Had he been abused?

As Feng Ze watched Tao Zhiyan, his heart, which had nearly leaped out of his chest, gradually settled...

Feng Ze still remembered that night.

On a rainy night, a teacher at the Orphanage had roared at him and thrown him into an abandoned sewer, hurling insults and abuse at him in a near frenzy.

His tiny body had landed in filthy water and mud, and the searing pain left him unable to stand.

Yet Feng Ze had even forgotten how to cry.

He had landed right in front of a dead cat. Its body was rotting, with flies swarming everywhere.

Countless rats crawled out of the cat's rotting flesh.

Feng Ze curled into a ball, helplessly hugging himself.

The stench kept washing over him, so foul it made him want to vomit.

He had no idea how many days passed in that dark place underground.

Rats and flies began gathering around Feng Ze.

Just when Feng Ze thought he was going to die, a ball dropped down.

Then a fair-faced little boy in overalls poked his head over the edge. "My ball!-Huh?"

Their eyes met.

Feng Ze sat in the sewer, looking up like a rat in a gutter.

The other boy shone brighter than the sun.

Click-

The door opened, and Tao Zhiyan turned around.

A travel-worn man carrying a medical bag appeared in the doorway.

The man looked up, saw Tao Zhiyan sitting beside the bed and Feng Ze already fast asleep, and took a few seconds to process it.

"You must be Doctor Shen?" Tao Zhiyan stood and walked over. "The eldest young master is asleep. Shall we talk outside?"

"Or do you need to examine him first?"

Doctor Shen pushed up the glasses on his nose. "As long as he's not dead. Let's talk outside."

Tao Zhiyan suddenly found Doctor Shen's mental state rather refreshing.

His whole philosophy was that a living patient was good enough.

Tao Zhiyan closed the door and followed Doctor Shen downstairs.

"Gave you a fright today, didn't he?" Doctor Shen asked.

Tao Zhiyan nodded slightly. "Mostly because it was so sudden."

"Feng Ze's condition only flares up when something triggers him," Doctor Shen explained. "He grew up in the Orphanage. One of the caregivers there was mentally ill and often abused the children."

"When Feng Ze was little, that caregiver threw him into a sewer and left him there for over ten days. He survived by eating dead bugs and things like that. It damaged his mental health."

Hearing Doctor Shen's explanation, Tao Zhiyan vaguely remembered that he seemed to have written this novel.

This was a plotline from his first book. Back then, to establish the villain's obsessive, unhinged nature and his possessiveness toward the bottom protagonist as an adult, he had given the villain an especially miserable childhood.

He had been bullied and ostracized, and only after meeting the bottom protagonist had a little light entered his miserable childhood.

But Tao Zhiyan had never finished this book. He had abandoned it.

At that thought, Tao Zhiyan felt a little guilty again. He had never imagined that a plotline he had added on a whim would leave such a deep scar on his baby in the book.

His poor baby probably even dreamed about those dead rats and flies, didn't he?

"You're pretty impressive, though," Doctor Shen said, glancing at Tao Zhiyan. "Even I can't control Feng Ze during an episode, but you actually managed to soothe him to sleep."

Tao Zhiyan replied modestly, "Not really. I knocked him out."

Doctor Shen: "..."

"Nice."

The Feng Family really didn't keep useless people around. Even their butler beat up the boss.

Tao Zhiyan smiled politely.

He'd had no choice. Feng Ze's condition had kept fluctuating, and toward the end, he had even tried to hurt himself. Without knocking him out, there was no controlling him.

Doctor Shen rummaged through his medical bag, took out a box of medicine, and handed it to Tao Zhiyan. "Give this to Feng Ze when he wakes up. He knows how to take it."

Tao Zhiyan nodded and accepted the medicine.

Doctor Shen pushed up his glasses, checked the time, and yawned. "All right, if there's nothing else, I'll be off."

"Of course," Tao Zhiyan said with a smile. "Take care."

Doctor Shen waved and ambled away.

When Tao Zhiyan opened Feng Ze's door again, Feng Ze was already awake.

The man sat on the edge of the bed with his head lowered, holding his phone to his ear.

Whatever the person on the other end had said, Feng Ze was starting to look unwell again.

His handsome face began to twist, and his fingertips whitened around the phone, as though he might erupt again at any moment.

Alarm bells instantly went off in Tao Zhiyan's head.

Seriously? I just calmed him down. Who's being such an asshole and setting him off again?

Without stopping to think, Tao Zhiyan rushed over and snatched Feng Ze's phone, only to hear a young man taunting him on the other end. "Feng Ze, do you really think Dad valued you?"

"Dad had aplastic anemia! He only brought you home so you could be his blood bag!"

"Your mom abandoned you, and Dad hated you too. Nobody wants to stay by your side!"

Tao Zhiyan frowned and checked the caller's name-Feng Cheng.

Feng Cheng fell silent, and a faint female voice came through.

His stepmother was probably beside him, coaching him through this garbage to get under Feng Ze's skin.

Feng Cheng said, "That Smart Brain you made? Dad gave me its core technology before he died. Without me, that project you sank over a billion into can't even get off the ground."

"If you don't want tomorrow's launch to fail, you'd better apologize to us while you still can!"

Feng Cheng's voice took on a gleeful note. "Get on your knees and beg. Maybe I'll let you off."

By this point, Tao Zhiyan was taking it a little personally.

Wasn't Feng Ze's Father playing favorites a little too much? Feng Ze had built the Smart Brain from the ground up, pouring everything he had into it, from setting up the project to running it later.

And in the end, Feng Ze's Father had actually handed the core project to Feng Cheng?

Fuck!

Who wouldn't lose their mind after being screwed over like that?

My poor baby.

"Is that so?" Tao Zhiyan said coldly. "Why don't we see tomorrow? If you even make it into the launch, I'll admit defeat."

Feng Cheng paused, seemingly unable to process it. "...You're not Feng Ze?"

"I'm Tao Zhiyan," Tao Zhiyan introduced himself patiently, then added, "And you'd better talk some sense into that shameless woman beside you. An outsider has no right to meddle in the Feng Family's affairs."

With that, he abruptly hung up.

He also blocked the number while he was at it.

He did it all in one smooth sequence, giving the other side no chance to hit back.

Tao Zhiyan handed the phone back to Feng Ze. "Eldest young master, your condition has only just stabilized. You should get some rest."

Feng Ze kept his head lowered and said nothing.

Tao Zhiyan simply forced him back under the covers.

As he tucked the blanket around Feng Ze, his hands paused. His lashes fluttered a few times before he lifted his eyes.

Their eyes met.

Something shifted in Feng Ze's gaze.

Tao Zhiyan had beautiful eyes, with softly curved lids and upturned outer corners. His eyes gleamed in the night. "What other people say doesn't matter."

"What matters is you." Tao Zhiyan was utterly serious. He raised one finger, his little mouth rattling away. "Instead of eating yourself alive until you lose your mind, go wild and bulldoze everyone else!"

"I thought you were at your most impressive this afternoon, when you cleaned house without giving a damn!"

Looking at Tao Zhiyan's earnest little face, Feng Ze felt the tightness in his chest ease a little.

He felt that Tao Zhiyan seemed somewhat different.

The old Butler Tao had worn every thought on his face. His deliberate attempts to curry favor, his rather clumsy scheming, and his terrible acting had been laughable.

But what he had done today clearly fell into none of those categories.

Tao Zhiyan tucked the blanket securely around Feng Ze and stood. "It's late. Get some rest, and call me if you need anything."

I'm just being polite. Little problems don't need my help, and big ones are beyond me, so please don't actually call me if something happens.

Feng Ze couldn't quite work out Tao Zhiyan's intentions. After a long pause, he murmured, "Mm."

Tao Zhiyan walked to the doorway and opened the door. "Good night, then?"

Feng Ze's gaze followed Tao Zhiyan. With the light behind him, his figure looked somewhat blurred and indistinct.

Feng Ze focused his gaze until he could make out Tao Zhiyan clearly, then replied, "Good night."