Discovering Li Chen’s secret was entirely accidental.
A paparazzo employed by Li Chen had misjudged the focus of the internal power struggles within the Li family, thinking they could gain something from Li Bo. To show his sincerity, the paparazzo had leaked some of Li Chen’s lesser-known “habits.”
Of course, even then, Li Bo didn’t pay much attention to it.
Because Li Chen’s “abnormalities” had begun when he was very young.
*
Li Ailing, to the Li family, was a complete failure.
Similarly, Li Chen had never received much favoritism from his grandparents.
If it weren’t for the fact that this child might have died or ended up as a lowly beggar, disgracing the Li family bloodline, Li Bo didn’t doubt for a moment that the couple never wanted to bring such a “bastard” home.
Especially since when Li Chen was brought back, he was so frail, ugly, and uncivilized.
The immature child didn’t understand how to judge the timing or how to read the mood.
He was too young, and his mother had never taught him the skills needed to survive in the hellish environment of the Li family.
So, he could only follow his nature, crying and shouting endlessly, wanting to return to a familiar place.
And the person he screamed for wasn’t even his mother, but rather the so-called friends he had made in the slums…
Thus, the Li couple chose the simplest method to train their grandson, who was mixed with base blood.
*
They locked Li Chen in the basement.
*
It is said that during World War II, many people used the same method to handle prisoners of war.
The basement of the Li family was deep and dark, with no light whatsoever, and no sound from the outside could penetrate.
At a fixed time each day, someone would drop food into the basement through a hatch, but no matter how much the person inside screamed, they would receive no response from the outside.
When Li Bo was very young, he had accidentally been locked inside the basement a few times.
Those few experiences were enough to make him obedient to the Li couple for nearly twenty years, always listening to them and bowing his head in submission.
As some people put it, Li Bo was the most well-behaved dog the Li family had raised.
Li Bo never minded this description.
After all, if those people were locked inside, they would also become very obedient and docile once they came out.
But strictly speaking, Li Bo had only been locked in the basement for one or two days at most.
And Li Chen…
It is said that Li Chen had spent a whole year in that basement.
*
Of course, by the time Li Bo actually met Li Chen, the latter had been trained by the Li couple into a “passably acceptable” child.
When the child saw Li Bo, he would smile and call out “Brother” and would give perfect answers when the tutor came.
Under the nurturing of ample material wealth, Li Chen, like an ugly duckling returning to a flock of swans, quickly transformed into a smart and beautiful child.
But Li Bo never understood why, the moment he saw Li Chen, he felt a cold chill run down his back…
And this chilling intuition was soon confirmed.
*
It was a parrot.
Very smart, beautiful, with brilliant colors and almost childlike intelligence.
Li Bo no longer remembered where the parrot had come from, but it was likely a gift from a business friend when they saw the Li couple changing their attitude towards their new grandson. It was given to Li Chen as a birthday present.
Li Chen was extremely, extremely, extremely fond of the parrot.
While playing with the parrot, Li Bo was, for the first time, able to see his younger brother displaying some age-appropriate childlike qualities.
Unfortunately, the good times didn’t last long. Soon, the parrot fell seriously ill. Despite sending a pet doctor to treat it, it was still on the verge of death.
Then one day, the parrot died.
Li Bo saw Li Chen, expressionless, holding the dead bird, sitting in the greenhouse where they had once played together for a long time.
Finally, the child silently shed tears and secretly buried the parrot in the garden.
*
The death of a parrot and the sadness of a child were such trivial matters in the Li family, too insignificant and light.
Even Li Bo himself didn’t pay much attention.
However, a few nights later, Li Bo was abruptly awoken from his sleep by the sound of rustling.
Years later, he no longer remembered why he hadn’t disturbed anyone, but instinctively put on his clothes and followed the sound step by step to the garden.
He found Li Chen in the garden.
The child’s body was covered in mud, and his hands were drenched in blood.
With his back to Li Bo, his small shoulders trembled incessantly.
Li Bo heard a low, indistinct sobbing sound, so unclear yet sending shivers down his spine.
“Li Chen… What are you doing here?”
Li Bo asked.
Then, Li Chen slowly turned his head under the moonlight.
His face was still flawless, as if it had been meticulously carved like a doll.
However, much of his face was stained with dark red, which made his teeth appear unusually white and delicate.
And in his mouth, he was biting the half-eaten… corpse of the parrot.
*
The intense stench of decay and the wriggling white maggots in the parrot’s remains would haunt Li Bo’s nightmares for years.
He had sought the help of a psychologist, tried medications, and even alcohol, but nothing worked.
His nightmares always ended with the child’s natural and unhesitating response.
*
“…Don’t be scared, brother.”
Young Li Chen’s expression was calm.
He chewed carefully on the parrot’s body, as the decaying, mushy meat mixed with broken feathers oozed sticky black blood from his lips, which he meticulously wiped back onto his tongue.
Under the grinding of his molars, the small bird’s bones made a crunching sound.
“I just thought Xiao Si was too lonely.”
Li Chen, with a blood-stained smile, turned his mouth up at the terrified teenager. He looked just like the “Li Chen” from the daytime, but Li Bo felt that the child now seemed completely unfamiliar.
Unfamiliar, as if possessed by an evil spirit from the abyss.
“I really liked it. Don’t you think leaving it alone in the dirt to rot and eventually being forgotten by time is just too pitiful?”
“P… Pitiful?”
“Yeah, so pitiful, really so pitiful.”
Li Chen swallowed the remaining head of the parrot named “Xiao Si.”
With a snap, he crushed the parrot’s eyeball.
Then, he stuck out his tongue and slowly licked away the bloody, foul-smelling stain at the corner of his mouth.
“…So I think it’s better to keep it with me forever,” he said.
The child patted his stomach, smiling contentedly and happily.
“Although it’s a bit disgusting, and the corpse is hard to eat, but, brother, look, now no one can ever separate me from it again!”
*
Li Chen was sick.
And it was a very, very serious mental illness.
*
Later, Li Bo found out that when the Li couple finally remembered their grandson and dragged him out of the basement, Li Chen had already gone mad. Only through precise mental control and brainwashing, along with heavy doses of medication, was he able to appear as the lovable, obedient child in the eyes of others.
However, a madman is still a madman.
Perhaps to survive the terrifying, lightless time in the basement, Li Chen developed a very obvious split personality.
One personality could barely maintain Li Chen’s normal social life.
And deep within that perfect facade, there was another soul as crazy and dark as an evil spirit.
As Li Chen grew older, he became more and more perfect, but at the same time, the foul shadow under his polished skin became more and more distorted.
Even Li Chen himself was very aware of this.
When Li Bo handed him the accusation from the person who had been spying on him, warning him not to continue, Li Chen instead smiled and openly confessed the terrible secret to him.
*
“Ah, yes, I’m a thorough, completely uncontrollable stalker. A voyeur, a crazy person, a pervert… a freak.”
“But I don’t plan to stop this behavior.”
Unlike the dirty, blood-stained, and decaying child from his earlier days, the young man now standing before Li Bo had a tall, elegant posture. Even his expression showed a mask, with all emotional fluctuations completely concealed, flawless, and impenetrable.
“You must have already realized, right? A lot of my thoughts… well, some of them are… hmm, a bit abnormal.”
He spoke softly.
“Every time I see him, a strong desire surges within my body. Another part of me keeps nagging, screaming endlessly, wanting him to stay with me forever.”
“Ah, brother, you know what I mean, right? Yes, just as you think.”
“So I have to try really hard to calm ‘it’ down. I don’t want Sisi to die like this, after all, he’s so timid, so fragile, and so cute. If ‘it’ really kills Sisi, I’d be really sad.”
“But… brother, do you know? Almost every moment, ‘it’ and I are yearning to be completely united with him. Only then will Sisi truly belong to us.”
“I have to find a way to release this desire, otherwise, I don’t know what ‘it’ will do if it gets out of control.”
……
Author’s note:
Yang Siguang: … What the hell?!!!
Li Chen (suddenly appearing): Of course, it’s your dead husband!
[Such a cold joke…]
