Gan Tang, of course, ignored Cen Zibai’s pleading—just like how Cen Zibai had once ignored his cries and pleas.
He directly and roughly locked Cen Zibai in the room.
Cen Zibai was tall and strong, yet at that moment, he looked incredibly pitiful.
He didn’t cry and throw a tantrum like Gan Tang had expected, but instead silently and timidly stared at the boy in front of him. The crystal-clear tears fell drop by drop, silently trickling down his handsome cheek, wetting Gan Tang’s hand.
Yu Huai’s gaze from behind made Gan Tang feel as though he were sitting on pins and needles.
He bit his lip tightly, growing increasingly angry. Even though he had done nothing wrong, he couldn’t help but feel an odd sense of guilt, like he was abandoning a little puppy.
“Ugh, stop crying! Do you think you look cute when you cry?! It’s disgusting.”
Gan Tang’s face was cold as he spoke to Cen Zibai.
At the mention of “disgusting,” Cen Zibai shuddered. The tall boy, holding back tears, looked at him with a pale face, gazing at him with a pitiful and sorrowful expression.
“Tang Tang… I… I’m not disgusting.”
His lips trembled as he sweetly called out Gan Tang’s name.
Gan Tang curled his lip in disdain.
Without waiting for Cen Zibai to speak any more childish and pitiful pleas, Gan Tang used his foot to drag out the luggage that Cen Zibai had left in the room earlier.
Inside the unzipped bag were various small toys, and Gan Tang expressionlessly pulled out a pair of black, matte-finished handcuffs from the bag. These were definitely not the type that could be easily broken free from; they were surprisingly heavy and solidly made.
The inside of the handcuffs was lined with soft calf leather, designed to prevent the person being cuffed from injuring their wrists during a struggle. The design clearly suggested that they were meant for someone about to undergo a great deal of torment.
Gan Tang had been a little uncertain at first, but after seeing the “things” that Cen Zibai had prepared earlier, his eyes grew cold again.
Without hesitation, he cuffed Cen Zibai to the side of the bed.
The boy, with his hands bound high to the side of the bed, instinctively began to struggle. Somehow, he mustered the strength to shake the heavy wooden bed slightly, which was made of solid wood.
“Tang Tang, no…” He gasped and sobbed, “I’ll be good, Tang Tang, I’ll be good!”
His voice, mixed with a nasal tone, made his pleading sound strangely awkward.
Gan Tang’s temples throbbed, and he subconsciously glanced at the door. Yu Huai was still waiting outside the room. Fortunately, Yu Huai seemed to understand a bit less than someone from the city like Gan Tang. He seemed curious but didn’t ask too many questions.
However, Cen Zibai was still begging Gan Tang in his own way.
Although his hands were trapped by the bed, unable to move, he still managed to lift his body and stretch his neck, trying to rub his cheek against Gan Tang’s hand.
Gan Tang couldn’t hold back and slapped Cen Zibai’s tear-streaked face.
“Shut up!”
Gan Tang growled, gritting his teeth.
He then reached out and covered Cen Zibai’s mouth.
The boy’s heavy breath was muffled under Gan Tang’s palm, the damp breath seeming like another form of tongue, licking the spaces between his fingers.
But Cen Zibai did indeed stop all movement and sobbing.
He blinked his tear-soaked eyelashes, staring intently at Gan Tang.
Gan Tang took a deep breath.
“…Anyway, you just stay quietly in the room. If—if my grandmother comes back, you’ll be in my room. She won’t come in if you’re in there.”
“…”
“You said you’d be good, right? Then show me… Got it?”
“Mm…”
Cen Zibai breathed heavily, nodding gently under Gan Tang’s hand, his lips unintentionally brushing the soft skin of his palm.
Gan Tang immediately got goosebumps.
He quickly withdrew his hand.
“Tch.”
With a cold snort, Gan Tang withdrew his hand and stood up to leave the room.
The boy’s gaze burned with heat like molten lava, slowly sliding down his back, but even when he closed the door behind him and climbed over the wall to leave his grandmother’s house, Gan Tang didn’t look back at Cen Zibai.
Instead, Yu Huai kept glancing back.
“Uh, just like that? You locked him in the room, is that really okay?”
Yu Huai’s expression was serious, his voice filled with a worry he hadn’t even noticed himself.
Gan Tang sneered.
“What else can we do? We can’t have such an idiot tagging along.”
Yu Huai quickly shook his head. “That’s not what I meant. I just think, um, leaving him alone in the house…”
He hesitated, not mentioning the strange and malicious sense of being watched that he had felt earlier at Gan Tang’s house.
*
Maybe it was just his overthinking.
Yu Huai comforted himself inwardly.
After all, he had been exhausted after this entire day and night… and his dad had scared him half to death.
He thought.
*
When Yu Huai had returned home early this morning, he collapsed onto the floor, too tired to stay awake, nearly passing out.
In the middle of his sleep, he heard his dad’s heart-wrenching scream.
Half-dazed and struggling to wake up from his deep sleep, Yu Huai opened his eyes to find that his father had had an episode.
Yes, his dad was a lunatic. However, even lunatics have their calmer moments and times when they truly go mad. Normally, his dad would just mutter to himself, lost in a world that only he could understand.
But when he went into an episode, he acted like he had rabies—attacking anyone he could, shouting and crying nonstop.
Yu Huai had originally been thinking about the latter part of the “borrowed flesh” ritual and how to go about the “returning flesh” process, preparing to subtly probe his dad to see if he knew anything. But now, all his plans were completely ruined.
He was so tired when he got back last night that he didn’t even bother to close the door. Now, he woke up to find his dad screaming outside the door like a mad dog.
“Monster, monster, I’m going to kill those monsters, all of them, I’m going to kill them all.”
His dad’s eyes were bloodshot and bulging, his face twisted in a ferocious snarl, looking like an evil spirit.
Saliva poured from his mouth with each scream.
Yu Huai had to admit that even he, seeing his dad like this, was startled. His heart raced wildly, and cold sweat ran down his back.
It felt as though some monster was actually lurking outside the door, watching him with a greedy, cold gaze, preparing to pounce.
Yu Huai was so scared his legs almost gave way.
He stood frozen for a while, but there was no noise from outside.
Summoning his courage, he slowly approached the door and peered outside for a long time, but saw nothing.
Yu Huai quickly realized. His family was poor, and the entire village knew it. Even if someone wanted to do something sneaky, they wouldn’t come to his house…
As for monsters, that was even more absurd.
Uncle Zhang had also done the borrowed flesh ritual, and wasn’t he fine? Yu Huai had watched for a while and couldn’t see anything wrong with the man.
…However, these reasons wouldn’t make sense to his dad.
When Yu Huai approached his dad, his father managed to break free from the ropes, stretching out one hand and almost choking him.
“I’m going to kill you, I’m going to kill you! Don’t think I don’t know who you are. You think I can’t tell you used his skin? You’re not human, I can tell with one look that you’re not human, you’re a monster! You want to turn us all into monsters, hehehe, I know your plan, I won’t let you succeed, I’ll kill you, kill you, kill you, kill you, I’ll kill you!”
Yu Huai stared at his dad, who was spitting and muttering madly, and then began crying in pain.
“I’m sorry, Chen Qiao, I’m sorry, it’s all my fault, I made you go down the well, I didn’t mean it, I didn’t want you to die there, I’m really sorry… But I have to kill you. You’re not him, I know.”
…
This wasn’t the first or second time. Yu Huai had long since gotten used to his dad seeing him as someone else when he was in an episode.
But this time, his dad seemed to be worse than usual.
He had been out of control for a long time without quieting down.
Yu Huai exerted all his strength to get his dad back onto the bed, but he couldn’t shake the unease in his heart.
He had heard that there were hospitals in the city that could prescribe medicine. If you gave a madman that medicine, they would become less agitated and calm down.
If that were the case, it would be much easier for Yu Huai to take care of his dad, like wiping him down and feeding him.
But the village was so remote, and even when people went to the county to ask for things, it was already considered a favor.
Yu Huai couldn’t offer anything in return.
As the child of a lunatic, and an outsider at that, people in the village wouldn’t help him, even if they saw him. They would treat him like air and never buy him medicine.
The only one who might help was Gan Tang… Gan Tang was young, from the city, soft-hearted, and kind.
Yu Huai had been following the boy for a while, hoping to curry favor with him, in hopes that Gan Tang might help him get some medicine from the hospital in the city.
Otherwise, he wouldn’t have gotten involved in the whole body-moving and borrowed flesh business.
But now, Yu Huai was starting to regret his earlier plan.
He couldn’t quite put his finger on why, but since last night, after he watched the delicate, emotionless Gan Tang slash the corpse on the ground and then enter the well, he had a strong feeling.
He felt like he had made a very serious mistake.
He really shouldn’t have gotten involved in this.
*
Yu Huai suddenly felt that things were getting a little off, but then he wondered if he was just being overly sensitive.
In his jumbled and complicated thoughts, he had already climbed over the wall with Gan Tang and crouched in the corner of Uncle Zhang’s house.
From behind the courtyard wall, they could still hear Uncle Zhang’s wife screaming nonstop.
The crying was sorrowful and desperate.
Gan Tang could feel the woman was trying to say something, but because her mouth was blocked, all her words turned into muffled sobs.
When Gan Tang first heard the woman scream, he hadn’t really paid much attention. But now, with his ear pressed against the brick wall, his brows furrowed tighter as he listened.
“Do you know what’s going on? Auntie… she’s crying so terribly.”
Gan Tang lowered his voice and carefully asked.
Yu Huai’s reaction was indifferent, almost dismissive.
“Oh, it’s nothing, Auntie and Uncle Zhang argue like this every other day.” He casually replied, “I heard Auntie’s been restless, always saying she wants to run away, and Uncle Zhang can’t take it, so he’s going to hit her, and now she’s crying.”
Upon hearing this, Gan Tang’s heart inexplicably skipped a beat.
“Run away?”
Why would Auntie want to “run away”?
Could it be what he was thinking…
Gan Tang was about to inquire further when, just then, the back door of Uncle Zhang’s house creaked open.
Immediately, Uncle Zhang, with a stern expression, stepped out of the house followed by several other men.
Gan Tang’s pupils contracted, his gaze glued to the group of men.
Something wasn’t right.
Gan Tang thought.
He and Yu Huai had both assumed that Uncle Zhang had gathered these men at home, most likely to “return the flesh” after borrowing it.
Otherwise, there was no reason to gather so many relatives at a time like this.
But looking at their expressions, and what they were holding in their hands… Gan Tang didn’t think this was about “returning the flesh.”
According to what Yu Huai had said, after borrowing flesh, returning it probably involved returning some livestock and throwing it into the borrowed flesh well. Yu Huai and Gan Tang only knew the general idea, not the specific process, so they planned to follow Uncle Zhang’s example.
However, now, the men emerging from the back door weren’t holding any livestock. Instead, each of them had a pickaxe or shovel in hand. It didn’t look like they were going to “return the flesh.” It looked more like they were going to dig a well.
