So, I decided to keep you

His low, hoarse voice was dark, like glass scraping over stone, sending chills down the spine.

"The weather was just like it was when I crawled out of the old house. It was raining." Fu Hanchuan looked at him, as though looking through him at memories of the past.

He said quietly, "Over a decade ago, I wanted to live, so I dragged my broken leg and crawled out of the old house inch by inch. Over a decade later, I wanted to die, and you dragged me out of the car."

"You held my hand and told me to stay alert. I watched you try to flag down a car for me on the road, but there were no cars then. I watched you trembling uncontrollably in panic."

"To be honest, I wasn't grateful to you then." Fu Hanchuan lowered his head, hiding his cold scrutiny beneath his lashes, gentle and soft. "I was even wondering who had sent you."

Wen Yanyu's breath caught. An instant later, an icy palm stroked his cheek, and lightly callused fingers slipped into his slender hand, interlocking with his. Wen Yanyu looked up, at a loss.

"I was lying with my head on your lap. I heard you crying."

"I heard you talking to yourself, asking why over and over. Why did they have to do this to him? Why did they have to be so cruel? Why did they have to toy with us like this?"

Those memories seemed as vivid as ever.

"It was the first time anyone had cried for me, the first time anyone had begged so humbly for me to live." Fu Hanchuan chuckled softly, but his eyes reddened. "So, I decided to keep you."

"No matter who you were, I was going to bind you to my side. You saved my life. You dragged me back into hell. You had to take responsibility for me."

"I wondered what I should use to bind you." Fu Hanchuan reached out and gently stroked his face, teasing as he spoke. "Money? Power? Status? Fame?"

"I didn't know, so I tried them one by one. I protected your career in the entertainment industry. I put countless resources into your hands."

"You thanked me, and you refused those things, but there were always some things you couldn't refuse. I took the opportunity to get close to you. You didn't reject my approach, and you had no reason to reject it."

"I investigated everyone around you. You had no parents, no family, and I was your only friend. I thought I was the only person you could rely on, so I could give you anything."

Fu Hanchuan gazed at him, his eyes dark. "But there was disgust and resistance in your eyes."

Wen Yanyu went rigid, not daring to move at all. Even his breathing stopped.

Fu Hanchuan raised a hand and tucked the stray hair beside the young man's face behind his ear. Beneath his gentle voice lay an obstinate darkness. "So I changed my strategy. I gave you genuine affection, tenderness, and care. I'm a businessman. I've dealt with countless people, and I'm particularly sensitive to emotions. The way you looked at me was very complicated."

"There was fondness, there was helplessness, and there was disgust that surfaced now and then without you even noticing it yourself, a disgust that came from who knew where. There was even pity."

"But it didn't matter, as long as you stayed by my side." The man's tone was airy, yet it involuntarily raised goosebumps.

"I was happy during our time together. I still had nightmares. I dreamed of my mother and my little brother, of them demanding to know why I was alive, why I wasn't dead yet. I still dreamed of that summer night, of dragging my broken leg as I crawled out of the old house inch by inch."

"I also dreamed of the night my father died. I stood outside the door, watching Fu Wenyuan kiss him, watching my father desperately try to explain himself, only to be killed by Fu Wenyuan's own hands in the end."

"But those nightmares gradually grew less frequent." The man's voice softened. "At first, I offered genuine affection to test you, but later, I truly wanted to be your friend for the rest of my life."

The young man beneath him looked at him blankly, his hair disheveled, his gray-black eyes misty with tears, fragile and beautiful, stirring and igniting the sadism and possessiveness buried deepest in a person's heart.

Fu Hanchuan wore a faint, ambiguous smile, his voice steeped in danger. "You're too naive. Do you know how many people covet you just because of this face?"

"Do you know how many fools who didn't know their place I dealt with?"

Fu Hanchuan took the hand lying at his side. Those pale, thin fingers had only just gained a little flesh from being well fed, and they felt soft and comfortable in his grasp.

Fu Hanchuan said calmly, "As long as you're willing to stay obediently by my side, I'll always shelter you under my wing. No one will dare covet you. No one will be able to hurt you."

"From the moment my father imprisoned my mother, from the moment Fu Wenyuan began hunting me down, I knew money and power were the most important things. I took all the power into my own hands. No one could ever hurt the people important to me again."

"I thought we could always be like that. After I finished work, I could go out with you, travel with you, go to gatherings with you, stay up late playing games with you, eat with you, laugh with you."

"Before I met you, I had no particular place to live. After I met you, I invited you to furnish a place with me. I called it home."

Fu Hanchuan reminisced casually, exuding a yearning even he had never noticed. His eyes stared straight at the person beneath him, filled with a yearning he no longer concealed.

"I could hold you sometimes. I could touch you, hug my own friend like a normal person, watch you fall asleep beside me, soft and warm, and listen to another person's heartbeat. I loved that feeling so much."

"I liked you more and more. I wanted to part with you less and less. Even during work every day, I would think of you. I thought we weren't just friends, that we could be family too. I wanted to be with you forever. I thought being saved by you wasn't so bad, that staying alive wasn't a bad ending either. I thought we could always be like that."

The tender recollections came to an abrupt halt.

There was a deathly silence.

"But you betrayed me," Fu Hanchuan murmured. His voice was naturally low and resonant, making those words sound just like an intimate whisper between lovers.

Only the hatred rising in his eyes showed otherwise.

Wen Yanyu stared at him in a daze, utterly bewildered.

Fu Hanchuan lowered his eyes, his voice wrapped in coldness. "You told the media you loved me, that you liked me, that you wanted to be with me. You're a celebrity, and I count as one too. A tidal wave of public opinion came crashing down."

"But honestly, I didn't care about public opinion. It stopped affecting me long ago, and I never cared about it anyway. I only wanted to know why you fell in love with me, why you had to say it aloud. I told you I hated same-sex love."

"Because of my uncle, and because of my father too, I couldn't feel any goodwill toward them. I hated them, hated those two sanctimonious beasts, hated them for hurting my mother, hated them for not having the courage to bear the consequences and hurting my mother instead, driving my mother to her death. My reason tried to stop it, but that bone-deep hatred couldn't be changed."

"After I gave you my heart, you betrayed me."

The smile faded from Fu Hanchuan's lips, sorrow clouding his gaze. His eyes were filled with darkness.

"I got myself blind drunk. I called to demand answers. I wanted to hear your explanation. As long as you said it was a misunderstanding, I could pretend nothing had happened. We would still be friends. I could smooth everything over."

"But then I found out you'd blocked me? I went looking for you, only to find you taking engagements everywhere, with every single venue avoiding me. You declared your love in public, yet you wanted to leave me."

His voice stopped again, replaced by heavy, stifled panting.

"Wen Yanyu."

"What am I to you?"

"Wen Yanyu."

"What did you take me for?"

"What exactly am I in your eyes?"

Question after question turned into furious roars.

"Why did you have to toy with me like this!"

"Why did you have to treat me like this!"

Wen Yanyu trembled. The sudden shouting struck his eardrums with a burst of pain.