After everyone had left, Shen Lian pulled Chu Yilan down to lie beside him.
"Sleep a little longer?" Shen Lian asked.
Chu Yilan shook his head, his gaze intent.
"You're making me embarrassed, staring at me like that."
"Don't you hate me?" Chu Yilan blinked.
Shen Lian seemed not to have heard him clearly. "What?"
"If I hadn't insisted on having my way, how would Chu Changqi have gotten his hands on you?"
"I'm supposed to hate you?" Shen Lian raised a hand and flicked Chu Yilan lightly on the forehead. "Did you see Chu Changqi while I was unconscious? Did that lunatic say something to you? Chu Yilan, that's absurd."
He already ached for him so much. How could he possibly hate him?
Chu Yilan tightened his arms, drawing Shen Lian closer against his chest. His voice sounded normal as he said, almost on a sigh, "But I hate myself."
He hated himself so much he could barely stand it.
Shen Lian had known it. He had scared this man badly.
Verbal reassurance no longer helped. Shen Lian was afraid this would become yet another deep-seated torment for Chu Yilan.
"Actually, Chu Changqi didn't get the better of me, either," Shen Lian said softly.
That was an understatement.
Sun Binghe had only found time over the past two days to pay Chu Changqi a visit. Apparently, the man was quite the sick freak?
Then Assistant Sun saw the wounds covering Chu Changqi's body and fell silent.
Things had been too urgent at the time for him to notice. Sun Binghe even asked Nie Sheng, "Did you do that?"
"No," Nie Sheng replied. "He was like that when we got there. To keep everything fresh, I even refused when he asked to shower."
Sun Binghe: "..." As expected of Teacher