly tempting.

His gaze was as gentle as water. Sitting there on the man's lap, he desperately wanted to push him away, because his brain was almost incapable of thinking.

Having escaped danger, he almost wept with joy, but the taut string within him finally... snapped.

Looking at his dazed, vacant expression, Bo Xi asked worriedly, "What happened? Did you fall? You-mm..."

The person who had been sitting limply on his lap struggled to push himself up, pressed against him, and clumsily kissed his lips.

More accurately, he was biting them without any sense of what he was doing.

Bo Xi's eyes instantly darkened, intense emotion concealed within them.

The frenzied little kitten had an astonishingly strong grip. It took Bo Xi considerable effort to pull him away.

Once pulled away, he looked utterly aggrieved. His mouth turned down, and he was about to cry. Fat tears spilled at once as he mumbled, "Let me kiss you..."

Bo Xi froze for a moment. His Adam's apple bobbed uncontrollably, and veins stood out on his arms as he picked up the person in his embrace and fell onto the bed with him.

"They'd better hope I never find out who did this."

With that, the man fiercely pressed him into the soft bed, kissing and caressing him without restraint.

Only when their clothes were half-off did the man seem to recover a little of his reason and reach out to switch on the bedside lamp.

Under the light, Lin Xingye's gaze was unfocused. His clothes hung half-on, half-off his body, exposing a broad expanse of his chest. Under the drug's influence, his whole body was aroused, and his exposed skin was flushed pink.

His little face was rosy, and he was still reaching out to tug at Bo Xi's clothes.

Bo Xi bit his lip hard, trying to keep a clear head. "Star, calm down."

Lin Xingye blinked and started crying again, reaching for him. "Hold... hold me."

Suddenly noticing the bandage wrapped tightly around his hand, Bo Xi frowned deeply. So that was what had felt strange to the touch in the dark.

Knowing that Lin Xingye was not in his right mind, he did not intend to ask, though he probably could not have gotten any answers now anyway.

The sight of that pitiful little face made Bo Xi's heart ache. He leaned down to take him into his arms.

Who would have expected the little rascal to wrap his arms around his neck and start kissing him? He kissed him everywhere, and not only that, he kept rubbing against him too.

Bo Xi's body instantly tensed. He held him firmly in place, his voice turning hoarse. "...Star, don't move around."

He lowered his eyes to look at him and asked, "Do you know who I am?"

Tormented by that burning heat, Lin Xingye was still crying. Bo Xi could not even tell whether he had heard him.

The man sighed and was about to look for the phone he had tossed somewhere earlier when the person writhing on the bed suddenly reached out and caught the hem of his shirt.

"Bo Xi..."

"Bo Xi... sob... save me..."

He cried so pitifully, his exquisite features scrunched together. The usually alluring corners of his eyes were stained deep red, and tears kept streaming from them without pause.

He was begging him.

The man drew a deep breath, returned to the bed, and gathered the tear-soaked Lin Xingye into his arms. "Do whatever you want."

"I don't want to take advantage of you. I'll... I'll find a way to bear it."

"Trust me, Star."

Lin Xingye could not understand what he was saying. He planted haphazard kisses all over his face, his unruly hands tearing at the custom-made shirt he wore. He even ripped the buttons off.

Bo Xi let him wreak havoc, merely rubbing his hand with an indulgent smile. "Careful of your wound."

Like a shameless little lecher, he grabbed the man's chest muscles, his mouth just as unrestrained. "Big... so big, mm..."

Bo Xi turned his head and closed his eyes as though trying to escape something, his face flushed crimson. "Star, stop talking."

Lin Xingye grinned foolishly and bit his chest, leaving a tooth mark slick with saliva.

Bo Xi did not dare look at him. His heart thundered as though it might leap out of his chest, and his Adam's apple kept bobbing.

He felt as though his own body had been set alight too.

Finally, as if he could no longer stand it, he reached out and pinched Lin Xingye's rosy cheeks, gritting his teeth.

"Don't play with places you shouldn't."

The banquet had long since ended. After waiting ages without seeing Lin Xingye return, Lin Xingmo hurriedly called his parents, only to learn that they had never asked for his older brother that evening.

His parents had originally planned to attend the banquet too, but his mother had eaten something that left her with persistent abdominal pain, so she had stayed in their room to rest. His father had stayed with her.

They therefore knew nothing about what had happened that night.

It was not that Lin Xingmo had never suspected Li Hanwen, but Li Hanwen had been taken away by the police. It could not possibly have been him.

Qin Ke had also left with some family's son before the banquet ended.

Where on earth had he gone?

"So are you saying you suspect something's wrong with your body, or with that... that Ke guy?"

Qi Sijing had dragged An Shi to the hospital to accompany him through a battery of tests. Only after confirming that there was nothing wrong with his body did he tell An Shi about the strange experience earlier.

It challenged An Shi's materialist worldview all over again.

But with Lin Xingye's case already setting a precedent, he took it fairly well now.

From what Lin Xingye had said, they could tell that their "former selves" had obeyed that person almost without question. To their current selves, that was practically madness.

Qi Sijing's account of what had happened today only made them more suspicious.

Although they did not know Li Hanwen well, he had never seemed stupid in everyday life. His behavior today had indeed been strange.

An Shi was already beginning to suspect ghosts were involved.

"Beep, beep, beep..."

Qi Sijing's phone was ringing.

"Hey, Qi Sijing, have you seen my brother?"