LBC |Love Beyond Control/Chapter 9

Chapter 9

As the days drew closer and closer to the New Year, Xiang Zhubeng spent every day, besides looking formaterials, checking cases, and still had to make time to go to the institution and the tutoring place to fill in for classes. Usually, he left early in the morning and did not come back until night.

Xin Yuan read books at home during the day, and when it was time, he would prepare dinner in advance and wait for Xiang Zhubeng to come back.

That day, it was again close to the time Xiang Zhubeng should be back, and the purified water at home had just run out. Xin Yuan checked the time and went downstairs to get water, planning to carry it back together with Xiang Zhubeng.

At nine fifteen, more than ten minutes later than usual, Xiang Zhubeng still had not come back.

The wind was a little strong at night. When Xin Yuan came down, he had specially wrapped a scarf around himself, and it was still a little cold right now, so he simply hid back inside the stairwell.

He opened WeChat, and just as he was about to look for Xiang Zhubeng, a message had already popped up first.

It was a photo of a suit.

Xin Yuan stared blankly for a few seconds before tapping open the large image.

The suit was a basic dark gray one, but it fit Xiang Zhubeng’s build just right, broad shoulders and a narrow waist, strong and sharp. Even from such a casual angle, it looked like something from a magazine, fully bringing out the flamboyance that was in his bones.

In a few more days, it would be the interview for Hanhai Group, and after that there would also be the thesis defense and the speech for outstanding graduate. After thinking it over and over, Xiang Zhubeng still decided to buy a decent suit at the mall.

It was just that even after the discount, this set of clothes was still four digits. Thinking of the last little bit still missing from the surgery money he had saved up for Grandma, Xiang Zhubeng started hesitating again.

“Would I look weird wearing this?” Xiang Zhubeng sent another message.

It was as if Xin Yuan had been caught from afar as he enlarged and reduced the picture back and forth. With his ears red, he changed “especially good-looking” to “very suitable for you” before replying.

Xin Yuan also did not know why just casually looking at one photo of Xiang Zhubeng would make his heart so flustered.

Just as he was thinking that his pitiful little bit of composure had really run away from home completely, his neck suddenly tightened, and something violently strangled him from behind.

“Mmgh!?”

In the darkness, that figure had been lying in wait for a very long time. The moment Xin Yuan tried to cry out for help, one hand covered his mouth, while the other arm locked tightly around his neck, dragging him into the small room beside the corridor, and “bang” it shut the door.

Xin Yuan’s vision spun wildly. Before he could react, the back of his head was struck by a dull pain again, and he was brutally thrown onto the bed. The pain took a long while to ease before his gaze could gather.

The room was very dark, with only a twisted candle burning. Its light fell on the man’s face in front of him, reflecting a faint glow in his eyes.

It was him!?

The strange man he had run into at the stairwell that day.

A familiar fear closed in. Xin Yuan tightly shielded himself with both hands and kept shrinking backward, but the room was far too small. Behind him was a cold wall, and there was nowhere to retreat.

“…Who are you?”

“Did you get the wrong person? I don’t know you at all.”

Xin Yuan forced himself to calm down, using conversation to divert the man’s attention while secretly reaching a hand toward his pocket.

The man chuckled and shook his head, like he was admiring a piece of art that belonged only to himself. His gaze slowly swept over every inch of Xin Yuan’s body as he spoke softly.

“I like you so much, how could I possibly have mistaken you?”

Xin Yuan suppressed the violent nausea and finally reached into his pocket, but the phone that had originally been in there was gone!

“You’re really so pretty…”

The man stepped closer and closer, staring at Xin Yuan as if possessed, muttering to himself, “From the first day you moved in, I’ve been watching you. How can you be this pretty…”

Seeing that he had lost the only hope of calling for help, Xin Yuan could only look for other tools.

The room was so rundown it did not look like a place for people to live. Aside from the hard bed beneath him, there was only a short stool with a few empty beer bottles on it.

Xin Yuan wanted to rush forward and grab them, but his body seemed to be pressed down by an invisible hand.

That greedy gaze of the man’s, like a yoke wrapped around his neck, instantly pulled him back to the nightmare he did not want to remember.

In that closed-off room, he had been pinned down tightly by someone, and a pair of rough big hands wandered over his body. His body was also folded over like a doll by that person. He had no power to resist at all, and could only watch helplessly as that person lowered his head, split open lips and tongue slick with saliva, and licked him slowly and then quickly.

He was like duckweed swept into a whirlpool, getting soaked through little by little, but he could only sink deeper and deeper in the undercurrent.

“You are a very obedient child. Promise me, don’t tell Mom, and Dad will buy you lots and lots of toys, okay?”

Xin Yuan did not remember what he answered back then, only that crazy kicking sounded from outside the door, someone rushed in, and then there were the man’s roars and the woman’s screams.

Many years later, those hands came back to his body, again tearing his clothes apart and wantonly roaming over his skin.

“You are mine, you are finally mine.”

The man revealed a genuine smile, then suddenly lunged forward and bit Xin Yuan’s neck like a beast that had been hungry for a long time.

“No…!”

Xin Yuan shook his head wildly, trying to break free from that nightmare.

His hands desperately pressed against the man, but this resistance only made the man even more excited. He tore off Xin Yuan’s clothes completely, buried his head, and bit at his collarbone.

Xin Yuan whimpered, and in despair, he relied on instinct to curl up his knees, then used all his strength to thrust upward, just in time toslammed into the man’s ribs.

The man immediately let out a low growl and fell to the ground in pain.

Xin Yuan seized the chance to prop himself up, and rushed toward the door as fast as he could. But before he could even steady himself, the man’s hands once again grabbed his ankles tightly.

“You can’t run away! You are destined to be mine!”

Xin Yuan struggled backward desperately. Several times he was almost free, but each time he was dragged back by the man.

Just as the man was about to stand up again, Xin Yuan, from nowhere, erupted with strength, suddenly lunged toward the bedside, grabbed an empty beer bottle, and smashed it hard toward the man’s shoulder!

“Crack!!”

Just as Xiang Zhubeng walked into the stairwell, he suddenly heard the sound of glass shattering.

That kind of noise was actually ordinary in this building. Xiang Zhubeng only wanted to get home faster, so he did not stop.

But a moment later, another short and desperate scream rang out from not far away.

It was as if some nerve had suddenly been stabbed. Xiang Zhubeng froze instantly in place and looked toward where the sound had come from.

The scream did not sound again, but Xiang Zhubeng’s heart inexplicably panicked. He stood there stunned for a few seconds, then dialed Xin Yuan’s phone.

One second.

Two seconds.

After a few seconds that felt longer than a century, Xiang Zhubeng saw a faint light slowly flicker on in the corner at the end of the corridor.

“Do you know, you look best when you stay this quiet.”

The man grinned wickedly. Half of his shoulder was covered in flesh torn open by the beer bottle, but he did not care at all. He lowered himself down and forced Xin Yuan bit by bit into the corner of the wall, then grabbed Xin Yuan by the collar and hurled him back onto the bed hard.

The man spread his knees and knelt on top of Xin Yuan, both hands clamping tightly around Xin Yuan’s neck, watching that pretty face change from white to red, then little by little turn blue-purple.

Xin Yuan’s gaze grew more and more unfocused. He used his remaining bit of consciousness to grab the man’s wrist, but everything was futile. Under the extreme difference in strength, he could only watch as the man came closer and closer, stuffing something wet and slick little by little into his mouth.

The man let out a delighted roar, but still felt unsatisfied. He let go of Xin Yuan’s neck, then covered his nose, and forcefully rammed toward the back of his throat.

Xiang Zhubeng, I’m sorry…

Xin Yuan thought dazedly, I’m going to break my promise.

The New Year’s Eve dinner I promised you, I probably won’t be able to make it for you anymore.

From now on, when you are alone, you have to remember to eat properly too.

His lips and teeth were tightly blocked, and the light before his eyes was also dimming little by little. Just one second before Xin Yuan completely fell into darkness, a loud crash suddenly came from outside the door.

“Xin Yuan, are you inside!!!”

“Can you hear me speaking!?”

Continuous pounding came from outside the door, but the man, as if he could not hear a sound, continued to wallow in boundless pleasure.

The wooden door was quickly smashed out with a crack. Through the faint gap, Xiang Zhubeng saw an image he would never want to remember again in this lifetime.

Xin Yuan hung lifelessly against the bedside, and clothes were scattered all over the floor.

And the man on top of him was hunching his waist up like livestock, thrusting nonstop.

Xiang Zhubeng’s vision instantly went white for a few seconds. He could not believe what he was seeing. When he reacted, the veins on his fist had already bulged, and he actually smashed the door lock down to the floor with brute force.

The man was still kissing Xin Yuan in a trance. Suddenly, the back of his head tightened. With no time to react at all, his whole body had already been lifted into the air by Xiang Zhubeng, grabbed by the scalp.

The man still wanted to resist, but before he even touched Xiang Zhubeng’s clothes, he was pinned by the shoulder from behind. Then, like a broken iron barrel, his body was violently slammed to the ground by Xiang Zhubeng with a shoulder throw.

“Cough… cough cough…!”

The filthy thing blocking his mouth suddenly disappeared. Xin Yuan got the chance to breathe again. His body trembled unconsciously a few times, then he started coughing violently.

It seemed like someone beside him was calling him, but he could not hear anything. He just kept gagging. His lips were wet, and so was his body, but no matter how he wiped it, those fluids stuck to him like glue.

“Xin Yuan, can you hear me? It’s me…”

Xiang Zhubeng’s eardrums were roaring so much that he could not even hear what he himself was saying.

Xin Yuan trembled unconsciously in his arms, his face full of tears. Xiang Zhubeng did not even dare touch Xin Yuan with his hands. He only gently supported his body, repeating over and over, “I’m here, don’t be afraid, don’t be afraid anymore…”

The man curled painfully on the ground. Seeing that Xiang Zhubeng’s attention was all on Xin Yuan, he forcefully crawled up and was about to run outside.

Xiang Zhubeng’s anger was almost about to burst his veins. His eyes darkened, he picked up the broken beer bottle beside him, and without blinking, stabbed it toward the back of the man’s thigh, then yanked it out viciously.

“Ah!!!”

The man screamed in pain, immediately rolling on the ground, clutching his leg and growling.

Xiang Zhubeng’s hands were shaking as he buttoned Xin Yuan’s clothes back on little by little, then covered Xin Yuan tightly with his coat. After that, he flew forward, dropping to his knees and pouncing onto the man, punching down one blow after another.

Xiang Zhubeng had never known he had such a vicious side. Blood kept splattering out of the man’s mouth and nose, but he still could not vent his rage, gripping the man’s head even more brutally and smashing it repeatedly into the ground.

Large spurts of blood splashed onto the floor. Under overwhelming terror, the man struggled wildly, but this only ignited Xiang Zhubeng’s killing intent even more. He did not think twice, and took the beer bottle still stained with blood, bringing it straight down toward the man’s head!

“Xiang Zhubeng…”

A weak voice came from behind, and Xiang Zhubeng’s raised hand suddenly froze.

“Don’t…”

Xin Yuan clutched the bedside and used all his strength to make a sound. But as soon as he opened his mouth, another uncontrollable muffled cough came out, and he could only shake his head ever so slightly.

Don’t keep hitting him…

Don’t let this kind of person affect the rest of your life.

The man’s tears and blood mixed together, like red earthworms writhing all over his face. He hugged his head and howled.

“Don’t kill me, I know I was wrong, I won’t dare again…”

Xiang Zhubeng clenched his teeth tightly. The speed at which the beer bottle fell did not slow at all. The man’s eyes went wide. Watching the beer bottle draw closer and closer to him, at the last centimeter before it fell, its direction suddenly changed, and it smashed viciously toward his groin.

The man’s soul nearly scattered. Several dozen seconds later, he finally looked over in a daze.

His limp thing was still there, but urine had already flowed all over the floor.

“Damn it, making a racket nonstop so late at night, it’s almost New Year, is your family butchering a pig or what!”

The neighbor next door heard the noise and came out. Muttering curses, he walked to the doorway. After he clearly saw everything in front of him, he froze for two seconds, then screamed and staggered backward.

“Help! Someone’s been killed…!”