Chapter 72: “You Can Use Me”
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Shen Yao was well protected by Yan Zhixing; he didn’t suffer serious injuries, and the minor scratches were well treated. Chen Shuang and Yan Zhixing, on the other hand, weren’t as lucky and were rushed into the operating room for emergency treatment.
He was alone in the top-floor hospital room, with a few remaining bodyguards standing outside. Shen Yao held his phone, deleting each message one by one and patiently canceling all the scheduled messages in various mailboxes.
If he happened to be deceived, the truth would be presented to Yan Yuan at the very first second.
Many people coveted Yan Zhixing’s position as the family head, and Shen Yao’s contact was Yan Zhixing’s elder brother, Yan Hui.
From the day he woke up in the Yan family, he found the contact information on a note that was pinned under a meal plate.
Yan Zhixing was meticulous in everything he did, planning and confirming the safety of each route, no matter where he went or what he did.
Shen Yao’s task was to become a trap, disrupting Yan Zhixing’s balance and creating an opportunity for Yan Hui.
He never feared being part of the scheme or risking his life. When Xu Yibai and Guan Shu had interrupted their ceremony, he had wagered that Yan Hui wouldn’t dare to take his life.
Shen Yao took out the SIM card from the phone, broke it in half, and threw it into the nearby trash bin, covering it with crumpled tissues.
Now that the situation was exposed, he knew that Yan Hui would hide himself in a remote corner of the world, afraid of retaliation from Yan Zhixing, and wouldn’t dare to leave any traces.
So, in front of Yan Zhixing, he wouldn’t be an accomplice.
He could only be his savior.
***
Before him was a pitch-black sky, unable to catch his breath. The blond boy ran and ran on a seemingly endless road, exhausting all his strength. His footsteps suddenly stopped.
Pebbles dropped from the cliff’s edge, making no sound even as they echoed.
Click.
Click.
The hands of his pocket watch rotated, like an elderly person, producing a creaking sound, a touch of loneliness.
In the pitch-black darkness, there was only him, and the space could only hear his heavy, rapid breathing, disrupting the rhythm.
Standing on the edge of a steep cliff, he moved his feet, stepping step by step into the consuming darkness.
A voice emerged from the deep valley – “fall down.”
Behind him, someone called his name in a low voice, a clear and clean voice that pronounced each syllable distinctly.
“Yan Zhixing.”
His faltering figure stopped in mid-air, and in an instant, he turned in the direction of the voice.
Shen Yao stood behind him, his white sweater stained with blood. The darkness suddenly ceased to be dark; faint light emerged from the horizon, casting a soft glow on the omega.
In his hand was a gun, and he looked at Yan Zhixing, raising his hand slowly.
Bang!
Suddenly, it was daylight.
Yan Zhixing abruptly opened his eyes, breaking free from the nightmare. The last image he saw was Shen Yao’s slightly raised eye corner, along with the cold smoke emanating from the muzzle.
The hospital room’s lights flickered before him, as if they were malfunctioning, cutting off his memories.
His heartbeat had not yet calmed down, and he was sweating profusely. As consciousness returned, Yan Zhixing heard a faint sound beside him.
Shen Yao sat by the bedside, dressed in a high-necked white sweater. The weather seemed particularly cold today, and he buried his chin in the collar. In his hand was a fruit knife, diligently peeling an apple.
His actions were not very skilled, making people constantly worry that he might accidentally cut his jade-like fingers. He had already peeled the apple skin to the very end, and it was as if he had developed a compulsion to do so, with no breaks in between.
Shen Yao knew that Yan Zhixing had awakened. He placed the intact apple on the bedside table and asked, “Why did you push me out at that moment?”
“Probably…” Yan Zhixing paused for a moment before continuing calmly, “I wanted to save your life.”
“If I hadn’t picked up the gun, if I hadn’t hit that mercenary, would you regret it?”
“No.” Yan Zhixing said calmly, “I was already prepared to face death.”
He didn’t tell Shen Yao that when he handed the gun to him, he didn’t expect him to shoot and save him. He gave Shen Yao the only gun in the car just to give him some assurance.
“Yan Zhixing.” Shen Yao looked at him and asked softly, “Then why did you protect me from the beginning? If it wasn’t for me, perhaps you would have had a chance to escape, right?”
This was Yan Zhixing’s most hated weakness. Once a person had a soft spot, it was like a thorn stuck in the heart, lethal at any moment.
He remained silent for a long time, about to turn and leave.
Yan Zhixing’s hand was still hanging with the IV drip, and when he reached out to grab Shen Yao’s arm, the needle deviated from the vein.
“Shen Yao.”
He started to say something, followed by a long silence. Yan Zhixing just said, “Don’t leave the hospital until I take you away. If you need anything, tell me or the bodyguards.”
Yan Zhixing’s advice was over, but his hand still lingered. In the end, he let go and watched Shen Yao leave.
Shortly after his figure disappeared, a nurse entered the room to check the IV in his hand.
Shen Yao must have told her.
***
On Yan Zhixing’s first day out of the hospital, he brought Shen Yao back to the Yan family but took him to a study room he had never entered before.
He slowed down half a step behind Shen Yao and said, “Open the door.”
Following his instructions, Shen Yao pushed the door open. When he saw the scene in front of him, his footsteps hesitated.
He saw three people tied up – Shen Fulin, Shen Shenmian, and even the Alpha son of Shen Fulin who was usually away from home.
They were firmly bound, struggling helplessly on the ground, their eyes filled with fear and helplessness, their mouths gagged with cloth, only able to make muffled pleas for help.
Seeing Shen Yao walk in, their legs swung violently, seeming to beg for mercy and confinement at the same time.
Click.
Yan Zhixing closed the door behind him. He walked towards Shen Yao while holding a gun, his face expressionless.
“My mother is an ambitious omega. All she wants is the highest position in the Yan family. My father is the youngest child in his family, a romantic idealist who believes that there is a perfect existence in this world.”
“Their meeting, love, and marriage were all under my mother’s calculations. My father thought he had found love, but my mother only needed a reliable support.”
“He was just a pawn for her to reach power.”
Yan Zhixing chambered a round in the gun, his eyes like deep blue ice. Shen Yao was a qualified listener, never interrupting someone else’s story.
“Unfortunately, my mother failed. She didn’t get what she wanted. And my father, he was diagnosed with a terminal illness, waiting for death on his sickbed at the age of thirty.”
“I once asked him if he regretted it. At that time, he was already emaciated by illness, but he smiled and put the pocket watch he had been wearing on my neck.”
“He said, ‘I don’t regret it because I knew from the beginning.'”
“Shen Yao, you should think the same way as I do, that he is hopelessly foolish. I don’t want to become like him, so I have never worn the pocket watch he gave me.”
Shen Yao neither nodded nor shook his head; he simply looked at Yan Zhixing as he took off the signet ring from his finger. The ring symbolized the position of the Yan family, and Yan Zhixing had never taken it off before.
He held Shen Yao’s hand, raised it, and said with his head down, “I climbed up step by step, using any means necessary. Putting on this ring was not to fulfill my mother’s unfinished wish.”
“Instead, it’s because the Yan family is a very traditional clan. Because of my blonde hair and blue eyes, many people have called me ‘b*stard.’ What I want to do is to make them kneel before me and control everything that I can.”
Yan Zhixing put the signet ring on Shen Yao’s finger.
The ring fit perfectly on Yan Zhixing’s index finger, but when putting it on Shen Yao’s finger, it had to be worn on the widest part of the thumb to match perfectly.
Yan Zhixing handed the gun to Shen Yao, standing behind him with his broad shoulders, completely enveloping Shen Yao in his embrace from behind.
His hand, one size larger than Shen Yao’s, covered Shen Yao’s hand. He lifted Shen Yao’s arm, and the black muzzle was aimed at Shen Fulin, who was in the center.
“Mmm, mmm!”
Shen Fulin was instantly scared, tears welled up in his eyes, and his body struggled even more violently, trying to break free from the ropes that bound him, but no matter how hard he tried, he couldn’t escape the restraints.
During this period, both the Gu family and Guan Shu had caused him a lot of trouble, and Yan Zhixing had even taken direct action. He had no idea that Shen Yao had been involved with so many Alphas behind his back.
“Mmm!”
He desperately tried to say something, but could only make muffled sounds. His eyes were filled with terror, and he felt as if he had lost control of his bodily functions due to fear.
Yan Zhixing looked down on him from above, indifferent to Shen Fulin’s life or death, treating him like a living toy to please Shen Yao.
He calmly said in a low voice, “You can use me.”
“I can do anything for you, give you whatever you want.”
“Cut off your ties with Xu Yibai and Guan Shu, stay by my side.”
Shen Yao approached him for money and power; those were the only things he possessed. He was willing to make this fair trade, fully aware of being used.
Shen Yao’s fingers, poised to knock the trigger, hesitated. His expression remained cold and silent, seemingly unaffected by Yan Zhixing’s words.
Yan Zhixing tightened his grip, applying a bit of force. He stared at Shen Yao’s face and said, “If you don’t want to carry the burden of another life, I’ll help you kill him.”
“Or if you prefer, I can make him suffer a more agonizing death.”
“Both options are on the table.”
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