Taking the Bait

Lu Yan switched his phone to WeChat and ignored the jumble of work messages. The screen clearly displayed his chat history with Jiang Boyun over the past six months, and amid the sea of syrupy everyday greetings, the words "stupid asshole" stood out with glaring incongruity.

This time, it was Yu Zechuan who fell silent.

Lu Yan hastened to prove his loyalty. "I've wanted to call him that for ages."

Lu Yan added, "He framed you! He deserved it!"

Yu Zechuan's brows drew together in irritation. "Shut up!"

He still didn't believe this absurd claim that Lu Yan was secretly in love with him. All it proved was that the man was an exceptional actor and a master at putting on a show.

Yu Zechuan closed his eyes and took a moment to rein in his temper. Then he abruptly seized Lu Yan by the nape, forcing his head back until their eyes met. His voice was glacial. "If you can't get Jiang Boyun to come out, is there any reason for me to keep you alive?"

How about you let me go, then?

Even Lu Yan knew that wasn't going to happen. To save his own skin, he had no choice but to change his tune. "Fine. How do you want me to ask him?"

Yu Zechuan tossed the phone onto the table with a clatter. "Call him."

Lu Yan asked, "What if he doesn't answer?"

"Keep calling until he does."

Lu Yan arched a brow. "Aren't you worried I'll call the police while I'm at it?"

Yu Zechuan looked at him, his eyes deep and cold as a winter pool. "You're welcome to try."

Of course Lu Yan wasn't going to try. He was, after all, a model player who followed the rules. Right in front of Yu Zechuan, he opened his contacts and called Jiang Boyun, switching on the speaker while he was at it. The dial tone sounded through the silent room, filling it with an invisible tension.

"Ring... ring... ring..."

The phone at one corner of the desk suddenly began to vibrate, interrupting the secretary's report. She glanced toward it and reminded him, "Mr. Jiang, I think your phone is ringing."

Jiang Boyun casually swept his gaze over it. The caller ID read "Yan." His first instinct was to answer, but then he remembered how Lu Yan had shut him out last night. His anger had yet to subside, so he rejected the call instead.

Jiang Boyun tossed the phone into a drawer. "Ignore it."

"We're sorry. The person you are calling is unavailable. Please try again later..."

Translated, that meant: "We're sorry. The person you are calling doesn't want to give you the time of day. Try again later."

Lu Yan wasn't surprised in the least. He held the phone out to Yu Zechuan. "Jiang Boyun won't answer."

Yu Zechuan folded his arms, unmoved. "Then keep calling. Do I have to teach you how?"

Lu Yan stole a glance at the wall clock. It was two in the afternoon. He had successfully survived into the second day. As long as Yu Zechuan didn't kill him, whiling away the hours with phone calls wasn't a bad option.

And so Lu Yan kept calling Jiang Boyun. He sat in the same position for the entire afternoon. Without the slightest exaggeration, he must have called hundreds of times, yet that bastard Jiang Boyun stubbornly refused to return a single one.

The sun sank toward the horizon, its golden afterglow streaming through the living room windows and making it difficult to keep his eyes open.

Lu Yan lowered his numb, aching arm and slumped against the back of the chair. At this point, a quick death by the knife seemed preferable. He turned weakly toward Yu Zechuan. "Can I stop calling now?"

Yu Zechuan asked, "Why?"

Lu Yan answered with complete sincerity, "I feel like a pathetic simp."

And the person he was simping for was a piece of shit.

Yu Zechuan was speechless.

Instead of replying, Yu Zechuan walked up behind Lu Yan and rested a lightly callused hand on his shoulder. The gesture seemed intimate, but the pressure brought a burst of pain that made Lu Yan's expression change at once.

"What a shame. It looks like you can't prove you're worth keeping alive after all."

The wall across from them was decorated with an assortment of geometric mirrors. In one of the fragmented reflections, Lu Yan clearly saw Yu Zechuan slip his right hand into his pants pocket, apparently feeling for something sharp. His heart clenched.

The sensation of dying in the previous round remained painfully vivid. Lu Yan had no desire to experience it a second time. Just as Yu Zechuan was about to draw the blade, he abruptly sat upright and blurted, "Wait! I have a way to make Jiang Boyun call me first!"

Yu Zechuan paused, frowning. "What way?"

Lu Yan thought that baiting a man was the easiest thing in the world. Shamelessly clinging to him would never get results. No wonder Yu Zechuan had been played so badly by Jiang Boyun. He was a complete amateur. "I'll post something on Moments first."

Lu Yan picked up his phone and composed a vague, pseudo-profound relationship post, something to the effect that he was tired and didn't want to keep trying anymore. Yu Zechuan glanced at it, his frown deepening. "That's it?"

What kind of nonsense was this?

"Don't rush. Give it two hours."

As he spoke, Lu Yan noticed the remains of lunch on the table. He got up and took a picture with his phone, deliberately pulling Yu Zechuan close enough for his right hand to appear in the shot. Its prominent knuckles made it unmistakably a man's hand.

Once everything was arranged, Lu Yan expertly uploaded the photo and added a caption on Moments. It said, more or less, that he was in a bad mood, had asked a friend to keep him company, and planned to drink until they dropped tonight.

Jiang Boyun had actually been keeping a close eye on Lu Yan all along. Half an hour after the barrage of calls stopped, he could no longer resist checking his phone. Two new updates had appeared on WeChat Moments.

The first post looked like the aftermath of a breakup. It radiated exhaustion and despair and even faintly suggested that Lu Yan was ready to give up.

Jiang Boyun was fairly satisfied. He had been deliberately giving Lu Yan the cold shoulder. Given his current status, Lu Yan had gone far too far last night. The man needed to be reminded that he could lose him.

But when Jiang Boyun saw the second post, his expression changed. The photo showed a mess of takeout containers and a bottle of red wine. Besides Lu Yan's own hand, the lower right corner revealed part of a sleeve and the back of another hand. It clearly belonged to a man.

Heartbroken, getting drunk with a friend—what might happen after dark? They would be lucky if it didn't end in drunken sex.

No one liked being cuckolded.

Jiang Boyun enlarged the photo for a closer look. After confirming once more that the hand didn't belong to Lu Yan, he considered it for several seconds before finally making a probing call.

"Bzzzt—"

The moment the ringtone burst out, Yu Zechuan and Lu Yan both looked toward the coffee table. There, on the phone screen at the corner of the table, the name "Jiang Boyun" was displayed in bold. He had actually called.

Yu Zechuan narrowed his eyes and regarded Lu Yan with wary astonishment. Lu Yan merely sat on the sofa, eating at his leisure, as though everything were well under control.

Yu Zechuan's lips twitched in an inscrutable smile. "You really do know what you're doing. No wonder you have Jiang Boyun wrapped around your finger."

Too bad I can't do the same to you.

It wasn't that Lu Yan was particularly skilled. He had simply realized that Jiang Boyun was still interested in the original host. Faced with the possibility that he was about to be cuckolded, Jiang Boyun clearly couldn't keep playing hard to get.

Only after the phone had rung twice did Lu Yan toss aside his snack wrapper and reach for it. Before he could answer, however, another hand darted in out of nowhere and decisively rejected the call.

The ringing cut off abruptly, and the room plunged into dead silence again.

Lu Yan instinctively turned to Yu Zechuan. "Didn't you tell me to get him to come out? Why did you hang up?"

Under Lu Yan's baffled gaze, Yu Zechuan switched off the phone. He couldn't say why, but he suddenly had no desire to let those two cheating bastards speak to each other. He sneered. "I only wanted to see whether you would obey me. Did you honestly think I'd let you meet Jiang Boyun?"

Lu Yan promptly put on a wounded expression. "Mr. Yu, I told you already. You're the only one I love. What will it take for you to believe me?"

Every time Yu Zechuan heard something like that, the veins in his forehead throbbed uncontrollably. He was about to respond when footsteps suddenly sounded outside. The door opened, and a man in a well-tailored suit entered.

"Zechuan, I brought you some dinner..."

Xue Jin stepped inside carrying a paper bag of takeout. Before he could finish, he spotted Lu Yan sitting on the sofa and paused. "Oh, you're awake?"

The original host had met Xue Jin at the office before, so Lu Yan deliberately put on an even more astonished expression than his. His eyes widened. "Y-you're Mr. Xue, aren't you? How do you know Mr. Yu?"

Come on, hurry up and tell me who you are so I can complete my side quest!!!

But Xue Jin said, "It's a secret."

Lu Yan fell silent.

Bastard.

Xue Jin set the takeout bag on the table. He didn't care in the slightest if Lu Yan overheard his conversation with Yu Zechuan. "I knew you'd skip dinner again. I picked something up for you on my way over after work. Sit down and eat."

Yu Zechuan glanced at the darkening sky outside. A darkness like a blot of ink gathered between his brows, making him look weighed down by troubled thoughts. "I'm not hungry. I have to go out in a while. Stay here and keep an eye on him for me."

There was no question that "him" meant Lu Yan.

Xue Jin waved a dismissive hand. "Why go to all that trouble? Just tie him up and give him a shot. He'll sleep straight through till dawn."

Lu Yan gritted his teeth in silence. He hadn't expected that bastard Xue Jin to be so vicious and underhanded. "Why go to all that trouble? You might as well stab me and get it over with."

At worst, he would restart the run. He wasn't afraid of them.

Xue Jin raised his brows. "You think I wouldn't dare?"

Yu Zechuan gave Lu Yan a long, penetrating look, then turned away. "No. The drugs in his system haven't worn off. Another injection could damage his nerves. Tying him up will do. I'll be back in four hours at most."

That settled it. Lu Yan was tied to the chair. He could only watch as Yu Zechuan put on a hat and left, abandoning him and Xue Jin alone in the enormous apartment.

With his side quest in mind, Lu Yan couldn't help studying Xue Jin more closely. Sensing his gaze, Xue Jin sauntered over, bent down, and crouched in front of him. With a half smile, he asked, "Well? Have you suddenly realized I'm the better-looking one?"

Lu Yan remained unmoved. "I like Yu Zechuan. It doesn't matter how handsome you are."

Xue Jin clicked his tongue. "His face is ruined. One look at it at night would give you nightmares. Aren't you going to consider me instead?"

Sometimes, the way one person took to another was a mysterious thing. Xue Jin was undeniably handsome, but no matter how Lu Yan looked at him, he found the man thoroughly detestable. Yu Zechuan might have been disfigured, but...

Lu Yan couldn't quite describe how he felt. He simply didn't find him unpleasant.

"He must have been disfigured because people bullied him in prison. All that does is make my heart ache for him. No matter how handsome you are, you're still a treacherous bastard who attacks people from behind. I'd rather not look at you."

Lu Yan did his best to play a convincing love-addled fool.

"And don't call him ugly in front of me. To me, he's the most handsome man in the world."

Xue Jin nearly toppled over with rage. What kind of invincibly love-addled fool was Lu Yan? He had to be blind, too. How could this devastatingly handsome face of his possibly lose to Yu Zechuan's?

In a corner of the living room, a miniature surveillance camera blinked, transmitting the scene to a phone terminal. Yu Zechuan sped through the night toward a cemetery in the suburbs. Hearing their conversation through his earpiece, he unconsciously furrowed his brow.

Xue Jin's mouth was as obnoxious as ever.

The darkness surged around him. He couldn't stop himself from glancing up at the rearview mirror. An expressionless face stared back at him, a vicious scar running from the temple to the cheek, like a fine piece of cool, lustrous white jade that had been brutally split by a crack.

It wasn't terribly ugly.

But it wasn't handsome, either.