Si Di looked past Xiao Zhenyun and saw Si Chu, who had been shot inside the door. Si Chu was lying on the bed, twisted and unconscious, looking miserable.
The smart robotic arm was diligently sweeping the broken porcelain pieces and spilled rice porridge on the ground. He walked into the basement, moved Si Chu onto the bed, adjusted his posture, lying flat with his legs straight, and hands clasped in front of his abdomen.
Then Si Di unlocked the chain on his ankle, rubbed the red marks left on it, and replaced it with another ankle chain.
Xiao Nian also walked in. For the convenience of Xiao Zhenyun’s future actions, he put magnetic bracelets on Si Chu’s wrists and then reactivated the spiritual suppression lock. Finally, Si Di covered his good brother with a blanket, gently using his fingers to part the stray hair covering his eyes.
His fingertips lightly brushed the dark circles under Si Chu’s eyes, and Si Di sighed, “His hair is greasy.”
“…” Xiao Nian said, “In two days, his body will start smelling.”
Si Di remained silent for a moment. “How does the original text describe how my brother bathes?”
Xiao Nian pondered for a moment, realizing that the novel didn’t even mention it, and he figured it would be difficult for Xiao Zhenyun alone to accomplish such a task.
After Xiao Zhenyun’s outrageous remarks, the focus of this scene of Si Chu being confined shifted to Ye Feiran outside, depicting how the second male lead transformed from being anxious and clueless to mentally determined, and how he cleverly searched for clues in the thick fog, finally succeeding in catching Xiao Zhenyun’s tail half a month later.
During this period, there were naturally many scenes between Xiao Zhenyun and Si Chu, but they were not exhaustive in every detail, at least not to the extent of depicting how Si Chu went to the bathroom or bathed.
“You know?” Xiao Nian put on the tone of a pyramid scheme leader again. “The protagonist in the novel never gets dirty, neither his hair nor his body. Characters like Si Chu always exude the clean, refreshing scent of soap from their clothes.”
“…”
Si Di pondered for a moment before leaving the room, turning to the storage room to find burn cream, and then following the sound of water to find Xiao Zhenyun. The burn wasn’t severe, there were no blisters, and after rinsing with cold water, the stinging sensation became less noticeable. Nonetheless, Si Di still pushed him to sit down, letting Xiao Zhenyun place his hand on his knee and applying a thick layer of burn cream on the back of his hand.
After spreading the ointment, Xiao Zhenyun habitually withdrew his hand, but midway, Si Di grabbed his fingers and pulled them back.
“A substitute?” he asked teasingly, “to pass the boring days?”
Although knowing Si Di was joking, Xiao Zhenyun still explained, “I was just kidding… teasing the little dog.”
“But when I heard it, I was still very sad.” Si Di touched each of Xiao Zhenyun’s fingers one by one, then leaned over, pressing his palm against his cheek. With light-colored lashes slowly lifting, beneath were pine-green eyes, unwaveringly fixed on the man in front of him. “How are you going to make it up to me?”
“Stop being so cute all the time.” Xiao Zhenyun helplessly rubbed Si Di’s cheek a couple of times, admitting that it felt quite nice. The handsome sentinel closed his eyes in cooperation, rubbing his hand against it like a cat, “You haven’t fed me yet.”
Xiao Zhenyun casually caressed his face, scratching his chin a few times. “You have hands and feet, do you still need to be fed?”
“Why not?” Si Di turned his face, planting a soft kiss on Xiao Zhenyun’s palm. He smiled with a drawn-out tone, “…Little Uncle.”
“…”
Foul play.
At twelve noon, Xiao Jiali finished a large amount of spiritual domain checks and wearily returned home. After changing into slippers, he entered the dining room filled with the aroma of food and saw Xiao Zhenyun holding a bowl in one hand and a spoon in the other, offering it to Si Di.
In the living room, Xiao Nian sat alone on the sofa eating, even deliberately turning his back to the dining room, wearing headphones, as if afraid that certain evil scenes and sounds on the dining table would corrupt his sanity.
Xiao Jiali, who was not very sensitive to the atmosphere, foolishly went to the kitchen to serve himself food, then sat down next to Si Di. “Teacher Xiao, did you burn the back of your hand?”
“Yeah, by accident.” Xiao Zhenyun picked up a piece of cornbread with chopsticks, and Si Di immediately shook his head, “I want soup.”
Xiao Zhenyun turned to put the cornbread in his mouth, scooped up a spoonful of translucent chicken soup, and Si Di took a sip before continuing, “Hot.”
“Hot? Yeah right, your head. The grease has already solidified into a cold lump.” Xiao Zhenyun impatiently glared at Si Di, who immediately returned a reproachful look.
“…”
Xiao Zhenyun vaguely seemed to understand, recalling the various steps he had taken to feed porridge to Si Chu in the basement earlier. He pulled back the spoon and blew on it before offering it to Si Di’s lips again. This time, the little wolf was happy, bending his eyes and drinking the soup.
How old is he, already in kindergarten?
Xiao Jiali, puzzled, swallowed the meat in his mouth. “Huh? What happened to Captain’s hand? Did he burn it too?”
“…”
“…”
One minute later, Xiao Jiali silently sat down next to Xiao Nian with his bowl and his favorite dish, facing away from the dining room. Xiao Nian handed him a pair of headphones and asked, “What movie do you want to watch?”
“Any is fine.” Xiao Jiali put on the headphones, eager to escape the worldly chaos as soon as possible.
After ensuring that Si Di received the same treatment as the little dog, and even double, Si Di finally regained the use of his hand and ate his meal properly. Mainly because Xiao Zhenyun really didn’t know how to serve people. He always handed him the next bite before he had swallowed the previous one, stuffing him like a hoarding squirrel, and never even gave him water to drink.
“When Si Chu said he wanted another bowl of porridge…” Xiao Zhenyun seemed to recall something amusing, smiling softly, “I thought he had discovered that you cooked the porridge.”
“Can you taste that?” Si Di’s speed of eating alone was like pressing the fast-forward button. Xiao Zhenyun hadn’t finished his soup before Si Di had gone to refill his third bowl of rice. Xiao Zhenyun set down his soup bowl. “Just like tasting the flavor of your brother in the porridge?”
“What flavor can porridge have?”
“If you can’t taste that, why say you love him?”
“…Is that also a necessary trait for the male lead in novels?”
“More or less.”
In the following days, Si Chu began adopting a stance of non-violent non-cooperation. Knowing that escape was futile, he treated Xiao Zhenyun as if he didn’t exist, eating his meals, sleeping, but never uttering a word.
Xiao Zhenyun found this kind of little dog very easy to handle. Every day, he would stroll into the basement, read an exaggerated love confession, almost like clocking in and out, and then leave.
Three days later, as expected, Si Chu began to smell.
There was no bathroom in the basement. After considering it for a while, Xiao Zhenyun could only let the robotic arm bring in a bucket of hot water, towels, and clean clothes, and let Si Chu clean himself up. To fit the character and the plot, he naturally displayed a silly expression like, “Hey hey, Ah Chu, Little Uncle will help you clean up~”, but after being rejected, he left decisively, closing the basement door behind him.
A week later, Si Chu’s responses noticeably dulled. Besides the photos covering the walls in the basement, there was nothing to pass the time. The longer he stayed locked up, the more his spirits wilted. In just a few days, he visibly lost weight, with slight hollows appearing in his cheeks, resembling a withered mushroom.
Si Di couldn’t bear to see this and went home to check on the progress of the second male lead in the novel.
At home, Si Di’s parents were also in a bad state, especially his mother. Every night, she would cry for a while, but fortunately, the steady and calm demeanor of her eldest son always managed to comfort her.
“Don’t worry, there will be news soon. I promise you.” Si Di patted his mother’s back. Although she knew that Si Di wasn’t certain either, her son’s confident tone brought her a great sense of security.
After comforting his parents, Si Di went to find Ye Feiran and asked if he had any leads.
Ye Feiran seemed as lost as another withered mushroom, shaking his head blankly. “No… all the clues have dried up, Dito, I’ve searched everywhere… I’ve tried every method I can think of, talked to everyone I could… but there’s nothing…”
This shouldn’t be happening, Si Di wondered. It had been a week already, and by this time, Ye Feiran should have started suspecting Xiao Zhenyun and begun searching for evidence…
Could it be that he thought his relationship with Xiao Zhenyun was too intimate to reveal to him? But Ye Feiran’s devastated appearance didn’t seem like an act…
Si Di comforted him, and suddenly realized… In the plot, ‘Xiao Zhenyun’ carried out the kidnapping operation alone. Although he had planned meticulously and the plan was very detailed, he wasn’t a professional, and there were still traces left in the details.
But in reality, it wasn’t just Xiao Zhenyun who carried out the kidnapping, it was a team effort. Not only was Si Di himself involved, but a crucial dark sentinel was also recruited, and who was that sentinel… someone who had been at it for decades. He finished off the entire bowl of rice.
With someone like Ye Feiran, who had just started working in the guild, it was highly unlikely he could catch a glimpse of the tail of the Hedgehog.
So the problem arose: the kidnapping was carried out too cleanly. It would be impossible to find any evidence linking the kidnapped little dog to the bad deer. What to do?
While Si Di was troubled by these thoughts, Xiao Zhenyun was also struggling. He sat in front of the monitor and asked Xiao Nian, “I feel like Si Chu is reaching his limit. He’s started looking at the pictures on the wall to pass the time. In this state, can he really hold out for another week?”
“Although it’s not directly stated in the original, according to the behavior pattern of ‘Xiao Zhenyun’, who admires Si Chu, he would definitely be with Si Chu in the basement, talking to him every moment.” Xiao Nian said, “Even if he’s fed up and resentful, Si Chu won’t feel lonely. But you’re different. You just go down there once at noon, stay less than three minutes, and even have dinner sent directly by the robotic arm…”
“I don’t go because Si Chu definitely doesn’t want to see me, the one who caused him to fall into this situation. I don’t want to annoy him.” Xiao Zhenyun explained.
After thinking about it, what Xiao Nian said made sense. Hating someone is better than being alone in a dark and cramped room.
“Should we give him some magazines to read?” He looked at Xiao Nian, who shook his head. “No, it’s written in the original that ‘Xiao Zhenyun’ doesn’t want anything to distract Si Chu’s attention, and the wolfdog won’t allow it.”
“Write what’s unnecessary, and neglect what’s necessary.” Xiao Zhenyun took out a cigarette, biting it irritably between his teeth. He didn’t light it immediately, just thought for a while, and suddenly came up with a perhaps workable solution.
The door to the basement opened once again. Si Chu lay on the bed with his back to the door, showing no reaction. But this time, instead of the familiar sound of a wheelchair rolling, there was the crisp sound of hooves on the ground. Tian Lu curiously circled around the bed, then stretched out his tongue to lick Si Chu’s nose.
Seeing no response from him, the stag licked his face and made a gentle noise.
Dealing with the spiritual body, Si Chu was somewhat relaxed. He slowly opened his eyes, meeting Tian Lu’s black eyes. The long and dense eyelashes made the deer’s eyes naturally gentle and caring. Si Chu hesitated for a moment, but couldn’t help reaching out to touch Tian Lu’s face.
Tian Lu responded with affectionate nuzzles, then started chewing on his hair.
Si Chu felt a bit itchy and leaned back with closed eyes. “Stop biting…”
His voice was hoarse and teasing, with a hint of a smile. Somehow, in that moment of speaking, Si Chu suddenly felt a surge of tears welling up in his eyes. Confused, Tian Lu tilted its head to look at him. In the next moment, Si Chu hugged its neck and started crying softly.
“…,” Both of them behind the monitor remained silent for a while. Finally, Xiao Nian managed to say, “This is really inhumane.”
Xiao Zhenyun sneered, “It’s all thanks to the plot.”
When Si Di returned, Si Chu had just finished venting his emotions. Sniffling, he released Tian Lu, which had patiently accompanied him, and wiped away his tears. “Thank you…”
What a good dog. In the next life, please don’t reincarnate as the male lead again.
Suddenly, on the monitor, Si Chu looked up, directly facing the camera. Even after crying, his face was a mess, but his emotions seemed to have stabilized a lot, and he was willing to speak. “Little Uncle, are you watching?… Can you come over? I have something to tell you.”
As Si Di hung up his coat and walked into the study, he saw Xiao Zhenyun looking puzzled and asked, “What’s wrong?”
“Si Chu asked me to come over.”
“Hmm?” Si Di also looked puzzled. “Why would he suddenly want to talk to you and ask to see you?”
“Maybe he thinks I still have a conscience and wants to persuade me to let him go through conversation.” Xiao Zhenyun said, “When will Ye Feiran’s investigation come through? Can you help him? He’s too inefficient.”
“I’ll help him out, or else he won’t find anything on your head next year… Let’s discuss the details after you finish talking to him.”
Xiao Zhenyun nodded and drove his wheelchair into the basement.
Inside the room, Si Chu was sitting on the bed, facing the door. Tian Lu, who had been playing with the photos, happily jumped to its master’s side upon seeing Xiao Zhenyun enter.
“What’s wrong, Xiao Chu?” Xiao Zhenyun beamed a happy smile. “You finally want to talk to me. I’m so touched.”
“Little Uncle…” Si Chu scooted closer to the edge of the bed. “Can you come over here a bit?”
This guy must have collected some sharp objects again these past few days, planning to get me closer to stab my waist, right? Xiao Zhenyun, who had learned from past experiences, sat still, alert and wary. He even thought about turning around and running.
Si Chu seemed to sense Xiao Zhenyun’s suspicion. He raised his hands in a gesture of innocence, showing that his palms were empty. To completely dispel Xiao Zhenyun’s doubts, he even increased the magnetic force of the wristbands, trapping both hands.
“…,” Xiao Zhenyun could only move forward until he was within touching distance of Si Chu’s knees. “Is this okay?”
Si Chu nodded and slowly stood up, lifting one leg and half-kneeling on Xiao Zhenyun’s wheelchair. Then he leaned his whole body closer, resting his head on Xiao Zhenyun’s shoulder and wrapping his arms around his neck. “Little Uncle,” he said softly.
“I promise you…”