CH 28

Dong Qiao could barely hold back a smile. He coughed lightly twice, turned his face away and tried to control himself, “I wonder why you were looking for me.”

“I want to take you to a place.” Ou Renjin lowered his head and looked at his phone. He smiled when he said these words, but his tone was a little perfunctory, “You’ll know when you get there.”

“Okay.” Dong Qiao took a deep breath carefully, but plucked up the courage to turn his head and look at Ou Renjin openly. Ou Renjin held the phone in both hands, his slender fingers flying over the screen, and his casual movements looked very charming.

The car had made its way through the city and now was slowly getting farther and farther away from it. There were no more buildings on the side of the road, and even the streetlights were sparse. It was getting late, and the last remnants of the setting sun on the horizon were also swallowed by darkness. Dong Qiao became more and more flustered. He couldn’t help shivering and asked, “President Ou, where are we going?”

After Ou Renjin replied to another text message from Ou Shaowen, he finally raised his head and gave Dong Qiao a look. He still smiled beautifully, but at this moment his smile made Dong Qiao feel a little chilled, “Do you look at the road in front of you? Doesn’t it look familiar?” Ou Renjin shook his head and sighed, “It seems that your memory is not very good, that’s inconvenient.”

Dong Qiao had a premonition in his heart that became clearer and clearer. He bit his lip, “President Ou, I suddenly remembered that I have an appointment with someone else. He should call me later to remind me. Let’s go to that place another day.”

“It seems you remembered where we’re going?” Ou Renjin stretched out his hand to hold the mobile phone in Dong Qiao’s hand, flipped his wrist slightly and took it away. He squeezed the mobile phone between his fingers and rotated it over and over, “I thought I had a reputation for being the most protective of my people, whether they are right or wrong. Originally I supposed that since someone had the guts to bully my people, they should have some background. I didn’t think there were people in this world who couldn’t tell the difference between slight and serious, between merits and drawbacks. They are like ants in the mud themselves. The ants crawl in the mud, but want to pull down a flying swan with them…”

He looked directly into Dong Qiao’s eyes, and his face darkened, revealing a very sarcastic look, “You are quite capable.”

Dong Qiao began to tremble all over. He didn’t know if he was angry or scared. He tried to push the car door, but he couldn’t open it. He turned around to beg, his voice full of tears, “I know I was wrong. I didn’t mean it. President Ou, I really thought Shaowen went to sit in the car in the front. Really, I watched him go to the front. I don’t know what Shaowen told you, but I can confront him, President Ou.”

Ou Renjin sneered and handed Dong Qiao’s mobile phone to Guan Qijun, who was driving, “Do you think I am a police officer handling the case and have to consider the confessions of both parties and find the key evidence to close the case? I have my own way of knowing the truth, and I don’t need to verify the words of a person who has been convicted. Do you know how ridiculous you look now? More ridiculous than all the funny clowns I have ever seen. What makes you think that you will have a chance to appear in front of Ou Shaowen? Because he is more innocent than you and more stupid than you?

“Okay,” he interrupted Dong Qiao’s intention to defend himself, “Don’t talk too much, it’s very annoying. As for me, generally speaking, I’m not the kind of person who retaliates tenfold or hundredfold. I’m fair. I retaliate precisely, not a single point more, not a single point less. What you have you done to Ou Shaowen, I’ll just let you taste it today.”

When the car arrived at the location of yesterday’s filming, Dong Qiao was pulled out of the car by Guan Qijun. He passed the point of begging for mercy and started cursing, “A couple of disgusting homos, may you catch AIDS, venereal diseases and sores all over your body and die with no one to take care of you!”

Ou Renjin turned a deaf ear, threw him a brand-new mobile phone without a card and gave him a very cheerful last blessing through the car window, “Go for it, good luck. Watch your step, be careful not to fall off the cliff, and keep moving. Don’t freeze to death at night, be a bit useful and don’t get me involved in a criminal case.” After a pause, he added, “Although it doesn’t matter much if you do.”

The car restarted in front of him. Dong Qiao yelled, picked up a stone and threw it at the rear of the car, but missed and could only watch the stone fall weakly to the ground. He squatted down, feeling scared and remorseful for a moment, and couldn’t help crying.

Guan Qijun glanced at the rear view mirror, “President Ou, are you really going to leave him like this? In case he really has an accident…”

“Are you worried about that?” Ou Renjin raised an eyebrow at him, “When you suggested that I dig out someone’s heart before, weren’t you very decisive about it? I thought that my smart and capable assistant had long since stopped taking these one or two human lives to heart!”

Guan Qijun knew from the tone of his voice that President Ou was still in a bad mood, so he shut his mouth and didn’t say another word.

When they reached the entrance of the villa, before getting out of the car, Ou Renjin still added, “Send a few people to keep an eye on Dong Qiao’s whereabouts.”

“Do we need to be careful not to let him call the police?”

“It’s not a problem. The situation is minor and can be controlled. When the time comes, it will be a war of public opinion, and we can also give Ou Shaowen some heat in the process, which is good.” Ou Renjin waved his hand, not really caring.

When he entered the villa, Ou Shaowen was sitting on the sofa reading a book, concentrating so hard that he didn’t even give him a look until he approached. Ou Renjin took the book out of his hand and threw it onto the sofa, then took his hand and bit it hard.

Ou Shaowen let him bite, not pulling back his hand, but just looking at him a little puzzled, probably thinking this was some kind of a new way to flirt.

Ou Renjin became a little angry, bypassed the armrest and sat next to him, knocking on his forehead, “I asked you in the morning when you came back, why didn’t you answer me?”

Ou Shaowen blinked slowly, took his hand and bit it gently with his canine teeth, leaving two shallow tooth marks. Ou Renjin withdrew his hand blankly and said coldly: “Answer my question.”

“I was thinking of other things at that time.” Thinking about how it was really a pity that I didn’t make that call, otherwise, you would have driven over to pick me up and take me home, give me a comforting hug or kiss, and then chat with me and go to sleep together.

“Last night, why didn’t you call me?”

Only after this question was asked did Ou Shaowen react. Ou Renjin seemed to know what happened last night, so he rightfully complained to him, “I originally wanted to call you, but didn’t you say you would feel uncomfortable if you were woken up from sleep? I was afraid you would be uncomfortable, so I didn’t dare to call. I found out later that you were still awake at that time, what a pity, right?”

“Pity my ass, the waking up I’m talking about isn’t that kind of waking up.” Ou Renjin found the person in front of him pitiful and irritating, making him want to scold him severely and also to blame himself a little, “Besides, if you couldn’t call, you could text? I’d have seen it naturally if I wasn’t asleep.”

“But there’s an alert tone for text messages too! What if it woke you up?”

Ou Renjin didn’t want to listen to him anymore. He grabbed the young man’s head and kissed him fiercely. This was a kiss that differed from his usual gentle style. The tip of his tongue pressed between Ou Shaowen’s teeth like in an assault, his lips rubbed Ou Shaowen’s lips heavily, and from time to time, he used his teeth to gently take a punishing bite.

When the kiss stopped, Ou Shaowen remained in a daze, just panting a little. Ou Renjin calmed down his breathing, stood up quietly and handed down the verdict: “In order to punish you for not taking the initiative to call me when you encounter some problem, I won’t make up for the day I said I would make up for yesterday.”

Ou Shaowen looked at him in surprise, “You obviously told me not to disturb you when you were sleeping.”

“Good.” Ou Renjin sometimes felt that he was not suitable to be around people who were too simple and ignorant. He had a delicate and sensitive mind, and he always encountered situations where he was made angry but the other party was completely unaware, “Even if you can’t disturb me, don’t you have anyone else you can call for help? You could have called your assistant Qi Yue, Aunt Zhou, Uncle Bo, your dance teacher, the head of the agency, and even call 110 to call the police. You could have called as many people as there are numbers in your phone’s address book. Why didn’t you call? Why did you walk back by yourself foolishly, huh, answer me?”

Although he didn’t feel that he knew Ou Shaowen that well, he could also see clearly that self-deprecating and self-dismissive quality hidden in Ou Shaowen’s bones, could see that he would always subconsciously feel that he was nothing important, that he would try not to bother others, that he was not used to asking for help.

He was not so arrogant as to think that he could change people, but he happened to like it the most when people trusted him and relied on him, so this was something that Ou Renjin was still inclined to fight for.

Ou Shaowen was dumbfounded by the question. He opened his mouth to explain something, but in the end he said nothing, only nodding gently, “Okay, I’ll remember.”

“Remember what?”

“To call 110 to call the police.”

Ou Renjin instantly wanted to press him down and bite him again. He held his heart, took two soft breaths, and repeated word by word, “If you encounter something in the future, call me as soon as possible.”

“But you… at night…”

Ou Renjin fell silent, hesitated for a moment, and then opened his mouth leisurely, “I am very afraid of someone making a sound by my side at night, and I am most afraid of the sound of footsteps walking to my bed. As for mobile phones and the like, it doesn’t matter.”

Ou Shaowen’s heart trembled slightly. He thought he could empathise with this inexplicable fear, because he was used to it, he would be awakened by the sound of footsteps walking to his bedside too. This kind of footsteps, for him, represented the pain that was unpredictable but destined to come to him soon.

But why was Ou Renjin afraid of this?

Had he often been hurt in the middle of the night before?

Ou Shaowen looked at Ou Renjin with some confusion. Ou Renjin raised his head slightly and met his sincere and puzzled gaze.

“Don’t look at me with such puzzled eyes now.” Ou Renjin raised his hand and covered his eyes, then leaned over and dropped a kiss on his forehead, “Are you curious about the reason? But I won’t tell you.”

When he said the first sentence, his voice seemed to have some long-suppressed resentment and loneliness. Although he finished talking in a cheerful and light tone, Ou Shaowen somehow noticed it.