But seeing how much pain Sang You was in, he still needed to check him over.
Sang You heard Gong Ze sending a message to the auntie: “Bring the medicine kit upstairs. I also need cotton swabs and anti-inflammatory ointment.”
Is he going to clean my wounds for me? Sang You’s struggling weakened.
But then he thought again—the reason he was injured in the first place was entirely because of this beast. Sang You’s hesitation instantly turned icy cold.
Soon, the auntie who cleaned the house brought the medicine kit. Sang You stiffened his body awkwardly, putting on a cold expression toward Gong Ze: “I don’t need your help. I can do it myself.”
“You?”
Gong Ze mocked, “You can’t tell wheat from beans, and without servants to wait on you, you don’t even know how to wash clothes. Who do you think you’re fooling?”
With that, Gong Ze sat on the edge of the bed, pulled the young man up, and held him in his arms.
Sang You, weak as he was, couldn’t resist him. On top of that, he was sick and too feeble to muster any strength.
Remembering how he had fallen so low—letting an outsider take over the Sang house and humiliate him—while his parents, who used to protect and spoil him, were missing, Sang You was overcome with sorrow and choked on his sobs of humiliation.
“Why are you crying again?”
Gong Ze looked down in surprise. “Little young master, were you a faucet spirit in your past life or something?”
Sang You wiped his red, rabbit-like eyes and yelled at him, “You’re the faucet spirit! Your whole family are faucet spirits!”
“Fine, fine, I am. Happy now?”
Gong Ze couldn’t be bothered to argue with him.
“You—”
Seeing his dismissive attitude, Sang You was absolutely furious.
The system watched from the sidelines as its master, this jerk of a man, bullied the protagonist bottom, anxious but helpless.
[Master, why do you always do things that make him hate you? At this rate, when will he ever fall in love with you and give you forgiveness points so you can complete the mission?]
[And master, the only reason you’re even bothering with the protagonist top, Qin Chuan, is to get back at him for Sang You, isn’t it? That would earn you major favorability points—so why don’t you just say something? Don’t be such a tight-lipped gourd!]
[And about Wang Liben—even I could tell he bullied Sang You. Sang You definitely thinks you ordered it.]
[Why should we take the fall for such a huge misunderstanding?! Master, you clearly meant well!]
The system was so anxious it practically wanted to materialize right in front of Sang You and spill everything—that his beloved Brother Qin Chuan was a scumbag, all the truth—just blurt it all out.
“Who said I did it for him?”
Gong Ze’s smile paused. “That was just part of my plan,” he said flatly.
The system: …
Fine, fine, keep acting cool! ‘Part of your plan,’ my foot.
It really couldn’t understand what its master was doing—doing good deeds without taking credit, but bending over backward to take the blame for things he never did.
Gong Ze looked down at the protagonist bottom trembling in his arms like a little rabbit. The clothes Wang Liben had given him were probably taken from Gong Ze’s own closet—an oversized, ill-fitting shirt draped over the young master’s body, accentuating his sickly, fragile, pitiful appearance.
Like a kitten or a bunny, he was held in Gong Ze’s arms, his fingers and arms curled inward, his tear-reddened pupils moist and hazy. His delicate, bewitching features were extraordinarily alluring and sensual, yet every move he made was as innocent as a child’s.
Surely, the way he begs for mercy and cries out in pain during intimacy, choking on sobs, would ignite the cruel, violent desires and burning lust of any normal man—making them want to devour him whole.
“No wonder the young master of a distinguished family ended up becoming a man’s caged bird in the end…”
Sang You, held in Gong Ze’s arms, pounded desperately on Gong Ze’s chest.
“Go away, get away from me… sob sob… you killed my parents and you’ve been bullying me all along… I don’t need you to take care of me… disgusting…”
Tears pattered down onto Gong Ze like raindrops, soaking his shoulder.
Gong Ze paid no mind to the young master’s soft, weak fists. He pinned Sang You’s wrists down, then suddenly thought of something. A mischievous glint danced in his eyes.
Just as Sang You opened his mouth to call Gong Ze a bastard, Gong Ze suddenly leaned in.
He hooked his finger under the young master’s chin and brought his face close—so close that their lips nearly touched, as if the next moment he might tilt his head and gently kiss him.
Sang You was so startled he quickly shut his mouth.
Their breaths mingled.
Ambiguity and tenderness blossomed between them.
Nervously holding his breath, Sang You’s wide pupils reflected the man’s curved eyes, staring at him with a light, teasing smile.
Then Gong Ze turned his head, bypassing Sang You’s lips, and softly kissed away the tear trembling on his chin.
When he lifted his gaze again, they were looking at each other—close enough for Sang You to clearly see the playful mischief in his eyes.
He said:
“Young master, though foolish, are truly beautiful.”
Sang You: “…”
Sang You’s face turned bright red in an instant!!
Coming to his senses, he instinctively pushed Gong Ze away.
Thump, thump, thump—Sang You’s ears were filled with the sound of his own heartbeat, and his face burned fiercely.
How could this be… This man is his enemy. The one he likes is Brother Qin Chuan. He would never…
Seeing that Sang You had settled down, Gong Ze examined him with satisfaction.
Half a minute later, Gong Ze looked away from the red, chafed skin.
It wasn’t a big deal.
Probably the intense, devilishly spicy sting was hard to bear, making the young master suffer terribly every time he went to the bathroom, leading to him rubbing the skin raw. A little cooling, anti-inflammatory, hemostatic ointment would do the trick.
Sang You had said it was because Gong Ze hadn’t cleaned him up afterward, but the truth was entirely due to the chili oil being too irritating.
Holding the small, pet-like person in his arms, Gong Ze freed a hand to open the medicine kit. Suppressing a laugh, he pulled out the Ma Yinglong hemorrhoid ointment, dabbed it onto a cotton swab, and applied it gently to the young master.
After applying the ointment, ignoring Sang You’s resistance, Gong Ze poured a glass of water, mixed in a packet of ganmaoling cold remedy along with fever-reducing medicine, and made him drink it down.
Then he fished out two cold fever-reducing patches and placed them on the young master’s forehead, neck, and chest.
Finally, he found Sang You’s pajamas and changed him out of the damp, clammy shirt.
After all this, Gong Ze tucked the young man under the covers, pulled a chair over to sit by the bed, and started reviewing the Sang company’s documents on his phone.
He also took the opportunity to preview the future work of this character.
Sang You lay dazedly under the covers, a cooling patch on his forehead, staring at the man by the bedside—his legs crossed, collar open, looking at his phone with a languid, slightly dissolute posture. For a moment, he couldn’t snap out of it.
The other man noticed his gaze, looked up from his phone, and raised an eyebrow. “What? Need to go to the bathroom?”
“I…”
Sang You opened his mouth, but didn’t know what to say.
After drinking the warm, steaming cup of cold remedy, his cold, cramping stomach felt warm and comfortable.
The cool patches on his forehead, neck, and chest radiated a slight chill, dispelling the feverish heat and discomfort of his illness.
Before… Gong Ze had taken care of him like this too…
Sang You buried the tip of his red nose and the corners of his reddened eyes into the fluffy bedding, momentarily lost as he gazed at the man by the bed.
In the past, Gong Ze had often visited Sang You to curry favor with Sang You’s parents. Sang You had always been a little afraid of this handsome yet gloomy man.
But Sang You hadn’t known Gong Ze’s true intentions.
He often ran fevers and fell ill. Gong Ze had grown up in an orphanage, and most of the children there had various health problems. Through years of exposure, Gong Ze had learned some small tricks from the orphanage director to help children recover quickly.
To prove his loyalty to Sang You’s father, Gong Ze took excellent care of Sang You—even more attentive than the nannies.
Every time Sang You ran a high fever at night from things like exposure to wind or sun, Gong Ze would go to the trouble of taking a taxi in the middle of the night to the Sang house, bring Sang You tea and water, and sit in a chair by the bed the entire night.
But all of that had been to avenge his blood-soaked grudge.
No one else knew that, though.
Until Gong Ze turned on them, Sang You and his parents had all thought Gong Ze was a good person—cold on the outside but warm on the inside.
Now Gong Ze was taking care of him like this again. The familiar scene made Sang You’s throat tighten.
Looking at this man, he felt both hatred and a complicated sense of nostalgia.
After a moment of silence, Sang You spoke, his voice hoarse: “Why are you still being so good to me?”
Gong Ze: “?”
Sang You said quietly, “My parents are gone. The Sang house is yours now.”
As he said this, the young master who had been reduced to a caged bird closed his eyes, and tears welled up once more.
His breath trembled unsteadily.
“Like you said, you’ve already… taken me. There’s no need for you to pretend to be a good person in front of me…”
In Sang You’s eyes, why else would Gong Ze keep him around?
Either to gloat over him now that his scheme had succeeded, to revel in his suffering. Or…
Sang You squeezed his eyes shut in shame—or to continue… doing that to him, satisfying his beastly desires.
Sang You understood perfectly well. The Sang house was no longer his home.
He had gone from a precious young master to this terrifying man’s plaything—his caged bird.
After Sang You finished speaking, the room fell into silence.
There was no sarcastic sneer, no vicious threat as he had imagined.
Just as Sang You grew puzzled and was about to open his eyes, the man’s low, calm voice sounded in the darkness:
“Go to sleep. I’ll keep watch over you.”
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