Four-Faced Buddha [To My Shore] - Chap 25
Chapter 25 This grudge must be avenged.
2024-10-13 07:14 Category: Four-Faced BuddhaTurn off the lights
You Shulang was woken up by the ringing of the telephone.
The hollow, ethereal voice seemed to come from nothingness, echoing continuously in his ears.
Before his consciousness could return, he subconsciously grabbed the phone next to him following the ringtone.
Was the call connected? He didn’t know; who called? He wasn’t sure.
With everything pitch black before his eyes and his mind foggy, You Shulang’s eyelids felt incredibly heavy, and he managed to open them a crack after several attempts.
As the sunlight relentlessly streamed into his pupils, he heard a man’s voice coming from his phone.
“Hello?”
It was still an instinctive response, but it stunned You Shulang himself. Was that hoarse voice, as if it had been sanded for three days, really his own?
As his mind gradually cleared, a dull ache began to throb. You Shulang’s body felt like a rusty, stopped machine. It took a lot of effort for him to raise his hand and rub his temples, which felt like they were about to explode.
The man on the phone kept calling his name.
The voice sounded somewhat familiar.
The brain, which was essentially at a standstill, managed to produce such an analysis.
Who is it?
As You Shulang’s eyes gradually adjusted to the bright light, he looked around and realized he was in his own car.
In the car? Why was he in the car? At this moment, his memory was like a computer restarting, undergoing various configuration inputs and associations. And the last image he could recall was sitting in a banquet hall, being forced to drink a glass of baijiu by a female boss.
“You Shulang? Are you listening?”
The voice on the phone interrupted his chaotic thoughts. You Shulang raised the phone to his ear and called out, “Fan Xiao?”
“Why did it take you so long to answer the phone, and why didn’t you say anything when you did? What’s wrong? Why does your voice sound so hoarse?”
“It’s nothing, I just drank too much last night.” You Shulang glanced at his watch; it was 7:15. “So early, what do you need me for?”
“I think you’ve really had too much to drink. Forgot? I’m going to Bohai for a meeting today. My car is in the maintenance room. You said yesterday that you would drive to my house to pick me up and we would go to work together. I called you to ask what you wanted for breakfast. I’m preparing it now.”
You Shulang’s mind was sluggish, unable to process so much literal meaning in a short time. He painstakingly went through yesterday’s events in his mind, but couldn’t find the information Fan Xiao had mentioned.
It must be a hangover; You Shulang was a little annoyed.
“Wait for me for twenty minutes.” His hangover appearance was bound to be terrible, so he flipped down the partition, opened the mirror, and prepared to tidy himself up. “I didn’t eat breakfast, I just sobered up…”
!!!
You Shulang’s hand suddenly stopped! The person in the long, narrow mirror…
The phone slipped from his hand, and You Shulang swiftly approached the mirror! The man in the mirror had disheveled hair, a pale face, and slightly swollen, bright red lips with a visible wound at the corner of his mouth.
Suddenly, his fingers pulled up the shirt collar, and the person in the mirror looked utterly shocked!
Shocking hickeys!
Strange and ambiguous marks ran from below the ear to the collarbone, mottled and crisscrossing, like unrestrained graffiti on a canvas, leaving a mixture of blue and purple colors on the fair skin!
As the peripheral nerves gradually regained sensation, You Shulang felt pain.
Trembling fingertips touched the deepest color on his neck, his brows furrowed even more, and You Shulang hissed.
It was a bite mark, and upon closer inspection, you could still see the teeth marks, which were neatly arranged and of moderate size!
“Grass!”
You Shulang slammed his fist on the steering wheel, and an angry horn blared throughout the empty parking lot…
When Fan Xiao arrived, You Shulang was sitting in the car with a cold and solemn expression.
He opened the car door and got into the passenger seat.
“So drunk? You threw up on your clothes?” Fan Xiao handed the clothes in his hand to You Shulang. “I found this turtleneck sweater as you asked. Aren’t you hot wearing it now?”
“Do you have any cigarettes?” You Shulang interrupted him. “I’ve finished mine.”
Fan Xiao frowned slightly, turned around and took a bottle of water from the side of the door and opened it: “If your voice is hoarse, don’t smoke. Drink some water to soothe your throat.”
“A cigarette.” You Shulang finally turned to look at Fan Xiao. “I want a cigarette!”
“What… what happened to you?” Fan Xiao suddenly leaned forward, his gaze shifting from the wound on his lips to the bruises on his neck. After the initial shock, he thought for a moment, then slowly sat up straight, drawing out his words, “I didn’t expect Director You’s girlfriend to be so crazy.”
Yu Guangzhong: You Shulang’s hands, which were resting on his knees, were clenched into fists. He picked up the empty cigarette pack, ran his fingers around it, but to no avail. Finally, he suddenly clenched it into a ball.
“I… I must have been sexually assaulted,” You Shulang said in a trembling voice.
“What?!” Fan Xiao exclaimed in shock. “What happened to you? These aren’t your girlfriends…”
“No.” You Shulang looked at Fan Xiao with a stern expression. “I want cigarettes.”
Fan Xiao started rummaging through his pockets. He was wearing many layers of clothing and had many pockets. After searching through several empty pockets, he muttered a frustrated curse.
He finally found it, put both cigarettes in his mouth at the same time, and lit them one after the other with a match.
A wisp of smoke rose slowly, and Fan Xiao plucked one of the cigarettes and put it into You Shulang’s mouth.
“What happened?” he asked.
After taking a couple of puffs of his cigarette, You Shulang finally spoke: “I had a dinner party last night. After it ended, I waited for a designated driver in the parking lot. My memory of the rest of the night is hazy. This is how I woke up.”
“You’ve been drugged again?”
One sentence reminded You Shulang of his embarrassing situation a few months ago.
From childhood to adulthood, he never showed his disheveled state to others; even when he was gritting his teeth, he maintained a calm and composed demeanor on the surface. After starting work, he became increasingly adept at handling tasks and rarely allowed himself to find himself in an embarrassing or awkward situation.
However, Fan Xiao witnessed both of his recent embarrassing moments; the first time he was passive, but this time he was proactive.
Why was Fan Xiaolai named? In fact, all the reasons could be attributed to a confused mind, but only You Shulang himself knew where the dividing line between chaos and clarity was drawn.
Fan Xiao, someone I’ve only known for half a year, and the time it took to go from stranger to friend was even shorter.
He is powerful yet not aloof, rational yet unconventional, polite yet cheeky, and knows his limits but sometimes lacks boundaries.
You Shulang finds it difficult to let his guard down and trust someone, but coincidentally, Fan Xiao does.
Where did this change originate? You Shulang pondered this question deeply.
可能是从那句“游主任拿点乔，让那些没眼色的家伙闭上嘴”；又或从那杯cui情酒，见过那么狼狈的自己，他没厌恶没离开，待人依旧如初；也可能是从一起胖揍薛宝添开始的，以及夜风中的他附在自己耳边悄声的那句“游主任，今个儿给你出出气”。
You Shulang raised his eyes to look at Fan Xiao and replied, “It shouldn’t be. That kind of drug can only trigger romantic encounters. I was completely unaware last night.”
As he picked up the cigarette, the butt touched the wound on his lip, and You Shulang frowned.
“Does it hurt a lot?” Fan Xiao pressed down on You Shulang’s hand, which was about to put the cigarette in his mouth again, and leaned over to touch the bloody wound.
“You…don’t…” You Shulang leaned back slightly.
“Don’t move, let me see.” Fan Xiao wrapped his arm around his shoulder and gently touched the wound with his fingers. “Does it hurt?”
“A little.”
Fan Xiao’s brow twitched, and a hint of regret, unnoticed even by himself, flickered in his eyes.
“This is… a bite?” he asked, knowing the answer already.
“…” You Shulang lowered his eyelashes and remained silent for a while before saying softly, “It should be.”
Fan Xiao’s gaze shifted downwards, then to the mottled hickeys on the man’s neck: “Are there any more inside your clothes?”
You Shulang took a deep drag of his cigarette, tilted his head and exhaled, saying, “Yes, he’s a pervert.”
“It’s definitely perverted,” Fan Xiao agreed. “The others…”
You Shulang quickly shook his head: “It was just indecent assault, nothing else.”
“Then who do you think it could be?”
“have no idea.”
Has anyone ever expressed these thoughts to you before?
You Shulang turned his gaze to Fan Xiao, gave a stiff smile, and said while smoking, “Usually, apart from you being all lovey-dovey, everyone around me is a decent person.”
Fan Xiao’s fingertips twitched, and then a hint of annoyance appeared on his face: “I’m talking to you seriously, and you still have the leisure to joke around.”
You Shulang flicked the cigarette butt out of the window crack and took the clothes Fan Xiao had brought: “My mind is in a mess right now, I don’t have any clues.”
He suddenly took off his clothes in front of Fan Xiao, revealing red marks all over his body.
The marks from last night were not clearly visible, but now they look shocking, especially on the chest, which is swollen, red, and purple, with overlapping hickeys.
Fan Xiao clicked his tongue softly, a genuine sense of regret rising within him.
“Be gentler next time,” he thought subconsciously.
However, this repentant person, while feeling guilty, also reacted.
He gentlemanly averted his gaze, and only after You Shulang had put on his turtleneck sweater did he compose himself and ask, “Do you think this person is a man or a woman?”
You Shulang paused, the image of a woman who had repeatedly pressured him to drink during the dinner last night flashing through his mind.
He felt a warmth on his shoulder as a hand touched his shoulder, and Fan Xiao’s expression became more serious than ever before.
“Shulang, I will definitely help you find this pervert. You must avenge this!”
