TSMITB Chapter41

“What plan? What are you talking about? I don’t understand.” Sheng Qixiao’s tone made it hard to tell whether he was pleased or displeased, but his expression grew increasingly dark, hidden from Shen Que’s sight. “I only know that I told you to be obedient and stay at home before I left, and you didn’t listen.”

It felt as though the blood in Shen Que’s veins had begun to flow in reverse. He stood rooted to the spot, his furious questions sinking into the depths like stones thrown into the sea, meeting no truthful reply at all.

He stood with his back to Sheng Qixiao while gripping the dagger he had snatched from Ah Chao during the chaos. The cold metal pressed against his palm was his only reliance at the moment.

“I don’t know what counts as being obedient. Will you teach me?” Halfway through his harsh words, Shen Que suddenly softened his tone with a look of grievance mixed with heartbreak appearing on his face. He slowly turned around with his eyes red-rimmed, shimmering with tears, reflecting a fragile light in the dimness. He deliberately slowed his speech, “Sheng Qixiao, I just want to go home…”

He quietly concealed the dagger behind his back, its cold glint only faintly catching the light. Unless absolutely necessary, he had no intention of driving things into a mutually destructive end with Sheng Qixiao.

The sudden vulnerability made Sheng Qixiao lower his lashes to examine him with pity. He lowered his head and leaned in, pressing a light kiss to the tip of Shen Que’s nose. “Shen Que, why are you always like this?” A soft sigh slipped out as Sheng Qixiao tilted his head, then sank his teeth into Shen Que’s lower lip with a punitive force, slowly grinding against it. “Always ignoring me, deceiving me with such poor excuses, time and time again.” His voice gradually deepened, carrying a sense of repeated betrayal and helplessness, “Do you think I’ll always believe it?”

Their lips firmly overlapped and pressed together. Sheng Qixiao restrained Shen Que’s shoulders and fully initiated the kiss.

In the struggle, Shen Que felt an inexplicable force coil around his wrists, lifting his hands against his will. The next instant, the dagger he was holding drove straight into Sheng Qixiao’s chest.

All movement came to an abrupt halt.

Sheng Qixiao’s expression froze for a moment, then abruptly shattered with the clear emotion of “hurt” flooding his eyes.

Shen Que pulled the dagger out in disbelief. The silver-white blade was entirely stained red. His swollen lips trembled. He tried to speak, but in the end, the words dissolved in his throat before they could form.

He even suspected that Sheng Qixiao had controlled his actions, but would he be that foolish by manipulating someone else to harm himself? Furthermore, the shock in his expression was so genuine.

The wound was perhaps deep, deep enough to keep bleeding profusely.

Shen Que stumbled back half a step, the hand gripping the dagger trembling uncontrollably. Yet he still forced himself to keep the blade pressed against Sheng Qixiao, taking responsibility for having stabbed him; completely missing the faint, deepening dimple at the corner of Sheng Qixiao’s cheek and the calculating cunning hidden deep in his eyes.

“Let us go! Take back the dark arts you used on them!” Shen Que’s voice was hoarse with panic and fear.

“Shen Que, you really hurt my heart…”

Sheng Qixiao furrowed his brow. In the blink of an eye, his eyes quickly became bloodshot as if he had suffered an immense grievance. Yet, before his words fully finished, he flicked his wrist, and the dagger clattered onto the ground.

The next moment, pain surged from Sheng Qixiao’s chest and seemed to echo in Shen Que’s neck. A crushing sense of suffocation hit him instantly as he was violently slammed against the trunk of a tree.

Sheng Qixiao’s expression hadn’t changed, still maintaining that pitiful look, but his tone was unprecedentedly cold, “Sometimes I can’t tell whether you’re smart or stupid. How many times does the same trick have to fail before you give up?” Sheng Qixiao grabbed both of Shen Que’s wrists with one hand, effortlessly pinning them against the tree trunk above his head, and ruthlessly jammed his knee between Shen Que’s legs, pinning him down completely. “Do you truly think you can escape from my hands?”

All these drastic changes happened in an instant.

“Let go of me!” The back of Shen Que’s head struck the tree trunk with a heavy impact, and his vision went dark for a moment. It took him quite a while to shake off the dizziness and regain clarity. “What the hell are you, and what gives you the right to demand I stay here? This is a society governed by law, if you act like this…”

Shen Que stopped mid-sentence. Were there not enough national-level exploration teams, experts, and scholars that had been obliterated in these vast mountains?

“Hmm? Why did you stop talking?” The icy mockery on Sheng Qixiao’s lips could no longer be contained, fully exposing itself to Shen Que. This expression, coupled with the tear-filled eyes on the same face, created an intense sense of dissociation.

He ripped open his blood-soaked collar, exposing the horrifying wound beneath, the blood staining a wide expanse of his once-pristine chest. He said, “Lick it clean.”

Shen Que froze completely while looking up at Sheng Qixiao in disbelief. Confusion and a profound sense of absurdity locked him down.

Did he just mishear?

“Didn’t you hear me?” Sheng Qixiao impatiently drove his knee upward slightly. It hit an unknown spot and forced a muffled groan from Shen Que.

Shen Que’s initially deathly pale face was now a spectrum of emotions. Humiliation and fury churned and burned in his chest. He gritted his teeth and forced out a few words, “You’re either freaking crazy or just a pervert!”

“Call it whatever makes you comfortable.” Sheng Qixiao looked down coldly at Shen Que, who was tightly restrained beneath him like a caged beast. The torn wound on his chest brought not only pain, but also a perverse sense of satisfaction; one rooted in Shen Que’s helpless inability to resist him.

Sheng Qixiao placed his palm on top of Shen Que’s head before adding a bit of force to press his head down, “The speed at which you lick it clean will determine how quickly your companions return to normal. I’m not in a hurry; take all the time you need.”

Shen Que trembled with rage, his lips bitten white, yet he remained motionless for a long time. Sheng Qixiao did not press him further; instead, he simply watched him wrestle with himself, calm and unhurried, as if he had all the time in the world.

“What do you want to do?” Shen Que asked.

“I think I made myself clear,” Sheng Qixiao’s voice was low, and his expression was still slightly pained, “I want you to be with me.”

Shen Que closed his eyes, then opened them again. When he spoke, his voice carried a hollow, aching resignation. “If I… will you really let them go?”

Sheng Qixiao nodded before placing his arms around Shen Que’s waist as if to comfort him, yet the words he spoke were cold and cruel, “You don’t need to put on that expression. If you feel like you’ve been taken advantage of, I’d be happy to help you.”

“Then let go of me first.” Shen Que moved his wrists.

Sheng Qixiao was unmoved, “You can use your mouth.”

Shen Que stopped engaging with him, resignedly lowered his head, and bit down on the edge of his wound, drawing an audible, suppressed groan.

The wound showed no signs of healing and continued to bleed. Shen Que was reminded of that night not long ago, when Sheng Qixiao, weak from blood loss, had leaned against his shoulder. It had been a rare moment of quiet, so peaceful it almost felt unreal, and even if it was only an illusion, it was something that could never be recreated.

He secretly glanced up at Sheng Qixiao’s face, which didn’t look well.

Shen Que had considered letting him bleed out until he passed out or died, but he didn’t dare take the gamble. The madness of his companions left him uncertain, so he could only comply with Sheng Qixiao, hoping he wouldn’t be more faithless than himself.

The bleeding gradually stopped. Sheng Qixiao’s chest was soaked, revealing his original fair skin. Shen Que acted kindly for the first time by using his teeth to pull Sheng Qixiao’s shirt back over the wound.

“Is that enough now?”

“Yes.” Without the expected deliberate difficulty, Sheng Qixiao generously waved his hand. All the bizarre movements and sounds instantly paused. Old Qiu and the others went limp and collapsed heavily onto the ground.

Sheng Qixiao released Shen Que, glanced at the figures sprawled on the ground, and coldly remarked, “Truly, a bunch of fools.”

Shen Que was finally freed, but he remained pressed against the tree trunk, using it as support as he forced himself upright. He lowered his gaze subtly, his eyes sweeping the surroundings without pause, searching for anything that could serve as a weapon within reach. He thought there might still be a chance to counterattack once Old Qiu and the others regained consciousness.

Sheng Qixiao didn’t seem to mind his little actions. Shen Que’s previous “humiliated” “submission” had lifted his mood. He kindly reminded him, “Instead of trying to fight me, I suggest you figure out a way to restore their sanity first.”

“What do you mean?”

“Didn’t you notice the fog in this forest as you walked through?” Sheng Qixiao countered.

Of course, they had noticed.

However, they had encountered thick fog when they first entered the mountain. Having traveled through it for so long without suffering any adverse effects, they had simply assumed that mist was a normal feature of the forested peak.

Yet, Sheng Qixiao’s words clearly implied that the fog was problematic.

“You promised you would let them go.”

“You misunderstood, but not entirely either.” Sheng Qixiao pulled Shen Que closer, carefully wiping the bloodstains from his face, his movements as gentle as before, “I only said I would let them return to normal and stop being crazy. I didn’t say anything else.”

You are the crazier one.

Shen Que had no strength left to argue and could only allow himself to be controlled by him. This was the worst possible situation. Sheng Qixiao could not possibly kill him; so long as he remained alive, there was still a chance. If this escape failed, there would always be a next time, though he wondered if Shen Yi could hold out until the “next time.”

“Sheng Qixiao.” Shen Que’s voice carried a deep weariness, “Why can’t you just let us go?”

“And why are you so insistent on leaving me?”

“Of course, I have to go. Can I stay here for the rest of my life?”

“Why not?” The counter-question was taken for granted.

Shen Que let out a deep breath, making one last attempt, “Sheng Qixiao, when I told you my family member was sick, it was true. I wasn’t lying to you. We stole things from the side hall to save someone.”

He thought Sheng Qixiao would show at least a tiny bit of emotion, but he was wrong. Sheng Qixiao merely examined him expressionlessly, his words full of indifference, “You’re telling me this now only because you know I like you and you want me to feel sorry for you, by using this as leverage to achieve your goal.” Sheng Qixiao ruthlessly shattered every illusion of warmth. “Not to confide in me, or to seek my help.”

“What’s the difference?!” Shen Que was getting frantic.

“I asked you what you wanted three times, but you never said anything.”

“Would you give it to me if I said it?”

Sheng Qixiao did not answer.

“Then I’m telling you now, Sheng Qixiao, we really have to go back…”

“Too late.”

Shen Que was on the verge of collapsing, his voice continuously rising, “Then what do you want?! I’ve begged you so humbly…”

“This isn’t the attitude of someone who’s begging.” Sheng Qixiao gently lifted Shen Que’s chin, forcing him to meet his eyes.

“Then what is? Do you want me to kneel down and beg you?”

The angry question burst out, carrying a sense of humiliating surrender, only to be met by an unusually serious confirmation from Sheng Qixiao.

“Sure.”

He even took half a step back, giving Shen Que enough space to act.

Shen Que felt like a bucket of cold water had been dumped over his head; he was stunned and motionless. It was such an obvious statement made out of anger, Sheng Qixiao couldn’t possibly be unaware of it.

He was doing it on purpose.

Dumbfounded, Shen Que’s emotions were completely overwhelmed. After a long moment, he found his voice again, “You better keep your word.”

He bent his knees to kneel but was immediately pulled up by Sheng Qixiao.

A faint glimmer of hope ignited in his eyes, but before it could fully emerge, it was extinguished by Sheng Qixiao’s next action.

Sheng Qixiao unclasped his cloak, folded it slowly several times, and spread it across the overgrown ground. “The ground is dirty. This is fine now. Kneel.”

The anger he had just managed to suppress surged up again. Shen Que laughed in extreme fury. He bent his knees again without hesitation, so numb that he didn’t feel any shame.

However, the next second, a pair of large hands cupped his cheeks. Sheng Qixiao knelt down shoulder to shoulder alongside him, guiding him to deeply bow towards the dark forest, like they were praying or perhaps continuing an unfinished ritual.

“Shen Que, I’ll give you one more chance. Come back with me. We can pretend today never happened.”

“What will it take for you to finally let us go?” Shen Que’s voice was muffled in his chest, it was barely audible.

Before he could say anything more, Old Qiu and the others started moving again.

Shen Que instinctively assumed Sheng Qixiao was resorting to his old tricks and quickly turned back; only to see them convulsing on the ground with foam spilling from their mouths. Gradually, the foam turned red, and blood began to seep from their noses and ears.

With no time to question it, Shen Que immediately tried to rise and rush over, but Sheng Qixiao pinned him firmly in place. His voice, cold to the bone, cut straight into Shen Que’s heart as he delivered the final verdict: “The poison in the fog has deeply infiltrated their nervous systems. They’re already dying.”

“Ah!!” Shen Que roared. His sanity finally collapsed completely. He frantically clutched the ground, finally giving up on resistance and surrendering, “Sheng Qixiao!!! Please let us go. It’s my fault. I lied to you. It has nothing to do with them. Let them go!”

Sheng Qixiao turned his shoulders, forcing him to face him. “Yes! It’s all your fault. But I can’t bear to hurt you. What should I do? You’re going to kill them.”

Shen Que suddenly grew quiet. The tears that had been swirling in his eyes finally fell. He knew what Sheng Qixiao was doing all this for; he had always known.

“I’ll stay. Sheng Qixiao, I’ll stay, alright? I won’t leave. You let them go. Let them take the mahogany box and leave, alright…”

“What did you say? I didn’t hear clearly.” Sheng Qixiao helped Shen Que to his feet, then knelt in front of him as well, his gaze locking on him as he asked again, “What did you just say?”

Shen Que clutched Sheng Qixiao’s sleeve tightly and spoke clearly, word by word, “I am willing to stay here. To stay here forever, with you.”

Sheng Qixiao stared at him for a while before finally showing a slight smile, “Very well. I accept your… sacrifice.”

With that, he leaned in and kissed him, using his lips to wipe away the tears on his face.

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